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One World with Zain Asher
Trump Ramps up Pressure Campaign on GOP to Prevent Epstein Vote; Tensions High in Venezuela with U.S. Warship Offshore; Medics Say Israel Plans to Deport Sick Palestinians Back to Gaza; Zelenskyy Calls for Two Cabinet Members to be Fired Over Scandal. Aired 11-11:30am ET
Aired November 13, 2025 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ZAIN ASHER, CNN HOST, ONE WORLD: All right, coming to you live from New York. I'm Zain Asher, and this is "One World". There is new urgency today
surrounding a question that's been consuming Washington for months. Why won't the White House allow the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files?
On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee made public thousands of emails from Epstein's estate that shines a renewed spotlight on the U.S.
President's ties with the late convicted sex offender. Trump's name is mentioned multiple times in the emails, which include exchanges between
Epstein and his coconspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
The president is accusing Democrats of a hoax in trying to deflect from their handling of the government shutdown, some Republicans, meanwhile had
this to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): -- the Democrats have had those Epstein files for four years, and now we've got it for nine months, and it's going to be
dragged in a bunch of nonsense. Let's just take it to the -- Let's vote on it. Let's get on with it.
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): It's a totally pointless exercise. It is completely moved now. We might as well just do it. I mean, they have 218
signature that's fine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: Now the government shutdown is over. House Speaker Mike Johnson says the vote on the Epstein files release bill will come next week. CNN's Kevin
Liptak joins us live now from the White House. Obviously, this is the last thing the U.S. President wants. It continues to be a thorn in his side,
just when he thought that it perhaps gone away.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, and it's clear the White House is in sort of damage control mode, really trying to downplay
what is actually inside of these emails. But there's no question that even just having the president's name contained in some of these correspondences
looks bad.
And the president seems to know that, which is part of why the White House, yesterday spent a lot of their efforts and energy trying to convince some
of these Republican members of Congress to remove their name from what's called the discharge petition, which would essentially compel a vote in the
House, which would force the administration to release the entirety of these Epstein documents.
You know you had the White House bring in Lauren Boebert, the Conservative Republican from Colorado, to the White House Situation Room of all places,
to meet with the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, the FBI Director, Kash Patel, to sort of discuss this issue. And even despite those efforts, they were
unsuccessful.
Her name remained on that list, as did Nancy maces, another Conservative Republican who the White House had been trying to convince to remove their
name. Now, when the press secretary was asked about this effort yesterday, she tried to cast it as an exercise in transparency. Listen to what she
said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Doesn't that show the level of transparency when we are willing to sit down with members of Congress
and address their concerns, that's a defining factor of transparency, having discussions with members of Congress about various issues. And I'm
not going to detail conversations that took place in the Situation Room, in the press briefing room.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIPTAK: Now, one of the reasons that the House Speaker Mike Johnson, had been so reluctant to allow this vote to come to the floor is that it will
essentially sort of cause every Republican to have to go on record whether they support releasing all of these files, which many of them have said in
the past that they are, or whether they're loyal to President Trump, who has said that he doesn't want these files out.
Once it's in, goes through the House, it will force every Senate Republican to do the same. Now, it may not pass the Senate. They have the majority in
that chamber. Clearly, President Trump will reject it if it ever makes it to his desk, but it is still sort of an effort and political will of these
Republicans about whether or not they're going to go with what they have told their constituents they would do or whether they will vote to keep the
files sort of under wrap.
And so, you can see how this is all becoming a quite a political quagmire for the president, but also for virtually every Republican on Capitol Hill.
ASHER: All right, Kevin Liptak, live for us there. Thank you so much. All right, the government shutdown here in the U.S. is over, the pain is not,
and it could take some time before things get back to normal. It's not clear when nearly 42 million Americans will have their SNAP food benefits
restored.
That will vary state by state, air travelers are likely to experience delays and cancelations for weeks, in part because many air traffic
controllers quit or retired during the painful shutdown.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: The cuts have to continue, meaning the cuts to the numbers of airline
flights until they have the full contingent of workforce back or rehired. It's going to take a while to fully improve, and we would will probably
feel the effects, even at Thanksgiving.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: More than a million furloughed government employees will return to their jobs today with six weeks of work waiting in their inboxes, and a
union official says it will take the IRS two to three months to catch up on various tax filings. At this hour, a U.S. federal judge is deciding whether
or not to toss the indictments of two Donald Trump's perceived political enemies.
