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Zohran Mamdani Wins New York City Mayor's Race; Dems Sweep Races Across Virginia In Rebuke To Trump; Several People Killed In UPS Freight Plane Crash. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired November 05, 2025 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[05:30:52]
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been waiting for this day for a very long time, and it's never been a better time than now to have someone of South Asian, Muslim background come in and take the reins.
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AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: South Asians in New York celebrating this morning after the city elected its first Muslim and South Asian mayor, Zohran Mamdani.
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.
Democrats deliver a clear and decisive win across the country in the first elections since President Trump retook office. They swept the governors' races in Virginia and New Jersey and the mayor's office in New York City. Democrats also won the redistricting vote in California. President Trump blamed the GOP losses on the government shutdown and his absence from the ballot.
At least seven people are dead, 11 others injured after UPS freight plane crashed in Louisville, Kentucky. This was shortly after takeoff. Three crew members are presumed dead. Four others who were confirmed dead were not on the plane. Investigators from the NTSB are expected to arrive today.
And another deadly U.S. strike on an alleged drug boat. It happened Tuesday in the Eastern Pacific on the same day an aircraft carrier began heading to the region. According to the Pentagon, two people were killed. The death toll from the Trump administration's campaign in South American waters now stands at 67 from 16 strikes.
And a self-described Democratic socialist who challenged the billionaire class and spoke to the working class is the next mayor of New York City. It was a night of firsts in the Big Apple. Thirty-four-year-old Zohran Mamdani becoming the first Muslim and
first person of South Asian descent to lead America's largest city. He did it convincingly, defeating former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa with a promise of free buses, frozen rents, universal childcare, and higher taxes on big corporations and the wealthy.
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ZOHRAN MAMDANI, (D) NEW YORK CITY MAYOR-ELECT: But conventional wisdom would tell you that I am far from the perfect candidate. I am young despite my best efforts to grow older. I am Muslim. I am a Democratic socialist. And most damning of all I refuse to apologize for any of this.
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CORNISH: OK, I'm going to bring in now Christina Greer, associate professor of political science at Fordham University, and Juan Manuel Benitez, journalism professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
You guys are also here because you both do podcasts, so you hear from voters, right? You have heard the sort of transition of people going from who is this guy to is this a thing to, I guess, this is a thing. And what strikes you about what the coalition was in the end? Is this something where we're just like well, every young person in Brooklyn turned out and that's it?
CHRISTINA GREER, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: No. I think it's deeper than that, Audie. And it's funny you should say who is this guy. When he first got in the race his name recognition was under one percent.
CORNISH: Yeah.
GREER: It was an incredibly crowded Democratic primary with some quality candidates who had been elected citywide. And then slowly but surely built not just a ground game across all five boroughs but he took people from social media into the streets.
CORNISH: Yes. As I say, clicks aren't votes, and Eric Adams would say --
GREER: Eric Adams --
CORNISH: -- Social Security, not social media.
GREER: Exactly.
CORNISH: But it sounds like there's a combination of turning that into a retail politic maybe?
JUAN MANUEL BENITEZ, HOST, "JUAN MANUEL BENITEZ WANT TO KNOW" PODCAST, PROFESSOR, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM: I think he built a movement. It wasn't just a political campaign. He was talking to people instead of talking at voters. He was trying to offer solutions for everything New Yorkers -- not only working class New Yorkers but also middle class New Yorkers who feel that they cannot afford the city anymore.
[05:35:00]
And when people talk about oh, he has some radical ideas, no. He's just like a candidate for mayor of a big city promising better public transportation that is going to be free and fast with the buses and then rent that is affordable to most New Yorkers, and it is not right now. Let's see if he can manage to accomplish all those things.
CORNISH: That's not to say -- it's another thing once you are in office. I look to a place like Chicago, which their mayor was an activist, right, in the kind of labor movement. Very difficult time for him, at one point having truly, like, the lowest approval ratings in the country.
I want to play for you a little bit of what Mamdani had to say last night in his speech because he took a moment out to address Trump directly.
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MAMDANI: So, Donald Trump, since I know you're watching I have four words for you -- turn the volume up.
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CORNISH: Now I think there's a lot of Republican pollsters out there that are, like, Mamdani, turn the volume up, right? They want to make him the face of the party. Is he?
