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Erin Burnett Outfront

Trump Skips Town; Is It Safe To Fly?; Former DNI Clapper Subpoenaed; Trump Hosts Hungary's Authoritarian Leader. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired November 07, 2025 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:27]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:

Breaking news, President Trump getting out of dodge, headed to Mar-a- Lago this hour as Americans endure the longest shutdown in history. Thousands of flights canceled, delayed. Will Congress make a deal tonight?

Plus, is it dangerous to fly right now? We're going to break down what we know and how stretched our air traffic controllers.

And an OUTFRONT exclusive tonight, New York Governor Kathy Hochul on her opponent making this race all about Hochul support for Zohran Mamdani. She already distancing herself from the Democratic socialist.

Let's go OUTFRONT.

(MUSIC)

BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, Trump skips town with another failed vote in the Senate moments ago. Washington not ending the nation's longest shutdown. Thousands of flights tonight delayed, canceled. And despite all of that, the president of the United States has just gotten on a plane with no delays to his Mar-a-Lago vacation home.

According to FlightAware, more than 5,000 flights were delayed today. That's a lot of Americans impacted, and more than 1,000 flights were canceled. That's about a 600 percent increase from Tuesday, and it's about to get a lot worse.

The transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, today warning that one in five flights could be cut. Coming up, if the government shutdown drags on. Hold on. Can I just say one in five? That's 20 percent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: So if this shutdown doesn't end relatively soon, the consequence of that is going to be more controllers don't come to work, and then we're going to have to continue to assess the pressure in the airspace and make decisions that may again move us from 10 percent to 15 percent, maybe to 20. (END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: And Americans would take the hit for that.

But as I mentioned, one of the plane's not delayed tonight was Trump's. So, Trump was earlier going to Marine One, going to Air Force One, fired off a social media post saying, "The United States Senate should not leave town until they have a deal to end the Democratic shutdown."

Translation Trump wants the Senate to stay in Washington. Okay, but then the second part, while he, as you can see on the screen, just left for a warm weekend at his vacation home in Mar-a-Lago. No worries about Air Force One being delayed or canceled. And when Trump gets back to Washington, he plans to attend a football game.

And that is consistent with how he has behaved so far during the longest shutdown in American history. He has acted as if it isn't happening. In the past 39 days, as things like flight chaos is affecting Americans across the country, Trump has added a new gold script sign outside the Oval Office that just came in there. He has, of course, annihilated the East Wing of the White House as part of a spend of an estimated $300 million on a ballroom.

He's renovated the Lincoln bathroom with marble and gold and hosted a Great Gatsby themed Halloween party at Mar-a-Lago. Now that's right. That is not commentary. The party was actually called "A Little Party Never Killed Nobody", which is a line from a song written specifically for the movie starring Leo DiCaprio, right, "The Great Gatsby".

And the party was all in. Political allies and celebrities were decked out in elaborate costumes from the roaring part of the 1920s, which, of course, came right before the big party crashed 1929. And then the Great Depression.

Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT live outside the White House. Pete Muntean is live at Reagan National Airport.

I want to begin with you, Kristen. What is Trump's plan here?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, I do want to mention one other point that you missed in that long list of things that he's done during this government shutdown, and that was early on in the shutdown. He went and held a fundraiser for MAGA, Inc. That was $1 million a plate. And that just goes to this theme of President Trump just not really operating within the bounds of this shutdown and traveling across the world multiple times since this happened.

President Trump has essentially said that this is all on Congress. He has called for the end to the filibuster, which Senate leadership, which is Republicans have said is not going to happen. So, again, it's unclear where exactly this is going to go from here. One of the things to point out is all of the things that you mentioned, or most of the things that you mentioned happened before the elections on Tuesday. And one of the things we had heard from so many sources inside and

around the White House was that President Trump did believe that the shutdown was impacting Republicans, that it was hurting Republicans. But yet, we aren't seeing any kind of change in his schedule or what he's doing. We've reached out to see if there are if there's any chance president Trump is going to try to reach across the aisle.

[19:05:00]

So far, the last time we asked the White House what President Trump was doing behind the scenes, they said that he was pushing Republicans to keep holding votes.

BURNETT: All right. Well, we'll see what happens with the Senate, whether they stay. Thank you so much, Kristen.

