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CNN This Morning
Illinois Governor Targets ICE In Fiery Speech; Judge Weighs Halting Trump's National Guard Deployment In Oregon; Sean "Diddy" Combs Sentenced To Over 4 Years In Prison; Israel Freezes Gaza City Operation, Prepares Talks Following Hamas Response On Ceasefire Plan. U.S. Government Shutdown Enters Day 4 As Republicans and Democrats Trade Barbs at Each Other; Fired National Security Prosecutor Ben'Ary Leaves Letter Behind; Chevron Refinery in El Segundo California Catches Fire. Aired 6-7a ET
Aired October 04, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[06:00:31]
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to your weekend. Glad to be back with you. It is Saturday, October 4th. I'm Victor Blackwell. Here's what's new this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D) ILLINOIS: We cannot stand by and watch the Republicans, the Grand Old Party, gleefully set the Constitution on fire and strip away every freedom our founding fathers fought and died for.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker delivered a strong rebuke of the Trump administration hours after the DHS secretary said troops are headed to Chicago. More on the protests that erupted again yesterday during her visit.
Israel and Hamas have both responded now to President Trump's Gaza peace plan. But the bombardment of Gaza continues this morning. We're live in the region with the latest on that.
And Sean Combs will spend the next few years in prison. The judge sentenced him to what he called hard times Friday on prostitution charges. What Combs had to say for himself in court.
Taylor Swift, she is in love. She's in a new beef with Charli XCX on this album and what she's saying about her life with Travis Kelce. A lot coming up.
CHRIS WARREN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And Rogers, Chris Horn with a look at who's going to be absolutely baking in record heat this weekend and who's going to have to deal with some flooding rain coming up. BLACKWELL: Up first, the federal judge is weighing whether or not to
block the Trump administration from deploying the National Guard in Portland, Oregon. Both Oregon and Portland officials sued this week after President Trump made the announcement called Portland, quote, war ravaged.
The administration is citing weeks long demonstrations outside the Portland ICE facility. But local officials say in the lawsuit that those protests were small until the president's announcement brought new attention. And protesters there, they echoed that sentiment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENNET HASELTON, PROTESTER: No shade to the couple dozen people that are out here, but it's a couple dozen people. The idea that this is even national news is already kind of silly. The idea that it's treated as the national threat is absolutely bonkers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Got a little more tense later in the week. They led to more arrests of protesters, including conservative influencer Nick Sorter. He was released hours later without bond.
All right, 18 people were arrested also outside of the Broadview ICE facility near Chicago, another flashpoint in the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, she says that the military will be in Chicago too, today for reinforcement.
Protesters filled the streets outside Broadview Friday as she stood on the facility's roof. And Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, he later denounced ICE in a really fiery speech. He called them out for a massive immigration raid in Chicago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRITZKER: In the past few weeks in Chicago, ICE has detained multiple U.S. citizens because they were black or brown. They shot gas pellets into the car of a journalist who had done nothing except drive past an ICE facility to observe what was going on.
They raided an apartment complex in the middle of the night and perp walked a group of young children out of the building with their hands zip tied behind them, separating them from their parents.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Chicago Sun Times reporter Violet Miller is with me now. Violet, thanks for being with me. You have been following these protests closely. Now the governor there says that it's the ICE officials who are the aggressors, the agents, the federal agents, the protesters and the DHS. I should say that it's the protesters who are violent, that they're the aggressors, that this is one sided or what are you seeing?
VIOLET MILLER, REPORTER, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES: Yes, first, thanks so much for having me on. But what we're seeing on the ground is similar to what was just described in that clip on Portland. You know, largely it was small groups. There's been actually a weekly protest at Broadview going on for more than a decade now.
And so that protest has grown as, you know, more attention has come to the facility.
