Shutdown, Startup and Peace in Gaza 10/10/25

0:00Bring in show music, please. Hi, I'm CNBC producer Katie Kramer. Today on Squawk Pod. Standstill in Washington. The government remains shut down for more than a week, and some members of Congress are growing weary of the standoff. New York Republican Mike Lawler joins us. To me, this is about solving a short term problem while actually giving us time to fix the longer term issues here. The latest hot artificial intelligence startup moving house. An AI veteran of Meta and IBM's Watson, Jerome Pizenti joins us. I believe that humans plus language models will always be greater than just language models.

0:43His learning platform, Sizzle AI, is being acquired by Campus, a college startup backed by Peter Thiel's Founders Fund, among others, Tade Oyerinde. What Campus is doing is like, hey, let's buy a college. Let's rebuild the innards of that college from the ground up for a modern tech-driven AI age, and let's do it and get the graduation rates up. Plus, the move to get key inflation data out in spite of a shutdown, China's hard line on rare earths, and the hope of a lasting peace plan in Gaza has President Trump calling for a win. And even before the dots had been crossed and T's and I's and everything, that he was announcing, I'm coming over to sign this thing.

1:22It's Friday, October 10th, 2025. Squawk Pod begins right now. Stand Becky by in three, two, one. Cue it, please. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Squawk Box right here on CNBC. We're live from the NASDAQ market site in Times Square. I'm Becky Quick, along with Joe Kernan and Andrew Ross Sorkin. And it is Fri-yay. Fri-yay. We're here. Made it to the weekend. Taco Tuesday and then Fri-yay. Yeah, two big things. Everything else is sort of the mush in the middle. Yeah. Meantime, let's talk about the other big news of the morning. Israel's government approving the first part of a peace plan to end the war in Gaza.

2:04Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office making that announcement early this morning in Israel. The Israeli military just saying a short time ago that a ceasefire came into effect at 5 a.m. Eastern time. And President Trump saying he plans to travel to Egypt for an official signing of that ceasefire deal and that hostages held by Hamas will be released Monday or Tuesday. The plan calls for a release of Palestinian prisoners and a phased Israel withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, although questions do remain, we should say, about whether President Trump's 20-point peace plan can be fully implemented.

2:37Officials tell NBC News the U.S. is preparing its options now to deploy as many as 200 U.S. troops to Israel to support stabilization in Gaza and the flow of humanitarian aid. So put this one in the good category, in a very good category, in one of the great categories for today and hopefully for a long time. A lot of conjecture about how it happened and different tactics. Journal's got an ed piece and a front page piece turning it upside down. Give the president credit and give Jared Kushner a lot of credit. And Whitcoff and relationships that have been made in the first administration. It's pretty unbelievable.

3:17Interesting in front page of the Journalist's story, it just says that there's a lot of assumptive closing going on. Like Trump was saying, look, this is happening, and you've got to get on board. And even before a lot of the dots had been crossed and T's and I's and everything, he was announcing, I'm coming over to sign this thing. So, you know, you better get ready. You know what we forgot to talk about the other day? And I'm going to get to this BLS thing because there's Taco Tuesday and Friday. I'm going to start wearing some of that body lotion that smells like donuts. Oh, what? That was out yesterday in the Wall Street Journal.

3:59And I wanted to talk to you about totally spaced and forgot to talk about it yesterday. So it's never too late. They're calling it the I missed it. I am not aware of what you're talking about. I'm going to say how smelling like a donut became the latest body care craze. It was just that's nothing new because for years I don't know this smells like and this smells like a glazed Krispy Kreme but vanilla and sugar should be a problem I like you already I like you already no I don't I smell my normal like that Saturday Night Live thing reports that Molly Shannon yes that was I can't remember her name.

