Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

U.S. To Hold Military Drills Off The Coast Of Venezuela; Trump Briefed On Options For Military Operations In Venezuela; Federal Agents Surge To North Carolina. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired November 16, 2025 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BEN HUNTE, CNN HOST: Hello. Wherever you are in the world, you are now in the CNN Newsroom with me, Ben Hunte in Atlanta, and it is so good to have you with me.

Coming up on the show, the U.S. military is set to begin drills in the Caribbean, adding more pressure to Venezuela's Maduro-led government. U.S. immigration agents are now in Charlotte, North Carolina. Why their controversial presence is alarming some residents? And a violent storm in Wales triggers severe flooding. Residents are left shocked at the power of the water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN Newsroom with Ben Hunte.

HUNTE: Welcome. Pressure is mounting between the United States and Venezuela. In a few hours, the U.S. military is expected to start five days of drills in Trinidad and Tobago, the island nation just off the Venezuelan coast. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called the drills irresponsible and accused the U.S. of pursuing a, quote, "criminal war" against his country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICOLAS MADURO, VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT (Interpreted): I reiterate this every day to the people of the United States. The people of the United States, listen to me. War in the Caribbean, war in South America, no, or eternal, no. Peace, yes. Peace for America, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: Sources tell CNN, the U.S. has been weighing potential military action within the Latin American country. On Friday, President Trump told reporters, quote, "I've sort of made up my mind on Venezuela", but didn't elaborate. The drills are being conducted as the U.S. carries out lethal strikes on alleged drug trafficking vessels, at least 20 so far, with dozens of deaths.

The military buildup in the region includes the arrival of the USS Gerald Ford in the Caribbean this week. It is the world's largest aircraft carrier, considered the Navy's most lethal combat platform. CNN's Stefano Pozzebon has the latest for us from Caracas, as Maduro

prepares for a potential military conflict with the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST (voice-over): The Venezuela leader Nicolas Maduro has said that more than four million Venezuelans have taken an oath to defend the country in case of an attack from the United States. On Saturday, several top officials from the Maduro's government were seen across different cities in Venezuela and participating in ceremonies where, allegedly, regular people were pronouncing the oath. Now, CNN cannot independently verify these figures. However, they show that the government and Maduro, personally, are taking the possibility and the risk of a U.S. attack on Venezuela soil very, very seriously.

This is happening as the U.S. Department of Defense has announced that the U.S. forces will join the military of Trinidad and Tobago, which is an island just a few miles from the coast of Venezuela, in military drills starting on Sunday, and Maduro had also words for that event.

MADURO (Interpreted): These are intended to be threatening to Venezuela, which does not allow itself to be threatened by anyone. They say they will do this from Monday to Thursday. The people of Trinidad and Tobago will see whether they continue to allow their waters and land to be used to seriously threaten the peace of the Caribbean.

POZZEBON (voice-over): Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump has said on Air Force One that he has almost made up his mind of what to do with Venezuela. Across last week, several sources in the White House told CNN that the president had been briefed across military plans to take direct action in the country. Maduro told CNN on Thursday that he was still hoping for peace to prevail in this confrontation with the government of the U.S. However, the announcement on Saturday show that tensions are still destined to escalate.

For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Caracas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Eric Farnsworth is Senior Associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He joins us from McLean, Virginia. Thank you so much for being with me, Eric. How are you doing?

ERIC FARNSWORTH, SR. ASSOCIATE, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC & INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: I'm doing well. Thanks. It's great to join you, Ben.

HUNTE: It's good to see you. Let's get into this. How unprecedented is this buildup in the Caribbean? Have you been surprised by the scale and the speed of it?

FARNSWORTH: I have been surprised by both the scale and the speed, and it is unprecedented. It's the most significant buildup this century. In fact, you have to go back to 1989, the U.S. invasion of Panama for anything remotely similar.

[03:05:00]

I suppose the work on Haiti in 1994 timeframe also might compare. But this century, it's by far the largest and speediest buildup of U.S. military assets in the Caribbean Basin.

