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Trump Admin Will Provide Partial November Food Stamp Benefits; 2025 Campaign Trail Is Popular Stop For Democrats Eyeing 2028; Trump On Crypto Tycoon He Pardoned: "I Don't Know Who He Is"; New Book Explores Life & Legacy Of Rev. Jesse Jackson. Aired 12:30-1p ET
Aired November 03, 2025 - 12:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:30:00]
GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- USDA saying in those court documents that what that means is that they're going to be obligating to basically cover about 50 percent of the eligible households current allotment.
So does that mean that some of those 42 million individuals and households that qualify and receive SNAP benefits are only going to be getting half of those benefits? I mean, we're talking about one in eight Americans. That's why there have been so many folks watching this really closely, Dana.
We know that the Trump administration has been talking about trying to find other ways to fully fund SNAP. As of now, though, we are just looking at this 50 percent allotment, and we don't know if it's going to be happening immediately. This process can take days to actually get those SNAP benefits onto cards, into the hands of individual recipients.
So it's not exactly clear when people will access those funds. That's information that we're still waiting on here as we sift through these documents.
DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, absolutely.
Thank you so much for bringing that to us, Gabe. Appreciate it.
And coming up, it's the hottest place to be if you're a Democrat with 2028 presidential ambitions. What are we talking about? I bet you can guess, but we'll tell you after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:35:40]
BASH: The 2025 campaign trail is the place to be if you're a Democrat hoping to make a name for yourself ahead of 2028.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE BUTTIGIEG, FORMER UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: Voters get to send a strong message by electing a governor who takes her cues from the people of New Jersey, not orders from the White House.
SEN. RUBEN GALLEGO (D), ARIZONA: Things are tough now. We need a tough leader, someone who's going to lead Virginia into the future, who's going to make sure that Latinos have a chance to buy that home, start that business, send their kids to good school, and really give and be part of this great country.
SEN. COREY BOOKER (D), NEW JERSEY: This election is for our children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BOOKER: This election is for our health care. This election is for our unions. This election is for our public schools.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BOOKER: This election is for us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BOOKER: And when we vote --
CROWD: We win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Panel is back now. My takeaway from that is that I guess you have to have a beard now to run a bid (ph) in '28.
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: Oh my god, who knew?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: At least Cory Booker was in his home state, by the way.
BASH: Yes, that's true.
CHALIAN: We'll give him some credit there. Go ahead.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, it's an opportunity, obviously, for these people who want to climb the rankings, the presidential rankings, to be out there. Although I will say, I don't know, I think voters, some of these people, they know more than others.
But it still feels to me like the electorate is searching for somebody that they don't know to come onto the scene. And that's one of the reasons why some of these folks are trying so hard to sort of get the attention of voters in this attention economy, because it's really difficult.
And even the people like Gavin Newsom, who have a lot of attention, they still have a lot of convincing to do for Democrats to believe that they are the answer to what they're going to need in 2026. And I think we are far from that at this point.
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Interesting, too, that these Democrats are mostly with Mikie Sherrill and Abigail Spanberger. I don't see a whole lot of them with Zohran Mamdani other than --
CHALIAN: AOC and Bernie Sanders.
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: And Ro Khanna.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: And Ro Khanna.
RAJU: And Ro Khanna. Not many of them trying to embrace that left flank in the party, obviously --
BASH: Yes.
RAJU: -- concerned about it. And also not as many of the potential Republican 2028 surrogates out with the GOP candidates, also a reflection of perhaps the desire not to nationalize those races on the Republican side, try to keep it local.
BASH: And it's specifically, let's -- I mean, we can even zoom in on governors. Andy Beshear was in Virginia, Gretchen Whitmer. We'll see about that in 2028. That's a whole another discussion with Sherrill, Josh Shapiro, Spanberger, Wes Moore with Spanberger.
ZELENY: Look, governors like to campaign with prospective governors. But seeing a Gretchen Whitmer out there, that was also interesting. Virginia is going to make history tomorrow regardless, because Virginia is one of 17 states in the country that has never elected a woman governor before. So regardless of who wins, that is going to be interesting.
