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CNN News Central
Docs Recommend Walk After Thanksgiving Feast; Winter Storm Threatens Holiday Travelers; Hegseth Weighs Options to Punish Sen. Kelly Over Illegal Orders Video; FBI Wants to Interview Dem Lawmakers in Illegal Orders Video; America's Biggest Retailers Prep for Unpredictable Holiday Season, Work to Draw in Buyers With Tighter Budgets. Aired 2-2:30p ET
Aired November 26, 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]
DR. TRISHA PASRICHA, DIRECTOR, BIDMC GUT-BRAIN RESEARCH INSTITUTE: -- I will say, tomorrow is a high-stress day for a lot of people. You might be meeting your future in-laws for the first time, you're meeting your partner's family. So if you have any concerns that you might be the perpetrator, you can always take something like Pepto- Bismol. So Pepto-Bismol contains bismuth subsalicylate, that has been shown in decades-old studies to neutralize 99 percent of the odors from our intestinal gas.
So if you take one of those before the big meal, you can actually put your mind at rest and kind of just focus on charming people with your personality.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Or with sounds. Who knows? Depends what you're into.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": I got to go take a walk. I'll be right back.
SANCHEZ: Go for a walk. Yeah, we'll walk together, Omar.
JIMENEZ: Yeah, let's do it. We'll walk together.
SANCHEZ: Dr. Trisha Pasricha, thank you so much for the time.
(CROSSTALK)
PASRICHA: The sign of a true friendship.
(LAUGH)
JIMENEZ: Exactly.
SANCHEZ: Yeah. Thanks for being with us.
(LAUGH)
PASRICHA: You too.
JIMENEZ: Good to see you.
SANCHEZ: A new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.
There is a legal battle brewing between the Pentagon and a sitting U.S. lawmaker. The options we're learning that Secretary Pete Hegseth is reportedly weighing to punish retired Navy Captain, Senator Mark Kelly. Plus, a live look at how things are looking at airports as we glance ahead to a major winter storm that could wreak havoc for millions of Thanksgiving travelers.
JIMENEZ: And Walmart hoping to beat Amazon at its own game, promising faster shipping for the holidays. We will bring you updates on that, but we're also following major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here at the "CNN News Central."
We begin this hour with new details on the Trump administration's attacks against Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. Remember, he's one of six Democratic lawmakers, all veterans, who appeared in a video urging service members to disobey illegal orders. Senator Kelly though being singled out as the member of the group who's had the longest tenure in the military, rising to the rank of Navy Captain.
JIMENEZ: And we're also learning the FBI is seeking interviews with the six Democrats as President Trump has accused them of "seditious behavior punishable by death." That is a quote. Since that post on social media, several have since received bomb threats. CNN National Security Correspondent, Natasha Bertrand joins us now. So Natasha, what do we know about this review into, let's start with, Senator Kelly.
NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a review. It's not a full-blown investigation according to our sources. And Secretary Hegseth has essentially deferred now to the Navy Secretary for -- with a deadline of December 10th to look into this and see what kind of response is warranted, if any. But we're told that Hegseth really wants to see consequences for this, and the options that he has been weighing are a reduce in rank and pay for Senator Kelly because he does still receive a pension from the U.S. Military or something as severe as prosecuting him in a military court.
Now, that could be extremely difficult if they try to go that route. It is an uphill battle to try to prosecute a sitting Senator in a military court, particularly given all of the issues at hand with unlawful command influence, given Hegseth's repeated weighing in on this. It's a very serious issue. And so, it remains to be seen whether this is mostly just kind of political theater as a result of President Trump posting about this non-stop, clearly wanting to see some consequences or if they actually move to take action against Senator Kelly, which would be fairly unprecedented.
Senator Kelly, he did appear last night on Jimmy Kimmel and he talked about just how extraordinary this moment is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. MARK KELLY, (D-AZ): I've almost (ph) more been killed for this country multiple times, almost shot down over Iraq in Kuwait, had a missile blow up next to my airplane. I got on a rocket ship four times, a millions of pounds of rocket fuel, for this nation. And then I wake up one day and I got the president of the United States threatening me with my life that I'm going to be hanged. And by the way, I mean, isn't this the guy two months ago that said, we've got to stop this like political violence issue? He didn't -- he didn't even make it to Thanksgiving.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERTRAND: So, Senator Kelly clearly not deterred here. He's speaking out about it. He is sending out fundraising emails about this. It's clearly increased his stature. And honestly, members of the military tell me that the rank and file service members didn't even know about this video really, it wasn't even on their radar. But now that it's become such a huge issue, everyone's talking about it, now it very much is. So --
SANCHEZ: It's fairly unusual, generally, for retired service members to face military law. Usually, it requires violent crime, often committed overseas. And this is over what amounts to potentially a freedom of speech case, right?
