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CNN News Central

Trump Pardons Gobble and Waddle in Thanksgiving Tradition; Delayed Data Returns After Shutdown, Sheds Light on Economy; No U.S.- Ukraine Peace Deal Yet, Key Differences Remain; Sen. Kelly Fires Back at Pentagon Over Illegal Orders Video Probe; FBI Seeking to Interview Democratic Lawmakers in Controversial Video. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired November 25, 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]

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DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: -- but then I realized I wouldn't be pardoning them. I would never pardon those two people. I wouldn't pardon them. I wouldn't care what Melania had told me. Though, I think, it would be a nice thing to do. I won't do it though.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Now, turkeys are generally unfriendly animals, but these two had been preparing for this moment their entire lives, training with big sounds, bright lights and crowds ahead of their effort to ride the gravy train here to the White House. They will live out their Turkey retirement at NC State University.

ERICA HILL, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah, I did wonder where they go now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah.

HILL: North Carolina, all right.

SANCHEZ: Really excited to see what Gobble does next, maybe write a memoir. Who knows?

KLEIN: Podcast.

SANCHEZ: Betsy Klein from the White House, thank you so much. A new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

SANCHEZ: Fearing for the future, new data showing Americans are feeling anxious about the economy. As we head into the holidays, the numbers painting a somewhat confusing picture of where the American economy stands right now. We're going to break those down.

HILL: Minor details that could have major consequences for any peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. Now, Ukraine is pushing for a meeting between President Zelenskyy and President Trump as soon as this week. And a volcano in Ethiopia erupting for the first time in 10,000 years, smoke and ash impacting air travel thousands of miles away. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

SANCHEZ: New today, we're getting a first look at a slew of economic data released by the U.S. government, giving us a clearer picture of the economy following the longest government shutdown in American history.

HILL: A lot of significant numbers to go through. Let's go to CNN's Matt Egan, who's in New York. Matt, let's start with the -- let's start with the top line of how Americans are feeling about this economy. What does this data show us?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, Jessica, the new numbers show that the mood on Main Street, it got even darker in November. U.S. Consumer Confidence unexpectedly fell sharply between October and November. And confidence is dramatically lower than it was at this point last year. And notably, confidence fell really across all political affiliations, Republicans, Democrats, and especially independents. And let's look at the trend here.

You can clearly see that consumer confidence is deteriorating in the last few months. In fact, confidence is now at the lowest point since all of the trade war turmoil back in April. Beyond that, you've got to go back to early 2021 for the last time that confidence was this low. And consumers, they say they plan to spend less money, spending plans fell on everything from appliances and vacations to cars and homes as well. And look, this is a survey and we know that sometimes people tell pollsters one thing about how they feel about the economy, but they also do something differently when it comes to spending. And that's the most important thing, is actual spending for the economy.

But we've got some disappointing numbers on that front as well today. This is retail sales delayed for September, delayed by the government shutdown. And what you can see here is a loss of momentum, right? Sales were up but only barely. In fact, if you adjust for inflation, sales were actually down. So you put it together and you have weakening retail sales and very low consumer confidence, not a great combination heading into the holiday shopping season.

SANCHEZ: And also, some new inflation numbers came in. Matt, what do they say?

EGAN: Yeah, we got September Producer Prices. This is measuring prices before it gets to all of us as consumers, and the big takeaway here was that there was no major alarm bells from these numbers. It shows the producer prices were up by 2.7 percent year over year. It was flat from the month before. Wall Street, investors, economists that I'm talking to, they think that this report was good enough that it'll allow the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates at the next meeting in December.

Rate cut odds for that meeting in about two weeks, markets had thought it was kind of a coin flip, right? 50/50 a week ago. But look at this, now 85 percent chance of an interest rate cut in December. And this is music to the ears of investors on Wall Street where we see U.S. stocks moving sharply higher today. Back to you.

