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Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) is Interviewed about the Shutdown; ATC Staffing Back to Normal; Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired October 09, 2025 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:32:16]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The federal government has now been shut down for nine days. And next week, days from now, members of the U.S. military will start missing paychecks. That is just the latest pain point now piling on as lawmakers seem more dug in than ever. Clearly with that, patience is running thin.

Just look at what played out yesterday in front of cameras.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): I am anxious to administer the oath to her --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

JOHNSON: As soon as you guys vote to open the government.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). You don't want to be her to be on the discharge. How much --

JOHNSON: That's totally absurd. You guys are experts at red herrings and distractions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because you're -- (INAUDIBLE) moving along. This is an excuse so she doesn't sign on to that.

JOHNSON: This is absurd.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the longest time the House has (INAUDIBLE) --

JOHNSON: Do you want me to answer the question? If you ask a question --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You did not actually answer the question.

REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): With all due respect, you voted multiple times to keep the government shut down, OK? The Republican members from Arizona voted to keep the government open. We got a one-year extension. Why don't we sign on right now?

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Yes, you see -- let me ask your question, did you get -- did you get permission from your boss?

LAWLER: Why don't we sign on right now? Why don't we sign on right now?

JEFFRIES: Did -- did your boss, Donald Trump -- did your boss -- did your boss, Donald Trump, give you permission?

LAWLER: You can easily extend the ACA right now. He is not my boss.

JEFFRIES: Yes, he is.

LAWLER: No, he's not. And by the way, why did you vote to shut the government down?

JEFFRIES: So, let me ask you a question. Let me ask you a question.

LAWLER: Why did you vote to shut it down?

JEFFRIES: (INAUDIBLE) -- let me ask you --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And joining us right now is Republican Congressman Pete Sessions of Texas.

Congressman, thank you for coming on.

Notably, you were not involved in those confrontations. I appreciate your time. But when it -- when both sides -- we know there's -- remain dug in, in terms of what we know is the state of play on -- right now with this shutdown. But for Republicans, there is some different pressure mounting from within. You have Marjorie Taylor Greene now who is siding with Democrats on the issue of health care subsidies. She wants them extended. She does blame Democrats, she said in an interview with CNN, for the shutdown. But she also told Manu Raju, Congressman, the way she put it is, Republicans, you have no solutions. And she wants things to be fixed. What do you say to Marjorie Taylor Greene?

REP. PETE SESSIONS (R-TX): Well, I would say to her, that she needs a couple more years in office and she would learn that we do have ideas on the table, it simply is one that no one, not Republican nor Democrat, is willing to accept. The Democrats, because they don't want any competition against the Affordable Care Act. And Republicans, because they really don't understand or are not for how this would empower every single person. We need competition against the Affordable Care Act. And that's what people are desperate for. So, there's more than -- more than one idea on the table. So, we do have ideas.

BOLDUAN: One of the --

SESSIONS: But let's go to the real issue here.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

SESSIONS: The real issue is this was one politically by the Democrats. And now it's been lost politically because of the way it was used.

[09:35:03]

It's used as a weapon against the taxpayer of this country, and actually against people who pay for the Affordable Care Act. If you get it free, it's probably a good deal. But not if you have to pay for it. And that's where we need to come together.

BOLDUAN: So, one of the things we know is, is this stretch is on, the pain mounts and piles on. We've seen this in -- we saw it in past shutdowns. The House -- the House of Representatives, the -- as it's run, it's paid monthly, which means, come Halloween, House staffers, including your staff, stop getting paid. Lawmakers automatically continue to get paid through the shutdown.

SESSIONS: Yes.

BOLDUAN: What are you telling your staff about that? Because that imbalance is awkward.

SESSIONS: Well, look, when you take a job, or you understand that you're sworn in, it comes with certain conditions. The reason why we have a provision that a member's pay cannot be reduced is, otherwise we would spend all day doing that to each other. There would be vote after vote when someone disagrees to say they didn't earn their paycheck, or there's Covid and you're not coming, we're taking away your paycheck. That is done for a reason, and that is to avoid the fights.

We all have a responsibility as a member of Congress, as a senator, to vote and make decisions. And we will be held accountable. But the bottom line is, we need ten Democrats now to come over, and they do understand that they won this debate politically under President Obama, under President Biden. They now have lost this.

