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The Situation Room

Top Tech Officials at the IRS Sidelined; European Leaders Warns Striking Back Against Trump's Tariffs. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired April 01, 2025 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

REP. TONY GONZALES (R-TX): Illegally, however you get here is a bad thing and it should be a bad thing. We should -- there should be a focus on legal immigration, right? What about those that are doing it the right way? What about those on work visas and those type of things? So, the sooner we can focus that legal immigration is a good thing and illegal immigration is a bad thing, I think that's a positive thing for our country.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Very quickly, what do you think about what's going to happen with Medicaid? You've been outspoken against any cuts to Medicaid, but Republicans have defined 880 billion in cuts?

GONZALES: I am absolutely committed to making sure that Americans, especially in rural communities, regardless, will have Medicaid. It's not fair to pull the rug from underneath them for our most vulnerable population, our most senior population. I'm going to work very hard as -- there's other colleagues in the House as well. We're going to work very hard to make sure that Medicaid is protected. President Trump has said that. Elon just said that the other night in Wisconsin.

I mean, Medicaid is going to be protected. Republican -- what if I told you Republicans were the ones that were going to save Medicaid?

BROWN: Yes. I guess the question is where are the cuts going to come from then? That's still something you all are working out. Thank you so much, Congressman Gonzales. Thank you.

GONZALES: Thank you, Pam.

BROWN: We really appreciate your time. And up next, the Trump administration, sidelining top tech experts at the IRS seen as blocking plans on immigration enforcement. Details ahead.

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[10:35:00]

BROWN: New CNN reporting. Sources say that dozens of I.T. officials at the IRS are now on leave, including some of the agency's top cybersecurity experts. And it comes as the Trump administration looks to finalize controversial plans to share taxpayer data with federal immigration authorities. CNN's Renee Marsh joins us now. Renee, why were these officials sidelined exactly?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, these are senior I.T. officials and professionals at the IRS who are in charge of overseeing the cuts, the data system of this agency. And this is a complicated system. They -- their access was revoked from the I.T. systems. And they also received these separation e-mails last Friday saying that effective immediately they were being placed on paid administrative leave.

Now, we spoke with some of these impacted employees and other sources with knowledge of this entire situation and they say that they believe that they were targeted because they were seen as so-called blockers by DOGE that might get in the way of this mission within the IRS and the mission that the Trump administration has of accessing IRS's most sensitive taxpayer data to use that in the immigration enforcement efforts that they are trying to essentially find undocumented immigrants using this data.

DOGE has been met with resistance within the IRS not because these employees are necessarily trying to be blockers, but many of them say, because there are laws on the books, there are disclosure laws that right now what DOGE and the Trump administration wants to do with this data they say is not legal.

We did hear from a Treasury Department spokesperson who denies that these individuals were put on leave because of anything having to do with immigration enforcement, instead the Treasury Department saying that this was part of both the Treasury Department and IRS leadership's evaluation of the best way to improve the performance of the IRS and save taxpayers funds. But I will say they also added that these were non-technical people in technical roles. I looked at many of their LinkedIn profiles and it tells a totally different story, Pam.

BROWN: very important reporting. Rene Marsh, thank you so much. Just ahead, the Trump tariff threat, even before it's announced, European leaders are warning that the president -- that they're going to strike back against the president. So, how real is the potential for a global trade war now, and what could it mean for you? We're going to talk with the former ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, next.

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[10:40:00]

BROWN: Well, right now President Trump's agenda is facing an early referendum as voters head to the polls in Wisconsin and Florida today, and those key races come just hours ahead of perhaps his most controversial move yet, a series of sweeping new tariffs set to potentially take effect tomorrow, which he has dubbed Liberation Day.

