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House Votes on Release of Epstein Files Soon; Federal Agents Expand Immigration Crackdown to Raleigh; DHS Says More Than 200 Arrested in Charlotte-area Immigration Crackdown; Wall Street Investors Brace for Wave of Post-shutdown Data; Texas Barred From Using New Redistricting Map in Midterms; NTSB Reveals Likely Cause of Baltimore Bridge Collision. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired November 18, 2025 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Michael Wolff was suggesting to Epstein that he could use their relationship to earn political capital. I want to be extremely clear and make it clear to our viewers that the president has not been accused of any wrongdoing in these emails or throughout this process, he -- a large portion of them came before he was even in office. But it is notable that their relationship comes up again and again in these emails. Do you have questions for the president about their relationship? Does it make you at all curious about it?
REP. DERRICK VAN ORDEN, (R-WI): Well, here's what else Jeffrey Epstein wrote. He wrote several text messages to Congresswoman Plaskett while she was sitting on the Oversight Committee in an oversight hearing about Jeffrey Epstein. And she was asking him what questions to ask Michael Cohen. Now, that would not have come out if this discharge petition was only signed. That only came out because the Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Jeffrey Epstein estate.
So I'm going to say that once again. Before he -- before his demise was live texting with the Congresswoman, Democrat Congressman who represents the Virgin Islands with Jeffrey Epstein, and Jeffrey Epstein was telling her what questions to ask the witness. Ms. Plaskett has also received over $30,000 in campaign money from Jeffrey Epstein and she refuses to return it. The DNC has received $32,000 from the Epstein -- from Epstein and they refuse to return that money. That's blood money,
So what we need be asking ourselves, sir, is why is -- why was a Democrat member of Congress on the Oversight Committee responsible for the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein --
SANCHEZ: Sure.
VAN ORDEN: -- live texting with Jeffrey Epstein during the hearing?
SANCHEZ: Congressman, Ms. Plaskett -- Ms. Plaskett --
(CROSSTALK) VAN ORDEN: Do we have a limited amount of time because you're going to interview her next? Is that right? Is she going to be on your show and explain herself?
SANCHEZ: We'd be more than happy to have her on, Congressman. I believe that Mrs. Plaskett has refuted those characterizations. However, that doesn't answer the question of what questions you might have for President Trump. --
(CROSSTALK)
VAN ORDEN: Well, well, well, no, no, no, hold on a sec -- wait.
SANCHEZ: -- based on these emails.
VAN ORDEN: Hold on a sec.
SANCHEZ: Congressman, I asked you about President Trump's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. You started talking about Mrs. Plaskett. I want to get your thoughts on President Trump and what you might ask him based on this information that's come out.
VAN ORDEN: I get it. So you're just not going to get away with this. They have --
SANCHEZ: Get away with what, Congressman?
VAN ORDEN: They have the time-stamped text messages, time-stamped text messages from Jeffrey Epstein to Ms. Plaskett, and then they have the video.
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: Congressman, I'm not sure what you're suggesting.
(CROSSTALK)
VAN ORDEN: You can literally look down and see her reading --
SANCHEZ: I'm not what you're suggesting that I'm trying to get away with Congressman. As I said, Ms. Plaskett has refuted those characterizations. I would be more than happy to ask her these questions. But I was asking you specifically, Congressman Van Orden, what questions you have for President Trump about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein given these emails that we've seen, given the photos of them together, given the videos of them together, when the president says Epstein was only friends with Democrats.
VAN ORDEN: Listen, you and I can refute the fact that we're bald. That doesn't mean we're going to grow hair tomorrow.
(LAUGH)
VAN ORDEN: So we have to focus on some really devious things. And when, I mean, I don't think people understand what this means, this woman was responsible for the oversight of the investigation of these monsters that abused these women repeatedly. And she's live texting with this guy, and he's telling her what questions to ask the witness. Now, those are questions that really need to be asked, not the hypothetical questions that you're asking me, sir.
