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Trump Administration Resists Paying SNAP Benefits; Trump Lashes Out at Air Traffic Controllers; Trump Meets With Syrian President; Shutdown Deal. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired November 10, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:01]

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"CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Deadlocked no more. Senate Democrats agree to a deal to reopen the government, but there are several steps before it's official and the deal is infuriating some Democrats, who are calling this surrender.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: And that deal can't come soon enough for American travelers, more than 1,700 flight cancellations and 4,000 delays at U.S. airports today alone, as the president is issuing a threat to air traffic controllers who don't show up for work.

Also, he once fought against American forces in Iraq, earning a $10 million bounty on his head, but now Syria's president is making a historic visit to the White House.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: After 40 days and some change, the Senate is now poised to pass a deal to end the longest government shutdown in American history, but it's left Democrats bitterly divided.

Seven Democrats and one independent broke ranks with the party to advance the plan, even though it doesn't include the one thing that Democrats insisted they were fighting for, an extension of Obamacare subsidies. We will have more on that soon, because, as soon as today, the Senate could hold a full vote to officially pass the deal.

It would then head to the House, where Speaker Mike Johnson would put members on a 36-hour notice to return to D.C. Johnson has said he would like to hold a vote on Wednesday, meaning, by the end of the week, the measure could reach President Trump's desk, ending the shutdown, at least for three months anyway.

CNN senior reporter Annie Grayer is live for us on Capitol Hill.

All right, Annie, first things first. What's in the deal? What's not in the deal?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, what is in the deal is extending government funding until January 30 and then extending some key government agencies through the end of fiscal year 2026. So that means that, if the government were to shut down again, critical food assistance would continue to go out.

It also reverses firings that happen during the shutdown and makes sure that all federal workers, including furloughed workers, get paid as a result that happened during the shutdown. But what is not in this deal is a guarantee or an extension of those expiring Obamacare subsidies that Democrats made the center point of their shutdown argument as they were fighting to combat the rising costs of health care for over 20 million Americans.

Instead, what they got was a guarantee from Republicans on a vote on those expiring subsidies, but no guarantee if that vote will pass. And even if it does pass, there's no guarantee that the House would even take it up. In fact, I'm told that House Speaker Mike Johnson just said on a private call with House Republicans that he has no plans of taking that up.

So, a lot of Democrats are furious at those eight Democratic senators who decided to vote for this bill. But we will see if the Senate actually makes moves on this today, which would set up a House vote as soon as Wednesday.

KEILAR: And tell us about the reaction that you're hearing there on the Hill.

GRAYER: So, of those eight Democratic senators who voted for this, their argument is, this was the best option that we could get. They were looking at President Trump's comments closely and said that the president was increasingly against those Obamacare subsidies and thought that meant that there was no deal to be had.

And they said getting Republicans to guarantee a vote in the Senate was a big deal, given that Republicans control the floor in the Senate. So Democrats getting a say what goes on that floor is a big deal.

But progressives and outside groups are furious. This was the fixture of the Democratic argument in this shutdown. And Democrats are going to be walking away without any guarantees here. So take a listen to how both sides of the party are framing last night's vote. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ANGUS KING (I-ME): If the battle plan isn't working, you change the battle plan, you try another tactic, especially if what's happening is danger to your troops.

SEN. JEANNE SHAHEEN (D-NH): All those people who opposed this agreement, staying in a shutdown mode was not getting us anywhere. And they need to train their fire on the people who are responsible.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Now, I know as part of this resolution, that the majority leader is going to say, well, Democrats can create, put together their own bill and it will come to the floor here in the Senate for a vote. As everybody here knows, that is a totally meaningless gesture.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:05:10]

GRAYER: So, we will see how Democrats come out of this vote. We will see if the Senate is able to finish this up today. And then, again, it heads to the House. There's a whole other host of issues before it can head to President Trump's desk.

KEILAR: All right, Annie, thank you for the latest there from Capitol Hill, Annie Grayer -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: We're also seeing a historic first at the White House today. Syria's president, who once fought against U.S. forces in Iraq, meeting with President Trump earlier today.

