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CNN This Morning
Israel, Hamas Agree to U.S.-Brokered Ceasefire Plan; Tensions Flare on Capitol Hill as Shutdown Drags On; Today: Court Showdowns over Chicago, Portland Troop Deployments. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired October 09, 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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AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Israel and Hamas agree to a ceasefire plan. Could the hostages be back home in a matter of days?
CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
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CORNISH: Celebrations in the streets, but also fear among the war- weary that it could somehow fall through.
And the Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded in a matter of hours. Could President Trump actually win it?
And leaked texts and wild conspiracy theories. How did Charlie Kirk privately feel about Israel before he was gunned down?
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REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): You're making a show of this to make yourself relevant.
REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): No, it's sad. It's sad. You could easily sign onto this.
JEFFRIES: You're embarrassing yourself right now.
LAWLER: You could sign onto this.
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CORNISH: Shutdown showdown. Infighting and finger pointing as tempers flare in the halls of Congress.
Troops and lawyers. Guard units report for duty in Chicago just hours ahead of two court hearings on whether they can legally be there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Their agenda is to destroy the American people and our way of life.
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CORNISH: The Trump administration vows to crack down on Antifa. Why that could turn out to be a slippery slope.
It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. But here's a live look at central Gaza. Following news that Israel and Hamas agree on the first phase of a Gaza plan.
Good morning, everybody. It's Thursday, October 9. I want to thank you for waking up with me. I'm Audie Cornish, and here's where we begin: continuing breaking news coverage.
Israel and Hamas agree to the first phase of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire plan. And here's what's in the plan.
Hamas releasing all the hostages in Gaza. Israel releasing some Palestinian prisoners, and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.
The Israeli security cabinet is set to meet in just a few hours. A source tells CNN, as of now, that meeting is only expected to discuss the release of the hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.
The Israeli prime minister's office said moments ago the ceasefire will start when the Israeli government approves the agreement.
And this morning, smoke is still rising over Gaza as Israeli strikes continue to rain down.
CNN diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is live from Cairo, Egypt, which is one of the key mediators in the plan.
Good morning, Nic. And can you talk about some of the early reaction to this announcement?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, there's been a very positive reaction, be it on the ground in Gaza from people there, coming outside, realizing that although the strikes haven't stopped in their entirety, it is much quieter. Sort of first indications for them that a ceasefire was -- a meaningful ceasefire coming into place is the fact that they're not hearing the sounds of rockets and shells.
And of course, in Tel Aviv Hostage Square, families, relatives, well- wishers, knowing that the hostages should be back on Israeli soil within a matter of days. A moment of massive celebration.
Political leaders in Europe, around the world are congratulating the mediators here: Egypt, Qatar congratulating all. And I think there's one universal, you know, person who's being congratulated by -- by everyone, all sides of the wall, all the way around the -- all the way around the world on this. And that is President Trump is really seen as driving this forward through his own will and determination. That said, there's a ceasefire. It's yet to be signed off on by the
Israeli security cabinet. That is expected to happen. It is not a done deal for peace. Far from it. There are many things that this is not at this stage.
CORNISH: You talked about this being far from the end. Do we have a sense, for instance, from Hamas? Do we know what Arab countries are talking about in terms of next steps?
I don't know what you're going to be watching for.
ROBERTSON: There -- there are aid trucks at the border, waiting to get into Gaza. We'll be watching to see how quickly they can move across.
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We'll be watching to see what nature the talks have in Sharm El- Sheikh. Hamas again today, as they were early yesterday, very tight- lipped about the conversations that -- that they're having. We want to see if those talks, conversations about many of the other of the 20 points that President Trump had raised as sort of what will become, I suppose, the phase two of this deal.
This what we have so far, is the phase one. All the other contentious issues, like Hamas and their weapons, Hamas's political future, how quickly the IDF withdraws from these very advanced positions that they have that give them an occupation, if you will, within Gaza of almost 50 percent of Gaza's territory at the moment, until an international stabilization force is able to take over running the security inside Gaza. That could be a very long time.
All these conversations, the things that could really trip up the core issue, which was getting the hostages released and getting a ceasefire in place, we need to know, are those conversations, negotiations that are going to happen right now? Is there momentum there? Who's still engaged and involved?