SANCHEZ: She -- again, she has refuted that characterization. She's more than welcome to come on our show and discuss it. Congressman Derek Van Orden, we have to leave the conversation here --
VAN ORDEN: If you want --
(CROSSTALK)
SANCHEZ: We appreciate your time, sir.
VAN ORDEN: -- Yeah. Hey, listen, God bless you and thanks for having me on your show.
SANCHEZ: Thanks so much. Still to come this afternoon, businesses are closing their doors and kids are being kept home from school as immigration operations seize Charlotte. We're following the rapidly developing situation in North Carolina. Plus, another economic warning sign, this time from one of America's biggest retailers. We'll get into the details in just moments. Don't go anywhere.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:38:04]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": An immigration crackdown in North Carolina is now expanding to include the state's capital. Border Patrol Agents have just arrived in Raleigh just three days after launching enforcement operations in Charlotte. And the number of arrests in Charlotte, that is growing, with the Department of Homeland Security saying agents have arrested at least 200 people since Saturday.
The immigration sweeps also creating tension and anxiety such as this moment when agents are seen hopping out of an unmarked van to question two workers putting up Christmas lights in the yard. The owner of the house says agents eventually left without making any arrests. CNN's Dianne Gallagher is with us now from Charlotte. Dianne, what more can you tell us about the ground operations underway there?
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, I think perhaps what most starkly describes how it's impacting the city itself is when you walk up and down some of these areas that are -- that are -- that have immigrant businesses at them and seeing them close. The business collective here in East Charlotte says that of the 400 mom- and-pop businesses that they have participating in their collective, they estimate about half of them have closed this week because of it.
In fact, they said that the only thing that they could think that was similar to was the very first week of the COVID-19 pandemic back in 2020. They haven't seen anything like it since then. Also, here in Charlotte, this school district just revised the number of students who were absent yesterday. This was a big concern because of -- they may come from a mixed household or perhaps they were just nervous about potentially being profiled, they said. More than 30,000 students were out of school yesterday. They say they're still working on numbers for today.
Several of the students at the schools had walkouts yesterday as well as today to protest what is happening here. But the Department of Homeland Security is touting numbers of more than 200 that have been arrested in Charlotte since their so-called Operation Charlotte's Web began on Saturday morning.
[13:40:00]
They said that of the 130 people who were arrested -- who were undocumented, arrested on the weekend, that 44 of them had criminal records, including for things like assault and driving while intoxicated. They said two of those people were known gang members. But people in the community here, especially out here protesting on Central Avenue in East Charlotte, point out that we don't know if they were charged or convicted.
And additionally say that, that means that the overwhelming majority of people who were picked up over the weekend did not have criminal records. And that's what many of the people in Charlotte, especially those who are speaking out about it, have expressed their frustration with. Leaders have said if they were here trying to find violent offenders and targeted operations, that they would be OK with that, but they don't feel like that's what's happening.
I can tell you that we have spoken to numerous people across the city who say that they feel that there is profiling happening. They feel that they themselves have been profiled. We spoke to a Puerto Rican man who is out here who said, I'm a citizen. I'm Puerto Rican. And I've been stopped twice now by Border Patrol, asking for my ID and pulling on my hands until I give it to them.
And so, look, right now they are attempting to sort of wait and weather this, Brianna. They say that they expect most of these businesses to remain closed for potentially the duration of this operation. We don't know how long exactly that will be. And after it ends, that's when they will try and find ways to potentially support these businesses for that lost revenue.
KEILAR: Yeah. Certainly tough for those businesses as well. Dianne Gallagher, live for us from Charlotte. Thank you. Next, some more concerning signs that American shoppers are feeling the pain of inflation, even as President Trump insists prices are coming down. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:46:08]
KEILAR: The nation's housing slump is hitting Home Depot, the big box retailer saying it's slashing its profit forecast for the year, blaming the frozen housing market and increased consumer uncertainty for cutbacks to home improvement projects as Americans feel the strain of high prices. President Donald Trump continuing to claim that those concerns are overblown. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Prices are coming down and all of that stuff and they talk about different terms for that. But I will tell you that nobody has done what we've done in terms of pricing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Roben Farzad is with us now. He's a business journalist and a host of NPR's Full Disclosure. All right, Roben, so what do we know about inflation, considering we have missed out on economic data during the shutdown? Quite a bit of it.
