Return to Transcripts main page
CNN This Morning
Soon: Trump And Xi Meet Face-To-Face In South Korea; Trump On Third Term: "I'm Not Allowed To Run, It's Too Bad"; Jamaican PM Declares Entire Island As A Disaster Zone After Storm; States Clash Over Voting Maps, Power And Representation. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired October 29, 2025 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00]
KATIE DRUMMOND, GLOBAL EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, WIRED: But always to articulate his campaign priorities and to do that with very simple clear language. And I think that -- that -- that sort of differentiator give substance to his approach to -- to social media.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: How has it helped him deal with criticism or get around the mainstream media?
DRUMMOND: Well, that's exactly it. He's able to reach his audience and an electorate head on. I mean, we saw that with his, you know, video he released around his Muslim identity just a few short days ago, has amassed millions and millions of views on these social platforms where he's able to just speak directly to an audience.
It's not intermediated by a journalist like you or me, right? He's able to just go directly to the source.
CORNISH: Katie Drummond is global editorial director at Wired. Thank you for your time.
DRUMMOND: Thanks for having me.
CORNISH: Straight ahead on "CNN This Morning," tough talk from President Trump ahead of a high stakes summit with China.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: China is going to be working with me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
TRUMP: OK. They're going to be working with me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Each leader with their own agenda. Can they come to an agreement?
Plus, we continue to track Hurricane Melissa as it barrels through Cuba and leaves destruction behind in Jamaica. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:35:46]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just the way to know that some catastrophic might be coming and just taking it so slow. And, you know, we got a bunch of little babies with us. We got five kids under five. So we -- were were very, very scared.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Hurricane Melissa still an extremely dangerous storm this morning after moving off the coast of Jamaica.
Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on "CNN This Morning."
It's half past the hour and here is what's happening right now.
OK. Melissa, still a major storm this morning after a second landfall in Cuba. The biggest threat to life at this hour is actually the water. Even after the winds ease, some 25 inches of rain could fall, triggering catastrophic flash flooding and landslides.
Israel launches another round of strikes on Gaza. At least 42 people were killed. It comes after they accused Hamas of killing an Israeli soldier and staging the discovery of a dead hostage.
And the Blue Jays bounced back to tie up the World Series after a tough loss. The Blue Jays took the W beating the Dodgers 6 to 2 in Game 4. The Dodgers superstar, Shohei Ohtani, made his first career World Series start on the mound. In six innings, he gave up four runs. Game five tonight in L.A.
And at this hour, President Trump is in South Korea preparing for one of the most consequential meetings of his second term. He sits down, just hours from now with Chinese President Xi Jinping and it will be their first in-person meeting in six years.
It -- it comes at a time when the world's two largest economies are struggling to resolve a trade war that is threatening to upend the global economy.
President Trump sounds hopeful that a trade agreement can be reached. He's been praising President Xi. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is taking a much tougher approach ahead of the meeting of the two leaders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: The threats we face are real and they are urgent. China's unprecedented military buildup and its aggressive military actions speak for themselves. That's why President Trump's peace through strength agenda is so important. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: I'm going to go live now to South Korea and bring in CNN senior White House correspondent, Kristen Holmes.
Kristen, first, can you tell us a little bit about the prospects of a potential deal?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, as you said, President Trump is sounding incredibly optimistic. The praising of Chinese President Xi is not new, but this kind of movement forward in terms of a trade deal is.
Now, there could be a number of reasons for that partly. It could be because we've seen him make a lot of deals during this trip to Asia.
Just moments ago, he was standing next to the South Korean leader and they said they had reached a trade agreement. We have no details of that, but that's going to be a huge weight lifted off of this country's shoulders in particular because of the fact the U.S. had gone from basically charging them zero percent tariffs to 15 percent, which had had a huge impact on the economy.
Now, we know in the previous months, during a preliminary kind of framework with South Korea, they had come up with this idea that there would be $350 billion of investments into the United States, as well as some other sticking points, but now we've heard they have a deal.
And this isn't the only deal that we know has been made on this trip. We've seen at least two deals when it comes to rare earth minerals, something that matters to President Trump.
But when it comes to this meeting with Xi, as you noted, this is likely one of the most consequential meetings for a number of reasons. Not only the defense part of it, which of course you heard the Secretary of Defense talking about, but really because we have been weaving the United States in this kind of rolling trade war with China, which has impacted the global markets now, since President Trump was sworn in.
So just a couple of notes. President Trump very specifically said something. This is the first time we heard him say it, which could play into these negotiations. And it was all about these tariffs because of fentanyl.
We know President Trump had tried to stem the incoming fentanyl from China by raising tariffs on a number of things. Now, we're hearing President Trump saying that they believe they might make a deal on fentanyl. And he could lower tariffs on that area, which of course something that China is going to want.
