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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip
Trump Admin Will Only Pay Out Half Of Food Stamps This Month; Poll Shows 61 Percent Of Americans Say Trump's Policies Making Economy Worse; Trump Claims He Doesn't Know Crypto Billionaire He Pardoned; Trump Threatens Military Action In Nigeria; Trump And Musk Endorse Cuomo In NYC. Aired 10-11p ET
Aired November 03, 2025 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Tonight, let them eat cake. As the president goes Gatsby, his administration says Americans will only get half of their food stamps this month.
And Congress gets a plea from above.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lord, when a house is burning, the first step should be to unite in extinguishing the flames.
PHILLIP: Plus, after months of accusing Joe Biden of not knowing who he pardoned, the president says this about his own pardon of the crypto convict who helped make Trump's empire richer again.
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I don't know who he is.
I know nothing about it.
PHILLIP: Also, he promised the U.S. wouldn't enter foreign conflicts, but now the president is threatening to bomb another nation.
And on Election Eve, Donald Trump and Elon Musk tell New Yorkers vote Cuomo.
Live at the table, Scott Jennings, David Hogg, Penny Nance, Congressman Jared Moskowitz and Leah Wright Rigueur.
Americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here, they do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Good evening. I'm Abby Philip here in the nation's capital.
Let's get right to what America's talking about. The Gulf of America is growing between its politics and its people. Just hours before food stamps expired as the government shutdown gets longer, the president and his friends were attending a Great Gatsby-themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago. The book, of course, partly about how the working class often pays for the misdeeds of the rich and the powerful, quote, they smashed up things and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together and let other people clean up the mess they had made.
Now, the White House had resisted using the food stamp program to pay for -- to be paid for by emergency funds, but two federal judges have now ordered them to do so. And today, they said that they would, sort of. It costs more than $9 billion a month to cover the 42 million Americans who are on the food stamp program, and the contingency funds only have $5 billion in it. So, the administration says they're just going to pay half and that it won't move other money to cover the rest. Now, this comes as Trump's approval rating has hit its lowest point of this term and 61 percent of Americans disapprove of his handling of this government shutdown.
I can't imagine what the reaction would've been, Scott, if another president of any party, frankly, had hosted a massive Great Gatsby- themed party at his private club in the middle of a government shutdown that is poised to be the longest ever while millions of Americans are worried about whether they're going to get food on the table this month.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Look, I don't know what the connection is between the president's schedule at Mar-a- Lago and the Democrats continuously voting to keep the government shut down in Washington, but I guess I'll indulge the framing. I mean, the bottom line is the Democrats have voted 13 times to keep the government closed. The Republicans, led by Donald Trump, have repeatedly called for the government to be open. If you want to fund SNAP, you can walk in there tonight and vote for the continuing resolution that they have decided not to vote for for 13 times.
You can try to pin it on Trump, but the bottom line is the Republicans have had a clean point of view here from the beginning, and it's the Democrats who have held the government hostage, including SNAP beneficiaries for some reason, and that's why we are where we are.
PHILLIP: But that sounds almost exactly like a let them eat cake moment, because, I mean, Trump is the president. He's not just a random bystander. He is in this very moment that Americans are worried about whether they're going to get their paychecks. I mean, they're not getting their paychecks, they're not getting their food stamps. Having this kind of moment, I mean, it's just -- it seems to me that in another political era, and I don't care whether you're a Democrat or a Republican, most politicians would not have allowed the optics of what we saw this weekend.
REP. JARED MOSKOWITZ (D-FL): Yes, I mean, look, I voted against the C.R. because the C.R. wasn't going to take care of people's health insurance. Healthcare was going to go up.
[22:05:00]
I didn't vote for that C.R. Scott might remember Republicans didn't vote for the C.R. previously, the same C.R. in different years. In fact, Republicans removed a speaker of the House, we forget about that, because he put a C.R. on the floor. So --
JENNINGS: But you did vote against the SNAP benefits then you admitted it?
MOSKOWITZ: I did not vote against the SNAP benefits.
JENNINGS: If you had voted for the C.R., would we have SNAP right now?
MOSKOWITZ: Scott, what I voted for was a C.R. that was going to see people in Florida have their health insurance go up almost 100 percent.
JENNINGS: Now, these are separate issues.
MOSKOWITZ: No. I got 25,000 people in my district that are going to lose your health insurance because this C.R. --
JENNINGS: And how many do you have are going to lose their SNAP?
MOSKOWITZ: Okay. Well, first of all, let's talk about SNAP for a second. Why did the Republicans send $40 billion to Argentina? Where is that money, Scott? Why didn't that include Americans? That's America first?
JENNINGS: It's a credit swap. That's a fair profit on that.
MOSKOWITZ: That's America first, we're sending money to Argentina rather than to take it to people's SNAP benefits? I would have loved to have been at Mar-a-Lago while the girls were in the martini glasses when they were trying to figure out what to do with the judge's order. You know, half the room was probably like, should we pay it? Should we not pay it? And then someone was like, oh, I have a great idea. Let the subjects only get half their rations. I mean, they're only going to give half the SNAP benefits to these people.
