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New Release: Epstein Mentioned Trump Multiple Times in Private Emails; WH: Newly Released Epstein Emails Prove Trump Did Nothing Wrong; Sources: Epstein Survivors Will Be at Grijalva's Swearing-in; House Panel Releases 20,000 More Epstein Documents; WH: "Narco Terrorist Campaign in the Caribbean" Will Continue; Venezuela Announces "Massive Mobilization" of Military Forces; Hundreds of Flights Canceled Today Ahead of Shutdown Vote. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired November 12, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: After cracks appeared on nearby slopes and roads.

And the company, ByHeart, has now recalled its entire line of infant formula amid a growing and concerning botulism outbreak. This includes its cans and single-serve sticks. According to the FDA, 15 babies have been hospitalized for botulism after drinking ByHeart formula. No deaths have been reported.

And a new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The White House is lashing out at Democrats for releasing Jeffrey Epstein emails, where the convicted sex offender mentions President Donald Trump by name multiple times. We have the latest details there.

Plus, the House finally back in session and expected to begin voting this afternoon on the Senate deal that would end the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

And later, the end of an era, the very last penny has been minted. Don't worry, though. You can still use all those pennies you've been weirdly stashing in your junk drawer.

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

KEILAR: The House is back in session to vote on reopening the government. But the Jeffrey Epstein files will take center stage first. We're now just minutes away from Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva's swearing-in ceremony, where we just learned at least two of Epstein's victims are expected to attend. We'll have more on that in just a moment. Because President Trump himself just responded for the first time to the newly released emails written by Jeffrey Epstein that mention the President by name.

The President writing, quote, "The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein hoax again because they'll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they've done on the shutdown and so many other subjects. Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap."

He went on to say, quote, "There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country."

In one email from 2011, Epstein writes, quote, "The dog that hasn't barked is Trump. And then redacted victim spent hours at my House with him."

House Republicans, in a tweet, say that victim was Virginia Giuffre. We just spoke with a House Democrat who said they don't know who the redacted victim is. At least the -- the members of Congress do not. Giuffre herself never accused President Trump of any wrongdoing. President Trump has denied involvement or any knowledge of Epstein's sex trafficking. We're obviously still trying to get to the bottom of perhaps who that victim is in that redaction.

We have CNN's Jeff Zeleny at the White House for us.

Jeff, what more are you learning this hour? This redaction is certainly confusing things.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It is, Brianna, as well as just the whole revival of the Jeffrey Epstein matter. I mean, you'll remember that Speaker Mike Johnson, one of the reasons that the House has not been called back into session was to avoid a discussion of Jeffrey Epstein and to avoid this discharge petition being signed that effectively will allow the House to vote on whether the Justice Department should release more Epstein files.

So clearly, by trying to delay all that, we are right back exactly where we started from nearly two months ago when there -- the House was on the verge of having enough votes to get signatures for a discharge petition. What that means is to effectively go beyond the House rules and have a full vote of the House to release these Justice Department files.

But even before that, a separate cache of files, if you will, the House Democrats released them on the Oversight Committee. This morning, Republicans released their own. But the White House is on defense on this, even as they're -- as they're trying to persuade those handful of members of Congress to not sign that petition. Most notably, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who was here at the White House for a very unusual meeting with the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, and the FBI Director as well.

But the White House Press Secretary pushed back and again tried to blame all of this on Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It is not a coincidence that the Democrats leaked these emails to the fake news this morning, ahead of Republicans reopening the government. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why are White House officials then meeting with

Representative Boebert in an effort to try and get her to -- to not sign this petition calling for the release of the files?

LEAVITT: Doesn't it show transparency that members of the Trump administration are willing to brief members of Congress whenever they please? Doesn't that show our level of transparency?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So, the White House trying to present as normal the fact that there'll be a meeting in the Situation Room here of the White House with the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General, the FBI Director, and one single member of Congress. Brianna, as you well know from coming to the White House and Capitol Hill, that is not normal at all.

