Return to Transcripts main page

The Lead with Jake Tapper

Stocks Plunge As Americans Grow More Worried About Economy; Mahmoud Khalil's Lawyers Argue His Case Should Be Moved To New Jersey; Sources Say, V.A. Layoffs Could Impact Call Centers, Support Staff; Deadly 7.7 Mag Earthquake Rocks Myanmar, Thailand & China; Partial Solar Eclipse Visible Tomorrow Morning. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired March 28, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:00:00]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN HOST: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Phil Mattingly in for Jake Tapper.

This hour, a brutal day on Wall Street, capping off a week of unsettling economic news. New data out today, Americans are growing more and more concerned about rising prices and a possible recession. But how worried should you really be? We're going to dig into the numbers.

Plus, the new court order tonight handed down over where the Trump administration could deport migrants who they're trying to remove from the U.S., and it comes just as the president asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up his deportation battle.

Also what sources are telling CNN about looming cuts to the Department of Veteran Affairs and what programs could be affected as the agency plans to lay off 80,000 people.

And months after their town was decimated by wildfires, CNN is revisiting some of the hardest hit areas in Altadena, California, where community members say the mission now is about so much more than just rebuilding the homes that were lost.

The Lead starts right now of the warning lights, yet they're flashing a little bit brighter tonight as new data shows a growing number of Americans are expecting higher inflation, higher employment, and a higher risk of recession. All of this just a few days before President Trump plans to announce sweeping new tariffs.

Now, CNN's Alayna Treene starts us off from the White House. And, Alayna, what are White House officials saying about kind of where the economic outlook sits right now?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, look, Phil, I mean, they continue to argue a few different reasons really, that they're using for their justification for these tariffs. One is that the president needs revenue to pay for some of the other things that he wants to do, mainly his tax cuts, reviving his 2017 tax cuts, but then also wanting to reduce the federal deficit overall. But it also really kind of comes down to his belief that the United States has been taken advantage of by countries like Canada and Mexico, where these tariffs have really been some of the hardest hit.

And then, of course we're seeing more countries now being affected with those auto tariffs that he announced on Wednesday, 25 percent on all foreign imports of foreign cars and on different parts coming into the United States. And then, of course, we're going to see some more reciprocal tariffs as the president calls it on Wednesday.

Now, I do also just want to touch on because I mentioned Canada, where what the president's call with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney was today because notably, it was their first time that they spoke since he was named prime minister 14 days ago. Now, there was two different kind of mixed messages almost that we've heard from top Trump administration officials, the president himself using much friendlier rhetoric toward Carney, arguing that they had an extremely productive call.

He said that they agreed on many things. He said he believes that the United States and Canada are going to have a great relationship moving forward. Of course, all comes as Canada's being really hammered by his tariff policies.

But then we heard from the vice president who is in Greenland today, or is on his way back now, who had much sharper language.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: The Canadian leadership threatening retaliatory tariffs against the United States, as President Trump often says, they just don't have the cards. There is no way that Canada can win a trade war with the United States. What President Trump has said is they want to level the playing field.

The long-term consequence of this is going to be higher wages, more manufacturing, and more economic security for the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So as you heard there, Phil, Vance saying that there's no way that Canada could win a trade war against the United States. So, again, very different rhetoric from what we heard from the president today. All of this coming though as President Donald Trump said moments ago while on Air Force One that he would be open to making a deal with other countries over tariffs, but he said none of those discussions are going to take place until after they actually go into effect next week.

MATTINGLY: A very big week next week. Alayna Treene, I know you will hopefully get some rest this weekend before that at the White House. Thank you so much.

Well, let's kind of lay out where things are right now. Yes, today was not a great day for stock markets. There's no question about that. Equities, you look both the Dow, NASDAQ, S&P 500, all taking significant hits and marking the fifth out of the last six weeks that markets have ended up in the red.

What about go a little bit further back, like starting an inauguration date? You remember coming into January 20th, the economic mood was pretty high. Corporate executives were thrilled that Trump was coming into office. There seemed to be a lot of enthusiasm on an issue that Trump pulled extremely well on throughout the course of his campaign, and that seemed to show up at the start.

Now, progressively over the course of the last several weeks, you have seen each of the three major indices drop fairly dramatically, all of them now in negative territory from where they were at on January 20th. And that's starting to cast a little bit of poll (ph) over things.

