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New Study Shows Higher Rate Of Autism In Children Born To Mothers Who Had COVID-19 During Pregnancy; Two Judges: Trump Admin Must Tap Emergency Funds For SNAP Benefits; New York JFK Airport Under Ground Stop Due To Staffing Shortage; Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) Discusses The Ground Stop Of Airports Due To Staffing Shortage And Government Shutdown; FBI Says It Thwarted Potential Halloween Weekend Attack In Michigan; Sources Describe Plot As "ISIS-Inspired". Aired 3- 3:30p ET

Aired October 31, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: So, another possible factor could be how many of the mothers in the study had a high fever as a symptom of COVID-19.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Jacqueline Howard, thank you so much for that report.

A complicated picture now painted not only by this news but also some of the guidance that has been put out recently by federal authorities. It's -- it's tough.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yes, is it -- you know, the fever, that's really raising a lot of questions here.

And a new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

KEILAR: We do begin with this breaking news on the government shutdown, developments that could affect millions of Americans today. Two federal judges just ruling in the last hour that the Trump administration must use a contingency fund to pay for SNAP benefits that are set to run out tomorrow because of the government shutdown, which, yes, it's now in its 31st day.

At the same time, a ground stop has just been announced at New York's JFK airport because of air traffic control staffing shortages. These are controllers who missed their first full paycheck earlier this week, and this is at a time when most lawmakers have gone home for the weekend. We're joined by CNN's Jeff Zeleny and Pete Muntean as well.

Pete, first, on this ground stop, what can you tell us?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, the list keeps getting longer and longer, and the FAA has added new airports to the list, ground stops for staffing, low air traffic control staffing at Boston Logan, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport, Houston Hobby, Houston George Bush Intercontinental, JFK and LaGuardia. JFK and LaGuardia were hit hard by staffing issues and bad weather

yesterday. The delays keep piling up, and this is on the heels of a really bad day for flight delays. Yesterday, about 7,200 flights delayed in total on day 31 of this government shutdown.

It's important to keep it into context here. We -- the controllers who are still showing up to work at air traffic control facilities across the country are not getting paid right now. They're mandated to report to work, but they're not getting paid. So, naturally, many of them are going to call out sick as this government shutdown in this clearly intractable stalemate of a phase continues to drag on.

We have heard from airline CEOs who were in a roundtable at the White House yesterday with Vice President J.D. Vance and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy that they would like a clean, continuing resolution to reopen the government and get air traffic controllers and TSA agents paid. There have also been statements from the heads of Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines, American Airlines and United Airlines, the big four major U.S. airlines, saying to do this now.

This is a pretty significant move by the airlines to come out individually and say this because this is now just continues dragging on. It seems like there is no end in sight for this. We have said this will likely get worse before it gets better. And the air traffic control staffing shortages mean that this has an impact on real people, not only the controllers getting paid, but air travelers who are now sort of caught in the middle of all this. We're not even just less than four weeks until Thanksgiving and the start of Thanksgiving rush keeps getting earlier and earlier. That's expected to be a huge time for air travel nationwide.

And Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said yesterday, if this continues into Thanksgiving, if there is a shutdown into Thanksgiving and air traffic controllers are not getting paid, he said that air travel he classified, it would be a disaster.

KEILAR: Yes, this is big news, considering in 2019 it was 10 air traffic controllers staying home that actually ended that shutdown.

MUNTEAN: On day 35.

KEILAR: On day ...

MUNTEAN: ... and we're getting closer and closer to that.

KEILAR: ... 35 with other pressure points, the SNAP benefits, the subsidies that are going to go poof tomorrow. There's a lot of pressure points all coming to bear at the exact same time. Pete, thank you so much. If you can stand by for us.

Let's go to Jeff. He's outside of the White House.

Jeff has the White House reacted to those rulings that are requiring the administration to use emergency funds to keep these SNAP food benefits going. JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, at

this moment, the White House has not yet responded to this pair of rulings by federal judges both in Massachusetts and Rhode Island about the SNAP program, the -- the food benefit assistance program that effectively loses funding on November 1st tomorrow. And the federal judge there are ruling that the administration must effectively find the money to keep these benefits alive. But there's no word yet from the administration if they will appeal. But, of course, it passed its prologue in all of these challenges to administration rulings. There always, of course, is an appeal.

And the -- the judges are -- are saying that the administration must come up with a plan by Monday to give more information about how they plan to keep this funding alive.

[15:05:01]

At issue here is, yes, there is some funding in the -- the USDA, but not enough funding available to fund the entire month of November. But it appears by one of the ruling, Judge John McConnell ruling that at least some of that money must be used. So, even if it's a partial SNAP benefits, that is what the administration will be pulled by the -- the court to provide.

