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It's Wednesday, April 9th. Here's what's happening right now on CNN This Morning. I know once it gets up there, I'm not going to be able to afford it. Breaking overnight tariffs on nearly every country in the world now in effect. How this stepped up trade battle could impact you. Plus... Today our nation is full of pain.
There was a roof collapse at a Dominican nightclub. A World Series champion is among the dozens killed. There's now a frantic search going on for survivors. Also, a manhunt underway in Virginia after a deadly shooting kills three people. Police could be looking for more than one gunman. And... It's a dinosaur. Uh-huh.
Just like Jurassic Park, scientists say they've resurrected a long extinct wolf. Is that really a good idea? It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here is a live look at New York City because the last couple of days we've just been watching Wall Street react to President Trump's new tariffs, which are in effect. The opening bell, of course, just a few hours away. Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me.
Breaking overnight, President Trump's tariffs are now in effect on almost every country in the world. So goods imported from China now subject to a 104% tax, more than doubling their price. Other countries face rates ranging from 10% to 84%. And to hear the president tell it, everything is going according to plan.
I'm telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass. They are dying to make a deal. Please, please, sir, make a deal. I'll do anything. I'll do anything, sir.
This morning, the European Union meeting to vote on their response. Politico reports that Europe's own tariffs could target a wide variety of American products with a focus on red states that make up President Trump's base. That means soybeans from Louisiana, for example. Also facing possible new taxes, cigarettes from Florida, car parts from Michigan and ice cream from Arizona.
For some business owners, the president's handling of tariffs is fueling uncertainty in that it's making it difficult to plan ahead. But what is certain is the price you pay for many foreign products is going to rise. So here's the head of a California company that sells kitchen appliances that are imported from China.
We don't know if the tariffs are going to stay at 100%, which is madness already, or 300%. The unpredictability makes it very, very frustrating. For example, let's say if an air fryer costs $120 in retail,
it could go all the way to $300 retail. We are the ones that have to pay the government all the tariffs, taxes, whatever you want to call them. A tariff, a tax, it's a synonym to me. And that all gets billed to us, which we have to bill the consumer at the end.
Bringing in my group chat to discuss Leah Reitriger, CNN political analyst and historian, Charlie Dent, former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, and Kristen Soltis Anderson, CNN political analyst and Republican pollster. Okay, my Republican group chat. Let me go over to here to see the emojis that we have been seeing from, let's say, how businesses are reacting. The headlines are screaming that people do not like this.
But more importantly, one headline that stood out at the New York Times, an op-ed from you, Kristen. Tippity tap, tap, tap. And it said, Republicans better watch out. Why? What are you hearing from actual voters?
The reason why I think Republicans need to be concerned is that any time you begin pushing your agenda and you start pushing it a little too far and voters begin to backlash against you, it can be easy to tune out that noise, say, oh, that's all fake. Stay the course. It's going to be fine. Politically, we'll all work out. And that's really what you're hearing from the White House now. In the parlance of stock trading Reddit, they want everybody to have diamond hands, right? Like, don't sell. Don't panic.
stay the course. But when you have that mentality, that can work if there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And right now there's a lot of voter anger that's bubbling up that we saw in some of those special elections last week that's leading to Republicans, their base going, well, this is fine. Let's see how this plays out.
While opponents to Republicans are going, I am furious, I'm turning out to vote. And that's a tough dynamic if that persists through more special elections. So here and there, you do hear these voices that are still supportive. So an example, a shrimper from Louisiana. I think we have a little bit of sound of their response in this moment.
Charlie?
anytime you go into a trade war there are going to be people domestically who who want tariffs yes we should say some auto unions have been talking about this the privileged few want to be protected at the expense of the many he just said it he wants to raise prices and that's what's going to happen this will raise prices if we impose tariffs on on steel or on shrimp or whatever the price is going to go up the domestic folks will use this and by the way I just heard President Trump say that all these countries are coming to him saying you know they want to kiss his butt
Well, I got news for you. One of those calls probably wasn't President Xi, because you know what? He leads an authoritarian regime. He can take a lot of pain. And we had the foreign minister of China saying we're going to fight to the end. I mean, I think the flip side is that you obviously saw like Vietnam, for example, raise its hand and say, OK, fine, zero tariffs, let's do this. But I don't know what would please this White House.