And I want to go to Pete Muntean because he is at an airport, specifically Reagan national airport in Washington, D.C., which, unlike where air force one takes off and Andrews Air Force Base, Reagan has been hit with massive delays.

What's the latest you're learning, Pete?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, the good news here is that we're not seeing people camped out in mass stranded in airports right now, which means they got the message from airlines that they're going to preemptively cancel their flights.

But the big thing here is that 32 air traffic control facilities operated by the federal aviation administration, were still understaffed today. Despite this, Trump administration order for airlines to essentially cut flights in hopes of helping air traffic controllers. And now, airlines are already putting into place their Trump mandated flight cuts for tomorrow. Southwest Airlines, 100 flights canceled preemptively tomorrow. United Airlines, 168 flights. American Airlines, 220 flights on Saturday.

Airlines say they are complying and they stress complying with this Trump mandate to cut flights from their schedules in order to help air traffic controllers 4 percent through Monday. Then it goes up to 6 percent on Tuesday, 8 percent next Thursday, and then 10 percent of flights cut next Friday. That is significant because that puts us in the two-week zone of the Thanksgiving travel rush, when we expect about 3 million people to fly nationwide.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has been defensive of this plan. He say -- he says this is all about safety, trying to protect air traffic controllers who continue to go unpaid during the shutdown. They just got another zero dollar pay stub in their emails just yesterday, and he has been saying that there's not really a big number here that he's been shooting for, although now he says this may go up to 20 percent. He says there's not a science to it, but more of an art in trying to find this goal, to try and make airlines cut flights in order to siphon off the pressure for air traffic controllers.

The idea here is airlines are essentially having to carry out the administration's want, its travel pain. But the question is whether or not this is for political gain. And really, passengers are caught in the middle.

BURNETT: Yeah, absolutely. Pete Muntean, thank you very much. We're going to be joined by an air traffic controller in just a few moments.

Right now, though, I want to bring in former Republican Senator Jeff Flake and Lulu Garcia-Navarro, of course, "The New York Times".

Really grateful to both of you.

And, Senator, you know, you are a person who speaks your mind. Trump is headed to Mar-a-Lago as we speak. Obviously, he doesn't have to go to Reagan, where Pete Muntean is standing, right? And people who have gone out of Reagan today have had up to four-hour delays, many flights canceled.

So, you know, things are rough for people who are trying to travel and get where they need to go. I know you have been through shutdowns as a senator. You've been in these negotiating situations. Is this where the president should be right now, going ahead with his plans, going to Mar-a-Lago?

JEFF FLAKE, FORMER U.S. REPUBLICAN SENATOR: Well, I wouldn't if I were him, I would certainly be in Washington trying to get an end to this.

You know, air -- air traffic control, that -- that's the big one. And when people are waiting in airports, I waited two nights ago for three hours in an airport because of this. Now, it's a whole new realm. I mean, before you had some things that might happen later or happen just to a certain segment of society. This happens to just about everybody.

And so, I would expect that you're going to see a solution pretty quickly. But the president, he ought to be in Washington.

BURNETT: And, Lulu, as the president is going ahead with his plans. And I know it's, you know, the kind of the Great Gatsby theme party is sort of one of those things that you would think would be made up. But that actually happened.

I want to play what Trump said last night. He was talking about Thanksgiving meals and basically saying people shouldn't. He didn't want to hear about concerns about the economy and specifically affordability. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They do a synopsis of everything. They cover every element of thanksgiving meals, 25 percent down. So, I don't want to hear about the affordability.

BURNETT: Now, Lulu, when he said, I don't want to hear about the affordability, of course it sounds incredibly tone deaf, just in the basic sense of where consumer sentiment is in America and the resounding victory of Zohran Mamdani in New York based. If it had to be on one word was based on that word affordability.

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yeah. I mean, right there, the clip that you're going to see running in the next election, that -- that clip is going to be played over and over again.

Listen, any American knows right now -- electricity, car insurance, health insurance, food, housing, the job market isn't very good. Interest rates are still high.

I mean, I don't need to be an economist to tell you that things are not going well right now. Add to that the shutdown, which is going to be impacting the economy, and we can see it. This is a very, very serious situation.

The president is sending a signal by going to Mar-a-Lago. He is signaling to Democrats that they're going to have to deal with Republicans. But he's also sending a signal to the American people that he's not willing to try and sit down and make a deal and to be seen, at least performatively trying to, you know, talk to Democrats.

