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Chi Osse is Interviewed about Mamdani's Win; Kris Mayes is Interviewed about the Lawsuit over Tariffs; Ken Martin is Interviewed about Election Sweeps; Democrats Rebuke Trump with Election Sweep. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired November 05, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:31:02]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): There may be people that still need to be rescued. Do not be the reason that the first responders cannot get to them.

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AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: A frantic search and rescue underway after a UPS plane crashed in Kentucky.

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's what's happening right now.

At least seven people are dead, 11 others injured after the freight plane crashed 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 the FBI continues its personal -- it's personnel purge, forcing out additional agents and supervisors tied to the federal investigation into President Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The total number of fired agents wasn't immediately clear, but the upheaval is part of FBI Director Kash Patel's effort to push out senior officials and agents involved in those investigations that have angered the president.

And the government now shut down for 36 days. That's the longest in history. It passed President Trump's other shutdown, which was 35 days during his first term. Today, he will meet with GOP senators, and Democrats won't be there.

He also called out the billionaire class and courted the working class. And this morning, Zohran Mamdani is the mayor-elect of New York City. It was a night of firsts in the big apple. The 34-year-old becoming

the first Muslim and first person of south Asian descent to become mayor of America's largest city, defeating former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa with a promise of free busses, frozen rents, universal childcare and higher taxes on big corporations and the wealthy.

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ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK MAYOR-ELECT: The future is in our hands. My friends, we have toppled a political dynasty.

I wish Andrew Cuomo only the best in private life. But let tonight be the final time I utter his name. As we turn the page on a politics that abandons the many and answers only to the few.

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CORNISH: I want to bring in New York City council member and Mamdani ally Chi Osse.

Thank you so much for being here.

CHI OSSE, NEW YORK CITY COUNCILMEMBER: Thank you so much for having me this morning.

CORNISH: So, gen z has entered the chat.

OSSE: Yes, we are here.

CORNISH: In a big way. But you're bringing with you some shifting attitudes on a lot of things towards Israel, towards capitalism, right?

OSSE: Sure.

CORNISH: Embracing socialism in a different way. What does it mean for Mamdani to become a face of the party? Because the -- it sounds like it means a lot of scrutiny from unhappy people who are, like, you're not a Democrat, and we're not into socialists.

OSSE: Absolutely. Well, let me tell you what I believe. I believe that Zohran ran on a campaign where he spoke to the issues on improving the material conditions of the lives of working class New Yorkers. I mean, we know the platform that he ran on, on freezing the rent, on pushing for affordable groceries. This speaks to -- to what our base wants and what many American's want outside of New York City. He wants to --

CORNISH: But outside of New York City are Democratic socialists ready to defend that brand. Does that become a liability for Democrats overall?

OSSE: Let me tell you this. Americans want someone who's going to speak to the issues that they are dealing with. And currently we are dealing with an affordability crisis that Donald Trump and the fascist Republicans are not doing anything to stop. And what Mamdani was able to do during this campaign was prioritize and speak about those issues that impact New Yorkers at large. And that's why he won this race.

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CORNISH: I want to play something for you because at one point the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, was asked whether Mamdani is the future of the party. And lots of people were getting this question in terms of pursuing the endorsement.

OSSE: Sure.

CORNISH: Here's what he had to say.

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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 as it relates to our need to both take back control of the House.

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CORNISH: Now, I know there's rumors that you wanted to run against Jeffries. I don't know if that's still true. But what do you make of his reluctance?

OSSE: Well, I absolutely believe that Zohran is a future of the Democratic Party. In this general election we saw a record turnout of over 2 million people vote in this mayoral primary. That's the most amount of people voting since 1969. This shows that there is a base that is energized through this campaign. We saw a record number of young people turning out in this race, getting registered to vote. I think that's something that the Democratic Party and our leadership should be looking towards as inspiration for how we navigate these next couple of years.

CORNISH: Do you consider them one in the same? You heard Mamdani kind of saying, like, Democrats need to x. I'm a Democratic socialist. Pretty -- pretty soon that brand is going to be pretty blurred.

OSSE: Absolutely.

CORNISH: Do you think Democrats know how to speak to the constituency they have awakened, so to speak?

OSSE: I think some of them do, right? I think Mamdani is a great example of that. I find that right now many of our -- our leaders within the Democratic Party are not communicating in the way that they need to be.