[06:05:00]
And you know, personally, what I've seen the most aggressive protesters have been is just trying to block agents, vehicles, you know, shouting at them, things like that. And in response, they've been hit with pepper balls, tear gas, other chemical and rubber bullet munitions.
BLACKWELL: Again, DHS says that some of these protesters are violent, some of them armed. But let me ask you about this, because I followed your reporting and have been following some of the protesters there who say that there's a discrepancy between the fiery rhetoric from the governor, local officials, and state and local law enforcement and what they're doing on the ground. Are you seeing one there?
MILLER: Yes. So Thursday night, you know, after this has been going on for a few weeks now, where, you know, tear gas and pepper balls, things like that, are starting to, you know, float into the community where, you know, residents are being affected nearby, the state decided to set up free speech zones set off with concrete barriers.
You know, this wasn't taken too well by the protesters. They moved outside of it yesterday to a different part of the facility to protest. And that's where state and county officials were shoulder to shoulder with border patrol and ICE agents, you know, making arrests of these protesters.
BLACKWELL: The DHS secretary, Kristi Noem, says that the federal footprint is going to expand. Let me play for you and everyone what she told conservative media personality. Let's play that about what's coming today.
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KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We're not just going to be rolling out of Chicago here, but we're sending in Department of War at the request that I made to Secretary Hegseth. They're going to be rolling in here within the next 24 hours. They'll be coming to Chicago too. I put a request in today for them to come to Chicago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Now, that request went in yesterday. That means that according to the DHS secretary, military is coming to Chicago today first. Have you seen any indication of preps for that or that the US Military is in Chicagoland on the ground? MILLER: No, we haven't seen anything yet. And my sources within some
of the local military bases have yet to alert me of anything changing on the ground. But something important to note is Pritzker did break the story that they obtained this memo requesting 100 troops be deployed to the Broadview facility.
Now, this is a significantly lower number of troops than we saw in even L.A. or D.C. where they saw thousands of National Guard troops, L.A., an additional couple of hundred active duty Marines. So this deployment seems to be very different than what we've seen before.
BLACKWELL: Talk to me about what happened at this apartment building on the South Shore neighborhood. A Blackhawk helicopter overhead. ICE agents rappelling down into this building. Dozens of people arrested. American children separated from parents. What happened? The description is really striking.
MILLER: Yes, it's been pretty jarring. You know, obviously, Pritzker has said that, you know, Noem and her folks are bringing chaos into the state, and this is one of his examples of that. We saw 37 people ultimately detained and taken away from a single apartment building in the middle of the night. ICE Commander Greg Bovino was on the ground there, helicopters overhead. Usually when he's at a raid, such as we've seen in the suburbs, like in Elgin.
But in this one, they seem to be going door to door, you know, zip tying everybody and pulling them out, including, as you know, Governor Pritzker said, children who in some cases weren't even clothed, but they were pulling them, you know, out of this building, separating them from parents, and ultimately, as I said, detaining 37 people in total.
And now, that's not the only kind of shock and awe sort of campaign they've been running here. Just yesterday, ICE agents deployed tear gas in the middle of a busy street in a Northwest side neighborhood. And they also briefly handcuffed and attempted to detain alderperson Jesse Fuentes on the Chicago City Council when she was questioning ICE agents whether or not they had a warrant when they were going to arrest a man who had broken his leg as they were chasing him.
BLACKWELL: All right, Violet Miller, thank you so much for your reporting. And, of course, we are waiting, as the DHS secretary says, if that military will be joining the federal effort in Chicago again. Thank you.
Music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs was sentenced to four years and two months in federal prison Friday. The judge also ordered Combs to pay the maximum $500,000 fine for his conviction on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.
[06:10:02]
Lawyers for Combs say they plan to appeal his prison sentence and they slammed the judge's decision as unAmerican.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NICOLE WESTMORELAND, ATTORNEY FOR SEAN COMBS: It's absolutely wrong. The jury verdict was disregarded and it's not supposed to happen. You shouldn't do that. Going to trial is already hard enough. When the jury speaks, you need to listen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWLEL: CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister was in the courtroom for the sentencing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hip hop icon Sean "Diddy" Combs sentenced to more than four years in prison after his conviction on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. The judge telling Combs he would serve hard time away from his family.