HILL: All right, Matt Egan with the latest there. Thank you so much. We are also learning new details about the developing peace plans for ending the war in Ukraine. Ukrainian source with direct knowledge of the talks now telling CNN the U.S. and Ukraine are making progress on a draft proposal, but key differences remain. The source says a consensus has been reached on most points with three critical ones left to hash out. Those include will Ukraine cede territory annexed by Russia. How much will Ukraine limit the size of its army? And will Ukraine renounce ambitions to join NATO?

All of this as we learn Ukrainian officials are pushing for President Zelenskyy to visit President Trump in the next few days to complete final steps and make a deal. With us now, Democratic Congressman at Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts.

[14:05:00]

Congressman, it is good to see you. We just went through kind of what remains, based on our reporting, from the Ukrainian point of view. Those are only three things, but they are three big things. How would you assess where things appear to be right now?

REP. JAKE AUCHINCLOSS, (D-MA): Jessica? Good afternoon. From the beginning of this horrific war, I've been one of the strongest supporters of Ukraine, advocating for oil sanctions on Russia, for long-range strikes against refineries in Russia, for using their frozen assets to fund Ukraine's military. And so, when this 28-point peace plan first came out, people might've expected that I would've been one of those politicians condemning it. And there are clearly parts of it, the territorial and military concessions that are unacceptable. But I actually am advising that people take this seriously and not literally.

This is a serious peace proposal because, while it has some unacceptable provisions, it also has provisions in there that would secure Ukraine's membership in the European Union. That point to security guarantees that secure its eastern border and that allow freedom of navigation in the Black Sea. Those three things together are a victory for Ukraine. That is a win in this war. And so what Ukraine and its European allies need to do is build on those important provisions and then ally with the United States to put pressure on Russia to drop the unacceptable elements of this deal. We have made progress on that over the last few days. We're not there yet.

HILL: One of your Republican colleagues in the House, Don Bacon said President Trump tends to blame Ukraine for Russia's invasion, and he's more often than not seems to waver back to the Russian camp. Bacon has been very upset about this whole process. Are you confident that President Trump is going to make Russia concede some things?

AUCHINCLOSS: No. His 2018 press conference in Helsinki was a national embarrassment. His meeting with Putin in Anchorage doubled down on that national embarrassment, where he rolled out a red carpet for a dictator that hates America. Of course, I'm not confident on that, which is why we need Ukraine and Europe to build off of the productive elements of this 28-point plan, but then insist that the United States, that the Trump administration actually put the screws on Russia.

What does that mean? That means continued long-range strikes against Russian oil refineries, particularly around Moscow. That means sanctions on their oil exports. And that means taking all EUR 300 billion of Russian assets held in Belgium and using them for NATO defense. We know what strength looks like. President Trump just actually has to do it.

HILL: I want to ask you, we're just getting some Breaking News right now, Congressman, on a separate issue, which is that video that six Democratic members put out, telling military members that they do not, should not follow any illegal orders. The president calling that seditious behavior punishable by death. We now know that the FBI is seeking to schedule interviews with the Democratic lawmakers in this video. This is in addition to the Department of Defense threatening to court martial Senator Mark Kelly. Can I just get what your thoughts are on that?

AUCHINCLOSS: Another abuse of power by a president who's trying to distract Americans from his economic mismanagement. This is a pattern, Jessica, of whether it's the military being deployed to American cities and the president saying they are training grounds for American troops, whether it's his saber rattling with Venezuela, whether it is trying to intimidate patriots and members of Congress who are simply reciting the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

This president, who's a draft dodger, tries to hide behind the military to make himself look strong. Problem for him as Americans are wise to it. And they want to see him addressing the affordability crisis in this country, not trying to dress up like a tinpot dictator.

HILL: And let us be clear what these lawmakers said was they were stating the law and a lot of legal experts say that they are -- that is protected by First Amendment rights and freedom of speech, obviously. I am curious though, if you thought that it was an appropriate thing to do to release this video. If it was kind of -- if there was any chance that something like that it could elicit this kind of response.

