Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trump Ramps Up Immigration Crackdown After National Guard Shooting; Rubio to Join U.S. Team for Ukraine Talks in Miami Tomorrow; Shooter Kills National Guard Member, Another Clings to Life; Hundreds of Chicago Flights Canceled in Powerful Storm; Small Businesses Trying to Recover in Fire-Ravaged California; Americans Filling their Carts for Holiday Shopping Deals; Pope Leo Leads Mass in Turkey on First Foreign Trip Since Election; Student Deported While Flying to Visit Home, Despite Court Order; Northwestern Agrees to Pay $75M in Deal Restoring Frozen Funds. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired November 29, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:18]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Hi, everyone. I am Jessica Dean here in New York.

President Trump is directing his administration to take steps to stem migration into the U.S. and doubling down on the anti-immigration policies that helped deliver him his second term. This follows the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., this week.

U.S. Army specialist Sarah Beckstrom dying on Thursday as U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe continues to fight for his life. The suspect in that shooting is a 29-year-old Afghan national who had previously worked with U.S. Forces, including the CIA. Sources tell CNN the suspect underwent numerous rounds of vetting before his asylum was approved earlier this year.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is traveling with the president. She joins us now from West Palm Beach, Florida.

Kristen, tell us more about what you're learning about these policy moves and the thinking behind them.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jessica, this is something that the President's team has wanted to do for quite some time. Some of the things that they are now putting in place are things he talked about on the campaign trail, and things that I know from sources in The White House have been discussed behind-the-scenes, but they have faced a number of legal hurdles, particularly when it comes to some of this immigration crackdown.

But now, they do believe that they have this incident, this heinous crime, to point to as reasoning for needing to do some of this immigration crackdown. So here is what we know so far. And again, this isn't everything we believe they are doing, this is just what we've seen since this shooting. So right now, we know that they are pausing all asylum decisions.

That's one of the things that they are doing. The visa issuances are paused for anyone with an Afghan national passport. The Treasury Department is moving to block undocumented immigrants from receiving federal tax base benefits. They are working to permanently pause migration from all third-world countries. You see that there in quotes, because that's something President Trump himself said on Truth Social in this very long post.

Then you also see that they are examining all green cards issued to people from 19 countries they say are of concern. And then they are reviewing all asylum cases approved under Biden. One thing to note, this suspect was actually approved for asylum under President Trump's current administration, although he had been part of a rolling process that had been in place and started back in 2021 under Joe Biden.

So there are a lot of questions overall about the vetting process here, and I do want to note, in those 19 countries of concern, The White House has put out what those countries are.

I think we have a map here. Yes, you can see here a lot of countries in the Middle East, a lot of countries in Africa, Venezuela, unsurprisingly, is there and South America. Whether or not this expands, that's something we are going to be keeping an eye on and what else the administration wants to do. We know that this is not just the beginning, not the end game here, and one thing I do want to note, I have heard calls from both Democrats and Republicans right now privately, that is saying that they do want a lengthy review of the Afghan asylum process and the visa process, from what happened in 2021 to now, just with the understanding that how could this person have gone through so many rounds of vetting and still ended up committing this crime.

DEAN: Yes, a lot of questions around that very issue. Kristen Holmes, thank you so much from Florida.

Meantime, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will now join Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for peace talks with a Ukrainian delegation tomorrow in Miami. This, as both Ukraine and Russia launch new attacks on each other.

CNN's Larry Madowo has more on that -- Larry.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Zelenskyy moving on swiftly after the resignation of his chief-of-staff, one of his closest allies, Andrii Yermak, was seen almost as a shadow Prime Minister because of this corruption scandal, shaking his administration. Zelenskyy has now appointed Rustem Umerov to lead the negotiations to end the war that he and his team, already on their way to the United States to continue these talks. He is the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, former Defense Minister, and has been involved in these talks already, and that announcement coming just hours after Russia launched the largest barrage of attacks, drones and missile attacks against Ukraine. Thirty-six missile attacks, nearly 600 drones that targeted critical

energy infrastructure and civilian facilities terrorizing the population. Listen to two victims.

ILYA MARTYNENKO, KYIV RESIDENT (through translator): This is intimidation by Russia. The attacks are targeting the civilian population in order for Kyiv and the government to make a decision faster to sign the agreement faster peace.

