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FBI Seeks Interviews with Six Lawmakers Trump Called 'Seditious'; New Thanksgiving Tradition of the Cousin Walk. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired November 26, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: Shut up -- suit up, rather, for Japan in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. The announcement comes on the heels of his fourth Major League Baseball MVP award and his second straight World Series title.

[06:00:12]

Ohtani will be looking to repeat history after helping his home country win the WBC championship game against the U.S. in 2023. Next year's tournament is scheduled to start March 5th.

Thank you for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Brian Abel in Washington, CNN THIS MORNING with Audie Cornish starts right now.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: The president called it seditious behavior. Now the FBI is getting involved. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): The president's reaction and the use of the FBI against us is exactly why we made the video.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Six lawmakers facing retribution for a video reminding military members they can refuse unlawful orders. So how far will this investigation go?

And top U.S. negotiators are going to Russia. The remaining roadblocks to ending the war in Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREGORY BOVINO, BORDER PATROL COMMANDER: There's a lot of bad people and bad things in Charlotte.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Operation Charlotte's Web far from over. But could the immigration crackdown end up backfiring on Republicans?

And a holiday horror. One million seniors in America finding out they're being booted from their healthcare plans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm relieved that I came in today, because maybe my flight would have got canceled.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The final day of travel before Thanksgiving and an unwelcome visitor is heading for parts of the U.S.: snow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything else that happens on the cousin walk is cousin confidential.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Your uncle brought up politics. Your grandma asked why you aren't married yet. It's time for the cousin walk. The Thanksgiving tradition that's getting many Americans through the holidays.

It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. This is a live look at the Capitol.

Good morning, everybody. It is Wednesday, November 26th. I want to thank you for waking up with me. I'm Audie Cornish, and here's where we begin.

The FBI now wants to talk to those six Democrats who President Trump has accused of seditious behavior, punishable by death. The bureau is looking to interview the lawmakers about the video that they made last week that had urged members of the military to disobey unlawful orders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders.

SLOTKIN: You can refuse illegal orders.

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): You must refuse illegal orders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: This is separate from the Pentagon's investigation into Senator Mark Kelly. The retired Navy captain has been threatened with a recall to active duty for a court martial. That's according to the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth.

Hegseth also writes on social media, quote, "Kelly's conduct brings discredit upon the armed forces and will be addressed appropriately."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SLOTKIN: They are opening what appears to be an inquiry against the six of us. To be honest, the president's reaction and the use of the FBI against us is exactly why we made the video.

KELLY: It is so ridiculous. It's almost like you can't make this (EXPLETIVE DELETED) up.

He didn't like what came out of our mouths. And because of that, he thinks we should be killed.

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, ABC'S "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!": Bananas. It makes me feel better about him just wanting me to be fired. To be honest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Alex Thompson, CNN political analyst and national political correspondent at Axios; Sabrina Singh, CNN political commentator and former deputy Pentagon press secretary; Bryan Lanza, senior adviser for the Trump 2024 campaign; and Antjuan Seawright, Democratic strategist.

Now, Sabrina, I want to start with you. We're going to get to the FBI part of this. But I want to mention something that CNN has been reporting out this morning, which is that there's a coalition of former and retired military judge advocates who have issued a rare joint statement, saying that the Pentagon's effort to recall Kelly for a prosecution is partisan, legally baseless, and compromised by unlawful command influence.

I have learned recently that that last line, "unlawful command influence" is a thing, UCI. Can you help translate why they're stepping up and what they're saying?

SABRINA SINGH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. So, I think it's also important that, under Hegseth's leadership, the Pentagon has basically purged these military officers that would handle some cases like this. The JAGs, as you mentioned.

So, I think what's important here is that Hegseth is using the Uniform Code of Military Justice to essentially, potentially recall and court- martial Mark Kelly, the same code of military justice that they repeated in that video. So --

CORNISH: And as you mentioned that, we actually have that reporting, as well.