Now, you might say stock markets, that's not the real economy.

[18:05:00]

Well, this is the real economy, consumers, their decisions, how they feel, they are absolutely integral to the future of the U.S. economy. And consumer sentiment in March, according to University of Michigan survey, they came out today tanked by 12 percent. That top line number in and of itself is problematic and tracks with what we've seen from consumer surveys repeatedly over the course of the last several weeks.

But dig in to the details of this survey, and you find a couple of interesting notes here, including this one. Republicans joined independents and Democrats in expressing worsening expectations since February for their personal finances, business conditions, unemployment and inflation. And that's important because a lot of times when you look at consumer sentiment, right track, wrong track, polling, in general, even on issues of the economy, it is split in a very partisan manner. Welcome to America at this point.

And this seems to be underscoring the fact that more Americans, regardless of political affiliation or who they voted for, are feeling concerned right now. And that drives, when you look back, something like this. This is consumer spending. You're looking at this, you're saying 0.5 percent, 0.4 percent point.

What does this all mean? I'll tell you what this means. Economists coming into today's report from the Bureau of Economic Affairs believed that consumer spending in the month of February would tick up and it would be a rebound month in January. It was actually in the negative. It would tick up. It would show at least some stability in terms of consumer spending, which has really driven the U.S. economy over the course of the last five or six years.

Economists forecast 0.5 percent. It came in under that at 0.4 percent. When that number is adjusted for inflation, that's 0.1 percent, in other words, barely breaking just slightly over, even at the same time, an inflation number came in hotter than was expected.

Now, why does all of this matter? Well, that uncertainty, consumers perhaps pulling back, consumers being concerned, no question about that, is coming just a few days before Donald Trump's big reciprocal tariffs announcement.

Now, reciprocal tariffs, as they are framed, are what they kind of sound like, right? One nation charges you this, so you're going to charge them that on a tariff for tariff basis, except this administration has made clear it's not just a tariff for tariff basis. It will also be nontariff barriers, things like a value added task, currency manipulation.

We think we haven't actually seen the details yet, and the details are going to be absolutely critical. In fact, when those details come out, if they're not as bad as the market's expected, it may actually be a good thing or it may not.

And that's what I want to bring in former Trump Economic Adviser Stephen Moore. Stephen, uncertainty, uncertainty, when you talk to executives, when you talk to lawmakers, when you talk to consumers, they don't really know which direction to go in right now. How big of a problem is that?

STEPHEN MOORE, FORMER TRUMP ECONOMIC ADVISER: Oh, hi Phil. Thanks for having me. You know, it's so interesting those numbers you were reciting, and those are accurate, but it was about mid-February when, you know, they were very high and Trump had a very high approval rating. Everything was going very well in the first weeks of the presidency.

Trump had gotten control of the border and the stock market was doing very well, and it really wasn't until he started talking, you know, almost nonstop about tariffs that those numbers have started to dwindle down. And I think that should be a bit of a warning sign for the Trump White House, that at least with respect to how consumers feel about it, they're very jittery and so are investors.

And so, look, I'm very bullish on the Trump agenda. I think we got to get that tax cut done. I love the deregulation. I love what he's doing on the border and DOGE, but that's been completely crowded out over the last four or five weeks with all of this tariff talk. And if I were advising Trump, I would say, hey, that's fine, but don't forget the rest of your agenda, which I think is very pro-investor and pro- America.

MATTINGLY: You bring up such a great point because I've talked to White House advisers on this and they say, look, this is a multi- pronged plan. It's well thought out. These things actually connect together and tariffs are not the overarching be all, end all of that plan. They're one piece of it. The person who keeps talking about them is the president.

MOORE: So, look, I want to give the president his due here for your viewers, because what Trump is saying is almost all true. I mean, it is a fact that we do have the lowest tariffs in the world and it is true that these other countries have not been playing by the rules and that they've been raising their tariffs at a time when, you know, we have trade agreements where they're supposed to keeping them low.

And it is true that Trump is using American leverage to try to force these countries to bring their tariffs down, which, by the way, would be in interest of the United States and their own citizens because they'd have lower priced products.

This is a strategy that could work. And Trump has said, as you know, that this is short-term pain for long-term gain. But so far, people are feeling a lot of pain and they're waiting for the gain. And so that I think is the conundrum that Trump is in.

