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Ex-FBI Director Comey to Be Arraigned Today; Rep. Greene Breaks with GOP on Healthcare Premiums Plan; New CBS Boss: Media Critic, Pro- Israel, 'Anti-Woke'. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired October 08, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:15]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: We've never seen anything like it. Later today, a man who once led the FBI faces criminal charges in court.

CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Comey's a crooked guy. He has been for years, and he got caught.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Could a lawyer appointed by Republicans ultimately undo the case against James Comey?

And the GOP under pressure. Polls and even Marjorie Taylor Greene are giving signs the tide could be shifting on the government shutdown.

And air traffic controllers calling out sick, forcing one airport to close. Is your safety in jeopardy?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAM BONDI, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Our law enforcement officers aren't being paid. They're out there working to protect you. I wish you loved Chicago as much as you hate President Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: National Guard troops on the ground in Illinois as the president threatens to invoke the Insurrection Act.

And there's a new boss at CBS News, and she's leading the anti-woke crusade.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not one thing. It's another. I find that to be true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: And the problem conservatives are having with Leonardo DiCaprio's new film, "One Battle After Another."

It's 6 a.m. on the East Coast. Here's a live look at Nashville, Tennessee. That city's airport forced to close yesterday for several hours because of the government shutdown.

Good morning, everyone in Nashville.

Good morning to you. It's Wednesday, October 8th, and I want to thank you for waking up with me. I'm Audie Cornish, and here is where we start.

The arraignment of the former FBI director Jim Comey, happening in just hours. He faces charges of making a false statement to Congress and obstruction related to the FBI's 2016 Russian meddling -- Russian election meddling investigation. Now, Comey denies these allegations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: But I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I'm innocent. So, let's have a trial, and keep the faith.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: ABC News reports that a former DOJ special counsel told prosecutors that he couldn't find any evidence supporting those charges.

Attorney General Pam Bondi was also asked about that during a Capitol Hill hearing yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Is it true that the career prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia found that there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against former Director Comey?

BONDI: I am not going to discuss pending cases.

REP. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): I'd like to know from you what conversations you've had with President Trump about the indictment of James Comey.

BONDI: I am not going to discuss any conversations I have or have not had with the president of the United States.

BLUMENTHAL: Did -- did you see that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, the charges against Comey, they came just days after this Truth Social post from President Trump. This is where Trump called out Comey and urged Bondi to act quickly. The president defending putting the pressure on Bondi.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you worried that your own statements calling for his prosecution could help him, actually, in his defense of this case?

TRUMP: No, I think he's a crooked guy. He's a dirty cop. I'm allowed to do that, if I wanted to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining us now to discuss Elliot Williams, former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst.

Welcome back, Elliot. How are you?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning. Hi.

CORNISH: OK. So, I want to talk first about that question that we raised that somewhere, there was a prosecutor who said, Look, there's not enough evidence to go after Comey. Sorry, government.

And now Bondi was asked about this. What did you make of her answer?

WILLIAMS: It's not just a prosecutor. It was a prosecutor who was tasked with looking into the kinds of questions at issue here, No. 1, and a prosecutor first appointed to his role by Donald Trump.

He's a -- you know, John Durham was the Republican United States attorney, I believe, for the district of Delaware.

CORNISH: Yes.

WILLIAMS: And had investigated any number of questions, you know, involving this -- this sort of wrongdoing.

It is just another thing that Jim Comey's attorneys are just hitting "control S," saving to that hard drive, and getting ready to put into a filing to dismiss the indictment at some point.

CORNISH: Yes. But her argument, what she did say to lawmakers is, Look, Comey was indicted.

WILLIAMS: Sure.

CORNISH: We're going to trial for a reason, because there is -- there were people who sat and listened to the evidence we presented --

WILLIAMS: Yes.

CORNISH: -- and are saying, there's a case.

