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Judge Orders Partial Funding of SNAP; Julie Rovner is Interviewed about Health Care; Errol Louis is Interviewed about the New York Race; Obama Holds Election Rallies. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired November 03, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:31:46]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. Thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.

It's half past the hour. Here's what's happening right now.

So, George Clooney says Kamala Harris replacing Joe Biden was a mistake. The actor was asked this weekend about his op-ed last year which pushed for Biden to exit the race. Clooney says he doesn't regret speaking out, but wishes there had been a primary process.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR: She was given a very tough task. I think it was a mistake, quite honestly. But we are where we are. We were going to lose more House seats, they say. So, you know, I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Clooney also responded to criticism from Biden's family about that op-ed. He says he doesn't want to look backwards.

And at least 19 people are dead and many more injured after a powerful earthquake in northern Afghanistan. The 6.3 quake hit near one of the most populated cities in that part of the country. Afghanistan is often hit by powerful earthquakes. In August, more than 2,000 people died after a quake struck the eastern part of the country.

And the Dodgers back in L.A. this morning. Back-to-back World Series winners. Today, the city will hold a championship parade. The Dodgers secured the title in a game seven for the ages, beating the Toronto Blue Jays five to four in extra innings on Saturday. The city's mayor called it the highlight in a dark year for Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR KAREN BASS (D), LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: This has been a tough year for Los Angeles. But what happened last night in Toronto shows the grit and the spirit of our city. We stand together, we fight together, and we never give up. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The Dodgers are the first team to go back-to-back since the Yankees won three in a row in 2000.

And Americans are feeling the brunt of what could soon become the longest shutdown in U.S. history. Now that SNAP benefits have run out, the Trump administration is being ordered to at least partially cover the funds. Two federal judges ruled the White House must at least partially tap into billions of dollars of emergency funds by Wednesday. Speaking to CNN, the Treasury secretary would not say whether that will happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: There's a process that has to be followed, so we got to figure out what the process is. President Trump wants to make sure that people get their food benefits.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: So, it could -- it could be done by Wednesday?

BESSENT: Could be.

TAPPER: OK.

BESSENT: Could be. And, you know, five Democratic senators could cross the aisle and open the government by Wednesday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Air travel also suffering. This past weekend was the worst for air traffic control staffing shortages. Between Friday and Sunday, 98 FAA facilities had to alter operations because they didn't have enough people working. The Transportation secretary tells ABC, it's now a safety concern.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: We will delay, we will cancel any kind of flight across the national airspace to make sure people are safe. But there is a level of risk that gets injected into the system when we have a controller that's doing two jobs instead of one. We -- we -- we manage that. We look out for it. And safety is the priority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, the group chat is back.

[06:35:01]

This time, you guys, I want to, a, put back up that graphic that shows who's being blamed for the shutdown, just so we have some context here, because I think that could drive things. But, Francesca, what are you seeing in terms of a White House plan to

close it? Is the plan to, as we heard Bessent say, this many Democrats could solve this, like, start to fine tune the messaging?

FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "USA TODAY": I mean, but that's what they've been saying is, we just need five Democrats. And then last week we heard, not just the Transportation secretary, but also the vice president of the United States come out and talk to reporters and say this could be essentially a travel disaster as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday. Then you heard the president, though, when he was talking to reporters yesterday, or maybe it was the CBS interview, where he was saying that the Democrats are essentially extorting him on this and that he's not going to negotiate with them.

And so, at this point, it's -- other than Democrats essentially capitulating, I think, is what Trump was saying to Republicans on this, it's not clear that there's some sort of a broader plan to try and pull the voter.

CORNISH: And we're showing these images of the staffing issues at the airport because travelers are really feeling this across the country.

When the president was asked what he's doing to actually end the shutdown, here was his explanation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, what we're doing is we keep voting. I mean, the Republicans are voting almost unanimously to end it. And the Democrats keep voting against ending it.

You know, they've never had this. This has happened like 18 times before. The Democrats always voted for an extension, always saying, give us an extension. We'll work it out. They've lost their way. They've become crazed lunatics. And all they have to do, Norah, is say, let's vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: For this to end, someone is going to have to get the president off that hardline position. He's not offering the Democrats an off ramp to get out of this. These things usually end when some party --

CORNISH: Someone gets an off ramp, yes.

