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Interview with Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA): Trump Hints at Big Progress Being Made in Ukraine Peace Talks; Democrats Defend Video Urging U.S. Troops to Refuse illegal Orders; New FEMA Chief Earned the Nickname The Terminator; Airlines Brace for Holiday Rush Amid Ongoing Travel Struggles. Aired 8:00-8:30a ET

Aired November 24, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: ... which then required two surgeries. Hope he's doing well now.

Police in New Jersey discovered the hard way that you can't outrun a horse, but you can sure try and put in a good effort. The horse there galloping through a neighborhood, an officer doing his best to keep up. Police said that they received calls about the loitering animal, and after a brief chase, they did eventually figure out a way to finally catch that horse and return it to its owner this morning. Authorities are calling the suspect Seabiscuit in order to protect his identity.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, something good just might be happening. President Trump weighing in this morning on the potential plan to end the war in Ukraine after some called the initial plan a gift to Russia.

And a CNN exclusive, she is known as the Terminator. The woman picked to be the new FEMA chief may not be a household name, but she is very well-known inside the agency.

And the gold pocket watch that belonged to a passenger on the Titanic hitting the auction block this weekend and shattering records.

I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: This morning, some cryptic optimism, I guess, perhaps, from President Trump. New comments this morning on the negotiations to end Russia's war on Ukraine. After both U.S. and Ukrainian officials reported significant progress, the president writes this today.

"Don't believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening."

U.S. and Ukrainian negotiators are set to return to the table today. One of the people leading the talks this weekend in Geneva was Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and he says that the Trump administration's 28-point peace plan is evolving after critics said it was or could have been written in the Kremlin itself since it was so favorable to Russia.

Some senators even saying that Rubio told them that it was a wish list of the Russians. The State Department called that a lie. President Trump has set a Thanksgiving deadline for Ukraine to accept the plan, though Rubio suggests that firm deadline might not actually be so firm.

Overnight, the Ukrainian officials say Russia launched a new and deadly drone attack on the country's second-largest city, proving yet again that the war is not, will not stop as they are talking.

Joining me right now for more on this is Democratic Congressman Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts. Thank you so much for being here.

You are a Marine veteran. The administration and the Ukrainian government, they say that progress is being made on this peace plan, Congressman, but what does a better peace plan do you think look like realistically for Ukraine at this point?

REP. JAKE AUCHINCLOSS (D-MA): Good morning. Thanks for having me on. This deal should be taken seriously, not literally.

The actual 28 points, as initially proposed, contain a half-dozen or so provisions that are unacceptable, mostly the military and territorial concessions. But the other 20 or so do actually potentially accomplish the three objectives of this war.

One is a secure eastern border for Ukraine. The second is freedom of navigation in the Black Sea. And third is Ukraine joining the European Union, including security guarantees under the Lisbon Treaty.

And so Ukraine and the United States and our European allies, we should build off those 20 or so points that actually accomplish the war's aims, shuttle to the side those half-dozen or so points that are just dead on arrival and then present a united front against Russia rather than having America and Russia go over Ukraine's head.

BOLDUAN: The president set this deadline for this week, though that seems a bit squishy now, but what kind of rock in a hard place do you think President Zelenskyy is in right now? I mean, is it clear to you what happens if Zelenskyy refuses to surrender territory, refuses demands on limits to his military, what that means and how the Trump administration would then respond?

AUCHINCLOSS: The Thanksgiving deadline's meaningless. I think we all kind of know that. The president issues deadlines like M&Ms. I mean, they never mean anything.

So put that to the side. But the actual deadline that matters is wintertime, because this winter is going to be brutal. It's going to be brutal for the Ukrainian people in the assault on energy infrastructure that Russia has planned.

And what I take seriously about this deal is our need to have momentum towards a ceasefire before another painful winter.

[08:05:00]

And yes, this puts President Zelenskyy in potentially the toughest place he's been since the beginning of the war, where he is weakened at home because of corruption scandals and also is facing a Europe and America that are divided from one another. And so his aim needs to be, how do I secure my eastern border, including potential territorial concessions to areas that Russia has under its own control and has Russified, but retain the popular support of the Ukrainian people? And it may be that a referendum to support any eventual peace proposal might be the strongest way for Zelenskyy to shore up his own politics.

BOLDUAN: Also on another topic, President Trump continued to attack Democrats overnight over the video that they had put out urging military members to refuse illegal orders. Those Democrats are also facing questions, though, about what illegal orders they are talking about. Some of them are kind of dancing around that question.

