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CNN This Morning

Rep. Gabe Amo (D-RI) is Interviewed about Special Elections; Remembering Val Kilmer; World Braces for Tariff Announcement; Roben Farzad is Interviewed about New Tariffs. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 02, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: During the rising tensions between the U.S. and the Houthi rebels and Iran. Other aircraft will also go to the region.

Wisconsin's liberal majority on the state supreme court stays intact. CNN projects that the Democratic-backed candidate, Susan Crawford, has won in a high-profile election against Trump-backed conservative - a Trump-backed conservative judge. More than $90 million was spent on this race. The GOP effort to add a voter ID requirement to the state constitution was also passed.

And in Florida last night, CNN projects that Republicans swept two special elections that protect House Speaker Mike Johnson's super thin majority. Republican Jimmy Patronis will replace Matt Gaetz after defeating Democrat Gay Valimont. And in Florida's sixth district, Randy Fine defeated Democrat Josh Weil. And this is even after Weil raised ten times more money for his campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RANDY FINE (R), FLORIDA CONGRESSMAN-ELECT: I want to start by - by thanking my opponent for invest - for investing $14 million into our local economy. Clearly it didn't work, but our local - oh, all right. Hey, my family's here. All right. But our - but our local businesses certainly appreciated it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now to talk about this, Democratic Congressman Gabe Amo from Rhode Island.

Congressman, thank you for joining us here on set.

I want to talk about whether money talks because, in Wisconsin, it didn't help Elon Musk so much. When we look at the big donors to that race, he - he, of course, was the top. George Soros was there, a little further down in the graph. But in Florida, it didn't help Democrats do have outraised Republicans. So, what do you take away from that?

REP. GABE AMO (D-RI): Well, when you look at Wisconsin, we saw a resounding rejection of Elon Musk. He was literally buying votes. Gave out $2 million checks, spent $25 million. And there was a ten-point victory resounding.

Now, when you look at Florida, the important thing to note is that these were both deep Republican districts. We're talking in margins where we shouldn't have even been close. And those were effectively cut in half.

So, we see very clearly that enthusiasm is on the Democratic side. People are rejecting Elon Musk, Donald Trump and their billionaire buddies in their attempts to shape an America where costs are high and they're running roughshod over - over our government.

CORNISH: Now, I want to challenge something you just said when you said Elon Musk was buying votes. Obviously, there were legal challenges there. The way he actually played this out was to have these various petitions. For example, you signed a petition, you get x amount of money. The people who he gave his big checks to, they had already cast their ballots.

The reason why I'm getting into the nitty gritty of this is because it's maybe about using money effectively. At the end of this election, Elon Musk will have a whole new list of names and a mailing list in a battleground state. Is there anything to take away from how he is operating?

AMO: Well, look, winners win, losers lose. He lost in Wisconsin and invested a lot of his own capital, tweeting nonstop, visiting and going on the stump. And it wasn't effective.

So, at the end of the day, there was an opportunity to paint a contrast, what the Musk/Trump vision is and what the vision is when people are focused on working class issues. And that's what we saw at hand in Wisconsin. And Elon Musk was on the losing end.

CORNISH: Later today we are going to be talking about tariffs because President Trump has been building this up, frankly, for months. And now we're actually going to hear what those tariffs will be. But what I've been interested in is this kind of mixed signals coming from the unions, particularly in the auto worker community.

So, here's what President Shawn Fain, no fan of Trump, said Monday at Harvard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAWN FAIN, UAW PRESIDENT: We hear all this talk about tariffs are going to raise the car prices, and it's going to cause the price to go up. The price of vehicles went up 35 percent the last four years. It wasn't because of anything that happened with bargaining or anything. It was just flat-out greed and consumer price gouging. But where were all those economists then? Why weren't they all raising hell about a then? Why weren't they having meltdowns on Wall Street then? Because it benefited business. They didn't give a damn.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: I've heard this argument extended to, and Democrats didn't give a damn so to speak.

So, what's your response to how he sees this?

AMO: Well, I think what Shawn Fain puts forth is a broader argument about the thoughtfulness of our policies and what we see and what we have experienced. Certainly, the market has suggested as much over March, the worst month we've seen in years, is that the lack of predictability, without giving the business owners, without giving consumers an ability to - to know what costs they're going to be experiencing, that makes a - that makes a difference.

