Classified Chat Disconnect
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It is Thursday, March 27th. Here's what's happening right now on CNN This Morning. Do you still believe nothing classified was shared? Well, that's what I've heard. I don't know. Okay, so was it classified? Was it a mistake? What's going on? The Trump administration doesn't seem to be on the same page about the group chat scandal. Plus this. This is a direct attack, to be clear. A direct attack.

Canada prepares to retaliate as President Trump announces massive new tariffs on all cars coming into the U.S. And protests in the streets of Gaza. Thousands of Palestinians calling on Hamas to step aside and end its war with Israel. And then... We're providing vaccines. We're providing vitamin A.

Doctors fighting the measles outbreak now face a new challenge. Some people appear to be taking dangerous amounts of a vitamin that does not prevent you from catching the virus. It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast and here is a live look at a windy morning in Boston, actually in my hometown. Hello, Boston. Good morning, everyone. I'm Adi Cornish. Thank you for waking up with me.

We're going to talk about the many things we have heard this current scandal described as: a hoax, a witch hunt, nothing classified to see here. That's the messaging coming from the White House over how detailed military strike plans ended up on a messaging app and a group chat that a journalist was invited to join. So the Atlantic, of course, published the full group chat where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth outlined strike plans hours before they were set to happen.

The U.S. defense official familiar, a U.S. defense official familiar with the operation tells CNN that the plans are, quote, highly classified to protect troops in harm's way. But in public, members of the president's team, they're saying the opposite. There was no classified information transmitted. No classified information. They classified the information? Well, the Pentagon says it was not. No classified information was shared. I didn't transfer any classified information.

The president himself also downplaying the whole thing, blaming the reporter himself more than his own cabinet officials. Should Secretary Hegseth consider his position over the signal? Hegseth is doing a great job. He had nothing to do with this. How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do. Look, look, it's all a witch hunt.

Okay, that doesn't mean the fallout isn't still rattling Capitol Hill, as even Republican senators expressed disbelief at how all of this happened. I can't see any rationale for the kind of conversation that took place over Signal for not taking place in a more secure manner than that. I think that's hard to explain. I'm worried about everybody and how they have handled this Signal controversy. Does it concern me? Hell yes.

joining me now to talk about all this jerusalem demsa staff writer at the atlantic hans nichols political reporter at axios and jasmine wright white house reporter at notice so uh hell yes lisa murkowski is concerned not subtle you guys both i think i want to start with you because you know what people on the hill are saying and jasmine you're covering the white house very closely so let's start

with the hell yeses. Is that just as her usual being independent? Are you hearing more? So Murkowski voted against Hegseth. So Murkowski, McConnell, and Collins, I think, were the three no votes on Hegseth. So that's the first place reporters go to when you're looking for a spicy quote like Manu got from Murkowski there. One little thing about Murkowski that everyone should know, she always takes the stairs. So that part wasn't that unusual. That's how you catch it.

That's how you catch her. There's an escalator stare debate, and she's on the stare side. Look, members are upset. I think ultimately where it's going to come down to is this investigation. Those quotes are interesting. Now, whether or not it's an investigation or a closed-door briefing, but that's what Senator Wicker is calling for. Because I think what's confusing for the public is you were seeing some of the people in the chat in hearings.

Now, those hearings just happened to have been scheduled. - Fortuitous, yeah. - Exactly. - Fortuitous for the public, not for the-- - Yeah, but otherwise we wouldn't have heard anything from any of them, most likely. - Yeah, well, there's all, I mean, Hegseth lands in Hawaii, he has a camera thrown at him. I mean, there's opportunities to talk to administration officials, especially ones that travel, like Rubio, who's the most interesting in this, right? I mean, Rubio's the one that kinda seems to be covering himself a little bit, but he's in Jamaica.

So, but ultimately there will be a conversation between the committees of jurisdiction and they're going to want to know the question that we all are kind of, they're going to want to answer the question we all want to know. And that is who put Jeffrey Goldberg on the signal check? I don't know. That's the only question we want to know. I think that's the first one. Maybe. Yeah, but okay. So CNN's Stephen Collinson writes in his latest analysis, quote, in Donald Trump's White House, it matters less what you screw up than how hard you fight back.

