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Last Full Day Of Campaigning Before Election Day; Travel Misery Ramps Up As Government Shutdown Nears Record; Judge Orders WH To Use Emergency Funds To Make SNAP Payments. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired November 03, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: -- young hospital patient after the big win.

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JOSH ALLEN, BUFFALO BILLS QUARTERBACK: They're the pinnacle of what you want your franchise to be. They've been that for the last eight years. You know, anytime you get a chance to play, you know, the best and -- and you can come away with a victory. You're going to be feeling pretty good.

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WIRE: Feeling real good. And Wolf now, you know, this is a superstition. You have to wear those socks every game for the rest of this season on into the playoffs.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Especially when they play the Kansas City Chiefs.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: There you go.

WIRE: No doubt.

BLITZER: And I love it when he does the tush push.

BROWN: And we all know Wolf. There's one thing we know on this show. All right, Coy Wire.

BLITZER: The next hour of The Situation Room starts right now.

BROWN: Happening now, Deadline Day. How will the Trump administration find the money to at least partially restore food aid for millions of Americans? They have one more hour to figure it out and let us know about it. And what about the people going hungry right now? The President of Feeding America joins us.

BLITZER: And final sprint candidates in key races court voters on this the eve of the biggest electoral test of President Trump's second term.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown and you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin this hour with a final push for votes in critical city and state elections. In New York, the two leading candidates for mayor are offering starkly different views of the city's future. And voters in New Jersey and Virginia are about to pick new governors with midterm elections now just a year away. Democrats are looking to reshape their fortunes starting tomorrow.

BROWN: And this is all happening against the backdrop of a government shutdown that's about to become the longest in the nation's history. Eva McKend is in Virginia. Let's start with you. What are the candidates saying even the final hours of their campaigns?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pam and Wolf Democratic nominee Abigail Spanberger just pulled off here from Richmond where she held a canvas launch greeting volunteers who are about to go off and do the hard work of door-knocking here in the final hour. She was joined by Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin, another -- or a member of Congress that is also fashioned themselves as a moderate.

And listen, I can tell you that the Spanberger campaign is feeling confident in the strategy that they have employed here focusing heavily on the economy, the cost of living and really speaking to the deflated federal workers in this state that have been impacted by cuts from the Trump administration. But the real wild card in this contest in Virginia is how the controversy surrounding Democratic nominee for Attorney General Jay Jones and violent text messages that he sent in 2022 will impact the entire Democratic ticket.

Republican candidate for governor, Lieutenant Governor Winsome Earle- Sears, she is hoping that it really serves as an indictment on all Democrats that they have rallied around Jones amid the controversy. I tried to put this question to Spanberger. Take a listen to the exchange.

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ABIGAIL SPANBERGER (D-VA), GOV. CANDIDATE: We're excited about the fact that Virginians tomorrow will make clear that we want a governor who's focused on lowering costs, strengthening our community, strengthening our public schools and growing our economy despite all the challenges that we see coming out of D.C. So the energy is fantastic. It's going to continue as we head towards tomorrow. We're looking forward to when the polls close tomorrow. Thank you so much for being here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Eva, Eva, Eva, no questions.

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MCKEND: So you can hear there Spanberger did not answer our questions. Listen, she is spending the last day here doing these smaller events also working on student turnout. Meanwhile, the lieutenant governor is ending her campaign tonight with a big rally in Manassas in Northern Virginia as she presses her case as well. Wolf, Pam? BLITZER: Eva McKend on Richmond, Virginia for us. Eva, thank you very much. Arlette, you're at a campaign event for the Republican candidate. What's the message in this the final few hours of this campaign?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf Republican nominee, Jack Ciattarelli, just wrapped speaking to voters here at Murph's Tavern in Totowa, New Jersey, and he encouraged voters to vote Republican saying that their vote will change government here in New Jersey. Right now, the governor's office is held by a Democrat governor, Phil Murphy and what Democratic Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill is trying to do is extend Democratic control for a third term, something that has not been done here in New Jersey in more than 60 years where one party wins three terms in a row.

But Ciattarelli has argued that Sherrill will essentially be an extension of Phil Murphy and his Democratic policies, which he believes have failed New Jersey voters. For Sherrill's part, she has really tried to make this race into a referendum on President Donald Trump who has endorsed Ciattarelli. Sherrill has argued that Ciattarelli will not stand up to the President. But that is something that one voter. I spoke with Marilyn Petrucelli (ph) said she's not concerned about. Take a listen.

