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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip
CNN's Laura Coates Reports On Special Elections; Trump White House Admits It Mistakenly Deported Man To El Salvador. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired April 01, 2025 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[23:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR AND SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good evening. I'm Abby Phillip in Washington for a special edition of "NewsNight." Let's get right to what America is talking about, temperature check. The first elections in the second era of Donald Trump have Republicans celebrating and sweating. The party is going to keep two seats in their narrow House majority after special elections in Florida to replace Mike Waltz and Matt Gaetz. Democrats surprised analysts, though, by putting up a fight with both cash and energy in those districts that Trump won easily.
But in the swing state of Wisconsin, a big blow to President Trump and Elon Musk, who spent plenty of time and tons of money campaigning for conservatives. The liberal judge, Susan Crawford, is projected to win the race to control the balance of power in that state's supreme court.
So, what are the takeaways tonight for both parties? Well, these electoral contests come as national Democrats are trying to show some signs of life or at least a strategy to fight the Trump agenda.
Senator Cory Booker tonight shattering the record for the longest speech on the floor of the Senate, 25 hours on his feet. That breaks Strom Thurmond's record from 1957 when he was fighting against the Civil Rights Act and the right for someone like Cory Booker to give that speech.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): This is a moral moment, not left to right, right or wrong.
I think we're really at a point in America where things are happening that don't sit right with people of both sides of the aisle. There are so many things going on by this president who is trashing our allies, bullying Canada, who is, in many ways, just violating judges' orders, trampling on our Article I power. So, I just wanted to give a speech that -- that said that this is not normal. We can't normalize it. All of us have a responsibility to do something different, to take some risks, to be there for each other, and to try to ignite a larger movement in our country. (END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Live at the table tonight, Bakari Sellers and Brad Todd. Two lawmakers are also with us, congresswomen Nicole Malliotakis and Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz, I'm going to start with you because you have run the Democratic Party before. You're also from the state of Florida. How do you take what happened tonight, which is the Democrats put up a bit of a fight, but they lost in Florida? Maybe Florida is not really on the table much for Democrats these days.
But in Wisconsin, they -- they won and -- and it could end up being by almost the same margin as couple years ago, when there was another big state supreme court race that really showed that there was energy there for the party.
What do you take away?
REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL): Well, CD 1 and CD 6 in Florida are the bloodiest, readiest, reddest districts in our state and among the bloodiest, reddest in the country. Trump won CD 1 by 37, CD 6 30. And both Republican candidates tonight won those seats by less than half that. That means we won independence and it is a rejection, very clearly, of the Republican Musk DOGE -- DOGE bag agenda, which cuts Medicaid, cuts Social Security, fires veterans, slashes their services.
And in Wisconsin, a state that Trump won, it's very clear that no one likes the direction that Trump and Musk are taking this country.
PHILLIP: Congresswoman Malliotakis, I saw you shaking your head, but --
(LAUGHTER)
-- in Wisconsin, Elon Musk put it all on the -- on the floor, and -- and he bet big on that state and lost big.
REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS (R-NY): Well, the interesting thing is that nothing has actually changed. We still have the two Republican congressional seats in Florida and the Wisconsin court is still liberal leaning, 4-3. Nothing actually flipped in either case.
And so, I don't think anyone has really gained or lost anything tonight. I think things continue as they are. I would dispute my -- my colleagues, reference that, you know, nobody has cut Medicare, nobody has cut Medicaid, nobody has cut Social Security. In fact, we're looking to strengthen those programs.
And I think that, look, Elon Musk, yes, I would say that perhaps there is a sentiment in the country, that things are moving way too fast. I think that there's a lot of change that has been happening. I've been critical myself of some of the fast and furious changes and -- and -- and recommendations from DOGE. I think the -- the -- the overall goal to find and eliminate fraud, waste and abuse, eliminate unnecessary overhead and bureaucracy in our government is much needed.
[23:05:05]
We need to do it in a thoughtful, deliberate, and responsible manner. We've seen some unintended consequences, and it needs to slow down a bit. And perhaps, that is one of the messages that is being sent tonight.
PHILLIP: Yeah.
BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think there's a big warning sign tonight for Republicans in Wisconsin, and it's about money. The Democratic candidate, Susan Crawford, raised $22 million. That is 10 times what Democrat candidates for this office raised just four years ago. She outraised the Republican 2 to 1.
Republicans are not going to prevail in the midterms if we can't find ways to get money directly to candidates. Not talking just big dollar Super PACs, but big money to candidates. That's the worry I have as Republican.
PHILLIP: Yeah. I mean, it's such an -- I was thinking a lot about the money, honestly, tonight because I think a lot of people think, okay, the more money you have, you're going to have an advantage. And I don't know that that's really what we learned tonight. But -- but to your point -- I mean, Trump was able to -- to benefit from Elon Musk and Republicans, $290 million, right, in the last election, all outside money for the most part.
But there is something different when the candidate can actually utilize that money themselves and utilize it correctly. And I -- I just think that we might be past the point where just sheer dollars are going to be determinative in these races. It has gotten kind of crazy.
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: First of all, I -- I'm actually just kind of over here basking in glee with both of my Republican colleagues. One saying that these elections didn't change anything or matter. You saying that the candidate's money was the biggest issue. I think both of those missed the mark hugely.
These races matter today because they set a tone. And yes, it was an outer rejection on Elon Musk trying to buy another race. And so, money does matter. And we're seeing Elon Musk in Wisconsin giving away million-dollar checks. People are simply saying that you cannot buy elections anymore in the United States of America.
And to say that these races didn't matter because they didn't change anything, I think you saw a repudiation of the fact that Donald Trump got elected to seal the southern border and to reduce the price of eggs. Donald Trump has come to Washington, D.C. and flipped things upside down in a way that people do not want.