Jasmine, you've covered them for a long time. Does that sum it up? Yeah, I mean, I think that's a very good summarization. Listen, I was in that briefing room yesterday, and let me tell you, it was tense. There was a lot of sparring going on with reporters and Caroline Leavitt, the press secretary, her completely downplaying the...

amount of information or whether or not that information was classified in the job. - Or playing semantics with the language. Is it war plans or attack plans? - Playing semantics, it was not war plans. Why did they downgrade it to attack plans? They obviously are conceding that their take was wrong in the beginning. You have all those really kind of wordplay choices that she was making, trying to respond and back down this

this report. - But it works, right? I feel like when you hear Trump say, "Russia, Russia, Russia," that is shorthand for, look at the liberal media, look at Democrats, they're going nuts saying something over and over again that you don't care about. - Sure, and I think that some of their base certainly, like Dave Portnoy, a barstools guy, was saying, "Okay, somebody needs to cop to this." But other parts of their base are saying, "This is nothing and we need to ignore it," which is basically the messaging coming from the White House.

I think also you have the principal, Donald Trump, basically acting like he doesn't care, that he doesn't find this interesting at all. Now, of course-- - Is that a sign of how much he likes these people, right? Like they are the loyalists. - Well, I think he's battle tested. I think it's less about the people. Obviously he doesn't want shame to come upon his White House, but I think he's battle tested, particularly when we're talking about

things of classified nature. Now, of course, I think he was probably more upset that Jeffrey Goldberg's phone number may have been in Mike Walters' phone, although there are a number of reporters in Donald Trump's phone. If you want my number, Donald Trump, let me know. - We'll put that in the chyron later.

Let me bring in Jerusalem because she is from the Atlantic, right? So I can imagine it has been a busy day in the Atlantic group chats. Yes, I mean, I think every group chat in America has now been checking its security. Yeah, or been renamed to Houthi small chat group. Yeah, I mean, I think this is one of those things like Jasmine is saying where the press

The president has clearly over and over again not wanted to give the media, the public, the ability to determine his staff. The idea that a shaming campaign or an outrage campaign or even just a response to an actual scandal like this one would cause him to have to make a personnel decision, that feels anathema to him. He likes the idea that universities are bending to his will, law firms are bending to his will.

choosing to respond and just publishing those um those texts was in defiance i see what you mean that is not bending to the well right yeah no you guys stick around because this is something people are going to be talking about and we will be talking about throughout the hour coming up on cnn this morning the president also teased yet another tariff ahead why his big tax on imported vehicles could actually raise prices on cars made in the usa plus play ball

It's opening day. Can anyone topple the world champion Dodgers and their half a billion dollar payroll? And then this week's assignment, I take a deep dive into the Democratic divide. I spoke with Chicago's mayor about what his party needs to do to find a pathway forward. Organizers in this moment have more power than they realize. There are a number of people who still have not been politically engaged who want to see a better pathway forward. This podcast is supported by Sleep Number.

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Okay, it's 13 minutes past the hour. I want you to get going and I want to give you your morning roundup, some of the stories you need to know to get your day going. Homeland Security Chief Kristi Noem visits the super prison in El Salvador where Trump administration officials recently deported nearly 200 people. She then issued a new warning to other migrants using locked up prisoners as a backdrop. This facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people.

Nome's trip through Latin America continues today with a visit to Colombia and the CDC pulling back roughly $11 billion in COVID funding that was given to state and local public health departments. The agency says it will start recovering the money in about 30 days, but some health experts warn the impacts will be devastating to public health efforts.

And southern Texas could be in for half a year's worth of rain. Some inland coastal areas have already received almost five inches, while totals of a foot or more are expected across the region. Flood watches will remain in effect until Friday.

