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Trump Gears Up for Most Aggressive Tariff Move Yet; Interview with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): Democrat Sen. Booker Makes Marathon Floor Speech to Protest Trump Actions, Tariffs, Elections; Karen Read's Murder Retrial to Begin Later Today; Rescued Astronauts Speak for First Time Since Return to Earth. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired April 01, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So on the eve of President Trump's long- promised Liberation Day, people are still asking, what exactly is the plan? It was six weeks ago that he set this arbitrary deadline to impose sweeping global tariffs. And in those six weeks since, what's coming and for which countries is still not clear.

We do know that the president has a Rose Garden event planned for the reveal. And here is about as close as he's getting to detail at this point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you settled?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, you're going to see. I've settled. Yes, actually a long time ago. But we talk about it. We talk about it a lot. And we want to do what's right for the country and even the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The mystery surrounding this leaving investors, American businesses, and clearly consumers on edge. Futures right now all pointing in the same direction they've been for quite some time. CNN's Matt Egan here with much more on this.

How could tomorrow play out with none of us being able to answer that question?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Kate, I'm having a hard time recalling a policy announcement that was causing so much anxiety. And yet here we are a day out and we just still don't know exactly what it's going to look like. Now, I know all these tariff moves get a little confusing, but --

BOLDUAN: Because they're announced. They're put in place. They're pulled back. They're announced. Then they're not put in place. And then they're modified. And then there are some exceptions, even though exceptions are not supposed to be allowed. EGAN: Rinse and repeat. Right. But tomorrow, though, is shaping up to be perhaps the biggest shots fired yet in this trade war by the president, who really more than any president in modern history loves tariffs.

In his first term, President Trump imposed tariffs on almost $400 billion of U.S. imports. We're only two months into the second term. He's already more than doubled that, a trillion. That's before what happens tomorrow.

Now, the president has suggested that tariffs could be announced tomorrow on all countries. Right. So that could mean universal tariffs, which is something that he did float during the campaign on more than $3 trillion of U.S. imports. We still don't know the details, but this would clearly be miles away from anything that he's done in the past.

I talked to Erica York at the Tax Foundation and she said we've never seen anything like this. She said it's unprecedented and it's radical.

Now, the White House has said that the president is trying to address unfair trade practices by other countries and he's trying to protect American workers. But obviously, Wall Street is getting concerned that these tariffs are going to do more harm than good.

Goldman Sachs came out and slashed its 2025 U.S. outlook. They're calling for slower growth of just 1 percent, higher unemployment, core inflation to go further and further away from that 2 percent goal. And they've lifted their recession odds from 20 percent to 35 percent.

All of these indicators moving in the wrong direction, all of them being driven by uncertainty and this trade war. So look, I mean, if this economy were a car, the check engine light would be on right now. It's just not clear whether or not the White House is going to respond to these concerns.

BOLDUAN: So in the face of this, what our business is doing with regard to all of this uncertainty, because it's only uncertainty now.

EGAN: Yes, it's so much uncertainty. I mean, think about it. A lot of companies are importing goods from overseas and they need to know what the cost of those goods is going to be, but they don't know because there's so much chaos around tariffs.

The Dallas Federal Reserve put out a survey of manufacturers yesterday and they talked to one manufacturing executive who said that this is truly ridiculous with the trade war. This person said, I've been in business for 50 years as of next year and never have I seen such uncertainty in the market.

And look, this is obviously causing concern on Main Street. Consumer confidence has plunged. The University of Michigan put out a survey the other day where they showed that Americans are expecting higher prices and higher unemployment.

And look at this chart. This shows where consumers think that their household finances will be in a year and whether or not it'll be worse off in a year.

BOLDUAN: Yes, this their still a level of concern.

EGAN: Their level of concern about their finances being worse in a year. It's going straight up 40 percent. And look at this, it's actually higher. People are more pessimistic now than they were during the height of COVID. So the question, though, I think, Kate, is whether or not some of this concern can be eased by tomorrow's announcement, right?

If investors start to calm down, maybe that'll allow consumer confidence to sort of stabilize. But the question is whether or not these tariff moves tomorrow are going to make things worse or perhaps sort of give people the clarity that they're seeking.

