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Sources: Suspicious Package Makes People Sick At Joint Base Andrews; Travelers Brace For Chaos As FAA Cuts Flights Across 40 Airports; Democrats Expected To Block GOP Push To Reopen Government. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired November 07, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: An initial test though by a hazmat team found nothing hazardous but as we learned from Zach Cohen earlier this hour, there are multiple rounds and much more testing and investigating that needs to be done here.

Joining us right now is CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem. Juliette, what are your top questions about this this morning?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, FORMER ASSISTANT SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Yes. Well, just to remind viewers, and younger viewers, in 2001 there was a series of anthrax attacks following the September 11 terror attacks that were domestic in the sense that the perpetrator was domestic and that killed a number of Americans that used the mail post offices to distribute anthrax, a killer powder. This sounds similar in the sense that someone is using the mail system to get into a building and target people who work for the government or the military.

We also understand that there is political propaganda. An investigator putting the pieces together would know that Air Force base is where the Trump administration and Trump himself sort of use as their base airport for official travel. And so we would look to someone who was targeting Trump or people around Trump at least as a first blush given both the history of these kinds of attacks and what Joint Andrews -- Air Force Base Andrews means politically.

BOLDUAN: But Juliette, I mean, with how high profile it is, how secure it is, how does this even get into JBA, I'm wondering?

KAYYEM: So I was trying to think about this because obviously places where the president is would be very secure and so it doesn't surprise me that these Air Force bases are quite large. There is different pieces to them. This is a building that is a National Guard building and may be -- may have less security. Easier for mail to get in. But it's certainly a gap that the military and the heads of the -- of the Air Force base are going to want to examine. Are there too many soft areas, so to speak, in allowing outside mail to come in?

The gap between what we know the first testing to show, at least it's probably not anthrax. And people's illnesses is something also that's going to be further examined. Lots of things can been noxious -- can harm people that aren't sort of biological weapons. So it may have been someone who wanted to scare people, upset people, and use -- and use a material that was more readily available obviously than anthrax.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, a big question which will also, depending on what -- especially what the chemical is --allow investigators to trace it back to its original source.

There's a lot that is -- needs to be sussed out, --

KAYYEM: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: -- investigated and brought to light about this one.

Juliette, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. It's good to see you -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you, Kate.

Now to our breaking news again this morning. More than 800 flights canceled and that number is going to rise. The major airlines are scrambling as the Trump administration begins slashing air traffic at 40 airports across the country, all due to the record-long government shutdown that is now in day 38.

CNN's Ivan Rodriguez is live at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International. This is the busiest airport in the world. What are you seeing this morning there?

IVAN RODRIGUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sara, good morning.

I mean, there at the busiest airport in the world if you didn't know what was going on you'd think it was just another busy but normal, busy morning here at the airport. Right behind me a lot of people checking in for their flights and getting their bags checked as well.

But as you mentioned, we are expecting those cancellations to increase by one percent now every single day as the government shutdown continues until we reach that 10 percent number by next week. And we started today with that number of four percent.

Now, there are some good news here for a lot of travelers. We do know that at least, for today, we're not expecting any more cancellations to be directly attributed to the FAA cancellation of those flights. A lot of these airlines have already made the decision on which flights that they wanted to cancel for the day. So again, that's some good news for passengers still making their way to the airport this morning for later today -- even that they would have already been notified, we're told, that their flight was canceled.

Now that doesn't mean that there can't be further delays or cancellations, but it wouldn't be because of the FAA-mandated cancellations. It might be because of weather or mechanical problems.

I spoke here earlier with a couple of passengers. One of them was flying to Boston, which is another one of those 40 airports -- major airports impacted by the cancellations. He told me that yes, he does have a little bit of stress coming to the airport today. He's been constantly refreshing his airline's app to see that everything was on time. Thankfully, it was. And that was before we had the news that we aren't expecting any more cancellations today.

[07:35:15]

I did have a chance to look at the Delta board to see exactly what those cancellations looked like because we were told it was domestic, it was regional. And from Atlanta it looks like a lot of those regional flights are to Louisiana, to Tennessee, and to the Carolinas. So it really does paint a picture of those regional airports really being impacted.

But again, from the Trump administration, which we heard yesterday, they're doing all of this because of safety and making sure people can still fly the safest way possible.

SIDNER: Yeah.

Ivan Rodriguez, thank you so much for giving us a look at that.

