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The Situation Room

Interview With Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO); Nancy Pelosi Announces Retirement; Talks Continue to End Shutdown. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired November 06, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:05]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Happing now, breaking news: The Trump administration is set to make a major announcement. We will bring that to you live.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Stand by for that.

And brand-new reporting just coming into CNN. Sources in both parties now say senators are pushing very hard to reach a deal to reopen the federal government in the coming days.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

And we begin with the breaking news. Right now, intense talks are under way to try to bring the ongoing government shutdown to an end, as lawmakers up on Capitol Hill are pushing to get a deal done by the end of this week, even possibly today.

Let's go live right now to CNN's Manu Raju.

Manu, tell us what you're learning.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, key negotiators right now are huddled, trying to figure out if there is a way out of this crisis, day 37 of this government shutdown, the longest in the history of the United States.

And there are talks that are going on about extending government funding up until either the end of the year or early January, as well tying it to a larger funding package as well. Democrats and Republicans are talking about this idea.

The big question is the sticking point over Obamacare, those Obamacare subsidies that Democrats have been demanding since the beginning to be extended because of concerns over the impact on people's health care premiums. The question Democrats are now grappling with is whether to allow for a -- agree to a separate vote to extend those subsidies and not tie it to the package that ultimately would become law that Trump would sign into law to reopen the government. I just caught up with one of the key negotiators a part of all this,

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat who is part of these talks and trying to decide whether she can get behind a plan to reopen the government.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-NH): I think talks continue to be productive, and hopefully we can get to a resolution. I think we need to get government back up. We need to make sure that people are getting their benefits so they can continue to eat. We need to make sure that airports are open and air traffic controllers are getting paid.

And we need to make sure that federal employees who have been RIFed are able to come back to work and then they get paid.

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): It ought to be part of whatever government funding agreement there is. And settling for some kind of vague promise about a vote in the future on some indeterminate bill without any definite inclusion in the law, I think, is a mistake.

RAJU: And it would be a letdown to your voters?

BLUMENTHAL: I think voters would rightly see it as a surrender.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And that is the division within the Democratic Party right now about how to proceed. A number of those Democrats have said we can't just allow for a simple vote to extend these Obamacare subsidies because it would not become law. It would not necessarily pass the House or get signed into law by the president of the United States.

But that may be the only way out of this, Wolf, is a compromise among some of those more moderate Democrats who say that we can have a vote, we can fight about this later, but we need to reopen the government now, as so many people are feeling such pain for the shutdown with air -- with flights now being canceled across the United States, people without paychecks, people without federal food assistance.

The pressure is really on at this critical moment. So expect some potential movement today, votes in the coming days if this deal can be reached, possibly as soon as today, Wolf.

BLITZER: Let's hope they reach that deal and avoid a lot of pain for millions and millions of Americans out there.

Manu, we're also following a major political development up on Capitol Hill today. Nancy Pelosi has just announced she's stepping down at the end of her term. Why did Nancy Pelosi announce her retirement now and what kind of reaction is all this getting?

RAJU: Yes, look, she is one of the most dominant figures in the Democratic Party and really one of those dominant figures on Capitol Hill in generations, someone who has been speaker twice, the first ever female speaker.

She's been on Capitol Hill since 1987 and is, of course, also 85 years old, so her decision to retire not a huge surprise, given where she is in the arc of her career. And so there was an expectation that ultimately that this would happen.

But for such a formidable presence within the Democratic Party, someone who had really ruled her caucus in a way that we have not seen other speakers do, getting legislation passed on some very controversial issues, and becoming a very polarizing figure also on the right, there are very few figures as prominent as Pelosi at this moment.

So Democrats are reacting, are praising her long tenure in the Democratic Party, Republicans too also praising her tenure, but both sides recognizing also this is another indication of the generational change that is ripping through the Democratic Party right now, as the party debates who is going to take them into -- out of the wilderness in this new era in battling Trump.

[11:05:08]

BLITZER: Our chief congressional correspondent, Manu Raju, up on Capitol Hill.

And I think I speak for all of us when we wish Nancy Pelosi only the best that she embarks on this next chapter in her life. Thank you very, very much, Manu.

BROWN: Certainly do.

We just had the Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on praising her as well.

BLITZER: She wished her...

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: She's gotten bipartisan praise, quite the life of service there.

Well, happening now, a shortage of air traffic controllers is causing more problems this morning, with New York's Liberty Airport reporting delays of more than 90 minutes.

