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Storms Hamper Thanksgiving Travel; Nearly 82 Million to Travel for Thanksgiving Holiday This Year; Pentagon Threatens to Court Martial Kelly Over Illegal Orders Video; White House Unveils New Genesis Mission Program. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired November 25, 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]

JEH JOHNSON, FORMER SECRETARY OF DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY: First, before it gets better and bad cyber actors all the time are more and more ingenious, more tenacious and more aggressive.

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: While it's not clear any of these accounts are from a coordinated foreign influence campaign, experts say there are financial and political incentives behind such accounts.

JAKE SHAPIRO, PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY: There's some people who hop on lots of different issues that can get attention and therefore drive revenue and monetization and ads. And then there are people who have political goals, both benign and more malign foreign countries that have organizations that are dedicated to trying to shape U.S. politics.

GOLD: While X has suspended some of the MAGA accounts, the company did not respond to a request for comment. Its head of products said the new feature is an important first step to securing the integrity of the global town square, while warning there were still some kinks to work out on the feature.

SHAPIRO: Well, I think X and many other companies have an existential problem that's coming, which is it's going to become increasingly hard to figure out what is real human and what is AI agents.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, happening now, trying to travel for the holidays. Good luck. Major storms hitting some of the country's busiest airports right when 80 million people are hoping to move.

Overnight, we're hearing for the first time from the senator who could face a court martial thanks to a new move from the defense secretary, his dramatic and defiant words.

And a volcano erupts for the first time in 10,000 years, the travel nightmare it is causing for half a continent.

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

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, it's on and popping. The Thanksgiving travel rush well underway. Today is the peak travel day for airports with more than 52,000 flights scheduled.

In the skies and on the roads Americans are expected to set new records with nearly 82 million getting ready to go 50 miles or more. Ninety percent of those travelers see that they're in blue. They're going to be doing this by car.

That means more than 73 million hitting the roads for Thanksgiving. Millions of others will, of course, be flying with more than 360,000 flights on the docket between today and next Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Please be patient with our TSA and our gate agents. A little gratitude goes a long way. And if we all do that, I think we're going to have a far better travel season.

By the way, we're going to get to our families on Thanksgiving with a lot better attitude. Who couldn't ask for that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Now, here's a guy that always has a great attitude. CNN's Pete Muntean at Reagan National Airport. Even though you basically live at the airport and you're a pilot yourself, so you love aviation.

What are you learning this morning about travel?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, the good news here is that things are moving pretty smoothly here at Reagan National Airport on the first official day of this Thanksgiving rush. Just check the wait times here at the Terminal 2 North Checkpoint, DCA, going about five minutes for both TSA pre-check and general screening, 17.8 million people anticipated at TSA checkpoints nationwide today through next Tuesday. That is a huge number.

It represents a bit of an increase over previous years. Probably the biggest day, though, will be Sunday when everybody begins coming home all at once. What's so interesting is this kind of discrepancy here that we've been talking about.

52,000 flights, the biggest in the national airspace system today, will be handled by air traffic controllers in the U.S. It's the highest of the Thanksgiving rush, although probably the biggest day in terms of passenger volume, the number of people who have passed through TSA checkpoints like this one will actually go up a little bit tomorrow, averaging about 2.5 million people a day over this week, although we may see 3 million.

And what's really interesting is that eight of the 10 busiest days in TSA history have been in 2025. You know, the big topic has been air traffic control staffing shortages. Especially on the heels of the government shutdown, air traffic controllers are getting paid again. And I want you to listen out to AAA's Aixa Diaz. She says this was weighing on passengers, and now people are coming back in force. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AIZA DIAZ, AAA SPOKESPERSON: Certainly, some people have that concern. I think most people, though, who want to fly and had their tickets booked, they were waiting to see what would happen. And they were taking a wait-and-see approach, and it's worked out for them that flights are now going back to normal.

Of course, the weather is always the wild card here. But I think certainly there are some people who are concerned about it, maybe people who don't travel often. They get a little bit nervous or concerned that their flight is going to be delayed or canceled.

And they just want to have that backup and drive instead, because they feel like they have more control.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: OK, more control while driving.

[08:05:00]

Also, the cost is about the same as what it was a year ago, the average price of a national gallon of -- an average national price of a gallon of gas, a gallon of regular, still flat year to year.

The worst times to drive, we're going into it about right now, typically between noon and 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday. So if you can gun it now, you should probably get going to Grandma's house or wait until later or really wait until Thursday on Thanksgiving Day. That's when the traffic really tampers down and things become a bit more manageable if you're trying to plan this out.

