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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt
Just In: House Committee Tonight On Bill To End Shutdown; Shutdown Nears End As Trump Dismisses Affordability Concerns; Schumer Faces Growing Backlash Over Shutdown Deal; Exclusive: U.K. Suspends Some Intel Sharing With The U.S. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired November 11, 2025 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:02]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And "THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT" starts right now.
(MUSIC)
KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Hey, everyone. Welcome to THE ARENA. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us on this Tuesday.
As we come on the air, the House is about to take a first step toward ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. And while it looks like the shutdown may soon be in our collective rearview mirror, the economic uncertainty that it's caused is still very much front and center, at least for most of us.
(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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Just one week after Democrats won big across the country with a message focused on affordability, President Trump, there once again seemed to be dismissing out of hand the concerns of millions of Americans who are saying that, yes, things are too expensive, and someone needs to do something about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
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.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: The president's essential dismissal of economic anxiety, though, is at odds with some of his own recent attempts to address the issue of affordability. He has ordered the Justice Department to investigate companies for allegedly driving up food prices. He suggested sending Americans $2,000 checks cut from tariff revenue. He's proposed new 50- year mortgages.
But even on that headline-grabbing suggestion of your mortgage lasting 50 years instead of 30, the president writing off any concerns.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: It's not even a big deal. I mean, you know, you go from 40 to 50 years, and what it means is you pay, you pay something less from 30 that some people had a 40, and then they have a 50. All it means is you pay less per month. You pay it over a longer period of time. It's not like a big factor. It might help a little bit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: So get this. According to the National Association of Realtors, in 2025, the median age this year of a first time home buyer, it's 40 years old. Okay, you get a 50-year mortgage. That's pretty easy. How old would you be when you paid it off? You would be 90, 90 years old.
What is the average life expectancy here in the United States of America? It is 78 years. So, you would never own that house.
Let's get off the sidelines and head into THE ARENA.
My panel is here. CNN contributor, "New York Times" journalist and podcast host Lulu Garcia-Navarro, CNN political commentator Jonah Goldberg is here. Former communications director at the DNC, Mo Elleithee; CNN political commentator and the Republican strategist Brad Todd.
Welcome to all of you. Thanks very much for being here.
Jonah Goldberg. I don't like get -- I don't get this, right? I mean, this is a man we can put some of this stuff up from the campaign, okay? President Trump, at the very end of the close of the campaign, he's going after Joe Biden on prices. He's in a garbage truck, right? He is at a McDonald's. He is at the grocery store reading a list of how prices have gone up.
And now look at that interview he just did where he's essentially talking to Laura Ingraham from Fox News, not necessarily expected to be the toughest of all interviews, that he might sit down for. And he's essentially completely contradicting the image of this person you're seeing on the screen right now.
JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. At points, he almost felt like Laura was going to do that scene from Jerry Maguire where she just starts begging, help me help you, right?
HUNT: Help me help you, exactly what you're talking about. GOLDBERG: Yeah. I'm like literally just handing really easy. Here's
how you connect. Here's how you feel people's pain kind of thing.
And I think he's in a bubble. And I think Joe Biden was in a bubble. This is problematic for Republicans. It was really problematic for Democrats.
Look, there are a lot of things that the average voter doesn't know what a continuing C.R. is. I just looked it up the other day. Only one in three Americans know what a filibuster is, but everybody knows their own finances. Everyone lives in their own micro economy.
And, you know, affordability is the new buzzword, but it's very much like the -- it used to be the buzzword -- buzz phrase was economic security. It's basically the same idea people are feeling edgy about a whole bunch of different stuff. And he's not communicating that he understands that.
HUNT: I mean, let's put up the graphic, okay? For the -- we address the median age of the first-time home buyer there at the top. But if you look at this bar graph, you can really see just how quickly and how different -- I mean, imagine how your life changes in 1991 if you bought a house at 28 years old.
What have you done by the time you're 28? How old are your kids? Are you married? Where are you in your life at 28? You're pretty much at the beginning.
Here in 2025, Lulu, a relative beginning -- Brad is making faces at me over here.
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But at 40, Lulu, you are way farther down the line. You have way fewer years to save for your retirement. You've probably tried and maybe failed to do a lot more. By the time you're 40. This is a real indication that life is materially different for people in the United States of America than it was.
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah, and if you're a woman that is at the very edge of when you know you will be able to have kids, so you won't be able to own your home if you've got children and you want to give them some security. So, I mean, it is materially different. This economy we are seeing is really hard for people.