And so today, you had -- I forget the department because they shut a new department down every day, but you had employees -- I think it was HHS today. I can't recall who -- it was at HHS. PHILLIP: At the health department --
SELLERS: Yeah, at the health department standing in line today, and they didn't know who was going to be hired and who wasn't. And so, you can sit here and say that, oh, we're not going to cut Medicaid, we're not going to do this, but the people who are in charge of running those programs don't have jobs today.
And so, it's hard to effectuate and -- and put those policies in place if -- if Elon Musk is here running rough shot on the government.
TODD: Now, Bakari, let's be clear. The Department of Health and Human Services has 20 different communications officers. They have 17 different chief information officers. You surely have to admit that there's plenty of room to cut overhead waste, fraud, abuse, and --
SELLERS: You know, the crazy part about it is I would prefer those two go in a room and do it and vote on it and do it transparently than Elon Musk sitting about 13, 12-year-olds in there to do it.
TODD: You know, we did do that. We did that. It has been Bill Clinton.
SELLERS: Bill Clinton did it. Yeah. He put a group together.
TODD: Fifty-five Democrats voted for it at that time. You couldn't find five who would vote for it today because your party was so far away.
SELLERS: But we're not doing that.
PHILLIP: I don't know -- I don't know if that's true, Brad, because it has not even come up. I mean, what -- there is a DOGE caucus in Congress that has Democrats on it. And they -- they were willing to come to the table. But it was never brought to --
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: A -- a few things that need to be made clear here --
MALLIOTAKIS: I want to also respond.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Sure.
MALLIOTAKIS: Go ahead.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: A few things need to be made clear. This was not the firing of comms directors, Brad. They closed the office that oversees IVF, in-vitro fertilization research. They closed the office today in the CDC that focuses on HIV. They closed vaccine offices. They have cut hundreds of billions of dollars in genetic research and biomedical research.
As fellow cancer survivor, I hope you care about that. But it is absolutely critical that we make sure people understand that they're -- they are making deep cuts in substantive programs that make a difference in their -- in people's lives. And, respectfully, quite a lot changed today because for the first time in my state, these two districts -- Matt Gaetz, in 2018, in Trump's first term, won CD 1 with 67% of the vote. I -- I mean, this is a seat that --
MALLIOTAKIS: But he never really faced a real challenger from the Democrats.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Okay.
MALLIOTAKIS: And I will say that, talking about buying elections, it was 10 to 1, that the Democrats outspent the Republicans. And yes, Democrats are obviously more --
PHILLIP: In the Florida race.
MALLIOTAKIS: In the Florida race, it is 10 to 1.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Grassroot.
MALLIOTAKIS: So, talk about buying an election. But you said --
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Grassroot.
MALLIOTAKIS: -- that President Trump was elected to secure the border. He was elected to lower the price of eggs. Guess what? Both of those things have happened. Mortgage rates have also come down. Oil prices have come down.
(CROSSTALK)
SELLERS: If you think -- if you think the kitchen table --
MALLIOTAKIS: The last thing I just want --
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SELLERS: If you think the kitchen table issues today, if you think that people are sitting at home today and saying that their prices have gone down today, then you need to go outside and have these town hall meetings. But that is not the case.
MALLIOTAKIS: I'm simply saying -- I'm simply saying that the egg prices have come down, the oil prices have come down, mortgage rates have come down.
SELLERS: Waffle House still has a 50-cent surcharge on eggs. Okay?
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: I went shopping the other day --
MALLIOTAKIS: I think the other thing that's really important to point out is the referendum in Wisconsin. The voter ID referendum, which was President Trump --
SELLERS: Twenty-five points.
MALLIOTAKIS: Huge priority for President Trump. Voter IDs. And it passed by double digits. And that, I think, was also a very big win. So, nothing else changed because we still keep those congressional seats. You guys keep the left-leaning court in Wisconsin. That was a big thing.
SELLERS: And, like, can we do -- can we just do one thing about the way that we characterize the Supreme Court justice-elect? Because we keep calling her liberal. I've seen that all day. And you call her left-leaning, and I've seen that all day. But the way she ran her campaign is I'm going to be someone who applies the rule of law as it should be applied justly. And one of the things that I hate is the fact that we have these partisan judges, anyway.
But her -- her opponent ran to Fox News to campaign every single day. That's not something she did. She did not run from a left-wing --
PHILLIP: Okay. Let me -- let me play, actually, because I just think it is helpful for people to hear some of the arguments. Let's -- let's play the abortion ads from these two candidates so people can hear it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN (voice-over): He wants to take us back to the 1849 law that bans abortion for rape and health of the mother.
BRAD SCHIMEL, FORMER WISCONSIN ATTORNEY GENERAL, WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT CANDIDATE: The people of Wisconsin, through referendum or their elected representatives, should decide the question of abortion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Okay. So, I take -- I take the point -- political point that you're making. But I -- I also think the truth is these candidates, I don't know why they don't have Rs and Ds next to their names, but they should because everybody understands what's going on. This is not a nonpartisan situation because they're clearly in camps here. And it did matter. Abortion mattered. Elon Musk and Trump mattered. All of those things definitely weighed in this situation.
TODD: You know what else matters? What else matter is turnout patterns. Democrats today are the party of the hypereducated. And the elites and the -- and the wealthy, they turn out more in small turnout elections.
It's just a fact that Republicans are a working-class party now. We need massive turnout to win. It flips political conventional wisdom on its head, but that's why we're --
PHILLIP: The turnout was high tonight in Wisconsin.
TODD: We're going to -- we're going to --
PHILLIP: I know what you're saying.
TODD: Wisconsin turnout is typically better than most places. Right? But it still was a spring election. It's still not presidential level turnout. Democrats won this one, maybe 55-45. They won the last one, 55-45. They won the one before that, 55-45. What you saw here was a pattern. And Republicans have got to figure out a way to win when turnout is low. Right now, that's when Democrats win. PHILLIP: Turnout of Trump voters, though, is low, which is -- which is a different thing, because the low propensity Trump voters, who are people who only pay attention when Donald Trump's name is on the ballot, are perhaps the ones who decided to stay home tonight.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Four months ago, Donald Trump won Wisconsin. I mean, because voters went to the polls and they said, we believe you, we think you want to actually lower prices and make my kitchen table costs lower. He hasn't done that. In in fact, he has actually gone after the issues that -- that matter to them the most, that caused deep pain.