Now, the other part of this, we know President Trump wants to not have the U.S. dependent on these rare earth minerals on China. That's really, they control the global market on that.
[06:40:07] But the other part of it was that China had announced this restriction on their export controls, which caused an increase in pricing for the United States. President Trump's going to want to make sure that doesn't happen.
President Xi is going to want to make sure there are not these increases in tariffs on this back and forth. So we'll see what kind of agreement they can come to, Audie.
CORNISH: That's CNN's Kristen Holmes following the president today. We'll be checking in with her later.
And is the president running for a third term here in the U.S.? That's about as clear as mud. Here's what he said just a few hours ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The best numbers for any president in many years, any president. And I would say that when you read it, it's pretty clear, I'm not allowed to run. It's too bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So he knows he's not allowed, right?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): I think the president knows. And he and I have talked about the constrictions of the constitution. So I don't -- I don't see the path for that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: And for context, the House Speaker used to be a constitutional lawyer.
In the meantime, Senator Tommy Tuberville, for the record, is not.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-AL): There's going to be having to -- have to be an evaluation from President Trump's viewpoint to the Constitution. There'll be a lot of legal aspects to it. Will it happen? It's very unlikely, but don't ever close the book on President Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: "Group Chat" is back. So I was watching your face going through this journey.
CARI CHAMPION, CNN CONTRIBUTOR Yes. Thank you for taking us through that journey. That was beautiful. So I explained it. So I remember, and I -- and I -- and I'm old enough to remember early on, maybe just about six months ago.
CORNISH: Oh, that's what you mean by, you remember. CHAMPION: Yes, yes. I'm old enough to remember. Bannon saying, there's a way to get around it.
CORNISH: Yes.
CHAMPION: There's a way to get around it and that -- that was their plan. I don't know why the plan is now to walk it back and to say that this is not the plan. But I have a hard time believing that with the 2028, he's just trolling.
He's very, very adamant about what he wants to do. Your -- Antjuan is like, yes, Cari, I'm --
CORNISH: Yes.
CHAMPION: -- full agreement with you. I cannot say --
CORNISH: Well, then let me let Kristen jump in first. We did -- we did get journey, and the House Speaker of all people who is, you know, would be integral to any process that involves like a constitutional amendment change, I have no idea, dismissed and said, this is just a thing to do to rile up Democrats.
So, what is the message to Democrats who say that's what we thought about like the electoral slate or --
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The process to change the Constitution would take years, first of all. So the idea that you're going to have allies in Congress trying to push through some kind of change to make this legal, I think is not going to happen.
I think the other thing that's not going to happen is I don't think he's going to run in 2028. I do think this is trolling. He's selling hats on his website. He's bragging about, oh, this is -- yes, I think Mike Johnson in that press conference is like, it's the most popular selling hat. Like they're doing this to stir people up. It's kind of working.
And he acknowledged that it would be unpopular, not just in that clip from Air Force One there, but he also was asked about the sort of gambit where he would run as vice president.
CORNISH: I heard that.
ANDERSON: And then they would step down or he'd run as something else. And he even said, I don't think the people would like that very much. So he --
CORNISH: Which he rarely says --
ANDERSON: He knows.
CORNISH: -- frankly. Yeah, that's interesting.
ANDERSON: But what is fascinating about Trump is he cares so much about being relevant. And normally a lame duck president is not. Normally, once you are in your last term, people have already begun to look who's going to be running in the primary. What's next? What's coming down the road?
In some ways, it's -- it's a -- a miracle of his ability to hold the narrative and hold attention. He is as dominant and -- yes.
CORNISH: Yes. I've heard this theory that it blocks that -- that lame duck narrative.
What about you?
ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: This is high-level political flirtation at its best. I think this is about power and control for Donald Trump, because he knows he is the leader of the MAGA movement and no one could leave that movement and the way that he has. There's certainly connected tissue to Trump voters and disconnected tissue to traditional Republican voters. He knows that.
And so he wants to be the person who anoints or sanction the next leader of the Republican Party. So he's going to drag this out and drag this along.
Now, here's the other thing. You cannot assume that the rule of law matters when you say the Constitution, because we've seen them buck the rule of law in many ways since Donald Trump has become president since January. And so we cannot assume anything.
And then there's a school of thought in other circles that I've associated with and in is that, will we even have an election in 2028? And that's a real conversation in many places.
CORNISH: OK. You raised a lot of concerns here.
And if you want to hear more of our conversation, please know you can catch our show because we're a podcast too. Just scan the QR code now. Find it. "CNN This Morning" is available anywhere you get your podcast as well.
