Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) On Government Shutdown At Midnight If No Spending Deal Reached; Next Hour: Hegseth Convenes Top Military Officials For Rare Meeting; ChatGPT Introduces New Parental Control For Teens. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired September 30, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:17]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So it is deadline day and to state the obvious it's literally Congress' job to fund the federal government. So it goes without saying that Congress, with the help of the White House, right now is not doing its job since they are now barreling toward a shutdown if they can't agree on a spending deal by midnight tonight.

This would be the first shutdown since December of 2018. That one lasted 35 days making it the longest government shutdown in more than four decades.

We can talk about the politics of all of this for hours -- it's clearly all politics -- but let's break down what a shutdown tangibly means for, well, you and millions of Americans.

First off, hundreds of thousands of federal workers do now face the threat of mass layoffs by the Trump administration. We haven't seen that during any recent shutdowns.

Members of the military would be forced to work without pay over the duration of a shutdown. And not to mention the hundreds of thousands of employees who will likely be furloughed from the federal government and not paid until this thing is over.

Major government programs will be impacted.

The FDA is warning food inspections and drug manufacturing sites -- they will close. They also warn that the safety of the food that your family gets -- the way they're putting is "would be significantly impacted."

And then you have the U.S. Travel Association. It is warning of flight delays, longer security lines, and canceled trips because of potential staffing shortages, as if airports didn't have enough issues on their hands already.

National parks and museums -- they may also close. The Park Service lost $400,000 per day during the most recent shutdown. Something to remember here. The longer a shutdown goes on, the more

that more critical programs and benefits start to run out. Like SNAP benefits, which is known -- you know, often known as food stamps or WIC, the supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children. They will start running out of remaining funding and may be unable to provide food for children and parents in need.

Yes, the outlook is bleak when this thing drags on but not everything shuts down. Essential services -- they're kind of considered. The IRS will stay open thanks to funding the Democrats pushed in the Inflation Reduction Act in2022. Visas and passports -- those will continue to be issued. Most Justice Department staff would stay on the job.

Social Security checks, which is always a big question -- they will still go out. FEMA response, NOAA forecasters -- they will remain on the job. Veterans care and veterans' services -- they will also continue.

Yes, that was a lot to unpack, and it could all be solved simply by Congress doing its job. But the biggest point here is the more prolonged a shutdown is the more uncertain the funding becomes for services that reach farther and wider -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: That was a really good breakdown. And we should also mention that President Trump has threatened to make it more murky -- that mass layoffs -- permanent ones could happen with federal workers as well.

BOLDUAN: Um-hum.

SIDNER: So we will see what happens. And as you said, this is literally Congress' number one job, which is to fund the government. Thank you so much, Kate.

All right. Today the Senate is expected to vote again on that Republican-backed bill that would keep the government funded for seven weeks. GOP leaders say there will be multiple opportunities to keep the government open. Democratic leadership met with the president for the first time in his second term and no deal.

CNN's Alayna Treene is joining us now. Alayna, the blame game is getting really, really nasty. The president leading the way, posting a racist fake video of Democratic leadership saying things they have not said.

What are you learning as to where we're going here?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. I mean, if that video is not a sense, Sara, of just how far apart the two sides are I don't what is.

I mean, look, I think what happened yesterday -- the president finally saying that he would meet with congressional leaders -- specifically, of course, the Democratic leadership in the House and the Senate -- was a way for them to try to show really what their message is. What they're trying to communicate to the Americans, which is we are willing to negotiate but not with the threat of a government shutdown looming over us. And that really was the message we heard when they left.

Clearly, the meeting yesterday at the White House did not go well. We heard from Republican leadership, including the vice president, trying to describe what Democrats are doing in their eyes as hostage-taking.

Listen to how the vice president put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You don't put a gun to the American peoples' head and say unless you do exactly what Senate and House Democrats want you to do, we're going to shut down your government. So I think we're headed to a shutdown because the Democrats won't do the right thing. I hope they change their mind, but we're going to see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now look, Sara, I've had many conversations with people in that building behind me about all of this and I can tell you specifically when it comes to President Donald Trump, he does not view a shutdown as bad messaging for Republicans. And this has kind of been the case now for several days as it became clearer that this was likely where Congress as headed.

