Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Interview with Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-FL): Schumer Presents Democratic Offer to End Shutdown; China's Most Advanced Carrier Yet Joins Its Fleet; Brutal Arctic Blast to Sweep Across U.S. Aired 2:30- 3p ET

Aired November 07, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN HOST: Today, major headaches continue at airports around the country. Over 2,000 flights delayed. Over 800 flights canceled. The FAA is slashing 4 percent of air traffic today at 40 of the busiest airports.

Any moment now, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is set to present a Democratic offer to end the shutdown, but at this point, there's no real expectation the Republicans will take that offer. We're going to keep monitoring that in the moments ahead.

But for right now, I want to start with Republican Congressman Jimmy Patronis of Florida, who joins us now live. And Congressman, I'm sure you're as intrigued to hear what the Senate Democratic leader was going to say on the floor as we are as well, so we're going to keep monitoring that as we talk.

But just as we start here, watching what's happening in airports around the country with what's been happening with air traffic controllers, do you think this is the pressure point that maybe puts an end or starts the process to an end of shutdown?

REP. JIMMY PATRONIS (R-FL), TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE COMMITTEE: Well, it'll be the start, and you know, as our airports are the backbone of our economy in the United States, I can't imagine this country operating without them. So as you have delays, interruptions, cancellations, not only does this affect the airline industry with a real fiscal punch to the gut for them, but then people trying to do business are not able to get from point A to point B. So this dependency and frustration, look, it happens when people don't call in to work and they don't show up.

So this is what's happening with our air traffic controllers and to a certain degree our TSA agents. They like to be paid.

MATTINGLY: Without question, and they should be paid. There's no question about that as well. I do want to ask you, we've talked to kind of analysts, observers of the industry, say going from 4 to 6 to 10 percent next week to potentially 20 percent, which is what Secretary Duffy floated, if this continues, they feel like it seems arbitrary. There's no real sense as to whether or not this is a necessity in this moment. You're on the Transportation Committee. Have you been informed that this is something that absolutely has to happen?

PATRONIS: I'm on the committee, but that is not a schedule of how the percentage was like orchestrated to take place. But I know this, each one of these organizations, they have their own union groups. There's collective bargaining that takes place.

They're raising cane not only with the Democrats in the Senate, but they're raising cane with all government leaders. So again, these are some pressure points that we're feeling when it comes to union negotiations and what they expect to see happen also.

[14:35:11]

So, you know, Sean Duffy's got his hands full managing all these operations. And when you're trying to make people come to work without a paycheck, sometimes that just doesn't work.

MATTINGLY: When it comes to the Affordable Care Act subsidies, obviously this has been the number one ask of Democrats from the very start of this process. The negotiations that were happening behind the scenes between some Senate Democratic moderate members and their Republican counterparts seemed to run off track when it was made pretty clear your speaker, Speaker Johnson, was not going to commit to any vote on whatever they came up with on the ACA subsidies.

Why not just have a vote? Just commit to a vote.

PATRONIS: You know, what's what's crazy is we've already passed a clean CR that funds the subsidies that funds air traffic controllers. This was a bipartisan clean CR 26 pages. And the Democrats, you know, look, they got their Messiah elected with Mamdani.

Why can't we just all get back to work for the people that put us in office? But you know, I feel like Schumer is going to come out and try to roll something out to give them some air cover. So it shows that they fought against Donald Trump.

But you know, the darn thing is, is the Republicans in the House did our job. We funded government and the election's over. Guys, let's get back to work.

This is this is horrible what we're doing to the American public.

MATTINGLY: There's no -- no argument on the clean. You guys put a clean bill on the floor. You have passed it.

The House passed it. The Senate passed it more than a dozen times at this point. But in the midst of open enrollment, people are seeing what will happen to their health care costs at the end of the year.

What are you hearing from constituents? This is not an R&D blue versus R type of issue. This is happening in districts across the country. Are you hearing concerns about increases in premiums?

PATRONIS: So the calls I've been getting in my office have been primarily focused about five to one on government shutdown, because I have a district with a lot of military families. Five to one government shutdown affecting my paycheck versus Obamacare enhanced COVID subsidies. So we are hearing something about it.

But but I care about people making ends meet. I care about people being able to buy Christmas toys for their kids. I care about being able to pay their power bill.

And right now, I'm not taking a paycheck. You know, if our folks in District one are getting paid, then I don't want a paycheck either. This isn't right.

MATTINGLY: We want to play some of what we heard from Senator Schumer, who was on the floor just moments ago. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: So after the government reopens, therefore, we'd like to offer a simple proposal that would reopen the government and extend the ACA premium tax credits simultaneously. And then have the opportunity to start negotiating longer term solutions to health care costs. Let's do all three. I've spoken with my caucus and Democrats are offering a very simple compromise.

Democrats are ready to clear the way to quickly pass a government funding bill that includes health care affordability. Leader Thune just needs to add a clean one year extension of the ACA tax credits to the CR so that we can immediately address rising health care costs. That's not a negotiation.

It's an extension of current law, something we do all the time around here, as we all know. But we also offer this. Let's create a bipartisan committee that will continue negotiations after the government reopens on reforms ahead of next year's enrollment period to provide long term certainty that health care costs will be more affordable.

