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Trump Dismisses Affordability Crisis; Air Travel Delays Continue; Trump Mentioned in Newly Released Epstein E-Mails. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired November 12, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Newly released e-mails showing that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein mentioned Donald Trump multiple times in private e-mails before he was president. We're set to hear from the White House in just minutes.

Plus: selling affordability. CNN is learning the president's advisers are weighing a tour to hammer his economic message, but would cash- strapped Americans buy it?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus: Rest in pennies. The final penny gets pinched. The last 1 cent coin will be minted today in Philadelphia. We will take you there live as we follow these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: Any moment, the White House is set to hold its briefing. And we're standing by for more reaction to the release of three private e- mails that were written by Jeffrey Epstein that referenced President Trump multiple times.

In one e-mail, the convicted sex offender writing Trump had -- quote -- "spent hours at my house" with someone who House Democrats say was one of Epstein's alleged victims. House Republicans say in a tweet that it Virginia Giuffre.

Here in the e-mail -- quote -- "I want you to realize that the dog that hasn't barked is Trump. 'Redacted' spent hours at my house with him. He has never once been mentioned."

Epstein wrote this e-mail to Ghislaine Maxwell. And she wrote back -- quote -- "I have been thinking about that."

Earlier this year, Maxwell, while having an interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, said of Trump and Epstein -- quote -- "I don't think they were close friends" and said she did not recall seeing Trump at Epstein's house.

President Trump has denied involvement or any knowledge of Epstein's sex trafficking. Giuffre herself never accused President Trump of any wrongdoing. She recently died by suicide.

We have CNN anchor and White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins live at the White House after breaking this story this morning.

Kaitlan, tell us more.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: Yes, Brianna, this is going to be the first White House press briefing since those e-mails were released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee this morning, three e-mails from Jeffrey Epstein over the last 15 years where he specifically names Donald Trump, now the president, of course, in his correspondence with people like Ghislaine Maxwell and also the author Michael Wolff, as one of those e-mails happened when Donald Trump was in office during his first term.

And they're talking about the president's claims that he had kicked Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club. Epstein, of course, is responding to that in an e-mail to Michael Wolf, saying that that never happened because he was never a member.

And also in that e-mail, Brianna, he says that the President Trump knew about the girls, as Jeffrey Epstein put it, because he had asked Ghislaine Maxwell to stop. That seems to be a reference to something President Trump has said this summer, which is about Ghislaine Maxwell and saying that she and Jeffrey Epstein were trying to poach people from the spa at his Mar-a-Lago club.

And so we have seen these e-mails come out. You saw Republicans respond and say the name that was redacted in that initial e-mail that you just read is Virginia Giuffre, who was one of Jeffrey Epstein's most prominent accusers and survivors here and also someone who did die by suicide earlier this year.

So her family has been the people that have been speaking out on her behalf of her advocacy in the last several months since then. The thing here that this has raised new questions for the White House is, of course, this comes on the day here in Washington with that new House Democrat, Adelita Grijalva, is set to be sworn in by the House speaker, Mike Johnson, this afternoon.

She's expected to be the 218th vote on that discharge petition that would require the Justice Department to release the e-mails they have on Jeffrey Epstein. These e-mails that are coming out today are because the House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Jeffrey Epstein's estate and they handed them over to Congress.

KEILAR: And you have some new exclusive reporting on this planned meeting at the White House. Tell us more about that, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yes, this is with my colleagues Katelyn Polantz, Hannah Rabinowitz, and Alayna Treene.

We are told that the White House is trying to meet with Republican Congressmember Lauren Boebert. She is one of the Republicans who has voiced support for that discharge petition. There's only a handful of Republicans who have done so.

And we are told that top officials, including the attorney general, Pam Bondi, the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, and the FBI director, Kash Patel, were all trying to meet with Lauren Boebert in order to try to sway her position on that discharge petition, given the way that she has spoken publicly about it alongside Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie and Nancy Mace in terms of voting for that, something that could happen, of course, as soon as we see Adelita Grijalva sworn in.