Former rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa is the first Syrian head of state welcomed into the Oval Office, his visit coming just a year after he assumed power in the war-torn Middle Eastern nation, and just a little more than a decade after he formed an al Qaeda-backed rebel force there.

CNN's Alayna Treene is live for us at the White House tracking the latest.

Alayna, what are officials there saying about this visit?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, we know, Boris, that the meeting is ongoing. He -- the Syrian president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, arrived at the White House shortly before noon.

This meeting is closed, so we have not had an opportunity to go in there and ask them questions. And we are hoping that, once it wraps, we will get a formal readout. But, look, this is a very historic meeting, one that was once unthinkable, that the U.S. commander in chief would be meeting with a man who had faced Americans on the battlefield.

You mentioned this, but it is the first visit by a Syrian head of state in history. I'd remind you that, in 1946, actually, was when Syria gained independence from France. And so this has never happened before.

And it comes, of course, months after we know that al-Sharaa had appointed himself to become president after toppling the half-a- century-old Assad family regime in December. Now, this isn't the first time, I should note, that President Donald Trump is meeting with Syria's new leader. They did meet back in May, when President Donald Trump was in the Middle East.

He's actually met with him in Syria. The two had tea. And at the time, President Donald Trump had referred to al-Sharaa as an attractive guy with a very strong past. And in that visit, the president had ordered the easing and the lifting of the crippling sanctions on Syria, ones that had been in place for years because of the Assad family's human rights abuses.

Now, there are a couple of big goals, particularly on the side of al- Sharaa, for his visit here at the White House. One, of course, is just getting rid of the isolationism that Syria had faced for decades because of the Assad regime. But it's also wanting to ensure that they could ease sanctions more permanently.

And to really do that would require an act of Congress. So I'm sure that is part of the discussion, of course, that is happening behind closed doors. We also know Syria's leader is interested in trying to urge the president, convince him to have Israel kind of cease some of their attacks in Syria as well,so all of that likely to be discussed.

Now, on the White House side and what President Trump is looking to gain from this, we have heard from the White House press secretary essentially saying that the president will meet with any leader to help kind of create more peace in the Middle East.

We know that has been one of the top priorities of President Trump's for months now in his second term. And so this is a step in them trying to kind of calm things down in the region and better relationships, particularly with this new leader in place, so a very historic and remarkable meeting, Boris, today.

SANCHEZ: Alayna Treene live for us on the North Lawn.

Thank you so much, Alayna.

Still to come: President Trump lashing out at air traffic controllers for calling out sick as flight delays and cancellations surge across the country. Hear what the president is now proposing for those who've remained on the job through the shutdown.

Plus, SNAP recipients remain in limbo inside the Trump administration's fight to withhold food stamp benefits.

And later: A 9-year-old girl vanishes. Her mother has just been arrested. But officials say it's not related to the young girl's disappearance. We will explain in just moments on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:13:30]

SANCHEZ: Today, on the 41st day of the shutdown, President Trump is lashing out at air traffic controllers, in a TRUTH Social post, the president demanding that all air traffic controllers must get back to work now, adding that he's not happy with those who took time off or complained during the shutdown, even suggesting he may give a $10,000 bonus to those who didn't miss any work.

Despite progress on ending the standoff, nearly 3,000 flights have already been canceled for today and tomorrow, as staffing shortages are reported at more than a dozen airports. Last weekend was the worst we have seen for staffing at air traffic control towers since the start of the shutdown.

You can see the numbers there, a staggering number of delays and cancellations.

CNN's Omar Jimenez is at Newark Liberty International Airport.

Omar, what is the situation like at Newark? What are you hearing from passengers there?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, passengers have these delays and cancellations on their mind. Some of them have got here, gotten here extra early. Others have been dealing with cancellations. Others, this is their second day in a row at the airport after trying to have gotten out yesterday.