JENNINGS: How many have the Democrats voted against it?
MOSKOWITZ: Scott, look at the polling.
JENNNINGS: Democrats have repeatedly voted to give zero of SNAP benefits.
I'm sorry, this is not -- this whole thing could have been averted if Democrats had done what they did in March, which is vote for Joe Biden's budget levels. They have refused to do it. A couple of Democrats in the Senate, like John Fetterman, have shown some courage and backbone. But the bottom line is this party is enthralled to the radical left. That's why they changed their position from March until now, and that's why people are not getting their SNAP benefits. It's why federal law enforcement isn't being paid. It's why Trump's having to scramble to pay the military. This is a Democratic shutdown because of political fear.
MOSKOWITZ: What happened to the mandate Republicans, Scott? You have the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court and the executive, yet the Democrats are to blame. PHILLIP: -- is why won't Trump scramble to help Americans put food on the table. That is part of the question that is being asked. He just acknowledged that there was an effort to find money for other things.
He was also asked this weekend about the fact that grocery prices have gone up and here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When the stock market is doing well, that doesn't affect everybody. Not everybody's invested in the stock market.
TRUMP: It does. Oh, it does. It does.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But there have been -- grocery prices are up.
TRUMP: No, 401(k)s, people are 401(k)s. Their 401(k)s are double what they were a year ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But for people that don't have 401(k)s, who are not invested in the stock market, they've seen their grocery prices go up. Inflation --
TRUMP: No, you're wrong. They went up under Biden. Right now, they're going down, other than beef, which we're working on, which we can solve very quickly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: So, he's wrong about that. Grocery prices have gone up. From a political and from a practical perspective, why won't Trump have the same energy for people who need to just eat just like a basic need as he does for other priorities of his?
PENNY NANCE, CEO AND PRESIDENT, CONCERNED WOMEN FOR AMERICA: Well, I spent the day, Abby, talking to women from around the country and including a woman who has a small business in which she and her sister clean people's houses. That's her job and she feeds her family with it. Another woman who has a tiny house, you know, in New Jersey whose electricity bill has gone up to $600 a month and she can't afford it.
Certainly, there's concerns. And when I was talking to Patty, the woman in Kentucky, she's a Trump voter. And I said to her, I said, you know, tell me what's going on. And I said, how are you feeling about the economy? And, you know, I expected everything to be rah-rah, right? I thought that she'd be like -- and she did say, I love President Trump. She said, but you need to know that the gas is great, like gases come down, but, my goodness, like Halloween candy was $40 for an entire bag. And, you know, it's difficult. This is Eastern Kentucky. This is, you know, my hometown of, you know, that part of the country. And so is Appalachia, it is rough. But she said that, you know, she would vote for President Trump again and she believed that he was going to be able to juice up the market that, again, we were going to be able to return to the Trump economy. She said she would vote for him again if she had the chance. She was a supporter of President Trump. They trust him. They believe in him. He delivered for them before. They think he's going to again. Yes, there's work to be done, for sure. And I agree with Scott, the Democrats have to get the government open. We cannot continue -- you can't mix apples and oranges. The ACA is one issue. The federal budget is another issue. Let's get this done.
PHILLIP: David?
DAVID HOGG, PRESIDENT, LEADERS WE DESERVE: You're saying we can't mix apples and oranges, and that's exactly what they're doing. The entire reason the government is not open right now is because Democrats refuse to be complicit in having millions of Americans, including a hundred thousand in Kentucky, your home state, if I'm remembering correctly, Scott, that rely on ACA, that would see their premiums rise several --
[22:10:05]
NANCE: Which you can deal with separately. It doesn't have to be. Those two things do not go together. They're two separate --
HOGG: But the way that they're doing this right now, they're combining both.
NANCE: Voting to support the budget still doesn't -- if you keep it closed, it doesn't fix the ACA. The ACA needs to be reformed. Healthcare needs to -- this is a way bigger question.
HOGG: You guys failed at that last time. The whole thing was repeal and replace. You had a trifecta. You tried this. You failed.
NANCE: And so did you.
MOSKOWITZ: That's not true. They're still in the concept of a plan stage.
HOGG: No, in terms of --
MOSKOWITZ: They've been in the concept stage since 2008.
JENNINGS: But, David, you would admit that the ACA was a Democrat legislation, yes, and you would admit that the subsidies that we're talking about now were passed by Democrats, yes. And you would admit that the sunset provision in the subsidies, which comes up at the end of the year, was in place because of Democrats, yes. Now, you want to make it a Republican problem.
These are not the same issues. You could open the government today and then you could negotiate with Republicans about ACA. And, by the way, my suspicion is, and you know this, there are probably, and I know there are some House Republicans that would love to negotiate on it, but under duress, under a hostage-taking situation, connecting disconnected issues, and now you're throwing SNAP onto it, you're throwing all the federal workers who aren't being paid onto it all because of this fight that you wandered into because of your wing of the Democratic Party. You all led to this SNAP crisis. You all led to this crisis of the government being closed, and you don't know how to get out of it.
