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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

House of Representatives Prepares to Vote on Funding Bill; U.S. Carrier Arrives Near Latin America Amid Tensions with Venezuela; Turning Point USA Campus Protests Draws DOJ's Attention; Did Democrats Cave Too Early on Shutdown?; Justice Department Investigating UC Berkeley Protests; How to Solve Affordability Crisis?; Newsom Attends Climate Change Conference as Trump Officials Skip It; Tennis Giants Sinner, Alcaraz Talk Rivalry, Friendship. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired November 12, 2025 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:00]

COATES: Right? I don't want to talk to myself. You're real. Please. Am I going crazy?

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: I think so, yes. Maybe that's how we get some more sleep, Laura. We just have to create A.I. versions of ourselves.

COATES: Is that all we had to do? All right, well, tell me who's coming up, who's real on your show later?

MICHAELSON: We got lots of real guests including Harmeet Dhillon, assistant attorney general of the U.S., who's now investigating UC Berkeley. A really interesting case. I'd be curious for your thoughts on. But that's among the many topics on THE STORY IS.

COATES: All right. Well, see you soon.

MICHAELSON: All right. THE STORY IS starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: THE STORY IS military buildup. The U.S. and Venezuela mobilizing forces and exchanging tough talk. With us live retired Colonel Cedric Leighton.

THE STORY IS federal investigation. The Trump administration questioning UC Berkeley after an on-campus protest of Charlie Kirk's advocacy group.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And shame on you, folks.

MICHAELSON: With us, the assistant attorney general of the United States, Harmeet Dhillon.

THE STORY IS Governor Newsom on the world stage. The California governor attending the world's biggest climate conference, while President Trump stays home. GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: The United States of America is as

dumb as we want to be on this topic, but the state of California is not.

MICHAELSON: With us, Newsom's top climate adviser Wade Crowfoot from Brazil.

THE STORY IS the two best tennis players in the world sitting down together for a rare joint interview.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you like the word rivalry?

MICHAELSON: We speak to both Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Live from Los Angeles, THE STORY IS with Elex Michaelson.

MICHAELSON: And welcome to THE STORY IS. I'm Elex Michaelson.

By this time tomorrow, the U.S. government shutdown could be over. A live look from Washington, where it's after midnight. There is finally movement inside Capitol Hill after weeks of inaction. Lawmakers expected to vote on the Senate approved funding bill as soon as Wednesday afternoon. And although Republicans appear to have the upper hand, they have tight margins for success. Speaker Mike Johnson can only afford to lose two Republican votes.

And House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries believes Democrats will strongly oppose it. Hours ago, the House Rules Committee started a tense meeting showcasing Democrats' anger over this bill. They say it doesn't address the soaring costs of health care. Meanwhile, President Trump scoffed at the idea that affordability is an issue for voters at all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Why are people saying they're anxious about the economy? Why are they saying that?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't know that they are saying I think polls are fake. We have the greatest economy we've ever had.

INGRAHAM: Is this a voter perception issue of the economy, or is there more that needs to be done by Republicans on Capitol Hill or done in terms of policy?

TRUMP: More than anything else, it's a con job by the Democrats. So are you ready? Costs are way down. Gasoline is going to be hitting $2 pretty soon, or around $2.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Forty-two million Americans rely on food stamps. And earlier, the Supreme Court extended the short-term order allowing the Trump administration to avoid paying November benefits in full, which outraged Democratic leaders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOSH STEIN (D), NORTH CAROLINA: I'm immensely frustrated and frankly angry at the federal government. This administration has shut down SNAP benefits. People do not have their full benefits. People are not able to put food on their table to the degree that they need, to keep children from being hungry. 1.4 million North Carolinians have SNAP.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: U.S. airlines cut their flights by 6 percent on Tuesday in compliance with an FAA order due to staffing shortages. By Thursday, 8 percent of flights will be cut and that number goes up to 10 percent on Friday unless a shutdown deal is signed, which it could be signed by then. This means delays and cancellations will only get worse at least for tomorrow. And even when the government reopens, the amount of time it will take for flights to return to normal depends on how many controllers come back to work immediately.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN DUFFY, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: When they're not paid, a lot of them have taken leave. They're not coming into our towers. That has created significant disruption throughout aviation.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: If we see the government reopen this week, could we see delays for Thanksgiving travel?

DUFFY: So it depends on, are we going to have air traffic controllers come in to work.?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: On Tuesday alone, there were more than 1200 flights canceled either within, coming into or leaving the United States.