Lawyers for Former FBI Director James Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James say the prosecutor who single handedly brought charges
against them was improbably appointed and the charges should be dropped. Lindsey Halligan was hand-picked by President Trump to be an Interim U.S.
Attorney after her predecessor was forced out.
Reportedly for resisting calls to bring charges against Comey and James. Halligan secure those indictments soon after taking the job. CNN's Katelyn
Polantz is at the courthouse and filed this report a short time ago.
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KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: This stands to be some lengthy arguments today in court before a judge, and a major test for
both the Justice Department's cases against the Former FBI Director James Comey and the New York Attorney General Letitia James.
The big questions here, Sara, can Donald Trump do this? Can the Attorney General do this? In this case, it's a question of whether they are able to
send in this hand-picked prosecutor, Lindsey Halligan, to the Eastern District of Virginia to get these cases charged and shepherd them through
the court system to a trial.
On that, it's also a question of, can Lindsay Halligan be the person who is the prosecutor overseeing these cases. What we know about her is that she
is serving as an interim U.S. Attorney, not Senate confirmed, and she is sent in to this district in Alexandria, Virginia, to bring these cases
after a former prosecutor here was ousted by Donald Trump, after there was resistance to these two cases being brought through a grand jury.
That's very crucial, because the person before her, that person wasn't senate for confirmed either, also picked by Trump, said to this district.
And so, what these arguments are largely going to be about today is the length of time the president can be sending people in to a district without
getting congressional blessing for the person to be running the show as the top prosecutor.
They're saying on the defense side that Lindsey Halligan, she should not be allowed to be here. She should also not be allowed to be the person whose
name is on these indictments. And their argument looks very closely as what the indictments actually says, what was said to the grand jury, because as
far as we know, Lindsey Halligan is the only person to have signed these charges, to have, take these cases through the grand jury.
That means that if James Comey is successful, if Letitia James is successful in arguing this today, they could make the case to the judge
that Lindsey Halligan should be removed and the whole cases should be tossed not to be brought again, because they say if Lindsey Halligan had
not been here sent by Donald Trump, these cases never would have been brought to begin with.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ASHER: All right, thanks to CNN's Katelyn Polantz for that report. The family of Reverend Jesse Jackson say they appreciate all the prayers for
the U.S. civil rights leader who remains in hospital this hour. Jackson, who is 84 years old, was admitted overnight for observation of Progressive
Supranuclear Palsy known as PSP.
Jackson's Rainbow PUSH Coalition organization says he has been managing this neurodegenerative condition for more than a decade after he was
originally diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. The PSP disorder affects body movement, walking and balance. It will continue to cover the story and
bring you any updates as well.
There are uncertainty and fear in Venezuela today as the largest warship in the U.S. military floats nearby in the Caribbean Sea. The Pentagon says the
USS Gerald Ford Carrier Strike Group is there to deal with drug smugglers. But some Venezuelans fear the U.S. could be trying to engineer regime
change to get rid of their president Nicolas Maduro.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel worried, because this affects everything. There is a lot of tension.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The United States should not interfere in this manner. I think it's an abuse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: U.S. Secretary Marco Rubio says that the U.S. strikes on drug boats in the Caribbean did not come up in closed door meetings this week with G7
counterparts, but two European diplomats did publicly call out the U.S. attacks, saying they appear to be illegal. CNN's Kylie Atwood joins us live
now from Washington.
So, Kylie, Marco Rubio saying, essentially, there has been no objection to this on the sidelines of the G7, even though a lot of people and a lot of
allies have talked about the fact that these strikes on so called drug votes lack legal justification.
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Also, another thing that Trump Administration is saying that any sort of U.S. military personnel involved in any of these strikes will be immune
from prosecution as well. Kylie, walk us through that.
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN U.S. SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. So, the secretary of state making the case yesterday that there, you know, there may be concerns
about these strikes, but that those were not raised directly with him in his meetings with his G7 counterparts in Canada.
That is interesting, because we have talked to diplomats who, as you said, are concerned about the legal justification for those strikes being carried
out. But the secretary of state, speaking with reporters after those meetings yesterday, said essentially that he didn't believe that they would
have the grounds to question the U.S. action here their interpretation of international law.
And also made the case that it would be sort of a double standard for those Europeans who want the U.S. to be defending Ukraine, to be angry with the
United States for trying to defend their own regional kind of area here in the Western Hemisphere. Listen to what he said there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I don't think that the European Union gets to determine what international law is. They certainly don't get to
determine is how the United States defends its national security. I do find it interesting that all these countries want us to send, you know, and
supply, for example, nuclear capable tomahawk missiles to defend Europe.
