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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

President Trump Calls on Republicans to Vote to Release the Remainder of Jeffrey Epstein Files; President Trump Considering Talks with Venezuela's Maduro Amid U.S. Military Buildup; Americans Still Struggling with Food Costs After Government Shutdown Ended. Aired 5- 5:30a ET

Aired November 17, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00]

BRIAN ABEL, ANCHOR, EARLY START: Good morning and welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world, thank you so much for being with us, I'm Brian Abel, Rahel Solomon is off, it is Monday, November 17th, 5:00 a.m. here in Washington D.C., and straight ahead on EARLY START.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump is now calling on Republicans to vote to release the files of Jeffrey Epstein. Trump's earlier opposition was partly behind his feud with Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): I stand with these women.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do not know what President Donald Trump intends to do in Venezuela.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We may be having some discussions with Maduro.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rising food costs are making groceries more expensive for everyone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For many families, they're still struggling to put food on their table.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: We begin here in Washington where the House is expected to vote on releasing the files of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein this week. And in a major shift, U.S. President Donald Trump is now encouraging Republican lawmakers to do so. He posted this on social media. "House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files because we have nothing to hide, and it's time to move on from this Democrat hoax perpetrated by radical left lunatics".

President Trump's earlier opposition to the effort was partly behind the rift with Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who supports releasing the files. Greene was once a staunch Trump ally, but after President Trump called her a traitor, she told CNN this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREENE: Unfortunately, it has all come down to the Epstein files, and that is shocking. And, you know, I stand with these women, I stand with rape victims. I stand with children who are in terrible sex abuse situations, and I stand with survivors of trafficking and those that are trapped in sex trafficking.

And I will not apologize for that. I believe the country deserves transparency in these files, and I don't believe that rich, powerful people should be protected if they have -- if they have done anything wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: And Greene says she's received death threats since President Trump ended his support for her. But the President is dismissing her concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Marjorie "traitor" Greene, I don't think her life is in danger. I don't think -- frankly, I don't think anybody cares about her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: And House Speaker Mike Johnson says it's time to get the Epstein files vote over with.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): So, it will be on the floor again next week. I suspect there will be lots of votes that will just get this done. President Trump has clean hands. He's not worried about it -- I talk to him all the time. He has nothing to do with this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: While the House bill to release the files is expected to pass, it faces an uncertain fate in the Senate, and it would then need President Trump's signature unless it earns a veto proof majority. But on Friday, President Trump said he would ask Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Epstein's ties to many other high profile figures, including former President Bill Clinton.

Some legal experts say this could give the Justice Department new justification to resist turning over the Epstein files. Inderjeet Parmar; Professor of International Politics at City University of London joins me now to discuss. Thank you for your time, Inderjeet. Let's start with the President's --

INDERJEET PARMAR, PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS, CITY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON: Thank you -- ABEL: About-face on the Epstein files, because to me, this -- it kind

of feels somewhat like the birther movement with former President Obama fueled by Trump, with Obama eventually producing his birth certificate to squash the conspiracy. Is this Trump approving the release of the files to squash conspiracy theories, or is this a case of, if you can't beat them, join them, maybe?

PARMAR: I think it's probably more the latter, because the overwhelming kind of movement and direction of movement is towards releasing those files. And the longer that saga goes on, the worse it probably politically gets for President Trump. So, I think he may be trying to -- he may be thinking that he can manage the deluge which is going to come.

[05:05:00]

But already, what we have seen from the documents released that Donald Trump is named many times in e-mails and other documents and the birthday book and so on, alongside a very larger network of very powerful people inside the United States, in many elite institutions, as well as internationally. So, I think President Trump is probably -- he can't resist that movement anymore because his own base has been energized by the release of those files for many years.

And they thought they were going to get the Democrats only, but it looks like they're going to get a much wider kind of spectrum of the American power elite in this particular tranche, which is going to be released if it goes through this week.

ABEL: But Inderjeet, what do you -- what do you think was the final, you know, shift over, because the President said there's nothing to hide when calling for the vote this past weekend.