We have been monitoring this board. It's not really a situation at the moment, at least here at Newark, where you have got ed all the way down and flights completely canceled. Instead, what we have seen is a slow trickle in over the course of the day. And what's been interesting is that, even when you look at the security line, it's not one of those crazy situations like you might anticipate around the holidays, where it's packed out and completely backed up.

[13:15:00]

Instead, what we have seen is people getting those notices that flights are canceled. They're either not showing up or waiting for developments on the other side of security. When you look across the country, you have already seen more than 1,700 cancellations today and even already tomorrow, almost up to 1,000 cancellations to this point.

And this comes on the other side of a weekend where we saw more than 10,000 delays just on Sunday and nearly 3,000 cancellations on Sunday. And it's, of course, some of the first significant effects we have seen as part of the government shutdown, tied to it, where the FAA has mandated that 4 percent of flights be cut.

And the reason that's significant is because, as this week goes on and the longer the shutdown goes on, that percentage of flights impacted is expected to increase, potentially up to 10 percent by Friday. Now, I mentioned I have been talking to some passengers here.

I want you to listen to a few of them, specifically this first person who was trying to get to Portland and then was redirected to Seattle and then this morning had that Seattle portion delayed and he ended up in this situation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FABIANO JOHANN, AIR TRAVELER: Now they're -- me booking another flight to San Francisco, which it doesn't guarantee that I'm going to get there, because I have to count the flight here is not delayed and the flight in San Francisco is not delayed.

So, just praying, wishing the best for everybody in this airport. I have two kids at home. My partner's supposed to be working today. And so today we don't have day care.

JOLEE CYPHERT, AIR TRAVELER: The uncertainty of like not having any control, no matter how organized you are, because you might get there and it's just not available to you, is a little scary, especially when you have a whole life that you have to get home to.

MIKE, AIR TRAVELER: Total confidence I will get where I'm going today. Coming back on Saturday, that's another interview.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Yes, so clearly on the minds of a lot of people.

And it also shows, one delay here, even if it's a few hours, if you're trying to connect somewhere else, it makes you miss something else and then you deal with it on the other end, so just a mess here as those in government try to figure out next steps.

SANCHEZ: Omar Jimenez live for us at Newark.

Thank you so much, Omar -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Now to the chaos and uncertainty for millions of Americans desperately waiting for critical food stamp benefits. Despite the progress on ending the shutdown, today, the Trump administration is still pressing the Supreme Court to extend its pause on a judge's order that requires the USDA to provide full SNAP benefits.

The back-and-forth court battle has left one in eight Americans who rely on the food program to buy groceries in limbo.

CNN's Rene Marsh is with us now.

All right, Rene, help us understand where things stand with SNAP as we're waiting for the shutdown to end.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, this issue has become the issue that is the most tangible in painting the picture of how the American public is really getting hurt by this longest shutdown in American history. As you said, it's been a political and legal battle that's been back

and forth, leaving millions of Americans in limbo as to whether they will have the funds that they need in order to get food on the table for their families.

I have a timeline and we need a timeline because it is so confusing and it has been such a back-and-forth. On Thursday of last week, the USDA, the Trump administration was ordered by a federal judge in Rhode Island to fully fund SNAP benefits for the month of November.

And despite filing an appeal and asking the Supreme Court to block that order, on Friday, the USDA told states that it will pay the funds in full. But then by over the weekend, they then reneged on that and on Saturday told states to undo any payments they had been making. And, by Sunday, an appeals court then weighed in and said, you do, in fact, have to pay this in full.

And then here we are today, the Trump administration still fighting this, despite that appeals court saying that they have to pay these payments in full. They are fighting to only pay partial payments, not the full payment.

And really at the heart of what's happening here is, when the government shut down, the funding that's available for SNAP eventually depleted. And so the USDA had to come to a decision, was it going to dip into emergency funds, as well as move other money around within the agency to enable it to continue this program during the shutdown?

They had to be forced every step of the way. The court is the one that forced them essentially to make these partial payments by dipping into this emergency fund to issue payments for November. The sticking point right now is the full benefits. And in order to pay the full benefits, they would have to move money around.

