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Trump Says, Democrats' Message to Military is Seditious, Punishable by Death; Trump to Meet With Mayor-Elect Zohran Mamdani (D- New York City, NY) at White House; Coast Guard Says, Will Still Classify Swastikas, Nooses as Hate Symbols. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired November 21, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, outrage is just exploding across Washington as President Trump suggests a group of Democrats are guilty of sedition, should be put on trial and says it's punishable by death because they urge military and intelligence officials to not follow illegal orders made by the administration. What those Democrats are now saying this morning.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Ready for anything, the high- stakes, high-drama Oval Office meeting today between President Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. New reporting on how both men are prepared.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, a huge fire at an international climate conference sending panicked delegates running. Investigators now think they know what caused that fire.

I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: This morning, here's a quote for you. He is lighting a match in a country soaked with political gasoline, that coming from Chuck Schumer. The reason being, Democratic lawmakers are furious in speaking out, condemning President Trump for comments that they say is putting their lives in danger, comments calling for their deaths by hanging.

It all comes after the president accused a group of Democrats of, quote, seditious behavior and suggested the, quote/unquote, traitors be locked up. This all came in a wild series of social media posts and reposts. The president went as far to say that it was punishable by death.

Now, the posts were in response to a video put out by a group of six Democrats. All of them with backgrounds in the military and intelligence used this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Our laws are clear, you can refuse illegal orders

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): You can refuse illegal orders.

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): You must refuse illegal orders.

SLOTKIN: No one has to carry out orders that violate the law.

REP. CHRISSY HOULAHAN (D-PA): Or our Constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: So, the lawmakers never specified what orders the president's service members should disobey, but Democrats and even some Republicans are saying that the president's comments may be preparing to incite violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOULAHAN: I never in a million years thought I'd be talking to you tonight about the fact that the president of the United States has called for my death by hanging for sedition and treason and called for it because I and a number of other people published a video that says you have to follow the law, and the law says, don't follow unlawful orders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House following this one. This really has taken off, Alayna. What are you hearing from the White House about this?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, look at a time Kate, when the president's inflammatory comments, you know, are often brushed aside, they no longer grab headlines, this one has caused a lot of uproar in Washington among many lawmakers, as you said, on both sides of the aisles.

Now, the president, you shared some of those posts, I think the one that's really been at the center of this all was accusing these lawmakers, all of whom, as you said, were members of the military or the U.S. intelligence community, accusing them of seditious behavior punishable by death.

Now, the president went on a major Truth spree yesterday, posting and reposting. One of them actually amplified a call to, quote, hang them, George Washington would. But hours after that, the press secretary got up at the podium, Karoline Leavitt, and denied that the president wants to see lawmakers executed. Listen to how she put it, Kate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: These members knew what they were doing. They were leading into their credentials as former members of our military, as veterans, as former members of the national security apparatus, to signal to people serving under this commander-in-chief, Donald Trump, that you can defy him and you can betray your oath of office. That is a very, very dangerous message, and it perhaps is punishable by law. (END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So, look, one thing that I think we has been clear from what I've been hearing as well from Trump administration officials is they're trying to argue, Karoline kind of did that, in those comments, trying to argue that this is lawmakers telling members of the military to rebel against their commander-in-chief. We've also heard from the Justice Department, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche essentially said that they're going to be having an investigation to look into these comments and what could be done to hold these lawmakers to account.

[07:05:03]

But I want to be very clear. Service members are only required to follow lawful orders. If you look at the Uniform Code of Military Justice, following an order that might violate the law could open up service members to prosecution. And that's what these lawmakers were talking about.

So, look, where do we go from here? I think this is something that is not going to go away. I think the president himself will probably have an opportunity today to ask him questions in person. This is going to be the one that I think everyone really wants to clarify, what exactly do you mean by these posts, especially at a time, Kate, when there's been so much talk, including from the president himself and people in that building behind me about how danger it is to have -- you know, to incite potential political violence.

So, this is going to be something that I think is going to continue to dominate today and in the days to come.

BOLDUAN: Yes, Alayna, thank you so much. John?

BERMAN: All right. This morning, brace yourself for anything. We are standing by for the Oval Office meeting between President Trump and New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. Both men usually really spare no words for each other. The president has threatened to withhold federal funds from New York. Mamdani has said he wants to talk to the president about affordability.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR-ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D-NEW YORK CITY, NY): In a conversation with the president, I will make clear that even New Yorkers that I had met over the course of this campaign who had voted for the president, they told me that what they had voted for was a lower cost of living. What they had voted for was cheaper groceries. What they had voted for was a chance at affording the day-to-day of their own lives. And what we are finding is that the administration's actions are making that all the more difficult.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. CNN's Gloria Pazmino is with me now. And, Gloria, you covered the New York City mayor race so very closely and now you've got the dirt or new reporting on how Mamdani is preparing for the Oval Office meeting.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Look, this is high- stakes and we have seen how some of these meetings play out in the o in the Oval office. For now, we are told that the meeting is supposed to be closed press, so that means behind closed doors. We're not going to have sort of a live feed of that meeting, as we do sometimes when the president meets with other leaders. But as we know, the White House can be quite unpredictable and perhaps they will open up and bring the cameras in there to see both of them. And that could go in a number of different ways.

