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The Situation Room

Government Shutdown Looms; Trump to Meet with Congressional Leaders; Trump About to Meet Netanyahu at White House; Mayor Eric Adams Drops Out of Race. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired September 29, 2025 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The clock is ticking on a potential federal government shutdown. Congress and the White House have until midnight tomorrow night to reach a deal. If they can't find a compromise, hundreds of thousands of federal employees could either be furloughed or forced to work without pay. Some, in fact, could lose their jobs altogether.

I'm joined now by David Holway. He's the president of the National Association of Government Employees. He represents some 150,000 federal and state employees. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for all your important work. How many members do you believe will be impacted by this potential government shutdown? And what are you hearing from them?

DAVID HOLWAY, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES: Well, I believe that the threat has caused unbelievable harm to all federal employees. The head of OMB is using this shutdown, which I believe is going to happen, by the way, to fulfill his plan to fire, lay off, or whatever you want to say thousands and thousands of federal employees.

Federal employees are dedicated to the work they do. And it's unbelievable the risk that the Trump administration has put these people under. The pressure for the family as to, you know, when's the next paycheck coming? Are we going to be able to pay the mortgage or the rent? It's unbelievable chaos out there for our members.

BLITZER: I hear those concerns from so many federal employees who live here in the Washington, D.C. area, and there are a lot of them. The White House, David, as you know, has threatened to use a federal government shutdown right now to enact mass layoffs, simply fire thousands and thousands of government workers. Would that be legal, and how concerned are you that the president could follow through on this threat?

HOLWAY: Well, it's the head of OMB. It's been his lifelong goal to do exactly what they're going to do. And we're going to take whatever legal action we have available to stop them from doing this. The other part of this, Wolf, is that who would ever take a federal job? I mean, if the uncertainty of your next paycheck is there, nobody's going to want to work for the federal government, and they're going to lose all the institutional knowledge that these people have to keep the government running and servicing the people of the country.

BLITZER: Yes, it's a real concern. In just a few hours, President Trump will be meeting with top congressional leaders, Democrats and Republicans, to try and hammer out a deal. What's your message to the president and these lawmakers as this standoff reaches its final few hours?

HOLWAY: My message is stop acting like children and think about the services the federal government provides and the employees that have dedicated their whole lives to helping the American public live a good life. They're very petty, the whole bunch of them, to be honest with you.

[10:35:00]

BLITZER: Yes. All right. David Holloway, the president of the National Association of Government Employees, good luck to you, good luck to all those federal employees. We're grateful to all of them for all the important work that they do. Thanks so much for joining us.

HOLWAY: Well, thanks for having us.

BLITZER: And just ahead, a shocking discovery. A stowaway found dead in the landing gear of an American Airlines plane in Charlotte. What we're learning right now, stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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[10:40:00]

BLITZER: Happening now, a meeting between President Trump and the visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over at the White House is just a few minutes away. President Trump is pushing a 21- point plan to end the war in Gaza.

With us right now, CNN political and global affairs analyst Barak Ravid. He's also global affairs correspondent for Axios. Barak, thanks for joining us. I know your latest reporting is that President Trump is applying pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu to accept this 21- point plan. What are you expecting from this meeting that's going to be so critically important?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT, AXIOS: Hi, Wolf. Good morning. From what I hear from both U.S. and Israeli officials is that yesterday White House envoy Steve Witkoff and President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner sat with Benjamin Netanyahu and his confidant Ron Dermer for hours on hours to discuss the text of the U.S. proposal for a deal to end the war in Gaza, and that Netanyahu actually managed to narrow the gaps with the Trump administration over that text. I heard also from Arab officials who say that the Trump administration accepted several of Netanyahu's amendments to the text, something that raises some concerns in Arab countries.

President Trump at the moment is speaking with the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Thani to discuss the text and discuss those amendments. And so, I think that as we speak right now the negotiations are still ongoing.