[07:35:11]

The president and a lot of people in the West Wing believe that a shutdown will get blamed on Democrats. That's typically how this works when they are the minority party in Congress. However, of course, we have to see. I mean, a lot of people recognize as well that Republicans control not only the White House but both chambers of Congress.

But there's also people -- and this is what I find to be one of the most interesting aspects of all of this, at least when you thrust the politics into this -- is a lot of Republicans and specifically, people closest to the president, believe that it could be good politics for Republicans as it comes to the midterms if they can look at really trying to blame Democrats over all of this.

And so there hasn't been a lot on the White House's part to try to change things. Yes, they want to avoid a government shutdown they argue, but they also recognize it could politically benefit them in the long run. Of course, we have to see whether or not that's actually the case when the shutdown is likely to happen in less than 17 hours from now.

SIDNER: Right, and how it impacts the economy as a whole as well. We will see what happens. A lot to unpack there.

Alayna Treene, thank you so much -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Here now, Sen. Jeff Merkley, a Democrat from Oregon. He is the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee. Senator, thanks for being with us.

So what's the latest you hear from your leadership about the negotiations? Any chance that a shutdown is avoided at midnight?

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-OR): Well, there is always a chance for a temporary reprieve of some sort, but here is the framework. The Republicans passed this big, ugly betrayal of a bill that does enormous damage to American families to fund tax breaks for billionaires. And Democrats are saying hey, we're not going to sign on to more of a "families lose-billionaires win" agenda. We want an agenda where families thrive, and billionaires pay their fair share.

And the focal point really has been two things.

One is health care because very, very shortly folks are going to be facing double-digit increases in insurance. And on those buying on the exchange, in Oregon it would be a 65 percent increase or about $1,300 average per family, per year. This is an enormous impact with some families having to pay from $13,000 to $25,000 more per year for health care.

So a big, looming disaster ahead on health care. We're saying we're fighting for families, and this has to be addressed.

And the second, John, is the power of the purse. The president has been wrenching the power of the purse away from Congress through funding slowdowns, funding freezes, funding impoundments, and this fancy thing called a recission where they basically, in a partisan way, undo what was agreed to on a partisan basis -- on a bipartisan basis. And that's unacceptable. It's contrary to the whole vision of our Constitution and the checks and balances.

So those two factors play -- loom large.

BERMAN: You know, the first thing you said is there's always a chance for a reprieve. I spoke to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries last night and I asked him about just that -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: What about a seven to 10-day short-term funding bill so that you can keep talking about this? It would keep the government open for the next seven to 10 days and maybe you could keep talking more about Obamacare subsidies and the like.

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): We are a no when it comes to kicking the can down the road. This issue needs to be dealt with immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That sounds like a no from the House side on a temporary reprieve. What do you think about that?

MERKLEY: John, that sounds pretty -- that sounds pretty definitive.

But I do think if you were to hear a message from the president saying we hear you. We are going to start honoring the Constitution and the power of the purse. We're going to work out the details. We hear you on health care. We're not going to inflict this massive damage on the American people. You have --

And Vance said yesterday the Democrats are presenting ideas that have some value. Well, if we heard a strong -- we'll take a couple of days to work out the details, but you have presented two important issues and we're going to address them, that would be the only foundation for a short-term reprieve.

BERMAN: Interesting. It does seem like you're leaving the door a little bit -- certainly more open than Hakeem Jeffries for whom it was completely 100 percent shut last night on that.

Your state is in the news, right, because President Trump says he's sending National Guard troops or federalizing National Guard troops for Portland, Oregon.

What's the situation on the ground there? How would you assess the level of violence that the president sees compared to what it normally is around facilities like that?

MERKLEY: No. I was outside of the ICE facility twice this weekend. I saw three women protesting. There's been a couple of incidents over the last couple of months but nothing with -- outside of the normal function of police.

Portland has among the 68 largest cities in the country. The largest drop in murder rate in the country. It has a 20 percent drop -- in fact, it's been cut in half -- a 20 percent drop in violent assaults.

[07:40:05]

And Portland is pretty calm and peaceful and recovering, and businesses have been coming back downtown. We've been recovering from the riots that Trump incentivized and stimulated back in 2020 and we're, like, stay away. And my message when we held a press conference on Friday night with all the leaders was it's the don't take the bait press conference.

