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Soon: Category 5 Hurricane Melissa to Make Landfall in Jamaica; Federal Employees Miss Paychecks as Shutdown Drags On; President Praises Japanese PM in Joint Address; Pentagon Disputes Nuke Doomsday Scenario in New Movie. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired October 28, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:45]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Jamaica braces for catastrophe as Hurricane Melissa closes in. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The evacuation order is not a suggestion. It is a directive and a directive to save your life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Where the Category 5 storm is at this hour and how soon it could make landfall.

And anything you want. President Trump reaffirming ties with a long- standing ally as he meets with Japan's newly elected leader.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OXANA KELLY, TSA WORKER: Just stressful for us. Stressful on our bank accounts. And at this point, it's going to turn to zero very soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: It's payday for air traffic controllers, but a check won't hit their bank accounts.

And Venezuela accuses the U.S. of military provocation as they claim to have captured mercenaries working with the CIA.

And it's a decades-old mystery: what happened to Jimmy Hoffa? Now the FBI has made solving the mystery a priority.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we get this wrong, none of us are going to be alive tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: "A House of Dynamite," the new movie about the U.S. facing down a nuclear missile. Why the Pentagon says that they've got it wrong.

It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, but here is a live look at Kingston, Jamaica. Very heavy rain and strong winds are already lashing the island as Hurricane Melissa approaches.

Good morning, everybody. It is Tuesday, October 28. I want to thank you for being with us this morning. I'm Audie Cornish, and here's where we begin: what is turning out to be the strongest storm of the year and expected to be the strongest storm to hit Jamaica ever.

Right now, Hurricane Melissa, a Category 5 storm, crawling slowly toward the island. This video is from inside the eye of the storm, which is expected to move ashore in the coming hours.

So far, it's been the outer bands lashing the island overnight. Hurricane Melissa could bring catastrophic winds, storm surge, and could isolate communities for days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW HOLNESS, JAMAICA'S PRIME MINISTER: I don't believe there is any infrastructure within this region that could withstand a Category 5 storm, so there could be significant dislocation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Mandatory evacuation orders are in place for coastal communities in Jamaica. Not everyone is listening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of people are staying, because my House is right next to another community, and everybody is still there. We're on a stretch of the highway that's right along the ocean. So, once this gets damaged, people have no way to get back into their homes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've never witnessed a hurricane that has damaged Jamaica, so I'm not sure if I'm scared, because I don't know what to expect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar is tracking the hurricane. And, Allison, where is the storm at this point?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. So, it's still just South of Jamaica, but it's starting to make that Northeastern turn.

It's moving at about five miles per hour, which is still incredibly slow, but way, way faster than it's been moving for much of the last 12 hours. We had even, at one point, moving one and even two miles per hour.

Now, the sustained winds are still 175 miles per hour, gusting to well above 200 miles per hour. The storm is expected to maintain its Category 5 strength as it makes

landfall just a few hours from now over Jamaica, before heading off to portions of Eastern Cuba. Then the Bahamas, before finally exiting out over the open Atlantic by later in the day Wednesday.

Rainfall is by far the biggest concern we have with this particular storm, not just for the flooding component, although yes, that is a big threat, but also landslides and mudslides are a big concern, likely because of the topography that is across much of Jamaica. But not just Jamaica. We're also talking Haiti and Cuba as well.

Here you can see the storm system as it continues to slide off to the East, and even as it gets weaker, the rain is still going to be there for most of these locations.

You look at the map, you see a lot of red. You see a lot of pink. That indicates at least another 6 to 10 inches of rain. That may not sound like all that much, but you have to understand that's on top of a half a foot of rain that has already fallen in many places.

So, it's that total number that we're really looking at, and it's not out of the question for some of these spots to pick up at least 20 inches of rain before the system finally exits.

Wind is also going to be a component, because it's a Category 5. It has incredibly devastating strong winds that will lash portions of Jamaica before it continues to slide up and over Cuba and into the area surrounding the Bahamas, hitting multiple islands there before jutting out over the Atlantic.

Here's the thing to note, though. Even if the center of the storm really kind of makes landfall over the Western portion of Jamaica, it's still going to be close enough to lash the Eastern half of the island with incredibly strong wind gusts. Then it will continue to slide off to the North and East.

The other thing to note, too, is that when you have a saturated ground, like many of these areas will be, it doesn't take much of a strong wind to bring down trees and power lines. You could have even just a 50, 60-mile-per-hour wind cause some damage.

We know for a fact there's going to be many areas that pick up wind gusts well in excess of 100 miles per hour, which is why there is such a concern for the widespread power outages.

