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White House to Provide Partial Food Stamp Benefits This Month; Voters Across U.S. Head to Polls Tomorrow for High-Stakes Races; Trump to Appear at Tele-Rally in New Jersey Tonight. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired November 03, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": -- stealing jewels, millions of dollars worth of jewels from the Louvre. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": We begin with Breaking News. The White House now says it will provide some food stamp benefits this month. That is good news for 42 million SNAP recipients, but there is a catch and that is that the administration is not providing the full benefits.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, the money's coming from a contingency fund, but there's only enough for half of the usual amount. Remember, on Friday, two judges ordered the administration should use those funds to provide benefits, saying the administration was obligated to by law. There is some uncertainty here for families though, since it's not clear when recipients are going to see those funds. We're going to have much more on this later this hour.

KEILAR: We are at this point nine months into President Trump's second term, and now on the brink of a big political test. Tomorrow, when voters across the U.S. are going to hit the polls for some key off -year elections.

SANCHEZ: There are some high-stakes races in New York, New Jersey and Virginia that could give us a much clearer picture on where voters' heads are at. We have teams standing by covering each key race. First, Gloria Pazmino is following the New York mayoral race. Gloria, what's the latest?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: While the candidates have been fanning out all across the city as this election comes to an end, the polls are not open today, but they are out there campaigning for every single vote. Andrew Cuomo is doing a tour of the five boroughs. Zohran Mamdani started out his day with a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge this morning. And as you know, President Trump has loomed large over this race.

He was asked yesterday what he would do if he had to choose a candidate, and he gave a sort of tepid endorsement of Andrew Cuomo. That's good news for Mamdani, who spent much of this race trying to tie Cuomo to the president. Take a listen to Cuomo campaigning out in the Bronx earlier this morning and how Mamdani responded to that endorsement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW CUOMO, (D) NYC MAYORAL CANDIDATE: And we need to be able to stand up to Donald Trump and fight for New York.

ZOHRAN MAMDANI, (D) NYC Mayoral candidate: I think what President Trump's remarks show us last night is what many of us have long known and feared, which is that when you are too busy cashing the checks of the billionaire donors who gave us the second term of this president, you will not be able to stand up to that same president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: You see the State Attorney General, Letitia James there standing behind Zohran Mamdani. She marched across the Brooklyn Bridge with him. This morning, Mamdani, as I said, trying to connect Cuomo to Trump and his billionaire supporters. Many of them have funded the same super PAC that has been campaigning against Mamdani. And after those comments made by the president last night, he essentially suggested that the two were working together and that Cuomo was Trump's chosen candidate.

We've known that Trump has spoken about Mamdani negatively, has called him a communist even though he's a Democratic socialist. We know that the President is watching closely to see what the outcome of this election will be.

KEILAR: Yeah, no doubt. Gloria, thank you. Let's go to Arlette Saenz who is in New Jersey where a competitive race for governor will see President Trump making a tele-rally appearance tonight. What are we expecting, Arlette?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well Brianna, President Donald Trump is expected to host a tele-rally on behalf of New Jersey Republican nominee, Jack Ciattarelli. But one thing that's notable is that while President Trump is holding this tele-rally, he has not campaigned here in the garden state with Ciattarelli since he won the Republican primary back in June. Now, I asked Ciattarelli a bit earlier today if the reason why Trump hasn't been on the ground here on the campaign trail in New Jersey is because he's worried Trump is a liability to his campaign. And Ciattarelli said not one bit.

Now, Ciattarelli had in the past criticized President Donald Trump, but really fully embraced him in this campaign. And that is something that Democratic candidate, Mikie Sherrill has really tried to turn into a liability for Ciattarelli. At event after event, she argues that Ciattarelli will not be able to stand up to President Donald Trump. She is hoping that that is something that voters will acknowledge as they head to the poll locations tomorrow. But both Ciattarelli and Sherrill are hoping that New Jerseyans will send a message to the country with their votes on election day.

SANCHEZ: Arlette Saenz in New Jersey for us. Thank you so much. Let's go to Eva McKend, who's in Virginia for us, perhaps the most swing of all the races that are happening or all the states where races are happening. A key governor's race there, Eva, what are you seeing?

EVA MCKEND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, Democratic candidate, Abigail Spanberger approaches election day feeling pretty confident in the strategy that her campaign has employed, focusing narrowly on affordability, the cost of living, and really speaking to the deflated federal workforce here in Virginia who have just borne the brunt of the cuts that have come from the Trump administration.