I mean, if you're talking about the blueprint that Republicans jammed through the House and the Senate, that absolutely sets up a vote to cut hundreds of billions of dollars in Medicaid. I mean, Nicole, you can deny it all you want, but you know --
MALLIOTAKIS: But it's not true. It's simply not true.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: -- it is 100% true. That budget blueprint --
MALLIOTAKIS: It's not -- it's just not true.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: -- for $830 billion in cuts to Medicaid.
MALLIOTAKIS: And that's the thing.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: And that's the direction that has been given to the committee, that they are supposed to produce in their reconciliation.
PHILLIP: They are motivating people by -- I mean, can you answer that, though?
MALLIOTAKIS: Yeah, I'll answer that.
PHILLIP: Because the bill that Republicans --
MALLIOTAKIS: Yes.
PHILLIP: -- are passing, it does call for that. And there's not a lot of evidence that, even if you describe it as waste, fraud and abuse, that that amount of waste, fraud and abuse actually exists. You have to get into the programs in order to get to those numbers.
MALLIOTAKIS: Utilizing just government reports, it's $500 billion in waste for an abuse over 10 years. We're looking at $800 billion. And that is not including everything else within the energy and commerce space.
PHILLIP: Over a period of --
MALLIOTAKIS: But -- but you can't go out --
(CROSSTALK)
SELLERS: Ten years. That's $50 billion a year. That doesn't even -- the math -- as the kids say, math does not match.
MALLIOTAKIS: No, no, no. So, the budget is over 10 years. Right? So, $500 billion just in Medicaid waste, fraud and abuse. That's an -- if you were to include Medicare, by the way, it would be a trillion dollars. We're not even touching that. So, what I'm saying is --
SELLERS: How much is the entire program?
MALLIOTAKIS: No. What I'm trying to say is, from $880 billion, you're talking about energy and commerce. It's -- it's much more than just health care. Right? You're talking about all sorts of different mandates, regulations that can be reversed.
[23:15:00]
The thing is to go out and say that we're cutting things when we haven't even mentioned by name in budget resolution, it is disingenuous.
(CROSSTALK)
At least wait until -- at least wait until the legislative --
PHILLIP: When it comes to transparency, though, shouldn't you, as lawmakers, if you're saying, okay, this is not a cut, say what it is then, exactly what it is, where it's going to come from.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, that's fine --
MALLIOTAKIS: We're not even at that step.
TODD: That's what happens in the next --
MALLIOTAKIS: We're not even at that step yet. But how can you go out there and say that we're cutting these programs when they're not even mentioned by name in the budget resolution? It's so disingenuous.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Because --
MALLIOTAKIS: What the Democrats have done is instilled fear in people. They are fearmongering. And you know what the worst thing is? They're scaring senior citizens, they're scaring our most vulnerable, they're scaring people with disabilities to score political points. That is so ridiculous.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: So wrong --
TODD: And take attention away from the fact they're going to raise taxes.
MALLIOTAKIS: Just wait until the language comes out, then you could be critical of what we decide to do.
PHILLIP: Congresswoman?
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: What is what is really happening right now is that Donald Trump is cutting hundreds of billions of dollars out of HHS for biomedical research. He is cutting VA services. He's firing VA employees who are providing direct services to our nation's veterans. And their budget blueprint, according to economic experts, say that you cannot come up with $880 billion in cuts in the Energy and Commerce Committee without cutting into Medicaid. There isn't anyone --
MALLIOTAKIS: They also said the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act --
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Okay.
MALLIOTAKIS: -- was going to actually --
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: So, they have to cut --
MALLIOTAKIS: They were $1.5 trillion off with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: No Question --
PHILLIP: In revenue.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: -- the bill they produced will have Medicaid cuts, and they're going to all walk off the plank --
MALLIOTAKIS: Well, I mean, if you're protecting fraudsters -- this is the thing.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Okay.
MALLIOTAKIS: If you're --
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: This is not waste, fraud, and abuse.
MALLIOTAKIS: No, no, no.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: It's not waste, fraud, and abuse.
MALLIOTAKIS: If you are a fraudster, then you should be concerned about -- about that. But if you are some -- we are not cutting Medicare, Medicaid or Social Security for traditional recipients. Now, if you are somebody who should not be on the program, if you're fraudster, then --
(CROSSTALK)
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Hold on. It's not mathematic. We got to let this go.
PHILLIP: Yeah. We just let this go.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: This is why Wisconsin flipped out.
(CROSSTALK)
MALLIOTAKIS: In the long run, we will win this fight. In the next election, people will see that they have not lost their coverage. And we will win this fight, and they will be proven --
PHILLIP: I just want to say to people at home that one of the reasons that it's difficult to sort out where we really are on this issue is that -- the question of how much waste, fraud and abuse, it's not clear that you can get to the numbers that you're talking about. Now, maybe you can. Maybe we will look back on this in two years and suddenly, magically, we will find that it's all waste, fraud and abuse.
But the government reports that you're citing don't add up to those numbers. So, the question is, where's the rest of it going to come from? And we will -- we'll find out. Like you said, we might look back and you might be right or the congresswoman might be right.
Coming up next, the clock is close to striking midnight, which means it is the day that many Americans and the markets are dreading. Donald Trump's Liberation Day. So, what exactly should we expect from that? And what aren't they still telling us about what is happening tomorrow?
Also, the White House's reaction to the administration mistakenly deporting a man to El Salvador's prison. Oops. And we'll see. We'll debate that.
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[23:20:00]
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PHILLIP: He will not go quietly into the night. He will not vanish without a fight. He's going to live on. He's going to survive because at midnight, Donald Trump celebrates his Liberation Day. Except, of course, unlike the speech in Independence Day, not everyone will be cheering.