You know, what's so interesting to me, Sara, is I was at Southwest Airlines operations facility just last week. They say a lot of people wait until today to book their tickets for Thanksgiving. A lot of people putting it off to the last minute.

SIDNER: That does make it a lot more expensive. But I have to admit that I am kind of one of those people. So just so you know, I'm with them.

Pete Muntean, it is a pleasure. Thank you so much -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And you heard the mention there of the weather is always the wild card. So how is the weather going to impact all of this and that? As soon as Derek Van Dam is tracking it all for us today.

Derek, what are you seeing?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, hopefully people have packed their patience this morning, Kate, especially in Atlanta, because we just got word that the Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson International Airport at a ground stop because of a line of thunderstorms that is about to approach the city here within the next 45 minutes. And this line of storms could have wind gusts around 60 miles per hour. And so that is why the ground stop is in place.

So that will likely cause kind of a ripple effect through the airline industry, because think about Atlanta being one of the largest Delta hubs here in the country.

So this same line of storms caused havoc in parts of Texas yesterday. Western Harris County, a significant tornado left considerable damage on the ground, damaging over 100 homes. Quite the sight.

Now we tracked these storms overnight as they raced eastward through the Alabama region. Birmingham was earlier this morning. Now Atlanta, you're up next. There's that line of storms that I talked about, kind of that bowing nature to the storms right on that leading edge. That's where we could see those 40, 50, even 60 mile per hour wind gusts, according to the National Weather Service.

So this whole area that we have highlighted from Chattanooga to Atlanta, Montgomery southward into Mobile, this is an area where we need to keep an eye to the sky. So not only is it impacting airline traffic at Hartsfield-Jackson, but also the roads. You can imagine Interstate 75 and 85 directly behind me.

Once this line moves through, there will be debris, meaning more of the leaves getting pushed off of the trees. There will be heavy rain and brief lightning as well. This is part of a large storm that spans the entire length of the country from north to south, the border of Canada all the way to the Gulf.

And on the northern side, it's cold enough to snow. We've got winter storm warnings for Minneapolis, St. Paul. Guess what?

They could pick up almost a half a foot of snow, even higher totals near the arrowhead of the upper peninsula of Michigan, so Duluth into Marquette. Those areas are going to get hammered with several, several inches of snow. And then behind this system, the Lake Effect snow machine kicks in those favored areas.

But the entire eastern seaboard tomorrow, that is where we see the wet weather and the temperatures are going to take a nosedive. We're talking about a 30 to 40 degree temperature drop in some locations. Once this Thanksgiving Day cold front finally moves through -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, there is a lot to watch. That's why we love you. Thank you, Derek. Really appreciate it.

You know what else we love and can never get enough of? Some more Sara and John, a little dash of Erica Hill. Thanksgiving morning. You can join that amazing trio for live coverage of the biggest parades across the country.

Some special, very special performances. Our CNN Thanksgiving in America live coverage starts Thursday, 8 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN and also on the CNN app -- Jonathan.

BERMAN: Very special.

All right, breaking overnight. Russia launches new attacks on Kyiv just as U.S. officials sit down with Russian negotiators.

And we're standing by for the hearing for the woman who stabbed her classmate when she was just 12 years old and is now back in custody after disappearing from a group home.

And the moment deputies dash to rescue a woman trapped on top of a roof.

[08:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: This morning, Democratic Senator Mark Kelly is hitting back after the Pentagon made the highly unusual announcement that it is launching an investigation into him, even threatening to recall the retired Navy captain to active duty to court-martial him. At the center of this is the video that Kelly and five other Democrats made calling on U.S. troops to defy illegal orders. The president called that, quote, seditious behavior, punishable by death. Kelly and the other Democrats say they were just reminding service members of their oath to the Constitution.

Let's get to see it as Alayna Treene live at the White House this morning. To say this is unusual is an incredible understatement, Alayna. And now Senator Kelly is really hitting back.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, and it's not just unusual, it's unprecedented, John, what we're seeing, this Pentagon investigation into Kelly, a retired Navy veteran, retired astronaut. And it's because of what the Pentagon is calling, quote, serious allegations of misconduct.

[08:15:00]

Now, part of the reason that Kelly is the one being targeted, he's one of six House Democrats -- or excuse me, six Democratic lawmakers who were part of that video, and they were all either former members of the military or former members of the U.S. intelligence community. But the reason Kelly is being targeted here is because he's one of the people that can actually be recalled to service to face, as you mentioned, a potential court-martial or administrative punishment.

That's something that Hegseth actually pointed out in a post yesterday, breaking some of this down, saying that essentially Kelly is one of the people that they could recall to face accountability for that video.