[18:10:01]

I know him very well. I think he's a master negotiator. I think he's going to win a lot of these trade skirmishes with these other countries. But the question is, at what cost?

MATTINGLY: And I think -- I'm glad you said that because I think that's such a critical point here. Everything you said about kind of the unfairness and a lot of, from a kind of top line detail perspective, what the president cites is accurate and that's been an intentional choice by U.S. policymakers for the better part of 70 or 80 years. Trump is trying to completely reorient a global trading structure. There's no question about that.

And I think the thing that a lot of people are trying to get their heads around right now is to be able to go tariff for tariff and then include non-barrier tariffs and then include value added tax. However they land on this, the adjustment period is going to be long. He will win negotiations if it's our consumers versus their consumers because our markets are so critical to the U.S. economy. But how long does it take?

MOORE: I wish I knew the answer to that question. I don't think anyone knows how long it will take. I do agree with what J.D. Vance said in that clip that you showed that I think a lot of these other countries, Canada and the Europeans and China, if they try to retaliate, that's not a winning strategy for these countries. Because it is true, you know, China and Mexico and Canada have to trade with the United States. They must if they want to keep their economies above water.

So, I do think in the end of the day Trump will win concessions and it will make people better off. But, you know, look, I'm working full- time on trying to get this tax cut done, which I think is really central to the U.S. economy, avoid a $4 trillion tax increase at the end of this year. I would like to see President Trump talking about that more and less about the tariff wars. But we will see. I think he's going to return to that message next week.

MATTINGLY: Yes. Look, that's going to be a heavy lift just because of small majorities. I think Republicans feel good about getting to an outcome. They just don't know exactly how they're going to do that yet at this point. What makes it difficult is if the political environment changes dramatically. And I think that's the concern you hear from some Republicans, especially since this is such -- this more than the tax cut, more than anything else, is the cornerstone. But we're going to have to see how this goes.

Steve Moore, I really appreciate your time, sir. Thanks so much. MOORE: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: I now want to bring in Democratic Congresswoman Hillary Scholten of Michigan. Congresswoman, to the conversation we were just having, the anxiety and I think what was most interesting in the University of Michigan survey, I'm an Ohio State guy, it pains me to have to cite that as an authority to --

REP. HILLARY SCHOLTEN (D-MI): I didn't realize that.

MATTINGLY: -- to a Michigan --

SCHOLTEN: Sorry, I have to go.

MATTINGLY: I know, I figured that was going to end it right now. It's not a great idea. But that it's not a partisan, it's not split on a partisan basis right now, like there's genuine anxiety across everybody. And I'm interested, what are you hearing from constituents?

SCHOLTEN: You know, I'm hearing directly from constituents about how concerned they are, not only people reaching out to my office, but I've been conducting in-person town halls, had one last night at capacity, a thousand people, another one today in Ottawa County, a Republican stronghold. Trump won it by 20 points. I went into this part of my district where I lost, and people were standing up over and over saying they're deeply concerned.

You know, they're concerned about the impact of these tariffs, as you've said, you know, which are anticipated to add an average of $2,000 a year annually to the budget, to the American family budget and then what these tax cuts are going to look like for middle class families.

So, you know, they're really concerned. They're paying attention and they want to have their voices heard. Even people who voted for Trump are saying, this is not what I voted for.

MATTINGLY: Anyone who's having a town hall right now, it's fascinating just to hear what they're hearing, right? We're still in a very opening stage and I think a lot of people are kind of a little bit disoriented regardless of who you voted for about what's actually happening.

SCHOLTEN: Yes.

MATTINGLY: From those that are in your party, we have seen the frustration with Democratic leadership related to the continuing resolution, we've seen frustration just in the wake of what happened in November. I think you mentioned the town hall you had earlier today. What are you hearing from those people? What do they want?

SCHOLTEN: Yes. You know, they want to see action. And this is why, again, I was not afraid to go out there and listen to people. And even Republicans are saying, Democrats, please do something right now. You know, we feel like this is not what we voted for. You know, Elon Musk is unaccountable. He has no transparency, no accountability. You know, he's slashing, you know, our essential services and programs and they want to see action from the Democratic Party.