GREER: No. I think -- you know, we clearly saw last night Democrats have a momentum right now. But with this particular campaign it's not necessarily that he needs to be the face of the party, but going back to Tip O'Neill says all politics is local, asking the voters what they need as opposed to having consultants tell the voters what they need. And I think a lot of Democrats are looking for -- in local elections for Democrats to be Democrats.
CORNISH: Yeah.
GREER: So as Juan says, it's -- yes, he has the label of Democratic socialism --
CORNISH: Because there's a lot of people who are going to look at the other races and say moderate is the way to go.
GREER: Right.
CORNISH: That was the message.
GREER: But that's a statewide race and the dynamics are very different when you're looking at a Virginia --
CORNISH: Um-hum.
GREER: -- versus a New Jersey versus a New York City.
CORNISH: But do we want -- and I think the question for New Yorkers or for Democrats is do you want to watch a fight that plays out between Mamdani and Trump on social media? Like, is that the back-and-forth that you want to be the face of things?
BENITEZ: He was still campaigning and now he has to be mayor of the city. When you are mayor of the city you have to worry about what's happening in your city and you have to address the issues your constituents have.
CORNISH: Um-hum.
BENITEZ: So I don't think he's going to have that much time to address national politics. At the end of the day he won because he's addressing the issues and concerns that New Yorkers have. And he built a political movement to manage, to accomplish many difficult things given how difficult politics are right now not only in the city but in the state and in the country.
And I think Democrats needs to look at him thinking he's young, he's fresh, and voters get excited about something. He was running for something instead of running against something. He wasn't running against Donald Trump; he was running with a platform instead of running like his opponents just as opposing something else -- like a no Mamdani. That was --
CORNISH: Yeah.
BENITEZ: -- Cuomo's strategy and Sliwa's strategy.
CORNISH: So give me the inside track on what this means going forward. The relationship between him and the governor, for the relationship between him and whatever city council and things like that. Is he actually realistically positioned to act on any of this --
GREER: Right.
CORNISH: -- much less much of it?
GREER: Audie, I think he's in a fantastic position because the governor is actually up for re-election in 2026. She already has a primary challenger -- her own lieutenant governor. And so she will need him. She's going to have to show some successes. Obviously --
CORNISH: So she is not going to do a, like, you're on the left. I am a moderate, normal Democrat.
GREER: And they can't -- she endorsed him before Hakeem Jeffries. They've campaigned together. She recognizes that he's got a mobilizing groundswell. She needs that. She needs New York City to turn out.
New York state is a purple state, you know. We've got these big cities that turn it blue every presidential election. CORNISH: Yeah.
GREER: But it's very purple and there is a real chance that she has a hard fight in November. So she'll need not just Mamdani and the momentum and the movement that he's built, but she'll also need to sort of do some horse trading.
CORNISH: Well, you guys stick around because I have a lot more to ask you about, especially in New Jersey and looking at the coalitions there. Stay with us.
Up next on CNN THIS MORNING, the election was a test for how voters feel about President Trump and now he's facing another one. Will his tariffs survive the Supreme Court?
Plus --
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seems like something you'd see out of movie or a videogame.
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CORNISH: A UPS plane crashes just after takeoff and bursts into flames. The investigation into the crash in our next hour.
And they were a key voting bloc for the president in 2024. Have Latinos soured on Trump?
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[05:48:55]
CORNISH: So Democrats in Virginia delivered a clean sweep in races up and down the ballot Tuesday night delivering what they are calling an unmistakable message to the White House. For the Commonwealth's House of Delegates Democrats will expand their majority, which could become a big factor if they decide to redraw congressional districts.
The closest race was for attorney general, which went to Democratic challenger Jay Jones. And Jones' campaign had nearly crumbled late in the race when old text messages surfaced, like this one, where Jones called for Republican Virginia House Speaker Todd Gilbert to get "two bullets."
And a Democrat, Abigal Spanberger, winning her race to become the first female governor in Virginia history. In her acceptance speech she held up her victory as a model for success for Democrats nationwide.
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ABIGAIL SPANBERGER, (D) VIRGINIA GOVERNOR-ELECT: We sent a message to whole word that in 2025, Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship. We chose our commonwealth of chaos.
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CORNISH: OK, group chat is back to talk about last night. There were a couple of threads out of the Virginia races. One is whether or not there would be ticket-splitting. Would there be a voter who turns out for Spanberger -- maybe a Democrat -- who is like, uh, that texting scandal is too much, and they make what I call the voter grimace where they're like ew, I can't do it. That is not how it turned out.