Now, as you mentioned, Kelly is pushing back. He's been very defensive in some of the remarks we've heard for him responding to this. I want you to take a listen to what we heard from him on MS NOW yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): We know what political violence is, and we know what causes it, too. You know, the statements that Donald Trump made is insightful, incites others. He's got millions of supporters.

People listen to what he says more so than anybody else in the country. And he should be careful with his words. But I'm not going to be silenced here.

Is it is it stressful? I've been stressed by, you know, things more important than Donald Trump trying to intimidate me into shutting my mouth and not doing my job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So very defiant Mark Kelly there, John. And look, I mean, we've heard now from a number of lawmakers while responding to a lot of this, including many Republicans and some who have argued, people like also veteran but Republican lawmaker Don Bacon, who's argued essentially that they believe, yes, that video that they put out, these six different Democratic lawmakers, maybe that was ill-advised.

But the response from the Trump administration has been so strong, particularly that post from the president arguing that they engaged in seditious behavior, punishable by death. That's where they started to lose some of the moral high ground on this.

So continue to watch for this. We'll have to see what potential accountability that Kelly could face as part of this investigation. But again, it's unprecedented and one that a lot of people, I think, in Washington are a bit uncomfortable with.

BERMAN: No, and the secretary of defense, even this morning, is going after Senator Kelly on Twitter anew. Alayna Treene at the White House this morning. Thank you very much -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, just ahead, new details on the efforts to use AI to harness the government's scientific data.

And we're getting a look at the brand new, brand new ball there. There it is. The New Year's Eve Times Square ball. All the details ahead.

[08:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: A new executive order from the White House that will launch a government wide effort to build an AI platform to harness government data for scientific research.

It's called the Genesis Mission Program. It will develop a new AI platform that will use federal scientific data to train AI models used for research. That's not all.

CNN's Lisa Eadicicco joining me now. Walk us through what the priorities of this program are.

LISA EADICICCO, CNN BUSINESS TECH EDITOR: So the goal of this program is really to find a way to take all of this decade's worth of research in the Department of Energy's national laboratories and apply AI to that to further scientific research and hopefully find new scientific breakthroughs. And part of how that's being done, according to this program, is by finding a way to make that data available, not just to other government agencies, but also to private companies and academics as well. Because what you have is all of this research from these laboratories and a lot of AI progress happening in the private sector in areas like consumer applications and business and things like that.

And then there's a ton of academic research, both in AI and science. So what this program is really trying to do is create this platform to kind of bring all of those ideas together to further scientific research. Now, we don't know exactly which companies are interested or involved in collaborating with this program just yet, but there have been a lot of collaborations between private companies and the government in technology this year in particular.

For example, NVIDIA, Oracle and Dell are among the companies that are already working with the Department of Energy to build supercomputers for some of the national laboratories. So it wouldn't be surprising to see more of those partnerships moving forward.

And another key element of this, of course, is energy as well. Electricity prices are going up. AI is putting -- is increasing demand for electricity, which is contributing to those price hikes in some way. And even aside from AI, the power grid needs updating and maintenance, especially in the face of more severe weather events.

So that's another area of focus for this program.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you how this sort of fits into a broader push that we've been seeing from the president when it comes to AI and the use of it.

EADICICCO: Exactly. So this is just another push by the Trump administration to incorporate AI into more facets of the government as well. This was actually a point in the AI action plan that was unveiled earlier this year in July.

That plan is a collection of initiatives and policies that are meant to kind of cement the U.S. as a leader in AI by speeding up innovation. But another core tenant of that program is boosting AI use in the federal government. So this seems like a clear initiative that kind of maps back to that priority as well.

SIDNER: There's also the complications of AI and a lot of questions that will certainly come up about who's getting some of these contracts as well. Lisa, thank you so much for your great reporting this morning.

EADICICCO: Thank you.

SIDNER: Kate. BOLDUAN: We doing some breaking news coming in? A U.S. official says that Ukraine has agreed to a peace proposal. A lot of questions now around that.

What was agreed to and where this where confirmation goes now. The latest details on what we're gathering right now when we return.

[08:25:00]

And also, let's take a look at market futures this morning. A little mixed bag at the moment. Investors are standing by for a key economic report releasing any moment now.

The story it's going to tell about how President Trump's tariffs are impacting your holiday shopping. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: We have some breaking news coming in. Moments ago, we are learning into CNN from a U.S. official that Ukraine has agreed to a peace proposal with Russia, saying quote -- or saying only, quote, minor details are outstanding. Now, this as Ukraine's President Zelenskyy, though, says that more work needs to be done.

Adding to the nuance here.