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Ciaran Donnelly is Interviewed about Aid into Gaza; Airports Won't Play Noem Video; Bobby Ghosh is Interviewed about the Ceasefire; News Organizations Reject New Press Rules; Hegseth Replaced Guard Troops. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired October 14, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:31:37]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.

It's half past the hour. And here's what's happening right now.

Fresh off of what he calls a win in Gaza, President Trump will meet with Ukraine's president later this week. The main topic, American- made Tomahawk missiles. President Trump said Sunday he's considering issuing an ultimatum to Vladimir Putin to end the war, or he will allow shipments of these weapons, which are capable of striking Moscow.

Today, the man accused of setting fire to the Pennsylvania governor's mansion back in April, well, he'll be back in court. The man is charged with attempted homicide, aggravated arson and terrorism. He told police he targeted the governor's house because of his views of the war in Gaza.

And a deadly nor'easter has now moved offshore but the flood risk remains. The storm caused heavy rains from the Carolinas up to New York and New Jersey. At least three people have died. And in the western part of the country, remnants of a typhoon bringing hurricane force winds to Alaska. The National Guard was deployed to help with rescues and search for missing residents. More than 50 people were rescued. One person has died.

And much needed medicine, tents, frozen meat, fresh fruit, flour. The U.N. is now scaling up deliveries to Gaza over the next 60 days. And for the first time since March, cooking gas entered Gaza. But the border crossings were closed Monday. The World Food Programme hopes to get into the enclave by the end of the day.

The people of Gaza are eager to get back to some sort of normalcy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AHMED SOBH, DISPLACED PALESTINIAN (through translator): We thank all the countries who took part in the ceasefire, from the west to the east. Thank God the ceasefire took place so people can catch their breath and go back to their homes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Now the questions are about how quickly those aid trucks can continue getting in with this fragile ceasefire in place.

Joining us now to discuss, Ciaran Donnelly, senior vice president for international programs at the International Rescue Committee.

Good morning. Thank you for being with us.

CIARAN DONNELLY, SVP FOR INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS, INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE: Good morning.

CORNISH: I know that in the past there was an Israeli backed humanitarian food distribution program, but that's not what is being used now, right? Are we seeing the return of traditional aid groups to this process?

DONNELLY: Yes. So, over the last couple of months, what we've seen is an Israeli backed -process, as you say, which essentially did not succeed in delivering the quantity of services of food and other support services that were needed. It was poorly set up, poorly executed, and ultimately resulted in the deaths of thousands of Palestinians trying to access that aid.

What we see now is the -- are the very first steps in what's needed in this surge of professional, well organized, principled humanitarian assistance entering Gaza. We've seen really hopeful scenes over the last couple of days, not just with the release of hostages and prisoners and hundreds of thousands of Gazans making their way home, but with hundreds of trucks starting to enter Gaza for the first time in many, many months, bringing food that's needed to bring people back from the brink of famine.

And -- but increasingly that sense of hope is accompanied by a sense of uncertainty. Will we be able to get the access needed? Will borders be opened up fully? Will things like the dual use policy that prevents us from bringing in many of the critical supplies that are needed, will all of these barriers be lifted?

CORNISH: Right.

[06:35:07]

DONNELLY: Will we have sustained and full access to continue operating across Gaza?

CORNISH: You mentioned the dual use policy. For people who don't know, it's the concern that during pauses in fighting, Hamas can steal, take supplies and use them to their own ends.

What are your concerns about what is happening in the enclave with Hamas as it has this time to take action against its opponents?

DONNELLY: Well, the pause and ceasefire that we saw at the beginning of January and February (INAUDIBLE) from a humanitarian perspective when you have a sense of order on the ground, when you have sufficient access to be able to deliver aid. For organizations like ours at the International Rescue Committee and our partners across the humanitarian sector, we're well versed in working in conflict zones with many different parties and working across the areas that we work on. We have systems in place to ensure that our aid gets to civilians, to the people who need it most, and to be able to assure our donors and supporters that their resources are going to provide only (ph) humanitarian assistance. Those are the systems that we'll be putting into place alongside the logistics needed to scale up support.

But again, at this point we don't have clarity on whether we will have the full and unfettered access we needed, whether borders will be open, staff and supplies able to move freely around in order to be able to reach the people who desperately need support.

CORNISH: And you mentioned Gazans being on the brink of famine. Is it too late? What are your concerns?