JOEL RUBIN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE, AUTHOR, "THE BRIEFING BOOK" ON SUBSTACK: No, it was a wipeout, Audie. A complete wipeout. Democratic takeover of all levels of government. A dominant majority in the statehouse -- the top three offices. Virginians clearly made it a point to say to Donald Trump, we rebuke you. We do not like your policies. Remember, Virginia has been hit extremely hard by the budget cuts, by the DOGE, and now by the shutdown. And I think if you want to find a state in the country that can very clearly explain how they feel about Donald Trump and his policies Virginia is the one -- and it was a wipeout.
CORNISH: Is it just particular to Virginia though? Like, is it because, again, they're in that concentric circle -- the ripple effects of the various cuts?
SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST, SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER, AXIOS: I think it's much more intense in Virginia because of the proximity to Washington and because of the furloughs in the government shutdown impacting Virginia.
I think you see some of it in New Jersey. Certainly, Mikie Sherrill's win definitely could be credited to her being -- positioning herself as very decidedly anti-Trump while her opponent was very pro-Trump and aligning himself with him. But it's not the same type of situation. In New Jersey you had a few niche issues that also really helped Mikie Sherrill -- one being an infrastructure project what was cut that might have impacted Latino voters in the east side of the state.
So I don't think the Trump indictment was as strong in New Jersey, but I do think it exists in all of the races that we saw Democrats sweep.
CORNISH: When I heard Spanberger talking about the pragmatism, and she's also like Sherrill. They're like national security types, right? They have the kind of resume that for a long time Democrats really felt was necessary to combat kind of Republican perceived strength on national security, on crime.
If it's a model, Dustin, what takeaways do you see that Republicans could be concerned about?
DUSTIN OLSON, HOST, POLITICAL TRADE SECRETS PODCAST, POLLSTER AND MANAGING PARTNER, AMERICAN PULSE RESEARCH AND POLLING: Well, you have Mamdani winning in New York City and then you have these two candidates winning these two blue states. So --
CORNISH: As governors, right -- OLSON: As governors, yeah. So --
CORNISH: -- where they're going to have a big platform.
OLSON: So they're more important ultimately. But still you have both sides of the party having some wins in these.
So for Virginia, you know, this one thing that you have to remember is that in off-year elections following a presidential year the party out of power always does better. And in Virginia, in particular, before yesterday, 11 of the last 12 governors' races went against the person in the White House. Now it's 12 out of 13. So this is just a typical -- the pattern that happens.
Now one thing I would say that is the intensity there though is the House of Delegates is I think it looks like it's going to be about 64 out of the 100.
RUBIN: Um-hum.
OLSON: So that is -- that is actually -- there's a level of intensity.
The government shutdown going this long I think had a lot of that. You know, there's a non-zero chance that a lot of those government workers who were not working were part of the "get out of the vote" operations for Democrats. Also this --
CORNISH: But do they need that? If you're mad at the government because you've been laid off and aren't paid, you don't need someone --
OLSON: Totally, operations make --
CORNISH: -- to knock on your door.
OLSON: No. Operations do make a difference, but the energy also makes a difference.
CORNISH: Yeah.
OLSON: You know, something that I don't think anybody has talked about but a year ago the Republicans did something that was kind of unheard of. They outsourced the "get out the vote" operation --
CORNISH: Yes.
OLSON: -- so Turning Point USA. And the guy who is in charge of that was assassinated two months ago. That had an operational actual impact on these elections because that -- you know, obviously they're dealing with some stuff.
So that -- you know, there's a -- there are operational impacts and I think that's --
CORNISH: Yeah, but meaning there's not an infrastructure that just falls in place -- OLSON: Yeah.
CORNISH: -- because -- once you've outsourced it.
OLSON: Yeah.
RUBIN: But, you know, Audie, I think one theme that is across all of these elections, particularly in New Jersey and Virginia and New York, is the affordability issue. And that's --
CORNISH: But she used the same words.
RUBIN: She used the exact same word and that was the winner. She's a national security Democrat, Abigail Spanberger. She has a strong track record and knows the issues. But she ran on affordability, too, and she ran on it as a moderate and she clobbered her opponent.
CORNISH: Yeah.
RUBIN: And it wasn't just a normal cycle reverse; it was a dominant victory.
CORNISH: I want to talk about Jay Jones and also the idea of candidate quality, which is usually code for is this person too damaged to run for a variety of reasons.
