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Senate Expected To Vote Again Today On Bill To End Shutdown; Today: Judge Sentences Sean "Diddy" Combs; Taylor Swift Releases 12th Studio Album "The Life of a Showgirl." Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired October 03, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:31:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Today we could learn just which departments could be hit by President Trump's threat of mass layoffs. Two White House officials tell CNN the administration already has a list of agencies it is targeting.

It comes as lawmakers in the Senate have this other chance today at funding and reopening the government. They're scheduled to vote on a Republican-backed stopgap funding bill and a Democratic counteroffer. Neither is expected to pass again.

With us now, Leigh Ann Caldwell. She's the chief Washington correspondent for Puck. And CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for the paper of record, The Boston Globe, Jackie Kucinich.

Leigh Ann, I want to start with you. I was just reading your piece this morning about the state of play in the shutdown. I'm curious how Republicans, especially in the middle, feel about the messaging from the White House. I think Republicans felt like they had an advantage.

But now you've got Russ Vought out there. You've got all the memes coming from the White House, including this new Grim Reaper Russ Vought meme where they're actually bragging about mass layoffs and defunding, and the like.

How might that change the dynamic?

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah. So, well, headed into this shutdown Republicans absolutely felt they are on the right side of the issue and that they will have the public opinion on their side as well, but polling hasn't really bore that out. I mean, we're only a few days in so a lot can change as this progresses, but Republicans seem to be the ones who are being blamed by the public right now.

And so there's a lot of nerves by Republicans -- some Republicans, including the majority leader John Thune, who tried to distance himself from what Russ Vought is potentially going to do with mass layoffs. There's Republicans who say that this is not ideal -- that it muddies

the message -- because they think that their message is very clear. Fund the government and then we will talk. It's just a seven-week funding bill. This is not the end of the world. We will have these conversations but open up the government.

But when have all these extraneous elements coming into this there's a big fear of overreach. And especially, as I just said, some of the polling shows that the public is mostly on the Democrats' side right now.

BERMAN: And from the Democratic side, Jackie, it's been interesting because Sen. Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- they put out this video the other night. Now they're not the leaders of the party nominally. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries. But I want to play a little bit of this video so people can see what they did.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): Well, there's nothing clean about it. This is one of the dirtiest tricks that is being pulled on the American people right now. Your monthly insurance premiums are going to double.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): If you don't have the money to go to a doctor and you're sick, you die.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: And all we're hearing the last basically 24 hours from the left is this is the messaging Democrats should be pushing. You know, Chuck Schumer is not --

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE (via Webex by Cisco): Right.

BERMAN: -- delivering the message he needs to.

What about that?

KUCINICH: Well, I think you do hear that, particularly from the activist left. They're yearning for messengers like a Bernie Sanders and a Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez.

However, they -- and you are hearing -- I mean, when you ask Democrats about when the government is going to go -- open back up they immediately say health care, health care, health care. It's kind of the inverse of what Thune is saying is that we'll start -- they say we'll start talking once the government is open. They say well, the government will be open once we start talking.

So it really is -- they're talking -- they're still talking past each other. But I don't think that that's anything new that the left wants to her more from the Bernie Sanders of the world than the Chuck Schumers of the world. You saw that going back to March. Now how this ends is the real question.

[07:35:00]

One thing I wanted to add to what Leigh Ann is saying is that you're also hearing from someone like a Patty Murray saying what if we open the government. We don't have any guarantee that the money is going to be spent how appropriators intended it to be because they've been -- Russ Vought and the president has been so willing to just cut things as they like.

BERMAN: I want to show you guys something that I guess goes in the politically juicy column. Politico had a piece that Corey Lewandowski -- you know, former Trump campaign manager and current adviser to the Department of Homeland Security and, sort of, New Hampshire native -- is considering primarying the Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte because she won't support redistricting there.

So Politico put out the article and then Corey retweeted the article with this this said, "This is newsworthy. Wow."

Jackie, first to you. This is in your neck of the woods -- at least the Globe's coverage up in Boston.

KUCINICH: Yeah.

BERMAN: What are we supposed to make of this?