Let's take a look at one line out of the ruling here. Judge McConnell writing this, he said, "While these contingency funds reportedly are insufficient to cover the entire cost of SNAP for November, Defendants," he writes, "also may supplement the Contingency Funds by authorizing a transfer of additional funds to avoid any reductions."

So, basically, let me translate that there. Find the money. You've done that in other cases by paying the military as well. And, of course, these lawsuits were brought by some Democratic attorney generals as well as interest groups here representing the beneficiaries. And one in eight Americans rely on these SNAP benefits. But we shall say, Brianna, the President is not here at the White House. He flew down to Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort, earlier this afternoon. The House, of course, has not been in Washington for more than a month. The Senate also is out of Washington until Monday.

So, the big question, will these SNAP benefits go forward by tomorrow? Very unlikely, because it takes at least a week, I'm told, or more to load the funds onto these debit cards, basically, which is what the Americans use at grocery stores across the country here. So, the President weighed in as he was flying down to Florida. He basically blamed all of this on Democrats. He said Democrats rely on food stamps more than Republicans. Of course, that is not necessarily true. But he, again, is blaming this on Democrats.

Democrats, of course, are trying to use this as a pressure point to have a larger health care conversation with Republicans. Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, lots of pressure points all happening at once.

Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much for that.

I want to bring in Republican Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis of New York to talk about this, because we have this SNAP fund issue.

But as I mentioned, you are from New York, and we are now looking at our breaking news here, which is that New York -- New York's JFK Airport is under a ground stop because of this staffing shortage. How are you reacting to this, especially considering this is the kind of thing that has previously stopped government shutdowns?

REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS (R-NY): Well, I think it's -- it's very frustrating for all of us in New York, because we see this as an unnecessary, completely avoidable shutdown. All our Senate colleagues had to do was pass the very same bill that they previously voted for four times. It was the same legislative language, the same legislative funding levels that Chuck Schumer himself negotiated with then- President Biden and House leadership.

So, the Democrats had the advantage. When they negotiated last year, they voted for it and then extended it three times. So, this is all unnecessary pain. It's unfortunate that they had 13 times to reopen the government, and they chose not to in the Senate. As somebody who voted to fund the government, I find this very frustrating.

I mean, the SNAP benefits are really important to the people I represent. There's about 121,000 individuals that rely on SNAP in my district. We're talking about 42 million Americans across the country. With regards to the judicial ruling, if the President has the legal authority to use those funds, he should. But we have to recognize that would only be a Band-Aid.

As was mentioned, $5 billion in that contingency fund, it costs about $8 billion a month. So, what happens next month? What happens at the end of the month? Because you can only fund partially the 42 million recipients' benefits. So, the fact remains that the Democrats simply need to give the seven votes. So, you pass the bill with the 60 votes required in the Senate. And this is exactly what the Air Traffic Controllers union has been saying, the American Federation of Government Employees that represents a million federal workers has been saying, what the airline industry said yesterday at that roundtable.

It's that simple. Just vote for the same bill you voted for four times. Let's reopen this -- the government, and let's end this pain on the American people.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly. I hear what you're saying. This doesn't fund the whole month. But considering it funds much of the month, what -- what kind of argument is that to the veteran we just spoke with from Georgia, who is raising his neighbor's two boys using SNAP benefits? You know, even if it buys him a few weeks, that is something that is very welcome at this point in time.

And I ask you about that because the USDA, the Trump administration, making this choice. And I also do want to note, you visited a food bank.

[15:10:02] I saw that recently. I know that you've been very concerned in your community about this, and I think people are picking that up. But the USDA making this choice not to tap into emergency funds, sending a memo to states saying that if they bridge the gap, you're not going to get reimbursed. Your state is suing over that, suing the Trump administration over that.

The White House is not trying to solve for these funds running out. It's actually quite the opposite, and the reporting shows that. They see this as a pressure point on Democrats. What do you think about that approach?

MALLIOTAKIS: Well, a couple of things. One, the fact that our two U.S. senators, Chuck Schumer being one of them, voted to shut down the government and refused to open it. They're -- they're looking at it as a pressure point and leverage as well. And I think we -- we have to come together here and just figure out a solution. And if the judge is giving the green light ...

KEILAR: Okay, then let -- let me interrupt you real quick, because I know Democrats are doing ...

MALLIOTAKIS: ... well, hold on ...

KEILAR: ... I know Democrats are something they have told us for years that Republicans were wrong for doing, even as they're arguing that their withholding of votes is somehow different, right? But the question I'm asking you, because you're a Republican, and that is your party, and that is ...

MALLIOTAKIS: Yes.