PARMAR: Yes --

ABEL: But that doesn't necessarily square with his push to get Republicans to back off their votes, including the Situation Room meeting just a handful of days ago.

PARMAR: Yes, I really (INAUDIBLE) but obviously, President Trump is used to flip-flopping on many big issues. But I would say, this is probably the kind of the beginnings of some kind of a nascent division between the mass base of MAGA, which really believes the America first mantra that President Trump -- candidate Trump ten years ago and so on, was putting forward.

Which is, he was going to be a man of the people, a man of the working and middle classes who had in many ways have been kind of robbed of their birthright, robbed of their living standards and so on. And he was going to drain the swamp, which was, if you like -- you know, feeding off the ordinary people.

And what's happened now is that his attempts to suppress these Epstein files and so on, has opened up a massive rift. And when Marjorie Taylor Greene comes up with, you know, the kind of critique that she's now coming up, which is probably quite opportunistic, politically- speaking, I think she's opening up that as well.

And you add that to Venezuela, Israel, Iran, Ukraine, then that kind of isolationist foreign policy that people wanted, which they said was draining the resources of the United States, that also is kind of adding to that rift. So, I don't know if it's going to be the end game, but it certainly looks like that division is kind of developing at the moment.

And President Trump can see that. And maybe he thinks he can manage it in some way and head off what could be a massive sort of defeat in the midterm elections in November 2026?

ABEL: Let's explore that division a little bit energy with Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, a once was staunch ally of the President as you mentioned, calling him from the House floor, if you remember, back in 2023 during the Speaker vote process when Kevin McCarthy became speaker. What do you necessary make of this downfall of the political relationship? And who actually is more representative of the base of the party at this moment, President Trump or Marjorie Taylor Greene?

PARMAR: I think it's a very complicated picture. And I don't know that we had known all the facts, certainly, I don't. But I think that Marjorie Taylor Greene has some statewide and other political ambitions. I think that is playing an important role. But I think also the fact of this -- I think the Venezuela issue has added to the Epstein issue.

Israel and the complete support of Israel has rattled the MAGA base. You know the Charlie Kirk, even Charlie Kirk, before that -- before his assassination was speaking about how it was an Israel first type of policy, not an America first. The attack on Iran, which was planned for regime change and so on.

There were a lot of things which -- factors which are gathering together. And I think for those who genuinely believed it, believed that kind of America first mantra, I think Marjorie Taylor Greene is trying to leverage that for her own purposes. Whether she's successful or not is a different question, because President Trump still has a very strong cult-like following.

But the cost of living crisis that are going on, with -- through the tariff policy, the kind of elimination of isolationism from American foreign policy, that he had promised, and the very large arms-spending and so on, which has occurred, all of those, I think are in the mix.

ABEL: OK --

PARMAR: And I think Marjorie Taylor Greene is trying to leverage a lot of that.

ABEL: Understood. Inderjeet Parmar, really appreciate your expertise and exploring the nuances of all of this that's happening right now in the moment. Thank you.

PARMAR: Thank you very much. [05:10:00]

ABEL: The FAA mandate reducing airline operations, it ends today. The agency had ordered 40 airports across the U.S. to cut back on flights during the government shutdown due to short-staffing. Thousands of flight delays and cancellations were made even worse because of the mandate. And it comes just a week before the travel surge for Thanksgiving.

But some airlines say it may take more time to recover from the disruption. And the tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela are at a critical juncture right now as Donald Trump continues to weigh possible military action inside the South American country.

It now appears there might be a diplomatic off-ramp, with the U.S. President telling reporters on Sunday that Venezuela's President, Nicolas Maduro, wants to talk. But he gave no further details. He also said he didn't think he needed congressional approval for military action within Venezuela.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We like to keep Congress involved. I mean, we're stopping drug dealers and drugs to come -- from coming into our country. And I actually told Marco and some of the people, our Secretary of State is doing a great job, by the way. I said, go to Congress and let them know, we're not letting drugs come through Mexico.