4:39We've got this going for us. Reports say the Bureau of Labor Statistics is recalling some furloughed employees. They're going to help work on releasing the September CPI inflation report is originally scheduled to be published next week. It's unclear when the BLS will have it all ready to go, but reports say it could likely be by the end of the month, and if that happens, it could be used by the Fed in its next interest rate decision, which is scheduled for October 29th. This may be even more important than the other reason that they're putting it together. Yeah. In September, CPI report also critical for determining Social Security's annual cost of living adjustment.

5:18So you better not fall behind on that. Right. Right. China beefing up its security of semiconductor imports. The Financial Times reports that customs inspections began recently with the goal of making sure that local companies are following Chinese guidance and not ordering less powerful NVIDIA chips that are specifically engineered for China. The FT says that senior Chinese officials have determined domestically produced chips are now as powerful as the China-specific ones that are made by NVIDIA. Separately, the New York Times out with a report that says the Commerce Department is investigating a Singapore-based data center company with ties to China for potentially helping Chinese company evade those U.S.

6:00export restrictions. But guys, this gets pretty interesting. This is what China's been talking about for some time, messaging that they don't want these lesser NVIDIA chips. It hasn't been enforced to this point, but this is an enforcement action stepping up. And you can look at this two ways. They either think that their chips are better or at least as good as those lesser NVIDIA chips, or they're trying to put pressure on America to loosen its export restrictions so that they can get better chips, too, which is part of this whole game that's playing out. when Jensen Wong was here, we talked about that whole issue of what to do about things that are out of your control, like the government's fighting over what you can and can't export.

6:43His point, at least, is that if you don't allow American technology to be there five, 10 years down the road, nothing will be built on our systems. And that weakens the U.S. advantage. But obviously, that's him pushing his point of view because China makes up a big portion of their sales. China, China, China. This rare earth stuff is deep. In fact, we'll talk about it at some point. Anything with a value of more than 0.1 % has to be okayed by China if the rare earth materials used in it are, and it's used in absolutely everything we do over here. And it was the reason they were able to get these trade talks kind of more pressure when they withheld rare earths.

7:24It was a big deal. They're back to, this is even worse because this is spelled out And one individual that quoted calls it the economic equivalent of nuclear war. It's obviously being used to as a gambit or as, you know, a bargaining chip for everything else that goes along with. And China's saying it has to do with it's being used in defense equipment. But it's used in every I guess magnets, every single chip that cars use in cars and Tesla. But it's very restrictive, and it's like a, I mean, what are our tariffs on China now, 30 to 50? They want us to go to zero from 30 to 50 percent, and this might go up.

8:04You understand why the administration is making moves to buy up positions in minors. Which is in its infancy, the article said, even though we've been making some strides. The Biden administration even tried, but we're in our infancy in being able to provide these things. All right. Let's tell everybody about the latest right now on the government shutdown, which is now on day 10. Two funding bills failing, I should say, to pass the Senate now for the seventh time. Meanwhile, President Trump saying he plans to use the shutdown to permanently cut government initiatives popular on the political left during a cabinet meeting at the White House.

8:39Trump said that he would only be cutting what he called Democrat programs. It's unclear what he meant, though the White House has already said it would cancel billions of dollars in climate-related funding for Democratic-leaning states. It's also frozen$18 billion in funding for New York City's infrastructure and$2 billion in Chicago Transit Project funding. So we got that to worry about. Well, or hope for. Are we going to talk about Letitia James? You want to throw that into the studio? I didn't put it in there. I don't necessarily want to talk about that. It's understandable, and it's understandable the reaction that we're going to get.

9:21If you run on your entire platform as I'm going to get Trump, you shouldn't be surprised when he's president, he's going to come back and do it. Two wrongs don't make a right. But as the left never once criticized the lawfare used against Trump, now their hair is on fire about lawfare being used against her. You could say that it's not good either way, But hey, how many times has the left said, no one's above the law, no one's above the law. If she did this, she'll get her day in court. They're both felonies, the things she's accused of. And a grand jury is the one that handed out the indictment.