And it's because ACA, the Affordable Care Act, is being overplayed and costing the taxpayer hundreds of billions of dollars that it was not designed for, and we're going to fix it. So, I would say, we're going to hold our ground. They're going to hold their ground. And I'm sorry of what has happening. They will be reimbursed when this is all over with and all sorts of credit unions and banks understand they will be repaid. So, it's not like they're not getting paid, it's that they have to be very careful for this month.

BOLDUAN: It's pretty painful, especially the younger staffers who are 100 percent living paycheck to paycheck. (INAUDIBLE)

SESSIONS: It is. It is. It's reality.

BOLDUAN: Yes, that's a tough one.

I want to ask you, the DHS secretary --

SESSIONS: I completely -- complexly understand.

BOLDUAN: The DHS secretary was at an event with the president yesterday and made quite a statement about her view of the left-wing protest, the anti-fascist movement protest group, Antifa.

Let me play this for you.

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KRISTI NOEM, DHS SECRETARY: This network of Antifa is just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TDA, as ISIS, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of them. They are just as dangerous. They have an agenda to destroy us, just like the other terrorists we've dealt with for many, many years.

These individuals do not just want to threaten our law enforcement officers, threaten our journalists and the citizens of this country, they want to kill them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Those comparisons to ISIS, to Hamas, to Hezbollah, I mean, you've got -- Hamas killed 1,200 people on October 7th and controls an entire territory, at least did until now. Hezbollah is a known terrorist organization that has army -- armed strength as compared to a medium sized army. And ISIS, as we well know, has killed thousands of people and controlled huge portions of Iraq. What does that kind of, I have to say, silly hyperbole, what does that get anyone?

SESSIONS: I don't write the secretary's comments, nor do I advise her very often. But let me say this, that what she -- whether she chose the correct terms or not, there is a concerted effort that we saw years ago in Portland, Oregon, that we have seen across the country, that is anti-government. In the '90s, it was people who played this out and who bombed the Murrah Building. They are tax protesters. They are people who typically on, what I would say, on the right created a lot of havoc for the government.

Since you have seen Portland, Minneapolis, a lot of other things, there is direct in the streets groups of armed and people who have come to fight that are taking on law enforcement. And I believe that's what she's in reference to.

And so, this -- this opportunity that we have to work together is embodied also in not being able to even fund the government.

[09:40:03]

So, I think we've got to really have a come together, and we've got to understand that if we can fund the government, we stand a chance to begin to heal ourselves. And it looks like that's a time off.

BOLDUAN: A time off is, I'm going to say, is the statement of the day.

SESSIONS: It is. It is.

BOLDUAN: Congressman, I appreciate your time. Thank you very much. Thank you.

And a reminder, tune in next hour as Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene will be joining "THE SITUATION ROOM" for an important interview.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, coming up, a shooting spree in Houston ending with three people dead. The latest on the investigation there.

And where you should expect delays at airports due to the government shutdown and staffing shortages. We'll talk all about it, coming up.

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[09:45:20]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, this morning, the FAA says air traffic control towers across the country are fully staffed for now. Issues overnight caused shortages at towers in the Denver, Albuquerque, Newark, Orlando and Los Angeles areas, all most likely linked to the government shutdown.

With us now, our friend Miles O'Brien, CNN aviation analyst.

Miles, always great to see you.

Transportation Sean Duffy says simply that the air traffic controllers should show up to work. Why isn't it quite so simple?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, first of all, the air traffic controllers and their union deny there is an organized sickout. But it's important to understand that the ripples we're talking about are in a very shallow pond. The FAA air traffic control system walks into this government shutdown 3,000 certified controllers short of a full deck. And so any moderate, minor problems can cause difficulties. And obviously, there's a great amount of scrutiny on it right now.

The other side of this to remember, John, is that this is a system that is under great stress. These controllers, on a good day, have a very stressful job. They've been operating short staffed, long hours for a long time. And now this. And I, for one, as a frequent traveler, do not want to begrudge a controller a day off if he or she feels they're too stressed to go to work.

So, it's difficult to say what the motivation for sickouts is, but I could understand why many of them might want to stay home a little bit to recoup.