We're not letting them come through Venezuela, and let Congress know about it. We don't have to get their approval. But I think letting them know is good. The only thing I don't want them to do is leak information that's very important and confidential.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: A day before those comments, the U.S. military carried out its 21st known strike on an alleged drug trafficking boat, killing three people. In all, 83 people have now been killed in these U.S. strikes since September. Venezuela's government has condemned the U.S. operations, calling them unlawful executions.

And as the U.S. weighs military action, the Trump administration also plans to designate a Venezuelan cartel known as Cartel de los Soles as a foreign terrorist group, linking it to President Maduro as part of his justification for ramping up the U.S. military presence in the region. The Maduro government has rejected this claim and denies the group even exists.

And joining us now to discuss all of this, CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Always good to see you, Colonel. Let's dive right into this right away with the State Department making this terrorist classification. Does that automatically designate Maduro as the head of a terrorist organization, and therefore eligible for some sort of action directly against him? CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, good morning, Brian. So,

not necessarily, but the allegation seems to be that the Cartel de los Soles or the Cartel of the Suns is basically run by people in Maduro's government, and that could be Maduro himself. Clearly, if it is, if this cartel exists, then it is probably true that Maduro, at least, has some knowledge of it.

It's meant it tacitly approved its operations. The Cartel de los Soles is basically a cartel that is designed to facilitate Venezuelan government operations in the narco-trafficking realm. So, there have been reports of this group for the last few years, it is based -- the name is based on the insignia on these -- on the uniforms of general officers in the Venezuelan army.

So, there's clearly a military connection here, and that is basically what the administration is looking at is designating these people, which means the government as part of a narco-trafficking group.

ABEL: OK, how justified, how strong is the legal footing here, do you believe for all of this? Because the President said he doesn't need Congress' approval. How do you see it?

LEIGHTON: Yes, I think the legal justification is not very strong, Brian. And the reason I say that is the efforts that we've seen so far seem to be based on somewhat flimsy evidence. For example, the -- we've been told that all of these boats, these speedboats that we see going in the Venezuelan waters and being shot up there, those boats are, yes, part of -- possibly part of a narco-trafficking effort.

But the problem is, there is no proof associated with it. There's no direct correlation between what these people are doing at sea and what organized narco traffickers are doing. So, the other part of that aspect is that, most of the drugs that come into the United States actually come from places other than Venezuela.

So, that's why you see some action now in the eastern Pacific. That's probably designed to, you know, get more legal justification and make it more appropriate for these kinds of actions just because most of the drugs do come from that area, basically Colombia, then Mexico, and then the United States.

[05:15:00]

But the problem that you run into is that, Venezuela is somewhat convenient target. It is connected diplomatically and militarily to countries like Cuba, Russia, Iran and even China. So, Venezuela is basically a convenient boogeyman for this kind of effort. Not to say that Venezuela should not be contained or that Maduro should stay in power.

But the idea here is that they're using basically a bad justification to justify their actions at this particular point in time. And that means, in my mind at least, that there is no legal justification for this effort, at least, not a strong one.

ABEL: OK, we were just showing all of the military assets that are in the region, and we are also reporting that President Trump's advisors have warned of a long commitment if Maduro is overthrown. Can you walk us through a couple of things? What that long commitment means, what military action could be taken and how long those assets can remain in place before a decision needs to be made?

LEIGHTON: Yes, so those assets can basically stay in place for about a month. At least, we're talking about the carrier battle group. There are other assets that could stay longer. Some of the more covert assets that you know, we don't normally talk about, they should be designed to stay for a lot longer and conduct operations in secret.

But the big assets, the ones that we talk about, the aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, that is one that can stay for about a month. So, if you go into Venezuela and you -- let's say attack government facilities, military bases, things like that, this is not a one-and- done type operation. What this would be is if you decapitate the government, then you have to do something to facilitate what comes next.

That is something that, you know, we find -- found out, of course, in Iraq, that if you don't do that properly, all kinds of problems can ensue from that. And that is one of the difficulties with this. And that's why a lot of President Trump's advisors are telling him that this would be a long-term commitment.