PHILLIP: So, look, as you come in, Leah, just to note in the same CNN poll, Trump's approval rating on his handling of the government shutdown is at 25 percent. 61 percent of Americans disapprove of how he's handling this issue. So, you know, I don't even know. I mean, Trump has been effectively MIA on this and maybe intentionally so, but the American people don't apparently think that he is playing a constructive role.
LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Correct, and I think that this is the problem that the president has, you know, either wandered into or boxed himself into. He's had plenty to say on Republican shutdowns, on Democrat-led shutdowns over the years when he's been out of the White House, he has had a lot to say about the responsibility of the president that is in power, or the president, and the parties that are in power in terms of shutdown. In fact, he's effectively said that it's the president's fault, it's the president's responsibility. So here we are back in this moment.
The other thing beyond this though, I think, is that irrespective of we can sit up here and say, this person is responsible, this party is responsible, it's the American people that are making the decision. And the American people have been very clear that they blame the president of the United States for the shutdown. They blame the Republican Party for the shutdown, and they are very angry about the state of the economy.
And this is a thing, I think, that the president has to watch out for and should be very careful about. Part of the reason that he is back in office is because of this disconnect between the American people and the state of the economy. One of the things that the Biden administration used to love to say was, well, look at how the stock market is performing, look at how the economy is performing.
And we were say over and over ago that there is a -- again, that there is a disconnect between what the American people are feeling on the ground and the way that the markets are performing, right? People are talking about groceries, they're talking about gas. Well, guess what? Nine months later, people are still talking about groceries. They're still talking about gas.
JENNINGS: They're not talking about gas. It is at a four-year low.
RIGUEUR: It depends on what part of the country you're in, but they're talking about --
JENNINGS: In California, it's really high, but everywhere else --
RIGUEUR: But they're also talking about eggs. They're talking about the cost. Eggs are not low.
JENNINGS: Eggs are low.
RIGUEUR: Have you been to a grocery store around here? JENNINGS: Eggs are low, probably.
RIGUEUR: I mean, eggs are not low.
JENNINGS: I'm going to fact check you after the show and you're going to be surprised.
RIGUEUR: $8.99 for eggs is not low.
But what I'm saying is the American people disagree with that. And they blamed it very squarely --
(CROSSTALKS)
PHILLIP: Hold on. We've been through this before. Eggs are lower than they were when Trump came into office, but not year-over-year. So, they're --
JENNINGS: Eggs are very cheap right now.
PHILLIP: Go ahead, David.
HOGG: The point that I want to reiterate is that it sounds almost as if you guys did not learn the lesson that Democrats should have learned after the 2024 election, which is that if people are saying that they feel like the economy is not getting better, if your approval rating is continuing to fall right now, 75 percent of just 18 to 29 year olds do not approve of the Trump presidency and how he's doing in his job.
You can go and tell people all you want about the stock market. We've tried that. It did not work, right? You cannot change people's reality if you are just saying, look at this chart, you shouldn't feel this way. You need to talk to how they're actually feeling.
PHILLIP: We got to go.
Next for us, the right says that Joe Biden had no idea who he pardoned. It turns out Trump just claimed that he doesn't either.
Plus, the president is now threatening to bomb another nation. So, is the U.S. back to policing the world. We'll debate.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:15:00]
PHILLIP: President Trump is claiming that he knows nothing about the billionaire crypto convict that he pardoned less than two weeks ago. Changpeng Zhao, also known as C.Z., pleaded guilty to money laundering. Two years ago. His company, Binance, helped the Trump empire get even richer. But here's what Trump had to say about him yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why did you pardon him?
TRUMP: Okay. Are you ready? I don't know who he is. I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that and I heard it was a Biden witch hunt. Well, here's the thing, I know nothing about it because I'm too busy doing the other.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But he got a pardon?
TRUMP: No. I can only tell you this. My sons are into it. I'm glad they are because it's probably a great industry, crypto.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: It's an interesting claim coming from Trump because his own Justice Department and the House Oversight Committee, they are currently investigating whether former President Biden knew who he was pardoning toward the end of his presidency.
[22:20:09]
And for Trump to now turn around and say, well, I simply don't know anything about this, but I signed a pardon, didn't he sign a pardon?
NANCE: No. Isn't the question whether he knows he pardoned anyone, whether President Biden even knew? That's the question. Was it because --
PHILLIP: The question about Trump or the question about Biden?
NANCE: President Biden, the question is. So, President Trump knew Biden that he pardon someone. I'm sure at the time he knew what it was, but I'm sure at the time that he did. Our question is, did Joe Biden even know he was pardoning anyone? And because the paper trail is so lax, like there's not the proof there that needs to be done.
PHILLIP: I don't understand. How do we jump to the conclusion that Joe Biden didn't know who he pardoned?
