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Trump Signs Epstein Bill, DOJ Has 30 Days to Release Files; Trump Reposts Suggestion to Hang Them After Dem Lawmakers Urge Military to Disobey Any Illegal Orders They Receive; Delayed Report Show U.S. Economy Added 119,000 Jobs in September; Border Patrol's Bovino and Some Agents Leave Charlotte; CDC Changes Website to Reflect Vaccine Skepticism. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired November 20, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": The White House just wrapped up its first press briefing since President Trump signed the Epstein files bill into law. And the question on so many minds, when will all the files be released? We're monitoring the remarks as they just wrapped, I learned a moment ago, the Justice Department now has until December 19 to publish every unclassified file it has. But concern is building over legal loopholes that could still delay documents. CNN's Kristen Holmes is live for us at the White House. So Kristen, the briefing just wrapped up. Walk us through what the press secretary shared.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, she shared nothing when it came to Epstein. It was a very short briefing. She took just a small handful of questions. None of them happened to be on Epstein. Then she wrapped it saying that she had to get to the next meeting with President Trump. This is the second briefing she's done in the last couple of weeks that has ended rather abruptly and rather quickly with, again no questions this time when it came to Epstein.

As you mentioned, there are some questions though that's still lingering. We've been asking the White House about whether or not this new investigation that President Trump has called for the Department of Justice to open and the Department of Justice has in fact opened, will stop them from releasing documents that they will say that this is all part of the evidence that is in part of this investigation, so we can't share this or make this public. I have been told by White House officials that President Trump doesn't plan on standing in the way of the release of any of these documents. They don't believe that the Department of Justice, and this is what they are telling me, is going to withhold these documents.

But there is still a lot of questions and again, they are not the Department of Justice and whether or not this is going to play into an investigation, that still is an actual question. It wouldn't be the first time that we've heard any Department of Justice say that they can't release something because of an ongoing investigation. So a lot of questions about when and what exactly will be released. A lot of questions also about what -- if it is released, whether or not it is heavily redacted or not.

SANCHEZ: Yeah. Significant questions still to be answered. Kristen, the president is also calling for the arrest of Democratic lawmakers who he says have urged the military to disobey potential illegal orders. He then suggested this was seditious behavior punishable by death. What are you hearing about this?

HOLMES: Yeah, Boris and actually Karoline Leavitt was asked about this in the briefing, particularly that post that you mentioned, punishable by death. Just to give our audience a little bit of an understanding of how much President Trump doubled down on this idea, he posted or reposted 16 times about this topic and Karoline Leavitt was asked specifically, whether or not President Trump wanted to see these Democratic lawmakers executed, like these posts, or at least some of them seem to suggest? Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just to be clear, does the president want to execute members of Congress?

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: No. The sanctity of our military rests on the chain of command. And if that chain of command is broken, it can lead to people getting killed. It can lead to chaos and that's what these members of Congress, who swore an oath to abide by the Constitution, are essentially encouraging. It perhaps is punishable by law. I'm not a lawyer. I'll leave that to the Department of Justice and the Department of War to decide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And just to be clear, these six Democratic lawmakers, many of them with a background in military or intelligence, were calling on service members or members of the intelligence community not to follow through with orders that might be or that are illegal, that break the law in any way, not just a blanket to not follow these orders. So that is just a clear delineation here, I want to make, even though we heard from the press Secretary there kind of saying that they were overall saying not to listen to President Trump.

SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes, thanks so much from the White House. Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": After more than a month of waiting, today, we're seeing the September Jobs Report for the first time. It was delayed because of the government shutdown and the results are mixed. Job growth beat the expectations of economists, but the unemployment rate also hit a nearly four-year high. CNN's Matt Egan is taking a look at all of this. All right, Matt, many were wondering how this report would turn out. What are the numbers saying?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Brianna, this report was about as mixed as you can get. Instead of the clarity we were hoping for, we just got some more confusing signals. Now the good news is that the U.S. economy added 119,000 jobs in September. That blows away the forecast of 50,000. And it suggests that this job market is not imploding, at least it wasn't as of the end of September. The bad news is there were more negative revisions to prior months. July and August were revised lower. August went from a tiny gain to now a tiny loss. So that means after nearly four years of uninterrupted monthly job gains, we now have a situation where two of the last four months, the U.S. economy has actually shed jobs.

Now the other bad news is the unemployment rate, it unexpectedly went up to 4.4 percent. It's not all that high historically, of course, but when you look at the trend, it is clearly going in the wrong direction.