KEILAR: ... your party in the White House making that decision. Do you think it's fair to use the hunger of the country's most needy ...

MALLIOTAKIS: Yes, and I was just about to answer ...

KEILAR: ... as leverage?

MALLIOTAKIS: I -- I was just about to answer when you interrupted me, because the blame is not just on this administration, because this administration is not the one that voted to shut down the government. It was -- it was the Senate Democrats that chose to.

But what I'm simply saying is, if the Democrats are not going to vote to reopen the government, they want to continue using this leverage and inflict this type of pain on the American people unnecessarily, then what I think the President and the administration should do is what they've done with the women, infant, children program. They were able to find some money to shift funds to continue that program, very critical for young families that I represent. They found funds from Pentagon research and development to be able to pay our military.

And -- and as I said earlier, they should do the same here, if given, which they seem to have received, green lights from the judges to allow them to use it. But the -- the issue remains. It is simply a Band-Aid, $5 billion is not going to cover $8 billion in necessary costs. That -- that's what you need to cover the benefits for the 42 million Americans.

So, yes, they should do what they can today to prevent people from having to face this hardship of not having to be able to put food on their table. But we have to recognize that it's not just about this. We also have, as you mentioned, the air traffic controllers, the federal employees who are not getting paid, they're also worried about putting food on the table, paying their mortgage, paying their car payments at the end of the month.

Everybody is struggling here, and it's unnecessary. That's my point. My point is that I don't understand why, from the beginning, the Senate Democrats just simply chose not to vote for the same bill that they supported four times before. We did not try to put any political gimmicks in there or add unrelated outside policy. In fact, that's what they're trying to do right now, and they're leveraging the pain of the American people to do that, and it is simply wrong. It is wrong, and they should just stop this today. Let's reopen the government.

We're happy to talk about health care and other issues. The health care issue is a real issue. And why is it? Because the Affordable Care Act was never actually affordable, and that is why ...

KEILAR: Even ...

MALLIOTAKIS: ... these subsidies are needed to the insurance companies.

KEILAR: All right. As -- okay, the -- many things to talk about there. And listen, I'm in my 40s now, and I was in my 20s when I was a congressional correspondent covering the passage of Obamacare. Democrats and Republicans have switched control of Congress many times since then. They have had a lot of time to deal with the cost of health care. Both parties have.

But to your point, I mean, even if -- even if Democrats are to blame for the shutdown, and they're going to disagree with you on that, but let's just take that for a ride, Republicans, the White House still has the ability to use these contingency funds. That is not the fault of Democrats to pull that, to not use those, so that even now, if they are used, there's going to be an interruption, right? Even if -- even if Democrats are to be held accountable for that, this was a choice by this administration to not use those funds. How is that not using hunger of the neediest Americans for leverage?

MALLIOTAKIS: Well, because -- because, again, they did not shut down the government. As somebody who voted to fund the government, I voted to fund the government because I didn't want to see it come to this. I did not want to see people in my district who rely on SNAP end up not receiving benefits. I didn't want to see my military -- I represent Coast Guard and Army Base, they -- that they would not get paid, or the federal workers that I have.

[15:15:02] I made a choice to fund the government ...

KEILAR: Well, the military is getting paid.

MALLIOTAKIS: ... despite not liking everything that was in -- that was -- not everything that was in that funding package. But here we are, the -- look, the -- the fact remains that even if we put this Band- Aid, which I -- I -- and I said three -- this is my third time now saying that the Trump administration should do what it can. If they can use $5 billion, according to the judge, then use the $5 billion. The -- it's still eight billion for the month, and the next month's going to be another eight billion, another eight billion after that. The money is just simply not there to continue this in perpetuity. We need to fund the government.

Now, the Democrats made a conscious choice knowing that this was going to happen, that there would be flight delays and a transportation nightmare come the holidays. They knew that the military wasn't going to get paid. They knew women and children and infants were not going to get their supplemental WIC. They knew that the SNAP benefits were not going to come in, and yet they made the conscious decision to vote no on a bill that they negotiated and then voted for three times to extend. To me, that makes absolutely no sense.

So yes, President Trump should do what he can to help -- and -- and -- and if we can use $5 billion, they should use the $5 billion, but it's not going to be enough. It's merely a Band-Aid. What we really need is the Senate Democrats to stop these shenanigans, reopen the government, just like all these unions who have endorsed them are now calling for them to do. All these unions, American Federation of Government Employees being the largest, representing one million people, have called on the senators to do this, to pass the bill that we passed out of the House. No gimmicks, no political shenanigans, just a clean extension of government. That is the right thing to do.

KEILAR: Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis, we always appreciate you coming on.

