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It is Thursday, April 24th. Here's what's happening right now on CNN This Morning. We'll lose business because of it. There's no question.

A new ticking clock, President Trump speeding up the timeline to make a deal on tariffs, though China appears to be in no hurry. Plus, spare the rod, spoil the child, Trump's new rules on discipline in America's schools. Also, Kyiv under attack, a wave of deadly strikes overnight, why Ukraine's president is not backing down as he's pushed to accept a U.S. peace deal. And... It was really a beautiful experience to see our holy father

Catholic faithful gather for a final farewell. Pope Francis lying in state in St. Peter's Basilica right now.

It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here's a live look inside the Vatican. That's where mourners are once again paying respect to the late Pope Francis ahead of his funeral on Saturday. Good morning, everybody. I'm Adi Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me. And today we are returning to tariffs. It feels like we've done that on again, off again, probably because the president has been doing them on again, off again, especially when it comes to this idea of reciprocal tariffs.

He's now saying he could bring back those tariffs in just two to three weeks. White House officials say about 90 countries have offered to negotiate trade deals, although no new deals have been announced. And here's what the president said would happen if a deal isn't reached with a country. We're going to set the tariff. We just set the tariff. It's something that we think that will happen, I'd say, over the next couple of weeks, wouldn't you say? I think so. Over the next two, three weeks, we'll be setting the number.

So now 12 states are actually suing the Trump administration, accusing it of illegally imposing tax hikes through tariffs. What his administration has attempted to unilaterally implement is not just economically reckless. The president has absolutely no legal authority to issue these tariffs.

And corporate leaders are also pushing back. Earlier this week, CEOs from Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Lowe's, they all met with the president and they warned him that store shelves across the U.S. could, quote, soon be empty because of supply chain disruptions. Joining me now in the group chat, Evan McMurray-Santoro, reporter at Notice, Haima Moore, former chief of staff to DNC chair Jamie Harrison, and Aaron McGuire, Republican strategist.

So, Erin, I actually want to start with you because I think it's one thing if Democrats are complaining or attorney generals are complaining who are Democrats. It's another thing if the CEOs pull you behind closed doors and say, dude.

we can't make this work. So what do you make of that backlash out of the business community? Well, you see that this administration is leaning in and engaging the business community, right? Scott Besson brought those leaders in. They're in constant conversation to make sure that the business community at least feels that they have a direct line to the White House about the tariffs and about what's happening economically in the United States. Did that spook the White House? I don't

i don't think so at all because this white house with their seeing is that they have to move on the strategy they've been moving on this strategy when it comes to trade in tariffs the entire time it's what donald trump a call the art of the deal in the negotiation you have to be willing to to give a little to get a little and what trump is saying here is hey listen we're gonna set a timeline on this we're gonna have clear conversation and we want everybody at the table i think that c_e_o_'s at least know they're getting their voice into the white i want to play some sound from republican senators yet chuck grassley who's been

touring all of the counties in Iowa, which he does right on his little town hall thing. Also, Frank Langford. And sort of here was their take on, as you said, the art of the deal and talking about this tariff issue. If he's successful, I just have to say he's got a better approach than I've had of negotiation, which I've espoused over the last 50 years. This crowd knows I'm not a big fan of tariffs.

I'm just not. But tariffs are a very effective negotiating tactic to be able to say, you need to come to the table to actually be able to negotiate. Evan, I feel like you have been doing some reporting on like how or thinking about how the White House has been trying to talk about this because Democrats do want to talk about the economy. Democrats do want to talk about like how they think this is hurting people's wallets. Well, Republicans want to talk about it, too. I mean, what you're really seeing right with those two clips of the two senators

This is still in the political sales job phase, right? This is a key component of what Donald Trump has said he wanted to do in this country. He made me president. I'm going to use tariffs to improve the lives of regular Americans by changing the way the economy works.

We've seen in polling, we've seen from some Republicans now, we've seen from CEOs, that sales job has just not really happened yet, right? And this is the real challenge that they're facing. Because, you know, I spoke to one of the attorneys general involved in that lawsuit that you mentioned yesterday. It's going up in the Notice newsletter this morning, actually, our little interview. And, you know, he talked about basically, look, if...

this actually ends up being good for the country, right? Like that's, I mean, we're fine with it basically, but the problem is right now it really isn't. They're looking at businesses being really panicked about the future, looking at the economic, you know, the economic people's confidence index going down, all those things.

