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Trump in Japan for the Second Leg of His Asia Tour; White House Prepares for Trump-Xi Meeting; Flight Delays Impacting Travelers. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired October 27, 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: Happening now, President Trump is in Japan for the second leg of his Asia tour. But the most highly anticipated part of the trip is his sit down with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday. It will mark the first in-person meeting between the two men since President Trump returned to office back in January.

Joining us now to discuss this and more, the former U.S. Ambassador to both China and NATO, Nicholas Burns. Ambassador, thanks so much for joining us. As you know, U.S. and Chinese officials recently announced they reached a framework agreement on trade with the Treasury Secretary, saying those threatened additional 100 percent tariffs on Chinese imports are now, in his words, off the table. Tell us why that is so significant.

NICHOLAS BURNS, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO NATO AND FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO CHINA: Well, Wolf, this is positive news. It's good news that the presidents of the two largest economies in the world are going to get together. They actually haven't met since 2019, back in President Trump's first term. And they've been engaged in a six-month trade war.

I don't think, Wolf, this is the end of the trade war. I think it's an uneasy truce. But, you know, that's progress in itself. It means that the United States will not go forward, apparently, with its 100 percent additional tariffs on China. And it means that China will put on hold, the reports are, for at least a year, its rare earth sanctions and export restrictions on the United States and other countries, that would have frozen trade in many respects between the two countries.

So, perhaps this is an opportunity for the two presidents to get together and to make sure that we can continue trade. China is our third largest trade partner.

BLITZER: We don't have all the details about the talks between the U.S. and China, but we do know fentanyl, rare earth minerals, soybeans, and TikTok were all discussed and will be addressed by President Trump and Xi Jinping. What would be the most important deliverable out of their upcoming meeting, in your view, Ambassador?

BURNS: Well, certainly, the United States -- China's the largest market for American agriculture. And unfortunately, for the last year or so, the Chinese have not purchased agricultural products, particularly soybeans. Two years ago, the United States sold $14 billion worth of soybeans to China. And now, unfortunately, the number is zero. So, I think that will be a deliverable, but obviously help on fentanyl.

Fentanyl is a leading cause of death in our society, Americans 18 to 49, and the majority of the precursor chemicals come from the Chinese black market. So, I think that there are real deliverables that President Trump is going to achieve, and that's positive.

Here's the cautionary note, Wolf. The United States has prohibited the export of advanced semiconductors for A.I. purposes into the Chinese market, because we want to deny that to the PLA, the People's Liberation Army. I hope that that will not be what the Chinese have won in this negotiation. There's no information on it yet, but I hope that that's not something that we go to in order to seal this deal with the Chinese, because it would be injurious to the American military in our long-term competition with China.

[10:35:00]

BLITZER: Yes, there's so much at stake right now. The treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said yesterday that the TikTok deal between the U.S. and China is set to be finalized, he predicts, on Thursday when the two leaders meet. I want to play some of what the Russians of the House China Committee said about that. Listen and watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN MOOLENAAR (R-MI): I'm still concerned about it. Quite frankly, you know, the Chinese report to the Chinese Communist Party, and they will leverage every advantage they get. As long as they're involved, I think we have to recognize that TikTok, even in an American version, still could be open to influence from the Chinese Communist Party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: What do you make of that assessment, Ambassador?

BURNS: You know, I think, Wolf, on the TikTok deal, there's been an absence of detail as to what exactly will happen. What will be -- what will the consortium of U.S. companies who buy TikTok or run it, what that -- what kind of restrictions will be placed on them or not? And I think until we see on TikTok and on fentanyl, and really even in agricultural products, these three big issues in the relationship, until we see the details, it'll be hard to be judged just how solid this agreement is, this uneasy truce between the U.S. and China.

And I think it is an uneasy truce. I think, unfortunately, our two countries are going to be dueling on trade for some time to come. That's not the fault of President Trump so much as it is the Chinese, who have been a very destabilizing part of the global trade picture for decades, as you well know.

