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GOP Leaders Bracing For Mass Defections On Epstein Files Vote; BBC Faces Trump's Deadline To Apologize, Retract January 6 Edit; OpenAI And Microsoft Team Up With States On AI Safety Task Force. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired November 14, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: This morning the White House is bracing for impact as the momentum builds within the GOP to release all the Justice Department's files in the Jeffrey Epstein case.

Now after a handful of Republicans signed a discharge petition to force a vote in the House on it, House Speaker Mike Johnson actually changed up his strategy and quickly scheduled that vote for next week. Now a senior White House official tells CNN President Trump was made aware that was happening beforehand and now understands that it is an "inevitable reality."

I want to bring in CNN's Alayna Treene who is at the White House for us. So can you just tell us more about the feelings at the White House? How is the White House approaching this expected vote next week?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well Omar, there's definitely a high level of frustration. I apologize for the street sweeper behind me here on the north lawn. But look, there is, of course, a lot of frustration over this. This is something that the president and his team have tried multiple times now to shrug off and to try and brush aside, and all of those efforts have failed.

And even despite their best efforts to prevent this vote from happening and particularly, trying to peel away some Republicans in the House who ultimately signed onto that discharge petition, it now looks like they are going to see even more Republicans get on board with this.

And we've had our great Capitol Hill reporters running around talking to Republicans who are saying yeah, we're going to vote for this bill. I might not have gotten on the discharge petition to force a vote but when this comes up, I am going to put my name behind this. And so this is, of course, a huge dilemma for them and one of the very few areas where we actually see members of the president's own party breaking so publicly with him.

Now you mentioned this but one of the strategies that House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has really been trying to kind of help the White House in this entire messaging and the politics of this really controversial Epstein case, of course -- he said that he's going to expedite this vote.

And essentially what he has said in part of that was that, you know, he believes it's moot now because there are so many emails. I mean, we saw the House Democrats from the Oversight Committee release 20,000 documents from Epstein's estate. There is so much that is coming out. He called it a moot point.

But problem is -- and this is what I'm hearing in some of my conversations with Republicans outside of the Trump administration -- is that if it's a moot point then why did the White House, for example, on Wednesday, have a meeting in the Situation Room -- the place where they monitored the Bin Laden capture -- is why were they bringing in a single member of the House, a Republican, to try and convince them not to get on board with this.

And so clearly, I think that is one of the issues that people are facing is still, even as we're getting all this information and even as these emails, Omar, don't necessarily implicate the president in any way -- there's no indication of wrongdoing and, if anything, it's just more embarrassing for the president -- why are you not getting on board with this?

And, of course as well, there are so many members of the president's own party and inside the MAGA movement who have been fixated on wanting this for so long, including people in this administration. I think we have to remind people of this over and over again that it was people like the vice president J.D. Vance or the president's FBI director Kash Patel who had been calling for months before President Trump took office for his second term -- had been calling for this to be released and criticizing past administrations and the president's predecessors for not doing that. And now that it's their turn the fact that they're not doing this is one of the biggest issues, of course.

And so the White House is bracing for this vote. They do expect it to pass. The only thing that they keep telling me is they're not very sure of where this will go in the Senate. So this is still a long road ahead but one that, of course, the White House is grappling with. And the president himself -- we saw him in two events recently. He did not take questions, which is very out of character for him. So I think that also gives you a little insight into how they're trying to manage all of this.

JIMENEZ: Yeah. This pressure has not gone away in the least.

Alayna Treene, appreciate the reporting as always -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right -- back to Epstein in just a moment.

But new this morning, the president is now floating the possibility of rolling back some tariffs. This is amid concerns about affordability. The treasury secretary said the administration will lower tariffs on things that could include produce and coffee.

Let's bring in now CNN political commentators Maria Cardona and Alyssa Farah Griffin. You know, Alyssa, it is interesting because one of the things this White House has consistently said is that Americans don't pay the cost of tariffs, right, and that grocery prices aren't up. But now it does seem like they're taking measures designed at reducing coffee prices. So what does that tell you?

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well listen, this is good news for the American public. I have been one of the many Republicans who have said tariffs do not work. They are a recessive tax on consumers.

And listen, this was policy that Trump wanted to try in the first term, but he had advisers around him -- like Steve Mnuchin, like Lighthizer, and others -- who said this is not going to work. You otherwise have a strong economy, but you are going to shoot up consumer costs if you put in place these sweeping tariffs.