BOLDUAN: Yes. First, some clarity if it comes and then the reaction if this makes people more scared about prices in the future or --

EGAN: Give people the clarity that they're seeking.

BOLDUAN: Yes, first, some clarity -- if it comes -- and then the reaction if this makes people more scared about prices in the future or not. I mean, we'll figure that out together. It's good to see you Matt, thank you.

EGAN: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, happening right now, you are looking at the floor where there are still speeches going on. Technically, Democratic Senator Cory Booker holds the floor. This is this is Gillibrand just sort of having comments right now waiting for him to return. Booker has been doing this for 12 hours and continues to do it to protest Donald Trump's deep cuts to the federal government.

He started at seven last night and has promised to keep going as long as he's physically able. He kicked this off, though, by echoing the words of a late congressman and civil rights activist, John Lewis.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): I rise with the intention of getting in some good trouble. I rise with the intention of disrupting the normal business of the United States Senate for as long as I am physically able.

Institutions which are special in America, which are precious, which are unique in our country, are being recklessly and I would say even unconstitutionally affected, attacked, even shattered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: This comes at a moment when Democrats are under pressure to take a tougher stand against Trump. According to their constituents, it has not been tough enough. Booker's speech is mostly a solo act. But as you saw there, he did get some assistance overnight and currently from fellow Democrats.

Including Senator Chris Murphy, who gave Booker some much needed breaks by asking some very lengthy questions. And Senator Chris Murphy is joining me right now.

All right, this speech is not a filibuster because Booker's not blocking any legislation at the moment or a nomination. I guess the question is, do you think this is the most effective way to respond to Donald Trump?

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Well, I'm proud of my friend Cory Booker. He is, as you mentioned, going on to his 13th hour. When I just left him, after having been with him all night, was feeling good and ready to move forward through the morning and the afternoon.

Listen, I think this is an opportunity for us to really raise the specter of a crisis that is coming. Republicans right now this week are talking about a massive cut to Medicaid, which is the insurance program for 24 percent of Americans. It would throw millions of people off their health care, all to enrich their Mar-a-Lago buddies to pay for a big tax cut for the very, very wealthy.

We know it's a very tough task to convince a handful of Republicans to vote no. But these kind of acts of courage, like Senator Booker is showing, they're the kind of things that can drive more people to call Republican members of Congress. Maybe it rattles the conscience of one or two Republican House members.

Every little bit matters when Republicans are operating with these narrow majorities. So I'm really proud of him for doing this, and hopefully it has an impact either inside the chamber or out there in the American public as they tune in.

SIDNER: Being that the Dems do not control either the House or the Senate, this is one tact that I see being used.

I do want to move on now to tariffs. Donald Trump is calling his tariffs that are going to go into effect shortly, Liberation Day. What do you call them?

MURPHY: Well, I mean, they can destroy our economy. Tariffs used rightly can be a tool to rebuild American industry, but you have to use those tariffs thoughtfully. You need to partner it together with domestic industrial policy, incentivizing the growth of the industries that you're targeting.

Donald Trump's doing none of that. It's completely thoughtless. It's going to result in massive retaliatory tariffs against the United States, and he's not partnering it together with the kind of incentives for domestic manufacturing that would allow us, for instance, to, you know, rebuild the domestic battery manufacturing capacity.

So I think what you will get over the course of the spring and the summer is dramatically higher prices for consumers, no real increase in manufacturing, and an inability for our own producers to export because other countries will start to shut off their markets to American goods.

So again, I'm somebody that's been open to tariffs being used smartly. This seems to be the opposite. This seems to be really ham-handed, and it's going to be very damaging to the American economy.

SIDNER: I want to talk to you about what's happening. An election is about to go on. Elon Musk is dumping millions of dollars into Wisconsin and giving a million dollars to two Wisconsin voters, though the state Supreme Court there halted the payment for now.

But there are other billionaires dumping in from the Dem side as well, and both are from out of state.

[07:40:00]

I'm just curious what you think of the influence that all of this money is having on this particular race for the seat on the state Supreme Court.

SIDNER: What do you think of the influence that all of this money is having on this particular race for the seat on the state Supreme Court?

MURPHY: Well, when you look at American elections, there is no comparison between the impact of right-wing Republican billionaires and the handful of wealthy people who support Democrats. And you're seeing that play out in Wisconsin right now. Nobody's spending more money than Elon Musk.