And after much delay and protest, Arizona's Adelita Grijalva will finally be sworn into Congress. Her seat takes place after seven weeks after she was elected. House Speaker Mike Johnson has defended his decision to delay her swearing in, arguing she won her race when the House was already out of session amid the shutdown.

[00:05:00]

Grijalva says she plans on confronting Johnson at her swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday, and claims that he broke the law.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADELITA GRIJALVA (D), ARIZONA REPRESENTATIVE-ELECT: It's undemocratic. It's unconstitutional, it's illegal. Should never happen. This kind of obstruction cannot happen again, regardless of party. Their job is to swear people in and 813,000 Southern Arizonans haven't had support during the shutdown because of Speaker Johnson's lack of transparency and willingness to do his job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Grijalva's swearing-in comes at a critical juncture. She's expected to provide the final signature needed to force a vote on compelling the release of the Jeffrey Epstein case files. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries says that was Johnson's motive all along.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva was elected in late September, decisively, has been denied the ability to serve more than 800,000 people in Arizona. And why is that the case? It's because Republicans are running a pedophile protection program. They are intentionally hiding the Jeffrey Epstein files. But those days are over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Speaker Johnson has strongly denied that allegation. Meanwhile, Grijalva telling CNN that releasing the Epstein files is a top priority for her.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRIJALVA: We're hoping to be able to get this expedited as soon as possible, have a vote and people can vote their values and express to their community why they voted or why they didn't vote to bring -- finally bring justice to the survivors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Now to news developing right now, the U.S. Navy's most advanced carrier strike group has arrived in the waters near Latin America. The USS Gerald Ford relocated from Europe amid tensions with Venezuela. Experts estimate there are now roughly 15,000 U.S. personnel in that region. In response to the U.S. Military buildup, Venezuela says it is launching what it calls a massive mobilization of military personnel, weapons and equipment.

Meantime, sources tell CNN the United Kingdom is suspending some of its intelligence sharing with the U.S. over the Trump administration's deadly strikes against suspected drug boats in the Caribbean.

You're looking at video of that there.

The U.S. campaign has killed at least 76 people over the last couple of months. Sources tell us that British officials believe the U.S. strikes violate international law.

Joining me now to discuss all this is retired U.S. Air Force colonel and CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton.

Welcome to the show for the first time. Thanks so much for being with us. COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's my pleasure. Thanks

so much, Elex. Appreciate it.

MICHAELSON: So what's really going on here with Venezuela?

LEIGHTON: Yes. So this is a very complex issue actually. But what's basically happening is that the U.S. is moving its forces in, just as you described with the USS Gerald R. Ford, the biggest aircraft carrier in the world, basically entering that particular part of the world. And since it's there, it was moved from Europe. It now gives the U.S. extra air power that it can potentially use against targets in Venezuela.

Now the administration, the Trump administration, has denied that it is going after regime change in Venezuela. But the types of forces that are arrayed against Venezuela or against targets in Venezuela is way more than what you need for a drug interdiction mission, and not quite enough to really affect regime change. So we're kind of in that gray zone right now in terms of the numbers of forces.

But I think what the administration wants to do, Elex, is they want to have a presence in the area that will perhaps force change in Venezuela, but that's kind of where we are right now.

MICHAELSON: Yes. Nicolas Maduro, who leads Venezuela, has expressed concern that the Trump administration wants there to be regime change. Do you think that's what's going on here? And if so, how would that even happen?

LEIGHTON: Yes, that would be one of the most difficult things to actually do. Now, I can see from Maduro's point of view that that's exactly what he sees. If you're, you know, sitting in Caracas and you're looking out across the Caribbean and you see all these naval vessels coming toward you and the aircraft flying along your coastline, then you certainly think that there's something more going on than just going after some boats that are on the coastline.

So what Maduro is doing is he's beefing up his forces. He's calling up the reserves, he's calling up his military, his National Guard, and they are, in essence, putting themselves in a position where they think they can defend the country.

Now, what would happen if, let's say we did try to affect regime change, I think the first thing that the U.S. would try to do is make contact with the opposition leaders, including the Lady Machado who received the Nobel Peace Prize recently. And that would then be the impetus to move things forward using Venezuelan forces to, in essence, fight each other.

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Now, that's one possible scenario. Nobody has said that's going to happen yet, but it's certainly a possibility. So if I were Maduro, I'd be looking at this and I'd be concerned, to say the least. The Russians have moved some equipment into Venezuela. They have Cuban help already in the form of intelligence support and weapons support. So there is definitely an effort going on in -- within Venezuela and with Venezuela's allies to build up the Venezuelan forces, perhaps to thwart a possible U.S. invasion.