HUNTE: Gosh. The president said he sort of has made up his mind on what will happen next. What does that mean to you?

FARNSWORTH: Well, it's a great question, and clearly, the president is going to be the one person who will decide what's happened, what will happen. The truth of the matter is, he is actually really good at strategic ambiguity, keeping people guessing, keeping people off balance, keeping people guessing, and in fact, that's what many people are doing right now, including Nicolas Maduro and the regime in Venezuela. The President of the United States does have options, should he choose to pursue them, and the quality and the size of the force in the Caribbean clearly does give him some of those options.

I don't get the sense that he, or anybody in particular in Washington, wants to invade or occupy Venezuela, but that's a different question from taking steps perhaps to remove Mr. Maduro. And so, I think there are a range of options that are possible.

HUNTE: Tell me a bit more about that then, because there are some concerns that there is potential for the U.S. to invade or occupy Venezuela. So, what would this mean if that did potentially happen?

FARNSWORTH: Well, that's exactly right, but the size of the force, despite the fact that it is unprecedented and it is rather large, I mean, you have the world's most advanced aircraft carrier now on station off the coast of Venezuela, you have about 15,000 U.S. troops available in the region, you have air assets, certainly intelligence assets as well, but it's not significant enough of a force to actually take an occupation of Venezuela. Venezuela is a huge country. Many people don't know the actual size of it, and much of it is unoccupied in the context of unsettled its jungle. It's not an easy place to operate, particularly with drug cartels in control of much of the country and illegal miners and such. So, it's a really complicated place.

But beyond that, the politics at the moment in Washington would not argue for a U.S. invasion force. President Trump came into office vowing to end foreign wars and get out of international commitments that he didn't believe were in the U.S. national interest. So, this would have to be something, particularly something would have to change for that calculus, I believe, to be changed. But the current status quo is unsustainable. And so, I think that there is going to be something that will have to be done one way or the other in the coming days.

HUNTE: We've heard a lot about the U.S. side of things. But what is the response inside Venezuela been like so far? How are people reacting to some of these wild headlines and social media posts that have been coming out of the U.S.? FARNSWORTH: Well, the leadership in Venezuela, the regime, is seeking

to put its best face forward, trying to bolster nationalism, seeking to talk about the threat of the United States, and trying to bolster not just the Venezuelan population, but frankly, other leaders around Latin America and around the world, to try to counter what it perceives as the U.S. threat. It hasn't been entirely successful.

One of the other things that the regime has done in Venezuela is to mobilize its security forces and claim that millions of militia members in Venezuela are ready to defend the homeland to the death. That may be true. But the real challenge for Maduro and his folks is going to be the adequacy of those forces, and certainly were they to come up in direct conflict with the United States. They might be able to bloody the nose with the U.S. a little bit, but they certainly wouldn't be able to prevail, and it would be over pretty quickly. So, a lot of this is bluster. A lot of this is shaking your fist at the United States in hopes that it's the ability to really scare folks enough to cause them to think twice about taking actions.

HUNTE: But meanwhile, there has been quite a bit of action within the nation, after 20 strikes and at least, what, 80 people killed. Some League of Experts even say that the U.S. operation may violate international law. How is the administration justifying this and how legally risky is the current campaign?

FARNSWORTH: Well, that's exactly right. There are two issues here. One is the attack against drug traffickers, or alleged drug traffickers off the coast of Venezuela. The other issue is the one we've been talking about, which is the possibility of U.S. activities within Venezuela that actually try to depose the regime. But the question you're asking in terms of attacking the drug boats is one that people have raised questions of legality. That's absolutely true.

[03:10:00]

The administration has declared that drug traffickers within the context of the Tren de Aragua and Cartel de los Soles and the Sinaloa Cartel from Mexico and some other cartels in the region are actually international terrorist organizations, and by designating these cartels as terrorist organizations, it opens up different and new authorities of the United States to be able to go after them militarily, not just with law enforcement assets. And so, it's this distinction that's been made, actually some months ago, that the administration is relying on, and if these are indeed terrorist actions and activities, then the administration believes it has the legal authority it needs to go after them.

