Financial Times: Trump Donors Receiving Benefits From WH Moves

26:47And not only for the people that are in uniform, but having the opportunity to see my mother alongside my father for over 40 years until she passed away in 2022. She, too, was committed to the military, to military families, because while service members sign up, it's families that serve. And so that is what we're very focused on. And when it comes to some of the impacts that we're experiencing right now, the shutdown didn't stop. We didn't start our recognition of service members because of a shutdown. And we won't stop because of a shutdown. It continues. Dr. Brown, on your left side there, underneath your name, is the Legion of Honor.

27:31You were in Normandy. Yes. You went to Normandy last year. President Macron awarded you that. That's the most prestigious French order of merit. What was that moment like for you? The president of France in this celebration of America and the Allies' victory over Nazis and despots. And they honored you. And Macron put that right there. Yes, it was almost unbelievable for the president of France to honor me, to give me the award. And you and your late wife created a foundation that benefits veterans. Tell us about that. My wife expired about five years ago. And I have developed a foundation scholarship in honor of her.

28:25And of course, I hope to share that with any of the communities that want to send their children on in any direction they want to go in terms of learning and being part of the community. What was her name? My wife? Yeah. Ozeal Shine Brown. Ozeal Shine Brown. Yes. All right. Well, on this Veterans Day, I can't tell you how honored I am to meet you, sir. Thank you so much for your service. Thank you for what you did in World War II for me and my family. Well, I say over and over, and I do believe and honor that, that I'm just glad we won the war because we didn't have to win it. I'm very glad that you won the war as well.

29:13Dr. Arlister Brown, Claredith Landry, thank you. And I hope you have a peaceful and meaningful Veterans Day. Thank you so much. Thank you. CNN has learned that the United Kingdom is now suspending some of its intelligence sharing with the United States over those boat strikes in the Caribbean. The new exclusive reporting is next.

29:53helps companies plan for risk with insurance and proactive risk solutions. So focus can stay where it belongs. Prepare for risk. Protect success. Smart risk management from the Hartford. Contact your agent or visit thehartford.com slash risk mitigation. We have some exclusive CNN reporting today in our Worldly. The United Kingdom will no longer share intelligence with the U.S. about suspected drug trafficking vessels in the Caribbean. With sources saying that the British do not want to be complicit in these lethal U.S. military strikes against drug trafficking suspects, strikes that the Brits and lots of legal experts believe are against international law.

30:38Let's get right to CNN's Natasha Bertrand who broke this story. Natasha, this is a critical departure from a top U.S. ally. Yeah, it's the U.S.'s closest ally. They have a very long standing intelligence sharing partnership. And it's important to note some of the context here as well. Prior to the U.S. military beginning its lethal campaign against these suspected drug vessels, the U.K. was very happy to share intelligence with the U.S. in the Caribbean to try to locate suspected drug traffickers because, of course, the U.K. controls territory in the Caribbean and they have an interest in controlling the flow of drugs in that area.

31:15But when the U.S. military started to bomb the boats rather than just interdict them and arrest everyone on board, instead they started killing everyone on board. 76 people to date have been killed in these U.S. strikes. The U.K. decided to pull back its intelligence sharing, we're told, because they did not want their targeting information to be used by the U.S. military to conduct these lethal attacks, which the U.K. believes are illegal. They believe that they are in violation of international law. Now, the Trump administration has argued that the U.S. military can legally kill suspected traffickers because they pose an imminent threat to Americans and they have designated them as enemy combatants, saying that the U.S.

31:56is in an armed conflict with those groups. But crucially, the administration has not provided evidence either publicly or even to lawmakers that these individuals on board these boats are in fact members of these criminal organizations, these cartels. and they've also told lawmakers repeatedly that they don't even know the individual identities of each of these people on the boats before they strike them and kill everyone on board. So this is why the UK and other allies around the world, as well as so many legal experts, are questioning the legality and frankly just the wisdom of this US military campaign, Jake.

32:31All right, Natasha Bertrand in Brussels. Thanks so much. The Trump administration claims that the U.S. strikes on boats are targeting boats operated by what they call narco-terrorists and cartel members bound for the United States. An Associated Press report finds that for at least nine of the more than 60 people killed in the strikes, that does not seem to have been the case. In dozens of interviews, quote, residents and relatives said the dead men had indeed been running drugs but were not narco-terrorists or leaders of a cartel or gang, unquote. The report details how the men made up to$500 a trip, laborers and fishermen.

33:07They were low-level career criminals who lived along the poverty-stricken coast of Venezuela. They were people whose families and friends could confirm their deaths only through their absences and by word of mouth. My panel is here, former director of National Drug Control Policy under President Biden, Dr. Rahul Gupta, also with us national security expert Sean McFate. So, Sean, the relatives and residents interviewed in this story are, in a sense, these people were just killed, not interdicted, not captured, not given any sort of due process. Can you shed some light on how the process, according to international law experts, is supposed to work?

33:45Yeah. So the law of armed conflict or international humanitarian law, you can only hit combatants, which is like a soldier versus a civilian. It distinguishes between a combatant and noncombatant. But we've had this discussion before for the last 25 years about, say, a terrorist. Is it terrorist? You know, they deliberately blur the line between civilian and combatant. And what the Trump administration has done is said, OK, well, we targeted terrorists for the last 25 years. these cartels kill more Americans through fentanyl and opioids than terrorists do. So really, they're the same thing. And that's the question that others like United Kingdom and Canada to some extent have criticized.