The president is planning to distract from all the terrible things he's doing across the country. Eight months of making the country sicker and poorer. And he wants to distract with this type of stimulation of violence that he can use violence to justify more authoritarian control. So this is straight out of the authoritarian playbook. Portland, don't take the bait.

BERMAN: What does that mean exactly -- don't take the bait? Does that mean when the National Guard troops do show up behave a certain way?

MERKLEY: Yes, absolutely. Because the response to having troops sent to downtown Portland is this is an outrage. After all, we have a law in America called Posse Comitatus and it says that you can't use military troops in order to police cities.

And why do we have that law? Well, it was created after reconstruction because of sensitivity over military troops playing a role in police functions as they had during reconstruction. But it came to symbolize the concern over military being used in an authoritarian matter -- manner in the United States of America. And so the founders were very concerned about a standing army and didn't want a standing army. And now we have a massive standing army, but we don't want to use for police functions.

There is an exception called Section 10, and Section 10 is about an invasion or rebellion. Think Shays' Rebellion at the founding of the republic. There is nothing like that going on in Portland. Portland is recovering. Portland's been peaceful.

This is an outrage to send these troops, but we don't want people to respond by going down and having face-to-face confrontations with the -- well, with the deployed defederalized Oregon National Guard. They are our Oregon National Guard. Let's keep this 100 percent peaceful. Protests maybe a way away from wherever those Guard members are deployed.

BERMAN: Senator Jeff Merkley from Oregon. We appreciate your time this morning. Thank you -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, John.

Just moments from now an unprecedented military meeting will be getting underway at Quantico, Virginia. Look at this remarkable video of hundreds of top military brass, all of them summoned from all over the world suddenly to Virginia. All there to take part in a meeting called by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, which President Trump says he, too, will attend. Hegseth is set to outline the administration's new defense strategy as well as discuss new standards for military personnel.

But several sources have expressed concern to CNN about the sheer cost of the Quantico meeting. They say the price tag on plane tickets alone will likely add up to millions of dollars.

Joining me now is retired Admiral James Stavridis, a CNN senior military analyst. Thank you so much for being here.

Let me ask you about this. You know, the White House saying that this is meant to show kind of a P.R. move, a show of force, and to get the military to really listen to this warrior ethos that they're trying to instill.

Is this kind of meeting normal and necessary?

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST, FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: I've certainly never seen one like it in my 40 years. When I was a four-star admiral, the very senior admirals and generals -- I think 20 of us -- would come to Washington typically to have dinner with the commander in chief in the White House. That's fine.

To pull 800 frontline commanders back to Quantico -- by the way, I went to Quantico High School. My dad was a career officer in the Marine Corps. So it has kind of a pep rally feel to it to keep on the high school team for a moment.

But, you know, it's not only Sara, the cost you mentioned, which is an issue but, you know, the Pentagon certainly has a budget for that. It's the disruption to the operations in the field -- taking the most experienced officers off the frontlines. Yes, they have seconds in command who can step up, but you're taking the absolute top tacticians, warriors, and pulling them into Washington.

And you didn't mention the security risk. In a moment, we're going to have the commander in chief, the secretary of defense (now the secretary of war). We're going to have the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and 800 admirals and generals. I'd call that a target.

So there are a lot of reasons to kind of question this.

[07:45:00]

SIDNER: And speaking of which, it has been questioned. The Washington Post reporting a higher number of military leaders than usual are voicing concerns over Hegseth's new Pentagon strategy, including chairman of the Joint Chiefs, as you just mentioned, Dan Caine, who was concerned about being able to deter or defeat China if needed.

The concerns sounded like this from others. "People familiar with the editing process described a growing sense of frustration with a plan they consider myopic and potentially irrelevant."

What do you make of that? How unusual would it be to have very open dissent by a good number of this leadership?

STAVRIDIS: Uh, open dissent would be strikingly out of norm. But internal dissent, Sara, is the strategies -- national defense strategy, national military strategy are generated. There's always back and forth competing viewpoints.

I think what's happening now is a big question about the degree to which the U.S. military kind of pulls back from the world and focuses on the homeland. Focuses on Latin America and the Caribbean -- think Venezuela. And then puts its real emphasis solely on China.

