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FAA Investigating Flight Control Issue On JetBlue Flight; Amazon CEO Says Latest Layoffs Are About Culture, Not A.I.; YouTube TV Loses All Disney Channels Due To Carriage Dispute; Secret 2,000-Year- Old Tunnel Opened To Colosseum Visitors; Dictionary.Com Chooses "6 7" As Its Word Of The Year; K-pop Demon Hunters Costumes Take Top-five Spots On Google List; Millions Of Americans Set to Loose Food Stamp Benefits Tomorrow; Trump Demands GOP End Senate Filibuster To Stop Funding Stalemate; Waymo CEO Considers Reaction If Self-driving Car Killed Someone. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 31, 2025 - 13:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:32:37]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": An FAA investigation is underway after a sudden altitude drop forced a JetBlue flight to make an emergency landing in Tampa, and ended with at least 15 people being taken to the hospital.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Flight 1230 was heading to Newark, New Jersey from Cancun yesterday when the airline says it experienced a drop in altitude. A Tampa fire official says, more than a dozen people were evaluated with non-life-threatening injuries. CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean is with us now. OK, first off, what is that, a flight control issue?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: We'll get to that. It sounds pretty serious, doesn't it?

KEILAR: Yeah.

MUNTEAN: Here's the latest and good news from St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa. 14 people were treated by St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, two children, all with minor injuries, all have since been released. The big questions here though remain for investigators as they begin looking into this. How did this JetBlue flight suddenly dive a hundred feet in about seven seconds time, enough to injure people who were on board? This flight left Cancun, Mexico yesterday afternoon, was at a cruising altitude of about 35,000 feet when that sudden dive occurred, apparently without any warning.

And then this flight diverted to Tampa International Airport to make an emergency landing there. Some pretty big clues here. We know that the weather was relatively good at the time of this incident, so you could probably rule out turbulence, although not totally unheard of. Turbulence can be associated with no major weather phenomenon, something known as clear air turbulence. The Federal Aviation Administration does say though that this was, at least initially, caused by a flight control issue.

And I want you to listen now, to the exchange the pilots had with air traffic controllers as they were trying to drum up some help when the plane landed in Tampa. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a flight control issue and we've got at least three people injured. Seems like maybe a laceration in the head.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Now, Jet Blue says this plane remains on the ground pending an inspection. Now, flight control issues on an Airbus A320 like this are not unheard of. It's unique because this airplane has what's called a fly-by-wire system that takes the inputs in the stick and the rudder pedals through computers that sort of interpret those inputs and then translates them to the flight controls.

[13:35:00]

Back in the '90s, about 30 years ago, there was a Northwest Airlines Airbus A320 that had a failure of what's called the aileron and elevator control system. That controls the up and down pitching movement of the airplane and the failure of that system caused, sounds very similar, the plane to dive about 100 feet in a very short period of time. The NTSB investigated that incident. It is still unclear if the NTSB will weigh in on this one. It just may not rise to the seriousness, although we do have a little bit of precedent here from this incident back in the '90s.

SANCHEZ: Pete Muntean, thank you so much for that reporting. We hope those folks are OK.

Now to some of the other headlines were watching this hour. Amazon CEO has changed the company's reasoning for cutting 14,000 jobs. Andy Jassy now says the layoffs are not about money or A.I., but about culture. Earlier this week, the company had said the layoffs were about anticipating future A.I. efficiencies. Jassy said Amazon's growth has led to a slowdown, and as a leadership team, he wants the company to act as the world's largest startup, which means "removing layers."

KEILAR: Also, YouTube TV subscribers are no longer able to watch any Disney-owned channels, including ABC and ESPN. The two media giants failed to reach a new agreement by last night's midnight deadline. Disney is looking for higher carriage fees, but YouTube says that would raise prices on its customers and give them fewer choices. The two companies are still negotiating, but neither has indicated when Disney programming might return to YouTube.