AUCHINCLOSS: We can't be intimidated of this president. Congress needs to do its Article I job. And indeed Congress should use this incident as an impetus for us to reclaim war powers that have been ceded to the executive for the last 50 years. That's not just a Republican problem, by the way. That's a Democrat and Republican problem. We've got authorizations for the use of military force dating back to the 1950s and then again, in the early 2000s, that give commanders in chief way too much latitude to wage war wherever and whenever they want.

[14:10:00]

That is not how the framers envisioned our system working. The American people deserve to see their members of Congress voting on the use of military force. And I'd like to see bipartisan action in Congress on that. I've tried to lead on it, but we need Republican support to make this law.

HILL: All right, Congressman Jake Auchincloss, good to see you. Thanks so much.

AUCHINCLOSS: Good afternoon.

HILL: Thanks. And again, that's just the Breaking News, about the FBI seeking to schedule interviews with those Democratic lawmakers. We'll have more on that. Also still to come, if you are not at your Thanksgiving destination already, get ready to hurry up and wait. In addition to this being the busiest travel season in more than a decade, bad weather is now threatening to cause some delays. We'll have an update on that next.

SANCHEZ: Plus, an expected crackdown by ICE in New Orleans is keeping many immigrant residents in their homes and out of sight. We'll discuss the economic impact that's having on the city in just moments. And later, a mysterious death on a carnival cruise, a teen found dead inside her cabin. Her stepbrother reportedly questioned by the FBI. That and much more coming your way next.

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[14:15:43]

HILL: A record-breaking number of Americans will be on the move this Thanksgiving holiday. AAA saying nearly 82 million people will travel more than 50 miles to celebrate. The vast majority of those will be going by car.

SANCHEZ: And for those of you trying to catch flights, the FAA says airports will see the most travelers today in what is expected to be the busiest Thanksgiving travel period in 15 years. Let's go back to CNN's Pete Muntean live at Reagan National Airport. Pete, last we checked in, we told folks to go and give you a hug if they ran into you. Did you get any greetings? Did you get anybody bringing you a hotdog?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: No new visitors, although we've seen the foot traffic pick up a little bit here at the Terminal 2 North Checkpoint, both two-legged and four. I just saw a Boston terrier in a turkey costume go through the security checkpoint here, talk about a service animal. Things are moving pretty smoothly here and at least according to the airport, the wait times here for standard screening and TSA pre-check only about five minutes. That is the good news.

The bad news is that the delays are going up. We saw the control tower at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport had to close down for about 10 minutes this morning. Not great considering the fact that today is the biggest day in terms of the number of flights in the air leading up to the Thanksgiving Day, this -- before the Thanksgiving holiday. 52,000 flights in the air today, was a little bit lower yesterday, goes up a little bit again towards the end of the weekend.

The delays have now hit Phoenix, which is a huge hub for Southwest Airlines. And I was in their operations center just last week. They call it network (ph) operations control, where they monitor about 800 flights a day, 800 airplanes a day, few thousand flights rather. And that's like transporting about 500,000 to 600,000 people a day. I want you to listen now to COO, Andrew Watterson, who says it's like moving the population of Minneapolis every day during these biggest days of the Thanksgiving rush. Listen.

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ANDREW WATTERSON, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, SOUTHWEST AIRLINES: All the elements in place for very smooth Thanksgiving. Good staffing, good weather, and so I think it will be smooth sailing for customers. We have redundant technology. We have a better staffing, better decision making, and so we're able to handle these large-scale events very well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Obviously, not everybody going to be passing through TSA security checkpoints across the country where they're anticipating about 2.7 million people screened when the day is said and done, about the same tomorrow, 17.8 million in total over the next seven days. It is a huge number, a little bit bigger than last year. We've seen the eight of the top-10 days for air travel in TSA history have occurred just this year alone. We'll probably get a ninth and a tenth, meaning that every day in TSA history would've been in 2025. Air travel just keeps going up and up.

