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Jack Scarola is Interviewed about Epstein; Balance of Power in the Midterms; NASA's Artemis III Could Send American to Moon. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired November 17, 2025 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

ADMIRAL JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST: It will be a tough nut to crack militarily.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: When we spoke last week with the Gerald Ford heading there and now there, you had said that this is possibly the largest concentration of naval forces of the United States anywhere in the world right now. I mean how long can they realistically stay in a holding pattern until the president needs to decide to either conduct land strikes, really go after Maduro, or, I don't know, leave and reset?

STAVRIDIS: Yes, you've outlined the options quite nicely. And I suspect those are the ones that hit his desk just before the weekend. The short answer is, the U.S. has the military capability to maintain that level of force indefinitely. It will get very painful, particularly if those are the same ships that stay there. For those sailors, for example, the Ford has been deployed at sea essentially since June, Kate. They're expecting and hoping to get home before Christmas. If they get held on station and all those sailors, that's thousands, maybe 4,000 or 5,000 sailors are in a holding pattern there.

But we have 11 aircraft carriers. We have plenty of amphibious ships. We can rotate new forces there. But far better that we get this to a resolution sooner rather than later.

BOLDUAN: Yes, you got the firepower, but you need the plan at some point to lay out what is actually going to happen now with that firepower.

It's great to see you, Admiral, as always. Thank you.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you, Kate.

Surging floodwaters in California after a major rainstorm leave a man stranded on a ledge. The daring rescue to save him. We'll show you that.

And a 180 from President Trump. Suddenly he's calling for the release of the Epstein files. An attorney representing victims of Jeffrey Epstein joins us with his reaction.

Those stories and more, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:36:22]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, a major reversal for President Trump. He is now urging Republicans in the House to vote to release the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files. That vote is now expected to be tomorrow. It comes days after Democrats released emails from Epstein that mentioned Trump by name.

Now, back in a 2010 deposition, Epstein was questioned about his relationship with Trump by attorney Jack Scarola.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK SCAROLA, ATTORNEY FOR EPSTEIN VICTIMS: Have you ever had a personal relationship with Donald Trump?

JEFREY EPSTEIN: What do you mean by personal relationships?

SCAROLA: Have you socialized with him?

EPSTEIN: Yes, sir.

SCAROLA: Yes.

EPSTEIN: Yes, sir.

SCAROLA: Have you ever socialized with Donald. Trump in the presence of females under the age of 18?

EPSTEIN: Though I'd like to answer that question, at least today I'm going to have to assert my Fifth, Sixth and 14th Amendment rights, sir.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: And Jack Scarola, the attorney who has represented nearly 20 Epstein survivors, has spent 18 years litigating cases against Epstein, joins us now.

Counselor, nice to see you this morning.

First, let me get your reaction to the breaking news overnight where President Trump now says he wants House Republicans to vote yes on asking the Justice Department to release the Epstein files. What do you make of that reversal?

JACK SCAROLA, ATTORNEY FOR EPSTEIN VICTIMS: John, so much has already come out that Donald Trump recognizes what many people also recognize, and that is, given Trump's very long history of deviant and criminal behavior, that millions of people have made the inexplicable decision to ignore, additional information released through the Epstein files is highly unlikely to change anybody's mind that has already been made up. That's not what this is about at this point.

What this is and needs to continue to be about is answering the questions, not about the extent of Donald Trump's corruption, but answering questions about why and how the justice system was corrupted by wealth and power. Who was involved in that corruption from top to bottom, and why it occurred.

BERMAN: Again, it's important to note, Donald Trump has not been charged with any wrongdoing in connection to Jeffrey Epstein.

I do want to ask you what the survivors, the Jeffrey Epstein survivors, now think about what is happening very publicly in Washington over this.

SCAROLA: They are pleased that there is a groundswell of support for getting answers to the questions that they have been asking for over a decade and a half. And they deserve those answers. So, the victims are the survivors of the Epstein-Maxwell patterns of child abuse. They are encouraged by the fact that we seem to be on the verge of asking the right questions of the right people.

[09:40:00]

BERMAN: You've been at this for such a long time. Do you really believe that, first of all, everything will be released and that, you know, b, that we will learn new information after all this time?

SCAROLA: I am not optimistic that the files themselves are going to answer all the questions that need to be answered. But I am increasingly optimistic about the fact that public pressure is going to require an investigation be conducted into the corruption of the justice system. I firmly believe it needs to happen. I have believed it needs to happen for the more than 15 years that I've been involved with these matters. And I think that it's finally going to happen.

BERMAN: Just before I let you go, we played the sound of you in that 2010 deposition with Jeffrey Epstein. That was before -- long before Donald Trump was president. Why did you ask that question about Donald Trump in that deposition?