I'm making sure to go out and reassure people that I'm fighting for them every single day, that I am committed to protecting Social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and that we're going to use every tool in the toolbox to stand up for them.

MATTINGLY: Democratic Congresswoman Hillary Scholten, I'm very proud of our ability as a Buckeye and a Michigander to have a cordial conversation.

[18:15:05]

More town halls like that would be great. I appreciate your time, ma'am. Thanks so much.

SCHOLTEN: Nothing's (INAUDIBLE).

MATTINGLY: Thanks.

Well, breaking legal news tonight, with a brand new ruling on President Trump's deportations, just as he asks the U.S. Supreme Court to take up another immigration case, those details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: Back now with our National Lead, lawyers for Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate that Trump administration is trying to expel from the United States because of his role in campus protests against Israel, he appeared before a judge in New Jersey today to debate where his legal fight should play out. Now, Khalil's lawyers say he was simply exercising his right to free speech.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino is outside the district court in Newark, New Jersey. Gloria, why New Jersey?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Phil, because Khalil's attorneys argued that this issue has already been settled.

[18:20:00]

Remember, two weeks ago, a federal judge in New York said the Khalil case should be heard right here in New Jersey because this is where he was briefly detained after he was arrested in New York City. Then they moved him to Louisiana. But the government has continued to argue Louisiana is the proper venue.

Now, this is not a technicality. This is a strategy by the government. That's what Khalil's attorneys told me today. Since Khalil was arrested, they've arrested more students and scholars, and at least three of them have been sent to Louisiana. They say that this is not a coincidence, it's part of their legal strategy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAMZI KASSEM, ATTORNEY FOR MAHMOUD KHALIL: It is this shell game where the government is trying to make it hard for lawyers to prevent them from doing this so that, again, they can pick the court where they want these cases to move forward. For some reason, they think Louisiana gives them home court advantage. I'm not sure that's true, but that seems to be their belief. And they want to cut people off from their communities, from their base of support, from their lawyers, from their families, from their schools, their friends, and isolate them so that they can deport them in silence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Now, Phil, the judge today did not really show his cards about how he is going to decide. He was very methodical in his question and you can clearly tell that he was taking his time. But until there is a decision on this issue of the venue, Khalil's case cannot move forward. He cannot be heard on whether or not he should be let out on bail, on whether or not he should be brought back here to the New York City area. So, this decision is going to be critical to determine how the case is going to move forward and whether or not it's going to happen right here in New Jersey.

In the meantime, Khalil's attorneys have told me that he is undeterred. He wants to fight the case. He's aware that more students have been arrested, but he wants to continue to advocate on behalf of Palestinian human rights. Phil?

MATTINGLY: Gloria Pazmino, great reporting. Thanks so much.

Well, let's bring in our resident immigration expert, Priscilla Alvarez, to discuss. First, I can't help but think. We've had many conversations about how the Trump administration thinks through venue shopping basically for cases which comes at the same time they're complaining that defense attorneys are venue shopping as well. So, keep that in mind next time you hear those complaints.

But on this issue that Gloria was talking about, Secretary of State, Marco Rubio said he knew, I think, of 300 revoked student visas. We haven't seen, I don't think, or know about 300 individuals going through something like this. What are your sources telling you?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We don't, because a lot of this is happening behind the scenes. So, until someone is targeted and detained, we don't know who exactly they have on that list as of yet. But the administration, the federal government, has a lot of tools at their disposal to find the people that they feel are a risk to national security or fall within this jurisdiction of this obscure law.

Now, I've been talking to sources about this and, really, they can filter by nationality. They can look at their social media to see what they have been saying. They can find all of the people that have these different student visas and identify those who they think are problematic.

And what we have also learned, Phil, over the years, is that the executive has a lot of authority on immigration policy, and they are pushing the bounds of that now, particularly with the cases we have seen of these foreign nationals who are attending these prestigious universities and are now being detained.

Now, the administration, when asked to provide evidence of this, not always sufficient, according to multiple attorneys. Many of these people have not been accused of crimes. They have no charges against them. In cases where there has been some evidence, like in that of Mahmoud Khalil, it's flyers, the White House press secretary saying that that was pro Hamas propaganda, in other cases, visa overstays, but it's not as though there is one key piece of evidence in each of these cases that would justify, why they would be considered a national security threat.