And you got to see this. A cargo plane makes an emergency landing and skids off the runway in Siberia. Eventually, it came to a stop in a snowbank with one wing stuck in the ground. Authorities say the plane's landing gear failed. Unfortunately, no one was injured. Now, still to come later this hour, it's been several months since the 2024 election. Democrats are still divided. What will it take to get them on the same page? That's this week's Assignment.

Plus, more on a secret message sent to murder suspect Luigi Mangione via a sock. And good morning, Arlington, Texas, home of Globe Life Field. Later today, the Rangers will host the Red Sox for MLB's opening day.

Okay, ever since the Democratic Party lost the presidential election, it feels like the only thing that they can agree on is that they need to agree on something. So there are all these debates over how to take on oligarchy, the rise of abundance politics, and now there's something else called new economic patriotism.

So this ideological tug of war is basically playing out in real time. And the people who are caught in the middle are Democratic leaders, people still in office who are facing this politically stronger Donald Trump, a fractured party, and then increasingly frustrated voters. So this week on the assignment, I sat down with Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson. I wanted to ask him what role he thinks activists should still play in a party.

who's fighting about who gets to define its future. What advice would you give progressive activists now? They're experiencing a backlash and they're being told by the Democratic Party establishment, maybe you guys need to chill out because we've got to appeal to all Americans and this isn't working. Knock on doors and

and have conversations. But they're being told by the Democratic establishment, you're not the face of us. Well, keep in mind, you know, I beat the Democratic establishment, right? The first mayor in an entire generation that did not have ties to the Democratic political machine. Organizers in this moment have more power than they realize. There are a number of people who still have not been politically engaged

who want to see a better pathway forward. I'll give you a quick example. I won by roughly 26,500

and 32 votes. 27,000 new voters voted in the second round that did not vote in the first round. Organizers created a lane in which a progressive working class black man can run one of the largest economies in the world. It's not just about what people think they know. It's about the expression of power. And I'm encouraging every single organizer to step your game up to build a more inclusive economy for everyone. That's what's possible through organizing.

So the group chat is back to talk about this. I actually spoke to the mayor because he's a former teacher. He's a union member. He sort of represents a particular kind of figure in the party. Hans, you've been paying attention to the people who are retiring, the open seats coming up. When it comes to Democrats, what's going on in terms of how that's playing out? Who's coming forward? Well, for the Senate side with these, some of these senators retiring, it's a huge opportunity for House members that were looking to move up.

but that has a knock-on effect, a domino effect, where that's going to open up some close seats, some purple seats, and so Republicans are salivating looking at these open seats if the sort of House lawmakers say in New Hampshire run. And stay there for a moment, because then that, you get chatter like,

should AOC run for Schumercy, right Jasmine? Like it becomes a game of speculation. - Yeah, I mean, there's a game of speculation. I think Schumer is a specific person because it kind of feels like the time is ticking on him and they're trying to figure out who could replace him and AOC for a lot of people is a natural successor for him. But certainly you're getting folks like, should AOC run? I know that you had a great scoop

in New Hampshire about Chris Pappas running. Kind of all of these folks who have been known in this area of could they be at least some part of Democratic leadership or the voice of Democrats? Can they move up and can they kind of replace the old guard per se? But of course, I think to Hans' point, it comes with some risk, right? It comes with sacrificing potentially some seats in the House. Obviously, the House, when it comes to 2026, is likely the only place that Democrats are going to make major, major gains when you look at the

Senate map and how difficult it is for Democrats. And so I think that there are a lot of conversations happening around the Democratic Party of where we can put people. But again, that's something that's... And who those people are and what they talk about. Are they economic populists? Do they care about abundance? Do they care... Jerusalem, I want to play for you, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, who stepped up his media appearances here. It's how he described the Democrats' problem.

Donald Trump didn't just ride into power on the backs of oligarchs who wanted tax cuts so badly that they were willing to throw a record stock market into the toilet for them. No, a number of Americans, 49.8%, went to the ballot box agreeing with Democratic positions on the issues most important to their lives, and they picked the other guy. If we want to regain the trust of the voters that we stand for, Democrats have to deliver.