The president will officially expand his global trade wars from the Rose Garden tomorrow that have Americans and the markets on edge. It's still not even clear what the size and the scope of all of this is going to be in terms of tariffs. But allies and foes alike are ready to hit back. Many Republicans are publicly warning that it's going to hurt their states, while others are letting Trump be Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE JOHNSON, SPEAKER OF THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: You have to trust the president's instincts on the economy. Okay? Why? You don't -- this isn't blind faith. Remember what he accomplished in the first administration. Before COVID, we had the greatest economy in the history of the world, not the U.S., all the whole world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: This is not the economy of 2017. It's not or just objectively speaking. And the economy right now is clearly on edge. We are on the brink of something that could be very bad. The risk of recession is going up. Donald Trump is playing with fire here tomorrow.
TODD: I think tomorrow is a real good chance for him to lay out the rationale behind what he's doing on tariffs. I don't think anybody in America believes that we shouldn't have a level playing field and that Europe -- where Europe tariffs our goods, we should try to get rid of those. The way you get rid of them is retro -- going after Europe with tariffs of our own.
You've already seen Israel say they're not going to tariff any American products. You see India say they're considering it. That's the effect Donald Trump is trying to get. He's trying to cause foreign leaders to back off their tariffs on our products. I think he can lay that out tomorrow and say that's what the goal is. The goal is for us to break down the barriers to American products so we can dominate the world.
SELLERS: I think --
PHILLIP: I keep hearing you all say that. But I -- Trump is not playing coy about this. He is not saying, oh, I want there to be no tariffs. He's saying, I want to go back to the time when we brought in revenue through tariffs. He's saying the exact opposite of what you're saying. I don't understand why we are trying to put his words through some kind of, like, washing machine and filter them into something else.
SELLERS: Donald Trump needs -- needs him around him. That's first and foremost.
PHILLIP: But that's not -- that's not what Trump believes.
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That's my problem. That's my issue.
SELLERS: But let's back up just -- just a little bit. You know, first of all, we didn't have the strongest economy in the history of the world in 2017. That is just ahistorical. I don't know what Mike Johnson is talking about. As for a second, tariffs are taxes.
TODD: I was here, 401K, in 2019.
SELLERS: It's still a baby. It's getting there. But now, he's taking it all out again. So, it doesn't matter. It's going back down in the wrong direction.
TODD: Americans would be glad to go back to the '19 economy.
SELLERS: No, they won't. No, they don't. No, they don't. But the second thing is tariffs are taxes, and people understand that. The American public are -- they're not stupid. They understand that tariffs are going to tax their everyday goods.
And there are things like tax putting tariffs on Mexico or Canada. Like, take, for example, a car that's built by General Motors or Ford. Those are not wholly American-made cars. Those cars are made with goods from Mexico and Canada.
And what's going to happen? The price of your F-150 is going to go up. The price of your General Motors vehicle is going to go up. That means people, the UAW, those workers who put their faith in Donald Trump, some of them unwisely, are going to be out of jobs. We're seeing that already.
And so tomorrow is a huge faux pas. What people want, they want competency and consistency. You know what Donald Trump doesn't have? Competency or consistency.
TODD: Well, now, what people want is to bring back American jobs here. They want manufacturing to come back to this country. They want American products to be treated fairly on the world stage. How do you do that?
I mean, they don't think that Canadian lumber should be preference over American lumber. They want American lumber to have the same price. American dairy farmers are going to sell their dairy products in Canada for the same price that the Canadian dairy products sell for. That's what Americans want, fundamental fairness on the world stage. How do you do that? You have to rattle --
SELLERS: So, your argument is that American workers and Americans are going to have to feel some pain right now. That's the argument from the White House.
TODD: No, the argument is that foreign government --
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: That's what Trump said.
SELLERS: That's what Trump said.
TODD: He is going to have to feel some pain.
SELLERS: Well, Donald Trump said --
PHILLIP: Well, can I play -- let me -- let me play this. This is Harris Faulkner over at Fox giving advice to the Trump administration about how they should sell this tariff situation to Americans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS FAULKNER, FOX NEWS ANCHOR AND HOST: Part of that deal is making sure your shareholders, the actual people not by money but by vote, understand what's coming. And those 401k people who are depending those retirees, all of that, just talking plain speak with them. Look, when this nation used to go to war, people in this country would support the war effort with -- with their materials at home and -- and making things for weaponry and all of that. We got to do 100% buy in over this bumpy period.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Is that going to work in your district, congresswoman, saying this is a war, you got to just sacrifice? MALLIOTAKIS: Look, I think that my constituents and Americans are tired of getting the short end of the stick. We're tired of being cheated by other countries. And I think they want to see a level playing field. They want to see those American jobs come back.
President Trump here is playing the long game. He sees that we can bring -- repatriate American manufacturing. We need to do so. When it comes to our sensitive supply chain, the fact that we rely on communist China for 80% of our active pharmaceutical ingredients when we have a shortage here at home of -- of -- of antibiotics, of chemotherapies, that is something that is scary to the American people.
They want to see that we're going to be treated, our farmers will be treated fairly when it comes to dairy in Canada, they want to see that we're going to be treated fairly by Japan, by India, by the E.U. that is way, way --
PHILLIP: I think you're right about that.
MALLIOTAKIS: -- because of tariffs.
PHILLIP: But I'm going to go back to it because I think it's really important. I think people are misunderstanding Trump even though he's being crystal clear. Trump says he wants this economy to bring in revenue through tariffs. 0He also thinks that that tariffs are just the baseline of how the United States economy should operate. He doesn't -- I don't think his end goal is to say everybody else drop the tariffs. He thinks that this is the way we should be doing business.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Abby, he wants to bring in the money that is generated by the tariff taxes he's going to levy so that they can make room for paying for the tax breaks that they want to expand from the 2017 tax cuts for billionaires and millionaires and wealthy corporations.
MALLIOTAKIS: Chip workers over time workers --
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: That's what this is about.