CORNISH: Is that code for social media?

OSSE: It's not just social media because I do -- CORNISH: Because you have a very good social media.

OSSE: I do believe social -- I appreciate that.

CORNISH: And clicks are not votes, right? Harris learned that.

OSSE: It's not just about social media, though, right? We need our party to be pushing big ideas. I don't want us to be a party on small ideas anymore. We are -- it's not enough to just be anti-Trump and critical of Republicans. We need to be fighting to improve the material conditions of American.

CORNISH: Yes. But is it small ideas or pragmatism?

OSSE: It's --

CORNISH: I mean I think the argument, especially for moderates, is like, you got to make things run. You got to have the experience to make things run. And that those are wins. Those are things that build trust.

OSSE: Listen, it's small ideas, right? We never criticize or say that it's the lack of pragmatism, when Donald Trump is giving tax cuts to billionaires while he's gutting health care, while they're funding bombs that are blowing up buildings abroad, right? We need to have big ideas within the Democratic Party that will improve the lives of Americans. It's Medicare for all, that's building affordable housing, that's a green deal with 100 percent affordable jobs. There's enough money out there that we are giving to billionaires. I believe that we can be the party that fights for the working class again.

CORNISH: There are some people waking up in New York because a good number, 40 plus percent, did still vote for Cuomo.

OSSE: Yes.

CORNISH: How does Mamdani tackle that? There are Jewish voters who feel extremely alienated by his past language, or even the current language of his constituency. Is this rift long lasting?

OSSE: I -- Zohran won over 50 percent of the vote. And there were --

CORNISH: But past mayors won way more than that. I mean this is not a total blowout.

OSSE: There are over, I think, $30 million spent against him in the primary. And loads of more money that was spent against him within the general election. The fact that he was still able to reach that 50 percent spoke to how powerful his grassroots campaign was, and how much it meant to the people of New York City. And I believe that those gains will continue to be made as he continues serving the people of New York.

CORNISH: OK. Chi Osse, thank you so much for being with us.

OSSE: Yes. CORNISH: Appreciate your time.

OSSE: Thank you for having me.

CORNISH: I know you had a late night. So, thanks. Thanks again.

OK, we want to turn now to the president's policy on tariffs. They're going to face a test at the Supreme Court today. The court's going to determine whether he has the legal authority to impose those tariffs.

Now, Arizona is co-leading a multi-state coalition challenging the Trump administration's tariffs. Arizona's attorney general says it's already saved the state more than $1 billion.

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KRIS MAYES, ARIZONA ATTORNEY GENERAL: That's money for Meals on Wheels, Head Start, AmeriCorps, HIDTA, which is the High Impact Drug Trafficking Area. As you know about that.

MIKE BROOMHEAD, HOST, "THE MIKE BROOMHEAD SHOW": I do.

MAYES: That's how we fight the Mexican drug cartels, Mike. And so I brought those lawsuits to save that money. The Republican states are not bringing these lawsuits.

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CORNISH: Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes joins us now.

Thank you so much for being here. Good morning.

KRIS MAYES, ARIZONA ATTORNEY GENERAL: Good morning, Audie. How are you?

CORNISH: So -- I'm good. And I want to know if you're going to be -- you're going to be attending the Supreme Court's oral argument on tariffs today? Can you talk about the value of these lawsuits? I know that you consider it saving money. Is there a greater issue at play here?

MAYES: Yes, Audie. We are headed to the Supreme Court this morning, which is going to take up the tariffs case. And we are fighting these illegal Trump tariffs because they are taxes on our people.

[06:40:01]

They are having a devastating impact on the state of Arizona and states across the nation. And they are flatly illegal. Donald Trump enacted these taxes under a law called IEEPA. And nowhere in IEEPA does the law mention the word tariffs.

And so we're going to fight this. We're going to present our case to the United States Supreme Court. And we're going to ask the court to invalidate these tariffs and to help our economy in the process. CORNISH: Attorney General, one thing that people have looked at recent

cases, have looked at a court that is decidedly more conservative. Does this raise the stakes? Could you create a scenario where you get a ruling that doesn't go your way and has even broader implications for presidential power?

MAYES: Well, you always run the risk of losing, but you can't win if you don't try. And this is an incredibly important one to fight for. And I believe, and I think our other Democratic A.G.s believe, that this is a court that still believes in the rule of law and that believes in the separation of powers.

