♪ right now on "early start," kevin mccarthy's hail mary pass. and the speaker moved the ball forward just days before the u.s. government is set to shutdown. plus, pressure grows on the democratic u.s. senator under indictment, accused of taking gold bars and many other expensive glittery things as bribes. and new this morning, the big breakthrough in hollywood, writers just reached a tentative deal with studios to end their strike. ♪ good day to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm kasie hunt. it's monday, september 25th, shortly after 5:00 a.m. here in washington, where a government shutdown, just five days away, it's 2:00 a.m. out west, where republican candidates are already starting to camp out ahead of wednesday's presidential debate at the reagan presidential library. and president biden and former president trump both preparing to head to detroit, where workers are on strike against the big three automakers. and we haven't even gotten to the senator who was busted with wads of ill-gotten cash and monogrammed jacket pockets. it's a long way of saying this is going to be an incredibly consequential week for our country. let's dig in. this morning, agencies across the country and americans across the country are bracing for a shutdown that could furlough workers, in addition to travel delays and even disrupt paychecks for u.s. troops if it continues long enough. >> i'm really concerned about next week, with the government shutting down. if there's a government shutdown, border patrol agents are not going to get paid. this is going to -- i mean, if we think it's bad today, just think about what that looks like. >> shutting down air traffic control training, at the exact moment when the country recognizes the need for more, not less, atc staffing and when we finally got cancellations at a low rate, and air traffic control, they're at a risk doing that job. >> it's a grim deal. mariana arfalo, a report for the "washington post." mariana, thank you so much for being with us. with the government shutdown, it's infighting with the gop. they just can't get it together. in reality, there are consequences with the shutdown. all of my sources tell me it seems inevitable at this point. i mean, are you hearing the same is there any way that there isn't a shutdown this week? >> yeah it seems like we're heading that way. kevin mccarthy hasn't been able to strike a deal, very much rebels within this conference. so it doesn't seem it's going to happen this week, even if the senate does send one through, i think we're headed that way, too. >> yeah. we're already seeing these agencies kind of prepare for the shutdown. the reality is a lot of these essential workers would still be asked to show up to work. but they wouldn't be getting paychecks regardless. you saw the transportation secretary pete buttigieg talk a little bit about how this might affect flight delays. i know, i've certainly dealt with this in my life. i think a lot of americans have experienced those issues. they're likely to get worse. we saw during the last prolonged shutdown, yeah, they wanted tsa agents to show up, but a lot of called in sick. some of them talked about driving uber and a lot of other things to make ends meet, just because they were forced to. what impact do you think this has on those people? but also politically, who gets blamed? >> yeah, we saw with the last shutdown, it was chaos at the airports. i remember speaking to real americans saying i couldn't get my kids a birthday present. it draws away from that weekly-o biweekly paycheck. i think it's been made clear that it's not president biden doing the negotiations. if anything, i think democrats are going to carry that message across and say this wasn't us that did this, it was a small group of maga republicans agency the president has called them. i think they're already getting the blame, even from republicans in their own party. saying you guys are the ones working with democrats even if you shut the government down. >> even kevin mccarthy is saying this is a really bad plan, we'll get blamed for this. let's switch gears i want to talk about senator bob menendez, the new jersey senator under pressure. more and more congressional delegations are calling for him to resign after indicted for this. any of hughes turned off the tv and haven't watched over the weekend, if you haven't seen the pictures they really speak for themselves. and they're worth looking at. even if you didn't see them before, wads of cash, gold bar, the senator's monogram, a convertible that they bought for his wife. the allegations are he took the bribes in exchange as using his powerful role as chairman the senate relations committee to help egypt committee members that paid him for that and his fellow democratic senators seemed to squirm when asked about this over the weekend. take a look. >> this is a very serious charge, no terms about it. in terms of resignation, that's a decision to be played by senator menendez and the people of new jersey. >> these are serious charges, i've never seen anything like this, senator menendez has to think long and hard about the cloud that's going to hang over his service in the united states senate. >> cloud. and senator menendez, we're expecting him to hold a press conference today. he cancelled an event over the weekend. what do you expect what hear from him. >> he has not backed down. he said he's not guilty and going to fight the allegations that are have been clearly laid out. i expect him to say i'm not backing down, i'm going to stay. and he could still say that he will listen to the many democrats in new jersey, but it doesn't seem like that's the case so far. and his outliers have also said -- have said she's incident. he's done that before. he's talked through the allegations and succeeded. and i think that he probably thinks that will work for him again. >> you're referring to the last time he was indicted. and a mistrial was ultimately declared there. he's still there. but the