[15:05:07]

So, clearly, the White House is on defense on this, trying to move beyond this and blaming Democrats for reviving the Epstein matter, conflating with the shutdown.

But the bottom line here is, we're learning a lot more of the President, long before he was president, of course, his involvement with Jeffrey Epstein. There's no evidence of wrongdoing, but there certainly is a big question still that he -- was he aware of any wrongdoing at the time and this is all effectively playing out once again, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes. I mean, listen, from what we know with past meetings, it would be very unusual if this is a meeting to brief her. If might not be an unusual meeting if it's a meeting to cajole her and win her over. We've certainly seen that time and again.

Jeff Zeleny, we know that you'll be reporting ...

ZELENY: For sure.

KEILAR: ... it out. Thank you so much. Boris?

SANCHEZ: As Brianna mentioned a moment ago, some of Epstein's victims are going to be on Capitol Hill as Arizona Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva is sworn into office. You'll recall she has vowed to be that 218th deciding vote to force the release of the Epstein files on the House floor.

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

And Manu, you reported earlier that vote could happen by next month.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is unlikely to happen before then, just simply because of the process that is required. This is a very circuitous process to force a vote, basically in direct contradiction of the Speaker's position where this rarely succeeds to circumvent the leadership of the House, but this will succeed in at least forcing that vote on the floor, because when Grijalva signs this petition, she'll be the 218th signature here, and that means that there would have to be a vote happen within seven legislative days. And then, after the seven legislative days, the Speaker has another two days to schedule that vote, but the House is going to be out of session. It's been out of session since September 19th. It just returned today. It's going to leave town tonight and won't return until next week, and then it's out for Thanksgiving week, so that pushes it into early December.

Now, the question's going to be how this vote ultimately goes down and who ultimately may vote for it, how many Republicans may ultimately vote for it. We do know those handful of Republicans have voted to sign this petition to force a vote, but there could be more who actually vote for the bill when it comes to the House floor calling for its release. One congressman, Congressman Warren Davidson, told me earlier today that he plans to vote for that bill when it comes to the floor, and he's a Republican.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. WARREN DAVIDSON (R-OH): Look, I think the -- the Oversight Committee, I'm -- I'm going to vote for it if it comes up, because ...

RAJU: You'll vote for the bill.

DAVIDSON: Yes, because, look, I think the Oversight Committee has pushed out a lot of disclosures. The administration's done a lot. If you look in the U.K., they've tried to do something towards Prince Andrew, but one of the things that went away during the shutdown is Pam Bondi was supposed to come to the House and answer these questions, and look, I'm not on the Judiciary Committee, but I did want Pam Bondi to come and do some explaining.

REP. ROBERT GARCIA (D-CA): And so, if Donald Trump actually wanted to exonerate himself, he should release all the Epstein files today, and that's what we're asking the White House to do. And remember, we're getting our documents from the Epstein estate. The Department of Justice has an enormous amount of documents, photos, media videos and materials that the American public deserve to see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: But even if it does pass the House, this bill faces a very uncertain prospect, very dubious prospects, in fact. The Senate Republican leaders have shown no interest in taking this bill up. It's unlikely to get 60 votes there. And, of course, Donald Trump would have to sign it into law, which he has made very clear how opposed he is to this bill. So, it becoming law seems very, very unlikely at this point, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yes, something that President Trump says he is looking forward to signing tonight is a bill that is expected to go through the House, potentially on a very slim margin of a vote, and that is to reopen the federal government, this Senate-backed agreement. What are you hearing from lawmakers there about that? RAJU: Yes, there is an expectation that this bill will pass tonight,

probably around the late 7 P.M. Eastern hour, early 8 P.M. Eastern hour. And then, it'll go to the President's desk, will sign this and then end the longest government shutdown in the history of the United States. The ultimate question is going to be how many defectors will there be on each side?