And so, the real question here is everyone's betting that they're going to blame the other guy for the shutdown. But I think as Ambassador Flake is right here by saying, at the end of the day, nobody wins a shutdown, nobody wins a shutdown.

BURNETT: No. And, Senator, you have a new op-ed when you take a look at what could -- this could all end up meaning outside the exact moment we're in, but the implications.

In "The Washington Post" you write, "I believe that a migration has begun within the Republican Party. The political climate that once rewarded absolute loyalty to the president is shifting."

What -- how significant do you think this is? And where do you see it? Because you're also talking to so many people who are in that circle around Trump, where we hear them publicly say things that show their fealty to him.

FLAKE: Well, I think you're seeing it manifested in the Senate right now when he's calling to get rid of the filibuster. And senators are wisely saying, no, we're not going to.

Now, some of them put it in terms of the votes aren't there, instead of saying its a bad idea. And that's what most Republicans believe, and it truly is. But they're standing up to the president there and on tariffs as well. Have you seen a vote where a number of Republicans sided with Democrats on tariffs on Brazil?

The president may not want to talk about the affordability crisis, but he's going to have to. And the Democrats -- part of what the problem they had in '24 is they believed that they could just tell people that they were doing better when they weren't. And that's the same predicament the president is now in.

And so you're seeing a migration of Republicans away from these firm positions that the president has held, and that will only accelerate as we get closer to midterms.

BURNETT: I mean, is it "to let them eat cake" moment, Senator? What we're -- what we're seeing him do, I don't want to hear about the affordability.

FLAKE: I don't know that it's that, but it certainly seems out of touch. I mean, the notion that you know, prices are down everywhere. They really aren't. And people know that.

And that was the problem, like I said, that the Democrats had had in '24 and Republicans have it now.

BURNETT: Lulu, you know, one thing President Trump is admitting to is the high price of beef. So that's one thing he's complaining about. And his explanation on that is -- and he just posted, I've asked the DOJ to immediately begin an investigation into the meat packing companies who are driving up the price of beef through illicit collusion, price fixing and price manipulation.

Immediately after -- he suggested something is fishy. Those were his words. And then immediately after, Attorney General Pam Bondi responded, our investigation is underway.

So, you know, I guess an investigation in meatpacking companies is where the inflation discussion goes?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. You know, I'm glad she's hopped to it, but doesn't this sound like were in 2023, 2024 when Joe Biden was talking about exactly the same thing, blaming companies for the high prices and launching investigations into collusion between companies? I mean, this is exactly the problem that the president is finding himself in.

And the other thing that I'll say is the reason I think you're seeing Republicans as Senator flake is, is saying having perhaps a different posture towards the president is the political gravity is finally working, right? And the Republicans just had a bad election, and the president has bad poll numbers.

And that is true in every single administration that I've seen. Once those things start happening, you see the president's party start to assume a different posture because they start worrying about themselves.

BURNETT: I mean, Senator, do you think that in this case, the way things usually go is the way they will continue to go, right? If there's anybody who has defied gravity politically more consistently than President Trump, I don't know who it is, right?

FLAKE: Oh, yes, certainly. But those who mimic him, his imitators have not done well. Look, just right here in Arizona we have this is a red state, and we have a Democratic governor. Two Democratic senators, Democrat attorney general, Democrat secretary of state. And it's all because of those who try to imitate the president don't do it very well.

And so, yeah, you're going to see a great migration here. It's already starting, and it will accelerate because the Republican Party, the president seems completely out of touch with where the economy is, particularly the effect of tariffs. Tariffs are inflationary. That is a Republican article of faith. And you'll see a lot of Republicans starting to migrate back to the new old ground where we used to reside.

[19:15:03]

BURNETT: Yeah. As you point out, important to look at those votes of Brazil and Canada in the Senate because of Senate Republicans voting against those tariffs.

All right. Thank you both so very much. I really appreciate talking to you.

And next, America's air traffic controllers at a breaking point. They've gone more than a month with no pay, a month with absolutely no paycheck. So, a lot of them are having to work other jobs. I mean, here's a crucial question at the heart of all this for everyone, is it still safe to fly?

Plus, Trump ally Elise Stefanik now running for governor in the state of New York, making the race all about Zohran Mamdani.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): She threw New Yorkers under the bus and desperately endorsed Zohran Mamdani.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: The she is Governor Kathy Hochul and she's our exclusive guest tonight.