Meanwhile, progress on a potential agreement to reopen the government appears to have reached another dead end. Democrats signaled they are prepared to block Republican plans to force a vote today unless they get more firm commitments from their GOP colleagues to deal with rising health care costs. And as the status of negotiations changes by the hour millions of Americans are not getting paid and they are struggling to get by.

Now a federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to start making full food stamp payments as early as today. The White House is appealing the court's decision.

Joining me now is Stef Knight. She is a politics reporter at Axios. Thank you so much for being here.

Look, this is the -- now the longest shutdown in history. It -- the last time this happened was during the Trump administration -- the second-longest now shutdown -- and it was the air traffic controllers that broke the stalemate because there was a lack of them and it created a real mess at airports.

Is there any indication that this might be the final straw to get Congress to do its job?

STEF KIGHT, POLITICS REPORTER, AXIOS (via Webex by Cisco): I mean, there's no question that the longer this shutdown drags on the more painful this becomes for Americans in various industries, including federal workers who have now not been getting paid for over a whole month. And so that pain does matter. And Senate offices I've spoken to say that they are now starting to get more and more complaints and calls from constituents who are worried how this shutdown is actually impacting their real lives. So it absolutely puts more pressure on the negotiations right now. At the same time, it's been very clear from Democrats over the past

two days that they don't think now is the time to agree to any sort of deal with Republicans. They're very comfortable holding out and dragging the shutdown on, likely into next week at a minimum.

We'll see how today goes. There is another vote expected today to try to open the government. We don't expect that to pass. Democrats are pretty united on that front. There are still negotiations happening -- bipartisan negotiations on some sort of deal that would combine funding some federal agencies, opening the government, and some kind of promise on a future vote on extending these enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are expiring at the end of the year.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you what you're hearing on this front that Trump is pushing Republicans to take that nuclear option and bust the filibuster in the Senate. Are you hearing any Republicans -- any Republican senators warming to that idea now?

KIGHT: There are certainly a few Republicans who are willing to say that they would consider changing the rules, especially after the breakfast at the White House where Trump really, both publicly and then again privately, put the pressure on Republicans to do away with this. So there are certainly some Republicans who are saying yes, it's time to do this. We can't let this shutdown drag on any longer.

You know, people like Sen. Ron Johnson. He was one of those who posted after the breakfast. Senator Josh Hawley is one who has expressed openness to changing the filibuster rules, as has Sen. Jim Banks. So there are probably a handful of these senators who are willing to start looking at that as a real option.

But when you look at actual leadership -- when you look at majority leader John Thune and majority whip John Barrasso and some of the other Republicans who are in control of the conference, they're not -- they're not looking at this as a real option. They don't think that this is the right situation to even consider doing away with the filibuster. They have repeatedly defended the importance of the filibuster and the importance of ensuring the minority party has a say in what's happening in the Senate. So at this point it doesn't seem like an option they're looking at seriously, but this could change if this continues to drag on.

SIDNER: Yeah. The big fear that we're hearing from Republicans is that Democrats will do it to them if they end up holding power in the Senate.

So we will see, Stef Kight, what it is that breaks this stalemate over the shutdown. Thank you so much. Appreciate you coming on this morning -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right. Joining us right now is Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha, and Republican strategist Bryan Lanza who was a senior adviser on the Trump 2024 campaign.

[07:40:00] So we're rounding -- we're finishing a week -- another week of the government shutdown dragging on. Let's look at the week that was. Has there been, other than progress in the negative, meaning more Americans being hurt -- do you see any progress anywhere in conversations for Congress and the White House to do its job, Chuck?

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, PRESIDENT, SOLIDARITY STRATEGIES (via Webex by Cisco): Well, what we saw this week as well as the shutdown was something that folks have been talking about a lot, which was these amazing elections on Tuesday where the American people got the first time to say what they were really thinking. Who do they blame? Who did they want to put in power?

And, you know, early on when the Democrats started talking about health care premiums and ACA, I was like hmm, is this the battle we really want to draw in the sand? Well, after knocking on doors in New Jersey and Virginia and talking to people about their health care premiums, I could see for sure this was why we were going down this path because every house that we talked to, it was insurance premiums, the cost of light, utility bills in New Jersey. Folks are tired of paying more every day.

And Donald Trump promised on day one to bring the prices down and mainly around health care premiums and the ACA. You saw their reaction, and they are definitely blaming Republicans for not bringing the price down.