CORNISH: OK, we're going to be following this over the next hour, especially as we're hearing the storm pick up some speed. Allison Chinchar, thank you.

And as Hurricane Melissa moves towards Jamaica here in the U.S., forecasters at NOAA and the hurricane center are working unpaid thanks to the government shutdown.

And today, thousands of air traffic controllers will join them. Today is their first missed paycheck, and now a wave of call-outs is impacting travel at major airports. And it may only get worse. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN MCCABE, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION: The thing we have to really look at right now is where's the breaking point? We have a very young workforce. This is a workforce that may not be financially set up yet.

What we have to look at now, where is the breaking point for each individual? And that stress is absolutely unnecessary on top of what they're already doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The largest union representing roughly 800,000 federal workers warned of a breaking point, as well. The American Federation of Government Employees said it's past time for the government to reopen. They're calling for an immediate vote to guarantee back pay for furloughed workers.

But Senate Democrats are still digging in.

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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Why not listen to them? I mean, they represent hundreds of thousands of employees who are not getting paid right now.

SEN. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): Of course, we'll listen to them. Well take into consideration. I mean, Republicans should have listened to them, too, when they also said, please stop arbitrarily firing our employees. Please stop arbitrarily firing V.A. employees. Please don't go to the Department of Education.

Now, Republicans all of a sudden care about government employees. Where the hell have they been for the last ten months?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Michelle Price, White House reporter for the Associated Press; Chuck Rocha, a Democratic strategist and former senior advisor on the Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns; and Doug Heye, Republican strategist and former RNC communications director.

I have to put you on the spot first, Chuck, because this is --

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I'll work a little bit.

CORNISH: -- where the conversation is going. And you may be familiar with the lawmaker that we just heard.

But I notice you worked with him on a tough race, but here he is saying, look, this doesn't mean we should cave just because of this ramped-up rhetoric and concern for federal workers.

What else are Democrats trying to say to spin this, so to speak? ROCHA: I think their digging in on ACA is smart, and I say it for this

reason.

CORNISH: Meaning the health care subsidies, defending them?

ROCHA: Yes. Yesterday when I got home -- I was in Maine this weekend -- my ACA bill was there. And I don't have any subsidy. I have a lot of privilege. I make a decent enough money where I don't get any subsidies, and my health care was going up $300. That's a smack in my face. I've got to figure that out.

This is unlike any other shutdown we've ever seen. I've been in politics for 36 years, and normally, we're on Capitol Hill snapping back and forth. Republicans and Democrats forcing each other's hands. Nothing's really happening.

CORNISH: Yes.

ROCHA: Out in America right now, I was out in rural Maine. Nobody was talking about a shutdown. Nobody feel it.

But you start having folks in airplanes not getting to where they need to be. God forbid one falls out of the air, something really bad happens. Or something with this hurricane where you can tie it right back to the shutdown, that's when you'll see action.

CORNISH: There's also social media. I want to play for you Neil Gosman -- he's a union officer with the TSA workers -- on Monday. And they were commenting on the position that these air traffic controllers are in as they're about to miss their first check.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEIL GOSMAN, UNION OFFICER, AFG LOCAL 899: Our job is to keep people safe, to keep transportation going. That's our job. And the job of the people in Congress and the job and the people in the administration is to run the country.

KELLY: It seems like we're some pawns in these games, and they're just over there, you know, coming and going, voting on the same bill 12 times. It's like beating a dead horse at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Doug, I want to talk to you, because I think, for a lot of Americans, they've actually been hearing about government shutdowns for a decade.

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Yes.

CORNISH: So, they don't see it as like, oh, my gosh, a government shutdown. Right? They kind of expect this behavior. So where does that leave Republicans?

HEYE: I think Republicans feel in a very comfortable spot right now. It's why you see the House of Representatives isn't in session at all. I worked the 2013 shutdown, and what we did in House leadership was

every day, we would try and pass a bill. Today, we're going to fund the Department of Energy. Tomorrow, we're going to fund the Department of Transportation.

[06:10:04]

Congress isn't doing any of that right now.

CORNISH: They're not even bothering with the show of it. Yes.

HEYE: And Johnson feels very secure in his position and where his members are.

There are two things that could -- that could affect that. Obviously, the ACA subsidies and what we see with the situation at airports. If that becomes very real, members do respond to that.

But that's Republicans and Democrats.

CORNISH: Yes, but what about something like SNAP benefits, right? We're at the point now where you're going to see, potentially -- what is it? -- 42 million people who could go without those benefits?