Next on the show, Texas, Missouri, North Carolina, and now Indiana states redrawing the maps.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gerrymandering is wrong. I oppose it wherever it occurs. I'm against it in Texas. I'm against it in every other state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[06:45:02]
CORNISH: Is this the only way to keep control? And is it fair to you, the voter? I'll ask the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee about that, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CORNISH: So as the sun rises in Jamaica, we are getting a clearer picture of the extent of the damage brought by Hurricane Melissa. The storm slammed into the western part of the island as a Category Five storm, making it the most powerful hurricane to ever hit the island.
More than half a million people are now without power. Many roads remain impassable due to down trees and power lines.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREW HOLNESS, JAMAICAN PRIME MINISTER: The reports that we have had so far would include damage to hospitals, significant damage to residential property, housing and commercial property as well. And the damage to our road infrastructure.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[06:50:01]
CORNISH: Melissa is now over Cuba. The Bahamas is next in the path. Evacuation orders have been issued for six islands there as they brace for flooding and a dangerous storm surge.
Joining me to talk more is Matthew Samuda, Jamaica's Minister of Water, Environment and Climate Change. Good morning. Thank you for being with us.
Yesterday, you were telling me about the changes Jamaica had made to its infrastructure, putting telecoms underground, et cetera. How much survived?
MATTHEW SAMUDA, JAMAICAN MINISTER OF WATER, ENVIRONMENT, AND CLIMATE CHANGE: It's a little early to say it definitively. The storm, certainly the -- the eye of the storm would have made landfall in southwest Jamaica, which is where a lot of that work would have happened to harden the infrastructure post -- post Hurricane Beryl.
Certainly, we know that the electricity grid would have taken major hits, but that wasn't one of the sections that we had done at the (INAUDIBLE) with telecoms, infrastructure, which as you know to -- to work has to be energized.
So, we'll do the assessments this morning. Our -- our first focus, however, though, is not necessarily on infrastructure. It's clearing our roadways just so that we can provide the humanitarian assistance to those homes, those households, those people who have been devastated by.
CORNISH: And, Mr. Samuda, I'm not sure you can still hear me, but also -- oh, it looks like maybe we've lost him for a moment. We -- we hope to get the Minister later today.
In the meantime, I want to turn here to domestic politics in the push to redraw congressional maps, which has ignited a fierce battle over political power and fairness and representation. And the fight that started in Texas has now spread to several other states. Indiana's governor says he's going to hold a redistricting vote on Monday, the day before Election Day.
In Virginia this week, democratic state legislators have begun drafting a constitutional amendment to let them redraw the state's congressional maps. It's something Virginia Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin says should not happen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GLENN YOUNGKIN (R-VA): It's nuts. And it's a -- it's a desperate political ploy. And I think it is unconstitutional. But here we are with the Democrat leadership in Virginia in our House and our Senate calling everybody back next week, literally 33 days into an election trying to run some desperate ploy to redistrict Virginia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining the Group Chat, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene of Washington, who heads up the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which, of course, this is going to affect all of your members, the people who are in those swing districts.
What is the justification for Democrats, especially in a place like Virginia, where they all got behind a constitutional amendment, when they all got behind a redistricting commission to now say, actually, no we can't because we're in a partisan battle?
REP. SUZAN DELBENE (D-WA): Well, let's remember where this all started. Donald Trump called up Republicans in Texas and said, give me five more seats. And they said, yes, sir.
Republicans aren't able to win in the hearts and minds of the American people. If you are with people on policy and you think you can win an election, then you go fight it out and you win the votes.
CORNISH: So why not fight for more independent redistricting commissions?
DELBENE: But they know they can't. They are now deciding they have to rig the system. And so they're going state after state. They're starting with Texas. You see what they're doing in North Carolina, Indiana, Missouri over and over because they know they can't win.
People in Texas hate this. People in Missouri hate this. They think that people should pick their representatives. They shouldn't have politicians picking their vote.
CORNISH: Is this is something you're running ads on or anything like that to put pressure?
DELBENE: Well, no. We've actually -- we -- absolutely. We talked to folks in Texas about what they were doing in Texas. And so now you see California, the first to respond. First of all, it's going on the ballot to the voters. They're going to decide. But the people of California, they understand that this is in response to what Republicans are doing. It's a temporary response. And others across the country are going to fight back. We're going to fight back everywhere we can. They know they can't win. So instead, they're deciding to rig the system.
CORNISH: We don't know how this ballot is going to play out. We don't know how some of your lawsuits are going to play out as you're challenging this place.
And I think of a lawmaker like Don Davis of North Carolina who -- I think I was reading, he's had to run three consecutive campaigns in three different maps in North Carolina because every time he runs, the district gets redrawn.
If you aren't successful in a place like North Carolina, how do you help him? Is it money? Is it -- is -- are you just preparing for a future where you're constantly helping lawmakers whose maps have been redrawn underneath them?
DELBENE: Well, we should make sure that we are fighting for fair maps across the country. And we're going to fight back against what Republicans are trying to do to gerrymander.
