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Interview with Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH): Judge Indicates She Will Intervene in Fight Over SNAP Funds, Dems and GOP Trade Blame as Government Shutdown Drags into Day 30; Palace Removes Prine Andrew's Title, Evicts Him from Royal Residence; U.S., China Strike Agreement to Ease Trade Dispute. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired October 30, 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: ... That millions and millions -- tens of millions of Americans rely on are about to go poof, right? And a federal judge in Boston just indicated that she will intervene to get the Trump administration to use those contingency funds that USDA right now has said it will not use. What do you think of that?
REP. WARREN DAVIDSON (R-OH): Well, this is a court order, and I don't know what the basis is. It's not unprecedented for judges just to make stuff up. And ultimately, at the Supreme Court, you know, you have some future adjudication.
In the meantime, I think this is a court order that I think helps people, and I think the administration should use the court order to say, fine, we'll cut the checks and help people in need. But Congress is supposed to cut the checks. We're supposed to pass funding bills.
And we offered legislation that would do things like this, like fund SNAP, like we offered a shutdown prevention act that would keep the government funded unless you intentionally turn it off. And then we offered a scaled-down version that said if you're essential enough to be at work, then the payroll clerk that pays you is essential too. And some of these kinds of programs, like SNAP, you know, like our housing programs, there are people that need to get paid.
And I get a lot of questions from constituents and say, well, if you've got a distinction between essential and nonessential employees or essential and nonessential programs, why do we have the nonessential things? And you highlight some of the functions within the VA, for example, that, you know, essential is a definition. It's not really diminishing the importance of the job.
I live right near Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and we've got lots of people who are doing vital programs for national security, but they're not at work. They're active-duty military people who are at work. We're trying to find ways to get them paid.
But personnel are not making progress on projects, and we do need to move those. They are essential in the common definition of the word, but not in shutdown language.
KEILAR: Yes.
DAVIDSON: And so all this word parsing and nonsense could be avoided if just five or six senators could do the right thing and get the government up.
KEILAR: Yes, it's like how in an emergency, your body, the extremities shut down, right? It doesn't mean you don't need them. Obviously, you need them.
There's almost a million and a half people in Ohio on SNAP. The USDA has informed states that they will not reimburse those states if they kick in funds to make up the gap. Is that the right move?
I mean, the USDA telling states, if you fund this, we're not going to backfill you on this later. Why do that?
DAVIDSON: Well, that's a good question. It is an interesting thing where if the government can carry it, can we actually bridge it? And I think this is a way that Democrats want to have their cake and eat it, too.
They want to say, yes, we're not going to negotiate, and then they want to selectively prevent any consequences from happening. And the American people need to know that the consequences are part of the issue. I mean, Katherine Clark, the Democrat whip --
KEILAR: But, sir, I want to ask you because I just spoke to a food bank director in Texas.
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: We just spoke to a food bank director in Texas, right? So, I mean, that's not a blue state. They're having this issue, right?
So, I mean, it's not a blue state or red state thing. You've got a lot of people, and a lot of them are in red states.
DAVIDSON: It is a blue state thing to shut the government down.
Yes, I think that having the program funded is the right thing to do. And look, the administration, I think they're trying to follow the law. And if you've got court opinions saying, oh, you can make exceptions, or maybe you're not seeing the law correctly, and here's a good, honest court opinion, fine.
I think use that leverage from the court to do as much good as you can while you can. But in the meantime, we all know the right thing to do is to fund the government and then negotiate. And, unfortunately, Chuck Schumer and the Democrats have said we're not going to do that.
I will say Jared Golden from Maine is the only Democrat that voted to do the right thing in the House, and there are a handful of Democrats in the Senate that did it. So, we've got a clear majority in the Senate, but not 60 votes. And, you know, I think Democrats are trying to get Republicans to break the 60-vote rule instead of just doing the things that have worked for the longest time in positions they've long held.
KEILAR: Can you gain this out for us? If we get to this weekend, open enrollment opens, right, and you have Americans starting to see the costs of their insurance premiums go up significantly without the ACA subsidies that are expiring and the Democrats are demanding be extended. That's kind of, you know, the hills they're dying on in this thing.
Does that change the dynamic of this standoff as you see it?
DAVIDSON: No. I mean, so let's be clear. Whose premiums are going up?
Everyone's. The subsidies that you're talking about are Obamacare subsidies from COVID that Democrats put on during COVID so that in the midst of a pandemic --
[15:35:00]
KEILAR: OK, but that doesn't -- that's going to --
DAVIDSON: -- the cost wouldn't go up.
KEILAR: I hear what you're saying, and I hear Republicans say that, Congressman, but the fact is people don't care. They look at the bottom line. They look at how much it costs them.
They see a massive increase in their bottom line. Some argument about it being from COVID, while a great discussion for us to have, doesn't matter for someone, a Democrat or a Republican, right? They're going to see the cost increase.
Does that increase the pressure?
DAVIDSON: I mean, it doesn't increase the pressure on me. No Republicans ever voted for Obamacare. Obamacare for Democrats is working as it was designed to do.