It really speaks to the fact that the person at the top of this issue, Donald Trump, has not yet fully convinced everybody that what he's doing is worth it. All right, so now that's a messaging conversation. I mean, you guys? I mean, look, I think one of the things that I've heard from CEOs over the last couple weeks is they wish they had gone to the table a little bit sooner, and the uncertainty is what's killing people. And then the second part, on the political side, I think you're right, Evan. I think the president's got to be very, very clear that this is his tariff, this is his decision,

And so he's got to help his party go out there and sell it. These Republicans in, you know, Chuck Grassley, 99 counties in Iowa, they're having a hard time selling this, these tariffs. And I think people want to know that their lives are going to be better immediately, not in four years. It's kind of like the problem that President Joe Biden had when he was saying, oh, gas prices are down, things are better. And people just say, well, they're not. They don't believe him. And so I think Donald Trump's having that same issue. And also uncertainty works in a negotiation. It's like, you don't know what I'm going to do with the economy.

Not in people's everyday lives, yeah. The Wall Street Journal editorial board, which, I mean, it's the Wall Street Journal, right? They're a business paper. They were extremely critical of tariffs from the beginning. But they said this, another harsh reality is that China called Mr. Trump's bluff and seems to have won this round. That's a massive sign to the business community, like the Wall Street Journal saying, China called your bluff.

They have called their bluff, but the key word there is seems, right? Because this is still active. This is still ongoing and we are nowhere near the final stage of this yet. But I will say to Donald Trump's point on this, it's that you have to continue to break the system to fix the system here, to your point, right? Like he had to make these huge upheavals in the economy to be able to get us back to where he sees the United States should be economically. And so, but

the difference I think here is twofold. One, I do think that this White House needs to be clearer because clarity brings certainty for people who need it, especially in the markets. But two, Joe Biden lied to the American people. And so did the administration. What did they say? Inflation is transitory. The southern border is secure. So there's a big difference in messaging. You can message a lot of things, but if people feel like it's hurting them- And that's why the

people can fall into the same trap. Oh, totally. And that's where the messaging is going wrong for Republicans and where we could be doing better is that if you are going to take this ground on tariffs on trade, you better be definitive and strong in saying, hey, this is not going to be easy. I do think Republicans have done that, but it's going to have to be a continued conversation because this is ongoing. Yeah, and we know it's hard. We know it's hard. It could go sideways. Quick group chat.

Please stick with us because we've got more to talk about on the show later. Coming up on CNN this morning, survivors and victims' families from a mass shooting all turned up at a courthouse ready to confront the shooter, why they did not get the face-to-face that they had hoped for. Plus, a fast-moving fire burning thousands of acres in New Jersey, how the weather is actually helping crews there today.

And comedy in the Trump era, from canceling shows at the Kennedy Center to going straight to the Oval Office, how comedians are managing this moment. To all the people who treated this like it was some kind of summit meeting, you're ridiculous. Like I was going to sign a treaty or something. I have no power. I'm a f***ing comedian. The wild is closer than you think.

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It's 15 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. Some of the stories we want you to know before you get your day going. In just a few hours, the gunman who killed seven people at an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois, well, they'll be sentenced. He pleaded guilty in March. Yesterday, dozens of survivors and the victim's families actually showed up at the court expecting to address him directly. He wasn't there because he chose not to attend.

He didn't show up today in court because cowards do not face their accusers. They shrink away from them. He knew how many lives he had changed and he didn't want to face it. He is expected to face life in prison.

A Maryland judge ordering the return of a Venezuelan asylum seeker who was deported to El Salvador. The ruling claimed that his removal violated a previous court order. Now this comes as another judge had paused the discovery process in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He was the man that was mistakenly deported to an El Salvador mega prison. It's unclear why the judge is putting this other case on hold.

A jury ruled Norfolk Southern is solely responsible for paying a $600 million settlement to residents of East Palestine, Ohio, over a train derailment. It spilled more than a million pounds of hazardous chemicals in 2023, so a separate lawsuit alleges that seven deaths are connected to this. No comment from Norfolk Southern about that, and it's not admitted to wrongdoing.

And the NFL draft kicks off tonight in Green Bay. The Tennessee Titans have first pick and are widely expected to select Miami quarterback Cam Ward. Other stars expected to go quickly, Colorado's Travis Hunter, Penn State's Abdul Carter and LSU's Will Campbell.

And you gotta see this. People at a Raising Cane's in Las Vegas were screaming, "Yeah boy!" when they saw who their cashier was, because it was Flava Flav. He took over the register to promote his new partnership with the company. They are selling special clock necklaces, like the Rapper's Chain, which I will be, of course, going to purchase immediately. The proceeds go to the Women's Sports Foundation.

