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AZ's Grijalva Still Not Sworn In A Month After Election Win; Gambling Probe; CNN Heroes. Aired 3:30:4p ET

Aired October 24, 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]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: So it's been a month since Congresswoman- elect Adelita Grijalva won her special election in Arizona and next she is still waiting to be sworn in by the House Speaker. She's going to join us live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKERS (in unison): Swear her in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Chants of "swear her in" greeting, Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva on her return to her home state of Arizona. It's now been one month and a day since the people of the 7th district of Arizona chose her to be their Democratic congresswoman. But Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to swear her in to office during the government shutdown.

[15:35:01]

Grijalva visited DC this week, demonstrating how she's locked out of laptops, can't use the printer because she still does not have a government email. And she is with us now, joining us from Tucson. Congresswoman-elect, thank you so much for being with us.

Your state AG is suing the House over Speaker Johnson not swearing you. And do you have an update on that? And are you expecting that the lawsuit will be resolved before the government reopens?

REP. ADELITA GRIJALVA (D-AZ): I really -- we're using every tool available to try to get me sworn in order to be able to represent 812,000 people in the state of Arizona. And so, I don't know if it's going to be successful, but really, it sort of speaks to how unprecedented this is, that I have been waiting to be sworn in for now 31 days.

And there has never been a situation like this where the speaker refuses and is obstructing me getting sworn in. So if it's successful, great. All we're asking for is to be sworn in, no more or less than any other person that has been elected in a special and sworn in shortly thereafter, especially by this speaker. This speaker has sworn three other members within 24 hours of their election.

KEILAR: Of course, we are in this shutdown and I wonder, do you think that Democratic Party leaders are doing enough? Have they been fighting enough for you, in your opinion?

GRIJALVA: Oh, absolutely. Every member of the caucus has been supportive. Most have done their own videos or included me signing letters, have press conferences. Leader Jeffries has done everything that he knows to do to try to compel Speaker Johnson to swear me in.

And I have to highlight in 2019, there was an entire freshman class sworn in during the shutdown. And so, what's happening here is it's not the shutdown that is the issue. The issue is Speaker Johnson canceling votes and not allowing for an opportunity for me to be sworn in.

We've had many times that we've been in a pro forma session. I believe we're at 10 since September 23rd, not including the 23rd. There have been many times they could have just sworn me in. It's, I mean, that -- the -- that's the basic function of the speaker, is to swear in whomever.

And what's going on here, I think is, and the reason why there's such a delay is because I will be the 218 signer to the discharge petition for the Epstein files.

KEILAR: And do you think that's a topic that voters in your district are very concerned about as they're looking at this shutdown right now.

GRIJALVA: This topic never came up during the campaign. It came up at the very last of five debates with my Republican opponent. Now it has become a big issue because it really speaks to the transparency and lack of transparency of this administration.

I mean, Speaker Johnson literally ended votes a week early in order to avoid having a vote on releasing the Epstein files on the floor. So the only reason this discharge petition exists is because Speaker Johnson refused to bring it forward. And there's clearly a majority of the House wanting to speak on it, wanting to have these files open.

The Arizona Department of Economic Security announced yesterday that approved participants of the SNAP participants program will be unable to collect November benefits until federal funding is released to states. That, of course, also known as food stamps. So you have more than 900,000 Arizonans who get these SNAP benefits. Certainly that's how many got them last fiscal year.

How do you weigh that, the needs of people who will immediately potentially go hungry against what Democrats are demanding, which is the extension of these Obamacare subsidies for the health insurance of so many other Americans?

GRIJALVA: You know, we have to be really honest about what this Republican Party is willing and not willing to do. They're willing to take food from children. They are willing to put people in horrible economic situations, threaten people's livelihood, fire people their --

BOLDUAN: But what about Democrats, because that at this point may be what's in your control, right? Your party. What are Democrats willing to put up with? And what do Democratic voters want?

GRIJALVA: Well, Democratic voters and vast majority of the nation want us to have access to quality health care, want us to be able to have preventative care, want 1 in 5 children in Arizona to be able to go to the doctor. And so, this line that the Democrats are holding onto is health care for the American people, period.

[15:40:00]

And I can't do anything, right? I'm not sworn in, have no seat at the table when we're making these discussions, but respectfully, this is the opportunity to negotiate. What Democrats want is something that we have to balance with what are we willing to work towards together. What was sent to the Senate from the House was a CR that literally had no input from Democrats.

So this is when we're supposed to be negotiating and working together, to get something that we can then send to the Senate that we're willing to negotiate. This speaker is basically saying, I've done my job. This is all I'm willing to do when a majority of the nation wants to have access to health care.