We also have breaking news. We are learning that federal prosecutors are now moving forward with an investigation into the former CIA director, John Brennan, and others. We'll have all of those breaking details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:20:23]

BURNETT: Breaking news, the major problems with the airport is now up to nearly 5,200 flights, delayed more than a thousand canceled. Washington National -- and Washington, D.C. and Houston airports feeling the worst of it right now. More than 30 percent of departing flights at those airports delayed, according to FlightAware. And in the middle of this, air traffic controllers, the ones who are keeping Americans in the skies safe, they are working without pay now for a month.

Now, "The New York Times" talked to a few of them. They would only speak on the condition of anonymity. They are feeling incredible pressure, anxiety, stress. One of them said, and I wanted to quote this, "I'm broken down, I'm

sore. I'm mentally drained. Theres some times where I felt like I just wanted to go into the corner and cry, because it's been pretty tough to push through the physical pain, the tiredness and waking up the next day having to do it all over again."

Dan McCabe is OUTFRONT now. He's back with us, an air traffic controller, the southern regional vice president, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, also a former pilot.

So, Dan, you know this from every single side. The pilot, the controllers. And I know you've been talking to other controllers today.

What are they telling you?

DAN MCCABE, SOUTHERN REGIONAL VP, NATIONAL AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS ASSOCIATION: It sounds -- thanks a lot for having me, by the way. It sounds exactly like what you just read. I mean, it's desperate.

I got a call today that there is a controller, a fairly new controller that is now being evicted from their apartment. They got the notice that if they don't pay rent by Sunday, they're getting evicted.

So, you know, that's great. You get to add that stress to everything. Now when they're on break, they get to think about how am I going to pay to move? Where am I going to go? Am I going to be homeless?

And that is just a myriad of the stories we hear. And it's exactly what you just you read. They feel desperate, hopeless, mad. And there's just appears to be no end in sight. And it's a problem.

BURNETT: I mean, how worried are you? I mean, they're going out there to do the best they can every single day. Those of them that can, right, some of them are working multiple jobs, right? You know, so there's not as many of them as usual. They're working in these extraordinarily terrible circumstances.

How worried are you about them? And, you know, about really the effect of safety of all of this right now?

MCCABE: Well, I mean, I'm extremely worried about him. I mean, and it doesn't matter if they're new, if they've been around for 25 years, if they're at a huge facility, if they're at a small facility, everybody's got their own story, and you don't know their story until you've walked a mile in their shoes.

But, I mean, we've all done this job. We know the stresses that go with this job. We know the schedule is punishing. We know the work itself requires a lot of focus. And it is fatiguing in and of itself and let alone doing it short. Some places, doing it, you know, six days a week, ten hours a day, that's four days off a month for anyone counting. And that's not a lot of time to spend with your family or do things around the house.

Yeah, I worry about them. I worry about them all the time because they're dealing with things that they have nothing to do with it, you know? And like we're talking about the person who's facing eviction. Are we really going to let this person take a hit on their credit, where they're going to have trouble getting a new place?

Like, what have they done wrong? They've been to work. They're doing what they swore they would do as their first day as a federal employee, working on behalf of the United States of America, they're moving people in cargo globally. And this is what they're getting out of it. And it's -- I mean, there are no words for it.

BURNETT: You know, and we're -- we -- you know, well see what Congress does. But right now, as this continues, you've got 4 percent of flights cut. That's it. And you heard Transportation Secretary Duffy says it could go up to 20 percent, one in five flights. I mean, that is just an absolutely -- I mean, it's kind of an impossible thing to fathom what that would actually be.

Do these cuts as we try to understand the cuts going from four percent, and then next week, does it go up dan to six and then eight, right? Is that a political climb to put pressure on to sort of tighten the noose, or does that cut in flights actually alleviate some of the real pressure on your controllers?

MCCABE: Well, and you know, this is Secretary Duffy and Administrator Bedford, the FAA, this is what they wanted to do, and it's no secret we've been talking about it for a month. You have safety versus efficiency.

[19:25:01]

And you can't let safety fall in any way. The only thing you can adjust is the efficiency of the system. And we do it every day. We've been doing it since the inception of this entire system.