BLITZER: I noticed that a lot of the reports on this 21-point plan, including a report posted by the Times of Israel said the U.S. plan, the 21-point plan calls for ending the Gaza war but also creating a pathway to a new Palestinian State that's something that Netanyahu totally opposes, right?

RAVID: Exactly. Netanyahu and his ultra-nationalist coalition partners. But I have to say, the text in the U.S. proposal is very vague. It talks about that it may happen it talks about a future path for a Palestinian, it doesn't even say Palestinian State it says Palestinian Statehood. So, the U.S., I think, intentionally tried to keep it as vague as possible to try to get both the Arab countries and Netanyahu to say, all right, this is good enough.

BLITZER: Hamas leaders, they have said repeatedly they haven't seen all of the details yet of this new U.S. proposal. Can the White House, you believe, get Hamas on board?

RAVID: So, when I spoke to President Trump yesterday, he told me that he thinks Hamas is on board. And President Trump explained it by the fact that, A, that's what some Arab countries, Arab and Muslim countries like Qatar, like Turkey are telling the White House, that they can get Hamas to go along with it. And second, because President Trump told me, look, this is a coalition of Arab and Muslim countries. You have Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey. It is very -- it will be very hard for Hamas -- if all of those countries say, this deal is good enough it will be very hard for Hamas to just ignore it and say, oh, we don't care, we want to continue the war and we reject that deal. So, I think this is what President Trump is basing his optimism on.

BLITZER: As you know, a lot of these Arab countries in the Middle East they appear to largely support the concept, the proposal that Trump is putting forward but they want specific assurances right now that Israel won't annex parts of the West Bank how much of a sticking point is that for Trump and Netanyahu?

RAVID: No, I think the annexation is dead. Trump killed it with one sentence last week when he spoke to reporters in the Oval Office and said that he won't allow Israel to annex. I think it is obvious to everybody, to Netanyahu even to his ultra-nationalist pro-settler coalition partners. It's obvious that this is not going to happen in the near future, and I would even say it's not going to happen as long as President Trump is in office.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens at this upcoming meeting. It's about to begin. Thanks very much, Barak Ravid.

RAVID: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Joining us from the White House. Coming up, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to vote today on whether or not to take up Ghislaine Maxwell's appeal to overturn her federal sex trafficking conviction. We're taking a closer look with a legal expert. That's just ahead.

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[10:45:00]

BLITZER: In another important twist in the New York City mayoral race that's captured the country's attention, the current mayor, Eric Adams, is officially abandoning his re-election campaign. Let's discuss this and more with Christina Greer, political science professor at Fordham University in New York, along with Larry Sabato, the director for the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. He's also the co-author of the brand-new book entitled, "Campaign of Chaos: Trump, Biden, Harris in the 2024 Election."

Larry, let me start with you. Mayor Adams has blamed media speculation and his campaign finance board for his withdrawal, but his time in office was marked by some corruption scandals and he was insistent that he'd be staying in this race for re-election. What do you see as the ultimate reason that he decided now to change his mind?

[10:50:00]

LARRY SABATO, CO-AUTHOR, "CAMPAIGN OF CHAOS" AND DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Because he's still in single digits, Wolf. The polling average has him at about 8.5 percent. 8.5 percent for the incumbent mayor of New York. I can't recall another race like this, not only in New York, but in a lot of other places too. That's miserable. And that's the reason he dropped out, whatever he says.

BLITZER: Yes, the poll numbers are not good for him. Christina, I want to take a closer look at these numbers for a potential three-way race. In a hypothetical three-way poll taken back in early September, that's a while ago, Mamdani maintains a significant advantage at 46 percent of likely voters. Cuomo, who is running as an independent now, with 30 percent. And the Republican candidate, Curtis Sliwa, trailing behind with 17 percent. How do you see this race shaking out now?