Still coming up after the break, just ahead of hurricane season, FEMA staff could be taking a big hit. Plus, we'll be going to the Vatican again as mourners are there to see the pope. He lies in state ahead of his funeral on Saturday. All right. People are calling 2024 the podcast election, right? Giving candidates like President Trump a new way to connect with voters.

We've highlighted you on the show many times where you, when he did this Biden impression where he's walking around, he doesn't know what he's doing. It's funny. It's standup. It's funny stuff. You have like comedic instincts. Like when you said to Hillary, you'd be in jail. Like that's great timing. But it's like that kind of stuff was unheard of as a politician. Like no one had done that. And I think- You know, it's funny. You need at least the attitude of a comedian when you're doing this business.

So Rogan, of course, got his start in stand-up. And this is this moment where we're seeing these cultural shifts under Trump's second term. This moment where basically Democrats are also saying to themselves, wait a second,

do we need to get into this world? Are we at the center of the culture? Are we funny or are we considered humorless? So there's this tug of war about who can amplify the message. So we decided on the assignment to look more into this and we're talking with comedian W. Kamau Bell. Here's some of our conversation. I was reading your sub stack when you basically volunteered to be the left's Joe Rogan. We heard for a few months after the election

From Democrats, oh, if only they had their version of that. What do you think they mean when they say that? A man's man with scare quotes. They want a musclehead guy who likes fighting, but also likes the trans community. They want the guy who also wants Medicare for all is what they want.

And the funny thing is that Joe Rogan has occasionally been that guy, but he doesn't last there for long because it's not inflammatory enough for him. But those people exist. They are literally on TikTok and Instagram.

Right now, there are men of that kind. The wrestler CM Punk, who's the biggest wrestler in the world, is that guy. You know what I mean? He's a left-wing guy who spends a lot of time in gyms and is literally a professional wrestler. He doesn't get more bro than that. So those people exist. The problem is the left want that person to be anointed instead of going to do the work and finding out these people are already out here.

They're not, you know, there are many different, it doesn't have to be a dude and it doesn't have to look like Joe Rogan, but there's always this appeal to whiteness and white maleness in this country that is really also baked into the less Joe Rogan. We want to know, we want our white guy, which instead of like, you know, you could have just, you could just be paying more attention to Amber Ruffin, who's got podcasts.

Okay, group chat is back. And of course, W. Kamau Bell referencing Amber Ruffin, the comedian who actually had her gig yanked from the White House Correspondents Dinner. She was supposed to be the headliner and they dropped her in part because the Trump administration sort of deputy chief of White House staff said, why do you have this person? She has spoken out against us. I want to talk about comedy in particular because I feel like comedy conveys authenticity.

inauthenticity is the rare earth's mineral of politics right now. Everybody is in a scramble. And on the left, Evan, I know you pay attention to this like dark woke, like dirty left. Don't do anything really. Yeah, but it's just like the idea.

the idea of like uh we're edgy and that shows that we're cool and that means something well it's interesting i thought what debbie camille bell was saying about this idea of uh democrats wanting to anoint somebody as their joe rogan so interesting they do talk a lot of democrats about this issue right now like about why can't they be exciting why can't they be funny why can't they be engaging but part of what is happening here right with a guy like rogan

they say what they're gonna say, and these other people show up and say, "Hey, we're cool with it. "We agree with you." We've seen the conservative movement shift in this, for example, this Maha direction, this Make America Healthy Again direction. That comes out of the podcast world. That wasn't baked in RNC headquarters somewhere. So what's interesting is that I spoke to a Democratic strategist about this, about sort of all these cringe moments that Democrats have had trying to get themselves back into some kind of credibility on the internet.

And the strategist said, look, I mean, there's nothing we can really do. He's got to kind of post through it and hope that something connects. There's nothing we can really do. But it's interesting. You were nodding during while he was talking and you're youthful, I'll say, unless you surprise me and say you're 72 years old. But talk about that. Are we overplaying that idea? Because I think the term basically what we're talking about, Kamau Bell, is like if you're policing people.

right, and you're being woke, that's uncool. - I mean, I think we're definitely overplaying this. I think, to Evan's point, there has to be some authenticity there. Like, you can't just make a person be a cool, liberal, progressive Democrat. I think what Joe Rogan and Donald Trump have been really good at is they've been very,

authentic and they understand the heartbeat of the movement of the conservative sort of agenda right now. And I don't think Democrats have that, but I'm not sure we need that. I think if we keep running toward that sort of scenario, we miss the point. I think the point is meeting people where they are and understanding what they need and what they want to hear and what they want to hear from their politicians. And so I think we're just, we're talking about this a little bit too much. It's fun to talk about. I love comedy.