SINGH: Yes.

CORNISH: That the Pentagon has sidelined lawyers, that there were cuts to those departments and Army Air Force JAG. But fundamentally, this is also a court where the executive has control, not the judiciary.

SINGH: Right. But what Hegseth wants to do, and by recalling a senator and for saying -- for saying words that are completely true. There's nothing that he said that -- or any of those six lawmakers that said was seditious in any behavior or illegal. What it would do is it would set something completely unprecedented.

And so, I think that's why you're seeing former military officials, veterans speak out. We have over 2 million veterans in this country who do disagree with this president, who have come out and spoken out before. And I think they're concerned that what does that mean for their service, as well?

CORNISH: Yes.

SINGH: Could they potentially be recalled or court-martialed? And that's why you're seeing so much anger come -- you know, come forward.

CORNISH: Let me talk about the FBI part of it. They could go after McCabe [SIC] through the Pentagon because of his retired officer status. But Andrew McCabe, who is a CNN contributor, obviously, and former FBI deputy director, here is what he had to say about whether or not the FBI would get involved, how they'd get involved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Any first-year supervisor, one of the very first things you learned as a supervisor is don't ever open a case based on First Amendment activity alone.

So, this thing should have been shut down at the lowest level. But instead, we know it's probably gone to the highest level.

So, absolutely, it's politics. And it's concerning to me, because the question is why is the FBI going along with this? They have a lot of good reasons to say there's nothing for us here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: And I want to play one more thing for you. The FBI director, Kash Patel, because he was asked about this. So, question, are they going to go along with it? And here's how he responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASH PATEL, FBI DIRECTOR: What goes through my head is the same thing that goes through my head in any case: Is there a lawful predicate to open up an inquiry and investigation, or is there not? And that decision will be made by the career agents and analysts here at the FBI.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is the FBI getting involved?

PATEL: Based on the fact that it's an ongoing matter, there's not much I can say.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Not exactly a full-throated jumping on there. Talk about how -- we know what the president wants because of how sort of outrageous his comments were over the weekend. But we don't know how everyone else is falling in line below him. So, what are you seeing in the various reactions?

BRYAN LANZA, SENIOR ADVISOR, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: You know, listen, what I see is clearly these six senators wanted a reaction from the president and this administration, and they have it.

And sort of knowing the apparatus of how it works, you're going to have other people in the administration who sees President Trump raise that flag and say, hey, this is a problem for me. You know, they shouldn't be doing this. They're implying that at some point, given illegal orders, that they now have to remind people not to follow those illegal orders.

I think those -- those six involved said that they've not seen any Trump illegal order go forward. So, they're clearly provoking a reaction. And now they're going to get a reaction.

Now the sad thing is, is now the FBI is involved in other things. And this is what happens when you -- when you -- you know, when you play this level of politics and you mess around with the troops.

It's no different than when we saw Gavin Newsom a couple weeks ago, travel to Brazil and trash an American president. And you hear all these world leaders saying, how -- how untimely for Gavin Newsom to be trashing an American president while he's overseas.

SINGH: -- thought was also political violence, and that they should be hanged and killed for -- for operating under free speech.

CORNISH: Yes.

ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, that was going to be my point.

Look, at the end of the day, every citizen is guaranteed the right to express themselves by way of the Constitution. That's pure fact. Nothing any one of those lawmakers said deserves for them to be called to be killed. I think we have to draw a line there. That's No. 1.

And No. 2, what the administration is accusing him of and what was actually said are two different things. They did not tell them to illegal, to -- to ignore illegal -- nor ignore orders. They said ignore illegal orders. I think that's important.

And so hopefully, the rule of law will prevail in all this, because it's about precedent. If we set this dangerous precedent now, in the future, this is going to be an ongoing thing. And I don't think any person --

(CROSSTALK)

CORNISH: That's what I'm wondering. Is --

LANZA: I think what's important is like, if we did this to Democrats, if we did this to Barack Obama, the outrage would be overwhelming.

ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: What would the outrage have been if Obama's FBI was then interviewing all those Republicans?

LANZA: Well, we know -- we know what the outrage would have been during Obama's Justice Department. It would have been targeting of those Republicans, because that's what his Justice Department did his four years.

CORNISH: I guess what I'm asking is if --

LANZA: So, Obama's different. But let's go to Biden.

CORNISH: But if the party has spent a lot of time talking about free speech, the woke police, free speech. Free speech, free speech. And then all of a sudden it's like, except that speech that's bad. And we're sending everyone after you.

LANZA: I think --

CORNISH: How do you talk about it?

LANZA: I think Republicans -- I think it would have been danger for -- dangerous for Republicans to do this to Obama, just like I think it's equally dangerous for Democrats to do this to -- to President Trump.

CORNISH: So, there are certain kind of speech that should be --

LANZA: He's -- he is --

SEAWRIGHT: It's called convenient speech.

LANZA: He is the commander in chief.

SEAWRIGHT: That's not free speech. That's convenient speech.

LANZA: And what these -- what these senators are doing, what these congressmen are doing and saying, hey, they're implying that illegal orders are taking place, and they should not follow those illegal orders.

But when you ask them, have any illegal orders taken place, they say no.

CORNISH: Yes.

LANZA: So, it's clearly to provoke.

SEAWRIGHT: But can I just remind you --

CORNISH: So, it's provoking incitement. I'm trying to understand your argument on free speech grounds.

LANZA: Well, my free speech. I'm just -- We're talking about the administration.

CORNISH: Yes.

LANZA: You know, from my standpoint, I look at what they said as -- as just, you know, politics, right? You know, this is what people do.

[06:10:05]

CORNISH: OK. All right.

(CROSSTALK)

CORNISH: Stay with -- no, no, we're going to talk about this more this hour. I love that the group chat is fiery, but here we go.

Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, we all know prices from groceries to rent are going up. So should America's poverty line go up, too?

Plus, an update on the search for the jewels stolen from the Louvre.

And protesters clashed with ICE in St. Paul. The mayor says the federal agents are creating chaos.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MELVIN CARTER (D), ST. PAUL: There's no other way to put it. To create chaos and to create havoc and to stir up havoc in our community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:15:15]

CORNISH: It's now almost 15 minutes past the hour, and here is your morning roundup.

Protesters teargassed in St. Paul while federal agents were conducting an immigration raid. Tensions rose as more demonstrators arrived.

DHS said at one point, a person used a vehicle to ram an ICE vehicle. Two state lawmakers say they were pepper-sprayed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: None of these people are criminals. This is a family minding their business.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't think we'd see it in this neighborhood. And as soon as we found out, we rushed here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: This is the second time this week tensions between protesters and federal agents have come to a head in St. Paul.

And four more suspects arrested for the heist at the Louvre. Two men and two women were detained by police but not charged just yet. One of the suspects is allegedly the fourth member of the gang that carried out the robbery. Now, as for the stolen jewels, those are still missing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God. It's not going to work. It's not going to work.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not going to make it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got it, I got it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: It's time to head back to the Upside-Down for the final time. "Stranger Things" returns to Netflix tonight. It has been three and a half years since the last episode. Don't bother trying to binge it all today.

The series finale will be in theaters on New Year's Eve.

And after the break on CNN THIS MORNING, negotiations for peace in Ukraine. But there are some holdups. The key issues this morning.

Plus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first rule of the cousin walk is that we do not discuss the cousin walk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: If your family starts getting on your nerves this Thanksgiving, it might be time to take a cousin walk.

And good morning to my friends in Nashville. Beautiful shot downtown.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:21:17]

CORNISH: OK, being with your family for the holidays can be -- Let's face it -- overwhelming. So, that's why the cousin walk has always been an excuse to, you know, step away, come back in better spirits.