I want to play for you Senator Elissa Slotkin on ABC just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you believe President Trump has issued any illegal orders?

SEN ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): To my knowledge, I am not aware of things that are illegal, but certainly there are some legal gymnastics that are going on with these Caribbean strikes and everything related to Venezuela. And I think that's why --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And be specific about that.

SLOTKIN: So it was basically a warning to say, like, if you're asked to do something particularly against American citizens, you have the ability to go to your JAG officer and push back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And with these service members calling you, couldn't you have done a video saying just what you just said? If you are asked to do something, if you are worried about whether it is legal or not you can do this? It does imply that the president is having illegal orders, which you have not seen.

SLOTKIN: I think for us it was just a statement widely, right? We say very quickly and to all the folks who come to us, this is the process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The threats against these Democratic members are outrageous and wrong, no question. If they are going there where they did, do you think they should have been more explicit about the contours of what they think is actually illegal?

AUCHINCLOSS: I think the burden of proof on respecting the integrity of the military does not lie on these patriots and veterans who are serving in Congress. It lies on the president of the United States who has entertained the idea of using the military to aid and abet the insurrection that he launched in 2020, who has called American cities training grounds for the United States military, who has ordered strikes in the Caribbean that have so rattled our own allies that they have decided to not share intelligence to advance those strikes because they don't believe that they are justified or legal. This president is the one who has to answer to the American public on his violations of posse comitatus, which means that he can't use the military for law enforcement purposes, as he's tried to do in Los Angeles and Chicago and elsewhere.

And he has to answer to the American public for why he wants to wage a ground war in Venezuela when the American public has been crystal clear that they are done with military adventurism overseas.

BOLDUAN: There seems to be developments that could be coming on that front very soon, for sure. Congressman Jake Auchincloss, thanks for coming in. I appreciate your time -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking overnight. CNN has learned that President Trump is planning to unveil a new health care proposal as early as today. It comes as more than 20 million Americans enrolled in Affordable Care Act brace for premiums to spike when subsidies expire at the end of the year.

The plan is expected to include a temporary extension of the subsidies and also an income cap that was eliminated in 2021. We're told it's also likely to include a mandate that everyone pays some sort of monthly premium, and it could also include an option for health savings accounts -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, breaking overnight. A woman convicted in the Slender Man stabbing more than a decade ago when she was 12 years old is now back in custody after escaping from her group home, how police managed to track her down.

Plus, why things are getting a bit awkward over Vice President J.D. Vance's ties to a Silicon Valley tech firm, Planeteer, a company that even Steve Bannon has compared to a sci-fi villain.

Also, she is known as the Terminator, and she's about to take the reins at FEMA as the new acting director. Those stories and more ahead.

[08:10:00]

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SIDNER: A CNN exclusive this morning. Next week, Karen Evans will take over FEMA as acting administrator. She might not be a household name, but staff inside the agency already know her well.

Her nickname is "The Terminator." More than a dozen current and former FEMA insiders who spoke to CNN anonymously for fear of retribution saying she got that nickname for terminating grants, contracts and people.

CNN's Gabe Cohen is joining me now. What are you hearing from people inside FEMA vis-a-vis this new acting director?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so, Sara, Karen Evans came into FEMA during the spring as a senior advisor at that point. As Kristi Noem, who oversees the department, and her team were really ramping up their rhetoric that FEMA had to be eliminated, that it was partisan, that it was bloated and that it was ineffective. And Evans was really tasked with being an enforcer for DHS.

As you mentioned, she earned the nickname "The Terminator" because she was slashing spending, slashing grants, contracts, even cutting people. And she had a big hand in some of the spending issues at the agency. Remember, Kristi Noem now requires her personal sign-off on any spending over $100,000 at DHS.

[08:15:00]

A lot of people say that policy has been a huge problem. Well, Evans really became the gatekeeper for spending at FEMA. To get a request to Noem's desk, it had to go through Karen Evans. And I was also told by five former senior officials that Evans was really a driving force in another controversial episode when DHS allegedly tried to strip security grant funding from dozens of Muslim organizations.

I encourage you to go on, read our story. We lay out how that played out over several months. But I do want to explain why this matters, Sara, because the timing here is critical.

Evans is the third official to hold this top job at FEMA since Trump took office. Many people think she is a placeholder, though, because in the next few weeks, we are going to get a significant, very important report from the new FEMA Review Council that was formed by Trump. It is co-chaired by Kristi Noem. And it is going to lay out a plan to reform FEMA for the future.