So, so many people, of course, will consider driving with the average price of a gallon of gas now about $3.06 for a gallon of regular. We are now in the worst time to drive. And so, AAA says if you can wait until tomorrow morning, that's probably the best idea. Or really, if you can wait until Thanksgiving morning, that's even better. That's when traffic essentially goes down to nil. It's going to be a lot of people out driving on the road, especially now with a lot of folks going to and from school, really coming from school and coming back from work. So, we've got sort of the evening commutes mixed with holiday travelers. That's what makes things really tough in the evening, Tuesday and Wednesday. It's going to be bad too.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, it seems like it's going to be a headache for a lot of folks. If you're at DCA right now, go and hug Pete Muntean.

HILL: Yeah.

SANCHEZ: He's over, I think you said the south checkpoint or north?

(LAUGH)

HILL: North, north.

SANCHEZ: North Checkpoint.

MUNTEAN: Terminal 2 North. Checkpoint.

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: All right. All right. Pete Muntean, live at DCA.

(LAUGH)

MUNTEAN: I can use all the fans I can get.

SANCHEZ: And a hot dog. If you can -- if you can spare Glizzy, Ben's Chili Bowl is like down the terminal. You can just bring it to Pete. Thank you so much.

(LAUGH)

SANCHEZ: Still to come, the travel nightmare sparked by this volcano eruption, a separate nightmare altogether. Active this volcano for the first time in 10,000 years.

[14:20:00]

HILL: And a growing family feud among Democrats, Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer and other party leaders facing serious pushback over next year's midterm candidates. We've got that and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

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SANCHEZ: We are following Breaking News to CNN. We've learned the FBI is attempting to schedule interviews with the six Democratic lawmakers that President Trump has accused of sedition, saying that it is a crime punishable by death.

[14:25:00]

HILL: President Trump has called these lawmakers "traitors" after they shared a video telling U.S. troops to ignore any unlawful orders. The fact that the FBI is now seeking to interview them, obviously an escalation in all of this. CNN's Arlette Saenz is here. Arlette, this comes after DOD and Pete Hegseth, the Secretary, went after Senator Mark Kelly, trying to court-martial him. But now, the FBI getting involved, what are you learning?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the FBI is seeking to schedule interviews with these six Democratic lawmakers. What they did was the FBI reached out to the Capitol Police who then referred them to the Senate Sergeant at Arms and the House Sergeant at Arms to make these requests for the interviews. It's very obviously an escalation from the Trump administration, which has warned that these Democratic lawmakers in this video are seeking to undermine President Trump's authority as Commander in Chief.

Now, these Democrats have simply said that they are restating what the law is telling these troops and members of the intelligence community that they don't need to follow unlawful orders. I think what's unclear right now with these interviews from the FBI is what exactly what kind of investigation are they launching into these lawmakers? But there was a joint statement, at least from the four Democratic House lawmakers, who said that President Trump is using the FBI as a tool to intimidate and harass members of Congress.

They said no amount of intimidation or harassment will ever stop us from doing our jobs and honoring our Constitution. They went on to say, we swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, basically are arguing that they will not be deterred. Now, Senator Elissa Slotkin had also posted that she believes that there was an inquiry opened by the FBI's Counterterrorism Division. So I think we're still learning exactly, trying to figure out what this FBI, these questioning, these interviews will be and whether any of these lawmakers will in fact meet with the FBI to do this.

But certainly, this is an escalation from the Trump administration at a time when these Democrats are simply saying that they will not be intimidated and are undeterred from these threats.

HILL: Yeah. Worth noting that five of six of them had bomb threats and threats to their own safety after all of this transpired. All right, Arlette, thank you so much.

Still to come, workers staying home, families stocking up on supplies, just some of the precautions being taken in New Orleans as many immigrants brace for the upcoming crackdown by federal agents.

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