All the things that you need to be successful, which is, what, you need insurance, right? You need health care. You need to own your home or at least be able to afford your rent. You need a good job. You need to be able to change your job if you want to.
All these things are just harder and harder and harder. Educate your kids. Maybe send them to college. These things now seem just farther and farther away. And you know, when you talk to young people, Gen Z specifically, there's a real sense of palpable despair. Theres a real sense of how am I supposed to make it in this kind of economy? And when you have the president, who was really elected on a mandate
of helping people and helping working class people, not listening to that and not learning the lessons of his predecessor, Joe Biden, who got kicked out because of it, it's baffling.
HUNT: So, let's also watch Brad Todd, another piece of what happened with Laura Ingraham, which was Donald Trump gave her a tour of the oval office and specifically the gold that has been added. Let's watch this moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: One thing with gold, you can't -- you can't imitate gold. Real gold. There's no paint that imitates gold.
INGRAHAM: So, these aren't, like, from Home Depot or something?
TRUMP: No, this is not Home Depot stuff.
INGRAHAM: No, not stuff you buy.
TRUMP: This is not Home Depot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Not Home Depot. Now, a lot of Americans shop at Home Depot.
But, Brad, the thing that I think I keep wrestling with, like the political reporter in me, keeps wrestling with, right, is that in the first Trump term and for a lot of his make America great again, people were willing to look at him and see him as something that they could aspire to, right? Like in America, Donald Trump's story, in their view, was they could become the next Donald Trump if they wanted to, if they worked hard enough that the -- the shine seems to be off that.
I mean, what are you hearing? How do you understand how voters are?
BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, he also was in the out crowd, right? The financial elite of this country and the social elite of this country didn't like him and pushed him out of their -- out of their circles, which made him appeal to a lot of people who are more populist in nature and are looking for people who are not accepted by those in the highest circles.
You know, I think that the voters who supported, supported Donald Trump and are willing to vote for Republicans in midterms are going to be willing to give him some time, but they have to know he still has got his eye on the ball. They don't expect that all these things happened in a in a short amount of time that countries didn't get unaffordable in a short amount of time. They're going to give him time to fix it, but he's going to have to constantly assure them that he understands its his job to fix it.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: I think the clock is over, though. I mean, I think that this past election was the time -- was the bell ringing on that. I think you were right, for a long time. I don't think that that's true anymore. And I think because of the tariffs in particular, which were something that he owned and that he really has pushed and has said that this is something that is going to improve the economy.
People see the result of that. And so instead of seeing him being distracted, which is another thing that people are accusing him of, of being distracted with foreign policy, actually, they've seen some of his direct economic policies hurt them.
MO ELLEITHEE, SENIOR SPOKESMAN, 2008 HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN: You know, if memory serves back in 2020, when he lost his election, he was still above water in terms of approval rating on the economy. His job approval overall was down.
But people have, for the better part of the past decade, given Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt on the economy until now, right? This is the first period -- first time in the past decade that his job approval numbers are underwater on the economy. People aren't buying what he's selling.
And I think it's in large part because of those two back-to-back clips we just saw. People know the anxiety that they're feeling. He's telling them it isn't real. I always thought Donald Trump -- you talked about Jerry Maguire. I always thought he was like Rodney Dangerfield in "Caddyshack". The guy who couldn't get into the country club. So, he bought it. And then threw the doors open for everyone else. And that was a big part of his appeal to his supporters.
Now that he's standing in the Oval Office, pointing to gold and he seems to know more about what gold costs than he does about the fact that a 50-year mortgage will double most people's interest payments, their interest --
HUNT: It's better for the banks than it is for regular people.
ELLEITHEE: Right? Like there's the disconnect.
[16:10:00]
HUNT: Bottomline.
ELLEITHEE: He's no longer Rodney Dangerfield in "Caddyshack".
TODD: Well, they -- I agree with Mo on is, you know, Republicans are almost always going to be trusted on security issues, crime, policing, immigration. Democrats can be trusted on health care and education.
Where the place where the two parties both have a shot to be ahead is on the economy. And so, I think it has to be the objective of the administration of Republicans in congress to regain the edge on the economy over the next year. Luckily, they can. Democrats just elected a socialist mayor in New York City, the biggest office they had to give away. They gave it to someone who doesn't even believe in capitalism.
So, we can do it. But you have to be focused.
HUNT: All right. So, I want to bring in CNN White House reporter Alayna Treene actually on this very question.