And for the first time ever, visitors to the Roman Colosseum are able to walk through this secret tunnel that was once used by emperors. The 2,000-year-old corridor known as the "Passage of Commodus" lies beneath the amphitheater. It once allowed emperors and their VIP guests to slip into their seats without mingling with the public. Who would want to do that right? The tunnel will be further excavated starting next year.

And of course, it's October 31st.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

KEILAR: You know what that means?

SANCHEZ: Yeah. Turning off all the lights, getting hammered, throwing hard-boiled eggs at kids.

KEILAR: No, that's not what it means, Boris. It is time for adults to embrace their inner child, dress up, enjoy a little candy like us.

SANCHEZ: Look at us.

KEILAR: We are six, seven for Halloween this year. Do you know what that is, Boris? Besides a really easy costume to put together.

SANCHEZ: I have no idea. I was coaxed into this by Brianna. Seemingly, nobody actually knows what it means. I think it is something kids made up to stump adults and somehow it has become Dictionary.com word of the year, six seven.

KEILAR: Yeah, technically two words, right?

SANCHEZ: Two numbers.

KEILAR: Two -- yep. Two words for numbers. But Dictionary.com says, perhaps the most defining feature of six seven is that it is impossible to define. Some say it means so-so. In any case, Generation Alpha, kids younger than 12, they love saying it. Yeah, they love saying it like in my house. Guess what the temperature is set every day in my house to?

SANCHEZ: 67.

KEILAR: Yeah. Guess what books are left open to what page in my house just you stumble upon them? Page six and seven.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

KEILAR: OK. But costume wise, there is really only one choice for most kids this year.

SANCHEZ: And perhaps some adults as well. K-Pop Demon Hunters is like the most popular thing in the world right now, and it is taking up the top-five spots on Google's list of the top costumes of the year. Rumi, Zoey, Mira, and Baby Saja, clearly, huge K-Pop Demon Hunters guy [ph].

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: So you can expect tons of those tonight. My kids watch the heck out of that. I'll tell you that. Perhaps maybe even a few six sevens.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, yeah, it is really impressive. We put these on as we were reading those headlines.

KEILAR: Yeah we did.

SANCHEZ: I think we deserve some credit.

KEILAR: It was tough, but we made it happen.

SANCHEZ: We hope you have a Happy Halloween. Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.

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[13:43:30]

SANCHEZ: Happening right now, a judge in Rhode Island is holding an emergency hearing on the fate of SNAP benefits. The critical federal assistance program that helps to feed more than 40 million Americans is set to run out of money tomorrow because of the government shutdown. The judge will decide whether to force the Trump administration to free up billions of dollars in reserve contingency funds to keep the food stamp program running. Let's discuss with Democratic Congressman and member of the House Budget and Ways and Means Committee, Brendan Boyle from Pennsylvania.

Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. When you hear Senator Schumer say that this shutdown is getting better politically every day for Democrats, I wonder if you agree given that some 40 million people are about to lose food assistance?

REP. BRENDAN BOYLE (D-PA): Well, first, let me be clear, I don't favor or enjoy any government shutdown. Sadly, I've been through a number of them now, as have the American people. There's real pain out there. There's no question about it, not just for federal workers, but indeed large swaths of society. Whether it's those folks who are about to see their premiums jump, in my state of Pennsylvania, by an average of 102 percent. Those who are on the exchanges or those -- and you just referenced this moment before I came on, those who are on SNAP or nutrition assistance, who are now going to see it disappear just because President Trump and Republicans refuse to use the billions of dollars that are already in the contingency fund.

[13:45:00]

That's why you have a contingency fund, in case there is a problem such as this. $5 billion to $6 billion is already appropriated. Of course, that money should be released. The reality is President Trump and Republicans just don't want to do that.

SANCHEZ: The argument from the administration is that even if that money were released, it wouldn't be enough to cover SNAP funding for November. I wonder what you make of that and whether you think that the government needs to be closed in order to negotiate a deal on extending the ACA benefits that, as you described, are set to expire and therefore, a lot of folks are going to see their insurance premiums go up?