And the candidates are not talking about it. Abigail Spanberger rarely, if ever, talks about it. But voters are talking about it. I was talking with a woman last night at her rally in a false church, and she was just noting the fact that why hasn't Virginia elected a female governor yet?
So I think some of these surrogates add some excitement and attention. But, you know, the candidates also just need a buddy sometimes on the road.
BASH: They do.
ZELENY: At this point --
PHILLIP: Yes.
ZELENY: -- the stump speech has been delivered.
BASH: Yes. And it's about getting out there in front of voters, but it's also -- I mean, these people who are thinking about it, they need reps.
PHILLIP: Practice.
ZELENY: Yes.
BASH: They need reps. And this helps them.
PHILLIP: Yes.
CHALIAN: By the way, Josh Shapiro?
BASH: Yes.
CHALIAN: He has Supreme Court retention races in his state today -- tomorrow. He also has his own re-election campaign next year in a battleground state.
BASH: Right.
CHALIAN: So, he -- those reps will --
BASH: Yes.
CHALIAN: -- help him because he's got some campaign trouble.
ZELENY: He also shares a TV market.
CHALIAN: He does.
ZELENY: I mean, with New Jersey, so.
BASH: Yes, no, that's a good point. Gavin Newsom, we have to talk about him. He has not left California, understandably so, because he has Prop 50 in California. Listen to what he said to Kristen Welker yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: I feel it's a completely different moment. I feel like we're on the precipice of a remarkable moment on November 4th. And not only where I'm confident we're going to win here with Proposition 50, but you're going to have two new remarkable governors in Virginia and New Jersey.
You're going to have a dynamic young mayor, regardless of where you are on the political spectrum, that ran an extraordinary and exceptional campaign that galvanized people that, frankly, have been disenfranchised from politics. And we've got leaders now that have a united front.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[12:40:03]
BASH: So he's taken the Trump -- when Trump goes low, he goes lower thing to great prominence over the past year in 2025. That was a different Gavin Newsom, just sort of his tone, obviously the setup of formal interview. What's he trying to do there?
CHALIAN: Yes, I mean, listen, he has -- he's not hiding the ball at all. He has said he's going to give a run for the White House real consideration after next year's midterms. I guess he's hiding the ball a little bit. I'd argue he's already giving it consideration.
But, you know, to your point about the go low and go high, he actually was asked by Kristen Welker about that Michelle Obama quote. And he was quick to say, you know, Michelle Obama has even revised that quote. Like, to not be alone on an island, he believes you've got to fight fire with fire.
PHILLIP: He's doing more of what I think Democrats want to see, which is that you have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. You have to be able to operate in the very online space that this current administration is operating in, while also sitting for a substantive interview with Meet the Press or a Sunday show.
You do have to do them both. And so far, Gavin Newsom is actually executing what a lot of these other candidates wish they could do in this moment. But most of the other ones are not as well known as he is. They don't have the platform of the largest state in the country.
So he is -- he has a bit of a leg up right now. And he is getting attention for his willingness to sit down for podcast interviews in places where maybe he's not so welcome. And that's working, at least for now, for him (ph).
BASH: We're going to sneak in a break. Hold that thought because this is something you want to talk about. And that is President Trump's new comments about crypto billionaire, one that he pardoned, raising serious questions about clemency in his White House. Manu asked the Speaker about it. Stand by for that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:46:17]
BASH: Quote, "I don't know who he is." That's what President Trump is saying about the man known as CZ, the billionaire founder of the crypto exchange Binance. President maybe should since he granted CZ a full and unconditional pardon just days ago.
Listen to this clip from 60 Minutes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why did you pardon him?
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: OK, are you ready? I don't know who he is. I know he got a four-month sentence or something like that. And I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In 2025, his crypto exchange Binance helped facilitate a $2 billion purchase of World Liberty Financial's stablecoin. And then you pardoned CZ. How do you address the appearance of pay for play?