Thanksgiving is a time of family and gratitude. For the moments when it's tense, argument-filled, or a venue for invasive questions about your love life, the cannabis industry has an answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For some, the cousin walk happens in the heat of the moment when things are getting a little tense in the kitchen, and you need to get out of there.

For others, it happens right after the meal, because I can't sit at this table any longer and we need to get out of here. And for a few, it's right when you get there before anything even really gets started. Because this is already too much, and we need to get out of here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: "Wall Street Journal" reporter Ellen Gamerman writes, "What started as a secret trip to smoke pot before dinner has mushroomed into a full-blown commercial holiday. Behold the cousin walk."

Joining me now to discuss is Ellen. Thank you so much for being with us.

So, I understand that the industry is not just embracing this, but they're trying to, like, make it a thing. Right? Which is Green Wednesday. What are they hoping to accomplish by making it some kind of holiday?

ELLEN GAMERMAN, REPORTER, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": I think, just like everything else around the holidays, they want to commercialize it. If they can brand it as this ritual, like a turkey trot, get the cousin walk kind of on the radar, then they can market to it.

And so, we've seen some mainstream brands starting to cautiously embrace it, just as they have 4/20, the -- the big pot celebration holiday. And it's now the second biggest day. The day before Thanksgiving is the second biggest day for pot sales of the year.

CORNISH: We're showing pictures of bud here. But the truth is, this is not how people are going to be basically deploying this for this holiday. And you're also reporting that it's now being incorporated into the Thanksgiving meal.

GAMERMAN: Yes. That's true. There are all kinds of tinctures and different butters and oils. And so, it can go into the turkey itself. You could have a plate of regular stuffing, a plate of cannabis stuffing. You might have THC beverages and the wine glasses.

So, it really can run the gamut. Although the purists say the best way for bonding is to pass around a joint, still.

CORNISH: The backdrop to all of this is widespread legalization of varying degrees. Can you talk about that part of it? Where are we in terms of the law?

GAMERMAN: Well, the -- the law right now, when states are in control of it, they seem to be much more liberal with it. There are 40 states now that allow the -- the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes. And more than 20 for recreational purposes. So, it really has ballooned.

And even a few years ago, you might not have imagined how easy it is to, you know, incorporate it into your daily life.

CORNISH: I want to talk about the cousin walk, the social media version of this. We've got a graphic to help people out. For those who partake. This is not my cousin. But basically, the idea is to avoid awkward relatives, return ready to

eat. I've heard that stoned guests are the best guests. That they're first to volunteer to run errands. I dispute this.

But can you talk about sort of what's the goal here? Is it what we think of the way we think of wine with a meal? Or is this plain old avoidance?

[06:25:09[

GAMERMAN: Well, I think it could be both. I -- you know, the holidays stress people out, but also, you've made a big effort to be there. So, maybe you want to be there, but you need to take the edge off a little bit.

The people who -- who really embrace this as a way of handling the holidays say, would you rather return to a table full of drunk relatives or stoned relatives? And they argue the stoned ones will be a lot more chill.

CORNISH: Choices, choices. Ellen Gamerman of "The Wall Street Journal," thank you so much.

GAMERMAN: Thank you.

CORNISH: And I want you to join CNN this Thanksgiving morning. We're going to have live coverage of the biggest parades across the country. Special performances, appearances by the Four Tops, Brad Paisley, The Temptations, the Harlem Gospel Choir, and more.

You're going to be joined by John Berman, Erica Hill, and sara Sidner.

That's "Thanksgiving in America." Live coverage starts tomorrow morning at 8 Eastern on CNN. And of course, you can watch it online at our app.

And straight ahead, we're going to be talking about immigration, once a winning issue for Republicans. But has the crackdown in America's cities by ICE changed Americans' views?

Plus, potential travel woes on Thanksgiving as winter weather enters the forecast.

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