And he's spending it in a way that just feels really icky and corrupt. I mean, he's literally offering, what, $20 to anybody who posts something friendly about their candidate. He's essentially buying votes in a way that I think is going to turn a lot of Wisconsin voters off.

Later today, either this morning or this afternoon, Senator Booker is going to spend a couple hours of his speech talking about this mass- scale corruption that is happening in the White House, probably the most corrupt White House in the history of the country. And Elon Musk has a lot to do with that.

I think Democrats are going to do well in Wisconsin, in part because I think there will be a backlash to the amount of money that Elon Musk is spending and the way in which he is very brazenly trying to pay for votes on behalf of the Republican candidate.

SIDNER: All right, now, I want to just quickly go to what Trump has said about seeking a third term. He's now backtracking a bit, saying he's never looked into it.

Let me let you listen to what he has said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Now, people are asking me to run, and there's a whole story about running for a third term. I don't know. I never looked into it. They do say there's a way you can do it, but I don't know about that, but I have not looked into it. I want to do a fantastic job. We have four years, just about, almost close to four years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Senate Majority Leader John Thune has basically said Trump is just messing with the media. Do you think that your Republican colleagues and the Democrats should take him at his word, take him seriously, that this is a possibility that somebody is looking into it?

MURPHY: As Senator Booker is doing right now, Democrats should stay focused on the central storyline. This week, Republicans are going to be voting on a procedural step to try to cut Medicaid by $880 billion. That's going to throw millions of people off their health care in order to enrich their very wealthy friends.

It is not a coincidence that Donald Trump is floating this idea of running for a third term during the week in which an outright theft is happening, maybe the biggest transfer of money from the poor and the middle class to the wealthy in the history of the country. So there's a lot of things Donald Trump does to try to distract people from the actual policies that are going to impact regular people and hurt the poor and the middle class.

So I'm not spending a lot of time thinking about his comments on a third term. I'm spending my week working with Cory Booker and others to draw the public's attention to the actual legislation in front of the Senate, which is a measure by Republicans to try to kick millions of Americans off their health care.

SIDNER: Your colleague Cory Booker is back in the Senate, continuing to speak. Do you expect you to help him out again if he needs a bit of a break? I think he's on his 13th or 14th hour at this point in time.

MURPHY: He is. I will be going right back to the Senate floor after we stop speaking. I was there alone with him for most of the evening.

I think over the course of the day, he'll have more of his colleagues coming down to spell him. He will hold the floor, but his colleagues can come down and ask him relatively short questions that he can respond to. I think he'll have a lot of friends coming down to support him, having made it through the totality of the long evening.

SIDNER: All right. Senator Chris Murphy, thank you so much for coming on. Appreciate it -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, new this morning, deadline deja vu for TikTok. The app has just days to find a buyer and divest from its U.S. operations or be banned for American users again. CNN's Clare Duffy is with us now. So what's going on here and will they meet the deadline? CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes, so both President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance has said there is likely to be a deal by the Saturday deadline. But we don't know if that is going to be a sign sealed and delivered deal or if that's going to be the outlines of a deal they hope to be making.

We also know that despite the fact that the deadline is days away and they say there is going to be a deal, both ByteDance and the Chinese government have given no public indication that they are playing ball here. And Trump in recent days has suggested that he is trying to sweeten the deal by potentially offering a reduction in tariffs on Chinese imports in exchange for a TikTok sale deal. This is what he said on this yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: One point in tariffs with China, big country, would be probably worth more than all of TikTok as valuable as TikTok is, it's big stuff. So there's a great example. That's a great question, actually.

[07:45:00]

I'm a very flexible person. I could use that for that. Maybe I'll take a couple of points off if I get approvals for something.

I haven't done it. Maybe I'll do it. Maybe I won't. But it's a very good question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: But look, I think you have to wonder if Trump is looking for leverage still just days away from the deadline. Does that raise questions about how close they really are to a deal?

BERMAN: Yes, look, if ByteDance is going to sell, they would know if they're going to sell and they've got to agree to sell. So we'll see what happens in the next few days.

Clare Duffy thank you very much for all of that -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, new this morning, the search for a group of armed men that broke into the home of former NFL player Richard Sherman while his wife and children were inside.