NANCE: Because when Jake Tapper wrote a book about how out of it that he was.
PHILLIP: Hold on. Okay. Again, I'm going to ask, how do we jump to the conclusion that Joe Biden did not know who he pardoned, any of the people he pardoned when Trump is literally on camera saying directly to a reporter, I don't know anything about this?
NANCE: Well, I think I answered that question, but here's one piece that we do need to really think about.
PHILLIP: What I don't understand --
NANCE: The price, what evidence says is so lax in these pardons. There's a lot of money and President Biden's pardoned 4,200 people. An average president does 3,400 in his tenure. Where -- who are all these people? This is big business. The dirty secret is pardons are big business in Washington. They absolutely are actually. And we need to do a better job of knowing why.
PHILLIP: But let's not forget that Donald Trump signed blanket pardons for over a thousand January 6th rioters, including people convicted of violent crimes. He did that. And then also in this particular case, you just mentioned the money involved because there is money involved. Binance hired people to lobby Trump while they are also in business with Trump's family to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Reuters just reported a couple of days ago, the president and his family raked in more than $800 million from sales of crypto assets in the first half of 2025 alone, okay? That is literally a business that Trump is in with this guy who they just executed a pardon for, and then Trump says, I don't know anything about it, and that's okay?
JENNINGS: Well, I think a few things could be true. One, I don't doubt one bit that President Trump isn't acquainted with the finer points of the crypto industry. I believe that. Number two, it's also true that presidents most often don't personally know the people that they're pardoning. And number three, Penny's right, people do pardon administrations for -- or, I'm sorry, lobby administrations for pardons often. I think that's probably what happened in this case, and I think there's probably a group of advisers who heard the plea and recommended to the president.
PHILLIP: Hold on. So, again, Trump says he doesn't know anything about it. This wasn't like a blanket pardon that was sent out to a bunch of people. It was one man on one day, lovely day in October, okay, one man, right? So, you're telling me that Trump has no idea that he pardoned perhaps one of the most prominent people to ever be convicted in crypto, a business that his family is deeply embedded in. Again, you want us to believe that that is not something that he would know or understand.
JENNINGS: No, I don't --
PHILLIP: And that if he didn't know and understand it, that that would be okay with you.
JENNINGS: I don't want you to believe anything, and I'm not certainly not acquainted with all the details of it. I'm just telling you that I believe that the president probably doesn't personally know this person. I also believe that the --
PHILLIP: I didn't ask if he personally knew him.
JENNINGS: I also believe that the president probably lobbied about this, and I believe that a group of advisers probably told him that he was overprosecuted by Biden.
PHILLIP: Do you think he knows that his family is in business with his company?
JENNINGS: I think he probably knows his business with -- PHILLIP: And do you think that's okay? Do you think that's okay?
JENNINGS: He got a recommendation.
PHILLIP: Do you think that it's okay that he pardoned somebody that his family is right at this very moment in business with, and who, shortly after that pardon, sent out a message promoting the Trump family crypto business? You're okay with that?
MOSKOWITZ: No. It's totally above board, obviously.
HOGG: Yes, I mean, by the way --
MOSKOWITZ: There's nothing to see here. That's A for effort. I mean, I just want to -- I want to let you both know.
I mean, look, this was great. Nora O'Donnell was like asking a tough question, right? She was like, hey, so there's this guy, he goes by C.Z., you know, he's a national security risk, and he was like, you know, moving money for Hamas and you gave him a pardon, and Trump was like pretending like he was with his best friend. He is like, hey, listen to this, I don't even know the guy. I know nothing about it. I mean somewhere, you know, obviously James Comer, my dear friend, who spent millions of dollars on this autopen thing, is crying. When the speaker was asked this question, he looked like his IBS started to kick in front of the T.V. cameras. No, this undermines their entire message about Joe Biden the autopen and not knowing pardons.
And you know the one thing we don't have about Joe Biden?
[22:25:00]
We don't have him on camera of being asked a question, do you know about this pardon, and Joe Biden going, no, know nothing about it.
(CROSSTALKS)
MOSKOWITZ: We got Trump. We got Trump right there for the American people to see, Trump going, no, don't know this guy, Zhao, don't know anything about it.
JENNINGS: It's true. You don't have Joe Biden on camera about much of anything the last three months.
NANCE: Or even who he was at that point, so, yes.
PHILLIP: Look, you made the point about Mike Johnson, because this has become a common refrain. He's asked about something that Trump says, it's all over the news, and, apparently, news doesn't get to Capitol Hill. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): I don't know anything about that. I didn't see the interview. You have to ask the president about that.
I don't know any of the details of that yet. I just heard about that literally I was walking in.
I don't know the details about that. I've just read it. I didn't talk with him about that.
I don't know the latest developments.
That's the first I've heard of that. I don't know anything about it.
I don't know what you're talking about with the children.
I haven't seen that, so I'm not going to comment on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: I don't know. It just kind of undermines the idea, you know, that there's some right righteous indignation about the wrongdoings of your political opponents, but any time that your guy's doing something that is questionable, it's like, oh, I just haven't heard about it.