SCAROLA: I cannot talk about the confidential communications that I have had with my clients. But what I can tell you is that there was a reasonable basis for concern about the role that many others might play in providing evidence of the nature and extent of Jeffrey Epstein's crimes. One of the people on the list of individuals who was reasonably anticipated to have knowledge that could be significant in the investigation was Donald Trump.

BERMAN: Interesting. Donald Trump, again, continues to say that he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago because he was a creep, et cetera, et cetera, but did not know specifically, I guess, what was going on. We will see if we learn more.

Jack Scarola, thanks so much for being with us this morning.

Kate. BOLDUAN: So, about a quarter of women in the United States are not

getting prenatal care in their first trimester, a new report finds. The March of Dimes says that it's -- it also is a -- there is a growing and dangerous trend that they are seeing here. And the nonprofit says in maternal health deserts, where there are no clinics, are a major factor, as well as barriers to getting Medicaid coverage for many women. Inadequate prenatal care poses a great risk to both the mother and the baby, including preterm birth. This report gives the United States a D plus, grade D plus, for having preterm birth rate of 10.4 percent for the third year in a row. Also notable, between 2022 and 2024, the preterm birth rate among mothers with private insurance was 9.6 percent. Among mothers using Medicaid, it was quite a bit higher, 11.7 percent.

There is a new video coming in this morning of rescue crews in California saving a man who had been stranded, really, and swept away by floodwater more than a mile downstream. It happened during a storm over the weekend. Officials say the man was able to get himself onto a ledge, as you can see here. First responders say that someone nearby heard him calling for help, tried to drop him a rope. The firefighters then arrived and were able to use the trucks ladder to eventually pull him to safety.

And finally, the most adorable sign that the government shutdown is finally over, panda cams are back. The National Zoo in Washington reopened over the weekend after the months long plus shutdown to a huge crowd. CNN was there, of course. Zookeepers also turned back on the ever-popular zoo cameras that allow anybody to watch these guys do what they do best, which essentially is being cute and napping. The zoo's reopening also comes with an announcement that even more cuteness is on the way. The arrival of four cheetah cubs who have their own camera as they hang with mom. And fun fact, that new mom was one of the first cubs to be shown on the cheetah cam back in 2020.

John.

BERMAN: That is a fun fact.

BOLDUAN: It is fun.

BERMAN: That is a fun fact right there.

As for the pandas, I don't know that we should be celebrating sloth as much as we are.

BOLDUAN: John Berman, we're celebrating cuteness.

BOLDUAN: I don't know, I feel like ambition is more of an American spirit there, but we'll see. We'll see. Thank you very much for that, Kate.

BOLDUAN: You're un-American.

All right, we were talking about President Trump's big reversal overnight, now saying that House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files or should vote to ask the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files. Some people see this as a sign that the president's lost control of Republicans in the House. Well, what about control of the House in general? How much maybe is the Epstein case affecting that? How much do the 2025 elections figure in there?

With us now, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

Again, we're a few weeks after the 2025 elections. How do things look heading into 2026?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes, Democrats are in a considerably better position than they were just four weeks ago.

What are we talking about here? OK, chance of winning the House in 2026. The prediction market odds. Look at this, on October 20th the Dems were ahead. But they had just a 56 percent chance of taking the House. Look at where we are now, up to a 72 percent chance.

[09:45:02]

So, Democrats and Republicans were quite competitive four weeks ago, and now Democrats have taken the bull by the horns. They are more than a seven in ten chance of taking the House in 2026, according to the prediction market odds.

BERMAN: Yes, and this is interesting because it's people in the prediction market saying, hey, this is what we think is going to happen. The question is why. What are they seeing? What's some of the data here that makes them think this?

ENTEN: Yes, what -- exactly right, why are those who are putting their money on the line, what are they seeing that's making them change their mind? Maybe Democrats have a better chance than we thought. Well, one of them just comes down to redistricting, right? We have been talking about this mid-decade redistricting gains. And this is the net mid-decade redistricting gains. You know, if each side had maxed out -- we were talking about a Republican gain of seven seats. But right now the projection based upon current gains is actually a Republican gain of just one seat. We're just talking about one seat. These numbers of seats, I wouldn't actually be surprised if this flips over to the Democratic side based upon what may be happening in Virginia and maybe Democrats are actually the ones who benefit from the mid-decade redistricting gains. They could be the ones gaining seats instead of Republicans by just one seat at this particular point, way south of where we thought it was going to be. We thought Republicans would be picking up five, six, seven seats. No longer the case. You get Texas, but it's canceled out by California. Then you get North Carolina, but that's canceled out by Utah.

So, the bottom line is, Democrats are doing considerably better, John, than we thought in terms of these mid-decade redistricting.

