Tariff Talk
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It is Thursday, April 3rd. Here's what's happening right now on CNN This Morning. That $86,000 car becomes a $103,000 car overnight. From cars to clothes and wine, even chocolate, almost all imports slapped with new tariffs. What it means for your wallet. Plus this. The global economy will massively suffer.

185 nations affected by the new tariffs. Now we're waiting to see when and if the world will retaliate. Also, as soon as we drove up, we realized we have nothing left. We're looking at destructive and violent tornadoes ripping across the Midwest. And now the threat is moving east. And what would it mean to save TikTok? A big company is throwing its name in the hat as a potential buyer.

It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at Nashville, one of the cities that is facing that dangerous weather right now. Good morning, everybody. I'm Adi Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me. So are you feeling liberated? President Trump's sweeping new tariffs against the rest of the world are in effect this morning. Now it's basically a waiting game to see how the world retaliates.

We don't know what to brace for. We're getting hit from all sides. He's picking on our best customers. These tariffs are pouring salt in a wound that is just now beginning to heal. Aluminum, aluminum, steel, steel, steel. It's going to affect our prices, our customers. We are looking at raising prices on most all of our items by 25 to 50 cents.

In the end, the president slapped a blanket 10% tariff on almost all imports, as we said, from 185 countries, 25% on all imported cars. China was hit with a 34% tariff, and of course that's on top of the 20% that is already imposed. Next is Japan with 24% and the EU with 20%. This is one of the most important days, in my opinion, in American history.

It's our declaration of economic independence. Joined this morning by CNN Politics senior reporter Stephen Collinson, senior contributor at Axios Margaret Tulliv, and CNN anchor and chief domestic correspondent Phil Mattingly. Phil, welcome to the group chat.

Like actual newspapers? Actual newspapers. We got you. So speaking of which, the New York Post calls it World War Fee. Very clever. I see you, New York Post. Can you talk about what the White House, how he tried to present this?

because it's been liberation, it's been a negotiating tool, it's been so many different reasons for doing this. When he finally stepped out on the Rose Garden, what did he say? There were charts, and the charts obviously a critical component of any theatrical representation of what happened here. And I think that's the way to frame what we saw in the Rose Garden yesterday, kind of the intentional messaging message

and theater behind something that I think people have not understood or fully grasped over the course of the last 75 days. Well, they kind of have, right? They've been, so you heard all those people saying, like, it's expensive. You make a really good point, because I think we have spent the better part of the last 70-plus days listening to market participants, listening to business executives, listening to Republican lawmaker after Republican lawmaker after Republican lawmaker say,

In the first term, he would pull back. Part of this is threats. What he really wants is a negotiation. He's pragmatic and a dealmaker at his heart.

And they're wrong. Like, they're wrong. And I think the reason why I say that, and I think I can say that definitively, is, one, having spoken to the top economic officials in this White House a lot over the course of the last several weeks, what you realize is this idea of breaking the global trading system, reorienting the system of commerce that's existed for the better part of the last 70 years, it's not a bug. It's a feature. It's by design. So, Stephen, I want to bring you in here because tariffs are not bad innovatively.

themselves, right? They are an economic tool that all kinds of countries use, which is why we're in this position. So what is significant about today, as you said, because you too agree with the president that this is going to be a day everyone remembers.

Yes, so tariffs for example, if you want to protect your steel industry, which in a time of war is very important, it's a national security issue, targeted smart use of tariffs can be a good thing to do. The question here is that what we're asking here is this is a president who's now turned the United States against the world it made, to your point about the trading system of 70 years. He's doing the same thing on foreign policy.

In the short term, standing up for American industries, as he said, and going against competitors who he said have plundered and pillaged our economy, that might be a politically popular thing to do. The question is, when everybody starts paying more on everything, this was a president who got elected because he promised to get prices down,

one of the most stunning things he's done in his first two months is adopt a policy that's going to put almost certainly prices on everything up. Yeah, and he's also said that, or the administration has said by different parts, like, well, it'll be some short-term pain. There will be a disturbance.