We also have to recognize that the U.S. Senate has made an effort to try to bring the administration within the bounds of the War Powers Act, but those efforts have failed to this point. And so, to this point, the U.S. Senate is at least supportive in the -- if not explicitly, certainly has not taken action to restrict those activities.

HUNTE: Yes. Well, lots of potentials, lots of hypotheticals. We will see what happens next. Thanks for the breakdown, Eric Farnsworth. FARNSWORTH: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

HUNTE: Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she has received a wave of threats amid the escalating drama with President Trump. On Friday, he rescinded his endorsement of Greene, once a staunch ally, and attacked her in personal terms. The Georgia representative accused Mr. Trump of trying to use her as an example to frighten Republicans ahead of a House vote on releasing files connected to the criminal investigation of Jeffrey Epstein.

A source familiar with plans for the Texas National Guard tell CNN the state soldiers will soon leave Chicago and return home. The Trump administration ordered 200 Texas troops to the city more than a month ago. Their stated mission was to protect immigration agents. Instead, they have been waiting at training bases after a federal judge ruled there was no justification to bring in the military. The administration has framed demonstrations in Chicago and Portland, Oregon, as violent protests carried out by domestic terrorists.

U.S. federal immigration officers and Border Patrol agents are now in Charlotte, North Carolina.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino has more on the crackdown there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, for the past a few days, we had heard from local officials in the Charlotte area who were preparing for the possibility of immigration enforcement, much like we have seen in other big cities around the country, like Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., as part of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. And on Saturday, we started getting reports that this action was, in fact, under way. We got a statement from the Department of Homeland Security saying, in part, quote, "We are surging DHS law enforcement to Charlotte to ensure Americans are safe and public safety threats are removed."

Now, we've heard reports from the community who say that they have seen federal immigration officers patrolling areas, places of certain Hispanic businesses, Hispanic communities in the Charlotte area, and we heard from a man who was actually apprehended. I want to show you video that was taken by Willy Wonder Aceituno Medina. He is a Honduran immigrant who has been in the United States for 25 years, and told me is a U.S. citizen. And he was in the parking lot of this strip mall in the Charlotte area, and he was initially approached by a group of officers. He told them that he had I.D. on him, that he was a U.S. citizen, and those officers allowed him to present that identification and let him go on his way.

He then told me that when he got inside his vehicle, he was approached by a different set of officers who also asked him to identify himself, and that's when he said he became very confused because he had just showed his I.D. to officers. He said that the whole thing happened very quickly. They asked him to open the door. He didn't want to open the door. He said, I've already identified myself, and that's when you see an officer moving in and shattering his car window. They then proceed to pull him out of the vehicle and take him into custody.

Now, Medina told me that he was put inside of another vehicle, along with other people who were detained that day, and he was driven away, even though he was trying to tell these officers that he was a U.S. citizen and that he had documentation to prove that he is in the United States legally. He tried to do that multiple times during the ride, and finally, an officer actually checked his back pocket, was able to find his I.D. and confirm that he was a U.S. citizen. They then pulled a car over and were allowed him to exit the vehicle. He said that he had been driven away a considerable distance, and just simply told them that he had to walk back to the place where he had been arrested.

[03:15:00]

So, Medina telling me on Saturday that this has spread an incredible amount of fear throughout the community. He told me that people are canceling their Thanksgiving celebrations, weekend celebrations. He told me that people are afraid to go to work because they know that this operation is underway. And we also heard from businesses in the Charlotte area, who are choosing to close down going into the weekend as a precautionary measure, saying they don't want to expose themselves or the community that they serve while this operation is underway.

Gloria Pazmino, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Anger over insecurity and corruption brought thousands of protesters into the streets of Mexico City on Saturday.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

HUNTE: You're looking at clashes between police and protesters that took place in Mexico City on Saturday. The demonstration began as a peaceful Gen Z-led march with young people demanding action on rising violence. Government corruption and rampant crime, they say, goes unpunished across Mexico. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum accused far right and opposition groups of trying to influence and co-op the demonstration. The organizers strongly denied that claim. The young people leading the movement say it isn't just about politics. Many say they're marching because daily life feels increasingly unsafe and they're worried about their futures.

