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Dick Cheney Dies; Virginia Governor's Race; Air Travel Delays. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired November 04, 2025 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Breaking news: Air traffic control staffing problems are causing new delays this morning. Flights in and out of Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport are seeing delays of nearly an hour. The FAA is reporting similar issues at Newark's Liberty Airport.

And we have seen a huge spike in flight delays across the country since the government shutdown began more than a month ago.

And the person who has been tracking all of this is our aviation correspondent, Pete Muntean.

We were just joking. We were calling you Bad News Pete with all of these delays.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It's tough because it seems like really no place is safe from these air traffic control staffing shortages right now.

And what's notable is that this really pales in comparison to what we saw over the weekend. But Phoenix being on the list of airports affected by air traffic control shortages is interesting because it's usually not on that list. And it is early there yet, only about 9:30 local time in Phoenix.

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport does not rank high for operational problems. But the latest from FAA is that today's delays are being caused by staffing shortages in the control tower on the airport itself. The FAA implementing these delays to maintain safety, but it means that flights are running an average of about 55 minutes late.

That's pretty significant, because Phoenix is one of American Airlines primary domestic hubs for connecting flights, also a major base for Southwest Airlines, one of the carrier's top five busiest airports. So you can expect a ripple effect that will extend beyond Phoenix.

Right now, the number of delays nationwide remains relatively low. Just checked it. But, just yesterday, staffing shortages impacted about 17 air traffic control facilities nationwide, and the delays climbed into the thousands, 4,600 flights delayed on Monday, according to FlightAware. The government shutdown-related staffing shortages are also hitting

TSA security lines. Remember, TSA officers not getting paid. And this was the scene at Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport, where lines stretched up to three hours yesterday.

The airport says today the waits are down to about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes, but still very long when you consider the average TSA wait time nationwide for standard screenings is about five minutes. Remember, on day 35 of the 2019 shutdown, it was air traffic control staffing shortages and key facilities that effectively brought air traffic to a halt, forced Congress to hammer out a deal.

Right now, controllers still not being paid, but are required to report to work. And one controller just told me that she was already planning to pick up part-time work, and with the impacts of the shutdown getting worse, she may move that date up sooner.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just said at the U.S. Department of Transportation, the performance of air traffic control during this shutdown, he says, is better than previous shutdowns, but this keeps going on and on and with no end in sight. These controllers really want to get paid.

BROWN: Yes, there's a real human toll here.

Pete Muntean, thank you so much -- Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Happening now, it's Election Day across the nation and we're watching key races from California to New York. In Virginia, for example, Democrat Abigail Spanberger and Republican Winsome Earle-Sears, the current lieutenant governor, they're facing off in a governor's race that has turned into a kind of referendum on President Trump's second term.

Either way, Virginia will have its first woman governor and the results could signal where voters are headed for next year's midterm elections.

[11:35:06]

BROWN: Joining us now for are former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign Karen Finney and former Trump campaign adviser David Urban. They are both CNN political commentators.

Busy day for both of you.

Karen, let's start with you. I'm just wondering, as a Democrat, which election are you watching most closely tonight?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I would say Virginia and New Jersey, because I think they will tell us the most about the mood of the electorate. And Virginia, what's interesting, we're seeing that -- from some of the internal polling, that this standing up to Trump is a big issue because of the shutdown, because you have so many federal workers in Virginia, particularly Northern Virginia. New Jersey, as you know, is a blue state with purple, reddish areas.

So what will that tell us, and what will turnout tell us about the mood of the country, and sort of particularly given the polls that we have seen, the CNN poll and others, about the level of dissatisfaction with Donald Trump? And so what does that tell us about the mood of the electorate and the message they are trying to send to our leaders?

BLITZER: David, as you know, and we have covered a lot of elections, if history tells us anything, the party in power typically, typically faces some headwinds in these off-year elections. How confident are you, if you're confident at all, that Republicans can pull off victories in the Virginia and New Jersey governor's races?

DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I'm not particularly comfortable at all.

Listen, I think if there's going to be an upset tonight, Ciattarelli is going to be the person who does it. New Jersey, as Karen...

BLITZER: The New Jersey Republican candidate.

URBAN: Yes. And Karen alludes to, in the last presidential election, as you remember, New Jersey didn't get called until like 5:00 in the next morning kind of thing. It's a really -- it's a much more purple state, trending much more that direction.

But it's still not a Republican state. So I would be surprised if he wins, but if there's going to be an upset, I think he would be the gentleman to do it. And I don't know this is so much a referendum of Donald Trump as it is on the economy.

So, Trump policies, I think Karen correctly points out people, especially in Northern Virginia, a lot of government employees, so they're not getting paid. I think the thing that Democrats have done smartly in this election cycle, and they should learn from it, is talk about the economy, right?