reality is democrats in the congressional delegation, many of them would like to sit in the seat. you've already got one primary opponent. it does seem like this time the folks over at the justice department took their time. they marshaled that evidence and, well, the pictures speak for themselves. mariana alfaro, thank you for being with us. i appreciate your time. breaking overnight, the strike that had paralyzed hollywood for months could be ending the writers guild of america say they've reached a sensitive agreement with major television and film studies to end the strike. it could have workers go back to worth as early as tomorrow. the agreement has to be officially ratified. trump skipping the second gop primary debate. he's going to the motor city instead. plus, president biden heads to michigan this week. he'lling doing something no other sitting president has done before. we'll tell you that. and the u.s. has now weighed into the diplomatic showdown between canada and indiaia. 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call invent help today. they can help you get started with your idea. call now 800-710-0020. welcome back. the u.s. ambassador to canada revealing what led prime minister justin trudeau to blame the indian government for the assassination of a sic activist on canadian soil. david cohen said the information came through five eyes which is the intelligence sharing pact between u.s., uk, australia, canada and new zealand. cohen also said that the u.s. is deeply concerned about the allegations. >> the united states takes very seriously these allegations. and, you know, if they prove to be true, it is a potentially very serious breach of the rules-based international order in which we like to function. this is something of which we're treating we take very seriously and we think it's important to get to the bottom of. >> cnn's max foster joins us now from london with more, max, always good to see you, i hope had you a wonderful weekend. >> thank you. >> let's dig in here. how could this relation affect the u.s. relationship with india? this is an incredibly significant thing. i've got to tell you, it's not really something that happens on this continent. >> it's interesting because the five eyes is a very established mechanism. and it's of huge benefit to all five countries involved. normally, they're seeing the same bintelligence, that's basically what canada was saying, information came not necessarily from us, perhaps from america, put into the system and that's what they're basing the views on and that's what justin trudeau is saying. then you ask the question, why aren't the other five eyes members coming out in support of canada and accusing india of the same. i think that just speaks to the global dynamics right now. all of those countries see india as the counterbalance, the best counterbalance to china terms of global dominance. and that relationship just matters so much to america. the uk, by the way is trying to sign a treaty with india. unless she see firm evidence that this actually happened that india was behind the murder, it's very difficult for them to come out. >> take your point, it's a counterbalance 0 china. from the american perspective, historically, it's been a democracy, and the u.s. has been able to kind of identify with india on that footing. but obviously, the prime minister has, you know, shared some authoritarian tendencies that we've seen with donald trump here. trump identified with him in a way that the current government identifies with a little less. and president biden identifies with him a little bit less. how does that complicate, you know, how we should be thinking about it, and the action that's the u.s. may or may not take in this context? >> well, how the judge of u.s. will see the nature that allies should be supporting canada. but on the other level, realistic, india is the one way of counterbalancing china. you know, there are many issues that you and i wouldn't agree with, which is blowing up in india. i speak to indian journalists quite regularly. they didn't get about access to modi. and it's a big challenge. economically, india is growing. it's set to become the third largest economy in the world. america needs another economy to work with. it also needs a diplomatic ally, a conduit, between china and the u.s., for example. and they're all sitting there in washington right now trying to work out how to handle this. they don't want to upset india. they don't want to upset canada. what they're saying it's really important for canada to investigate this. let's see what the evidence is, they're not actually coming out and backing canada, even though it might be all based on u.s. intelligence. >> right. i do think it was pretty interesting that david cohen was willing to say this publicly. it does speak to the commitment, anyway, that the u.s. has, that the information would transfer this way. because, let's be honest, as we said at the top, this is a pretty remarkable event to take place just over the border. not something that's terribly common, to make an understatement, shall we say max foster, thank you for being up with us. >> thank you. coming up, cassidy hutchinson opening up about the fallout from her january 6 testimony. and after months of picket signs and reruns, writers could soon be back to work in hollywood. prn them. 