And that is what this case is about. You know, our founding fathers placed the power to tax Americans in Congress. They did not believe that we should have a president or a king who had the power to tax and to levy these kinds of tariffs. They're having this devastating impact on our states.

And so, this really is about the separation of powers. And I believe the United States Supreme Court still believes in that.

CORNISH: I'm going to turn now to the Virginia attorney's general race, in part because I know the Democratic attorney generals, they came out to support Jay Jones in spite of that texting scandal in which he fantasized about shooting a fellow Republican lawmaker.

First, let me just play a bit of his victory speech last night.

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JAY JONES (D), VIRGINIA ATTORNEY GENERAL-ELECT: I will protect our jobs, our health care and our economy from Donald Trump's attacks. I will take on those big corporations that have controlled our politics for far too long, and lower costs for Virginians once and for all.

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CORNISH: Jones' reputation very much took a hit with this texting scandal. But why was it important to the state attorneys' general to push through?

MAYES: Look, what was important about his victory is that now he becomes the 24th Democratic attorney general who is going to be on the front lines with the rest of us fighting for his state. Virginians just got an A.G. who will fight the illegal tariffs, who will fight for Virginians, who will make sure that Virginians save the same kind of money that we're saving in Arizona. We have saved Arizonans $1.5 billion by standing up against Trump's illegal and unconstitutional behavior. That was what was most important, obviously, to Virginians who elected Jay Jones by a pretty wide margin.

CORNISH: My last question is, the job of attorney general, I think people used to think of it as the top law enforcement officer for a state. The way you're talking, you almost sound like a congressperson, right? There's this many of the ones with the red t-shirts and this many of the ones with the blue t-shirts. Is this job something else now? Is this part of, as you said, defense or offense?

MAYES: So, we're -- we are both the top law enforcement officers of our state, but we're also the top legal officers of our state. And when any president, whether they're a Democrat or a Republican, violates the Constitution or violates the law or harms our states, it's our job to stand up for our people. And that is what we're doing.

You know, when it comes to, you know, fighting back against these tariffs or preventing the president from defunding Meals on Wheels, or defunding Head Start, violating the separation of powers, that's what we've got to do, regardless of who is in the White House. And we're going to continue to, you know, battle for the people of our states.

CORNISH: OK, that's Arizona's attorney general, Kris Mayes, in D.C. for the Supreme Court arguments over tariffs.

If you missed any part of that conversation or any other part of the show, just know we're a podcast. You can scan the QR code now to find it. CNN THIS MORNING is available wherever you get your podcasts.

And coming up, the election was a test for how voters feel about President Trump. Next on CNN THIS MORNING, this.

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GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): No crowns, no thrones, no kings. That's what this victory represents.

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CORNISH: The message from California to President Trump and the GOP. I'm going to be talking to the chair of the Democratic National Committee, next.

06:45:04]

And the government shutdown, now the longest in U.S. history. Can a bipartisan bill end it any time soon?

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REP. ALEXANDRIA OCACIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): The Democratic Party cannot last much longer by denying the future.

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CORNISH: A clean sweep on election night for Democrats, even as the party struggles to find an identity and a way forward. Democrat Abigail Spanberger has been elected Virginia's first female governor, and Democrat Mikie Sherrill easily captured the New Jersey governor's race. But in New York, Democratic socialists Zohran Mamdani is the mayor-elect, defeating former Governor Andrew Cuomo by nearly nine points.

[06:50:04]

Meanwhile, Prop 50 in California, that passed overwhelmingly with voters agreeing to allow redistricting to offset the Republican gerrymandering in Texas.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Do you want Proposition 50 to pass or not?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Of course.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I think it's important in these times for us to make our voices heard, especially with this Trump administration that wants to take away many of our rights, limit our voices, and hold on to its power.

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CORNISH: Going to bring in now Ken Martin, chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Good morning. Thank you for being here.

KEN MARTIN, CHAIR, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Thank you, Audie. Thanks for having me. It's a great day to be a Democrat.

CORNISH: Well, the pressure is on, though, for you in particular, because all of us can talk and interpret, but you actually have to put money behind your interpretations. So, when you look at the moderates who won and then you look at this big win in New York City for a Democratic socialist, how do you bridge that gap?