OK. Storm Claudia brings severe flooding to parts of the U.K. The latest on the aftermath, we're live in Wales, ahead. See you in a bit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNTE: People in Portugal are cleaning up debris in the wake of a tornado kicked up by Storm Claudia on Saturday. The disaster killed at least one person and injured two dozen others. An elderly couple was also reported dead near Lisbon after they were unable to flee the flooding that swept through on Thursday.

Parts of the U.K. are also trying to dry out after the violent storm system triggered severe flooding there. This video shows Monmouth in southern Wales, where flood waters were reportedly strong enough to break down doors on Saturday. Here is how one witness described that ordeal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's terrifying. I've been awake all night. Luckily, they slept and yeah, I got woken up by really loud noise, and I couldn't see anything out the window because it was dark, but I got torch and I'd shown it, and I just saw like a torrent of water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: Well, let's keep talking about it. Joining me for more on this, live from Monmouthshire in Wales, is Mary Ann Brocklesby, leader of the Monmouthshire County Council. Thank you so much for being with us, Mary Ann. We're so sorry you're going through all of this. Can you just describe to us the scale of the flooding that's happening across your area and the immediate impact on residents and businesses?

MARY ANN BROCKLESBY, LEADER, MONMOUTHSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL: Thank you very much for having me on, Ben. It's been a really tough couple of days in Monmouthshire, around 700 houses without power. As one of the residents described, we've had water that's waist high, wading through houses, people not being able to get out to the second floor, and walls collapsing. Despite all that, the community response has just been incredible, the support for those who've -- businesses have been badly impacted, who've had to leave their homes, has just been amazing, with people coming out to take them into their own homes, sending gifts, bringing food, clothing, bedding. We've set up a rest center, which is just filled to the gunnels with support from local residents. Also, our emergency services have been amazing in coordinating our response.

So, now on Sunday morning, when the rain is now stopped, we're starting to look at the clear-up operation. We're not fully certain of the extent of the damage at this center, because it is extensive, and some of our areas have been cut off, but we're starting to look at the numbers and the costs.

HUNTE: While you're speaking now, we are seeing some of those images from your area, and just absolutely is devastating. So sorry you're going through that. Can you tell us a bit more about how the emergency services are responding to this so far?

BROCKLESBY: About one year ago, Monmouthshire and South Wales experienced Storm Bert, which we thought was unprecedented. Clearly, we're in times where each storm has its own context and feels unprecedented. To give you a context, five inches of rain fell in five hours. We learned from Storm Bert. So, we were fully prepared from storm warnings, Thursday night, Friday morning, credible coordination between ourselves, the blue lights, health boards, so that we already were in those communities we knew that were targeted flood areas, and knocking them up, supporting them to put up flood defenses, making sure we had evacuation centers in place.

So, our response was good, but the level of the rainfall, the impact of the storm was beyond what we expected. Particularly in Monmouth, you see from those pictures, it was overwhelming.

HUNTE: And it really looks it as well. Within the devastation, as you mentioned before, we have also seen stories of neighbors and local businesses supporting each other and helping those affected. How important has the community's role been during this crisis?

BROCKLESBY: Absolutely important. Overwhelmingly, the response has been positive.

[03:25:00]

You can imagine, along with other leaders, I was on the streets in Monmouth and other parts of our county yesterday talking to people, talking to businesses. They understand that the storm is not something -- it's not a human event. It's something that we have to work with together. In my county, I am overwhelmingly inspired and proud of our community and the community resilience and how we always step up in the need when crisis happens upon us. It makes it easier for emergency services to do their jobs, but also makes sure that we are filled with hope and purpose and have a sense that we can move forward together.

HUNTE: It's really good to hear that. Can you tell us a bit about the council's plan for cleanup and restoring power and supporting families and businesses affected by the floods?

BROCKLESBY: It's sequence. At the moment, we're concentrating on restoring power, making sure that those who need temporary accommodation have it, also making sure that our more vulnerable citizens are supported by social services. They have the medications they need, if they've had to evacuate their house. We're getting in place the waste management procedures that we need, including skips, etc., so that they can be on the streets Monday and Tuesday.