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SAENZ: Ciattarelli is just going to be a yes man to Trump and will just do whatever Trump wants --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't believe that. I believe he's going to help us. I really do. Like they said that about Trump that he was no good and look what he did. And any Democrat says that to me, I got a couple words for them which I can't say on the microphone.

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SAENZ: Now here at this event at Murph's Tavern, Ciattarelli actually received a bit of a surprise. His son, Jake, who serves in the Army in Kuwait, flew overnight and landed just hours ago, drove straight to this tavern to surprise his father on the eve of the election. Jake told me that he'll be here through Thursday when he has to go back to Kuwait, but that was a very personal moment for Ciattarelli to have the support of his son here at this event.

Now, when I've talked to voters here in New Jersey, Democrats and Republicans, they are in agreement that the economy and cost of living are top concerns, things like high property taxes and energy costs. That is something we've really heard both candidates talk about in this closing stretch.

Now, a little bit later tonight, President Donald Trump will hold a tele-rally on behalf of Ciattarelli with New Jersey voters, but we haven't seen Trump campaigning here on the ground with Ciattarelli. I asked Ciattarelli just a few moments ago whether that's because he views Trump as a liability, and he simply said that he is ready to fight for New Jersey voters going forward. And tomorrow, those voters will make their voices -- voices heard at the ballot box.

BROWN: Yes, they will. We'll be tracking it. Arlette Saenz, Eva McKend, thank you both. Wolf?

BLITZER: Also happening now, travel misery taking off and likely to get worse as the government shutdown triggers even more flight delays. This was the scene this morning at Bush Intercontinental in Houston, long lines at security.

And this past weekend was the worst for air traffic control staffing since the shutdown began more than a month ago. CNN aviation correspondent, Pete Muntean, is here in The Situation Room with us. You've been looking through, Pete, the FAA operations plans. What will today and the coming days be like?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, the FAA just updated the list, and the facility responsible for flights approaching Newark Liberty International Airport is short-staffed today. Also the center facility responsible for high-altitude flights around New York, those are the two spots of concern so far. But history has shown that things can change pretty fast, and it's pretty close to how Friday started, which kicked off the worst weekend for air traffic control staffing shortages since the start of this shutdown 34 days ago.

This is what we've been monitoring. It's called the FAA National Airspace Operations Plan, published every few hours, shows air traffic control facilities with short-staffing. And on a normal day, there might be one or two facilities here. On Friday, this was the list, 46 different facilities.

The three New York City airports have been especially hard hit, and the FAA says on Friday those facilities saw nearly 80 percent of controllers call out, and that is what creates the bind. And the FAA says it has no choice in some cases but to slow the pace of flights and put into place delays or ground stops. I want you to listen now to what Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said about that.

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SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Well, does it become a flight emergency, a safety issue? No, we will stop traffic. So we're not going to let that happen. I think the real consequence is what kind of rolling delays do you have throughout the system, right? We've seen problems at L.A., in Dallas, in D.C., Boston, Atlanta. And so I think it's only going to get worse.

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MUNTEAN: It seems like no place is safe right now. In all, this weekend saw more than 16,000 flight delays nationwide. Remember, air traffic controllers still working without pay during this shutdown. That zero dollar paycheck they received just last Tuesday was in cell to injury. And Duffy said on Sunday the White House is looking for what he calls pots of money to get controllers paid again, but he says the rules there are pretty strict.

By the way, TSA agents also working without pay. No major surprise on day 34 of this shutdown, there were delays at TSA checkpoints as well. This was the line at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. At one point, the TSA line there stretched three hours long. But the TSA posted this morning that when you consider the wait times nationwide, they averaged about five minutes yesterday for standard screening.

They said 2.11 minutes, very exact, for a precheck. And they screened about 2.7 million people nationwide. It's up about a percent when you consider the same time a year ago. The big thing here is these people have to get paid, and this is the human toll of this government shutdown, and it's having a real impact on travelers with Thanksgiving not far off on the horizon.

BROWN: Yes, and you were just traveling over the weekend, Wolf, but it was OK for you?

