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Flight Problems Could Extend beyond Thanksgiving; House to Swear in Democrat Today; Mark Wolf is Interviewed about Trump's Attack on Judges; Trump Blames Affordability on Democrats. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired November 12, 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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[06:33:38]

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SETH MEYERS, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": House Speaker Mike Johnson yesterday told members of Congress to return to Capitol Hill right now to prepare to vote on a bill to reopen the government. And I'm sure they would if only the flights weren't all grounded.

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AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: So, today, the House will return to Washington to vote to end the government shutdown. Early this morning, the House Rules Committee advances the Senate's bill to the full House floor.

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.

So, the U.S. Navy's most lethal and largest warship is now in Latin America, and Venezuela is responding by mobilizing its forces. The U.S. says the buildup is to combat drug trafficking in the region. Now, the U.K. won't be sharing intel with the U.S. any more about those suspected boats in the Caribbean. A source telling CNN exclusively, the U.K. does not want to be complicit in the deadly strikes, which have killed 76 people so far.

And SNAP benefits still in limbo for millions of Americans as the Supreme Court extends an order allowing the Trump administration to withhold full benefits for the month. It's been whiplash for the nearly 42 million Americans who rely on SNAP for groceries. New Jersey's attorney general, who sued the administration, calls the decision "heinous."

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MATT PLATKIN, NEW JERSEY ATTORNEY GENERAL: We have never seen the weaponization of hunger for political purposes like we are seeing right now.

[06:35:03]

This is not some trivial thing that we do around the edges. Making sure that our kids, our seniors, our people with disabilities, over a million veterans, and today is Veterans Day, have food on their table should not be subject to partisan whims.

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CORNISH: Nearly 27 million Americans have not gotten their November benefits paid out as of earlier this week.

And a brand-new bridge collapses in China. The bridge, which connects China's heartland to Tibet, opened earlier this year. It had been closed in recent weeks after cracks appeared. Bad weather and landslides ultimately led to the collapse yesterday. There were no injuries.

And the government shutdown may be nearing an end, as we've been saying, but it could be weeks, even months before air traffic control returns to normal. The FAA canceled six percent of all flights on Tuesday. It still plans to hike that number to 10 percent by Friday, raising concerns about holiday travel.

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REPORTER: Even if we see the government reopen this week, could we see delays for Thanksgiving travel?

SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: So, it depends on, are we going to have air traffic controllers come in to work?

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CORNISH: So, the FAA calls for airlines to cancel flights seven days before they're scheduled to fly now. And then once they're canceled, it's next to impossible to reinstate them.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm so nervous. I'm like, should we sleep here so that we don't risk, like, the Uber being late or not being able to get an Uber? Or, you know, get a hotel and then risk that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to be in the airport from 11:00 to almost 11:00, almost 12 hours to get home from a five hour flight. Very frustrating.

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CORNISH: OK, so I'm going to bring in CNN transportation analyst and former DOT inspector general, Mary Schiavo.

Good morning, Mary.

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: Good morning. CORNISH: So, I know you've been watching this closely. And so, I just

want to get it out of the way. How do you think Thanksgiving travel will be impacted even if the shutdown ended this week?

SCHIAVO: Well, I think it's going to be impacted because of several factors. First of all, still today, 20 to 40 percent of the air traffic control workforce is calling in either sick, stress leave, other issues. And so, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Aviation Administration, is faced with uncertainty. How many people are we going to have at work, et cetera. Now that does break, by the way, government rules. You think, is that any way to run a government? No. You're supposed to show up even though the government is closed. Air traffic controllers are essential employees. That's the designation.

But because of the uncertainty of how many people are they going to have showing up to do the job, the cuts have to continue, meaning the cuts to the numbers of airline flights until they have the full contingent of workforce back or rehired, they're -- they've put a lot of people in the pipeline, and they're able to run at full speed. And the reason for the cancellations is to put more distance between planes to improve safety.

So, no, it's going to take a while to fully improve, and we will probably feel the effects even at Thanksgiving.

