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Portland Protest Continue as Judge Blocks Troop Deployment; Interview with Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-PA): Day 6 of Government Shutdown with No End Yet to Impasse; Immigration Judges Challenge Trump's Efforts to Purge Them; Russia, Ukraine Trade Overnight Attacks as War Continues. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired October 06, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

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SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking news, new video of protesters clashing with federal agents outside an ICE facility in Portland, moments after a federal judge blocked President Trump's order to send hundreds of National Guard troops there.

Soybean farmers crushed by tariffs, sitting on a huge crop with nowhere to sell it. Now there are discussions for a government bailout to save them from a government action.

And her new album took over the airwaves this weekend. Now this week, Taylor Swift takes over late night.

Kate is out. I'm John Berman with Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SIDNER: Breaking overnight -- for the second time in two days, a Trump-appointed federal judge has temporarily blocked the president from deploying the National Guard to Portland, Oregon. First, she halted him from sending the state's own troops into the city. Then California Governor Gavin Newsom said President Trump was trying a workaround by sending 300 troops from California to Portland.

The judge stopped that too, at least for now. After asking the Justice Department's attorney, aren't the defendants simply circumventing my order?

Protesters have clashed with police near an ICE facility in Portland in recent days. But state and local officials say the Trump administration is exaggerating the situation, adding that they do not need and have not requested federal help -- John.

BERMAN: All right, let's bring in Congressman Brendan Boyle, a Democrat from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Congressman, great to see you this morning. What you're looking at around the country, these National Guard troops, the attempts from the administration to send them in in different places.

What happens if judges keep ruling, but the administration keeps trying to find these workarounds?

REP. BRENDAN BOYLE (D-PA): Well, good to be with you. And, you know, what's at stake is really beyond just the specific issue of law and order and how exactly you do controls. It's really a question of co- equal branches of government.

In many ways, it's linked to the government shutdown as well. You have an executive branch led by Donald Trump that doesn't believe in three co-equal branches of government. He believes in one all power, all powerful entity existing in the office of president of the United States.

That's why he's attempting to take away Congress's power of the purse when it comes to the budget. And that's why he's attempting to ignore one judicial decision after another on this, on immigration, etcetera.

BERMAN: It is day six of this government shutdown, and we're starting to see some polling come out of it. CBS/YouGov was out over the weekend and they asked, do you approve of how they're handling the government shutdown? They asked President Trump, congressional Republicans and congressional Democrats here.

Bottom line is none of you have great approval, but you're actually trailing President Trump by a few points. Why do you think that is?

BOYLE: Well, first, actually, I've seen six different polls in the last week, all of which show by double digits people blame, properly blame Republicans for this shutdown as opposed to Democrats. And the American people are right.

This is the Republican shutdown. Look, I should be in Washington, D.C. this week. Any previous government shutdown in my 10 year career. We have always been stuck in the Capitol negotiating.

Well, here you have the Republican speaker who up and canceled session last week and then canceled session again this week. So he doesn't even want a negotiation. He is following the orders that President Trump delivered six weeks ago when Trump said on national television to Republicans, don't even negotiate with Democrats. And they're following those orders.

BERMAN: What conversations, if any, have you had with Republican colleagues on the shutdown in the last few days?

BOYLE: None. I mean, it's really remarkable and stands in total contrast to any previous shutdown that has occurred in the last decade. Let's not forget Donald Trump is, of course, the king of shutdowns.

The longest shutdown in American history already happened when he was president the first time back in 2018 into 2019. And here we are again. So I am a very reasonable person.

I think that in our system of government, you need to reach compromise. I think we can reach a compromise in which we fund the government, but we ensure the laws of this country are followed, that we ensure we protect the health care of the American people.

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We prevent 15 million Americans from losing their health care, which is about to take place unless we make a change and we prevent premium skyrocketing for millions and millions more in my state of Pennsylvania and throughout the nation. But it's a little hard to talk and have these negotiations if the Republicans won't even bring us back into session.

BERMAN: One of the three Democrats on the Senate side, two Democrats and one independent, to vote with Republicans to basically fund the government, not have a shutdown, is the senior senator from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Democrat John Fetterman. Listen to what he said about his vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): Right now, it's like you're running the risk of plunging our nation into chaos. Millions and millions of lives will be upended. I mean, I think that would be -- that would be the ideal outcome for Project 2025.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: What do you think of Senator Fetterman voting with Republicans on this?

