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White House to Have List of Agencies, Firings as Soon as Today; U.K. Police: 1 Victim in Synagogue Attack Killed by Officers. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired October 03, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

BRYAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: Just before halftime. But the game goes into overtime, where Niners kicker Eddy Pineiro hit a 41-yard field goal off the upright to give San Francisco the lead.

[06:00:14]

Less than two minutes later, it was the Niners defense holding against the Rams on fourth down to win the game 26-23. What a game.

Thank you for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Bryan Abel in Washington, D.C. Erica Hill is next when CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: The White House has a list. And if you work for the government, you probably don't want to be on it. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, there could be firings, and that's their fault.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We believe that layoffs are imminent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Jobs and services slashed as early as today with the federal government shut down.

That shutdown also has Wall Street and the Federal Reserve flying blind. So, could they make costly choices in the absence of crucial data?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: A vile individual committed a terrorist attack.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Tragedy in the United Kingdom. What we know about the suspect in a synagogue rampage on the holiest day of the Jewish year. Sentencing day for Sean Diddy "Diddy" Combs. What we can expect to

hear from him in the courtroom in just a matter of hours. Key funding from FEMA now frozen. So, could your state -- could that mean your state may not be prepared for the next natural disaster?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAYLOR SWIFT, SINGER (singing): Hollywood hates me as hard as your last hit, baby.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Oh, Swifties, it's the day you've been waiting for. Time to get your "Showgirl" on. Taylor Swift's new album has now officially dropped.

And a good Friday morning to you. Plenty of lights on here in New York City as we just see the sky brightening there on the horizon.

Nice to have you with me on this Friday. It is October 3rd. I'm Erica Hill, in for Audie Cornish. Thanks for starting your day with CNN THIS MORNING.

We are entering day three now of the government shutdown. Thousands of furloughed federal workers waking up today wondering not only when their next paycheck will come, but whether they may even have a job to return to when the government reopens.

White House officials telling CNN the administration has made a list of agencies it plans to target for reductions in force. Those firings could be announced as soon as today.

The impending firings, though, are also drawing concerns within the president's own party about whether the layoffs could be going too far.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What about these mass firings the White House is promising?

SEN. KEVIN CRAMER (R-SD): Yes.

RAJU: Are you OK with that?

CRAMER: Well, I'm not in nuts for it, Manu. This is certainly the most moral high ground Republicans have had in a moment like this that I can recall.

And I just don't like squandering that political capital when you have that kind of high ground. It makes it much easier for us to just push forward and insist on -- on the clean C.R. and then get to the negotiating table with -- with some leverage.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HILL: The president, however, does not seem to share those concerns. He was on yet another late-night social media posting spree with another A.I.-generated video, this one starring his OMB director, Russ Vought, as the Grim Reaper for the federal government. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): Here, the power's gone. Russ Vought is the Reaper. He wields a pen, the funds, and the brain. Here comes the Reaper.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining me now in the group chat, Noel King, co-host and editorial director of "Today, Explained," the podcast; Chet Love, Republican strategist; and Lulu Garcia-Navarro, CNN contributor and "New York Times" journalist. It's Nice to see all of you on a Friday morning.

Look, that was quite the video. And one would guess, based on what we've heard from the president in the last 24 or 48 hours and the White House, they think it's funny, were having fun with this.

The reality is that jobs, livelihoods are at risk in this moment.

Mike Johnson said that Russ Vought doesn't -- doesn't take any pleasure in this job and that he is doing so reluctantly. There's a fair amount of mixed messaging going on. You know, to the point of Senator Cramer, who spoke with Manu there.

Does the Republican Party risk squandering some of the political capital that people believe they've gained?

CHET LOVE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think right now we're really just focused on trying to execute on the president's agenda and the fact that Democrats are filibustering. Just this simple issue, I think is really silly.

But the thing that we really should be focusing on around this jobs issue for most people at home is to realize there's actually a process that the president, regardless of the shutdown, can still do a riff for individuals. The issue is about how that happens.

And so, it takes about 30 to 60 days, depending on the notice process, for people to be able to do that. Once the president actually institutes the riff.

[06:05:03]

So, I think what we need to be thinking about here is the bigger issues. The reality is there's no one actually is going to officially lose their job in the next 30 to 60 days. They still have to go before the Merit Protection Board.