Can I just say, look, they have two objectives. Here are the objectives. Is their objective to raise the rates, the tariff rates, to collect money so they can allegedly or supposedly bring back manufacturing? Or do they want to get to zero-zero, bring the rates down? I think they want to keep the rates high. And then, as Trump said, he wants a line full of countries, companies, trade associations knocking on his door, begging for exemptions.
And that's the game. - So how will you sweeten the deal? - Well, I'll tell you, I'm very cynical about this and there's a lot of ways for people to raise money off of this. But anytime you have a policy or a rule that needs so many exemptions, you have a bad rule. - Okay, Lee, I wanna bring you in. Obviously there's a lot of history around tariffs, how the US has used it. This is unusual 'cause you just have a president who, this is what he's always wanted to do. Like the person who has been liberated by Liberation Day is President Trump.
Absolutely. And so I think we should be clear, too, that this is not a new thing for Donald Trump. It's not even a new thing within the last like eight or nine years. Donald Trump, since the 1980s, has been talking about trade wars and tariffs as something that the United States has being pushed. You know, there's a great quote floating around from him from 1989, where he's like, the United States is being ripped off. And it's something that could have, you know, has definitely come out of his mouth in the last couple of days. And so I think that
he has seen tariffs as a weapon to wield for a very long time. What's also interesting is that even if somebody like Trump leans on this idea of history and he likes to kind of point to these moments in time and point to these international stories of trade and tariff and things like that, he also likes to ignore the larger history of tariffs and how tariffs have largely affected
US populations, domestic populations. He likes to ignore the facts that don't line up with his very particular agenda. And in very specific cases too, he's also willing to say, I am willing to take the pain as a country given the tariffs. He's come out and said, your groceries may cost more. Your car parts may cost more. Your computers, your cell phones, those things will cost more. Oh well, suck it up and deal with it because
Or wait it out and trust me because I'm going to change the economy. Hold on, group chat. We are going to keep talking about this because of that morning bell. But there is some news. A shooting in Virginia leads to an urgent manhunt. More than one shooter could be on the run. We're going to have new details coming in overnight. Plus, there is turmoil at the IRS less than a week before tax day. Why the latest acting commissioner is now stepping down.
And is it possible to de-extinct an animal? Scientists in Texas think they've done it. The world's first successfully de-extincted animal. Yeah, I read about it in a new science journal called "What Could Possibly Go Wrong?"
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If you're getting ready, 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. So first, we're following that disaster in the Dominican Republic. The roof of a nightclub collapses onto more than 300 people. I want to give you a warning first because some of these images are disturbing.
So at this point, rescue workers are still searching the rubble for survivors. At least 98 people are confirmed dead, although that toll could still rise. More than 200 others were injured, and among those confirmed dead, at least two former Major League Baseball players, including pitcher Octavio Dottel. The cause of the collapse still undetermined.
And right now, an urgent manhunt underway in Virginia. At least three people are dead and three others hurt after a shooting in the northeastern part of the state. Now, a suspect hasn't been captured, and police say one or more shooters actually could still be on the run.
And the flow of millions of gallons of crude oil from Canada has stopped after the Keystone oil pipeline ruptured in North Dakota. It had to be shut down. That pipeline delivers more than 26 million gallons per day. And economists warn the shutdown could cause gas prices to spike in the Midwest.
And the president of Ukraine says his troops have captured two Chinese nationals fighting for the Russian army in eastern Ukraine. And he believes more Chinese soldiers might be on the battlefield. Zelensky is ordering his foreign affairs minister to contact Beijing and get an explanation.
And you gotta see this, a narrow escape for a driver in Pennsylvania. So this is a surveillance video. It's showing the moment that a tree fell and smashed into her car. Here's the thing, seconds later, the driver actually able to get out of the car and walk away. Police say she went to the hospital and got checked out.
Still to come on CNN This Morning: Recall of the wild: Scientists claim they've brought back a species from 12,000 years of extinction. Is that really accurate? Plus, are the politics around tariffs giving Democrats a new opening on the political stage?