This proposal reopens the government and ensures working families who are shopping right now for their health care get certainty and financial relief. While open enrollment has begun, insurers can update their rates after we pass a simple extension of the tax credits. With this approach, we do not negotiate health care in the shutdown as Leader Thune has maintained he wishes, and the American people get the tax credit extension they want.

That is what many of our Republican colleagues have floated over the last six weeks as a compromise. A one year tax credit extension and reforms to the credit beyond that. We will agree with the Republican request not to start negotiations until after the government reopens.

All Republicans have to do is say yes to extend current law for one year. It makes sense. And since what we're proposing is only a simple extension of current law, the Senate could do this within a few hours.

[14:40:00]

This is a reasonable offer that reopens the government, deals with health care affordability, and begins a process of negotiating reforms to the ACA tax credits for the future. Now, the ball is in the Republicans' court.

We need Republicans to just say yes. I yield to Senator Peters.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: You were just listening to Senator Chuck Schumer, who was laying out the unified Democratic proposal was how he framed it, which is a bill to reopen, a resolution to reopen the federal government, as well as a one year extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies that have been at the heart of the Democratic asks over the course of the last 38, 39 days at this point in time, and then a commitment to negotiate for a longer term deal on those subsidies in the year ahead.

Obviously, open enrollment is still going on. I believe we still have the Congressman with us, Congressman Jimmy Petronas. Your initial reaction to what you heard from Leader Schumer there?

PATRONIS: You know, what it sounds like he's proposing sounds great on paper in a soundbite, and it's, you know, all unified. My concern is, is the extension of the Obamacare subsidies, what is the fiscal impact? You can't just necessarily develop what that impact is to the federal budget within a few hours, as he's suggesting this vote could take place.

So at least they're coming to their senses. But look, they got their elections over. They got their new Democratic leader, Mamdani, elected, the communist socialist who's going to lead, you know, the Democrats now moving forward.

So, you know, I feel like he's got to try to find some air cover in order to try to stabilize because he's got a lot of members that have been getting lit up by their constituents because they want government open, and they deserve to have functional government back open.

MATTINGLY: The one-year extension of the current subsidies, and I understand, to score it and see, I guess there are probably a debate about being offset, they're also just policy --

PATRONIS: Right.

MATTINGLY: -- concerns that members of your conference have in both the Senate and the House about any extension whatsoever. But there is a bipartisan bill, I believe it's from one of your colleagues, Congresswoman Kiggans, off the top of my head -- apologies if I'm wrong on that -- but it's a couple dozen, I believe, co-sponsors. If you put that on the floor, the votes are there for a majority.

Is that in part why the speaker has not been willing to commit to that, doesn't want to fracture your conference? PATRONIS: Yes, I'm not exactly familiar with that particular piece of legislation that you're referring to. But, you know, we passed a clean CR that would have kept all of these subsidies in place until the end of the year. And what we passed was going to expire on November 21st anyway, so we were about to start this process all over again.

We literally set 39 days on fire and accomplished nothing when we could have been working on this the whole entire time in order to have something that made sense for all parties at the table. So, I mean, it's nice to see that the Democrats are finally wanting to do their job. Unfortunately, it's just not as a walk in the park as Leader Schumer is making it out to be.

MATTINGLY: Yes, I don't think anybody can quibble with that point. Congressman Jerry Petronas, really appreciate your time sticking with us throughout this. Thanks so much.

PATRONIS: Sure, take care.

MATTINGLY: Well, China is one step closer to catching up with the U.S. on naval supremacy. The Chinese just unveiled their newest and most capable aircraft carrier. How it compares to the ones in the U.S. Navy? We'll explain next.

[14:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: A superpower flex on the seas, China's most advanced aircraft carrier yet officially joining its fleet today as China tries to catch up with the U.S. on naval supremacy. For a closer look, we're joined by CNN military analyst, retired Colonel Cedric Leighton. So Colonel Leighton, when we look at this, this carrier, it's called the Fujian, put in perspective for us just how significant is this development?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: So this is China's third aircraft carrier. And what's neat about this is that it actually has the capability to put Chinese jets in position that are closer to places like Guam and the Philippines and Taiwan. So it is a definitely something that will project power for the Chinese.

President Xi himself went to the unveiling, the dedication of this aircraft carrier. Now the one big difference between it and the Gerald R. Ford, which is right here, is the fact that the Fujian is diesel powered.

Ours, the Gerald R. Ford, is actually a nuclear powered aircraft carrier and it has the capacity really for more aircraft of different types compared to the Fujian. But it is definitely a power projection effort on the part of the Chinese because when you look here, of course, this is the Luzon Island in the Philippines, this is Taiwan, Guam and all the Marianas Islands are out in this area.

And you have China really wanting to control, at the very least, this area right in here and possibly even as far out as Taiwan. So this will allow them to do that. And if they want to project power even further, they can do so by moving out into the Pacific.

This will give them extended range even beyond this line right here and potentially they could go into the middle of the Pacific, like to Hawaii or a place like that.

