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Rescue Efforts Underway In Deadly Myanmar Earthquake; Tesla In Business Crunch After Musk's Sweeping Government Job Cuts; Dow Drops 715 Points Friday Over Inflation, Consumer Fears; Nation's Top Vaccine Official Quits Over RFK Jr.'s "Lies"; Secy. Kennedy Calls HHS "Inefficient"; Guts Workforce by 10,000; King Charles Makes Brief Hospital Visit After Side Effects from Planned Cancer Treatment, Cancels Engagements; "MAGA Junkie" Regrets Trump Vote After DOGE Cuts in West Virginia. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired March 29, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:14]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

I'm Jessica Dean in New York. We start with breaking news out of Myanmar, where more than 1,600 people have been killed in a catastrophic earthquake. We do not know the true toll just yet, as so many people remain stranded under the rubble. Rescue teams in a race to save thousands who may be trapped.

The devastating 7.7 magnitude quake struck on Friday with shockwaves felt hundreds of miles away from the epicenter, and CNN's Will Ripley has the latest now from Bangkok.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In earthquake ravaged Myanmar, families sift through the rubble, searching for signs of life, all too often, finding death.

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE speaking in foreign language.)

RIPLEY (voice over): "Mother, I'm your son. May you please go to a proper abode," says this man, holding his mom's lifeless hand.

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE speaking in foreign language.)

RIPLEY (voice over): One of many devastating scenes across the crippled city of Mandalay, damage stretches across entire neighborhoods, homes, and historic buildings reduced to rubble. Buddhist monasteries, places of peace and reflection now piles of debris.

Geologists say the massive 7.7 earthquake had the energy of hundreds of atomic bombs, Myanmar's worst quake in more than a century, hitting right during Friday prayers. Many mosques collapsed, trapping Muslim worshipers inside.

After several years of brutal Civil War and largely self-imposed isolation, the leader of Myanmar's military junta surveyed the devastation, making a rare plea for international aid, now slowly beginning to arrive from China, Russia, India and other countries have also pledged support.

For this impoverished nation, help cannot come quickly enough. The 7.7 magnitude earthquake and its powerful aftershocks likely leaving parts of the nation uninhabitable.

With severe damage hundreds of miles from the epicenter, including in Thailand's capital city of Bangkok, skyscrapers swaying so violently, rooftop pools briefly became waterfalls. And this 30-story high rise under construction near a popular weekend market collapsed without warning, likely trapping dozens inside.

RIPLEY (on camera): Here in Bangkok, heavy machinery is now sifting through the rubble of that collapsed skyscraper. They do have the resources and the manpower for a massive disaster response, but with each passing hour of not finding anyone alive in all of that rubble, hope for the families is fading.

RIPLEY (voice over): Search and rescue teams are doing everything they can. Sniffer dogs picking up possible signs of life giving hope to this wife and mother of two who was working in the building with her husband of 30 years, but stepped outside for a break just before the quake.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE speaking in foreign language.)

RIPLEY (voice over): "I'm looking for my husband," she says. "He is trapped inside. Until I see his body, I still have hope."

Drone footage captures the scale of the collapse, a tangled mass of steel and concrete where rescuers continued searching all day Saturday and only one dead body recovered.

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE speaking in foreign language.)

RIPLEY (voice over): "I'm praying my mom and sister are among the survivors," she says. "But I see how fast the building went down. It's hard to hold on."

Hope is still alive here, but barely.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RIPLEY (on camera): And here in Bangkok, rescue efforts are continuing here, basically around the clock and you can see now they are starting to use more of that heavy machinery as they sift through that pile of rubble. Hope continues to fade that they're going to find anybody alive inside, which may be why they're now deciding to use those bulldozers.

Initially, they've been afraid to use them because they were afraid it could actually upset the rubble if there were people actually inside -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Will Ripley, reporting from Bangkok, thank you for that.

Hundreds of Tesla Takedown protests unfolded today. This was one in Brooklyn.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

DEAN: The protests are happening in the U.S. and around the world. They're calling it a Day of Action aimed at sending a message to Elon Musk and the Trump administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NANCY BIRDSALL, PROTESTER: I'm an economist and this is not about efficiency, this is about reducing efficiency.