But her Republican opponent, the current Lieutenant Governor, Winsome Earle-Sears says to Virginians concerned about the economy that they should, in her words, keep a good thing going.

[14:05:00]

She argues that the economic policies of the Youngkin-Earle-Sears administration are working. Take a listen to how they are both making the case today on the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ABIGAIL SPANBERGER, (D) VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: The answer is that we stand up against the chaos and the division that we see coming out of this administration, and we commit to making changes here on the ground that will steady Virginia.

WINSOME EARLE-SEARS, (R) VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: We need you to go and we need you to vote. This is not about us. This is about your children and your children's children because folks, what we must do is to make the darkness tremble. That's what we must do. We have a charge to keep.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: Now, the challenge for both Spanberger and Earle-Sears is that more than a million Virginians have already made up their mind and voted. But today, they are trying to capture the available voters left as they continue to crisscross the state. Spanberger holding smaller events, student-focused event, while Earle-Sears will hold a large campaign rally this evening, right here in Manassas in Northern Virginia. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Eva McKend, live for us in Virginia. Thank you so much. Tomorrow's election will be seen by many as the first referendum of President Trump's second term. And notably, the president sat down for an interview that aired on "60 Minutes" last night where he weighed in on a variety of topics.

KEILAR: So let's talk about some of the key moments with Terry Moran. He's a former co-host for ABC News "Nightline" and a former senior national correspondent for that network. He's also the publisher of a Substack called "Real Patriotism," and you host a podcast on YouTube by the same name.

Terry, it's great to have you here to talk about this because this interview was very interesting. It was wide ranging. He was asked about the mayor's race. Let's take a listen to that and then talk about it. TERRY MORAN, FORMER CO-ANCHOR OF NIGHTLINE, ABC NEWS: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORAH O'DONNELL, HOST OF "60 MINUTES", CBS: But what if Mamdani becomes mayor?

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It's going to be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York, because if you have a communist running New York, all you're doing is wasting the money you're sending there. So, I don't know that he is one, and I'm not a fan of Cuomo one way or the other, but if it's going to be between a bad Democrat and a communist. I'm going to pick the bad Democrat all the time, to be honest with you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Of course, that's being used as we just detailed in that election in New York. What did you think about what he said and how big of a factor he might be in the race?

MORAN: Well, that's hyper-partisanism and you got to expect it from Trump, but it's also something else. Look, he's a very tough interview. He just -- he'll steamroll you if you let him. And by calling Zohran Mamdani a communist, look, at some point you have to stand up to him. And what do you mean by that? You don't want to get in a fight with him, but it was classic Trump kind of cartoonish partisanism, a signaling don't vote for him. And then at the end there, that sense he will punish every New Yorker if they elect the wrong person. And that's something other presidents haven't done.

SANCHEZ: He also made some comments about immigration, suggesting that his policies, even though they're widely criticized and a majority of Americans in polls have suggested that they've gone too far, he doesn't believe they've gone far enough. Let's listen to that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'DONNELL: More recently, Americans have been watching videos of ICE tackling a young mother, tear gas being used in a Chicago residential neighborhood, and the smashing of car windows. Have some of these raids gone too far?

TRUMP: No, I think they haven't gone far enough because we've been held back by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama.

O'DONNELL: You're OK with those tactics?

TRUMP: Yeah, because you have to get the people out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: It is really fascinating given where the American people say that they are right now and where he stands on this. MORAN: Yeah, this is his signature issue and it stands for more than just immigration. The Biden administration did lose control of the border. The American people who are pragmatic, they want it fixed. Trump sees that as an opportunity to use force maximally and to demonstrate to people across the issue spectrum and across the country that force will be used against you. And I think, what you hear from him there, he's not done enough. And he's defying that shift in polls, right?

Before the election, two-thirds of Americans said got to fix the border, Trump is the right guy for it. Now, he's lost support on that because Americans are decent people. They don't want moms snatched from their kids and working men tackled in the street. They want the problem fixed. Trump sees this as an opportunity not just to fix the problem that he promised he would in his way, but to do more, to impose force, to communicate force, to send the message to migrants in this country and to the rest of us, be afraid that the fist is coming.

KEILAR: Yeah, the immigration issue key to his win, but also key to that disapproval number that we were talking about today as well.

