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Major Staff Cuts at Federal Health Agencies Now Underway; Sources Say, Many Trump Adviser in Dark on Impending New Tariffs; Trump Faces Two Tests, Special Elections, New Job Numbers. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired April 01, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, major job cuts, employees at federal health agencies being shown the door, the sweeping reorganization now underway.

Also, a marathon speech, Senator Cory Booker going on 15 hours on the Senate floor, an all-nighter, his target, President Trump and Elon Musk.

Welcome to our viewers of the United States and around the world. Wolf Blitzer us off. I'm Pamela Brown and you are in The Situation Room.

And we begin this hour with that breaking news. The Trump administration's initiative to cut government spending is sweeping federal health agencies right now, and it could have a direct impact on you. Employees are waking up to emails that their positions are being eliminated or they're being placed on administrative leave.

CNN's Nick Valencia is following this story from Atlanta where the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is headquartered.

So, Nick, what is going to be the impact on healthcare as a result of these cuts?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's already been an emotional impact on these individuals who received the email this morning. Those I've spoken to say they all feel like they just have a pit in their stomach.

And, Pamela, it's unclear just how extensive this impact is as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and prevention, but we know that major divisions at the world's leading public health agency have been impacted, divisions, like the HIV division, which has over 500 employees, divisions like the smoking and health division, which has also been impacted significantly.

We know these individuals, some of them, woke up this morning as early as 5:00, 6:00 this morning to this reduction in force emails. Others showed up on site at the CDC and were denied access to the building when their badge didn't work. For those that did receive the email, this is part of what it said. Saying, quote, this reduction in enforced action does not reflect directly on your service performance or conduct. After you receive this notice, you'll be placed on administrative leave and will no longer have building access beginning Tuesday, April 1st, unless directed otherwise by your leadership.

You know, we had been reporting that these emails were thought to have come out as early as last week. People had been waiting for over a week in some cases. They thought they were going to come out over the weekend. For some of those individuals who had been impacted that I spoke to, they said it's not lost on them that this email came out on April Fool's Day. They believe that the Trump administration is treating this all like one big joke. Pamela?

BROWN: Nick Valencia, thank you so much.

And we have some new CNN reporting just coming in on President Trump's so-called liberation day. The U.S. is soon to slap -- soon due to slap tariffs on nations that tax U.S. goods coming into their countries. And that could mean higher prices for inflation-weary Americans.

Sources tell CNN that many of his advisers are still uninformed of the details and were caught by surprise last night when the president said his administration has finalized the plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Have you settled in?

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, you're going to see I've settled in. Well, 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)

BROWN: All right. Let's go live now to CNN White House Reporter Alayna Treene. So, Alayna, what can you tell us about some advisers, key advisers, we should note, still in the dark on these details?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Right. Well, Pamela, if the president has settled on a specific tariff plan that he's going to announce tomorrow, it is a surprise to many White House advisers. It's according to our CNN colleague Kevin Liptak's reporting. But, look, one of the only thing that is clear right now is that he's going to have this announcement and a big announcement. He really wants it to get a lot of attention at the Rose Garden during a ceremony tomorrow.

But when I've talked to White House officials, Trump administration officials, they've told me that he has been approached with several plans for how to move forward with these type of tariffs that he is calling liberation day. And that really he has until the 11th hour to make a final decision. And they've cautioned me about being too definitive with how we are framing some of these tariffs because, again, a lot of this is changing. They say plans are fluid and he is still making a decision.

I want to review just briefly some of what Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said yesterday. She said that people like Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Trade Adviser, Peter Navarro, Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff, and Vice President J.D. Vance, she said all of them have been approaching the president on how to get this done and giving him different plans, again, playing into that idea that multiple people are coming to him with different ideas for how this should be implemented.

Now, it's still unclear, and these are some of the proposals I've heard floated, is that he could potentially levy individual tariffs on different countries.

[10:05:07]

He'd also move for potentially across the board tariffs .We're hearing as high as maybe 20 percent. So, again, big changes that could come tomorrow, still very unclear what they are, and a lot of people inside this White House unclear on that as well, Pamela.

