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Trump: Gaza Ceasefire Deal Very Close; Trump Hosts White House Roundtable on Antifa; Staffing Concerns at Airports as Shutdown Now in Its 8th Day; FBI Ordered to Search for Records on Amelia Earhart. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired October 08, 2025 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Take a look at some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour. The U.S. Department of Agriculture warning people not to eat certain meals from HelloFresh that include spinach. Because there's a chance it could be contaminated with listeria.

So the warning coming after the company told the USDA the quick frozen spinach it uses had tested positive for listeria. It's important to note though no illnesses have been reported.

Denmark looking to ban kids under the age of 15 from using social media. The Prime Minister says these online platforms are, in her words, stealing our children's childhood. Pointing to the number of kids suffering from anxiety and depression and also others struggling to read and concentrate. The Prime Minister also said parents may have the option to approve social media use after age 13.

The NCAA Division I Administrative Committee today approving a recommendation that would allow D1 athletes and staff members to legally bet on professional sports. Now this would be a huge change regarding a longtime restriction on gambling. The NCAA, though, says the new rules would only go into effect if Divisions II and III also agree to allow their athletes to wager on pro sports.

But if they are all in agreement, that ban could actually be lifted and they could start betting November 1st -- Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: So right now we are watching the White House where at any moment President Trump is going to hold a roundtable discussion on Antifa. The meeting is happening just weeks after the President signed an executive order designating Antifa a domestic terror organization. He's accusing the loosely organized anti-fascist movement of recruiting and radicalizing young Americans to engage in political violence.

Right now the President is talking about ongoing discussions regarding a ceasefire deal in Gaza. Let's actually go ahead and listen to that.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you very much. I was just dealing with people from the Middle East, our people and other people on the potential peace deal for the Middle East. Peace for the Middle East, that's a beautiful phrase and we hope it's going to come true, but it's very close.

And they're doing very well. We have a great team over there, great negotiators, and there are unfortunately great negotiators on the other side also. But it's something I think that will happen, got a good chance of happening.

I may go there sometime toward the end of the week, maybe on Sunday actually, and we'll see. But there's a very good chance that negotiations are going along very well. We're dealing with Hamas and many of the countries, as you know, we have Muslim, all of the Muslim countries are included, all of the Arab countries are included.

Very rich countries and some that are not so rich, but just about everybody is included. It's never happened before, nothing like that's happened before. And our final negotiation, as you know, is with Hamas.

And it seems to be going well, so we'll let you know. If that's the case, we'll be leaving probably on Sunday, maybe Saturday, maybe a little later than Saturday evening. But that seems to be our schedule.

It should be clear to all Americans that we have a very serious left- wing terror threat in our country, radicals associated with terrorism ...

SANCHEZ: So we are going to continue monitoring the president's remarks as he directs federal agencies to take action against Antifa. But the president there making some very significant news, saying that he may travel to the Middle East this weekend, either late Saturday or Sunday.

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Saying that there is a very good chance that this final negotiation over a ceasefire for peace to end the war in Gaza has a very good chance.

Previously, we'd heard that this deal could be reached within 48 hours. Obviously, there are stakeholders from the entire region and the United States, as well as Egypt, Qatar, Israel, and as the president put it, negotiators with Hamas as well.

Let's get reaction to this news, as well as the president's broader announcement on Antifa with Juliette Kayyem. She's a CNN senior national security analyst and a former assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security.

Juliette, clearly the president is bullish that something is going to get worked out if he's talking about going to the Middle East, perhaps as early as Saturday or Sunday.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes, he clearly would have gotten assurances from Netanyahu that Netanyahu is going to accept this deal because he would not have gotten ahead of the news, so to speak, or the fact that we've been in this holding pattern close to a deal for almost a week now. So either he's heard assurances that they're going to get there, or as we've seen in the past, President Trump is using his pulpit to drive the parties to resolution, in particular resolution about a ceasefire reconstruction, and what governance looks like in Gaza, and whether you can get all the parties to agree to it. So we'll learn why the president is so bullish.

And then, of course, his presence there would seal the deal and end this war after two years.

SANCHEZ: That has been one of the central sticking points in any discussion about resolving the conflict is what happens the day after and who is going to oversee --

KAYYEM: Yes.

SANCHEZ: -- governance in Gaza, right? I wonder if you actually believe that Hamas would agree to somehow relinquishing arms, relinquishing control of the enclave.

KAYYEM: It's the most difficult issue, because obviously we've seen not just Hamas and where -- and whether they're going to relinquish this. They are getting pressure from Qatar and other Arab nations to do so. But obviously Netanyahu's plans, no one who's been following or analyzing this for you in the last couple of years, can can deny what Israel has done in Gaza in terms of, you know, where it is and where the Palestinians are in terms of the destruction.

And we've also heard elements of Netanyahu's party essentially talk about, you know, the sort of essentially the repopulation of Gaza as an annex of Israel. Those -- that language is now off the table, which is good for for all involved. But what the governance structure looks like long term is part of what we don't know yet.

Short term, we do know, at least as written, that there is a commitment to a non Hamas governance structure that would guide Gaza to some long term self-determination. Question is, can that hold given what's happened and the politics in Israel?