So, part of that is the reason why Mamdani spent a lot of the week and the day yesterday preparing for this meeting speaking to other Democrats, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, about how to communicate with Trump, right?

And I think what's most interesting, especially for me going into this meeting to see what happens, is that these are two men that are diametrically opposed when it comes to ideology and their political positions, but they have a lot in common when it comes to the ways in which they communicate and, of course, the issues that they ran on, right?

And we have heard the president in the last few days talk about affordability, this term, affordability, groceries, this new term that Democrats are running on. Of course, that's the term that's very familiar to so many people all around the world in the country who are struggling with that very issue, and that's what Mamdani has focused on.

But this is going to be interesting because just take a listen to how the president has spoken about Mamdani in recent months.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: It's going to be hard for me as the president to give a lot of money to New York. Because if you have a communist running New York, all you're doing is wasting the money you're sending there.

MAMDANI: If anyone can show a nation betrayed by Donald Trump how to defeat him, it is the city that gave rise to him.

So, Donald Trump, since I know you're watching, I have four words for you. Turn the volume up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: I think that is a language that this president certainly responds to. I think we just have to see how he is going to respond.

I also think the fact that the president is a New Yorker, both of these men are from Queens, that will play a part in this conversation. And I think we know that the president has an interest. He has said that he cares about what happens to New York City and he wants to be involved.

BERMAN: Needless to say, we'll be watching very closely if cameras are allowed in there, if any part of it is live, it could be quite a show.

Gloria Pazmino, thank you very much. Sara?

SIDNER: It could be very dramatic.

All right, ahead, breaking overnight, reports in the Coast Guard saying it would re-categorize the use of swastikas and nooses as potentially divisive instead of hate symbols, sparking outrage. What the Coast Guard is now saying and doing because of that.

And why a judge has now dismissed false imprisonment charges against Ashlee Buzzard, the mother of nine-year-old Melodee Buzzard, that little girl who disappeared when her mother took her on a bizarre cross country road trip.

[07:10:11]

Also, a very scary moment. It's Ms. Jamaica falls off the stage while walking the runway in the Ms. Universe pageant. An update on how she's doing this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: New this morning, it appears the U.S. Coast Guard reversed course after The Washington Post reported the Coast Guard plan to describe symbols, like swastikas and nooses, as potentially divisive instead of as hate symbols. After saying the report was false in a late night memo, the Coast Guard said, divisive or hate symbols and flags are prohibited, adding that includes a noose or swastika.

In a statement obtained by CNN, the Coast Guard said, the claims that the US Coast Guard will no longer classify swastikas, nooses, or other extremist imagery as prohibited symbols are categorically false.

[07:15:05]

Joining me now is Tara Copp. She broke the reporting on this story in The Washington Post.

The Coast Guard is releasing this new statement overnight. Here's what it says. I'm sure you're well aware. It says, this is not an updated policy, but a new policy to combat any misinformation and double down what the U.S. Coast Guard forbids these symbols. Give me your sense of what your reporting was, what you found out and how this has progressed from there.

TARA COPP, PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, good morning. And as one Coast Guard official reached out late last night when this latest policy dropped, this represents the fastest policy turnaround in military history in their view. What we found with the original changes, the ones that everyone has found so shocking, was that there's a policy posted online that was going to go into effect December 15th that would have said that nooses and swastikas were no longer hate symbols. They were potentially divisive. And that was upsetting across the board. I think we saw this reaction from lawmakers, from service members, from veterans yesterday.

No one who has served, who is aware of the history of our country finds that either a noose or a swastika is just potentially divisive. It's something that thousands of Americans have given their lives to fight against for racism and fascism, and it was just an unforced error in so many ways yesterday.

SIDNER: Look, the Coast Guard isn't part of the Defense Department, but this is a change and a reversal that comes after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced plans to address policies he's considered as too woke. Is this all playing into what you have discovered here?

COPP: Our understanding is the wording changes that were put into this now old policy that had never even taken effect. The Coast Guard shortly, like shortly after the former commandant, Linda Fagan, was fired by Trump, the Coast Guard pulled this policy and started to revise it. And what was posted online was a result of that work.

