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Pelosi to Retire; Flights Cut Starting Tomorrow; Engine Missing before Plane Crash. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired November 06, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

RUBY CHEN, ITAY CHEN'S FATHER: I will continue to advocate for the remaining hostages to come out (INAUDIBLE) possible. And now, you know, when it comes to me, you know, we'll find something to do, to put my energy into it. I come from a venture capital background. So, somehow something will come and we'll, as I said, you know, start walking again in a different way, in a new way, taking into account the last two years that we have been to Washington dozens of times, and I've gotten to know very nice people. And hopefully I find a new path that fits for my, you know, what makes me, you know, wake up in the morning.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Finding a way to walk again in a new way.

Ruby Chen, the best to you and your family. Thank you so much for being here.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with major breaking news out of Washington involving one of America's longest serving and most powerful members of Congress. I want to now bring in CNN's Dana Bash.

Dana, what are you learning this morning?

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Sara, we have learned that the former speaker, Nancy Pelosi, will retire from Congress at the end of this term. She will not run for re- election in her San Francisco seat, the one that she has held for almost 40 years. It spanned seven presidents.

She, of course, was the first, and so far only, female speaker of the House. She broke what she called the marble ceiling in 2007, then led Democrats back to the majority during Donald Trump's first term, took the gavel back for a second time. Famously and proudly became Trump's chief antagonist.

Now, Sara, Pelosi prepared a pretty highly produced video. It was a love letter to San Francisco.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): I have truly loved serving as your voice in Congress, and I've always honored the song of Saint Francis, "Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace," the anthem of our city. That is why I want you, my fellow San Franciscans, to be the first to know, I will not be seeking re-election to Congress. With a grateful heart, I look forward to my final year of service as your proud representative. As we go forward, my message to the city I love is this, San Francisco, know your power.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Know your power. That is a classic Pelosi-ism.

Sara, there is some surprise that when Pelosi passed the baton to Hakeem Jeffries, after they lost the majority, that she decided to stay in Congress and become a rank-and-file member. But we all know she was never a rank-and-file member. She continued to raise millions of dollars for her party, including the redistricting ballot measure that sailed through in California on Tuesday.

And if you think about it, Pelosi was front and center in every major policy battle over the last quarter century. She opposed the Iraq War pretty aggressively, she helped save the global economy during the financial collapse of 2008, and she pushed through Obamacare when it seemed like that wasn't going to happen. Sara, she really is a truly singular figure in American politics.

SIDNER: I mean, she surely is. You know, she was the first female speaker of the House, and she did it twice. Talk to us about just some of the big things and ceilings that Nancy Pelosi broke.

BASH: Well, let's just, you know, start with what she did as a woman when she came to Congress in 1987. She came as a -- as a mother of five who just, you know, said goodbye to her youngest daughter as she went off to college. And there weren't very many women in Congress then. And if you kind of look at what Congress looks like now, mostly Democrats, but a lot of female Republicans as well, there are (AUDIO GAP) more of them, they are younger, they are having babies while serving in Congress. That was anathema to Pelosi and people in her generation when they came into Congress.

And she talked so often about being the only woman in the room for so many years. And she has said many times, in many different ways, that what she strives to do is not just be powerful, but to show women that they can have a voice. And, you know, at the beginning, it's pretty clear that that was just who she was.

[09:05:01]

But after a while, when she saw what kind of effect it was having, it's been intentional.

SIDNER: Yes. I mean this is a really big moment in politics. Never mind for the Democratic Party. But because she was so powerful, because she could wrangle her, you know, her colleagues so well, she had also become quite the devil to Republicans because she -- because she was able to do the job so well. But that is sort of on the national stage.

What impact are you seeing now on her city that she has been -- and state, that she has been representing? You see it in this love letter to San Francisco. What is this going to mean for those constituents?

BASH: Well, look, I mean, she -- the video that she released, we just played a portion of it. It's like six minutes long. And it starts, "dear San Francisco," with a shot of the Golden Gate Bridge. And she talks pretty extensively about her love for her adopted home city. She's really the daughter of Baltimore. She is the daughter of the former mayor of Baltimore. Her father was a member of Congress. She learned about Congress walking through the halls with her dad, who represented Baltimore.

But when she got married to Paul Pelosi, they did move to San Francisco. And she talks about fighting HIV/AIDS. One of her first, maybe the first speech that she gave on the House floor when she came in 1987 was about the AIDS epidemic. She talks about the fact that she helped get -- bring a lot of money back. She's unabashed about that.

And, you know, on -- even on global policy, China, since there is a huge Chinese American population in San Francisco, she was one of the first to say, no, no, no, we don't trust this -- these -- this Chinese regime. And she did it in large part because she had experience in representing people who came from China and really understood what was going on there.