Okay, I wanna go off script today for a second because what, these are dire wolves. These are the howls we have not heard in 12,000 years. Researchers at the biotech company Colossal Biosciences claim that they have re-erected the prehistoric dire wolf from extinction. The same fearsome creatures that were in HBO's hit series,
How did scientists decide to turn this fantasy into reality? So we're going to talk about it today because they say the way they did it was to edit the genes of the dire wolf's closest living relative, the gray wolf. And while it may not be a 100% match genetically, it's pretty close.
We're just trying to bring back those functional traits. So we think it'll sound like a dire wolf, we think it'll behave like a dire wolf, and it definitely looks like a dire wolf because we brought back all of the physical traits that have been lost to time in the wolf lineage. Joining me now to discuss, Jeff Corwin, host of Wildlife Nation. Thank you for being here because of all the stories I'll talk about today. This is the only one that my mom will ask me about. Is this actually a good idea?
Wow, that's a tough one for a conservationist. I think it's exciting. I think it's fascinating. It provides promising opportunities that could apply to conservation, but it doesn't equate to conservation. And while this is thrilling to see that we get a glimpse of what existed way back into the Pleistocene, this ancient, mighty predator,
It is not 100% dire wolf. It looks like a dire wolf. It barks like a dire wolf. But if we get down to the nitty gritty, the genetic, the genotype, which is basically the genetic fingerprint of an animal, is different than the genetic fingerprint of that ancient dire wolf. And the phenotype, which is the physical characteristics, the representation, is similar, but it is not exactly like a dire wolf.
So I'm glad you mentioned conservation because obviously there are so many animals threatened with extinction. I think more than 47,000 at this point that we know of different species. And amphibians are a large number of those, birds, different kinds of reptiles. So there's a whole world of...
species that may be not a dire wolf predator that we might be interested in bringing back. But why do you say conservationists would be reluctant to do it this way?
Well, Adi, I don't know if we're reluctant about this technology because it is exciting and it has some promise there, right? And it's flashy and it's interesting and it's a scientist. I love that stuff. But I'm talking about the practicality. We are in a war. We are in a battle to save our species and we are in the triage state, right? So if you have all these soldiers lined up to get in a helicopter,
You're not like saying, well, that one's going to need cosmetic surgery and that one, you know, is going to need some lift in the shoes. It'd be like that soldier is going to live and that soldier is not going to live. We have 70 Javan rhino. We have 10 Dikita porpoises left, 40 Sumatran rhinos. I want people to think about this.
In North America, only 350 North Atlantic right whales. Only 100 alala crows in Hawaii, they're all in captivity. We are in an urgent state where we need practical, real solutions today. And when we look at the amount of resources it takes to recrystallize a species that's been gone for tens of thousands of years,
What could we do with those resources today? I also I love the idea of exploring, of bringing back a mammoth or fixing the wrongs of the loss of the thylacine, the Tasmanian wolf.
But we have wolves that are about to go today. The American gray wolf, the Mexican gray wolf, that population is less than a few hundred and most are surviving in captivity. We could do things today with those resources. Audie, you mentioned amphibians, right? It would cost under a million dollars to save every South American species of endangered species.
that are amphibians. And while we're talking about this exciting technology with incredible science, Adi, we live in a world today where scientifically with, for example, our Endangered Species Act, we're dragging our knuckles back to the Stone Age.
We have this weird juxtaposition of this incredible technology while at the same time we're shuttering and eviscerating the incredible regulations that have allowed us to
Bring back the bald eagle. Bring out the American alligator. Jeff, give a chance to the condor. I want to let you go in a minute. But I think one thing that's happened is everyone is going to read this story and make a Jurassic Park joke. I am not immune. So what are you going to be listening for out of this company? What do you think are the things we should be paying attention to going forward as people keep talking about this?
Well, that is interesting. You brought up Jurassic Park, one of my favorite movies. I think we have to ask ourselves, why did the dire wolf, this incredible predator, this apex canine of ancient times, go away?
And if we're going to restore species, what does it mean, Adi, to be a wild species? Does it mean living in a high-security electrified fence with video monitoring? Or do we do the practical things, for example, restoring habitats?