DONNELLY: It's already too late for some. We've had thousands of deaths, not just from malnutrition and from hunger related diseases, but, you know, we've seen 55 more -- 55,000 more people killed by violence and fighting and as well as the effects of conflict in terms of poor sanitation, overcrowding, insufficient water and so on. So, it's already too late for many people.

And no matter how fast the aid operation scales up, there are people we won't be able to reach. And that only makes it all the more urgent that some of the uncertainty about the details of the plan, and in particular the humanitarian dimensions of it, are resolved quickly so that humanitarian organizations, NGOs and U.N. agencies are able to reach people before it's too late.

CORNISH: OK. Ciaran Donnelly, thank you so much for your time.

DONNELLY: Thank you.

CORNISH: All right, turning here, the federal government has been shut down for more than two weeks, and the White House is using the levers of the federal government, in effect, to blame Democrats. And that is coming, in fact, to your TSA lines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, DHS SECRETARY: Democrats in Congress refuse to fund the federal government. And because of this, many of our operations are impacted. And most of our TSA employees are working without pay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, the White House rolled out this video from DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to be played at airports. And several of those airports are refusing, including Portland. In a statement to CNN, the operator of Portland International says, "we did not consent to playing the video in its current form, as we believe the Hatch Act clearly prohibits use of public assets for political purposes and messaging." So, the greater question to ask is why the Trump administration is

using government resources to cast political blame. I was talking with the documentary filmmaker Raoul Peck. He's doing a new work on George Orwell. And Peck calls this kind of move Orwellian.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAOUL PECK, FILMMAKER: Yes, but there is something that we can call the truth. You know, even a mathematical truth. That's why we called the film "Two Plus Two Equals Five," because we have a number of people who wants you to believe that two plus two equals five, and who can get you confused. Because when it's in a voice of authority, who comes on TV and tells you, you know what, as of today, two plus two equals five. And by the time you start to understand, wait, wait a minute, that's not what I remember. And the time is gone and you're already submerged.

CORNISH: Yes.

PECK: By what you call the propaganda basically.

CORNISH: Submerge is a good word.

PECK: Yes. And, you know --

CORNISH: But it does feel like the water is rising sometimes.

PECK: It does. That was the plan. Let's flood the zone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Group chat is back.

Michelle, I want to start with you because I also notice, if you call the White House hotline, Karoline Leavitt pops up and says, hello, America, the Democrats are -- don't want to fund the government because they want to fund health care for illegal immigrants. It's a very specific line. Can you talk about how they're using wherever they can to spread this message?

MICHELLE PRICE, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "ASSOCIATED PRESS": That's right. And it's not just there. I mean government websites, we're getting this banner splashed across them. You couldn't miss it. It was a big red banner that had the same message. It started the first week of the shutdown.

If you emailed the press office at the White House, you would get an automated response. And my understanding is that spread to other offices in the administration.

[06:40:03]

There were some workers at the Education Department who said that without their knowledge their own out of office replies were fashioned to a message like this. But this is all kind of in concert with the way the Trump

administration has tried to put maximum pressure wherever they can and use political communication or political style of communication wherever they can.

CORNISH: Yes.

Can I ask my messaging folks about this? I'm sure there are consultants who would love to fantasize about putting their message everywhere they can. The Hatch Act actually says maybe it can't, and I thought it was interesting that Portland airport authorities brought it up.

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: So, I actually make these ads for congressmen. And when we make these ads for congressmen, and for those of you at home, the congressional budget for each House office, they get around $350,000 to communicate with their constituents about what's going on in Washington and what bills.

Let's say you have a VA claim or you're having problems with some other atmus (ph), something to do with the government. But in that, a lawyer has to see it to make sure that I'm not violating the Hatch Act by targeting Democrats, targeting Republicans. I can't even send a mailer based off of your political party. It has to be to the general public because it's your government money.

CORNISH: Yes. It's funny, the documentarian is doing something on George Orwell, and I know a lot of people have read "1984." If you haven't, now's the time. But one of the concerns is about telling people, you can use the term propaganda, but basically telling people what you're seeing, the government is shut down, you're standing in line at the airport, you're -- workers aren't being paid, it's a very specific person's fault, according to me, and that is the fact. Instead of the fact of, lawmakers are having a bipartisan fight and that's prevented everyone from being paid.