And sometimes when I get trapped in a conversation with someone who's really into tariffs, they start talking about Smoot-Hawley. And I'm just, this is what happens in my brain. You can say my name when you're talking about Smoot-Hawley. Phil, I didn't want to say it. This is what I think when Phil starts talking about Smoot-Hawley. The Hawley-Smoot Tariff Act, which anyone raised or lowered, raised tariffs in an effort to collect more revenue for the federal government. Did it work? Anyone? Anyone know the effects?

It did not work and the United States sank deeper into the Great Depression. I mean, there's still facts in there. I have to top that, right? From that quadratic equation from last night. We're in business. I think the president has made his move and now it's up to the rest of the world to react. And they've been preparing. God knows Canada has. We're talking about what are other countries going to do. We're talking about

What are American voters going to do? And we're talking about what is the American Congress going to do? And we began to see a very small fault line last night in a vote where four Republican senators crossed lines to vote with Democrats to make a statement of rebuke, essentially against this president for the premise of the tariffs with Canada.

the premise being a national emergency as opposed to just the way life is uh these days and i think that um tariffs are either a very short-term play you put them out there and the other countries are like never mind we'll we'll adjust or they're a very long-term play and american politics works somewhere in the middle with two-year midterm cycles and four-year presidential elections and what we don't know yet is whether we're going to look back

six months or a year or two years back on today or yesterday and say that was the turning point, the end of

the Trump honeymoon as it were and everything slid from there or whether we're going to look back on it and say, wow, he really took a dip after that and then came roaring back. But what the polling is telling us right now is that something like six out of 10 American voters think this is not a good idea. They are not convinced just yet. A much smaller number think it's a really bad, think it's a great idea.

And then just a lot of people aren't sure what it's going to mean. And we are about to find out what it's going to mean. Yeah, you guys stay with us because we're going to talk a lot more about this today. And coming up on CNN this morning, a grad student arrested by ICE on the street. He claims he hasn't been told why, how he is fighting for his release. Plus, Democratic Congressman Greg Lansman joins me to talk about the fallout from President Trump's new tariffs and dangerous tornadoes overnight. Right now, there's a big risk for even more.

I'm CNN tech reporter Claire Duffy. This week on the podcast, Terms of Service. Millions of people use ring cameras. And they give some people peace of mind in the face of potential break-ins or theft. But we're not the only ones.

But with this popularity has come concerns about where that footage is going and what it's being used for. And a bigger question. Is it ethical to record video of your neighbors or package delivery folks in the first place? Follow CNN's Terms of Service wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, get moving. It's almost 15 minutes past the hour. I want to give you your morning roundup, some of the stories you need to know to get your day going. Right now, a line of deadly storms is targeting the south, and the National Weather Service calls some of those really dangerous. Overnight, guests at a hotel in Nashville were forced to run to the basement. One person has been killed in Tennessee, another in Missouri.

These images from Carmel, Indiana. There are reports that this large funnel cloud toppled a radio tower. Several people had to be rescued from a collapsed warehouse near Indianapolis.

New this morning, Hungary withdraws from the International Criminal Court and it's happening at the same time that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is there. So he has an arrest warrant out for him from that court over allegations of war crimes in Gaza. As a member of the ICC, Hungary would be obliged to, would be obligated to arrest Netanyahu.

And a University of Minnesota grad student being held by immigration authorities is suing for his release. The Turkish student claims that two officers in plain clothes arrested him on the street last week. He says he's been given little explanation as to why. Homeland Security claims he was arrested because he had a past DUI conviction.

and the rising cost of eggs may have cracked. The price fell to $3 a dozen last week. Now back in February, that price of course was almost double that. That was mainly caused by the bird flu.

And you gotta see this. Alex Ovechkin one step closer to breaking Wayne Gretzky's NHL scoring record. His scored career goal number 892 last night. The record is 894. His next chance to break that is tomorrow night when his Washington Capitals play the Chicago Blackhawks.