Here's how Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota is trying to talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D), MINNESOTA: I want to be very clear. USDA, during this shutdown, has contingency funds that they could release, just like us. They are choosing not to. They are choosing not to.

And I can paint any damn picture you want for you. They're paying contractors to tear down the East Wing, but they're not putting money into the food bank that they're setting on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Then you've got Josh Hawley out there in "The New York Times" doing an op-ed. He's actually been, on health care. He's been, on a lot of things, kind of outside of Republican parameters. Yes. Where he's basically saying, no Americans should go hungry.

The White House, I mean, this is not their problem, in a way. That seems to be the vibe.

MICHELLE PRICE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS: which is kind of a stunning thing to say, right? This is the country; that that the White House should be very concerned about what is happening here, and these are federal workers.

CORNISH: And we should say ICE is still getting paid. So, their priority is still moving forward.

PRICE: ICE is still getting paid. FBI agents are still getting paid. Certain workers. But what's also striking about this is we aren't seeing the president really engage in this at all. In fact, he's in Asia right now. He went on with a previously scheduled trip.

We have seen in the past, presidents who have canceled their trips to deal with these things, to -- to try to negotiate, to bring people together.

CORNISH: Is there some, like bigwig from the White House --

PRICE: There are --

CORNISH: -- who's going to the Hill and trying to put some pressure, or --

PRICE: I mean, the primary people who do that are in Asia, but the vice president is expected to be meeting at some of the Senate luncheons today. We don't know whether that will bring any kind of breakthrough, you know, pushing things along.

As Doug said, Republicans are feeling comfortable right now. They're not shying away from highlighting some of these pain points, you know, and the impacts of these workers.

The transportation secretary today is planning to hold a news conference to talk about the impact on the air traffic controllers and flights.

So, at this point, Republicans are -- are willing to point to how this is impacting people and point the finger back at Democrats.

CORNISH: Yes. And I just want to repeat. Like, this feels like a different environment. Prices are much higher than during the past shutdowns. People's perception of how shutdowns work are probably a little -- they're a little more knowledgeable.

Just an example for the TSA workers. I want to end with this. We were hearing from B.J. Mathis (ph), who's a union representative, and talking about the kinds of things they are doing, that you are doing while you're not being paid.

"It could range anything from plasma donations, Uber, security guard jobs on the side, pretty much any private thing which they have to report and get approved.

All right, you guys. We're going to talk a lot more this hour. You guys stay with me.

Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, President Trump's trip to Asia. What he's trying to do with China as he inks a new deal with Japan.

Plus 18 innings, a marathon World Series game. Doug stayed up for it, when Freddie Freeman pulled out a homer for the Dodgers.

And we're going to continue to track that hurricane, of course, as it approaches landfall in Jamaica and speak live to Jamaica's minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is very slow. It is very, very, very intense. And that means the outcome may potentially be extreme devastation and danger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:18:17]

CORNISH: OK, we want to show you some live images there of Kingston, Jamaica. Some streets are already flooded. This actually was a bridge at one point, Flat Bridge Road.

Hurricane Melissa is approaching, and that storm is expected to make landfall in the coming hours.

In the meantime, just a few hours ago, president spoke. The president spoke before U.S. troops in Japan. He was alongside the country's new prime minister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The cherished alliance between the United States and Japan is one of the most remarkable relationships in the entire world. Really, there's never been anything like it.

Born out of the ashes of a terrible war, our bond has grown over eight decades into the beautiful friendship that we have. It's a foundation of peace and security in the Pacific. You see it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The alliance between the Japanese leader and President Trump resulted in two major deals.

One secures the supply of rare earth minerals, the second around companies such as Toyota planning further investment in the U.S. Up to $10 billion, according to the president.

CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes is traveling with the president in Japan.

Kristen, can you tell us a little bit about what he wants to accomplish in this final leg of his tour?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Audie, I just got off the phone with a White House official earlier who was really bullish about this part of the trip, saying that it was -- really accomplished everything that they wanted it to.

And what we saw here was a show of force. We saw an economic show of force, as well as a military show of force. In terms of the economics, you mentioned this $10 billion Toyota deal,

as well as a rare earths mineral deal. One of the things to keep in mind here: all of this is going to be setting the tone, setting the backdrop for President Trump's first sit-down meeting with China president -- Chinese President Xi.

[06:20:01]

The rare earths is very critical to President Trump. He has been trying to make the U.S. less dependent on China. We've seen him strike a number of these deals with Australia, with Malaysia.

Then it comes to the military show of force. Not only do we see President Trump and the prime minister speaking to troops. We also heard President Trump announcing that U.S. missiles were on their way to Japanese forces, talking about with the prime minister, how they were agreeing to a free and open Indo-Pacific.