IRYNA BORUCHEVSIKA, KYIV RESIDENT (through translator): Peace. I don't believe there will be peace anytime soon with such neighbors. I doubt there will be peace anytime soon. It is getting worse and worse. It is getting worse every day.

[18:05:10]

MADOWO: The overnight Russian attacks left over 600,000 people without power, mostly in Kyiv and the surrounding region. President Zelenskyy once again appealing for international support to shore up Ukrainian air defense systems.

At the same time, a source in the Ukrainian Security Services telling CNN that Ukraine was responsible for attacking two Russian so-called Shadow Fleet in the Black Sea. These are tankers that transport Russian fuel, selling them against sanctions, and they are usually flagged under different countries for convenience. These two were flagged under the Gambian flag and there were some damage to them using underwater drones.

This is just the latest front as Ukraine tries to assert itself as this war grinds on.

Larry Madowo, CNN, Nairobi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: All right, Larry, thank you for that.

And we are joined now by Ambassador Michael Carpenter. He served as senior director for Europe and as U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe during the Biden administration. He also held senior government roles in both Republican and Democratic administrations.

Ambassador Carpenter, thank you for being with us on this Saturday night. We do appreciate it.

This Ukrainian delegation is coming to the U.S. in the wake of the resignation of its top negotiator. What kind of impact do you think this has? Do you think it weakens or changes their position?

MICHAEL CARPENTER, FORMER SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR EUROPE AND AS U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE ORGANIZATION FOR SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE: No, I don't think the change in the delegation actually makes all that much difference. Rustem Umerov, who is now the Secretary of the National Security Council, was previously Defense Minister, is pretty close to President Zelenskyy, so I expect that the conduct of the discussions will be similar to what it would have been had it been led by the President's chief-of-staff, who, as you noted, has resigned.

Unfortunately, you know, I don't think that these discussions are going to come to all that much simply because for the Ukrainian side, they're trying to play along here with the Trump administration. They saw that original 28-point plan. They were, I think, horrified by what they saw, which was essentially a list of Russian demands, very lightly edited by the United States.

But they learned their lesson back in February, and they need to be seen as negotiating in good faith. They want to make sure that they are engaging the Trump administration. So that's why they are coming, but frankly, I don't think these discussions are going anywhere.

DEAN: And so those discussions will be happening. Then a little later next week, Witkoff potentially, Jared Kushner will head to Moscow and meet with Putin. What do you see coming, if anything, from that meeting?

CARPENTER: Well, Steve Witkoff has consistently throughout the course of his tenure as special envoy, has consistently hewed to a Russian position, and has embraced a lot of the Kremlin's talking points. And the 28-point plan that he hammered out together with Kirill Dmitriev, who is one of President Putin's envoys, was, as I said, heavily slanted, I mean, heavily, heavily slanted towards Moscow.

So I expect that the discussion will likely be a cordial one with Putin, but whatever deal they hammer out with the Russians is unlikely to meet with acceptance from the Ukrainian side, so the Ukrainians almost have sort of a parallel document that they're working from, that they negotiated with the Europeans and it is unclear where the United States will position itself at the end of the day, although in the case of Witkoff, as I said, it has been heavily on Russia's side.

DEAN: And to your kind of your point on Witkoff, The White House still backing him after this leaked private call between him and a top Putin aide that was published by Bloomberg. That being what it may, how do you think Russia views that arrangement and views Witkoff?

CARPENTER: Well, the sheer fact that that Steve Witkoff has met so many times with President Putin and will be meeting with him again, shows that the Russians are treating him with respect and take him seriously.

I think they see him as one of the figures in this administration that is closest to President Trump, and so they think if there is a deal to be consummated or even if there is not a deal, but if the United States and Russia are to reach an understanding and Ukraine can be blamed for then failing to agree to that document, then they want to see if they can get all their maximalist demands into that agreement, and so they will certainly fit Steve Witkoff in Moscow, and will show him the respect that Putin rarely shows to people who are beneath his stature.

DEAN: Also next week, according to a State Department official, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is going to miss this meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers. Obviously, we are at this kind of critical point for these Ukraine talks and Europe is playing a role in this and is a very, very interested party.

So what do you read into the fact that Rubio won't be there, if anything?