MICHAELSON: So sort of yes or no, should the U.S. be concerned about a war with Venezuela?

LEIGHTON: Yes, because it's a much more complex thing than just throwing out the government. The government has been in power there through two leaders, Chavez and Maduro, for, you know, decades now. They have institutions. They have a whole cadre of folks that are loyal to them. And they would potentially mount a guerrilla war against any U.S. forces or other allies that come into Venezuela.

So what you could see is us getting mired into a -- in a war that would make Vietnam potentially look like, you know, not quite a picnic, but certainly it would be a very difficult, difficult aspect to deal with. So it would be, I think, an area that would complicate relations with Latin America. It also would complicate relations with countries like Colombia, which President Trump has gone after, even though they've been allies in the drug war.

So it's a -- it's a real mess. And it's something that we should definitely not get involved in in this way.

MICHAELSON: Well, President Trump has said that he's the guy who ends wars, doesn't get involved in wars. And I'm sure he's not looking to get involved in something that makes Vietnam look like a picnic.

Cedric Leighton, thank you so much for joining us with your perspective. Really appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Elex. Thanks for having me.

MICHAELSON: THE STORY IS the weather in Florida. A record breaking Arctic blast has iguanas falling from trees. They're not dead. They're just briefly paralyzed. Meantime, wind whipped snow is piling up in the eastern Great Lakes but as CNN's Derek Van Dam shows us, a temperature turnaround is coming.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The same Arctic blast responsible for this falling iguanas out of the trees in Florida and some of our first snowflakes across many states over the eastern U.S. is drawing to a close. That's the good news. But of course, we had to contend with this. Over the past few days lake-effect snow bands setting up, dropping several inches of snow.

And we're talking about near century old records that have toppled because of this Arctic blast. Look at Tampa. We dropped to 39 Tuesday morning, and the previous record was 40 set back in 1892. That just gives you some idea, some context of just how historic this really was and has been. But I always like to end on a good note, because things are going to change and change for the better, in my opinion at least.

That cold Arctic air, all the blue that we had on the map over the past couple of days, is going to retreat off the East Coast and be replaced with a much milder, more normal air mass that will settle in across the eastern two-thirds of the country, basically east of the Rockies. Looks like temperatures will be above average as we end off the workweek and head into the early parts of the weekend.

So here's a few prime examples. We're talking about Dallas will actually reach 83 by Friday, so we're talking near record territory for some of these locations. Normal high about 68. Atlanta will be above normal. So will other places, too. So St. Louis to Chicago starting to see the mercury in the thermometer climb up.

So the nation's capital above average as we head out into the weekend, a little bit of a cool snap as we go forward into early parts of next week, but nothing significant like we just experienced. And daytime highs in Atlanta will run 10 to 15 degrees above average for this time of year, especially into the weekend. More of the same for Chicago before cooling off once again for the early parts of next week, so enjoy the milder air, especially after what we've just endured.

Back to you.

MICHAELSON: Yes, Derek. And those of us here on the West Coast could be seeing rain, an atmospheric river potentially headed to California. So be prepared for that.

Meanwhile, a campus demonstration in California erupts in anger. Protests at UC Berkeley disrupt an event hosted by the late Charlie Kirk's activist group. Now the Justice Department is investigating. I'll speak with the assistant attorney general of the United States, Harmeet Dhillon, who's leading that investigation. That's next.

And later, one of the most consequential climate summits in decades begins without any high level presence in the Trump administration. Later this hour, I'll be speaking with California's top climate adviser on how the U.S. absence is impacting climate action and what California is doing about it in Brazil.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:19:25]

MICHAELSON: This is video from a big event happening at Berkeley this week. The Justice Department talking about it on X and raising questions about a Turning Point USA event at UC Berkeley, where protesters interrupted a gathering of the group founded by the late Charlie Kirk. The assistant attorney general sent this letter to the president of UC Berkeley announcing a full investigation into what happened.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon joins me now from Washington.

Harmeet, thanks for being with us. Why the investigation?

HARMEET DHILLON, ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR CIVIL RIGHTS: Well, look, when I saw this video online, I felt like I had flashbacks or it was Groundhog Day because UC Berkeley has a long history of allowing violent protesters to disrupt conservative speakers on the campus.