BERMAN: So, Burbank the other day, the traffic -- and I'm going to use terms -- let me know if I don't have it right here, the tower went dark for a period of a few hours. What exactly happened and how is that handled over the air traffic control system?

O'BRIEN: There are layers of safety for just this kind of occurrence. First of all, the approach to the airport, the final air traffic controller, before you go to the control tower itself, the radar room can be moved, as it was in this case, all the way down to San Diego. With the right amount of bandwidth, a controller at a radar screen there can do the job just as easily as anybody sitting anywhere near Burbank. They don't have to be in proximity.

The tower is different. You want somebody in that tower to do that job. Pilots have a routine for arriving safely at uncontrolled airports. And there are thousands of them in the U.S. We get on a common frequency. It's the common traffic advisory frequency. And we talk to each other and explain where we are and what our intentions are. It's a safe system, but it slows things down dramatically. And you can imagine, at a big airport, with lots of runways, how this would possibly not work at all, or at least make things just a fraction of the traffic that you would get with somebody in that control tower.

BERMAN: In that word slow there. If you are a passenger or a frequent traveler, which I know you are, Miles, is this about safety ultimately? Will that be the most immediate impact here or will it just be speed?

O'BRIEN: That's the thing I want everybody to take away here. This is not a safety issue, this is a convenience issue. This is a delay issue. This is potential chaos for airline schedules and for travelers. And -- but the system itself is going to dial back to accommodate the staffing that is available, full stop. That's how the FAA operates.

For travelers, book the first morning flight out. That's always -- usually the one that isn't delayed. And make sure you show up a little earlier at the airport. The other side of this is the Transportation Security Agency, many of those workers, who are paid much less money, might not be on the job and so you have to expect some delays there.

BERMAN: That first flight out, it's always good advice to book that one if you can, Miles. And I think people need to listen to you also when you say, think of these air traffic controllers and all the stress they've been under for how long they've been under it as well. These are not easy times for them.

Miles O'Brien, great to see you. Thank you very much.

Sara.

SIDNER: We love Miles. We got to do something about getting him into the studio, John. What -- what can we do? Maybe pay for his flight. You can pay for his flight.

BERMAN: Yes, right, thank you for volunteering me.

SIDNER: You're welcome. BERMAN: Book him on the first flight out, as he just told me.

SIDNER: All right, thank you guys.

All right, it turns out we have angered the bears. Another scary incident caught on camera. This time it's a bear versus a woman out for her morning walk. How she's doing this morning.

And what happens when a suspect is being chased by police, jumps into a river and then tries to hide in the mangroves.

[09:50:07]

We'll tell you about that as well.

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SIDNER: All right, a suspect is dead in Texas after a shooting spree across the Houston area that left three people dead. Police say the suspect shot and killed a woman he knew in Sugarland overnight. Then the suspect killed two men in southwest Houston, including at a body shop and a worker across the street who was trying to record his license plate. Police later found the shooter dead in his car.

[09:55:01]

New video now of police arresting an armed carjacking suspect in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. This after he led them on a chase that ended up in the mangroves in the river there.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the sheriff's office. You are under arrest. You need to crawl out to a boat officer or come to shore and surrender.

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SIDNER: Police say the 34-year-old man flagged down a good Samaritan for help before carjacking him at gunpoint. That's when the chase began. Deputies say the suspect then ditched that stolen car and tried to escape by jumping into a river. He was eventually spotted swimming in the mangroves. This morning, he's being held without bond.

(VIDEO CLIP)

That is terrifying. New video this morning showing an elderly woman in Japan being clawed in the face by a bear. An 82-year-old woman, on her morning walk, doing her regular routine, when the bear, as you saw there, ran up to her and jumped on her. The woman suffered scratches and was taken to the hospital. This is the latest in a string of recent bear encounters in Japan. The good news, y'all, she is expected to be OK. But, yikes.

BERMAN: That's like a -- not like a drive by, it's like a bear by incident there. SIDNER: No, the bear is -- seriously.

BERMAN: That was terrible.

SIDNER: Oh. Well, thank you for joining us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

What's happening next?

BERMAN: "THE SITUATION ROOM" is up next.

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