I think that the military broadly -- many of those 800 admirals and generals -- agree that we've got to be a global military.

And a final thought, by the way. This meeting in Quantico has been also touted as a chance for the secretary of defense to talk about the warrior ethos.

SIDNER: Right.

STAVRIDIS: Hey, those 800 admirals and generals are the most elite warriors on the planet. They've been at war for 20 years and are the most highly blooded force in the world.

Believe me, if President Xi were having a meeting with his 800 admirals and generals and he asked all of them who have seen actual combat please raise your hand, no hands would go up. On the other hand, in Quantico this morning, for better or for worse, you have admirals and generals who have seen combat at every stage of their career. They don't need lecture on the warrior ethos.

SIDNER: We will leave it there, Admiral. Thank you so much for coming on this morning. I appreciate your time -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So ChatGPT is getting the parents involved. What parental controls will mean for AI chatbots. Will it now be safer for kids?

And a gator walks into a McDonald's parking lot -- the beginning of some sort of joke, for sure, and also what actually went down in Georgia. Why a shoestring became so essential.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:51:50]

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, OpenAI just released new parental controls for its popular AI chatbot ChatGPT after growing pressure over safety. These controls are designed to give parents more visibility on their child's use of ChatGPT by linking the accounts. OpenAI also says it will alert parents if their child's account indicates they are thinking of harming themselves.

CNN's Clare Duffy here with all the details. Good morning.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Good morning.

Yes. So this, of course, comes after the family of 16-year-old Adam Raine sued OpenAI just a few weeks ago, claiming that ChatGPT contributed to his suicide, including by advising him on methods.

So OpenAI has worked pretty quickly to roll out these parental control features. It's going to require parents and teens to link their accounts, so they both have to opt in here. But once they do, that linked teen account will get certain content restrictions so the chatbot will serve them less graphic content. It will also engage in less romantic or sexual role play.

And then on top of that, parents will have certain control features. So they can set quiet hours when their teen can't use ChatGPT. They can turn off voice mode, which is often the thing that draws people into closer, sort of, relationships with these chatbots. They can remove the ability to generate images. And they can also opt out of having their teens' data used to train OpenAI's model, so a privacy feature there as well.

And then interestingly, as you said, OpenAI also plans to alert parents if their child's conversation with a chatbot indicates that they may be at risk of self-harm. We'll see how well that works.

But I do think this is a good step towards making this platform safer for teens. I do think it's interesting the way that we have seen social media platforms take years to introduce these sorts of controls. OpenAI has worked very quickly here but they do acknowledge that

there's more work to be done, including sort of removing the need for teens to proactively opt in here. That's a big piece of this. OpenAI says they're working on age estimation technology to try to guess who's a teenager on their platform to be able to proactively apply these controls so that you don't necessarily have to have the responsible teen who is opting in to make these safety features work.

BERMAN: I've got a few teenagers. I have a hard time thinking that they won't try to opt out of having a parent monitor them if they have that opportunity.

DUFFY: Exactly.

BERMAN: So we'll see how quickly that comes up.

Clare Duffy, thank you very much.

DUFFY: Thank you.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: A fireball caught on camera. Surveillance video capturing the moment a rocket -- take a look at that -- a rocket exploded during a test at the Firefly Aerospace facility in central Texas. The Alpha rocket was meant to support a mission to deliver a Lockheed Martin- built spacecraft to orbit. The company says it is now assessing the impact to its rocket-stage test stand and that all of its personnel are safe.

Also this morning, KitchenAid is trying to get in on Swiftie mania and Taylor Swift's new album, which is about to be released. You now have a chance to enter a sweepstakes to win its new "The Life of a Showgirl"-inspired stand mixer. It's dubbed "Tangerine Twinkle" to go along with the album's color scheme. Fancy schmancy.

KitchenAid says there are only 12 of these orange glitter mixers available. "The Life of a Showgirl" just so happens to be Taylor's 12th album. The sweepstake ends on the same day the album drops, which is this Friday, October 3.