CORNISH: I want to lean into this safety bit. It's something that the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, talked about yesterday.

Here's what he said.

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SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: This has all been databased. We have seen incursions on runways. We've seen loss of separation in the airspace. And we've seen heightened complaints by pilots of the communication they're having with air traffic controllers. When this information goes in the wrong direction, we have to make decisions to keep people safe.

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CORNISH: I'm hoping you can translate the air speak for me, because if I try and do it, it'll sound really dangerous and bad. So, what is it that he's saying has been happening?

SCHIAVO: Well, what he's saying in official air traffic control and FAA legalese is that the spacing that is required between aircraft in the air and on the ground. An incursion is something that happens at the airport. And we have seen collisions between planes at the airport -- that's an incursion -- on a runway or a taxiway. And in the air, we have had some near misses. We had one at Cleveland a couple weeks ago between a helicopter and a commercial passenger jet. And what he's saying is there are times when the required distance between the aircraft, in the air and on the ground, is not there. That's a violation. And we have to make sure that doesn't happen because the trends have shown that those things have been happening and have been increasing. There's been a couple of years where they have decreased. But those things have been increasing pretty much every year.

CORNISH: All right. Well, Mary, I know there's some people maybe watching at the airport, possibly at the bar, because this seems unpleasant. Thank you for talking with us.

SCHIAVO: Thank you.

CORNISH: OK, in the meantime, it's been 50 days since a Democratic congresswoman in Arizona won a special election.

[06:40:01]

She has yet to be sworn in. Today, that's set to finally change. Adelita Grijalva's swearing in was delayed by Speaker Mike Johnson. He said he wouldn't get her seated as long as the government remains shut down. But Grijalva says there's more to the story, and it all ties back to the Epstein files. All House Democrats and four Republicans are on board with forcing a House vote on releasing all the records related to the Epstein case. Grijalva would become the final key vote. She says today she'll confront the House speaker about the holdup.

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ADELITA GRIJALVA (D), ARIZONA REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT: I'm going to be as respectful as possible and pretend my kids are standing right there next to me when I say, you know, this is not something -- it's undemocratic. It's unconstitutional. It's illegal. It should never happen. This kind of obstruction cannot happen again, regardless of party.

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CORNISH: And the group chat is back.

So, first, we know that Mike Johnson has said, look, this is something Nancy Pelosi did at one point, not bringing someone in until the House was in session. Of course, now turnabout became what they're hoping is unfair play. Is it remarkable in any way that Grijalva is finally getting seated?

You're smiling, because she's just -- because a Democrat or do you think there's something significant about the moment?

ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, when Speaker Johnson made that comment, he left out one caveat. That was the request of the incoming member to delay the swearing in for one reason or another. But for --

CORNISH: So, what you're saying, it wasn't partizan at the time?

SEAWRIGHT: Right.

CORNISH: OK. SEAWRIGHT: Eight hundred thousand people in Arizona went without representation after a decisive victory in that race, which I think is not only unconstitutional, it's a matter of political malpractice. After a 54-day paid taxpayer vacation, Republicans are now finally back to work. But in the midst of all that, he could have easily sworn her in to allow 800,000 Arizonans to have representation, Democrat, Republican, independent, or those who do not -- who did not even participate.

CORNISH: Yes.

Can I --

CARRIE SHEFFIELD, SENIOR POLICY ANALYST, INDEPENDENT WOMEN'S VOICE: With all respect, you're trying to gaslight Republicans for the shutdown when it was Democrats who were doing it. So, I'm not really buying that because Republicans, when Biden was in office, they voted 13 times to give him a clean CR. That -- the golden rule is that you do unto others as you want them to do unto you. And, unfortunately, the Democrats in the Senate were the ones who really did this shutdown.

So, they have themselves to blame for keeping this congresswoman out of office. It's not illegal. She's wrong about that, because, obviously, there is precedent of this happening and there was no legal ramifications against Nancy Pelosi at that time.