PHILLIP: Yeah.
MALLIOTAKIS: Seniors on Social Security. Those billionaires.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: The tariff taxes.
PHILLIP: I think that's exactly right, though. But you're making the same point.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: He needs that revenue source.
PHILLIP: He needs the revenue to pay for those other things that cannot be paid --
MALLIOTAKIS: Short term -- TODD: First of all, you don't have to pay for it. You don't have to pay for letting Americans keep the money they earn. It's their money.
PHILLIP: You do. I mean, Brad, you do have to pay for it.
TODD: It's their money. Democrats want to go into this midterm election selling that they think every American should pay more in taxes. I feel very --
SELLERS: No, no, no. But see, that's -- respectfully, that's -- that's what you call B.S. And the reason being is because we are the party simply saying that you should not irrationally go out and put blanket tariffs on our -- on the people who help make our goods. We should not be in trade wars with our allies.
[23:30:01]
That fundamentally makes no sense.
TODD: Do you think we ought to try to get Europe to back down on their tariff rights?
SELLERS: I think what we need to do is actually -- instead of retaliatory tariffs, which you're -- which you're advocating for here. That is what you're advocating for.
(CROSSTALK)
TODD: -- Europe that they send their interest to drop their tariffs.
SELLERS: You're advocating for retaliatory tariffs. And what I'm saying is we need to have a sound trade policy because both of my Republican friends here can't tell me what Donald Trump's foreign trade policy is. You just simply can't. He just wants to bring in revenue by these tariffs. And all he wants to do is raise taxes on the American people.
(CROSSTALK)
MALLIOTAKIS: I think we're going to see those trade policies come just like you saw at USMCA. And what I'll remind you is that the 2017 tax cuts were very successful.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: The trade deal --
MALLIOTAKIS: He created millions -- created seven million jobs. It brought unemployment to a record low, particularly for Hispanics and African Americans and women.
PHILLIP: The record low happened under --
(CROSSTALK)
MALLIOTAKIS: Okay. You got to be kidding me.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: The 2017 -- PHILLIP: The record low for unemployment for Black -- Black Americans came under --
MALLIOTAKIS: When he turned the lights back on after COVID. Right? Because all those jobs were created under President Trump.
PHILLIP: The number was just lower.
MALLIOTAKIS: But he has doubled the child tax credit. He doubled the size --
(CROSSTALK)
I'm just saying that --
PHILLIP: -- other statistics. It's just that on that one, it didn't happen under Trump. That's all I'm saying.
MALLIOTAKIS: Okay. If you're counting turning the lights on after COVID was over, that's a different story.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Let's be clear. Tariffs are taxes.
SELLERS: Thank you. We can start there.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: The 2017 tax cuts, totally unpaid for. I'm an appropriator. I understand that appropriations are spending. What Republicans and Trump don't understand or don't want people to realize is that unpaid for tax cuts for billionaires and millionaires or wealthy corporations cost us revenue.
And when you cut taxes and you don't pay for it, then you are undercutting our economy, you are giving billionaires a windfall, and nothing happens for the American people because billionaires sit on their investment from a tax windfall. When you give middle class tax breaks, they make -- they make purchases like stoves and refrigerators that put revenue into the economy.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: We got to leave it there. We got to leave it there. There is actually some reporting out there that suggests that the Trump administration recognizes that they might need to make that choice, whether they give the tax cuts predominantly to people in the lower brackets versus people in the higher brackets. So, we'll see what they end up doing.
But coming up next for us, as the Trump administration gets backlash for ignoring due process, they are now admittedly mistakenly deporting a man to a prison in El Salvador. So, what happens now? We'll debate.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:35:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIP: Tonight, what Joe Rogan said would be horrific just happened. The Trump administration admitting that it mistakenly deported a man, a father from Maryland, to El Salvador and put him in a notorious mega prison -- quote -- "because of an administrative error."
His attorney argues that he's not affiliated with the MS-13 gang or involved in human trafficking. And now, the White House says it can't fix their mistake. In fact, they're actually doubling down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: Has the president expressed any thoughts on the one error that was disclosed in court last night?
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Well, first of all, the error that you are referring to was a clerical error. It was an administrative error. The administration maintains the position that this individual, who was deported to El Salvador and will not be returning to our country, was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang.
UNKNOWN: The vice president said he was a convicted member of MS-13. What evidence is there to back that up?
LEAVITT: There's a lot of evidence. The Department of Homeland Security and ICE have that evidence, and I saw it this morning.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: So, this is one of those many cases now that we're -- we're encountering where the administration says they have evidence, they haven't presented it in court, it hasn't been adjudicated, people haven't had an opportunity to counter it. And I think that's the fundamental question here. I mean, this man's case is actually pretty convoluted. But are we in a place now where the administration just says, well, trust us and we'll figure it out later, or maybe we won't?
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: What's happening now is, first of all, if you are an immigrant and you're -- you commit a crime, you should be deported after going through the -- a fair process. That clearly didn't happen here.
And what the Trump administration is turning us into is a lawless -- a lawless regime that is disappearing people with no due process, with no fairness. Even people like this gentleman who was -- there's no evidence that he was a member of a gang. And they -- and they admitted.
SELLERS: It's not a crime.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: And they admitted that they should not have sent him to the prison. Why can't they go get him? If he was mistakenly sent there, then he can be sent back. We're the ones that asked El Salvador to take these -- these prisoners who -- who were rounded up completely without a process. The -- some of them had TPS. Some of them had been through the parole program. [23:40:00]
You know, Nicole and I are on the same side when it comes to fighting the Castro regime, but yet we're -- now, we're seeing the Trump regime basically --
MALLIOTAKIS: Come on.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: --- disappear people because they're not able to deport people.
MALLIOTAKIS: It's actually offensive, number one. Let's -- let's -- let's not compare President Trump to Castro regime, number one --
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: When your or people without a process --
MALLIOTAKIS: That is going to be very bad for you when you go back Florida and you got to face your constituents.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: I'm very confident that my constituents don't want people to be supported --
MALLIOTAKIS: That is insane.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: -- without a lawful process.