And I think as you've seen -- if you -- if you've seen the economic numbers not be where this administration would like them to be, this is a reaction to it. There is an affordability crisis in America. I think last week's elections were very much a result of how people feel like the cost of living is just not something they can keep up with.

[07:35:07]

And the grocery prices, as we learned while Biden was campaigning in 2024 -- that just hits people so close to home. They're reminded of it every week and they can't forget it, and it's hurting Trump supporters as much as his opponents.

So while I think this is welcome news, I think that it's something that was entirely foreseeable and this administration should have taken the advice of Trump administration number one.

BERMAN: Maria, what does it tell you that this White House within a week of these elections is now perhaps taking measures to reduce some tariffs on produce?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: It tells me that the people around Donald Trump are panicking. They see the writing on the wall. They saw the shellacking that Republicans got all across the country in many states and districts, including red ones. And they're telling Donald Trump what he needs to do in order to try to fix this before going into the critical midterm elections where people are already looking at this administration as the one that is jacking up prices when he promised to lower them.

And so, I think what we need to figure out John, and we'll see in the next couple of days -- you know, the reporting has been that Donald Trump hasn't really decided which ones of these tariffs he's going to get rid of, if any. We know that tariffs are, like, his baby. He loves tariffs. So while this is being reported, until he actually decides to do this I don't know if it's a done deal.

And plus, it's going to inject instability, uncertainty, which is also one of the things that has jacked up prices because people, importers, businesses don't know what to expect. And that is, I think, one of the biggest ways that prices go up --

BERMAN: Um-hum.

CARDONA: -- because people don't know what to plan for.

BERMAN: A bit of staffing news inside the White House. So Paul Ingrassia is this guy who had been nominated to lead the Office of Special Counsel. He withdrew or his nomination was withdrawn, depending on how you want to say it, because of these incredibly controversial texts he was reported to have written, including among others -- and this is just one of them. He said during Vivek Ramaswamy running for president, he said, "Never trust a Chinaman or Indian -- NEVER." I mean, he talked about Nazis. He had things to say about African Americans.

But now, Maria, he is still serving in the administration as deputy general counsel of the General Services Administration.

What does that employment tell you?

CARDONA: It tells me, again, that Donald Trump and now the people around him who think that this might be OK have a complete tin ear in terms of what is going on in the -- in the voters' bloc, right? In the general electorate.

This is an administration that has -- that has completely ignored the fact that a lot of Americans believe that he is out of touch with what voters are going through, what communities are going through. And the fact that he's now going to surround himself --

BERMAN: Um-hum.

CARDONA: -- by somebody whose name they withdrew for an appointment I think tells me that he doesn't really care.

He's not on the ballot but again, this is something that Republicans are going to have to answer for going into the midterm elections. And this gives Democrats a way to continue to connect Donald Trump with racists, with white nationalists, with exactly the same people I think that have hurt him in terms of him being able to figure out what voters really care about.

BERMAN: Alyssa, wouldn't this be a fairly easy guy to cut ties with?

GRIFFIN: Listen, I applauded it when I thought that his nomination was originally withdrawn, but now he's in another senior role within government.

And by the way, aside from the deeply offensive and hateful comments that you rattled off and many, many others -- this guy has had a long log on social media -- he's also highly unqualified. This would traditionally be a senior attorney with a lot of experience, and that's just not the case.

But it speaks to the second term mentality of never admit you're wrong, never accept defeat, and just double down -- very similar to pardoning January 6 protesters. You want to kind of just double down and say oh, no, no, no -- we got everything right. There's nothing to see here.

But to Maria's point, people are sick of it. There was this incredible survey that showed that basically, women under the age of 30 are going so far from the GOP in years ahead that it's as much of a demographic crisis as Democrats faced with younger men. It could be even more significant.

And I think this racial hatred that's stoked by some figures is a massive driver of that force that Republicans absolutely have to consider.

BERMAN: Yeah. And also while I do have you, I do want to ask one question on Jeffrey Epstein here and it's something that Alayna just brought up that I really hadn't noticed, which is that President Trump has ducked taking questions the last two public events he's had -- the types of places where he might take questions.

So Alyssa, you've been in communications inside a Trump White House. What do you see going on here and why do you think he hasn't wanted to take these questions in this, you know, 36-hour Epstein period?

[07:40:08]

GRIFFIN: I think he realizes it's a -- it's a bad moment for his administration because it's not -- it's not the opponents that are mad at him; it's his own people.