So I think that's why you've seen this thing go on. And I thought Republicans now after seeing that would have come to the table this week and solved this.

BOLDUAN: So Bryan, do you think Republicans should come to the table to offer some firm commitment on some future vote regarding the health care subsidies in order to get this thing open if, as even Donald Trump has admitted, it's hurting Republicans?

BRYAN LANZA, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: Listen, there's a -- there's a lot of people hurting and there's a tremendous amount of pain to go forward. But at the end of the day we're asking for subsidies to help bring down the cost of health care. It's pretty clear that Obamacare is a failure. Its rising cost in the private sector and it's --

BOLDUAN: Debate it later but get the government open. I mean, you debate that --

LANZA: You can't debate it later.

BOLDUAN: -- since we've been debating it since 2008.

LANZA: No. Listen, but the thing is you can't debate it later because the more money you're going to throw at it, the longer you're going to extend the problem and the harder you make it to fix.

This becomes a time where you need to fix it, and Democrats need to come to the table. They acknowledge the only reason they want this additional bailout as a result of Obamacare is because it's failing. And we have to fix it rather than just throw more money at the problem and rather than hold the American people hostage. Rather than have millions of kids go without their meals.

Democrats really should just vote on the C.R. that's already been passed by the House and that already has bipartisan support in the Senate.

This is a Chuck Schumer shutdown because he doesn't have the -- you know, he doesn't have the testicular fortitude to take on his far left flank because there's an election around the corner. That's why the shutdown is taking place. It has nothing to do with health care costs.

BOLDUAN: Oh, the language at 7:00 in the morning.

Um, the thing is Donald Trump himself has said it's hurting Republicans in terms of the political --

LANZA: (INAUDIBLE).

BOLDUAN: -- impact of it. So that's the new -- one of the new wrinkles this week -- what -- that more Republicans I think need to answer for.

Airports and airplanes.

LANZA: Oh.

BOLDUAN: Is this going to scare politicians to get it together, Chuck?

LANZA: Please.

ROCHA: Well, I'll remind everybody it was a big deal the last time we had a shutdown, and it brought a lot of people back because of the air traffic controllers. But what people don't realize is that not a lot of Americans actually fly airplanes or get on airplanes every day. It's really a privilege.

There's lots and lots of -- the majority of Americans have never been on an airplane. But what they have done is seen the rising health care costs that they are going through and the affordability of their life going up. So they see that and it is definitely a factor. I don't want to make light of it but every day, folks all across America -- if I learned one thing on Tuesday from Mandani to Spanberger, all across the country, is there was a central theme was people are tired of paying too much.

Folks that I talked to that were on SNAP benefits said that their SNAP benefits used to get them a month's worth of groceries and now because of the rising costs it gets them two weeks of groceries. And those folks ain't never getting on an airplane to go anywhere for Thanksgiving. They're going to walk down to their momma's house.

BOLDUAN: I really -- I mean, from the political conversations to the conversations on Capitol Hill, I'm still just shocked that I -- I mean, I hear -- I hear only -- I hear no compromise coming. I know that there are talks -- LANZA: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: -- happening, but even between you guys, you guys are like the embodiment of what I'm looking at from Capitol Hill and beyond. It's like you both feel very righteous in the position that you have and there is just millions of people stuck in the middle.

Let me show you these pictures, guys. Pull up the pictures from outside Los Angeles. I saw these yesterday and these imagines --

LANZA: Um-hum.

BOLDUAN: -- were just jarring. Not airports -- the lines going to -- going for the food boxes. We're going to pull these up for you at some point. But it shows -- and I hope guys can see it on your monitors -- a lineup of people waiting for food boxes from a drive-thru distribution center outside of -- outside of Los Angeles. Lines stretched miles long. Law enforcement had to direct traffic because of it.

[07:45:00]

The boxes were 46 pounds of food -- of shelf stable food, fresh produce, chicken. People in line for miles --

LANZA: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: -- to get food.

I say this not -- like, I don't know -- say in the political sense or not but, like, how is that not moving the needle here, Bryan?

LANZA: Yeah. Listen, it's painful and those images do move the needle. But you also have to think of the bigger picture, right? You know, Chuck is saying people are hurting. So if people are hurting, is it really the solution to dump money on a problem that's just not working? The health care cost is going up in the private sector. It is going up in the public sector. And it is clearly a result of Obamacare.

Why would we double down on a system that's already failing? Let's come up with a system that works but let's not hold the American people hostage. The problem we have here is the Democrats want to hold the American people hostage over a -- over health care that's costs are rising by their own definition.