Sources are saying there are at least several Democrats who could vote for this Republican bill, maybe at least one Republican who could vote against it. Speaker Johnson, in a party-line vote, could only lose two Republicans along straight party lines, but with enough defections likely to push this bill over the finish line and ending this painful shutdown. Boris.

SANCHEZ: Painful indeed. Manu Raju, thank you so much from Capitol Hill.

Still to come, in response to the U.S. building up the number of warships in the Caribbean, Venezuela announces a, quote, "massive mobilization of its military forces."

Plus, nearly 900 flights canceled today as airlines continue to deal with a shortage of air traffic controllers and the FAA's order to reduce flight capacity. We have an update there.

[15:10:05]

And later, the last American penny has been pressed. The U.S. meant no longer going to mint any more one-cent coins. A live report about what this means, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:14:24]

SANCHEZ: The White House is responding to CNN's exclusive reporting that the U.K. is now suspending some intelligence sharing with the United States because of the deadly strikes in the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific. Moments ago, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt doubled down on President Trump's claim that the U.S. military buildup is about fighting drug trafficking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEAVITT: As for the Trump administration's position on our narco- terrorist campaign in the Caribbean, it is going to continue. And the President has made it very clear that he's going to allow terrorists to -- to bring illegal drugs that kill American citizens into our great country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[15:15:03]

SANCHEZ: We've learned that in response, Venezuela is launching what it calls a massive mobilization of military personnel, weapons and equipment along its borders.

Let's discuss with retired U.S. Army Major General CNN Military Analyst James "Spider" Marks.

General, thanks so much for being with us.

First talk to us about why Venezuela is launching this mobilization and -- and what its capabilities are.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Boris, I -- I would say there are really two things. Number one, it's a domestic message internal to Venezuela, which is we care, we know what's going on. Maduro wants to provide some degree of assurance to those that support him that he's in charge. He knows the -- know what's going on and he's taking some necessary steps.

And I think most importantly, the second thing is for those who don't want Maduro there, a very equally strong message, which is don't mess around. My military is mobilized. We're prepared to resist. If anybody has any crazy ideas, you might want to reconsider.

SANCHEZ: When it comes to the President, he's deflected questions regarding the potential for actual military movement by the United States to unseat Maduro, even though he has said that the Venezuelan leader's days are numbered. I -- I wonder what you think the likelihood is of U.S. military action on Venezuelan soil and what may be the tipping point that gets the U.S. government there.

MARKS: Yes, great -- great question. The issue here is clearly I think this administration would love to see Maduro be challenged and moved away, whether that's through some electoral process, parenthetically, probably not likely, or if it's through some form of resistance, again, kind of equally unlikely.

However, we have such a sketchy and checkered past with regime change. We need to stay out of that business. But what the Venezuelans can do in terms of resistance is they've got -- well, they've got a -- a literal navy force, which means they patrol local waters almost exclusively. They do have an air force, so they can strike over the horizon a little bit. But what they do have is some pretty sophisticated anti-ship missile capabilities.

But bear in mind the U.S. Navy has an incredibly robust, layered anti -- you know, a -- a missile defense capability to go against these anti-ship missiles, which is from the Aegis system to the SeaRAM to the Phalanx system. So, you walk it from the outside in. The Navy is very well protected.

In terms of the tipping point, I think what this administration -- again, I can't speak for the administration, but I think what this administration may do -- and I wouldn't be surprised, nor should we be surprised -- if there was a strike onshore against an infrastructure, part of the infrastructure, that supports this kind of internecine system of drug trafficking and lines of communications, and support locations, and vehicles, and leadership, et cetera. I think they could go after some of the infrastructure. I think it's

incredibly highly unlikely that they would see a, you know, Soleimani- like strike ...

SANCHEZ: Yes.

MARKS: ... going directly against Maduro.

SANCHEZ: What about the impact that the U.K. suspending some form of -- in -- some forms of intelligence sharing with the U.S. is going to have? I wonder if you think that would limit U.S. capability to go after some of these alleged drug trafficking boats in the way that the administration has in recent months.