And Secretary of State Marco Rubio is indicating that there is much more to come. Take a listen.

Oh, it doesn't sound seem like we have the sound bite, but the secretary of state is clearly making the case publicly that he is doing this work behind the scenes to revoke these visas because this is in his authority to do.

MATTINGLY: He has very outwardly addressed it when asked about it. They're not trying to hide what they're doing, who they're doing it to, I think is a bit of an open question right now.

You mentioned a really critical point people didn't understand. When it comes to immigration, the executive authority, as is, is expansive. This administration is pushing the bounds of that already wide scale authority. Where do those stand? Those issues stand right now because they're in courts and they're being challenged.

ALVAREZ: With, by the way, legal statutes that exist. So, they are using laws that are in the books to essentially try to carry out their speedy deportations. It's not just this national security sort of clause in the law that gives the State Department so much authority. It's also the Alien Enemies Act, which is also now going all the way up to the Supreme Court.

[18:25:00]

But the through line in all of this is that they have the legal tools and they are using them to justify what they're doing now.

Number two, there isn't sufficient evidence that they have provided to justify the people that they are targeting and detaining. This is true with the students. It's also something we've seen with those Venezuelans who were sent to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act. We have continued to push them for evidence and they have not shown that to justify why each of those cases was sent there.

So, these are all legal hurdles that they're still going to have to overcome, including, for example, a judge temporarily blocking them from sending them to third country migrants, but it is part of their broader plan and they are using the legal tools that have been in the books for a long time to do it.

MATTINGLY: Yes. Just because it's 200 years old, if it's a statute, it's a statute. And they're trying to figure out what it actually means going forward and pushing it

Priscilla Alvarez, always a pleasure. Thanks so much.

Well, moments ago, the Department of Veteran Affairs responded after sources told CNN that major cuts to the agency could include call center employees who help veterans schedule their medical care. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:00]

MATTINGLY: In our Politics Lead, when U.S. military veterans dial a call center to schedule appointments in medical care, there may no longer be an agent on the other end to answer the phone. That is according to multiple sources familiar with the plans for potential cutbacks at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

CNN's Brian Todd is live outside the V.A. headquarters. Brian, what are you learning? And I think more importantly, what sort of implications could this have for veterans?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Phil, multiple sources familiar with the plans for the layoffs at the V.A. are telling CNN that at least at some point, the groups of employees here that were to be affected by the layoffs would've included medical and healthcare support staff, administrative and support roles, including human resources personnel, and V.A. call centers were expected, at least at some point, to be streamlined with animation, meaning that some of the live agents fielding veterans calls that want to schedule medical appointments and benefits, some of those live agents could have possibly been laid off.

Now, according to -- this is the, quote, from a Democratic congressional staffer briefed on these plans for the layoffs, quote, this is heartless and dangerous. Veterans in need of life-saving care and compassion should be met with a person who understands their needs and can provide them the information and resources they seek, not a lifeless machine.

Now, the V.A. is pushing back pretty strongly on this information. This is from Peter Kasperowicz, the V.A. press secretary. He is stressing that no final decisions on the layoffs at the V.A. have been made. Here's what he said about the reporting and the sourcing here. The story is based on deliberately leaked false information that does not reflect V.A.'s reform plan, which is still being developed. And he says, quote, the fact is almost everything in this story is false.

But the fact remains, Phil, and V.A. Secretary Doug Collins has acknowledged that they are targeting roughly 80,000 V.A. employees to be terminated. That is almost 20 percent of their workforce. Sources telling us that the V.A. layoffs are going to come in two separate waves. One of them starting in July, the second one starting in September. Phil?

MATTINGLY: Brian Todd for us, thanks so much. Well, to our Health Lead now, the outbreak of measles in the U.S., it continues to sharply rise. The number of cases across Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, well, they've reached at least 453. Beyond that, cases are now reported in 20 states across the country.

I want to bring in CNN Medical Correspondent Meg Tirrell. Meg, what are we learning when we dig into these numbers?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Phil, they're growing especially fast in Texas, now up to 400 alone in that state, which is really where this outbreak is centered. They added 73 cases just since Tuesday. And so that is really increasing the number of cases we're seeing in this outbreak. We are also seeing it spread to more states, so not just New Mexico and Oklahoma, which we already knew about, but now Kansas is reporting 23 cases that it thinks are linked to that outbreak.