Because, Alayna, you have some new reporting about how the president and his advisers might address this very concern that Brad Todd was just laying out how to try and gain the upper hand politically on the affordability issue. What are you hearing?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, there's two sides to this. One, are the president's advisers, who are essentially telling him, look, this is a real issue. This is something that Americans are feeling. They are feeling it. You see this in the polls, but you can't, you know, prevent people or tell them not how to feel about the economy and about their paychecks and about the prices at the grocery stores.
And so, widespread in -- throughout the administration, people recognize that this is an issue. And from what I've been told from my conversations with White House officials, is the president recognizes this as well, except for him. He sees this as a perception and messaging issue, and he believes that his administration has done a lot to try and bring down inflation to help matters on the economy. But that people aren't feeling it or seeing it.
And so, you know, you saw him last night. You got everyone's been talking about that interview with Fox News's Laura Ingraham where she was asking the president directly, you know, then why do people say that they have so much anxiety about the economy if the economy is great? And there, he kind of brushed away those concerns, saying, you know, I don't believe that. I think the polls are fake.
But then also in the same breath, you've heard him, Kasie, over the last week or so, kind of pulling out these different issues that show that he is feeling this as well. And you can kind of hear the frustration when you hear him talk about, you know, this idea of sending $2,000 checks to Americans, using tariff revenue to help them pay for their bills. Youve heard him talk about meatpacking prices going up, or this idea of 50-year mortgages. Those are all signs that the president recognizes they need to do more on this issue.
And I do think you can expect, and I've heard this in my conversations with White House officials, that they will be planning new messaging on this. At the same time, they recognize that this is still a long way off from the midterms. Other advisers have told them, you know, tariffs, your tariff policies have created some sort of ripple in the economy that will likely change. We'll see difference in that by next year's midterms, because so much of this attention on this issue of affordability really did stem from those elections last week, it was a warning sign for a lot of Republicans, including people in that building behind me.
And so, they are grappling with how to change their message on this. You might see the president doing more events on this as well, but there is definitely a broad acknowledgment that this is a problem and that they have to change it. The question is, there is a bit of a division of whether they need to really change their policies or in the presence of mind, really change the messaging on this.
HUNT: All right. Alayna Treene, thanks very much for that. Really appreciate it.
Jonah, does that ever work to just change the messaging? I mean, when I find usually that when politicians come after a loss and they just say, well, well, we just didn't communicate it, we just didn't do a good enough job telling people the real story. No offense, Mo, Democrats did this a lot in 2024.
ELLEITHEE: We did.
HUNT: But usually, it's just -- it's not good enough, right?
GOLDBERG: Yeah, because again, people are experts on their own situation. And you know, look, I mean, my point about people used to say economic security. Now they say affordability -- affordability taps into this feeling of uncertainty. Just like what's A.I. going to be doing to my job? Or, you know, my wife's job or my husband's job.
HUNT: I mean, I got little kids -- I'm like, what are they going to what are -- what am I going to? What is the school going to teach them how to do?
GOLDBERG: Car repossessions are like a 20-year high, right? Like if your car is being repossessed because you can't make your car payments, messaging is totally irrelevant to you because that's where your real life is. And there's a lot of that kind of stuff that's ground truth that the White House cannot spin away. And Democrats couldn't do it. Republicans can't.
TODD: We know there's an old country song says, don't believe your lying eyes. And that's -- that's -- it never works to tell people to not believe their lying eyes.
HUNT: Yeah, I wish we could just bump out on that song as we go, as we go to break here.
Coming up in THE ARENA, a stark new warning when it comes to air travel. Why, it could take years for the industry to fully recover from this shutdown as more flight cancellations roll in and staffing shortages cause delays to pile up.
Plus, Schumer in survival mode. What's next for the minority leader? Amid new calls from inside his own party to step aside from leadership after eight Democrats jumped ship on the shutdown.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COLBERT, COMEDIAN: These Democratic defectors did get one concession. Senate Majority Leader John Thune promised them a vote on the ACA in December, because that's when people get down to serious work.
(LAUGHTER)
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COLBERT: December. (END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN DUFFY, 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.
REOPRTER: 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)
HUNT: The transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, says flights could normalize by the busy Thanksgiving holiday if air traffic controllers return to work. They have now missed their second full paycheck since the government shutdown began.
[16:20:01]
Today, the FAA has mandated flight reductions at some of America's busiest airports. Yeah, they increased to 6 percent. The big airlines have preemptively canceled more than 800 flights that are scheduled for today.
CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean joins us now live from Reagan National airport, where right now, as we speak, the control tower is short staffed.
Pete, it sounds like it's been a nightmare to fly in and out of National lately. Are these members going to get home and what are other travelers experiencing today?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: You know, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just said the House must come here and do its work. He's speaking right now at Chicago O'Hare International Airport. What is interesting here is that we have seen the number of issues at staffing facilities, at air traffic control facilities due to staffing really go down today. They were very high, just 40 yesterday, even higher over the weekend.
Today, the number has only been four recorded by the Federal Aviation Administration, problems due to low staffing and air traffic control facilities nationwide, and that has caused the flight cancellations to go down and down -- 2,900 was the number on Sunday that was the highest we have seen for cancellations since the shutdown began 42 days ago, and then it went down to about 2,500 yesterday, due in part to air traffic control. Staffing shortages, also, some bad weather on the East Coast, also some bad weather in the Midwest.
Now the number is less than half that. Just check FlightAware. Weve only seen the delays go up about 30, maybe two dozen or so in the last few hours. So right now, we're sitting at about 1,230 flight delays nationwide so far, give or take. About 70 percent of that number is the number of flights preemptively canceled by airlines due to this Trump administration mandate that they slashed their schedules to make it easier on air traffic controllers, who continue to work without pay. It is all in the name of safety, according to the Trump administration.
That number jumped up to a 6 percent mandate of flight cuts today. Then it goes up to 8 percent, Thursday, 10 percent on Friday. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just said that he is defending that move, and he says that he will be the one to decide whether or not those cuts remain in place, not necessarily the end of the shutdown. He says it is all guided by data. It is all guided by safety.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLP)
DUFFY: We are at the cusp of hopefully having the government reopened. I'm concerned that were not going to have on day one, controllers come back into the towers right away. I'm asking them to do that. President Trump has asked them to do that. It is their jobs, and they will be paid, but it might not be immediate that they come back in. We're going to start to alleviate the restrictions that we're at 6 percent now. We'll alleviate that only when the data says we should.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Air traffic controllers tell me they were riled by this post by President Trump on truth social yesterday, which said that controllers who continue to show up to work are patriots, and Trump said that he would give them a $10,000 bonus if they showed up every day. They were scheduled to work during the shutdown, but he also invited those who did not show up to up and quit.
The air transportation system simply cannot afford that right now. There is a huge shortage of air traffic controllers nationwide between 1,000 and 2,000, according to Duffy. Maybe even more, depending on some estimates. The good news here is controllers are about to be made whole. When this government shut down officially ends, they will get 70 percent of back pay, Duffy says, within 24 to 48 hours of the end of this government shutdown be made fully whole in about a week's time.
HUNT: A relief for them and their families.
Pete Muntean, thanks very much for that report.
And joining us now in THE ARENA to discuss, Republican congressman from Tennessee, Tim Burchett. He sits on the House Oversight and Foreign Affairs Committee.
Sir, I think this might be the first hoodie to enter THE ARENA.
Thank you for being there for us. You have clearly not started to head back to Washington for this anticipated vote tomorrow.
I think my first question to you is, you do you think that Americans are taking out their frustration on Republicans and the Trump administration over this shutdown? Because certainly our -- the election results last week would suggest that.
REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): No, ma'am, and if they are, I'm not seeing it. And I want to wish all our veterans very happy Veterans Day. You and I can sit here and fight like cats and dogs. And the reason we can is because of their sacrifice.
But no, I don't see that. I haven't taken a check either during the shutdown voluntarily. I don't think it's right that Congress -- we get paid, and these other folks don't. So, I -- I get it. I've got a mortgage, I've got car payments, I've got to feed my family just like everybody else does. And it is incredibly tough right now. And I'm hoping that we can be all made whole and get this back on the road.
But no, I don't see that at all. I see President Trump trying to get people back in to work. I see that the added bonus would be an incredible incentive. I would think, especially going into the Christmas season, I -- I met with my air traffic controllers, one fella, they had five kids, beautiful children.
And you know, that's -- and they got to feed them just like. Just like I have to feed my family. So, I appreciate their sacrifice. It's a stressful job, as you know, and not getting a paycheck, man, that that adds a heck of a lot of stress to it. But I just see it as the president trying to get people to back to work. And I hope that we can expand quickly.
HUNT: Sir, one of the other pieces of this affordability crisis that many Americans are dealing with has to do with health care. Obviously, this is what Democrats say that they were trying to focus in on.