[06:55:01]
We also have great candidates running across the country, great folks like Don Davis who represent purple districts across the country, who are focused on the pocketbook issues that people care about, rising costs being number one. Republicans probably lower costs on day one.
Every action they've taken has raised cost for American families, absolutely policy healthcare.
CORNISH: But this is a new additional burden for the DCCC --
DELBENE: Well --
CORNISH: -- where you've got to figure out how to constantly manage the new lines.
DELBENE: We shouldn't have constant mid-cycle redistricting. That's what Republicans are doing because that's how they figured that it's the only way they can keep the majority.
We're going to fight back and we should be fighting back. And we should make sure that we're in a situation where when lines are drawn, they aren't constantly changed every two years, but Republicans know they can't win.
They only have a three-seat majority. They did redistricting in North Carolina to change three seats last cycle. We're going to fight back.
CORNISH: Well, they're doing many more now, so it'll be interesting to see -- DELBENE: And we're going to fight back.
CORNISH: -- this plays out.
The -- the panel might have some questions in a moment. But because you brought up prices, I want to bring up this statement from the AFGE union, the federal workers union. They represent 800,000 federal workers. And they said the president, Everett Kelley, both political parties have made their point. And there's still no clear end in sight. It's time to pass a clean, continuing resolution and end the shutdown. No half measures, no gamesmanship.
If these are the people you are fighting for, do you listen to him?
DELBENE: We should reopen the government and protect healthcare. We can do both. This is not a --
CORNISH: But they're asking for a clean. They're not asking for both. They're saying, just get through the clean one.
DELBENE: They're asking for the government to be reopened. We need to make sure that we are standing up for working families across the country. We are here in Washington D.C.
Republicans -- House Republicans haven't even been in D.C. for over a month. The way that we move forward is with a bipartisan resolution. That's the way it always needed to be.
CORNISH: Do you worry this kind of pressure will -- will work, especially on Democrats maybe in the Senate, who are a little more wobbly or saying, look, these federal workers are struggling. Maybe we -- we shouldn't be doing this. There are some people who are going to raise questions within the party.
DELBENE: Maybe Republicans need to show up in Washington D.C., get off their vacation to do their job. Get to the table so that we can come up with a solution.
We're here. We've been --
CORNISH: Yes. So you're not worried about the wobblers?
DELBENE: We need -- we absolutely need to do -- to put policy in place that helps working families across the country. That means making sure we protect healthcare, making sure that we lower costs for American families, making sure we work for the government.
We can do all of that, but Republicans, House Republicans, aren't even here. We haven't been in session for over a month.
CORNISH: Any other questions for the congresswoman?
I think that we're baffled about how to talk about this when people are struggling, that people actually don't care who's fault it is, in some way.
CHAMPION: That's right.
CORNISH: And that they can still punish Democrats if they perceive them to be at fault.
DELBENE: Republicans are in charge of the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives. We've been here week after week. Mike Johnson won't call the House into session. We are ready to sit at the table. It has to be a bipartisan solution.
And families across the country are hurting. Open enrollment starts this weekend on Saturday. People are seeing premium skyrocket. The number one issue, making sure that people can afford to put food on the table, to put a roof over their head. We've talked -- you talked earlier about the cuts to SNAP, what the impact that will have across our country.
Republicans are indifferent to the suffering of the American people. We're here fighting for the American people.
ANDERSON: Audie, I -- I have a question on the redistricting question. You know, you've talked about wanting. You said voters deserve fair districts, but also we've got to fight Republicans, which means undoing fair districts in a lot of places.
In places like California, it's been promised, vote for these voters because we have to fight the Republicans. We promise it's just temporary. You described it as temporary as well. Why should voters believe that this is actually temporary?
DELBENE: People absolutely see what Republicans are doing. They see what's happening in Texas. They see J.D. Vance flying to Indiana force -- trying to force them to redraw maps.
They see what's happening. They understand that this is about responding because their representation is impacted.
ANDERSON: They should trust that it's going to go back --
DELBENE: Remember, the people of California, their representation is impacted if Republicans are trying to rig the system in other parts of the country. This is about making sure we have the People's House.
And right now, we have a House of Representatives that's blindly loyal to Donald Trump. We have a speaker who won't even bring the House into session. They know they can't win. The American people are not with them.
CORNISH: Yes.
DELBENE: Their only chances to --
ANDERSON: But you believe they should put it back after the cycle, after this? OK.
DELBENE: And I think that's very clear. That's very clear in California too. CHAMPION: I just want to say one thing you've mentioned earlier. You see Republicans are indifferent. And the more I hear you talking and you say what you all trying to do and why you are here.
I want to say, people at home can't tell the difference. I really feel like the people --
CORNISH: Yes.
CHAMPION: -- who are losing the money can't tell the difference between Democrat and Republican who --