MARKS: Yes, and again, your question -- your question really goes to the historically strong relationship that we have with a number of other partners, the Five Eyes -- you know, the U.K., United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand -- and there's open intelligence sharing. But each of those nations has the authority to engage in appropriate ways. They can say, you don't have a need to know or we're going to share this, but we're not going to share something else.

So, I -- I would suggest we not make too much of this. But again, it's a challenge to an existing handshake that has routinely been very firm. However, within that arrangement -- I've lived in that world -- within that arrangement, there -- there are always thorny kind of connected points where things don't necessarily go the way you'd prefer.

In this particular case, I think the United States has a pretty good sense of what's going on in that part of the world. What the U.K. brought to the table is they have a routine presence there as well -- historic routine presence.

So, the combination of those two intelligence capabilities is pretty significant. I don't think it's a significant gap now that the U.K. is not engaged. It's more at a strategic, political level. You know, get the -- get the senior guys to talk to each other and say, really, you feel that strongly about this? Let's -- let's exchange our legal -- legal findings to determine where we're not communicating.

SANCHEZ: Major General James "Spider" Marks, always appreciate the analysis. Thanks.

[15:20:01]

MARKS: Thank you, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Still to come this afternoon, travelers and airlines looking for Congress to end the government shutdown as flight cancellations and delays keep piling up. But the end of the shutdown may not mean the end of the turmoil. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:24:38] KEILAR: Right now, air travel disruptions are causing more frustration

nationwide as House lawmakers prepare to vote on a bipartisan bill that would end this record-setting government shutdown that we're in. And even if the shutdown ends today, air travel could still be a headache for days to come.

With the FAA's flight reduction order cutting air traffic by 6 percent today, 8 percent tomorrow, then it goes up to 10 percent Friday.

[15:25:03]

So, let's go live to CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean. He's at Reagan National Airport just outside of the nation's capital.

Pete, what's the latest on cancellations and delays across the country?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's still a lot of worry from airlines about this, even though there is an end to the government shutdown in sight. And I just want to show you, using a new tool we have, some of the disruptions that we have across the country today. You can see a lot of the airports here that are in this amber color. Those are the airports that have had flights forcibly reduced because of a mandate from the Trump administration. We're talking about 40 different airports across the country.

The good news so far is that the number of air traffic control delays we've seen because of short staffing are virtually non-existent today. Only about five places have registered on the FAA's record. The other day, it was about 40 different places. We've seen only one ground delay program that's here at San Francisco just because of wind that's flights delayed into there.

Let's go in a little bit closer here on DCA, where we are. This is the number of cancellations as of this morning, about 3 percent we've seen all day. The Trump administration mandate is for a 6 percent cut to flights, essentially across the board at 40 different airports, including here at DCA. I want to show you the numbers of cancellations today. Eight-hundred and ninety-four, that's the latest number, according to FlightAware. About 850 of those were the flights mandated to be cut by the Trump administration.

Here is what will happen, though. This is the look at all of the cancellations since the start of this government shutdown. Here is Halloween. That was a particularly bad day for air travel. A lot of air traffic control staffing shortages. This is the number. This is the spot that's of particular interest. That was Saturday or Sunday, rather, the worst day for cancellations since the start of this shutdown. 2,900 cancellations in total.

Airlines hope this downward trend here really continues, and things have been getting better and better. The fear, though, according to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, is if the House does not, what he says, do the job of ending this government shutdown, then these cancellations could come roaring back. And that is what airlines are primarily worried about as this continues to drag on. The hope is that there is an end here tonight.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly.

Pete, live for us from Reagan. Thank you very much.

Coming up, we have more on the newly released Jeffrey Epstein emails. The late convicted sex offender mentioning President Trump by name multiple times in private emails with an associate and an author in Trump's orbit. Stay with us for that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)