You just heard Pete was talking about air traffic control. The things that are going to make this shutdown, this government shutdown end are things that affect people's pocketbooks, affect people at home directly. So you're not flying, you're getting -- Thanksgiving, you can't go see your grandparents, or your family can't come, people are going to be very angry.

And so Democrats have tapped into that in this election cycle, I think, talking about kitchen table issues that people care about, not so much about women's -- men in women's sports and all these kind of really hot topic social issues that get Democrats in trouble, but they have kind of come back and said, how can we kind of peel away that coalition that Trump built of like black and brown supporters that Trump built to get elected?

And those economic issues are the ones that kind of hit those notes.

FINNEY: But let's be clear. What I think is interesting is, I mean, we have seen Winsome Earle-Sears try to use that playbook around who's playing in whose sports and it hasn't broken through.

She has not been able to break through. I think that's part of what...

(CROSSTALK)

URBAN: We're radically agreeing here, Karen.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

FINNEY: Yes, I know. No, I know. I love it. Thank you. And I love the blue. I love it all.

But I think but the other piece of this is, I mean, look, it does not help Republicans when you have the president of the United States during a time when there's a conversation about whether or not people are going to get SNAP benefits throwing a lush, fancy party at his fancy resort in Florida, right?

People are saying, wait a second, what is that guy doing for me? And particularly in governor's races, one of the things we see that's different that voters tell us they want is, who's going to protect us? If they feel like, wait a second, the federal government isn't doing right by us, it becomes, we need a governor who's going to protect us, right, which is part of why you saw a number of Democratic governors saying, we're going to figure out how to find the money to do SNAP benefits.

That's what people are looking for in that chief executive of a state.

URBAN: And I think here's the issue for Karen and her Democratic colleagues come Wednesday morning when they wake up, which party do they have, right? Is it going to be the party of kind of moderate Democrats, like Spanberger, right, Abigail Spanberger, who's basically a Blue Dog Democrat, the old kind of Sam Nunn conservative, or is it going to be the Democratic socialist of America Party, where...

FINNEY: She's not quite the Sam Nunn...

(CROSSTALK)

URBAN: But, no, but I'm guessing -- but I'm saying, she's much more -- that you can't have two more contrasting candidates than Mamdani and Spanberger. If you put them next to each other, they don't look like they're in the same party.

So, which ideology do the Democrats embrace come Wednesday morning moving forward to '26?

FINNEY: Well, we're a big tent party. You should try it sometime.

URBAN: OK.

BLITZER: Well, what the Democrats clearly are embracing is what James Carville used to say during the Bill Clinton run for president. Remember, it's the economy, stupid.

FINNEY: Oh, yes.

URBAN: That's exactly right, Wolf. And that's what I'm saying.

Like, if Donald Trump, if Republicans don't get back to this -- Trump was very successful in bodegas, black barbershops, driving a dump truck, working at McDonald's. Those are -- that's why people elected him, right? Fix the economy, put more money in my pocket.

[11:40:07]

If people at home don't feel like that's happening, Republicans will suffer. And so I think Republicans, the Congress, the administration need to pay a lot more attention to how people feel about their own pocketbooks.

FINNEY: Can I just -- I'm so sorry. Can I mention one other thing that we're also tracking, though, is the impact of ICE and federal monitors.

I mean, Donald Trump is actually doing damage to that coalition because -- some are afraid to come out because of the racial profiling that's going on. Even if you're a citizen, they're scooping people up. And in some instances, we have heard stories where people are being kept a week to two weeks before they even get to tell anybody where they are.

So we're hoping that does not have a suppressive impact. And there's a lot of work that's been done, particularly in Latino and immigrant, black immigrant communities, to try to stave that off.

BLITZER: So you think turnoff is going to be critical?

FINNEY: Absolutely. It always is.

And it's the best way to send the strongest message.

BROWN: How do you make -- what do you make, I should say, David, of how President Trump has weighed in on some of these races, right? He's endorsed Andrew Cuomo for the mayoral race in New York City. He didn't make a formal endorsement of Winsome Earle-Sears, the Republican, in Virginia. What do you make of that?

URBAN: Trump likes winners, right? He wants winners. He wants to pick winners.

Listen, I like Curtis Sliwa.

BROWN: But do you think Andrew Cuomo will win in the New York City mayor's race, then?

URBAN: No, I don't think Andrew Cuomo stands a chance. I like Curtis Sliwa.

BROWN: Then why do you think he endorsed him? URBAN: I don't know. I think -- I have not talked to the president

about it, so I'm not going to put words in his mouth.