We are seeing 20 states overall that are reporting measles cases in 2025. There is separately another outbreak that doesn't appear to be linked to Texas that we just learned about this week in Ohio, ten cases there. That's potentially linked to international travel. So, Phil, this is growing pretty quickly, and with low vaccination rates, experts say, unfortunately we are going to continue to see more measles cases.

MATTINGLY: Meg, I want to shift a bit because I think this is really interesting. I think it happened over in Utah, which is the move to ban fluoride in public water systems. The Republican governor signed the bill yesterday. It'll go into effect on May 7th. It's a move a lot of medical, as associations for months have said, including the American Dental Association, don't do this. Basically, they're warned against it. Why is it significant?

TIRRELL: Yes. Well, it's the first state to outright ban fluoride in water. Typically, this is a really local decision. They decide whether they want to put fluoride in their water, and this has been done for decades across the United States to prevent cavities, to prevent tooth decay. And one of the benefits of doing it in water is that it gets to everybody, and so lower income folks who may not have the same access to dental care or to fluoride products also get those benefits. And so that's why there's a lot of concern about this.

Of course, we have seen Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, put out things against fluoride. He even said in a tweet before the election that if President Trump won, then on the first day in office, they would advise states to take fluoride out of the water. And he cited a whole host of health concerns that he sees with fluoride.

And we have been hearing more and more about worries about I.Q. impacts of fluoride in water, for example, but it's really important to note that any impacts that we've seen in studies have been in levels much higher than the levels that we see recommended for U.S. water systems.

[18:35:02] And so there's concern we're going to start to see a negative impact, especially on children with cavities and tooth decay, when they take it out of water.

MATTINGLY: Important and informative reporting, as always. Meg Tirrell, thanks so much.

Well, CNN is back in Altadena, California, just months after the town was decimated by wildfires. Now, members of the community are stepping up to make sure their neighborhoods don't fall through the cracks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: In our National Lead today, new today, in a response to a request from California, FEMA has expanded its fire debris removal program for people who lost their homes in the Los Angeles fires in January to include more kinds of properties. The agency also extended the deadline to register for debris removal. But that could be easier said than done for many displaced residents who aren't in the loop at all.

CNN's Stephanie Elam is in the historically black area of Altadena where people are stepping up in big ways to help their neighbors rebuild.

[18:40:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is our neighborhood. You know, it looks like 95 percent of the houses are gone.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): What Charles Bryant lost in the Eaton fire wasn't just a house. It was his sanctuary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's gone.

ELAM: Bryant's home of 20 years where he and his wife, Lynell (ph), raised their children, was destroyed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ashes, ashes. This is what's left of our house.

ELAM: For about 40 years, Bryants lived in Altadena, a historically black enclave about 15 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

CHARLES T. BRYANT, LOST HOM EIN EATON FIRE: You can look around and you can see people that look like you.

ELAM: Do you worry about people selling their lots?

BRYANT: I do. I'd like to keep Altadena Altaden. I'd like to keep the diversity as it is. I don't want to see large developers coming in, buying up multiple properties and stamping out houses like cookie cutters. ELAM: Bryant jumped into action to begin rebuilding. But building homes is his wheelhouse. He quickly realized his neighbors needed help.

If you weren't an architect, would it be easy to do?

BRYANT: I don't think it would be easy.

ELAM: Bryant is a member of the National Organization of Minority Architects. A few others in this chapter also lost their homes. Together, they realized this is how they could help the community rebuild.

ELECTRICE HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT, SOCAL NOMA: We are really open to helping anyone that comes, but our main focus is the preservation of the African-American community that developed here early on in the 1920s when blacks were fleeing the Jim Crow laws of the south. Black families were able to buy property in Altadena, and a lot of those families still own properties.

ELAM: Through their Altadena Rebuild Coalition, residents are getting free help from architects, builders, as well as insurance and legal advocates.

HARRIS: We pulled out every single thing that they needed to do and we broke it up into small steps.

ELAM: The first step is granting the government rights to remove the toxic debris from private property.

COL. ERIC SWENSON, U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: I think this is the most critical step in the rebuilding process, and it's really important that we move safely and quickly and we don't want them to be gone so long that they decide to give up hope of rebuilding.