SANCHEZ: Yes. Pivoting to the other news the president is making this afternoon on on the domestic front and the gearing up of federal resources to go after Antifa. This is an organization that doesn't have a sort of traditional centralized leadership structure. So how does the government go after them?

KAYYEM: They don't. I mean, we really do have to look at this sort of in terms of the politics of it rather than the law of it. The executive order that that that the president talks about in terms of calling Antifa a domestic terrorist organization.

There is no legal authority for that. We don't have a domestic terror law in the United States. So just to describe to viewers, Antifa, you know, basically means it's shorthand for anti fascist.

It's an element of a far left movement. It has no leadership. So it's not like the Proud Boys or the Oath Keepers, you know, sort of defined terrorist organizations with leadership that led that, you know, leads violence. This is now -- this is the president is using the amorphousness of Antifa to essentially go after the left. And his critics are obviously -- and I think rightfully concerned that that sort of broad sweep, you know, will get anyone who disagrees with the president. And then, of course, as we heard overnight, you know, as the president said that the governor and the governor of Illinois and the mayor of Chicago should be arrested.

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He just lumps everyone who disagrees with him into that definition.

SANCHEZ: We'll, of course, keep monitoring this roundtable on Antifa.

Juliette Kayyem, thank you so much for being with us.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Coming up, it's estimated that the American travel economy is losing a billion dollars a week as the government shutdown drags on. We'll take you live to Reagan National Airport amid flight delays across the country.

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SANCHEZ: So CNN has obtained air traffic control audio recordings that give an inside look at the problems at Nashville's main airport last night.

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Because of a staffing shortage, the airport's approach facility, which guides planes into and out of the airport, had to shut down for some five hours. Here's part of that audio.

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NASHVILLE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL AUDIO: We're low staffed all the time. This is very rare. We have four controllers in the building and we went to a tower only, BFR tower only at a level 10 airport in the (National Air Space), which is absolutely insane. But it has to happen at some point. You can only work so many planes with so many people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean is live at Reagan National Airport in Washington. So it sounds like a little bit of frustration in that controller's voice there, Pete. It also paints a really important picture right now.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and the good news here is that the slack was picked up because that Nashville approach control facility was not operating at the time by the center facility, a larger facility that oversees airplanes at higher altitude in Memphis, also by controllers there in the control tower at Nashville. So no big compromise on safety, though it did cause the FAA to slow flights. So far, so good today.

The FAA just wrapped a conference call. It says that the Newark approach control facility, responsible for flights at low altitude, arriving and departing at Newark Liberty International Airport, was caused for concern because of low staffing today. That is now dropped off the list.

Pales in comparison to what we saw on Tuesday. ATC facilities that we typically do not see on the list of staffing shortages. We're talking Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Boston. The list really goes on.

The problems were really compounded in Nashville, like we mentioned, also at Chicago O'Hare. About a quarter of all flights there delayed yesterday when the FAA imposed these delays due to staffing issues.

The problem, according to NATCA union president Nick Daniels, is that the air traffic controllers nationwide are facing already a major shortage. And when just a few of them call out sick, that really exacerbates the problem, turns a small thing into a really big, outsized impact. He insists, though, there is no coordinated sick-out effort as the 11,000 air traffic controllers in the U.S. are still working essentially without pay.

They got their last full paycheck last Tuesday. They get one more paycheck Tuesday, October 14th, next Tuesday. But that is a partial paycheck for work they already did before this shutdown began.

We're only eight days in, and this could compound even more.

SANCHEZ: Pete Muntean, live for us at Reagan National. Thank you so much.

Let's get some more perspective now with CNN aviation analyst, former NTSB managing director Peter Goelz.

Peter, thanks so much for being with us. What's your reaction to that audio that we heard out of Nashville last night?

PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, I think it underscores that we're walking a real tightrope during the coming weeks. As long as this, you know, outage continues, as long as federal workers are not being paid, there is going to be a very fine line between what's safe and what might not be safe.

HILL: In terms of that safety, we've been talking a lot over the last couple of days and even earlier today with Pete about ATC zero, when there is no air traffic controller available. So when it comes to safety, I would imagine a lot of people hear that and they think, wait a minute, how is my plane going to land or take off safely?

Pilots are trained to deal with this. That being said, what are your safety concerns in those moments?

GOELZ: Well, the real issue is things will have to slow up. You know, at Reagan National, there were flights during the busy hours, one a minute. They'll have to slow it up in one every two minutes, which means the delays are going to get longer.

And at the checkpoints, you have TSA security folks, average salary, $50,000 a year. They're going to feel the pain of no paychecks quickly and they're going to have to make accommodations. So I think we've got, you know, a real tightrope to walk during the coming days.

SANCHEZ: During one of the last shutdowns, I believe it was the last shutdown, one of the things that ultimately led both sides to the table was air traffic controllers calling out sick. I wonder if you think we're going to see more of that as this shutdown continues with no end in sight.

GOELZ: Well, I think the union is very careful to say there's going to be no, you know, job actions, either informally or any other way. But this is a high-pressure job. I've been in the towers. I know you have as well.