In a pivotal day for the 55-year-old rap mogul, he spoke in court for the first time at length, apologizing to Cassie Ventura for any physical and emotional harm he caused, adding, I lost my self-respect. I've been humbled and broken to my core. I hate myself right now. I got stripped down to nothing.
He then begged the judge for mercy saying, I don't have nobody to blame but myself. I know I'll never put hands on another person again. I know that I've learned my lesson. I'm willing to comply with any conditions the court puts upon me.
His children also spoke on behalf of their dad. Adopted son Quincy Brown, surrounded by his siblings, told a judge his father has learned a lesson and week after week we've seen him evolve something we haven't seen in 15 years. He's completely transformed.
Daughter Jessie addressed the court as well, breaking down into tears, saying he has made many mistakes and we aren't here to excuse any of those mistakes. But your honor, he is still our dad and we still need him present in our lives.
Before the hearing began, Combs attorneys submitted a campaign style video showing his charity work along with images of him caring for his kids after the death of his ex-girlfriend Kim Porter, which was played in court bringing Combs to tears.
But prosecutors began the hearing by telling the court that a former employee of Diddy's who testified in his trial under the pseudonym Mia would no longer be speaking as originally planned, citing a quote bullying letter submitted by the defense. The judge also failed to buy the defense's attempt to characterize the so called freak offs or drug fueled sex parties as intimate consensual experiences.
Prosecutors called Combs respect for the law lip service and said this is a case with real victims who have suffered real harms at the hands of the defendant and who because of the defendant have questioned their own self-worth and desire to live. And before issuing the sentence, the judge scolded Combs, saying, a history of good works cannot erase the power and control you had over the women you profess to love dearly. You abuse them physically, emotionally and psychologically, and you use that to get your way.
WAGMEISTER: Now, Victor Combs defense has already pledged to file an appeal, and they believe that they have a strong basis for appealing. They say that the jury appeals acquitted Combs on the most serious charges and that part of their decision was that Combs did not coerce Jane or Cassie into any sexual acts. They say that the judge referenced coercion at least a dozen times during the sentencing hearing, even going as far to say that the judge was playing the role of a juror. Now, remember, the defense had asked for 14 months, which would have essentially been time served. Victor.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: All right, Elizabeth, thank you. This morning, Munich Airport is open again after new drone sightings near its runways forced it to shut down. This is the second day in a row that drone sightings canceled or at least diverted flights. About 6,500 passengers were affected. Airport officials warn the delays, though, will last through the day. These unexpected, unexplained sightings, I should say, are part of a growing drone problem at civilian and military airports across Europe.
The person who admitted to plotting to kill Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has been sentenced to a little more than eight years in prison. Sophie Roske, who identifies as a woman, called 911 near Kavanaugh's home in 2022, saying that she needed psychiatric help and planned to kill him and herself. An investigator say she had flown from California with guns and other weapons.
In court, Roskey apologized and blamed her mental health struggles. Prosecutors call the sentence insufficient and plan to appeal.
Singer and actor Tyrese Gibson has turned himself into Atlanta police. He's facing a misdemeanor charge of animal cruelty. This is after his neighbors say his dogs attacked and killed their dog. Gibson was booked yesterday at the Fulton County Jail, then released on a $20,000 bond.
[06:15:02]
His attorneys say Gibson was out of town when it happened, but accepts responsibility. The dogs have since been placed at new homes, and Gibson says that he's fully cooperating with authorities.
Parts of Florida bracing for a wet weekend as a tropical system lingers over the state. Heavy downpours, rough surf, flooding, all threats all in play. CNN's Chris Warren is tracking it. You know, we're getting to past really the peak of hurricane season, but storms in Florida still causing problems.
