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Soon: Sean Combs Expected To Address Judge In Court; Soon: Sean Combs Expected To Address Judge At Sentencing Hearing; Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) Discusses Government Shutdown; Senate Fails To Pass Bills To Reopen Government; Hegseth: U.S. Struck "Narco-Trafficking Vessel" Off Venezuela. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired October 03, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: But I -- in some of these episodes, Tony, I think people will be interested to know that you're joined by family members, like your wife, Brooke, your daughters take part. What was it like getting to experience the journey with them?

TONY SHALHOUB, CNN HOST, "TONY SHALHOUB BREAKING BREAD": It's fantastic. I mean, I -- so much -- you know, when -- when I'm working, when I'm doing a television show or -- or -- or a film or even -- even a theater piece, you know, that's involved so much time away from family, right? And -- and sometimes when you're on location, it means weeks away.

And so, to have them right there with me and experiencing what I'm experiencing, and learning more about what their tastes are, it was just a great experience.

KEILAR: Yes, it looks amazing. And we're huge Tony Shalhoub fans here at CNN NEWS CENTRAL, and we're very excited about this show. Thank you so much for joining us to talk about it.

SHALHOUB: Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: And be sure to tune in the new CNN Original Series, "Tony Shalhoub Breaking Bread" will premiere Sunday at 9 P.M. Eastern and Pacific, only on CNN.

It is sentencing day for Sean "Diddy" Combs, and soon the disgraced media mogul is expected to address the judge. All of this as we wait to see how much prison time Combs will receive for his conviction.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus, senators voting now on a bill that would reopen the government, one that is likely to fail as the shutdown is expected to drag into next week. At the center of all of this, thousands of federal workers now bracing for mass layoffs.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming your way on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: Emotional moments in court as Sean "Diddy" Combs begs for mercy while a judge weighs his fate. Right now, the judge is listening to Combs' team while he considers sentencing the hip-hop icon to two felony prostitution-related convictions. Defense attorneys say that Combs is remorseful, even revealing that he was nearly stabbed by another inmate in prison, but prosecutors are certainly not buying it. They're seeking a sentence of just over 11 years, claiming that Combs' respect for the law is, quote, "just lip service." We've heard from prosecutors, the defense, and even some of Combs' own children here in the last few hours.

CNN's Laura Coates is outside of the courthouse there in Manhattan.

And, Laura, we're anticipating Combs himself will be addressing the judge. What more are you learning about what's going on?

LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Now, remember, Brianna, Sean "Diddy" Combs did not testify in his own defense. During the trial, which is his absolute right, but we did have him break his silence last night through a three-page letter offered to the court where he described in great detail why he believed he was a changed man and why he believed that he was remorseful with respect to two of the named witnesses in this instance about the violence and beyond.

But we also know that he's talked about not wanting the judge to make an example out of him, even in spite of the global interest in this case and not imposing a kind of so-called celebrity tax on him as punishment. We are hoping to hear from him any moment now as well. What will he say? Will he continue to read what he wrote to the court? Will he go off-script and talk about the very things that he has listened to through the culmination of even today's events?

I have to stress to you, Brianna, just how atypical it is to have this long of a sentencing hearing in a federal case. Normally, they're an hour, maybe two. Why? Because the counsel, prosecution, defense normally hand over everything in writing. They both did, the tunes of hundreds of pages, including letters of character references and those from victim impact statements who describe a very different person and who the defense wants the judge to see and believe in now.

And yet the judge has allowed all that to take place, as well as a video, a documentary-style one that described kind of a this is your life, showing him as a family man with young children, as a charitable person, and also somebody as a kind of role model in the community. And we're hearing from his attorneys, who are going into great detail, more than one getting emotional, describing how they view Sean "Diddy" Combs and the legacy that he has left and personally impacted them.

We've heard from a reverend as well, and his children, who you can't forget in this entire process, who have been in this courthouse throughout the duration of the trial. Literally, Brianna, huddled together, sobbing in one another's arms as they described their need to have their father. And one line in particular has struck a chord with many people, and that was for the judge to consider them not as a headline, but as human beings as a part of a family.

[15:05:01]

The judge thanked each of the kids for actually speaking in this instance. The big question, though, will be where the judge will come out when there is a huge disparity between the 14 months that the defense wants, the 11 years the prosecution wants, and the five to seven years recommended by probation.

SANCHEZ: Laura Coates, live outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan, thank you so much. Let's get some more analysis now from CNN Legal Analyst and criminal defense attorney, Joey Jackson.

