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Senate Reconvenes After Breakthrough Vote to End Shutdown; Source: Johnson Plans to Swear in Grijalva When House Returns for Funding Bill Vote; Trump Demands Air Traffic Controllers "Get Back to Work Now"; Small Plane Carrying Hurricane Aid for Jamaica Crashes; Today: Senate Could Vote on Deal to End Govt Shutdown; Trump Pardons Allies Who Tried to Overturn 2020 Election. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired November 10, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The research found that high blood pressure worsened by alcohol and drug use led to higher risks of strokes of all types. Experts advise limiting alcohol, controlling blood pressure and maintaining a healthy lifestyle to prevent strokes.

Still plenty more news to come. A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The Senate is a step closer to ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history after a bipartisan breakthrough, but the impact on air travel and SNAP benefits continues.

Plus, President Trump pardons dozens of allies, including his former attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, all accused of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election when he lost the White House to Joe Biden.

Then later, customized meals, a service dog to play with, access to a computer, and visits to exercise areas after hours. A whistleblower says Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, is receiving special treatment in prison.

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

SANCHEZ: Right now, Congress is closing in on a deal to end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history. For the first time in weeks, Speaker Mike Johnson is now urging House members to get back to Washington after seven Senate Democrats and one Independent broke ranks and agreed to a plan to reopen the government.

It is a deal, though, that does not outright extend Obamacare subsidies, and now many Democrats who pushed for the shutdown are furious. Still, the expectation is the Senate could vote as early as today. The bill, of course, would then go to the House, meaning that by the end of the week, theoretically, President Trump could sign it, ending the shutdown for about three months.

CNN's Manu Raju is live on Capitol Hill. Because, Manu, this only extends funding up until January.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, kicking the can down the road. That is actually what Congress does best, and the question's going to be, will this lead to another fight down the road? But for now, a sigh of relief for so many federal workers, in particular, the ones who are not receiving paychecks, have not for the last 41 days and counting amid this very damaging government shutdown, the longest in history. As the consequences pile up, the pressure intensified, leading to a deal that was reached last night in the United States Senate among a handful of Democratic senators along with Republicans to reopen the government, kicking the can down the road on this -- to reopen the government until late January.

But also on the issue of health care, not giving in to what Democrats had demanded from the onset, which was to extend those expiring subsidies under the Affordable Care Act to help people pay for their health care insurance. Instead, what they got was a commitment of a vote on a standalone bill dealing with health care in the Senate by the second week of December, even though there is no commitment by the Speaker of the House to put it on the floor of the House, and that is what's caused so much anger among Democrats, frustration among Democrats, including a senator like Senator Mark Kelly, who's training his anger at Donald Trump, even though there are some questions about Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader who does oppose this bill, but himself is getting some fire from the left.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): I'm frustrated with the White House. This guy has really stuck it to the American people.

RAJU: Do you have confidence in Schumer?

KELLY: Hey, again, this is -- you know, this is about -- I've been here four and a half years now, and, you know, he's been the -- been the leader, and I understand why, you know, people look at this and say, well, this was kind of a rough, you know, period, but it's Donald Trump who forced the government to be shut down. You know, he controls the House and the Senate Republicans listen to him, and this is all on him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So, the question is a matter of when. When will the government reopen? By -- we expect a vote could happen in the Senate potentially as soon as tonight. It does require all 100 senators to agree on a final vote. Meaning, one can object. We already know two senators on the Republican side are making their own requests known. Some Democrats may have their own demands as well, so they had to iron those out before voting the Senate, kicking it over to the House, which could pass this bill potentially by the middle of this week.

SANCHEZ: Yes, hemp farming in Kentucky apparently could play big on when the government is set to reopen. But more importantly, Manu, with House members coming back to Washington, does that mean that Speaker Johnson can now make good on his word to swear in Congresswoman-elect Grijalva from Arizona? What are you hearing about that?

