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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson
Democrats Sweep The First Major Elections Of Trump's Second Term; Californians Approve Democrats' Anti-Trump Redistricting Push; At Least 7 Killed, 11 Injured After UPS Plane Crashes Near Louisville Airport; Former Vice President Dick Cheney Dies At 84. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired November 05, 2025 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[04:32:50]
ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Election night is now election morning. That is a shot of the capitol here in Sacramento, California. I'm Elex Michaelson live for you right now.
BRIAN ABEL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONENT: And I am Brian Abel here in Washington, D.C. we have the coast covered this morning. Democrats have swept the first major elections of President Trump's second term. CNN projecting Democrat Zohran Mamdani will be the next mayor of New York City. He beat former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who ran as an independent after Mamdani beat him in the Democratic primary.
CNN also projects that Mikie Sherrill will win the New Jersey governor's race, making her the first female Democratic governor in the state's history. And CNN projects Abigail Spanberger will become the first female elected governor of Virginia, flipping the top state office from Republican leadership.
MICHAELSON: Democrats won major victories across the U.S. on election night, one of the most significant right here in California. CNN projects California voters will approve Prop 50 in response to Texas Republicans redrawing their congressional maps to add potentially five Republican seats.
Voters in California, see with a big margin right there with 64 percent agreed to temporarily get rid of the state's independent redistricting committee in favor of a new map. We're about to see it potentially add five Democratic seats. CNN's Boris Sanchez explains more about what risk redistricting is really all about.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Redistricting has sparked major political and legal battles, but what exactly is it? Let's break it down using this hypothetical imaginary state as an example. Say our state has allocated five congressional districts based on its population. Each district should hold about the same number of people so that its representation in Congress is equal.
[04:35:00]
Redistricting typically happens every 10 years following the release of the U.S. census. So 10 years later, the newest census shows us that our imaginary state still has the same number of people, but many have moved around to different neighborhoods. So the state redraws its five districts to balance things out. The new map isn't quite as neat, but it is better representative of where people live.
Now, what if our state's voters leaned something like this? Under these new district lines, the balance of power is three seats for party A, two for party B. And say in our hypothetical that party A is in charge of drawing the map, they may be inclined to redistrict in a way that boosts their party's advantage, so they might redraw their lines something like this, shifting the balance of power to four seats for A and just one for B.
When district lines are drawn this way to give one party more power, that is called gerrymandering. And what's the result? Voters might not be fairly represented. What's not hypothetical? Both Democrats and Republicans use gerrymandering across the country.
Under current law, racial gerrymandering, or drawing lines to minimize the voting power of a specific racial group, is illegal. But partisan gerrymandering is allowed under federal law. And there are ongoing arguments about what a fair map really looks like and how to best represent a state.
So when you see districts stretched and warped into abstract shapes, it can be a sign of gerrymandering. And those potential party gains, even small ones, matter. In recent years, control of the House has been decided by razor thin margins. Even a single seat could determine which party controls the chamber.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAELSON: The big story here in California on Election Day is Prop 50 passing, which means that there will be a brand new congressional map before voters. The person who helped to draw that map is with me right now. His name is Paul Mitchell. Paul, congratulations on a big win.
PAUL MITCHELL, DATA CONSULTANT AND FOUNDER, REDISTRICTING PARTNERS: Well, I mean, it's a big win for the governor, for his campaign, it's a big win for California, and I think it's a big win for the country because we have a pushback against the Trump administration and what he's been trying to do around the country to kind of rig these elections ahead of '26.
MICHAELSON: Give us a sense of the backstory here of how we got here.
MITCHELL: It all started with a bluff. I mean, the reality was that when this first happened, when Donald Trump went into Texas and said, I want five more districts, we didn't believe that you could do something to either have the legislature or the voters implement new lines.
But we did think that we could draw maps to show California members, the Republicans, that this is real, show Texas legislators that if they draw new lines, we would just counter them. So I went on a couple TV shows in Texas. I talked to the Texas Tribune all the time, and it was this whole strategy of, can we get them to just not do this, to not start this national redistricting war?