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(zipping zipper) ooh, queen likes. ♪ quick hits across america now. ex-trump white house aide cassidy hutchinson defending her bombshell testimony last year to the january 6 committee. in her first tv interview since then, she said she felt torn but ultimately compelled to come forward. >> what would i have to gain by coming forward? it would have been easier for me to continue being complicit. >> there's going to be much more from hutchinson tomorrow as she sits down with cnn's jake tapper at 4:00 p.m. eastern ahead of the release of her new book. and mexico has agreed to deport migrants from their border cities to their home countries. it's part of an effort to curb the recent surge of migrant crossing into the u.s. and new this morning the writers strike looks like it's just about over after nearly five months. the union and hollywood studios reached a tentative agreement sunday. writers could return to work as soon as tomorrow. now, let's go to the other big walk jot, that one doesn't appear to have an end in sight right now. president biden is expected to walk the picket line with members of the ate autoworkers union tomorrow in michigan as they expand their targeted strikes. it's believed that no sitting president has ever done that before. and it will come one day ahead of donald trump's speech to workers in detroit. trump has been criticizing biden's decision to join the picket line. trump, of course, counterprogramming the debate but transportation secretary pete buttigieg said that biden's move is all about supporting workers. >> he's a pro-worker president. he's an unapologetically pro-union president. you know, not just in contrant to the anti-union policies of the trump administration, but really, with respect to presidents of both parties over the last half century. he's proud of the fact that he's the most pro-union and pro-worker among them. >> and cnn's jasmine wright joins us now with more. jasmine, good morning. what kind of statement does this trip make? >> yeah, well, it's an extraordinary amount of support that president biden will offer strikers of the ate auto workers group, really it is unprecedented for a president to go on the striking lines. we haven't heard of it so far. so the president basically is going to be making a historic trip on tuesday. now it also comes after he faced a lot of political structure as the strikers were asking him to do more. we just heard buttigieg call him the most pro-union president, and want to see president biden actually live up to that label. as we've seen over the course of the last three years really bringing in labor movements inside of the white house, holding those events, they wanted to see that in realtime on the picket line, now we're going to get to see that, that actually includes uaw shawn fein who actually invited president biden at the white house. and almost withheld the uaw endorsement of biden. so really this is a test for biden in this space. now, not a lot of details are very clear going into this trip. we know that the president travels with a pretty large footprint. probably the white house is still working out the details. i'm sure we'll hear about that today and into tomorrow. we also don't know how long on the ground he'll be, how long on the pick the line he'll be as we know he's expected at a fund-raiser in california later tuesday night. and the white house is revving it up as a show of force for his support in these union negotiations. something that presidents don't normally do, get involved in these disputes. >> right. well, i think the picture is likely to be striking, if in fact, as you note, the secret service can figure out how to get him into the crowds safely. always pretty tricky. but the politics with the unions looking for that endorsement with a person nachs union leader being out there. jasmine wright, thank you very much for being here this morning. i appreciate it. and time is running out to avoid a crippling government shutdown. how you could feel it. and what senator bob menendez was planning to do today after he was indicicted. for a new iphone 15 pro on us. only on verizon. 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>> yeah, absolutely, cakasie, there's very little chance that congress can avert this shutdown. the reason is mccarthy isn't even speaking about a stopgap keep the lights on past september 30th. he knows it can't pass with just republican votes. he's refusing to work with democrats to get that across the finish line. so, he's basically abandoned it. what he's trying to do is now pass long-term spending bills. the spending bills that would if you want the government for the rest of the 2024 fiscal year. he's hoping that buys enough goodwill for his hard right conservatives to come to the table on the short-term spending bill to fund the government for just a few weeks but as mccarthy said, they want to burn the place down. but he's still trying to negotiate with them. >> yeah it does seem at this point like it's a little bit of a fool's errand. and there's really no way for mccarthy to avoid a shutdown, and potentially also, a renewed vote on his speakership. i thought it was interesting that garret graves, one of the negotiators there that was him talking to manu, that you saw there. he said, look, i wrote one, too. let's try to get this out of the way. that's what strategy leaders have used in situations in the past. do you think there's any chance that it works with matt gaetz and hard-liners that it actually takes air out of their sails? >> i mean, yeah, that's what happened in 1910 when they want wanted to debate their attracters. matt gaetz's entire mission in congress is for kevin mccarthy to fail. and what the senate is doing right now is they are also going to start to pass a short-term spending bill. send it to the house, and in hopes to save the government shutdown. but my sources are telling me that there is no way that mccarthy can bring to the floor a senate c.r. it's likely going to have ukraine aid. his conservatives won't accept it. so mccarthy has a choice here. this whole shutdown is his choice. he can work with democrats, or he can refuse to. and he's continuing to refuse to. because he's worried about his job. so, essentially, cakasie, he's putting his fears ahead of this government shutdown. >> it's a sharp way to put it. i'm glad you brought up the senate. mitch mcconnell, the republican leader, obviously, he's had public challenges with his own health. bust historically, he's been someone who has stepped in oftentimes to the breach and worked things out at the last minute because