BLITZER: I was really lucky. My flight from LAX, Los Angeles, to Washington Reagan National Airport left on time and arrived on time. It was pretty -- I was just pretty lucky.

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MUNTEAN: It's a bit scattershot, and I hear from people who get hit by the delays, and also people who have no problems. So, the real thing here is when there's weather in the mix, on top of air traffic and slow staffing shortages, that can cause the whole deck of cards to come tumbling down.

BROWN: And we've seen it happen. All right, Pete Muntean, thank you so much.

BLITZER: Good work.

BROWN: Still ahead here in the Situation Room, low marks hit a new high. The brand new CNN polling on how Americans think President Trump is going to do in the so far in his second term.

BLITZER: And millions of Americans now dealing with food insecurity. I'll speak to the president of Feeding America about how the organization is trying to help.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The holidays are coming. You know, it's -- people are going to be hungry.

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BLITZER: Breaking news, CNN has obtained a criminal complaint for two suspects who are being accused of, quote, planning to conduct a terrorist attack in Michigan. On Friday, the FBI Director Kash Patel wrote on social media, the FBI, quote, thwarted a potential terrorist attack and arrested multiple subjects in Michigan who were allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend.

The two suspects are facing charges of, quote, receiving and transferring and attempting and conspiring to transfer firearms and ammunition, knowing and having reasonable cause to believe that the firearms and ammunition would be used to commit a federal crime of terrorism, end quote, that according to a criminal complaint.

BROWN: Happening now, the Trump administration has less than an hour to tell a federal court how it will comply with an order to at least partially fund the SNAP Food Day program by Wednesday. Forty-two million Americans defend on SNAP benefits to feed themselves and their families, but the program has been in limbo because of the government shutdown and people who normally get their money at the beginning of the month are already feeling the pinch.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now we have to choose either to feed ourselves or to pay the bills because either way we are, you know, it's -- it's affecting us. We -- we have children, young children, and we have to make sure that we're still keeping it together for them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not mad at anybody. We just want to get our work done and get our paycheck. That's all. We didn't hurt anybody. We don't deserve this.

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BROWN: Joining us now is Claire Babineaux-Fontenot. She is the CEO of Feeding America. Claire, bring us in to just how bad it is for all these people who aren't getting their benefits right now.

CLAIRE BABINEAUX-FONTENOT, CEO, FEEDING AMERICA: It's tragic. Your -- your viewers may not realize, but even before the shutdown, food insecurity rates were higher than they ever were during the pandemic. On top of that, even as soon as last week, 70 percent of food banks were seeing significant increasings -- increases in demand. And now this, I mean, it's truly devastating and tragic. That's the bad news. The good news is we can do something about this and we should.

BROWN: Well, and we are waiting to find out what the Trump administration is going to do in terms of complying with the order to at least partially fund it until this government is reopened and those benefits are fully restored. But you talk about the demand was already going up even before this. And we know food banks have been struggling to keep up with that. What are you seeing across the country? Are donations increasing as the need increases? Do you have enough volunteers?

BABINEAUX-FONTENOT: So the donations and volunteers have not kept pace with the demand. And at the same time, we're so grateful for every penny, every dime and every moment spent in this work. Because when people do this, they lift up their whole communities, not just people experiencing hunger. So it's devastating to a whole community when more people experience hunger, which is what people are facing right now.

BROWN: What do you want people to know who aren't on SNAP benefits? What -- what do you want them to understand about this right now?

BABINEAUX-FONTENOT: One of the things I want them to understand is that there are 250,000 retailers who have SNAP sales. That means it's not just big retailers, not just small retailers. It's not just middle size either. It's our whole economy has a lot of dependency on what happens with SNAP. It is so, so stimulative to our economy. So there are lots of rural stores where 60 percent of their sales are SNAP sales.

So that rural store might have to shutter its doors should this not happen. So of course, the first thing we should think about is that there too could go high, and we should have empathy and concern for people who are struggling. We should also understand that this is our collective struggle. All of us do better when people experiencing hunger do better. All of us lose when they don't.

BROWN: And we know some state governments have stepped in with funding to try to help fill this gap in the SNAP funding. Has that been enough to keep people fed in those areas?

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BABINEAUX-FONTENOT: No, the estimates are that between 8 and $9 billion is required each month in order to fund SNAP. So I was so pleased to hear that the administration has the legal footing that it believes it needs in order to go ahead and release those contingency funds.