But when the United States positions aircraft carriers in our hemisphere, where we live, somehow that's a problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ATWOOD: Now, CNN has reported that the UK suspended some intelligence sharing with the United States due to these drug boat strikes and obviously
questions about their legality, the secretary of state said that, that was not true, that that was fake. He went on to say that nothing has happened
or changed the U.S. ability to do what we're doing we are, nor are we asking anyone to help us.
Giving an indication there that what the United States is doing here in attacking these drug boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific waters is based
on solely U.S. intelligence collection. And he did say that, listen, there is a military buildup in the region for a reason, and one of the reasons is
because they're able to collect intelligence that then informs those strikes that are being carried out.
But of course, this is certainly a space for us continue watching, because here in Washington, there are also concerns, primarily among Democrats, but
privately among some Republicans as well, about the legality of these strikes and also what could come next, as there are concerns about the
administration potentially moving to carry out strikes on land in Venezuela.
The secretary of state briefed members of Congress on this last week, said that there are currently no plans for land strikes to be carried out, but
we do know that there are some quiet efforts in the administration right now to come up with a new legal justification. Should those strikes be the
direction that the administration decides to head.
ASHER: Right, Kylie Atwood live for us there. Thank you. We'll have much more on this next hour with the Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the State
Department, Thomas Pigott. All right, still to come this hour, medics in Israel say that sick Palestinians will be deported back to Gaza.
Why, one mother told CNN that this move would be a death sentence for her son. Plus, Ukraine's President visits his front-line troops as Russia
continues to make gains in his country. After the break, find out why he's also calling for members of his cabinet to be fired.
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ASHER: Right, medical teams in Jerusalem say that sick Palestinians will be deported out of Israeli hospitals and back to Gaza. At least 89 patients
and their companions will be returning home, but what awaits them is a battered enclave, where, according to the World Health Organization, 94
percent of hospitals have been damaged or destroyed. CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more on the story from Jerusalem.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, doctors at two East Jerusalem hospitals say that Israeli authorities have informed them that
they intend to deport all Gazan patients being treated in those hospitals back to Gaza as early as next week.
This news has been devastating for some of those patients and their families being treated in these hospitals, in particular because of the
rarity of some of their conditions and the lack of sufficient medical care that exists in a devastated Gaza Strip. Altogether, 89 patients and their
companions are set to be deported back to Gaza as early as next week.
According to those doctors, they include a teenager by the name of Yamen Al-Najjar who has a rare blood disorder. He was medically evacuated from
the Gaza Strip just two days before the October 7th attacks, and has been living with his mother inside an East Jerusalem hospital.
But his mother is now concerned that it will be a death sentence for him to go back to the Gaza Strip, where not only the strip is devastated in terms
of any remaining buildings and residential areas, but also in terms of the health care system in Gaza that has been decimated over the course of two
years of war.
In fact, even in East Jerusalem, he hasn't been able to get the proper treatment necessary, and his mother has been working for the last 14 months
to first get approval from the World Health Organization to get him to another country, which she received, but she has still been fighting to try
and find a third-party country that will host her son in a hospital abroad.
And that has been one of the major backlog issues, not only for those Gazan patients in those East Jerusalem hospitals, but also for Palestinians
inside the Gaza Strip who have been seeking medical evacuation have gotten approval for it, even in some cases, from Israeli authorities, but simply
have not been able to get approval from a third-party country that would be willing to host them.
Now there is a question about whether this deportation will go forward next week, most of these patients and their families are willing to go back to
the Gaza Strip, but for those who will not, efforts are underway to try and fight that deportation order we've seen in the past.
The Israeli Supreme Court had stepped in back in March of 2024 to stop the deportation of some Palestinian patients from Gaza being treated in East
Jerusalem. But for now, the Israeli authorities declining to comment to CNN, it's something that we will be tracking very closely, of course, over
the course of the next week, Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Jerusalem.
ASHER: All right, troops along Ukraine's front lines got a visit from their commander in chief, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy got a security briefing
at a base in the Zaporizhzhia region. Ukrainian troops recently had to fall back as Russian troops advanced closer to the city.
As you can see from this map, Zaporizhzhia sits just west of the territory that's been controlled by Russia since 2014 as Ukraine's outmanned and
under equipped, troops are struggling to fend off Russian troops. Two members of the president's cabinet are out of a job over corruption
allegations.
Zelenskyy has asked parliament to fire the energy minister on the left and the justice minister on the right.