You know that saying, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Well, that applies today. There are real world things we could do saving habitat. You can genetically crisp all the creatures back from extinction, but if we're still losing 3,000 acres of rainforest every hour,
If we only have 4% of our coral reefs in Florida, that's what I'm filming right now in Florida. That's why I'm here. So we can bring it back, but if they have nowhere to go. What's the real world solution today? Yeah. Well, Jeff Corwin, host of Wildlife Mission. I love the idea. It's easy, tiny.
- I would love to see this dire wolf. - How about a lower one? How about some prey? I don't know, some other thing that just can't hurt us. - Yeah, the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit, only 300 left. - Oh, okay. Then tell them to start there, Jeff, okay? Tell them to start with that. - Crisping rabbits, Easter is around the corner.
Appreciate the peg. Jeff, thanks so much. Ahead on CNN this morning, the other shoe about to drop. The European Union is going to be voting on what they plan in terms of retaliatory tariffs. And how is that going to hit you? Plus, a communication breakdown that nearly caused another midair collision near Reagan National Airport. HGTV's toughest renovation competition is back. Welcome.
Two teams of Rock the Block vets take on two teams of rookies outside Salt Lake City, Utah. Four identical houses, one epic showdown. All I know is we've got huge homes. And each week, their design skills will be pushed to the limit. But in the end, the team that adds the most value will win. Are you ready? Rock the Block season premiere April 14th at 9 on HGTV. Stream next day on Max. A lot of our barrels are coming out of Europe.
Our glass is coming out of either China or Mexico. U.S. business owners waking up to a new reality this morning. How will reciprocal tariffs impact their bottom line? Good morning, everybody. I'm Adi Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me here on CNN this morning. It's half past the hour here on the East Coast. And here's what's happening right now.
US markets on pace to slip at opening bell. Futures all in the red right now as President Trump's latest slate of tariffs goes into effect overnight. China getting hit the hardest with a shocking 104% levy on imported goods.
And in just a few hours, the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students will appear in court. The hearing will focus on what can be included in Brian Koberger's trial, including the use of cellular tracking devices. And the Trump administration pressuring the IRS to help Homeland Security with immigration enforcement.
A controversial agreement between Homeland Security and the IRS has actually prompted several senior IRS officials to leave the agency. The turmoil at the IRS is actually boiling over. The acting commissioner telling her staff she's stepping down. Her decision comes just a day after the IRS agreed to provide sensitive taxpayer data to help locate and deport undocumented migrants. The IRS has also been the target of sweeping cuts
And Doge is looking to get rid of nearly 20% of all IRS employees by May 15th. So many of our agencies have been understaffed and underfunded for more than 15 years. For them to cut people that we've invested so much money in to get them trained and help us out through the tax seasons, it's devastating to our agencies.
Group chat is back. This is like the third acting commissioner to walk, which sounds like a red flag to me that at a certain point it's not just people who don't like what the administration is doing but have real concerns about it. Is this, do you think, the kind of thing that resonates with people?
Well, it's a mixed bag with the IRS. Right. A lot of people will say 80,000 people were added during the previous administration, and then they peeled that number back a little bit. And so there's some people out there saying they don't like these doge cuts. But on the other hand, it's the IRS, and I might not get audited.
- Yes, oh, to your point. So tax returns filings have dropped by nearly a million and there's basically this working theory that some people might be rolling the die and taking their chances that they won't get caught. Can you talk about what you see in this moment?
Sure. So I think there are a couple of things going on. One, and I think this is perhaps the biggest issue, which is the confidentiality issue. We don't really know the details of the agreement between the IRS and the White House. What information have they agreed to turn over? The White House right now says it is very narrow scope, that it only is going to have to deal with, you know, criminals or people who are on the list to be deported from the country, things like that.
