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Key Races in Florida, Wisconsin Test Power of Trump and Musk; Trump White House Closes Case on Signal, Stands By Waltz; Harvard Says University Will Work With Anti-Semitism Task Force. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 01, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Gird, your loins, huge early tests of the Trump presidency. The polls just opened for special elections in crucial states. We've got new reporting on where Republicans are nervous and where Elon Musk is spending a fortune.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: armed robbers breaking into the home of former Seattle Seahawk Star Richard Sherman, Sherman and his family shaken up after he becomes the latest NFL star to be targeted by thieves.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Today, jury selection begins in the retrial of the Massachusetts woman accused of killing her police officer boyfriend.

I'm Kate Bolduan with Sara Sidner and John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: And the breaking news, what day is it?

BOLDUAN: Election Day in America, friends.

BERMAN: Crucial special elections in Wisconsin and Florida that serve as early referendums or referenda on the Trump presidency/ In Florida, the polls just opened just moments ago. Two congressional seats are vacant, including that of now National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who, of course, played a central role in the Signal gate controversy.

This is a deep red district, but Republicans are sweating it out after Democrat Josh Weil outraced his Republican opponent by about ten to one. Even a loss for Democrats by a smaller margin than expected could give them some momentum.

Now, polls are set to open in Wisconsin as well. Voters there are choosing a new justice, state Supreme Court justice who will decide the balance of power in the court there. This is the most expensive judicial race in history. At least $90 million spent so far could go well over a hundred million by the time it's all counted. Trump ally Elon Musk was just in Wisconsin handing out $1 million checks to two voters.

Let's get right to Wisconsin. With us now is Richard Kremer, a reporter with Wisconsin Public Radio. Sir, great to see you. This is officially a nonpartisan race for the state Supreme Court, but no one buys that. No one believes that the Democrats are supporting one judge, the Republicans are supporting another. How nationalized has this race become?

RICHARD KREMER, WISCONSIN PUBLIC RADIO REPORTER: Completely nationalized. The conservative candidate in the race, Brad Schimel, called early on for the race to be nationalized so that he could mobilize some third party support. But, yes, as you've mentioned, we've got endorsements from President Trump and Elon Musk for Mr. Schimel.

The liberal candidate, Susan Crawford, has gotten an endorsement from former President Barack Obama. Just a tremendous amount of money flowing in Wisconsin, Elon Musk has a super PAC doing canvassing throughout the state. A lot of attention is being paid to this race.

BERMAN: Are there particular issues or what issues are being discussed in this race?

KREMER: So, from the right side, from Mr. Schimel and his supporters, they're saying that the Supreme Court's liberal majority that has been in place since late 2023, they say that they're more of a political body than a judicial one, that they're acting like a super legislature.

On the liberal side, on Democrats side, they're saying that Schimel, because of all the support that he's gotten from Elon Musk, that he'll essentially do his bidding. And Tesla does have a lawsuit in the state regarding their attempt to set up dealerships. That's not at the Supreme Court, but it could get there.

And also Democratic voters I've talked to say that they're just upset with the direction that Washington is going and they're trying to make their voices heard through this state race.

BERMAN: They're trying to make it a referendum on the Trump presidency. How much are they trying to make it a referendum on Elon Musk himself? How much of a polarizing figure is Musk right now in Wisconsin?

KREMER: Well, I've seen -- it depends on who you ask, I guess. He's definitely generating a lot of excitement and enthusiasm among Republicans. The infusion of cash is helping Schimel's campaign.

[07:05:00]

But on the Democratic side, they are very upset at how involved Elon Musk is in our state race here. The Wisconsin Democratic Party has been hosting a series of statewide town halls that they titled People versus Musk. And we had one in Eau Claire where I'm at a couple weeks ago, where we had former Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate Tim Walz in Eau Claire, and he essentially said the same thing. The first step in cleaning house is the Supreme Court.

BERMAN: All right. Rich Kremer, great to see you this morning, have a great day on the airwaves. We know you'll be talking about this extensively. I appreciate your time. Sara?

SIDNER: All right, thank you John. The White House message on Signal gate case closed and ready to move on after top officials used an unclassified Signal group chat to discuss war plans in Yemen. At least for now, the president appears to be keeping National Security Adviser Mike Waltz on board. That's despite Waltz inadvertently adding a journalist to the signal group chat. But there are key questions that remain, and CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House.