MARTIN: Well, look, I mean, last night was really interesting, of course. And what it proved is what I've said all along in my time leading in Minnesota and now at the DNC, that we are a big tent coalition. There's no one way to be a Democrat, right? We win through addition, not subtraction. We bring in -- we win by bringing in new voices with new ideas, right?

But as much as people want to focus on the differences within the Democratic Party, of course we have conservative Democrats, centrists, progressives, and leftists. The reality is, is there was a lot that all of these candidates had in common last night, right? There was a through line. And the through line is that all three candidates, Zohran Mamdani, Abigail Spanberger and Mikie Sherrill, were focused on kitchen table issues, not on gilded ballrooms.

CORNISH: Right.

MARTIN: They were focused on affordability. How do you actually bring down the cost of goods? How do you actually bring down the cost of people's mortgage and rent and the cost of child care and on and on. All the things that are creating anxiety within the American people who are just -- want a champion, want someone to focus on their economic future. And that's what Democrats did.

I also think the wrong lesson last night, I know there was anti-Trump sentiment in this country, but it really takes away from the fact that the other thing all three of those candidates had in common is they ran for something. They ran on a positive agenda of how they would actually make a difference in people's lives.

And so, look, I think that --

CORNISH: Ken Martin, I want to jump in here because also you have people -- maybe it's David Hogg, maybe it's Stacey Abrams, there are going to be people out there who are going to put their chips on certain kinds of candidates and are -- are you, as AOC said at the top of the show, denying the future by not embracing some of these candidates farther left?

MARTIN: We've -- the idea of the DNC not embracing candidates in the Democratic Party is just inaccurate. You know, I -- as I just mentioned, the way I led in Minnesota is through a big tent approach. There's no one way or one stripe of being a Democrat, right? We are a coalition party. And that means you win through addition, not subtraction. That means we welcome all candidates that run. It's not up to me to put my finger on the scale and decide which candidates we will support. That's up to the primary voters, which is why, by the way, I endorsed Zohran Mamdani the night that he won and was proud to support him, unlike other Democratic leaders.

I will tell you this, we are actually building a big tent. We understand that in this country we need different types of Democrats to win in different spaces. And all of them bring different ideas. But no one should confuse unanimity with unity in this party. And what do I mean by that? Of course we're in this big tent coalition, we're going to have a difference of ideas and opinions on how to accomplish things. But what we share in terms of unity is that we all have the same goals. Our goals are to lower health care costs and to make sure people have access to health care. Our goals are to make sure --

CORNISH: We also -- I want to jump in here just because I want to have time to ask you about Prop 50 in California. I just want to play for you a little bit what Governor Newsom had to say in explaining that victory.

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GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): Prop 50 is not about drawing lines on a map. It is about holding the line to what makes us who we are. Donald Trump is nothing more than weakness masquerading as strength. Why else do you need to make a phone call to Greg Abbott in the middle of the midterm redistricting unless you're weak.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: This turned out to be quite a boon for California Democrats. They were able to raise a ton of money off of this issue. And then you had Newsom coming out, you know, kind of giving us 2028 vibes in his speech. So, I want to know from you, do you think blue states, so to speak,

need to get in on this?

[06:55:01]

Get into this conversation about redistricting. Are we looking at an escalating redistricting war?

MARTIN: Well, certainly, as we've said, you know, what happened in California was the counterpunch to Texas and Greg Abbott bending the knee to Donald Trump.

And so now we've leveled the playing field. And now it's up to Republicans. If they continue with this nonsense and continue going down this road of trying to redistrict, unconstitutionally redistrict in Republican-controlled states, we're going to meet them state by state. They wanted this fight. They created this fight, right? And we're going to meet them. This is not your grandfather's Democratic Party, where we're going to play with one hand behind our back.

CORNISH: Yes.

MARTIN: We are actually fighting back. I'm proud of Governor Newsom and Californians for sending a message. My hope now is that the Republican -- it creates a chilling effect for the Republicans, and they realize that we're going to meet them each and every step of the way. Whether it's in Virginia. Whether it's in New York. Whether it's in Illinois. Whether it's in other states throughout the country, we will meet them with fire. Fire with fire.

And I'm just say, we're not playing around anymore on this. And I'm glad that Governor Newsom stood up and said what he is, because Donald Trump is a weak man. And the fact is, he knows he's going to lose. Last night is a clear example of that.

CORNISH: Yes.