Know this, that they are only a temporary fix. And in fact, they're not a full fix. And that while there are some states who had the monies available to make contributions, many states can't make any contributions at all. So the right answer is for the government to reopen. And in the meantime, for us to use every single resource at our disposal to make certain that people get the food that they need.

BROWN: And just as we wrap up, you know, tell us more about what food insecurity can do to a person, especially a child, because so many children rely on these benefits. And -- and what viewers at home can do to help?

BABINEAUX-FONTENOT: Well, so I love that I can get an opportunity to answer both of those. And I'll try to be quick. Number one, everything that we want for our future and for our children depends upon kids getting the nutrition that they need. There are so many data out there that show that it helps them to learn better. It helps them to adjust better in class. Helps them to be more sustainable in their full lives that they want for themselves and that families want for them too.

So it affects almost every aspect of a child and their future when they get access to the food they need or when they're deprived that access. As for what people can do. They can donate. They can advocate. And they can volunteer. They can do each of those in whatever measure is available to them. If they want to know where and how to get that done, I encourage them to go to feedingamerica.org. We're a national organization of over 250 food banks, over 60,000 agency partners and meal programs, over a million volunteers. People like you, like your viewers who really want to be a part of positive change. You get a chance to try.

Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate the opportunity. And I hope that by having these types of opportunities, the American consciousness will be raised like it was during COVID. And we'll decide as a nation that it's unacceptable for our children to not have the food that they need. And we'll decide that it's all of our business to make sure that they do.

BROWN: Claire, thank you so much. Your voice is so important in this ongoing conversation we're having. We appreciate it.

BABINEAUX-FONTENOT: Well, appreciate you having me.

BLITZER: We are also grateful to people like Claire for what they're doing Feeding America, so, so important, especially right now.

Coming up, a crucial deadline for James Comey and his defense team. Will the federal case against the former FBI director get thrown out?

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BLITZER: Happening now. Attorneys for James Comey face a deadline to file new motions to dismiss the charges against them. And they are demanding that the U.S. Justice Department explain exactly what it thinks the former FBI chief and Trump critic lied about. Comey is charged with making false statements and obstructing Congress. He has pleaded not guilty.

CNN Senior legal analyst Elie Honig is joining us right now. Elie, Comey's lawyers say questions from Senator Ted Cruz during a hearing back in 2020 were ambiguous. Explain this motion to dismiss.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Right, Wolk, so in a perjury case, prosecutors have to show that there was a clear, unambiguous question and then a clear, unambiguous, intentionally false response. And the gist of the motion that Comey is going to be filing formally today is essentially that if you look back at that exchange between Senator Ted Cruz and Jim Comey in September of 2020, essentially, it's incoherent. It's incomprehensible.

Ted Cruz basically asks three or four different things crammed into one purported question. And then Jim Comey's response is simply to say, well, see my prior testimony from 2017. I stand by that. And so the gist of Comey's argument here to dismiss the case is there is no clearly identifiable false question and false answer. The question is too vague. And the answer itself is not on its face, false. That's Comey's argument. BLITZER: And it's interesting. A separate motion to dismiss calls this a vindictive and selective prosecution. What are his chances with that motion?

HONIG: Well, I think they're pretty good. It's ordinarily almost impossible to win on those motions, Wolf. But let me explain what they are. So selective and vindictive prosecution are similar but not identical. Vindictive means essentially the defendant has been singled out because of personal animus, personal hatred from somebody in the government. And then selective means that person has been chosen from, among others who have done similar things for improper political reasons.

So ordinarily, defendants do make those arguments and lose. But here, Jim Comey can point to a long line of public statements by Donald Trump, including his social media posts, that will lend some support to that. So I almost always sort of dismiss these arguments, but I think Comey's got a real chance here.

BLITZER: Another issue at play, as you know, Elie, is the appointment of prosecutor Lindsey Halligan. Talk a little bit about how that could impact this case.

HONIG: So, ordinarily, Wolf, the U.S. attorney for any given district is supposed to be nominated by the President and then confirmed by the Senate. But the law says if that has not happened yet, the President can name a temporary U.S. attorney who can serve for up to 120 days. And then at that point, the judges in that district have to choose.

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Now, the problem here is that Donald Trump already did that with Lindsey Halligan's --