Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Democrats Sweep Major Races as Voters Send Message to Trump; Mamdani Wins New York City Mayor's Race, Capping a Stunning Ascent; At Least 7 Killed, 11 Injured in Louisville UPS Plane Crash. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired November 05, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, what now? The sweep by Democrats in coast to coast races are sending warning signs to President Trump and the GOP. But what sign? What message though are voters sending Democrats today about the party's path forward?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: and breaking overnight at least seven people dead, 11 others hurt. Federal investigators sending in a go-team to help determine what caused that deadly UPS plane crash and those incredibly terrible pictures in Kentucky. We are live on the scene.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, how would you like an A.I. clone of your boss? Me neither. So, why are some companies doing it?

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: So, the breaking news, sweeping election victories for Democrats overnight, and the messages it is sending to President Trump and both parties today. We're expecting to hear from the president this morning. He's set to speak to Senate Republicans at a morning breakfast, the first real take that we're going to be getting from Donald Trump after Republicans fell short in what was the first major electoral test of his second term.

In one of the more closely watched races, CNN projects Zohra Mamdani, the Democratic socialist, will become the first Muslim mayor of New York City. And in his victory speech, he laid the groundwork for a very clear fight ahead with the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR-ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D-NEW YORK CITY, NY): If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.

So, Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you. Turn the volume up.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BOLDUAN: And another pair of historic victories for Democrats, CNN projects that Abigail Spanberger, the former Democratic Congresswoman and CIA officer, will become Virginia's first ever female governor. And Mikie Sherrill has won in New Jersey to become the first female Democratic governor of that state.

On the West Coast, a big win for Trump adversary, Governor Gavin Newsom. California voters approved and gave him the green light to push ahead with redistricting plan designed to help Democrats gain a handful of Congressional seats, a response, as Newsom puts it, fight fire with fire to similar efforts by Republican governors in Texas and elsewhere.

CNN's Alayna Treene is live at the White House this morning. So, Alayna, how is President Trump responding to all of this?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, look, Kate, I mean, this was a Democratic sweep in the midst of a national crisis, of course, over the now record 36-day government shutdown. And it is a warning sign to President Donald Trump, but also house Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, that the tide has changed dramatically since the general presidential election last November, particularly noteworthy, of course, given this was the first time we really got to hear from voters, the first major election since the president won a year ago today.

Now, this is what the president wrote on social media overnight, responding to all of this. He wrote, quote, Trump wasn't on the ballot and shut down were the two reasons that Republicans lost elections tonight. He was citing pollsters, of course. But remember as well that the president's actually never going to be on the ballot again given that you can't run for a third term.

But part of all of this, of course, is many people are wondering and you know, a lot of people projecting that this is, in some ways, a referendum on Donald Trump and his policies. And, remember, his polls have also fallen dramatically in recent weeks, particularly when you look at the economy, on immigration. And so these are some warning signs. Actually, we heard from one of the president's top allies, big MAGA influencer Steve Bannon. He was on his podcast, and he essentially said the midterms start tonight and the warning signs are flashing.

Now, I will say, of course, you can't read too much into these polls. This was not a national nationwide election, but they are giving some Republicans pause. And as you mentioned, we are very much looking forward to hear what the president has to say this morning. He is hosting Senate Republicans in the White House State Dining Room at 8:30 A.M., a lot to be said there about not only the state of the party today and the state of where things are in the country, but also, of course, as we look ahead to will this impact potentially these elections, the government shut down, as they all race to try and find a compromise?

[07:05:12] BOLDUAN: Yes. I mean, what the president says and lays the groundwork for what Republicans, how Republicans respond to these elections looking ahead to the midterms next year, and also in the hours ahead with regard to the shutdown. It is still very much continuing.

It's great to see you, Alayna. Thanks so much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. A decisive win for a Democratic socialist in New York. Zohran Mamdani, hear the cheers there, went from unknown to one of the

biggest stars in American politics now. He didn't just win his race, he won it decisively. Exit polls showing he got more than 50 percent of the vote. His message was clear and relentless, affordability, affordability, affordability. And that message was a big winner.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino is here. You have covered his campaign since before the June primary. He is now the youngest mayor in more than a century to lead America's biggest city. You have had no sleep because he also doesn't sleep. And you've been following him from, you know, gay clubs to the subway and all over the city. What do you think it was that gave him this win?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know. It was that pace of campaigning that helped define the Zohran Mamdani campaign. When you talk about nightclubs, I cannot remember any mayoral campaign in recent history, or frankly in the history of the city where you had a mayoral candidate going out to nightclubs, going out to church, going out to literally every street corner he could possibly get to, to shake a hand, to thank a volunteer, to really reinforce the ground game. All campaigns, no matter if they're in New York City or anywhere else, ground game is usually what delivers a win. They knocked on 3 million doors. They had over 90,000 volunteers.