BOYLE: Yeah. So a few different questions there, so let me address them.

SANCHEZ: Yeah.

BOYLE: First, I have noticed that this is not exactly an administration that seems to be scrupulously following the law. They do have the legal authority already to release these funds. They moved heaven and earth to come up with funds to pay our troops which, by the way, I happen to support. I think that no one should go without a paycheck throughout this. I've been a long-time sponsor and co-sponsor of legislation that would actually end these shutdowns permanently.

No other country in Western society even has the concept of a government shutdown. We've only had them for the last 50 years. I think they are -- they do enormous damage. They end up being more costly in the end. They should be done away with. But back to the situation that we're now in. We also can't forget that specifically when it comes to SNAP, Republicans pushed through legislation just four months ago that provided over $5 trillion worth of tax breaks that mostly go to multimillionaires and billionaires. It was paid for by including the largest cuts to healthcare in American history, as well as the largest cuts to SNAP or nutrition assistance in American history. $187 billion to be exact.

So the reality is that for President Trump and Congressional Republicans, he just doesn't believe in SNAP. They don't believe in the program. They've already cut it. This is another opportunity for them to further cut it as well. And one final thing I just want to say, and I'm sorry if I'm going on a little bit long, but just moments ago before I -- you got to me.

SANCHEZ: Sure.

BOYLE: President Trump apparently said to the pool of reporters before he flew off to his mansion at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, he said something absolutely extraordinary that gives the game away. He said that, "Well, you know, it's largely Democrats who are on SNAP. It's mostly Democrats." He really doesn't understand the face of poverty in America. That yes, there may be a lot of people who are registered Democrats on SNAP, there are also a lot of people who are registered Republican as well. There's a lot of rural poverty in the United States, a lot of folks who are on SNAP who need that nutrition assistance, who live in counties that voted for Donald Trump by a margin of 50, 60 points.

So, again, one of the challenges here is that too many Republicans like President Trump have a very different view of poverty. They look at it as a specifically urban and minority problem, when in fact it's an all American problem.

SANCHEZ: Something like 14 of the top 20 states for SNAP usage are actually red states, to that point. I do want to mention to our viewers that President Trump is gaggling aboard Air Force One right now. And we understand that he has addressed the comments that you just referred to. We're going to take that in just a moment. But before we go, Congressman, I want to ask you about President Trump calling for the end of the filibuster in the Senate to break this funding stalemate.

You were on CNN back in 2021 and you said this about the filibuster, "I stand with our founding fathers who oppose the filibuster. There is no constitutional justification for the filibuster, in my view." Do you stand by that today as President Trump is trying to use the nuclear option and get rid of it?

BOYLE: Yeah, I've actually, well before I was in politics, always had that view. And very briefly, this was debated at the Constitutional convention. We know this because of "The Federalist Papers" written by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison and John Jay. Essentially, the filibuster, as it's been practiced over the last 50 years, is a super majority vote requirement. Republicans have largely gotten rid of the filibuster to begin with. Again, I take you back to that bill that was passed a few months ago, the big ugly law. They have to violate the filibuster in order to get that to the floor without needing 60 votes.

So they have already proven whether it's getting justices on the Supreme Court, or getting their big ugly law pass tax breaks for billionaires, they're willing to violate the filibuster. I think that, frankly, it's already practically gone and soon we will see it fully gone altogether.

[13:50:00]

But let's not forget the Republican's role in this. They have already been violating the filibuster routinely.

SANCHEZ: Congressman Brendan Boyle, we have to leave the conversation there. We do appreciate your time and sharing your perspective.

BOYLE: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, thanks. Here is President Trump, as we mentioned, moments ago gaggling [ph] on Air Force One.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A lot of things having to do with the economics of America. We took in approximately $3 trillion over the last few days from the trips that we made. They were unbelievable. The deal with China is going to be wonderful. It's going to be long lasting. I got really along with President Xi very well, as you saw, you were there, many of you were there. And I think it's great. I think it's great. I think it's really good.