It was designed to administer a fatal overdose of government to America's healthcare economy, and it is, and it keeps failing, and the only way to keep it alive is to keep pumping more cash into it, and that raises the market price. So the market price becomes the traditional price plus the subsidies. And so everyone is feeling this pain, and it was by design that Obamacare did this.
Republicans have said that all along. No Republican has ever voted for Obamacare. John McCain famously declined to get rid of it, but no Republican voted for these subsidies either, and even Democrats didn't have the votes to make them permanent when they put them in.
So now they want Republicans to do what they failed to do, and by the way, this isn't the only thing that they're negotiating over. They say their whole $1.5 trillion package or nothing. So they want the whole thing.
They might highlight one or two in an interview, but they want the whole $1.5 trillion. They put it in writing. KEILAR: Congressman Warren Davidson, always great to speak with you. Thank you so much for coming on.
DAVIDSON: I like you. Thank you.
KEILAR: Yes. So we are following some breaking news out of Buckingham Palace. King Charles has started the process of removing Prince Andrew's titles and honors.
We'll have the latest from London next.
[15:40:00]
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KEILAR: Breaking news and a stunning statement. Buckingham Palace says it is taking away Prince Andrew's title and honors and evicting him from the 30-room mansion known as the Royal Lodge, where he has lived for the last 20 years.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The announcement comes as Andrew faces growing pressure around his ties to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and allegations that he sexually abused an underage girl.
CNN anchor Richard Quest joins us live from CNN's London bureau. Richard, have you ever seen a statement like this from the palace?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR: In a word, no. This is absolutely new, uncharted territory, and what it is is the king, King Charles, for the first time -- look, the King until now, along with other members, they've sort of said deal with it, just deal with it, take his title, just do what you've got to do, Andrew, and don't let it affect us. But that hasn't worked.
It's the contagion. The waves are lapping now at the door of Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, Windsor Castle. And this is why the King -- and I'm going to read you -- and this is the big difference.
His Majesty has today initiated a formal process to remove Stiles' titles and honors. It goes on. Formal notice has now been served to surrender the lease of Royal Lodge and he will move to alternative private accommodation.
And the final bit is their Majesties wish to make clear their thoughts and utmost sympathies have been and will remain with the victims and survivors of all forms of abuse.
So this is the palace formally saying, Andrew, go. Go into domestic exile. Go to this property that we believe is on the Sandringham estate, a farm, wood farm. Just go and don't be heard of again. In the old days they may have gone overseas.
Now it's go to this place and just keep quiet, disappear.
KEILAR: He gave up his royal title earlier this month, right?
QUEST: No, no, no, no, no, no. He agreed not to use it.
KEILAR: Ah.
QUEST: We all knew, oh, yes, yes, yes. He agreed not to use it. He agreed to say, I've given it up.
But it became known as extant but in existence. So this means -- and one of the official reasons, sorry, I'm going to get long and tedious here -- but one of the official reasons given was that the King said he didn't want to take up valuable parliamentary time to go through the process.
But two things have happened in the last couple of weeks.
Number one, a picture has come out showing Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and Harvey Weinstein all at a birthday party at that royal lodge. Secondly, people are now starting to question the other members of the royal family, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Edward, and the terms upon which he has his lease. Does he pay any rent at Bagshot Park?
The King's recognizing the existential nature of all of this and now, go.
SANCHEZ: On top of that, we should note the pressure from Virginia Giuffre's family, who has --
QUEST: Yes, absolutely.
SANCHEZ: -- called for this now for a while.
QUEST: And by the way, sorry, just one thing. We don't, because I know you were interested, we don't know where Sara Ferguson, the former Duchess of York, is going to live. She currently shares the property with -- he'll now be known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
We don't know where she'll go or whether she'll be joining him in that property.
SANCHEZ: Yes, a question that remains. Richard Quest, live for us in London, thank you so much.
When we come back, President Trump says he is lowering some of the tariffs he'd imposed on China. The impact this could have on your holiday shopping when we come back.
[15:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: President Trump has said that he has agreed to knock 10 percent off tariffs on Chinese goods after his meeting with Xi Jinping. This brings the effective rate on Chinese imports into the United States down to 47 percent.
In exchange, Trump says Beijing will crack down on fentanyl and start buying American soybeans once again. [15:50:00]
The news of lower tariffs comes after months of uncertainty and higher costs for many American businesses.
We're joined now by Jerry Storch. He's a former vice chairman of Target, a former CEO of Toys R Us. He is also currently CEO of Storch Advisors. Thank you so much for being with us, sir.
Overall tariffs on Chinese goods would drop by 10 percent. Given this handshake agreement, what does that mean for American businesses?
GERALD STORCH, FORMER VICE CHAIRMAN, TARGET: Well, it doesn't mean a lot for the holidays. Most of holiday goods are already in the U.S., and they've already paid the tariffs under the old rates. So it's not going to really make any difference at all.
It's like a knit or a rounding error on what might still come into the country before Christmas. So it's not this year. Going forward, it's always nice to have a lower tariff rate.