And you talk about the history-making nature of last night. Not only is he the youngest in a century, he's the first South Asian, the first Muslim. You know, this is a really sort of historic moment for the city of New York, for Zohran Mamdani, for his campaign, for his team. He talked about all of that last night. But I also think, in many ways, the hardest part is yet to come.

SIDNER: Yes.

PAZMINO: And that is, of course, governing a place that is extremely complicated, complex, massive, a lot of bureaucracy, a giant city budget.

But we heard also a lot of all the criticisms against him, right? He's too young, he's inexperienced, he doesn't have what it takes, and he spoke directly about that last night during his speech. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAMDANI: The conventional wisdom would tell you that I am far from the perfect candidate. I am young despite my best efforts to grow older. I'm a Muslim. I am a Democratic socialist. And most damning of all, I refuse to apologize for any of this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: You know, Sara, being there last night, I have to say one of the sort of most impressive and I think meaningful things for me to watch, as I've covered this campaign, having covered other mayoral campaigns in New York City, was the strength of the diversity in that room, seeing people sort of being involved in local politics that you don't usually see. He spoke directly to the city's immigrant community and, of course, directly to the president.

We know that that's going to be a major part of this administration. He has 58 days to set up his cabinet, and now I know from speaking to his aides that they are on full transition mode. He encouraged his staff to sleep last night, but I don't think any of them are going to be doing that. So. That probably means I won't get to either.

SIDNER: Yes, correct.

PAZMINO: But it is onto the transition and we expect to hear a little more about that this morning.

SIDNER: Yes. Running is hard. Once you won, the hardest part is to come, as you mentioned. I think that's a really good way to put it.

PAZMINO: Absolutely.

SIDNER: Thank you so much, great coverage throughout this. And I'm not going to tell you to get some sleep because you're not going to. Thank you, Gloria. John?

BERMAN: All right. Devastation on the ground, at least seven people are dead after a cargo plane explodes during takeoff, and there is concern, the death toll could rise.

What's worse than a bad boss? How about a bad A.I. boss? Why some companies are making A.I. CEO clones?

And then he did it, he threw the sandwich, and now he's on trial, federal trial, the latest on the case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

BERMAN: This morning, at least seven people are dead after a UPS cargo plane crashed in Louisville right after takeoff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A possible explosion, (INAUDIBLE). We've gotten multiple calls about a UPS plane and possibly landed on a building.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, officials say the plane ripped through multiple businesses near the airport, including a petroleum recycling plant where it set off explosions. Firefighters had been searching the scene grid by grid for more potential victims.

Let's get right to CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean for the latest. Pete, what are you learning?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: John, a lot of new information overnight, and what's clear right now is that investigators really have their work cut out for them when it comes to this. A team from the NTSB arrives on the scene today, and there's some very early visual clues for them.

This is the key video of that doom takeoff run of UPS 2976 from around 5:15 P.M. local time last night.

[07:15:04]

This was taken from a tug driving on the airport. You can see the airplane struggling to get into the air. And you can also see the fire on the left side of the airplane from what appears to be the left engine. This is probably our best view yet of the moments leading up to that crash, and investigators will likely go through that video frame by frame.

Just to give you a better idea of what you were looking at, I want to show you the very same airplane photographed about four years ago, back in 2021. It's called an MD-11F, originally built my McDonald Douglas, which became part of Boeing. It has three engines. The video shows the fire what appears to be under the left wing, around the left engine. You could see it there also two other engines. There's one on the tail, and then one in the same position on the right side of the airplane. Investigators will also be going through the forensic and physical evidence on the scene.

I want to show you now the aerial video from WLKY, a captured debris just next to Runway 17 right there. And it appears to show what is an engine cowling. That's the outer covering of the jet engine. Also new images overnight show an entire engine lying on the ground, fan blades, compressor, turbine, all visible in that image.

The challenge for investigators now is piecing together how this all fits into the sequence of events, which was so, so short. We know from the publicly available data from ADSB exchange from the start of the takeoff roll to the impact. This flight lasted only about a minute.