Are you set? Are you OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry. I'm not getting any audio for the --

TRUMP: OK. Let's get it right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. We have it now, sir.

TRUMP: OK. So the trip was fantastic. We took in over $3 trillion really in profit, if you want to define it that way. You see the farmers are very happy. I think it's 25 million tons, but it's numbers that they've never seen before in terms of the soybeans, in terms of other things. We have numbers coming to our farmers that the farmers have never seen before from China. Our farmers are very happy. I suggest that they go out and buy larger tractors and more land. OK? We want larger tractors and more land because nobody has ever seen anything like it.

I've given China great incentives to hold down the fentanyl, get rid of it ideally. You know, a lot of people don't know it's used as an anesthesia. It's used as a lot of things, a lot of good things happen. But unfortunately, when it's developed a certain way, a lot of bad things happen. Because a lot of people would say, well, why is it made? I mean, it's made for a lot of good purposes, but it also has some very bad purposes when you design it a certain way and people can take it and design it.

So China is working very hard on that. I really believe that. And they have an incentive. I'd love to get rid of the extra 10 percent. I put a 20 percent penalty on. I had a great conversation about it with President Xi yesterday. And I'd love to get rid of the other as soon as we see that, and we'll get rid of the other 10 percent. Other than that, we haven't cut the tariffs at all with China. But we're going to have a great relationship with them, I think, for a long period of time. If we have a smart president, we'll have a great relationship. If we don't have a smart president, which is also a very strong possibility, then we won't have a great relationship.

But, China is -- the meeting with China was incredible. The meeting with Japan incredible. And the meeting with South Korea, likewise, incredible, all of them. And trillions of dollars are coming back to our country because of those meetings. And we have others planned with other countries, but those are big ones. And the meeting with China was one that everybody wanted. The meeting with the new prime minister, who's fantastic, of Japan could not have gone better. We've worked out our deal and South Korea, you saw the way we were treated. Our country is respected again. When they treat me with that kind of respect, they're treating our country with that kind of respect, which is much more important and our country is respected again.

Do you have any questions? (CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, there are reports that you are considering strikes within Venezuela. Is that true?

TRUMP: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That you made a decision on that?

TRUMP: No, it's not true.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the nuclear strikes, are you talking about literally resuming underground nuclear detonation tests? TRUMP: You'll find out very soon, but we're going to do some testing. Yeah. Other countries do it. If they're going to do it, we're going to do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. You can't clarify whether we will resume --

TRUMP: I'm not going to say yet. I mean, I know exactly what we're doing, where we're doing it, but other countries are doing it. And if other countries do it, we do it.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Give us more detail on the FBI thwarting that terrorist attack in Michigan that was set to happen over the weekend, the Halloween weekend. Did the FBI (inaudible) that?

TRUMP: We're catching people before they ever start. Yep.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, your response to Viktor Orban saying he asked for an exemption from U.S. sanctions on Russian oil?

TRUMP: He has asked for an exemption. We haven't granted one, but he has asked, Viktor. He's a friend of mine. He's asked for an exemption. What else?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, on Venezuela --

TRUMP: Yeah, please.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What did you talk with -- what did you talk about with Prime Minister Carney? Are you and Canada going to resume negotiations?

TRUMP: No, but I have a very good relationship. I like him a lot. But what they did was wrong. He was very nice. He apologized for what they did with the commercial, because it was a false commercial. It was the exact opposite. Ronald Reagan loved tariffs and they tried to make it look the other way. And he did apologize, and I appreciated it. We had a great dinner with other countries, as you know. And I think we have a very good relationship personally. I think that what they did was wrong, but he apologized.

[13:55:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On the SNAP benefits set to expire tomorrow, folks are talking about putting out about canned goods and non- perishables for trick or treaters. Is there a possibility, like you did with the military, moving around funds? Is there a possibility to do that for these benefits?