BLITZER: This as airlines and air travelers are bracing for worse tomorrow, when the Trump administration says it will begin cutting flights at 40 major U.S. airports.

It's intended to try to ensure safety amidst air traffic controller staffing shortages caused by the government shutdown. Controllers have been working without paying out for 37 days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN DUFFY, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: They missed a partial payment in early October. They missed a full payment a week-and-a-half ago. This morning, they're getting their pay stubs that they're going to get another big fat zero, no paycheck for the second time. They have all told me it's really hard, really hard to navigate a full month of no pay, missing two pay periods.

So I think you're going to have more significant disruptions in the airspace. And as we come into Thanksgiving, if we're still in the shutdown posture, it's going to be rough out there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And one air traffic controller shared a copy of their empty pay stub with CNN. You see it right here and net pay zero.

Let's bring in Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association.

Nick, what more do we know about these reductions? This could impact so many people.

NICK DANIELS, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION: You know, Secretary Duffy and Administrator Bedford have been talking about the only way that you control and manage risk is by reducing the number of flights.

And we're right now operating. It's no surprise to anyone as the story has gone on that we only have 10,800 certified controllers. We're 3,800 short of what we actually need of 14,633. Controllers are resigning every day now because of the prolonged nature of the shutdown. We hadn't seen that before.

And we're also 400 controllers short, shorter than we were in the 2019 shutdown, the issues are getting worse by every day. And we're taking steps to -- steps are being taken to reduce that capacity of the airspace, mitigate risk where we can and put the controllers in a position to succeed.

BROWN: They're resigning every day. That's a big deal.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: It's huge. It's a huge development, especially as we're getting ready for a lot of air travelers around Thanksgiving. People are getting nervous about their flights, even as we speak right now.

The FAA says it plans to cut 10 percent of all flights starting tomorrow if a deal to reopen the government isn't reached. Will that be enough to get things back on track?

DANIELS: I think Secretary Duffy and Administrator Bedford are going to have to have close monitor of it.

They are taking those proactive steps of putting a smaller level of capacity to the airspace or a smaller number of flights, so that way air traffic controllers are a position to go to work, provide the best service they can. We're going to continue to show up to the best of our ability.

Our air traffic controllers right now, though, are every day -- not only to stress the frustration, the fear of this never ending, but also the level of hopelessness that's setting in, that's something I haven't heard an air traffic controller. They're a prideful group, but their mental health is something that we have to be concerned about as well.

BLITZER: It certainly is.

BROWN: Yes, we had one on the show who said he had to take a leave because he was having so much anxiety. That is certainly an issue there.

And I'm wondering. You talk about every day some are resigning, and this is already when you're dealing with a situation where there's a staffing shortage. So that is a big deal. You have air traffic controllers calling out sick. I'm wondering how much of this is also in protest when it comes to those calling out.

DANIELS: This isn't in protest. I think the term calling in sick probably gets used loosely in this -- during these heightened times like this.

But they're calling in saying, I don't have enough gas to get to work to their employer, to their supervisor and manager, and saying, what do you want me to do? I can't put gas in my car. Who's going to help me?

BLITZER: Because they don't have money, you mean.

DANIELS: Because they haven't got paid for over 37 days. I can't pay for my childcare. What -- can I bring my kids to work? They're not calling in sick. They're not calling in protest. They're calling in with real-life situations.

They're real people dealing with real-life circumstances. And when you don't pay somebody for 37 days and say, hey, just keep showing up and do your best, people are going to have issues and they're mounting daily.

BROWN: Weeks of delays and cancellations have so many air travelers frustrated. I want to play some sound of some of those air travelers we have spoken to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm kind of worried, though, because what's up with air traffic control? I don't want to deal with any delays.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the shutdown is ridiculous. Yesterday, of four legs that he had to fly, two of those four were canceled.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: What is your message to travelers right now? DANIELS: To the travelers, you can count on us to do what we do every

day and show up and do the best job that we possibly can, given the circumstances that we're in, but also want to acknowledge that I understand their frustration, because we're just as frustrated as well.

[11:10:08]

There's one way that they wouldn't be nearly as frustrated. And that's if this government shut down ended today. If it ended now and we continue to find ways to actually improve the system, that's the vision that we share with Secretary Duffy is increasing staffing, bringing the airspace back to the gold standard it was.

So, yes, I ask everyone, those people that are as frustrated as we are, contact your congressperson today, contact your senator and tell them, end this government shut down and end it now.