[00:20:12]

In fact, in 2017, I actually got involved in a legal dispute where I was a lawyer suing UC Berkeley over very similar scenes. There was a series of three conservative speakers who wanted to speak on the campus and the campus police, and the broader Berkeley police stood by and allowed American citizens coming to see an event on American public campus get violently assaulted. And the event never happened.

And that's what we see here in this event. There was a sold-out crowd of over 2,000 tickets for this event with Rob Schneider, the comedian, and in fact, only 1,000 people were allowed to enter. There were shenanigans with the ticketing, but a lot of people didn't come because of what we called the hecklers veto. The violent mob allowed to fester outside. And this is not protest.

I respect protest. What we have here is a terrorist organization allowed to run wild in an American city, on an American campus, funded by taxpayers. It's illegal, and we won't let it stand at the Department of Justice.

MICHAELSON: When you say a terrorist organization, you're referring to antifa, which President Trump declared as a terrorist organization earlier this year. UC Berkeley released a statement which reads in part, I want to put this up on the screen.

"The university is conducting a full investigation and intends to fully cooperate with and assist any federal investigations. Thanks to the dedication and cooperation of numerous university, state and local police officers the effort to prevent last night's event did not succeed. Instead, the TPUSA event proceeded safely and without interruption, with more than 900 participants in attendance. Several arrests were made in connection with the event by both the city and university police."

So basically Berkeley is saying, look, we're cooperating with the feds, that the event went on, that these are outside agitators. These aren't Berkeley students. We didn't do anything wrong. What say you?

DHILLON: Elex, I just -- I'm astounded at the mendacity of that statement because half the people who got tickets to this event couldn't attend it because of this violence. That's not an event going on as per usual. The staff there in the university didn't allow many people to get through. These are the exact shenanigans I sued over when I represented a different organization in 2017, and the university and the state of California had to settle and wrote checks over this and agree to never allow this type of violence to disrupt conservative or any group of speakers.

And yet, here we are, and they're doing it, and they're smiling as if this is nothing. So I have some serious concerns at multiple levels. Number one, antifa is a terrorist organization. The chapter here is called by any means necessary. I've sued them and been involved with them as well. But there's also UC Berkeley as legally on notice based on the prior litigation and the settlement about this exact type of event. And third, at the Civil Rights Division, we're in charge of how the police treat the citizens and the police in Berkeley seem to think this is kind of a sport or a joke.

Equal protection under the Constitution requires that you treat citizens equally, including if you don't agree with their viewpoints. And so at all three levels and maybe more, we have some serious problems, and we're going to be deeply engaged in a legal action here I suspect very soon.

MICHAELSON: So what could potential penalty look like for UC Berkeley?

DHILLON: Well, look, to the extent that Berkeley was wink-wink, nudge- nudge aware of and let this happen, that could be a civil rights conspiracy. They have a history of it. So frankly, they're already starting in a hole. The police could be responsible for their both sidesism, where they actually arrested a victim of violence last night and then ticketed everybody and let them all go. Comically, one of the people who was arrested is named Jihad. That's very interesting.

And, you know, I remember one anecdote from when I sued Berkeley and before, the Berkeley police literally had on their Web site in 2017, if you're having a protest, here's how you apply for a permit. And if you'd like symbolic arrests, here's how you check the box and apply for symbolic arrests. It is kind of a sport and a joke in Berkeley, but it isn't funny for the American citizens who came and wanted to see this event and half of them are turned away because of the violence or other misconduct there on the campus.

And sorry, they're funded by the taxpayers. The First Amendment applies at UC Berkeley. You know, even the dean has acknowledged that over the years. And so now we're going to see what the facts find. And I want to say one more thing, which is everyone online is like, where are the arrests? What's happening? We have to investigate. So we've issued document holds. We will be sending requests for evidence and information.

[00:25:04]

The FBI is also going to be investigating the antifa side of this, and only after we gather the evidence will we then have civil or criminal action here in this case.

MICHAELSON: A follow up to what we talked about with you last time you were on, which was this question about election monitors in California. You said that you were sending federal monitors in order to look for potential evidence of fraud. The California said we're going to have our own monitors to look at your monitors. Did you find any fraud? What did you find?

DHILLON: We weren't looking for fraud. The purpose of that type of election monitor is simply to make sure that there is, you know, regularity and appropriate procedures happening in the places where we sent the monitors. And I'm in litigation with the state of California over certain aspects of their election conduct, including unclean voter rolls and failure to maintain them. So there may have been some aspects like that, but I can't really talk about what we found. But I will say that overall, we didn't see the same situation in California counties that we were monitoring, like we saw in Pennsylvania, Chester County. We saw some irregularities in New Jersey as well. So in the counties we monitored, there were no major headlines out of that work.