You know, it is taking a hammer to issues. Getting rid of senior people especially does not bode well for improving in any efficiency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: CNN's Marybel Gonzalez is joining us now live outside a Tesla dealership in Pasadena, California.

Marybel, I know there was a crowd there earlier. What are these protesters trying to accomplish here?

[18:05:05]

MARYBEL GONZALEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jessica, pretty significant turnout for the protesters here. By our count, more than 300 of them on this commercial corridor of Pasadena.

Now, what they're calling for is for Elon Musk to step down. You know, they are criticizing him for his recent downsizing of federal agencies and the workforce, and they are critical of his involvement with the Trump administration.

Now, today, the people protesting were standing outside of this Tesla store with signs, and asking for people's support as they were driving by, calling for that to happen, for Musk to step down.

Let's take a listen to what some of them told us about why they showed up today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURIE SILTON, PROTESTER: I don't want to sit here and watch my country implode and coming here, it gives me the affirmation that there are more people that feel the way I do.

We didn't elect him. He has been put in charge of a lot of things, and it is not right. It is not right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GONZALEZ: Now, what is significant about the protest today is, you know, they've been happening across the country, around 200 of them happening in the U.S., in Europe, and in Canada, but this one is significant because this is the largest turnout that they've seen here in Pasadena, and these all have been, by and large, peaceful.

These protesters deny any sort of involvement in the violent acts of vandalism that we've seen reported throughout the country since the beginning of this year. You know, last week, the FBI says they were creating a special task force to investigate these incidents and the Attorney General is calling them domestic terrorism.

Now, protesters I spoke to here denounce these incidents. They say that is not the way to get their message heard, and said they are calling for people to do what they did today, to come out to the streets to boycott Tesla, and that way send a message to Elon Musk.

Now they tell me they are expecting an even bigger turnout next weekend, and they say they're going to keep protesting until he steps down -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Marybel Gonzalez for us in Pasadena, thanks for that reporting.

And Musk has really gone from a darling of environmentally conscious E.V. owners to a pariah for those same people and a darling of conservatives after he led the charge on more than a hundred thousand federal job cuts so far in the name of government efficiency.

And today's round of protests comes after vandalism against Teslas popped up in at least nine states according to the FBI, which has created a task force to investigate those attacks as domestic terrorism.

Dan Ives, who was long one of the most bullish Wall Street analysts of Tesla and the Global Head of Tech Research for Wedbush Securities joins us now.

Dan, thanks so much for being here with us. We really appreciate it.

As you and I have talked about several times, Tesla has just become so politicized now, and I know you wrote in a recent note to investors: "This continues to be a moment of truth for Musk to navigate this brand tornado crisis moment and get onto the other side of this dark chapter for Tesla with much better days ahead."

How confident are you that Tesla as a company can weather this storm? And then Musk as a CEO, how confident are you he can weather this storm?

DAN IVES, WEDBUSH SECURITIES GLOBAL HEAD OF TECH RESEARCH: Yes, I mean look, this is -- it is another dark day for Tesla and shareholders because the last thing you ever want to see Tesla become is a political symbol and that's why in our opinion, Musk, there is going to need to be a balance, almost arm's length, you know, in terms of how he is going to, you know, interact with DOGE as well as being CEO of Tesla. This is not sustainable. This cannot continue at this pace. I think that all hands meeting that was a step forward. But I mean, for Musk, this is a key four to six weeks ahead. It is sort of the clock struck midnight. He needs to sort of balance this, this cannot continue at this pace.

DEAN: And I am curious from your perspective with these protests that like what we are seeing today, how does Musk see those? They obviously want him to step down from DOGE.

How do investors see those?

IVES: Well, that's why -- I mean, look, the stock doesn't lie and stock is not political, right? It is ultimately going to judge what is happening and the worry here is this brand crisis tornado.

What that could do to Tesla's brand, I believe it is containable if he starts to sort of take a step back, but if he continues, it takes on a life of its own, and I think that's the worry here.

And I even think Musk, I mean he has talked about it in interviews, I mean, I think he has even maybe underestimated what the impact is going to be here in terms of the sort of this crisis that's really happened to Tesla.

And that's why Musk has been here many times before, in terms of other challenges, but that's why it is a moment of truth for Musk to navigate this.

DEAN: Yes, and you mentioned that he has talked about it in some interviews. I do want to play a clip from what he said about the impact that his government role is having on his companies. This is what he said.