COLLINSON: Can get an off ramp and say, OK, we may have not won this, but we didn't lose it. That is the issue. That's like one of the classic interviews where you see a president who hasn't had adversarial voices in his head for a long time. Perhaps not perceiving the situation.

But this is getting very grim. We're now in a position where we're balancing which set of the people have got the most misery, whether it's people whose health insurance benefits are going to get more expensive, or people who don't have food.

So, while we can talk about, well, it looks like the Democrats are winning this, and I agree with you, they've made a point here on health care, everyone has to get out of this soon because it's going to taint everyone if this carries on, especially as we get towards Thanksgiving.

CORNISH: Yes.

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: One thing, though, on the timing. Democrats had a tough time for the first month of the shutdown because the Obamacare subsidies had not yet started to peel back. That started November 1st, Audie. So now that are --

CORNISH: So, they got their letters from their insurers.

FISCHER: Exactly.

CORNISH: Saying we are going to raise the cost of this.

FISCHER: So, now they've had enough time that people are actually starting to get scared and feel the impact of this. So, if you're a Democrat, you've held out long enough. You've been through your actually most painful point. Now you're in a position of strength because people are actually feeling what you have been trying to say. So, they have little incentive to pull out unless there is some sort of an off ramp.

CORNISH: OK, I'm going to bring in a friend to talk more about that specifically. So, you guys, stay with me.

We are talking about that sticker shock, right, after the Affordable Care Act open enrollment began over the weekend for 2026. And according to KFF analysis, premiums for the ACA coverage will rise on average 26 percent. And that's not accounting for people losing their enhanced tax credit. So, if those credits lapse, many Americans will see far steeper increases as much as double what they're paying now.

When he was speaking to CBS, the president said that, yes, the costs are concerning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Obamacare is terrible. It's bad health care at far too high a price. We should fix that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now, Julie Rovner, the chief Washington correspondent at Kaiser Health News.

Julie, first, can you just start talking about the rise of those premiums? Because, honestly, I had a double look. I was -- I wasn't sure these figures are correct. Reading 26 percent to start with. Can you talk more about what's going on, why that's happening? JULIE ROVNER, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, KAISER HEALTH NEWS: Yes,

it's a little bit confusing. Premiums are going up. If the tax credits weren't changing, then the tax credits would also go up to take care of those premium increases. So, it's really the expiration of these additional tax credits that's hitting people so hard. So, if you can -- if you're maintaining your tax credit, that 26 percent premium increase, you wouldn't feel.

What's happening though, is that the amount of income that you're expected to pay, the amount of your income you're expected to pay in premiums, will go up at the end of the year unless Congress does anything. Because of that, most people's out of pocket costs for their premiums will go up more than 100 percent.

[06:40:03]

And depending on, you know, what your income is, where you live, and how old you are, it could be more than that.

So, over the weekend, people started to look at the type of plans that are available to them, and some are seeing, you know, premiums, what they're expected to pay in those premiums go from a couple of hundred dollars a month to maybe over $1,000, over $2,000. If you drop down, take a less generous plan, then you're going to have a higher deductible. So, you may have deductibles in the tens of thousands of dollars. It's basically unaffordable for many, if not most of the 24 million people who get their care through the Affordable Care Act exchanges.

CORNISH: Now, you and I covered the passage of the Affordable Care Act. And at that time I heard the exact same Republican point, this is not good, it must be repealed with something else. Is there something else? Is that part of the problem here for Republicans?

ROVNER: That is the problem for the Republicans. There really isn't something else. Everything that they've been talking about is either something that nibbles around the edges, or things that they've been touting, in some cases since the end of the last century. Nobody really knows how to make prices go down. It was basically Republicans insistence that this remain a primarily private option for people. They were the ones that wanted to privatize Medicare and make sure that expanding insurance did not become a government activity. And now, of course, they're complaining that insurance companies are getting too much money.

CORNISH: One last thing. When you say it's going to hit all of these people, are there certain states where you're going to see more people having this problem? Like, give me a sense of who is going to feel this?

ROVNER: Yes. Well, interestingly, when the tax credits were expanded in 2021, the big enrollment increases came from primarily Republican states. States like Texas and Florida and Georgia.