[06:05:04]

WILLIAMS: Yes. And I'm not saying that the indictment necessarily gets thrown out, but Jim Comey absolutely has a basis for moving for it to be tossed out. And it happens all the time when -- if there's some question, or the

legal term would be "infirmity" in the indictment, or at least that a defendant can point to, they can go to the court and say that, look, this -- there are a host of reasons, starting with the fact that I was selectively prosecuted and singled out by the president of the United States. But there are a host of reasons why I think this indictment should not stand.

So, he can -- he will. Whether he wins is an open question, but Comey will absolutely move to dismiss this indictment.

CORNISH: The other thing that's come up is the U.S. attorney handpicked -- right? -- Lindsey Williams [SIC] has added two new prosecutors in this case.

Can you talk about what you know about them and what this signals about what the government is doing?

WILLIAMS: A couple things. Lindsey Halligan. I know --

CORNISH: Yes.

WILLIAMS: -- all prosecutors should be named Williams across the country, because we do a great job.

CORNISH: I'm sorry about that.

WILLIAMS: No, but what -- what we know is that these are two prosecutors from out of state.

And one of the questions, at least as has been reported, is that it has been challenging to find prosecutors in the office in the Eastern District of Virginia that are willing to take the case on because of some of the questions we've talked about here.

There were prosecutors earlier on in the case who wrote a -- wrote memoranda raising concerns with the prosecution in the first place. These are the folks that work in the -- in that Eastern District office.

CORNISH: I'm sort of surprised, because I thought they kind of purged everyone who was not on. I don't mean that facetiously. I thought if you weren't on board that you were not involved.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

CORNISH: And so, I am surprised to see them going outside of the DOJ system to make this work.

WILLIAMS: Well, you know, it's -- it's not -- I mean, you can't get rid of every one of the several hundreds of prosecutors. I mean, certainly people who have spoken up, there's reporting that they have been reassigned or pushed out of their jobs.

But you know, there were clearly enough folks in the office that were still there but still had misgivings about not even the politics of the prosecution, just the quantum of the evidence. And just thought that you know, perhaps there is a charge that could get past a grand jury, but this is not a case that we think we can win at trial beyond a reasonable doubt.

And I think many prosecutors did express that view.

CORNISH: Why do you think Comey is so eager to go to trial? I mean, we know that he does not want to kind of stand down from a fight in general.

WILLIAMS: Sure.

CORNISH: But he's also a lawyer and at one point was the top lawyer. So, what does he know?

WILLIAMS: Yes, it's one of the top lawyers also at this particular office. And, you know, and having run the FBI, having been a U.S. attorney.

CORNISH: He's not a rando.

WILLIAMS: He's not -- he's no rando.

CORNISH: He's the one guy that you == if you're going to get in a legal fight, be prepared.

WILLIAMS: Right. Now, look, let's be clear. High-profile defendants often want to clear their names at trial. I welcome the opportunity to have a trial. And let's do this. So, there's an element of the famous person saber-rattling that you're seeing here.

I also think, though, given the number of questions around the way the Justice Department has brought the case; the president's own statements, when the president is tweeting repeated statements about how he's -- what was it, a dirty cop and a bad guy and needs to be prosecuted.

These are all things that a defendant would welcome the opportunity to go into court and argue publicly, either in front of a jury or at least to the judge, to try to get the whole thing thrown out.

CORNISH: What are you going to be listening for in the next couple of days as we get into this process?

WILLIAMS: Well, I think the big thing is what Jim Comey's folks put on paper to try to get rid of the indictment. They're going to move to dismiss it for selective prosecution on account of those statements I told you about. The president's put it all in writing out there, which is incredibly rare.

CORNISH: Which Bondi said in the hearing. She said he's been saying this for years.

WILLIAMS: Right. And then, two, what evidence -- you know, do the prosecutors fill out the indictment a little bit more with -- with some more information? What they submitted was two pages. It was actually quite thin and

quite vague. It doesn't say all that much.