But I do want to go back to one of the points you just made, Sara. The way that Pelosi understood the Democratic caucus was like really nothing any politician has done or those who served with her have seen on either side of the aisle. She understood where everybody was, what they represented, what they could give based on what their constituents needed, what they couldn't give, and she was able to corral the caucus, hold them together in a way that was kind of remarkable, especially when it was contrasting at the time with the Tea Party rise in the GOP and the Republican speakers there just couldn't do it. It was a very important part and is a very important part of her legacy as a speaker, before that as a leader of the Democratic Party. But today, because this is the end of an era of her representing San Francisco for nearly 40 years, that's where she wanted to have her focus.

SIDNER: Yes, and the ramifications are very big.

Dana Bash, thank you so much for getting up and getting in here, breaking that news for us.

BASH: Thanks, Sara. Thanks for having me.

SIDNER: And just to remind you, Nancy Pelosi, one of the longest serving members of Congress, two time speaker, is now announcing that she is retiring after 37 years in Congress.

Thank you.

Kate. BOLDUAN: Also tracking this morning, other breaking news that the

United States is on the brink of a travel nightmare that will likely impact millions of people. That is unless there is somehow an end to the now longest ever government shutdown, which is now into day 37. The FAA says that it now has to slash air traffic nationwide, cutting thousands of flights per day beginning tomorrow. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says that flight capacity is going to be reduced by 10 percent at 40 major airports in order to ensure air safety. It's not announced yet which airports would be impacted, though we are expecting them to actually release a list of that today.

This comes as we already have seen travel issues coast to coast due to staffing shortages at air traffic control, amongst air traffic controllers, and also now among TSA agents, all told to work without pay. The new cuts to air traffic threaten to be so serious that the CEO of Frontier Airlines is issuing a warning to passengers. And the warning is that the CEO of Frontier Airlines is telling Frontier's passengers to book a backup ticket on another airline now to avoid being stranded.

CNN's Pete Muntean joins us now with the very latest.

I haven't heard of that happening before, Pete, that's for sure.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: So much major reaction coming in, Kate. And supporters say this is about safety, though the skeptics, maybe critics, say this is about leverage to open up the government again.

[09:10:03]

Millions of travelers also are getting these emails overnight from airlines warning that their flights could be canceled. This is now the most direct consequence of the government shutdown on air travel.

And airlines are really blindsided by this directive from the Trump administration. I'm told carriers were given less than an hours' notice that the FAA would order flight reductions nationwide starting tomorrow morning.

Here is the reasoning from the Trump administration. Air traffic controllers are about to receive their second zero-dollar paycheck of this shutdown. They just got that pay stub in their emails today. And Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says the stress in the national airspace system has reached a point where it is no longer safe to operate flights at full capacity.

Here is the new directive. If there is no deal to reopen the federal government, the FAA will reduce flights by roughly 10 percent at 40 of the country's busiest airports. An FAA source tells me the list is expected to include what are known as the core 30 airports. Those are the busiest, most operationally critical airports nationwide. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford says the new policy was guided at safety reports from pilots, not the air traffic controllers these reductions are intended to protect. And controllers tell me there's a lot of confusion now among their ranks about how this will be implemented. I want you to listen now to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in

what he said during this surprise announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: We're noticing that there's additional pressure that's building in the system. And again, our priority is to make sure that you're safe. And so we're going to talk about additional measures that we are going to take that's going to reduce the risk profile in the national airspace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Airlines now are really scrambling to make adjustments here.

Delta Airlines just said it's complying with the Trump administration's directive, but it says it will still operate the majority of its flights, including all long haul international flights. And it is offering free changes and refunds to all customers, including those who bought basic economy tickets.

United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby released a company-wide memo last night. He says the reductions in flights will significantly disrupt travel at major hubs, and he's urging customers to prepare for delays and cancellations.

And then there is this reaction from Frontier Airlines CEO Barry Biffle. He called the directive from the Trump administration "unsustainable," saying, quote, "you cannot run the national airspace like this. This is not how a modern aviation system functions." He even suggested that travelers consider booking a ticket, a backup ticket, on another airline.

Just to put the unprecedented nature of this into context, here's the scale. The U.S. handles about 45,000 flights on average each day. A 10 percent reduction removes roughly 4,500 flights daily. That is worse than the worst cancellation day of the past year, every day until the shutdown ends.

The clock is really ticking now during this Friday morning deadline. Never, in modern U.S. aviation history, has the federal government reduced the airspace capacity in the middle of a political standoff. And now, Kate, it really seems like passengers are the ones who are going to have to pay for it.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I'm also confused. If they -- it's -- by -- by the grace of God they announced a deal today, it doesn't mean it's going to be passed tonight. And so then even if they have a deal, how are they going to unwind the air traffic reductions come tomorrow? I mean, I'm confused.