We also know that many of the people who use the Affordable Care Act, because they have to buy their own insurance, are small business owners or farmers or ranchers. A little bit disproportionately Republicans. So, Democrats are here fighting for a mostly Republican constituency.

CORNISH: OK, Julie, thank you for this detail. Really appreciate that.

If you missed part of that conversation, or any part of this show, guess what, we're also a podcast. Just scan the QR code, it's here now, to find it. CNN THIS MORNING is available wherever you get your podcasts.

And next on CNN THIS MORNING, the final full day of campaigning before Election Day tomorrow. What we could learn about voters in America from just a few key races.

Plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): We're on the precipice of a remarkable moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: California's governor makes his prediction.

And more from the group chat after this.

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[06:47:17]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello and good evening from New York One. I'm Errol Louis. And I am now officially the least famous person to be impersonated on "SNL." But, trust me, it's uncanny.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. The real Errol Louis is here. Honestly, its uncanny.

Errol, did you catch that live?

ERROL LOUIS, HOST, "THE BIG DEAL WITH ERROL LOUIS" AND POLITICAL ANCHOR, SPECTRUM NEWS: It -- I didn't see it live, but my phone started blowing up in the middle of the night. And when I looked at it, I said, you know, he's right, it is uncanny. You know, somebody suggested I use it on my social media. And I said, no, it'll just confuse people.

CORNISH: Yes. Well, now that you're "SNL" famous for the topic we're going to talk about, this is why I'm coming to you, because we, of course, we've got this vote in New York for mayor tomorrow. You've got the self-described Democratic socialist, Zohran Mamdani, still the front runner. And then I'm reading that more than 735,000 New Yorkers have already voted. And that's the city's highest early in-person turnout for a non-presidential election. So, obviously, there's a lot of excitement.

The latest poll was showing that Mamdani was still ahead of Cuomo, but I think like 10 percent. Is that closing? We've seen more money and more strident voices coming out against Mamdani. And do you get a sense that there's -- Cuomo's closing any kind of gap?

LOUIS: Those numbers have stayed kind of sticky for the last four or five serious polls. And that's, you know, that's Quinnipiac and that's Marist. The quality university poll, Sienna. It pretty much has stayed right where it is. There was at least one that showed Mamdani moving up over 50 percent, which is, of course, an important barrier if you want to move forward with a mandate.

But the big caveat, Audie, is that Andrew Cuomo was ahead going into the primary back in June, and Mamdani ended up beating him by 12 points. So, who turns out? And when you have big numbers like this, it blows out all of the different models that people have of who's going to turn out. And that -- in that way really anything can happen.

CORNISH: People in the states care so much about this race because there's this sense that somehow you can look at New York or see a Democrat who's got this kind of like brand, so to speak, and that is somehow a way forward. And yet when you talk to someone like Hakeem Jeffries or the DNC chair, Ken Martin, you hear something else.

Let me play that for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN MARTIN, DNC CHAIR: There's all this hullabaloo about, you know, the Democratic Party, and what does it mean about Zohran's race in New York? Does it mean the party is going left? I mean, look at -- throughout the --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, does it?

MARTIN: Well, no. I mean look at -- look at throughout the country, right.

[06:50:01]

We are a big tent party.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Do you see Mamdani as the future of the Democratic Party?

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): No. I think the future of the Democratic Party is going to fall, as far as we're concerned, relative to the House Democratic Caucus and members who are doing a great work all across the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Then you got President Obama rallying in Virginia, right? And not exactly rallying for the candidates since Virginia, New Jersey, not exactly drawing in New York. What do you read in how they're reacting to the hullabaloo?

LOUIS: Well, the Democratic Party's leadership has a lot of different factions. I bet if you talk to labor leaders in the Democratic Party, they'd say that labor is the future of the party. If you talk to the donors, they'd say that our tech money is the future of the party. If you talk to the social activists, they would say the same. The environmental activists. On and on and on. The civil rights activists.

So, look, this is the Congressional faction led by Hakeem Jeffries is saying, we're going to be in the lead. We're going to steer this party. And we're going to call the shots. OK, that's fine. But there's a lot of excitement among these mayors. Zohran Mamdani is not the only young mayor getting elected. This -- possibly next week, as well as of different mayors around New York state, around the country. There's a lot of energy out there. There's a lot of youthful enthusiasm. There are a lot of people who are running for office for the very first time. That's really what he represents. And win or lose, they're not going home. They want to be heard. They have their own style. They have their own issues. And they have a party that has largely ignored them.