BLITZER: Yes. Good point. President Trump also says he would, quote, "love to see," his words, "love to see" the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Un", during his Asia trip. There are no known scheduled plans for such a meeting. What could come out of that besides merely a photo opportunity?

BURNS: It's hard to see what good could come out of it because in this sense, you see now North Korea firmly tied to President Putin in Russia as a strategic partner. North Korea providing troops on the battlefield against the Ukrainians. North Korea aligning with Iran, China, and Russia.

You remember that photo, Wolf, from September 3rd, just two months ago, of the commemoration of World War II, the victory parade in China. Those four leaders lined up together. They're trying to undercut the United States. So, at this point, I think the meeting with President Xi Jinping far more important. And frankly, there's another leader that President Trump will have to deal with, hopefully more constructively, Prime Minister Modi of India. And India and the U.S. are in a major disagreement now. So, I would recommend prioritizing the India relationship and the China relationship over North Korea.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens, Ambassador Nicholas Burns. As usual, thank you very much for joining us.

BURNS: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: And as President Trump travels across Asia, we're learning new details right now about a medical visit the president recently made to the Walter Reed Medical Center. While aboard Air Force One today, President Trump revealed he had an MRI during that hospital visit this month. It's the first time he has provided details of the tests he underwent during this, his second medical exam this year, raising new questions about the president's health. President Trump didn't provide details on why he needed the MRI, but told reporters the results were, in his word, perfect. Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, knew this morning's dramatic video of the rescue of an infant trapped under a vehicle in Fort Worth, Texas. Right here, police body cameras captured bystanders lifting that car so officers could pull the baby free.

Amelia Mugavero from CNN affiliate KTVT shows us the life-saving measures officers took to save that infant's life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMELIA MUGAVERO, KTVT (voice-over): What you're seeing is heart- pounding video of Fort Worth Police Sergeant Nichols.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's tight.

MUGAVERO (voice-over): Assisted by Officer Bounds (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Under here. We need to move the car.

MUGAVERO (voice-over): Responding to a rollover crash Thursday morning.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the baby's under here.

MUGAVERO (voice-over): On Westbound I-30 near East Chase.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep moving, keep moving, keep moving.

MUGAVERO (voice-over): It's this moment that officers know they have a tiny life in their hands and their training takes over. Nichols performed CPR, Bounds assisting, pushing and pushing for a pulse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, roll over, get out of there now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She has a pulse.

MUGAVERO (voice-over): After more than three minutes, that felt like eternity. The sweetest sound, a baby's cry.

[10:40:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you before or after (INAUDIBLE)?

OFFICER BUDDY CALZADA, FORTH WORTH POLICE: You don't feel the relief right then and there, you feel the relief moments later after your adrenaline's all worked up. You do what the police department has trained you to do.

MUGAVERO (voice-over): Officer Buddy Calzada says it was their new police chief Eddie Garcia's decision to post the now viral video on their social media showing their officers heroic actions to the world.

CALZADA: And he said these officers are heroes. The community needs to know how amazing the Fort Worth Police Department is. And he wanted to get it out immediately.

MUGAVERO (voice-over): Chief Garcia posted to X saying, our prayers are with this little angel as a full recovery is expected. Not quite sure a better example of protect and serve exists.

CALZADA: Well, it says on our vehicles that we're dedicated to protect. You know, we give you service with respect, and nothing says that more than the video that you're able to watch right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Wow. I had chills watching that. And then to hear the little baby make sounds, because at first you're like, is the baby OK? And then through the work of those first responders.

BLITZER: Especially when that police officer was giving restoration. I mean, it was really moving.

BROWN: The first responders. Thank you so much. And our thanks to Amelia Mugavaro for that report. We want to make sure you all know the mother and baby. They're in the hospital, but both are currently stable and they're expected to make a full recovery. And investigators tell our affiliate that they're still trying to determine if that baby was strapped properly into a car seat.