It's a good thing. So there's no doubt that it's a win for consumers and for businesses. But the real problem here is just the overall chaos.
These rates keep changing. It's almost impossible to plan. You know, it was 20 percent, then it was 145 percent, then it was 30 percent, now it's 20 percent again.
Those are the additional amounts on top of the outstanding tariffs that have been there a while, which gives you that amalgam number you're talking about of 47 percent or 57 percent. So it's all over the board, very difficult to plan. Free enterprise is amazing.
Just tell us the rules, and we'll find a way to make it the best for everyone.
SANCHEZ: To that point, what did you make of President Trump saying that this is a one-year agreement and that it's going to be reviewed and potentially extended year-after-year? It seems like that introduces a ton of uncertainty.
STORCH: Again, if you want people to make long-term decisions about where they source products, for example, or say whether I should build a factory in the U.S. -- which is something I think that the administration would love to see. Then you can't, you know, do something short-term and then raise your hand and go, oh, by the way, we just had a fight yesterday, and so maybe we'll go to 100 percent, like we were facing on November 1st that is now canceled. So it's got to be something you can bet on if you want to make investments on that basis. So you're right if they say, well, this will be good for a year.
That's not long enough. You've really got to know, what are the rules? What are they going to be? The more stable they can be, the better it will be. You know, everyone always asks me, aren't tariffs terrible? Why haven't they had a more severe effect than they have had on the economy?
Because everyone agrees it's had some effect, but a lot of people think it should have been worse, right? Is more bad coming? That's because businesses have done a great job that worked really hard to find alternative sources of supply, alternative products, negotiate with their vendors, working hard.
Just give us the rules and we can do great things. But if the rules keep changing, you just throw it all up in the air and go, I guess it's a lottery.
SANCHEZ: What about the notion that other countries would be paying for any increased costs? Has that come to fruition?
STORCH: Well, countries don't pay anything, but, you know, because that's not a real question.
SANCHEZ: That's the argument from the administration.
STORCH: Right. Well, what does happen and always happens, right, is that some of the manufacturers in other countries negotiate and absorb some of the costs in order to keep the business. You know, but that always happens.
But it really depends on how many options you have as a retailer or a manufacturer. Let's say you're trying to negotiate on apparel or on television sets. There isn't really anywhere else to go but where they're made today.
You can't suddenly stand up a television set manufacturing facility in the U.S. Since the supplier knows that. They're not going to give you much of a break. They're not going to share the pain, if you will. Now, if it's something you easily could move, then you start a negotiation going, and you get something back.
You get a little bit. There's no doubt about it. You know, because if you're a -- but by the way, if you're a big business like a Walmart or a Costco, the odds are you have more negotiating clout to deal with and you can probably do a better job than a poor, small, single entrepreneur or smaller business who doesn't have a lot of clout who has to be basically a price taker when it comes to that.
So it's not that the country's bear some pain. It's that everything in business ends up being a negotiation. You're trying to do the best you can for your customers every day of the week.
So, of course, you get something of a break, you know, when something like this happens. But it really depends on relative negotiating power, which is a composite of many different things, including your size and scale and whether there really is a true, you know, somewhere else you can go or threaten the supplier.
SANCHEZ: Jerry Storch, thank you so much for the expertise. Appreciate your time.
STORCH: My pleasure.
SANCHEZ: Ahead, more arrests have been made in the investigation into the theft of France's crown jewels from the Louvre. We have new details when we come back.
[15:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SANCHEZ: Now to some of the headlines we're watching this hour.
A new poll shows that most Americans do not approve of President Trump's controversial ballroom project at the White House. The survey shows 56 percent oppose the demolition of the historic East Wing to make way for the 90,000-square-foot addition. 28 percent support it.
President Trump says the ballroom will be paid for by private donations at a cost of about $300 million.
KEILAR: Also, five more people have been arrested after that stunning jewelry heist at the Louvre. That includes a suspect who may have been involved in the actual theft. Prosecutors believe they now have in custody three of the four men who directly participated, but there's still no sign of the stolen jewels, which are valued at more than $100 million.
SANCHEZ: And in San Francisco, our affiliate KGO reports a jury has convicted an animal rights activist who took four chickens from a Purdue Farms poultry plant and placed them in an animal sanctuary. Zoe Rosenberg faces up to five years behind bars for trespassing, tampering, and felony conspiracy. She did not deny taking the chickens.
She says she rescued the birds from a life of animal cruelty and plans to appeal. Purdue claims Rosenberg is part of an extremist group intent on destroying the animal agriculture industry.
Well --
[16:00:00]
KEILAR: That's many years.
SANCHEZ: Some people steal chickens. Some people steal jewels. I don't know.
KEILAR: Yes, well, I think the jewels probably are going to get a little more time.
SANCHEZ: Yes, definitely.
KEILAR: Though I prefer chickens.
SANCHEZ: Some would say she liberated the chickens. KEILAR: "THE ARENA" with Kasey Hunt starts right now.
END