CORNISH: What do you make of this particular race in New York? What's unusual about it given, you know, what you know about the politics there?

LOUIS: You know, Audie, I've been following this stuff for about 40 plus years at this point. I don't think I can remember a nastier campaign. Meaning just vicious kind of, you know, crude stereotypes that would get you thrown out of a dinner party if you tried it in polite company. Stuff that is just so, so vile and so offensive that some of the authors of it have sort of pretended it wasn't of their origin, you know.

It really creates a problem because after the tens of millions of dollars are spent, no matter what happens on Tuesday, there's going to be a lot of bad feeling, and there's going to be a lot of division. And it's one of the worst things you can do in politics. And I'm surprised at how prominent it's been in this race. It's really unfortunate.

CORNISH: Well, we're going to see how this all plays out this week. I hope people will check out Errol's work. Thank you so much.

LOUIS: Thank you.

CORNISH: And we want to talk about the world beyond the New York mayor's race. Democrats banking on several other high-profile races to help find their way back from the political wilderness. So, you've got governors races in both Virginia and New Jersey. They're coming down to the wire. Democrats Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill holding slim, single digit leads in recent polling over their Republican opponents. California, of course, heads to the polls to pass Prop 50. That's a ballot measure which would allow Democrats to rewrite the Congressional maps and eliminate five safe Republican districts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): I feel like we're on the precipice of a remarkable moment on November 4th. And not only where I'm confident we're going to win here with Proposition 50, but you're going to have two new, remarkable governors in Virginia and New Jersey. You're going to have a dynamic, young mayor, regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, that ran an extraordinary and exceptional campaign that galvanized people that, frankly, have been disenfranchised from politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, the group chat is back.

I just want to hear from you guys, which of these races you're following, or kind of your overall thing that you're going to be watching over the next couple of days?

Stephen.

COLLINSON: With just a year away from an election in which the first Democratic nominee tried to run for a term which would end when he was 86, the second Democratic nominee was unable to talk about these affordability issues. In all of these elections, those themes show that the Democratic Party is trying to address that. Mamdani in New York, while his politics may be too radical for a lot in the Democratic Party, they want his youth and they want his energy.

CORNISH: Leaning into the affordability, affordability. How --

COLLINSON: Right. Right. In Virginia, the thing has been about affordability of health care and everything else. Less about Trump. And interestingly, the cultural issues, which the Republicans have used against Democrats over the last few elections didn't seem to work quite so well for the Republican candidate there. So, the challenge for a Democrat, potentially, possibly Gavin Newsom coming out of these elections is, can somebody in the party knit all those themes together --

CORNISH: Yes.

COLLINSON: And come up with a convincing message that voters want in the midterm elections, and then create a movement out of that for the presidential.

CORNISH: And meanwhile, they have to reach back into the wayback machine, frankly, for support. Barack Obama doing some campaigning. And he, of course, is trying to make it into a kind of general referendum on Trump.

I want to play some of that for you.

[06:55:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: It's like every day is Halloween. Except it's all tricks and no treats.

Every day this White House offers up a fresh batch of lawlessness and carelessness and mean spiritedness and just plain old craziness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: That's -- that's brother Obama, I call it, with the no tie and the, like, y'all, this is crazy kind of talk. What do you make about bringing him out?

FISCHER: I mean, that might work in Virginia. As a Jersey girl, I will tell you that a referendum against Donald Trump is not going to work in that state. People think New Jersey is a swing state. And we'll see, in the midterms, where things fall. Last term it obviously went further to the right. But what --

CORNISH: But don't they think that because of the Latino voters of New Jersey? Isn't that a possible referendum?

FISCHER: Yes. But at the end of the day, New Jersey has just always been, in the governor's race, completely split. You had Christine Todd Whitman and DiFrancesco, and they had a, you know, a hold on Republicans. Then we had a spill of like five Democrats all in office for like a year. It got a little crazy with Jon Corzine and all the scandal. Chris Christie came in. Phil Murphy. So, the governorship always goes back and forth, but it's very rarely a referendum on national politics.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: A lot of it has to do with how people in New Jersey are feeling. You showed a map before of the airport shutdowns. I thought that was very notable. New Jersey does have a ton of federal workers who are being impacted by these shutdowns right now. So, it could go either way.