ROBEN FARZAD, BUSINESS JOURNALIST & HOST, "FULL DISCLOSURE": Put all the numbers aside, prices still feel high to the consumer. You talk about kitchen table issues, whether retailers, whether fast casual, Chipotle, Panera, others saying that people are cutting back, they're decreasing the frequency, they're pushing back on value and portion sizes, everyone up and down the food chain. I will say luxury still remains a strong point.
There was a great story in The Wall Street Journal about the links to which the ultra wealthy will go to kind of seclude themselves outside of this and kind of be above it. But that is cold comfort for the majority of people out there who are still feeling this and have rough recollection of what a meal used to cost like, what a grocery shopping cart used to feel full say in 2019, and that's not the way inflation works.
KEILAR: Yeah, it is a crazy feeling when you fill up your grocery cart to then see what it costs. It's unbelievable. The White House has insisted the trade war is not contributing to that inflation. But when you see the tariff roll back on coffee, on beef and fruit, how are you seeing that? Is that an acknowledgement of these cost increases?
FARZAD: That is. That is. We're not a centralized planned economy. It's not like this is Maduro's predecessor Chavez, who could just raise his hand in the air and say, slaughter more cows, produce more concrete, and ship it out by decree. That's not the way our economy works. There used to be more price controls and price floors and price ceilings. Right now, there's a lot of exhortation. These tariffs certainly haven't helped. I'm not just talking about imports of beef, if you look at record beef prices, but the feedstock that goes in, the soybeans, the corn, all the other things up and down the food chain, the machinery. And it's worsened by the fact that there are, like a poor -- what is it? A poor herd at this point. And that leaves no slack in the system. So yes, on balance, it doesn't help that we're in a strenuous (inaudible) environment.
KEILAR: So some obstacles here, right? We've got this lack of a little bit of data, who knows if we're going to see this again in January. The president was just asked in the Oval Office as he was meeting with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia about his choice for the Fed. And he said he'd already settled on it. I think he said he already knows who his pick is. And he's very displeased with Jerome Powell. He's blaming him. I guess, he's kind of the foil for housing troubles. How are you seeing it?
FARZAD: I think that's a really dangerous game of chicken to play. If there were to be an economic crisis, or God forbid a war or other pandemic tomorrow, next week, do you want to have to go to Trump in the Oval Office and say, do you have faith in Jerome Powell? You said last week that he's no good and you have another person in mind. Yes, in peacetime, when you're a peacetime general, but not a war general, you don't want to be doing this.
[13:50:00]
You don't want the multi, multi trillions of dollars of United States, monetary exposure and the inter -- the interbanking system to freak out that you have the president not -- openly not having confidence in his handpicked Chair of the Federal Reserve. It's a dangerous problem to play. And yes, he's cutting rates, but we have inflation. Do you want to be cutting rates into a record housing and asset environment? I mean, it's like a -- it's a Janus faced way of talking about the world.
KEILAR: Yeah. Roben, you always have such a good way of explaining things. Roben Farzad, thank you so much for being with us.
FARZAD: Thank you, Brianna.
KEILAR: And next, how a small misplaced label likely triggered a chain of events that led to the deadly collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge last year. What investigators believe happened, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:55:14]
SANCHEZ: Breaking News, a major setback for President Trump's push to redistrict states. A federal court has just blocked Texas from using its newly-drawn congressional map in next year's midterms. You'll recall after the president's request, Texas redrew some districts in the summer, enabling Republicans to win as many as five more House seats. Let's get to CNN's Fredreka Schouten shouting for the details. Fredreka, what did this three-judge panel decide?