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What's not clear is if those efforts by the White House have been successful or where that's going, but it does speak to the fact that the White House, how they're viewing this, and that they clearly do not want that discharge petition to go through or to pass, and there's questions of what would happen if it did pass the House, what the Senate would do with it, and, of course, how the White House and the Justice Department would respond to that.

KEILAR: And just real quickly, if they peeled off Boebert, would that be it? Would it be dead, the discharge petition effort?

COLLINS: Based on the numbers they have right now, yes, it would, unless maybe any other Republicans crossed the aisle and said they were going to vote for it.

Even if all Democrats stick together and Adelita Grijalva is that vote, if they do not have Lauren Boebert's vote, they would not have the 218, based on the math that we last had when, of course, all this was happening and the House was sent home early for its recess. Those were the latest numbers, as you have seen survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's go up to Capitol Hill and meet with Republicans and meet with lawmakers and talk about their views on this.

And so Lauren Boebert was one of those in favor. Last we know, she still is in favor of that. Whether or not a White House meeting with those top senior officials would change her mind, that remains to be seen, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, so interesting then that she is at that meeting.

What's the White House saying about all of this, Kaitlan?

COLLINS: Yes, obviously,they're responding to the release of the e- mails. They're saying this is Democrats trying to smear the president. They are accusing them of manipulating those e-mails by putting the word redacted in that e-mail where they said they did not want to identify who we now know to be Virginia Giuffre.

They were saying they were protecting her identity because she was a victim of Jeffrey Epstein's. And, obviously, we will see what Karoline Leavitt has to say when she comes out here to the briefing momentarily.

KEILAR: Yes, we're awaiting that.

Kaitlan, great reporting, you and our colleagues. Thank you so much -- Boris. SANCHEZ: And, as Kaitlan just mentioned, it is likely that that long- awaited Epstein files discharge petition is going to get at least a vote, given that the congresswoman-elect from Arizona, Adelita Grijalva, is set to be sworn in by Speaker Mike Johnson today.

Let's go to CNN's Manu Raju, who's live on Capitol Hill for us.

Manu, what is the likelihood that this discharge petition passes, given that Lauren Boebert is headed to the White House and has the potential to change your mind?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, anyone could change their mind up until the time of the vote. So that's always something to watch out for.

The question is, will any of them do that? There's no indication publicly yet that they will. In fact, one of those Republicans who has signed on to this effort, Nancy Mace, told me this morning that she will not be taking her name off of that effort to try to force a vote on the full House.

So, we do expect the vote to happen probably in early December. That is what, according to the way the calendar works and the process here in the United States House, ultimately, that's when it would occur. But it's important to note, if this bill does come to the floor, it could very well pass the United States House, and it almost certainly will not pass the United States Senate.

And it could not -- it may not even get a vote in the United States Senate either, and this would have to get signed into law by Donald Trump in order to release those files. So, the likelihood of success ultimately making the law is highly dubious at best.

But it would put Republicans in the House on the record on this issue, which is what the White House is hoping to avoid with this vote -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yes, Manu. And aside from all of that, we may soon see an end to the longest government shutdown in history, the House expected to vote later tonight.

RAJU: Yes, and we do expect that vote to be successful tonight. The Republican leadership is confident this morning.

They can only afford to lose two Republican votes along straight party lines, but there are expected to be Democratic defections that could help push this over the finish line. There could be at least one Republican defection. So, it would still be enough to get it over there and reopen the government as soon as Donald Trump signs this into law.

But this all comes amid this back-and-forth among Democrats about how this has played out, because the final deal does not include an extension of expiring subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. This had been the chief demand of Democrats that led to the government shutdown to begin with. I caught up with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a progressive

firebrand, and I asked her about the way she believes the Democratic leadership in the Senate, Chuck Schumer of New York in particular, how the Democrats handled this over there.