[18:10:10]

CARPENTER: Well, I think this is obviously not going to reassure the Europeans in the last administration, by my count, the Secretary of State went to every single NATO ministerial, as did the Secretary of Defense for the Defense Ministerials, so it is highly unusual for a Secretary of State not to show up with our 31 other allies at the table. It sends a message of disengagement with a key democratic alliance at a time where European security is incredibly fraught, and where the situation in Ukraine seems to be deteriorating and Russia is certainly launching more and more attacks on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure.

So allies are already very worried. They are telling senior officials in Europe are telling me privately they are horrified by the 28-point plan and by the leaked call between Witkoff and Dmitriev.

So, you know, I think this is an inopportune time for Secretary Rubio to skip this meeting. He could have gone. He could have assured our European allies that, in fact, we will stand with Ukraine at the end of the day and that we care about European security. But unfortunately, by not going, I am sure there is going to be a lot of quarter talk about where the United States goes next.

DEAN: And how -- to what degree do you think, ultimately, and again, we have many, many steps before we get to something resembling you know, a ceasefire and a peace plan. But in terms of looking ahead, how involved do you think Europe will actually be allowed to be in all of this?

CARPENTER: Well, yes, that's an interesting question, because on the one hand, it hinges on to what degree will the United States allow Europe to have a seat at the table? But then, equally importantly, at what point will European leaders decide that they dislike enough the tenor of the diplomacy between Washington, Moscow and Kyiv that they insert themselves into the negotiation by taking active steps such as, for example, by giving Ukraine a loan using the seized Russian assets, or the frozen Russian assets I should say, and therefore giving Ukraine much more leverage in these negotiations than it has had thus far.

Europeans have not agreed on that step in their last meeting in October. They've got another meeting coming up in December where potentially they could approve this step. But so far, they've been on the sidelines, and you know, they complain a lot about Washington taking this diplomacy in a direction they don't like, but they haven't gotten involved themselves.

DEAN: And so what steps could they take at this point to assert themselves do you think they might take?

CARPENTER: Well, for one, you know, you could see senior European leaders, engaging more with President Trump and demanding that they be part of these negotiations. They could, of course, work with President Zelenskyy to try to convene, a separate meeting with either with or without the Russians. But so far, they've been rather silent and prefer to defer to Washington.

As I said, which, you know, they've talked about -- they've convened various meetings to talk about a reassurance force, but that likely is a fantasy, because that force would only deploy after a ceasefire, and surely Putin will never allow for any sort of ceasefire situation where he then foresees European boots on the ground afterwards.

DEAN: All right, Ambassador Michael Carpenter, great to have you. We appreciate it.

CARPENTER: Thanks so much.

DEAN: Still ahead, a community coming together to honor the two National Guard members who were shot as the investigation now looks into the suspect's background.

Plus, they lost everything in the California wildfires and spent nearly a year rebuilding. We are going to take you live to a community now looking to give back to small businesses.

And winter storms, threatening travel plans as people try to get home after the Thanksgiving holiday.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:18:36]

DEAN: Tonight, a West Virginia community is coming together to honor two National Guard members shot in an ambush attack in Washington, D.C.

You're looking live now at Webster Springs, West Virginia where a vigil is scheduled to soon take place for 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe. Beckstrom died from her injuries on Thursday, Wolfe remains in critical condition.

In the days following that attack, family, friends, even strangers have come together to honor them, and CNN reporter, Camila DeChalus has more now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMILA DECHALUS, CNN REPORTER: Well, Jessica, we are learning more details about the two National Guard service members who were recently shot in Washington, D.C. this past week.

Now, unfortunately, one of them, Sarah Beckstrom she recently just passed away from her injuries. Meanwhile, Andrew Wolfe, he is 24 and he now still remains in critical condition.

Now, Republican lawmaker Riley Moore has been in contact with his family and recently gave us an update on his condition. Take a listen.

REP. RILEY MOORE (R-WV): Andy is hanging on and he is a fighter and his family has told me that time and time again, he is a fighter. But above all, what they want here is for everybody to continue to pray.

DECHALUS: Now we know Andrew Wolfe was from West Virginia and has been with the West Virginia National Guard since 2019. As for Sarah, we know that she was just 20 years old when she passed away. She is also from West Virginia and joined the military back in 2023.

Now, recently, we had a chance to speak to her ex-boyfriend, who shared what she was feeling before she was deployed to D.C. and told us that even though she wasn't exactly thrilled to be in D.C. at first, things started to change once she arrived.