WARREN: Yes. And it is still possible there could be development in the coming days and weeks. It's just getting less likely and we hope we don't get all of it all at once. Now, the flooding and the coastal flooding and the rain from the flooding from the rain as well. Right now it's relatively quiet across the Sunshine State. Some showers and storms over the Gulf.
And you see the onshore flow here coming in from the Atlantic side. And it's that onshore push that's bringing some of the water in that could lead to some coastal flooding throughout the day. And on top of that comes the heavy rain that is expected with this system that is helping to generate extra showers and more thunderstorms. This is where flooding is a possibility throughout the day today.
And then as we go through time, it's not going to be raining all day long. But where it does rain in parts of Louisiana and Florida, that yellow and orange on the future radar shows us some of the heaviest of rain.
Now, this area close to Florida, not expecting any significant development out of this. Just a really wet weekend going forward. But again, this is the time of year we still can see more development in the tropics. Medium chance with this disturbance that's coming off of Africa.
So it's possible we could see some development there going forward. We see this system continuing to work across much of the Atlantic and still looking really relatively wet across much of the Gulf coast states on and off.
Victor coming in showers and you think about it, with the showers, it's not going to be raining all day long for most, but again, could be heavy when it does.
BLACKWELL: All right, thank you, Chris. Next on CNN This Morning, Israel and Hamas signal willingness to move on President Trump's peace deal. We're live with the new developments in Jerusalem.
Also live, look at U.S. Capitol, where lawmakers are negotiating, not voting on the end of the government shutdown. We'll dig into the stalemate that will send the shutdown into next week.
And it's become one of the most anticipated albums of the year. Fans have been playing Taylor Swift's "The Life of a Showgirl" on repeat for the last 24 hours. I listened to it in the car this morning. We'll break down the reaction from Swifties worldwide.
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BLACKWELL: New this morning, Israel is preparing its negotiating team to finalize President Trump's 20-point peace plan. Israel's government and military are also gearing up to put phase one of the proposal into action. Now that's after a major breakthrough in Trump's attempts to end the Israel Hamas war.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: This is a big day. We'll see how it all turns out. We have to get the final word down in concrete. Very importantly, I look forward to having the hostages come home to their parents.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Hamas said that it will, quote, immediately enter into talks to release all of the hostages. But Hamas, which you remember attacked Israel almost two years ago, is stopping short of agreeing to all of the conditions. And this morning, people in Gaza say that despite the progress, Gaza City is still being bombarded. Let's get to CNN's Jeremy Diamond in Tel Aviv this morning.
Jeremy, what do we know about the deal and how the rhetoric around the deal reconciles with what's actually happening in Gaza.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, we have been witnessing really an extraordinary turn of events over the course of the last 24 hours. It started with a Hamas statement responding positively to Trump's 20-point peace plan, but with some caveats there. President Trump then jumping on that statement, taking it as acceptance of his 20-point plan and calling on Israel to stop the bombardment of Gaza.
And now what we are witnessing is basically both Israel and Hamas signaling their willingness to move forward with negotiating the details of this 20-point plan to move towards its implementation, the first stage of which would involve Hamas releasing all 48 hostages, 20 of whom are still believed to be living.
Now, the Israeli government is preparing a negotiating team for talks to finalize this ceasefire agreement, according to an Israeli official. Although a location for those talks has not yet been set, the Israeli Prime Minister's office and the Israeli military both saying that they are preparing to implement the first stage of this agreement which is freeing securing the release of the 48 hostages on the ground. That signaled a shift in the Israeli military's posture inside of Gaza.
But as of this morning, according to residents who our teams have been speaking to, as well as doctors at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, as of this morning, the bombardment was still very much continuing with people hearing shelling and airstrikes and other types of explosions in the vicinity of Gaza City.