BOYLE: Well, you know, unfortunately, at this point, I'm no longer surprised by anything John Fetterman does. Let's not forget, he was the only Democrat right after the election to immediately fly to Mar- a-Lago and kiss the ring. And he has acted accordingly over the last year in much the same way.

But the fact of the matter remains, more than 99 percent of congressional Democrats are united on this. You saw that House vote. It was overwhelming, almost unanimous, with every single House Democrat sticking together.

The Senate Democrats have mostly stuck together as well. And I think that you will continue to see that because we know that we have popular opinion on our side.

BERMAN: What happens when this week thousands of federal employees don't get paychecks for the first time? What happens? I think it's October 15th, the middle of the month, when military members don't get their paychecks.

BOYLE: Yes, you know, I think it's awful and there is a real human toll to this. Federal workers have been bashed throughout this past year. It began with the DOGE process.

It continues. You have President Trump and his OMB director gleefully talking about how they can't wait to fire federal workers. These are human beings who work hard, show up for work every day, are fairly anonymous people, apolitical. So I deeply -- I'm very saddened by the pain that they are experiencing. That's why I want to see the government shutdown to end. I want to see the government shutdown end.

I want to ensure that American people are able to save their health care and that we are able to bring down costs and prevent them from -- in my particular state, we're looking at a 92 percent increase in premiums for the millions of Americans who are on the Obamacare exchanges. We can prevent all that damage, but we're not going to be able to do it if we're sitting at home this week.

BERMAN: Congressman Brendan Boyle, we appreciate you being with us the day after a tough Eagles loss, but appreciate your time this morning, Congressman -- Sara.

SIDNER: Some of us may be celebrating that loss. I'm just saying.

All right, hundreds of climbers stranded on Mount Everest at this hour. Can they be rescued in time after a blizzard created a dangerous situation there? We will give you the very latest on that.

Plus, how former New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez ended up being the one facing charges after he was stabbed in Indianapolis. The latest on that investigation.

And take a look at this. People from across the globe descending on New Mexico for this massive festival. Hot air balloons everywhere.

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SIDNER: We have new CNN reporting on a truly unprecedented move by President Trump. He has been purging dozens of immigration judges from the bench as part of his sweeping changes to immigration policy. The National Association of Immigration Judges says 139 immigration judges have been fired, taken early out offers, or been involuntarily transferred since President Trump took office. Now, some of them are pushing back.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joining me now. This is highly unusual. What are you learning in these cases?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, I've been talking to multiple sources as this was occurring over the course of the year, and all of them could not recall a time where on a near daily basis they were getting messages from other immigration judges that they had suddenly been terminated.

Now, the immigration courts are different than federal courts. They actually fall under the executive, specifically the Justice Department. That means that any administration can actually wield immense influence over who sits on those immigration courts.

Now, immigration judges try to be independent, and they pride themselves on that, but they are in a very unique position simply by falling under the executive branch. Now, as you mentioned there, 139 immigration judges have been fired, taken an early out offer, or been involuntarily transferred.

September marked the highest number of terminations with around 24 people dismissed.

Now, I spoke to one of those immigration judges who was dismissed in September, and what she described to me was sitting in her courtroom in San Francisco in early September. It was her third case of the day. She was in the middle of proceedings taking notes on her laptop.

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When she looked down, though, there was an e-mail that had come through with the subject line, Notice of Termination. And so she excused herself from the courtroom, tried to catch up on what was going on, came back into the courtroom and simply said, we cannot continue with this case -- a case, by the way, that had taken several years just to get in front of her.

And she had to just adjourn the hearing, went straight back to her office and packed up her things because she had been terminated, she says, without knowing why. She shared the notice with me. It was very brief in just saying that she had been dismissed.

Now, here's what she told me.

She said, quote, I believe the Trump administration can't stand people who play by the rules -- this is Shira Levine, a former immigration judge. She went on to say, my concerns are for the rule of law in this country. In terms of my own personal circumstances, I walked out of that courtroom with great pride, knowing I had done my very best to uphold rule of law and provide fair and full hearings.

Now, I also talked to others who are in similar positions, one of them, Chloe Dillon, also in San Francisco. And she said that the quote -- the immigration courts are being, quote, dismantled.

She went on to say that they are firing judges at an extremely rapid pace. She went on to say, I think it's fair to say that every judge sitting on a bench thinks they may be or likely will be fired.