he obviously very much believes that a shutdown is really bad politics for help cans. the relationship between mcconnell and mccarthy, though, is a pretty complicated one. and i don't get the sense that there's a ton of respect for the mcconnell folks for what's going on with kevin mccarthy in the house. what do you understand about that and whether mcconnell actually has any leverage or sway to try to convince mccarthy to act in a different way? >> mcconnell is one of the least popular republicans among -- especially on republican voters. >> yes. >> and mccarthy knows that, and that's who most of the house of representatives, the hard base, that's who some of these hard-right members represent. and so, mccarthy is under no pressure to negotiate and to work with mcconnell. in fact, a dirty word up on capitol hill right now is what's called the quote "uniparty" that's where republicans say republicans and democrats in the senate just work together and there's no difference between the party. so it actually going against mccarthy. it works against mccarthy, if he's outwardly showing to work with mcconnell now, cakasie. >> all of it pointing out the inevitability of the a shutdown, at the end of the week, leigh ann caldwell, appreciate it. new jersey senator bob menendez is expected to speak publicly. the new jersey globe said menendez will hold a news conference today. he's not expected to resign. in fact, he's expected to sale he's running for re-election in 2024, he does have, we should note, he does already have a republican challenge congressman andy kim. let's bring cnn's analyst joey jackson. joey, thank you for being here. i appreciate it. i think we should note as far as challengers very quite a few in the new jersey house delegation that would happily take a promotion to the senate. that's why you're seeing him with calls to resigning not a lot of calls from senators. we know menendez was indicted once before. it ended in a mistrial. this one, though, comes after a years' long justice department investigation. they've been sitting on those incredibly damaming pictures. how damming is this case? >> kasie, good morning to you. with the prosecutors as you look at what's in the indictment, very inflammatory indictment, having the gold bars, showing the mercedes and the menendez jacket all over it with money in the envelope. if you're the prosecution, you'll say this office was for sale. the reality was that he was engaged with these business persons in addition to his wife in order to do favors that are improper, untoward and outlrigh illegal. and he was doing it in exchange for money and everything that we've seen. the defense will say something different. they will say that he's a senator. that's what senators do. not engage in corruption, but they advocate vehemently for their clients. yes, as a member of the foreign relations committee, he had interest with respect to egypt and what was going on and the success that that government had. and he acted in kind. and with respect to engaging or at least being in federal in state investigations that he was doing it because it was in the best interest, because he didn't believe in those investigations. so those will be the competing narratives. the challenge will be whether the challenge will be to connect his office to a quid pro quo reality, not part and parcel to what will he was doing as a senator. >> i'm glad you raise that. we should point out, he wasn't just the member. he was first a ranking member and the chairman of the foreign relations committee which is a much more powerful post, as opposed to being one voice of many on a committee. i guess from my perspective, as somebody who covers politics on capitol hill, i'm curious, does it matter that there's this sort of foreign element to the legal part of the case. i think from a political perspective, saying, oh, he's helping out a foreign country and abusing his position to do that is not something that typically plays well to an american audience. but what i don't fully have my head around is whether that matters at all legally. does it? >> so it will matter, cakasie, because of look of impropriety. and exchanging in the foreign relations committee not because it was in the interest of constitts or america, but because of interest of himself. because of that interest, he was helping the government and loosening up this money that was on hold, et cetera. and all of these actions were engaged in because he was getting paid to do it. not by the taxpayers, as it relates to his basic salary. but because he was engaged in this corrupt bribery scheme and acting because of that but prosecutors will say, it's more. it's not only that but everything else he was doing in relating to helping his friends. this wasn't a senator who was in agreement that a federal prosecution shouldn't go forward and installing the people that he could control. this was about the fact that he was all inning people and recommending names to president biden in terms of who he should appoint as a result of this corrupt scheme. that will be the narrative. of course, the senator will be vehement saying listen, senators have lunches, they exchange text messages and senators get gifts from clients and they do it for a job well done. and the defense will say as a result of his activities there was any quid pro quo. he wasn't doing it because of these things and gifts. he was doing it and engaging in these activities because that's what senators do and you have to be effective. that will be the narrative in court. the one that succeeds will be the one that carries the day. will he be guilty? not guilty? that's the open question. >> we should also underscore the gifts rule what is they are and aren't allowed to take. are extraordinarily strict. you can't attend a cocktail party in washington. they say, if this is more than $25, you need to pay for it. let us know. those gold bars are worth more than 25 bucks. joey jackson, appreciate your expertise this morning. >> always. we've got big new polls out this morning on a hypothetical biden/trump rematch. who appears to be taking the lead coming up next. plus, trump is skipping another debate. what he's planning. and also ahead, a tentative deal that could affefect the writers strike in n hollywood. it's your business, it's your verizon. 