[06:25:02]
And so while President Trump called on Israel to immediately stop its bombardment of Gaza, there's no indication that has happened as of yet, and it wasn't addressed in the Israeli prime minister's statement. Important to keep in mind that Hamas agreed to release all of the living hostages based on this 20-point plan. Said they're ready to enter negotiations. They also said that they're ready to hand over power in Gaza to a technocratic transitional Palestinian government.
But they didn't address the key issue of disarmament. That of course is an Israeli requirement to end the war in Gaza, that Hamas must be disarmed, Gaza must be demilitarized. That is not addressed in this Hamas statement. But of course it is a requirement and that will have to take place through these negotiations. Victor.
BLACKWELL: Many steps ahead. Jeremy Diamond. Thank you. A top federal prosecutor was fired over a false claim posted on social media. Why critics say politics, not justice, is driving decisions at the DOJ.
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[06:30:00]
BLACKWELL: Now, with the government shutdown entering day four, there is growing concern inside the White House that President Trump may have miscalculated the political fallout. The administration has been flooding the zone, blaming Democrats for the shutdown on a lot of government websites. But polling indicates that voters are split on who to blame, and Democrats are not blinking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): It's not complicated. Fund the federal government.
SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): It's all about President Trump and the Democrats needing to pick a fight to satisfy their far-left political base.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: All right, sources tell CNN, President Trump believes the shutdown would deliver Republicans a big political win. But now, with massive firings looming, his advisors are not so sure. One of them tells CNN -- this is a quote, "I'm supposed to say, this is killing the Democrats, but I don't think it helps either side, to be honest with you."
I'm joined now by Meg Kinnard; national politics reporter for "The Associated Press". Meg, good morning to you. Let me give you some more numbers here to talk about the complexities here for the Republicans. This is the KFF poll out this weekend.
When asked whether Congress should extend these tax credits, which is why Democrats are withholding their vote to fund the government, 59 percent of Republicans say that they should be extended, and more than 70 percent of MAGA supporters say they would be concerned to hear that health insurance would be unaffordable for many people who buy their own coverage, and about 4 million people would lose their health insurance coverage.
Again, it's not so clear-cut along party lines. Talk about how this is not as easy as maybe the President expected it would be.
MEG KINNARD, NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: Hey, Victor, it's good to be back with you. You're absolutely right that we are seeing some interesting divisions in terms of people who are casting blame about the shutdown, and maybe which party they see to blame for this. I think this is a situation that we run into sometimes when there is a
concentration of partisan political power. In this instance, Republicans obviously control the White House and both chambers of Congress. And I remember along the campaign trail, talking to a lot of voters on the Republican side who were saying, wow, think about all the things that we as a party politically can get done if we control all of those branches of government.
And then when you enter into a situation here where Republicans have not been able to push through their continuing resolution or plan to fund the government, and they're still in control of both of those chambers, I don't know if that's definitely what we're seeing trickle into the polling numbers, but for sure, there is frustration among some Republicans that were in this situation, and now, according to the data you just cited, they're being blamed for it.
BLACKWELL: How prevalent is this sentiment of this Trump adviser who spoke to CNN about -- you know, I'm supposed to say this is killing the Democrats, but it's not good for us either.
KINNARD: I think that's probably something that we could look back toward the first Trump administration, and see some colonels of, in terms of people who were affiliated with the situation in the administration and decisions that are being made. It might not totally agree with it. Yes, this is a different administration. Yes, President Trump came back into the White House kind of knowing the lay of the land, and maybe having some lessons learned from the first go-around.
But to be sure, there are people who are still involved in the process who might have some doubts in terms of the messaging that we've seen, you cited some of it. Two-thirds of the cabinet agencies have had either on their website or in other public facing places. These partisan messages blaming Democrats for the situation that people are in.