Joining us now for more on all of this is CNN senior Political and Global Affairs Commentator Rahm Emanuel. He previously served as the U.S. ambassador to Japan, President Barack Obama's chief of staff and mayor of Chicago, quite the resume, Ambassador. Thanks for coming on. So, the president says -- RAHM EMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR,

FORMER OBAMA WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF, FORMER CHICAGO MAYOR AND FORMER AMBASSADOR TO JAPAN: Thank you.

BROWN: -- that he has settled on a plan for these tariffs, which came as news to some of his advisers from our Kevin Liptak, that's what he's reporting this morning. How do you think this opaque approach will impact our standing with key trading partners and just the economy overall?

EMANUEL: Yes. Well, I think -- I mean, you -- the verdict is already -- or early verdict is in as the tariffs are going up, your 401(k) and your life savings are going down. And in fact, an economy that had a healthy growth rate is continually slowing down. People's expectation of inflation have dramatically increased and it's had a negative impact on the economy.

And the other irony of this whole matter, Pamela, is he also says there's going to be some kind of nirvana at the end of this process. You got -- as he just shrugged his shoulder and said, oh, prices will go up for cars. You'll have a recession.

What's interesting is other countries now cancel or postpone using U.S. defense industries to basically purchase weapons. You're actually going to adversely affect manufacturing in the United States, the very thing that he says he wants to get done.

So, he makes a claim on one front, but actually, if you look at the data, the economy's starting to sour, consumer sentiment is souring, the stock market's going down, so people's personal savings, college savings for their kids are actually being adversely affected. And then, on the pain that we're supposed to pay for this long-term, we already know we're losing manufacturing jobs because people are going to be canceling military equipment that they were going to purchase, F-35s, other type of equipment they were going to purchase from the United States, they're not going to build their own domestic industry because the United States become unreliable.

So, actually, the goal here, you already see the early verdict on it and it's a negative verdict. And the rest of the world is going to go find alternatives to the United States manufacturing.

[10:45:00]

BROWN: Right. And Trump, for his part, will say, look, you know, just give it time. These companies will bring manufacturing back to the United States and the Trump administration points to U.S. companies that are already investing billions as a result of the tariffs. Go ahead.

EMANUEL: No, but he is -- that's a point. He says, give it time. But in that period of time, people will lose their savings, lose their jobs, and prices go up. Think about this way, this administration is more focused on Greenland than they are on groceries. And nobody hired them to focus on Greenland. And the chances of -- in the next four years of Greenland becoming the 51st or 52nd state after Canada is zero. And yet, we're going to have inflation expectations and inflation already going up directly related to the tariffs.

And that you can't pull the wool over the American people's eyes. They already know it. And that's why their expectations of inflation have gone up, not down. And his primary promise was to actually deal with inflation and deal with the economy. And it's already had, not just on the stock market, but it's having real impact on Main Street and people's personal family budget.

BROWN: And we get to see our first test essentially today on what the American people are thinking so far because we have these series of key elections in Wisconsin and Florida. I want to start with the two special house races in Florida. What will it mean if Democrats don't get an upset victory in either of these deeply red districts, but also, you know, maybe narrow the margins?

EMANUEL: Right. I think there's three factors to look at that I think are very important. We've already had a number of specials in Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and one of the things that has caught my attention besides the fact that Democrats are winning those is that in 2023 and 2024 in special elections, you had a situation where Democrats only could win when there was a low turnout. Democrats are winning in high turnout elections in 2025, post the '24 presidential election. Fact one that's different between 2025 and 2023 is turnout is now, if it's high, it's good for Democrats where before that wasn't the case.

Second, in one of the elections, the Democrats have out -- in Florida, you already see $11 million raised. Another reflection of the energy that is existing in the Democratic Party. That is also true in some of the other fundraising and the special elections that have happened in the Midwest. Second confirmation that the energy level, both turnout of voters and fundraising is beating expectations dramatically. I think I saw a number today that on average the Democrats in the special elections in 2025 have outperformed Kamala Harris' performance by 11 percent.