The incoming, if he's confirmed admiral, Monday, took very strong language last night to say, you know what? The nooses and the swastikas, they are not only prohibited, they are hate symbols. And this new two-page memo that was dropped around 10:00 last night now supersedes anything else that's out there.

So, the Coast Guard has responded in a very clear way that this language that got in there is not acceptable to them, but it still raises all sorts of questions as to who actually authored the words that a swastika is now just potentially divisive. How did it get through legal review? How did it get through leadership review and how did it get posted online to defense.gov for the world to see that the U.S. policy was changing on, you know, this hate speech?

SIDNER: Tara Copp, thank you for your reporting and thank you for coming on this morning and talking us through all that. There have been really, as you mentioned, fast changes that we've seen in this instance after your reporting.

All right, over to you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much, Sara.

What is Ukraine going to do about the peace deal that President Trump is working out with Russia? We are learning new details this morning about a planned conversation between Zelenskyy and President Trump soon.

And it's being called the Holy Grail of Shipwrecks, the incredible treasures brought to the surface 300 years later.

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[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: The Houston Texans bringing on a big win against the Bills to open week 12. Andy Scholes is back and better than ever after cutting down a tree at your house, which I can't seem to get over. I'm actually not kidding. What?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Long day yesterday, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Long day.

SCHOLES: But hey, it ended with my Texans getting a big win on Thursday night football as you lift me with a big smile on my face. For the first time this season, the Texans above 500 and defense, playing just so good, they had Josh Allen running for his life this entire game. Texans, they lead the NFL in points and yards allowed. They sacked Allen eight times in this game. Will Anderson Jr., he had two and a half sacks. Danielle Hunter had two as well.

The Bills, meanwhile, they had no sacks in the game. Now, Buffalo actually got the ball with under three minutes to go with the chance to win the game. They had fourth in 27. They run the old hook and ladder here to perfection. They get 33 yards on the play. And after that, Texans fans were like, oh, no.

But the defense locks it down again. Allen, bad pass here. Calen Bullock picks it off to end the game. Bullock had two interceptions and a forced fumble. Houston wins 23-19 to get to 6-5, the Bills dropping to 7-4.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEMECO RYANS, HOUSTON TEXANS HEAD COACH: We thought about we were going on a hunt, all right? And this one guy, he hunted all night.

Man, best game I've seen. Calen, come on down.

JOSH ALLEN, BUFFALO BILLS QUARTERBACK: It's not fun. I ran into a couple myself. I got to be better throwing the ball away and living to see another down and letting me play some situational football and pin them deep too many times I was going backwards and I got to get better on that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. Now, in this game, there were lots of injuries, including the head referee.

[07:25:00]

Seven-year veteran Adrian Hill suffered a non-contact leg injury on this play in the third quarter. He had to be helped off the field, and then he took a cart to the back. The umpire, Roy Ellison, then replaced Hill and then they had to do the rest of the game with one less ref. All right, Alex Ovechkin meanwhile padding his NHL goals record with a hat trick last night. The 40-year-old Russian opened the scoring against the Canadiens with a goal and a power play. Ovechkin then scored again in the third period and he ended up getting an empty netter in the final minutes. The Capitals would win big 8-4. This was Ovechkin 33rd hat trick, tying Brett Hull for fourth all-time. Ovechkin now has 907 career goals.

All right, finally in college hoop, Troy and USC needed three overtimes to decide their game last night and time winding down in the third O.T., USC was down two. Troy got the rebound, but didn't they throw it away. Jordan Marsh did a wild three at the buzzer and it goes in. His teammates run and mob him. They jump on him for the old dog pile, a fun night there for the Trojans, they got the win.

BOLDUAN: I mean, that's what -- he's like, I had this whole thing planned out the whole time.

SCHOLES: Oh my God. You ever been in a dog pile, Kate?

BOLDUAN: No.

SCHOLES: It's scary at the bottom.

BOLDUAN: Is that --

SCHOLES: It's fun.

BOLDUAN: Should I be nervous what's about to happen in the studio?

SCHOLES: It's so funny, like, ah, get me out of here.

BOLDUAN: I mean, you're like, guys, this was great for the first two minutes. Now, could you please -- actually, this -- I lie. That's what we do at the end of every week.

SCHOLES: You bourbon with Sara?

BOLDUAN: Yes, we just dog pile.

SCHOLES: You, Berman and Ssara, yes, just jump on each other?

BOLDUAN: Right, John?

BERMAN: And of every show, we're going to miss you here for it. We'll have a virtual dog pile today.

All right, nine inches of rain and counting devastating floods in Texas, the latest on the storm's path.

And faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful at a locomotive and more expensive than any comic book ever. What a just discovered copy of Superman number one sold for.

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[07:30:00]