NANCE: Oh, that goes both ways.
PHILLIP: Yes, it sure does.
NANCE: We just came out of that, watching that whole show.
PHILLIP: But, again, like the whole premise here is that this was so bad under Biden that it was -- I mean, if they could have impeached him over it, they would have. They want to undo his presidential actions over this. And now Trump says, I don't even know who you're talking about, and, you know, Mike Johnson says, well, sorry, I just haven't heard about it.
NANCE: I don't know. I don't know anything about that.
PHILLIP: Well, there you go.
RIGUEUR: I mean, I don't know. I think it certainly does undermine and undercut the president's arguments and certainly his outbursts that we see on social media about the criminal family and these people who knew what, who knew what, who did this.
But I think the bigger question is that the president has repeatedly indicated that he is involved in these various kind of questionable endeavors. And sometimes he admits to it. Sometimes he's very open about it. And other times he says things like, I don't know. I don't really know about crypto. I don't know if that's supposed to be plausible deniability or if it's something else entirely.
But as we continue to see, and then I think CNN has done really excellent reporting on this, as the president has continued on, these are questions that are becoming bigger and bigger. And part of what the president has done and part of I think what Republicans in Congress have done too, is they've undermined their own argument because these are the same questions that they asked of the Biden administration, of Joe Biden, of Joe Biden's family. So, now, I think it's only fair that you ask the same questions about the Trumps, about their endeavors, about their interests, about what's going on in terms of lobbying. And, in essence, the president has set himself up for those very questions.
PHILLIP: Well, I think one of the main questions left for the White House to answer is whether this -- Trump did sign this pardon. If he doesn't know anything about it, was it a signature or was it autopen? I think James Comer would like to know, and so would we.
Coming up next, the president is warning another nation that the U.S. faces guns a blazing. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:33:02]
PHILLIP: Tonight, the no-wars president is once again threatening to bomb a foreign country, this time after watching a Fox News segment. Donald Trump ordering the Pentagon to prepare for possible action in Nigeria citing the killings of Christians at the hands of Islamic terrorists.
Now, Trump said that Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria, but the reality on the ground is much more complicated. Both Christians and Muslims, the two main religious groups in the country, have both been victims of attacks. And the Nigerian government rejects the claim that it's not doing enough to protect them. In a separate post, Trump threatened to end all aid to Nigeria and warned that he would go guns a-blazing if its government didn't stop the killing.
Now, Trump is apparently alerted to this issue after watching a Fox News segment while he was en route to Mar-a-Lago on Friday. And this is kind of typical Trump fashion. He reacts to what he's seeing on television. But in this case, promising American military action in Nigeria over this issue where his facts are not even really lined up with what is happening on the ground? It's reflexive.
RIGUEUR: Yeah, so I think there are a couple of things to point out. One is that the President has, I mean, part of his charm to a large number of the American public is the fact that he reacts on the go. But this is also part of the problem, right? Why are we finding out about potential foreign policy from a Truth social tweet or some Truth social, whatever it's called. Why are we finding out in this way? Why is the President making decisions in this way? Why aren't we having larger conversations behind the scenes about very serious accusations of foreign policy.
The second thing is -- the reality is that on the ground, violence and -- kind of really explosive violence in Nigeria isn't limited to Christians. It's something that is actually kind of cross-cultural, cross-religious. If you look at the bare numbers on the ground, you find that Muslim Nigerians are also experiencing the same level of violence if not fired.
[22:35:00] PHILLIP: Yeah, so, to that point -- this is from the "Associated Press". There have been a number of attacks, 20,000 deaths out of 11,000 attacks, but of those, 385 attacks were targeted against Christians, resulting in 317 deaths. But in the same period, there were 417 deaths among Muslims in 196 attacks.
JENNINGS: I don't think you can minimize this, Abby.
UNKNOWN: No.
PHILLIP: There's been about 100,000, upwards of 100,000 since 2009.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Hold on a second.
JENNINGS: Seven thousand this year. It's a real deal.
PHILLIP: Hold on a second, Scott.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Hold on a second, Scott. I am not minimize -- just because I'm putting facts on the table, doesn't mean that I'm minimizing the deaths of anyone.
JENNINGS: She's boat (ph) sizing it.
PHILLIP: I am -- no. It's not called boat (ph) sizing it. It's called information. Information is okay to consume. Like, it's fine to say that it is both bad that Christians are being killed and also it is bad that Muslims are being killed. Are you able to say that?
JENNINGS: Here's what I'm able to say. Upwards of a hundred thousand Christians in Nigeria have been slaughtered. It is a genocide.
PHILLIP: Okay.
JENNINGS: The same people who are worried about
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Okay. So, hold on a second.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: -- the Middle East have nothing to say about this.
PHILLIP: Scott, Scott. Just one second.
PHILLIP: Scott, Scott. Just one second.