And then, third, you have obviously today's elections. And if you look at them. I don't think -- those districts are dramatically, the benchmark is against 30 percent, anything below that and significantly below that will show and speak to this kind of energy that exists within the Democratic Party in the country.

BROWN: Before we let you go, I want to get your response to what's happening in the university space right now. I know education has been a big focus of yours. You know, you have the administration evaluating and pulling funding from universities that they believe aren't doing enough on anti-Semitism. What are your thoughts on this flash point in higher education?

EMANUEL: Well, one is, look, I start with a couple premises. One is that we have not an ideological conflict with China like the Soviet Union did. We have a scientific and technological race and competition with China, which is why China has -- steals intellectual property and economic espionage in the United States. It's all around the ideas that are coming out of our universities and companies. And in this, case the administration rather than dealing with anti- Semitism, rather than dealing with how the academic freedom is structured is literally adversely affecting the strategic advantage the United States has in the science and technological race against China, whether you look at the fastest computer in quantum computing, whether you look at A.I. research, whether you look at biotech, in every one of those areas, the United States is two steps ahead of China. And the administration is affecting that, and that means not only in the short-term are there tariffs affecting the economy.

In the long-term, the golden goose here, the goose that lays the golden eggs rather in the United States is our primary advantages on research, development, and technological edge, and we are throwing that out, the baby out with the bath water. And this -- I am -- what I'm shocked at, is not a senior -- not a member of the corporate leadership of America has spoken out against this self on goal by the Trump administration on our technological advantage.

Every one of them use that research, startup companies use that research, in the biotech area, from the National Institute of Health to fund new pharmaceuticals ways to attack cancer, and we're giving it away for free now to China and Russia.

BROWN: All right. Rahm Emanuel, thank you for coming on. Always nice to see you. We'll be right back.

EMANUEL: Thank you. Thank you.

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[10:50:00]

BROWN: Well, the Women's Final Four is set for Tampa. UConn will take on UCLA and South Carolina will play Texas for a spot in the national championship. Last night, UConn behind Paige Bueckers' 31 points defeated number one seed USC to move on to a historic 24th final four. For more, let's go live now to CNN's Coy Wire, Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Hey, good to see you, Pamela Brown. And we're going to talk about your bracket at the end of this. And if we have time. Listen, this final four in Tampa for the women, it's about to be on. Two seed UConn, taking on USC, who just lost their star JuJu Watkins to an ACL last game.

And the Huskies rolled. Sarah Strong, the freshman had 22 points. And arguably the best player in the nation, Paige Bueckers' everywhere. Four steals on the night. She had -- she and Strong combined for 28 points in the first half. The entire USC team had 25. A game, high, 31 for Paige Bueckers', hitting an all-time UConn tournament record. Third straight game of 30 plus points. UConn's headed to a record 24th final four after a 78-64 win. They'll face top overall seed UCLA on Friday.

[10:55:00]

And hook them. The Texas Longhorns off and running to their first final four in 22 years. Madison Booker scored a game high 18 and Kyla Oldacre stole the ball in TCU's hopes and dreams late in the game. They're going to face the defending champs South Carolina in the final four. Listen to the emotion from Rori Harmon who had 13 points in this 58-47 win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Oh, that passion, the energy. Friday, the final four is going to be amazing in Tampa. Of course, the men's final four will be in San Antonio, Pamela. So, look out for me wearing my cowboy hat on your show at some point. Your bracket was OK. You had 79 points, but I see what you did. You went with your heart. You picked your home state, Kentucky and your alma mater, UNC, to meet in the finals. And neither of them will be there, unfortunately.

BROWN: Yes.

WIRE: But maybe next year.

BROWN: The heart doesn't always win, does it? It doesn't always win, sadly.

WIRE: Not always, but sometimes.

BROWN: Coy Wire, great to see you.

WIRE: You too.

BROWN: Thank you. We'll be right back.

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