SEAWRIGHT: Well, again, Nancy Pelosi was asked to delay the swearing in, and Johnson could have sworn her in, in the midst of the -- in the midst of the government shutdown.

SHEFFIELD: Right. But she's saying it's illegal. She said it was illegal. That's an important thing to accuse the speaker of the House of illegal criminal (INAUDIBLE).

SEAWRIGHT: Well, there were lawsuits filed. They were going to answer that question.

SHEFFIELD: Well --

SEAWRIGHT: There were lawsuits filed by the Arizona attorney general that the courts will ultimately decide whether it's legal or not. But the fact is, in the midst of the government shutdown, he could have sworn her in if he wanted to.

CORNISH: In the meantime, there's this conversation that is returning about the Jeffrey Epstein files. There are a couple Republicans that kind of keep this ball in the air. Grijalva would have been joining a vote there. Why do you think they are keeping that ball in the air? There's plenty of time for Thomas Massie, or whoever, to be like, OK, we don't need to talk about this anymore.

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, because conservative voters care about the Epstein files. And that's -- and they have for many, many years. And the reason that some of these Republicans are, you know, defecting from Donald Trump is because their voters care about it.

Now, the reason why a lot of Republicans would prefer not to talk about this is because, you know, we don't even need to see the files. There's plenty of videos showing Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein used to cavort together.

SHEFFIELD: This is a distraction. I mean, again, I go back to the Democrats. President Biden had four years to release all these. Congressional Democrats had two years at the same time simultaneously with Biden. If there was anything incriminating about President Trump, it would have been released at that point. So, I think it's really political.

CORNISH: Carrie, why do you think the White House hasn't been able to get the Republicans who are interested in this to back down? I'm sort of curious. He's said multiple times this is nothing. But the people within the party who don't think it is continue.

SHEFFIELD: There are people who listen to conspiracy theorists, and they choose to do that. That's their prerogative. It's a free country. Again, I think voters, they don't -- generally, voters broadly, they don't care about this. They do care about affordability. They care about driving health care prices through transparency, getting them down. They care about kitchen table issues.

And I'm a conservative in Virginia. Honestly, this is part of why we lost because we weren't focused on the right things. We weren't focused on the things that people actually care about.

CORNISH: OK, we're talking about you like you're not here. And the truth is, you may want to be part of this conversation. You might want to hear part of this show. And you should know, we're a podcast too. So now is your time to scan the QR code, that's where you find it. CNN THIS MORNING is available anywhere you get your podcasts.

All right, next on CNN, it was a lifetime appointment, so why did a federal judge choose now to step away?

Plus.

[06:45:01]

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Affordability, they call it, was a con job by the -- by the Democrats.

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CORNISH: Is it? We're going to look at the economy and how its faring under the president.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We cannot allow a handful of communist radical judges to obstruct the enforcement of our laws and assume the duties that belong solely to the president of the United States.

These people are just looking to destroy our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: As Donald Trump's campaign of legal retribution continues against his self-proclaimed political enemies, he's also lashed out at judges that he's accused of disloyalty to the country. In posts throughout the year, he's called judges who rule against the administration "monsters." He's called for those judges to be impeached. His deputy chief of staff has called rulings "judicial tyranny."

[06:50:01]

Our next guest says those verbal attacks have led to real threats against the judiciary. And he's actually now resigning as a federal judge so that he can speak out. In an article in "The Atlantic," Judge Mark Wolf says, quote, "the White House's assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out. Silence for me is now intolerable."

Joining me now is retired senior federal judge Mark Wolf.

Thank you for being here.

First, I want to start with your concerns about the guardrails, so to speak. Do you see a judiciary right now that is strengthened in any way by the existing checks and balances?

MARK WOLF, RETIRED SENIOR U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE: Hi. Thank -- thank you. It's very good to have the opportunity to speak to you and to some of the American people.