BERMAN: Yes, not as many states going on. And that doesn't even figure in what may happen in Texas in the actual election there.

ENTEN: You got that right.

BERMAN: And there could be some shifts that we're seeing there.

All right, how about the so-called generic ballot test?

ENTEN: Yes. OK. So, the other thing that's going on is, it's not just the redistricting. It turns out that Democrats are doing better in the polls. So, let's take a look here. Right, OK, Dems versus the GOP on the generic congressional ballot. The Dem lead has widened. It has widened. So, a month ago, Democrats were ahead by three. Now they're ahead by five in my aggregate of polls. And more than the nearly doubling of the lead that Democrats have. We, of course, had an election, right. And Dems outperformed their polls in New Jersey and Virginia. So, I think that is also playing a role here. Democrats doing better in the polls. And a lot of folks saying, you know what, I don't think the Republicans are going to outperform their polls like they did in 2024.

BERMAN: It is interesting, this number, Democrats would like to see that much bigger before 2026.

ENTEN: They would -- they would like to see that up to seven, eight, nine points. That would pretty much guarantee them taking the House.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, thank you very much for this. An interesting look.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: A lot going on. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:52:04]

SIDNER: A new space race to an old destination. NASA hopes its Artemis III, deemed the most powerful rocket system ever built, will get Americans back to the moon. But some scientists are concerned about the rocket's engineering challenges, its size and unprecedented design.

Joining me now, Kristin Fisher, CNN space and defense analyst.

Thank you for being here this morning.

Kristin, why is this different than prior missions, this Artemis rocket?

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE ANALYST: So, the Artemis program is the successor to NASA's Apollo program, which, of course, famously landed 12 astronauts on the surface of the moon back in the 1960s and '70s. Only this time, instead of leaving just flags and footprints, the Artemis program is designed to build a sustained human presence on the surface of the moon, with the goal of building an actual lunar base on the south pole of the moon, and then using that as a jumping off point to someday go to Mars, Sara.

SIDNER: I had a feeling this was about Mars. Look, we've landed on the moon. I think America has landed there --

FISHER: It's all about Mars, right?

SIDNER: It's always about Mars, right?

Americas has landed, what, six times on the moon? The very last time was in 1972. Why is there worry that the United States may lose this race?

FISHER: It's kind of shocking and hard for a lot of people to wrap their minds around the fact that the U.S. was the first country ever in the history of humanity to land astronauts on the surface of the moon, and yet, more than half a century later, they're still struggling to go back. And not only that, but China, a relatively new spacefaring nation, has a real shot at beating the U.S. back, right? So, how is this possible? There's a lot of things. But it really boils down to the fact that, you know, Sara, China doesn't have to deal with some -- with some of these pesky problems that the United States has to deal with in terms of budget cuts and new presidential administrations coming in and changing the mission or the budget or the destination. And so, China has really, for many years now, said, we are going to the moon. We are going to devote whatever money and resources it takes to do that. And we're not going to stop. We're not going to have government shutdowns.

And so, they have been making tremendous progress over the last few weeks and months with their lunar program. And then you couple that with the fact that the former NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine, he testified on Capitol Hill just about two months ago that he believes it is highly unlikely that the U.S. beats China back to the moon. So, add it all up and, yes, there's a real shot that the United States loses this second space race unless they can do something to -- to speed things up and reverse course quite quickly.

Sara.

SIDNER: I just -- last question here. How hard is this going to be? Because you're talking about building something on the moon to then eventually maybe get us to Mars.

[09:55:05]

FISHER: It's super hard, right? But this is what NASA does. This is what they are built to do. And part of the beauty of moving things to the commercial and the private sector with companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin, the fact that it allows -- ideally it allows NASA to free up and focus most of their energy, resources and money on these big picture things, like a base on the moon and Mars someday.

SIDNER: Understood.

FISHER: It's many years off, but it's so exciting, Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you so much, Kristin. Appreciate it.

Thank you guys for being here and not on the moon. BERMAN: Well, we did it would like the computing power of a calculator

or a wristwatch.

SIDNER: It's true. It's true.

BERMAN: In like the '60s. You would think that maybe, you know, not so hard now.

SIDNER: It wouldn't be as hard.

BERMAN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Ideally. We're leaning on ideally quite a bit, which I really like.

BERMAN: Yes, (INAUDIBLE).

BOLDUAN: Ideally we're at the end of the show. Thanks so much for joining us, everyone. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SITUATION ROOM" --

BERMAN: That would be ideal.

BOLDUAN: Ideal. Up next.

SIDNER: Has former astronauts.

BERMAN: That would be ideal.

SIDNER: You should know.

BOLDUAN: Ideal to end the show.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)