The plane likely full of fuel, 40,000 gallons worth for that eight- hour flight to Honolulu. This will be a very deep investigation, John. We know there were three crew members on board, and hopefully investigators will be able to recover the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder so they can better piece this together.

BERMAN: All this video just simply terrifying. Now, major questions for these investigators.

Pete Muntean, keep us updated. Thank you so much. Kate? BOLDUAN: A huge morning ahead at the Supreme Court. The justices are set to take up the fight over President Trump's global tariffs. Trump has called it literally -- here's the, quote, literally, life or death for our country. What the outcome though could mean for every American.

And this was not on my BINGO card for news this week, Tom Brady cloned his dog.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: On to sports, friends. College football playoff rankings are out, and the Ohio State grabbed the top spot, to no one's surprised, but also spoiling many Michigan's fans breakfast.

Joining me now is CNN's Andy Scholes. tell me everything, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Kate, you know, still a long way to go until these rankings in the playoffs spots are finalized a month from now, but a bunch of fan bases certainly pumped up at where they are right now. The reigning champs, Ohio State, they remain at number one, as you mentioned, Indiana, Texas A&M and Alabama round out that top four, they would get first round buys. Georgia, Ole Miss, BYU, and Texas Tech, they are the next four. They would get to host a playoff game. Tech and BYU, they play on Saturday in Lubbock. So, that's certainly a huge game. Oregon, Notre Dame, Virginia, and Memphis, they are the last four, and Texas and Oklahoma right now are the first two out, but as I mentioned, still a long way to go.

All right, in the NBA, meanwhile, the bulls are off to their best start since Michael Jordan was in uniform. And last night, they came all the way back from 24 down against the Sixers and under ten seconds to go, Bulls down one. Now, Josh Giddey and Nikola Vucevic, the three, Chicago then hold on to win 113-111. They are now 6-1 and a perfect 5- 0 at home.

Meanwhile, in the NHL, the Stars and Oilers playing a fun one in Dallas last night, third period, Connor McDavid going to get the goal here, puts Edmonton up by two. The Stars, though, they would get back to back goals in a five-minute span to tie this game at three. It would go to a shootout, and then Wyatt Johnston winning it there for Dallas.

The action, it continues tonight on our sister station, TNT and streaming on HBO Max. You got Alex Ovechkin one goal shy to become the League's first 900 goal score. His Capitals host of Blues, puck drops at 7:00 Eastern.

All right, finally, we all love our dogs, but do you wish you could bring your dog back once it passes? Well, Tom Brady did. Brady shared the news yesterday that his dog, Junie, is actually a clone of his late dog, Lua. So, Brady is an investor in a biotech company, Colossal Biosciences, and he worked with them to clone his dog. So, Kate, they took a blood sample from Lua before she passed in 2023, and they used that to clone her. And Colossal's the same company that used its cloning and gene-editing to bring back dire wolf that was previously.

But I don't know. I mean, Kate, I love my dog, Lola Beans, very, very much. I don't know where I am on cloning her though and having the same dog once again.

BOLDUAN: One, I love your dog's name. I mean, I love your dog's name. Lola Beans is adorable. I mean, I get -- I don't know. It just gives me pet cemetery vibes and I'm scared of it, but Sarah's into it. I would clone Sara.

SCHOLES: Yes.

SIDNER: Oh, that a bad idea. It's a really bad idea. My producer's crying. I want a dire wolf. That's all I wanted to say.

BOLDUAN: They are not available. We're not allowed to bring more into this very complicated cloning story.

TBD, Andy, you helped me today.

SCHOLES: All right. Think about it.

BOLDUAN: Sara?

[07:25:00]

SIDNER: Remember, Christmas is coming, dire wolf for Sara. Just put it down Santa. I hope you're listening.

BOLDUAN: Easy-peasy. You wanted new shoes, and now it's going to be dire wolf.

SIDNER: No. I want a dire wolf. I've decided.

BOLDUAN: Got it.

SIDNER: It's a dire wolf.

BOLDUAN: Okay, got it. Okay, got it, noted.

BOLDUAN: All right. Ahead, a Democratic sweep, an election night victory for them. Is this a moment in time or a vision of the future for the midterms? We'll talk about it coming up.

Also happening soon, closing arguments in that civil trial of the Virginia teacher terrified in her classroom after being shot by her six-year-old student and assistant principal accused of negligence. We will take you to the trial.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]