[14:10:00]

And the backdrop of this interview, that's interesting of course and you can't ignore it, is that he sits for this interview one year to the day after suing "60 Minutes" over the editing of its interview with Kamala Harris, Paramount settled paying $16 million to the Trump future presidential library to end that litigation. What did you think about the timing? What did you think about this choice of his to do this?

MORAN: Well, he's dunking. In a way, he even mentioned it in the interview that he's dunking on CBS by saying, they paid me money. Look, every network as we know, when you get a big presidential interview, there are a lot of people talking to it. Is Bari Weiss, the new Editor In Chief of CBS, who's been very kind to President Trump, was that part of the equation? It's impossible to say. It was an interview without a lot of pushback. It was an interview that let him carry on.

SANCHEZ: I wonder what you would've pushed back on, what you would've asked.

MORAN: Well, at some point, it almost doesn't matter, right? Because he's a tough interview. He's a very tough interview because he's just spewing a lot of stuff that isn't true. You don't have to get in a fight with him. You don't -- you shouldn't, right? You should treat him with the respect that the office deserves and that the people elected him deserve.

But at the same time, you have to stand up to something because if you condone his falsehoods, that empowers him. Every authoritarian in the book does this and you can look it up, and that's what he's doing. So, I do think at some point, you have to stand up for what is true, even at the risk of displeasing Trump or your bosses. KEILAR: Terry Moran, thank you so much for being with us. Really appreciate it. And still to come, shutdown endued staffing shortages at airports causing long lines and frustrations across the country. The warning from the transportation secretary ahead of the holidays.

SANCHEZ: Plus, is the Trump administration turning a blind eye to the threat of climate change while the U.S. is not planning to send a high level representative to a high-stakes world summit. And later, the small steps you can take to delay Alzheimer's down the road. That and much more, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:16:44]

KEILAR: Tomorrow, the government shutdown is expected to tie the record for the longest one ever, and the impact on air travel is becoming more and more evident.

SANCHEZ: Some of the biggest airports are reporting staffing shortages at air traffic control centers and security checkpoints with TSA officers and air traffic controllers now going weeks without paychecks. Let's turn out a CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean for the latest. How's it looking today, Pete?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, the latest from the FAA is that Newark, Albuquerque and Austin are short staffed today. It's a pretty short list right now, but we know that things can change fast because Friday started quiet, but ultimately kicked off the worst weekend for air traffic control staffing shortages since the start of this shutdown. This is what we've been monitoring. This is the FAA's National Airspace Operations Plan published every few hours, shows air traffic control facilities with short staffing.

On a normal day, there may be one or two facilities listed here. On Friday, and this was it, 46 facilities on the list. The three New York City airports have been especially hard hit. And the FAA says on Friday, those facilities saw nearly 80 percent of controllers call out, and that's what creates the bind. And the FAA says it has no choice in some cases, but to slow the pace of flights and put in place delays or ground stops. It's all in the name of safety.

And just this morning on CNBC, Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy addressed whether it is safe to fly right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN DUFFY, (R) UNITED STATES TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Is there more risk in the system when you have a shutdown? Absolutely, there's more risk. If we thought that it was unsafe, again, we'll shut the whole airspace down. We won't let people travel. We're not there at this point. It's just significant delays.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: And all of this weekend saw more than 16,000 flight delays nationwide. Remember, air traffic controllers still working without pay during this shutdown. That $0 paycheck they received last Tuesday was just insult to injury. Duffy said Sunday that the White House is looking to get pots of money to get air traffic controllers paid. But he says the rules for that are pretty strict.

By the way, TSA agents also working without pay and no major surprise on Day 34 of the shutdown that there are delays at TSA checkpoints as well. Here's what it looked like at Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport. At one point, the TSA line stretched three hours, but the TSA posted this morning that when you consider the wait times nationwide, really the average for standard checkpoints at airports in the U.S. was about five minutes yesterday, down to about two minutes when it comes to pre-check.

KEILAR: You see that lady holding the baby in the three-hour line? It's like my personal hell on earth right there. (LAUGH)

MUNTEAN: I keep --

KEILAR: I'm sure it was her --

MUNTEAN: I keep seeing this stuff and it's like, as if air travel could get any less sexy.

KEILAR: Yeah.

MUNTEAN: It is just more and more frustrating all the time. I think it begs the pack your patience.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: Pack your patience.

SANCHEZ: Should've seen that coming. Should have seen that coming.

KEILAR: Should've seen it. Hang in their mama.

MUNTEAN: So easy.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: Hang in their mama. That's what we say.