So that, to me -- you know, Trump is a businessman. It doesn't make sense. We know people are hurting. Our base is hurting. Their base is hurting. I think any time after 30 days in both political parties' poll numbers start to drop. This is a win for nobody.

But at the end of the day, Chuck is right. If it becomes about affordability, why are we dumping money in Obamacare when it's proven it's not affordable?

BOLDUAN: Chuck, one last thought. ROCHA: Look, as we get towards the holidays keep tuned -- stay tuned as they say in show business. I think you're going to see folks getting to this before we get to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Democrats got a lot of this on Election Day by proving a point of where the American people were, so I think we're going to get to a solution, and I hope we do, and I think it's going to be soon.

BOLDUAN: Hmm.

Bryan, good to see you. Chuck, good to see you. Thanks so much for coming in, guys -- Sara.

LANZA: Have a great day.

SIDNER: All right. New this morning the U.S. military has carried out a new strike against alleged drug trafficker in the Caribbean, killing three people in a vessel. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted video of the strike on social media. He claims the military attacked a "designated terrorist organization." But still, no proof has been provided.

The U.S. reports 70 people killed in 17 strikes in the Caribbean. The Trump administration has told Congress the U.S. is now in an armed conflict against drug cartels, labeling those killed "unlawful combatants."

All right. New details in Tuesday's horrific UPS plane crash in Louisville, Kentucky. The confirmed death toll going up. It's now 13, including all three crewmembers on that craft. UPS has now confirmed the crews' identities and expressed deep sorrow over the deaths of Captain Dana Diamond and first officer Lee Truitt. Also, Captain Richard Wartenberg.

Rescuers have now shifted from search to recovery as families wait for word on at least nine people who are still unaccounted for. The NTSB expected to release a preliminary report within 30 days.

All right. The AI bubble may be losing some of its air. NVIDIA shares tumbling and dragging the Nasdaq with them. Now there are questions about just how long this tech surge can last.

And a Florida man dangling from a hole in the ceiling. How it started, why he's there, and how it ended.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:52:23]

BOLDUAN: So you may have heard it. Tesla shareholders have approved a pay package that could make Elon Musk the world's first trillionaire. This money would come in the form of Tesla shares and that would be worth $1 trillion over the course of the next 10 years. It is a number, when you look at it, that is hard to wrap your mind around.

So to start it is the equivalent of making $275 million a day, and after picking your jaw up off the ground it is likely maybe also having you wondering what could that get you. The short answer is everything.

With $1 trillion you have now the ability to buy 1,428 Shohei Ohtanis. The Dodgers superstar has a $700 million contract. You could also -- if that's not your jam, you could also buy 10,000 Starbucks CEOs. The coffee chain boss makes $100 million a year.

If you want a Coca-Cola comparison we have it for you. You can buy Coca-Cola, the entire company, as well as a Coke for every person on the planet. And not to outdone, you could also buy Switzerland. You may not be able to buy a country -- maybe that's still in dispute -- but that is about the equivalent of Switzerland's GDP right now.

So in the off chance that someone has a physical pile of $1 trillion we wanted to show you what it would actually look like compared to other large mounds of cash.

For the purposes of this exercise, let us show you now what $1 million dollars would look like in our studio. Yes, one can dream. Then let's show you $1 million compared to a billion dollars. With a billion dollars you could spend over $100,000 a day for 25 years and still have money left over. So on to that. That is a trillion dollars. You can barely see the million. The billion is also teeny in comparison.

And as our money team put it, we are entering an era in which companies and their CEOs can amass wealth in numbers so large our brains actually don't know how to understand them -- Sara.

SIDNER: That is wild.

All right. On our radar today a Virginia jury has awarded $10 million to a teacher who was shot by a 6-year-old student in her classroom. Abby Zwerner sued the school's former assistant principal Ebony Parker, accusing her of ignoring excessive warnings that the student may have brought a gun to school that morning in 2023. That shooting left Zwerner with extension injuries to her hand and chest.

[07:55:00]

The criminal trial against Parker now set to begin next month. That was the civil case. She faces eight counts of felony child neglect.

In Thailand, contestants walking out of a Miss Universe pre-pageant event in support of Miss Mexico. That was because she was berated by a pageant organizer. It happened in the middle of the event. The organizer was upset with Miss Mexico for not posting enough content that was promotional about Thailand. Some reports say he called her "dumb" and "stupid."