[18:10:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSK, TESLA, CEO: If I wasn't in the government, I could lobby and I could push for things that are advantageous to my companies, I'd probably get it, I'd probably receive them.

My companies are suffering because I am in the government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Dan, what's your reaction to what he was saying there?

IVES: I think that's sort of another sort of reading the room. I mean, because investors want Musk first, it is reading the room. We saw that with the all-hands meeting, you see it with some of the interviews.

I think the next step in the coming weeks is him taking more of a step back from DOGE. I mean, he is still obviously going to be involved, but Tesla needs him at home as CEO. And I think that is something that's very, very important because the hearts and lungs of the Musk ecosystem, of really his wealth is Tesla and that's why, you know, the more Tesla becomes a political symbol, it is just a bad thing, and I think that's what the stock is reflecting.

Investors need Musk to balance. And that's why this is a key time for him. But today like I said, it is another tumultuous dark day for Tesla and investors.

DEAN: And I do think it is interesting, too. We have Elon Musk wading into this Wisconsin Supreme Court's race. He is traveling there. So the more he does that sort of thing where he continues to insert himself not just in the federal government but in politics, kind of writ large across the country, what kind of effect does -- I mean that just continues to kind of politicize a company that's so closely tied to him, I would think.

IVES: And Musk is Tesla, Tesla is Musk. Where is Jensen from NVIDIA now, looking at code. Where is Cook from Apple? You know where is Nadella from Microsoft?

I mean, so it just speaks to the point like okay Musk is obviously going to do this differently, but I think it has reached a tipping point and I think you see it in the stock, you see it in investors. And that right now for Musk, this is a key period ahead, and days like today cannot continue for Tesla.

DEAN: All right, we will see what the future holds for Tesla.

Dan Ives, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

IVES: Thank you.

DEAN: Americans confidence in the economy plummeting as falling stock prices and escalating trade wars spark worry and confusion and fear about the future.

Plus, how we are seeing the real world impact of misinformation in Texas, where Health officials are fighting a growing measles outbreak and now have to deal with a new concern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:17:16]

DEAN: Another rough week for Wall Street as stocks plunged Friday, with the Dow dropping sharply, down more than 700 points at the close and the big stock market jitters coming after a week that showed a sharp drop in Americans confidence in the economy, this was in a University of Michigan survey.

And as President Trump promised, more tariffs, including 25 percent tariffs on imported cars and car parts.

Joining us now, the chief economist for Moody's, Mark Zandi.

Mark, thanks so much for being here with us this afternoon.

What is this data telling you about the state of our economy right now?

MARK ZANDI, CHIEF ECONOMIST OF MOODY'S ANALYTICS: Everyone is on edge, Jessica.

I mean, consumer confidence is key to understanding where we are headed. I mean, it is down an awful lot over the past three or four months, given all the uncertainty with regard to the trade war and DOGE cuts and economic policy in general.

You know, one of my favorite leading indicators of the economy is the Conference Board Survey of Consumer Confidence. It is done every month. It has been done, you know, every month since the early 1980s. If that falls more than 20 points in a three-month period, then historically that signals consumers are packing it in, running for the bunker, going to stop spending and recession follows four or five, six months later.

Well, last month in the month of March, it is down 17 points over the past three months. So not quite there yet, not sending off red flares, but a pretty bright yellow flare. I mean, consumers are on edge, and if they get anything else going in the wrong direction and pushes them over, then I fear a recession is more likely than not.

DEAN: And I just want to be clear, the threat of recession, it seemed, before all of this started happening, that America, we talked a lot about the soft landing that maybe we could soft land and avoid all of that, and yet it seems to me, not a financial expert, but in talking to you that since all of this has happened, since Trump has gotten into office and all of these things have begun to unfold, that that is what is driving a lot of this, that it does circle back to that.

ZANDI: Yes, well, we came into the year doing really quite well. The economy was growing very strongly, creating a boatload of jobs. Unemployment very low, four percent, that's where we've been for three years. That's exceptional, you know, across all demographic groups. Stock market was headed higher, headed to record highs. So everything felt really good.