CORNISH: Yes.

FISCHER: But I think if you want to know what the temperature is in terms of politics, you're going to have to wait. It's not going to be this governor's race.

CORNISH: OK.

FISCHER: It's going to be next year's midterms.

CORNISH: All right, everyone, just know, Sara is the one who told us not to watch New Jersey, OK? So, Francesca, for you, what are you watching?

CHAMBERS: So, going back to former President Obama.

CORNISH: Yes, please do.

CHAMBERS: There's a lot of nostalgia in the Democratic Party for the former president. I was talking to one Democrat the other day who was talking about how, for young voters, this is like the last president that they remember before Donald Trump and like the current politics. And so they -- so whether or not people are coming out because they're voting, because Barack Obama rallied them or not, there's certainly is at least an enthusiasm, to your point, and energy around him.

The rest of the field, the expected 2028 Democrats who are coming out, people aren't necessarily voting because they're coming out either. But it's a great opportunity for them to test their messages out on the trail. And there's really no downside for them at all, right, because in these races, generally speaking, we're talking about Virginia, Democrats are up there, right? So, there, you know, there's really no downside for them to show up and, you know, put their mark out there, put their brand out there. Vice President Kamala Harris, former Vice President Kamala Harris, she was out in California over the weekend. That was very interesting. We hadn't seen her campaign in these races.

CORNISH: Yes.

CHAMBERS: She's done some robocalls, done some telephone calls, but she did actually go out there and campaign for the party (ph).

CORNISH: Yes, but she's also going out there on a race where Democrats are doing very well. Basically, I think the "Politico" is reporting that the campaign by Republicans to go against California's redistricting kind collapsed. It didn't raise enough money. Like Democrats were able to make a lot of political hay and financial hay off of this temporary gerrymandering they're pushing.

COLLINSON: Right. And if this works, Gavin Newsom is going to come out of this -- if Democrats win the midterm elections and say, look, I was the person that was able to fight back against Trump. That's going to be the first question on the debate stage for the Democratic primary candidates.

CORNISH: Yes. And do you have proof?

COLLINSON: Yes.

CORNISH: Yes.

COLLINSON: What did you do to fight Donald Trump? Because that's what the base of the party wants. He, who may have some problems addressing the base perhaps, now has a -- if this goes through and it works, now has a very good ticket to say, look, I am the leader of this party.

CORNISH: I want to take a peek into some group chats very briefly.

Sara, what do you got?

FISCHER: ESPN and Disney, its parent company, are in a fight with YouTube. So, all of Disney's channels went dark on YouTube last week.

CORNISH: That is the kind of thing people would text about.

FISCHER: It's huge. CORNISH: Like, is your ESPN working?

FISCHER: YouTube has become one of the biggest pay TV providers in the country, right? It's bigger than many cable companies. And you're now not able to get college football, the NFL. That's a big consumer issue. And we don't see these sides coming together anytime soon.

CORNISH: Francesca, what's in yours?

CHAMBERS: OK. Well, I was watching "Saturday Night Live" as well.

CORNISH: I get it.

CHAMBERS: And very true to form, the "Property Brothers" sketch --

CORNISH: Yes.

CHAMBERS: Is what everyone is talking about, about the redoing of the -- of the ballroom, or the tearing down of the East Wing, putting in a ballroom.

CORNISH: Yes. Yes. And also I feel like the "SNL" test, if -- of laughter is like, does everyone think this is the thing they're saying? And in this one it's Trump overreach, Trump tearing down things without any kind of care. And I thought they sort of leaned on that pretty hard.

You guys, I want to thank you so much for being with us. We talked about a lot today. And we -- oh, wait, Stephen, I forgot yours. Wait, what?

COLLINSON: We're Toronto sports fans in my house.

CORNISH: Oh.

COLLINSON: So, it was a pretty rough life. So, let's just -- let's just move on.

CORNISH: OK. The less said the better.

COLLINSON: Right.

CORNISH: Sorry. Sorry. OK.

You guys, thanks for waking up with us.

[07:00:01]

We've got more headlines next with "CNN NEWS CENTRAL." I'm Audie Cornish. Thank you so much for being with us. And stick around for those headlines.