So, if you have people on station for this period of time, there are limitations in terms of fuel, in terms of resupply, in terms of other military logistical aspects that would prevent them from staying a bit longer than that, where you'd have to at least replace them with other assets. So, that's the kind of thing that you'd be dealing with.

It could be a very expensive commitment. And it's a commitment at the expense of other U.S. obligations around the world, such as in the Middle East, in Europe and in Asia.

ABEL: Key insight there, appreciate your expertise as always. Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Brian, thanks so much.

ABEL: Yes. As the U.N. Security Council prepares to vote on phase two of President Trump's peace plan for Gaza, Israel's Prime Minister is firmly rejecting one key element. Details ahead on CNN.

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[05:20:00]

ABEL: The former Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina has learned her sentence after being convicted of crimes against humanity. It was announced to a packed courtroom just a short-while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is sentence of death.

(CHEERS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: Sentence to death. The 78-year-old self-exiled former leader is in India. She was tried in absentia by the International Crimes Tribunal, a court in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. She was charged for the violent crackdown on student protests that toppled her government last year. It's estimated that at least 1,400 people were killed in that crackdown.

The United Nations Security Council is expected to vote in the coming hours on a draft resolution based on phase two of President Donald Trump's peace plan for Gaza. The outline is expected to include the possibility of a pathway to Palestinian statehood, which Israel is strongly rejecting. CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson is joining us now from Jerusalem. And Nic, just how significant is this vote in the context of Netanyahu's opposition and the additional phases of the ceasefire deal?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, it's very important for Gazans and for Israel in the long-run that this will pass. And the reason for that is that this is the second phase, essentially, of President Trump's 20-point peace plan. Of course, we've already had the ceasefire, the prisoner releases, Palestinian prisoner releases, the hostage releases that Hamas and others were holding in Gaza.

That's happened, and there's been a lot of speculation about how do we -- how is there detail put on those bare bones that President Trump put forward? And this resolution, this draft resolution aims to do that. And the vote, therefore, if successful, would allow this process of a ceasefire to be built upon, and the draft of the resolution that we've seen talks about things such as the details we've heard before, a Board of Peace; an international body that would oversee Gaza for a period of two years.

They would have responsibility for the international stabilization force. They would have responsibility over a Palestinian police force partly or perhaps wholly trained in Egypt. And they would have oversight over the disarmament of Hamas, something that's very important for Israel.

[05:25:00]

But -- and the draft of the resolution that we've seen, and the drafts can change, of course, right down to the last minute, that's in the purview of the United States putting the draft forward. There's a lack of specificity about a number of key important functions. And perhaps, one that's already drawn attention here in Israel is the one that you mentioned, and that is the possibility of a Palestinian state.

The resolution, the draft, the wording that we've seen, again, that could change. Says that after the Palestinian Authority has completed adequately, faithfully, a transformation, a reforming, then that opens or may, it uses the word, 'may' open a pathway to the possibility of a Palestinian state. And that would -- technically, that would allow the United States to

then broker talks between Israel and Palestinians to kind of have a view on what that political future may be. But already in Israel, that's being interpreted as an acceptance of a Palestinian state, something the Prime Minister and members of his cabinet reject.

And the language is so imprecise, if you will, at the moment, it gives cause for concern that this could be enough to bring the Palestinian side, you know, on board. Hamas, the other Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the others on board with this. And there's also a lack of specificity about the stabilization force, about what precisely what they would do, how they would do it, their mandate, how they would interact with the police.

So, NGOs here, hopeful it will happen. But also, the NGOs and diplomats, I'm speaking to concerned about the lack of detail, and therefore concerned, even if this were to pass, that it could actually go fully into effect and be successful.

ABEL: All right, that's so vague now and hopefully everybody wants to see more specifics to get that path moving forward. Nic Robertson for us in Jerusalem, Nic, thank you. The French and Ukrainian Presidents are meeting in Paris to iron out critical defense deals. Coming up, the latest on the conflict with Russia as Winter looms closer.

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