Still ahead on CNN this morning, we're going to talk about those foreign students targeted by the Trump administration. What legal challenges could mean, not just for the immigration, but for democracy itself. Plus, time running out to save TikTok, but someone new might be interested in taking over. We want to say good morning to Indianapolis. We're talking about Indiana being hit hard by that tornado outbreak overnight. And at this point, that severe threat has passed.

So this week I've been thinking a lot about these students who despite having legal status in the country have been targeted or detained by the Trump administration or had their immigration status revoked. So just this week our own Shimon Prokopas actually spoke to a student who barely escaped that same fate. She's a former PhD student at Columbia University and she actually left the U.S. after ICE agents showed up at her New York City apartment while she was inside.

Did you have any reason to understand why they were doing this? No, I was stunned and scared. When she told me, she turned back and told me, "ISIS at the door." And I was just shivering.

I wanted to know more about the legal arguments here. How is this being justified? What's at stake if the Trump administration succeeds in the courts? So I went on assignment, spoke with Jamil Jaffer. He's a lawyer whose organization has actually filed some lawsuits challenging these arrests. Once you let the government start putting people behind bars on the basis of their political views, it's not obvious why this would end with non-citizens or why it would end with pro-Palestinian speech.

The government has already started to revoke not just visas, but green cards as well. So even legal permanent residents have been rounded up. The Trump administration has made clear they're going to go after naturalized citizens as well. So we've already made the leap from visa holders to green card holders.

seems like we're going to make the leap from green card holders to naturalized citizens not obvious why it stops there either and with respect to the substance of the speech yes these students are being rounded up on the basis of their pro-palestinian advocacy but once you accept that the government can revoke somebody's visa on the basis of foreign policy considerations

Why stop with pro-Palestinian advocacy? Why not go after people who are pro-Ukraine or, for that matter, pro-Greenland or pro-Canada? You know, there's really no limit to what the Trump administration could do with this power if the courts endorse it. People need to understand that this is not just a bad policy. This is a policy...

It's the kind of policy that ends democracies. Once you give the government the authority to put people behind bars on the basis of their political viewpoints, you have said goodbye to most of what we value about our democracy.

Bringing this back to the group chat, Stephen, I want to talk with you because he also talked about this idea of ideological deportation. But when you listen to the State Department, to Marco Rubio, they put it far more simply. They say these people do have some kind of ties to supporting Hamas or terrorism. They're vague about that term. And that they shouldn't be allowed to come to the US and quote unquote raise a ruckus. STEPHEN BREYER: Well, that's what's causing this culture of fear that is growing among many immigrant and student communities.

It's not just that officials in the administration are tweeting deportations or singling out individual people. It's this idea that someone can get taken off the streets,

get sent to Louisiana or deported, and no one really tells them why. And the administration will argue, yes, they have links to terrorists, they're supporting radicalism, but no one actually comes out and shows it publicly, even in the courts. So there's now this record, not just of stretching laws like the green card situation to novel lengths, which Congress arguably never intended it to be stretched to,

There's this erosion of due process. Things are happening behind the scenes that not even judges or the lawyers that are representing these people know about. Right. Once their visas have been revoked, now you're in another world. People have been talking. This is where the Trump administration actually pulls well.

immigration even though it's a hard-line policy I don't know which one of you want to take this but as more stories trickle out about the people who get caught up does that have an effect? I mean what's fascinating right now is if you watch Democrats on Capitol Hill who in the first term from the jump everything immigration related was an uproar driven by kind of the political leaders of the Democratic Party and the advocacy base as well

Now there's just such a stark divide in terms of what we're seeing publicly action wise. Now that may change. I think it should change based on the kind of base influence on some level. But I think you're hitting at a critical point here. The Overton window has shifted dramatically on this issue.