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The issue is $100 million in alleged kickbacks in the energy sector, in all seven people have been accused of wrongdoing. Ben Wedeman joins us live now
from Rome with the details. Ben, you know the issue of graft, of corruption in Ukraine has been long running, and it's something that it's really had
to grapple with, especially as it continues to try to shore up European support. Just walk us through what's happened here.
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the national anti-corruption bureau in Ukraine, announced today the results of an
investigation that began last summer, during which they conducted at least 70 raids recorded more than 1000 hours of wire tapped phone conversations
in which they uncovered at least $100 million kickback scheme involving the country's state-run nuclear power company, Energoatom.
And several senior ministers, the energy and justice ministers, a former deputy minister, also implicated in this case, but perhaps most damningly,
is an old friend and associate of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who according to this investigation, is the mastermind of this scheme.
And this is Timur Mindich, joint Israeli, a dual Israeli, Ukrainian national, who is the co-owner of the media production company that
President Zelenskyy founded. Now, according to the authorities, this individual, Mr. Mindich has left the country just a few days, surprisingly
before the results of the investigation were announced.
Now, President Zelenskyy has asked the parliament to dismiss the justice and energy ministers, who, of course, insist that they are innocent, but
certainly at a time when the energy sector is critical for Ukraine, it's being hit a lot by the Russians these days, and of course, Ukraine is
hitting back at the Russian energy sector, but winter is coming.
And for corruption to be plaguing such a critical start sector of the infrastructure is something that really angers ordinary Ukrainians. This is
what some of them said today to us in Kyiv.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EVHENIIA KYRYCHENKO, PHOTOGRAPHER: The fact that all this is coming to light, that people so close to the president are involved in such a
corruption scandal, is simply appalling.
IHOR LAVRUSHKO, FORMER LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: I believe that the fight against corruption should continue, both in peacetime and during the war we
are currently experiencing. I think that if the president's office and the president himself take appropriate steps to quell the scandal and take a
tough stance on it, then I think that it will not damage his authority.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WEDEMAN: And of course, this comes at a time when there is continuing concern about corruption in Ukraine, and certainly it calls into doubt
among many donor states about whether they're the money, the hundreds of millions, billions of dollars they're giving to Ukraine are actually going
for their intended purposes, Zain.
ASHER: All right, Ben Wedeman, live for us there. Thank you so much. A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Justice Department to release hundreds
of people arrested in the State of Illinois. Immigration and civil rights attorneys say that more than 3000 people were arrested in the Chicago area
between June and October as part of the ICE Immigration crackdown.
The judge ordered 615 of them to be granted bonds. They did not have mandatory detention orders and did not pose a significant threat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK FLEMING, ATTORNEY OF NATIONAL IMMIGRANT JUSTICE CENTER: I think it will show that this whole operation for the last two months, the
terrorizing of our neighborhoods, the brutalizing of people here, has all been unlawful. All of the tactics of Mr. Bovino, all of the tactics of ICE
have been unlawful in the vast, vast majority of arrests.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: In response, the Department of Homeland Security spokesperson says the release puts Americans directly at risk. British journalist Sami Hamdi
is back in the UK after spending 18 days in ICE detention in the U.S. The London based commentator says he was detained for speaking out against
Israel's war in Gaza.
He was taken into custody at San Francisco International airport one day after he spoke at a Gala for the Council on American Islamic Relations.
U.S. Immigration authorities say that Hamdi was detained for overstaying his visa. However, Hamdi and his team argue that he was in the U.S. on a
valid visa.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAMI HAMDI, BRITISH COMMENTATOR: I am pleased that I was able to return home. I am pleased that the judges found that my freedom of speech rights
were infringed upon, and I am pleased that my voice is back and that the extremists will never win. They will never prevent our voices from being
loud, from resonating with the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: For more than two weeks, Hamdi says he endured very harsh conditions inside of civility and was kept in shackles despite being never charged
with a crime. Hamdi is one of the latest pro-Palestinian foreign nationals whose visas were revoked by the Trump Administration.
Finally, at this hour, a powerful geomagnetic storm led to a dazzling northern lights display around the world. This was the colorful scene
captured over Australia's Victoria state. Isn't that magnificent? And in Italy's Aosta Valley, a bright red aurora lit up above the Matterhorn sky
paradise.
The northern lights were also visible across two dozen states in the U.S., stretching from Wisconsin to Florida, a rare treat for Sky gazes that far
south. Right, there is more "One World" in about 30 minutes or so from now. CNN "Creators" is up next.
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