[06:35:03]

CORNISH: The teamsters started to lean towards Trump a bit. You heard, you know, during the election. And so, I'm wondering, is this Democrats not keeping an eye on a constituency that's very important to them? That actually is looking at the tariffs and thinking, maybe this benefits us, and maybe you should be thinking about it differently.

AMO: We have to be thoughtful. I think there's a contrast here. The recklessness and the arbitrary nature of Donald Trump's approach, and one that is more surgical. And, at the end of the day, what we will see are costs go up for everyday consumers, energy costs, smartphones, cars. We will experience this, and largely on the backs of working class people who are just trying to get by. That's all he's done, raised costs over his time in office over the last 70 plus days, and it's unacceptable. The American people won't have it.

CORNISH: All right, Congressman Amo, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you coming in.

AMO: Thanks for having me.

CORNISH: All right, news overnight. Actor Val Kilmer has passed away at the age of 65. With more than 40 years in Hollywood, he played dozens of roles, including a fighter pilot in "Top Gun," he's played Batman, he's played Jim Morrison in "The Doors."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAL KILMER, ACTOR (singing): If I was to say to you, girl, we couldn't get much higher. Yeah.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Roger Ebert called his performance as Morrison, "the best thing in the movie." Kilmer was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014. His daughter said, however, that his death was due to pneumonia.

CNN's Stephanie Elam takes a look back at the legacy he leaves behind.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): From a quirky spy in the 1984 cult classic "Top Secret" -

VAL KILMER, ACTOR, "TOP GUN": You guys really are cowboys.

ELAM (voice over): To the intense fighter pilot in "Top Gun."

KILMER, ACTOR, "TOP GUN": You're everyone's problem. That's because every time you go up in the air you're unsafe.

ELAM (voice over): Val Kilmer's film career took flight in the big '80s. But the slick performer, trained at Juilliard, honed his acting chops on the stage, and saw his craft as a serious means of exploration.

LARRY KING: Have you ever turned down something you regretted?

KILMER: No, I don't - I don't really think that way. I just look forward. And also what, you know, in a - in a personal way, what I gain from acting, the opportunity to experience things that certainly you'd never do in your own life.

KILMER, ACTOR, "THE DOORS" (singing): Come on, baby, light my fire.

ELAM (voice over): In the 1990s, Kilmer explored the mind of Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's "The Doors." Critics praised him for nailing both the look and the sound of the late singer.

KILMER, ACTOR, "TOMBSTONE": I'm your huckleberry.

ELAM (voice over): Two years later, he played the pasty, yet poised gunslinger, Doc Holliday, in "Tombstone," and later a desperate construction engineer hunting lions in "The Ghost and the Darkness."

Along the way, Kilmer co-starred with some of Hollywood's heavyweights, like Al Pacino and Robert de Niro in the bank robbery movie "Heat," and played the superhero.

KILMER, ACTOR, "BATMAN FOREVER": It's the car, right? Chicks love the car.

ELAM (voice over): As Batman in 1995. But it was an earlier collaboration on the set of the 1988 movie "Willow" where Kilmer met co-star Joanne Whalley. They were married almost eight years and had two children.

Later in his career, Kilmer returned to the stage, playing Moses in "The Ten Commandments" the musical. He also wrote and performed the one man show "Citizen Twain," taking on the persona of the great American storyteller.

But under the makeup, the actor was dealing with grave health concerns. Kilmer downplayed cancer rumors, but then later said he had beaten the disease, which required a tracheotomy, and left him with a raspy voice. In 2022 he reprised his role as Iceman in the "Top Gun" sequel "Maverick."

KILMER, ACTOR, "TOP GUN: MAVERICK": Who's the better pilot? You or me? TOM CRUISE, ACTOR, "TOP GUN: MAVERICK": This is a nice moment. Let's not ruin it.

ELAM (voice over): Like the actor himself, his once boisterous flyboy character, subdued by illness, still commanded respect and even awe on the silver screen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CORNISH: Our thanks to Stephanie Elam for that report.

The group chat is back.

Charlie, we were talking about this off air. Do you have a favorite Val Kilmer film?

CHARLIE DENT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASPEN INSTITUTE CONGRESSIONAL PROGRAM: Yeah, "Top Gun," followed by the one with the lions.

CORNISH: The one with the lion.

Cari? Cari, you?

CARI CHAMPION, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: That one. Yes. Doc Holliday. Obviously that character is one of his best to me. And that's "Tombstone." He was amazing.

CORNISH: Oh.

CHAMPION: He was amazing.

ELI STOKOLS, WHITE HOUSE AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT, "POLITICO": It was mentioned in the package, "Heat."