And on that, we really don't have visibility. And I think that that's important.
But on the core phase one, that does seem still to be on track.
CORNISH: Yes. Well, we're going to be watching that in the coming hours today.
CNN's Nic Robertson will be following. Thank you.
Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, we're down to screaming matches in the halls of Congress. The shutdown getting nasty. But who's going to blink first?
And the group chat has thoughts on that, next.
And the cash is drying up for a program that provides a lifeline to rural communities. Meanwhile, dueling National Guard hearings today. Now President Trump
is stepping up his attacks, but the Illinois governor is not backing down.
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GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D-IL): If you come for my people, you come through me. So, come and get me.
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CORNISH: The government shutdown is getting ugly for lawmakers. Tempers are flaring, with shouting matches erupting in the halls of Congress.
Congressman Mike Lawler of New York leading the charge for Republicans, for example.
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REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): With all due respect, you voted multiple times to keep the government shut down. The Republican members from Arizona voted to keep the government open. So don't sit here and try to lecture us about whether or not we did our job. We did our job.
JEFFRIES: Let me ask you a question.
LAWLER: Why don't we sign right now? Why don't we sign on right now.
JEFFRIES: Do you get permission from your boss?
LAWLER: You can easily extend the ACIU (ph) right now.
JEFFRIES: Is your boss Donald Trump?
LAWLER: You can easily extend the ACIU (ph) right now.
JEFFRIES: Did you -- did your boss, Donald Trump give you permission?
LAWLER: He's not my boss.
JEFFRIES: Yes, he is. You're making a show of this to make yourself relevant.
LAWLER: No, it's sad. It's sad. You could easily sign on to this.
JEFFRIES: You're embarrassing yourself right now.
LAWLER: Sign on.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: OK, here's the thing, though. Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene is complicating matters for her party, because she's calling on Speaker Mike Johnson to bring the House back into session.
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REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Everyone's just getting destroyed. And so, I'm -- I'm saying, Look, Democrats, you created this mess. Republicans, you have no solutions. I'm literally calling it out and saying, let's take off our Democrat jerseys. Let's take off our Republican jerseys. And we should do something responsible for the American people and fix this.
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CORNISH: Greene also posted on Twitter that she's disgusted by the prospect of health insurance premiums doubling for millions of Americans if these Obamacare subsidies are not renewed.
Joining me now in the group chat, Francesca Chambers, White House correspondent for "USA Today"; Mike Dubke, former Trump White House communications director; and Meghan Hays, former Biden White House director of message planning. Welcome to the chat, folks.
Now, I have to start with you guys, because you actually have group chats where people are talking about this.
MIKE DUBKE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Yes.
CORNISH: I have a theory from covering Congress, which is that silence is golden. When it's silence, deals are happening.
This is a sign that nothing is happening.
DUBKE: No one is talking to each other.
CORNISH: OK.
DUBKE: And Marjorie Taylor Greene is the voice of reason. This is a weird America that we live in right now.
CORNISH: OK, but why? Why do you think we've reached some tipping point where yelling in the halls is more effective than having a conversation?
MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING: Well, one, the Republicans aren't there, because Mike Johnson sent them all home. So, then Mike Lawler is there, and he is in a very tough district for him. He's in a purple district. So, he's there probably to create these scenes to raise money. He can fundraise off of it.
CORNISH: So, to underscore that, they are not in session. The House, is not there. HAYS: Most of the Democrats are here. I -- Jeffries has his caucus
here, but Mike Johnson has sent his caucus home or said that they can go home.
I would venture to guess that Lawler is there, because he's trying to create a scene, and he will use this to raise a lot of money. I would not be surprised if there have not been emails already out.
DUBKE: There's no reason for the House Republicans to be there. They've already voted to keep the government open. They're waiting for the Senate to act. And if they do come back in, then we're going to have a lot of other distractions.
CORNISH: But does that make Hakeem Jeffries's point that, then, if Lawler is there, he's just there to make a scene and not there for any other reason? As you said, House Republicans, like, don't need to be there.
DUBKE: I don't know that that's making his point. He's got every right to check in on his staff and be in his office. I mean, that's --
CORNISH: Mike Dubke, staff check-in.
DUBKE: A check-in.