Look, I understand it, right? We're reducing the efficiency to account for the safety of it. And when you have people that are going to work and they're worried about things, basic human needs, you're injecting some risk into a system that at its foundation was built to be risk averse. I completely understand what they're doing.

BURNETT: Yeah. All right. Very sobering moment. Dan, thank you very much. I appreciate talking to you again.

MCCABE: Thanks for having me.

BURNETT: And next, we have breaking news. Federal prosecutors just now moving to subpoena the former CIA director, John Brennan, someone who, of course, has been very critical of President Trump.

And Zohran Mamdani's agenda. It includes free buses, free childcare. And he has made it very clear the way to pay for that is by raising taxes. So, who makes that decision? The governor of New York, will she sign off on a tax hike?

She's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:30:47]

BURNETT: Breaking news, President Trump on his way to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend. No in sight for the longest government shutdown in history. Another vote related to the shutdown just defeated in the Senate as Senate Majority Leader John Thune told senators to prepare to work through the weekend in Washington due to the shutdown.

OUTFRONT now, the New York Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul.

And, Governor, I appreciate your time. I mean, the longer this government shutdown goes down, it's on, and it's already the longest in history. Every time, Republicans putting these things out for a vote and Democrats end up having to vote against reopening the government, and then the Republicans say, look who voted against it.

I mean, are you worried that Democrats will shoulder the blame here?

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D), NEW YORK: Not at all, because as you can see, Americans and particularly New Yorkers understand what the source of this shutdown is and why we don't have the power to end it. They're smart. They know that Republicans control the White House, the House and the Senate, and therefore they have the power. And the thought that they want to keep government shut down and to cause, cause this chaos in our airports and not pay these hardworking Americans who are government workers, all because they want to strip health care away from other Americans? That is cruel and we see that. We know that.

Americans know that. New Yorkers know that. So no, the blame will be where it belongs, which is on Republicans.

BURNETT: So, Trump ally and Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik obviously has just launched her campaign for governor of New York. She's running against you to be head of the state betting that a Democratic socialist in New York City is going to help her beat you.

Here she is talking about you in multiple interviews that she gave today, Governor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEFANIK: She threw New Yorkers under the bus and desperately endorsed Zohran Mamdani. She bowed to the communists.

When we saw a raging antisemite, pro-Hamas communist who wants to raise taxes, Kathy Hochul endorsed him and bent the knee.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Now, here's the thing, Governor. You took a big risk on Mamdani, right? I remember when you endorsed him, everyone said, okay, wow, she did this. And she got out in front of everybody ahead of other established political leaders. You endorsed him, and you're going to take these incoming arrows like she is -- she is dealing out there over that. But as of tonight, Governor, Mamdani has not endorsed you for

governor. Has he told you if that endorsement will ever come?

HOCHUL: I would not worry about it. His position was -- my position was, I don't want to talk about it until his election is over. I just saw him again today. He said, let's sit down and, you know, work on this together. So I'm not worried about that.

But it is so rich that Elise Stefanik, who you defined as an ally of Donald Trump, not only is she an ally, she proudly says she's Donald Trump's favorite congressperson, voting with him 100 percent of the time. That means she owns this shutdown. She owns the fact that three million New Yorkers are desperately trying to figure how they're going to feed their families, because they're so cold and callous that they took away the SNAP benefits.

She's the reason why we're having New Yorkers without health care. I'm telling you, you know, I -- yes, I endorsed him because I want to have a relationship with, I believe, the next -- who I thought would be the next mayor of New York, because I'm not going to root against New York City, unlike Elise Stefanik. I'm going to make sure that New York city is successful.

That does not change who I am. I have strong differences. I will never stop being a moderate Democrat, but she will never stop being a Trump Republican.

BURNETT: Okay, so there were a couple times in your answer there, Governor, where you talked about distinguishing your views from those of Mamdani. But in the context of your conversations with him. Right. And you referred to yourself as a moderate right, which I hear that -- I hear the contrast with the Democratic socialist.

But, you know, he has a passionate and fired up electorate now. And his endorsement could matter. I mean, do you feel that it's a sure thing? I mean, have you had an explicit conversation about it or is it sort of something that you both are dancing around?

[19:35:03]

HOCHUL: I would just say, don't worry about it today. I'm not concerned about it. So that's all I will comment on, on the endorsement, but you can see from my attitude tonight, I'm not concerned about whether or not it's coming.