And we at the "AP" have interviewed some people across the country who are frustrated when they're going to an agency, just looking for services or information and being met with these political messages. So, we'll see how it shakes out. Certainly, we're heading into a new week of uncertainty with the shutdown continuing, but maybe we'll be hearing more from the people you cited in terms of -- well, maybe, we as a party, as Republicans, shouldn't be doing it this way.
BLACKWELL: And I wonder how much the delay of these mass firings that the OMB Director Russell Vought telegraphed ahead of the shutdown. How much that, the residue influences why those firings have not come?
[06:35:00]
I mean, he telegraphed those punches, but the government hasn't thrown them. What's your reporting say about why?
KINNARD: Right, and we heard White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt say this week that those are going to be happening soon, but there hasn't really been any infrastructure showing us that it's in place or at least about to be in place. I think that there might also be a little bit of a hangover from earlier in the second Trump administration, when we saw all of the widespread cuts moving through the federal government at the hands of Elon Musk and his DOGE Department.
And I'm not saying that these are going to be on the scale of that, but that was a lot of uncertainty, not just in Washington, but across the country with people not sure if they would have a job, what their job would look like, or how the agencies at which they had been working would be affected in terms of bringing services to the American people.
This is a different kind of look at doing those widespread layoffs, but that didn't garner a lot of goodwill in some circles for Republicans, given that the Trump administration was the one really commanding all of that. So, that could be part of the process that we're seeing here. But the fact that we haven't actually gotten any information about when those could be expected or exactly how that would look, does draw some uncertainty in terms of what the actual plan is.
And if it's really part of the plan, or if it's perhaps being used as a stick to try to get Democrats to come back to the table and push forward with that legislation that could end the shutdown.
BLACKWELL: Meg Kinnard, thank you. Right, there's been a shakeup at the Justice Department. The nation's top national security prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia has been fired. Michael Ben'Ary claims that he was dismissed based on false information in a single social media post. He left a note behind as he left his office for the final time on Friday. Let's get more now from CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez.
EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The former top national security prosecutor in Virginia's Eastern District is now responding to his firing by the Trump administration after being targeted with a false accusation on conservative social media.
Michael Ben'Ary returned to work briefly to collect his belongings, and he taped a farewell letter to his colleagues outside his former office, saying that top Justice Department leadership, quote, "is more concerned with punishing President Donald Trump's perceived enemies than they are with protecting our national security."
The prosecutor was fired on Wednesday after a pro-Trump activist and writer targeted him by name on the X social media platform, saying, quote, "one can only assume that he was a big part of the internal resistance to the James Comey indictment." But Ben'Ary wasn't involved in the case at all against former FBI Director James Comey.
He was indicted -- who was indicted last week. Ben'Ary denounced his firing as without cause and based on little more than a single social media post containing false information. In his letter dated Friday, Ben'Ary said that as a prosecutor, he took an oath that requires you to follow the facts and the law wherever they lead, free from fear or favor and unhindered by political interference. And he said that in recent months, the political leadership of the
Justice Department has violated those principles, jeopardizing our national security and making American citizens less safe. Ben'Ary was leading the prosecution of a man accused in the planning of the Abbeygate bombing, in which U.S. military members were killed in a terrorist attack during the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Ben'Ary's letter adds to the list of Justice Department prosecutors and FBI agents who have been fired for perceived partisan reasons. We've seen a number of cases where MAGA influencers on social media falsely accused someone of being involved in matters related to Trump and the administration, then firing them.
Now, Victor, that happened recently with the military veteran and former FBI pilot who was accused by a prominent pro-Trump social media account of being part of the Mar-a-Lago search. Now, he wasn't involved at all, but he was still fired. And then his boss was also fired for trying to save his job. Victor.
BLACKWELL: All right, Evan, thank you. More than 24 hours after a massive refinery fire near L.A., investigators are working to find out what caused it. The latest on the investigation is next.