TRUMP: Well, here's the thing. I know nothing about it because I'm too busy doing the other.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But he kind of pardon --
TRUMP: But I can only tell you --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But he kind of pardon --
TRUMP: No, I can only tell you this. My sons are into it. I'm glad they are because it's probably a great industry crypto.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Jeff Zeleny, let's play the imagine if Biden said that game. We don't even have to play it because in the same interview, he was going after Biden for an autopen on -- allegedly on pardons.
ZELENY: Look, just the latest example of a long list of example of things that are not necessarily equal. But the President there, this is the at least the second time, at least publicly, where he is denied knowing anything about him. I think he knows well who he pardoned, setting aside the criticism of Biden for not knowing who --
BASH: Yes.
ZELENY: -- he was pardoning. Let's focus on this president for the moment --
BASH: Yes.
ZELENY: -- and this pardon and not be distracted by the Biden one. I think that if he doesn't know, there are members of his family and the family crypto business that know.
BASH: Yes, I mean, that's a fair point. He should know. He has the singular power to pardon someone.
ZELENY: I think he knows.
BASH: And he did it. You asked the House Speaker about this. Let's watch that exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: Last week, you came here to these mics, and you were very critical of Joe Biden's use of the autopen, pardons, said he didn't even know he was pardoning. Last night on 60 Minutes, the president, President Trump, admitted to not knowing he pardon a crypto billionaire pleaded guilty to money laundering. Does that also concern you?
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: I don't know anything about that. I didn't see the interview. You have to ask the president about that. I'm not sure. (END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: This has been a pattern for the Speaker of when they're confronted with things that Donald Trump has done that are controversial and they just want to answer. He says he has not seen it, whether it's about $230 million in payments that Donald Trump wanted DOJ to help pay off his legal bills. I've asked him about that multiple times. He has said he didn't know about it.
He has not weighed in on that yet or the bailout to Argentina. He's sort of sized up that question. So it is a familiar tactic. But the point is that Republicans are investigating Joe Biden's use of the autopen. They say that he has not been -- was not present and that he was signed off on all these pardons that are invalid, especially on the way out the door because he was unaware.
Trump admitted to the -- being unaware. So, again, two things that are not equal.
PHILLIP: It was -- no, I mean, autopen aside, just the facts of this pardon, the fact that his family is in business right now with the head of this -- with this company that is headed by CZ, that is problematic, I think, for all of us, because I don't think our legal system or our kind of guardrails really accounts for something like that.
And the way that the Trump family's net worth has dropped dramatically because of crypto is hugely significant and far outweighs any amount of money that might have traded hands when it comes to Hunter Biden.
BASH: Quick final word.
CHALIAN: And I think he gave it away in that interview. He says, I don't know him. And then she said, but you pardoned him. And then his immediate response was, my sons.
PHILLIP: Yes.
CHALIAN: Like, the logic made -- he totally revealed himself in that moment.
[12:50:05]
BASH: All right. Thanks, everybody.
Don't go away, Abby, because up next, before the audacity of hope was the Democrat who preached, keep hope alive, we're going to dig into the enduring influence of Reverend Jesse Jackson. Thanks to Abby's brand new book.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BASH: On this very day, 42 years ago, civil rights leader and political activist Jesse Jackson announced his first presidential bid.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) [12:55:08]
REV. JESSE JACKSON, CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER & POLITICAL ACTIVIST: I rise to declare that I can and announce to you this day my decision to seek the nomination of the Democratic Party for the presidency of the United States.
(CHEERING)
JACKSON: Blacks, women, Hispanics, workers, Indians, Chinese, Filipinas, we must come together and form the Rainbow Coalition. We need each other.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BASH: Jesse Jackson's influence and impact on the Democratic Party is still resonating. And Abby Phillip wrote a new book called, "A Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power." She is still here with us.
This is so great. And I know, as your friend and colleague --
PHILLIP: Yes.
BASH: -- that you've been working really hard on this --
PHILLIP: Yes.