KUCINICH: New Hampshire Democrats are thrilled by this prospect because this is not -- this is a very, very purple state. This is something that, you know, Corey Lewandowski has put out there before. He talked about running for Senate at one point. He has shown interest in higher office. We'll have to see. We'll have to see what he ends up deciding.

BERMAN: Yeah.

KUCINICH: But some of the texts I got last night indicated there's some enthusiasm but it's on the Republican side.

BERMAN: Leigh Ann, what do you think about how the administration, which has tried to have a tight control on Republicans the last year, thinks about this?

CALDWELL: Yeah. Well, the administration is trying to do everything it can to force Republicans throughout the country to redistrict in places that is possible to do that. But there is some pushback. There's pushback in Indiana. There is pushback in New Hampshire by Kelly Ayotte. And so they're trying to pressure these Republicans to make a decision to give them more potential seats in the House of Representatives.

And they have threatened that they would try to primary Kelly Ayotte if she doesn't move forward on redistricting, and Corey Lewandowski is the perfect troll to try to continue that threat.

BERMAN: Leigh Ann Caldwell, Jackie Kucinich, big fan of both of your works, so thanks for coming on this morning. I really appreciate it -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right.

This morning it is sentencing day for Sean Combs. He will spend -- whether how long he will spend in prison or will he be released in a matter of months. We do not know.

Combs was convicted back in July on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution and was cleared of those much stronger sex trafficking and racketeering charges that carried bigger sentences.

In a new letter to the judge, Combs asking for mercy, writing in part, "My downfall was rooted in my selfishness. I have been humbled and broken to my core."

Joining me now, Michael Bachner, criminal defense attorney and former Manhattan assistant district attorney.

Michael, you were one of the attorneys who secured an acquittal for Combs in the trial back in, I think, 2001.

I'm curious just from you, sort of, knowing a little bit about him what did you think of this four-page letter that Combs sent to the judge?

MICHAEL BACHNER, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY, FORMER MANHATTAN ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY (via Webex by Cisco): Well actually, I represented his co-defendant and that case was acquitted.

But what I thought of the letter -- it's very, very common in criminal cases at sentencing in federal court for the defendant -- for the accused to submit a detailed letter to the court in addition to what we call the allocution where he'll make a statement to the court at sentencing orally.

I thought the letter was well thought out. You can be sure that it was edited and drafted many, many times before it made the final version. And he's trying to show remorse for his conduct and tried to explain his conduct at the same time. These letters are extremely significant for the court in sentencing.

Judges come in with an idea about what the sentence is they want to impose --

SIDNER: Right.

BACHNER: -- but their minds can be changed by what the lawyer is saying and by what the defendant says.

SIDNER: And conversely -- I mean, we're obviously going to be hearing victim impact statements as well. Do the judges tend to lean heavier on the victims' statements or on what we're seeing from Combs as his attorney is also saying there's going to be a 15-minute video? We don't know what that is, but we are expected to her from Combs in this case sort of pleading for mercy.

How does a judge sort of weigh these two things?

BACHNER: It's a very complicated procedure. It's the hardest decision a judge has got -- a judge has to make -- you know, sentencing another human being for something that they've done wrong.

It's a mix of factors. The court is going to look at everything. They're going to look at all the good things that Combs has detailed in his very lengthy, very thorough sentencing memorandum.

SIDNER: Yeah.

BACHNER: And they're going to look at all the bad things that the government claims that Combs did during the course of the trial.

The court sat there, and we've heard all the evidence. And he's going to have to make -- this is a little bit arcane but he's going to have to make decisions about making sure he's not considering conduct for which Combs was acquitted, which he's not supposed to be considering for guideline purposes versus just the conduct which is bad background (INAUDIBLE).

[07:40:05]

SIDNER: The prostitution charge -- right.

BACHNER: But he considers the (INAUDIBLE).

SIDNER: Yeah.

Let me ask you this lastly. This is on a completely different case, but it is certainly a huge political juggernaut of a -- of a case -- the case of Jeffrey Epstein. You told us that you represented someone who you convinced the government not to charge in that case.

Just yesterday, Trump's U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told the New York Post that Jeffrey Epstein was the "greatest blackmailer ever" and may have traded the Fed's video of his rich and well- connected associates getting massages from young women in exchange for a controversial 2008 plea deal.