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICIAL: There's two things here. One, as we all know, and I say this all the time, that the Trump administration is 100 percent willing to fight anything in the courts. But we're sitting here talking about exactly what they want us to be talking about, which is Democrats being blamed for the shutdown. I understand we're doing it different ways, but that's what they care about. So, they're winning in their mind and they'll fight this in the courts, which everything's being fought in the courts.

I need to say one more thing about this. He was talking to me this weekend about being in east Texas. The American people do not want our government to be shut down. And our leaders on both sides need to get their act together and get back to work. I think this is horrible.

CORNISH: So, to your point, that person you're talking about, who thinks it's horrible, if they're standing in line at the airport, would they be looking up at that and be like, oh, yes, that's -- that's true, or are they annoyed?

DAVIS: I think they -- I think that they're annoyed on both sides. CORNISH: Yes.

DAVIS: This is why the Congress has such a low approval rating. I mean, in general. Get back to work. Figure it out. You can't have Republicans saying their thing. You can't have Schumer saying this is better for Democrats if it stays shut down. It just needs to stop.

CORNISH: OK. Well, we'll see if they've heard.

DAVIS: Well, they -- I've been saying it for two weeks. It hasn't worked.

CORNISH: Group chat, stick around. We've got more to talk about. This Wednesday, weeks into the government shutdown, with millions of Americans, as we said, wondering when and if they'll get paid, we're going to be hearing from Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who -- they're going to be speaking with Kaitlan Collins for a live town hall. We'll hear from people about what a path forward could be. "Shut down America" is Wednesday at 9:00 p.m. on CNN.

And next on CNN THIS MORNING, phase two of that ceasefire, and still a lot of loose ends in -- to tie up. One major sticking point, is Hamas serious about disarming?

Plus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: First, it was fat generals. Now National Guard troops are being sent home over their fitness.

And the deadline is up. News organizations are not signing the Pentagon's press pledge. Even one MAGA network.

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[06:47:56]

CORNISH: We're seeing signs of just how fragile the cease deal is. This morning, the first known instance of the IDF opening fire in Gaza since the start of the agreement. Israeli forces say they shot multiple people who allegedly crossed the yellow line. That's the initial Israeli withdrawal line you can see here on this ceasefire map. Now, the IDF says the people were attempting to approach its troops.

When it comes to Hamas there under the deal, the group is trying to actually reassert itself in Gaza, armed Hamas internal security forces have been seen in recent days in parts of Gaza not occupied by Israeli forces. So, phase two of this deal is contingent on two key points the

disarmament of Hamas and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: President Trump, can you tell us when phase two of the negotiations will begin?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, it started. I mean it started as far as we're concerned. Phase two has started.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE).

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And, you know, the phases are all a little bit mixed in with each other. You're going to start cleaning up -- if you look at Gaza and it needs a lot of cleanup.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining us now to discuss, columnist and geopolitical analyst Bobby Ghosh.

Good morning, Bobby. Thanks for being with us.

I want to start with what the president said about these phases sort of blurring into each other because they're trying to get to the idea of phase two. And we saw that summit with all of those leaders. Do you see a new Middle East, so to speak? Has this reset or shifted relationships?

BOBBY GHOSH, COLUMNIST AND GEOPOLITICAL ANALYST: I've been covering the Middle East for the best part of three decades, Audie. The one thing that I can say for certain, the new Middle East is awfully a great deal like the old Middle East. It is important that the violence, that the shooting and the bombing of Gaza has stopped. And we should take credit. We should take relief and satisfaction for it. And the president should take some credit for it.

But to suggest that this means that the entire landscape has changed beyond the physical rubble of Gaza, that would be, I think, wildly overstating the case.

[06:50:03]

Hamas is still present. Other armed factions are still present. The Palestinian -- overall Palestinian situation has not been resolved. The Palestinian aspiration for nationhood has not been resolved. Iran remains a destabilizing factor. There's far too much up in the air now for us to declare that the Middle East has changed permanently and for the better.

CORNISH: All right, so that's the high level. I want to talk about what's happening on the ground.

I was speaking with another analyst, Ghaith al-Omari, yesterday about what Hamas has been up to as all of this high level negotiation is going on. Here's what he told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GHAITH AL-OMARI, SENIOR FELLOW, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EAST POLICY: Hamas is already trying to assert itself. It had deployed some uniformed, armed security personnel.