BROWN: All right. Alayna Treene, thank you so much

And happening right now, two major barometers for how Americans feel about the Trump administration and their economic stability. Polls are open for special elections in Florida and Wisconsin right now where Elon Musk is spending millions to support President Trump's candidates.

And a new snapshot of the job market is just in. It's a key financial indicator for the Fed. Investors already reacting this morning, you see right here, stocks on track for the worst start to a year since 2022, this on the eve of Trump's so-called liberation day, a promise of more massive tariffs that we were just discussing.

And we begin our coverage with CNN Business and Politics Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich live in New York. So, let's start with that new report on Jobs, Vanessa.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This report is job openings, quits and people that have been fired from their jobs. That's essentially what this report details. And we're not seeing a ton of changes in the month of February. Of course, this comes before many of the tariffs that President Trump put into place and is putting into place. And also this was just when these DOGE cuts started to happen.

So, job openings remain largely unchanged, about 7.6 million jobs open in the month of February. Hires also unchanged, pretty steady hiring in the month of February. Separations, this is quits and layoffs that was largely unchanged as well. But when you dug into the data just a little bit, we did see increased layoffs in retail trade, real estate, and federal government jobs. And, of course, that's just where these DOGE cuts are being picked up right now. Federal government jobs, the number of people that were laid off and quit, about 40,000. That is probably just the beginning of what we're going to be seeing over the next few months.

Also, manufacturing, worth noting, that there were fewer layoffs in manufacturing in that sector. We know that the president has really focused on trying to beef up U.S. manufacturing, and that is the whole reason why he is igniting this trade war.

But this report reveals sort of maybe the calm before the storm. Very little changes on the job front right now, but still we're seeing these nuances, the starts of changes with these government quits and layoffs just starting to be picked up in this report. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much.

And happening right now, Democratic Senator Cory Booker is holding a marathon speech on the Senate floor in protest of the Trump administration's slashing of the federal government. He says the president is harming not only Americans, but the core foundations of democracy. The New Jersey lawmaker has been at it since 11:00 last night and says he'll keep going for as long as he can.

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SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): I'm about to go to the Senate floor where I intend to be recognized. And when I am, I am not going to stop speaking. I am going to not stop standing. I'm going to go for as long as I'm physically able to go.

I've been hearing from people all over my state and indeed all over the nation calling upon folks in Congress to do more, to do things that recognize the urgency, the crisis of the moment. And so we all have a responsibility, I believe, to do something different to cause, as John Lewis said, good trouble and that includes me.

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BROWN: All right. Let's go live now to CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju on Capitol Hill. Manu, tell us more about the point of this. Obviously he's not filibustering, there's no legislation on the floor, and how much is this in response to constituents across the country of Democrats being upset that Democrats aren't doing enough?

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's what Democrats have heard when they've gone back home during their recent recess and talked to constituents, had town hall meetings and Democratic voters are saying, why aren't you doing more to stand up to Donald Trump even though they're in the minority? They have very little leverage to do anything to stop the Trump agenda. But this is one tactic to draw attention to their concerns.

And what Cory Booker is doing right now is a marathon floor speech. He can hold the floor really as long as he is physically able. And right now he's speaking, spoken for about 15 hours. This is one of the longest speeches in the history of the United States Senate, actually the tenth longest in history, the longest ever being more than 24 hours. That was back in the 50s when Strom Thurmond was trying to block the Civil Rights Act from going forward.

But as he went to the Senate floor last night, about 7:00 P.M. Eastern time, he made clear he was going to continue to go until he was no longer physically able to.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOOKER: 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)

RAJU: Now, he has gotten some relief through the course of the night. The Democratic senator have come to the floor and engaged in a back and forth exchange with them, asked him some questions and the like. So, he is not speaking the entire time. But the moment he relinquish the Senate floor is when the presiding officer can essentially move on and call on somebody else, move on to the next business, which is why he needs to stay on the floor and continue to talk.

And let's see if he tries to break the record. If he does break the record, he'd have to go until about 7:00 P.M. tonight, Eastern Time. That's a long time from now to hold the floor, but at the moment, one of the longest in history, and if he makes us to 11:00 A.M. the next hour, that would be about the seventh or longest in history. We'll see how long the senator wants to go to raise his objections.

BROWN: All right. Manu Raju, thanks so much.