HILL: That could still happen, but there will be job losses regardless, whether it's 30 or 60 days. And there are also, Lulu, significant legal concerns that "The

Washington Post" is reporting senior Republican leaders are raising with the administration. They're worried that this may actually not be legal during a shutdown.

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, the memes war this is -- you know, I think one of the problems that we're seeing right now is President Trump gleefully sort of trying to adopt this posture where he is saying this is an advantage for us. They decided to shut down the government, but we're going to take advantage of it. We're going to sort of slice and dice the federal government.

And it plays into, I think, what we're seeing in polling, which is a lot of people blaming the administration for this because of the chaos that this administration brings every day there's something different. There is just like a general perception that this instability is being caused by Republicans and in particular President Trump.

In regards to the legality, I mean, I think most people that I have heard from think that this will be illegal because, you know, during a shutdown, this has never happened before, that you will say, we're going to take advantage of this and try and fire people.

Most presidents adopt a posture of concern, say this is going to be bad for the economy. This is going to be bad for working families. This is going to be bad for our very important federal workers.

This administration has taken a very different posture.

HILL: Noel, it's interesting, too, in terms of some of those concerns. The legal concerns, which could even have to do how --with how severance packages, for example, are funded.

There are separate concerns about the Hatch Act. You know, there is this meme -- sort of meme war going on. So, some reporting from -- from my colleagues here, Sunlen Serfaty and Rene Marsh. that at the Department of Education, employees who've been furloughed say that they put on an "out of office," and that their out of office was changed without their consent.

Some employees even telling Sunlen they changed it back. And then it was changed on them again.

Part of what the email was changed to say was -- and I'm quoting here -- is that, in putting on the out of office, it goes on to say, "Unfortunately, Democrat senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371" -- that continuing resolution in the Senate, "which has led to a lapse in appropriations."

And when asked about this, communications representative for the DOJ, told CNN, quote, "The email reminds those who reach out to Department of Education employees that we cannot respond because Senate Democrats are refusing to vote for a clean C.R. and fund the government."

This is a far more political stance, I would say, than what we have seen in any past shutdown. The administration really wants to hammer home this message that it is the fault of Democrats that employees are being furloughed.

Those employees are raising concerns with CNN about whether those automatic messages that they didn't authorize could put them in violation of the Hatch Act.

NOEL KING, HOST, "TODAY, EXPLAINED": Yes, I mean, this is coming down to who controls the narrative and who is going to take the blame for the shutdown.

It's been interesting to see the Trump administration do things like force people to have these out-of-office messages and, you know, claim very loudly that this is the fault of the Democrats; at the same time that they are, you know, releasing creepy A.I., laughing about people losing their jobs.

I -- I think President Trump is getting two different types of advice, both from within his own camp, and one of them is Russ Vought. You know, a man who has said openly, I want to traumatize federal workers who are saying like, lets' go all the way with this. Let's make this as -- as mass a firing as we possibly can.

Russ Vought is not an elected official. And actually, if you look at attitudes about him and polling on him, Russ Vought is not a particularly likable guy, which I think President Trump is aware of in a lot of ways.

And so, you do have these more moderate voices advising him like, hey, maybe we don't want to go online and sound like were gleeful, as you said, about people losing their jobs and their livelihoods.

Americans do want smaller government. I mean, polling tells us this again and again and again. Americans think the government is too big, and they want it to be smaller.

But if you look at the attitudes of Americans during the DOGE chaos, Americans don't like how that happened. Americans don't like when people brag about it and when they say, like, Oh, we're doing this deliberately. It just feels very petty, and it feels very mendacious. And I just -- I just don't think people go in for that.

HILL: The finding was also, I mean, what you also heard from a lot of people is, yes, you're right. They do want to cut a lot of -- of what they see as bloat in the government, but they want it to do it to be done in a thoughtful way. That makes sense. Not the last time we'll talk about that. Stay with me.

We do want to get to some breaking news coming in to us here to CNN. A stunning admission from police in the U.K. about that ramming and stabbing outside of a synagogue on Yom Kippur.

Officers now saying they made a deadly mistake. Those details are next.

Plus, a fireball shooting into the sky. A California refinery catching on fire. We'll tell you the situation at this hour. Plus, just what exactly does the president mean when he says that the U.S. is now in armed conflict with drug cartels?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR: We must treat them like the al Qaedas of the world, because that's how they're operating. And just treating them with law enforcement capabilities alone was wholly insufficient to wipe out the targets in their entirety.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:15:17]

HILL: The breaking news just coming in to us here at CNN regarding the synagogue attack in Manchester, England, yesterday.