9:57So see what happens. It's just so, it gets tiresome when the right is not going to say anything about this, and the left didn't say anything about what was done to Trump. It's just where everybody's in their corners, and it's just tribalism. No, because you didn't say to me, actually, you and I used to have conversations about the... It's not interesting, Andrew, and it's tiresome. It's not interesting? No, it's to watch left and right go into their corners and point fingers and say, you did this, you did that. Well, you did this. Well, you didn't say anything about this. Well, you didn't say anything about this.

10:29Don't... Are you surprised that Trump is doing this after she ran on a platform that I'm going to go after Trump? I am because I am in the following way. You believed him when he said, I just want, I'm not going to. Right. Oh, yeah. So I wasn't supposed to believe him? That's the first. Is that the first time you believed anything Trump said? I thought you told me I was supposed to believe what he says. I don't expect you ever to believe anything he says. This is the first time you believe something. It's good. We're making progress then that you take him seriously, though, but not literally. I don't even know what that means anymore.

11:04Look, the truth is, I think you'll agree with this. I think there are state. If she committed mortgage fraud, is she above the law? She is not above the law. Okay. Okay. But having said that, clearly this Justice Department didn't even want to bring the case. I mean, that's the thing that's so interesting about this. One individual didn't want to down in Virginia. No, multiple people didn't. Okay. They had to, like, fire people just to get the case brought. Do we know about their appointment? Who they were, what they... I mean, everybody's got, you know, something in... A reason for doing something.

11:31Look, I think it's a terrible idea that states have roles like this where you actually have to, where they're elected politicians, meaning political roles where you're a prosecutor, which I think is just philosophically a terrible idea because people who are running on the idea, they're running. But federal prosecutors are appointed by governments. But I'm hoping that they can be appointed. I think they should be appointed in these roles, and hopefully, therefore, then they're going to be independent. I actually very much dislike the idea that people can run for a position like this and say, I'm going to go prosecute Donald Trump or I'm going to prosecute anybody else.

12:15Well, now you're saying that. I think that's terrible. No. I've said this my whole life. I think it's a terrible idea. I just don't remember. I'm getting older. I'm getting older. I don't remember any of that in the last administration. But I also think specifically that the president of the United States is at given his role at the top of the pyramid. Yeah. Has a moral duty that's much higher than all of these other people who are running around doing terrible things to try to model the right behavior. And and that, I think, is a real thing. Like the body. Leticia James has pointed out that his comments about wanting retribution might be the thing that helped her.

12:52Yes, I think it may. But I do think that people who run for office may be less reliant on favor than those who are appointed. You know, like if you're appointed to a role, you kind of owe your. And I thought I was saying that, OK, so Comey, people say, oh, it's retribution. And then immediately people that are in favor of it say, no, it isn't. It's accountability. And I think he was a major part of that entire sham of Operation Hurricane, whatever, crossfire, hurricane. So this is accountability for him. This less so with her, it's mortgage fraud. Accountability for him? What are you talking about?

13:31Accountability for his role in what happened with the dossier, leaving out things, putting in things. Let's see what happens with the case. We will. But this is accountability for Comey. And there's others where there should be accountability. And it's not just retribution. This with the mortgage thing, this reminds me of Lisa Cook almost. But tell me where it gets to the next place. You know, where he talks about going after George Soros or Alex Soros. I don't know about Soros. Or he goes after a Reid Hoffman or people who have been on the other political side of him. At some point, we have to decide that that's not a good thing.

14:04And in terms of modeling the behavior, the two wrongs don't make a right, at some point you have to say, you know, enough. Right. Right. But, but, Joe is correct, it's not interesting. You know, we can get in our corners and we can do it. Should we talk about the Nobel Peace Prize? Yeah, we could talk about that. I mean, I'm sure this person's a deserving person looking at, you know, she's been hiding for 13 months down in Venezuela, but come on. Maria Corina Machado. Well, look, the argument you could make is let's see what happens with this Middle East deal, right? We've got eight other ones that have already happened.