It is a lot of pressure that goes on. And if you're doing an eight- hour shift and then you extend to 12 hours and you're not getting the day off when you hoped you were going to get, you are really under pressure to take some time down.

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And if you take some time down for safety's sake, that has an impact on the system. Last time, as you mentioned, in 2019, it was 15 controllers who happened to call in sick on a single 24-hour period, and that threw the whole system into chaos.

HILL: Yes, and to your point, as we look at all this, in 2019. I wonder, as we're discussing that, does that add anything at all to the stress that some of these air traffic controllers feel when they know everybody is monitoring whether people are calling in sick or not?

GOELZ: Sure. They monitor, you know, their staffing. And you know, there are three types of towers.

You have the tower at the airport, which controls takeoffs and landings and, you know, travel on the taxiways. Then you've got the approach tower, which handles the 50 miles out and in, and then you've got the en route. And the two that are most, you know, critical are the approach and the control towers.

That's where the action is, and that's where they can't afford to have any slacking in terms of staffing.

HILL: Yes, Peter, appreciate it. Thanks for joining us.

GOELZ: Thank you.

HILL: Still ahead here, for 90 years, people have been really kind of obsessed with trying to solve the baffling disappearance of Amelia Earhart somewhere over the Pacific. Now the FBI says it's looking for new clues about one of the world's most famous pilots.

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HILL: President Trump giving the FBI a new priority. Amelia Earhart's disappearance nearly 90 years ago. Sources telling CNN in a highly unusual message he ordered employees to immediately search for any records related to Earhart. She, of course, disappeared in 1937 over the Pacific while trying to become the first woman to fly around the world.

SANCHEZ: Now this famous photograph was Earhart on the last stop she made in New Guinea before her and her navigator took off and lost contact. On July 2nd, she left at 10 a.m. local time, planning to fly east to refuel on Howland Island. And after contact with her plane was lost, teams searched for 16 days until she was declared lost at sea.

We're joined now by the executive director of the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, Ric Gillespie. He's also the author of Finding Amelia, The True Story of the Earhart Disappearance. Ric, thanks so much for being with us.

What are you hoping that is going to be learned as a result of this search for new clues?

RIC GILLESPIE, INTERNATIONAL GROUP FOR HISTORIC AIRCRAFT RECOVERY: Well, this is an easy one. You know, the good news is it won't take the FBI very long. Kids, you can try this at home.

The FBI Amelia Earhart files are online. All you have to do is Google FBI Amelia Earhart files. It'll take you to the FBI website and show you their files, 59 pages on Amelia Earhart.

It's already been done.

HILL: So if it's all been done, what I'm hearing is we're not going to learn anything new. So what do you believe? I mean, you wrote a whole book on it. What do you believe?

GILLESPIE: No, we're not going to learn anything new. Well, we know what happened, and I should mention my latest book published just last year, One More Good Flight, The Amelia Earhart Tragedy. She landed safely on an uninhabited coral atoll and sent radio distress calls for nearly a week before the airplane was washed into the ocean by rising tides of the surf.

She survived for nearly two months as a castaway. Her remains were found in 1940 by the British but were misidentified until we found the original files on that in 1998. I mean, there's a ton of evidence that that's what really happened to her.

SANCHEZ: Have those remains ever been tested for DNA? Would that lead to anything?

GILLESPIE: The remains were misidentified and apparently lost. The examination was done in Fiji in 1941, and they decided the bones were worthless, and they probably threw them out. We turned Fiji upside down three times looking for them. But the doctor's notes with the measurements of the bones tell the story.

HILL: So given what you've laid out, and obviously --

GILLESPIE: Oh, I should also mention --

HILL: Go ahead.

GILLESPIE: Well, I should mention that in terms of releasing classified files, Bill Clinton beat him to it. In April of 1995, Clinton Executive Order 12958 ordered the declassification of any national security files older than 25 years old. They were still keeping stuff from the Spanish-American War, and it was a big housecleaning.

And, of course, all the Earhart files got declassified at that time and given to the National Archives. So the National Archives has what there is.

HILL: So given all of that, does it surprise you at all that this is now a priority from President Trump to the FBI?

GILLESPIE: No. You know, for decades, conspiracy theorists peppered the government with Freedom of Information Act requests for any declassified Earhart files, and they kept saying, no, there aren't any. But conspiracy theories are pretty popular with the Trump administration, and the first thing President Trump said was many people have been asking me to have these files.

Well, I know who those people probably were. That's why they're doing it.

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My suggestion is if the administration is interested in releasing famous files, they ought to start with some that actually exist.

SANCHEZ: Ric Gillespie, thank you for bringing us that fact check. We very much appreciate it. Occam's Razor, the simplest explanation. No matter how tragic, it's sad to hear that that's likely what happened to Amelia Earhart.

HILL: It is, you're right. All right, well, that's going to do it for us this afternoon. Always a pleasure to be with you, my friend.

SANCHEZ: Not the most uplifting note to end on, but a pleasure to be with you as well.

HILL: It's a little tough one to end on, but that's OK.

"THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts now.

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