And that has allowed, in many ways, the Trump administration to pursue policies that past administrations would have never even considered, not because they didn't think it would help whatever they were trying to do.

possible pushing statutes to this limit. Right, right. Which is why these lawsuits are sort of so significant. Because the courts and judges and what we see and find out and how judges start to set precedent on things that have never done before, that's not a now moment. That's not a Trump administration moment. That's a for the remainder of U.S. history moment. Yeah. And so that's the essential nature of these moments, I think, is not lost. Aren't they for you? Stunning.

statistic there's something like more than a million international students who in the last year have attended a US college or university these are not people who snuck across the border and are living in the shadows these are people who have been invited here and secured passage here but if some of them have been vandalizing or part of protest or whatever should the government be able to say like

Sorry, that's not an option for you. - So we're gonna see where the courts come down on this. There is a question that is now gonna be pending in court, which is that do foreign nationals have free speech rights in the United States the same way that Americans have free speech rights? But clearly there's a difference between

being someone who's in the United States and commits a crime or someone in the United States and actively supports a terror organization versus somebody who's protesting political policies or making their voice heard. Or wrote an op-ed once. For decades, you know, an appropriate and accepted and embraced way. And it,

It may have a chilling effect on students willing to come here and learn. This is also one of those stories where, like the Venezuelan gang members, if you try and make an argument to say there should be due process, someone will look at you and say, "Well, then you're for Venezuelan gang members." It becomes this, and in this case, it's wading into the territory of last year of antisemitism and the real and serious concerns people had about what was happening on campus.

it becomes this kind of indefensible argument. Right. There's a little bit of echo of like post, like Global War on Terror, 2001 terrorism. Yes, yes, Jaffer was an ACLU lawyer during that time. You're willing to push the bounds of the legal argument and difficulty on the political side and the advocacy side of fighting it because they didn't want to be portrayed or smeared as anti-patriotic or anti-American. Just to make a critical point here that I think people need to understand, they don't need to do this.

They're doing it to make the point, not because this is a critical piece of their immigration process or policy, not because this is massively moving out illegal immigrants or undocumented immigrants that committed crimes. They're doing this purely to make the point and because they think they can with a resource stretched bureaucracy that

that they desperately are asking Congress for more money to do what they need to do at the border. I think that people need to understand the voluntary nature of the pursuit of this by the Trump administration. And it is making its intended targets heard in terms of the chilling effect on campuses. We've heard from a lot of students who are afraid to travel, afraid to have their names in stories, afraid to post anything online. They came to school to sort of experiment in this world and

Deterrence is not unintentional when it comes to issues like this. All right, you guys, thanks for talking with me about this. And if you want to know more, new episodes of The Assignment drop every Thursday. Up next on CNN This Morning, President Trump's aggressive new tariffs are now in effect. We're going to talk about how markets are reacting, plus why the FDA has pressed pause on a new COVID shot.

The new season of United States of Scandal has bribery, fraud, undercover agents, and politicians suffering from a moral virus. You know, the usual. United States of Scandal with Jake Tapper, Sunday at 9 on CNN. And you see the dawn's early light.

Fans in Canada booing the U.S. national anthem. This was just hours after President Trump imposed new tariffs on Canada and many other countries. Good morning, everybody. I'm Adi Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN this morning because it's half past the hour and I want you to know what's happening here right now.

Stocks pointing downward, sharply lower, open today. U.S. futures all in the red right now as a global trade war escalates. Also, things might get a little awkward this morning for the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. He's in Belgium and is the first Trump cabinet member to meet face-to-face with NATO allies since those tariffs went into effect. But the main focus today is supposed to be security priorities and Ukraine.

And we're still watching those severe storms affecting millions of people overnight and the threat isn't over yet. In Arkansas, multiple tornadoes were reported. In Tennessee, tornado warning for the city of Nashville that forced guests at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel to head to the basements. The storms in that state also left one person dead. A tornado watch in parts of Tennessee will remain in effect until the end of this hour.

And as we wake up this morning, Asia rolls out its response to President Trump's sweeping terrorists, more specifically China, vowing to take countermeasures. They're calling the whole thing bullying from the United States. But what about the people in China? What are we hearing from them?