But economic policy particularly, most importantly front and center right now is the tariffs and the trade war, but there are other things going on, obviously, on economic policy, everything from the DOGE cuts to jobs and funding to what's going on with regard to tax and spending policy. We've got the Treasury debt limit drama coming up here pretty soon.

I think all of those things have made consumers, business people very uncertain, because they don't know how this is all going to -- where it is all headed and how it is going to play out and very, very nervous and that's why were so close to the edge here of kind of tipping over.

[18:20:19]

Hopefully, you know, because we got here because of policy. You know, policy can pivot quickly enough that we can avoid an economic downturn. But I say that with less and less confidence with each passing day.

DEAN: It is remarkable nearly two-thirds of consumers expecting unemployment to go up, which is the highest reading of that since 2009. What does that say to you?

ZANDI: Yes, that shows how nervous people are. You know, I will say, though, the one real important strength of the economy and that continues, you know, right up till today is that businesses, continue to hold on to their workforce. Now, they've become a lot more cautious in their hiring. They're not hiring nearly as aggressively as they were, but they're not laying off workers and that's really important.

So people are nervous about layoffs. They're obviously seeing what is going on in D.C. and the DOGE cuts, so they are, you know, really on edge. But so far, we haven't seen that yet. And if that continues, then we should be okay. But I fear that, you know, if policy continues down the current path, then at some point businesses are going to start laying off workers. That's going to reinforce households' concerns, consumers' concerns and that's the fodder for recession.

DEAN: We also know that "The Wall Street Journal" has reported that the President has warned U.S. automakers against raising their prices in response to his tariffs. I am curious, though, just economically, how does that work? What options do these companies have if the President does go through with these tariffs?

ZANDI: Yes, really, a good question. I mean, so the tariffs go up, it is a tax. Someone has got to pay the tax, okay, so if the business -- the automakers and other businesses facing the tariffs aren't able to pass along those tariffs to consumers in the form of higher prices, then I am not sure how what the mechanism would be for stopping them, let's just say there was a way to do that, that would hurt their profits, right?

I mean, they've got a cost, they've got a tariff, if they can't pass that through, that means their profits are going to go down and that would take out the stock market as we've seen as you were just showing us, the stock market is down quite a bit over the past month that would head further south and that has all kinds of other implications for the economy.

One really important statistic, the folks in the top 10 percent of the income distribution account for 50 percent of the spending. Now, that brings up all kinds of questions, but that just shows you how dependent the economy is on the folks that are in the top part of the district, the well-to-do that own the stock.

So if the stock market goes down, they see a lot of red. What are they going to do? They're going to stop spending. We are still going to go into recession. So you know, it is like hitting -- it is a whack-a- mole. I mean, you could whack over here on the price, but that doesn't mean someone is not paying the tax and there is not going to be damage to the economy.

DEAN: Yes, all right, Mark Zandi, thanks for laying it out for us. We really appreciate it. ZANDI: Sure thing.

DEAN: A top vaccine official at the FDA says he was forced out of his job as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. looks to reshape America's health agencies by slashing 10,000 more jobs on top of the 10,000 people who have already quit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:27:53]

DEAN: The nation's top vaccine official responsible for assuring the safety and effectiveness of vaccines has resigned from the FDA.

In the resignation letter obtained by CNN, Dr. Peter Marks writes, "It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary," referring there to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., "But rather, he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies."

Dr. Marks played a critical role in the federal government's COVID-19 vaccine development program, known as Operation Warp Speed and more recently, a new vaccine option for seasonal flu.

Joining us now is Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel. He served as the White House Health Policy Adviser during the Obama administration. Thank you so much for being here with us. I first want to ask you --

DR. EZEKIEL EMANUEL, SERVED AS THE WHITE HOUSE HEALTH POLICY ADVISOR, OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Great to be here.

DEAN: Thank you. Dr. Marks' role put him clearly at odds with RFK, Jr. who, even at his confirmation hearing, signaled his skepticism around vaccines.

I first just want to get your reaction to Dr. Marks' resignation.

EMANUEL: Well, I mean, it is part of this cleaning house, getting rid of 20,000 employees at the Department of Health and Human Services. And, you know, lots of senior people are going to be taken down, including ones that are probably inconvenient to some members of the administration, like the Secretary.

DEAN: And you say inconvenient, is it alarming that Dr. Marks is saying that he doesn't feel like he can speak truthfully, transparent -- I think the word he used was transparency -- that someone who would be overseeing vaccines doesn't feel like that those types of qualities are valued.