At the moment, in Monmouthshire, we still have significant flood waters in parts of Monmouth, and we are working to clear the other areas and also in contact with the Welsh government to start looking at the financial resources we'll will need to support our businesses get back on their feet, and for residents to return to their homes.

HUNTE: OK. We'll leave it there for now, but we wish you the best. Mary Ann Brocklesby, thank you so much for that.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:30:00]

HUNTE: Welcome back. I'm Ben Hunte. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

The U.S. military is expected to begin five days of drills on Sunday in Venezuela's close neighbor, Trinidad and Tobago. The American Navy has been massing assets in the Caribbean, as they continue striking alleged drug trafficking vessels. Venezuela's president called the drills "irresponsible". Sources tell CNN, the U.S. has been weighing potential military action within Venezuela.

Parts of England and Wales are reporting widespread flooding as Storm Claudia hits the U.K. The storm also triggered a deadly tornado in Portugal on Saturday. Officials there say the extreme weather has killed at least three people and injured dozens.

Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene says she has received a wave of threats amid an escalating drama with President Trump. On Friday, he rescinded his endorsement of Greene, once a staunch ally, and attacked her in personal terms.

CNN Senior White House Reporter Betsy Klein has more now on the reasons for the rift between the President and his former ally.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER (on camera): Well, this major political breakup would have been unfathomable just months ago, but as Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene ramped up her criticism of President Trump and his strategy in recent weeks, it became clear to officials that it might be just a matter of time before something like this happened, and Greene has been taking aim at the White House on a pair of fronts, taking that message to outlets like CNN and ABC's The View. The first is domestic. She, in her view, believes that President Trump is not doing enough to focus on affordability issues, and is spending too much time on his relationships with world leaders and solving conflicts abroad.

Separately, on Jeffrey Epstein, Greene is one of just four House Republicans who is publicly calling for the Justice Department to release a tranche of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, and there is going to be a major political test of that in the coming days, as the House is set to take a vote on releasing those documents. Greene has shared insight into some of the advice that she has been giving to the White House, sharing a screenshot of a text she sent to a top Trump aide on social media. She wrote, quote, "Stop ignoring the women." She goes on to say that them being raped as teenagers is not a hoax, pushing back on some of the president's rhetoric on this issue. But the president has been asked multiple times about Greene's stepped up rhetoric against him, most recently on Friday, as he made his way here to Florida. Listen.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Marjorie Taylor Greene said, Oh, gee, I'm spending too much time overseas. So, let's say I don't meet with China. You know what's happened right now to Georgia and to every other state? They're not working, because your magnets and your rare earths would have kicked in, and there wouldn't be a factory in the world that was working. If I didn't have a relationship overseas with China, I think that her constituents aren't going to be happy. Already, I have people calling me. They want to challenge her to a race in her district in Georgia.

KLEIN (on camera): But this escalated significantly in the moments after Trump landed here in Florida, announcing in a post to social media that he was officially rescinding his endorsement of Greene and lobbying increasingly personal attacks against her.

Greene, for her part, has warned that those attacks have consequences, saying, in a post, quote, "A hotbed of threats against me are being fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world, the man I supported and helped get elected. Aggressive rhetoric attacking me has historically led to death threats and multiple convictions of men who were radicalized by the same type of rhetoric being directed at me right now, this time by the President of the United States."

Now, Greene has been a major ally for Trump and his MAGA political movement, and this whole episode raises new questions about the future of that MAGA movement in the absence of Trump.

Betsy Klein, CNN, traveling with the president in West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Michael Genovese is a Political Analyst and President of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount. He is the author of the "The Modern Presidency: Six Debates That Define the Institution", and he is joining us from Los Angeles. Thanks so much for being with me, Michael. How are you doing?

MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST, & PRESIDENT, GLOBAL POLICY INSTITUTE, LOYOLA MARYMOUNT: I'm doing great. Pleasure to be here.