PROF. CHRISTINA GREER, FORDHAM UNIVERSITY: Yes, and just really quickly, Wolf, I want to add to what Larry said, you know, Eric Adams wasn't even running as a Democratic nominee. He was also running as an independent. So, those few voters that were still with Eric Adams need to go somewhere. We have to remember that even though Democratic registration in New York City is exponentially more than Republican registration there will be some people who will never be able to vote for a Democrat, and that's where you see Curtis Sliwa's numbers. He's sort of a fixture in New York City with his red beret. There are some folks who have left Adams and will most likely go to Cuomo.

But what we've seen with Mamdani and his ground game is that he's gone to all five boroughs. He's talking to lots of different communities and he is going to try and get those Eric Adams voters to articulate his vision of affordable housing, whether it's transportation, affordability of living in New York City, which is something that Eric Adams touched on four years ago when he ran for mayor.

BLITZER: Important point. Larry, let me get back to you. The President is weighing in on this race this morning posting on his social media platform, Truth Social, that Mamdani will be, quote, "one of the best things to ever happen to the Republican Party." He also threatened to withhold federal funding should Mamdani win the election in New York. How are you interpreting this threat from Trump and do you think the president's involvement in the race is helping or hurting Mamdani's campaign?

SABATO: Well, I would say, to answer the latter, any association with Donald Trump in New York City and a lot of other blue places is poison. And it's one of the reasons why Adams is doing so poorly although, remember, the Justice Department, which has turned increasingly political under Donald Trump pretty much took care of Eric Adams but it took care of his legal problem, but it also took care of him politically, although I don't think he would have won under any conditions.

As far as Mamdani is concerned, and he's a very, very likely winner, you're going to see a lot of him next year. You may see -- in the midterm elections, you may see him alongside AOC and some of the liberal Democrats that Republicans want to highlight, but you'll also see Republicans like Marjorie Taylor Greene. This is a standard operating procedure in politics today, associate more moderate candidates with the extremes in their party.

BLITZER: Interesting. Christina, it's unclear what Mayor Adams' next move is politically. How do you expect him to spend his last few months in office to solidify some sort of positive legacy?

GREER: That's a hard question, Wolf. I mean, he's in the lame duck phase of not just his mayoralty but possibly his career. I mean, we know that Eric Adams will probably have a soft landing. You know, some people speculate it could be with the Trump administration, some people speculate it could be with real estate. I mean, we've seen mayors consult for other cities not just domestically but abroad. So, I think Eric Adams will be fine.

The issue is, you know, are you going to continue to keep crime down? Which crime has been going down in New York? I mean, Eric Adams got into Eric Adams' own way, sadly. Because, by and large, the city is trending in a pretty positive direction, it's just the corruption, the Donald Trump swirling around him. So, I think, you know, reminding New Yorkers these last few months that he actually did do certain positive things over the past four years will be a difficult task especially since so much of the oxygen will be on Zohran Mamdani.

And don't forget, to Larry's point, next year we'll see Zohran Mamdani, if he is the winner, he'll be with Kathy Hochul, who's up for re-election, and she's the governor of New York State. So, that is another relationship that we'll see in these strange bedfellows in the Democratic Party.

BLITZER: Big picture. We're just over 37 hours, Larry, 37 hours away from a potential government shutdown. As you know, Democrats have signaled they won't support the GOP bill unless major concessions are made right now and they say they believe voters will ultimately blame Republicans for a government shutdown. How much political danger is there for Democrats if the government does shut down? [10:55:00]

SABATO: A lot, just like there's a lot of danger for Republicans. Wolf, we live in such a highly partisan, polarized era that the Democrats will believe what their Democratic leaders say about Republicans causing it, and Republican voters will believe what their Republican leaders say about Democrats causing it. This is just going to reinforce party ID, both sides will be blamed but by the partisans of the other party, and independently independents will split as they usually do.

BLITZER: Larry Sabato and Christina Greer, to both of you, thank you very, very much for your analysis. Appreciate it.

And coming up right after a short break, the man accused of shooting up a waterfront bar in North Carolina is expected in court. We have new details about the U.S. Marine veteran. That's coming up next.

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