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BLACKWELL: This morning, authorities are investigating a massive fire at a Chevron Oil Refinery in California. Now, officials say it's the largest oil producing facility on the west coast. You see these flames and the thick smoke, they could be seen for miles when that fire started in El Segundo on Thursday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was on the other side of Sepulveda, behind the gas station here. And when I first seen it, I was -- it looked like a nuclear bomb going off. And I would say it was roughly at least 15 football fields wide what it looked like to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Crews have since put out that fire, and officials say there's no danger to the public. Chevron said the fire was contained inside the facility and all workers are safe. No one hurt. Calendar says Fall temperatures feel mid-Summer. Parts of the upper Midwest are on track to break heat records, with even night-time temperatures running higher than usual. Chris Warren is back with a look at just how hot it will get. I'm ready for Fall --
CHRIS WARREN, METEOROLOGIST: Right?
BLACKWELL: Bring Fall --
WARREN: Right, but Minneapolis -- BLACKWELL: Yes --
[06:45:00]
WARREN: Warmer today than Miami. That's what that -- it gives you an idea of where the heat is --
BLACKWELL: Yes --
WARREN: Victor, for sure, and it is going to be not just warmer than average, which is this, but these red dots where it could break records, some of these records standing for more than a 100 years. So, definitely some unusual October heat here. Here are the forecast highs for today in the twin cities, 89 degrees.
That's the same temperature we're expecting in Houston today. Meanwhile mid to upper 70s in the northeast, you notice a little bit of green showing up in the map here. That's going to come with some showers and some storms. But that's also a reminder that it's Fall. So, temperatures dropping tomorrow in Minneapolis still warm but 78 degrees, 82 in Omaha, and then bumping up a bit there, Victor, in Dallas and Houston back to around 90 degrees.
BLACKWELL: All right, thank you, Chris. You know, I love a carb. I do. And I think I'm going to love this new show from Tony Shalhoub. Take a trip around the world to discover how bread connects us. Here's a preview of his brand new CNN original series, "TONY SHALHOUB: BREAKING BREAD", his first stop, New York City.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY SHALHOUB, AMERICAN ACTOR: Oh, look at that beautiful thing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is just like the beauty of lamination.
SHALHOUB: It looks like some kind of beautiful geological strata of rock or something --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right, OK --
SHALHOUB: Shall we? Oh, Mama --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at the flakiness.
SHALHOUB: Buttery and warm and soft, spicy. You know, it's heating up as I'm eating it in a good way --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes --
SHALHOUB: And the best possible way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's the scotch bonnet. And then in the curry, there's also a bit of cayenne. So, there's definitely layers of heat.
SHALHOUB: Right, food all over my face --
(LAUGHTER)
SHALHOUB: We're changing the name of the show to the crumb catcher.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the crumb catcher --
SHALHOUB: OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Now, while they had to come and take this side shot to show how much I love carbs, a new CNN original series, "TONY SHALHOUB: BREAKING BREAD" premieres tomorrow at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific right here on CNN. All right, she's back and she's bejeweled. Taylor Swift drops "The Life of a Showgirl" serving up glittering gossip and sequins. We'll talk about the album drop that is lighting up the Swiftie-verse.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:50:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(TAYLOR SWIFT MUSIC PLAYING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Taylor Swift's highly anticipated 12th studio album, "The Life of a Showgirl", is a hit with the album already breaking multiple records just within the first day of release. Spotify announced that Friday, that Swift's album became the most streamed album in a single day in 2025 so far, and the song, "The Fate of Ophelia" became the most streamed song in a single day in Spotify history. CNN's Lisa Respers France joins me now. All right, so you've listened to it.
LISA RESPERS FRANCE, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: I have multiple times since 4:30 a.m. yesterday morning.
BLACKWELL: All right, OK, well, what's your take away?