And right now in Wisconsin, polls are open at a key race that's emerged as President Trump's first major political battle in a state that he narrowly flipped last November. Susan Crawford and Steve Schimel are facing off to decide the balance of the state's Supreme Court and what's become the most expensive judicial race in history with $90 million spent so far.

The race has also become somewhat of a referendum of sorts on Elon Musk. Democrats are hopeful that his heavy involvement in the race, including his giving away million dollar checks at a town hall over the weekend, will motivate voters turned off by DOGE's slashing of the federal government.

And over in Florida, voters are heading to the polls for a pair of special elections that could have big implications in the House with two House seats formerly occupied by stalwart Trump allies on the line. So, let's go live now to CNN Senior Reporter Steve Contorno in Florida. Steve, Republicans won these seats by more than 30 points just months ago. Will that be the case today?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Pamela, both parties expect the margin to be much narrower than that. The question is, how close can a Democrat in these two races actually get it? Will they be sending a symbolic message to the country or do they have a real chance of cutting into the House majority by picking up one of these seats?

I will tell you where I am right now in Florida's Sixth Congressional District, Republicans are nervous about the Democratic candidate here, Josh Weil, who has raised more than $10 million and really sent shockwaves through the party, his party and Republicans, when he posted that figure last month.

The Republican here, meanwhile former State Senator Randy Fine, he failed to raise more than a million dollars as of last month, though there has been a bigger push since then. And their race has been very focused on national politics and what is happening so far in the Trump administration. Take a listen to how both candidates described what's at stake today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RANDY FINE (R), FLORIDA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: Democrats are angry because every time Donald Trump wins, they lose. They want open borders. They don't want to stop the waste, fraud, and abuse.

JOSH WEIL (D), FLORIDA CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: This is, you know, a district that is more than 25 percent, age 65 and above, and essential services they rely on have been put in jeopardy by this administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now, there's been a slow trickle of people coming in and out of the polling place just behind me. We're talking to a few of them, a Democrat, said that they acknowledge that there's just a slim chance that their candidates will pull ahead and pull off a shocking upset. Republicans here feeling confident and they want to send a message that they support the president's agenda so far, they support what Elon Musk is do is doing and they hope that Randy Fine will go to Washington and provide more reinforcements for House Speaker Mike Johnson's very slim majority there. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Steve Contorno, thank you so much.

Let's turn to Capitol Hill now. Lawmakers there are holding this hearing about a major issue that has plague President Trump's presidency so far, federal judges blocking his executive orders and actions. The chairman of this committee, Congressman Jim Jordan, tells reporters he wants to limit the power of injunctions from judges like James Boasberg. He has barred the administration from using the Alien Enemies Act so far. That controversial 18th century law is designed to expedite deportations if the U.S. is at war with another country. CNN's Annie Grayer is live on Capitol Hill. All right, so, Annie, big picture, what is this about today?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: This is about Republicans going after federal judges that they view as blocking President Donald Trump and his agenda. One of those judges you mentioned, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, has been blocking Trump's deportation efforts that's currently held up in court.

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There's another judge who's been blocking Elon Musk's DOGE from accessing sensitive information at the Treasury Department.

Now, the president and Musk have been calling for these judges to be impeached, but Republican lawmakers and sources who I talk to say they don't have the votes in this slim majority that they currently have.

So, they're trying a different approach. That's why you see the hearing happening behind me. Tomorrow, there's going to be a bill on the floor that's going to be trying to limit the jurisdiction of some of these district court judges. And there's also going to be an appropriations push. Jim Jordan sent a letter to the Appropriations chair this morning that I obtained where he's trying to have the Appropriations Committee limit the funding to some of these district court.

So, really, what's at stake here is Republicans are going after judges whose rulings they disagree with, and that is throwing a whole host of questions about the limits of what they can actually do here. But they're starting today with this hearing and they're going to keep pressing on this issue for a while.

BROWN: All right. Annie Grayer, thank you so much for bringing us the latest there.

And happening right now, Lieutenant General Dan Caine is in the spotlight this morning. He is testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee as President Trump's pick for the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

So, let's go live now to CNN's Natasha Bertrand at the Pentagon. Natasha, what more do we know about President Trump's pick for the country's top general?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, General Caine, he did just finish his opening remarks at that hearing to be the next chairman of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And he began his remarks by actually thanking former Chairman C.Q. Brown, which was a really nice nod, I think, to the former chairman who was abruptly fired, as we know, by President Trump earlier this year.