EMANUEL: Well, look, the important point of people in Dr. Marks' role is to look at the data that are provided to evaluate them dispassionately, without a bias towards do we oppose vaccines and have suspicions about vaccines? And assess are they safe and are they effective? And Dr. Marks has done that for a number of years.

And as I think you mentioned, he was instrumental in bringing the mRNA vaccines for COVID to the public, and that has complicated. Brand new platform, we had never had a vaccine from mRNA that required a lot of careful analysis of the data and looking and doing it under extreme circumstances and doing it extremely rapidly.

That's the kind of people we need to have in the government and doing -- protecting us with new vaccines, and you know, it is very important that someone like that said, look, it is the data, I am going to follow the data and I am going to say what the data says and I am not going to have a political agenda about it.

[18:30:47]

DEAN: And so where does this leave us right now in the immediate and maybe the short-term in terms of development, approval of vaccines, our readiness for another possible pandemic or any sort of outbreak?

EMANUEL: Well, I'm less concerned about any single individual and I'm more concerned about the idea that we're going to take 3,500 people out of the FDA. The FDA is responsible for a huge portion of the economy. Safety of drugs, the safety of the food supply, food additives, inspecting production of vaccines and also drugs, both here in the United States and ones that come from other countries and are sent here.

It is very hard to believe that you can just cut 3,000 people or one in - I believe it's one in six people at the FDA and assume it's going to be able to function. There is no evidence that this is a matter of efficiency. The secretary himself has not identified any bit of efficiency that will be gained. All the savings he's talking about is $1.8 billion, which is just basically the salaries of people.

There's not a single bit of efficiency to be gained or seen there and that is very worrisome, because the fewer people you have reviewing things like vaccines, the longer it's going to take, the slower it's going to be. And that's not what the American public wants. The American public wants, you know, if we've got an effective drug or vaccine, we want it evaluated rapidly so people can benefit from it. And that does require people. It requires careful looking at the data and, you know, firing people, whole - you know, just 10,000 people and then 10,000 people with early retirement that they offer to bribe them to get out. That is not going to make any part of Health and Human Services efficient, not the least of which is the FDA that's taking the biggest chunk of these cuts.

DEAN: Yes, and it sounds like by what you're saying that this could put people's safety and health at risk.

EMANUEL: Oh, for sure. You know, you've got production of vaccines and production of drugs happening at factories. And they need to be regularly inspected to make sure there's no problems there. The fewer people you have, the fewer inspections you have. If something arises, you may not know it at the FDA and the American public may suffer.

We've recently had around the world some serious problems with contaminated medications that didn't affect the United States, but that's because we have a good infrastructure. When we have a infrastructure that's not so solid, you know, you've got to worry about production and the drugs that we might be exposed to.

DEAN: I also want to ask you about something we're hearing out of West Texas where they're having that measles outbreak. Doctors there have told CNN that several patients have been found to have abnormal liver function. They think it's a probable sign that they've taken too much vitamin A, which is coming after RFK Jr., the secretary, suggested it may work as a prophylaxis amid this outbreak. Does this sort of misinformation concern you? Is this kind of a real-life example of that?

EMANUEL: Yes, so the evidence that vitamin A is helpful in fighting infections and particularly measles comes from countries where there's a widespread vitamin A deficiency. It doesn't come from a country like the United States where very few people have vitamin A deficiency. And to say it's a treatment based upon studies that aren't done in the United States and aren't done with people who have the same situation as the United States in terms of nutrition is just wrong. And RFK Jr., you know, he promised Sen. Cassidy he was not going to attack vaccines and he has not lived up to those promises, I think.

And the problem is that the American public's health is at risk and everyone knew it before he was approved. It wasn't like this was a mystery that he was against vaccines, that he had all sorts of theories about vaccines and diseases.

[18:35:07]

So, it should come as no surprise that despite promises made to particular senators, he's not living up to that. On the flip side, one has to say, you know, he is someone who has recognized that there are problems in the food supply, there are problems with ultra processed foods and their effect on people and he's going to do something about it. The situation with RFK is that sometimes he speaks the truth and is very targeted and right on. And sometimes he says things which are - there's no evidence for and he's making up ideas and hypotheses and people are going to suffer in those cases.