MICHAELSON: Well, that is good to hear. If you have more to report, come back to us and hopefully next time we can talk more about your excellent knitting game as well.

DHILLON: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: Harmeet Dhillon, great to see you from Washington. Appreciate you sharing your perspective.

DHILLON: Thanks for having me.

MICHAELSON: So lot to unpack there with our panel standing by right now. You see them. Chef Andrew Gruel, Shane Harris. We'll get into that. The shutdown, did Democrats cave? Plus what food brings us together. All that with our panel, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON STEWART, HOST, COMEDY CENTRAL'S "THE DAILY SHOW": They (EXPLETIVE DELETED) caved on the shutdown. Not even -- not even a full week removed from the best election night results they've had in years.

[00:31:39]

Democrats, you sold out the entire shutdown, not to get what you wanted, but for a promise to not get what you wanted later. Where in "The Art of War."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Jon Stewart, furious on the -- on "The Daily Show" about what the Democrats did, basically ending the government shutdown with eight Democrats in the Senate saying enough is enough. We're not getting anything. He didn't buy it.

What does our panel think? Joining me here in L.A., Democrat Shane Harris, CEO of S. Harris Communications, who's heavily involved in San Diego government. And Chef Andrew Gruel, who's a restaurant owner and city councilman for Huntington Beach, California.

Welcome to you both. Great to have you here.

SHANE HARRIS, CEO, S. HARRIS COMMUNICATIONS: Great to be here.

MICHAELSON: As the Democrat here, are you with the eight Democrats who said, let's end this shutdown, or pretty much the rest of the party who said, we're outraged?

HARRIS: Look, I'm -- I understand the outrage and the concern among some of the more far-left fragments of the Democratic Party pertaining to this -- these eight Democrats.

MICHAELSON: It's not just the far left. It's almost the entire party, right?

HARRIS: It's almost the entire party. But I will say that I'm with the eight Democrats, because what we're looking at is travel plans, holiday up in arms. Everybody is concerned about flights.

We're looking at several thousands of government workers that cannot go back to -- that are not getting paid. And I think that these eight Democrats had a decision to make.

They weren't going to get the ACA vote before the C.R. And so, they had a decision to make. What do we do in this situation? You've got to consider your state. And I think that, at the end of the day, they did what they had to do in representing their constituents.

MICHAELSON: And what you mean is a healthcare vote on premiums for healthcare before the continuing resolution, which is basically saying, let's keep the government open, let's fund it where we're at.

What do you make of Democrats in -- in disarray?

ANDREW GRUEL, CITY COUNCILMAN, HUNTINGTON BEACH, CALIFORNIA: I think that the eight Democrats did a great job. I'm glad that they ended up pushing this forward.

Because the only people that were hurt in this little debate and the punting, or the spiking, depending on how you look at it, of the political football, were the American people.

And the reality is, is that we needed to be able to push these. The whole system is broken. The means by which they negotiate. We need these mini bills or mini busses to go through, and we need to take the burnt toast on the plate that everybody is ignoring, health care, and we need to have a separate open dialogue conversation, whatever you want to call it, debate, and do the work that they're supposed to be doing, which is to come up with a reasonable resolution on that.

Nothing was benefited by having this kind of multi-week shutdown. It only hurt people. So, they did the right thing.

MICHAELSON: But Democrats would say it raised the issue. It changed the dialogue on this, and it showed where they are. And right now, though, there's no deal on -- on -- on what you're talking about. We're not dealing with the toast.

GRUEL: Yes. Well, we're not dealing with the toast. Although there was kind of a promise, like a gentle handshake from Thune. He said --

MICHAELSON: A promise that we'll talk about it. Not that we'll actually deal with it.

GRUEL: They all know we have to deal with this, both Republicans and Democrats. Twenty percent of the federal budget goes towards health care, and we've only gotten sicker. Chronic disease has only gotten worse over the past decade.

So, everyone knows we have to deal with it. And we can't be using kind of, like, political wins and political blood sport in order to try and resolve that issue. It's another issue, and it needs to be debated separately.

[00:05:05]

HARRIS: And that's, unfortunately, what both political parties seem to have been doing here.

There's no coincidence that the midterms are coming up next year. And so, every time the midterms come, you always see this uprising of political football, playing this back and forth.

The Democrats playing this on the ACA, and the -- and the Republicans playing this on, you know, thousands of government workers that aren't getting their paychecks. They're playing -- they're negotiating from this field of politics and specifically the midterms.