Mexico's president spoke out in her defense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM, MEXICO (through translator): I mean, women look more beautiful when we raise our voices and participate because that has to do with the recognition of our rights. So I recognize this young woman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So did the other contestants. Many of them going right on with her, walking out of there. The organizer has since apologized.

And three classic toys have been inducted into the U.S. National Toy Hall of Fame. They include Milton Bradley's -- remember that -- Milton Bradley? Milton Bradley's naval combat game Battleship -- it was originally played with paper and pencil before the plastic version sold more than 100 million copies and even inspired a movie. Another honoree, Trivial Pursuit. The board game has tested players' knowledge of obscure facts for generations. And I know you've seen this in your house Kate, Slime.

BOLDUAN: Oh.

SIDNER: The icky, sticky favorite that's more squash than --

BOLDUAN: Yes. Sorry, sorry. Was that my inside voice?

SIDNER: Those three beat out some others that were on the list: Furby, Tickle Me Elmo. I'm sorry. Why does that make -- Tickle Me Elmo.

BOLDUAN: Why does it make you laugh? Why does it make you laugh, Sara?

SIDNER: Hee-hee -- sorry.

And the Star Wars lightsaber. I'm mad about that one. That one should definitely be in the Hall of Fame, according to me -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: No -- you still have more.

SIDNER: Oh, I still have more.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

SIDNER: I'm stuck in the toys. I love toys. All right, I'll bring a Slinky in tomorrow.

Dramatic body camera video now out of Florida. I wanted to skip this because my home state is delivering yet another story that we can be proud of. It shows the moment of a suspected car thief falling through an attic. It happened while he was hiding from deputies. Investigators say he was wanted for a truck theft. When they came looking for him -- boom. There it happened right into their arms almost.

BOLDUAN: Aw, how valiant.

SIDNER: He just sort of fell through the ceiling there. Well, unfortunately for him he faces multiple felony charges now -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: And a bruise to his ego as well.

SIDNER: Yes, big time.

BOLDUAN: OK. Thanks so much, Sara.

So this morning we are watching the markets to see if tech stocks can rebound after a big slide yesterday. Take a look. Tech giant NVIDIA fell three percent. Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices slumped seven. Palantir fell more than six percent.

The official -- the artificial intelligence boom has really pushed stocks -- the stock market to record highs this year, but also with it, it is now triggering growing worry that all of this adds up to showing the hallmarks of a classic bubble.

Joining me right now is CNN global economic analyst Rana Foroohar, also global business columnist and associate at her -- at the Financial Times. Rana, there was growing fears that we're watching an AI bubble. Do you see it?

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST, GLOBAL BUSINESS COLUMNIST AND ASSOCIATE, FINANCIAL TIMES (via Webex by Cisco): Oh, 100 percent. I mean, this is all the classic signs of a bubble.

First of all, there's one narrative. AI is going to change your life. It's going to change everything -- every sector. I mean, that is the classic bubble narrative. Also, just the sheer amount of spending that you are seeing. I mean, you know, billions -- hundreds of billions of dollars per year on server farms -- the energy that is needed to fuel this new technology.

Now, we've seen some productivity gains from AI, but we have not yet seen the across-the-board gains that would justify these kinds of valuations. That's not to say that won't happen over years, over decades, but in the short term I think there is little doubt that there is going to be a bigger correction at some point than we've seen. And, in fact, banks have been worrying about that. You see Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley telling clients look, get ready for up to a 20 percent correction at some point.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon also. His take on it was kind of like yes, and. I mean, he was talking to CNN's Erin Burnett --

FOROOHAR: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: -- and he was like either way. His take was AI is real and capable of making companies, as he put it, hugely productive. Though he did say not all and kind of concede that not all AI companies are going to -- are going to succeed. It's going to be -- it's going to be like a dot.com bubble.

And what he said was, "It's like the internet thing. They may not all pay off, but you did get Google, Facebook, YouTube, part of Microsoft, Amazon, Salesforce."

So a bubble here --

FOROOHAR: For sure. For sure.

BOLDUAN: -- may not be a bad -- the -- you know, I don't know. The bad -- a bad thing or the worst thing ever.

FOROOHAR: Well, it's interesting, you know. You talk about a good bubble and a bad bubble. I mean, you need -- you need bubbles actually. Speculation is what fuels innovation ultimately.

BOLDUAN: Um-hum.