Alayna made such a good point when she noted that the reason Epstein is mainstreamed -- the reasons that tens of millions of Americans want the release of these files, know his name, know his crimes -- is because of very prominent Republicans like J.D. Vance and others who were highlighting and saying they wanted the release of these files.

So again, this is a self-created Trump problem that his closest advisers said we're going to release these on day one. Now we're a year in and he's doing everything to dodge and block it. I think this vote puts the White House in a very precarious position. If in the off chance it passes the Senate there could be moment where we have to see is Donald Trump going to veto something calling for the release of the Epstein files.

BERMAN: Yeah, we'll see what John -- John Thune in the hotseat on this. If this gets through the House, will he hold the vote?

Maria Cardona, Alyssa Farah Griffin, great to see you both this morning. Have a terrific weekend -- Omar.

CARDONA: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: All right. Also happening today the BBC faces a fast- approaching deadline set by President Trump after admitting to using poor judgment in the production of a documentary last year. The network apologized for the way it edited the president's speech made on January 6, 2021, saying it may have given the impression that President Trump made a "direct call for violent action."

Now Trump's legal team is threatening to sue the network for a billion dollars -- that's with a 'b' -- if it doesn't retract the documentary by 5:00 tonight.

Here now, CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter. So Brian, the BBC is apologizing but also says there's no basis for a defamation claim. What are we hearing from the BBC?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Right. So no retraction and no settlement, most important. You know, when Trump gets in these battles with media outlets, he says he's pursuing accountability, but lots of other people see attempts at a shakedown.

We remember earlier this year Paramount agreed to pay Trump's future presidential library. Disney did the same thing last year in order to avert a court battle over a lawsuit Trump had filed.

Now in this case, Trump has not actually filed a lawsuit yet, but his Florida-based lawyers have threatened to do so if that Friday deadline is not met. And here we are, on Friday, and the BBC is essentially saying go ahead, file a suit if you're going to, but we are not retracting the documentary.

As you said, though, the BBC is apologizing. It did send a letter to the White House yesterday with a formal apology over the edit to this documentary that aired last year.

Notably, nobody seemed to notice the mistake when the documentary -- when the film aired in the UK in October of 2024. It was only in the past 10 days or so this became a big scandal in the UK and thus a crisis for the BBC.

Here's what the corporation said in a statement overnight. "While the BBC sincerely regrets the manner in which the video clip was edited, we strongly disagree there is a basis for a defamation claim."

So read in between the lines here. Here's what the BBC is saying. We are not going to fold to you, Trump. We're going to fight. We're not going to just pay you a settlement. We are going to fight.

Now whether Trump decides to sue or not, that's the next big question.

JIMENEZ: Well, that was -- that was where I was going to pick up because do we have any word from the White House on whether this apology, I guess, is enough to actually stop the president from taking legal action?

STELTER: Right. We have not heard from the president on this, this morning. But here's what he told Fox's Laura Ingraham about the matter earlier this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They defrauded the public and they've admitted it. That's a pretty sad event. They actually changed my January 6, which was a beautiful speech, which is a very calming speech, and they made it sound radical. And they actually changed it. What they did was rather incredible. They're showing me the results later on the -- the results of what they did and how they butchered it up. But it was very dishonest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STELTER: I think it's pretty apparent why the president cares about this particular case. This was a bad edit to one minute of a long documentary about his re-election campaign. But he cares about his because it's about January 6 and it allows him to re-express and reproclaim his innocence about that terrible day.

So this is a controversy in the UK and beyond. The BBC under tremendous pressure. And the president knows when a media company is vulnerable. He has done this time and again this year where he will squeeze as hard as he can when a media company or some other institution is perceived to be vulnerable.

That's why it's notable that the BBC has come out overnight and said we're not retracting and we're not paying you a dime. Go ahead and sue if you want to -- because that's a demonstration of strength. At least that's how it's being interpreted by BBC staffers and by analysts in the UK.

So one of these dynamics here where you see Trump trying to dominate a media company and the company having to figure out how to respond with a lot at stake in this situation because, of course, it wraps the UK government. Trump has pointed to the British government and tried to suggest that they're responsible even though the BBC is independent.

[07:45:00]

We'll see what happens next in this case, but it's another example of Trump trying to control news outlets and news outlets choosing to fight back.

JIMENEZ: Brian Stelter, thanks for the reporting as always -- John.

BERMAN: All right. New this morning a new push to make AI more safe. Two state attorneys general are now working with two of the biggest companies in tech on safeguards to prevent harm to users, particularly children.

