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CNN This Morning
SNAP Funds Expire at Midnight, 400M+ People to Lose Food Stamps; Pregnancy in America: The Rising Risks of Limited Access to Care. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired October 31, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: "Scream 7" reunites stars Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox. The plot involves Campbell's Sidney, who's built a new life for herself and her daughter. Not the first time in this series she's had to build a new life.
[06:00:13]
But no surprise, it doesn't go well. The movie hits theaters in late February. Looking forward to that, as well.
Thank you for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Brian Abel in Washington, D.C. CNN THIS MORNING with Audie Cornish starts right now.
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AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump has a plan to end the government shutdown: deploy the nuclear option. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's pressure, definitely, as a parent, because you never want to see your kids hungry.
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CORNISH: Millions of Americans on the brink of hunger, and the Senate has skipped town.
And crisis in the Caribbean. Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba desperately trying to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Melissa.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why did you sell us a dream?
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CORNISH: Dramatic moments as a student grills Vice President J.D. Vance on his own family's immigrant heritage.
And the perils of pregnancy. America makes having a baby a lot harder than it has to be. And it's taking a toll on moms.
Halloween in the Windy City. Are trick-or-treaters in danger of being rounded up by ICE?
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I ain't never seen no demons. No ghosts.
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CORNISH: Horror films killing it at the box office. Why do so many of us pay top dollar to be terrified?
It is 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. This is a live look at the Capitol, where lawmakers are not.
Good morning, everybody. It's Friday, October 31st. Happy Halloween.
Today's show, frankly, is a scary one. From the reality of a government not showing up for its people to the things that go bump in the night. I'm Audie Cornish, and here is where we begin.
After midnight, millions of Americans will be forced to deal with some of the most devastating impacts from the government shutdown. Nearly 42 million people will lose Food Stamps, also known as SNAP.
Nearly 7 million pregnant people, new parents, young children will miss WIC funding.
More than 65,000 children will lose access to Head Start programs, which provide early education and childcare services.
And that's not to mention the federal workers forced to work without pay for more than a month, and others furloughed, wondering if they'll even have a job to return to.
Now Congress, they've gone home for Halloween. The Senate flew out yesterday. They're nowhere closer to a deal. The House hasn't been in session for weeks.
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LASHANDA PALMER, TSA SENIOR OFFICER: We have people who work with us who have children. I have officers calling me who don't -- can't afford their children formula. It's just -- it's hard.
[06:05:08]
I want them to do what we elected them to do. I want everyone to do their job, do what they have us doing. Our job. Unpaid, because at least they receiving a paycheck.
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CORNISH: One federal judge says she could rule as soon as today on an order to mandate the government to spend emergency funds to at least partially fund SNAP, saying, quote, "It's hard for me to understand how this isn't an emergency."
For thousands of federal workers, the emergency is already here.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I first started working with the FDA, I really thought that that was the best career move. Honestly, this has been devastating.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never thought in a million years I would be in line to get some food.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What does that feel like?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's humiliating. You know, I've been working for 30 years, and my career. I've had to apply for unemployment. I haven't done that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't matter. Left, right. We just want to get paid for what we do.
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CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat this morning, Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor; Bradley Devlin, politics editor at "The Daily Signal"; and Lulu Garcia- Navarro, CNN contributor and "New York Times journalist. Thank you for being here. Welcome to the chat.
I actually want to start with you, Elliot, because we're looking for ways out. Right?
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Right.
CORNISH: And here we have this federal judge who is looking at whether or not they can somehow force the government to, what? Tap into the emergency funds --
WILLIAMS: Right.
CORNISH: -- it does have. But Republicans and lawmakers have said this isn't a real emergency.
WILLIAMS: Right.
CORNISH: It's a political emergency.
WILLIAMS: And the operative word you use there is "force." The problem and the central tension, quite frankly, at the heart of every legal question involving sort of this administration right now is what power do courts have to direct the federal government to do anything?
An argument that the president frequently makes is that this is the domain of politics. This is the domain of decisions that are made in the White House and sometimes Capitol Hill. And these unelected -- that's the term that's used -- judges don't have a right to -- to force their hand.
Now, sometimes the law mandates that funds be spent.
CORNISH: Yes.
WILLIAMS: And --
CORNISH: And there's a lot of technical issues --
WILLIAMS: -- totally. It's complicated.
CORNISH: -- about whether or not that emergency money can be used in this scenario.
WILLIAMS: Right.
CORNISH: And the White House has said this is why we think not. But there is clearly a question.
WILLIAMS: Yes. And the concept of an emergency is a rather subjective one.
CORNISH: Right.
WILLIAMS: Look, in the national security context, in the public safety context, what authorities define as an emergency is really up to whoever the authority is. And if they can get a court to buy it.
So, it's an open-ended legal question. We'll just have to see how it plays out.