I will say, I would be remiss if I didn't tell our -- our viewers there is a Washington Post pullout that shows there are more Americans, especially registered voters -- not registered voters -- this actually kind of closes the gap -- that are blaming President Trump and congressional Republicans than Democrats. That is closing, though. So that is something that we're seeing a lot of pressure on, and we are certainly watching as the pressure is ramping up a lot.

Congresswoman, really appreciate you coming on. Thank you.

MALLIOTAKIS: Thank you.

KEILAR: And still to come, the FBI director says a potential terrorist attack on Halloween has been thwarted. We'll have details on the foiled plot and why authorities moved in now.

Plus, some more fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein scandal. King Charles strips his brother Andrew of his royal title and begins evicting him from his Windsor estate, but not before Christmas.

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[15:22:03]

KEILAR: We've been following this breaking news today on an alleged terror attack thwarted by the FBI. This morning, FBI Director Kash Patel posted on social media that his agency had, quote, "Arrested multiple subjects in Michigan who were allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend."

Law enforcement officials telling CNN that two people have been arrested, three others are being questioned, and officials say agents have been tracking their online chatter for months about a potential ISIS-inspired attack. Then this week, we're told members of this chat went to a shooting range with AK-47s, practiced high-speed reloads, and made a reference to Pumpkin Day. That's when the FBI moved in.

We're joined now by former FBI Senior Intelligence Advisor and former CIA Counterterrorism Official Phil Mudd.

Phil, someone working undercover for the FBI was introduced into the chat room in the early stages of the discussion, which is how they were able to keep tabs on this. Talk to us about how this chat can become known by law enforcement, how they infiltrate a chat room.

PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Boy, there's a couple ways to do this. This is classic intelligence in law enforcement. The first is somebody calls in and says, hey, there's something bad going on here. I'm aware of it. I don't think it should go down. You guys should figure it out. The second is the FBI is looking across the country at extremist chats and figuring out which ones to go after. That's not very efficient. There's 300-something million Americans, and you can't watch every one of them, so, you know, that -- that's tough to do to figure out which needle to pull out of the haystack.

So, it's either watching chat rooms that are already volatile or maybe having somebody call in to say, you know, there's some bad activity out here. I suppose there's a chance somebody in the -- in the private sector who runs a chat room is called in, right? I suspect there's another informant in here who called and said, watch out, Brianna.

KEILAR: There's two law enforcement officials who tell CNN the plot was inspired by ISIS. Talk to us about what that raises for you about ISIS being an inspiration right now and -- and really what exactly that means.

MUDD: Boy, you know, I've been out of the business for a while, and when I saw that -- there's a few things in this plot we could talk all day. I know we won't, but there's a few things in this plot that maybe relived the life I had chasing terrorists for 20 years. But one of the things you realize is partly because the Internet, things like YouTube, the durability of inspiration.

Back before the Internet, you had to be inspired by a person or a piece of paper. Typically, if you want to see a person, you've got to travel. YouTube and the Internet means that somebody's speech, sermon, presentation from 15 years ago that's inspirational, somebody who's an al-Qaeda or ISIS member who might be dead now can reach a 17, 20, 23- year-old in 2025.

So, the -- the power of inspiration I found really remarkable when I was doing this. We were constantly finding videos on kids' and young adults' phones and laptops that showed that they -- they had been inspired by people off the Internet. And that inspiration, Brianna, because of the Internet, it never goes away.

[15:25:04]

KEILAR: When you're looking at how the FBI director handled this, what would the possible reasons be for, kind of, posting out of turn, you know, traditionally, for how this kind of information is handled? And what kinds of concerns does that raise for you?

MUDD: I hesitate. That's a cringeworthy moment. The director I work for, Director Mueller, not only would never have done that. I -- you know, just as an aside, I worked for Director Mueller for four and a half years. I worked about a hundred feet away from him. I never, in four and a half years, got an email or a text or a phone call, in my recollection, on my private cell phone from Director Mueller. Now, we have directors going out on -- on social media.

I tell you, the concern I have is, first, you have partners out here -- out there, state and local partners. And I'm sure they're cooperating in this investigation. You get the FBI director out in front. The FBI has a reputation of taking over investigations. Maybe they own this investigation from day one, but you want to give your state and local partners a piece of the pie here.

The second is there's prosecutors involved who haven't even taken these people to court, and you're putting information out there in the public space. I wouldn't do it if I were him. I understand why he's doing it. It makes him and the FBI look good, but that is not the way the FBI traditionally has operated, Brianna.

KEILAR: Phil Mattingly, thank you so much. Appreciate you.

MUDD: Thanks.

KEILAR: Stripped of his title and evicted? What is next for the man formerly known as Prince Andrew? Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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