So, do they go into court today and say, here's some of the evidence that we have and that we're coming forward with? At a certain point, they have to provide evidence to the defendant, because that's how trials work.

CORNISH: Yes.

WILLIAMS: You've got to tell them what you're coming. And right now it's very thin. We just don't know, in the public, what's actually behind the charges.

CORNISH: OK, Elliot, thanks for explaining it so much. Of course, we're going to see you later in the show.

Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, Democrats may have found an unlikely ally: Marjorie Taylor Greene. Is she the key to ending the shutdown? And the group chat's got some thoughts about that next.

Plus, the GOP calls it worse than Watergate. What's behind the Biden- era investigation into phone records.

And that shutdown, staffing shortages happening at the nation's biggest airports? I'm going to speak to a congresswoman on the House Transportation Committee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know there's been some instances of planes coming really close to each other, or having to circle, or things getting delayed, and I'm on a work trip right now, so it concerns me about being safe and also about getting home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:14:20]

CORNISH: We're now entering the second week of the government shutdown, and Marjorie Taylor Greene is turning out to be a helpful voice for Democrats in their political standoff with Republicans. So, here's what's going on.

Democrats say they will not vote to reopen the government unless the legislation includes money to extend enhanced Obamacare subsidies. And the Republican congresswoman from Georgia actually appears to be on their side, tweeting: "Not a single Republican in leadership talked to us about this or has given us a plan to help Americans deal with their health insurance premiums doubling," which drew this response from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): So, hold onto your hats. I think this is the first time I said this, but on this issue, Representative Greene said it perfectly. Representative Greene is absolutely right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Catherine Lucey, White House correspondent for Bloomberg News; Charlie Dent, former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania; and Antjuan Seawright, Democratic strategist.

All right. Before I come to this side of the sartorial table, Catherine, I want to talk to you. Because I hear this argument going two ways.

It starts out like, hey, healthcare subsidies, we should extend them. And the Republicans usually say, you actually just want subsidies for illegal migrants. And then it sort of devolves from there. At this point, what's actually going on?

CATHERINE LUCEY, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, BLOOMBERG NEWS: Well, what we're seeing is there is some talk around health care now that we weren't seeing maybe a few days ago.

I mean, I think most notably this week, the president himself in the Oval Office on Monday -- I was in there as part of the press pool. And I asked him about, you know, would he talk to Democrats? Would he talk to Democrats about health care? And he seemed to say, yes.

The White House then kind of walked some of those statements back.

CORNISH: I was about to say. Then -- then the Republicans on the Hill were like, what? We are?

LUCEY: Yes. So, it was quite a day. But the White House then said, wait, we want to reopen first.

But clearly, he was suggesting some openness to this, which I think indicates that they are feeling some pressure to figure out how to resolve this.

And we are hearing from some Republicans. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Josh Hawley, are talking about how they need to figure out a way to deal with this.

CORNISH: Hawley I understand, because he also was talking about, was it Medicaid? Remember? When that --

LUCEY: Yes.

CORNISH: -- he was out there on that point? Is Greene a new entrance -- entrant into this?

LUCEY: And -- and he's an interesting voice in this that shows that this is a complicated issue that hits a lot of people's constituents and districts. And I think -- and then also, we've heard from people like Susan

Collins saying --

CORNISH: Yes.

LUCEY: -- who is a sort of reliable presence --

CORNISH: I was about to say.

LUCEY: -- in bipartisan negotiations. So, the ball hasn't, you know, sort of fully moved, but there are some quiet things happening, I think.

CORNISH: All right. So, I want to talk to you, Charlie, because you've been through the shutdown wars of a different vintage, let's just say. What's different about this one, though?

CHARLIE DENT, FORMER PENNSYLVANIA REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN: Well, what's different about this one is that I feel like, compared to 2013, everything is the same, except the roles have all reversed.