34:36So, Dr. Gupta, obviously, narcotics are a huge problem in the United States. Lots of innocent people are overdosing, people that take fentanyl and opioids purposefully, but also people that think they're taking like a natural herb pill or something far less dangerous, marijuana even, and that's been laced with fentanyl and they die of the overdose. What do you think about what the Trump administration is doing to combat this horrible situation? Well, Jake, I think there's a number of issues here. First, four out of five people that die or are overdosed and die is because of fentanyl, not cocaine necessarily.

35:16And the fentanyl is coming from China and Mexico, not from South America. Exactly. So the boats generally have cocaine. Now we get about 2 ,500 tons of cocaine coming to this country every year, and we try to interdict about 10 % of this, and we are not able to match that goal per the Inspector General of the Coast Guard in this administration. Now think about that. 2 ,500 tons. That means that there is a demand problem also in this country. Now, the second issue here is that if we're killing people without any judicial process of accountability, that also means we don't know what's on those boats and who are those people, except for the reports that now we know.

35:57I will also say that when we move to, for not high-level terrorists or high-level cartel leaders, but everyday people who are doing a side hustle, even though it's criminal, to kill them this way, we're denying not only due process, but basic principles that we've stood by, which is accountability, fairness, and the rule of law. And that's what's important. Sean, sources tell CNN the UK suspending intelligence having to do with the Caribbean. Do you think it's likely that other U.S. allies who also have territories or relationships in the Caribbean, France, Norway, et cetera, et cetera, are likely to follow suit?

36:35It's a good question, Jake. So first of all, the United States and United Kingdom are in an intelligence alliance called the Five Eyes. Five Eyes, yeah. Right, which includes Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. And this move is really more symbolic than an operational constraint because the U.S. has pretty superb intelligence there, especially since they have like 10 % of the Navy fleet docked off the Venezuelan coast. so it's it's really a symbolic sort of shot across the bow if you will yeah to the Americans and the Canadians have they haven't gone that far but they've voiced publicly they also have reservations about operations there before we go quick thoughts Sean on the new head of Syria who was in the White House yesterday he he fought Americans as along Islamist insurgents in Iraq in his early 20s What do you make of it all?

37:30Well, it's super historic, right? I mean, you have a guy who just a couple of years ago was a terrorist that we would have shot on sight, speaking of the same thing. And now he's meeting the president in the Oval Office. Maybe it marks the end of the global war on terror. I don't know. All right, Dr. Rahul Gupta and Sean McPhee, thank you to both of you. Really appreciate it. Coming up, new video shared on this Veterans Day. You see the shock experienced by some military veterans, veterans of Vietnam and Korea, when a former president suddenly showed up on the plane, bringing them to D.C., an honor flight.

38:04Stay with us.

38:10Starting a business can seem like a daunting task unless you have a partner like Shopify. They have the tools you need to start and grow your business. From designing a website to marketing to selling and beyond, Shopify can help with everything you need. There's a reason millions of companies like Mattel, Heinz, and Allbirds continue to trust and use them. With Shopify on your side, turn your big business idea into... Sign up for your$1 per month trial at shopify.com slash special offer. In our health lead, the FDA's plans to remove certain warning labels from hormone therapy medication used to treat menopause symptoms.

38:46But why? Let's page CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta. So Sanjay, what exactly is a black box warning, and why did hormone therapy products have it, and why don't they have it anymore? Yeah, so a black box warning is the strongest warning that you can put on medications. About 400 medications out of 4 ,000 have these black box warnings. Sort of an interesting story, Jake. I mean, when you talk about hormone therapy, in many ways, it made total sense, right? Women's hormone production starts to go down during menopause. replace that, and that could potentially alleviate or at least mitigate some of the symptoms of menopause.

39:26Problem was when they studied this, a few years into the study, they started to get all these safety signals. I don't know if you saw that black box warning, but safety signals, including endometrial cancer, cardiovascular problems, breast cancer, possible dementia as well. I mean, scared people, no surprise, Jake. So I think based on that, when that black box warning went out there, put on the FDA about 20, 25 years ago, you saw a significant reduction in women taking hormone therapy. So before, to give you an example, one in four women were on hormone therapy. After the black box warning, it went down to one out of 25 women.

40:03So about a generation of women, Jake, who either weren't taking this or taking very low doses of this. What has changed and who should be using the hormone therapy now? Yeah, so it's interesting. I looked at a bunch of the studies, and we've been reporting on this for some time now. I think that what changed was when you looked at the data, you realized that they were primarily looking at women who were over the age of 60 and sort of making a lot of assumptions based on that. When they started to stratify by age, looking, for example, at women between the ages of 50 and 59, women who started hormone therapy, within 10 years of menopause, a different picture started to emerge.

40:45So, and the other thing, and I'll show you some of the benefits when you look at it that way, but another thing is that there's a lot of different formulations of these hormones that exist now that didn't exist then. So I think those two things in combination have made it clear that you see cardiovascular disease benefits down 50 % reduction, Alzheimer's disease 35%, bone fractures 50 to 60%. Again, in those specific situations though, Jake, if hormone therapy has started within 10 years of menopause and before the age of 60, that's when you seem to get the most benefit. I got to tell you, Jake, it's a big deal.

41:24I mean, my mom, I helped her navigate this when she was around that age. My wife, around that age, helped her navigate this. I think it's been very confusing for a lot of people. My mom had a spine fracture last year, as you may remember. We talked about that. Her doctors told her, had she been on hormone therapy, she may have had stronger bone density and been able to prevent a fracture like this. So hopefully, this could provide relief in the right circumstances for women going forward. All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much. And Sanjay is, of course, taking your questions on the top.

41:57You can scan the QR code on your screen right now to submit a question. And Sanjay will be back tomorrow to answer some of your questions.