ELAM: The deadline was March 31st, but FEMA just pushed it to April 15th. So, the pressure is still on to get as many homeowners to fill out the paperwork as possible.

HARRIET MCLAURIN-DICKENS, LOST HOME IN EATON FIRE: We didn't know anything. We didn't know what to do.

ELAM: And help people like Michael and Harriet Dickens, who escaped in the middle of the night with barely more than the clothes on their backs.

MICHAEL DICKENS, LOST HOME IN EATON FIRE: It gives us ideas on how to rebuild, where to start from.

ELAM: The Dickens now have their rebuild plan and opted in for debris removal ahead of the deadline, a few steps closer to rebuilding their home.

H. DICKENS: So, it really is my castle. I loved everything about my house.

ELAM: In the community they love.

H. DICKENS: Yes, our neighbors are more like family.

M. DICKENS: Yes. I love Altadena. I believe there's no better place in the world to live.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELAM (on camera): And the Dickens are not alone. A lot of people who live in Altadena feel that way, that this is the community that they love, that these are their family members, not just their neighbors.

And I want to show you, Phil, what it looks like. If you look over here, this is what it looks like when you're in the midst of the Army Corps of Engineers clearing out your property. This property's not done, but they're in the midst of the second phase. Now, first phase was just about getting rid of household chemicals. The second phase is about getting that toxic debris gone, because if you don't have that gone, you can't rebuild. Whereas you see the property next door is still very much burned down, very much destroyed. But I can see from the signage outside that they have opted in.

And it's important to keep that in mind when you look at these lots that so far between both the Eaton Fire and the Palisades fire, it's over 15,000 parcels of land that are there. It's approaching 10,000 properties that have opted in, but there's still about 1,200 properties that they want people to opt in and say that they can go in there and clear out this toxic debris.

The good news today coming through with the FEMA announcing that they're extending this deadline, so the deadline was going to be March 31st. As of today, it's now April 15th. So, there's a little breathing room here, but still, this is why organizations like the SoCal NOMA, other organizations out here are working to get people to fill out this paperwork.

And when you talk to the architects, they build homes. This is what they do. They know how to fill out this information. Most people don't. And so they're taking their expertise, even people like Charles Bryant who lost his home, still taking time to help out their neighbors, fill out these forms, go through the entire process to finding an architect, finding a builder, getting their permits, all of those things to build their homes, so that hopefully in maybe a year, they're looking at the form of their houses coming back up on these lots. It's a long process, but there's help out there. People just need to go ahead and reach out and get it.

MATTINGLY: The long process is right, right, like multiple steps here, which I think sometimes can be intimidating for folks. But for anybody who doesn't know the answer to this, is the debris removal itself free?

[18:45:00]

ELAM: It is. The Army Corps of Engineers is coming in and they're removing this debris for free. Now, if you have insurance that will cover it, then they will go through and some of it will be covered by insurance and get that back to the government organizations, right? But otherwise, if you don't have any coverage, they will come out here and remove the debris for free. Other people are opting out because they want it to happen faster.

But I've got to tell you, as I've been coming out to both fire zones, Palisades and Eaton, they are working around the clock. Even when there's rainstorms to get this toxic debris out of here, making sure it's safely removed in the right way so that people aren't getting sick, and then protecting these lots so that hopefully new homes will be here, sometime soon.

But it's going to be a long road here. But there's help for these folks. Thats what the important part.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. And a good reminder that other people may move on. This is still very real for the folks in those communities.

Stephanie Elam, great reporting. Thanks so much.

Well, another natural disaster unfolding right now as rescuers are scrambling to find survivors after a massive earthquake leveled buildings across Southeast Asia. An update on those efforts, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:50:03]

MATTINGLY: Breaking news out of Southeast Asia in our world lead, where emergency crews are sifting through, sifting through mounds of flattened buildings, trying to rescue survivors after a deadly 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit Myanmar today. Now, so far, at least 150 people have been killed, and officials say that number is expected to rise.

The aftershocks so powerful it toppled buildings hundreds of miles away. This stunning video were showing you right now from Bangkok, Thailand, shows a high rise building crumbled in seconds.

CNN's Mike Valerio is tracking this for us.

Mike, what are you hearing from officials tonight?