MALLIOTAKIS: Okay. First of all, was the guy here legally? Was he here legally?
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: He was.
MALLIOTAKIS: He was here legally?
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Yes.
MALLIOTAKIS: Okay. So, you had one individual --
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Who is now in El Salvador.
MALLIOTAKIS: If he's here legally -- I don't know -- I don't know what his status is. If it was a mistake, think about all the mistakes that the Biden administration made, that they've made, allowed millions of people to come into this country unvetted, and that ended up killing -- we had rape. We had all sorts of crime. Drug trafficking. Laken Riley --
SELLERS: (INAUDIBLE)
MALLIOTAKIS: No, no, no.
SELLERS: But congresswoman --
MALLIOTAKIS: These are people that Joe Biden let in to his policies.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: They were rounded up.
SELLERS: That is --
MALLIOTAKIS: You're going to criticize --
SELLERS: That is --
-- of somebody who is deported?
SELLERS: Respectfully, that is the definition of gaslighting because what we're saying --
MALLIOTAKIS: No, it's not.
SELLERS: -- all four -- all five of us on this -- all five of us on this set tonight can look you in the eye and say that if you committed any of those crimes, then you should be deported immediately.
MALLIOTAKIS: Yes.
SELLERS: You should serve your sentence and go home immediately.
MALLIOTAKIS: Yes, but they were let in.
SELLERS: But I'm going to finish.
MALLIOTAKIS: That's the bottom line. You're -- you're more concerned about the one guy that was deported --
SELLERS: I would love to --
MALLIOTAKIS: -- than the millions of people that were led illegally, that went on to wreak havoc in cities like --
PHILLIP: Hold on a second.
SELLERS: First of all, I would love an argument that first, you're -- I would love an argument that wasn't subject-verb Joe Biden. That's first. Second --
MALLIONAKIS: I mean, he's the one who let them in. What am I going to do?
SELLERS: -- what we need here is an immigration process where we have -- I think it's four million people who've already been adjudicated, slightly less than four million people, who we can round up and deport today, those people who committed crimes. That's second. Third, being in this country legally, you know what is not? A crime. You know who said that? The United States Supreme Court. There has to be a due process element to this. There simply does.
And so, for individuals like this gentleman right here who's a father, I'm not going to sit here and die on a hill and say whether or not he was MS-13 or not. I'm not trying to be on Fox News or Fox "The Five" in the morning because I simply don't know the answer to that question. But what I will say is that he deserved the right of due process so that we can properly adjudicate that. But I'm not going to let you to gaslight me or the rest of this -- (CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: Hold on one second because I do think -- I want to settle us on the actual issue here because I think what he is asking -- I don't think it takes anything away from what you're saying, that people who are criminals should be kicked out of the country. But why does that have to happen without due process?
MALLIOTAKIS: What I'm trying to say is these guys are so outraged that one individual, whether he's here legally or not, we don't even know, yes, it was a mistake and it's terrible. If he was here legally and he was deported, that was wrong and it was a mistake.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: None of them ---
MALLIOTAKIS: Look at all the people that were allowed to come in under the previous administration that were wreaking havoc in my city. I'm sorry. We had a murderer from Dominican Republic that was caught. You had another murderer in Upstate New York that was caught on the street, walking around freely. We had drug traffickers, gang members, all sorts of stuff.
PHILLIP: I don't know that this is, like, a degree of outrage that is, like, greater than the outrage about those things, because I do think that the question that that is being asked here is whether there is a systematic effort to evade due process --
MALLIOTAKIS: Well --
PHILLIP: -- which is, I mean, if you -- if you think about it, right, there -- there are crimes that are committed. There's a process for convicting people and kicking them out. The Constitution allows people to have due process. And when you throw that out the window, then suddenly you're undermining more than just the statute. You're undermining the Constitution. I think that's why people are called --
TODD: Hold on, though. This -- this particular case, the judge ruled that he could be deported. He couldn't be deported to El Salvador. The administrative error is they sent him to a country -- the one country where the judge said he shouldn't be deported. If that's a mistake, the administration should correct the mistake.
And in fact, if they say, we're going to correct the mistakes we make, it'll let them talk a lot more about their success. In February, we had 8,000 encounters on the southwest border. That's down from 138,000 under Joe Biden, 150,000 --
SELLERS: You've also had fewer deportations.
PHILLIP: I'm not --
TODD: Donald Trump is fixing the problem on the southern border, and we should talk about that success rate.
PHILLIP: Look, I think you're -- first of all, you're -- you're right, the border has fewer encounters now than at any point in many years. TODD: Change was the president.
PHILLIP: But -- okay, let's go back to what we were discussing here, which is about what is the process that's happening here. You know, this man's case is just one of the cases. There have been other cases where people have been accused of things that they say they didn't do. And they've -- the Trump administration provided no evidence. I think the bigger question is, do they have to prove these claims before they just pick people up and deport them to a --
TODD: Well, they have to follow the law.
PHILLIP: -- to a prison that the vice president describes as a gulag.
[23:45:00]
TODD: They have to follow the law. That's -- that's clear. They have to follow the law.
SELLERS: Who was the they?
TODD: The president. The administration has followed -- Joe Biden has been following the law before. Like, that's not in question. But we -- the mere posture, the American public believes if you are not in this country legally, you should be deported. Our laws actually allow that for that to happen.
PHILLIP: Yeah. Nobody is disputing that.
TODD: Well, actually, they are disputing. The whole Biden administration was one big dispute of that.
PHILLIP: Nobody is disputing.
TODD: They left the back door open.
PHILLIP: Nobody is disputing that if you are here in the country legally and you are deported -- told to be deported, you should leave. That -- that's not being disputed. But there are people who are in this country illegally, and they have valid legal asylum claims and other claims to stay that ought to be adjudicated. Wouldn't you agree?