At this point, we've heard from Donald Trump, heard that he's keeping Waltz in place. Where do things stand though for Waltz going forward?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, look, I think that's still unclear. But for the moment, as you mentioned, they are very eager to move on. And I note, Sara, that the White House was eager to move on from this story days ago, especially, you know, even immediately after it had initially dropped. But what's different now is that behind the scenes and internally, they're ready to move on as well.

Now, I just to take you behind those scenes and give you a little sense into how the president and his team had been looking at this. Look, it was clear that the president was frustrated by this, and particularly what appeared to be some of the ineptitude of some of his top aides by using this chain for very sensitive information, and, of course, for inviting a reporter, not just any reporter into that chain, but a reporter that President Donald Trump has really disliked for several years now. They have a very fraught history, the president and The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg. All to say behind the scenes, we know that there were questions about how to handle this.

Now what was also clear is that, you know, the president during his first term had a very quick turnover of aides, particularly national security aides, very early on. And that was something that he did not want. He had lamented that had happened during his first term. He didn't want that to be a trend that he carried with him to his second administration.

And so, again, behind the scenes, it became very clear that, you know, they weren't going to fire Michael Waltz or others despite maybe some of that frustration and other aides, you know, questioning whether that could be the right move in part because they didn't want to look like they were caving to media pressure on this.

Take a listen to how White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt referred to it yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: As the president has made it very clear, Mike Waltz continues to be an important part of his national security team. And this case has been closed here at the White House, as far as we are concerned. There have been steps made to ensure that if something like that can obviously never happen again and we're moving forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So, as you heard it from her there that they're trying to move forward with this.

One key thing that she did mention as well is they are taking steps to try and make sure this doesn't happen again. We know that there is an internal review, questions over how to continue and if to even continue ever using this Signal app, of course, not for sensitive information like they had used it with this attack in Yemen.

But the other thing as well to keep in mind, Sara, is that, you know, this isn't necessarily going to go away. We know that Republicans on Capitol Hill are going to be digging into this. They want a classified briefing. They're going to be conducting an investigation. We were told that different federal agencies are going to be doing that as well, but for now, they are really trying to move on from this and particularly get the media to move on from it as well. Sara?

SIDNER: Good luck with that. Alayna Treene, thank you so much for bringing us all those details. I appreciate it. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Ahead for us still this morning, a big development in the investigation into the death of the son of a former New York Yankee star. What Costa Rican authorities now say they found in his hotel room.

And the new target for President Trump, Harvard University, nearly $9 billion in contracts and grants now under review.

And the UConn Huskies in Texas, they're headed to Tampa. Punch in the final tickets to this year's NCAA Women's Final 4.

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BOLDUAN: Also new this morning, Harvard's president is responding now that the Trump administration is making that university its latest target opening a review of nearly $9 billion in federal grants and contracts as part of the ongoing investigation on the part of the Trump administration into how schools have handled anti-Semitism.

The moves are an effort by the president and his cabinet to force change at elite universities. We've seen it happening over the past two months, concerns, they say, this is in response to concerns of how the schools responded to pro-Palestinian protests last year in instant instances of anti-Semitism on campus.

Gloria Pazmino tracking all this for us, she's joining us now. And he said that Harvard's responding. What is Harvard's president saying this morning?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're absolutely right, that it's very much part of a pattern that we are seeing by this administration. It was only several weeks ago that we were seeing Columbia University, yet another elite educational institution, being targeted by the Trump administration, threats to cut $400 million in federal grants.

[07:15:01]

The university responded. They changed several of their policies, brought in new security guards to police protests. And the interim president actually stepped down amid the fallout last week.

Now, we're seeing a very similar, if not identical playbook for Harvard University, yet another extremely elite institutional education, one of the richest in the nation, if not the world, facing a threat, a potential cut of $256 million in contracts, plus the $9 billion in federal funding.

Now, here's what the Harvard president is saying this could potentially do to the school. He said, quote, if this funding is stopped, it will halt lifesaving research and imperil important scientific research and innovation. We will engage with members of the federal government's task force to combat anti-Semitism to ensure that they have a full account of the work we have done and the actions we will take going forward to combat anti-Semitism.

So, in there, Kate, we are hearing a response by the university that's essentially saying, yes, we're going to look at this and we're going to come up with some changes potentially so that this funding is not taken from us.

Now, that response by the president so far has been criticized. There's a piece in the Harvard Crimson this morning, a column that said, quote, in part that it misses the mark by treating the review as it is being -- as if it's being pursued in good faith, ignoring the obvious insidious and chilling intention of the campaign developing under the guise of preventing anti-Semitism.