BERTRAND: That's what legal experts told us, is going to be the main hurdle, is going to be this, the freedom of speech issue, because Senator Kelly is a civilian.
SANCHEZ: Right.
BERTRAND: He is a private citizen. He is not -- it's not going to be as easy, for example, just calling back a retired service member for a crime that is very clear cut. This is going to be very difficult to prosecute.
SANCHEZ: Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much for the reporting. Appreciate it.
So far, mostly smooth sailing for what could be the busiest Thanksgiving travel season in more than a decade. Some 73 million Americans are projected to hit the roads for the holiday. Another 6 million taking to the friendly skies.
[14:05:00]
JIMENEZ: We've already seen icy winter weather conditions making an impact. You see just what the general vibes look like out on the roads and some of these spots. But that weather forcing an hour-long ground stop at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The frosty storm is plunging temperatures just as families prepared to gather for that warm holiday meal. I want to bring in CNN's Pete Muntean, who's been watching the crowds at Reagan National Airport. So Pete, how are they handling what is usually a pretty frantic time of year?
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Everyone is taking it pretty well in stride. I've been talking to passengers who are going to Alabama, to Texas, to North Carolina, Michigan, really all over. And they say that you really just have to be patient, especially right now, as the lines are building here at the end of the day, here at the Terminal 2 North Checkpoint. It's taking about five minutes according to the airport to get through the TSA checkpoint here. And this is just one of many that we'll see. So many people traveling today, 2.7 million people anticipated at airport checkpoints in total.
One of the big new things that is happening, this is the first time during a holiday rush, is you no longer have to take your shoes off at TSA. That was changed over the summer, a 20-year long rule, essentially marginalizing the need for pre-check. Now, you can keep your shoes on in the standard lines, which is a huge difference here at TSA checkpoints across the country. The drama has been relatively minimal when it comes to delays. We've seen them climb into the thousands today.
The cancellations have remained in the hundreds. The ground stop at Chicago O'Hare is now over. It is transitioned into what's called a ground delay. So planes being held on the ground a little bit longer. And you can see even on the departures board here, Chicago O'Hare delayed 3:20, delayed 3:30, delayed 5:00 p.m. It's a bit of an inconvenience because that's going to impact a lot of people making connecting flights. It's a huge connecting airport for American and United. But I want you to listen now to some of the travelers I've talked to who say they're really just rolling with it. Mostly nuisance level stuff for them, not major chaos, listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Got to be flexible and roll with it. And if an opportunity presents, which was this, because it was non-stop, I took it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't check bags in, it'll save you some time. Travel light if possible. But also, be kind to others. Let people pass if they're trying to catch a quick connection. And yeah, just keep it simple.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MUNTEAN: This is around the time that a lot of people wish they were flying because the traffic is going to be red, red, red across the board in so many places. AAA says in some major metro areas, on Wednesday evening, with the traffic of the holiday mixing in with the traffic of those coming home from school and coming home from work, it could be three or four times the norm, what we see on a normal day. Bakersfield to L.A. huge route on the five, they say driving from L.A., it could take about 150 percent of the normal length that that trip.
San Diego to Palm Springs 80 percent longer. And so we are now sort of in the thick of it when it comes to traffic and we're not totally out of the woods yet for what's been generally a smooth sailing set a few days here for air travel. SANCHEZ: Pete, I'm wondering if anybody has come up and given you a hug. Have you had any visitors? Has the call for someone to go to Ben's Chili Bowl and get Pete Muntean a Glizzy been fulfilled? Has anybody brought you a hotdog, Pete?
(LAUGH)
MUNTEAN: I have to -- if I'm the mayor of DCA, our mascot is Lola, who is -- there's passengers two and four-legged here at DCA. This is Producer Nicky Robertson's dog who is now shaking now that I've put her on the camera. Sorry, Lola. She's been well behaved all day. So yeah, things are pretty good. I've had a lot of visitors and it's good to have Lola too. She's a good sport. And sorry, Lola, didn't mean to make your CNN debut just like this, but hey, you got to get it where you can live.
JIMENEZ: Hey, live TV folks.
(LAUGH)
SANCHEZ: Bring Lola and Pete a hot dog, if you can. Pete Muntean from DCA.
MUNTEAN: Yeah, that's right.
SANCHEZ: Thank you so much.
MUNTEAN: I think Lola would take chicken nuggets.
(LAUGH)
SANCHEZ: As would most of us. Thanks, Pete.
Still to come. An online shipping battle for the holidays. How Walmart plans to take on and beat Amazon at its own game. And a TikTok influencer ordered to pay nearly $2 million for having an affair. The courtroom drama that took over the internet.