[18:20:11]

ADAM CARR, FORMER BOYFRIEND OF U.S. ARMY SPC. SARAH BECKSTROM: Hated it. Absolutely hated it. She was crying before she left. She dreaded it. She did not want to go.

I didn't figure it would ever go this way, of course. And I kind of encouraged her. I was like, it could be a great opportunity. There is nothing around here.

She didn't want to be there, not at downtown or -- she didn't want to be there. And then once she was there, she kind of realized it wasn't too bad and she was having fun.

DECHALUS: Now, as for the shooter, we learned that he used to work with the CIA in Afghanistan before coming to the U.S. in 2021 under the Biden era program. He was also recently granted asylum just this past year, back in April under the Trump administration and sources told CNN that he was thoroughly vetted by U.S. Intelligence Agencies before arriving here.

Now, the U.S. Attorney General says that the suspect is now facing murder charges related to the shooting, and prosecutors are even considering seeking the death penalty.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: All right, Camila, thank you.

We are joined now by CNN's senior national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem. She also served in the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration, and is currently a Professor at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Juliette, good to see you. Thank you for being here.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Thanks for having me. DEAN: This this is such a tragedy and so, so sad. We have three days

now since this all happened. What questions do you still have about this attack?

KAYYEM: So many questions and it is such a tragedy for what happened, and for all the National Guard members that are still deployed to D.C. and elsewhere. Here is the question right now, which is, did the vetting process that we know, you know, there were a variety of places where the United States is essentially vetting him, did it miss something or was there a radicalization process in the last couple months that family and friends may have ignored or known what was happening?

Look, you and I have been doing this unfortunately, long enough. These things never come out of the blue, right? A family member, a community member. Maybe he was having contacts abroad, of which he is talking about these plans. So I think that we are going to learn more about sort of what got him from Washington State to Washington, D.C., and what was the mind frame and the trigger and the sort of like the you know, what caused this to happen on Thanksgiving when he decided to finally do it?

DEAN: We know that the suspect went through multiple rounds of vetting to first work with the CIA and then be granted asylum here in the United States. Can you walk us through what that process looks like. When they're vetting somebody, what are they doing?

KAYYEM: Okay, so there is -- I think I can, at least from our public reporting, there is at least five of what you would call touch points with the United States government. There are going to be different levels of vetting.

Okay, so the first is the CIA. The CIA in Afghanistan is trying to grab -- trying to get Afghans to support the war effort, the counterterrorism effort. It was -- it is nasty, honestly, very dark, dark world that this is happening in. We don't know the nature of the suspects involvement.

At some stage, we learned that the National Counterterrorism Task Force or the NCTC, excuse me, the National Counterterrorism Center has done some review of him. So where that is happening, we don't know, then Kabul falls. He then gets -- is allowed onto a plane to come to the United States under Operation Allies Welcome. That is not an extensive vetting, but what the Biden administration did is it made sure everyone who was allowed here under this sort of temporary operations, you know, Allies Welcome standard was not a danger right then.

Then there is another vetting process for the special immigration visa. That's a visa that's administered through the Department of Defense or by DHS, but it is Defense Department visa to give to people who have helped us in war. And then, of course, as we now know, under the Trump administration, the final and last vetting, which is when he seeks and is granted asylum status.

So that's a lot of -- I mean, honestly, that's just a lot of moments that he is having encounters with the United States. So the big question is, politics aside, I know everyone is trying to blame everyone else. What was missed or what has happened since the Trump administration granted him that asylum status? That's the question everyone, everyone should want to answer.

DEAN: Right, and I would assume, and this seems obvious, but just confirming with you that now they then go back and talk to his family members, to people who knew him, like they're going to do a thorough investigation of all of that, to try to get to the answer you're talking about.

[18:25:05]

KAYYEM: That's exactly right.

Look, the Trump administration has reacted with a sort of sweeping, you know, sort of let's just say stopping all Afghans from being able to process or become legalized in this nation. They are just taking a sweeping approach that everyone is guilty because of the one suspect.

What needs to be done is to determine what was going on in terms of his radicalization, because clearly he was and when did it begin? And were there signs of it that were missed either by the United States government, refugee programs and others that might have been supporting him? And of course family and community. We need to answer those questions rather than just assume everyone in that pool, Afghans, are inherently suspect, and that's been the approach of The White House, at least since this weekend.