Now it's going to be very interesting to see how Harvard handles this if they at all follow similar steps that Columbia University followed. And that was really the question when the Columbia fallout started, is this going to open the door to other major universities? Harvard is certainly not the only one on the Trump administration's list, and we know that they are looking at several more schools over this concerned that they're not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And what you hear from Harvard's president does pose more questions to exactly your point, what exactly working with the task force, what is that going to end up meaning for Harvard and others? We'll see.

Gloria, thanks so much for the reporting. John?

BERMAN: All right. Developing this morning, TikTok is set to go dark in just days unless a new deal is struck. Will the president find the deal he has promised to make?

And Hooters, the restaurant famous for its chicken wings, has filed for bankruptcy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [07:20:00]

SIDNER: UConn stamped its name in the record, books with a dominant Elite 8 win over USC. The Huskies made their way to a historic 24th Final 4.

CNN's Coy Wire is joining me with the highlights of this great game. What's up, Coy?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes. I love this March Madness. The Final 4s are set. And I'm so pumped, Sara, I just found out you are going to be in San Antonio to watch your Florida Gators with me on Friday, so I can wait for that. Okay, good. April Fools. I don't know if anyone tried to get you, but hopefully you will be there. But, listen, those final tickets on the women's side were punched last night and it's about to be on in Tampa.

For the Final 4, we had two seed UConn showing off their March Madness pedigree, Sarah Strong, the freshman, scored 22 points, grabbed 17 rebounds, arguably the best player in the nation. Paige Bueckers, she was everywhere, four steals. She and Strong combined for 28 points in the first half, Sara. The entire USC team had just 25. A game high 31 for Paige buckets hitting an all time UConn tournament record, third straight game of 30-plus points, UConn headed to a record 24 Final 4 after a 78-64 win. They'll face top overall seeded UCLA on Friday.

And hook them, the Texas Longhorns are off and running to their first Final 4 in 22 years. Madison Booker scored a game high 18 and Kyla Oldacre stole the ball and TCU's hopes and dreams late in the game. They'll face the reigning team champ, South Carolina.

And listened to the emotions from Rori Harmon, who returned from injury this season, made all SEC defensive team and scored 13 points in a 58-47 win.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

RORI HARMON, TEXAS LONGHORNS GUARD: I'm so proud of myself and I'm so proud of my team to get to this moment. I would -- I'm not saying I never would've thought, but just to come back like I did and get to a Final 4, like we did it, it just means a lot to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right. Lots of chatter around the torpedo bat in MLB. You see there, the barrel off top has a little more bulk in the middle, the sweet spot where ideally you'd make contact with the ball. It was designed in part by a former MIT physicist who's kept the design within MLB regulations.

The Yankees have hit 15 home runs in their first three games, tying a major league record. Here are some of Jazz Chisholm's thoughts on the torpedo bat?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JAZZ CHISHOLM JR., NEW YORK YANKEES INFIELDER: I love my bat. You know what I mean? I think you could tell it. It's working pretty well for me, but, I mean, it doesn't feel like a different bat. It just helps you in a little way.

I don't know what else to tell you. I don't know the science of it. I just play baseball. You know what I'm saying?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Now, not every Yankees player using this. Aaron Judge, he had four homeruns already this season. He's not using it. But the players who are using it, they seem to be loving it and they seem to be catching fire. And whoever invented those things, I think they're going to be very, very rich.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: It looks like a shoulder-fired rocket line. That thing is enormous. Okay, everybody in here, how many of you think that bat is fair? Thank you. Most of the people say they don't think it's fair, but it meets regulation. So, according to the MLB, it's fair. I mean --

WIRE: It's just absolutely brilliant. There's got to be a certain length and certain density and the fact that they're just kind of moving the density to where that sweet spot is, making the sweet spot sweeter, makes sense.

SIDNER: Soon, everybody's going to be doing it. Oh, just for the record the Gators are on their way to the Final 4 for the sixth time in school history.

[07:25:02]

WIRE: Let's go.

SIDNER: I just had to bring that in. Let's go. Let's go. John Berman?

BERMAN: Celtics great Al Horford there --

SIDNER: Thank you, Coy.

BERMAN: -- for the back to back Florida Championships.

All right, bracing for the markets to open after the worst quarter in years, futures pointing down this morning. The president said to announce new tariffs. A move that has the Wall Street Journal saying, George Orwell, call your office.

And in just moments, a new trial is set to begin for a woman accused of running over her boyfriend with her car and leaving him to die.

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