Sadly, we are seeing today field executions. Hamas --

CORNISH: Executions?

Al-OMARI: Yes, Hamas is killing people, accusing them of collaboration, often with no grounds for that. We're seeing clashes with some of the clans in other parts of Gaza.

Unfortunately, I expect to see a bloody few days coming ahead of us. And this is going to be one of the challenges today facing the people in Sharm el-Sheikh, meeting the leaders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The thing that jumped out to me there that I wanted to bring to you, Bobby, was Hamas fighting with other clans. And are there other groups we should be aware of in the region?

GHOSH: Well, there are clans, but we have to remind ourselves that these clans typically tend to have a finger in every pie, including in Hamas. So, the reports were seeing out of Gaza about this one particular clan called the Domush (ph) clan, they are -- they're a large family. They're involved in lots of shady businesses, smuggling. And they've had members of that group fighting against Israel in the past, fighting against the IDF, and they've had members of that clan being important part of Hamas in the past. Now they seem to be taking advantage of Hamas' weakness and they're working with the IDF to take on Hamas.

There's a long history of this. We've seen this thing happen before, but it never ends well. Hamas itself began life as an armed group that was working directly or indirectly with the Israeli forces. There's a tendency of these groups to evolve and then devolve and become the worst version of Israeli fears.

The group that I would be paying special attention to is Palestinian- Islamic jihad, or just Islamic Jihad for short. They're a very old group. They've -- they've worked side by side with Hamas. They get funding from Iran. They -- they are present, both in the West Bank and in Gaza. They don't get as much attention, but they have a basic structure of leadership. They have a history with Palestinian people. And they will be the ones who try to now capitalize on Hamas weakness and sort of emerge as the major player in the post-Hamas, if there is such a thing, word (ph).

But we should not count out Hamas. In one shape or form, those armed men who have fought against the IDF for nearly three years now in this war are not just simply going to lay down their arms and walk away. The deal does -- requires them to do that, but there is no enforcement mechanism. It's not clear how those terms can be imposed and what punishments can be imposed if people fail to do so. Hamas is down, but it's not out.

CORNISH: Bobby Ghosh, thanks for this context. Hope to talk to you again soon.

GHOSH: Anytime, Audie.

CORNISH: Today marks the deadline to sign on to the Pentagon's new restrictive press access rules. If the pledge is not signed, reporters must surrender their press passes by tomorrow. So, news organizations have broadly rejected signing this new pledge, I want to say including CNN, and notably MAGA network Newsmax. They say the new rules say reporters cannot solicit or report on any information that the Defense Department does not authorize. And Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called Pentagon press access, quote, "a privilege, not a right."

And to all the outlets who aren't signing on, Hegseth's response was simple, a waving goodbye emoji.

The group chat is back.

I want to talk to our reporter first.

We know this happened with the White House Press Association in terms of the White House sort of saying, listen, we want to weigh in on x and y. These are our decisions. In those cases, the Press Association sort of had less they could do to fight back. Why do you think news organizations drew a line here?

PRICE: I think with this situation, with the Pentagon, there's real concerns about the language in this agreement that the Pentagon is trying to have reporters sign, that basically calls for them to --for reporters to acknowledge that if they ask for any information that was not pre-approved for release, that they may be committing a crime, that it's soliciting a crime to -- to reveal even unclassified information.

[06:55:01]

CORNISH: Right. So, even if you find out secret things, you got to come to us.

PRICE: Right.

CORNISH: If you just, I don't know, get accidentally sent a text and added to a group chat, you can't report that either.

PRICE: Or just ask the question -- how do you know if the question you're asking has been pre-approved for release?

CORNISH: Right.

PRICE: That's not a thing that is communicated to reporters.

CORNISH: Why do -- you think it's significant that the news organization said no?

DAVIS: Well, I also think Fox is saying no too.

CORNISH: Yes, that's why I'm bringing it up.

DAVIS: So, there's not going to be very many people there.

But I think this goes back to the lawyers. You're right. I mean, the criminal charge, if you leak this -- or if you report on this information is, is, I think, the sticking point. I mean you would know better than me. But it is unprecedented.

CORNISH: Yes.

ROCHA: I agree with you about lawyers.

CORNISH: Also, every major, I feel like, news story of the last hundred years came from defense reporters reporting on wars, covert operations. Like, this is kind of the heart of what we do.