DEAN: And the President is now deploying more troops to the D.C. area. Is there additional risk in your assessment and in your kind of professional assessment to these troops following the shooting? I know we talk about copycats and that sort of thing, but are they more at risk now than they were before?

KAYYEM: Well, I mean, I wrote about this for "The Atlantic." And look, there is evidence that commanders of the National Guard were saying to their leadership, look, this is a vulnerability that the National Guard is standing out there. Part of it is because the mission was so loose. I mean, it started off as anti-crime. It then became sort of a beautification campaign. It then became just sort of, you know, visibility. And all of us who have been to D.C., they are sort of just walking the streets.

None of those are really focused on force protection. And that is, I think, clearly what has happened here. So you add more people, there are more vulnerabilities. Of course, the more there are, maybe it is less likely that someone will go after them, but none of these numbers answer the fundamental question, which is, of course, you know, what is the mission? How do you measure it? Right? What are the rules of engagement?

How come the original -- you know, why are we -- why are they doing beautification when we are talking about anti-crime? So I think part of this is just answering a question that the commanders of the National Guard have been asking, that members of the National Guard we know have been asking and criticizing is what particular specialty do we have that brings us here?

I mean, sure, it is nice to have more National Guard on the street or it is nice to have, you know, your streets clean, but why -- the National Guard doesn't have a particular expertise in this. In fact, they haven't been trained.

I would say, since my piece came out just two days ago, which many people were critical of, and I understand that. I've gotten a couple dozen letters from National Guard members saying, thank you for saying what we can't say, which is the mission ambiguity and now the mission creep with more National Guard members has been known and talked about in The Pentagon since the deployment.

So the lawyers can fight it out in court, but if we care about the National Guard and protecting them, we need to be more rigorous about what is the mission and then we get into force protection.

DEAN: All right, Juliette Kayyem, thanks for your time. We appreciate it.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

DEAN: And still ahead, feet of snow, inches of rain, heavy winds. Weather is impacting millions of people right now as they try to get back home from the Thanksgiving holiday.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:33:09]

DEAN: A winter storm system is leading to dangerous travel conditions for many people trying to get home after Thanksgiving. More than 1,600 flights have been canceled so far today. That is mostly due to winter weather in the Midwest. More than 50 million people are under winter weather alerts across the northern part of the U.S. Meteorologist Chris Warren has been keeping an eye on all of it. So, what are you tracking, Chris?

CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Tracking still some heavy snow right now, Jessica. Getting a little bit of a -- a let up, a little bit of a pause. It's hard to see the pause here. Still seeing some delays in Chicago at O'Hare. The darker purple is where there is the heavier snow that's falling. So, a mess out there for sure, especially on the roads here in the Midwest.

This is the amount of snow that we have already seen accumulate out there so far today. Some spots in Iowa, more than a foot of snow already. Many locations in the double digits in the Midwest. This is the scene right now. Live look outside Wrigley Field in Chicago where it is 29 degrees right now at O'Hare. It feels like it's 18 right now with the winds around 15 miles an hour.

Here is a look at the winter storm alerts, winter storm warning. So, this is for the higher impact type snow that we have been seeing, are seeing and will continue to see throughout the rest of the evening here and even into the nighttime hours. This is a look at where the snow is right now.

Again, the darker blue is where there is the heavier snow, even some thundersnow. So, thunderstorms, but instead of rain, it's snow that's coming down and that lightning is an indication of where the storms are and where likely there's that heavier snow that's currently falling as well.

While we're watching that, the tail end of this system, some showers and storms popping up right now. These do have the potential for being severe, but as far as the snow goes here around the Great Lakes, still some areas, Jessica, could see up to about a foot of snow.

[18:35:02]

DEAN: And Chris, when do we expect the situation to ease up?

WARREN: Well, for some, it's a matter of minutes to hours. I'll show you what I mean here. When you look at the back edge with the high- resolution future radar, you've got minutes left, right? So, maybe half an hour to an hour here. You got maybe a couple hours and then more, and you'll see how this plays out. Here's the time right there. Here's midnight, 12:30, still snowing, possibly heavy snow in Chicago.

It started snowing well before sunrise today in Chicago, so a long day of snow. Now the overnight hour still Michigan. You are going to be in it throughout the entire night. The whole Met (ph) here will be seeing snow and heavy at times, and you really start to see a breakup by about mid-morning tomorrow. So, again, that's the northern end, but again, Jessica, a reminder, damaging winds, large hail and even the potential for a tornado in parts of east Texas and western Louisiana tonight.