And Sara, to underscore how important these immigration courts are, even though we don't talk about them as much, they're crucial to the Trump administration because it is judges who decide who gets to stay in the United States and who is deported.

So this has really stirred a lot of alarm among judges. We reached out to the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees these judges and has been the office sending out these termination notices, and they did not respond for comment.

SIDNER: And speaking of which, I mean, it could really slow down the entire process, correct? Because that -- one of the big things is all of these cases coming up with fewer and fewer judges at this point in time.

ALVAREZ: Well, and they are bringing on military lawyers to get through these cases, which is another concern held among these judges because they're worried it's going to create a rubber stamp system because it takes so much training just to become an immigration judge.

I do want to note, though, military lawyers have become immigration judges before, but the way that this is all unfolding is what is causing a lot of alarm among the judges because, Sara, to your point, there are over three million cases that are waiting to be decided. So you can sort of see how this can become quite chaotic quickly.

SIDNER: Absolutely. Priscilla Alvarez, great reporting from you this morning. Thank you so much.

All right, ahead, Russia launching a major attack on Ukraine's infrastructure, an attempt to freeze out its citizens as winter draws near. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy now slamming Western leaders for not doing enough.

And in a matter of hours, high stakes talks getting underway in Egypt. Will Trump's 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan make it across the finish line? And when?

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, breaking overnight, Russia launched an attack on Ukrainian energy infrastructure across the country overnight, killing at least five people. Russia says Ukraine responded with 250 drones damaging infrastructure and cutting off power to tens of thousands of residents in the Belgorod region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is calling for a greater Western response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Sadly, there's no strong, adequate response from the international community to what's happening. Constant escalation and brazenness of these strikes. Putin is doing it and seems to mock the West and its silence and lack of strong actions in response.

Russia has rejected every proposal to end the war or even to halt the strikes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Let's get a scene as Clare Sebastian. And Clare, this is happening, obviously, as winter looms over this region.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, the fourth winter in this war. And obviously we see that Russian strikes, these combined massive drone and missile strikes, continue to happen extremely regularly overnight. Saturday into Sunday we saw more than 50 missiles and nearly 500 drones and then another over 100 drones Sunday night. And so Monday morning Ukraine is responding. Russia says it shot down more than 250 Ukrainian drones, as you say, and that also seems to have affected electricity supplies in at least one border region of Russia.

But interestingly, look, President Zelenskyy is slamming the West, he says, because they're still allowing many, many critical components that are built in the West to get into these Russian drones and missiles, and not enough is being done on the sanctions front.

On the Russian side, we see President Putin regularly shrugging off any mentions of the West upping sanctions. Obviously, the U.S. has not done that yet. Repeated ultimatums and deadlines have expired.

But one thing that does seem to have caught President Putin's attention is the discussion in the U.S. about potentially sending Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine. This is not guaranteed as of yet, but it has led to a striking shift in rhetoric from President Putin. Take a listen to his comments over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): You just mentioned the president of the United States. There were questions related to, let's say, the discussion of problems with the supply of new weapon systems, including long-range high-precision systems, Tomahawks. I have already said that this will lead to the destruction of our relations or at least the positive trends that have emerged in these relations.

SEBASTIAN: A couple of striking things here. Number one, look, we knew that Western supplies of long-range missiles to Ukraine was a red line for Russia. We had quite similar rhetoric from Putin last year when the Biden administration gave permission, limited permission, for Ukraine to use ATACMS missiles on Russian soil.

But this is a departure because Russian officials, including Putin, very studiously avoid ever criticizing Ukraine to use ATACMS missiles on Russian soil. But this is a departure because Russian officials, including Putin, very studiously avoid ever criticizing the Trump administration.

So to see that from Putin, to see him dangling, essentially, the idea of walking away from this reset in relations between Russia and the U.S. that has brought so many benefits to Russia, that is striking. But, of course, the Tomahawks, we know, have at least five times the range of the ATACMS missiles. They would be a massive increase in firepower for Ukraine. And that has put Russia very much on edge -- John.

BERMAN: You can see where Russia thinks is vulnerable through Vladimir Putin's response there to the Tomahawks. Clare Sebastian, thank you so much for your reporting this morning.

Hundreds of hikers trapped on Mount Everest after being caught in a sudden blizzard. We're getting new information on the situation and the rescue efforts now underway.

And the latest on the former NFL quarterback stabbed in an altercation, what police now say his role was in the whole event.

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