[15:05:00]

RAJU: Yes, for more than a month, she's been waiting to get sworn in amid this fight that's gone back and forth with the Speaker of the House and swearing in the new Democratic congresswoman-elect from Arizona. But we are hearing from our sources that the Speaker does intend to swear in Adelita Grijalva before the House were to vote on this bill to reopen the government.

So then, when she gets sworn in, then Republicans are going to lose two votes on any straight party-line vote. And of course, she would be the 218th signature on that effort to force a vote to release all the Jeffrey Epstein files. So that bill will come to the floor of the House in a matter of days, but then it will go to the Senate where its future is uncertain. Boris.

SANCHEZ: Manu Raju live for us on Capitol Hill. Thank you so much. Brianna?

KEILAR: President Trump attacking air traffic controllers on the 41st day of the government shutdown as a travel nightmare continues to unfold at airports across the country. In a social media post today, the President ordering, quote, "All air traffic controllers must get back to work now," three exclamation points. He also threatened to dock the pay of those who called out during the shutdown and give a $10,000 bonus to the workers that he calls patriots who did not miss any days. Despite progress on ending the standoff, nearly 3,000 flights have already been canceled for today and tomorrow, as staffing shortages have expanded to 25 airports across the country.

CNN's Ryan Young is with us now. He's at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport.

What's it like there at the world's busiest airport, Ryan?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a mixed review. Some people are frustrated. Some people are downright angry at this point about all the delays they've experienced over the last 24 hours or so. When you walk this direction, this line at some point has been wrapped around the building.

But when you look at the big board here, it doesn't show a lot of cancellations. You do see some delayed, some departed, some on time. But the real conversation as you come through here is they've had a pretty good day when it comes to staffing, when it comes to TSA. We're talking about wait times maybe one to two minutes.

But, of course, if you've been waiting for days to get to where you want to go and your flight's been canceled a couple of times, you understand the frustration that folks feel, especially with flight prices being what they are. In fact, take a listen to this traveler who talked about being stuck here in Atlanta and then having something else kind of unfold that he wasn't expecting. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three times, and then we waited three hours. Then,

they canceled the last second and it was a stressful situation. I got a one-year-old. We had to find a hotel. All the hotels are booked because everybody's flights are canceled.

YOUNG: Yes..

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Big headache.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes, imagine traveling with a one-year-old and then having your flight canceled and trying to find a hotel. That's an issue.

At one point, the line went all the way around this direction here for people to rebook their flights. This has been playing out all over the place. We've been looking at the board. We know there's 301 in delays and 226 cancellations at this airport.

Now, at one point, you're talking about this area over here. That's where a lot of people come and sit and wait to see if their flights can go. We talked to one lady who said she's been sitting here with her children since 6 A.M. this morning, hoping that her flight will get green-lighted so she can get out of town.

You understand the frustration, especially for the federal workers who are still having to come to work and do these shifts. But at the same time, if you paid your money for a ticket, you really want to get out of here at this point. Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, for sure. No fun for everyone involved. Let's hope that this gets wrapped up soon. Ryan, thank you ...

YOUNG: Yes.

KEILAR: .... very much.

And we do have some breaking news. A small plane that was bound for Jamaica on a hurricane relief mission has crashed in Florida. The plane appears to have just missed a home and crashed into a neighborhood pond in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Coral Springs. This flight took off from Broward County, which is home to a vibrant Caribbean American community that sprang into action after Hurricane Melissa. Police say they're treating this right now as a recovery effort.

And still to come, from a jihadist that fought American forces in Iraq to global statesman. President Trump meets with Syria's self-appointed president at the Oval Office.

And later, SNAP benefits still in limbo for millions of Americans. Why the White House is once again urging the Supreme Court to allow them to keep full November payments frozen. We'll have that and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [15:13:43]

SANCHEZ: We're watching developments very closely on Capitol Hill where senators could hold a final vote on the bill to reopen the government as soon as today. House Speaker Mike Johnson told his colleagues that he expects a final vote from the House on Wednesday.