Your Republican colleague, Mike Lawler said that he is open to a one- year extension of the subsidies for the Affordable Care Act for Obamacare. So, to help people pay those premiums, that would mean that Mike Johnson would have to put that for a vote.
Would you support the subsidies?
BURCHETT: I would like to see the fix the program, ma'am. It's not working if we're having to put trillions --
HUNT: So, you don't want to have -- you don't want to extend the subsidies in the meantime?
BURCHETT: I would -- I would prefer not to. I'd prefer to fix it. I would prefer to fix it and give the American public a decent program, one that they can actually shop around with, one that -- that's affordable and one that --
HUNT: Do you feel like you know what the president's plan is for that?
BURCHETT: -- the health insurance industry is not making billion dollar profit?
I would hope it's a free market situation. I hope it to be cutting out the profits -- of the billion-dollar profits of these insurance companies that continuously fund campaigns of people that support them. I don't see that as a -- as a productive or a working system. And I see the president probably agrees with me on that.
And there are several plans out there. In the past -- in the Senate, we never could even get a get a, get a hearing on anything because of Bernie Sanders chairing the committee, wouldn't allow anything to happen in those committees. So hopefully in the future, again, free market enterprise, I would like -- you know, it seems kind of crazy, but in the future, maybe we ought to bring the patients and the doctors to the table until the insurance companies, they can go take a flying leap because they've screwed this program up by their greed, and the politicians' greed, who are getting funded in their campaigns by them.
That's what needs to happen, ma'am. And we've got plans out there that will work. I believe if we could just get them to the table, I think we've had enough hearings. I think we need to just start bringing stuff to the table and start voting on it. That's what America elected us to do.
And I think both parties would have to suck it up a little bit I think.
HUNT: All right.
BURCHETT: It's -- everybody talks real tough on this issue, ma'am, but nobody wants to do anything about it in reality. The leaderships are afraid of it. They want to kick that can down the road. But the American public is suffering in both parties. Poor folks, black folks, white folks, everybody's suffering under this system, and we can do a whole lot better.
HUNT: So big picture, sir, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who's one of your Republican colleagues in the House, has been very critical of the president for losing sight of these affordability concerns on health care, also on other issues. She's criticized him for inviting foreign leaders to the White House instead of focusing on domestic concerns.
And the president says that she's lost her way. Who's right? Marjorie Taylor Greene or President Trump?
BURCHETT: Marjorie Taylor Greene is an independent woman, and that doesn't bother me. I was -- I -- my mama was a very independent. My wife and daughter are very independent.
And she makes her own way. She does what she says, what she thinks. And I find that, you know, it's -- in the Republican Party, we allow that. We allow people to think different than we do, and we bring it all to the table.
Somebody told me one time that both sides have a little bit of heartburn over legislation. That's probably a good piece of legislation. So, I welcome her concerns to the table.
I would tell you, though, it's a big picture. The president understands the world economy and he understands jobs, Donald J. Trump is a dealmaker, and that's what he's been doing for this country. And I think that's why you're seeing labor and other groups coming to the table and supporting this president over -- over past options that we've had.
HUNT: All right.
BURCHETT: And we -- it's a world market and we've got -- and the real problem, ma'am, is, is, is that the politicians are greedy and they're selling this country down the road. You know --
HUNT: Yourself included?
BURCHETT: -- on the 435th -- well, they're selling us all down the road. I don't -- I don't go with them, but you don't see me getting there.
HUNT: I mean, you're a politician.
BURCHETT: I don't -- oh, yeah. Well, heck yeah I am, ma'am. And you're in the media, so were both hated. So, I mean, throw in the car salesman.
HUNT: You said the politicians are selling everybody out. I just was wondering if you include yourself in it.
Really quickly, sir, before I let you go.
BURCHETT: No, I'm not selling them out, but I'm just saying. What I'm saying is this is this. You know, you run a $5 bill down the hall, and politicians are chasing it, and that's exactly what the lobbyists do.
[16:30:03]
They -- we've sold this country down.
HUNT: It looks like we lost this politician. We -- I was going to ask him about Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's preferential treatment. We're not going to have a chance to do that now. Hopefully, next time.
Congressman Tim Burchett, our thanks to him.
Coming up here in THE ARENA, the British backlash. Exclusive CNN reporting on why one of America's closest allies has decided to keep their secrets a secret.
Plus, you might remember it was right here yesterday that Lulu said that Chuck Schumer was toast. We're going to dig in on the latest on the embattled leader and his future with Senate Democrats.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOST: Where do you stand on the growing number of Democrats who are calling for Leader Schumer to step down in light of the shutdown deal?
SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): There's a lot there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:35:11]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOST: Who is running the show now in the Democratic Party? In the Senate, in the House?
FETTERMAN: I -- no one, no one really knows.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: That was Democratic Senator John Fetterman saying out loud what -- yeah, well, he voted with Republicans to pass a deal to end the government shutdown. Not so subtly jabbing at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is, of course, getting criticism from all sides of his party over how he has handled this shutdown.
And even though Democrats are just a week out from their best election day in quite a while, their voters do seem to agree with Fetterman on the point that there is a leadership vacuum in the Democratic Party. When surveyed by politico last week who they thought their party's leader was, here is a selection of Democratic voters.
"Ugh no one," one Harris voters said. "I do not believe there is a leader right now," said another. And, "Not sure who it is now, that is kind of the problem."
Our panel is back.
I mean, Mo, this has been the question since the day that, you know, Tim Walz was our first guest on this show. Actually, the former vice presidential candidate, he couldn't, you know, answer the question of who is the leader of the Democratic Party. And that does seem to be, well, clearly, the electorate is not happy. And they sent that message pretty strongly last Tuesday.
There's no clear voice channeling Democrats right now, is there?
ELLEITHEE: No, there isn't a singular voice. And, you know, that can be okay. I remember Republicans after 2012 and Mitt Romney lost. There were lots of questions about who is the leader of the Republican Party. And they still won the next presidential election.
HUNT: They have a kids table debate stage, I will say.
ELLEITHEE: Right. But -- so the fact that there isn't a singular leader right now, that everyone is following like that can be okay. I think the bigger challenge right now is there doesn't seem to be a singular purpose coming out of Capitol Hill, where you've got house Democrats doing one thing. Some senate Democrats doing one thing. Other senate Democrats doing another, nobody on sort of the same message all the time.
There has been some greater unity lately. But you know, I think everyone should look at last week's election results and say what those people did. Spanberger Sherrill, you know, Mamdani. Yeah, focus like a laser on affordability and talk about how Donald Trump is making your life more expensive, like they should all be doing that.
HUNT: Lulu, how big of a problem do you think this vacuum is? Because, I mean, look, there is, you know, after a party loses a presidential election, most point, it's very common, right, that there's this kind of great sorting out. But at the same time, this does seem to be a particularly protracted period for Democrats of this.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: You think?
It does seem to be a very protracted period. Listen, what parties are supposed to be able to do is sort of chew gum and walk at the same time. And unfortunately, at the moment, what we're seeing is, yes who the leader of the Democratic Party is going to be is contested and should be, we don't know yet because that is being sorted out.
There are a lot of -- there's a deep bench actually. There's a lot of governors out there in particular who are very, very primed and ready for that job. But in the meantime, there is, of course, Congress. And that is another part of the leadership of the Democratic Party. And what I have heard over and over again is where are they? And when we see them, we don't like them very much.
So that I think is a deep problem.
HUNT: Yeah.
GOLDBERG: I think that's an advantage, right? I mean, like Donald Trump's popularity is sinking. He's in the high 30s at this point. It doesn't seem, given his game with Laura Ingraham, that he's going to turn that around any time soon. And Democrats are not super popular.
When you have a leader, you have someone that the other party can demonize and focus on and make it a choice rather than a referendum. Right now, having it as a referendum on Trump and having him be the center of attention, that's kind of been working for them.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: But you need someone to actually rally the troops in congress to get stuff done. And it is unclear whether the whether those two gentlemen are actually up to the task.
TODD: You're right. And we're also looking at the end of Chuck Schumer's political career.
HUNT: Let's put up "The Onion". Brad, you can make your point, but I just want to put up this headline. They said Chuck Schumer helps pull Democrats back from the brink of courage. Continue.
TODD: Yes. Well, this shutdown reminds me almost exactly of the 2013 shutdown the Republicans did in the first year of Barack Obama's second term. We're in the first year of Donald Trump's second term. The Republicans used the C.R. fight, a continuing resolution fight, shut down the government to try to readdress Obamacare's funding. They tried to bring in another issue that wasn't germane to that funding fight.
Democrats just did the same thing. Ironically, with Obamacare funding.
[16:40:02]
What happened? The leader of the Republicans in the House acquiesced to his loony base and said, okay, fine, kids, you get to do it your way. We'll shut the government down.
It didn't work. Republicans lost the shutdown, and 18 months later, Boehner was out of a job. That's what Chuck Schumer did here.
