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The Situation Room

Interview With Fmr. Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH); Air Travel Chaos; Trump Meets With Syrian President; Millions Face Skyrocketing Health Care Premiums. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired November 10, 2025 - 11:30   ET

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

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: This morning, U.S. senators are coming back to the chamber just hours after a breakthrough vote toward ending the federal government shutdown, a handful of Democrats and one independent making a deal with Republicans in exchange for a promised vote on whether to extend subsidies for the Affordable Care Act.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Those subsidies expire at the end of the year, and if Congress lets them lapse, millions of families face health care premiums that could double or even triple, raising the question of how many might be forced to leave the program.

CNN's Gabe Cohen joins us now.

Gabe, you have been talking to people who use Obamacare. What have they been telling you?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so, Pam, we're talking about 24 million, about, Americans who are -- get their health insurance through the ACA marketplace, what many folks out there know as Obamacare.

And there's this brutal double whammy happening at this moment where premiums are going up, and, at the same time, these federal subsidies that have been paying a high percentage of people's monthly premiums for the past few years are going away.

And so we're hearing from folks who are going to be paying hundreds of dollars more, in some cases more than $1,000, up to $2,000 more each month just to have health insurance. And it's leaving them to make these really brutal decisions. Some of them are saying, I need to go out there and get a corporate job, try to find something where I can get health insurance.

Others are going to be downgrading their health insurance, going from those gold plans to a bronze plans with way less coverage, paying a higher deductible. And then, as you mentioned, there are some who are saying, I'm going to have to forego my coverage altogether. I spoke to a woman, a 63-year-old in Alabama. She's been battling lung

cancer. She told me her insurance is about to go from $540 a month to more than $1,700.

BROWN: Wow.

COHEN: She said she just got -- cannot afford it. Like most folks out there, even if you have savings, you're thinking 1,000 bucks more a month. She says she just cannot afford it. This is a little bit of what she told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUNNY MONTGOMERY, AFFORDABLE CARE ACT ENROLLEE: I have to face the reality that I am probably going to become a late-stage cancer patient who's uninsured.

COHEN: If you don't have insurance, what will that mean for your scans and your treatments and your oxygen?

MONTGOMERY: I won't have any of those. Life's going to get a lot harder.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: And one of the things we have heard from the president just in the last couple of days is this idea of saying, well, instead of paying these subsidies directly to insurance companies, what if instead we reroute those billions of dollars into the pockets of the Americans who were getting these subsidies and let them use that money to shop around for their own better health care, as the president put it?

We don't know exactly what the mechanics of that might look like. The reality, though, for so many of these folks, they were telling me, get these lawmakers back to the Capitol, back to Washington, let's get a deal in place, because this is not sustainable, and they just want some sort of solution figured out to help them.

BLITZER: You're referring to this idea that the president floated of giving Americans who make less than rich Americans $2,000 each.

COHEN: Well, that's actually a separate thing, the tariff rebates that the president was talking about, saying that using that tariff money to essentially pay back millions and millions of Americans who have been experiencing these higher costs.

Wolf, that's even separate than what we're talking about, where the president has said, let's reroute the money that was going to health insurance companies. I think, though, both of those speak to the pressure that the president and Republicans are facing right now as costs are going up for so many folks who are struggling, who are saying, why can Congress not figure this out to help alleviate some of those pains on us?

BLITZER: Good point. Excellent work. Thank you, Gabe. BROWN: Thank you so much, Gabe. Appreciate it. Good to see you.

And just ahead here in THE SITUATION ROOM: It was the worst weekend for air traffic control staffing since the start of the shutdown. Now that there's a possible deal, how soon could things turn around for travelers?

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BLITZER: We've got more breaking news, truly historic breaking news unfolding right now, a historic meeting happening this morning between the Syrian President, Ahmed al-Sharaa, and President Trump at the White House.

This is the first time a Syrian head of state has been welcomed at the White House. The U.S. once considered al-Sharaa a jihadist militant and put him on a wanted list with a $10 million bounty. Al-Sharaa's forces took control of Syria after overthrowing the Bashar al-Assad regime late last year.

And joining us now is former U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford.

Ambassador Ford, thanks so much for joining us.

I'm sure you agree this is historic, what's going on right now.

When the Bashar al-Assad regime was still in place, you once called for the U.S. to support Syria's opposition. Does this visit by al- Sharaa now come full circle to the change you were once calling for?

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ROBERT FORD, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO SYRIA: So the visit is exactly as you say. It's quite historic.

And I think it's a sign that Syria, in a sense, is looking forward to building a new, warmer relationship with the United States and with the West more generally.