And a gas explosion injures more than 100 people. Take a look at this. Damaging a bunch of homes. We will tell you what happened there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:50:10]

BOLDUAN: This morning, a high-profile murder case is headed for retrial in Massachusetts. Karen Read is accused of hitting her boyfriend, Officer John O'Keefe, with her vehicle in 2022 and then leaving him to die. The first case, the first trial, ended in a mistrial last year after five days of jury deliberation and with a hung jury.

She pleaded not guilty to all charges, her defense team arguing that she was framed by O'Keefe's colleagues, who she says attacked him during a house party and dumped him outside. Today, jury selection begins.

Joining us right now is defense and trial attorney Misty Marris. Misty, thank you for being here. With that, just trying to remind everyone, this was a lot of people watching this trial. Very close to the first time around. Very controversial. A lot going on here. Now it's starting over. But in starting over, is it starting from scratch when you're looking at a retrial?

MISTY MARRIS, DEFENSE AND TRIAL ATTORNEY: Yes, I mean, this was certainly a high-profile trial. All eyes were on it. And it's unique in the sense that we've already seen the trial play out.

But Karen Read has made many, many out-of-court public statements that we're going to see potentially get back into the courtroom. So there's a lot out there.

But it is de novo. That means anew. So the trial will look a bit different. In fact, there's already evidentiary decisions that have been made that are going to impact the way the defense plays out.

Keep this in mind. Before, the defense put on two days of testimony and two days of a case. Now they're anticipating two weeks. So they're going to be beefing it up. While prosecutors have narrowed and thinned their case down a bit.

So it's going to play out quite differently. But the element of surprise is gone. We kind of know what the cross-examinations are going to look like and the pressure points for both sides of the case.

BOLDUAN: So jury selection begins today. I think my biggest question as a layman is how do the defense and prosecution approach this differently this time, considering last time it ended with a hung jury?

MARRIS: So right now there's a really extensive juror questionnaire. And on that juror questionnaire are information from the jurors about what they know about the case. Have they already formulated an opinion? How do they consume their news? Where have they heard about Karen Read? Have they watched her interviews, documentaries?

So they're hashing through all of that with the jury pool in order to see people not who haven't heard about the case. That's virtually impossible.

BOLDUAN: That's what I was going to say that's going to be impossible.

MARRIS: Impossible, especially in that jurisdiction.

BOLDUAN: Exactly.

MARRIS: But it's people that have not made their mind up yet that they can go in, they're going to listen to the evidence, and they're going to only look at what's in the courtroom and make that decision.

So it's going to be a lot of voir dire. It's probably going to take a while to sit this jury because it is such a high-profile matter.

BOLDUAN: From your perspective, do you think either side goes into this retrial at an advantage or disadvantage, given everything we just discussed?

MARRIS: Everybody's got a little bit more transparency. What I think is going to be the major pressure point in this case is Michael Proctor. He's the lead investigator.

The defense said he had blinders to Karen Read. He manipulated evidence. He had a targeted investigation against her. He shared sensitive data with people and information about the case with individuals who weren't involved in the investigation outside because they were his friends. Now, he's since been fired, Kate.

When he took the stand the first time during trial one --

BOLDUAN: I was going to ask you about this. He played a big role in the last trial.

MARRIS: Huge role. And he was still an employee. He's since then been found to have engaged in severe misconduct. So that's a huge vulnerability for the prosecution. He's on the witness list. Do they call him?

BOLDUAN: I was going to say, do they -- would you call him?

MARRIS: So, as a prosecutor, I might hold back, but you can guarantee that the defense will because they want that narrative in the jury box. They want the jury to be saying, was this targeted against her? And remember those text messages. We saw them the first time around. Very crude. Very unprofessional.

But it goes beyond that because it goes to the veracity of the investigation and whether or not they even looked at other potential suspects or other potential theories of the case. Or was it just all about Karen Read from the beginning? We're going to hear from him.

BOLDUAN: Especially because he's been fired after allegations of misconduct then. It's just this does become quite a different -- similar and different trial altogether. We'll watch it together.

MARRIS: Thank you.

We really appreciate it -- John?