Well, a driver's close call with an airplane is caught on camera right here in Oklahoma City. Dashcam video shows the moment a small Air Force training jet makes a hard landing on the highway. Can you imagine you're just driving along and then a plane is coming right to you? Firefighters say the plane hit two power poles before it came to a stop in a field. Two people were on board and they're both OK. Fortunately. The National Guard is investigating this.

BLITZER: Thank God for that as well. Coming up right now, more than 1,400 flights across the United States are delayed. 1,400 flights and the current staffing shortages across air traffic control towers aren't helping the situation. The one-two punch that travelers are facing this morning all across the U.S. We have details just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:45:00]

BLITZER: The race's front runner, Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani addressed supporters in Queens, New York on Sunday. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders were on stage with him. Mamdani had words for one of his biggest critics. We're talking about Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZOHRAN MAMDANI, NEW YORK MAYORAL CANDIDATE: While Donald Trump's billionaire donors think that they have the money to buy this election, we have a movement of the masses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: CNN's Gloria Pazmino was at the rally and has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Zohran Mamdani just wrapping up his speech here tonight alongside Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders, encouraging his supporters to go out there and continue to campaign. He told them here tonight that they should not take any of this for granted. He said he expects his opponents to continue spending millions of dollars over the next nine days to oppose his campaign. He asked them to continue to go out and canvas for his campaign over the next few days until Election Day.

Now, he also spoke about his campaign promises to freeze the rent, to make the city buses fast and free, and to provide universal child care. He talked about how that has been the core tenet of his campaign and how he is hoping that the support he has been able to get so far will enable him to deliver on that promise. He also talked about President Trump. He said that this election is a choice between democracy and oligarchy.

Oligarchy, a reference to the former governor, Andrew Cuomo, and his millionaire and billionaire donors, which have been funding his campaign and donating to Super PACs that are opposing Mamdani's campaign. He talked about how this campaign was about working-class people, echoing many of the same messages that we have heard from Bernie Sanders, from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

You could really feel in the reaction of the crowd and in what they were saying, this fight that the Democratic Party is having right now, whether or not they should act more to the left or more to the center as they try and figure out how to oppose President Trump.

Another interesting point that Mamdani said here tonight, he said that when he started this campaign, he went out and talked to voters who had supported Donald Trump for a second time because of the cost of living. He said that he heard from New Yorkers who were willing to support Trump over that issue, and he said that Trump so far has failed to deliver. And that's the uniting message of this campaign, he said here tonight.

There is still a few more days to go until the general election, which is on November 4th. Thousands of New Yorkers have already cast their ballots. Mamdani telling me earlier today he is not taking any of this for granted. He will continue to campaign until the last minute.

Gloria Pazmino, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: All right. New this morning President Trump is ruling out a 2028 vice presidential run, saying it would be, quote, "too cute." But he was not so definitive about pursuing a possible third term as president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We have J.D., obviously, the vice president. He's great. Marco is great. I think -- I'm not sure if anybody would run against us.

[10:50:00]

I would love to do it. I have the best numbers ever. It's very terrible. I have the best numbers If you read it --am I not ruling it out? You'll have to tell me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, President Trump has been dangling this out there. But here's the thing. You know, there's this 22nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution that simply reads, quote, "No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice." And these comments come as possible Democratic presidential candidates speak out about their ambitions. Wolf.

BLITZER: And here's a copy of the Constitution. I went through it and it's very, very precise. The words of the 22nd Amendment, indeed. Joining us now to discuss this and more, CNN political commentator and former communications director for Vice President Harris Jamal Simmons. Jamal, thanks very much for joining us. We're going to get to the Democrats in a moment. But first, your thoughts on these latest remarks from President Trump.

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, VICE PRESIDENT HARRIS: Well, Wolf, I appreciate you bringing out the old Constitution. It seems like these days we need to keep referring back to the basic documents because so many of the rules and questions that we have about how the government's supposed to work all seem to be in question in this moment.

We're just not sure exactly which rules apply. I mean, from whether it's tearing, who's in charge of tearing down the White House, the pieces of the White House, or who's in charge of whether or not people can get fired or put military on the streets, which has seemed to be against posse comitatus. So, the question about 2028 seems like it's one that's settled.