And I think that, at the end of the day, these Democrats did what they had to do in regard to representing their constituents and doing what they had to do right now, at least getting a verbal commitment, which is not much of nothing in politics, but at least it's a start.

MICHAELSON: Meanwhile, another headline of the day, Chef. We saw Harmeet Dhillon, who, you know, the assistant attorney general, who was just on with us, is now investigating UC Berkeley over the way that the police there handled a protest of the Charlie Kirk organization, Turning Points [SIC] USA.

What do you make of what she's saying? And is this just an example of free speech?

GRUEL: Yes. I mean, political violence in reaction to free speech is something that needs to stop immediately. I mean, she dropped the hammer years ago, and she's got to drop the hammer again.

We just can't have these situations where people are getting violent. And then we have what feels like at least universities and obviously the local police force taking sides.

I mean, that was apparent, this. The guy who did get all bloodied. We saw the pictures all last night. He got arrested, as well.

I mean, and you know, Berkeley obviously has a reputation as being the epicenter of the left. So, it's no surprise that this violence broke out, and they weren't even prepared for it.

So, she has an opportunity right now to drop the hammer and say, enough of this, or to kind of just use this as a P.R. stunt, which is not what I'm saying she's doing. But, you know, we need to actually show action here.

MICHAELSON: Do you think this is a P.R. stunt? HARRIS: I think that it is a P.R. stunt for those on the far right,

from the perspective of I do think that she is sort of utilizing this to defend the rights of those who maybe are on the more far right of politics.

But if you're going to defend hate, defend it across the board. Don't just take it civil rights on over here and not over here.

I would have to disagree with my brother a little bit, the chef over here a little bit, in regard to the context of Berkeley and Berkeley's history. It is a place where, you know, people have -- there's a long history of activism at Berkeley.

And I think that debate and, you know, looking at, you know, as long as there's no violence, I think that these kind of places like Berkeley open up the opportunity for that kind of debate.

MICHAELSON: But you would not say that Berkeley's been pretty far left over the years.

HARRIS: I would --

MICHAELSON: Have you been there?

HARRIS: I will -- I will say -- I will say -- I will say that there are hotbeds of the far left and the far right in colleges across the country.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

HARRIS: And I think that she's right to take this on. I think that she needs to take it -- take hate on across the board, not just for the far-right groups.

MICHAELSON: Thoughts on that? Maybe she's -- she's especially protecting people on her side?

GRUEL: I do agree that it needs to -- there needs to be a broad approach to this. So, I will agree with you on that. But find me a Republican in Berkeley, and I'm going to write you a big check.

MICHAELSON: There are some, including the branch of Turning Point USA, who hosted this event.

GRUEL: OK, that is true. That is true.

MICHAELSON: So, we've seen some. There wouldn't have been the event without them.

Meanwhile, you know, the President Trump is talking about this word "affordability," which he says is a new word. It's not a new word here in California; something we've been talking about for many, many years. This idea that it's too expensive to live.

You both deal primarily with city governments, which doesn't deal with all this other cable news B.S., honestly; the issues that don't actually affect people.

As people that that actually are on the ground dealing with this day after day, what's one thing you think that would make life more affordable for the average person watching this right now?

HARRIS: Well, first of all, the president ran on this touting affordability. And the former President Biden, you know, actually sat in chairs and denied that people were facing an affordability crisis in this nation.

President Trump gets elected. Now you're a year -- you're almost a year in, and people are questioning how much of affordability are we really delivering for the American people? And so, when you look at affordability, I think housing is -- is a real issue there.

MICHAELSON: So, we need to cut regulations on housing? Is that what you're saying?

HARRIS: I think we should look at unique opportunities as far as housing. You know, tax credits for first time home buyers, buyers and opportunities like that.

MICHAELSON: For you.

GRUEL: Well, I'm going to cut right to the chase, especially when it comes to city government, Huntington Beach. They need to cut payroll taxes, because that's going to put more money in both the business and the workers' pockets.

They need to cut regulations, especially from a business perspective, because the more it costs businesses in order to operate, day in and day out, then the more their prices are going to go up. And then that goes to -- towards perpetuating that affordability crisis.

[00:40:01]

So, that's first and foremost. And that can be done on a state level.

MICHAELSON: One thing that I think can bring everybody together is food. And I just want to give you a shout-out.

Your food looks amazing. You have these incredible pictures on your Instagram and your x, and here's some of them. What do you think is one meal that brings us together the most.

t, your food looks amazing. You have these t, your food looks amazing. You have these incredible pictures on your Instagram and your X.