CORNISH: I'm staying away from your staff meetings.
Francesca, weigh in, because the White House is busy solving the Middle East, frankly. So, this mess back here is starting to drag.
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And what's the sort of point of view on how it's supposed to work itself out?
FRANCESCA CHAMBERS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "USA TODAY": And that's what you started to hear from Republicans like House Speaker Mike Johnson last night after this Middle East deal came together, was, look, they're talking about this instead of that. And so, you're going to start to see some of those pressures, I think weigh today.
But with respect to what -- how we get out of this, how we go forward on this potentially, I mean, there was some debate last week at the end of the week around these Obamacare subsidies and whether some sort of a deal could be made with the White House on this.
But then, to your point about when -- when no one's talking for a little bit there, no one was talking. And we thought maybe something could be happening on it.
But then when we got -- when we got back this week, still nothing.
CORNISH: Yes.
CHAMBERS: President Trump saying again yesterday that he wants to have this conversation after the shutdown. CORNISH: One more wrinkle. Senator Angus King, independent of Maine,
talking about his concerns and why he may support the existing continuing resolution.
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SEN. ANGUS KING (I-ME): A shutdown gives this administration more license to do harm than they had before. And that's why I just voted to reopen the government. This is -- I'm afraid this may just be the beginning of the worst.
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CORNISH: So, I'm playing that because, is the -- my next question is, are there other cracks when you're looking at the Senate? Are there lawmakers who are going to say, you know what? This is more trouble than it's worth as service members are going unpaid and things like that?
HAYS: I mean, I think we will get to the point where the Democrats will come -- will say, fine, let's open the government. And then when health care subsidies go up, they'll be like, we tried to fix this. Republicans aren't negotiating with us.
And to your point about why aren't they here? Because normally there is a group of people, one level under leadership that are having negotiations and working together, both from the House and the Senate, to get the government open. It's what's happened almost every single time there's been extended shutdowns.
CORNISH: Yes.
DUBKE: But to directly answer your question, there are three Democrat senators who are about to retire. So, they are votes that the Republicans should get.
Angus King did vote to keep the government open. And it will be interesting if he pulls that vote back.
CHAMBERS: What are they going to -- I mean, but what are they going to get for that? What are Democrats going to get for that? They're still going to want something.
CORNISH: Well, we know -- I'm going to hit pause there, because there's a lot of people at the airport looking up at this and going, I need this figured out. And we see you.
After the break on CNN THIS MORNING, the last New Orleans inmate on the run captured. Remember that story? He was nearly 500 miles away. His message to the camera during his arrest.
Plus, two courtroom showdowns happening at the same time. And it could determine the fate of the president's plan to send troops to major cities, including Chicago.
Good morning to you. Right now, troops are on the ground there. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Everything we're doing is very lawful. What they're doing is not lawful.
You could say of Portland. And you can say, certainly, of Chicago it's not lawful what they're doing. They have to be very careful.
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CORNISH: President Trump says putting National Guard troops in cities is lawful. But hours from now, there will be dueling hearings to decide if that's actually the case.
Today, two courtrooms across the country will both be hearing arguments about the deployment of National Guard troops. And those troops on the ground in Chicago, causing massive protests last night. President Trump says those troops are there to protect ICE.
Now, this is something the president says the mayor and the governor are not doing, and so he wants them arrested.
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MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON (D), CHICAGO, IL: It's certainly not the first time that Donald Trump has called for the arresting of a black man unjustly. I'm not going anywhere.
PRITZKER: I've got to say, this guy is unhinged. He's insecure. He's a wannabe dictator. And there's one thing I really want to say to Donald Trump: If you come for my people, you come through me. So, come and get me.
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CORNISH: Former federal prosecutor Alyse Adamson joins the group chat to talk about this. Welcome back.
ALYSE ADAMSON, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Thank you, Audie. Thanks for having me.
CORNISH: OK, so these court cases are different from the one that happened over L.A., right, where the president had sent troops to L.A. to quell kind of riots over ICE.
So, what are people going to be arguing?
ADAMSON: OK. It's actually similar to L.A. Obviously, different places, but same idea. There's -- there's two real questions, Audie.