KEILAR: And are Arizonans OK with -- and I'm familiar, obviously with the budget. We covered it very closely. But are Arizonans, are they OK with that reality of some people not getting -- a lot of people not getting food stamps potentially, as we move towards November?

GRIJALVA: And there was no reason to go into a shutdown. We had opportunities to work towards a solution. What Speaker Johnson is trying to do is put the backs of the Senate up against a wall to say, you take this or nothing. And that's not the way our government is supposed to work for the benefit of the people.

And so, nobody wants people to go hungry, absolutely not. But I also can't trust this administration to not take those benefits away, period. They continue to ebb away at the fundamental social programs that are helping to support families in poverty. And what they're doing is continuing to create a greater divide of the have and the have nots.

KEILAR: Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva, thank you so much for being with us. And eventually we will see you here in Washington and we will welcome you on the show then.

GRIJALVA: Thank you so much.

KEILAR: Coming up, a look at the rise and evolution of American sports betting after this bombshell FBI bust that is now tarnishing the NBA's new season. And then this Sunday, discover the breads that bond Sao Paulo, Brazil. On a new episode of the CNN Original Series, "Tony Shalhoub Breaking Bread."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Little bit soft. Cut.

TONY SHALHOUB, ACTOR: Why do you want to cut away the crust?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because the Japanese style. And look, it's raw inside.

SHALHOUB: Oh. Oh, look at how beautiful the --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

SHALHOUB-- presentation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's try it. (Inaudible), yes?

SHALHOUB: There is so much going on in there. Crunchy and soft.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And spicy.

SHALHOUB: And spicy and sweet, and I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Honestly, this is amazing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's great.

SHALHOUB: I cry at everything. All right, thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: You too can cry at a new episode of "Tony Shalhoub Breaking Bread," airing Sunday at 9:00 PM Eastern and Pacific only on CNN and laugh, too. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:47:40]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Today, sports gambling is under new scrutiny after two explosive investigations involving current and former NBA players and a head coach. Former journeyman Damon Jones, former player Damon Jones is among nearly three dozen people who have been implicated. Prosecutors point to a text from Jones in an indictment as a glaring example of rigged wagering.

It says, get a big bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out. Player three is out tonight. Bet enough so DJones can to now. Player three, who did not play that night, LeBron James, we should make clear, is not accused of any wrongdoing here.

Joining me now to discuss is Jonathan Cohen, author of "Losing Big: America's Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling." Good to see you. NBA commissioner Adam Silver has previously called for additional federal regulation on legal sports betting. But at this point, given the climate we're in right now, what could that actually look like? JONATHAN COHEN, AUTHOR, "LOSING BIG: AMERICA'S RECKLESS BET ON SPORTS GAMBLING": It could look like a lot of different things, and I'll note that there is actually a bill in front of Congress right now proposing a really strict set of guardrails to limit not -- not focus on athletes and their wagering, but on better, regular betters and, you know, how much someone can lose day, how much they -- whether they can bet with a credit card or not. So it could look like a lot of things.

What Adam Silver probably wants is a minimum set of federal standards. So you don't have what we have now, which is 38 soon to be, 39 different states with 38 soon to be, 39 different sets of sports betting regulations. Well, and that was a similar dynamic, you know, when NIL was being talked about and the NCAA president was trying to look to Congress for some sort of federal regulations as opposed to piecemeal.

JIMENEZ: You know, in this sports betting case, a US attorney says the sports books themselves are victims. And I just want to know how you assess how sports books have handled the rise in legal sports betting. I mean, in part, they've had a role in catching unusual activity. But does the ease with which you can bet just tempt more illegal activity on their platforms?

COHEN: Yes, exactly. They're victims to the degree that they were the party sort of defrauded. You know, when Damon Jones is telling his friends to bet because LeBron James is out. His friends are taking FanDuel and DraftKings money.

[15:50:03]

But FanDuel and DraftKings have to bear some responsibility here for sort of raising the volume, raising the temperature, raising the sort of cultural prevalence of gambling to such a degree that yes, of course there have always been sort of incidents like this of professional athletes gambling on their own behavior. But the number that we've seen just in the last couple years of both collegiate and professional athletes to me suggests that the volume of advertising, especially from companies like DraftKings and FanDuel has made sports gambling so prevalent that so many of these incidents might not have happened otherwise, or might not have happened to the same degree otherwise.

But for the sort of the speed and the ferocity with which these companies sort of shoved gambling down Americans throats.