But General Caine, he is a very unusual pick, to say the least, for this position. And he actually said that during his opening remarks, he said, I acknowledge I'm an unconventional nominee. Because not only did he retire in December, so he's actually being recalled to active duty now to serve as Trump's chairman, but he also had a very unusual rise during his career. He rose to be from a fighter pilot in the Air National Guard to the highest levels of Joint Special Operations Command.

And he now is going to require a waiver actually from President Trump to serve as the chairman because he does not meet the typical requirements to serve in that role. He is not a four star general. He did not lead a combatant command or as a service chief, and so he's going to require that waiver.

But President Trump has really raved about Lieutenant General Caine since meeting him back in 2018. He has said that Caine said that he loved him and that he dawned a MAGA hat the time that they met, something that Caine actually outright denied during this confirmation hearing just a few minutes ago, saying that he's upheld his oath for 34 years, he has never done political merchandise, and he said that he believes President Trump was thinking of someone else when he made those comments.

BROWN: All right. Natasha Bertrand, interesting, thank you so much.

Still ahead, the clock is ticking on the president's promise to announce hefty new tariffs that could impact all of us, frankly. Up next, I'll ask Republican Congressman Tony Gonzales of Texas about what Americans should expect and whether future economic pain is a reality.

And then later deported from America, but in this case, it was an error that is by the administration's own admission. Details of how a Maryland man mistakenly wound up in a prison in El Salvador, up next.

You're in The Situation Room.

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BROWN: In Washington and countries around the world, nervous anticipation is building toward President Trump's most aggressive round of new tariffs. Tomorrow is what he calls liberation day, and he's due to announce details on reciprocal tariffs, charging countries, dollar for dollar, potentially, on the tariffs that they place on U.S. goods.

Joining us now is Congressman Tony Gonzales, a Texas Republican. Congressman, thank you so much for joining us.

So, I want to start with tariffs because, obviously, Mexico is a huge trade partner for Texas. As you well know, I'm sure you're hearing from your constituents, Americans are feeling the pinch right now. You just saw the U.S. stock market has wrapped its worst month in three years and more economists are voicing fears of a potential recession or even stagflation right now. Are the president's tariffs a gamble worth taking right now?

REP. TONY GONZALES (R-TX): I think they are. You know, I get the anxiety. I get -- you know, other countries are nervous. They should be nervous. I think for too long, America has been taken advantage of.

Tariffs are very hard to get right, though. I think that's why everyone's kind of anxious. Are you going to be able to get it right? But I can tell you time and time again, President Trump defies the odds. We've seen him do it over and over again.

What I'm hearing is most people in my district, they want fair trade. So, they're tired of kind of the United States being taken for granted. I think it now is a perfect time for a reset. Let's bring people to the table. Let's get to a point where we can solve problems, not necessarily make them bigger.

BROWN: So, you say that people, folks in your district want fair trade. Are they willing to tolerate higher prices for a while to get that fair trade?

GONZALES: No one wants higher prices, right? No one wants higher prices.

BROWN: But that's what economists are saying with the tariff policy. And, again, we're waiting for the details, but for what Trump has touted, the concern is that it will lead to higher prices because, as you know, U.S. companies pay for the tariff, pay for the tax on the import, and then oftentimes it's passed on to the consumer.

GONZALES: I think you hit it on the head. The details matter. The devil's always in the details. But I'll tell you what, President Trump is using this as leverage to bring other countries to the table and reset things. I agree. I mean, for too long, Mexico, in particular, has taken advantage of the United States. I met with the Mexican ambassador not too long ago.

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I met with the president of Mexico, and my message was essentially, this is not the Biden administration. This is a new day. And the more we can have partnerships, the more we can have fair trade that benefits both of our countries, the better we will all be. But if we go down this route of tit-for-tat, that's where I think everyone loses, where Americans lose, the world loses, and this is where we have to get it right.

I tend to give the president the benefit of the doubt. He's done well so far and I think he'll continue to do well.