China has been engaged in this trade war with the U.S. for quite some time now, so tariffs are something we've grown accustomed to. I will probably reduce my purchases of American products. The focus now should be on how to boost domestic demand to counter these measures. But sometimes confrontation can be more effective than unity.

Joining us now with more reaction, CNN's Mark Stewart in Beijing. So Mark, can you talk about what China might have working in its favor in this moment? How might they approach retaliation?

Well, to an interesting audience, we heard from an analyst today, and I think he raised the big question in all of this. Who is going to fold first? Who's going to make this first move in this back and forth between the United States and China, but also the rest of the world? Because, look, Xi Jinping and Donald Trump, they want to appear strong, not only on the world stage, but in front of their individual nations.

Now, China has vowed, as you mentioned, has vowed for retaliation. At this point, though, it has not laid out a concrete plan. In fact, today, when we heard the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a lot of talk about diplomacy, about having discussion. Perhaps China is waiting until these tariffs go into effect.

on April 9th before it unleashes its response, its retaliation. Because as we talked about yesterday, it has a big toolbox. There are a lot of things it can do to hurt the United States. So that's where things stand. But you also asked, what does China have going in its favor?

It is still known as the world's factory. American companies still depend on China for manufacturing. And as much as President Trump and perhaps American companies want to do manufacturing elsewhere, China makes things at such a rapid pace. These factories are so nimble.

Nowhere else in the world can do it. So China has that working in its favor, Audie. At the same time, their economy is vulnerable, right? So this is a little different than Trump won that first round of tariffs all those years ago. So what do you see in this moment for them, the sort of balancing?

Right. China's economy is a bit shaky right now. People aren't spending money. There's still this housing crisis. But none of this is really a surprise to China. They knew that under Trump 2.0, this could be coming. So it really has diversified itself, not depending on the United States so much for an import-export business. It's doing a lot of work, a lot of trade,

and other places that maybe it didn't do so much before, like Southeast Asia, like Europe, Africa, Latin America. One thing which is interesting, we've heard a lot about the EV race between China and the United States with electric vehicles. The number one brand in the world right now is BYD. It's outpaced Tesla.

BYD is pretty much locked out of the U.S. market, but it's still having all of the success because China has looked elsewhere to sell it. So China has planned ahead and it has a plan of action despite this very shaky economy that we see every day living here in Beijing.

One more thing, Japan's prime minister, his country was hit by 24% tariffs. But I know that Japan, South Korea, they were talking about kind of aligning themselves closer with China to deal with this. So is this having the effect of like creating more power for China in a part of the world where the U.S. was trying to make kind of inroads?

Right. We've heard some chatter, but I think the feeling, at least here in Asia, is that it's just that, it's chatter. Because if we look at specifically this relationship with China and South Korea and Japan, it's still very tense. And South Korea and Japan are still, despite everything, really strong U.S. allies with a lot of military interests. So I'm not sure we're going to see a united front there, but

But it is interesting, I was messaging with a source of mine who did point out we may see some strange alliances form, economic alliances that maybe we didn't see in the past. But I'm not so sure China is going to be a big part of that bigger equation. OK, Mark, this is great context for us. Mark Stewart in Beijing. After the break on CNN this morning, we're going to talk more about those devastating storms that are moving through parts of the South right now. We're on the ground here with a look at the damage.

Plus, auto tariffs went into effect last night. I'm going to speak with an Ohio congressman, Greg Lansman, about that and more. And the group chat is back. Stay with us. Millions of Americans overnight dealing with the threat of deadly storms. Oh, s***.

All right, so for example, that was in Indiana, but CNN is tracking multiple tornadoes across that state as well as Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas. And take a look at guests at Nashville's Gaylord Opryland Resort. There they are sheltering in the basement following a tornado warning that came at 3 a.m. this morning. At least three people have actually been killed in that state that happened overnight. This is crazy. This wind today is something else.

So what's happening here is Windsor reducing visibility to basically zero. That did not stop one Arkansas woman from reuniting with her cat on live TV. And what's next for you all tonight? What's next is I'm going to try to pick up the piece. There's my cat. Oh, my God. Here. Come on, Derek. Have you seen her since the storm? No. What's her name? Her name is Schuyler.