42:10Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. This hour, a key House committee is meeting tonight with the final vote to reopen the government now set for tomorrow afternoon. as House members are rushing back to D.C. from across the country. President Trump said today he expects the bill to pass. So how soon could we see air travel and food stamp benefits and other government services return to normal? Plus, in the last hour, you heard Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna call for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to step aside over that bipartisan Senate deal. In moments, I'm going to ask another Democrat in the House if he agrees and how his seemingly fractured party can fix these ugly divides playing out in public.

42:48And on this Veterans Day, I'm going to be joined by one of the heroes of my 2012 book, The Outpost. Ross Burkoff is out with a new book of his own about his experiences on the front lines of America's longest war. He is a true American hero. I can't wait for you to hear more of his story.

43:10The lead tonight, the longest government shutdown in U.S. history could be over in just about 24 hours or so. In just a few minutes, the House Rules Committee is going to meet to advance that Senate-passed bill to the floor of the House. Now, barring any last-minute shutdown-imposed travel chaos, there should be enough House members in town tomorrow afternoon to vote on the final passage. But now bigger questions are hanging over both political parties as Democratic infighting over the Senate defections to pass this bill come to a head. And Republicans are facing pressing questions about health care affordability.

43:42CNN's Manu Raju is chasing the latest developments on Capitol Hill. Manu? Yeah, House Republican leaders, Jake, are confident that tomorrow they will get the votes to pass this bill through their chamber and ending this historically long and very painful government shutdown, despite having one of the most narrow majorities in decades. In fact, this majority that Republicans have will get narrower even tomorrow when Adelita Grijalva, that Democrat who won her Arizona special election more than a month ago, will finally get sworn into her seat. She had been, her swearing in had been delayed by the speaker amid this shutdown standoff.

44:22But tomorrow afternoon, she will get her seat and formally become a member of the House. That means that Johnson's majority gets even narrower. He can only afford to lose two Republican votes on any party line vote. And we expect this vote to be very, very close because Democrats are urging their members, they are whipping their members to vote against this plan because it does not include an extension of those Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at year's end. Democrats have made that central to their fight that eventually led to the government shutdown, saying that this must be tied to a government funding bill because people are starting to see their premiums increase, millions of people, as open enrollment season begin.

45:05But that Republican said that they would not go along with that, Jake, and ultimately forcing a deal to be cut in the United States Senate for a separate health care vote to be taken in the United States Senate by mid-December. But there are no guarantees that that health care vote will actually pass the Senate, much less the Republican House where Mike Johnson is not committing to put such a bill on the floor. So expect a big push behind the scenes by the Democratic leaders to get all their members in line to vote against this bill tomorrow night. However, there could be some defections on the Democratic side, particularly among some of the more moderate members.

45:42One of them to watch, Jared Golden of Maine, who is retiring, someone who voted for the last Republican bill to open the government. He was the only Democrat to do so. And then the Republican side, there could be some defections as well. Thomas Massey of Kentucky, another congressman to watch. someone who often breaks on spending bills with Republicans. So this will come down to the wire, Jake. But still, we expect with Donald Trump's support, the far right of the House Republican conference will fall in line. Much of the House Republican conference will fall in line. And they believe that they can get this bill through the chamber, onto the president's desk, who plans to sign this into law, and end this shutdown until the next fight, which will be January 30th, when this bill would extend government funding for most federal agencies.

46:24That's right. This doesn't fund the government very long. Manu Raju on Capitol Hill. Thanks so much. Let's go down to CNN's Caitlin Collins live at the White House. Caitlin, Trump predicted that the House will vote positively. That's his term to open the government. What are White House sources telling you about this lingering issue, major issue for millions of Americans about health care affordability and these skyrocketing premiums? Well, Jake, that's why this government shutdown ending is kind of a double edged sword for the White House, because, yes, White House officials are relieved that it's coming to an end.

46:50They certainly never thought it would stretch on for this long. They only thought it would last about three to five days before those moderate Democrats ended up voting, as they did last night over in the Senate, for this funding bill for the government. But now that this is coming to an end, obviously this is still going to be a looming question for this White House now that this has the attention of a lot of voters in the United States and a lot of people whose premiums are going to expire at the end of next month. And what exactly the White House and the Republicans who are in the majority on Capitol Hill are going to do to address rising health care costs and what that's going to look like.

47:22It has been an issue that has kind of been looming over the White House for the last several weeks. And it's something that the president has been increasingly asked about, Jake, including in an interview last night where he hasn't done much to articulate what exactly his plan for health care could be going on going forward beyond what he said here. I want instead of going to the insurance companies, I want the money to go into an account for people where the people buy their own health insurance. It's so good. the insurance will be better. It'll cost less. Everybody's going to be happy. They're going to feel like entrepreneurs.

47:55They're actually able to go out and negotiate their own health insurance. And they can use it only for that reason. That's subdued only for that purpose. And if we did that, that would be so exciting. Call it Trumpcare. Now, Jake, here is the dynamic going forward for this White House, which is the White House has attacked these Obamagare subsidies, said that they do not believe they should be extended. The president himself has made that quite clear in the last week or so. But the question is, how are they going to articulate what exactly their plan is going forward beyond what the president said?

48:25They're skipping and bypassing insurance companies, providing money directly to the people. It's still a lot of questions over what that looks like. And it's obviously not a comprehensive health health health care plan. And that is something that has really been a factor of the Trump presidency since his first term in office, Jake, when he wanted to repeal Obamacare. but there was no real replacement there, which is why that did not happen. And so that's still going to be a big question for the White House going forward. And there's been a lot of Republicans saying that they are working on that behind the scenes so that they have policies and proposals, whether or not it's a comprehensive plan remains to be seen.