14:42Maybe Obama can put it out on loaner to Trump for a little while with that beauty that he's got for being Obama. Cheese will be next. Coming up on Squawk Pod, the stalemate, the politics, the back and forth, this time in Washington. Republican Congressman Mike Lawler joins us as the government shutdown reaches day 10. Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries want to show their progressive left base that they're standing up to and fighting back against Donald Trump.

15:22And we're back. This is Squawk Pod.

15:28We are hitting day 10 of the U.S. government shutdown and tensions are high on Capitol Hill. Let me ask you a question. For years, you always lectured about how we need to keep the government open. You're making a show of this to make this so relevant. It's sad. You could easily sign on to this. You're embarrassing yourself right now. You could sign on to this. You're not going to talk to me. Wasted on fraud and non-New York residents. Because you don't want to hear what I have to say. Oh, I'm listening. So why don't you just keep your mouth shut? Because you showed up. Is that the way to talk?

15:57You showed up. You showed up. Yeah. And so you voted for this one big ugly bill. I signed on to this. You can extend it right now. Permanent extension of massive tax breaks for your billionaire donors. So 90 percent of Americans. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who represents part of Brooklyn, and Congressman Mike Lawler, who represents part of New York City's suburbs, argued in front of cameras this week, both frustrated by the stalemate across the aisle over extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits.

16:32Hakeem Jeffries joined us on Squawk Box yesterday after this disagreement. Medicare is facing a possible cut of$536 billion at the end of this year if Congress doesn't act, connected to that toxic piece of legislation that Republicans enacted, which hurts everyday Americans in order to reward their billionaire donors with massive tax breaks. And by the way, those tax breaks were made permanent. And then now we're facing the Republican refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits in an environment where the cost of living is already too high and Donald Trump has broken his promise to lower costs on day one.

17:12You can catch that full interview on your Squawk Pod feed. Naturally, we had to invite Congressman Mike Lawler to the program. Here's Joe kicking off that conversation.

17:26Congressman, it's good to see you. Is there a possibility of a year extension? What happened? Isn't that what you were presenting to Leader Jeffries the other day? What caused that whole ruckus? Precisely, Joe. I mean, I went over to ask him to sign on to a one-year extension of the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits that were put in place during COVID. Democrats put them in place for four years slated to expire at the end of this year. And so I asked him to join a bipartisan bill to extend it by a year since he claims this is what he cares about and is what he is fighting for. And one would think that if there's a clean one year extension on the table, that he would be interested in doing that but the reality joe is that's not what he's interested in uh he and chuck schumer have shut the government down uh because they are petrified of aoc and zoran mondani uh you heard in the exchange he refused to answer whether or not he supports zoran mondani yeah would you have to condemn him yeah wouldn't condemn him on the show about his about his blame the jews statement on october 7th that he put out uh and it just speaks volumes to what this is really about, which is Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries want to show their progressive left base that they're standing up to and fighting back against Donald Trump.

18:53And you heard him in his own statements there. Yeah. He brought up Trump immediately with you. He said, did your boss send you over here or something? But is it possible? And I can see why. If you came to me with that, I don't know whether you are. Is it in is it possible to get a one year extension? You could get that done? Did he just doubt whether you could get that done or is it not really what they want? I think it's possible, but it's not really what they want. But I think if the objective is to ensure that the American people don't see a health care premium spike, if the objective is to keep the government open, then there's a very easy way to do this.

19:32Pass the clean CR that is sitting in the Senate right now. Get all of your Democrats to sign on to this bill. There's already 14 Republicans on it. And we can put enough pressure on leadership to move the bill. But you don't do this at the barrel of a gun. And you don't hold the American people hostage, which is precisely what he's doing, which is contrary to all of his previous statements on this matter. And that's why I went over and called him out. You know, he said last week, if you have something to say, say it to my face. So I went and said it to his face. And obviously, he didn't like that very much, which is That's why he was melting down, yelling, screaming, stammering, sputtering all over the place, couldn't answer a question, and just kept yelling about Trump and saying that I'm embarrassing myself.