TODD: Yes. But I think you have to go to a port of entry to make your asylum claim. You can't abuse the asylum system. Like, yes, we have rules that have to be followed in these processes --
PHILLIP: But I'm just saying there is a process.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: That is right. There are multiple processes. TPS is a lawful process. The parole program --
TODD: Right. That is an executive process.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: But the humanitarian parole program, a lawful process. Presenting yourself at the border for asylum, a lawful process. What isn't law -- TODD: (INAUDIBLE) lawful.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: What isn't lawful is --
TODD: That's not the law.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: -- when they round it up, the people who they sent to El Salvador, and some of them might be bad people, and they should be deported, but they -- we do not -- what's different about the United States is that we follow the rule of law. We do not disappear people like Maduro and the Castro regime and in Nicaragua and in Russia. What we do is we put through people with a lawful, fair due process.
None of the people in that El Salvador prison went through any process. They were rounded up mostly because they have tattoos all over their bodies. And they were sent to a gulag prison with nothing, no recourse whatsoever. That's not how we do things in the United States of America.
PHILLIP: I just want to clarify a couple of things. There are some people who have been sent, who have been deported, who had final orders of deportation. They're being deported under basic --
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Yes.
PHILLIP: -- immigration laws. But this issue of deciding that someone is a part of a gang because they have a tattoo --
MALLIOTAKIS: Right.
PHILLIP: -- is happening right now. Right?
MALLIOTAKIS: I don't know that that's actually happening right now. I mean, what I know -- what I know is that President Trump, they have -- they have arrested people who are gang members, gang leaders. They have arrested people that are drug traffickers.
PHILLIP: They were saying that some of these people are gang members.
MALLIOTAKIS: I don't know. Did you look at their file? I do not know.
PHILLIP: Based on their tattoos.
MALLIOTAKIS: That's how they -- they perhaps --
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: They're shutting down immigration --
MALLIOTAKIS: -- they identify them based on tattoos. Whether they're deporting them or they -- once they identified them, they're questioning them. You know what has made this a difficult process --
(CROSSTALK)
-- cities and states that arrest these people for crimes. And instead of turning them over to ICE so they could be deported, they released them back over to the streets.
PHILLIP: The reason I'm saying this is because we know already that there are at least two cases that are publicly documented where the only evidence that they had of someone's affiliation with the gang was the tattoo. And then on top of that, in court, there's a document, a checklist that they have. And you can have a tattoo and you could have streetwear clothes that they identify as being affiliated with the gang, and that's enough for them to deport you.
So, that -- that has been asked of this administration, and it hasn't been answered why that should be allowed.
SELLERS: If you're in this country -- if you're in this country legally and you have not committed a crime, do you deserve due process or not?
MALLIOTAKIS: No.
SELLERS: That's -- it's a yes or no question.
MALLIOTAKIS: Look, I -- if you're here illegally, you should be deported. Period. If we're -- we're not focused on these individuals.
SELLERS: That's -- you really did -- I just asked you a simple yes or no question. If you are here in this country illegally and you have not committed a crime, do you deserve due process? Yes or no?
MALLIOTAKIS: It depends on your circumstance. Yes, you do deserve due process.
SELLERS: That's the point. That's what they're saying.
MALLIOTAKIS: What I'm trying to say is --
SELLERS: Exactly. Thank you.
MALLIOTAKIS: -- in many of these cases, you have people who have been already arrested and convicted of crimes. In fact, Mayorkas actually sent a memo to the ICE agent saying that being convicted of a crime is not reason enough to not allow somebody in the country.
SELLERS: How about this?
MALLIOTAKIS: That is wrong.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: This is how we are --
SELLERS: If you have been convicted of a crime, get out of here.
TODD: That is welcome.
SELLERS: But how about this? How about this? How about this? If you committed a crime, get out of here. However, if your only crime, which is not a crime pursuant to the Supreme Court, is being here illegally, you deserve the benefit of due process. And if you cannot say yes to that, that is one of the more anti- American things I've ever heard.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: And this is how Republicans are directing us towards --
TODD: County sheriffs to cooperate --
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: -- a regime --
SELLERS: All you got to do is --
MALLIOTAKIS: But the thing is you have people that are --
PHILLIP: Hold on, guys. Hold on.
MALLIOTAKIS: What you're not understanding is that cities like mine are actually taking people who are convicted of crimes. They commit another crime. They release them back onto the streets. They are not turning them over to ICE for deportation. That's why we have the crisis that we have. That's why we had --
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIP: I will say that one of the big issues politically for Democrats is not acknowledging that what she's describing there is deeply unpopular among the American people, and that it is okay to clearly state that people who are convicted of crimes should be --
[23:50:03]
(CROSSTALK)
SELLERS: We just said that.
PHILLIP: I know. But I'm -- what I'm saying is that --
(CROSSTALK)
TODD: -- Democrats did not do anything about it.
PHILLIP: -- there has been a political --
(CROSSTALK)
SELLERS: The great irony, you are making the same argument that a woman from your great state made by the name of Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton when she ran for president in 2008. This is not a foreign concept. And so, I'm extremely clear.
TODD: For four years.
SELLERS: I'm going to be extremely clear. If you've committed a crime in this country, you are deported. What I'm also saying, which you cannot say yes or no to, which is fundamentally flawed, is that if your only crime is being in this country illegally, which by the way is a status offense, not a crime, then you deserve due process. Why do I -- why are you all looking at me like I'm a green Martian by saying people deserve due process?
MALLIOTAKIS: And the problem here is that when the peep -- when those -- when those detainees --
(CROSSTALK)
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: When those detainees were sent to El Salvador, the administration acknowledged. They were sent without any due process.
SELLERS: Correct.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: They were -- most of them had never been accused of a crime or convicted of a crime. But yet, they were rounded up and sent to a prison in El Salvador. And look, if you are a criminal and you are convicted, then you -- and you are an immigrant, you should be deported.