We've got Ryan Young live on the ground for us in Lake City, Arkansas. Good morning, Ryan. One thing about tornadoes and tornado warnings, it feels so arbitrary. The warnings come so quickly. What are you seeing at this hour?

Yeah, absolutely. We started our night in Kentucky. We drove here and now we're in Lake City. And the only reason why we found this damage, we actually followed our nose. As my producer and I were driving, we could smell the smell of gas. And one of the reasons why is look at these cars that have been turned over here. They've been shredded by this storm and just tossed like almost like toy cars. And if you look back

You can see this house here that has been left completely shredded by this. We know from the mayor who talked to CNN earlier, at least five homes have been damaged in this area. If you look behind me, it appears to be someone's chimney here. Not sure if it's from this house because as I look across the street, I can see another home damaged. And even this way, you can see more shredded debris. And as we drove through the city, you know, like we talked about before, tornadoes kind of hit in pockets.

So this hit in a particular pocket and that's what we're standing in right now. There's still lightning activity around here. We can still smell that pungent odor of gasoline that spread throughout this area. We have seen some emergency crews in this area but have not figured out yet whether or not any people have been injured. But when you see the

power of this storm and what it was able to do to these cars, you understand that the people near here were going through a terrifying moment. In fact, watch some of this video that we got from somebody who was filming it as it was crossing the open field. You can see how large this storm was, the power of it. One of the things that stood out to me

In this video in the background, you could actually hear a child beginning to cry because they were, of course, scared. You would be terrified about this. The pressure in the area all night was building. And, of course, then the storm dropped. So as we talk to authorities, we'll figure out exactly what happened here a little later on. Ryan Young in Lake City, Arkansas, thank you for sharing this reporting.

President Trump's 25% tariff on imported cars is now in effect. That started just a few hours ago. So one car dealership owner describes the change this way. A 25% tariff. That $86,000 car becomes a $103,000 car overnight. But one Republican senator believes the higher prices will actually help American car companies.

You're talking about the mainstream cars, a Honda, Toyota, Subaru, a Ford, a Chevy. If one car goes up in price because there's a tariff, that person would just buy the other one that doesn't have a tariff, which is your American-made automobile. And places like Ohio benefit because your neighbor is employed as a result of that car being made in the United States.

Joining me now to talk about this, Democratic Congressman Greg Lansman from Ohio. Welcome to the program. Morning. So I want to start with that argument that there are some kinds of benefits here. How do you hear that? Well, sure. I mean, you know, the...

a strategic tariff has made sense and it usually is Accompanied by some investment in American manufacturing and American workers. You're not seeing that at the moment. What you're seeing is just chaos And there's no plan. There's no real strategy there's no sidecar investments in American manufacturing or workers and so ultimately what you get is

is what I think J.P. Morgan said was the largest tax increase on the American people since 1965 or 68. - And also alluding to the fact that tariffs are taxes that importers pay, and as we hear, may pass on to the consumer.

I was looking into your district, 15% of Cincinnati's economy in particular is exports. You are sending things out into the world and now you're facing retaliatory tariffs. What are you bracing for and are you hearing from small businesses? Yeah, we hear from small businesses and some of our larger companies that this is going to be a huge problem for them. That, you know, it's the uncertainty but it's also just the cost

- Are they demanding that you do something about it? We've been hearing so much pressure on Democrats to step up, do more. Are you hearing that? - Yeah, I think everyone expects their leaders to act. I hear more, I know that this is part of the narrative in the media, and certainly I do hear some of that back home,

what I really hear is why are congressional Republicans not stopping this? I mean, why are they ceding more and more of their constitutional authority and responsibilities to the executive branch while the chaos continues, prices continue to go up,

essentially burning down the government. They're creating unemployment and they're tanking the economy. To that point, you did have a handful of Senate Republicans kind of cast a vote against tariffs in a way. But for Democrats, what is the conversation here? Do you think there are some Republicans on