That back then, it was the Republicans who were making demands on defunding Obamacare, and the Democrats were arguing for a clean C.R.

And now here it is. The Democrats are making demands on health care. I'm not here judging whether they're good or bad demands, but they're making demands. And Republicans are arguing for a clean C.R. It is completely flipped.

CORNISH: Yes.

DENT: They flipped the script. But on to the point of these Obamacare subsidies, you know, I think that everybody kind of acknowledges there's going to need to be an agreement.

CORNISH: Yes.

DENT: Not necessary during the --

CORNISH: And just to give people some context for this, because Greene herself, the congresswoman, was pointing to the nonpartisan health policy research group KFF. And because they were projecting that subsidized Obamacare enrollees -- so, if you get your insurance through Obamacare, you could see your premiums skyrocket 114 percent, which is -- I honestly had to look at this twice.

So, that means on average, a 60-year-old couple making $85,000 would suddenly have to pay more than $22,000 more in premiums on average next year.

DENT: Yes, these are the enhanced premiums that.

CORNISH: But this is the context for this battle.

DENT: Correct. So, I -- so I think what's going to happen; that the fact that you have representatives like Jen Kiggans from a swing district arguing for this, that wasn't surprising. Maybe Susan Collins.

But what is surprising, that Marjorie Taylor Greene is arguing for this, which I think will actually be helpful. But -- in terms of finding an agreement.

But you're not going to get the agreement, though, in the middle of the shutdown. I think it's going to happen. Republicans know they're vulnerable, particularly since the changes that just occurred to Medicaid mean many people are going to be losing their coverage.

CORNISH: Yes.

DENT: When you throw these -- these -- these premium increases on folks, Republicans know that health care will be a big issue in the midterms. The Democrats use it --

CORNISH: But I think, Antjuan, you have some insight into this, right? What are you hearing from Democrats? Is this a -- this is where we make a stand, because we know this is what our voters want. Like, what's the thinking at this point?

ANTJUAN SEAWRIGHT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, part of this truth decay has become a large component of this conversation. This -- this conversation, this disagreement is not about illegals receiving health care or illegal immigrants, because you have to have a Social Security number in order to qualify for the ACA subsidies.

What Republicans are conflating is Ronald Reagan's law that says if you go to a hospital, you have to be seen, by law. Republicans have not rolled back that clause.

But let me tell you what this is about: 18.2 million Americans in red states receive those ACA subsidies; 5.8 in blue states. Six -- 76 percent of those who receive those subsidies are in places where Trump won. So --

CORNISH: Are you excited to see someone like the congresswoman speak up? Meaning, does that create cracks in a facade that Republicans are trying to maintain?

SEAWRIGHT: Well, I brought up those numbers because it proves that this is a bipartisan/nonpartisan conversation. And if you are a working-class American in this country, playing -- paying 350 to 450 a month for your ACA, that's going to go up to about 15 to $1,800 a month.

[06:20:11]

So, this idea that Republicans have been intentional about defunding health care and deprioritizing health care is an argument that I think Democrats should continue to elevate. Why? Because it will come back to haunt Republicans in the midterms.

CORNISH: It sounds like -- is -- do you get the sense public sentiment is shifting, and the attempt to say, who owns this?

DENT: The shutdown?

CORNISH: Yes.

DENT: Well, yes. Ordinarily, the party making the policy demand typically gets blamed.

However, in this era of Trump with, you know -- with the president himself saying a lot of good can happen in a shutdown; Russ Vought threatening to run wild and massively lay off federal employees, this could boomerang back on Republicans.

But I don't think anybody really wins this thing.

CORNISH: Yes.

DENT: I don't think -- and I don't think a shutdown will have an impact on the midterms either.

CORNISH: Well, we'll see. We're going to talk more about the effects of this. We're talking about air traffic controllers and more.

But after the break on CNN THIS MORNING, boots on the ground in Chicago. You've got Texas National Guard troops arriving in Illinois, even though the state doesn't want them there.