When Republicans started to listen to Tea Party activists, it changed the direction of the party, right? What do you see in this moment? Well, when you're listening to Governor Pritzker talk right there, you can hear this growing anxiety within the Democratic Party, which says, when voters look to Chicago, when they look to San Francisco or Los Angeles, do they see places that...

show them the direction of the country. They want to emulate. Yeah, exactly. And I think it's a big problem for Democrats that in a cost of living election, no one sincerely believes that they know how to bring costs down for working families. And this wasn't just a problem with Biden and Harris and inflation in the last few years. It's a long running problem of everyone knows these states are really expensive. And have they been able to tackle that problem effectively? And if this continues to be a cost of living political environment, which as we're seeing with tariffs seems very likely it will be,

then can Democrats actually credibly say, we know how to make your pocketbook feel better? And that's not something they've been able to do in the past, you know, election. All right. Well, if you want to get in on the conversation, look for new episodes of The Assignment. They drop every Thursday. Straight ahead on CNN this morning, protests erupt on the streets of Gaza. Palestinians fed up with the war now turning their anger toward Hamas.

Plus, RFK Jr. promoting the use of vitamin A during the recent measles outbreak. Why that's now a new challenge for doctors. A startup that sparked a social revolution and became a cautionary tale that changed history. The new CNN original series, Twitter Breaking the Bird, Sunday at 10 on CNN. The reporter who broke the story published all these screenshots from the chat.

Yep. The most humiliating part of the group chat is that some of the text messages were green. Who has an Android? More questions and more than a few jokes as the Signal group chat scandal enters day four. Good morning, everybody. I'm Adi Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN this morning. It's half past the hour on the East Coast. Here's what's happening right now.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth set to arrive in the Philippines. He denies sharing classified information in that group chat despite having posted the timetable for U.S. airstrikes hours before they occurred. And all eyes on the opening bell this morning shares of the big three automakers fell in after-hours trading following the announcement for the Trump administration that there will be a 25% tariff on all cars imported into the U.S.

And the heads of the NTSB and the FAA and the Army's Aviation Division will be on Capitol Hill this morning. They're going to testify about that deadly midair collision over the Potomac back in January. Today's hearing will focus on the NTSB's preliminary report. And I want to come back now to our top story, President Trump trying to distance himself from the widening signal chat scandal.

I don't know that signal works. I think signal could be defective, to be honest with you. Do you still believe nothing classified was shared? Well, that's what I've heard. I don't know. I'm not sure. You have to ask the various people involved. I really don't know. Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, the journalist who got invited to that group chat, says he felt compelled to release the entire chain because of the administration's claims.

You know, at a certain point, the administration is saying that there's nothing classified or secret or sensitive in these. So at a certain point, I just felt, you know, let our readers decide for themselves.

I'm joined by CNN Global Affairs Analyst Kim Dozier. Kim, the White House is vowing to investigate. I wanted to have you on because in 2014 you actually were the subject of a White House scandal about Yemen strikes on a wedding that ended up killing, allegedly killing civilians. What did you learn in the context of that reporting about the importance of military operations and what it means for something to be classified?

Well, there was a wider investigation that targeted five different AP journalists, including me, about Yemen counterterrorism in general. And what I learned is that Department of Justice can direct the FBI to look into how reporters got their stories. In our case, that meant

taking our phone records and talking to everyone we had talked to as far as the FBI could determine in a 40-day period. And as you can imagine, that had a pretty chilling effect on my sources across D.C. because some of them, including just

Hill staffers who had set up on the record interviews for me got threatened by the FBI, you know, turn over every communication you've ever had with Kim Dozier or we will say you're obstructing this investigation. So that's so like what's so weird about this because it's all there for you to see, right? He's posting screenshots. It shows when the reporter was added to the chat.

And the details are there. What do you make of these details? Because the White House is trying to say there's nothing to see here.

Well, look, right now Jeffrey Goldberg and Shane Harris, the two named writers of the Atlantic story, might face a leak investigation themselves. But what is happening, I'm sure, to everyone on that chat behind closed doors is they're looking at National Security Advisor Mike Waltz's every communication. They're looking at everyone on that chat. Were they all using Signal on their government phones?