Joey, great to see you this afternoon.

Given that disparity that Laura just outlined, how significant will Combs' own words be to the judge in determining the sentence that he gets?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes. So, Boris and Brianna, good to be with you. Look, the bottom line is that what he says will be very significant. Obviously, these proceedings are about balancing equities. What are those equities? You have the issue, obviously, of punishment, deterrence, and rehabilitation. That's what's factored, but in meting out what's the appropriate punishment and what deterrence you're going to impose, and if you've been rehabilitated, you have to consider everything.

There were crimes committed here. Yes, he was indeed acquitted of the most significant. That is racketeering, running a criminal enterprise.

Yes, with respect to coercion, the sex trafficking.

However, there are still these two significant charges, victims being Cassie Ventura, and Jane, and others who he's impacted. The judge has to weigh that. The judge has to weigh what prosecutors are arguing, and that is whether this is just lip service or whether he truly is remorseful, whether he is changed, whether he can be released and make a difference and is not dangerous.

And so, why is that significant? Because prosecutors are on one side, right, as we heard Laura Coates so eloquently put, and the defense is on the other, all right, and that other side is of huge disparity, 11 years and 14 months, what? And then, you have the Department of Probation that weighs some time in the middle.

Now, interestingly enough, you have these sentencing guidelines.

Now, Boris, Brianna, the sentencing guidelines are to ensure uniformity in sentencing so that they're not disparate sentences. Well, if that's the case, why do you have three different entities saying three different things about the same guidelines, right? One at 11 years, the other at 14 months. I thought it was about uniformity. To your -- at the heart of your question, what he says, I think, that is Diddy will be very important. Why? Because in balancing those equities, ultimately the judge has to conclude and be convinced that he is indeed contrite, that is remorseful, that he recognizes what he did.

Number two, that he's accepting accountability. We heard a lot about, yes, the drugs, and we heard about his childhood trauma, and not to put that lightly. He lost his dad. That's a big deal. He lost his uncle to drug use. That's a big deal. What impact did that have on him? But is he accountable? And more importantly and finally, when it comes to rehabilitation, are you rehabilitated? What steps are you doing in jail? He certainly has been doing things in jail to uplift the other people in custody, but what will you do when you get out of jail?

And so, what he says and whether he really owns it, I think is going to play a big role. Last point, and that is judges oftentimes have somewhat their mind made up in terms of a range of what they're going to do.

However, I've often heard judges say, you know, I was going to do this sentence. However, I was really struck when I heard, right? And depending on what the judge heard, and will therefore come out differently.

So, make no mistake about it, it's a huge moment with regard to what "Diddy" himself has to say.

KEILAR: I wonder how you think the defense has been performing here, Joey? A couple of things because the prosecution earlier had said it was, I think the height of hubris that he had a speaking engagement scheduled in Miami for next week. The defense addressed this saying, it's not a speaking engagement, but rather quote, a healing for Sean as well as the community. The defense also called Combs a civil rights leader multiple times during remarks. What do you think of -- of those things?

JACKSON: So, I think what you can argue, there's always different ways to value it. Now, in terms of speaking engagements, whatever they might be, it's a healing session, it's something else. It may not have been advisable to commit to anything, not knowing your fate, but at the same time, you could say that's hubris, or you could say that that's a person of faith. That's a person who's manifesting. That's a person who has a deep belief that he really is rehabilitated and wants to get back out into the community. Look at it that way, judge, not as a person who's taking anything for granted, but as a person who believes in God and believes he will carry him over that threshold because he recognizes what he's done and moved on. So, ways to evaluate that.

In terms of the civil rights issue, he's embracing his blackness. The reality is, is that he has been an icon in the black community. He has done other things which people can only dream and imagine of, and he can't shy away from that. And I think that goes to the notion that no person is as good as they are, Brianna, on their best day, or as bad as they are on their worst day. The truth lies somewhere in the middle.

What is the judge's truth? That's what's going to matter because he's the one who will impose the sentence.

KEILAR: All right. Joey Jackson, thank you so much for that.

[15:10:04]

We're keeping our eye on the court in New York to see as Sean "Diddy" Combs may begin addressing the court. In the meantime, four times is not a charm on Capitol Hill. Bills to

end the shutdown and end the government -- to -- to fund the government failing again in the Senate. So maybe five times will be a charm.

SANCHEZ: We can manifest it (INAUDIBLE) have them.