DEAN: All right. Chris Warren with the very latest. Thanks so much.

And as we're tracking new wildfires in California, the Los Angeles area still recovering from the Palisades and Eaton fires earlier this year. This is the damage right here that was left behind in Altadena in January. Now, today is Small Business Saturday, and the shops and restaurants in these fire-ravaged communities could really use some help. CNN Julia Vargas Jones is joining us now.

And Julia, I understand some of the businesses there just starting to reopen and the community really coming together to support them. What are you seeing?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are, Jessica, and really, I'm having a hard time hearing it because it's a celebration here. It is a party for these small businesses. It's hard to believe, honestly, that just 11 months ago, this area looked like those images that you see on your screen there. It was devastated. We were in this very intersection reporting on the fire in January, and now we're seeing these businesses opening their doors for the first time, just proving how resilient this community really has been throughout this year. We spoke to some of these business owners who say, you know, they have

high expectations for this. You know, nationwide, Small Business Saturday can be up to 20 percent of the income for the year for some small businesses. And last year, it moved around $22 billion nationwide. Just to give you an idea, a context here, both for the Eaton and Palisades fire, the damage is estimated by L.A. County at about $5- to $10 billion.

So, this community really does need all the help that it can get, and that's what we're seeing here today. Families, dogs, everyone is coming through to spend a little bit of their money and get their holiday shopping done as they are supporting their community. For these small business owners, that means so much, because it really is the beginning of the new year for them, and the holiday shopping is such a big part of this. They're really counting on their community to show up.

And I spoke to a lot of these people here who said that they came not just to get their holiday shopping, but really because they care about this community, they care about these businesses. A lot of those are people who lost their homes in the fire as well. They're trying to rebuild. Some of them, you've seen tents behind me here, it's because they don't have a brick-and-mortar store. They're here to try to get a little bit of their business back in whatever way they can, Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Julia Vargas Jones, thanks to you, and good luck to all of them. It's great to see people out and about.

Still to come, record spending is expected this weekend between Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday, despite a rocky economy. We're going to run the numbers after the break. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:43:12]

DEAN: Despite recent polling showing Americans are not happy with the economy, this holiday weekend could see a record number of shoppers, whether it's online or in person. Our CNN Chief Data Analyst, Harry Enten, is here to run the numbers for us.

Hi, Harry.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Hey there, Jessica. Happy weekend to you. Of course, this is a holiday weekend. We had Thanksgiving on Thursday. We had Black Friday yesterday. We're going to have Cyber Monday coming up in just two days. And so, this is a big season for shopping. Of course, the start -- the start of the holiday shopping season. And we're expecting record numbers this weekend. What are we talking about?

Record shoppers this weekend between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, a hundred and eighty-seven million Americans either shopping online or in person. I must admit, I am not necessarily one to be shopping in person. I like to avoid the crowds. That's what I like to do. That's why I'm a much bigger fan of Cyber Monday than I am of Black Friday. I prefer to spend my weekends at home or maybe going to a nice little luncheonette.

But this 187 million is 3 million more than we had last year. Again, record numbers shopping this weekend. Of course, it's not all good news when it comes to the economy, Jessica, because we're in a bit of a K shape, right, whereby the top of the economic spectrum seems to be going along as if everything is normal, nice, fantastic, while those on the lower rung facing tougher times. And we see that when it comes to shopping this holiday season. Expected holiday shopping in terms of money versus 2024 by household income, you can see that this is a real economic divide in terms of how much folks are expecting to spend this year versus last year when it comes to shopping during the holiday season.

If you make less than $50,000 in your household income, the expected amount to be spent down, down 16 percent versus a year ago.

[18:45:05]

You jump to the middle rung, 50 to 100,000. Again, down, but by less. Down 6 percent. Look at those making at least a hundred thousand dollars in terms of their household income. It's actually up. It's up about 5 percent or at least the expected amount versus last year. Again, illustrative of this K-shaped economy whereby the wealthier folks are spending as if nothing is wrong, spending as if times are good, while those on the lower rung of the economic spectrum not seeing the good times nearly as much. In fact, seeing some bad times in a number of cases.

Of course, this is not the only sign that the economy is perhaps not as strong as some might necessarily want. Of course, this holiday season, if you're going to be buying something, you might be putting it on your credit card. And we're seeing some potentially troubling numbers when it comes to that credit card debt. What are we talking about here? Well, let's take a look at credit card balance. That's 90 days or more late. Ninety days or more late.