That is a direct response to what we have seen from China, which is military aggression and the fact that, over the last several years, they have tried to claim sovereignty over the Indo-Pacific. This is a direct rebuttal to China.

And China took notice. We already heard from the foreign ministry spokesperson there, kind of softly warning Japan to pay attention, to be respectful of their neighbor. Was some of the terms that we -- we heard used, particularly around security concerns.

President Trump is trying to get as much leverage as he can when he goes into this sit-down meeting with Xi Jinping.

One of the things that we know is that, yes, there is a framework in place. We have heard the secretary of -- the treasury, secretary, Scott Bessent, talking about that framework, sounding as though it was really going to be hammered out during the sit-down.

But we also know that President Xi is not going to go into a meeting without -- with President Trump without knowing exactly what he's going to get out of it.

So, President Trump is going to have to go in there with a lot of leverage. And, whether or not they actually get results in terms of a trade deal, that remains to be seen.

But we do know that this trip was a lot about shoring up the relationship with Japan and showing strength in the region ahead of that meeting.

CORNISH: Right. Of course, shoring up relationship with a new leader. And right now, we've got images of the president welcoming and talking with business leaders at a reception in Tokyo.

So, we know most of this trip is going to be about the deal. Kristen Holmes is going to be following the rest of the day.

And after the break on CNN THIS MORNING, another state, another redistricting fight. Redrawing the maps as Republicans look to cement their control.

Plus, fact or fiction? Pentagon -- the Pentagon challenges the accuracy of a doomsday thriller called "A House of Dynamite."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:26:38]

CORNISH: Jamaica braces for a direct hit. Hurricane Melissa makes a crawl towards the island. It's moving at just five miles per hour.

Melissa remains a dangerous Category 5 hurricane. A storm chaser joins me live from Jamaica in the next half hour.

In the meantime, "A House of Dynamite," a new film from Netflix, imagines a fictional surprise nuclear attack on the U.S. by a rogue state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to need you to breathe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're talking about hitting a bullet with a bullet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, it's a coin toss? That's what $50 billion buys us?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, unlike other action films, there's no hero to stop the event behind the scenes. In the movie, it's the president, panicked defense officials, and a U.S. missile defense system with just a 50 to 60 percent chance of working.

Director Kathryn Bigelow is known for realistic depictions of U.S. bomb squad veterans and the hunt for Osama bin Laden. But on this, the Pentagon has weighed in.

An internal memo obtained by Bloomberg claims real-world testing of the U.S. interceptors have, quote, "displayed 100 percent accuracy rate."

But the movie's writer stands by the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOAH OPPENHEIM, WRITER AND PRODUCER, "A HOUSE OF DYNAMITE": We did not seek the cooperation of the Pentagon at all, or the current administration in making the movie.

But it's all out there in the public domain. And unfortunately, our missile defense system is highly imperfect. And if the Pentagon wants to have a conversation about improving it or what the next step might be in keeping all of us safer, that's exactly the conversation we want to have. But what we show in the movie is accurate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now is Fred Kaplan, national security columnist at "Slate"; has also written a bunch of books about the history of the nuclear weapons program.

Can you first just talk about what's in the film? This missile defense system is trying to attack -- it's trying to counter an attack that is fundamentally a surprise.

FRED KAPLAN, NATIONAL SECURITY COLUMNIST, "SLATE": Right, and it turns out, unfortunately, the movie in this case is right. And the Pentagon statement is incorrect.

And I have -- this is according to the Pentagon. I'm holding a printout of an official, unclassified Defense Department report called "Ground-Based Midcourse Defense Testing Record." This is of the system that we see depicted in this film.

It is also the only defensive system that is capable, theoretically, of shooting down a missile -- an intercontinental ballistic missile as it heads toward the United States.

And according to this document, there have been 20 tests of this system. Twelve of them hit their target, and eight of them, for various reasons, did not.

Now, this really is like a bullet hitting a bullet. And as a technological feat, you know, this is very impressive. Twelve out of 20, that's very impressive.

But if the missile is coming into Chicago, and you've got, as one of the characters says, it's a coin toss. You know, the downside of that coin toss --

CORNISH: Yes.

KAPLAN: -- is not good. And I'm -- not just mysterious, but appalling and dangerous that the Defense Department should be misleading internal, you know, top-ranking officials about this.

Because on the one hand, it undermines confidence in -- in what they're doing. If the president believes this, it could make him -- it could encourage him to take reckless actions in a crisis, thinking that, Well, I can always shoot down the missiles with this system.

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