They don't want to do that. However, we should note they have done that for other programs. They have moved money around to pay the military. They have moved money around to continue to fund WIC, which is another assistance program within the USDA.

[13:20:06]

But this is a program they have isolated in which they did not want to move money around. So here we are today. We are well into November and 42 million people are still in limbo. What it looks like in practical terms, some have received some full benefits because of during this brief moment over the weekend when the agency said they would pay in full, states rushed to pay some, but others only received partial and some have not received.

So it really depends on where individuals live as to whether they have funds on their cards or not. I hope you're not too confused.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: No, it is confusing. And imagine the people out there relying on this. They're confused and they're making really tough decisions. So, Rene, thanks for taking us through that. Really, really helpful.

Next: The Supreme Court agrees to hear a major elections case regarding mail-in ballots. It's something that President Trump has sought to end completely.

And the head of the FDA says women's health issues haven't received the attention they deserve. We're going to take a look at the major changes the agency is making to some medications.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:25:44]

KEILAR: New today, the Supreme Court rejecting a bid to overturn its landmark ruling guaranteeing same-sex marriage nationwide, the justices denying an appeal from former Kentucky County clerk Kim Davis.

She now faces hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. It's a huge relief to LGBTQ advocates who feared the conservative court might be ready to revisit the decade old decision.

CNN chief Supreme Court analyst Joan Biskupic is here.

Tell us more about this decision today.

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN CHIEF SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Sure.

This time around, it was really cut and dried. They disgusted in their private conference on Friday, Kim Davis' petition. And, today, with no recorded vote, no dissent, no statement of any kind, they rejected it with a very brief order this morning.

And this is slightly different from when she was rejected in 2020. first of all, let's all recall 2015, when the justices have this milestone ruling for the first time saying that same-sex couples can get married. And since then, we have had some 600,000 gay and lesbian couples marry.

So there's been a lot of people taking advantage of this, many families built around this idea that this is constitutional. And she has been challenging this ever since she was ordered to give this gay couple a marriage license. She rejected it.

And, as you say, she's been subject to so many penalties since. But she's tried to come up to the Supreme Court before. And in 2020, when she came up, her case was rejected then. But two justices wanted to talk about how Obergefell v. Hodges, the 2015 ruling, was still troubling.

This time, those two justices, Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito, said nothing. I thought that was just yet another sign that this Supreme Court, with maybe a majority that wouldn't have done it back in 2015, because three key votes have since left the court for that ruling, even if they wouldn't have done it, they're willing to let it stand and let it stand without signaling, come back, although, as you know, those representing Kim Davis and others against same-sex marriage are vowing to continue to challenge Obergefell v. Hodges.

KEILAR: Yes, really interesting there.

BISKUPIC: Yes.

KEILAR: Also at the court today, the justices agreed to decide if mail-in ballots can arrive after Election Day. Tell us about that.

BISKUPIC: Sure.

The case was brought from challengers in Mississippi. Mississippi is one of about 15 states that allow ballots to be counted within about five days of the Election Day, the official Election Day. And the Republican National Committee and other Republican officials in the state sued Mississippi saying, no, they have to come in by Election Day and irrespective of when they're postmarked, irrespective of giving this grace period of five days.

Now, a lower appellate court, the Fifth Circuit, agreed with the challengers, saying Election Day means Election Day and everything should be in and counted, votes should be cast and received by Election Day, no grace period.

So, as I said, this could affect 15 states and maybe more depending on just -- Mississippi passed this law during COVID-19, thinking that people needed a little bit of grace period there. But we will see how the justices rule before the 2026 elections and it could make a difference to voters in many states.

KEILAR: Yes, that's really interesting. We will be watching that.

Joan, thank you for all of that.

BISKUPIC: Sure.

KEILAR: Democrats are accusing some members of their own party of capitulating after eight senators side with Republicans and agree to reopen the government, but without an extension of those key Obamacare subsidies, the key demand of Democrats.

We're going to talk to one of the members who voted yes right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)