TRUMP: Well, there always is, but all the Democrats have to do is say, let's go. I mean, they don't have to do anything. They don't have to. All they have to do is say, the government is open and we only need five Democrats. But they are re, they have become a radical left partner. And they really have become a very radical left partner. And they've lost their minds. They've lost their minds. All they have to do is say the government is open, and that's the end of it. And largely, when you talk about SNAP, you're talking about largely Democrats.

But I'm president, I want to help everybody. I want help Democrats and Republicans. But when you're talking about SNAP, if you look, it's largely Democrats. They're hurting their own people. Thank you very much, everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. President.

SANCHEZ: We have been listening to President Donald Trump aboard Air Force One as he heads to Palm Beach and his Mar-a-Lago estate for the weekend. The President making news on a number of fronts, saying that the White House would look at different ways to potentially fund SNAP even though there is this emergency contingency fund that has something like $6 billion in it. The administration has refused to spend -- to allocate those funds for what is a government shutdown.

Right now, two judges, one in Rhode Island, one in Massachusetts, are looking at whether the federal government is obligated to spend those funds on SNAP. The President also making some news there on a nuclear weapons test, not clarifying exactly what he means by a test that he wants to see, but saying that we will soon hear it. You see him, he's gaggling again there with the press. We'll, of course, bring that to you as we get it.

KEILAR: Certainly will. And as more self-driving cars are hitting the streets, there's a question that is really hanging over the industry. What if one of these cars kills someone?

SANCHEZ: Yeah. A Waymo's co-chief executive says the question is always on her colleague's minds. Her company is running its robot taxi service right now in five cities and has plans to expand to five more in the new year. Waymo recently released new data, saying its driverless vehicles were involved in 91 percent fewer crashes with serious injuries than cars driven by humans. The CEO though was asked about the possibility of a fatal crash this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTEN KOROSEC, TECHCRUNCH TRANSPORTATION EDITOR: Will society accept a death potentially caused by a robot? And I'm wondering if you think that they will.

TEKEDRA MAWAKANA, CO-CEO, WAYMO: I think that society will. I think the challenge for us is making sure that society has a high enough bar on safety that companies are held to. And so, companies should be transparent about their safety record. Companies should publish data about how many crashes are they involved in. It's important to recognize it's not going to be perfection, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be accountable for transparency. And so I think, we really worry as a company about those days. We don't say whether, we say when.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KEILAR: We're joined by Lance Ulanoff, Editor At large at TechRadar. What do you think, Lance, public reaction would be if a Waymo was responsible for a traffic fatality? Waymo's CEO says, society is ready to accept that. But sort of there's these different ideas about accepting human fallacy and machine fallacy.

LANCE ULANOFF, EDITOR AT LARGE, TECHRADAR: Right. Well, there are tens of thousands of fatalities with regular cars every year. Autonomous vehicles over the last four years maybe like 83 accidents that involved some serious injury. And the fact of the matter is, if we reported on every single car accident in which there was a fatality, it would be a kind of crazy. Basically, autonomous vehicles don't make the mistakes that human makes when they drive.

SANCHEZ: Could you talk to us about how fast the technology is developing and what sort of safeguards are in place to ensure that every possible method of safety is being taken into account?

ULANOFF: Right. Well, they undergo -- I've been following autonomous vehicles for probably 20 years and the amount of progress is absolutely incredible. Now, they can handle, if a child were to dart out in front of a self-driving car, it would stop and see it. Early on, that wasn't the case. They are much, much safer. They use cameras, they use LiDAR. They use intelligence. They use training, basically prepares them for scenarios that happens. Because of A.I., they can do this massive training. So they literally are getting better every single day. And I have to reiterate that A.I., self-driving cars follow the rules of the road.

KEILAR: Lance, thank you so much. I'm afraid we have to leave it there because President Trump just spoke to reporters upon landing in Palm Beach. Here he is.