48:59And so we'll be watching that going forward, Jake. And the other aspect of this government shutdown ending is the vote when it comes to that discharge petition that Manu mentioned there when Adelita Grijalva is sworn in when she is expected to be the 218th vote, what that means for this White House, who obviously has not wanted to talk about the Jeffrey Epstein issue. And so that's a big question going forward after the government reopens, and she is sworn in tomorrow. All right, Caitlin Collins at the White House, thank you so much. The House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is speaking. Now let's listen to you.

49:29But they can no longer hide. The Rules Committee is going to meet shortly, and then tomorrow there will be votes on the House floor. and Democrats will continue to press the case to say to our Republican colleagues, you have another opportunity to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits and make sure that tens of millions of Americans all across the country in communities that Republicans... House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries does not actually sound like a robot. We're having some sort of audio issue there. Let's talk right now to Maryland Democratic Congressman Glenn Ivey. He's a member of the House Appropriations Committee.

50:12Thanks so much for joining us. We really appreciate it, sir. So you called the Senate bill that passed last night with the help of eight Democrats. You called it cruel and reckless. You didn't directly blame the Senate Democrats. How do you plan to vote when this comes up, whether it's tomorrow or Thursday? Well, the cruel part, for sure, with respect to the failure to extend the health care tax credits, but also the SNAP issue and what the Trump administration was doing with that. But I'm a definite no on this bill. I think it was the wrong way to go. It's essentially the same vehicle they passed back in March, and they haven't improved it in any way.

50:45In fact, it's gotten worse because in the interim, they passed a big ugly bill, and that was the$1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid, among other terrible things for the American people. I will say that this compromise does extend SNAP funds through 2026, right? And we know that we're going to have another shutdown drama in January in all likelihood because this funding bill, even if it passes, it only goes to the end of January. You represent almost 50 ,000 federal workers in your district in Maryland. Obviously, you're concerned about the SNAP benefits. Yeah. There must be, I mean, is anybody, any of your constituents happy that at least the shutdown is coming to an end?

51:24If they are, they're not calling me. The people that I ran into while this was going on, you know, sometimes standing in line to get at the food pantries to get food, we're saying to a person, stay strong. I've gotten contacted by people from other places, you know, outside of my district who, you know, a lot of them are like, you know, thank God I worry about their air travel and God bless them. I don't want to keep anybody from getting to where they're trying to go for Thanksgiving. But there are larger forces at work here in some ways. Certainly with respect to the extension of health care tax credits, you've got millions of Americans who could lose their health care coverage based on the failure to extend those tax credits.

52:05The SNAP issue was sick, frankly. They had the billions of dollars to make the payments so that people could continue to eat. And they kept trying to drag their feet. We had to take them to court on multiple occasions. And I think they're still litigating it, frankly. So it's kind of unfortunate that that's the way they're choosing to govern. But that's the way they're going about it. And we've got to fight them. So you sound like a lot of progressive commentators that we've heard from. Jon Stewart on The Daily Show put his frustration with Democrats pretty succinctly on his show last night. Take a listen.

52:39Democrats, you sold out the entire shutdown not to get what you wanted, but for a promise to not get what you wanted later. So Speaker Johnson, when I interviewed him yesterday, he would not commit to even having a vote on these Obamacare subsidies. Do you think that your hands as Democrats are just tied when it comes to the health care fight? Well, we're certainly concerned. And, you know, Jon Stewart put his finger on it. We knew at the beginning that the speaker is studiously can continuously avoid it, saying anything about any kind of vote on the tax credit extension, maybe because he's worried about we might win an up or down vote on the floor.

53:22They might have defections in addition to Marjorie Taylor Greene. And so, you know, I'm not sure exactly what he's going to try and do with this. The tax credit party is going to try and pass the bill and move it through quickly. But he's got to have to deal with the Epstein files. And I think there's some efforts on bipartisan efforts in small groups to try and figure out there's a way to do a discharge petition with respect to the health care tax credit. Well, that's what I was going to ask because you got 217 signatures on a discharge petition to force the Epstein files vote onto the floor.

53:57That's going to happen when Grijalva is sworn in. Right. Don't you think that, I mean, there are 13 House Republicans who wrote a letter to Speaker Johnson. These are frontline Republicans who are in districts, they're worried about getting reelected. And I'm sure some of them are also very sincerely concerned about these health care premiums. They want a vote on this issue, a discharge petition. If you have all the Democrats and those 13 Republicans, then you can force a vote on the issue. Well, a lot of them are the same people that wrote a strong letter with respect to the vote on the Medicaid cuts, too, to the Speaker.

54:32And they still voted for the bill. So I appreciate the possibility that they may come around and actually do the right thing on this round of it. But we don't have any guarantee of that. But we'll see. I think we have to keep fighting, as I said, with respect to extending the tax credits for the ACA. I think we have to try and fight the cuts to Medicaid overall. I think the Democrats need to move forward with an affordability agenda for America that addresses these kinds of things. but the same kind of issues that we saw in the gubernatorial races in Virginia, New Jersey. Rising costs for electricity, cost of groceries, child care and the like, rent, mortgage, all of those things.

55:13We want to try and push forward on all of those issues going forward. And I don't know that the Republicans are really ready to take all of that on. Democrat from Maryland, Congressman Glenn Ivey, thank you so much, sir. I appreciate your being here. We've got some breaking news. The U.S. Supreme Court has just issued an order in the SNAP case. Those details in moments. You were just talking about that.