FRANCE: My takeaway is, it kind of reminds me a little bit, and I'm going to get into some of the criticism. I'm in a Swiftie bubble --
BLACKWELL: OK --
FRANCE: Like all the Swifties I know loved it. But then I went on social media and I saw --
BLACKWELL: Yes --
FRANCE: People complaining about it, and it very much reminded me of Mary J. Blige after she went through her healing period and stopped making such sad music.
BLACKWELL: Yes --
FRANCE: I feel like some people feel like it's too happy, too joyful, which is crazy to me because we need joy right now --
BLACKWELL: Yes! Here's the thing, now, I'm not a Swiftie, right? But I listen to it too. And so, I was talking to my team about how some Taylor Swift songs are undeniable no matter if you're a fan or not.
FRANCE: They're bought --
BLACKWELL: Bad blood.
FRANCE: Yes --
BLACKWELL: Shake it off. I didn't hear those, like the banger that's going to be on radio all the time. You wrote that this could though be her most consequential album yet.
FRANCE: Yes --
BLACKWELL: Why?
FRANCE: I did because it really is a new era in her life. You know, she's completely in love, she's found her person. She's engaged. And so, people very much wanted to hear what that experience was like, and we got a lot of that. We got the single would, which is about --
BLACKWELL: Hey --
FRANCE: About Travis Kelce's prowess off the field, shall we say?
BLACKWELL: Good morning.
FRANCE: Good morning! Hello! Let's just say Taylor Swift is a very happy woman.
BLACKWELL: All right --
FRANCE: I'll just say that, and it comes through in the music.
BLACKWELL: OK, so let's talk about some of -- I guess, the strife and unhappiness, this beef --
FRANCE: Yes --
BLACKWELL: And let's play a little bit of actually romantic and talk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(TAYLOR SWIFT MUSIC PLAYING)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FRANCE: Yes --
BLACKWELL: So, apparently, this is about Charli XCX.
FRANCE: This is what people believe. So, we know that Taylor has like a wicked pin game. So, here's the context to this. So, Charli XCX opened for her on her "Reputation" tour and has performed with her before, even at the -- in the "1989" tour, she was a guest. She had a song called "Everything is Romantic", right?
[06:55:00]
And it's believed that another song, another single she has, "Sympathy is a Knife" was taking a jab at Taylor Swift because it was about Charli's kind of insecurities, but that are kicked off by a peer who is more successful than her. So, people believe because of that, and also, because Charli is very close to Matty Healy, who is one of Taylor Swift's exes, and they had kind of a contentious break-up it sounds like.
And not only is she good friends with Matty, she's married to one of his band mates from the "1975", and her home girl is his now fiancee. So, there's a lot there, and so --
BLACKWELL: Messy --
FRANCE: It's a little messy, so people feel like actually romantic is actually Taylor's comeback at her -- throwing a little bit of shade --
BLACKWELL: It could be absolutely true. It could be made up in the fans' heads.
FRANCE: I want to believe that it's true --
BLACKWELL: Before you go, quickly, Bad Bunny hosting "SNL" tonight, second time, what should we expect?
FRANCE: I think he's going to maybe tease a little bit and make a little bit of jokes about how MAGA is through the roof over his pick as the Super Bowl half-time performer. And he's a huge star. You know, their answer is that they should have an alternative half-time show with Creed. Creed has not had a hit since 2002, I believe.
Bad Bunny is an international star, but the fact that he performs mostly in Spanish, the fact that he's been very outspoken about this administration, is not sitting well with people. But I think tonight, he's going to have a really good time, the promos have been hilarious. It's him being too comfortable --
BLACKWELL: Yes --
FRANCE: Calling people, slut, using people's --
BLACKWELL: Oh, excuse --
FRANCE: Toothbrush, it's fun. I think it's going to be fun. He's been a good host in the past.
BLACKWELL: I will watch it tomorrow because I'll be asleep when it comes on. All right, Lisa France, thank you --
FRANCE: Thank you.
BLACKWELL: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