How possible was it, other than inadvertently accidentally adding someone for your address book to the chat who was mislabeled, how likely was it that especially the top cabinet members who were traveling in India and Moscow, that if...

if a foreign adversary's intel service can get close to your phone, even hardened phones as they're called, government phones, can sometimes get malware inserted on them and then that malware can read everything that's being typed into it. So the concern is the security of these communications

You know, luckily it was Jeffrey Goldberg who accidentally got added, but how vulnerable does it mean these sensitive communications might be to actual adversaries? In the meantime, a Republican senator, Kevin Cramer, was offering a suggestion for how he thinks his party should actually handle the Signal scandal.

I don't think attacking the messenger is a particularly effective. In fact, in a situation like this, I think if anything, the best way to retake the high ground is to admit a mistake was made and again, apologize for it and ensure that it doesn't happen again. Would the White House be able to get past this, so to speak, if they just continued with the message of it was an error, we're moving on?

That's what they're trying to do. But of course, they've got to complete their own internal investigation before they say, here are lessons learned. And in our 24-7 news information cycle, we want the answers now. I think if President Trump feels ego bruised and embarrassed by this, only then do Mike Waltz or Pete Hegseth

risk losing their jobs. But especially Waltz is loyal to the core behind closed doors to Trump. I've known him for years in wounded warrior circles. So I think they're going to say, look, we thought this was a good communications app

to use in the case of emergency. We got too comfortable with it. We started using it too often. We're going to go back to using the closed loop secret systems that were designed for this. - Although that's not what we're hearing. We're kind of hearing the past administrations used this. Maybe it was a hoax. Maybe he hacked me. There's kind of like a real mixed bag of things here. - But that's because they can't-- their instinct is not to admit fault, even though you've heard Secretary of State Marco Rubio say this was a mistake. Whoops.

I think the once they hear also from I've talked to some foreign officials about this, they're really enjoying the memes and they're going to tease Mike Waltz and team forever about it. But they're like, you know what? We all use signal in extremists. It's.

a good app it's fairly secure but we're more careful uh... and everyone's gonna be a bit more careful for a while sounds like the path is lesson learned is what you do you think we're going to hear more kim dozier thanks so much i want to move now to palestinians in gaza because they are now protesting in the streets against the war and hamas for a second day straight

So what's remarkable here is that many of the protesters are saying Hamas does not represent them. Our final message is to Hamas. Enough is enough. You've ruled long enough. Give others a chance and let others come. We are all children of one nation who will support one another. Give others the opportunity to govern.

And a direct message for the Israeli army: stop the bloodshed. But Hamas implied that Israel is inciting these protests. Bobby Ghosh joins me now. He's the senior editor of Digital Weekend at Bloomberg. First, let's start about this protest itself for Palestinians. How significant is this moment?

It's very significant, Rory. The support for Hamas has been falling steadily in Gaza to the extent that we can trust them. There have been opinion polls that have been showing that. There have been anti-Hamas protests for a while, since October 7th or two years ago, but nothing on this scale. This is a much larger scale than we've seen before, and they seem to be sustained. This is the second day. Those images are from the second day. We'll see if there have been more in the days to come.

So it is quite significant that these should be happening on this scale. It's also something that I think the Israeli government has been saying for a long time as they've tried to excise Hamas from the region. Here's Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz. Hamas is endangering your lives and will cause you to lose your homes and more and more territory that will be added to the Israeli defense system.

Learn from the residents of Beit Lahiya. As they did, you too will demand the removal of Hamas from Gaza and the immediate release of all Israeli hostages. This is the only way to stop the war. How is Israel taking advantage of this moment? How are they leaning into it?