JIMENEZ: And nearly a year after the devastating Palisades Fire, the first house in the community is finally rebuilt. And an old van famous for surviving the inferno is back on the road again. That and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:14:21]
JIMENEZ: With Black Friday just days away, we are seeing the beginning of the clash of the retail titans. That is Macy's, Amazon, Target, Old Navy, working the -- are among those -- among the stores working hard to bring in customers who are stressed by rising costs.
SANCHEZ: Walmart also feeling the pressure.
JIMENEZ: Yes. SANCHEZ: The nation's largest private employer focusing though on how using speed could help surge holiday sales. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich got an up close look at Walmart's strategy and she joins us now live. So Vanessa, what is Walmart doing?
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Boris, if you think about it, how many times have you gone to buy something, you get all the way to the checkout and you say, wait a minute, more than two days shipping? There's got to be another choice. Someone who could do it faster.
[14:15:00]
And retailers absolutely know that they're competing for speed and they're competing to try to make your dollar stretch even further. So I visited with America's largest retailer, Walmart. I went to their next-gen fulfillment center in Greencastle, Pennsylvania to see how they're using automation and artificial intelligence to try to be the speediest this holiday season.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARAT SMITH, VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS, WALMART U.S. SUPPLY CHAIN: We are in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, the home of one of our newest next-gen facilities. It is a 1.5 million-square foot building, massive building. We're all about speed in these fulfillment centers. Our goal is to get to your doorstep as fast as possible. When you click buy, we can actually get it out of the internet, onto a trailer going to your house within 30 minutes.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): In a world where shipping speed wins the day for consumers, Walmart is racing to be the fastest this holiday season.
YURKEVICH: People want things faster and faster. Are these next-gen fulfillment centers your answer to Amazon?
DAVID GUGGINA, CHIEF ECOMMERCE OFFICER, WALMART: In this respect, we're talking about speed. If we create a great customer experience, that drives more orders, and more orders drives density, and density allows us to lower our cost to operate. So yes, the next-generation fulfillment centers along with our vast 4,700 stores in the U.S. are our answer to helping customers get great value and great convenience.
SMITH: So the first step is unloading. And you can see the boxes moving to what we call our second step, which is simply taking the items out of the container and putting them into the tote.
YURKEVICH: And how many steps is it normally?
SMITH: So our other fulfillments have about a 12-step process.
YURKEVICH: 12?
SMITH: And we've simplified that down to five steps. YURKEVICH (voice-over): Walmart heads into the holidays following another strong quarter. Revenue rose 5.8 percent, led by a 27 percent spike in e-commerce. But online or in stores, every U.S. retailer this season is competing for wary shoppers.
YURKEVICH: Walmart says they are ready for a lot of your holiday ordering and spending. This fulfillment center in Greencastle, Pennsylvania says that they can process 100,000 packages every single day. The question is, are you the consumer going to be doing a lot of spending? There are tariffs. There's higher inflation. And there really is a lot of economic uncertainty.
There's a lot of talk right now about affordability. How is that being discussed and thought about when you are planning how to show up for consumers?
GUGGINA: We're focused on saving people money, so that they can live a better life. We focus on operating at everyday low cost, so that we can deliver everyday low prices on a consistent basis.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): There are four Walmart fulfillment centers like this one, moving 50 percent of all volume. They're twice as productive as its older facilities.
YURKEVICH: The movement I'm seeing a lot of it's being done by the machines.
SMITH: It's actually moving (ph).
YURKEVICH: Is that by design?
SMITH: That is a hundred percent by design. So, have you ever received a box that might've been too big, a really small item in it?
YURKEVICH: Yeah, a tiny item in a huge box.
SMITH: Really frustrating. This machine is taking the dimensions of the items that you just clicked buy on. We're building a custom made box for your specific order.
YURKEVICH: I'm about to ship someone their very important product. I'm marrying the box that was made and the products that they ordered. So it's all coming together right here. Someone ordered a Pulse Oximetry, very important, going into box -- nope, no, no.
SMITH: Don't forget to scan it.
(LAUGH)
SMITH: So, there is a scanner up there. There you go.
YURKEVICH: There we go. OK. Here.
SMITH: Now hit the button. Nice shot.
YURKEVICH: I think I slowed down someone's delivery time by about 30 minutes. Apologies to whoever that was.
SMITH: I think we'll be OK.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): Walmart has been attracting more middle to higher-income shoppers in the last few years. Its typical customer base, lower-income Americans are also under pressure. The company says it's trying to provide greater value where it can by cutting costs here.
SMITH: As soon as they leave this conveyor belt, they're going to a trailer and hitting your doorstep within the next day, same day, or even two-day delivery.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
YURKEVICH (on camera): Now in order to compete at this level of speed, you very much have to be not just a big retailer, but you have to be a tech company, an A.I. company. And Walmart very much considers themselves all of those. The fifth next0gen fulfillment center is opening in California next year. That's to better service the West Coast. And guys, this is not about just speed, about getting your packages, this is also about speed for employees.