FREDREKA SCHOUTEN, CNN POLITICS NATIONAL POLITICAL WRITER: They decided that it was illegal, racial gerrymander. Remember that Donald Trump and his political operation really pushed for Texas to redraw its maps. And as part of the justification for it, the DOJ, Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Civil Rights Division said, take a look at these maps that -- take a look at these seats that are already there. We think that they're improperly benefiting some racial groups and we're going to bring a lawsuit against you if you don't change them.
And that was part of the justification for Texas lawmakers to go ahead and do this redistricting. And the judges have come back, two out of three in this three-judge panel and have said no. Well, that was an illegal racial gerrymander. And this is a huge setback, as you note, for President Trump because this whole redistricting push began in Texas. SANCHEZ: Right.
SCHOUTEN: -- with the goal of trying to gain enough seats, so that the Republicans would retain control of the House after next year's midterms. And this just sort of wipes a hole in it. If it stands that is --
SANCHEZ: Right.
SCHOUTEN: -- because it's going to be appealed. It's certainly going to be appealed by the Trump administration.
SANCHEZ: And there's a very good chance it winds up in a Supreme Court that is conservative leaning, that in the past has bucked precedent decide with some of the president's arguments.
SCHOUTEN: It has. It has. I mean, there are a lot of questions remaining about how the Supreme Court will deal with this because they also have another big redistricting case ahead of them right now, right in front of them out of Louisiana. But this, I mean, keep in mind that the president and his team have been pushing a number of Republican states to draw new maps. And before this came down, they were -- had succeeded in and targeting in about nine Democratic seats.
California, of course, responded --
SANCHEZ: Prop. 50, right?
SCHOUTEN: Prop. 50 and came up with five Democratic seats. So, we're going to see how this all plays out. This could be a wash.
SANCHEZ: Yeah. Let's see what happens. Fredreka Schouten, thank you so much for the reporting. Appreciate it. Brianna?
KEILAR: More than a year and a half after the crash, investigators believe they now know why a cargo ship slammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, killing six people as the bridge collapsed into the water. CNN's Brian Todd is outside the NTSB offices in D.C. where the findings were just revealed. Brian, what do officials think happened?
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, they're focusing on a cascading series of events triggered by something that is so minute, seemingly minute that it's really almost mind boggling. What they say happened was that everything was pretty much triggered initially by a wire that was supposed to be connected, a signal wire that was supposed to be connected to a circuit breaker. The wire wasn't connected properly. And the reason for that was because a label sticker on the wire was placed too close to the connection point, inhibiting a proper connection.
That triggered the first blackout, which then caused a second blackout. The ship lost steering, the bow thruster and water pumps then failed, and then a backup electrical generator failed. NTSB Board Member, Thomas Chapman kind of summed up the frustration over this one singular wire connection this way. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS CHAPMAN, BOARD MEMBER, NTSB: We're talking about a very small component here and this is what caused all the problems. The poor connection within this terminal block is what started the sequence of events that resulted in the blackout.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: They also released a harrowing picture of the last vehicles to cross the bridge right before impact. This was from a dash cam of the last vehicle southbound on the Key Bridge that morning. You can see a truck on the left-hand side of the picture, but you can also see the vessel of the Dali careening toward the bridge on the right-hand side just moments before impact, one of the more harrowing images of this hearing. Brianna?
KEILAR: All right. Brian Todd, thank you so much. Let's go straight to the House floor where Speaker Johnson is talking ahead of this Epstein vote.
REP. MIKE JOHNSON, (R-LA) HOUSE SPEAKER: -- curious concern in the Epstein investigation, all in the name of that -- in the name of transparency. But the question has been asked here many times during the debate on the floor and everybody questioning why it is that Democrats have done this right now, have to look at the obvious facts. The Democrats had all the Epstein files in their possession for four long years under the Biden presidency. The Biden Department of Justice had these files. And no one on this side who is breathless today about the urgency of this release ever said a word about it.