And behind the scenes over the last few weeks, even few months, there has been this power struggle playing out where a lot of insiders, including some of the people on this council, have been saying that if you really want FEMA to be more efficient and nonpartisan, that it needs to be pulled out of the Department of Homeland Security, that it needs to be more independent. Well, Kristi Noem, according to many sources I have spoken with, does not want that to happen.

If she loses FEMA, her department loses tens of billions of dollars that are in the agency's budget. As all of that is happening, though, Sara, states across the country have been complaining. We have covered it on this show.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are caught up at FEMA and DHS, critical funding that communities rely on. They are wondering where the guidance is on what the future of this agency is. Well, now Karen Evans is taking the helm at FEMA, and there is a lot to watch here in the next few weeks.

SIDNER: Yes, especially when there are disasters and communities are waiting for that money to help rebuild. It can be a second disaster for a lot of people in that community. Gabe Cohen, thank you so much. Great reporting this morning -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Millions of Americans are expected to fly this week, more than any other holiday, but after the shutdown, are airports and airlines ready for this surge?

And a pocket watch from the Titanic just sold at auction for an eye- popping sum. And wait until you hear the story behind this.

[08:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, this morning, not sure if you've heard, but it is a holiday week, which means holiday travel. And this could be the busiest week of the year for a system already bursting at the seams. Let's get to CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean live with the latest, everything people need to know this Monday morning, Pete.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, the good news here, John, is that the ground stop that was in place earlier at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, huge hub for American Airlines, is now over. But the Federal Aviation Administration already warning of possible ground stops today in San Francisco, huge hub for United Airlines, also Newark, another huge hub for United Airlines. And there's some concern about wind in Boston and New York, also major thunderstorms, or at least isolated thunderstorms, a concern in Tennessee, in Memphis, also in Dallas.

The big thing here, though, has been the concern about air traffic control delays and staffing shortages. We saw over the record 43-day government shutdown. That was a huge problem because, remember, air traffic controllers continued to work without pay during the government shutdown.

It all really came to a head for the airlines, and they had to cancel thousands of flights. At Southwest Airlines, they canceled a few hundred flights due to the government shutdown. And they just got an exclusive tour of their operations center.

It's called Network Operations Control in Dallas. It's where they monitor in real time about 800 airplanes nationwide. What's so interesting is that on the biggest days of the travel rush, they're going to transport about 500,000 to 600,000 people per day.

That's like transporting the size and population of Minneapolis. I want you to listen now to Andrew Watterson, who's the COO, the chief operating officer of Southwest Airlines. He says the airline is very much ready for what's in store for them and passengers.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDREW WATTERSON, COO, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES: All the elements are in place for a very smooth Thanksgiving, good staffing, good weather. And so I think it will be smooth sailing for customers. MUNTEAN: What do you think those should think who are still considering booking and maybe have been sort of waiting on the sidelines because they were unsure about how the government shutdown would pan out and its impact on air travel?

WATTERSON: I'd say book your seats while they last because people are going back and looking to go home for Thanksgiving now that everything's been all clear with ATC.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN (on camera): What was so interesting to me in that interview with Southwest, they said people book up to tomorrow. That's when people are still looking at Thanksgiving trips. So if you have not booked, you should probably book now because the TSA says it will screen about 17.8 million passengers in total between tomorrow and next Tuesday, December 2nd. That's averaging about 2.5 million people per day. The biggest day, the TSA says, will be the Sunday after Thanksgiving. That's the typical day of the high point for the year.

But what's so amazing, John, is that in 2025, we've seen eight of the top 10 busiest days in TSA history at airports. It seems that we'll probably get a ninth and a tenth when this weekend comes and goes. It's going to be another big one -- John.

BERMAN: How do so many people have somewhere to go? I mean, where's everyone going all the time, right? I mean, don't you want to skip time with the in-laws?

I don't know. But where do you need to be? I mean, it's like say 2025.

All of a sudden --

MUNTEAN: Right.

BERMAN: -- people need to go somewhere. I don't know. Just settle down.

Just enjoy where you are. Pete Muntean, thank you very much.

MUNTEAN: Serenity now.

[08:25:00]

BERMAN: Good luck with that this week. We'll be talking to you regularly throughout the week -- Sara.

SIDNER: Pete, every day on this show, we say serenity now. We need it. All right, thank you to you both.

Still to come, more than a decade after being convicted as a child for luring another child to the woods and nearly stabbing her to death to appease the spooky fictional character "Slender Man," the Slender Man stabber went missing from her group at home, even though she had on an ankle monitor. How police found her.

Plus, Americans sounding off on inflation and how it's impacting their everyday lives.

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