SANCHEZ: I bet you've disliked it more than I did.

MUNTEAN: What? Pack your patience?

SANCHEZ: Pack your patience thing.

MUNTEAN: Well, we could retire it at some point, but it's not out of the -- it's not out of the rotation yet.

SANCHEZ: Not yet. Maybe when the government --

MUNTEAN: Do I (inaudible) me? (CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: -- reopens.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: Gentlemen, Gentlemen.

MUNTEAN: We're burning down time now. Sorry.

SANCHEZ: He's --

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: Gentlemen, you'll have to gate check your patients. Pete Muntean, thank you very much.

MUNTEAN: Anytime.

KEILAR: Still to come, we have a major update for millions of Americans who rely on SNAP food benefits for their groceries.

[14:20:00]

And French officials now say the heist at the Louvre was pulled off by local petty criminals. What this says about security around some of the world's most priceless works of art.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: I am not wearing my Apple watch, but I was about to check how many steps I tried to hit today.

[14:25:00]

There's a new observational study found that upping your step count may help slow cognitive decline for adults at risk of Alzheimer's.

KEILAR: Yeah, I have mine. I'm not checking it. I prefer to remain ignorant at this point.

SANCHEZ: I never check it, but for the purposes of, you know, the script.

KEILAR: I know. I don't want to embarrass myself. All right, so these findings, they don't recommend a specific daily goal, but they did observe higher step counts were associated with slower decline in the protein buildups that are tied to the disease. That's very interesting. So let's talk about it with Dr. Leah Croll, Neurologist and Assistant Professor of Neurology at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University.

All right, doc, talk to us about these findings here. I think it's telling us what we already kind of knew, right? We need to get out there and get stepping. DR. LEAH CROLL, NEUROLOGIST: Absolutely. You know what makes this study different? What sets it apart is that not only did it show this great relationship between physical activity and slowing cognitive decline in people who are at biological risk for Alzheimer's disease, but it did that extra step of tying in what this does with the underlying biology of the disease. So, they were able to actually find that not only did people who were taking more steps have slower rates of cognitive decline, but they also had slower buildup of abnormal protein called tau that is tightly (inaudible).

So, really just another kind of piece of this puzzle and this really rapidly expanding and exciting body of research that is proving to us the power of healthy lifestyle interventions when it comes to protecting our brain health.

SANCHEZ: Doctor, is there a magic number of steps that you should hit? Is that the right way to think about this?

CROLL: Love this question because I think that's where a lot of people can get tripped up when they hear about studies like this. I think really the takeaway here is that every step is a small investment in your brain health. And those investments pay dividends over time in the long term. But there's no magic number because every brain (inaudible) individual case by case approach that needs to be taken.

When we think about the best way to promote good brain health in any given person, what I tell my patients is that anything is better than nothing. Meaning walking around the block is better than not getting off the couch at all. And if you can get to a point where you're doing 150 minutes per week of walking, of moderate kind of brisk walking where you can talk, but you can't really sing, then I'm more than happy with that. So whether you are at that 150-minute goal or you're sitting on the couch most of the time, anything you can do to up your level of activity is meaningful.

KEILAR: Maybe sing poorly. I'd like to sing.

SANCHEZ: That's awesome, yeah.

KEILAR: Right? That we could sing poorly while we walk.

SANCHEZ: Advance karaoke.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: Advance. So, doc, when you're talking about -- I think this is a good one for people to incorporate, but it's probably just a tool in the toolbox, right? So what are the other lifestyle factors and the aspects of physical health that are playing into reducing Alzheimer's risk?

CROLL: That's such a great way to phrase it, because this is another tool in the toolbox and it doesn't come down just to walking. There's so much else you have to take into consideration. So if you have certain medical conditions, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia, that's high cholesterol, staying on top of those conditions with your doctor is going to be of the utmost importance when it comes to protecting your brain health.

Staying on top of hearing loss and vision loss when you get older is super, super important. I can't emphasize that enough. And then sleep is a big one. That's when the brain really allows itself to clean out these abnormal proteins. So sleep is huge. Healthy diet, maintaining good social connections, investing in relationships over time, and keeping your brain active, making sure you're doing things that are cognitively challenging. All of these things really add up.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, really good advice there. Dr. Leah Croll, thanks so much for the time.

CROLL: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, new CNN polling suggesting Democrats are winning when it comes to shutdown messaging. How long they're willing to hold out and whether they're facing pressure to cave?

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