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RAJU: And on the shutdown, how would you characterize the way that Senator Schumer handled this shutdown?

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): I think it's important that we understand that this is not just about Senator Schumer, but that this is about the Democratic Party.

Senator Schumer -- there's no one vote that ended this shutdown. We are talking about a coordinated effort of eight senators with the knowledge of Leader Schumer voting to break with the entire Democratic Party in exchange for nothing. And now people's health care costs are going to be skyrocketing.

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And we want to make sure that we have a path to ending this moment and finding relief for them right now. But I think that, when we talk about this debate about the Democratic Party, it is indeed about the party writ large and our ability to fight or not.

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RAJU: And that debate almost certainly will only intensify, especially as we head into the next deadline that will be set up by this bill, assuming it becomes law, that next deadline to fund most federal agencies. It would reopen the government through January 30.

So a new fight would begin not just between Republicans and Democrats to fund the government at that point, but also between Democrats and Democrats.

SANCHEZ: Yes, teeing up the potential for another government shutdown.

Manu Raju, thank you so much from Capitol Hill.

Still to come: The government may be inching closer to reopening, but delays and cancellations across the country's airports keep piling up. We have new details and a live report ahead.

Plus, President Trump's advisers trying to figure out how to talk about affordability, the issue continuing to haunt the White House, despite the president's best efforts to downplay it. We're going to take a closer look at the president's messaging.

And later: Trump change, the penny officially retiring today.

That and much more coming your way on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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KEILAR: Air travel across the U.S. remains a huge headache for passengers and aviation workers ahead of tonight's vote to end the government shutdown.

And while there are fewer reports of air traffic control staffing issues today, the FAA's flight reduction order is still in effect. It cuts air traffic by 6 percent today, and it ratchets up to 10 percent by Friday. So far, there have been about 1,000 flight delays, nearly 900 cancellations today.

So let's get an update on where things stand from CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean, who is at Reagan National Airport.

And, Pete, we should note Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is warning, if the government doesn't reopen soon, U.S. air travel could get even worse.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that is a pretty big and stern warning from the transportation secretary, and there's still a lot of worry in the air travel industry about what will happen if the House does not pass the bill tonight reopening the government, especially considering there have been so many positive trends in the travel space when it comes to air traffic control staffing shortages.

We saw about 40 on Monday, the number today, only a handful, about three or five we have seen so far today, which really means the cancellations are on a downward trend as well. Sunday was the single worst day for flight cancellations since the start of this government shutdown.

Today, we're about a quarter of those numbers, those numbers primarily made up of the preemptive cancellations that airlines have had to put in place to comply with this Trump administration mandate for them to slash flights to ease pressure on the air travel system and ease pressure on air traffic controllers, who continue to go unpaid during the shutdown.

We just heard from the head of the airline industry's top lobby, and he said that airlines are losing hundreds of millions of dollars a day because of the government shutdown, and consumers are actually starting to pull back. And there's some panic in the industry about what happens if this government shutdown somehow drags on. Listen.

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FMR. GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU (R-NH): There's a lot of pieces that have to kind of line up here, but I'm very hopeful that if they take this step, there is still plenty of time. I don't want to use the term save Thanksgiving, but really make sure that the American traveler and the American public can enjoy Thanksgiving as they always have.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MUNTEAN: Ten days until the start of the Thanksgiving air travel rush, typically the biggest time of the year for airlines and air travel.

The good news here is that air traffic controllers, when this government shutdown officially ends, they will get about 70 percent of their back pay that they are owed. Remember, they missed two paychecks during this government shutdown, zero-dollar paychecks.

They will get 70 percent of their back pay, Transportation Secretary Duffy says, within 48 hours of this officially being over.

KEILAR: Yes, that's tough.

Pete Muntean, thank you very much for that update.

Still ahead: There's what the president is saying and then there's what Americans are paying. What the White House is weighing to improve the president's poll numbers on the economy.