JENNINGS: There are 7000 deaths this year, 35 per day.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Scott, Scott, hold on a second.
HOGG: I care about both and it is wrong that either of those things is happening in the first place. Empathy is not a zero sum game. We can care about both and the answer to the question that you just asked, Scott --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: So why are you against the President intervening?
(CROSSTALK)
HOGG: The question that you were just asked has a simple yes or no answer and you decided to drag it on. You just condemn that this is --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: I don't want anyone to die, but I'm telling you right now, Christians are being systematically slaughtered and they have been for years and nobody cares until Donald Trump.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: But Scott, people actually in Nigeria are pointing out that yes, Christians are being killed, but so are Muslims. Muslims are also being killed. Let me give you another anecdote and I'll let you get in Penny because I know you want to talk. But a Nigerian human rights advocate specializing in security and development disputed Trump's claims telling CNN that they reflect a dangerous oversimplification of Nigeria's complex security crisis.
"Yes, these extremist groups have sadly killed many Christians. However, they have massacred tens of thousands of Muslims. He noted that the group's attacks on other civilian locations, such as markets, bus stops and refugee camps, disproportionately harm Muslims."
No one is minimizing the deaths of any person, including Christians. But when Trump is saying that they're going to -- he's going to bomb a country over for the genocide of one particular group while ignoring the disproportionate killing of another group in that same country, it just doesn't logically make a lot of sense.
NANCE: I think the way he knows about this is through the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom, who openly has been discussing this because, surprisingly, and I was surprised to learn this, that the number one group of people that are killed for their religion are Christians around the world.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: In the world?
NANCE: Around the world.
PHILLIP: Okay. We were talking about Nigeria in this --
(CROSSTALK)
NANCE: Well, and in Nigeria, for '22 to '23, 82 percent of those murdered -- and it was a large number and it wasn't just Christians. Eighty-two 82 were Christians. It is the Christian churches that are crying out and we've been ignoring them. And so, I'm grateful that we're having this conversation and yes, of course. We need to save lives. I'm pro-life. I want to save every life.
And so, we can be in favor of saving the innocent from Islam a fascist who are murdering them. And it's not happening in Nigeria, it's happening in Niger. It's happening in other countries in Africa, and it's got to be dealt with. And I am so deeply appreciative that President Trump is taking this on very publicly because we have got to take this seriously and finally start talking about it.
MOSKOWITZ Penny Nance: Well look, I think everyone is right. I mean, I hate to say it, but Christians are being persecuted. They are being killed. That is true. But it is also true that Muslims have been killed in the country, right? And so, yeah, like Boko Haram is you know, a big problem there.
First of all, you have a genocide that's been going on in Sudan. You have almost a million people between the Ukrainians and the Russians that have been killed. You have what's going on in China and the Uyghurs. By the way, there is a lot of bad stuff going on.
(CROSSTALK)
MOSKOWITZ: Correct. That's right.
NANCE: Being killed and persecuted by the Communists. You know who's the biggest threat to Muslims? Communists.
MOSKOWITZ: But your premise of the question, Abby, is a little strange. Like, John Bolton got arrested, but somehow Trump has adopted his foreign policy. So like, you know, like, yeah, you know, there is a fight in the Republicans between the isolationists, which is a growing wing of the Republican Party, and Trump's foreign policy. And they are different. Trump has decided to intervene in some of these areas.
By the way, I'm not necessarily against that. The United States has to have a role in the world. Because if we don't, China will fill that void. Every time we withdraw, which is why Democrats were fighting Republicans when we started withdrawing foreign aid around the world, every time we withdraw, whether it's dollars or presents, China is coming in and filling that void.
[22:40:06]
PHILLIP: One question that I have, considering that Trump is very concerned about persecution is, is he going to extend refugee status to Christian Nigerians the way he extended them to white South Africans based on a very much disputed and arguably false claim of genocide in South Africa? HOGG: That's a great question. I think we're going to unfortunately
find the answer to be a massive double standard, unless I stand to be corrected.
NANCE: I don't agree with that at all. I think these people perhaps, I don't know, I haven't had this conversation with him at all or anyone.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: So, he's going to extend humanitarian status to Christian South Africans?
NANCE: Perhaps -- also.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Scott, will he --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: --or is it just white people who get special status in Trump's -- literally, literally the bar -- the bar in Trump's new humanitarian policy is being a white South African. That is the preference that he is giving to certain people.
(CROSSTALK)
NANCE: Bar is not being a --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: No, no. What about the black Christian Nigerians? Are they going to get special status if they're being persecuted?
JENNINGS: I don't know, but here's what I do know. Right now, the topic of the day is whether we are going to intervene so that these people wouldn't need refugee -- that, to me is the topic of the day.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Should they? Hold on. But, so, but, hold on. But hold on. So, we are going to bomb Nigeria, but you won't say that Trump should --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: We're -- you won't say whether Trump should offer them the ability to leave Nigeria if they are being persecuted?