MICHAELSON: And then they did.
MITCHELL: They did.
MICHAELSON: It's like the arms race between the U.S. and Russia, but somebody actually fired.
MITCHELL: And then what also happened is that there was some polling done that looked at voter attitudes, and it was really surprising. I'd never seen this in all the 25 years or so I've worked in elections and polling, where you would ask them a question, do you support the commission? And voters said 75 percent, yes.
And then you'd talk about what's happening in Texas and you'd say, would you be willing to temporarily pause the lines, implement new lines based on what's happening in Texas and preserve the commission. When you wrapped it in this idea of supporting redistricting reform, it actually was something that voters wanted to do, and it was surprising to see those results.
MICHAELSON: But how key was that word temporary?
MITCHELL: Absolutely key. It had to be triggered by what Texas was doing. It had to be temporary. It had to return to the redistricting commission. Those three things were just incredibly important in giving the Democrats in California the permission structure to support this.
MICHAELSON: We know, though, there's a lot of people that don't support this, especially people who are Republicans, who have been represented by a Republican, who live in areas that have a whole lot of Republicans --
MITCHELL: Yes.
MICHAELSON: -- and all of a sudden they get lumped into a Democratic district. What do you say to those people who feel like this is really unfair?
MITCHELL: Well, I think that they should talk to Kevin Kiley, who's been all over the news talking about this, but didn't spend --
MICHAELSON: Republican Congressman.
MITCHELL: Republican Congressman Kevin Kiley in the Sacramento area didn't spend one ounce of energy to go to the White House and tell Donald Trump not to do this. Doug Lamolfa, Ken Calvert, Ken Calvert, who's a senior member of Congress, didn't go to the White House and tell Donald Trump not to do this.
The governor, the congressional delegation, the Democrats, the House leadership on the Democratic side, all told the Republican members that this was going to happen, and they knew it and didn't take action.
MICHAELSON: But Kevin Kiley now putting forward legislation to say that nobody should redistrict around the country.
MITCHELL: Well, sure, that's convenient. But at the same time, he still wasn't pushing Speaker Johnson to actually get that up for a vote or going to the White House and telling Donald Trump to stop this.
[04:40:07]
It's not as if Donald Trump would have signed that bill anyway.
MICHAELSON: So when Governor Newsom was speaking here, he had a clear message to other states saying, you should go forward. What do you make of that? What could we be seeing on that front?
MITCHELL: Well, I definitely think that was part of what he was. He name checked some states, basically saying --
MICHAELSON: Virginia, Maryland.
MITCHELL: -- it's your turn.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
MITCHELL: And I think that is part of the message. I think what was interest this shift months ago when went from a bluff to actually going forward with this, one of the key things was Democratic members of Congress went into their districts, talked to Democrats who were excited about it and wanted to do this.
And I think now nationally, we can see those national politicians and consultants looking at California and saying, wow, you know, it's early numbers, but we'll probably end up around 60 percent support for this. And Democrats are energized in a way they haven't been in a long time.
And so I think nationally, they're looking at this California model and saying, OK, we can do this and voters will support us.
MICHAELSON: Paul Mitchell, when your job is redistricting, this is about as big a night of your life, right?
MITCHELL: Well, years that end of five aren't generally when registered, usually we're doing other things. It's on the decades that we do most our work. So this has been really unique.
MICHAELSON: This is like Yoshi Yamamoto had his big night at the World Series. This is your big night in the world of politics. Great to see you, Paul. Thank you. MITCHELL: Thank you for having me. Thanks.
MICHAELSON: We'll be right back.
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[04:46:10]
MICHAELSON: Welcome back to the California Democratic Party headquarters in Sacramento, one of many places where Democrats are celebrating after big wins in elections across the U.S. including the approval of California's Prop 50, Governor Newsom's plan to redraw California's congressional districts to help Democrats in response to Texas helping Republicans.