But most importantly, he did light a fire under a lot of people who had never been energized and participating in the political process. This is what Republicans are afraid of. They've woken the sleeping giant of all these people who maybe sat on the sidelines for a long time, but Donald Trump and Elise Stefanik have motivated them to become a political force.

And so, this is what terrifies them. This is more people than ever before voting in elections, and they will be there next November, not just in New York City, but all across New York, where Democrats won all over New York state. BURNETT: So can I ask you about these policies, where you differ

because it's going to matter for New York state and for your bid to remain governor. And when you talked again about distinguishing yourself in terms of your views from those of Mamdani and yourself as a moderate right, his agenda is incredibly ambitious. It is, as he has described it, a Democratic socialist agenda, free childcare, free buses, rent freeze, the list goes on.

I talked to him on Monday night. He said to me he hasn't wavered one millimeter on raising taxes on New York City's wealthiest residents to pay for some of that. Now, governor, you have said repeatedly that you would not raise taxes. You said, quote, I've said there's no new income taxes. Do you stand by that promise?

HOCHUL: Yes again, what I find so fascinating is all this conversation about how I'm continuing to lead New York state. I'm the one putting money back in people's pockets and cutting middle class taxes, as I've done, and finding ways to support child care. These are areas where I'm aligned with Zohran Mamdani, and we'll work on this and build more housing so people can have a roof over their heads in New York City.

But contrast that with Elise Stefanik, who has voted with Donald Trump time and time again to hurt people of our state. Now she wants to take that record and run for governor, especially as we've seen this national trend of rejection of Trump policies.

So, I don't think there's a path at all. I know how to govern. I know how to do this. I will work with the mayor of New York City to deliver for people on affordability, public safety. I'm going to make sure that our streets and our subways remain safe, and I'll work in cooperation with him. He agreed with keeping the current commissioner of police, Jessica Tisch, who's doing a phenomenal job because our crime rates are plummeting.

So that was an important step forward toward understanding that we can work on this together. I'm not -- unlike Elise Stefanik and Donald Trump going to do anything to hurt New York City or New York state.

BURNETT: Governor Hochul, thanks very much. Appreciate your time tonight.

HOCHUL: Thank you.

BURNETT: And next, breaking news, federal prosecutors tonight moving to subpoena former CIA Director John Brennan, who investigated Trump's first presidential campaign.

Plus, Trump showering Hungary's Viktor Orban, a pro-Putin strongman, with praise in a meeting today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He's a very powerful man within his country. But he's also beloved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[19:43:03]

BURNETT: Breaking news, Justice Department prosecutors have just issued a subpoena to former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, a longtime target of President Trump's; and former FBI officials, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, have also received subpoenas. Sources telling CNN tonight the prosecutors are now moving to subpoena the former CIA director, John Brennan.

Katelyn Polantz breaking so much of this.

Katelyn, what do you know about these subpoenas?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER (via telephone): Well, Erin, we know that this action from the Justice Department, it's not done yet. Subpoenas have gone out to people, including Lisa Page, Peter Strzok, you remember their names from the FBI investigation in 2016, 2017.

And then intelligence chiefs were either getting subpoenas or expecting to get subpoenas in the coming days. The former CIA director, John Brennan, the former director of national intelligence, James Clapper. But sources are telling Evan Perez and I that it is dozens of subpoenas that are going out to people in the intelligence world from 2017 that all of these subpoenas are coming from investigators based in the southern district of Florida. So that's where Mar-a-Lago is.

But the connections are a little bit more tenuous to this investigation in 2016, that would be crossfire hurricane. That's what it was called within the FBI. The other thing that we know, based on our sources is what these subpoenas are asking for, is that investigators want people, these former officials, intelligence officials in the federal government to turn over documents from a pretty narrow window of time. July 2016 to February 2017. Things like their text messages, their emails, their computer files, everything related to an intelligence community, assessment report that was produced in 2017 that summed up essentially the basis for investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, as well as the Trump campaign, was something Donald Trump has wanted to see looked into again.

BURNETT: Right. Absolutely. And of course, we'll note there was a bipartisan congressional bipartisan right that concluded that there was Russian interference.

[19:45:07]

But obviously, the president wants to get to the bottom of any role. U.S. intelligence played. I mean, what is the legal justification for all of this? And one of the words that stood out to me was dozens in your reporting, Katelyn, in terms of the number of subpoenas that could be coming here.