in the House who might end up being those crossover votes in a scenario where you can speak up against terrorists? I think privately you have a lot of people that see this for what it is, which is chaos. And the markets are responding accordingly. So this privately thing I think throws people off. Yeah, well it's very frustrating because they see what we're seeing and sometimes they'll say publicly we don't like it, but crossing Trump

is a bridge too far for most of these folks. And so ultimately voters will have to decide, do they want to continue with this chaos? And quite frankly, a ton of corruption. Or do they want to go in? Well, you have, you know, the world's richest man having spent hundreds of millions of dollars on all these people. And he's in a position to crush his competition, pick his regulators and get more and more contracts.

And I think you'll see with the tariffs a lot of very questionable activities in terms of saying, well, if you give me money, we'll give you a waiver. I mean, it's just-- - So you're gonna be keeping an eye on who gets exempted, whose lobbying was effective. - Yeah, and everyone should. That's not the way our democracy works.

Moreover, the role money plays in politics on both sides, but what you're seeing really in a very dangerous way with Trump and congressional Republicans, people hate. They want this money out of government, and we have to clean it up. Ultimately, we're going to have to fix this economy and clean up government.

I want to follow up on one thing because you mentioned Elon Musk. As we see reporting here and there about whether there are kind of, especially with the election this past week in Wisconsin, maybe some Republicans saying, should he be here? Should he be the face of this? Don't Democrats need a boogeyman?

I mean, would you guys want him to go? I think we have to be focused on the results of these actions, of the chaos, right? The prices are going to go up. You're already seeing that the economy is tanking. You're seeing that. And people are very worried about Social Security and health care. So we, I think Democrats, have to focus on look at the results. Let's just stay away from the rhetoric.

And don't be fooled by what you're, not fooled, but like, don't get caught up in the TV stuff. But the results are gonna be what matters most. And that's what voters rejected, I believe, in Wisconsin. They don't like what they're seeing. It's hurting them. It's hurting their families. It's hurting their communities. They don't like it.

All right, Congressman, thank you so much for your time. Thanks for joining us on CNN this morning. For you all, it's 6.50, and I want to give you your morning roundup, some of the stories you need to know to get your day going.

We're looking at rescue crews who have pulled out a man from a collapsed hotel. He'd been trapped for 125 hours after last week's earthquake in Myanmar. The ruling military government there announced a temporary ceasefire in its fight against opposition group because of all of the recovery efforts. The death toll this morning is now more than 3,000.

And you've got Russia calling up more than 160,000 men to join the army. It's one of the largest roundups of conscription to date for Russia in several years. Recently, Moscow had been relying on assistance from North Korean soldiers in its war on Ukraine.

And the FDA delays full approval of a COVID vaccine made by Novavax. A source says it was on track to be cleared. That was until Tuesday afternoon. And now the agency wants more data on it. The Health and Human Services Department says the review process is based on safety and not politics.

American Airlines passengers had to be evacuated from a plane after there was a burning smell and a light smoke in a cabin this week. People had to climb on the wing of the plane, then jump off. The airline blamed a maintenance issue. Another plane flying that same route experienced some problems the next day. Now there is a new suitor in the dance to own TikTok. The deadline for TikTok to find a U.S. owner is almost here, and Amazon just made a last-minute offer to buy the app.

You know you're rich when you can make a $200 billion impulse buy, you know? Like at 2 a.m., Jeff Bezos is like, and add your $200 billion company to the cart, and I'm going to get this waffle maker tip. The White House is actually weighing several offers, including Amazon, mobile technology firm Applovin, Oracle, and Microsoft.

So I want to bring it back to the group chat because a lot of people care about TikTok. And when they saw its leader kind of pulling closer to the Trump administration, there was a sense that maybe it wasn't in trouble because of Trump's position. Yeah. And this Amazon revelation shows you how much is at stake here. And Amazon, interestingly, tried to have its own kind of like in-house TikTok that didn't totally work. Everyone did. You can imagine the effort to...

amplify sales through TikTok. So you can see the various theoretical business advantages to being able to control TikTok. - About theoretical, yeah. I mean, the TikTok lobbying effort, if you remember those commercials, I know you all saw them, they were almost exclusively featuring TikTok shop owners, people who make their business that way.