I like Curtis Sliwa. I like his line -- some of the lines he had during the debate were incredibly catchy. I don't want to repeat them here because they're a little -- kind of a little almost off color, but they're great.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: He's the Republican candidate.

URBAN: He's the Republican candidate.

I think he's an incredible guy, incredible character, speaks New York. I mean, a lot of boroughs, he will do very well, Staten Island, a lot of places. I think, if he had much more of a chance -- I was on with him yesterday. One of his great lines is, we need to lock up criminals, not toothpaste, right?

That's an incredible -- like, those are snappy, but they hit home, because when people go to the CVS or the Walgreens or the Duane Reade to go buy deodorant, it looks like they're trying to buy like a Cartier watch, right? The guy comes out with keys. Like, which one would you like to see, Mr. Blitzer? They're like, I just want deodorant, right?

And so it affects people. And he was speaking those economic issues.

(CROSSTALK)

FINNEY: But that is an economic -- right?

URBAN: I know. Exactly.

FINNEY: People are really suffering in the Trump economy, to the point where they're getting desperate.

(CROSSTALK)

URBAN: But New York's a different place, right? That's -- this is a crime issue. This is a crime issue.

(CROSSTALK)

FINNEY: But the economy is still a major issue. And we have seen that's been driving Mamdani's support.

BROWN: Yes, we will see how it plays out.

Karen Finney, David Urban, thank you both.

URBAN: Thanks for having me.

BROWN: Great to see you.

BLITZER: Good discussion.

And later tonight, you won't want to miss CNN's election livecast exclusively on CNN's All Access streaming channel.

BROWN: Let's go to CNN's chief data analyst, Harry Enten.

Give us a preview, Harry.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: You know, I'm not used to reading promos for myself, so I actually have it out of my phone. Look, the bottom line is it's going to be me. We're going to get Charlamagne tha God. We're going to get Ben Shapiro. We're going to have a host of characters from the left, from the right.

You can see them right there. It begins at 8:30. We're going to go until 10:30. It's going to be a watch party. It's kind of like a "Manningcast," to some degree, for those of you who know the NFL and watch "Monday Night Football."

It's just going to be a fun environment whereby it's going to be kind of like hanging out with your best friends who know the most about politics. The environment in which we're doing it, we built out this fun little studio. We're all going to be sitting on -- we're going to have a pinball machine. We're going to have foosball.

We're going to have one of those basketball sooty things that's going on. And we're just going to be able to discuss the issues of the day while, of course, following along on the election results. Any time that there's something that's important going on in the elections, I'm going to, of course, cut in, make sure that we talk about it.

But the bottom line is simply this. We're in a different age right now where people are watching on multiple screens. We're going to be doing the same. And you can watch it on CNN.com. And let me make sure, CNN.com. I want to get the Web site correct, CNN.com/Watch. That's W- A-T-C-H for you. And you can watch it all on CNN.com/Watch.

It should be a good time, where we're going to have a lot of different voices as we follow along with the results.

BLITZER: We will be watching. Harry Enten, as always, thank you very, very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BLITZER: Election night coverage will start here on CNN 5:00 p.m. Eastern later today. And tune in to the election livecast on CNN's All Access streaming channel starting at 8:30 p.m. Eastern.

More news right after a break.

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[11:48:52]

BLITZER: Happening now, voters and candidates nationwide are headed to the ballot box for races marking the first electoral tests of President Trump's second term, Election Day here in the United States coming as we learn that former Vice President and Republican giant Dick Cheney has, sadly, died at the age of 84.

Joining us now are Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and Bloomberg Opinion columnist, and Bill Kristol, the director of Defending Democracy Together and editor at large at The Bulwark.

To both of you, thanks very much for joining us.

I want to start with the elections.

And, Ron, President Trump, as you know this morning, says that -- and I'm quoting him now -- "If affordability is your issue, vote Republican" -- end quote.

Will that message be enough to get Republicans over the finish line in the Virginia and New Jersey governor's races?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, probably not, based on the late polling. New Jersey, an upset remains possible, but I think, based on the early vote, difficult.

I think what you're going to see, I think the critical thing to look for tonight is what happens with the groups where Trump's made his most important gains in 2024, particularly working-class and nonwhite voters, who voted for him in much bigger numbers in 2024 than before?

[11:50:04]

There were a lot of Republicans who thought that heralded a lasting realignment. It may be that their vote was moved more by economic discontent in '24, which is now turning -- after boosting Trump in '24, it's now turning around and buffeting him and Republican candidates in '25.

So, as we look at places like Passaic, Prince William County in Virginia, what happens with those blue-collar minority voters and whether they start shifting back away from Trump? That may be the single most important signal from tonight.

BLITZER: We will know soon, pretty soon. There's no doubt about that.

Bill, what do you think? What are you watching for tonight?