CORNISH: I was waiting for someone to talk extensively about 1995's "Heat" with De Niro and Pacino.

CHAMPION: That was a good one.

CORNISH: And some of the most romantic lines in the film.

STOKOLS: And some of them came from him. He had a supporting role. But it was an interesting character.

CORNISH: Yes, he's also the kind of movie star who I feel like you can't have them today because we know so much about their lives.

CHAMPION: Yes.

CORNISH: And he was very idiosyncratic and had a kind of way of dealing with fame that I think now would be hard to do under a microscope.

CHAMPION: Yes, he was a true artist. And I - you know what, I have - you mentioned "Heat."

[06:40:01]

That was one - that's one of my favorite films of all time.

STOKOLS: Yes.

CORNISH: We're friends now.

CHAMPION: Yes, we're best -

CORNISH: That is real.

CHAMPION: You're like, here's your order.

CORNISH: Yes.

CHAMPION: Yes, it's one of my favorite films of all time. So many great actors in that. So, many he rest in peace. We know that he's been struggling with so many different things. But he was - he was really a true contribution to - in terms of theater. He really was.

CORNISH: You guys, thank you. Thank you for talking with me about that just for a little bit.

I want you guys to stay with us. Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, we're, of course, going to be talking about those tariffs set to take in - take effect today. What exactly they will be, how the rest of the world could retaliate.

Plus, man the torpedoes. Why the latest technology in baseball bats is all the rage. More from the group chat after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIE JOLY, CANADIAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: We didn't start this trade war. The U.S. administration did. And they can reverse course. But they can only reverse course if the American people themselves say it's enough.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Canada's foreign minister declaring her country is prepared to fight back in a trade war with the U.S.

[06:45:04]

So, this all could escalate today as the president unveils sweeping new tariffs at the White House.

In the meantime, the European Union is also vowing a united response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

URSULA VON DER LEYEN, EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT: Europe holds a lot of cards, from trade, to technology, to the size of our market. But this strength is also built on our readiness to take firm countermeasures if necessary. All instruments are on the table.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Also, China, a longtime target of these kinds of tariffs by the Trump administration. Well, they're going to work with Japan and South Korea to respond.

So, for more on that, we're going to bring in CNN's Marc Stewart in Beijing.

Marc, again, we're talking about the retaliation. What more can China do and how specific can this get in terms of hurting the American consumer?

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Hi, Audie. Really good to see you.

First of all, let's not discount the fact that China could institute even more tariffs against the United States. And that would be felt by Americans when they go to buy things like electronics, like clothing, like furniture.

But China has a very big toolbox. It is the world's second largest economy. And one thing it could do is really influence and shift the global supply chain and perhaps create this game of hard to get. Things like toys, like Christmas decorations. But also things like critical minerals, which are used in computer chips, perhaps even pharmaceuticals. That's a tool that China has at its disposal.

In addition, this is a market here in China of more than a billion people. And a lot of American companies do business here. They want to do business here. In fact, the Chinese government wants them to be part of its economic engine. But depending on how things unravel today, China could make life very difficult for these American companies to do business here in China.

We've already seen it happen with companies like Google, as well as the parent company of Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein. That's something that China also has on its list of -

CORNISH: OK, it looks like we lost Marc. But Marc gave us a lot of detail to talk about.

And closer to home, we want to talk about some of those effects. U.S. car companies reported a spike in sales in March. People basically scrambling to buy new cars before the new tariffs. President Trump previously had announced a 25 percent tariff on imported cars.

Joining me now to talk more, Roben Farzad, business journalist and host of "Full Disclosure" podcast.

Roben, thanks for being here.

ROBEN FARZAD, BUSINESS JOURNALIST AND HOST, "FULL DISCLOSURE": Thanks for having me. CORNISH: Marc was giving us great detail about how other countries are not - they're not fighting one on one trade wars with the U.S., they're kind of moving into little groups to have this back and forth.

What are you going to be listening for from China in terms of their response?

FARZAD: China has so many arrows in its quiver, but we cannot forget that China is struggling. It's in a bit of a banking crisis, and a property crisis, and it has a social compact with its people to keep them employed, to keep this economy growing. It has not had an economic collapse in the modern world trade organization, period. So, if they are kind of at, you know, reservoir dogs, you know, gun pointing at gun, it's like the United States has more clout than it has had in a long time because of China's weakness.

So, China is looking at its neighbors. It's looking at South Korea. It's looking at Japan, kind of enemy of my enemy.