MUNTEAN: Not a lot of runway that the Department of Transportation and the FAA have given airlines here. And the same goes for passengers. I'm getting so many questions right now about how this will play out.

We're hearing a few different things. We're hearing this may be a graduated start to this. Maybe starting by cutting 4 percent or so flights on Friday, then maybe more over the weekend. We will see how this goes.

One source in the administration told me that the administration was essentially just making this up as they went. So, there was so much criticism right now about this. And I have some major questions too about how this will be implemented. We'll be keeping tabs on it all day long.

BOLDUAN: Geez.

Pete, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it, Kate.

Now back to our breaking news.

Just moments ago we learned Nancy Pelosi, one of the most powerful members of Congress and one of the longest serving members, has just announced she is retiring. The two-time Democratic speaker of the House broke glass ceilings, becoming the first woman to be speaker of the House, not once, but twice. Now, after 37 years, she is leaving Congress.

All right, joining us now to discuss all of this, Republican strategist Melik Abdul and CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona.

Maria, I'm going to start with you.

Just your reaction to hearing that Nancy Pelosi will no longer be a member of Congress soon, and the ramifications of all that.

[09:15:06]

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, when I just heard this news, Sara, first of all, it's not that surprising, but it certainly is disappointing just from the standpoint of what a legendary icon she has been, not just to the Democratic Party, but the country in general.

And Dana talked about all of the history behind her role as being the first woman speaker of the House. The way she wielded her power, her incisive, strategic, tactical mind, her empathy, her class, her dignity, her elegance is something that will be admired for years, years, years to come, but it will be never, never matched. And so, I think just across the country, you know, there are people waking up to this groundbreaking news. But at the same time, she has given so much of her life to this country, to public service, that you can't help but think, this woman deserves to spend her golden years however she wants.

And you know, Sara, that even though she might not be serving in Congress, she will always wield the power that she knows she has, that others know that she has. Democrats across the country, and I think Republicans as well. She's always been good at working across the aisle, especially in -- in times when that was more of a normal thing. But she will continue to be someone whose advice is sought, regardless of whether she's not in public life anymore. And that will always be to the good and to the benefit of the American people.

I wish her the best. I love her. I have had the honor and the pleasure of working with her on many projects. And we are a country that is better for her service. We will miss her, and we wish her the best.

SIDNER: Maria, thank you for your thoughts. She's 85 years old and still quite sharp as a tack, and was involved in this --

CARDONA: Yes.

SIDNER: In this recent, you know, movement in California to try and change the redistricting.

CARDONA: Absolutely.

SIDNER: She's involved still quite a bit. So, you would expect that she might still be involved, because this has been her life's work.

But to you, Melik, look, Republicans have no love loss for Nancy Pelosi. She has been sort of the devil, the boogeyman that they have pointed to for many different things that they didn't like about Democratic policies. What now with her leaving?

MELIK ABDUL, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I think that Republicans -- well, first of all, Nancy Pelosi, first, congratulations that she's decided to retire. I have to give her credit for being able to will the gavel in a way that really did push the Democratic Party.

I think part of the challenge now for the Democrats is that you no longer have a Nancy Pelosi in a Hakeem Jeffries. Many people in the Democratic Party are upset with Hakeem Jeffries' leadership, which really leaves a lot to be desired. So, when you go from a Nancy Pelosi to a Hakeem Jeffries, I think that probably speaks to the problems that the Democratic Party is having now.

But Republicans will always choose, if it's not Nancy Pelosi, we're going to choose another boogeyman, because that's simply what happens in politics. So, I don't think that Republicans will back away from any criticism of the Democratic Party, particularly because what we're seeing happen around the country, like in places in New York City.

SIDNER: I knew you were going to mention New York, because I was just going to say, the new boogeyman has become Mamdani, who won his race here in New York to much fanfare.

But, Maria, to Melik's point, Jeffries, there have been a lot of complaints from some Democrats. They see him as weaker than Nancy Pelosi. And so, what is the future of the Democratic Party, when you look at the leadership, because there have been a lot of fights over who should be leading this -- this caucus? CARDONA: I think Hakeem Jeffries has done a terrific job after taking over the leadership from Nancy Pelosi. It has been a tremendously challenging time, but he has stepped up to the plate. He is fighting. And it's so interesting that my friend Melik just said that Democrats have all these problems. Were you awake on Tuesday night, Melik? I think that the blue tsunami, the Democratic sweep across the country, where we flipped major seats, many of them in red states, I think the Democrats are feeling pretty good.