DEAN: All right. Dr. Emanuel, thanks for being here. We really appreciate it.

EMANUEL: Thank you. Nice to be with you.

DEAN: Thank you.

Aides at Buckingham Palace call it a bump in the road, but King Charles still had to cancel some planned events this weekend as he deals with the side effects of his cancer treatments. More on this when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:42]

DEAN: Britain's King Charles is recovering at his country estate after he was briefly hospitalized late this week. Buckingham Palace says planned engagements late Thursday and Friday were canceled at the advice of doctors, citing, quote, side effects from cancer treatment.

The monarch underwent an operation for an enlarged prostate more than a year ago, although little is known about the type of cancer or the continued treatment. Joining us now is CNN Royal Commentator, Sally Bedell Smith.

Sally, thank you so much for being here with us this evening.

I first just want to talk to you about ...

SALLY BEDELL SMITH, CNN ROYAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, you're welcome. Thank you.

DEAN: ... yes, it's so lovely to have you.

The King was due to attend these four engagements in London, to meet with several ambassadors. Obviously, the royal family does not like to cancel such things. How must he be feeling or how serious must this have been for them to cancel or postpone this event?

SMITH: Well, I think he must've been terribly disappointed. He is committed to everything that's on his schedule, and he hates to let people down, particularly at the last minute. But he had to defer to the advice of his doctors and to his, obviously, his advisors, who said, you really can't pursue your usual, you know, fast-paced schedule, which he's accustomed to doing.

DEAN: Mm-hmm. And he is due to take part in a state visit to Italy in just a little over a week. Do you think - I mean, I guess it's hard to know, but do you think he'll be back and ready for that?

SMITH: Well, it's hard to know exactly what the side effects were. It may be that he was trying a new treatment. They have not said what kind of treatment he's under, but as of the end of the week, he's committed to go to Italy on the 7th for a state visit of two or three days. He already had to cancel the part that had to do with Pope Francis, who is - who has been very ill. But he's going to - you know, they may - I think what we're going to see, or certainly what the advisors are talking about, is slimming down his schedule a little. If you look at it over the last month, he was really going at a fast pace.

DEAN: Yes. And we also know that President Trump has been invited for the second state visit to the U.K., that he personally really likes the royal family, likes King Charles. What kind of role does King Charles play in this - in global diplomacy, in this kind of more on the world stage?

SMITH: Well, as his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, did for many, many years, he is an already - he has a lot of practice because he was doing it as the Prince of Wales, but he's very good at soft power. And he's right at the moment. He's really having, you know, he's really having a sort of balancing act. He had that invitation that he delivered to President Trump, and then following that, by a couple of days, he met with President Zelenskyy, and then he met with President Trudeau, and he has met with Prime Minister Trudeau, and he has met with Prime Minister Mark Carney.

And in all of these instances, he cannot signal any political preference, but he's in those meetings, as he does with his Prime Minister. His role is to be consulted, and to encourage, and to warn if necessary. And he has really built a reputation as a convener, and a peacemaker. So, I think, you know, he has those skills, and he's now in a particularly delicate situation where he has to exercise them with a lot of finesse.

DEAN: Yes, it will be interesting to see.

All right. Sally Bedell Smith, thanks so much for being here. We appreciate it.

SMITH: Thanks so much.

DEAN: Mm-hmm. And tomorrow night, we have a new episode of "United States of Scandal with Jake Tapper."

[18:45:02]

This one focuses on cyclist Lance Armstrong's rise to fame and eventual fall after doping allegations. Here's a preview of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: In a nation divided, it's often hard to find areas where we agree. But one common ground is our appreciation of athletic champions. Our culture deifies the GOATs, the greatest of all time.

Jordan, Tiger, Serena, names connoting supremacy and also a stratospheric earning potential.

In the late 1990s, a new name emerged, Lance. And his story had an added dimension, a heartbreaking diagnosis of stage-four cancer, which he miraculously beats and goes on to win the Tour de France a record seven times.

The golden boy in the yellow jersey earned himself the sport, and his sponsors untold millions.

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Be sure to tune in, a new episode of "United States of Scandal with Jake Tapper" airs tomorrow night at 9 Eastern Pacific on CNN.