CNN's Clare Duffy here with some new reporting. What have you learned here?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yeah. So this is Microsoft and OpenAI who are joining this new AI Safety Task Force that is being put together by two bipartisan state attorneys general. You've got North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson who is a Democrat, and Utah Attorney General Derek Brown who is a Republican.

And the goal here is to bring together the people who are developing AI technology with these top state law enforcement officers to try to develop basic safeguards that AI companies should implement into their technology to protect users, and then to continue to track emerging risks as AI continues to develop.

This, of course, coming as there are increasing concerns around AI safety. We've seen this string of reports about AI causing delusions among users, contributing to users' self-harm. And it's also coming as Congress has done little to pass new regulations to put guardrails around this new technology.

And Jeff Jackson, North Carolina's attorney general, told me he has little faith that Congress is going to move quickly to regulate AI, so they're trying to fill the gap here.

Here's what he told me. He said, "They did nothing with respect to social media, nothing with respect for internet privacy, not even for kids, and they came very close to moving in the wrong direction on AI by handcuffing states from doing anything real. Congress has left a vacuum, and I think it makes sense for AGs to try to fill it."

And, of course, what he's referring there by moving potentially in the wrong direction is by this effort to -- by Republicans earlier this year to include in Trump's spending bill a 10-year moratorium on enforcing AI regulations.

BERMAN: Yeah.

DUFFY: That was ultimately removed. But that's the sort of thing he's concerned about and they're trying to fill the gap here. They do expect that more companies and more state attorneys general will join this group.

BERMAN: But this is, like, voluntary. We say guardrails. This is sort of like voluntary guardrails. This isn't actual regulation.

DUFFY: Yeah. It's a really important distinction. This is going to be best practices that they're --

BERMAN: Yeah.

DUFFY: -- recommending to the tech companies.

But Jeff Jackson did tell me that another benefit of this group is going to be bringing together state attorneys general to track what's going on in this space more closely and potentially work together on joint legal action if they find that the tech companies are harming users.

BERMAN: There are important discussions. I mean, it's good. At a minimum, it's great they're having --

DUFFY: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- these discussions right now because this is only going to get bigger and bigger and bigger.

DUFFY: He did say he hopes that Congress will still look at passing new regulation here.

BERMAN: All right, Clare Duffy. Great reporting on this. Thanks as always.

All right -- mayhem at a crash site. An officer rescued from a burning car and then a gun -- his gun starts firing off rounds inside.

And a fan jumps a barrier and tries to grab Ariana Grande. Luckily, her "Wicked" co-star was there to protect her.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:52:25]

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, in Singapore, a man jumped over a barrier and rushed at Ariana Grande. You can see it right there. This was at a premiere for the new "Wicked" sequel. And again, as you can see, her co-star Cynthia Erivo -- somewhere in there -- quickly jumped in to intervene before security could even get in to help. The man is charged with committing a public nuisance.

New video from Oregon this morning of the Coast Guard rescuing a father and son from freezing water. The pair were stranded for two hours after their boat capsized. They were then airlifted to a hospital.

In Atlanta, bystanders pulled an officer to safety after he crashed his cruiser into a home. Several people worked to break the car's window and carry the officer out as the fire grew. Then they used his radio to call for help.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have an officer down -- Officer --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Safra (sic).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: S-A-F-R-A? Hello?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On North Avenue.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On North Avenue.

911 OPERATOR: I copy that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, hurry up. He's been in a wreck. His leg is broke.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So then, after that, witnesses say the officer's gun, which was still inside the burning car, started firing. So then they all had to move, including moving the officer again. The cause of the initial crash is still under investigation.

All right. A safe and overdue landing for three Chinese astronauts. So they were up in the Chinese space station and apparently, space debris cracked the window of their capsule. Imagine that. So they couldn't come home in the cracked window capsule, so they stayed for nine days up there in space and ultimately went home on the spacecraft that had transported the incoming crew. So now the guys still up there have no ship to get back in, at least for now, Omar.

JIMENEZ: All right.

Well, meanwhile, the Trump administration is jumping into the high- stakes battle over California's effort to redraw its congressional maps. It is seeking to join a lawsuit to stop the new maps after voters last week approved the ballot measure that could help Democrats flip five Republican House seats. The Justice Department calls the new maps a "brazen power grab" as California officials dismiss the challenge as a political attack.

And Democrats have scored a redistricting win in Utah that could help them reclaim the House majority in next year's midterms if the ruling stands. A federal judge rejected a map drawn by Republican lawmakers in favor of an alternative proposal that creates a Democratic-leaning district.