Well, they would take advantage as much as they can. They would point out to these protests and say to the rest of the world, look, you know, the military campaign is having an effect. The timing of these protests would allow them to make that claim. I don't think the Palestinians are responding to Israeli suggestions that they protest. I think the protests...

come from their own sense of desperation, despair and frustration at the lack of any kind of progress. Just because the protests are anti-Hamas does not suggest that they are in any way in support of Israel. But from the point of view of timing, that's something that Israel can take advantage of. And it will also help when...

and let's hope that is soon. When the next round of negotiations begin, it is something that the Israeli side might be able to use to their advantage. I want to talk about the Israeli side because there have been protests of the war with Hamas in Israel, people who are still very upset with Netanyahu. I want to play you a little bit of sound there. Unfortunately, a member of our family was kidnapped and murdered by Hamas.

And if our government would have done what the government should be doing for its citizens, he would have been alive with us now. I feel I'm saving my country. This is what I feel. I feel Bibi is not doing what his people want. He's not thinking about the best of his people.

Are there aspects of domestic politics within Israel that could come into play here, its own pressures?

Well, these protests in Israel have been going on for a very, very long time. There have been other protests against Prime Minister Netanyahu over the corruption charges against him. Those even predate the terrorist attacks. He has somehow survived and he has survived because he's able to marshal just enough of the political landscape in that country, particularly the far right countries.

around him to build a coalition to stay in power. And so, you know, given the man's ability to play the cards that he's dealt, I would not bet against Benjamin Netanyahu surviving this round as well. And of course, to the

question you asked earlier, he would be able to point to these protests in Gaza to say to his audience in Israel that look, here's another piece of evidence that my military, my policies, my decisions are having an effect. Of course, there is an important distinction between these two kinds of protests. On the one hand, you have protests in Israel.

In a fairly safe and stable democracy, those demonstrators are not at risk of retaliation, whereas the ones in Palestine, they will have to be looking over the backs over their next few days to see what Hamas does in response. And Hamas's previous actions have suggested that they're capable of quite bloody retribution.

That's Bobby Ghosh with Bloomberg. Appreciate you talking with us this morning. Still ahead on CNN, the shifting excuses from the White House over Signalgate, as many on Capitol Hill demanding answers. Up next, Senator Peter Welch joins us live to talk about that and a lot more. Plus, why federal funding for NPR and PBS seems to be the next target for Doge cuts. More from the group chat after this.

We have said all along that no classified material was sent on this messaging thread. There were no locations, no sources or methods revealed.

The White House refusing to back down over the Signal Group chat scandal where military strike plans were disclosed hours before an attack on targets in Yemen. A journalist from The Atlantic, of course, revealed all the messages from the chat which he had been invited to join. Apparently, none of the high-ranking members realized a random name had been added to the list. But now the president and his allies are saying this story's over.

There was no classified material out there. The strike was not compromised in any way. America is safer today because of the actions that President Trump took. The libs can't complain about that. So here we are. I would say case closed.

Joining me now to talk about this, Democratic Senator Peter Welch of Vermont. Senator, thank you for joining us here on CNN this morning. I don't know if you've looked closely at the release of the chats now, but do they comport with what you're hearing from the White House? Totally, they do not. I mean, there's two issues. One is competence. How did this happen? You put a journalist on top secret intelligence on a chat. The other is candor.

And there is none. I mean, what's undeniable is that these did contain really essential information. The time, the place, the location, the weapon systems, material that is totally classified. And the White House is denying what is in plain sight. So it really raises credibility issues. And what is kind of shocking to me is where it's so apparent that this was, let's be generous, a mistake.

I think you called it amateur hour on X. It is amateur hour. But the candor issue is really what's important here. They are denying what is in front of our very eyes. So they want us to not see what's before our eyes. And they're doing it in a very brazen way, from the president to Secretary Hegseth to the security director, Walz. And that just destroys the kind of confidence that we have to have in our political leaders.

I want to jump in here because you've called for the defense secretary to resign. Senator Duckworth is saying similarly in a tweet she calls him a liar. But when I think back to the last decade or so, whether it's the Mueller investigation, Jack Smith's special counsel probes, the former the president has always been able to say, look at them going nuts talking about this.