but we also know that the white house has not had the best track record when it comes to you know actually making good on those promises and i think it's partly also a way we can look at it is thinking about it as a slippery slope if they can turn over this confidential information which the irs has worked for a very long time yeah and also the irs has been accused of going after political targets so in this moment when the administration is being accused of ideological deportations
You're basically saying to the public, we're going to get information, but we don't want to tell you why, for what reasons, under what circumstances. It won't go through any kind of court. Trust us. And Elon Musk is going to set it up. So maybe I'm misdescribing it. But, Kristen, what do you see? Yeah, I mean, you're right that in the past, in fact, it was Republicans during kind of the Tea Party movement era who pointed at the IRS under Barack Obama and said, we feel like
we have been targeted by this agency. And so the idea that the IRS is something where people go, hey, whoever's in charge is using it for political gain is not necessarily new. But we're in this, like to zoom out even further, we're in this moment where Republicans then handed the reins of power instead of saying like, let's turn the temperature down. We think these things in the past were done wrong. They're saying, you know what, if the other side did it, we're gonna do it more. Now this is very different because this isn't about
in their explanation, it's not about targeting political adversaries, it's about going after people who are in violation of the law. Although this is the slippery slope argument, it might not stay there in the position you're talking about. Yes, and so I think that it is interesting that for Republicans, again, one, they've had problems going back over a decade with this agency's been coming after us,
And number two, with the Inflation Reduction Act, with all that money being spent on we're going to beef up this agency, I think you can see some cuts at the IRS that would not necessarily immediately alarm taxpayers. One very quick cut. The Kansas City mayor was talking about the cutting of IRS workers in that state. And here was his description of what's going on. We're not building a new 4,000-person factory to replace 4,000 jobs at the IRS at the same time.
And frankly, these folks will have very different skills. It feels like that conversation gets at the willy-nilly kind of way that this government efficiency project is going.
Yeah, and this has been a problem with Doge from the get-go. A lot of these cuts have been rather indiscriminate and arbitrary, and I suspect that's what's happening at the IRS. And do they achieve whatever the end goal is? So we've heard multiple end goals. Yeah, but we can't overstate the politics involved with the IRS. I remember Lois Lerner.
You know, Republicans went nuts about her role going after conservative 501c3s, I believe. And there were, I remember, I think it was Jim Jordan wanted to impeach John Koskinen. He was the IRS commissioner. Well, times have changed. Okay, Gruchat, stay with me because we want to go back to our top story. President Trump says his goal with some of these tariffs is to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. The authors of the new book, Abundance,
argue that Democrats need to consider something like that too. Instead of getting tied up with regulations and red tape, they say Democrats should embrace innovation if they want to win. Joining me now to discuss Derek Thompson, co-author of Abundance, he's also a staff writer at The Atlantic,
Derek, you have been very pointed in your criticism of Trump's tariff policy, in particular calling it chaos. But one thing I noticed is Trump was able to be in the White House with, you know, coal workers standing behind him and signing something and saying, look, I'm doing something for you. What would be a comparable Democratic policy kind of under your abundance ideology? Well, here's a really profound irony.
There was already an American president who was seeking to reindustrialize America. His name is Joe Biden. He passed the Chips and Science Act, which tried very, very hard, and I think quite successfully, to subsidize new manufacturing projects in the U.S., not just in a random way, but with targeted subsidies that got us building the most important product for national security, which might be semiconductors, high-tech semiconductors.
We were seeing record numbers of fab manufacturing construction. That is to say, construction of factories that will build high-end semiconductors, rising to a record level under Joe Biden. But one of the things you've talked about, the idea that somehow Democrats are not resonating well.
in their arguments, the way they talk about this or how it's executed. You've raised some really interesting questions about that. You know, I'm wondering when you look at something like tariffs on lumbers, which is going to make housing more expensive, that's an area that in the abundance ideology says that like there should be less regulation. How should Democrats be talking about these things?
Well, I think Donald Trump sees the world in a very scarcity mindset, right? He's recognizing maybe that America doesn't have enough housing, but he's going about fixing that in the totally wrong way. He's raising the price of lumber that we get from Canada or raising the price of drywall materials that we get from Mexico. He's trying very, very hard to limit immigration, despite the fact that the construction industry that we need in order to build housing is about 25 percent immigrant.
So in no way do the policies of Donald Trump add up to any kind of effort to bring down the cost of building houses in America. Our plan is the exact opposite. It's to say, look, what are the inputs to housing? Whether it's materials or zoning laws or permitting, how do we find a way to identify the bottlenecks to building housing in America and bring them down? This is going about it in the entire opposite way. Donald Trump has a deep-seated bias
against trade. He's executing that bias by raising tariffs all over the world while claiming that this is about bringing back manufacturing. If you talk to manufacturers, maybe including the people who stand behind Donald Trump when he signs legislation, they'll tell you what we need to expand manufacturing in this country is certainty. Factories are expensive.