MALLIOTAKIS: Right.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Period. Full stop. But you deserve --
MALLIOTAKIS: They can continue to be the party that continues to protect gang -- foreign gang members and people that come to this country to commit crimes --
PHILLIP: Hold on.
MALLIOTAKIS: -- because what I'm telling you --
(CROSSTALK)
SELLERS: That is not the case.
PHILLIP: But don't you think it is fair to say that they are protecting --
MALLIOTAKIS: But they are.
PHILLIP: -- gang members.
MALLIOTAKIS: They are.
PHILLIP: Hold on. I think --
MALLIOTAKIS: Do you know what has happened in New York? You're from New York. You know what is going on.
PHILLIP: I'm talking about in the context of this conversation here.
MALLIOTAKIS: Yeah.
PHILLIP: The question that is being asked is, if you say that someone is in a gang, shouldn't you have to prove it?
MALLIOTAKIS: Yes. And they know these individuals are in a gang, minus this one individual. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: No, no. None of those people.
PHILLIP: But they have not provided any evidence to the courts. They have not provided it publicly. That's the problem.
MALLIOTAKIS: These are --
SELLERS: I can go one step further since we're going out on limbs today about democracy. If you're an MS-13, you should be deported, too. I mean -- but there has to be some level of due process. I have 22 tattoos.
MALLIOTAKIS: So --
SELLERS: I have 22 tattoos. And I'm not a blood. I'm not a -- I'm not a -- I'm not a GD. I'm not in any gang. Right? I'm just somebody who has 22 tattoos because I appreciate that and I like it. Do I hang out with people who may be some people of ill repute? Yes, some of my friends are of ill repute. Yes. Okay? But for God's sake, give somebody the benefit of due process if their only crime is a status offense of being here illegally.
UNKNOWN: How do they get drift?
SELLERS: I don't know.
TODD: Because --
SELLERS: She was accusing me of coddling drug dealers.
TODD: -- stopped enforcing immigration laws, and they bragged about it. The public law --
SELLERS: And you know what happened? Democrats lost the election. So, if we stop saying --
TODD: -- confidence.
SELLERS: We lost the race. We lost the election.
TODD: So, help us enforce immigration laws.
(CROSSTALK)
SELLERS: I want you to enforce laws, due process.
MALLIOTAKIS: You may all agree here, but it's just not what's happening in cities and states like mine. They are going out of their way to protect these individuals, to evade ICE, to -- no. They are being arrested.
SELLERS: But it is hard to help you when you gaslight us by --
MALLIOTAKIS: We are not gaslighting.
SELLERS: You are. MALLIOTAKIS: How am I gaslighting? You have thousands of crimes in New City by people here illegally.
PHILLIP: I know you've been trying --
MALLIOTAKIS: And they are being released back onto the streets. That is not gaslighting. That is a fact.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: This administration has --
MALLIOTAKIS: Laken Riley, that's gaslighting?
PHILLIP: Go ahead.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: This administration has been drifting towards authoritarianism similar to the disappearance of people who the regimes in Cuba and Nicaragua and Venezuela disagree with because they're rounding people up --
MALLIOTAKIS: That is the most ridiculous thing.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: -- and sending them to prisons in foreign countries with no due process.
MALLIOTAKIS: Okay.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: No proof that they've done anything. If they committed crimes --
MALLIOTAKIS: April fools.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: If they are convicted of a crime, they should be deported. You two should be agreeing and your party should be agreeing that we should deport people when they go through a fair and lawful due process.
TODD: We should follow the law. We should follow the law.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Yes.
TODD: But Democrats need to help us do that.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Which the Trump administration is not doing.
TODD: They have -- Democrats have spent the last five years trying to make sure we did nothing to enforce our immigration laws.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Now, you're violating the law.
TODD: Help us enforce the laws. Drop the sanctuary city policies.
PHILLIP: Brad, Bakari mentioned this. There are millions of people with final deportation orders in the country.
TODD: We'll get them.
PHILLIP: Why doesn't the Trump administration, rather than doing all of this stuff seemingly willy nilly, go after those people --
TODD: That's their focus. That's their focus.
PHILLIP: -- and actually deport those people?
(CROSSTALK)
MALLIOTAKIS: They're doing everything they can to harbor them.
PHILLIP: Look, it's -- we're not talking about a few thousand. We're talking about potentially millions of people.
TODD: That's their focus.
PHILLIP: But clearly, that's not happening because there are a lot of people getting caught up in a dragnet that seems to be random.
MALLIOTAKIS: You know, they do they're doing the best they can. You've pointed to a few unfortunate circumstances, and it is because the Democrats in the city states --
(CROSSTALK)
I'm less concerned about one or two people that are getting caught up in this problem than the millions of people that have come into this country legally and the ones that are committing crimes that my mayor, my governor have released back onto the streets, and that's why ICE can't find them.
[23:55:07]
You're asking the question, why don't they go off those people? Why? Because my mayor and governor are harboring them and making it difficult for people to -- to ICE to actually get them, putting both law enforcement in danger and people like this individual who are now going to get caught up.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: And you know what?
TODD: They should correct their mistakes.
WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: You can still make sure that that doesn't happen by going through a lawful process and not just around --
(CROSSTALK)
TODD: They should correct their mistakes, which are few and incidental. The Democratic Party needs to correct its entire mistake of, like, 10 million people in this country. That's not something we've seen them take an action with.
PHILLIP: One of the biggest problems with the mistakes that are being made is that they're not just, like, deporting them back to their country of origin. They're sending them to -- the vice president described it as a gulag in El Salvador where God knows what's happening to them. So, I mean, there are consequences to these mistakes as well.
TODD: There are consequences to letting people who are criminals into this country.
MALLIOTAKIS: And there's someone there now. They've admitted he shouldn't have been sent there. And they're just leaving from there.
PHILLIP: All right, everybody, thank you very much. Thank you very much at home for watching "NewsNight." You can catch me any time on your favorite social media platforms X, Instagram, and TikTok. In the meantime, CNN's coverage continues next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