55:38We have breaking news in our Law and Justice League. The United States Supreme Court just issued a new order when it comes to SNAP benefits or food stamps. Let's get right to CNN's Chief Supreme Court Analyst, Joan Vyskupic. Joan, what do we know? Good to see you, Jake. The Supreme Court's order just now essentially postpones the effect of lower court's decisions. It said the Trump administration was required to restart the SNAP benefits. This is the nutritional supplements for what had been known as food stamps for some 40 million Americans nationwide. The court originally had had an order that would have allowed the SNAP benefits to continue as of about midnight tonight.

56:19And because of what's going on on the Hill, I'm sure that's the reason even though they didn't give a justification, they've now extended their order pausing the lower court decision that says the SNAP benefits have to come out. They've paused that until Thursday night, which obviously will allow for House consideration of this new bill for tomorrow on Wednesday that would possibly restart the government. I think the Supreme Court hopes that its involvement, the involvement of the federal judiciary in this issue, is soon going to be moot. moot, but it does mean in reality that the possibility that the SNAP benefits would have picked up tonight as the court had originally signaled just isn't going to happen and it's going to be either when the Congress reopens the government and allows these benefits to start flowing out or Thursday night when the court's order kicks in.

57:15Joan, was the vote unanimous? No. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, our most liberal member of the court, she dissented. She wanted those benefits to flow immediately. She had originally handled this case. She's what we call the circuit justice from the region that this had arisen in Rhode Island. And her original order, it was her order that said that the postponement of the lower court judges order that these benefits had to start being distributed, that that should happen tonight. And she voted against any kind of postponement. But her voice was a lone one, Jake. John Baskubik, thanks so much.

57:55My next guest says he lost a leadership role in the Kansas state legislature because he simply opposed President Trump's push to redraw congressional maps in his state, which would have made it easier for Republicans to keep control of Congress next year. Stick with us.

58:16in our politics lead at president trump's urging republicans have launched an unprecedented mid-decade redistricting effort as a way to keep the party's narrow majority in the house in the 2026 midterms next year prompting democrats to do the same so far republicans have enacted new congressional maps in four states democrats in two at least seven other states are in discussion to do so, but some Republicans in Kansas are resisting the push by the White House to join the effort, and according to the New York Times, they're getting punished for it. Kansas State Representative Clark Sanders is one of those pushing back.

58:51He told the New York Times that he got a call on Friday from Kansas Speaker Daniel Hawkins and, quote, he was told that he was being removed from his role as vice chairman of the Higher Education Budget Committee because he had not agreed to the special session of the legislature to redistrict. Kansas State Representative Clark Sanders joins us now. Representative, why did you not agree to a special session?

59:16Well, several reasons. Top of the list, I just didn't think it was the right thing to do. Secondly, you know, if we get too cute with this, we have four congressional districts in Kansas. number two district is by no means a lock for us. And a new map, we might end up, instead of having three Republican districts, wind up with two because we could potentially lose number two. But the biggest thing is, I think we can win in the district we have as the way it is now if we get the right candidate. We don't have a candidate. That needs to be our focus, in my opinion. The Times reports that you got a call from the White House.

1:00:07Is that true? Who was it? What'd they say? Yes. So I don't remember the gentleman's name, but we had been told that if we didn't sign the petition to agree to a special session, that to be expecting a call from the White House. And indeed, a gentleman called me. We talked for about 30 minutes. It was a very cordial conversation. I explained to him my reasons for not wanting to sign. And, you know, he was friendly and he didn't threaten me in any way, shape or form. But he was really encouraging me to go ahead and sign, which I never did. The New York Times reports, quote, at least six committee chairs and vice chairs were removed from their posts on Friday.

1:00:56And other committee assignments were also reshuffled, unquote. Have you talked to other Republicans who have been removed from their post? What are they telling you? Is it all the same story? They didn't want to redistrict in the middle of the decade and they got punished?

1:01:11Well, I'm sure everyone who didn't sign on has their reasons. You know, I would dare say that not wanting to redistrict in the middle of the decade is a big part of it. We just redistricted three years ago. back in 2022. So everybody had their reasons, but I know the reason that everybody who was removed as either a chair or a vice chair was removed because they didn't sign the petition. Does this make you mad? I mean, you're just standing up for what you think is right, and you're being punished by your party for it.

1:01:54so i don't know that i'm being punished by my party per se i'm being punished by the speaker and and you know it was an amiable conversation we had uh i'm not particularly mad at him i uh i knew that not signing came with a risk and i was just doing what i thought was the right thing to do and he was also doing what he thought was the right thing to do. He thought that he should have loyalty from those of us in leadership positions and when he didn't get it, he removed us. Kansas State Representative Clark Sanders, thank you so much for your time sir. Appreciate it. Thank you Jake. If the government shutdown does end tomorrow, how long will it take for airports across the country to get back to normal?

1:02:42Could we still see massive cancellations during Thanksgiving week. Hear what Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had to say about it this afternoon next.

1:02:54In our national league, the government shutdown may soon end, but experts warn the air travel chaos is likely to continue, adding the window for everything to recover before Thanksgiving is rather narrow. Today, flight cuts at 40 of the busiest airports increased from 4 % of flights being canceled to 6 % of flights being canceled, resulting in more than 800 preemptive canceled flights. The flight cuts will keep increasing until a shutdown deal is finalized, we're told. CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean is at Reagan National Airport just outside D.C. Pete, how much worse is this expected to get before the shutdown ends?