They need financing. Financing loves certainty. You know what's not certain? It's announcing a tariff plan saying maybe we'll amend it. Maybe we won't. Maybe we'll negotiate with countries. Maybe we won't. Maybe this is about raising $600 billion a year. Maybe it's not. It's just about negotiating. We have an absolute chaos machine in the White House right now. And that's a big reason why the stock market is puking.
Tonight we're going to hear from Senator Bernie Sanders in a CNN town hall. He's been drawing huge crowds around the country on his fighting oligarchy tour. He is from a very different wing of the party than you. What is it that you would like to hear tonight?
Look, Bernie Sanders has a message and he's had a message for many decades. It's a strong message and it resonates with a lot of people. I'll tell you the irony right here. You know, Bernie Sanders talks about the oligarchy. He talks about the fact that we have a capital class in this country that's strong and controls all the strings. Well, guess what America kind of needs right now? We need the oligarchy to stand up.
We need the oligarchy to say, Donald Trump, this plan makes absolutely no sense. You say you want to reindustrialize America? This is the worst possible way to go around it. Instead, what you have is a lot of corporate executives who are terrified of the president, just like you have white shoe law firms that are terrified of the president, just like you have university presidents who are terrified of the president. In a very strange way, what we need right now is for the adults in the room
in the economy, some of whom represent the very class that Bernie Sanders calls the oligarchy, they need to stand up and say this policy makes no sense and you've got to cut it out. Because if what we really want here is growth, if what we really want is manufacturing to come back to America in a stable and durable and sustained way, you cannot be announcing random tariff plans every 12 hours and expecting people to slurp back $100 billion of manufacturing expansion in this country. It just doesn't make any sense.
Derek Thompson, staff writer at The Atlantic. If you want to find Derek's new book, it's out now and it's called Abundance, co-written with Ezra Klein. Straight ahead on CNN this morning, a tragedy in the Dominican Republic, the race to find survivors in a deadly nightclub roof collapse, which has already killed two former Major League Baseball players, plus an ugly public feud between two of President Trump's top lieutenants and the White House doesn't seem to mind. More from the group chat.
The developing story right now, rescue crews in the Dominican Republic are digging through rubble looking for survivors. This was after a roof collapsed at a popular nightclub. We're going to warn you before showing these because some of these images may be disturbing.
At least 98 people were killed. Hundreds more were injured. Among the dead, two former Major League Baseball players, longtime relief pitchers and World Series winner Octavia Dottel and former Washington Nationals player Tony Blanco. CNN contributor Stefano Pozzobon joins us live now from the scene in Santo Domingo. And Stefano, what exactly is happening at this point?
Yes, Odi, well, unfortunately, the breaking news that we are hearing this morning is that the death toll has just been increased to at least 113 people, according to a press conference by emergency services here in Santo Domingo about an hour ago. And, Odi, as you can see, we're right in front of what used to be the entrance of this iconic nightclub. And you can see the search and rescue teams. Of course, the area is patrolled by the Marines of the Dominican Republic.
But behind them there are still search and rescue teams working. They have been working throughout the night or at least since the early hours of Tuesday to try and remove as many debris as possible from what used to be the rooftop. You can probably see these two giant cranes that are right there and are being used to remove the largest of those debris.
What's happening here, essentially, Odi, is that the rooftop of these iconic nightclubs, this is where the who's who of Santo Domingo would come, especially on a Monday night, to celebrate, to have fun, to have a party. The rooftop collapsed on top of what used to be the dance floor at the middle of that merengue concert. And we've seen...
Hundreds of people, relatives, friends coming here, speaking with emergency services, trying to get a sense of where are their loved ones. Earlier today, we've arrived here almost before dawn. There were still people that have spent a sleepless night looking for answers, Ori. And unfortunately, of course, the scenes of pain whenever a relative or a loved one was pronounced dead.