POLANTZ: Dozens. And it is activity being done by criminal prosecutors who want to look into this. But, Erin, there's some real head scratchers around this right now. First of all, what they're asking for are very old records, federal criminal cases only usually are charged in a five-year window.

This is stuff from almost ten years ago. They're asking for that. The federal government already has. And also has looked at multiple times, including by a criminal prosecutor, special counsel John Durham, who said in a very extensive set of findings that there were problems in the FBI investigation with crossfire hurricane, flawed intelligence, that not every injustice or transgression amounts to a criminal offense. We'll have to see where it goes from here, though -- Erin.

BURNETT: Yeah. We will.

All right, Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much for all of that reporting.

And also tonight, President Trump praising Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban after welcoming him to the White House today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I stick up for Viktor Orban. Not a lot of people do because in many cases they're jealous. They wish they did what he did is a very powerful man within his country, but he's also beloved. He's a very special person. He's respected by everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Orban, of course, is a pro-Putin strongman famous for anti- immigrant and anti-gay policies, who has slashed press freedoms, Democratic freedoms and the independence of judges.

OUTFRONT now, former U.S. ambassador to Hungary, David Pressman.

And, Ambassador Pressman, I very much appreciate your time tonight.

You know, when you hear Trump's words today, what are the implications of Trump's praise of Orban?

DAVID PRESSMAN, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO HUNGARY: Well, thanks for having me, Erin. I mean, look, I agree with President Trump that Viktor Orban is very powerful. I mean, he has run Hungary for the last 15 years with virtually unchecked authority and unchecked authority, having eviscerated the judiciary, having eviscerated the Democratic institutions, having controlled the media in his country.

And so, I think it's really worrying when you see the president of the United States looking up to a leader who has played such a fundamental role in eroding democracy in a country that was remembered, one of the shining lights coming out of the post-communist period, Hungary had so much promise.

And obviously, it's really suffering now.

BURNETT: So, Trump was asked about upcoming elections in Hungary, which is obviously so important in the context that you just gave, right? The incredible erosion of even elections themselves in Hungary, right? Why Orban has been able to be in power for 15 years, and Trump made a joke about how he doesn't have a serious opponent.

But I bring this up, ambassador, because of these images. Everyone was talking a month ago, right, about a possible summit between Putin and Trump in Hungary, right? Hungary, because Putin can go there. He's welcome there.

But then there were these images, thousands and thousands of Hungarians marching in pro and anti-government demonstrations. The anti-demonstrations were huge. So, then the pro-government people come out and try to cross demonstrate.

And Orban's poll numbers such that they are have deteriorated. You talk about Hungary's economy being, I think in your words, in shambles. You know, so where are we here? I mean, you've got a guy who is a model of degrading Democratic norms. How significant would it be to the world if he could really be under threat, even after all that? I mean, is he really in danger of losing?

PRESSMAN: Look, this is without a question, one of the most competitive political moments in Viktor Orban's career and certainly the most competitive moment in the last 15 years. And the opposition candidate that you referenced, Peter Magyar, mind you, he has one message, and the only thing he's speaking to the Hungarian people about is corruption in Hungary.

And you see from that video footage the numbers of Hungarians he's mobilizing to the streets as they hear this opposition figure talk about how kleptocratic Hungarys government has become. Now, remember, Hungary's economy right now is ranked the poorest economy in the European Union, and Hungary for the last three years has been ranked the most corrupt country in the European Union.

BURNETT: Now, today, Orban ambassador used a favorite phrase of Trump's, which is golden age. Trump really loves the phrase. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This is the golden age of America. We are leading the world into the golden age. The golden age of America begins right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And Orban seized on that term today.

[19:50:01]

Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICTOR ORBAN, HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER: What we need is a golden age to open a golden age of the United States-Hungarian relationship. That's the biggest hub we can get from the United States.

TRUMP: And maybe Europe, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: I mean, specifically, Ambassador, Orban wants Trump to let him keep buying Putin's oil, even if Trump doesn't allow other countries to do that because of sanctions, how much would that move alone strengthen Orban's ability to hold on to power at this moment?

PRESSMAN: Well, look, I mean, that's just one piece of it. Viktor Orban needs a tremendous infusion of financial support into a country and an economy that is really is teetering.