Plus: Passengers are jostled and knocked to the ground after their train conductor appears to literally fall asleep at the wheel. We will have details ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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SANCHEZ: White House officials are strategizing on how President Trump should address the issue of affordability.

Remember, back when he was a candidate, Trump repeatedly vowed to make America affordable again. But now, as president, he's repeatedly dismissed affordability as a problem, insisting that the economy is great.

Sources tell CNN that Trump's advisers are telling him that is a bad idea, that he should not downplay the fact that Americans feel squeezed by rising prices. They have even discussed having him travel the country to give economy-focused speeches.

So what are the numbers and the data actually show?

CNN's Daniel Dale is here with a fact-check.

Daniel, let's go over all prices first. Here is what President Trump has said.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you look at affordability, which they campaigned on, they lied because they talked about, oh, prices are up. No, no, prices are down under the Trump administration and they're down substantially.

The reason I don't want to talk about affordability is because everybody knows that it's far less expensive under Trump than it was under sleepy Joe Biden.

QUESTION: We appreciate it, sir.

TRUMP: And the prices are way down.

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SANCHEZ: Daniel, what do the numbers say?

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: None of that is true, Boris.

Prices are up during this administration. There has been inflation every month of this administration. Moreover, the pace of inflation has accelerated now for five consecutive months. It hit 3 percent in September, so prices in September were 3 percent higher than they were a year prior. And they were 1.7 percent higher than they were in January, the month that President Trump returned to office.

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Now, he keeps saying that every single price is down. I think the overall numbers show that is clearly not true. And I think Americans know that. If you look at the CPI, Consumer Price Index, data, it'll show you that thousands of individual products have increased in price since President Trump returned to the White House.

SANCHEZ: Here's what he said about grocery store prices.

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TRUMP: Beef, we have to get down, but we have got prices way down.

BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: You think prices are coming down from this?

TRUMP: I really believe that. Yes, I think they're coming down, but I think they're down already.

Our groceries are way down. Everything is way down, and the press doesn't report it. The press reports whatever the con people say. I call the Democrats con men and women, they make up numbers.

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SANCHEZ: Just to be clear, Daniel, what are grocery prices like and are these numbers made up?

DALE: They are made up, Boris.

So, grocery prices as well are up since President Trump returned to office. They were up 1.4 percent since January. They're up 2 percent, 2.7 percent compared to a year prior. Grocery prices are up in five of the six overarching categories of products that are tracked by the Consumer Price Index.

President Trump keeps saying it's only beef that's up. Yes, beef has experienced one of the biggest increases, but it's far from only beef. Again, far more products in the grocery aisle have increased than decreased. Other big risers include coffee and bananas, two products that are heavily imported in the U.S. and thus are subject to President Trump's major tariffs on those items.

SANCHEZ: Yes, the president also frequently touts energy prices as going down. What does the cost of gas look like?

DALE: Yes, so he said two things last week on this subject that weren't true either. So he said that gas is just a bit above $2. The national average is above $3. It's about $3.07, $3.08 at this moment.

Second of all, he said the gas prices have plummeted to the lowest level in two decades. First of all, they haven't plummeted. As of today, they are just about identical to what they were a year ago today, about $3.08, according to AAA. Maybe they have increased a fraction of a cent if you go to multiple decimal places, but at least near identical.

And, second, it's clearly not the lowest in two decades. Not only was it lower during, of course, the COVID pandemic, when demand crashed. Not only was it lower at various points in the 2010s and the 2000s. It was also lower on various days this year in January under President Biden, so both parts of that claim just not true, just like most of President Trump's claims about prices these days are just not true either.

SANCHEZ: Daniel Dale, thank you so much for walking us through that fact-check.

Coming up: the House releasing e-mails from Jeffrey Epstein showing the convicted sex offender mentioned Trump multiple times before he became president. We're going to get reaction from an attorney representing 11 of Epstein's accusers.

And we are monitoring a briefing set to start in the White House press room at any moment.

Stay with us.

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