MARTIN: And the only way they can win in 2026 is rigging the maps and changing the rules midstream, and we're not going to allow them to do that.

CORNISH: OK, that's Ken Martin, head of the Democratic National Committee. Thank you so much for being with us.

MARTIN: Thank you.

CORNISH: You guys, I want to get your opinion on some of the things he talked -- Joel, your eyebrows just went straight up. What are the things -- because we talked about who's left out of the tent, who's frustrated.

JOSH RUBIN, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: Yes.

CORNISH: Having a big tent does mean that there is some friction under there. RUBIN: Yes, totally there is friction. But, Audie, that is the point,

is that the more Democrats come out and the more diversity of candidates that we have, the more likely we're going to win. And we saw the enthusiasm off the charts here in New York. We saw the return of the national security Democrat now leading New Jersey and Virginia. And also this idea that the wins last night really demonstrate why President Trump wants to change the map ahead of the election next year. And they made it clear as day. And I think Ken Martin's right in saying that. And that's a good message as well.

CORNISH: But, I mean, I know I hear this message. Do you think that's why he wants to change the map? That's what we heard from Newsom, the idea that, like, this guy knows he's vulnerable and this is why you have to do this. Because, let's face it, even though Republicans have criticized Democrats for gerrymandering, it's pretty clear that, like, hey, can you guys do this, hey, can you guys do this, kind of moving from state house to state house and asking Republicans to make this move.

JOE BORELLI (R), FORMER MAJORITY LEADER, NYC COUNCIL: It's something both sides have done. Both sides have made it a political football on their side. The difference is Texas is allowed to do this. Some of the other states, like California, had to change their law, right? That's what we saw last night.

I think one of the things that he said that was very, very telling was that we -- he said that the Democratic Party is a party by addition, and he was one of the people who came out there when Zohran Mamdani won the Democratic nominee, and that we can only, you know, move forward adding people. I think that was a veiled shot at Chuck Schumer, the leader of his own party, for not taking a position on Mamdani. If Schumer is serious about adding seats in the Senate, certainly he doesn't share the opinion of the party chairman.

CORNISH: Yes. Also, I think every time maybe a Democrat hugs Mamdani closer like a Republican consultant gets their wings, right? Like there's just some idea that you're going to --

BORELLI: (INAUDIBLE).

CORNISH: Yes, you're going to be able to make some sort of messaging hay out of that. What did you hear, Sara?

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: Well, I think what's interesting is that for so long the Democratic Party was very torn. I think back to 2016 and Bernie versus Hillary and the leaked emails that suggested that the DNC was taking a very formal side. And what you see, ten years later, almost ten years later, is that they are still trying to convince the Democratic Party that that's not a problem, right? Him coming out here and saying, we are a big tent, we represent everybody. You got to convince a lot of people who didn't forget what happened nine years ago that that is the case.

CORNISH: Right.

FISCHER: And there's a lot of people who don't believe you. CORNISH: And, at the end of the day, it was Bernie on stage with this

person arms aloft.

FISCHER: Yes.

RUBIN: Yes, but I do think that we're seeing the healing now in real time. This is --

CORNISH: Is this what healing looks like?

RUBIN: Well, it's -- when victories --

FISCHER: It's (INAUDIBLE).

RUBIN: Victories make for better days after.

CORNISH: Yes.

RUBIN: And the after action discussion is going to be clear.

It's not one side that won in this election. And that winning and joining together is what's going to deliver in the midterms.

CORNISH: That's right.

BORELLI: Look, to your point, though, you can take Republican candidates, Republican, you know, leaders in the party, take Marco Rubio, for example. Marco Rubio could be plug and played in a bunch of different states and probably win those states. What we saw last night is that Zohran Mamdani would never win the Virginia governorship, never win the New Jersey governorship, and those candidates would never win in New York City.

So, while we talk about Democrats had a great night, yes, they won races that they were supposed to win anyway. The problem is that those candidates can't be, you know, shifted around and they can't come up with a cohesive message.

CORNISH: Yes. But it will be an interesting biography may be immutable, but technique, approach, ground game, social media, all those things can be copied and can be a model.

RUBIN: That's right.

CORNISH: And we saw two models last night.

[07:00:03]

I want you guys -- I want to thank you for helping me make sense of all this. I want to thank you for waking up with us. I'm Audie Cornish, and we've got some headlines for you up next.