One more thing I wanted to show you is that this story is really picking up a lot of media attention. You can see behind me there are pretty much all over. Most international news channels are here now, most of the international news agencies, because really this is an iconic place in the history of Santo Domingo. And like you said, we've seen the people that have been already pronounced dead, some of them former MLB players, politicians. It is a wound that is hitting hard.
at the soul of this nation, Odi. -Thank you for your reporting there as emergency crews are still working through this very heartbreaking moment in the Dominican. Now we're going to turn to the Trump administration touting the string of what they're claiming are legal victories from the U.S. Supreme Court. -We called on the Supreme Court to rein in these judges who are acting as judicial activists, not real arbiters of the truth and the law, and that's exactly what we saw the Supreme Court do yesterday.
This week alone, the nation's high court put several lower court rulings on hold. We're talking about everything from the Alien Enemies Act to Doge cuts. The Supreme Court just ruled thousands of fired federal workers, for instance, can remain fired as a lawsuit works its way through the court system. A lower court initially ordered the administration to rehire impacted workers. The justices didn't rule on the merits. But in the meantime, those 16,000 fired probationary employees will not be paid.
Give these people back their jobs, fund the agencies that need to be funded, and help us do our job. Help us supply the products and the needs of the American people.
Joining me now, CNN senior legal analyst, Ellie Honig, also former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Ellie, I want to make sense of this in this moment. So you have a Supreme Court that doesn't rule on the merits. They don't say the Trump administration is right, but they say, interpret this, they say, look, only the people affected can actually file this lawsuit. You can't just be all of these other advocacy groups who are stepping in. Yeah, so yesterday's ruling was based on the technicalities, but in the law,
matter. So the ruling yesterday was not that these probationary employees were properly or improperly fired, not legal or illegal. The only ruling was that the plaintiffs in that particular case, the people who brought that lawsuit, don't have something we call standing, meaning they're not the right parties here. They're not the ones who were direct
Injured now who are those what why I'm asking about this because what this means is if you're a federal worker and you see Fraud abuse you lose your job. You can't go to an inspector general. They've been fired. You can't turn to a major law firm They're scared right and you can't turn to like your union That's the problem. Now you all of a sudden are being told by the Supreme Court Listen, you got to just work your way through the system while you're not being paid Yeah, and you figure out a legal way to fight back
Yeah, so the big lesson from yesterday is you can't rely on your labor union or some interest group to go sue for you. They will not have standing. They should have seen this coming. I mean, there have been prior rulings to the same effect. So, yeah, it's not easy. I mean, what you have to do is you have to, A, be one of those employees. B, you have to find a lawyer who is willing to
potentially incur the wrath of the administration. Fewer and fewer. And shrink. Yes, exactly. In the meantime, I want to play a soundbite from an attorney who was representing a University of Michigan student who had been charged with her involvement of a pro-Palestinian protest on campus last year. There was a felony arrest for resisting police. Now, he says, here we are a year later, he's reentering the country from a family trip, and he's asked to turn over a cell phone.
This was something that they were waiting for me, ready to ask me questions, and were, in my opinion, done with an intentional purpose to either intimidate me or harass me. Why bring up that I'm involved in some higher-profile litigation? Why mention that at all to me?
What do you make of this moment? Well, it's part of a pattern. Donald Trump and the Trump administration are targeting not just the big law firms, which is certainly happening, but also, as we see, individual lawyers. And if you look at the reasons, there's no pretext here, right? If you look at the proclamations Trump issued against those law firms. Well, he's implying it's ideological. He represented someone they didn't like, a free speech point of view they didn't like, and now here we are. That would be completely consistent with what we've seen. Is it legal?
No, I don't think it is. I mean, right? That's what I need to know. The law firms who've challenged this, three law firms have challenged this in court so far, and they've all succeeded. And that's why I think it's such a shame that some other law firms have acceded. They have paid, well, promised to deliver tens of millions of dollars of pro bono legal services to Trump. But I think it's a
I think it's unmistakable, which is if you are a lawyer and you commit the unforgivable sin of representing a person or cause that the administration disproves of, you will be targeted. And again, there's no— Never mind what that means for people who need legal representation. What does that mean for people who need legal representation?
Well, I think the main onus here is on lawyers themselves. I mean, you took an oath as a lawyer to serve the courts, to serve the truth, not to serve any presidential administration. If you need, if you're a person who needs a lawyer, ask them straight up. Do you have any problems here? Are you going to bend a knee to the administration or are you going to do your job and represent my best interests as an individual or a group? Eli Honig, thanks so much. Eli Honig, CNN's senior legal analyst. So it is five of seven.