I think the judiciary is striving, particularly the lower court judges, to perform our fundamental role of holding elected officials to the limits of the power given to them in the Constitution. But they're not being strengthened in the current environment because the attacks on judges, who make impartial, principled decisions, and then are called by the president crooked and called to be impeached, erodes public confidence in the judiciary, which is essential to the effectiveness of the court and the rule of law. And without public confidence in the judiciary, the president can disobey court orders with impunity, and then the constitutional balance is severely disrupted.

CORNISH: You've also talked about the shifts within the Justice Department, in particular, that you had inspector generals who were responsible for doing kind of investigative work at federal agencies. Those were fired. The FBI's public corruption squad eliminated. The public integrity section, which, you know, goes after various kinds of bribes, the election fraud group, their powers were revoked. How does that contribute to what you're talking about?

WOLF: It contributes greatly to what I'm talking about. I've always been dedicated to the principle of equal justice under law. And we have a situation now where the president is openly calling for prosecution of his perceived enemies when the officials in the Department of Justice, professionals, feel there's not sufficient evidence to do that.

At the same time, the offices that could investigate corruption by people in his orbit have been dismantled. And I'll give in -- I'll give you a case that's very striking to me. It's reported that the FBI had an undercover operation, set up a fictitious company, and gave now Border Czar Tom Homan a bag with $50,000 in cash to exercise his potential influence if he -- if President Trump was elected. Ordinarily, that investigation would have continued after the president was elected, but promptly the investigation reportedly was shut down. The White House has said there was no credible evidence. And Mr. Homan has said he never took any money.

I don't, frankly, know why Congress doesn't request the Homan's tapes the way I heard you discussing the interest in the Epstein evidence because, if we heard the tapes, we would know who's telling the truth. That's an example of what causes me concern.

CORNISH: Judge -- yes.

One of the things I want to put to you is that, every time a federal prosecutor or now someone like you comes out and says, look, I'm really frustrated, this is wrong, that's wrong, the administration can say, look, that is revealing the bias. That is showing what's really going on, on the bench. What is your response to that?

WOLF: I don't know why advocating for the nonpartisan administration of justice, which I learned was fundamental to our democracy when I was an assistant to the attorney general of the United States after Watergate, is a lack of partiality. And judges operate independently and impartially. The fact that they're called crooks and biased doesn't make them crooks and bias, but it does severely threaten public confidence, which is essential to the enforcement of court orders and essential to the rule of law.

[06:55:03]

And that's why I resigned so I would no longer be subject to the proper restraints on what federal judges can say outside of court, because I wanted to join many others in advocating for the rule of law and democracy, which I think is now facing an existential threat.

CORNISH: That's now retired Senior Federal Judge Mark Wolf.

Thank you so much for your time.

WOLF: Thank you.

CORNISH: All right, now I want to talk about prices. If you ask the White House, they say that they are down and that the economy is booming. Everyday Americans are not quite feeling it.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every time I go to the grocery store, I am shocked.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For 11 items I paid $40.38. You heard that right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The one pound of ground beef I got was $9. A pint -- a pint of blueberries was $6.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When was a box of cereal $9.29?

CARDI B.: I didn't realize how quickly they raised the rent prices. And I'm out -- I'm out here asking y'all to buy my -- my album.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Cardi B. there.

So, the president claims that Democrats have fooled the public into thinking that there's an affordability crisis.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It was a con job. It was a con job. Affordability, they call it, was a con job by the -- by the Democrats.

The reason I don't want to talk about affordability is because everybody knows that its far less expensive under Trump than it was under sleepy Joe Biden.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, group chat is back.

I wanted to talk about this because, in effect, one would think the most recent presidential election Trump won because people thought he could change the price thing. Not that they didn't agree with him that it was Biden's fault, but now it's his economy. So, they're like, where is it?

THOMPSON: Well, veterans of the Biden administration will tell you that telling voters that they're wrong about how they feel about prices is not usually a winning political strategy. And for him to go out there and say, no, no, no, things aren't expensive, things aren't expensive. And, you know, they'll point to like this statistic, that statistic. Inflation is down. Well, the rate of inflation is down. Inflation is still at two to three percent. That still means prices are rising and they are not going -- you know, he promised, we're going to bring prices down. They are not down compared to what the inflation was during Biden.