GRUEL: Thank you.

MICHAELSON: And -- and here's some of them. What do you think is one meal that brings us together the most?

GRUEL: Mashed potatoes.

MICHAELSON: Everybody -- GRUEL: Mashed potatoes.

MICHAELSON: Everybody loves good mashed potatoes?

GRUEL: And they all have an opinion about mashed potatoes, right? With the butter, with the cream. I even heard the other day Dijon mustard and brie cheese mashed potatoes.

MICHAELSON: Best -- best mashed potatoes?

GRUEL: I like to keep it really, really clean. And I do a one-part butter to one-part potato ratio, almost like an emulsion.

MICHAELSON: One sentence for each of you for Veterans Day.

GRUEL: Freedom is not free.

HARRIS: Thank you to those who paved the way for us to live in the country that we live in.

MICHAELSON: A big thank you to all the veterans watching.

Thank you both for coming in, as well. Great to talk with both of you. Shane Harris, chef Andrew Gruel.

We will have more. Well head to Brazil and talk to Governor Newsom's top climate adviser, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:40:42]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): I'm more worried about 2026 and taking back the House of Representatives and getting Speaker Jeffries in. I worry about -- I don't worry about 2028. I worry about the election next November, which is the most critical election, period, full stop, in my lifetime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: That is California Governor Gavin Newsom speaking alongside his secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, Wade Crowfoot. Both are in Brazil this week at the COP30 global climate conference.

Not in attendance: any key player from the Trump administration.

Secretary Crowfoot joins us now from Belem, Brazil, from his hotel room. Mr. Secretary, welcome to "The Story Is" for the first time.

WADE CROWFOOT, SECRETARY, CALIFORNIA NATURAL RESOURCES AGENCY: Thanks so much.

MICHAELSON: So, what specific tangible thing have you achieved for the people of California on this trip?

CROWFOOT: It's a good question. And let me just provide a little bit of background.

So, governments from around the world come together each year to make progress combating climate change: cutting pollution; expanding clean, abundant, safe energy; and ultimately, protecting our people from these extreme events driven by climate change, like wildfires in California or floods in Brazil.

Governor Newsom and our delegation were there for a couple of important reasons. One, because California benefits from relationships, from work that we do with other governments across the world. We have agreements with governments from six different continents to help ourselves drive this transition to cheaper, renewable energy; to utilize technology to protect our people from -- from droughts and floods and wildfires.

So, we use this summit to actually strengthen our working relationships with these other governments. Today, for example, Governor Newsom signed three agreements with three different governments from three different confident [SIC] -- continents, and each of those is actually delivering real benefit to us.

But the other important point was he was here saying, look, Americans care about this. And a lot of American states are making progress: again, slashing pollution, protecting their people, and bringing this clean energy online.

MICHAELSON: So, the Trump administration is not there. What are the other countries saying to you about the fact that the Trump administration is not there?

CROWFOOT: Well, this is obviously an international problem, right? We share one atmosphere. The pollution that we're putting up anywhere in the world is -- is -- is challenging our future. And so, we need a collective effort.

And it speaks volumes when the largest economy in the world, the United States, is missing in action.

As you shared, really, no one down here from the federal administration. And that's -- that's -- that's troublesome to other countries that are being asked to, you know, make this transition and dig in.

So, what I experienced today was a lot of international interest in Governor Newsom and what California is doing. He made the point that 24 American states are led by governors that are driving these -- this type of positive change, representing over half of our population and about half of -- over half of our national gross domestic product.

So, the point he's making is it's the United States of America, and the states are continuing to drive forward on climate action, despite the federal government being missing -- missing in action. MICHAELSON: Let's go to -- to breaking news that has happened while

you're there. President Trump announcing that he wants to do offshore drilling off the coast of California, something Governor Newsom was asked about. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWSOM: What's fascinating to me -- you may have seen this. He wants to open offshore oil drilling, and he intentionally aligned that to opening of COP.

Well, it's weakness, by the way, masquerading as strength. That's all that was. But the answer to your question. Forgive the long-winded. It's dead on arrival.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: When the governor says that that's dead on arrival, what does he mean? How do you fight that?

[00:50:00]

CROWFOOT: Well, look, Americans are concerned about offshore oil drilling, whether they live in North Carolina or Florida or California.

The difference is that the federal administration and the president decided to remove, or not introduce, proposals in those states -- North Carolina and Florida -- but then to suggest to propose new offshore drilling in California.