HUNTE: Thank you so much for being here. Let's get into this. So, can we talk about what's going on inside the Republican Party right now? The president is publicly attacking Marjorie Taylor Greene and others too. Are we seeing real cracks in Trump's control of the party?

[03:35:00]

GENOVESE: Well, Donald Trump has shown a vulnerability of late. He has lost control of the narrative, which he has always dominated. He has lost control of the party, which he used to own, and his attacks, vicious attacks on Marjorie Taylor Greene and others who have said they're going to vote to release the Epstein documents, calling her a traitor, wacky, disgrace, a lunatic. All of these are a sign that Donald Trump is losing control, that he feels vulnerable.

And so, in belittling all these other Republicans, not Democrats, and belittling Republicans, he diminishes himself. And I think it comes at a time when his politics are in trouble because his popularity is below the 40 percent mark in many polls, and the economic policies that he has aren't working. And so, all of this threatens to engulf Donald Trump in quicksand politically.

HUNTE: On that, how damaging is this internal fight for Republicans heading into the next election cycle, and does it shift the balance of power inside the conservative movement?

GENOVESE: Well, Donald Trump is looking at the horizon, and he sees the midterms less than a year away. He knows that the out party, in this case, the Democrats, do very well in midterm elections. He has tried to rig the game by having Republican states do gerrymandering to redraw districts. Some Democratic states have responded. And so, Donald Trump sees problems ahead, and if he loses the House, that means there will be investigations on everything from his foreign policy to his economic policy to his monetizing the presidency.

So, he knows how vulnerable he is. And so, he is shaking. He is shaking like a frightened Chihuahua right now, because he knows that he is going to be vulnerable, and if he loses, his political power will diminish, and he'll go from being a president of strength, a party that's behind him, to a lame duck, and then maybe even to a dead duck.

HUNTE: Wow. OK. Well, let's talk about affordability. It was Trump's economic promises that helped him to get elected, but things aren't very affordable right now for most Americans. So, do people like Marjorie Taylor Greene actually have a point? Is this -- the administration, quote, "gaslighting Americans about the current economy"?

GENOVESE: Well, when Donald Trump ran, he talked about draining the swamp, and he talked about releasing the Epstein files. He talked about an economy for the average American. None of that's going on right now. And so, a lot of Republicans and independent voters who voted for Trump because they didn't like Biden, they didn't like Harris, are now finding that, wait a minute, he is the swamp. He is not draining it. The economy is not working for me anymore. It never really has in the last decade. And so, a lot of people who had their hopes invested in Donald Trump are beginning to wonder if that was a false choice.

HUNTE: I want to also talk about the state of Georgia, because legal pressure in Georgia is very real right now, even if it has slipped from the headlines a bit. How much of a threat is the election interference case here to Trump?

GENOVESE: Well, Donald Trump has basically swept aside all of the federal charges. He controls the Department of Justice, and he controls, to a large extent, the Supreme Court, and they've given him protection, but those are only for federal charges. The state of Georgia is an individual state. The president's pardon powers and the president's reach does not necessarily go to Georgia. And so, Georgia can, on its own, bring a case against the president, and they have a very strong case about election interference and that will keep people's minds on it. And so, Georgia, it looks like they're going to move ahead, and whether the trial starts sooner or later, it's still a thorn in Donald Trump's side.

HUNTE: We jumped all over there, but you had juicy, juicy answers. So, thank you. Michael Genovese, appreciate it.

GENOVESE: Thank you. HUNTE: Well, Mr. Trump is backtracking on some of the tariffs he

imposed on popular food items. On Friday, he signed an executive order that lowers the tariffs on beef, tomatoes, coffee, bananas and other products. They're now exempt from the so-called reciprocal tariff rates, which can go as high as 50 percent. But as one economist told CNN, those items will not necessarily become cheaper. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUSTIN WOLFERS, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN (on camera): Tariff is a price that you have to pay to release the goods once they come into customs, once they come across the border. So, they're good -- their price is being paid often by your grocery store, and what they're doing is, when they have to pay more for these goods, they're jacking up the price. So, somewhere between your grocery store and you, one of you is paying for this. And so, the elimination of these tariffs, of course, should set this in reverse, which means these pressures that have been raising the cost of living, well, hopefully they'll abate a little bit.