I want to give you your morning roundup, some of the stories you need to know to get your day going. RFK Jr., now publicly encouraging people to get the measles vaccine. The health secretary telling CBS News that he still does not believe the government should mandate it. Just so we're clear, almost 600 Americans have contracted measles this year. Two children have died and both were unvaccinated.
federal investigators looking into whether a communications breakdown and air traffic control could have caused a near collision between a delta passenger jet and a formation of military jets near reagan national airport multiple sources tell cnn this happened on march 28th and that the crash was only narrowly avoided with seconds to spare
and the Ohio River in Cincinnati reaching its highest level in seven years. Flooding now a major threat. Rising waters prompting emergency rescues. Officials are really worried about the flood threat for Friday morning when the river is expected to rise significantly.
And the White House access for the Associated Press now restored. The Trump administration had banned AP journalists from the Oval Office and Air Force One because they used the phrase "Gulf of Mexico" instead of "Gulf of America." A Trump-appointed judge in the case ruled that ban unconstitutional.
Now, the group chat is back to talk about what we're keeping an eye on in the coming days. Leah, can I start with you? What are you watching? Sure. I am watching out for the impact of the tariffs on people's lived experiences. And I have to say, anything that can bring together Wall Street and Main Street and can get billionaires and people, ordinary people on the ground together.
as they begin to feel the impacts, whether it's the impacts on the stores, on manufacturing, on their goods, on just their lived experiences. - Check your TikToks. Someone brought up struggle meals last week and I haven't been able to unhear that phrase. Charlie. - What I'm watching are tariffs too, but in terms of Congress.
Bills are pending in both the House and the Senate to require Congress to vote on these types of tariff increases. And I'm particularly watching to see if there will be a discharge petition moment in the House to try to force a vote because Speaker Johnson is against it. Translate discharge petition for the human beings among us. There are bills in, and Speaker Johnson does not want to bring up the bill. Right. But there are some Republicans who want to. But there's a Republican sponsor of the bill. Trump is calling them panikins. Is that going to catch? Yes.
No, not at all, I don't think. No? Making a bedcap in there? These members are more worried about their own survival than the president's in many cases. Okay. Kristen, what are you looking out for? Well, I'm also watching Congress, but I'm watching for this morning. I believe they're likely to advance out of the House Budget Committee some, or pardon me, rules. They're beginning to advance the piece of legislation that will ultimately be the big bill that will do the taxing.
stuff, the budget stuff, all the things that House and Senate Republicans want to try to accomplish in one big, beautiful bill. Today begins its journey. And there are some House Republicans from that kind of Freedom Caucus wing
who may try to gum up the works. - I haven't heard that phrase in a while, Freedom Caucus. - We've seen this movie before, haven't we? - They're gonna vote for it. - You know, the thing I'm actually listening for is the CNN town hall with Bernie Sanders, not because synergy, though that's good, but because he has drawn crowds. It's one thing to talk about Democrats and what they need to do. He has gone out there, turned on his messaging machine, and brought people out. AOC has joined him. There's just like,
ongoing conversation. We heard it with Eric Thompson about what should the party be doing right now?
And now we're going to have one of the most prominent voices, I think, left in that wheelhouse actually answering questions. Leah, for you, do you? Absolutely. And it goes back to, I think, the point I was saying about the conversation with Wall Street, Main Street. And Bernie Sanders has been screaming. Bernie Sanders enters the chat. He's been screaming about this for over a decade. And right now it is, you know, he's very much having a chickens are coming home to roost moment.
And this is also a moment where even as an octogenarian, he seems to have the most energy. All right, I'll let him respond to that tonight. Group chat, thank you. I'm Audie Cornish and CNN News Central starts right now.
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This week on The Assignment with me, Adi Cornish. There are reports of at least a dozen students and faculty who have been detained by federal agents. How does this happen? How can the government detain legal immigrants without charges? How is this affecting students and faculty at campuses around the country? And who is challenging the government over potential First Amendment violations for punishing people who say things that the administration labels a threat?
Listen to The Assignment with me, Audie Cornish, streaming now on your favorite podcast app.