[07:55:05]

In Macon, Georgia a local rapper, his friends, and some strangers went full MacGyver to wrangle a gator. They used duct tape, shoestring, rags, and whatever else they could find after they found the 12-foot alligator sitting in a McDonald's parking lot. The gator had actually been there for three days with people repeatedly calling police and animal control, but no help had arrived.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LORD D'ANDRE, RAPPER: Me and her brother Ty, we was like it's high time for real, bruh. Can we get this thing? I started yanking him back and walking him --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was walking him --

D'ANDRE: -- like a pit bull.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- like a dog.

ACACIA RENE, MACON RESIDENT: It was something wholesome. Like, the community really did come together to do something that our authorities would not do, basically, and not in -- not in good enough time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: That clearly is when that team stepped in. So the animal was not hurt we are told, and neither were any of the amateur gator wranglers. A good addition to the resume though.

The sheriff's office says it took so long to respond because they only have one person working animal control and they had to find a trapper who could handle such a big gator.

So just call a rapper, Sara.

SIDNER: Yeah. I mean, here's the thing. I love "MACGYVER." I still like that show because you could do anything with duct tape and a piece of gum. So I think that is important to point out here.

BOLDUAN: Including gator wrangling.

SIDNER: Exactly. Just one more thing.

All right. For six months, CNN has been digging into how cartels work. How they recruit. How Americans, often young and unsuspecting, get pulled in. And how law enforcement is trying to fight back now.

In a rare, risky encounter, CNN sat down with a cartel boss. Here is CNN senior national correspondent David Culver.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll do another drive-by westbound.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Copy. I'm moving in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then we'll do kind of like felony stop.

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right now we're with several Cochise County deputies in several different units as they are moving in on their targets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You guys just hunker down where you're at.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, we'll stay in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hands up! Don't move!

CULVER: Some of them you'll notice are undercover. You won't see their faces. You won't hear their names.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And is there anyone else in the car with you?

CULVER: And they're fanned out here just north of the U.S. southern border to dismantle a smuggling network one arrest at a time. An investigation, mind you, that's been going on for 18 months.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not your everyday criminal. It's definitely taking the bigger fish off the streets.

CULVER: The suspect just handed over his phone revealing what investigators say are key details about a migrant smuggling operation that's happening right now.

To coordinate a pickup?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

CULVER: That's all playing out in real time?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Um-hum.

CULVER: And there's several more that you're trying to arrest?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uh, 18 in total.

CULVER: Eighteen in total?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're past the intersection right now. Still advise on the car.

CULVER: Are these Americans we're talking about?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With the exception of one, all are U.S. citizens.

CULVER: Wow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're tied to a faction of the cartel. They are a tight-knit crew all working together for the betterment of a large organization.

CULVER (voiceover): Cochise County spans 83 miles or border. South of this line, an underground network tied to the fractured but powerful Sinaloa Cartel. Plaza bosses control each corridor deciding who and what gets through with lookouts posted on nearby hills constantly watching for U.S. patrols.

To keep undetected, migrants and their cartel-backed guides often dress in camouflage, moving through the rocky desert terrain. They follow a pin drop often to erode a few miles from the border. Drivers race in for the pickup and cash payout. Many are young Americans recruited online.

For six months we tracked hundreds of cartel recruitment posts on social media, some aimed at luring teens. Decoded language, emojis, and cash offers, offering thousands per pickup.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not seeing (INAUDIBLE) in the parking lot here.

CULVER (voiceover): Deputies are going after the drivers. In the past six months the Justice Department reports 431 people charged with smuggling in Arizona alone, many recruited online. Attorneys say most of their clients are between 18 and 25.

After the pickup, drivers head to stash houses on the U.S. side run by cartel syndicates. To understand the impact this cartel crackdown is having we spend weeks trying to get a senior cartel leader to speak with us. He finally agrees, meeting us in a Phoenix parking lot.

CARTEL SENIOR LEADER: Well, I work with (INAUDIBLE).

CULVER: The Sinaloa Cartel.

CARTEL SENIOR LEADER: Yeah.

CULVER (voiceover): From killing to coordinating smuggling operations, he says he's done it all.

CULVER: Do you help in bringing people, drugs, weapons.

CARTEL SENIOR LEADER: People and drugs.

CULVER: Are you a citizen here?

CARTEL SENIOR LEADER: No, sir.

CULVER: No. And so you are able to still come in and out?

CARTEL SENIOR LEADER: Yes.

CULVER (voiceover): Among those helping with transportation, U.S. citizens.