Back in the spring. He knew a shutdown was a bad idea. He stopped it this time. He let the children have their way. The toys got broken, and he'll be out of a job for --
GOLDBERG: Yeah, but the Republicans did pretty well in that election.
TODD: In the Senate side, we did, for sure. But that's mostly a result of the fact that we had pent up gains from '10 and '12 we didn't have. But --
HUNT: Yeah, I mean, look, I think the bottom line here for Schumer is that this really has broken through. I mean, we showed Stephen Colbert joking about it. There was that -- "The Onion".
And then, here was Jon Stewart this week, too. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON STEWART, COMEDIAN: 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. 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)
HUNT: Reading some Sun Tzu.
Mo, I mean, look, the Democrats seem to be saying to their leaders, we want you to fight. And the base is certainly saying, okay, so you fought and then you stopped fighting.
ELLEITHEE: Yeah. This may not be the finest moment that our party's had on the Hill. And look -- I, you know, the drum beat, you know, that were hearing now. You know, I like Chuck Schumer a lot. I think he's got a really tough job. I also wonder how much longer he can hold it because --
HUNT: Was he better at it ten years ago? ELLEITHEE: Succeed -- like you can't survive that constant drip, drip, drip. Even when there were challenges to Nancy Pelosi and a number of House Democratic candidates stood up and said, we're not going to support her, she still had control of her caucus, right? She gave them that latitude, and she still had control of her caucus. It does not appear.
TODD: She never let them shut down the government.
ELLEITHEE: And it never -- it doesn't appear that there's that same level of control over the caucus.
HUNT: Yes. Nancy Pelosi's mastery of her own members which allowed her to wield power as one of the most, arguably most powerful speakers in history, some to see.
All right. Ahead here in THE ARENA, the relationship rupture between the United States and Great Britain. The U.K. is icing the U.S. out of a key part of counterterrorism operations, saying the U.S. has broken the law.
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[16:46:55]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't think we're going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we're just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, okay? We're going to kill them you know? They're going to be like, dead. Okay?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: They're going to be like, dead. The president of the United States talking about the deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean and Pacific Oceans, new exclusive CNN reporting reveals the United Kingdom has suspended its intelligence sharing with the U.S. about suspected drug trafficking boats in the Caribbean because they believe the attacks are illegal and they don't want to be complicit.
That reporting, coming as the Navy's most advanced carrier strike group and the world's largest aircraft carrier, arrives near Latin America, raising questions about whether strikes against Venezuela are next.
Retired Admiral James Stavridis served as former NATO supreme allied commander and led U.S. Southern Command.
Admiral, so grateful to have you to talk about this.
How significant is it that the U.K. was a member of Five Eyes? I mean, this is a really important intelligence sharing partner for the United States of America has basically said, we're not going to give you information about this because we don't think that this is legal. ADMIRAL JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST: Assuming
the reporting is correct, because nobody's announcing it on either side of the pond. But, Kasie, if true, it's a big, big deal. Tactically, it means you're not going to get that intelligence that the United Kingdom gathers all around the Caribbean. They still own the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, got a lot of territories. They conduct a lot of operations there. So that's a real tactical shortfall.
Operationally, this intelligence during my time and today flows through something called the Joint Interagency Task Force South in Key West. It's got over a dozen different countries in it. In effect, the U.K. is saying we're not going to participate. That's an operational shortfall.
And to me, most worrisome is the strategic question it raises as follows. You know, it's one thing when the United Nations Human Rights Commission says, hey, these are extralegal extrajudicial killings. When your closest ally says, nope, we're not going there anymore. That raises real questions about the strategic direction you're going.
So bottom line, it's a big deal.
HUNT: Admiral, can you help us understand how you think about the strategy here and how outside the norms it is or isn't?
STAVRIDIS: If you mean and I think you do the counter-narcotics policy --
HUNT: Yeah.
STAVRIDIS: -- it's quite outside the norms of the way we've done business in the past. When I commanded Southern Command, if we had very good intelligence about a high speed boat moving, we would typically lay in wait for it, put a helicopter over it so that it couldn't run away. Had the coast guard come up, maybe shoot out the engines if we had to, then would apprehend the bad guys, incarcerate them, interrogate them.
That's, in my view, a pretty good system because leaving aside the legalities or the moral and ethical questions, which are important, but by simply blowing up boat after boat, you don't have the opportunity to gather intelligence by interrogation.