Does that sound like something that you have any knowledge of -- that is possible there? It was just a surprising thing to hear from the commerce secretary.

BACHNER: I have no information of that being true or not true. It certainly wasn't true in connection with my representation in the case. So I'm not -- I'm not able to comment other than to say that I have no information as to the veracity of that fact.

SIDNER: All right, Michael Bachner. I do appreciate your time. Thank you so much -- appreciate it -- John.

BERMAN: All right. New this morning the Trump administration facing anger from abortion opponents after the FDA approved a generic version of the abortion pill mifepristone.

CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell is with us now with the latest on this. What's going on here?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, John. So, of course, mifepristone is one of two drugs that are part of the regimen for medication abortion, which is the most common way that women access abortion in the United States. And this is not the first generic. There already was a generic mifepristone on the market, so this is just adding another generic manufacturer.

But it comes at an awkward time for the FDA because they just confirmed to Republican state attorneys general in a letter that was made public last week that they have an ongoing safety review of mifepristone. And they've been under pressure from people in conservative circles to look at the medication abortion regimen.

So, Secretary Kennedy is playing a little bit of defense on this putting out a post on X last night reiterating that they are doing this review, claiming "The Biden administration removed mifepristone's in-person dispensing rule without studying the safety risks." He says, "We are filling that gap." So he's saying they're doing the safety review.

At the same time, his spokesperson at the HHS is saying they don't have a lot of discretion when it comes to approving generic medications. You approve generic drugs essentially based on whether they match the safety and efficacy of the branded versions of the medicines.

So they say by law, the secretary of HHS must approve an application if it demonstrates that the generic drug is identical to the brand name drug. Saying essentially, this isn't saying that we've decided that this is safe and effective; we've just decided that it's the same as the branded drug.

But again, it's an awkward time. And you see folks like Sen. Josh Hawley calling this a bad decision and saying he's lost confidence in the leadership at FDA. Hearing from anti-abortion groups like the Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America group, calling it a reckless decision and unconscionable.

So this decision is really ratcheting up pressure on HHS when it comes to medication abortion.

BERMAN: Yes, and a case of the political messaging really running into the reality and the traditions here.

Meg Tirrell, thank you very much for that.

TIRRELL: Thank you.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Ahead, a CNN exclusive. ICE agent impersonators on the rise. How the crimes are keeping cities on edge.

And Taylor Swift's "The Life of a Showgirl" getting rave reviews this morning. You might hear a little of her music if you stick around. (COMMERCIAL)

[07:47:40]

SIDNER: John, grab your glitter and feather boas.

BERMAN: Again?

SIDNER: Yes, again. Taylor Swift's 12th album, "The Life of a Showgirl," is out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAYLOR SWIFT, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Singing "Opalite."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: John, you and I know one Swifty who really likes this song. She gives it a thumbs up. Mallory says --

BERMAN: Yes.

SIDNER: -- says "Opalite" is great. It's sort of -- you hear it. It's Abba-esque. And there's this whole talk behind it that it's kind of about her fiance --

BERMAN: Travis Kelce.

SIDNER: -- Travis Kelce, yeah. So, you know.

BERMAN: It's so romantic.

SIDNER: It's sweet, you know.

Overnight, fans across the country showing up to Target at midnight to grab their exclusive copy. You can see moms and daughters jumping up and down with glee. Critical reviews -- the album, a success.

BERMAN: With us now, Chris Willman, senior music writer and chief music critic for Variety. Sit tight for a second because I'm going to read your whole review back to you.

You write, "With 'The Life of a Showgirl,' Taylor Swift has made such a contagiously joyful record, even her score-settling detours sound sunny."

And you also write, "She's flirted with writing an album focused on a love that is actually realized before. But on that record (referring to reputation), even the happiest songs had a kind of love-among-the- ruins feel, where the romanticism seemed hard-fought. On 'The Life of a Showgirl,' love seems easy-fought. And the belief that it might actually be a breeze, instead of, like, the eye of a hurricane, makes for an album that stands as close to being an uncomplicated good time as anything she's ever done."

So, Chris, you hate it, huh? SIDNER: Clearly.