And you had President Trump's campaign manager Chris LaCivita with his and he was posting on X saying, like, look, "A bad candidate and bad campaign have consequences. The Virginia governors' race is example number one." Not much of a vote for Winsome Earle.
But do they -- it sounds -- I mean, they want to back winners.
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FISCHER: Yeah. I mean, I think the texting scandal was sort of -- at the moment felt like a really big deal. But at the end of the day when Virginians went into the ballot box, they just voted along party lines. So I don't know that if he would have gone that -- if he would have won it without Abigail Spanberger.
CORNISH: Um-hum.
FISCHER: But I do think that being tied to her made Virginians sort of forget about the texting scandal and say let's just move on from this.
CORNISH: Right, because Winsome Earle essentially campaigned on it. There were plenty of ads --
FISCHER: Yeah.
CORNISH: -- about it and it didn't have the intended affect.
RUBIN: Well, President Trump didn't want to show up with her --
CORNISH: Right. RUBIN: -- and she didn't want him. It was like mutual disadmiration.
CORNISH: OK.
Well, you guys stay with me because as Democrats celebrate sweeping wins, the president's tariff policy is going to face a major test in the Supreme Court. It's going to decide if the president has the legal authority to impose billions in tariffs on foreign nations under existing trade laws or whether he needs to go through Congress.
The Trump administration has imposed tariffs of 10 percent or more on dozens of countries, including China, the European Union, Canada, and Mexico. The court's decision could set a precedent on presidential trade power for years to come.
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NORAH O'DONNELL, CBS NEWS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: What happens to your economic plan if the Supreme Court invalidates your tariffs?
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think our country would be immeasurably hurt. I think our economy will go to hell. I think it's the most important subject discussed by the Supreme Court in 100 years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Group chat is back.
This is one of Trump's favorite topics, period. The man loves a tariff and now, in the second term, he completely was like we're doing it. We're making this tariff-based economy.
Do you, Dustin, see this as being about tariffs or is it like every Supreme Court thing with him -- kind of a test of what is executive power? How much can a president do on his own.
OLSON: I imagine the Supreme Court is looking at it as a test of executive power. I think for a lot of the people they view it as this is foreign policy.
And I have to say I'm personally a Republican. Our firm does polling for both sides but I -- you know, whether it's a Democrat president or a Republican president, I want them to be able to do this and I don't -- you know, I think it'll be damaging if the Supreme Court takes that away.
In our polling though it's interesting. A plurality of Americans actually told us that -- 47 percent -- that they support his use of the tariffs strategically in negotiations.
CORNISH: As the negotiation pull.
OLSON: Yeah.
CORNISH: What do you think -- RUBIN: Well --
CORNISH: -- going into hearing court arguments, which are always illuminating, frankly?
RUBIN: I mean, I've got to say the Constitution says that the power of taxing rests in Congress. We just saw bipartisanship on Capitol Hill recently where the Senate rebuked tariffs by President Trump on Canada, on Brazil. There is -- there is a desire to allow for the process to work --
CORNISH: Um-hum.
RUBIN: -- and this is what the court is going to decide. Do they believe Congress has a role in American foreign policy and in tariff setting or not? And I think it should go on the side of the Constitution. But then again, this is a 6-3 Republican Supreme Court, and they may very well default to the president even though he's losing on Capitol Hill.
CORNISH: Sara, what do you think people are going to be listening for if there are particular justices or this is the kind of thing where we actually get to hear their voices sometimes?
FISCHER: Zooming out, this is one case that the Supreme Court is doing that -- or seeing based on this idea of how much federal power should we be giving Donald Trump.
Like, in the area that I cover in media and technology, we've got the firing of two FTC commissioners, which will determine if that goes, you know, up the Supreme Court -- whether or not Donald Trump has the authority to bring independent agencies in.
We had court cases that were determining from the copyright office whether or not the had the right to fire the librarian of Congress and the head of the copyright office.
So this is one instance --
CORNISH: Right.
FISCHER: -- where the Supreme Court has to check federal power.
And so the thing that I'm watching for the justices to discuss is to what extent they're setting precedents for other cases that they have to see around the same issue.
CORNISH: OK, you guys. Sara and Joel, I want you to stay with me. Dustin, thank you so much for being here and bringing your expertise.
OLSON: Thank you.
CORNISH: I appreciate it.
We also want to turn to this -- that frantic search and rescue underway in Louisville, Kentucky after a UPS freight plane crashed shortly after takeoff, killing seven people and injuring at least 11 more.