This is nothing. And it's become a kind of shorthand to the public that everything is an overreaction and none of this should be taken seriously. So what lesson should Democrats take away from that? How do you talk about this if you truly believe it is a scandal that demands accountability? Well, you know, you're talking about the dumbing down of the concept of truth.

in candor. That's what's happening with the Trump administration. I mean, the lies here, when in fact you can read the text chain yourself, and you see that it does talk about top secret information, the weapon systems, the time, the location, where the attack is going to occur. So this is where it's not a debate about what's factually true. We know it. And it doesn't stick all that much with Trump, and that actually is to the detriment of our democratic

principles. So I actually think this one was way over the top because it's so accessible to everyday people who don't have to figure out whether this is a secret or it isn't. So this is, I think, a bridge too far even for President Trump and his casual attitude towards the truth. In Hegseth, the Defense Secretary is now landing in the Philippines. I'm sure he's going to end up probably addressing this issue again. It's followed him in many places.

In the meantime, I want to ask you about the latest round of tariffs, obviously with Vermont on the Canadian border. How are you feeling the ripple effects of this? Because I know you actually spoke with some business leaders up there. What are you hearing about the real-time effects? The tariffs on Canada and Mexico, especially Canada, are nothing but downside. First of all, if you have tariffs, they have an appropriate place, like when there's unfair trade practices from China.

But Canada is our biggest trading partner, not just Vermont. And they're upset. Like, they're really mad. Oh, they're really upset. So, like, are you starting to feel the tension? The impact is real. So, like, for instance, just an example, we export logs to Canada, and they get milled up there, and they come back as lumber that we then use to build our houses. That's going to increase the cost of a house by, like, $25,000 because there's a tariff going up now and a tariff coming back.

We have farmers, and this is true all across America, who get their fertilizer from Canada. That is going to increase the cost substantially to farmers, and they're on a knife edge, all of them, to survive economically.

Just maple syrup is another, you know, we're proud of that in Vermont, but we get our aluminum, our equipment from Canada, it's gonna cost us a lot of money. - And it costs coming and going, which I think what you're underscoring. - That's right, and then of course with cars, it's gonna increase the cost of a vehicle, even if it's made in America because we get so many parts that go back and forth between Canada and the US, even if it's made largely in America,

It's going to be $3,000. And it could be up to $12,000 if it's finally assembled in Canada and comes back down. So this is going to have a wicked economic impact on everyday people and increase the price of groceries, increase the price of automobiles, increase the price of housing. And for what? I mean, Canada is our ally. They have good...

labor practices, good environmental practices. They're our partner and of course they're incredibly upset and are going to, and they see us as an adversary now, which is very unfortunate. - I have one more brief question. I used to work at NPR, you were at Vermont, which has a huge Vermont public radio presence for like rural communities there. But that was a hearing yesterday, the questioning of their funding was happening at the same time as people were talking to law enforcement leaders on the Hill.

You also have legislation that would help local news organizations get funding, grants to stand up on their own. Why shouldn't NPR and PBS stand up on their own? - Well, they largely do. I mean, in Vermont, we have-- - But if it's just 1% of funding, why do they, like, why not take that cut and figure out something else? - Well, first of all, in that question of local news, NPR in Vermont, it's not this monolith of NPR everywhere. We have our local affiliates.

And in Vermont, it literally is the voice that kind of unifies Vermont because they have terrific local news. And you see the support in Vermont because we have the highest per capita contributions to NPR. So you may be a farmer, you have it on in your barn. You may...

be an office worker and you can have it on in your office, but it does provide an underlying glue that helps hold Vermont as a community together despite having very rural and very urban areas in the state. - I wanted to ask you the question because at a certain point don't you want to be inoculated from what is ending up a cyclical political discussion about its funding? - Well, sure, but here's the issue that I think is so important, local news.

And this debate in Congress is about managing the news, people who don't like what they may be hearing on a particular statement. So NPR, PBS becomes a symbol. But in fact, shouldn't our goal be to have strong local news across the country? In my view, NPR and PBS assist in that.

So I'm a supporter, and I actually think the biggest problem-- one of the big problems we have is that local news has become so weakened because of what has happened on the internet and the whole advertising model that has been essential to the well-being of local press has been destroyed.