CHRIS WILLMAN, SENIOR MUSIC WRITER, CHIEF MUSIC CRITIC, VARIETY: Yeah. I've been on the Taylor bandwagon since 2006, and this is not the album to interrupt that streak. I think she's made 12 great albums in a row, which I can't think of a lot of people who have done it in history, even my favorites. So an unbroken streak.

SIDNER: Look, I hate to bring this up but, like, how many of these songs are about Travis Kelce?

[07:50:00]

WILLMAN: Uh, the vast majority.

SIDNER: Is it clear?

WILLMAN: She goes to the drama for a few songs. There's a couple of diss tracks. There's a couple of kind of more character songs. But, you know, she is besotted, in love, and she's not disguising it.

And on her last album she just kind of threw in one Travis song at the last minute. It kind of came in under the wire -- "So High School." And a lot of that flavor from that song, "So High School," carries over to I'd say the majority of this album. It's a very joyful, romantic album full of high spirits that we haven't heard in that kind of concentration on any Taylor Swift album before, really.

BERMAN: I'm going to play one more track here. This one's called "Father Figure."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SWIFT: Singing "Father Figure."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Talk to me a little bit more about what's different this time. To me, and I'm a -- I'm sort of Taylor-agnostic. I like much of her music but I'm not, like, deep into it like everyone else. It seemed like there were a lot more singable songs here.

WILLMAN: Yeah. You know, she has gone through phases and none of her albums sound exactly alike and I think that's one of the things that's been to her benefit. And she really went kind of the indie pop route for a while with "folklore." And then she came back and went a little more pop with "Midnights." Her last album was in the vein but a little bit depressed. It was very lovelorn -- that last album. And now she's just going for it with a pure pop album.

She's brought back the two producers that I think people longed to see her work with again who are Max Martin and Shellback, who just are super producers who did a lot of those big hits from the 1989 era and that sort of thing. And it really shows. It's just everyone having a lot of fun in the studio to match the high spirit she's obviously having in her personal life. SIDNER: Now amongst all the love and romance, fans are saying there's a diss track here in this song, "Actually Romantic." They say it might be about Charli XCX. Let's take a listen to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SWIFT: Singing "Actually Romantic."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So why do fans think this is about Charli XCX?

WILLMAN: So it's pretty clear from the first verse. I'm sure Taylor will never admit it, but it refers to this person in the song. Having written a song about her, which Charli XCX did last year. The Charli XCX song was about them both dating members of this band, The 1975, at the time -- pre-Kelce.

And anyway, Taylor, in the song, refers to that song or alludes to it, and then says that she heard this person called her "Boring Barbie." And so she kind of has her fist out in response to this in a very playful way, I've got to say, although Charli XCX fans may not find it playful.

BERMAN: It is a fun album, just about 42 minutes long -- an easy listen.

Chris Willman, thank you very much for being with us this morning -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, John.

On our radar this morning firefighters say they have largely contained a massive fire that erupted at a Chevron refinery just south of Los Angeles last night. Flames and thick smoke shot into the sky. People living nearby El Segundo say they heard a loud explosion and then a rumble. You can see the explosion captured there on security camera footage from miles away. A brief shelter-in-place order for residents in the area was lifted earlier this morning.

Fire crews say he blaze was contained to just a section of the facility with no injuries reported. The oil refinery is one of the largest on the West Coast. The cause of the fire under investigation this morning.

Also this morning, Amazon resuming drone deliveries in Arizona two days after a pair of its drones crashed. The Prime air drone slammed into a crane Wednesday sparking a fire and leaving 80-pound machines shattered all over the ground. Fortunately, nobody was hurt in that incident either. The NTSB and the FAA are investigating.

Amazon says it's confident there was no issue with the drones or their technology, and that -- though they've already added new safeguards.

In North Carolina's Outer Banks an eighth home now fallen. It seems like one of these falls every day. Look at that damage. Falling into the Atlantic Ocean, the latest casualty of Hurricanes Imelda and Humberto.

[07:55:05]

Remember, they didn't even come onshore. This is just from the swells caused by those twin hurricanes. But they did cause a lot of damage, as you can see. Towering waves sort of eroded the surf and this is what's happened.

All of the homes that collapsed were unoccupied at the time so fortunately, nobody injured in those. Both storms have now drifted off and out to sea.

BERMAN: How would you like to live in one of the houses right next to that one?