BLITZER: Based on what you know, Ambassador, is there still some skepticism here in the United States over al-Sharaa being -- given the fact that he was once considered a militant?

FORD: So you have to judge people on the basis of what they do. For sure, he had close ties to al Qaeda in Iraq during the early stages of the war in Iraq. He was fighting against American forces.

But he broke with al Qaeda in 2016. He ended up fighting vicious battles against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria beginning in 2014 and 2015. And he repeatedly pledged that there would be no terrorist attacks against Western targets from areas he controlled in Syria. And he kept that promise.

Since then, now that he's in charge of the government, again, he is not following jihadi ideology as he slowly, gradually asserts control over the country.

BLITZER: How important is Syria right now under this new leadership to a stable Middle East? And I ask this question, Ambassador, because I'm sure that President Trump will try to convince al-Sharaa, the new president of Syria, to join what's called the Abraham Accords and establish full relations with Israel.

FORD: I think the Trump administration would like to see Syria join the Abraham Accords. Syria is one of two of Israel's neighbors that do not have a formal peace treaty, have not normalized relations.

Sharaa does not want to fight a war with Israel. He has made that abundantly clear in private conversations as well as publicly, his emphasis is on rebuilding. And at the same time, the Trump administration is happy with Sharaa, because Sharaa does not want Iranian influence in Syria.

Sharaa is, for example, strongly against Hezbollah in Lebanon. And these are positive things for Israeli national security interests, but we are still some distance from a formal peace agreement between Damascus and Jerusalem.

BLITZER: Yes, we will see if that unfolds.

In just the last few days, as you probably heard, Ambassador, the Syrian government under al-Sharaa has been carrying out more operations against various ISIS cells in Syria. How much of a threat is ISIS right now to Syria and indeed to the Middle East?

FORD: Well, as I said, Sharaa has been fighting against ISIS for more than 10 years. And there are even stories in the media that the Syrian government failed -- foiled recently two assassination attempts against Sharaa at the hands of ISIS.

ISIS is nothing like it was, say, in 2015-2016, when it controlled a large chunk of Syrian and Iraqi territory, and it was well-financed. Now there are remnants of ISIS, primarily in Eastern Syria. And although they cannot capture territory, they do remain a threat.

And so Sharaa is fighting against them, as are American counterterrorism forces working with a local American ally, a militia led by Kurdish fighters called the Syrian Democratic Forces.

BLITZER: The former U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it very, very much.

FORD: My pleasure.

BLITZER: Pamela.

BROWN: All right, coming up, Wolf: air traffic chaos, thousands of flights delayed and canceled.

After the break, I will speak with the president of the Airlines for America about the ongoing air traffic control crisis plaguing airports across the country. We will be right back.

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BROWN: Right now, a nightmare at the nation's airports, despite glimmers of hope for an end to the government shutdown. More than 2,000 flights have already been canceled for today and tomorrow, and that's coming off the worst weekend since the start of the shutdown.

The head of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association had this to say last hour:

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NICK DANIELS, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION: We've seen a shutdown go longer than any time in history, and every single day it's presenting a new challenge. You can't predict what the issues are, because, again, if the shutdown is to end tomorrow, controllers still haven't been paid yet.

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BROWN: And while air traffic continues -- air travel, I should say, continues causing headaches and anxiety, some pilots are doing their part to ease travelers' fears.

Take a listen to this message from this Delta pilot when he was telling -- talking to passengers before the flight took off last week.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know we probably have quite a few nervous flyers today. It is perfectly understandable. I want to emphasize this aircraft does not move a single inch unless both my co-captain, Michael, and myself are absolutely certain it's safe to do so.

[11:50:13]

Top that off, before I left the house on this trip, my little one has learned the word ice cream. And she made me make sure I promised her to get her ice cream when I get back home from the trip. That being said, nothing and I mean absolutely nothing, unsafe comes in between and that little girl and her ice cream.

I know you guys probably have some similar plans, maybe not tonight, but probably tomorrow afternoon with once we you get -- please feel free to join our Wi-Fi and take care of picking out which place you guys are going to get ice cream or shoot your friends and family and texts about what you are doing on the flight.

It's going to be short. It should be a really nice day to go flying. We will get you guys up there safely. Again, thank you so much for your help here in the boarding process. We will get under way. Welcome aboard. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Very sweet.

Joining us now is the president of Airlines for America, an airline lobbying group based in D.C. and former New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu.

Hi there. Welcome to the show.

So, tell us first of all, your reaction to the news that the government shutdown appears to be nearly over.