BROWN: Just to quickly follow up on the higher prices, you said no one wants that. So, if the prices do go up, will you change your view of this, or --

GONZALES: I'm going to change my view. Once again, tariffs are hard to get right, right? So, on the surface, you're going, wait a second, let's stay away from that. But at the same time, when other countries are tariffing you or, you know, have tariffs of 100 percent or higher on us, it's not fair, right? So, once again, if we could use this as an opportunity to get fair trade, I think it brings the cost down. I think it makes it easier for Americans and better off in that manner. BROWN: Yes, all right.

GONZALES: But we have to watch it closely.

BROWN: We do have to watch it closely. As you know, you know, the latest polls, a majority, 55 percent of Americans, I believe, that think that Trump is too focused on tariffs. They want to see lower prices. We're going to see how it plays out. We simply don't know.

I want to turn to something else, what you said on the Homeland Security Committee. So, I want to ask you about the president's immigration crackdown. The Trump administration now admits, and this isn't a court filing, that it mistakenly deported a Maryland father to his home country of El Salvador, which he fled due to gang violence. The administration says it can't bring him now back now because he's already over there. Does that concern you?

GONZALES: It does, and this is where I think it's so important that we focus on convicted criminal illegal aliens, right? Last year, I wrote ICE and I got a response. I asked, how many convicted criminal, illegal aliens are in our country? The number is 662,000. That's astronomical. So, in my eyes, let's go after that pool of people. Once again, these are people that are convicted in a court of law that should not be put in the same category as maybe some of these other folks. I really would like us to hamper on that.

If we do that, I think that keeps Americans safe, exactly the agenda items that president did ran on and it also highlights the fact that we are focused on, you know, deporting these convicted criminals.

BROWN: Well, here's how the White House press secretary defended these deportations because the White House said, look, these are criminal gang members that were deporting. It was part of their defense of, you know, not releasing more details about who these people are. I want to play the sound from Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, and then talk on the other end.

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KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They have the highest degree of professionalism and they were 100 percent confident in the individuals that were sent home on these flights and in the president's executive authority to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, again, you know, she was saying, look, these are, these are criminals, these are gang members. But now the administration is admitting, look, actually one of these people, this Maryland father, this was an administrative error. I'm wondering, do you think the White House should release the full list, the identities of those who were deported? You know, because as you know, they didn't get the due process here in the U.S. They were sent to El Salvador.

GONZALES: I mean, look, I'm waiting to get more details on this one specific case, but the fact are there's been thousands of other cases in my eyes where there have been convicted criminal, illegal aliens that are no longer on our streets. That's a positive thing.

Now, look, one case, is that enough to have more transparency? Yes. Yes, it is. You want to get it right 100 percent of the time. I also want these 662,000 convicted criminal illegal aliens out of our country. And I don't want the Trump administration to slow down. I actually want them to speed up. And I also think that Congress has a role to play. Congress needs to ensure that they're giving them all the resources that the administration needs in order to accomplish that. But I do want transparency. The American people deserve transparency on what exactly is happening, not just, you know, some words.

BROWN: So, you want the administration to speed up the deportation of criminals. But what if others, like, you know, nurses or so forth are swept up in that? You don't agree with that, correct?

GONZALES: Look, you start, you start unpacking the onion, it gets unpacked really quickly if you go down the illegal immigration route. Well, look, because there's literally millions of people here illegally. What I'd like to say is, let's start with the worst of the worst, the convicted criminal aliens that, once again, to the tune of hundreds of thousands. If we start there, then we can't go wrong, right? If you start going down the other route, then it debates, you have a debate on it, and you can have -- you know, you basically divide us. There's enough division in this country. I want to unite us. What unites us getting a convicted criminal, illegal alien who's, you know, murderer, something along those lines, off our streets. Let's start there.

BROWN: What do you think about the IRS potentially sharing the Social Security numbers with DHS, because you're on the Homeland Security Committee --

GONZAES: Sure.

BROWN: You know, of undocumented immigrants, as you know, they bring in billions of dollars in, in tax revenue every year.

GONZALES: Once again, I've been an advocate for legal immigration, right?

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Illegally, however you get here is a bad thing. And it should be a bad thing. There should be a focus on legal immigration, right?