So this moment captured on this dashcam video shows when the plane crashed, ripping through local businesses, including a petroleum recycling facility which set off those secondary explosions. The crash left a massive trail of fire and thick black smoke for miles.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh (bleep). Oh (bleep).
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CORNISH: An employee of nearby Kentucky Truck & Parts captured the scene.
It took hundreds of firemen to contain the fire. Schools in the state's largest school district are closed today. And a shelter-in- place order is in effect for a one-mile radius around the crash site.
[05:55:00]
A team of more than two dozen from the NTSB will travel to Louisville today to head the investigation.
Joining me now is CNN transportation analyst and former inspector general at the Department of Transportation, Mary Schiavo. Mary, thank you for being with us this morning.
These images were so striking. I think people who are seeing them probably are even pretty surprised. This plane was headed to Honolulu.
When you look at this video what stands out?
MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: Well, obviously the smoke and the fire, and that's 36,000 gallons of fuel. That's what this kind of plane can hold, and it would have been fully loaded for Honolulu.
And, you know, now you have lots of video footage when an accident like this happens. You know, 30 years ago when we had accidents like this it was very difficult to ascertain facts so early.
But here you can see there was a fire on the left wing. And in the light of day after the -- after the smoke and fire was cleared away you could see that the engine had detached from the aircraft before the final impact and fireball.
So usually when you look at an accident like this on takeoff -- and I've worked many over the years in the past but in those cases it was what was called an uncontained engine failure, meaning the engine spews out parts -- you know, they expel from that engine -- the centrifugal force from the engines -- the blades spinning -- and they can cut through the plane and cut fuel lines.
And where this is located it looks as if that fuel tank was ruptured and that would explain the fireball. But, you know, the investigators will have this thanks to the footage -- the film -- and of course, the wreckage on the ground. But that engine clearly came off of that plane before the final impact and that's just -- the poor pilots could nothing at that point. It's certainly not pilot error.
CORNISH: You know, one of the things I'm curious about is the fact that this plane hit a petroleum recycling facility. As you mentioned, the engine -- the fuel -- it feels like there is a lot to potentially kind of incinerate so to speak evidence. How does this kind of complicate the investigation?
SCHIAVO: Well, it does because also, first and foremost, you have to account for everyone -- everybody in the facilities. Anyone who may be missing. So right now it's a search and recovery. The actual sifting for all the aircraft parts will take second place to making sure they can find any injury, any survivors, any remains.
And the -- you know, the impact on the ground -- it appears at this point, and the numbers are preliminary, that more people were killed on the ground than the three -- in addition to the three crew members. So certainly the span -- the size of this debris field and the destruction is going to be a tremendous impact.
But for the actual cause of the crash they'll be looking at the maintenance records -- I'm sure they've already pulled those -- and the fact that it -- that something happened with that engine. And when those parts spew out of that engine -- when you have an uncontained engine failure, the velocity, the impact, the damage that those pieces of metal shrapnel can do is amazing. And there have been many, many accidents over the years caused by that.
So that's probably where the investigators will start, but those maintenance records will have an awful lot to say.
CORNISH: OK, can I come back to something you're saying there about many accidents over the years? This plane was an MD-11F. I don't know enough about aircraft. I'm coming to you. Are there safety concerns? Are there other things they're going to be looking at beyond the maintenance records of just this flight?
SCHIAVO: Well, and they're especially going to be looking at the engines because that's initially where the video and all the footage that we see point. They're going to be looking at what was there, what was wrong. How old were they? When, most importantly, was the last maintenance. They always look at the last maintenance and what was done. But regardless of the model of the plane, what they're going to be looking at is the engine and the parts on that aircraft.
Now, back when I was inspector general, we actually had cases where -- and through no fault of the airlines or the carriers or the pilots -- certainly, none of their fault -- were some of the parts in the jet engines were not as they should be. In some cases they were counterfeit parts. No evidence of that here. But they're going to be looking at exactly what parts were put in that engine on maintenance.
And then the engine mounts. I mean, how did this engine come off the plane even if it did have an uncontained engine failure? Over time stress on the pylon, stress on the pins holding the engines, et cetera, can take a toll.
And there's one other thing. There was a horrific plane crash in the United States back in 1996. And there it was a TWA 800. And there they talked about what's called inerting the fuel tanks or making the fuel less flammable. And doing something so that when you have an accident all this fuel doesn't combust and go up into flames.