BLITZER: Yes, end it as quickly as possible.

What are you hearing -- what else are you hearing from your members? How many of them are reporting for work, for example, without pay? And how many are taking other jobs simply to make ends meet?

DANIELS: There's hundreds, if not 1,000 or more already taking a second job right now, especially when they saw another zero-dollar paycheck today.

But what's different than the 2019 shutdown, what I'm seeing right now is not only the resignations, but for the first time, so many saying I'm running out of money faster because I can't take a second job. Air traffic controllers were already working six-day workweeks, 10 hours a day, most times only having four days off in a month.

Trying to go home and care for your family and then find a second job, it's almost impossible this time around.

BLITZER: Are these air traffic controllers going to get reimbursed after the government shutdown ends? Will they get back pay?

DANIELS: They will get back pay, but it probably will drag on for over 2.5 months for them to actually be made whole from what's going on now. And that's another part of the problem is that they know that it takes so long for the government to catch up in that direction.

BROWN: Just really quickly, if the government reopens tomorrow, are you worried that there still could be a ripple effect from everything to impact Thanksgiving travel?

DANIELS: I -- absolutely worried. I mean, this has drug on so long, I don't think until the shutdown ends it'll take us months to come out of all the impacts that it's causing every single day.

BROWN: Regardless, there's probably going to be headaches and delays around Thanksgiving because of just the ripple effect? DANIELS: There were delays before the shutdown. There's obviously delays during the shutdown. There's going to be delays after the shutdown. And we're going to do everything we can to ensure that the American flying public knows They are safe, but also that we're doing everything we can to get them to their destination on time.

BLITZER: Well, We're totally grateful to air traffic controllers for keeping all of us safe, especially those of us who fly a lot.

BROWN: Yes, we are.

DANIELS: Thank you so much.

BLITZER: We appreciate it very much.

BROWN: Thank you.

BLITZER: Good luck to you. Good luck to all your colleagues, air traffic controllers.

DANIELS: Absolutely. Thank you both.

BROWN: Thank you. Such a tough situation for them.

Still ahead here in THE SITUATION ROOM, we're expecting what the Trump administration is billing as a major announcement. We are live from the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:17:10]

BROWN: At any moment, President Trump will make an announcement in the Oval Office.

Let's go live now to senior CNN White House correspondent Kristen Holmes.

Kristen, what are you learning about this?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Pamela, well the details are still vague, but one thing we know is that this is about the most favored nation initiative.

This is President Trump and the administration's push to get drug companies to lower their prices. Now, one of the things that our team has been reporting on in recent days has been just how close the administration is to making a deal with very specific drugmakers of those obesity drugs that would lower the price of them wildly.

We're talking about drugs that are generally over $1,000 being lowered in some cases to $149. So here's what we know about this. The White House is working on a deal with these makers of Ozempic, Wegovy, Zepbound, and Mounjaro.

And I do want to be clear, we are not clear that the deal they're going to announce or if they are announcing this deal is going to be with all of these drugmakers, but we do know that they had been in talks with these drugmakers.

This again is part of the push for lower prices, but also they would allow Medicare to cover the drug costs for some beneficiaries. This is, again, one of the things President Trump has promised he would do. He launched TrumpRx.

What's interesting about this specific, if this is the announcement specific with the weight loss drugs, is, this is probably the most high-profile drug on the market that would be entering into this kind of agreement with the Trump administration, and largely these prices are so prohibitive, it stops a lot of people from actually using the drugs.

So we're waiting to see if this is the announcement. We know again that they had been nearing a deal, but this would be significant for quite a few people. And just a reminder, President Trump has made deals with Pfizer, with AstraZeneca, all centered around this idea of direct-to-consumer prescriptions that would lower those prescriptions prices as part of his agenda.

BROWN: All right, Kristen Holmes, keep us posted from there at the White House -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And we will stand by to hear directly from the president about this issue that affects so many millions of people out there.

BROWN: Yes.

BLITZER: Also happening now, the Senate is in session. And CNN is learning more details right now about those bipartisan talks to potentially end the longest ever government shutdown.

Several centrist Senate Democrats are engaging in negotiations with Republicans right now, but other Democrats are stressing their colleagues should not capitulate until there's an extension of those critical health care subsidies expiring soon. And they're also pointing to today's election wins -- to Tuesday's election wins, I should say, as evidence their base wants Democrats to keep the pressure on.

Joining us now to discuss this and more is Democratic Congressman Jason Crow of Colorado. He's a key member of the House Intelligence and Armed Services committees.

Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

Should Senate Democrats, in your opinion, vote to open the government without an agreement, a formal agreement from Republicans, to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies?

[11:20:07]

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): Well, Donald Trump and congressional Republicans were the ones that shut this government down because they froze us out of negotiations. They literally recessed the House of Representatives over a month ago, haven't even opened the doors, literally not opening the doors, so we can't even debate and vote and negotiate.

And it was Donald Trump himself that said, don't work with the Democrats to do this, to go it alone and to blow up the filibuster. So it's really their decision about how they want to proceed here.

What I know for my part is I'm not going to do anything that's going to destroy health care for 30 million Americans. I'm not going to do anything that's going to allow Trump to continue to violate the Constitution and the rule of law. And I'm not going to do anything that's going to allow him to weaponize and starve children and families around this country.

BLITZER: At what point, Congressman, is the suffering of millions of Americans right now so great that Democrats and Republicans set aside their differences, at least from now, for now, and reopen the federal government?

CROW: This isn't about Democrats and Republicans setting aside differences.

Donald Trump actually has the money to feed these families. Congress appropriated $6 billion to actually put towards SNAP. This is lawfully appropriated money that Donald Trump has decided he does not want to spend because he is trying to weaponize hunger to gain leverage in a negotiation.

How sick and grotesque is that? We have had to go to the courts and get court orders to try to compel him to spin the money that Congress appropriated. And he's even trying to now ignore those court orders. So this is not a both sides issue. This isn't a both sides have to set aside differences.

One side is deciding to weaponize hunger, to violate the law, to violate the Constitution, to give tax breaks for the wealthiest and the largest corporations on the backs of health care for working-class Americans. And, meanwhile, Democrats are trying to stop that and protect people's health care.

BLITZER: We learned this morning, Congressman, that the former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who is 85 years old, plans to retire after her term ends, after nearly 40 years in Congress.

What's your reaction?

CROW: Well, this is an end of an era for this country. She's a remarkable leader, a remarkable person.

I came into Congress and, as you might recall, I was one of those members that flipped a seat and took a pledge not to vote for her, for speaker, and I stuck to that. But, in that time, after I got sworn in, she has become for me personally a mentor, a close friend. We have become very close. And then she has done remarkable things for this nation, for the Congress. And I will deeply miss her. And this country will miss her leadership.

BLITZER: On another sensitive issue, while I have you, Congressman, CNN is now reporting that the Trump administration told lawmakers today that the United States is not currently planning to launch strikes inside Venezuela and doesn't have a legal justification that would support attacks against any land targets, at least not right now.

What's your response to that?

CROW: Well, I'm deeply concerned about a large military buildup in the Caribbean. We have aircraft carrier battle groups going there, submarines, destroyers. We have over a 10th of the U.S. Naval assets prepositioning to the Caribbean.

And there are no clear answers about what this administration is doing. This is very risky stuff. We should be out of the regime change business. The last 25 years, if it taught us anything, the United States shouldn't be pushing to change regimes and nation-building. We spent $3 trillion doing that, 25 years doing it. It ended up poorly.

And I hope that this administration will not continue to repeat the mistakes of the past, but they seem to be on a crash course to do just that, in fact.

BLITZER: And, as I mentioned, you're a key member of the Intelligence and Armed Services Committee, so you're obviously well briefed on a lot of these issues.

There's reporting, Congressman, that you probably know about that the U.S. military is drawing up plans, plans to address violence against Christians in Nigeria. Do you believe the United States should get involved in that conflict?

CROW: I think leading with military and sending our military in that situation would be a disaster. That's what I think.

And this is yet another example of the Trump administration seeing a problem that they automatically think they can bomb their way out of. Donald Trump doesn't like a situation that -- or doesn't see any of these situations that he doesn't think he can just use the military to fix. And, again, I served three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. We spent over 20 years of our blood and our treasure suffering.

[11:25:06]

Have we learned nothing about leading with military first and not resorting to diplomacy, not resorting to the other tools in our toolbox? This is absurd. It's madness, actually, the extent to which this administration is so quick to just use our military for anything and everything.

BLITZER: Congressman Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado, thanks, as usual, for joining us.

CROW: Thank you.

BLITZER: Pamela.

BROWN: All right, coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM: The U.S. Supreme Court could be poised to hear a challenge to its own landmark decision that legalized same-sex marriage.

Next, we will get reaction from a plaintiff in the original case a decade ago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)