ROCHA: Let's build off of that point, which is, there's more money spent in that building around our defense than all of our government combined, I believe. Don't hold me to that number. But a ton of stuff. So, the press is there, literally, whether it's the right or the left or the middle, I don't care. But this is where most of our money is. This is the defense of our country. This is where reporting may be the most important because there's just so many resources. That means you have folks talking about -- I remember the golden toilet seats over at the Pentagon, or some spy thing, or some bomb thing, like, all the things that are titillating to newspapers, but also news that we need. This is the last place we should be coddling that down.

DAVIS: If they're not classified.

CORNISH: If they're not classified. And also I think at one point, when the Supreme Court was weighing in on some of these issues, it was mentioned in the ruling that our sons and daughters go to war and we have a say and a right to know the how and why that happens.

DAVIS: There are a lot of leaks there. And I'm not just saying with Hegseth. There's been a lot of leaks over the years. I think it's just the wrong way to maybe thread this needle. There probably needs to be a little bit of a reform in regards to how things are reported, especially classified information, secret, top secret, especially secrets, the stuff that usually gets leaked because they don't realize.

CORNISH: Yes.

DAVIS: But I do think that it's, you know, a little bit -- a step too far.

CORNISH: Well, here's a news story that didn't need leaking because it's about viral video. The Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, also claims that, quote, "standards are back." And so, he shared this article on X, which had included some reporting that some Texas National Guard troops were replaced. It is Texas -- Chuck, sorry -- who are headed to Illinois. They were replaced for not meeting certain fitness standards, including height, weight, physical fitness. And that's according to the Texas Military Department.

So, this fits with Hegseth's kind of speech before the military where he spoke before all these generals and he was saying, look, having generals who are fat is a bad look for the military. And I wanted to bring this back to you guys because some of the commentary, the reason why this went viral in a way, is because people were mocking the National Guard, Texas National Guards, for being in Illinois.

And so, it actually didn't start out as a general complaint by Hegseth. I want to show you one of them where it says, "Hegseth is going to lose his mind. Texas National Guard arrives in Chicago for food, I assume," with a picture of these National Guardsmen.

I want to get your opinion on this because people used to mock the National Guard pre-9/11 as weekend warriors. That war changed how these folks were seen.

DAVIS: Go -- I want you to talk about this first because you're dying.

ROCHA: A lot -- a lot -- a lot -- lots -- lots of folks in the National Guard have done amazing work coming up. And I get what he's saying about folks being a little overweight. I just got back from Texas. I think I gained five pounds over the weekend from Mexican food and Whataburger. Like, I get it. And these folks aren't full time military. But I think you got to be able to kind of do both here. You should -- there should be some standards that are met. But then also, these guys have regular jobs Monday through Friday, probably eating mamaw's (ph) cooking.

CORNISH: Which they can't go to because they're busy not getting paid going to other cities.

DAVIS: Well, that is true. But I think they are getting paid as of tomorrow. They're supposed to be fine -- fined money.

But, no, you're right, the National Guard, we should all be thank -- well, first of all, we should thank all of our military, but we should definitely thank our National Guard.

CORNISH: Are we going to push up our way through improved Defense Department? Like, what's with the shaming, frankly, of most of the people who serve our country?

PRICE: I mean this -- right. I mean nobody wants to be called out like that on the internet for your body. That's horrible. We'll set that aside.

CORNISH: And then confirmed by your boss.

PRICE: And then fired or removed from duty for it.

But setting that aside, there are -- there have been long time discussions within the Pentagon about military readiness standards. There was some relaxing, I think, of the Navy standards around 2016.

CORNISH: Yes, when retention was bad.

PRICE: Right.

CORNISH: But now they are recruiting like crazy. They actually have plenty of numbers.

PRICE: And this is also something that, you know, Trump has made a priority, President Trump, that he wants people to look the part. The projection of strength and power is a key part of how he sees -- he wants his White House, his administration, his military to look. He always will talk about how somebody looks like they're from central casting.

[07:00:03]

You need to look like you're there to do the job. So, those images, I mean, you could see that it wasn't just the secretary of defense, that the president as well probably was not a fan of -- of seeing troops look like that.

CORNISH: OK. Well, first of all, sorry to those troops. I'm sorry you're having that experience.

I want to -- thanks to the group chat for talking with me about so many topics. There's headlines next on "CNN NEWS CENTRAL," and that starts now.