BILL KRISTOL, DIRECTOR, DEFENDING DEMOCRACY TOGETHER: I'm here in Virginia, where I do think the Democrats look strong, maybe strong enough to carry their weak attorney general candidate across the line, but I think Abigail Spanberger will be our next governor.

In 2021, the Republicans won the governorship in Virginia, having been out for eight years. Glenn Youngkin won. It's a bit of a herald of the fact that the Republicans hadn't been damaged much by the Trump first term or January 6, and, in fact, they ended up doing OK in 2022. And then obviously it Trumped it very well in '24. I don't know if Virginia in 2025, if the Democrats do well, will be

that kind of indicator of what might be to come. One thing to watch for, it's a little in the weeds, but people can find out by tomorrow morning, Virginia House of Delegates. It tends to swing a bit back and forth. It's been pretty evenly balanced.

It's 51-49 Republican now. People are projecting the Democrats -- 51- 49 Democratic. I'm sorry. People are projecting Democratic pickups there. If they can get up to like 60 seats in the House of delegates, that will show strength across the state at a kind of grassroots level, which might be an indicator or something.

BLITZER: Good point. We will see what happens on that front.

Ron, in a new post, President Trump once again called on Republicans to eliminate the filibuster in the U.S. Senate to end the government shutdown and pass their policies. He argues, if not, it will give Democrats the advantage in the midterm elections and the 2028 presidential election.

Do you think this is the president trying to get ahead of the outcome of tonight's elections?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, interesting.

Look, I think one of the things we're going to be watching closely tonight is, do the fundamental things apply in this sense? In the 21st century, the decisive force in off-year elections has been assessments of the performance of the incumbent president. 2010 was very bad for Democrats because people were down on Obama. 2018 was very bad for Republicans because people were down on Trump.

All year, there have been analysts in both parties who have been questioning whether that relationship still holds because voters are pretty down on Democrats right now. Their image is probably the weakest it's been since the late 1980s.

If tonight, in the exit polls, something close to 90 percent of voters in Virginia and New Jersey who disapprove of Trump vote against the Republicans, and if we see something like that, 90 percent or so, close to 90 percent of disapprovers in California vote for this referendum, it would signal, Wolf, that traditional relationship is still in force.

And given that Trump's approval rating has fallen to the lowest level of his second term, that would be a worrying sign for Republicans in 2026 everywhere outside of the most reliably red states.

BLITZER: Good point.

Bill Kristol, on Dick Cheney, before I let you go, as you recall, there was a time in which Cheney was a lightning rod for Democrats and later became a hero for them in some ways by standing up to President Trump with his daughter Liz Cheney after January 6. What is his legacy from your perspective? KRISTOL: Pretty amazing, White House chief of staff at age 34 back in

1975, vice president of the United States, what, 25, 30 years later, and then after he's left public life really comes out strongly against President Trump, saying that he's a real menace to America and to free government here in the United States, a man of principle, a long- serving public servant.

I knew him reasonably well. Very sorry about his death. And I admired him a lot, and really because he really was -- people could agree or disagree. I'm sure he didn't get everything right. But he was a public servant. He went into this to help the country way back in the -- when he was a young man in his late 20s, and he stayed in it to help the country until the end.

BLITZER: Yes, as somebody who covered him for many, many years, I can agree with what you're saying.

Ron, for many in modern politics, the last name Cheney may first be associated with his daughter Liz. She talks about how she learned from him what it meant to have courage in her convictions, even if that meant breaking with her own Republican Party. How much credit do you give Dick Cheney for his daughter's rise in politics?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, look, I mean, he was kind of a flinty political figure. He wasn't -- he was never warm and cuddly. I mean, he looked at running for president in 2000. Wasn't really much of a glad-hander out on the campaign trail. But he was someone who kind of had that Western quality of kind of independents and standing alone. And Liz Cheney certainly symbolized that.

And in the same way that Bill and his colleagues at The Bulwark are kind of embodiments of a group of voters who used to be Republican and are now at the least independents, if not Democrats, kind of the evolution of the Cheneys is part of this, maybe the bookend in this realignment of American politics that we were talking about before with Trump's gains among blue-collar voters, even in minority communities.

[11:55:23]

So, yes, I mean, they do symbolize the change we have been living through over the last generation.

BLITZER: Ron Brownstein and Bill Kristol, always great to have both of you in THE SITUATION ROOM. Thank you very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having us.

BROWN: Great conversation.

Thank you all for joining us this morning. You can keep up with us on social media @WolfBlitzer and @PamelaBrownCNN.

BLITZER: And we will see you back here tomorrow morning, every weekday morning for two hours 10:00 a.m. Eastern.

"INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" starts after a quick break.