[14:05:00]

Now as far as the sectors and where the jobs are, continues to be healthcare leading the way, right? Nearly 60,000 jobs gained in healthcare alone. Construction, after a few months of losing jobs, gained jobs. So that's encouraging. But manufacturing continues to lose jobs, which is the exact opposite of what the White House wants with their historically high tariffs. And relatedly, as imports plunge, we're seeing that transportation and warehousing lost 25,000 jobs in September alone. At the end of the day, this report was so mixed, it's probably not going to move the needle all that much either way. The job market looked weak coming into this report and afterwards, it still looks pretty weak.

KEILAR: And what does the Fed do with that information? Do you think that we might see another rate cut next month?

EGAN: Well, Brianna, let's look at what the market is saying. The rate cut odds for the next meeting in December had been falling pretty sharply in the last few days, 30 percent as of yesterday. But look at this, it has gone up but not dramatically higher. It's about 40 percent. So that means this still looks like this decision that's coming in three weeks is going to be a close call. Fed officials, they're pretty divided right now. Some officials like Fed Governor Stephen Miran, the Trump economist, he's clamoring for more interest rate cuts, and some of the other Fed governors are as well.

But some of the regional Fed presidents, they're worried about inflation and they're hoping to wait for more information before deciding what to do. So at the end of the day, this does look like a close call and we're going to have to wait and see what the Fed decides as they get new information in the coming weeks. Back to you.

KEILAR: All right, Matt Egan, thank you so much. And still to come, neighbors, parents churchgoers coming together to block President Trump's immigration crackdown in North Carolina. We are live from Charlotte with their stories of resistance. Plus, an alarming new threat from the president, this time calling for the arrests of Democratic lawmakers for what he claims to be "seditious behavior punishable by death." And the CDC is now doubling down under Health and Human Services Secretary, RFK Jr.'s leadership, promoting an anti- science claim on its website. We'll have that a much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [14:11:50]

SANCHEZ: The Border Patrol leader who has become a key person in President Trump's immigration crackdown is leaving Charlotte and CNN has learned that Commander Greg Bovino and some of his agents are heading out of the North Carolina city as soon as today. In the meantime, the city has experienced a groundswell of support from volunteers, trying to respond to officers detaining people, many of whom say they're being profiled. One church reports more than a thousand people registered for a training last night and people had to be turned away. They practiced what to do when an officer was making an arrest. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're role playing. How did the role feel?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tense.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little, yeah, a lot of anxiety.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. Yeah. So even in the role play, it's tense and we're anxious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: CNN's Dianne Gallagher is in Charlotte for us. Dianne, so does Bovino's departure mean that the crackdown is over?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, our Priscilla Alvarez actually just got word from a Homeland Security official that top Border Patrol official, Greg Bovino and some of his officers have now already left the city of Charlotte. So they are gone. The Mecklenburg County Sheriff, Garry McFadden, said today that federal officials confirmed to him that the operation that has been called Charlotte's Web is officially over. As a result, he said there will be no CBP activity or operations here in Charlotte today.

He said in a statement, "We will continue to build relationships, mend bridges, and listen to the voices of everyone in our community. As we move forward, I want the city of Charlotte to know I will keep fighting for clarity, accountability, and trust. I will continue to protect this city and every single one of its citizens." Now, McFadden did note that while CBP's operations may be over, ICE will continue to operate within the city as it has been for decades here. Immigration enforcement, of course, will continue though we're told in the area much like it did in Chicago after Bovino departed.

Now look, this began on Saturday. We have had five days worth of operations, viral videos that have gone all over the city and sort of this idea of people trying to stand up for their neighbors. As you saw in that video from the church, we were actually speaking to one of these businesses back here when I started getting calls from my sources here in Charlotte, that the operation was ending. And I spoke to one woman who started her business just six months ago and has had basically no foot traffic. She locks the door and only opens it for customers. And I asked her how she felt knowing that officials said the operation was ending. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LETICIA OLMEDO, RESTAURANT OWNER IN CHARLOTTE, NC: It's kind of hard to recover from this. It's not going to just they leave, because I think we are going to still have the feeling everything can happen and broke everything. We know -- even me, I don't feel like safe because they can come anytime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: She told me that she expected it to be sometime after Christmas before the immigrant community in the city of Charlotte perhaps felt somewhat normal again.

[14:15:00]

Of course, there have been thousands of children who have been absent from school. We've seen protests on the streets of Charlotte as well as, again, members of the community learning how to sort of, track the location. Now look, DHS has said more than 250 people have been arrested in this Operation Charlotte's Web. So far, they've not given us specific details on how many of those individuals though, of that 250, do have criminal records. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Dianne Gallagher, live for us in Charlotte. Thank you so much, Dianne.