New information from U.K. police about one of the two people who was killed, also one of the three people injured. We are learning new developments by both. Both may have been wounded by police gunfire.

I want to get straight to our Nic Robertson, who has more of these details.

So, Nic, police are saying that they are responsible here. Talk to us more about -- about what they're admitting this morning.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes. What the police (AUDIO GAP) -- it is possible at this stage that a gunshot that they fired in taking down the attacker they've named as Jihad al- Shamie, a British national of Syrian descent. In taking him down, a bullet may have entered the synagogue.

Remembering that he was banging on the door of the synagogue, trying to get in, according to witnesses, breaking on the door. And the police had given him instructions to stop and get down. He appeared to be -- having explosives on his body.

The police fired shots (AUDIO GAP) -- down, that he refused to comply with their instructions. They shot at him again.

And what the police appear to be saying now is that, in the process of shooting the attacker, who appeared to have explosives on him, a bullet may have passed through the door of the synagogue.

And we've talked to survivors from inside the synagogue of this attack. And indeed, they do talk about people with blood on them inside of the synagogue.

But this is a story of victims, of people cowering on the holiest day in their calendar.

We met last night with Gary Wernick, who was inside the synagogue and spoke about the resilience that they had and the desire to try to keep praying even after the police would move them out from this horrible situation. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY WERNICK, ATTACK SURVIVOR: We started to try to continue our services, because, as I said, what else can we do? Somebody brought out a load of chairs and a load of prayer books, and we sat down.

ROBERTSON: I don't know if you've heard what the prime minister had to say this evening, but he said very explicitly this was an attack on Jews because they are Jews.

WERNICK: I did see that.

ROBERTSON: Does that give you solace? Does it give the community strength?

WERNICK: No.

ROBERTSON: Because?

WERNICK: Words are words, and actions are actions.

ROBERTSON: What actions does there need to be?

WERNICK: I think the main thing needs to be a cooling down of the media coverage over Gaza.

ROBERTSON: Do you feel safe living in the U.K. now?

WERNICK: I've always -- I've never really felt safe. Britain, I think, has always been an unsafe place to live for Jew.

ROBERTSON: Do you want --

WERNICK: At the age of about ten, I, as a Jew, I had stones thrown at me.

ROBERTSON: It's a safe place to bring your girls up.

WERNICK: No.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON: And this is something we've heard from a lot of people in the Jewish community here. This sense of feeling unsafe for a long time, a sense that they have to look out for their own security. And it worries them deeply.

And to that point, you know, strong language from the prime minister yesterday, curtailing a trip to Europe. But coming back already here this morning, the prime minister visited the synagogue, visited the -- the scene of the attack with his wife this morning, as well. Spoke with members of the community here.

As -- as Gary said there, it's going to take more than words. But the prime minister already visiting the site today.

HILL: Yes, and difficult to hear him say that from the age of ten. So as a child, how unsafe he has felt and in the decades since.

Nic, appreciate it, as always. Thank you.

Just about -- it is 18 minutes, I should say, past the hour here. Let's get you your morning roundup.

Flames shooting into the sky near Los Angeles after a fire broke out at a Chevron refinery. Look at that in the sky.

Local fire crews responding after there were multiple reports of an explosion. We do know crews have been able to contain that fire to just one area of the facility.

One tank in the refinery, we're told, is still burning. A shelter in place order has been issued for parts of Manhattan Beach because of air quality concerns.

The FDA approving a generic version of the medical abortion pill mifepristone. That drug is used in about two thirds of all U.S. abortions.

The approval, though, drawing a lot of criticism from a number of conservatives. Senator Josh Hawley saying he has, quote, "lost confidence in FDA leadership."

[06:20:08]

In Oregon, a federal judge is set to rule on the state's lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's plan to mobilize National Guard troops in Portland. That judge recusing himself.

The judge is married to Democratic congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici, who slammed the administration's move.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. SUZANNE BONAMICI (D-OR): We do not need, and we do not want, federal troops here in Oregon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: The case has now been reassigned to another judge, who happens to be a Trump appointee.

After the break on CNN THIS MORNING, the national parks will remain open partially during the government shutdown. Why park advocates call this a dangerous move.

Plus, that's show business for you. Taylor Swift's "The Life of a Showgirl" is now out. Perhaps you've already listened to it once or 12 times. We'll take a look and decode some of those lyrics for you, just ahead.