[16:50:15]
You can't make the case that Maduro is behind all of this because you killed all the perps and you've blown up all the evidence.
HUNT: And what does it tell you that they've sent the USS Gerald Ford? Can you -- you know, I understand a little bit about the significance of it, but I'd really appreciate it if you kind of let our viewers in on that. I mean, what message do you think they're trying to send here with that?
STAVRIDIS: Yeah, let's just kind of do the numbers for a minute. At this point, there are once the carrier and her escorts are on station, there's going to be probably ten or maybe a few more major surface combatants in the region. Reportedly, there's a nuclear submarine. There's a squadron plus of joint strike fighters, fifth generation fighters up in Puerto Rico.
You know, this is kind of 20,000 sailors, marines on board those amphibious readiness ships. There hasn't been this much combat firepower afloat in the region going back to the 1960s and the Cuban missile crisis.
So why are they there? No one's announcing anything. But my view is this is gunboat diplomacy. Put pressure on Nicolas Maduro, perhaps do some strikes ashore to increase that pressure, try and convince him to give up power and go to the next door to Assad, outside of Moscow, or get a nice hacienda in Cuba.
Let's hope he decides to do that. It's a lot of firepower, Kasie.
HUNT: So, what would -- sir, if they were to strike inside Venezuela? And there's been some reporting off the hill that right now the administration is saying that they believe that that wouldn't be legal, but it's clearly something that has been discussed, considering what our allies have done with these strikes in the water, how do you think strikes on land would be received by our allies?
STAVRIDIS: I think badly, and the administration, if they do decide to pursue the course of strikes on land, in my view, need to move it in a way where you really tie it to the counter-narcotics, act of war theory that you've developed. So that means you're going to go after counter-narcotics sites in Venezuela. So, think transit points where drugs move on land, maybe where the boats are coming out of, maybe the maintenance areas for those boats, maybe some command and control nodes, particular cell towers, pretty limited target set. Probably do that with Tomahawk missiles. Maybe some drones.
I think then you hit pause. You go to Maduro and say, how do you like it so far? Because we can do a lot more than this. And you hope he folds his tents and goes away?
HUNT: Well, you've definitely, definitely thought about this very detailed.
Briefly -- Admiral, stand by for me.
Jonah, I want to just bring you into this conversation as someone who is very focused on the Constitution and the conservative interpretation of said document, what does it tell you that the U.K. is saying, were not going to share intel with you anymore because you're doing this right?
GOLDBERG: So, and a lot of legal circles, there's a lot of concern. And by the way, the conservative view, the Constitution is the correct view, the Constitution. But in a lot of legal circles, there's a real concern, because the normal protocol would be to have a legal finding, right? You have this finding that says we can do this for these reasons. This is the authorities I'm invoking all that. They've not done that.
It's fine for them to not do it for the public if they've got a security reason. It also means they're not providing an argument to the Brits, to our allies about why its legal.
HUNT: Right.
GOLDBERG: Because otherwise, the Brits wouldn't be bailing out on us.
HUNT: Yeah. Fair enough.
All right. Admiral James Stavridis, thank you, sir, very much for being here. Hope to see you again soon. Really appreciate it.
STAVRIDIS: You bet, Kasie.
HUNT: All right. We'll be right back.
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[16:58:45]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Generation after generation, Americas warriors have left behind the comforts of home and family to face violence, evil and death so that our families could know joy, goodness and peace. We honor them so strongly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: That was President Trump honoring America's veterans at Arlington National Cemetery this morning on this Veterans Day. There, he laid a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. Of course, a symbolic resting place for service members who remains have not been found or identified.
And then a group of Vietnam and Korean War veterans were in for a surprise this weekend as they flew into D.C. for the holiday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. As we approach Veterans Day, I wanted to stop by and just say thank you for your extraordinary service. To you, your family, the sacrifices that all of you made to protect our country is something that will always be honored.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: That was, of course, former President Obama greeting veterans as they got off of their honor flight. Honor flight DCA brings veterans here to D.C. to visit the memorials to the wars that they fought in. They do it completely free of charge.
If you ever have a chance to be at the airport, one of these flights arrives, it's a really, really special experience.
And just on a personal note, on this Veterans Day, I'd like to honor my late grandfather. He was awarded the Purple Heart in World War II, and I think regularly about the values that he and all of his comrades in arms fought for in Europe and in the Pacific. And I just hope that we all hold those values close as we navigate today's turbulent world.
Thanks very much to my panel.
Jake Tapper is standing by for "THE LEAD".
Hi, Jake.