JENNINGS: Well, I think the first answer would be let's keep them from getting murdered in their own --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: So why is that not the answer for South Africans who by the way are not the victims of genocide? White South Africans.
JENNINGS: Well, they are certainly the victims of mass violence.
PHILLIP: They are not the victims of genocide. Would you not agree with that, Scott?
JENNINGS: Well, I mean, you and I can argue over semantics --
PHILLIP: It's not semantics.
JENNINGS: --but there's absolutely been violence committed against the people.
PHILLIP: It's not semantics. It's now policy. It's government policy. The Trump administration is saying they're the victims of genocide. So, because they are white, they get special privilege.
JENNINGS: I disagree with your characterization.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: But is that not -- so what is policy then?
JENNINGS: I think in the case of Nigeria, the policy right now is the country of Nigeria needs to keep the killings from stopping anyone.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: If you disagree with me, then what -- then why? I mean, am I wrong that that was the policy that the Trump administration announced publicly?
JENNINGS: Yes, but you're ascribing only racial motivation to it and you're minimizing the violence that community has faced.
PHILLIP: Because what's the definition of the people that they've allowed -- they're going to allow in from South Africa? By definition, they have to be white in order to qualify.
JENNINGS: Well, by definition, they are facing violence, murder, and all sorts of mania in their own home county.
PHILLIP: Well, I mean, Scott, listen. If you think I'm wrong, I would like you to present other evidence but --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: What you're saying is only racial. I'm saying it's because they're facing violence in their own home country, and murder, and all sorts of --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Well, I mean, he's not saying -- well, listen. He's not saying that any South Africans can come to the United States. He's saying only the white ones. I didn't say that. The State Department did. So --
JENNINGS: That specific population is that -- is the one that are facing the violence.
PHILLIP: -- okay. Yeah. It is a --
JENNINGS: In Nigeria, you have radical Islamic terrorists who probably do need to be bombed a little bit. I agree with Jared.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Scott, hey, it's a race-based policy in South Africa. I'm curious if Trump will extend that same grace and preference to Nigerians who he claims are also facing persecution. We will see. Next for us, President Trump and Elon Musk are uniting again this time to slam Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani and to support Andrew Cuomo in that race. We'll discuss that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:48:03]
PHILLIP: Election Day is now just a few hours away and in the race for New York City Mayor, President Trump and his ex-BFF Elon Musk, they are standing together tonight behind Andrew Cuomo. In a post on social media, Trump said, whether you like Cuomo or not, you really have no choice but to vote for him. And here's how Mamdani responded tonight on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D) NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: We're seeing the two twin architects of this second term of Donald Trump's presidency in the President himself and Elon Musk, saying clearly to New Yorkers that their candidate is Andrew Cuomo. And they've picked Andrew Cuomo because they know that he will be the puppet that they want right here in New York City.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: David, you are headed to New York tomorrow. How helpful is this going to be to Andrew Cuomo to have Trump and Musk behind him?
HOGG: To Andrew Cuomo?
PHILLIP: Yes.
HOGG: I don't think very -- I think he has done plenty of work himself to dig the hole deep enough that it's pretty obvious he's not going to win. You know, for Zohran's campaign, my group, Leaders We Deserve, was the largest contributor to the independent expenditure in support of him spending $300,000 in support.
And what I think, while there's a lot of debates going on right now in our party about do we go left, do we go to the right, do we go to the center, there is a lot to be learned from this race, not necessarily about policy, not -- no other cities like New York City, but a lot about the power of listening. One of the things that Zohran did in this race is he went to voters
and asked them, what do you want to see in your mayor, and listened, and had had a clear message around affordability. And whether it's the governor's race in Virginia, the governor's race in New Jersey, or the mayoral race in New York, or other races around the country, there's a clear through line, even if some of them are more moderate or more to the left of talking about affordability.
And not just saying, oh, we need to lower prices, but saying what they're actually going to do on it. And it's a clear sign in my view that there's real generational change coming in our party. Because the whole thing we didn't talk about when it was about Trump versus Biden is that the reason why we even have to debate that is because of how damn old they are.
[22:50:01]
PHILLIP: Well, do you think that there's some truth to what he's saying, Penny? The idea that, you know, Republicans have been saying, oh, he's a socialist, he's a socialist, as if that was going to be enough to stop Mamdani. But really what voters are responding to is what Mamdani is saying. Are Republicans misunderstanding what's happening here?
NANCE: Well, I don't know. I mean, I think he is a shiny object. I think he's a good politician. And he is up against a, you know, a former governor who left on a horrible note because of his behavior and he has that horrific record of people dying during COVID and what he did in nursing homes. I was just recently with someone whose parents died because of that.
And so, I don't know why that was the best candidate, you know, that actually could come forward. And by the way, there's only 16 percent of voters are Republicans in New York City. So, let's not get confused here. But I -- the question, the question is, though, I mean, only 25 percent of people maybe will decide will be voting. That's a low turnout vote because there's no big graces of the mayor.
But the question is, is the party going to become more like Mamdani? Is it -- is that going to be the future of the Democratic Party?