And a good morning to our friends in Boston. Sun coming up there on Beantown.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:19]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC: TAYLOR SWIFT, "LIFE OF A SHOWGIRL")

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Break out your feathers, your sequins, anything orange. Taylor Swift's 12th studio album, "The Life of a Showgirl," is now officially out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: They weren't excited at all. Fans across the country with the album on their wish list. Here they are at a Target, getting in on the hype. Hundreds of stores hosting midnight release events.

For her part, Taylor posting on Instagram, "I can't tell you how proud I am to share this with you. An album that just feels so right. If you thought the big show was wild, perhaps you should come and take a look behind the curtain."

So, in terms of that look behind the curtain, she actually wrote the album while on the Eras Tour and says it's a behind-the-scenes look at life on the road.

Who better to talk to about this than Taylor expert, Taylor Swift, reporter from "USA Today" Bryan West.

Bryan, good to see you. I'm sure you haven't slept because you've been listening to -- not only listening to this over and over again, but you know, reacting to it, talking with folks about it online. Just give me your top-line takeaways from the album.

BRYAN WEST, "USA TODAY": Good morning, Erica.

I think everybody is going to be talking about a couple of tracks. It is very much a love anthem, a love letter to Travis Kelce. More than half of the songs are referencing him, and perhaps their future.

It's one of the first times that she spoke openly about wanting marriage, about wanting also possibly a family.

But we can't have a Taylor album without a little bit of a diss track. So, the two talkers there are track four, "Father Figure," and also track seven, "Actually Romantic."

Track four, it seems as if that is about her first executive, Scott Borchetta, who discovered her at the Bluebird Cafe here in Nashville. Just they interpolated George Michael's song "Father Figure," which his was about devotion. This song is more about kind of betrayal and her -- her journey to claim back her masters.

And then track seven, "Actually Romantic," is about a hater who just is kind of obsessed with you and is, you know, talking about you all the time, even if it's in a negative light. Fans are thinking that this might be a fellow pop star, and right now, a name being thrown out on Twitter is Charli XCX.

HILL: But why? For people who are not up to speed on the tea with this one, why would it be Charli XCX?

WEST: They think that. So, Charli opened for Taylor on the Reputation stadium tour in 2018. Taylor has openly spoke about how amazing Charli is last year.

But it came down to one of the songs that Charli put out, which is "Sympathy is a Knife." And there were fans that thought that that was about Taylor Swift, because Charli XCX's husband is George, who's in 1975, The 1975 band. He's a drummer, and Taylor dated the frontman, Matty Healy.

And in that song, she very discreetly is saying how she hopes that a friend ghosts this girl. And so, fans were thinking that that track was about her.

HILL: Always got to have a little bit of drama, don't we?

As you noted, this is, you know, full of love for and talking about her now-fiance Travis Kelce. There's a lot in there.

There's also been a lot made about who she worked with on this album; that she's reuniting with Max Martin and Shellback. What does that mean in terms of the album? How do you think it influenced what we're hearing this morning?

WEST: Swifties are incredibly excited, because although they love the folklore era, the -- "Evermore," and also the "Tortured Poets," they wanted an album that they could dance to that was full of bangers.

Travis Kelce said that his favorite song up until this album, he had said for a while, was "1989's" "Blank Space." And so, she worked with those two collaborators who did "1989" and "Reputation," and delivered. A lot of these songs are bangers. They are pop hits.

I have seen so many Swifties who are up and dancing, excited about these tracks, especially at this time.

HILL: So, before I let you go, quickly, is this a shift for Taylor Swift in terms of her songwriting, do you think?

WEST: Most of Taylor Swift's songwriting is diaristic, meaning it's diary entries of her life. And what we've seen from this album is she's happy. She's in a really good place, and she's proudly shouting from the rooftops how in love she is.

HILL: All right, well, who doesn't love a little love? Especially on a week that hasn't felt like there's a lot of love? I'm going to embrace the love with you. Bryan West, thank you.

WEST: Thank you.

HILL: Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, a critical jobs report set for release today. Not going to see the light of day right now thanks to the shutdown. The data, though, has already been collected. So why can't the Bureau of Labor Statistics just put it out?

Plus, the warning from WIC: when food assistance could run out for low-income mothers and children. If the government isn't reopened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Formula is, like, crazy expensive. So literally, the only way we were able to afford it was with WIC.

(END VIDEO CLIP)