1:03:29Well, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy just spoke to this at Chicago O 'Hare, and he says that controllers are feeling more hopeful now with the end of this government shutdown in sight. Probably one of the reasons why the number of staffing shortages listed at air traffic control facilities across the country today was comparatively low. We saw about 40 nationwide yesterday. That number went down to only five today, notably including the air traffic control tower here at Reagan National Airport. The number of cancellations have also been on the good trend, a downward trend. 2 ,900 was the number we saw on Sunday.

1:04:01That was the highest we have seen during this government shutdown. went down to about 2 ,500 yesterday due in part to air traffic control staffing shortages and bad weather at some big hubs. Today, the number has been less than half that. It's been hovering around 1 ,200 all day. 70 % of that number, though, are the preemptive cancellations that airlines already made to comply with this Trump administration mandate for them to cut flights, to siphon off some of the stress on the national airspace system and air traffic controllers who continue to work unpaid during this government shutdown. The mandate went to 6 % today, goes to 8 % on Thursday, 10 % on Friday.

1:04:42And interestingly, Duffy said that he will be the one to decide when to end this mandated cut to airline schedules, and it won't be the end of the government shutdown, even though the end is now in sight. Listen. What we see with our air traffic controllers, Good day today. If the House doesn't pass this bill, I think you're going to look at Saturday, Sunday and Monday as tiddlywinks. It was beautiful. It's going to get much worse than that. So a pretty big warning there from Secretary Duffy. Naturally, a lot of air traffic controllers I'm talking to are riled by this post on Truth Social by President Trump yesterday, in which he said that air traffic controllers will get a$10 ,000 bonus if they showed up during the entirety of this government shutdown.

1:05:29But he also invited them to quit if they have not shown up during this government shutdown. Duffy says he's still considering taking action against controllers. They will get 70 % of back pay within 48 hours of the end of this government shutdown, Jake. All right, P. Muntean at Reagan National Airport. Thanks. Let's bring in Nick Daniels. He's president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. So first of all, what was your response to the Truth Social post by President Trump yesterday in which he was really going at air traffic controllers that didn't show up to work, which you and I have already talked about previously many times.

1:06:03A lot of them didn't show up to work because they were, you know, driving Ubers or doing Lyft or Uber Eats or whatever just to put food on the table for their families. Well, I appreciate you first of all having me back. One of the things that every air traffic controller in the country has is a level of pride for this job, for our profession, and what we do. And we show up. We do show up at every crisis, at every call. In the actions of a few individuals, if the agency or secretary has concern with them, they are not indicative of this workforce that has suffered and gone through 9-11, clearing an entire airspace.

1:06:41They showed up during the pandemic. When the entire world stayed home, we still moved vaccines and people through the entire national airspace system. The two longest shutdowns in history, this controller workforce has done it and has done it with less staffing. So every single time that this country calls on us, we're there, we continue to show up, and we know the pride that they take in their job, the responsibility that they shoulder day in and day out, and they absolutely need to be recognized for it. Transportation Secretary Duffy said he's considering possibly firing some air traffic controllers who consistently called out of work during the shutdown.

1:07:13He said he's concerned about their dedication and their patriotism. There's processes and procedures if there are concerns of those individuals. But again, those few individuals are not indicative in any way of those men and women that are represented. They are the American patriots. Secretary Duffy has said many times over, seeing what they've endured, what they've gone through, the mental stress, the fatigue. I mean, we said for 42 days that problems and issues are going to grow every day that this shutdown continues, and they did. And that's exactly where we stand today. If the shutdown ends tomorrow, if the House votes tomorrow to pass that bill and then President Trump signs it immediately, how soon could things get back to normal, do you think?

1:07:53One of the things that I think is important to understand is this isn't a light switch. You don't flip the light switch back on and we reverse 42 days of all the damage that this shutdown has caused. You want to know the way to not have this happen again? Is don't shut down the government and use air traffic controllers as a political pawn. But we know that we're going to have to pick up the pieces, that we're going to ensure the safe movement of the flying public, all the cargo that we want at its destination and on time, day in and day out. And we are going to have to work through it with this administration to make that a reality.

1:08:27You heard Pete Muntean report that Duffy said he thinks controllers could get 70 % of their back pay within 48 hours of the government reopening. Will that be enough? That will be a dramatic change from what we saw in the 2019 shutdown. It took air traffic controllers almost two and a half months to get back and made whole from the shutdown that they endured at that time. So if we're talking 70 % of their pay, it can't come fast enough. And we absolutely welcome the money being in their pockets so they can not only pay off all their debt, clear all their credit cards before the interest starts hitting them, and they have to deal with that aspect as well.

1:09:02All right, Nick Daniels, thank you so much. Really appreciate your time today. Hear what President Trump said when he was pushed by someone from his favorite channel on voters' concerns about the cost of living. Living. That's next.

1:09:20In our politics lead, President Trump is sticking by his claim that the economy is thriving and prices are down. This, however, is not the reality facing anyone who goes to the grocery store. President Trump was pushed over this division in terms of his perception and the American people's reality on, of all places, his favorite network. Why are people saying they're anxious about the economy? Why are they saying that? I don't know that they are saying it. I think polls are fake. We have the greatest economy we've ever had. So Chi Hinojosa and Joe Moreno joins me now. And I should mention on this Veterans Day that Joe is a veteran.

1:10:00And there is a picture of you and your veteran wife in Iraq in 2004. Thank you to both of you for your service. Thanks, Jake. And my wife actually is the true hero. I was trying cases back in Kuwait most of the time. She was driving trucks in Iraq. So she's the real American hero here. Well, salute to both of you. And thank you so much for what you've done for us. Let's turn to a less pleasant conversation, which is that President Trump does not seem to accept the reality that a lot of grocery prices are still going up to the point that even Fox people are now pushing back on them. Well, good on Fox, right?