20:18What's embarrassing is that he and Chuck Schumer are holding the American people hostage for no reason. And that's what I was calling out. A lot of Republicans that are, I don't know, maybe they're more conservative, they don't want to, they want these subsidies to lapse. And they point out that the lapsing of the subsidies isn't the reason that Obamacare and premiums are getting more expensive every year, that it's it's it's flaws in the program itself. So they want to just nip it in the bud. But and Joe, they're they make a very valid point. If you look at why extended premium, why extended a year you get you are giving the Democrats what they and do I smell the an opening here for a deal?

21:02is that the way this is going to finally happen? Is this the way that the reopening occurs? They get a year extension and vote on the clean CR? Is that what you think? Yes, I'll answer both questions. First, my colleagues are right in pointing out that health insurance premiums have risen by over 60 % since Obamacare took effect nationwide. So Obamacare was intended to do a number of things, including reducing the overall cost of health insurance and increase access. It has failed miserably in its objective. And the only way it has become affordable is with these premium tax credits and these subsidies, which are used to pay the insurance companies.

21:44What I'm saying is, look, we are obviously at a point where this is slated to expire. Americans are struggling after four years of Joe Biden's inflationary policies. We don't want to crush them with health care spikes. And so if you extend this a year, it buys us time to actually fix the fundamental problems with our health care system. That is that to me is a reasonable approach so that the American people don't suffer because of the incompetence of the Biden administration putting these premium tax credits in for four years slated to expire. and an Obamacare system that has actually made health care less affordable for the vast majority of Americans.

22:29So to me, this is about solving a short term problem while actually giving us time to fix the longer term issues here. That would be about a 45 billion expense. Over 10 years, I understand it's about 450 billion to extend those. So you're talking about talking about a tenth of that. But what guarantees would Democrats have that after they reopen the government? I mean, how would this be written? How would they agree to doing that? Because it sounds like there's a possibility that I mean, I think you're giving in to Democrats. And that's not, you know, on closing the government, they're getting exactly what they want for not voting for a CR.

23:14That's a bad precedent. But at least we'd get the government reopened again. We already had this bill in the works before they shut the government down. A number of us realized this was an issue and we're working with leadership on it. The Democrats are entirely wrong to have shut the government down. They're entirely wrong to trying to be extort, extort leadership and the White House and try to get their policy demands. This is a serious issue that we have to address, however. And so my point is open up the government, pass the clean CR that has been sitting in the Senate for nearly three weeks.

23:51Chuck Schumer always said we've got to keep the government funded and open. We've got to pass clean CRs. You don't, you know, bang your fist on the table. You don't stomp your feet and demand your way. So they need to do that. They need to open the government. Leader Thune has already said they are open to discussing these subsidies once the government is open. So to me, there's there's no guarantee to give them. There's no, you know, quid pro quo. They need to do their job. They need to make sure our troops are getting paid. They need to make sure that those Americans that rely on critical programs like WIC and SNAP have the funding for that.

24:28We have a clean CR to do all that. So pass it, open the government, and then let's address fiscal year 26 appropes and issues like this. I was trying to figure out why Leader Jeffries is so involved. It's already passed the House, but I guess I'd have to ask you the same question. It's not your problem. It's Schumer's problem and Thune's problem. But it is a problem. And, you know, military pay is coming up, I think, what, in a couple of October 15th. So it'll be over by then. Don't you think? I think something. No, no. Unfortunately, Joe, no, I don't. I don't think so. I think Chuck Schumer is so petrified of his left flank.

25:08Remember back in March, all the government workers are not going to get paid except for congressional members. Right. Well, look at Schumer's quote yesterday. Every day is getting better for us. Who is us? The Democrats, not the American people, not our military, not our border patrol. This is fundamentally wrong. It's why, by the way, when Joe Biden was president, I pushed back against Republicans who wanted to shut the government down over the open border policies. While I fundamentally disagreed with Biden's open borders, I did not think shutting the government down was actually going to solve the problem.