CORNISH: It's interesting. That's great context because we've been talking about so many goods that people perceive as being from China. I know after the last round of tariffs, some people, manufacturers, moved out of China, right?

FARZAD: Yes.

CORNISH: So, it's not clear.

But you've also said that this isn't just about raw goods. That when you look at a Walmart, at a Target, they could be affected. And I'm like, how, right? They're so enormous.

FARZAD: Look at - Walmart by itself would be one of the largest trading partners in the world. The fact that, you know, it might be cold comfort to a lot of workers who've lost factory jobs, who've lost their jobs in the kind of the NAFTA period, the last 35 years of globalization. But you can go into a Walmart and, you know, ask - ask this dad, buy a pair of sweatpants for $9, right? You can get three different kinds of mangoes. You could buy dragonfruit. You could buy things at certain price points that were never available to you, to say nothing of the $200 flat screen TV. And that's a peace - that's a peace dividend. That's a dividend of globalization.

So, if suddenly - you know, China is a major trading partner of Walmart. If it decides, well, you're going to feel it, immediately the rust belt, the heartland is going to feel that at Walmart, where it's an essential retailer.

CORNISH: You know, I was thinking about something that the Treasury secretary said a few weeks back in a speech where he said the American dream essentially is not to get cheap goods.

[06:50:02]

Like, that's not what we, the government, should be fighting for. Does that feel like a fundamental realignment? It's a different approach to tell Americans, look, maybe that sweatshirt shouldn't be $9.

FARZAD: Yes. And I give them points for being bold where maybe the opposition wasn't because - and you've covered this I think in the pod and with some of the guests you've had on. In this period of globalization where, yes, incredible stock market gains, incredible ability to go into a Walmart or a Best Buy and buy things that our parents weren't able to buy. But what about the people who got left behind by that? It's not even cold comfort that they can go and buy a cheap TV (ph).

CORNISH: And you hear that in the UAW, in Shawn Fein's response about cars.

FARZAD: Yes. The fact that they're saying prices were already up and you didn't turn around and castigate the industry for - for greedflation. And you know what, car dealers with purely American cars see this and are anticipating tariffs and are hiking prices on it. And so there might yet be vindication for the worker who was forgotten.

CORNISH: Is greedflation a threat here, or is price gouging a threat here? The Biden administration used to talk about that a lot when there were supply chain issues. Now that we have more data and understanding, are these industries taking advantage of, you know, news reports like this?

FARZAD: No doubt, because it gives you cloud cover to hike prices. You, as a fiduciary for shareholders, like I'm only doing what's responsible. I'm beholden to my shareholders. I mean and this goes from Chipotle to GM. There was a great article on how Chipotle is trying to source avocados from Cartagena, you know, to protect itself from Mexico. This is felt across the board. But we have seen opportunistic price hikes in this period of inflation. And I think this is only going to give companies more cover to do that.

CORNISH: Yes. And it makes it messy with the uncertainty, right? What should we read into this being announced after stocks close?

FARZAD: I don't think they care about the stock market, to be honest with you. I mean that's another dividend that has been lost on his core base. And they're not feeling that. That's not the 401(k) class. That's the class, if anything, that's had their pensions dissolved, were - were given all these promises, who were rope-a-doped over the last 35 years. And - and that's something fundamentally that I think the Democrats and the blue-collar Democrats have to understand.

CORNISH: We need to engage on.

FARZAD: Yes.

CORNISH: Roben Farzad, thank you so much.

FARZAD: My pleasure.

CORNISH: He's, of course, the host of "Full Disclosure."

Now it's 51 minutes past the hour. I want to give you a few more headlines, things you need to know to get your day going.

Israel announced it's expanding its military operation in Gaza. This is going to involve large scale evacuations and seizing land that Israel plans to incorporate into its security zones. The Israelis now ordering people in Gaza's southern Rafah area to leave their homes and move north.

And a senior Russian negotiator set to meet with envoy Steve Witkoff in D.C. There will be the - this will - is going to be the first U.S. visit for a senior Russian official since the country invaded Ukraine in 2022. Sources tell CNN that U.S. sanctions against him are being temporarily lifted so that he can actually make the visit.

And Boeing aircraft have been involved in several significant safety incidents over the past few years. Today, the company's CEO set to appear on Capitol Hill to testify. In an email to employees, he said today's hearing is an important step in restoring trust with the company.