1:10:34I mean, I think once in a while, it's good to have, you know, be on enemy territory and actually be called out. That's great. Look, he's a politician. He's not going to admit anything that's, you know, all of us might actually feel. But if I had to say there's one thing that Americans will punish and incumbent on, it's prices. It's inflation. We had 20 years where we got away with no inflation. Now we have it. People feel it. They punished Biden or Harris over it. And they're going to punish Trump over it if, in fact, things aren't better, starting with the midterms next year. And one of the things that's interesting is how much President Trump sounds like Joe Biden on this.

1:11:04And I know that a lot of people from the Obama White House looked at how the Biden people handled the cost of living issue, which was he it's kind of crazy to think about it now. But in the summer of 2023, he did a Bidenomics tour and he stopped doing the monthly press conferences on the jobs reports and the price reports and such. And the Biden people were like, no, no, no. When we ran for reelection in 2012, we said there's still work to be done. There's still work to be done. We're going in the right direction. There's still work to be done. Why? I mean, why wouldn't President Trump just take that very basic, obvious message?

1:11:40Well, there are two things that are happening with Trump. Trump does this thing where he says a lie or something that's not accurate so many times, hoping that everybody will believe it. but now the network that most favors him is actually calling him out, which I find interesting. At the same time, he understands that price is an issue because he's going up and he is true socializing the fact that he wants to give people$2 ,000 in revenue from the tariffs, which is not necessarily possible. But at the same time, he gets that the American people need some sort of relief. And I think he is trying to figure out, how do I do this with my agenda.

1:12:17He knows it is not popular. So I think there are two things happening with Trump. He understands the politics of the midterm elections and what's coming. It's all going to be about prices. But yeah, he feels like if he repeats it, you know, over and over and over, that someone will believe him that, you know, the economy is doing well. And as you noted, it's not Trump, who, as far as I know, is never going to run for anything ever again. it's lawmakers in 2026 who are going to face the wrath of this. Take a listen to this. This is Congresswoman Meeks of Iowa facing some angry constituents.

1:12:57Liar, liar, pants on fire was being said to Congresswoman Miller Meeks. people started to walk out. How concerned are you as a Republican about how this is going to be used, these prices, how Republicans are going to be held responsible for them? Well, of course they will. First of all, putting aside the possibility that those were trolls and that was a setup, but let's say those were good faith constituents that were really upset at what they were hearing from their elected official. Of course it is. And I think, to your point, it's much, much smarter than simply looking taxpayers in the eye and telling them what you see is not what you should believe.

1:13:35Don't believe your eyes. Be honest with them. Say, look, the president can't flip a switch. You can't change things overnight. It's a long battle, but I understand your pain and I'm working on it. I think you get a lot more traction with voters than basically trying to tell them that the prices they're paying are not actually reality. Some of the prices, not all of them, but some of the prices that they're paying, bananas, coffee, wine, is because of tariffs. It is because of tariffs. And, you know, Republicans said a few months ago they warned members don't go out and do town halls because they're worried about things like this.

1:14:12I remember when I worked on the Hill, the safest thing to do is do a tele-town hall because you can somewhat control the questions. Right. And you don't necessarily have to face potential protesters or other people who are angry about it. But I do think that members of Congress, while Trump is not going to run, members of Congress need to have sort of a come to Jesus with the White House. to be like, what can we pass? They control everything. What can we do in the next year to show people that we are doing something about costs? And your tariff agenda, while this is like Trump's bread and butter and he loves it, he absolutely, he's been obsessed with tariffs, is not working for the American people.

1:14:47You have this Obamacare subsidies issue that's not going away. Democrats obviously in the Senate are going to get a vote on it. They're not going to get it attached to the government spending bill. But this is going to be what Democrats talk about from now until next November. Democratic Senator Patty Murray, she's a member of the Democratic leadership, she did not vote for this compromise. She said, Donald Trump sent more money to bail out Argentina than it would have cost to extend the ACA, the Obamacare tax credits, for just one year. I don't plan to let anyone forget it. This is going to be what, I mean, first of all, kudos to Murray.

1:15:17Just as a politician going after Trump, so many Democrats are attacking each other right now, and I just think, boy, you guys are stupid. But beyond that, this is going to be a big issue. Of course it is. look, it affects 44 million people all in, so it's 12, 13 percent of the population. It's a real issue for those taxpayers, absolutely. And it's not going to go away. Now, Democrats shouldn't have held the entire government hostage as a result, but it's not going to go away. They're going to have to, you know, deal with it. I wish they had dealt with it in the proper order of things, but, you know, it'll come up in January.

1:15:46It's not going to go away. Thanks, both of you. Appreciate it. And happy Veterans Day again to you, and especially your wife. On this Veterans Day, I can't wait for you to learn more about a friend of mine who's a veteran. He's a true American hero, Ross Burkoff. I told his story in part in my book, The Outpost, which came out in 2012. Ross now has his own memoir of war and service. That's next.

1:16:11In our national lead, while writing The Outpost, a book that came out in 2012 about America's efforts during the war in Afghanistan, a young intelligence officer named Ross Burkoff with the 371 Cavalry reached out to me. and Berkoff wanted to make sure that my book, which at that point was only about the battle in 2009, he wanted to make sure it didn't just tell the story of that one battle. He wanted me to tell the story of what the U.S. was trying to accomplish in Afghanistan and the origin of Combat Outpost Keating and he wanted me to tell the stories of his fellow servicemen and women who fell while he was there in 2006, 2007.