CORNISH: OK. And, Carrie, let me let you finish. SHEFFIELD: Well, even here at CNN, Harry Enten reported that per Gallup, the percentage of Americans who said the economy was their number one concern, it fell from about 45 percent this time last year to around 23 percent this year. So, people are feeling overall less anxious. Again, not to take away --

CORNISH: Wait, so you're saying that the polling is showing people did not consider immigration a top issue?

SHEFFIELD: No, the economy. The economy.

CORNISH: OK. Oh, economy, yes.

SHEFFIELD: It was last -- this time last year the economy was their top concern, I apologize if I misspoke.

CORNISH: So, the election doesn't play into that? Those --

SHEFFIELD: Well, I'm saying is, is people overall, they are feeling better about the economy. When you're looking at business sentiment, when you're looking at gas prices, they're at a record low for four years. And the overall inflation, when you compare Trump versus Biden, the run rate for Biden, it was five percent cumulative versus 2.5 percent for Trump. So, that's what he's talking about.

CORNISH: Does it make you feel like an ex-Biden person running through the numbers like that? I remember talking to White -- the Biden White House and people got so -- they were so annoyed with me for kind of asking, like, well, you're giving a lot of numbers here but people don't feel it. When you're saying all the numbers, does it feel a little like, Sisyphean, right? Like you're pushing the boulder up the hill?

SHEFFIELD: Well, it's true that it ultimately does come to the gut check for people. I do think that prices -- the number one expense for most people is housing. And that's part of why President Trump has been pushing on the Federal Reserve so much to lower the interest rates, because that is going to affect the prices of housing.

CORNISH: Yes. But also, Antjuan, offering a 50-year mortgage. What do you think of -- you -- like you said, a lesson has been learned. So, how do you talk about this now?

SEAWRIGHT: Well, first of all, every single metric of how we measure the economy has proven that Donald -- MAGA-nomics (ph) has been a failure. We've lost a million jobs since Donald Trump has taken office in January. Consumer confidence is down. So, that tells me --

CORNISH: And I think we have that number. It's down 30 percent.

SEAWRIGHT: It's down to -- so that tells me that microeconomics, macroeconomics and the most important measure, feel-onomics (ph), has indicated that Americans are feeling the pain. This --

CORNISH: It's called feeling (ph). It's called vibe-session, vibe- onomics. SEAWRIGHT: I call it feel-onomics. So, that means that everyday Americans have suffered a hoodwink because Donald Trump promised to bring prices down. Instead, everything is up, gas, groceries, electricity, rent. You name it, Americans can claim it that it's up.

CORNISH: OK, usually here's where we do the group chat. What's in your group chat? But because I know what's in them ahead of time, we're going to have time for Alex Thompson, because I'm obsessed with this.

THOMPSON: The next "Toy Story" movie is coming to the screens (INAUDIBLE).

CORNISH: Which is "Toy Story Five."

THOMPSON: "Toy Story Five." There is way too many.

CORNISH: We're 1,000 years old in what is time.

THOMPSON: But now there is a toy war between the screens and the analog. It's bringing, you know, and this came up in the group chats because I have friends with a lot of young kids. My sister has young kids. And dealing with screens is a big topic.

CORNISH: So, this is basically a -- there's going to be a toy that plugs in.

[07:00:02]

THOMPSON: Yes.

CORNISH: It's going to have a little USB hanging off of it? Oh, there it is.

THOMPSON: There it is.

CORNISH: OK. So, while we're fighting the good fight on like no more screen time, "Toy Story" is going to weigh in.

THOMPSON: Yes. And I think you're going to see the analog versus the digital choice.

CORNISH: If they come down on the side of digital, I will be irritated. Let me tell you.

SHEFFIELD: I'm with you.

CORNISH: Me and my wooden toys trying to make it happen.

OK, you guys, thank you so much. We talked about a lot today. Thank you for waking up with us. I'm Audie Cornish. The headlines start now.