FMR. GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU (R-NH): We're so excited. We are very excited. We still have a long way to go. It's still going to be a bit of a bumpy week, but we're incredibly grateful.

Being from New Hampshire, very proud of Senators Shaheen and Hassan. They -- those two really led the charge, bringing some other Democrats on board, Senator Rosen, Senator Kaine joining Senator Fetterman. They really made the difference because this thing had very, very little room for error.

So we're very grateful for those initial steps that's putting momentum. But what does it mean for the passenger? What does it mean for your viewers? It means still a tough week ahead. The FAA still has mandated cancellations ramping up over the course of the week.

The reason being is that, as Nick Daniels just said there, the head of the air traffic controllers, it's going to take a while to both have the vote on Wednesday, get some of these controllers back in. So we want to take as much pressure off of that system and they have mandated some canceled flights.

And as you noted at the very top, it isn't really just 4 percent and going to 6 percent. When you cancel a plane going here to here, that means the other flights that that plane was going to take down the line also have to get canceled. Crews have to get moved. The logistics behind canceling and moving crews and getting the assets where they need to be to just hit 4 percent, it's virtually impossible.

So what ends up happening? I think yesterday we got to almost 10 percent of flights nationally; 10 percent actually got canceled because of the very complicated logistics that airlines have to deal with. So we're going to still be in that world, unfortunately. There's going to be delays as the controllers come back.

There's going to be a lot of cancellations that the FAA is mandating, all in the name of safety. And that pilot got it exactly right. Nothing takes off, nothing goes in the air without everyone being completely assured that it's safe. So everyone should feel comfortable about that. Keep your holiday plans. Build into your holiday plans. The system is going to be up running, viable and resilient by the time Thanksgiving and Christmas come.

And that's just a great sign for everybody. BROWN: That is certainly the hope. But as you noted, even if the

government opens this week, there still could be some lasting impacts. We heard that also from the transportation secretary, Sean Duffy. This is what he recently said. Let's listen.

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SEAN DUFFY, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: I used to have about four controllers retire a day before the shutdown. I'm now up to 15 to 20 a day are retiring. So it's going to be harder for me to come back after the shutdown and have more controllers controlling the airspace. So this is going to live on in air travel well beyond the time frame that this government opens back up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So you just had a very optimistic view about Thanksgiving travel, but he is making the case, look, there are massive staffing shortages with these air traffic controllers that were already leaving before the shutdown. Now the shutdown just compounded that.

So, realistically, how do you see that the holiday travel, especially around Thanksgiving, playing out?

SUNUNU: I think we're going to be OK. We're going to be -- the numbers are going to look similar to what they saw in July, August and September, which was actually very solid. This past summer, we had some really great numbers, but he's absolutely right.

You have had 100 or more controllers retire since the beginning of the shutdown. And what he's really referencing is all the investment in the air traffic control modernization, a $20 billion to $50 billion investment that the government, frankly, should have been making 20 years ago.

They're finally getting around to it. And they're investing in certifications, training programs, simulators, all the things to bring air traffic controllers, TSA agents, all the back end people that need to make the system work. They're aggressively training those people into the system. That has definitely taken a step back.

So I think the lag that we're going to see is more on the six-to-12- month lag, trying to fill a lot of the empty spaces of air traffic controllers. That's clearly going to slow down a little bit. But hopefully with the new dollars coming in, the new technologies coming on board that have already been approved, that will help make up some of the ground a little quicker than historically has happened.

But he's right. A lot of controllers have walked away, but it doesn't mean the system isn't resilient. Doesn't mean anything's not safe.

BROWN: OK.

[11:55:00]

SUNUNU: It just means that we have to do a little more on our end to make sure that we get folks certified back in there.

BROWN: Running out of time, so I want to ask you about Trump -- President Trump's proposal weighing in on the air traffic controller shortage on social media, demanded they get back to work and saying he would recommend a $10,000 bonus for controllers who did not take off work during the shutdown.

Quickly, do you support that?

SUNUNU: I support any incentive to make sure controllers are there at work and any incentive to make sure the controllers and TSA agents are not the political punching bag for the nonsense in Washington going forward.

I think that's our biggest challenge. How do we make sure that, when they shut down government, this doesn't happen to the American people again?

BROWN: All right, former Governor Chris Sununu, thank you so much.

SUNUNU: You bet.

BLITZER: And thanks from me as well.

And, to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning. You can always keep up with us on social media @WolfBlitzer and @PamelaBrownCNN.

BROWN: We will see you back here tomorrow morning and every weekday morning at 10:00 Eastern.

"INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" starts after this quick break, our friend and colleague, I should add.