And the Justice Department plans to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione. He's, of course, accused of killing the CEO of UnitedHealthcare back in December. This all comes as the Trump administration pledged to restart federal executions and expand crimes eligible for capital punishment under federal law.

I want to turn to something a little lighter now because it's spring, it's baseball season, it's little league season. And if you've got a kid who likes to play, you might want to send them to their next game armed with a torpedo. It's the torpedo bat. The bat looks like a bowling pin. It has its widest portion positioned where the ball usually hits it, like the ones many New York Yankees have been using in recent days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAZZ CHISHOLM, NY YANKEES: I love my bat, you know what I mean? I think you can tell 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 guess.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Group chat is back.

Cari, straight up, it's nice to have a baseball story about an advantage that is not medical. It's - it's good that we're in that moment.

CHAMPION: Yes.

CORNISH: And Charlie - we should say. Charlie, please give us your credential on this.

CHAMPION: Yes. He is - he's an expert.

DENT: Oh, I'm all for the torpedo bat. CORNISH: No, no, your credential. You are an ex-player.

DENT: I'm not a player. I'm not a baseball player. I just follow some. No.

CORNISH: Oh, Eli's the ex-player. Sorry about that.

Eli, you're just being quiet over there.

STOKOLS: No, I'm just - I was waiting to hear.

CORNISH: Oh.

STOKOLS: No, I - I was a pitcher in college. So, I don't say this lightly as a pitcher, because, you know, you normally want the hitters to have an advantage. But Major League Baseball now, every pitcher seems like they're throwing high 90, 100 miles an hour. The batting averages have dropped. So, if the - if this helps sort of create a little more offense -

CORNISH: That's a take. So, you're like, this is going to even the playing field. Have you heard this?

CHAMPION: Well, look - look, if you're not cheating, you're not trying. This is the old saying, right?

CORNISH: Cari.

CHAMPION: And I feel like it's giving an advantage. And I think it works.

Like, no, seriously, that is a saying.

CORNISH: Yes.

CHAMPION: I do believe that. I don't think you should, but that's what you hear all the time in sports.

[06:55:03]

CORNISH: This is like when you were defending Duke earlier in the week, OK?

CHAMPION: I know. You don't - I know. It's so awful. So awful.

CORNISH: And as someone from New England, I feel like because of the - the Yankees element to this and the creation of the bat, there's a lot of people who have thoughts.

So, it's raising a lot of questions due to the buzz. And I think we have some sound about the physics of it from Neil deGrasse Tyson. Is that true?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, ASTROPHYSICIST: What they've decided and figured out is some players always hit the ball in a particular part of the bat. And if that's the case, why don't you concentrate the sweet spot into that one place. Take the sweet spot wherever it would otherwise be spread, and put it where that batter normally makes contact with the ball.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHAMPION: Bigger sweet spot. It makes it better. More space.

CORNISH: That's all.

CHAMPION: That's it.

DENT: Customized bat. It's fine. The Yankees are doing it. Other teams should do it. You know, it's good.

CHAMPION: Other teams are doing it. Yes.

CORNISH: Yes.

DENT: Just like the tush push, you know, it's a -

CORNISH: I knew the tush push was going to come up.

DENT: (INAUDIBLE) -

CHAMPION: There's nothing wrong with the tush push. We decided that.

DENT: Yes, the Green Bay Packers whining about that. Oh, you know, they can't beat the Eagles. So, get rid of the tush push, the brotherly shove.

CHAMPION: Yes. Yes.

DENT: I mean, you know, this -

CHAMPION: A brotherly shove. A brotherly shove.

DENT: Figure out how to defend - figure out how to defend it. I mean it's called football.

CHAMPION: Yes.

CORNISH: All right, one more thing on the torpedo bat, because it was actually invented by a member of the Miami Marlins staff, who also happened to be a physics grad from MIT. Here's him talking about all the attention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AARON LEANHARDT, TORPEDO BAT INVENTOR: A lot more cameras here today than I'm used to. I'm used to the one walking behind all of this and someone else is standing here.

But there are definitely guys in the major league side and on the minor league side in 2023 that - that were definitely asking me questions and - and offering design advice and demoing them. And then it was - it's a feedback loop, right? There's many different makes and models that have gone through this process, some of which never saw the field of play, and some of which are obviously hitting a lot of home runs right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: All right, so, here's the thing. The top live sports viewing - stop - actually, live viewing TV is NFL. We are talking about the NCAA. People just don't talk about America's pastime anymore.

CHAMPION: No. Yes.