And you know, on the -- on the exemption that he sought on Russian sanctions. I mean, the president is -- President Trump is to be commended for taking these robust sanctions on Russian oil. And I -- it worries me that if the president of the United States has bought into this story that Viktor Orban has told that there's, you know, this landlocked country that has no other choice, you know, Hungary is not the only landlocked country in the European Union, Erin.

And some of, you know, the Czech Republic has on Russian gas has gone from virtually 100 percent to nothing. Even landlocked Slovakia has gone from 100 percent to 60 percent. The Hungarians have other options for Russian crude.

But really what's going on here is that the Hungarians want to continue importing Russian oil. They want to make money off of the fact that they get an exemption from these sanctions, and then they're going to plow that money back into a system that is enriching Orban's family and friends.

BURNETT: All right. Ambassador Pressman, thank you very much. Appreciate your time tonight.

PRESSMAN: It's great to see you, Erin. Thank you.

BURNETT: And next, 28 years old, that is the age of New York's youngest first lady to be. But little is known about Zohran Mamdani's wife. Who is she?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:56:33]

BURNETT: Tonight, she's about to be New York City's first lady. Zohran Mamdani's wife, Rama Duwaji, is 28 years old and has managed to successfully avoid the spotlight. She's an artist and she's garnered a lot of intrigue, along with some criticism.

And Gloria Pazmino is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAYOR-ELECT ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK: To my incredible wife, Rama.

(CHEERS)

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani isn't the only one making history in New York City.

MAMDANI: There is no one I would rather have by my side in this moment and in every moment.

PAZMINO (voice-over): At just 28 years old, Rama Duwaji is also making history. The first Muslim member of Gen Z to become first lady of New York City. Duwaji hasn't played the traditional role of first lady in waiting. She didn't campaign alongside her husband during the heated race for city hall. She skipped interviews and television talk shows.

While Mamdani was on the trail, the self-described illustrator and animators work appeared in "Vogue", the BBC, and "New York Magazine".

Behind the scenes, a source tells CNN, Duwaji weighed in on the campaign's brand identity and advised Mamdani on how to better use social media.

MAMDANI: My wife is big into thrifting, but knowing that I was going to do the polar bear plunge and that I would ruin the suit, I thought it best to be a thrift guy.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Despite her quiet persona, Duwaji speaks loudly through her art. Her work features illustrations of Middle Eastern women, the plight of Palestinians, the conflict in the Middle East, and the hunger crisis in Gaza.

In an April interview with "Yung", a quarterly art magazine, Duwaji said her art was an effort to speak about what's happening in the U.S. and Palestine, in Syria, as much as I can. In the same interview, Duwaji talked about using art to process the current political climate, saying, things are dark right now in NYC. I worry for my friends and family and things feel completely out of my hands.

During the campaign, a social media post mourning the death of Palestinian journalist Saleh al-Jafarawi sparked some criticism. The IDF alleged Jafarawi was affiliated with Hamas. The claim has never been verified.

Of Syrian descent and a Houston native, Duwaji moved to Dubai when she was nine, attending the Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar. The couple met in 2021 on the dating app Hinge, shortly after Mamdani was elected to the New York state assembly.

By October 2024, they were engaged. They celebrated in Dubai, followed by a courthouse wedding at the city clerk's office in Lower Manhattan. Shortly after, Mamdani launched his campaign for mayor, questions began to swirl about the couple. A "New York Post" headline suggested their relationship was a secret. Days later, Mamdani released photos of their civil ceremony on Instagram, writing, Rama isn't just my wife, she's an incredible artist who deserves to be known on her own terms.

Already, Duwaji is sparking trends.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rachel, no girl. The Rama.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Social media is abuzz with posts about Duwaji's haircut.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Super short, chic artist. Cool girl haircut.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Her fashion choices.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not all heroes wear capes. Some wear independent designers, when they could wear anything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The sheath dress is dead. Rama Duwaji killed it.

PAZMINO (voice-over): And the symbolism behind her election night outfit.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The frequency topped by Palestinian Jordanian designer Zeid Hijazi.

PAZMINO (voice-over): We asked Mamdani how he and Duwaji are adjusting to all the new attention.

MAMDANI: Life is very different. It is -- it is different in some ways that are beautiful, in some ways that are tough.

PAZMINO (voice-over): Gloria Pazmino, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: Thanks for joining us.

"AC360" starts now.