We're talking about the highest percentage since the Great Recession. You know, you go back to quarter three of 2022, three years ago, 7.6 percent of all credit card balances were 90 days or more late. Late in terms of their payment. You jump over now. Look at this. This percentage has really climbed in quarter three of 2025, which, of course, is last quarter. We're talking about 12.4 percent. That is a significant, significant rise, Jessica. I think the question is, will this percentage become worse during the holiday season.

We've obviously seen that those who earn less are cutting back on their spending, expecting to cut back on their spending. Of course, there are plenty of wealthier people who also have big credit card debts as well. So, we'll just have to wait and see what happens. But this, to me, is a troublesome sign. Folks spending money that they simply do not have, and we're seeing it at a higher percentage since the Great Recession.

Hopefully, we'll have some better news on the economy going forward. But for now, Jessica Dean, this is all I got for you. So, back to you.

DEAN: Okay. That'll do it. Harry Enten, thanks so much.

Up next, she was flying home to surprise her family, and in the process, she got deported. The latest on that legal battle surrounding a college student. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:51:52]

DEAN: Pope Leo celebrated mass with thousands of people in Istanbul. Today, it's his first foreign trip since becoming the head of the Catholic Church. A big focus for the pontiff is interfaith dialogue. He and other Christian leaders marked 1,700 years since a critical council in what is now is Iznik, Turkey, yesterday. And today, he urged Catholics to build bridges in the primarily Muslim country.

Vatican correspondent Christopher Lamb has more on that and the Pope's visit to the historic Blue Mosque.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the first time that Pope Leo has visited a mosque since his election. It's very significant that he's come to the Blue Mosque, which is a 17th century place of worship. Very important in Turkey. It is known as the Blue Mosque because of the beautiful interior made up of thousands of turquoise tiles.

Leo arrived at the mosque greeted by Muslim leaders. He went into the mosque, took off his shoes, as, of course, everyone is required to do. And this visit really sending a signal that Leo wants to build on the work the Catholic Church has done over the last few decades on interfaith dialogue. It's something that Pope Francis was very concerned about. Pope Francis visited this mosque in 2014, as did Pope Benedict. Leo showing he wants to continue in that mold.

He sees the importance of interfaith harmony as having a direct, concrete impact. He said in Turkey on Friday that religions can never be used to justify war, fanaticism or ideology. His visit to this mosque sending the signal that believers have to work together.

This visit comes on the third day of his trip to Turkey. And, of course, this visit, the first since his election that has taken place when he's gone abroad. And he will be going to Lebanon after his visit to Turkey ends on Sunday.

Christopher Lamb, CNN, Istanbul.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Christopher, thank you for that.

And here are some of the other top stories we're following this weekend. A college freshman was trying to fly from Boston to Texas to surprise her family for Thanksgiving, but instead, she was deported to Honduras. This is according to her attorney. This happened in violation of a federal judge's court order prohibiting the government from moving her for at least 72 hours.

Any Lucia Lopez Belloza has already -- had already passed through security at the airport when immigration officials detained her. And within two days, sent her to Honduras, a country she left when she was seven years old. ICE says a judge ordered Lopez to be deported in 2015. But her attorney says the only record he's found indicates her case was closed in 2017.

Northwestern University has agreed to pay a $75 million fee as part of a settlement with the Trump administration. The deal will see frozen federal funds restored and will end a DOJ investigation over allegations of unlawful discrimination, including race-based admissions and a hostile environment for Jewish students.

[18:55:00]

With this agreement, Northwestern must comply with federal anti- discrimination laws, overhaul campus demonstration policies, and implement mandatory anti-Semitism training.

And No. 1 ranked Ohio State beating No. 15 Michigan today in one of college football's biggest rivalries. In a snowy game, you see it there. Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin threw three touchdown passes, including a 35-yarder to Jeremiah Smith on a fourth down in the second quarter. With head coach Ryan Day, Ohio State had lost the last four in a row to Michigan. But the Buckeyes stopped that streak, beating the Wolverines 27 to 9.

Still to come, Secretary of State Marco Rubio will sit down with a Ukrainian delegation in Miami, Florida tomorrow as part of the administration's efforts to end Russia's war on Ukraine. Those details straight ahead. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)