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and what do you think it means for their plans going forward? >> i think that the numbers show that president biden does have a rough time going forward. the poll numbers show there's a lot of disapproval of his job performance. the way he's handled the economy. the way he's handling immigration. and democrats will say, you know, we're a year out. these polls can only tell us so much. but it's clear he has a lot of work to do to reassure people. we hadn't change his age, he can't change his perception. you'll see republicans arguing that a vote for joe biden is actually a vote for his vice president kamala harris. so there's a lot of work to be done to show these a vigorous president. that he has the energy to last another four years that he can turn around his approval or disapproval on foreign policy, on immigration. >> no it's all fair what you say. i would say my sources who support biden also say he's continuously underestimated. he was all but written off in the democratic primary when he won in 2020. and that he couldn't pull that off again. we'll find out, i think, who's right. let's talk a little bit about the uaw here. because there's going to be this split screen. biden is going to be with the uaw on tuesday on the picket line. you'll see donald trump there on wednesday during the republican debate clearly executing a general election strategy, as his rivals for the gop nomination are out on stage, out at the reagan library. but what does this tell you about kind of the state of politics, generally, that these voters in michigan, it's fascinating to me that the republicans and the democrats both are basically playing to the same aexact audience. while the head of the uaw is holding the endorsement of joe biden, traditionally, that would have gone to the democratic party. >> right. we're seeing the uaw president saying our endorsement has to be earned. on the one point, you have biden pushing to the transition of electric vehicles, and the electric vehicles take away employees and manufacturing. and looser labor laws. then you have trump, really sort of not trying to get the support of the union leaders. he's trying to go directly to the autoworkers saying, hey, i'm here for you. . when you look at his record in office, he clashed a lot over hose federal appointees and his policies. both of these candidates have a lot of work to sort of appeal to union members, union leaders, to sort of say, you should vote for me, next year, if i'm the nominee, actually michigan, wisconsin and pennsylvania. >> of course, those states outline and make up what democrats refer to as the blue wall that's really going to be the heart of the general election next year. trump's got a primary to get through, as polls show a demanding lead there. arit john, thank you for being here appreciate it. >> thank you for having me. and the months' long writers strike could finally be coming to an end. we'll l have details ahead. freestyle librbre 2. try it for free at freestylelibre.us (vo) if your thyroid eye disease was diagnosed a long, long time ago you may think your eyes will be bulging forever. like a never-eing curse that can't be broken. but even if you've been told it's too late, treating your thyroid eye disease may still be possible. and a new day is within sight. learn how you could give your eyes a fresh start at stilltreatted.com. 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(zipping zipper) ooh, queen likes. ♪ welcome back to sports now, as it taylor swift entered her red era, omg, the nfl has a super bowl halftime show confession. that reminds me, kour wire. the dolphins, did i miss them like switching sports and playing basketball instead of football? because what happened yesterday? >> yeah, what is happening kasie. never in my wildest dreams did i think i'd see something like this, miami dolphins putting up 70 points in a game. welcome to our house. it took less than 90 seconds, kasie for them to show why we the best offense in the nfl tua tagovailoa feeling this moment with four touchdown passes. tyreek hill taking this one 54 yards. check out his celebration, cheetah, man of the people. and raheem mostert in the nfl for one of his four touchdowns. check this out, kasie, come on shake your body, baby, do tcong. >> it's almost unfair. >> and singing. ♪ i can about a hero baby ♪ so wrist, one of his four touchdowns, 70 points that's the most in a game since 1966. the nfl record is 72. speaking of swift, sparks flying in kansas city after taylor swift sits neck to mama kelce after an invite from mr. perfectly kind of chiefs travis kelce. you know patrick mahomes is going to find him for a touchdown, nothing new. as kasie's original power couple connects. kelce looking up grinning like a devil. chiefs embarrassed the bears 41-10. an nfl sunday fun day announcement yesterday that got us falling in love. ♪ yeah yeah yeah ♪ it's official. usher, you're halftime performer for super bowl lviii. the eight-time grammy-water winner will be in las vegas february 11th. kasie, remind me of a girl i once know -- what do you think about this? do you like it? >> yeah, this is amazing. i'm totally into it. i want to give props to your writers, how many taylor swift references can we get in the scripts, props to those guys. we do have one more thing, after 17 years, megan rapinoe suited up for team usa yesterday. 203 match, friendly in chicago, two-time world champ thanking the fans for being there every step of the way, listen. >> i just want to say thank you. when i think about what it means to me to represent not only this team, but our country. it's just that. we're just a little >> absol