Well, Senator Walsh, thank you so much for talking with us about so many different things. Appreciate your time. Thank you. It's now 55 minutes past the hour. So if you're on the way out, here is the morning roundup, some of the stories you need to get your day going. New video shows a Tufts University Ph.D. student being arrested by ICE officials. Charges have not been filed.

Homeland Security says Rumeysa Oter engaged in, quote, activities in support of Hamas. No further details were offered. But CNN has learned that she co-wrote an op-ed criticizing Tuff's response to the pro-Palestinian movement last year.

In a separate incident, immigration authorities detained an Iranian graduate student at the University of Alabama. CNN has reached out to ICE and DHS for more details on that case. And someone slipped a heart-shaped note into a pair of socks that Luigi Mangione was supposed to wear in court last month. That's according to court documents.

an officer actually intercepted it. The note for the accused killer of the UnitedHealthcare CEO said, "Keep your head held high and know there are thousands of people wishing you luck."

And the ongoing measles outbreak in West Texas has taken an unexpected turn with doctors reporting signs of vitamin A toxicity in some patients. Doctors there suspect people are taking high doses of it, believing it will prevent measles. Health and Human Services Secretary RFK Jr. has been promoting vitamin A during this outbreak. It can be used to treat measles in some cases, but the only way to prevent it is with a vaccine.

and play ball because it's officially opening day for Major League Baseball. 14 games are on the schedule, including the defendant champion Los Angeles Dodgers. They're hosting the Detroit Tigers. The champs are already 2-0 after sweeping the Cubs in Japan just last week. Bias with me jumping in with the senator about NPR, but it was sort of the hearing that happened yesterday that people maybe didn't watch.

Yeah, but moments of it will be clipped and people will draw their own conclusions from it, right? I mean, it's like so much in our current media, it's choose your own adventure. And if you saw Catherine Marr give an answer that you didn't like, that will find its way to your feed. If you saw an answer that Catherine Marr, the president and CEO of NPR, that you do like, that will find a way to its feed, which is in part the broader question of media and disaggregation. Okay, check your timelines, folks, because I think Hans has a point. I want to talk to you all about what you're keeping an eye on on the road ahead.

head the next day or two. Jasmine, let me start with you. I'm keeping my eye on what happens with Voice of America. We've seen a couple things over the last few days. Which is actually state-funded media. Yes, which is state-funded media. Carrie Lake signified to the courts that they were canceling the cancellation of the grant for Radio Free Europe, trying to, you know,

undo some of that litigation. And of course, Trump last night said that the man who was supposed to be nominated to lead USAGM, VOA's parent company, is now going to be the ambassador of Africa, or South Africa. So I think that there are some movement there trying to see kind of what ends up in the shake. Okay, Jerusalem Denses.

Yeah, I mean, we're seeing ICE pick up legal residents of this country, people on student visas who are legally here. Just to underscore that, legal residents. Legal residents here. And I mean, if you watch these videos, I mean, the video of in Tufts University in Somerville, Massachusetts, I mean, these are

plainclothes people covering their faces, rushing a young woman on the street. She's not even sure they're officers. You hear people in the background talking and saying, hey, like, how do we know you're officially ICE? And that sort of thing, I think, is going to be really disruptive to communities for various reasons, even if you aren't

someone on a right as we said we have not heard charges yet not at all um hans nichols uh marco rubio and how he navigates this he was on the signal chat but marco rubio has kind of been the most quiet and has said it's a mistake and then the corollary to that roger wicker in the senate he's moving forward with investigations he has not been shy republican from mississippi chair of the armed services committee he has not been shy about criticizing pete hegseth criticizing the trump administration and it looks like he wants some answers right

And we know that the House is less inclined to do that kind of oversight. But you're saying this is a lawmaker to watch in the Senate. Absolutely. I appreciate you. Thanks to the panel. Thanks to my group chat. Thank you for waking up with us. I'm Adi Cornish and CNN News Central starts right now.

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