HILL: Which then raises some other questions. One of them being, does this put pressure on the U.S. Navy?

[14:50:00]

LEIGHTON: It certainly does. You know, one of the key things for the U.S. Navy is that it's going to have to really be able to maintain all of its bases in the Western Pacific. And that includes bases up north of here in the Japanese area, but also to use areas such as the Philippines as a springboard for potential efforts against the Chinese. So if you're in a place like this, you're going to have to be able to project power here.

And the other thing that's going to be really important is if the Chinese bring their aircraft carrier close to Taiwan, it's going to be a lot more difficult for us to come in and do some things, you know, in these areas where we could actually counter them.

So this is really a message to the U.S. saying that if you're going to do anything with Taiwan, we're going to have power projection capability that is at least equal to yours. And that's really a major issue.

HILL: Yes, it's quite a message. That's for sure. So we're talking about this, this military might in the sea, but there is also when it comes to land, there's a bit of a flex happening there too.

CNN has this really impressive investigative piece. It's on the on the homepage in case people haven't seen it yet. So it's the satellite images, right, that we see here, maps, records.

There has been a massive surge when it comes to China's missile production sites.

LEIGHTON: Yes. So, for example, right here, what we have is an area of -- this is the before picture, basically. And what you see is basically a rural area.

Well, if I step over here, I take a look here and see how much the Chinese have actually built. And these areas are designed for things like the construction of hypersonic weapons. So what we're seeing is China is actually involved in an arms race.

We're not participating in it right now because we're not paying attention to it. But this is a wake up call because what they can do is they can produce hypersonic missiles. They can produce, you know, weapons of other types.

Their whole drone capabilities are pretty extensive as well. They have a missile called the DF-26D, which is known as the Guam killer, which is designed to go after the U.S. installations on Guam. And this is where they're building these things.

They're building them. They're testing them in buildings like this. It's an absolutely critical capability that the Chinese are putting together.

And this is multiplied by well over 100 times. So it's not just what you see in this particular installation, but there are over 170 different installations in China that are developing defense technologies and defense weapons systems. And they're doing it in a very concerted fashion.

HILL: Yes, certainly something to watch very, very closely. Colonel, always appreciate it. Thank you.

LEIGHTON: Thank you, Erica.

HILL: Well, an Arctic blast is going to bring the very first taste of winter to much of the U.S. We're going to take a closer look at those low temperatures, just how much they could plunge after a quick break.

[14:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: Now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. Police in Spain say they've arrested 13 suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The operation was carried out in several cities, with most of the arrests taking place in Barcelona.

Now, officials say after arresting the brother of the gang's global leader last year, they uncovered a criminal network operating across the country with ties to drug trafficking. Authorities are now investigating who else may be connected to the group.

And three new toys have been named to the National Toy Hall of Fame, Battleship, Trivial Pursuit and Slime. The homemade squishy sensory toy that is the bane of my parenting existence, make up the 2025 class of inductees. This year's honorees beat out others, including Tickle Me Elmo, Connect Four and Furby. Voting by the public and a panel of experts determines which toys make their way to the hall inside the strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York.

Well, tens of millions of Americans are bracing for a brutal blast of Arctic air. This weekend, a powerful cold front will begin sweeping across the U.S., bringing freezing temperatures, dangerous wind, chills, even some early season snow to some areas.

CNN's Allison Chinchar is tracking this system closely. Allison, which region should be on high alert?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, so the key thing is that it's going to start in the Midwest and make its way all the way down to the Gulf Coast. In fact, for some of these areas, even though the calendar says November, it is going to feel a lot more like January.

And it's all thanks to these cold fronts, because once they slide through, you're going to see a lot of cold air come in from behind them. And that's what's going to trigger all this pink and purple color you see here on the screen. Yes, that's snow or even a little bit of a wintry mix.

Again, for portions of the Midwest and around the Great Lakes region. But for everybody else, even if you don't necessarily get snow, you are going to feel that cold air. Here's a look at all of that cold air starting Saturday and then spreading all the way down to the Gulf Coast by the time we get to Monday of next week.

We're not just talking a few degrees below normal. All of these dots you see here on the map represent a location that could end up having a record low either Monday or Tuesday. In some places, it could even be for both the high temperature and the low temperature.

So let's take a look at some of the numbers, OK? You already start to see some of those cooler numbers in the upper Midwest for today. By Saturday, we start to see more of them spreading a little bit down towards the Ohio Valley, the Tennessee Valley.

And then once we definitely get to Monday, yes, you even start to see some of the 40 degree temperatures in states like Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi. Again, you're talking temperatures these places would normally not see until the middle of January rather than early November.

Take a look at Atlanta. Not too bad for the first half of the weekend. Saturday is actually relatively nice in terms of mid 70s. But then the bottom drops out by Monday.

You're looking at a high barely into the low 40s. The one bit of good news about all of this is it's a very short lived cold snap because once we get to the back end of next week, you're starting to see those temperatures rebound not just to normal, but even a few degrees above normal. And it's not just cities in the southeast.

Take a look at Washington, D.C. Yet another similar scenario here. The weekend, actually pretty nice. Temperatures ...

END