BASH: -- for a while and it shows. And one of the things I wanted to start with was obviously he was the first African-American man to make a serious run for president. But when he did that, it wasn't just that. He was, I think, one of the first celebrities --
PHILLIP: For sure.
BASH: -- to do so.
PHILLIP: Yes.
BASH: And here's what you write. "Before Trump, Jackson was the ultimate celebrity candidate, someone who understood the media on a profound level. He could gather crowds of tens of thousands and bring them to their feet or to tears with his speeches."
PHILLIP: It was an extraordinary skill that he had that was, you know, it was rare then. It's probably even more rare now. And in so many ways, actually, Trump brings Jesse Jackson into more clarity because a lot of the things that made people discount Jesse Jackson in the 80s were not reasons that Donald Trump couldn't be president.
He was a celebrity. He had no previous political experience. He was known to the public in a completely different way from politics but came into the political sphere to run for president. And both men actually explored this idea of economic populism and tried to use it to break through the two-party system and launch outsider bids for the presidency.
So in so many ways, Jesse Jackson was a candidate before his time. But I also think that for the Democratic Party, he was someone and a sort of a kind of candidate that they still to this day are struggling with. When you look at the -- we were talking earlier in the show, Abigail Spanberger and Zohran Mamdani, and how do they exist in the same political party.
Well, guess what? That's the same debate that the Democrats were having in the 80s with Jesse Jackson. And I think this book actually shines some light on the consequences of ignoring the energy that's behind a Jackson candidacy and perhaps a Zohran Mamdani candidacy for the Democrats right now.
BASH: And one of the things that you also explore in here is sort of the history of Jesse Jackson and how he came up as Martin Luther King's protege.
PHILLIP: Yes.
BASH: They were close. He was at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis the early morning of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.
PHILLIP: Yes.
BASH: And you write, "Many of my friends worked for the Urban League or something doing administrative jobs. They made more money, less risk, and they had more stable jobs, whereas with Dr. King, you may not come home." That was about what he said. That was obviously a huge relationship.
PHILLIP: Yes, and it shaped him in every possible way. I mean, Jesse Jackson was in his early 20s when he started working with Dr. King, and he basically kind of bogarted his way into this group of really consequential civil rights leaders and became kind of like a youth leader at first. And then later, the head of Operation Breadbasket.
And he intentionally sought out a role, that was a leadership role where he knew that there were consequences, particularly that you might not make it home, where he wasn't going to get paid a cushy job with benefits. He was out there doing civil rights work. And so everything that he knew about both politics and activism, he learned from Dr. King.
But when Dr. King was assassinated and killed at an untimely age, Jesse Jackson then had to pick up where he left off and move the movement into a new phase, both in terms of economics, using economic power to gain changes, to increase diversity, to gain access to franchises and things like that in the business world, but also in terms of political power, because they were fighting for access to the ballot box.
And Jesse Jackson said, well, now we have to move into the next phase, which is what does power really look like inside the political system? How do you use it to actually gain leverage in the party system? And he talked, actually, to Republicans and Democrats for a while there. There was a decade in which -- just leading up to the 1980 election, Ronald Reagan came to Chicago and sat down with Jesse Jackson seeking an endorsement. So he was trying to create leverage in the political system in both parties for a time, and then eventually decided that the way to do it was to run for president.
BASH: Yes. He even had a show on --
PHILLIP: He had a show on CNN.
BASH: -- this -- on this network called --
PHILLIP: Yes.
BASH: -- "Both Sides with Jesse Jackson" --
PHILLIP: Yes.
BASH: -- which is where I first met him. It is called "A Dream Deferred: Jesse Jackson and the Fight for Black Political Power." Congratulations. Here it is.
PHILLIP: Thank you so much, Dana.
BASH: Congratulations.
PHILLIP: Thank you.
BASH: Thank you so much for being here. Don't forget, you can see more of Abby Phillip tonight on her show, NewsNight at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.
Thanks for joining us on Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts right now.