And Hakeem Jeffries had a lot to do with that. And I think going into the midterm elections, he will have a lot more to do with it because now what we're going to see is Democrats really leaning into the messaging and the tactics that worked so well for us across the country in terms of talking about affordability, talking about the Republican corruption, talking about Republicans wanting to take away health care from millions of Americans, and talking about the Republican led shutdown.

[09:20:13]

Hakeem Jeffries has been a critical messenger on that, keynotes, and he's going to continue to do that, obviously with the midterm elections. This is going to be where he can really shine and really underscore the choice that now is before Republicans. Are they going to continue to bend the knee to Donald Trump, or are they now going to understand that they actually have to do their job, come to the table to negotiate an end to their government-led shutdown or, again, continue to choose Donald Trump or do the job for their voters?

SIDNER: Melik, you can definitely hear Maria is feeling herself after what happened with this Democratic sweep. So --

CARDONA: You know it.

SIDNER: She is not shy.

But I do want to ask you about what we've been hearing from some Republicans. Not all, but J.D. Vance, for example, and Speaker Johnson, both kind of brushed off saying, like, look, these were Democratically led states and, of course, they were -- the Democrats were going to win. Are they missing a message here, Melik?

ABDUL: I think in part. But he's also right in this point that in particularly in a place like Virginia, we didn't have a good candidate running in Virginia, much like what happened down in Georgia with Herschel Walker, even though Herschel Walker ended up performing better than Winsome Sears. That is a much different electorate in Virginia because you do, I believe, and Donald Trump alluded to this himself, the issue with the government shutdown. What's happened, I would even argue, with the DOGE cut.

Virginia has a large government contractor and federal government population. So, I'm sure that factored there. But in a place like New York City, there was the expected wins of Democrats in New York City. And even in New Jersey, because the last governor, Republican, to win in New Jersey was Chris Christie. And he did so by double digits. I think people are kind of misreading here because, at the end of the

day, Glenn Youngkin, who was a popular governor of Virginia, only beat in his last election by two percentage points. So -- but there is some cause for concern for Republicans because the economic anxiety that elected Donald Trump in 2024, that was on the ballot on Tuesday, and it will be on the ballot come midterms.

SIDNER: Yes, the anxiety clearly still there.

Melik Abdul and Maria Cardona, thank you both so much. I do appreciate it.

Jessica.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: At least a dozen people dead, several still missing after that deadly plane crash in Louisville. We are seeing new video from the moments before that tragedy.

And we are on verdict watch. Jurors deliberating in that $40 million lawsuit filed by a teacher who was shot by her six-year-old student.

And one New York City neighborhood rocked by an explosion and massive fire.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh!

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[09:27:02]

DEAN: Just in this morning, the NTSB releasing a photo of the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder that were recovered from the UPS cargo plane crash in Louisville, Kentucky. NTSB investigators are looking into what caused the crash that's killed at least 12 people. We know three others remain missing. And one of the big questions this morning is about the plane's engines. This new footage appears to show the plane's left engine missing, just as that aircraft goes down in a huge fireball. NTSB investigators say that engine detached during takeoff.

CNN's Leigh Waldman is on the scene there in Louisville this morning.

Leigh, we are getting some new information. What are you tracking this morning?

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, you mentioned those images shared by the NTSB today showing the cockpit voice recorder and also the flight data recorder. Those are the black boxes we keep talking about. And in those images, we can see some of the heat that those boxes suffered. But the NTSB is assuring people, those are built to withstand that. They can still gather data, critically needed data, from those black boxes to try and piece together what exactly happened here on Tuesday.

In addition to that, we know that today is the first full day for NTSB investigators, a team of 28, to comb through the airfield behind us, trying to dig through the half mile long debris field left behind, to piece together what went wrong here. They're looking at surveillance video as well, hoping to garner information from that.

But we're hearing more information from people who saw this crash happen. We are hearing from business owners in the surrounding area talking about how their employees had to jump into action to try and save customers and each other.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN GARBER, CEO, GRADE A RECYCLING: One of our managers dove in the center of -- between two bales and had a ball of fire go over the top of him. And then he got up and ran out. And he was very heroic because one of our customers was 95 percent burned, and he picked him up and brought him to safety.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALDMAN: Now, in addition to the surveillance video, the black box images, we know that they're focusing a lot of their efforts on the engine that actually came off of that plane. Last night, when we were here, we saw them taking away what looked like part of that engine on the back of the truck to begin their examination of that. We're hoping to piece all of this together. We know that those crews are going to be on the ground here for at least a week to determine the probable cause behind this crash, Jessica.

DEAN: All right, more to come from Louisville.

Leigh Waldman, thank you so much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: A disturbing moment caught on camera. The president of Mexico groped by a man on the street. And now President Sheinbaum is taking legal action.

And we are in verdict watch right now. Should a former assistant principal be held liable after a teacher was shot by her six-year-old student?

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