Universally opposed, you know, in California. Strong majorities, regardless of where you live and what party you vote for, that simply don't support offshore drilling.

And it's -- it's dangerous. It's had major impacts, economic and environmental. We've had huge oil spills off California.

And so, he made it very clear, I think he put it -- he, you know -- he put it in no uncertain terms. We're going to take all actions possible to ensure that this very bad idea never becomes a reality meaning.

MICHAELSON: Meaning, sir, lots of lawsuits is what that's suggesting, right?

CROWFOOT: You know, California has -- you know, where -- where the federal government has taken actions that have broken federal law, the state is definitely taking legal action.

So, I think the governor said, in response to a question today, if -- if that were the appropriate course of action here, we would not hesitate.

MICHAELSON: And lastly, you're in Brazil. What's the best meal you've had so far? CROWFOOT: Well, we're spending a lot of time in this -- this

convention hall with a lot of delegates from around the world. And I can tell you, the food's not great there.

But the Brazilian food, once you get out there, is -- is pretty good. They've got this incredible cheese bread in the morning breakfast buffets, which is my favorite.

MICHAELSON: All right. Well, enjoy that. Thank you so much for checking in with us on a late night in Brazil. We really appreciate it.

CROWFOOT: Appreciate the opportunity.

MICHAELSON: We'll be back with more of "The Story Is" right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:56:45]

MICHAELSON: They are the world's top two men's singles tennis players, and they have split this year's four Grand Slam titles between them.

Now, they both want to win the season-ending ATP finals in Turin, Italy. CNN's Amanda Davies sat down with both Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN SPORTS: Do you like the word "rivalry"?

CARLOS ALCARAZ, 6-TIME GRAND SLAM CHAMPION: I think that the word "rivalry" is key (ph) on the professional part, just, you know, in the in the tennis -- in the tennis side.

We're trying to find the weaknesses, you know, from each other on court. But then, when we shake hands and -- and we are off the court, we're -- we're totally different. And we sometimes forget about the rivalry we're getting, you know, on tour. And we became persons.

DAVIES: And so, this week, I mean, we have to talk about this trophy. How much for you, Carlos, is this week about winning the finals? And how much about -- is it about ending the year with your hands on this trophy, the world No. 1?

ALCARAZ: It comes -- it comes greater for -- for me. Because obviously, I've got to do a really good result here if I want to -- to end No. 1. So, for me, the goals are quite -- quite the same right now.

DAVIES: Because Jannik, you've kind of been playing down talk of the year-end No. 1 part of it.

YANNIK SINNER, 4-TIME GRAND SLAM CHAMPION: Yes. I mean, you know, for me, you know, it has been, you know, a different kind of year. You know, having some very unusual situations. And there's for sure this, you know, extra motivation, extra pressure.

You know, it's also privileged to be in the position. It's, you know, something great to finish, you know, the year with a win or with an incredibly big trophy.

But again, you know, you also don't have to forget how the season went and everything. You know, we both have done, you know, again, for -- for now two years. And it has been, again, a great year.

DAVIES: How do you sum up your year in hair?

ALCARAZ: Just two changes, or three changes actually. My teammate -- my team are scared about the next year. So, I mean, this year has been really good with the changes. If something worked, what I -- what I say change.

DAVIES: Jannik, how do you sum up his year in hair?

SINNER: Amazing.

DAVIES: Amazing.

SINNER: Unexpected. But also --

DAVIES: Have you have you got any --

SINNER: It's great. It's great.

DAVIES: -- any inspiration, maybe, that you're taking?

SINNER: Honestly, I'm good with this messy hair. But again, you know, whatever. It's -- it's great. You know, it suits you very well. I like it like this, you know, with the black and white. It's also good because we're in Turin. You know, you can cheer for Juventus. It's perfect.

DAVIES: I can't ever see that happening.

ALCARAZ: I didn't think about it, actually. Didn't.

DAVIES: Oh, it's been a real pleasure to speak to you.

ALCARAZ: Thank you.

DAVIES: Thank you. And good luck, both.

ALCARAZ: Thank you very much.

SINNER: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAELSON: Alcaraz has gone from the long black to the buzzed black to now the blond.

Our thanks to Amanda Davies for that conversation. What an amazing opportunity for her. What a run they both are on.

That's it for this hour of "The Story Is." The next hour of "The Story Is" starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON (voice-over): "The Story Is" the end of the shutdown.

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): Enough Democrats realized that this has run its course.

(END VIDEO CLIP)