SIDNER: I know.

BERMAN: I'm just saying.

All right. New this morning a CNN investigation. ICE agents are becoming common sightings in cities nationwide. Activists, Democratic lawmakers, and some of the immigrant community have criticized the tactics, including wearing masks to obscure identities and wearing plainclothes.

So how are people supposed to know if ICE agents really are ICE agents? As Kyung Lah reports in this exclusive investigation, that question might be tough to answer with this rise in people impersonating ICE agents across the country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He asked me for I.D. He asked me for I.D. He's like I need to see some ID. I'm ICE.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): All across the country victims confused and terrorized by people posing as ICE officers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where you from, Mexico? You from Mexico?

LAH (voiceover): CNN found a jump in cases this year. Philadelphia -- police say an auto shop worker was zip-tied and robbed by a man in tactical gear pretending to be ICE. Houston, Texas -- police arrested a man for impersonating an ICE officer, accused of stealing $1,800 from a Guatemalan man during a fake traffic stop. New York -- police say this man claimed to be ICE and accused him of assaulting, robbing, and attempting to rape a woman.

CNN found two dozen reports of people posing as ICE officers in Trump's second term. That's more than the last 16 years combined. While CNN found some of the reported cases are violent, others are meant to torment.

OLENA RAY, MANAGE, EMISH MARKET: The ICE letters -- three ICE letters were huge. LAH (voiceover): Outside Seattle, Washington this SUV pulled up to Emish Market, a store that caters to the Ukrainian community.

He was going back and forth in the car -- back and forth.

LAH (voiceover): Olena Ray is the store manager.

RAY: This is our main area where people -- that's our cafe. (INAUDIBLE) of times a police speaking Ukrainian. It's a place where they can feel like home. The people were scared because they did not know if it's a real ICE or not and what to expect if it's a real ICE.

LAH (voiceover): The store's security guard seen here called police.

EMISH MARKET SECURITY GUARD: They've barricaded the front so nobody could get in or out of the lot. Then I went over to them and I'm like, "Yo, what the (bleep) are you guys doing?"

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you find it? Oh.

LAH (voiceover): Law enforcement found the driver of the ICE-labeled SUV. He wasn't ICE at all. His name is Ilya Kukhar. Police say they got numerous tips about his social media, like this video of a fake ICE arrest.

ILYA KUKHAR, FAKE ICE AGENT: Hey, what are you doing?

LAH (voiceover): Kukhar explained to police his motivation.

KUKHAR: It was literally a prank. Literally a prank.

LAH (voiceover): A video to generate likes on his social media account.

KUKHAR: What's up, guys? Today we're going to be going around today and delivering ICE to everyone and seeing their reactions.

LAH: When you found out that this was a joke what was your reaction?

RAY: Mine was, like, who would do that? Who would play with, you know, people's problems like that and then try to scare people like that?

LAH (voiceover): These are real ICE officers captured on video -- masked, often in plainclothes, many in unmarked cars -- detaining people they suspect of being undocumented immigrants across the country in Trump's second term.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man, you can't do that! You can't do that! And why -- what are you looking for?

LAH (voiceover): Without showing their faces it's not hard to understand why that may inspire ICE impersonators and why that's terrifying residents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, are you ICE or a cop?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Call 911.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, please, call 911.

MIGUEL ARIAS, FRESNO CITY COUNCILMEMBER: When ICE officers began to mask themselves, they gave the green light for these impersonators to do the same thing.

LAH (voiceover): Fresno, California saw the impact. Councilman Miguel Arias says two men wearing these vests pulled people over in fake traffic stops. Police say they then went into 11 businesses saying they were ICE. Police say again, this stunt was for social media fame.

LAH: Were they masked?

ARIAS: They were masked. For the general public, they believe that they are being pulled over by law enforcement and ICE officials, given their bulletproof vests with ICE lettering and police lettering on it.

LAH (voiceover): Making it all worse now, Councilman Arias says the real ICE doesn't tell the city who they're targeting and when.

ARIAS: So we have no way of knowing whether these are folks impersonating ICE or actual ICE engaging in legitimate enforcement activities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going back to Mexico.

LAH (voiceover): It's imposters and moments like these --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're gone.