1:16:49Ross Berkoff has a brand new memoir out. It's called Beyond the Outpost, an army cavalry officer's war diary on the front lines of Afghanistan. And in it, Ross Burkoff offers a gripping firsthand account of what it was like to be as an officer in America's longest war. And Ross Burkoff joins me now. Thank you so much. The book is fantastic, Beyond the Outpost. Here, can I hold it up? There it is, Beyond the Outpost. Look at that. You can hold it up. The imagery is beautiful. What is that picture? Humble to be here. That is a painting from Lady Butler of the British withdrawal retreat from Kabul in 1842.

1:17:31I love the watercolors. And it's set in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, a place that I know well. And this British surgeon, weary from this retreat, is returning to his outpost. And I dubbed in the Chinook for effect. That's pretty incredible. And it does illustrate kind of this Afghanistan, a place where empires go to die. or at least to not succeed. So you take us to the front lines. You tell us the story of veterans who served in Afghanistan. This is not a normal thing for a veteran to do, to write a book. I mean, everybody probably has one in them, but you actually sat down and did it. Why was it important for you to write this?

1:18:09So this book really came about through a collision of tragedies in my life, one very personal and one international. about five years ago, I lost my stepdad, Bill Surjack, who was my stepdad since I was 11, to a very aggressive cancer that he contracted while inhaling some of the toxic dust and fumes at Ground Zero 20 years earlier. We didn't know at the time, but he spent his nights sleeping on his Weehawken New Jersey office couch so that by the day he could help the city clean up the mess. and he lost his battle very quickly to cancer in 2020. And then a few months after that, I started watching on the news, along with a lot of veterans of the Afghanistan war, the security situation quickly, rapidly deteriorating in Afghanistan.

1:19:02The withdrawal of our forces, the terrible attack at the Abbey Gate, and then the Taliban's quick retake of power. You know, I was an intelligence officer, like you said, and the Taliban to me was known as shadow governments. And all of a sudden they're out in the open. They're real. They're holding international press conferences. And this was hard for me and for a lot of veterans that I connected with. The withdrawal really, it hit us in an unexpected way. So we, you know, I think watching it unfold over the news, it was a little bit like watching part of our lives unraveling. It opened up some old wounds.

1:19:44And a lot of veterans in my community, we started asking ourselves, well, what was it all for? What did we just go through? All of the time and blood and resources and money and battles and lives lost. What does it mean? So this book was an attempt to answer that question. Is that right? It was. It was, you know, after I kind of grappled with all of this, I went to my notebooks. So over the course of 25 months in Afghanistan, I chronicled everything that happened to me, every convoy operation, every tragic rollover of a vehicle, every helicopter crash, every Taliban prisoner that I encountered or corrupt warlord, every soldier comrade that I lost, a friend, and I lost nine of them during my second tour.

1:20:34So I took these stories, I dusted them off and compiled them together with some modern day perspective, some hindsight. And it's now a book. Yeah, and it's very lovely. Your daughter, Eliana, she participated in a Veterans Day essay contest where she wrote about a veteran from Virginia that inspires her. She goes to school in Virginia and she chose you as a veteran who inspires her. That must have felt pretty cool. Oh, yeah. You know, the prescribed essay was, name a veteran from Virginia, and she first thinks of George Washington, Dad. And I said, well, yeah. I was honored that she chose her old man and that she wanted to read Beyond the Outpost and learn about my story.

1:21:21And then we just got word from the governor's office that her essay was selected and she's been invited to come down for the ceremony. That's fantastic. Well, the book is Beyond the Outpost, an Army Cavalry Officer's War Diary on the Frontlines of Afghanistan, 2003 to 2007. It is really well written, very compellingly told, and I hope everybody out there goes and checks it out. Ross, so good to see you again. Thank you so much. Thank you, Jake. Also on this Veterans Day, former President Barack Obama is sharing this video. He surprised Korean War veterans and Vietnam War veterans on an honor flight to D.C.

1:21:59last week. And you can see the expressions of shock and delight on some of their faces as he greeted veterans and their families on their way to D.C. In just moments, an auction near and dear to my heart will open on eBay. It is the ninth annual Homes for Our Troops Celebrity eBay auction that I'm hosting with George Clooney and Winona Judge. all of the proceeds go to help build specially adapted custom homes mortgage-free for wounded veterans severely wounded veterans and their family just a few of the items you can bid on this year an exclusive set visit to season three for the show severance and a meet and greet with director ben stiller you get two tickets to jelly rolls sold out new year's eve concert in vegas or monogrammed and signed louis vuitton purse signed by jennifer aniston zoom calls with some of your favorite CNN anchors or Jon Stewart and so much more.

1:22:52The auction is open through November 21st in just a few seconds. You can go to the eBay homepage. It's ebay.com slash HFOT. That's HFOT. Aaron Burnett out front starts now.

1:23:10Your team just added its 67th AI tool and also your 67th security blind spot. The good news? The Vanta agent works like a GRC engineer in the background, finding every app your team uses, scoring the risk, and drafting fixes for you. Vanta is the platform used by over 16 ,000 fast-moving companies like Ramp, Cursor, and Harvey, who are shaping the future with AI and staying ahead of AI risk. Get started at Vanta.com. The most memorable gifts aren't found, they're made. Zazzle is a custom marketplace where you pick any product, a mug, a card, a tote, a phone case, and make it personal. A photo, a name, an inside joke.

1:23:51The kind of gift that actually fits the person. That's what 30 million customers have been coming back to Zazzle for over 20 years to find. Right now, save 25 % on your first order at Zazzle.com. That's Zazzle.com. Make it z 'amazing.