Plus, CBS News has a new editor in chief, and she's a vocal critic of mainstream media.

And good morning, Cincinnati. Got a beautiful shot of the skyline there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:25:42]

CORNISH: There's a new boss in the house that Walter Cronkite built. Bari Weiss is now editor in chief of CBS News.

Five years ago, the former opinion columnist left "The New York Times" to start her own media outlet called "The Free Press." Now, Paramount, the owner of CBS, is buying "The Free Press" for $150 million.

In her new job as editor in chief, Weiss will report to the top: Paramount's chief executive, David Ellison.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARI WEISS, NEW EDITOR IN CHIEF OF CBS NEWS: We would not be doing this if we didn't believe in David Ellison and the entire leadership team who took over Paramount this summer.

They are doubling down, because they believe in news; because they have courage; because they love this country; and because they understand, as we do, that America cannot thrive without common facts, common truths, and a common reality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Weiss considers herself a centrist and a champion of Israel, and her outlet is best known for criticism of the so-called "woke left."

And according to our next guest, Sara Fischer of Axios, the acquisition of "The Free Press" marks the latest in a string of moves by Ellison to shift CBS News coverage to the right.

Joining me now to discuss, Axios senior media reporter, Sara Fischer. Sara, thanks so much for being with us.

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: Thanks, Audie.

CORNISH: So, talk to me a little bit. First, just about the money of this deal: why Ellison would be interested, why CBS was vulnerable.

FISCHER: Yes. So, if you look at a deal like this, it values the startup at $150 million. That's roughly ten times the amount of annual revenue that this startup brings in, roughly. Audie, that is an insane multiple for a digital media outlet.

Most deals I cover, you're looking at two times, or maybe even three times.

And so, when you think about that, it means that this deal was not done for financial purposes. The premium on that website is because David Ellison either has personal or political interest in bringing on this publication in his attempt to sort of bring CBS News further to the right.

Now the question becomes, what is his true motivation? Is it personal? Does he agree with Bari Weiss's take on Israel?

Or is it political? Does he think that making this acquisition helps to make CBS look more like it's being shifted to the right, and that can help him get bigger deals done?

We don't know. But the ambiguity within itself is what's causing a big amount of stir within the media industry right now.

CORNISH: Right. And for some context here, Paramount had to settle with Trump for $16 million in a lawsuit over CBS's "60 Minutes." That was before the FCC approved this deal.

There have been some sort of shakeups in the newsroom, some frustration as a result of this. "The Guardian" spoke to six CBS News employees, and they described the mood at the network as utterly depressing. And one of them says, "A throwing-up emoji is not enough of a reflection of the feelings in here."

What are you hearing from your sources?

FISCHER: I think it's a compounding of feelings over the past few months. If you take a look, CBS News has been through so much drama that I

think employees are exasperated. So, first of all, you had the CEO of CBS News, Wendy McMahon, who is a veteran of news, essentially get pushed out of the company over tension between how the newsroom was handling the issue of the Israel-Gaza war.

After that, you had the longtime executive producer of "60 Minutes," Bill Owens, also exit the company, saying he didn't think he could do his job independently.

Then in the past few months, right before that deal was brokered in which Skydance, David Ellison's company, bought Paramount, you had Steve Colbert announce that his show was getting canceled. That was a few days before the deal was done.

You also had a few new changes, like they brought in an ombudsman, so somebody who can act as sort of like an independent arbiter of truth, if you will, who has ties to conservative causes.

Changes were made to the way that "Face the Nation" is going to edit interviews after Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem complained.

So, the reason employees now, with this Bari Weiss news, are feeling frustrated is because it's not happening in a vacuum, Audie. It's happening after all of these new measures have been taken that they feel is threatening the independence of the network.

CORNISH: That's CNN senior media analyst Sara Fischer. Sara, thank you.

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