[03:40:00]

Every economist in America has been saying, every household in America has been saying, if you put tariffs on stuff, you'll raise the cost. The president has denied it each and every day since he has been elected, and now he says he wants to get prices down. And so, now he admits that somehow tariffs have something to do with prices.

I'm just looking forward to the apology. If he wants to skip the apology, that's fine. I'm just happy to keep talking to him about economics and let him understand exactly what it is that tariffs do and why they're so unpopular.

What's happening here is these are a particularly politically salient set of tariffs. And so, he is hoping that the prices you watch most closely are the ones you see at the grocery store. It's not that they're going to come back down as of last Thursday, which is when he retroactively reduced the tariffs, but probably you'll see they're going to stop going up quite as fast. And maybe, if you get a little bit lucky, someone will throw a sale in there as well.

But what's not being talked about here is we spend a lot of money beyond just groceries. For instance, if you're in a new house, you got to furnish your house. The price of couches has gone way up. The price of TVs as well. That's all still tariffed. And so, a lot of the rest of the cost of living pressures, they're not going away.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: OK. As the U.S. government reopens, so too does the world's largest museum complex. Just ahead, a visit to Washington, D.C. could, once again, include the Smithsonian and the National Zoo. Plus, Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on a stunning display of Northern Lights and why a rocket is taking the long way to Mars. All those stories and so much more when we come back. See you in a bit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNTE: Welcome back. The U.S. government reopening, means the Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. are starting to welcome visitors back. The largest museum complex in the world closed as the shutdown ended its third week.

As CNNs Julia Benbrook reports, people were very excited to get back in.

[03:45:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The Smithsonian Institute is the world's largest museum complex. It includes 11 museums along the National Mall and others in the area, like the fan favorite, the National Zoo. Now, these museums receive federal funding. So, when the government shutdown started, they were able to keep the gates open for a little while, using funds from previous years, but have been closed for weeks now.

And as I spoke with visitors today, as the zoo finally reopened, some just said they got lucky. They didn't realize it had been closed that long. Others had been counting down the days.

LINDSEY TELPESKY, ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA: We've been just patiently waiting, right, for the right time.

ISAAC TELPESKY, ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA: I wouldn't say patiently, but --

L. TELPESKY: No. Yeah.

I. TELPESKY: -- yes, we have been waiting. We plan to go everywhere in the zoo, except for the Bird Exhibit. We don't like the birds, but everywhere and see everything. Stay at the pandas for three hours, and yeah.

L. TELPESKY: Maybe get some hot chocolate, hot chocolate, and what else? More shopping --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.

L. TELPESKY: -- and merch.

BENBROOK (on camera): And you can tell by that merch, the hat he selected there, that the panda exhibit is no doubt a highlight. The Panda Cam is also back up and running at this time.

Now, on Friday, the National Air and Space Museum opened up, and CNN spoke with the Director, Christopher Browne, who said that they were eager to get people back. They welcomed over 1,000 visitors in the first 30 minutes. Take a listen.

CHRISTOPHER BROWNE, DIRECTOR, SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM: We found out pretty much when the American public found out when the continuing resolution was passed, and that was our signal that we could reopen, and here we are today. We've greeted over 1,000 people already, and we're only 30 minutes to our -- into our reopening. This is why we're here. It's to serve the American public and our visitors and showcase the collection, their collection, the largest aerospace collection in the world. And so, when we're closed, we're not doing our job. So, it means everything to be reopened.

BENBROOK (on camera): So, here is what opened on Friday, the National Museum of American History, the National Air and Space Museum and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. On Saturday, the National Zoo, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Museum of African Art, the Museum of Asian Art, and the Museum of Natural History. Not everything is open yet to visitors, and they're opening things on a rolling basis until Monday. So, you're still going to want to check the website to make sure the facility you're looking for is open.