Here's a fun factoid. This next-gen fulfillment center, it's not going to replace all the other traditional fulfillment centers out there, but it very much is clearly the direction the company is moving. But for employees, in a traditional fulfillment center, they walk about 10,000 steps a day.
[14:20:00]
In these next-gen fulfillment centers, the farthest that any employee will walk is from the parking lot to their station. So you're also fast -- you're moving faster on speed for the associates, not just for the customer, guys.
JIMENEZ: Wow. All access. Vanessa Yurkevich, thanks for bringing us along. Good to see you.
YURKEVICH: Thanks.
JIMENEZ: All right. Still ahead, Defense Secretary Hegseth targeting one of the lawmakers he refers to as the "seditious six." We'll tell you how veterans are responding as Hegseth considers stripping Senator Mark Kelly of his military rank. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:25:13]
JIMENEZ: Two Republican lawmakers are defending their Democratic colleague, Senator Mark Kelly, after the Pentagon said it had received "serious allegations of misconduct" about the former Navy Captain and was launching a review. Now, it comes after Kelly and five other Democrats made a video urging service members to disobey illegal orders. President Trump has accused these Democrats of "seditious behavior punishable by death." That is the quote. Prompting Alaska Republican, Lisa Murkowski to post on X, "To accuse Kelly and other lawmakers of treason and sedition for rightfully pointing out that service members can refuse illegal orders is reckless and flat out wrong."
Utah GOP Senator, John Curtis also posted in support of Kelly, writing "His record as a combat naval aviator and a NASA astronaut reflects his example of the discipline and dedication that are important for success." I want to bring in Kyleanne Hunter, who joins us now. She's the CEO of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. And I appreciate you being here to offer some of your perspective because, look, Secretary Hegseth is weighing his options to punish Kelly, ranging from reducing the retired U.S. Navy Captain's rank and pension to prosecuting him under military law. I just wonder, does Kelly's role as a sitting Senator limit Hegseth's options? How are you seeing this?
KYLEANNE HUNTER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN VETERANS OF AMERICA: So from a legal perspective, any retired officer is still subject to UCMJ. So regardless if they are a Senator, if they are a private citizen, they still are subject to UCMJ from a just pure legal perspective.
JIMENEZ: Got you. And just generally speaking, I mean, how are you analyzing this situation here based on what you know?
HUNTER: Yeah, so what -- how we're looking at this is really putting it in context of a survey that we just completed of our members, like less than a month ago. And in that, our members who are post-9/11 veterans, many of \whom served downrange in Iraq and Afghanistan and other conflicts, who had to make decisions about whether or not to follow orders. And then looking at that most recent survey, nearly two-thirds of them said that preserving democratic norms and institution is the most pressing policy issue of this time and what IAVA should be really focused around.
And in articulating what they saw as threats or concerns, the use of intimidation or violent rhetoric against political opponents is what bubbled up as one of the greatest threats to democratic norms. And so I think as we're looking at this, we do have some real concerns around really calling for the execution of sitting Senators who are also members of the public, who are military veterans, for exercising their First Amendment rights.
JIMENEZ: And when you speak to -- when you hear from some of these Senators, especially those in the video, but obviously, defenders of them as well, they would say, look, we are saying what is already law. What is already the rule at this point, that you do not have to obey in illegal order. But even still, one of our CNN military analysts, retired Major General James Spider Marks, he expressed concern about the video's message. Just take a quick listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, (RET.) CNN MILITARY ANALYST: When Senator Kelly and his colleagues made the comment, the message to me was, we, this collection of folks, we don't trust the military, the uniformed leadership, and we think that they've been taken over by the administration. He could have taken a step back and said, why am I making -- why am I sending this message which clearly is an insult to our chain of command? Those in uniform, folks that I have had the privilege of serving with and training and growing into the positions that they're in today.
(END VIDEO CLIP) JIMENEZ: What do you think of his concerns?
HUNTER: A, I'm not going to put myself in the seat of the Senators to make any assumptions as to why they made the video, as called by them and many that have defended them, they're saying what is law. I know when I was in uniform, there were many different forums in which I was reminded that it was my obligation to not follow illegal orders. Whether that is through training around the rule of law, whether that was through more informal conversations I had, it is known and it is a conversation.
I wouldn't be presumptive as to why they're doing it. I also wouldn't want to put words into their mouth as to how they feel about the current leadership. I do know from some of the lawmakers that were in that film, who I've had relationships with in and out of uniform, just from my own time, that they have the absolute utmost respect for those that are still serving in uniform and it's many of their peers that are in these senior decision-making positions as well.
JIMENEZ: Yeah. And you know, some of the questions --