KEILAR: Yes, we will maybe manifest it. That is going to be on Monday as we expect it. But at this point, there's an impasse between Democrats and Republicans, a very real one. No sign of budging, so we'll be seeing if that shifts over the weekend. Stay with us for more news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:02]

SANCHEZ: We're following breaking news on the government shutdown fight. Just moments ago, the Senate failed to pass a Republican bill to end the stalemate and reopen the government. That vote came after a Democratic bill to reopen the government also failed to get 60 votes. Those back-to-back no votes all but guarantees that the shutdown will extend into next week. We're joined now by California Democratic Senator Alex Padilla.

Senator, thank you so much for being with us.

I want to get your thoughts, not on the specific claims from Republicans about benefits going to the undocumented because we fact- checked that and under federal law, undocumented immigrants cannot get federal benefits like Medicaid, but I do want to ask you about another argument that's related that the White House is making.

They argue that states like California do provide benefits like Medi- Cal, regardless of immigration status, using state dollars that are only available because California uses billions in federal dollars through provider taxes to offset certain costs. So, in a way, they're arguing that federal benefits are going to undocumented migrants, even though Medi-Cal uses state dollars. How do you answer that?

SEN. ALEX PADILLA (D-CA): Yes. Talk about a stretch, Boris, to justify their position, to justify their lies. Here's the simple truth. As you fact-checked, federal funds are not allowed to provide health care services for undocumented people in the United States, period. Now, if states choose to invest state funding in providing some of that, that is their choice.

And by the way, I happen to think it's smart because we're either helping people stay healthy and prevent getting sick or have people end up in emergency rooms, which is a lot more expensive, to provide health care. So, that's the answer to your question.

Now, as to the state of affairs here in the Senate and in Congress, all -- all the fundamentals stay the same. Republicans are in the majority in the Senate and the House of Representatives, and they obviously occupy the White House. They have chosen to take us down the path of a shutdown in lieu of negotiating with Democrats to address the spike in health care premiums that are going to impact millions of Americans very, very soon. And so, we're still ready to negotiate in good faith to address that health care spike increase, what I call the Donald Trump health care tax. This can and should be avoided.

SANCHEZ: The subsidies, the ACA subsidies that expire at the end of the year that would make those premiums immediately go up, Republicans have argued that those subsidies were approved as a response to the COVID pandemic, and they say that extending them would add some $350 billion to the national debt over the next decade. Do you think that price tag is sustainable, especially given that the pandemic is over?

PADILLA: Look, I think the hypocrisy is a little too rich, Boris, to be honest, because just a couple of months ago, Republicans were bending over backwards, slashing other parts of the federal budget to underwrite tax breaks for billionaires. And now they say they can't find just a little bit of money to extend the premium tax credits that have been in place for years and years and are working.

Republicans have had it in for the Affordable Care Act since the very beginning. Remember, they labeled it Obamacare in an attempt to make it a bad thing when it became a very good thing. And so, I think we need to continue to provide that incentive, keep more people covered, keep more Americans healthy.

And by the way, you know, Donald Trump is exploiting the shutdown to try to kill projects and claw back funding from states represented by Democrats when Democrats are going to bat for the health care of all Americans. This isn't partisan, and it shouldn't be.

SANCHEZ: To that point about certain projects getting cut, OMB Director Russ Vought, says that they are cutting more than $7 billion in energy projects, including some to California. The Energy Secretary, that these are permanent cuts disconnected from the shutdown. What is that going to mean for residents of your state?

PADILLA: Yes. Look, when you have some in the administration saying they have nothing to do with the shutdown and others saying it has everything to do with the shutdown, they can't have it both ways. I personally think there's a lot of questionable legality or validity to making these cuts this way. So, we're going to continue to fight that. I'm not giving up that easily.

What does it mean for not just Californians, but other people in other regions of the country?

When you don't invest in energy infrastructure, short-term, mid-term, long-term, it's going to make energy costs go up. That's what we've been battling all year long. For a president who campaigned on bringing costs down, the opposite has happened. Grocery bills are going up. Energy costs are going up. Housing costs are going up, not down as he promised.

And again, now we're on the verge of healthcare costs spiking. That's the Trump Republican agenda.

[15:20:00]

SANCHEZ: Senator, before we go, I want to get your perspective on some of these AI-edited images of Leader Jeffries and other Democrats wearing sombreros and with these caricatures of mustaches on them. Vice President Vance says that the President was trying to have a little bit of fun and that they can simultaneously negotiate in good faith while putting these memes out there. What's your response to the Vice President?