KEILAR: This is after more than 40 days of hand-wringing and partisan finger-pointing about who's to blame for this shutdown. And we're joined now by the director for the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, Larry Sabato, to talk about this. He's also the author of "Campaign of Chaos: Trump, Biden, Harris, and the 2024 American Election."

I wonder how you see it, Larry. Democrats are divided on this, so I think we should get your assessment. Is this kind of a caving, a capitulation, or is this Democrats just recognizing the law of diminishing returns and sort of getting out before things get worse for Americans?

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Oh, both is the answer, obviously. The activists in the Democratic Party are furious. You know, you -- you can spend five minutes on social media and figure that out. And you can see why, because they have been told consistently, really on an hourly basis, not just daily basis, that Democrats were in it to end it, and it was going to last as long as it took, and they were going to win this fight. And suddenly, it's -- it's over.

[15:15:04]

Now, technically, only eight senators defected, eight Democratic senators defected, took and they were going to win this fight. And suddenly, it's over. Now, technically, only eight senators defected, eight Democratic senators defected. So, maybe that's -- of some solace. And yet, Tim Kaine gave away the game. If you notice something that he said earlier today, he said there were plenty other Democratic senators who were supportive of this, but were delighted that the eight of us were taking it up.

And notice who they are. They're people who aren't on the ballot in 2026. Either they're retiring or they're on the ballot in 2028 or on the ballot in 2030. And everybody knows how quickly the public moves on, even the activists move on.

So it's hard to believe that this wasn't a -- a broader decision by at least a sizable number of Democrats in the Senate.

SANCHEZ: Larry, what does this tell you about the state of Democratic leadership and specifically Minority Leader Schumer? Because there was a -- a cynical take that part of the reason for the shutdown was that he didn't want to get primaried next year. He might get primaried anyway now.

SABATO: Yes, I think there's a good likelihood of that happening. He did insist, yes. And he gave a speech last night that was spirited and tough. He may have been winking. I don't know. I can't read him that well, but I think it's obvious he's responsible as the leader for the decision that was made.

And Democrats caved, as you mentioned earlier. He simply caved. And if he didn't cave, the Democratic caucus caved. And that is a reflection on his leadership.

KEILAR: How do Americans view it? I mean, when you look at the polls of who they say who is to blame, who comes out of this at least? I don't know if it's scoring more political points, but maybe losing fewer political points.

SABATO: That's a very good question. I'm going to be interested to see the newest polls when they come out in the next few days.

We've seen consistently that Trump and the Republicans were blamed more than the Democrats were for this shutdown. And actually, the margin has grown with recent surveys. Now, does that stay the same or do people reevaluate based on what's happened? It's difficult to say.

I tend to think that Republicans will still receive more of the blame than Democrats. So, that may be some good news for Democrats. But think about what happened last week. You had a Democratic landslide, landslide on Tuesday, not just in a couple of states. There were lots of elections that didn't receive that much attention nationally. And they almost all went Democratic and by wider margins, sometimes much wider margins than expected.

Democrats were euphoric. They were energetic. They were enthusiastic. They were ready to go out and win the midterms of 2026, and it lasted four and a half days. And they were sent from cloud nine to a subterranean purgatory by what the Democrats did, or those eight Democrats did over the weekend. That -- that's just reality. Whether it was good, bad or indifferent, maybe the country was ready for it. And goodness knows nobody wanted to stay at home when they wanted to see their family and friends at Thanksgiving. I get all that. And the pay to federal employees who have been without checks and SNAP beneficiaries and all the rest.

But still, it's just quite a shock to see politicians go from being adamant in one direction to accepting a very different reality without much angst just a few days later.

SANCHEZ: On that note, I know your famed crystal ball is designed to look at campaigns and other things, but I wonder if you see another shutdown looming when funding again runs out in January.

SABATO: Well, Senator Shaheen of -- of New Hampshire was one of the key leaders in this movement to cave. She said it could happen. Every vote is different.