But in the Trump era, we just can't be sure that someone might try to pull some shenanigans and we end up having us out in the courts in 2027, 2028.

BROWN: All right. So, let's watch some possible Democratic contenders, including your former boss, and what they're saying about the 2028 presidential campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM, (D-CA): Who presents themselves in 2028 and who meets that moment. And that's the question for the American people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it fair to say after the 2026 midterms, you're going to give it serious thought?

NEWSOM: Yes, I'd be lying. Otherwise, I'd just be lying. And I can't do that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When are they going to see a woman in charge in the White House?

KAMALA HARRIS, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: In their lifetime, for sure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Could it be you?

HARRIS: Possibly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you made a decision yet?

HARRIS: No, I have not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, what do you think? Do you believe she is successfully positioning herself worth a third presidential bid after losing to President Trump last cycle? What's your take? SIMMONS: You know, losing is very often a good way of a politician taking stock and coming back stronger. I mean, every president that we've seen in the modern era, whether it was Ronald Reagan or Barack Obama or Bill Clinton, have all lost a political race in their life. Donald Trump, not only did he lose a political race, but before that, he'd gone bankrupt a few times. And so, he backed from that.

So, battling back from a loss is something that I think Americans -- so the vice president has to ask herself some really tough questions. What happened? What was my responsibility? Not what happened in the environment, not what obstacles were before me. What did I do wrong? And what could I -- I think the question she's got to ask is, why me? What is my vision for the country? Why am I the best person to get that vision done?

Because when you're running for president, you've got to have that kind of a lodestar, something in front of you that you're guided by, that will help determine whether or not you're going to choose to go one course or choose to go another, regardless of what staff say. You've got to tell staff -- sometimes, this is what I want to do. Everybody just make your peace with it. We're going to move forward.

So, she's the only person who can answer those questions. I think she's going to have to if she's going to run for president again.

BROWN: All right. Jamal Simmons, thanks so much.

BLITZER: Thanks from me as well. Also coming up, my Buffalo Bills break a two-game losing streak with a major win against the Panthers. Josh Allen making NFL history in the process with a little help from what's called the Tush Push. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:55:00]

BROWN: The World Series is back in Los Angeles tonight as the Dodgers look for a win at home.

BLITZER: To take a closer look at what's going on right now, CNN's. Carolyn Manno is joining us. What are some things to watch for in this game three tonight?

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Well, good afternoon to you both. This one's really pivotal tonight at Dodger Stadium, the series has shifted back to L.A. Game two in Toronto really felt like a must win for the Dodgers after the Blue Jays opened the series in such a dominant fashion, they scored 11 runs. But now that this series is split at a game apiece, tonight is just as crucial in terms of momentum.

And the pitching matchup is very intriguing. You've got a veteran and a future Hall of Famer versus a flame thrower on the hill between Toronto's Max Scherzer and L.A.'s Tyler Glasnow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAVE ROBERTS, LOS ANGELES DODGERS MANAGER: I know Scherzer from years past, and we have to know that he's going to come in and compete and make pitches, and we going to have a good game plan and execute and play sound baseball, and you know, then everything will take care of itself.

JOHN SCHNEIDER, TORONTO BLUE JAYS MANAGER: It's a battle. You know what I mean? It's -- these guys have really good stuff. Our guys have really good stuff. We have really good hitters. They have really good hitters. So, it comes down to really making one pitch at a time not being predictable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANNO: And if Wolf is a happy man this morning, it's because his Bills routed the Panthers 40 to 9 on Sunday. James Cook was particularly impressive. He ran for career high 216 yards and two touchdowns. Josh Allen had three touchdowns on the day, two on the ground, and both utilizing the tush push, which he said publicly is a play that he is in favor of. Allen also made some history by recording a passing touchdown and a rushing touchdown in the same game for the 46th time in his career surpassing Cam Newton for most all time.

I'm not sure, Wolf, if I'm on the show, just to talk about the tush push, just to --

[11:00:00]