Still to come, scientists at the CDC completely blindsided after the agency's website posts a debunked and false claim about vaccines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:20:20]

SANCHEZ: New today, the CDC has changed its website to include false claims linking autism with vaccines.

KEILAR: That's right. New language on one of the agency's web pages no longer rejects a potential link between vaccines and autism. It reads in part, "The claim vaccines do not cause autism is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism." Scientific evidence, however, shows this statement is not true since numerous credible studies have found no relation between the two.

Joining us now is CNN Medical Correspondent Meg Tirrell. Meg, tell us more about these website changes.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, so these came as a shock to everyone in the public health community who note that this is not based on any new science or any new studies and in fact, they say is based on misinformation. As you noted, dozens of studies over multiple decades involving millions of children have examined whether there could be a link between childhood vaccines and autism, and they have found no link. So on Wednesday, this vaccines and autism website as part of CDC's website was updated. And we should note, we have heard that CDC's staff were not aware that these changes were going to be made.

And as you pointed out, they say they're in the bullets at the top. The claim vaccines do not cause autism, they say is not an evidence- based claim because they say studies have not ruled out the possibility that infant vaccines cause autism. Now, public health research groups, including the Autism Science Foundation, are saying that is just not true. They put out a statement saying quote, we are appalled to find that the content on the CDC webpage, autism and vaccines, has been changed and distorted and is now filled with anti- vaccine rhetoric and outright lies about vaccines and autism.

The science is clear that vaccines do not cause autism. As part of this also guys, HHS, the Department of Health and Human Services is saying it's undertaking its own studies to examine a possible link. Guys?

SANCHEZ: It's interesting, Meg, because the website, a page on it actually still says vaccines do not cause autism, but there's an asterisk. Why is that happening?

TIRRELL: Yeah, this is a bit weird. So the asterisk leads to a note right at the bottom of the page that says that header hasn't been removed due to an agreement with the Chair of the U.S. Senate Health Committee that it would remain on the CDC website. The Chair of that committee is Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who is himself a doctor and who publicly struggled with some of Secretary Kennedy's past anti- vaccine rhetoric as he was deciding whether to vote for his confirmation. And he said this in February, Senator Cassidy did, when explaining why he voted for him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY, (R-LA): They confirmed he'll maintain the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommendations without changes. CDC will not remove statements on their website pointing out that vaccines do not cause autism.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TIRRELL: So that was a promise that Senator Cassidy said that Secretary Kennedy made to him as Cassidy was deciding to vote for him. So they've left that language on the website, but added additional language that scientists say is misinformation. Guys?

SANCHEZ: It'll be interesting to see how the Senator responds. Meg Tirrell, thanks so much for that reporting.

Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer slamming the president's threat to arrest and potentially execute lawmakers as "deadly serious." We're going to talk to a Democratic legislator about those threats, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:28:14]

KEILAR: President Trump is calling for Democratic lawmakers to be arrested and potentially sentenced to death because they urged service members and former intelligence officials -- pardon me, they said to service members and intelligence officials to disobey any illegal orders that may come from the administration. The president was specifically referring to a social media post where several members of Congress, who are military veterans or former intelligence officials, made a video imploring both groups to refuse illegal orders.

The president made his threat on Truth Social writing, it's called seditious behavior at the highest level. Each one of these traitors to our country should be arrested and put on trial. We're joined now by one of the Democratic Congressmen who appeared in the video, Pennsylvania Representative Chris Deluzio. He's also an Iraq War Navy veteran. Thank you so much for being with us.

REP. CHRIS DELUZIO, (D-PA): Thank you.

KEILAR: Punishable by death, the president said, what's your reaction to that coming from the president?

DELUZIO: Well, he subsequently also shared a post calling for all of us to be hanged, and he posted again calling for our death. And so, I think it's an outrageous call for political violence against me and my colleagues who are members of Congress, elected, sharing a basic and fundamental truth about our constitution. It's a moment where Democrats and Republicans and everyone else in the country should condemn his calls for political violence.

I condemned the calls for political violence that have happened throughout my time in Congress to include, in my home state of Pennsylvania, when then candidate Donald Trump was almost killed on the campaign stop, when Governor Shapiro in Pennsylvania was almost killed in the governor's mansion, when Charlie Kirk was killed not too long ago. All cases where I and so many other Democrats condemned the calls for violence. This is a moment where Republicans and others should be coming together to condemn the president's call for violence against me and other members of Congress.

KEILAR: This is a video that you and your Democratic colleagues made that certainly, I think, gets attention. So I want to play some of this so that folks can see it. Here it is. --