But still ahead tonight, we're going to take you to deep red West Virginia, a state Trump won handily in November, where his early moves are giving some of his supporters their pause as they feel the effects in real time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:50:43]

DEAN: More fallout from the cuts by Elon Musk and his DOGE team. President Trump received more than 70 percent of the vote in Wood County, West Virginia last November. But some people who find their federal jobs now in limbo say they now regret voting for him. CNN's Randi Kaye has more on this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER PIGGOTT, FEDERAL EMPLOYEE ON ADMINISTRATIVE LEAVE: This flag used to hang there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This was the flag Jennifer Piggott proudly hung outside her home during campaign 2024.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIGGOTT: We had the flag. I had the shirt. I was a MAGA junkie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE (voice over): A MAGA junkie who thought her government job would be safe with Donald Trump in office. She was wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIGGOTT: I cried. It's scary. You know, it's a really scary thing. And I was embarrassed.

He's a good boy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE (voice over): Piggott was abruptly fired last month from the Treasury Department's Bureau of Fiscal Service, based here in Parkersburg, West Virginia. The reason given for the firings of 125 probationary employees at the bureau, poor performance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIGGOTT: I had my last review on the 31st of January, and I had the highest rating that you can get on a review, less than 21 days before I was terminated for my performance.

KAYE (on camera): You voted for Donald Trump?

PIGGOTT: I did.

KAYE: Do you regret that vote?

PIGGOTT: Yes, I do. To cut the knees out of the working-class Americans just doesn't make sense to me. I expected more from President Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE (voice over): Since speaking out, Piggott says she's received death threats and her home has been egged.

This woman asked us not to show her face for fear of retribution. She recently retired from the Bureau of Fiscal Service because she was afraid of losing her health insurance if she was fired. She also voted for Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE (on camera): Would you still have supported him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not sure that I would have. The way that it's been done, I'm for balancing the budget, that type of thing, but not in this context. It's just not right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE (voice over): Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered half a dozen federal agencies to immediately offer thousands of probationary employees their jobs back. But this week, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to put that judge's ruling on hold and stop those employees from returning to work.

Eric Engle is a representative for the National Treasury Employees Union.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC ENGLE, CHIEF STEWARD, NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION CHAPTER 190: They are fully reinstated. All 125 of them. They are on paid admin leave.

KAYE (on camera): Now they're getting paid for not doing their job. So, did the government really save any money here?

ENGLE: Not at all. No. No. That - that's not - I mean - I personally don't believe that was ever the point, but they - no, they're not saving any money from these probationary and trial period employee firings. This has nothing to do with eliminating waste, fraud and abuse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE (on camera): The Bureau of Fiscal Service employs more than 2,000 people here in Parkersburg. People we spoke with told us it's considered the place to work. Jobs at the bureau are hard to come by, and people have always believed it was one of the most stable employers. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE (voice over): Ronda Bragg is another probationary employee who was fired from the bureau. She didn't vote for Trump because she feared something like this might happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE (on camera): A lot of people who voted for Donald Trump lost their jobs now. What do you think about that? What do you want to say to them?

RONDA BRAGG, FEDERAL EMPLOYEE ON ADMINISTRATIVE LEAVE: You know, at first I wanted to say, when all this happens, you deserved it. At the same time, they're in the same spot that I am. And I honestly don't think any of us deserved it.

It's not even 50,000 a year. You know, it's not that much money. I'm blue collar, just like the rest of them in this valley.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE (voice over): In a statement regarding the reinstated employees, a spokesperson for the Treasury Department told us they are weighing "how best to consider their performance, Treasury's operational needs, and the Trump administration's government-wide effort to increase efficiency."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIGGOTT: Hi, baby.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE (voice over): That's hardly any consolation to Jennifer Piggott and her family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE (on camera): If you could say anything to President Trump now, what would you say?

PIGGOTT: I expected better from you. I really did. I expected that you would do what was right and cut waste and fraud and all of those things that you promised us before we elected you in office, but you're not doing that.

[18:55:05]

You're creating a disaster. And I don't know what America is going to look like if this continues.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: That was Randi Kaye reporting. Thanks for that. President Trump has maintained public support for National Security Adviser Mike Waltz after this week's attack plan group chat scandal. But tonight, there's new reporting that conversations inside the White House are having a very different tone.

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