[07:55:05]

Joining me now is Ben McAdams. He served in Congress during President Trump's first term and now he's running again in the hopes of turning that new Utah district solidly blue. Thank you for taking the time.

You know, the Trump administration, as I mentioned, is suing to try and stop California from redistricting their congressional maps despite over 60 percent of California voters approve it and despite Texas' plans to move forward with its redistricting plans.

You will also, no doubt, benefit from the newly-drawn district here in Utah. What do you make of where we are right now in terms of non- census year redistricting potentially turning out to be a difference- making dynamic in terms of control of the House?

BEN MCADAMS, (D) UTAH CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE (via Webex by Cisco): Well, what's happening in Utah is a little bit of a different situation. I've always thought that voters should choose their elected officials; not elected officials choosing their voters. But because of the win here in Utah we are -- you know, voters here have felt for a long time that the boundaries have been manipulated to deny their voice and to really shut them out of the opportunity to elect somebody who they want to send to Congress.

And the court ruled that the -- that the Utah legislature had overreached and drawn boundaries that were intended to stop anyone in Utah from electing a Democrat. So now with this new ruling we have new boundaries and a real opportunity to elect a Democrat and send a Democrat to Congress in 2026.

JIMENEZ: And as it stands -- and correct me if I'm wrong -- you're the only Democrat over the last 10 years to have been elected to the House representing Utah. And if you are given that opportunity again what is your biggest concern right now on the Hill, either with Democrats or Republicans? MCADAMS: You know, I grew up in a family -- I grew up in West Bountiful here in Utah. And growing up my family didn't have a lot. We struggled to put food on the table from time to time. I remember as a kid the power would be shut off because we couldn't pay our bills. My -- both my mother and my sister had preexisting medical conditions, so we know how medical expenses and medical debt can really hurt family finances.

And my concern is that too many American families, like the family that I grew up in, are really struggling today. Struggling to put food on the table. Groceries are too expensive. Housing is unattainable, it feels like, and rent goes up and homeownership feels out of reach.

And it seems like under the Trump administration they campaigned on affordability, but it really feels like it was nothing more than a slogan. What we see is tax cuts for billionaires and then holding back SNAP benefits and taking back the ACA subsidies that can help families afford health care.

So I'm really worried about affordability and how that's affecting American families and Utah families, and I plan to get in and do something for families like mine.

JIMENEZ: Is there anything that you believe Democrats could be doing better? I mean, some have faced criticism over how -- the way the shutdown ended without commitments in the House, at the very least, for votes on health care subsidies.

MCADAMS: Yeah. You know, I think Democrats need a clearer platform about what we're doing, and we need ideas and policies that are going to make a real difference in people's lives. But I do think it was mistake giving Republicans votes on the budget without extending the ACA tax credits. That was a mistake in the shutdown fight because I think Democrats are winning.

And as I said, this isn't just politics. This is personal for me. I know what it's like to grow up in a family that's struggling because of high health care costs and struggling to make ends meet. And I think Democrats need to continue to fight -- to stand up for Utah families like the family that I grew up in.

JIMENEZ: You know, when you were last in office you voted to impeach President Trump. And I was reading in the Salt Lake Tribune that when you took that vote you knew it would probably cost you your re- election, but you don't regret casting that vote.

Looking back do you think that vote still holds the weight you believed it had then considering President Trump's power over the Republican Party right now?

MCADAMS: You know, I didn't arrive at the decision to vote to impeach Donald Trump lightly. And as you said, it was a vote -- when I cast that vote I knew that it would probably cost me my re-election in a deeply -- a district that had overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump. But I believe what Donald Trump did was wrong and he needed to be held accountable for it. I'm somebody who -- I believe in the Constitution, and I want to stand

up for the country that I think Americans deserve -- the America that I believe in.

And so I think that was the right vote. I've been really disappointed to see now what's happened and, you know, the state that I see our country in right now is so concerning to me. In my lifetime I've never seen -- been more concerned for the state of our country than I am right now.

We've seen over the last 10 months now President Trump is ordering the prosecution of his political opponents, sending troops into American cities. You know, we're seeing hardworking, law-abiding immigrants that are being torn away from their families.

So, you know, I think that was the right decision then. I'm really sad to see that Republicans in Congress today seem to be his accomplices in furthering the harm that's being happening -- that's happening to our country. Donald Trump, in the last 10 months, has trampled over the Constitution and Republicans seem to be accomplices in that.