PADILLA: Yes. Well, the -- the fun that Vice President Vance is talking about is actually offensive and insulting, and I think points to the lack of seriousness with which Trump, Vance, and others are doing this job. You know, they may be comfortable being billionaires and being in the billionaire class to withstand the impact of a government shutdown. Most families across the country do not have that luxury. That's who we're fighting for.

SANCHEZ: Senator Alex Padilla, we have to leave the conversation there. Appreciate your time and perspective.

PADILLA: Thank you, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Brianna?

KEILAR: We have some breaking news. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says the U.S. military has struck another alleged drug trafficking boat off the coast of Venezuela. The secretary shared this video of the strike which he says killed all four people on board. He referred to them as narco-terrorists. This is the latest -- this is at least the fourth such operation in recent weeks.

CNN State Department Reporter Jennifer Hansler is tracking this story for us. And, Jennifer, critics have been questioning the lethality of these strikes. What do we know about this latest one?

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: Well, Brianna, the Secretary of Defense said this was against alleged narco-terrorists. This has been the wide-ranging description that they have used in all of these strikes and what they have described as a war against traffickers. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that they had intelligence, quote, "without a doubt that confirmed that this vessel was trafficking narcotics," and that the people on board were narco- terrorists, and they were operating on a known narco-trafficking transit route."

Beyond that, he did not give many details here in terms of what group these people were allegedly tied to, where specifically this took place, other than international waters off of the coast of Venezuela. He did say that these strikes would continue.

We also heard from President Donald Trump on this strike, which was done under his orders, according to Hegseth. Trump said in a post that this boat was loaded with, quote, "enough drugs to kill 25- to 50,000 people," and that that was stopped early this morning off the coast of Venezuela. And as you noted, there are a lot of legal questions under the

authority -- about the authorities that the U.S. has been conducting these strikes. They have named a number of these criminal organizations, these cartels, in Latin America as foreign terrorist organizations, but legal experts say that this doesn't necessarily give them the authority to lethally kill people, alleged traffickers. They say this is not a capital offense. This is normally not how this would be taken out, so a lot of questions about this strike as well. Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, those will continue. Jennifer, thank you for the report.

Still to come, Sean "Diddy" Combs expected to address the court soon. The disgraced hip-hop mogul -- hip-hop mogul, pardon me, could be locked up for years for his convictions. On two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. Our reporters are there in the courtroom. They're tracking this hearing minute by minute. Stay with us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:27:47]

KEILAR: Sentencing is underway for disgraced music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs in federal court. Earlier, we heard from his defense attorneys and some of his children who made emotional pleas for the judge to free Combs.

SANCHEZ: With us now, executive editor for Deadline.com Dominic Patten.

Dominic, thanks so much for sharing your afternoon with us.

A lot of players involved in this case many of them musicians and performers. What has been the reaction across the entertainment industry to watching this this hearing?

DOMINIC PATTEN, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, DEADLINE.COM: Well, Boris, I have to say we've talked about this many, many times, the three of us, and -- and this is definitely turning into a spectacle. It's almost like inventing the band some so to speak, because of the amount of people.

It's very interesting to me as someone who was in that courtroom for great swaths of this trial Combs' defense never put up a witness during their entire presentation. It was very, very short, very, very in-and-out. More people are speaking today than almost that the prosecution had during their eight-week presentation for this trial, which as you said the children, other -- a preacher, other people, Sean Combs himself is expected to -- to speak.

So, I think there's a little bit of disturbance, I wouldn't say disgust, but how this is being played out, especially when we hear from the prosecution about things like that he had speaking engagements, which is now being debated about what that actually was scheduled for next week and what-have-you. It's turning into a spectacle, which I guess in many ways is what we should have expected. KEILAR: Yes, certainly a spectacle. Is it a cultural moment? Do you see a cultural shift as a result of the case?

PATTEN: That's hard to tell, Brianna. I mean, I think it -- you guys have brought it up earlier today and it should not go without noting that this is the 30th anniversary of the controversial O.J. Simpson acquittal of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

I feel like that some of that argument was there, some of his defense lawyers have made this argument about Sean Combs as a -- a source of inspiration for young black American males, perhaps. But I think also there is -- is -- as the prosecution has made an argument of he's not quite dealing with reality, that there would -- maybe couple of tacos short of a combo about what he actually did and hasn't done.

[15:30:02]

And what seems to be emerging more than anything here is that the judge has a pretty clear sense.