It's why are the troops going in in the first place? And then what are they doing once they get there? Because some of the arguments are that we don't need these troops because we have this under control. And let's be clear --
CORNISH: Meaning what the state leaders are saying when they turned down the offer from the federal government.
ADAMSON: That is correct. And for all Donald Trump says about using these troops to quell crime in general, they're -- they're only being deployed for a specific reason, which is to protect federal assets and federal personnel. Those are the ICE agents.
The argument from the administration in court is these -- these protests are preventing ICE from doing their job. And they can only send the National Guard in under limited circumstances: to quell a rebellion; or if the federal law enforcement is so, so impeded that they can't actually enforce the law.
So, the federal law cannot be enforced because of all of these protests.
CORNISH: It's interesting, because when you think about January 6th and what happened there, it was -- it was even hard then to go to courts and say this was a rebellion. This was an insurrection. We weren't seeing prosecutors necessarily use that kind of language in their actual charges.
ADAMSON: Yes, but that's -- it's a slightly different situation, because by the time prosecutors are making those arguments, January 6th had already concluded.
What we're seeing now in these cities are ongoing First Amendment protests, and the administration is upset that those things are happening. And essentially want to stop these protests, which you can't do, because people have a First Amendment right to free speech.
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So, the argument now is that these protests are impeding the federal government's law enforcement authority; and that civil law enforcement, state level law enforcement is insufficient to allow the federal government to enforce these laws.
CORNISH: Yes. And obviously, the White House cares about it, because you hear -- Francesca, I want to ask you about this. You hear Trump using the word "lawful" over and over and over again. Right?
Sort of showing that, no, we paid attention to this. We've done some reading, and we think we're on terra firma.
CHAMBERS: Right. But at the same time, when it comes to the legal aspects, he doesn't want to be seen as putting his thumb on the scale of the Department of Justice, whether he actually is or isn't.
When you look at someone like J.B. Pritzker yesterday, the president was asked during his roundtable, do you think that he should go to jail? Your Department of Justice head is sitting right here right now. So is your FBI chief.
And he was like, Oh, you know, that's up to them.
CORNISH: I want to turn to something else. Just because you brought up the idea of him putting his thumb on the scale.
The case against former FBI, James Comey. So much of this conversation now is about his attorney saying, Look, this indictment is vindictive,. and it's part of an agenda from the White House. And this is the kind of evidence he posted.
I want to show you this Truth Social post, of course, which I think we've seen now, where he demands that Attorney General Pam Bondi prosecute Comey just before he was indicted. And he raises other names.
"The Wall Street Journal" is now reporting that this was meant to be a private message to Bondi. Like drafts, send, wrong box.
And now Comey's lawyers are like, Hey. How excited are they to have this information?
ADAMSON: Oh, extremely excited. I mean, I think it was very clear from the text of that message that that was not supposed to be.
CORNISH: It wasn't clear to me. I mean, Bondi herself said in the hearing, right, when she was asked, the president has said for years publicly similar comments.
DUBKE: Yes, absolutely. And I will -- I will say from experience, it's not like he has a draft folder for these -- for these messages.
CORNISH: Oh, really?
DUBKE: A lot of it comes very quickly.
So, to me that wasn't obvious that it was supposed to be a private message. But it was a gift from the legal standpoint.
On the other side of this, though, if you -- if you at some point -- you know, the president feels that he was individually persecuted by the -- the Biden Justice Department and turnaround is fair play.
So, if he is angry about this, I think it's pretty obvious why. It hurts the legal case, but it also plays into what he said on the campaign trail.
CORNISH: Yes.
ADAMSON: That's true. I just have to say, the reason I thought this should -- probably was an error is because it is allowing evidence of a vindictive prosecution.
Prosecutors have to prove mindset. And so, this is giving us a window into the mind of Donald Trump.
CORNISH: Right. Nothing says mindset like an accidentally sent text.
ADAMSON: A sent text.
CORNISH: It's -- Yes. It's basically the "I was drunk" of, like, written communications.
You guys stay with me for a second. Alyse, thank you so much for being here.
Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, in just a few hours, Israel assembling its security cabinet after agreeing to a ceasefire deal. But what is actually in this plan backed by the U.S.? We're going to break it down for you next.
Plus, check your flight, because we could see more staffing shortages at airports. How long can this go on?
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