I think you guys got a critical point. The algorithm is the key, right? And whether or not Chinese leaders are willing to hand over or share or whatever, and whether or not U.S. officials on the national security side are willing to share, just remember what this was all about.

and why it got to this point, which Trump initially supported in his first term, how this gets over the finish line. This is fascinating. And there's clearly momentum behind it at this moment. And Trump clearly wants it. But how they close it, there are some really, really huge dynamics. How do you close the deal? Stephen, what do you think when you see all this? That's a good point about does it get done? The president does have quite a lot of leeway in the legislation that required the divesting of TikTok. But think about it this way.

X is owned by Elon Musk, who has been one of the closest associates of the president in this new second term. Now we have the potential that another tech chief who has been, some would say, cozying up to Trump for his own competitive advantage could end up

running TikTok, another massive social platform. This raises all sorts of questions about conflicts of interest and who controls the means by which Americans express their political views. Yeah, I wouldn't have thought of that. But of course, Jeff Bezos has sort of not meddled, but has stepped in at the Post and brings his ideology with him and talks about how it should run. So why wouldn't he want a TikTok? Well,

I think it's right. And I think the Elon Musk experiment, the last two and a half, three months of the beginning of Trump 2.0 and Elon Musk's role in it gives you a sense of what's at stake when one massive company with access to all of your data also has a hand in the governance of your daily life, the regulations that affect you, the strength of agencies. Up until now, the conversation about TikTok has been, should a

a Chinese company or a company with ties to the Chinese government, is that a threat to your individual rights as Americans ultimately? As this moves to the US, if all of the buyers, potential buyers, are massive tech giants, it'll be a different question, but it's still a question of

do you want some massive force to control all everything about your life? - Who has your shopping data, your medical information, and possibly your Whole Foods purchases all under one roof. - Yes, this is a conversation you wouldn't have had

And at this level, 10 or 20 years ago, as tech and social media take hold and there are these massive companies and a handful of really powerful billionaires, it really changes the way I think that the conversation will go about how much one individual or one massive company should be able to have access to your data. Okay, we've covered a lot this hour, but now I want to hear what you're keeping an eye on.

That thing that you think people are missing or just something that's happening ahead in the day filmatically? Capitol Hill. And this is not original. And I will grant you that. And I don't think we have the time to give a deep dive on the reconciliation process. But what I would say in the wake of yesterday is there is a reason top Trump administration officials were splitting time between the White House and the Hill over the course of the last three or four days while they were trying to figure out the tariff stuff.

The terrorists, if they are going to work, and obviously there are a lot of economic questions about that, they can only work if the tax bill that Republicans are working on right now gets through. Those are the incentives. That's what they believe, their theory of the case, is those incentives are what drive companies back here. If it does not work, everything falls apart. Watch Capitol Hill, Republicans are working on right now.

CNN. The price of coffee. I will be watching the price of coffee. We're all talking about the price of cars in light of the new tariffs, but there's a very real possibility that the price of the coffee you buy every day, because coffee is not grown in the United States. Yeah, we talked about it this week. It is going to increase extremely. The association of the National Coffee Association, I'm going to get that wrong, tried to make the case that the

Price of coffee for consumers could go up up to 50%. Okay. Anyway, keep watching. Yeah. Stephen, last word to you. Alex Ovechkin going for the NHL scoring record. I'll be at the Caps game tomorrow night. You're a hockey fan. I am indeed. For real? I didn't have a choice. Did you play? Yeah, I did once when I came 20 years ago. Taken any punches? Gave out a few. We're going to talk after this. The group chat now has officially changed to a bunch of tiny hockey things, so that clearly I know a lot about it.

It sounded right. Yeah, it sounded right. Thanks to the panel. Thank you for waking up with us. Stay here for the headlines. CNN News Central starts right now.