The governor of California speaking about how important it is for Democrats to work together going forward.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D) CALIFORNIA: We need, we need the state of Virginia. We need the state of Maryland. We need our friends in New York, in Illinois, in Colorado. We need to see other states with the remarkable leaders that have been doing remarkable things. Meet this moment head on as well to recognize what we're up against in 2026 here in Sacramento.
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MICHAELSON: One of the biggest nights in the political life of Governor Gavin Newsom. Somebody that has covered him for years is Laurel Rosenhall, who now writes about California politics and more for the New York Times. Laurel, great to see you.
LAUREL ROSENHALL, NEW YORK TIMES REPORTER: Good to see you, too. Thanks for having me.
MICHAELSON: Welcome to The Story Is for the first time.
ROSENHALL: Yes. Glad to be here.
MICHAELSON: So talk to us about sort of this moment in the political life of Gavin Newsom.
ROSENHALL: You know, this redistricting fight just couldn't have come at a better time for him. He's nearing the end of his two terms as governor. He'll have to leave the office at the beginning of 2027. You might have heard there's a presidential race in 2020.
MICHAELSON: There is? Is he interested? Well, now he's finally saying that he's interested after for years telling us --
ROSENHALL: Right.
MICHAELSON: -- over and over again that he had subzero interest.
ROSENHALL: Right.
MICHAELSON: I guess it's warmed up a little bit.
ROSENHALL: I think we're in the positive territory somewhere, not subzero.
MICHAELSON: Yes.
ROSENHALL: So, yes, it's a great time for him to take national issue. And as we heard tonight, he's really trying to frame this as a larger win for Democrats across the country. He's trying to help the party come back. And there's a lot of signs that, you know, Democrats are looking for a champion across the country.
MICHAELSON: You've written about this idea of the word fight, which is something he's been talking about for years. Why is that so important?
ROSENHALL: You know, he really has this theory that Democrats lost because they were seen as weak and that they really need to bring back more strength. And so fighting on this issue with this kind of raw political combat where they really were this wasn't a policy fight. This was just pure political power and doing something that kind of caught the Republicans by surprise.
MICHAELSON: And it's interesting on a night where we see somebody like Zohran Mamdani, who also is fighter but in a different way. We see sort of different aspects of that for the Democratic Party across the country. But here in California, the next big fight is the governor's race, which has sort of been on hold a bit because of Proposition 50.
And for weeks we've been told that Senator Alex Padilla was going to make a decision on whether to run for governor after Prop 50. And yet we all were surprised when during the voting, in the middle of the day, he stops at the Senate, does a press conference saying he's not running.
ROSENHALL: Yes, it was a very strange way to make the announcement. It was like you said, not when we expected it, because he had said consistently he was going to wait until the election was over and he had not said if he was going to do it. But people who are close to him, who had seen him as recently as this weekend, were definitely getting the impression that he was moving in that direction.
And then, yes, he just kind of stepped to this podium in a gap in between congressional leaders. It was sort of this little gap of time between the Republican leaders speaking and the Democratic leaders speaking.
[04:50:09]
He made no advisory or announcement to the Press Corps in Washington that he was going to do this. And he just sort of stepped up and read a few minutes of prepared remarks and took no questions from the press and walked away. And, you know, he did give this very emotional remarks that he wanted to stay in the Senate because he wanted to keep up the fight against President Trump and the president's impacts on California.
But this is not the way a campaign announcement is usually made. So it kind of left a lot of people just wondering --
MICHAELSON: Like, was there more to this?
ROSENHALL: Yes.
MICHAELSON: Was there something else going on behind the scenes? And this timing was strange because, I mean, most people assume that he was going to get into this race, and if he got into this race, he probably would have been the front runner, right?