PHILLIP: Is it?
MOSKOWITZ: Well, first, let me say at this point, I mean, you know, with Trump's endorsement, Elon's endorsement, Cuomo might as well get the penguin, the Joker to endorse him. I mean, not -- he's going to lose the race. It's over.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: Let me just point out that The Penguin was once in a movie elected mayor of New York City.
MOSKOWITZ: That is just -- copper pot, right? Copper pot. Right.
JENNINGS: They're going to come in here. MOSKOWITZ: Okay. All right. I apologize. I'll brush up on my D.C.
comments before I come in. Mamdani's going to win the race. He's going to be mayor. He ran a brilliant campaign. He's a brilliant messenger. And yeah, he copied a little bit of what Trump did. Simplify the messaging, repeat. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. And he ran brilliant ads and he's going to win.
Now, whether that's exportable to other places, listen. I don't think so. I think there's places like Chicago, Portland, Seattle you can create it. It's hard to find a good candidate, right? A good messenger. Like how many AOCs are out there, right? When you're talking about someone who can message. But look, when you're about the suburbs, no, Mamdani is not going to win in Boca Raton.
PHILLIP: But, quick 30 seconds, Scott.
JENNINGS: Yeah, look, he's probably going to win. I mean, it's a Democrat town and they're going to elect a socialist to run the financial capital of the world. I mean, you know, you gave him 300 grand, that's interesting. That's probably the only 309 Islamo-Marxist grand that he got. I saw (inaudible) today bragging about all the --
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: I just, you know, look.
(CROSSTALK)
HOGG: And honestly I think part of the reason he's so powerful is because people are tired of being lectured by men with Rolexes on CNN about affordability in this country. That's the real reason he is resonating right now because he has a clear message that actually says this is what i plan to do. And the party -- I don't think this is about going to the left of the right to be honest with you.
Do I agree with Zohran much more than a lot of other Democrats in our party? Certainly. But I think we need to meet voters where they're at in their districts. In some districts that's going to be --that's going to be more conservative.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: But you want a socialist future for your party.
HOGG: I want a future where people -- everybody has health care and people can afford a good life.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: We're going to leave it there. Everyone, thank you very much. We'll be back in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[22:57:54] PHILLIP: Tomorrow night is a big night in America and here at CNN. Parts of the country are headed to the polls. CNN's on-air coverage begins at 5 P.M Eastern. I will be at Zohran Mamdani's headquarters in New York City. And then starting at midnight Eastern, I'll be hosting experts and analysts to discuss the results of all of those elections tomorrow night.
And CNN's "All Access", our new streaming service, has a special live program with a very special group. Harry Enten joins us now. So Harry, what can we expect?
HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: I think it's just going to be an interesting, different take on election night. We're going to get Charlamagne Tha God. We're going to have Ben Shapiro, voices from the left, right, the center. It's going to be like hanging out with your friends who know a whole heck of a lot about politics.
We're also going to be in a very interesting studio. I dare say it's kind of like the cruelest man or woman cave that you've ever seen on election night. We've got a pinball machine in there. We got Pacman in there. I think we even have, you know, one of those basketball shooty things going on there. I just think it's going to be a really interesting chance to sort of watch the election in different way.
We're going to be having these conversations much chiller than your normal election night. But of course, when I'm involved, it's obviously going to get nerdy, as well. So, if there's any results that come up that I feel like we have to take a look in, we will absolutely do so. We'll even have a few fun guests along the way who might FaceTime in. Who those folks are going to be? You're to have to tune in to actually find out what's going on.
But the bottom line is this. We are now in a multiple stream environment. The way we watch elections is different than ever before. And so when you tune in to CNN "All Access", when you tune in to cnn.com/watch to watch our coverage, I think you're going to really just get a chance to watch election night in a different way than we've normally watched them before.
I just think it's going to be a fun time and it's going to be on from 8:30 to 10:30 right during those prime hours. We'll be getting the results in from New Jersey. We'll be getting the results in from Virginia. And of course, we'll be getting in those results from New York City as I know that you of course will be following along with.
And then later on after that coverage, right, I'll be joining you at midnight. But for the 8:30 to 10:30 on CNN "All Access", cnn.com/watch, I think it's going to be just a lot of fun.
[23:00:00]
PHILLIP: So Harry, I'm seeing a lot of big personalities on that screen. You're going to be able to handle it all?
ENTEN: I think that my personality is able to jump through a screen with anybody. I say, bring it on. I'll be there as sort of that voice who tries to bring it on, bring it on. That's what I say. I'll bring on that voice. If anyone strays too out of line, I'll make sure we bring back the conversation. I think it's going to be a fun, civil discourse and it should be a fun time for all of us.
PHILLIP: All right. All right. I am looking forward to it. I'll be watching on my second screen, as well. Harry Enten, thank you very much. Everyone, catch it tomorrow night. And thank you for watching "NewsNight". You can catch me anytime on your favorite social media -- X, Instagram, and TikTok. "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.