CORNISH: So, is this an opportunity to juice, so to speak, baseball and its ratings and like get us watching again?

STOKOLS: Well, it's a much better kind of juicing than we were talking about a couple decades ago in baseball.

CORNISH: Yes, that's leapt out from my childhood consciousness.

STOKOLS: No, but you're -

CHAMPION: Yes. Yes.

STOKOLS: But you're right, there's a huge disparity between the big market teams, the small market teams. A lot of those smaller teams have lost their regional sports network deals. So, the only way people can watch baseball is streaming the ESPN contract with MLB is falling apart. I mean the commissioner has a lot of problems. This is not a problem for MLB. I'm surprised they haven't gotten to it sooner given the physics.

CHAMPION: I - I think it's good. I think it's - I think it's good. It makes people feel - first of all, you need storylines and you need characters. It makes people pay attention to what's happening. The Yankees look really good. People love to hate the Yankees. They're like the Dodgers or the Lakers, if you will, because they've been so dominant. And I think there will be some who will complain. Either they get this bat, but there will be teams that will start to complain if, in fact, they continue to play as well and have as many home runs.

CORNISH: Yes. But like you said, the storyline. If the storyline is just, they're still winning a lot -

CHAMPION: Yes.

DENT: The Brewers are winning a whole lot at first - that first series, but that's because they got swept.

CHAMPION: Of course they were. Yes.

CORNISH: Yes.

CHAMPION: And, well, they did so well too.

DENT: Yes.

CHAMPION: Look, all I think is, if you say it really simply, he just explained it, it expands the sweet spot. It makes it easier for people to hit the ball. It makes it feel more comfortable. They don't feel a difference right away. They're just like, OK, maybe there is something to it.

CORNISH: OK. Well, the take from the hot group is, evens the playing field and let them play. So -

DENT: More - more offense will make the game more exciting.

CORNISH: Yes, more offense. OK. Well, I want to talk about what you're keeping an eye on this week, the things you're looking at do.

For me, actually, it's the response to Senator Cory Booker's long speech on the Senate floor. It's not an official filibuster, but what it did do was get a lot of attention, and it broke a record from a segregationist era senator.

For you?

CHAMPION: That's exactly what I was going to say, the response. I think that so - for so long people are saying, what are Democrats doing? And while he was there for 25 hours and five minutes, I believe.

CORNISH: Yes.

CHAMPION: To me, listening to what he had to say, the stories that he was sharing, speaking for those who couldn't speak for themselves, that's exactly what we wanted to hear in that very, very, very sympathetic, empathetic way in which he was saying, I'm speaking for those who have no voice. I - I want to see what happens next.

CORNISH: You were into it also.

Charlie?

DENT: Yes, in the next few hours I'm looking to see if these tariffs are going to be broad based across the board or more targeted.

CORNISH: Like a flat number?

DENT: Yes, like 20 percent across the board. And the other - longer term, I want to see if the NFL revisits its tush push decision in May.

CORNISH: You're on it.

DENT: How Congress of them, you know, to table and then -

CORNISH: I'm changing your name in my phone to be like -

DENT: It's the important things - yes, the important things.

STOKOLS: I'll be watching to see how allies in Europe especially react to the tariffs.

CORNISH: Yes.

STOKOLS: And, you know, they've been talking about this - they've been gaming this out for a while. We'll see what the White House does, and then we'll see how quickly and how strongly they react.

CORNISH: Yes. And they can pinpoint, right, whether it's China or the EU or Canada now, which is completely upset. You were talking about Pennsylvania, a swing state that could be hit in weird and unusual ways. Are there - I'm going to be listening for, are there ways this affects our culture that are unexpected? You know, the - the known unknowns.

[07:00:04]

CHAMPION: What do you think would be unexpected?

CORNISH: I don't know. After Charlie mentioned the silver wrapping on the Hershey kisses, I'm like, this is going to live rent free in my head.

CHAMPION: I know, I'm like -

DENT: Well, you know, the price of coffee. You know, we don't grow coffee beans.

CORNISH: We talked about. Yes.

DENT: Avocados. I mean just - every daily thing.

CORNISH: The list is going to go on.

DENT: And all these congressmen are going to hear from their constituents. They're going to go to their businesses and say, you know what, my costs just went up because of - I import this.

CORNISH: Yes.

DENT: It's my input to make x.

CORNISH: Do something.

DENT: Yes, fix it.

CORNISH: All right, thank you all for waking up with us. Thanks to the group chat. I'm Audie Cornish. And "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.