BERMAN: All right, this morning, new details in the death of the son of former Yankees player Brett Gardner. Investigators now say it may have been carbon monoxide poisoning. The family was on vacation in Costa Rica. Officials say the carbon monoxide may have come from a machine room that was next door to where 14-year-old Miller Gardner was sleeping. They are still waiting for the final toxicology results.

[07:55:00]

Former NFL star Richard Sherman released video that he says shows three people robbing his house while his family was there over the weekend. He is asking for the public's help now to find them. This latest incident comes months after a string of break-ins at the homes of high-profile athletes.

Homes near Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia evacuated their people, I should say -- near Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia evacuated their homes after a burst in a gas pipeline sparked a huge fire. Several people suffered burns and others were trapped in their homes. At least seven people have been rescued so far.

The restaurant chain Hooters has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company says that the name will live on. It plans to sell all 100 of its company-owned restaurants to two franchise groups to keep the brand alive. Last year, Hooters became the latest fast-casual restaurant to close locations, citing rising food and labor costs.

SIDNER: All right, this morning, astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are talking about their space odyssey that lasted nine months plus, as opposed to the eight days it was supposed to last. And for the first time since returning to Earth after this long mission. Despite the issues that extended their stay in space, they explain why they're still willing to fly on the Starliner spacecraft again. CNN's Ed Lavandera has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is none other than Suni Williams.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the first time since Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore returned to Earth with fellow astronaut Nick Hague, the crew faced questions about the saga that engulfed their space mission.

BUTCH WILMORE, ASTRONAUT: We had a plan, right? The plan went way off of what we had planned. We pivoted to all that training we did that we didn't think we needed to do.

SUNI WILLIAMS, ASTRONAUT: There's a huge group of people who are looking at the whole program and understanding how and what was the best time and way to get us back home. We knew that, and we were ready to wait until that decision was made, and that was fine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Godspeed, Butch and Suni.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Williams and Wilmore launched into space last summer on a test mission of the Boeing Starliner, but the spacecraft suffered helium leaks and thruster outages. NASA determined the Starliner wasn't safe to bring the astronauts home, turning a mission that was supposed to last about 10 days into 286 days in space.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And splashdown. Crew 9, back on Earth.

LAVANDERA: When you reentered the Earth's atmosphere and came back to gravity, can you talk specifically about any kind of weird either sensations or experiences that you've had dealing with that over the last couple of weeks?

WILMORE: I can tell you that returning from space to Earth through the atmosphere inside of a 3,000-degree fireball of plasma is weird. And the whole capsule starts shaking and twisting, and then the parachutes open up, and you're like, I've said it many times, there's not a better feeling returning from space than the parachutes open and work.

LAVANDERA: Did you know that you guys had been greeted by dolphins when you splashed out?

WILLIAMS: Oh, dolphin cam back again.

NICK HAGUE, ASTRONAUT: I had requested dolphins as kind of a joke. Somehow, someday, they pulled it off.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Williams and Wilmore spent more than nine months on the International Space Station. Which forced them and their families to adjust to a new timeline. They missed the holidays at home, but they marked the occasions with their space family.

ASTRONAUTS, INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: Merry Christmas!

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Suni Williams, wearing an eyepatch, celebrated her birthday during International Talk Like a Pirate Day with space- made strawberry cakes. The crew even simulated Olympic-style sporting events inside the International Space Station.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore are working to remove that.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The astronauts also carried out crucial mission work on the space station, including various scientific experiments and mesmerizing spacewalks.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That RFG is just in front of Suni.

WILLIAMS: When something doesn't go your way, you just have to take the blinders off and look around you and see what other really great things are waiting for you.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Despite the troubles with the Boeing Starliner, both Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams say they would fly the spacecraft again in a heartbeat. And say they're committed to helping the team of scientists and engineers fix the Starliner.

WILMORE: We're going to look forward and say what are we going to use our lessons learned from this whole process and make sure that we are successful in the future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Why are Republicans so nervous this morning about a race in a district that Donald Trump won by 30 points? It is Election Day in America, special elections that could tell us a lot about political trends in the country.

A student at Columbia University has fled to Canada after being labeled a terrorist sympathizer. Now she's looking for answers on why officials targeted her in the first place.

And dozens of top IRS officials sidelined as the White House finalizes controversial plans to share sensitive taxpayer data with immigration authorities.