CORNISH: OK. So, there's a couple options here. New options, apparently, that have been introduced. And one is from President Trump, who on Truth Social last night weighed in with this idea.
He said Republican senators need to play their, quote, "Trump card" and kill the filibuster to reopen the government. And he is saying that Republican senators have warned against doing this. But Trump says he wants the change to, quote, "take advantage" of the Democrats.
Let me -- can you help me interpret why -- why this? Why now, on his return from Asia, and not some kind of last-minute hustle to get lawmakers together?
BRADLEY DEVLIN, POLITICS EDITOR, "THE DAILY SIGNAL": Yes. I mean, I think this is a classic tactic that we see Trump use on a regular basis, which is go for the maximal case as the executive to make negotiating with folks on the congressional level a little bit more palatable.
I think Elliot laid out a great tension that you see, that's been a tension that's played out, really, since the '60s between whether the judiciary has a say over how our regulations are actually implemented, or if that's something left to the administrative state, that's something left to the bureaucracy. And both the right and left have come down on different sides of that equation.
And I think the president is obviously going to go for a maximalist approach to his own powers. And that includes potentially changing the rules of Congress.
This is a type of tension that we're used to seeing, right. The filibuster used to be a two-thirds majority, but now it's only a 60- vote majority.
CORNISH: OK.
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: And I mean, you've seen presidents of the left and right discuss the issue of the filibuster. It is a constant issue in our democracy, because why?
If you just have, you know, 50 plus one or a simple majority, what is going to happen? You're going to get your -- you know, your priorities through.
And so, senators always say, yes, it sounds good today, but what is going to happen when the shoe is on the other foot? And you --
CORNISH: It's also like a political escalation --
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Right.
CORNISH: -- where people are, like, but I need the groceries now. Like, why? In a way, does it feel like it's using the moment, a crisis moment, as leverage towards a whole other scale of things?
GARCIA-NAVARRO: You know, I think the bigger picture, though, here is this: why has the president decided that certain people will get paid and not people who actually are in food lines, working for the federal government, in a lot of need?
[06:10:01]
You know, he has made certain determinations about who actually is worthy of federal aid at this moment, while this political situation plays out. That's the military. Those are other people that he has deemed worthy of getting paid.
And then, you know, the bureaucrats, quote, unquote, that he has chosen to really vilify throughout this entire process, don't get paid. And I think that is something that is playing out, really, in the political arena.
CORNISH: I want you guys to stick around. We're going to hear from someone who works in food assistance in a state.
But coming up first, this. Banished by his brother, the royal formerly known as Prince Andrew gets the boot.
Plus, still in the fight. The WNBA and its union agreed to an extension. That's one day before their contract expires.
And Billie Eilish has a message for billionaires, while in a room with one of the world's richest men.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BILLIE EILISH, SINGER: If you're a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? No hate but yes, give your money away, shorties.
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CORNISH: It's almost 15 minutes past the hour, and here is your morning roundup.
The secretary of homeland security says Operation Midway Blitz in Chicago will continue throughout Halloween weekend.
This comes after the governor of Illinois made this plea.
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GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D-IL): No child in America should have to go trick or treating in fear that they might be confronted with armed federal agents.
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CORNISH: Governor Pritzker called for the pause after federal agents swarmed a Halloween parade last weekend.
But Secretary Noem has rejected that request.
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KRISTI NOEM, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: We're absolutely not willing to put on pause any work that we will do to keep communities safe.
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CORNISH: Since September, Operation Midway Blitz resulted in more than 3,000 arrests.
And the WNBA and its players union agreed to a 30-day extension to continue contract negotiations. The deadline was yesterday.
The players are asking for higher salaries, improved benefits, and increased revenue sharing.
And pop star Billie Eilish calling out the bad guy while accepting "The Wall Street Journal" magazine's Music Innovator Award. She had this message for billionaires, right in front of the billionaires. One of the wealthiest people in the world, Mark Zuckerberg, was in the crowd, for example.
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EILISH: The world is really, really bad and really dark, and people need empathy and help more than ever. If you have money, it would be great to use it for good things and maybe give it to some people that need it. There's a few people in here that have a lot more money than me.
And, if you're a billionaire, why are you a billionaire? No hate, but yes. Give your money away, shorties.
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CORNISH: Eilish also putting her money where her mouth is. She says she will be donating $11.5 million from her "Hit Me Hard and Soft Tour" to food equity, climate justice, and environmental causes.
And after the break on CNN THIS MORNING, if you stay ready, you don't have to get ready. President Trump wants the National Guard prepared for unrest.
Plus, unbearable. Pregnancy in America, post-Roe. My next guest tells the stories of women and the system that failed them.
Good morning to Toronto. Your Blue Jays home tonight for game six with a three-two lead. And they could win the World Series tonight.