ROSENHALL: He probably would have been. There are a lot of candidates. And it's a wide open race right now. Katie Porter, the former congresswoman, has had a lead in the polls, but there's so many candidates. It's not like an enormous lead. And so it's really unclear. This has been a very unusual governor's race. Like, I think back to when Gavin Newsom ran for governor in 2018. He was the frontrunner from the beginning. The polls showed him ahead. The fundraising showed him ahead. He, you know, was nailing down endorsements. He was really in a strong position through and through.
And this one has just been, you know, no clear frontrunner. We've now seen two very well-known Democrats who don't want to do it. First, Kamala Harris. You know, over the summer, there was all this wondering whether she was going to get in. She said in July she did not want to run. And now the senior senator for California, he doesn't want to run either. So it's a kind of a fluid and somewhat strange race at the moment.
MICHAELSON: Makes it a more interesting race to cover, though, right?
ROSENHALL: Absolutely.
MICHAELSON: We like strange and flu.
ROSENHALL: Yes.
MICHAELSON: Laurel, great to see you.
ROSENHALL: Good to see you. Thanks for having me.
MICHAELSON: Having us in Sacramento.
ROSENHALL: Yes. Good to see you.
MICHAELSON: It's nice to see you on your turf.
ROSENHALL: OK.
MICHAELSON: All right. We'll be right back.
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[04:56:54] MICHAELSON: We are now in day 36 of the shutdown, officially making it the longest shutdown for the federal government in U.S. history. U.S. transportation secretary Sean Duffy warns that a further standoff could force parts of the U.S. airspace to close due to air traffic control staffing shortage. That obviously would get a lot of people's attention.
The tide could be turning to Democratic sources inside that building you're looking at there say roughly a dozen Senate Democrats have privately signaled they would support a stopgap funding deal to reopen the government in exchange for a future vote on health care.
Boeing says it has offered a work with transportation safety investigators to determine what caused this. Deadly crash of a UPS cargo plane causes extraordinary images here. That plane made by McDonnell Douglas, which merged with Boeing nearly three decades ago.
A warning, you may find video of this incident disturbing. A dash camera captured the moment that the flight from Louisville, Kentucky to Honolulu, look at it there, went down shortly after takeoff on Tuesday, sending huge flames in the sky, killing at least seven people. CNN's Pete Muntean picks up the story from there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: The plan was for a long eight hour flight from Louisville to Honolulu. But the early clues tell a sobering story of fire during one of the most critical phases of a flight, during takeoff, when the aircraft is low and slow with the fewest options.
This is the video of UPS Flight 2976 struggling to get in the air on Tuesday. And what's immediately noticeable and what investigators will focus on are the flames coming from the left engine of this MD11F. The wide body jet has three engines, one under each wing and one in the tail.
Investigators will likely go frame by frame through this video and they'll also examine the forensic evidence on the ground at Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport. Aerial video shows what appears to be pieces of the engine cowling, the outer covering of that engine scattered along Louisville's Runway 17 right.
Flight tracking data shows the entire sequence lasted just over a minute, from the start of the takeoff roll to the moment of the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board is now leading this investigation. Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.
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MICHAELSON: Our thanks to Pete. The man known as the chief architect of the war on terror has died. The family of former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney says he suffered complications, pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease. Cheney served as the 46th Vice President alongside President George W. Bush. He helped to lay the groundwork for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DICK CHENEY, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I have been given the, I suppose the reputation and the image of someone who keeps secrets who is a Darth Vader. I asked Lynn the other day if how she felt about me being called Darth Vader and she said, well, it humanizes you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAELSON: Cheney also served under Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush. He was 84 years old.
[05:00:06]
Thanks so much for watching this special edition of "The Story Is". Special shout out for our technical crew here and the folks in the California Democratic Party for hosting us for the last 12 hours in a row of live reports from this very spot. I'll see you back in L.A. later for CNN"s newest show "The Story Is," which airs every week night at 9 p.m. Pacific, midnight Eastern.
For now, CNN THIS MORNING WITH AUDIE CORNISH starts right now.