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Phil, we heard from Thailand's deputy prime minister who said that rescue teams are carefully removing different pieces of rubble to make sure that more sections of that imploded skyscraper do not collapse. And that disaster site is where we start tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALERIO (voice-over): A skyscraper in Thailand's capital, Bangkok, reduced to dust Friday. A massive earthquake in neighboring Myanmar destroying the building. Authorities think many are trapped inside. JACK BROWN, BANGKOK RESIDENT: Earthquakes are not common in Bangkok or

in Thailand. I've been living here for over ten years. This is the first earthquake I've ever experienced here.

VALERIO: The earthquake's epicenter was about 1,000 kilometers away, in the center of war-torn Myanmar. It hit just after midday local time with a powerful aftershock minutes later. Residents in the city of Mandalay filmed collapsed buildings on their phones, while golden statues in some of the temples were also damaged by the quake. In Bangkok, the quake sent people fleeing homes and offices for the relative safety of the streets.

VARUNYOU ARMARTTAYAKUL, THAI OFFICE WORKER: I heard the noise of the cracking walls and cracking glass. Part of the ceiling even collapsed. That's when I had to run out.

VALERIO: Water spilling from this hotel rooftop pool onto the roads below. Thailand's prime minister declaring the capital an emergency zone.

SHENGJI WEI, PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR, EARTH OBSERVATORY OF SINGAPORE: It's not an unexpected event. We know that this place, this segment of the fault, is likely to rupture as a big earthquake in the near future.

VALERIO: Tremors were felt as far away as China.

Back in Bangkok, rescuers were hard at work to retrieve bodies from the rubble as people there and across the border in Myanmar continue to reel from the tragedy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALERIO (on camera): Now, Phil, when we're talking about Myanmar here, people need to understand that this is a country that is in the middle of a civil war. So, when we're thinking of relief organizations, how they're going to launch a herculean humanitarian effort. They are trying to comprehend how they are going to get aid into this country when the government is fighting rebel factions in areas that need help the most.

Mike Valerio, CNN, Seoul.

MATTINGLY: Thanks to Mike.

Well, for the weird and very large number of Americans who love solar eclipses, I've got great news for you. One's coming tomorrow morning. We'll tell you where, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:57:34]

MATTINGLY: We begin our last leads with our national lead.

Flash floods swept through parts of Texas last night, submerging roads and vehicles. Some parts of the Rio Grande Valley received nearly a full-years-worth of rain over just a couple of days. Fire officials in the city of Alamo in south Texas say they carried out at least 50 water rescues.

And in our out of this world lead, those of you in the northeastern United States have a chance to witness one of the many wonders of our universe. Early tomorrow morning, a partial solar eclipse will darken the skies as the mirrors, as the moon will say, it's like taking a chunk out of the sun, leaving only a crescent visible.

Remember, even when covered by the moon, don't stare at the sun. Please.

And do not miss a brand new episode of "UNITED STATES OF SCANDAL WITH JAKE TAPPER". This Sunday, he's digging into a story that shocked sports fans everywhere when accusations of doping came to light against Lance Armstrong.

Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, THE LEAD: In a nation divided, it's often hard to find areas where we agree. But one common ground is our appreciation of athletic champions, our culture deifies the GOATs, the greatest of all time. Jordan, Tiger, Serena, names connoting supremacy and also a stratospheric earning potential.

In the late 1990s, a new name emerged, Lance. And his story had an added dimension, a heartbreaking diagnosis of cancer, which he miraculously beats and goes on to win the Tour de France a record seven times. The golden boy in the yellow jersey earned himself the sport, and his sponsors, untold millions.

But after whispers became accusations of doping, Lance found a new way to distinguish himself as the greatest of all time, at lying, and bullying, and destroying the careers of his detractors, leading to tough questions as to why the myth of Lance Armstrong endured for so long.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Tune in to a new episode of "UNITED STATES OF SCANDAL WITH JAKE TAPPER". It airs Sunday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific on CNN.

Well, Sunday morning before that, "STATE OF THE UNION", Republican Senator James Lankford, Maryland Governor Wes Moore. That's Sunday morning at 9:00 eastern and again at noon here on CNN.

Well, you, of course, can follow the show on X @TheLeadCNN. If you ever miss an episode of THE LEAD, I got good news for you. You can listen to the show wherever you get your podcast. Jake Tapper is back next week. Hope you all have a great weekend.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts now.