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[06:22:00]
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I shouldn't be burying my daughter. My daughter should bury me. She had a lot to -- She had a lot to give.
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CORNISH: You know, it was a story that shocked the country. Adriana Smith, a pregnant woman in Georgia, was on life support after a catastrophic stroke in February left her brain dead.
Now, doctors said they could not intervene because of the state's abortion restrictions. Despite the family's wishes, Smith was kept alive until doctors delivered her son, Chance, prematurely by C- section in June.
According to the family's GoFundMe page, Chance is now 8 pounds and is still in the NICU, because his lungs are underdeveloped.
Now, stories like these show how difficult it is to be pregnant in America with those risks, especially when things can go wrong. That's what Irin Carmon writes about in her book. It's a new book called "Unbearable" Five Women and the Perils Of Pregnancy in America." Irin joins us now.
Good morning, and thank you for coming in to see us.
So, one of the reasons why I started with this case is because it has introduced for people the fear that new abortion restrictions could force them down a path of decision making that they hadn't anticipated.
IRIN CARON, AUTHOR: You know, Audie, I was eight months pregnant when Roe v. Wade was overturned. And as a reporter, I've actually focused on these kinds of abortion restrictions: the legal battles, the medical battles, and above all, the -- the impact that it has on people's lives.
I think what Dobbs has done, it has clarified and it has accelerated that, in many cases in the United States, when you become pregnant, you lose many of your constitutional rights, your medical rights, and your personal rights.
For me, I was joyfully pregnant, and I was lucky to have access to good care. But I found along the way that we tend to separate out abortion is over here. People who want to be pregnant are here. Infertility is here. And miscarriages here.
Our lives are so much more complex --
CORNISH: Yes.
CARON: -- at a given time in your life. You might think you're never going to be affected by these kinds of restrictions. You might end up needing that kind of care.
And so, the question that I started with when I wrote "Unbearable" was, how did we get here? And what is it about Dobbs that is kind of shining a black light on the stain of American history and policy?
CORNISH: And this book took you from New York City, Alabama. Can you talk about the parts of the system that have become more difficult for women? Right? I think we're so focused on just somehow the act of getting the abortion. But are there other areas this has had ramifications?
CARON: Well, I think that the ideology for me, personally, the ideology that underlies abortion restrictions, which is that the person who is pregnant is not ultimately in charge of their health care or their decision making. It tends to inform all kinds of pregnancy care.
CORNISH: Or their argument is that both the unborn child and the person giving birth are equal people that need to be protected. Right? Is that usually where these laws are?
CARON: In practice, it's very hard to make a 50/50 decision between one person who is able to actually speak to you, and one who is a potential person. In practice, it does mean that the person ends up getting treated like a vessel.
[06:25:10]
Now. Take Allison (ph), who I write about in my book. She's desperate to become pregnant. She's going through fertility treatments, but she lives in the state of Alabama. And so, when she starts having recurrent miscarriages, she goes to her
medical provider, expecting to have her options laid out for her. And instead, they tell her flatly that they can't help her.
She's reading stories like the ones we've all read, about women bleeding out in parking lots and being septic, and she's worried: Am I getting all of the care that I need, even though she's got no fetal heartbeat? She's wondering, is that going to happen to me? Am I going to have an infection?
She ends up driving for hours to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, because that's a former abortion clinic. Now, since Dobbs, no longer able to offer that care. And they are actually able to give her an ultrasound, counsel her, give her her options.
It shouldn't be the case that -- that you have to drive for hours to access any kind of essential health care.
CORNISH: Right. And we have a short time left, but Planned Parenthood was defunded. Right? And so, what's the state of play now?
CARON: Well, currently across America, different Planned Parenthood affiliates are having to make really tough decisions, because they now have to choose whether to provide abortions or to continue to provide publicly funded essential care.
And so, a couple of -- the affiliate in Wisconsin said that they're not going to provide abortions anymore. Others are simply holding the Medicaid receipts and eating costs, millions of dollars a month, because the federal government is not reimbursing them. Because they continue to want to offer abortion care.
CORNISH: Do you think Democrats are going to talk about this issue the way they did that last midterms ago, when they thought it was an animating issue? It feels like they've moved on.
CARON: Well, I think, you know, there was a lot of discussion about whether it ended up mattering. I think that the polls show that people are still really thinking about this. They're really passionate about it, and that when they hear about the impact of abortion restrictions on people, they're deeply unpopular.
You know, abortion access before Dobbs was popular, and it has only become more so.
CORNISH: Well, Irin Carmon, thank you so much for being with us. You guys, you can find her book. It's called "Unbearable: Five Women and the Perils of Pregnancy in America." That's out now.
Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, "Why did you sell us a dream?" An immigrant student goes toe-to-toe with Vice President Vance.
Plus, the mouse is out. Why Disney and ABC won't be airing on YouTube TV.
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