At the National Zoo, Julia Benbrook, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: Well, if you were lucky, when you looked up at the night sky this week, you may have seen something spectacular in the United States. A powerful display of the Northern Lights was visible as far as south as Arizona. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's polar-orbiting satellite captured this image of the rare site.

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson joined CNN to explain what was going on.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, ASTROPHYSICIST: Yeah. There was a Mondo explosion on the sun, a coronal mass ejection. That happens often during Solar Max, which is where we are now. The sun goes through an 11-year cycle of high activity to low activity, and we're at maximum now. So, you'd expect these. But most of them will explode in a direction not headed directly towards Earth.

So, what we in the United States saw is the aurora borealis, and typically it's paired with a similar display in the south called the aurora australis, or just more, collectively, for us, the Northern Lights, and beautiful colors of blue and green and red.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: In the same conversation, he commented on a NASA Blue Origin mission taking satellites on a long and winding route to Mars. Here is what he said about why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TYSON: If you want to go sort of straight there, it takes a certain amount of fuel. However, you don't -- if you have a big payload, then maybe there is not enough fuel to get you to Mars all by itself. So, what you do is, you fly behind other planets, be it Venus or come back to Earth again. And if you come in behind them, you can get what's called a gravity assist, but it's really an orbital assist. As you fall into the planet and toward -- not hitting it and come out the other side, you've acquired the orbital speed of the planet itself, and thereby you don't have to fill your gas tank with as much fuel as would otherwise have been necessary, and you can use that for payload weight.

And so, sometimes it can be very circuitous to accomplish this with double flybys, double gravity assists. So, yeah, as long as it's not human beings on board, and it's just a piece of hardware, it doesn't care how long it takes. So, why not just let it go the cheapest way you can.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNTE: All right. After the break, a decades-long tradition of New York Central Park narrowly avoided being banned. We'll bring you the details of that legal battle up next. See you in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNTE: Welcome back. Let's talk U.S. college football. Saturday's top 10 showdown between fifth ranked Georgia and 10th ranked Texas did not disappoint. It was just a four-point game at the end of the third quarter before the Bulldogs ran away with it. Georgia scored 21 points in the fourth quarter alone, blowing out Texas for a 35-10 win. It's the sixth straight victory for Georgia, who now sit at nine and one.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

HUNTE: 11th ranked Oklahoma upset number four Alabama on the road. Oklahoma capitalized on three Crimson Tide turnovers, converting them for 17 points. This go ahead field goal in the fourth quarter lifted the Sooners to a 23-21 victory. Both teams are now eight and two.

And number three ranked Texas A&M pulled off the biggest comeback in their history to beat South Carolina and stay undefeated. They took the lead early in the fourth quarter with this touchdown, holding on for the win, 31-30. Tensions were high for much of the game, but particularly, during the second quarter after South Carolina wide receiver Nick Harbor scored this 80-yard touchdown.

[03:55:00]

His momentum sent him running off the field into the tunnel where a Texas State Trooper appears to bump and yell at the South Carolina player. The trooper was quote, "sent home" following the altercation.

A wildlife photographer unknowingly aided a seal with its great escape off the coast of Seattle.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God. Oh, you poor thing. I am shaking

right now. He is not trying to get off. He is on our boat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNTE: The seal was fleeing at least eight killer whales. At the same time, the photographer was on a whale-watching trip. She recorded the orcas hunting the seal. When the seal jumped onto her boat's stern, it slid off the boat, but good news, it did eventually climb back on and stayed until the orcas swam away.

Central Park's horse-drawn carriages will trot on, at least for now. A proposal to ban the decades-old tourist tradition failed to pass a key New York City Council Committee, stopping the measure before it could reach a full vote. The Transport Workers Union, which represents carriage drivers, celebrated the outcome. They said their members, many of them immigrants, are dedicated to caring for the horses, but animal rights advocates blasted the vote as a sham, pointing to recent incidents where horses collapsed or ran loose in city traffic.

All right. Well, that's all I've got for you. Thanks for joining me and the team. I'm Ben Hunte in Atlanta. I will see you at the same times tomorrow. There is so much more on CNN Newsroom just ahead. Kim, over to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)