But you know, imagine you're in the Republican leadership in either the House or Senate. Given what's happened, would you consider any threat by Democrats to play the same cards again credible? I mean, I don't -- I don't think they'd be inclined to give in to Democratic demands even if they thought it was credible, but it's really not credible now.

KEILAR: Yes, such a good point. Always cloud nine, never a subterranean purgatory with you.

Larry Sabato, thank you so much for being with us.

SABATO: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: And ahead, President Trump pardoning a long list of his political allies involved in alleged plans to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

[15:19:55]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:24:34]

SANCHEZ: President Trump has pardoned dozens of his allies who were tied to efforts to overturn the 2020 election. It's a list that spans several pages, including Trump's former attorneys, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, plus the President's former chief of staff, Mark Meadows. It even includes Ken Chesebro, who previously pleaded guilty to charges in Georgia. The proclamation states they each received a full, complete and unconditional pardon.

Let's go live to the White House with CNN's Alayna Treene.

Alayna, what more are you hearing about these pardons?

[15:25:05]

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Yes. Well, look, this is a huge deal, Boris. And, of course, it's kind of a symbolic move on behalf of the President to try and absolve some of the people who tried to overturn the 2020 election's results. Now, the full list and proclamation was posted by the Justice Department's pardon attorney, Ed Martin. He said that the proclamation and these pardons include a, quote, full, complete and unconditional pardon for those named.

Now, some of these people, who are on this list of 77 people or so, were also unindicted co-conspirators in some of the indictments that the former president had faced previously. Now, of course, we know that that was in Georgia and in other states. This would only apply to federal law. But that's why this is more likely more symbolic, given that, you know, he wants to show, essentially, that these people are now absolved from their role in that day.

You mentioned some of the names, but the big ones are, of course, the President's former attorneys, people like Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, also the former chief of staff, Mark Meadows. One interesting thing, as well, is we actually heard from one of the President's former DOJ officials during his first term, someone who is now a senior official in the White House's budget office, Jeffrey Clark.

He posted on X as well, saying that on Friday night, he received a call directly from President Donald Trump informing him that he had been pardoned. Clark said that he had not lobbied for this, but that he was grateful for this.

And, look, this is in keeping with what we've seen the President do and say as it relates to people who were involved in the January 6th Capitol attack, as well. One of his first acts after coming into office for his second term was to issue pardons for roughly a thousand people who were convicted or charged for crimes for that January 6th Capitol attack.

And so, we're going to have to see, you know, what this could mean more broadly, but it is definitely a huge move by the White House to argue that he believes these people were unfairly prosecuted and that they shouldn't continue to face charges on the federal level.

SANCHEZ: And now that they won't face charges on the federal level, as you put it, even a symbolic gesture, what does it mean for their state charges?

TREENE: Well, that is a key thing because, you know, pardons, and this is why I refer to this as being a bit more symbolic, is that they only apply to federal charges. And actually, none of these people, Boris, in this list, this proclamation that Martin had released and posted, are actually facing federal charges.

Now, some of them are still going through state cases and dealing with that. And this does seem like it could potentially be used as ammunition by some of the defendants who are facing these cases to try and bring them to the states and say, look, I was pardoned by the President at the federal level. Perhaps they can try to use that in court.

We'll have to see if any of these people do end up doing that. But none of the -- this isn't going to actually wash away any federal charges because none of these people are actually facing anything on the federal level at this point. And so, more broadly speaking, it's a big message. We heard from the White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, arguing that these people that the President pardoned were, quote, "great Americans." She said that they were, quote, "put through hell by the -- the Biden administration for challenging the election."

And so, this is really, again, in keeping with something we know President Donald Trump has cared a lot about. He's defended the people who tried to subvert the 2020 election results. And this is his way of, you know, hoping even to see, you know, perhaps in the future that none of these people face federal charges. But on the state level, to get back to your question there, this pardon isn't really going to mean much.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Alayna Treene at the White House for us. Thank you so much.

Coming up, while the Senate is a step closer to ending the shutdown, the legal fight over SNAP payments continues. Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We'll be right back.

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