JIMENEZ: Well, yes. You can't watch sports these days without some mention of some sports betting company either in sponsorship or ads, or otherwise. You know, when this news came out of the indictment involving NBA athletes and coaches, another ruling or another -- yes, another ruling kind of went under the radar with the NCAA approving a rule change that would allow athletes and athletic department staff members to bet on professional sports. It goes into effect November 1st.

Look, I'm a former collegiate athlete and I mean it's not out of the realm that me, or not me, but a close teammate of mine could go pro within a few months, and you still have that really close relationship. I just wonder how you assess that news. And do you have any concerns about again, what could be this new dynamic of relationship here in terms of betting?

COHEN: Sure. I mean, to me, not knowing how this is going to work sort of in practice as it hasn't gone into effect. But to me it just speaks to the fact that we're still in, let's call it the honeymoon era or the early periods. And the leagues sort of wandered into this, sort of not really knowing what they were getting into, just knowing that they could make a lot of money off of it.

So the fact that the NCAA is sort of going back and forth, is changing its policies, can't get things right. Putting the actual policy aside, it sort of speaks to me of the fact that they, why is it taking seven years to figure this out? Why is it only after collegiate athletes have reported getting death threats and some of them have gotten suspended or expelled for gambling when the rule -- just because the rules sort of weren't clear and weren't made clear and only now we're sort of playing catch up, right.?

In the same way that the NBA is only now playing catch up by sort of banning some of these prop bets that allowed betters like Terry Rozier or Jontay Porter to gamble on their own performance. So to me, again, it sort of just speaks to the sort of recklessness with which we dove in. I think it was a good bet.

I think we should have legal sports betting. We should maybe even have legal online sports betting. But it didn't have to be this way if we had just taken a more careful approach.

JIMENEZ: Jonathan Cohen, appreciate the time and perspective. Thanks for being here.

COHEN: Thanks, Omar.

JIMENEZ: All right. Just ahead, how a CNN Hero using vacant lots in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of Chicago to create opportunities for its residents. We'll be right back.

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[15:57:12]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: CNN Heroes brought to you by Humana A more human way to healthcare.

JIMENEZ: On Chicago's south side, the neighborhood of Englewood is almost a classic example of urban blight. Good people but decades of economic decline have resulted in empty buildings, which often get torn down, leaving vacant lots behind.

KEILAR: But where many only see decay, this week's CNN Hero sees potential. Quilen Blackwell is bringing life to these empty spaces and creating much needed jobs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) QUILEN BLACKWELL, CNN HERO: Most people wouldn't expect to see a full flower farm here on the south side of Chicago. It's really cool to be able to bring that beauty to places where people least expect it.

I've been living Englewood since 2015. It's one of the more dangerous neighborhoods, high poverty, high urban blight. So, you know, you kind of see like storefronts that are boarded up, the building gets condemned. They'll knock the building down and not the vacant lot.

Yes, these aren't parks. Most people will see the trash, the vacant lots of. But for me, I see potential. We're here to try to bring life.

Southside Blooms is a farm to vase florist. We'll take over vacant lots, grow our own flowers, design them in our flower shop, and then we do retail bouquets, weddings, corporate events, and everything in between. This is about creating opportunity in a place that desperately needs it.

Try to get some good stem length, you know the drill. A big part of what we do is creating jobs in the floral industry for at risk youth. What's your favorite flower?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The lilies, cosmos.

BLACKWELL: My favorite, it would be the red roses. Growing up, I was very fortunate. I had a bevy of opportunities. I came to Chicago, started tutoring at a high school Englewood, and I started to just realize I could be any one of these kids.

I want to do them tiger lilies again. They're people who want a chance at something better.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to grow up fast around here. I lost a lot of friends, end up in jail. I was looking for a job. One of my friends, he was like, hey, bro, I got a job. I'm like, bro, flowers, what?

Working here, I seen myself changing calmer into nature. This was just an empty parking lot. We did this. We started all this. We cleaned it up. It's our community, I'm proud.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready for the event?

HANNAH BLACKWELL, QUILEN BLACKWELL'S WIFE: Getting there.

BLACKWELL: My wife, Hannah, trained as a florist, figured out the youth training program.

H. BLACKWELL: It's a feel, so teaching kind of the basic concept and then kind of letting their creativity go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I learned. I paid close attention, I asked questions, and I fell in love with it. I'm an exemplar.

I purchased my first apartment. I purchased a car. I try to tell everybody it's an opportunity. Every place you step in, take advantage of it.

BLACKWELL: Our young people are blossoming and blooming every single day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:00:03]

KEILAR: And for the full story about Quilen and his important work, go to CNN.com/heroes.

JIMENEZ: I'm gonna plant some flowers this weekend.

KEILAR: I love that story. Love it. "The Arena with Kasie Hunt" starts right now.