- I know, but if you, I mean, showing my age, Bill Clinton, like playing the saxophone on Arsenio, like, you know, Erin, the thing that people always said was like, look, you have the culture. The late night comedians make the jokes. Like this is why this Kennedy Center thing is such a big deal. There's a ideological capture of culture. So are you out of it? Does it feel like Republicans are having a time and having the last laugh?

Right now, Republicans are like the cool kids in D.C. right now after we were sent away during the 2020 cycle. Republicans are feeling good about themselves, but

But to the point of like Joe Rogan of all of this, Joe Rogan didn't enter this sphere as a political person. He built that audience off his authenticity. And Jon Stewart did the same thing on the left. But also off of like those continued conversations. He wasn't a Republican. He's not a conservative by any stretch of the imagination.

Having conversations and having other voices brought him there. It was like he ended up at the 180 position because he was like, this is so backwards. What's on the other side? And people were drawn to that. That's where Democrats miss this time. And again, they think they're like, well, we need that exact thing. No, you've got to figure it out. The reason Joe Rogan works in podcast work is because the audience likes that. Democrats are good on TikTok.

and on Instagram and on social medias, which are shorter and pickier. Is that your social media? That's what those folk kids do, I assume. It's kind of like tapping on your phone. It's kind of like local dancing. They're good at yapping. But they're just not as good at the long-form conversation with voters, and that matters to American people. Oh, that's a nice way of putting it. People love to listen to podcasts. They like the long-form. Joe Rogan is 3.5.

hours. That is a long list. And as a person who's a podcaster, I have to say I absolutely hate interviewing lawmakers because podcasting is about vulnerability and intimacy, and lawmakers are about being invulnerable. They basically don't want to ever be told they did a gaffe or all these problems, so they can't talk. Democrats can talk for a long time and draw an audience, right? Cory Booker talked for like 37 hours or whatever it was and drew an audience with what he was doing because he had something that was focused and attentive.

The difference with this, I think that what Erin is saying is exactly right, which is that when you talk to these Democratic strategists, they sound like Democratic strategists talking about podcasts. That's what they sound like, as opposed to people who like podcasts or are podcasters who become interested in politics, which is what really happened with someone like Rogan, right? And the challenge really is how much control do you want to let go of? And I can say that in my reporting, when I talk to the, you know, talk to Democrats as they're trying to make their plans for their future,

They have to give up some of this control. That's what you actually see in the conservative movement kind of do. There's a lot of tapestry over there on that side of the political aisle now where people believe this, people believe this, they talk to each other, they're on different sides. Democrats are still trying to kind of

rally around one thing with one person directing them and that makes it very difficult, I think, for them. - Okay, hold on a second. Group chat is lit on this. You guys, if you wanna talk more, please check out the latest episode of the podcast. The assignment is out today. You can find our conversation with W. Kamau Bell and more.

All right, coming up, President Trump said he wasn't familiar with Project 2025 on the campaign trail. But is that playbook his new guide in the White House? Plus, Russia launches more deadly strikes in Ukraine as a new spat between world leaders puts a peace deal in limbo. Your local Benjamin Moore retailer is more than a paint expert. There's someone with paint in their soul. A sixth sense honed over decades.

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Good morning, everybody. I'm Adi Cornish, and I want to thank you for joining me on CNN this morning. It is 33 minutes past the hour, and here's what's happening right now. President Trump restarts the clock on tariff negotiations on Wednesday. He promised to bring new tariffs on countries that don't make a deal in two to three weeks. Today, Norway's prime minister will meet with the president in the Oval to talk about tariffs, trade and much more.

Right now in Vatican City, mourners are once again paying their respects to Pope Francis, the late pontiff now lying in state for a second day ahead of his funeral on Saturday. President Trump once again looking to tighten federal control over higher ed. A newly signed executive order is now changing the process for how colleges and universities can access billions of dollars in federal student loans and Pell Grants. Those grants are a big indirect revenue source for many schools.

And it's not just colleges in the crosshairs of the Trump administration. There's a new executive order this week eliminating what the White House calls, quote, school discipline based on discriminatory and unlawful equity ideology at public schools. They say the reason is child safety.

The target of the order is a 2014 Obama-era policy which tried to balance out racial disparities in classroom discipline. President Trump's new order almost directly mirrors a proposal from Project 2025. That's a conservative think tank document that he tried to distance himself from on the campaign trail. Like some on the right, severe right,

came up with this Project 25, and I don't even know. I mean, some of them, I know who they are. They're seriously extreme. But I don't know anything about it. I don't want to know anything about it.

On this topic, they seem to agree. The project's authors blamed federal overreach for pushing racial parity over student safety and then laid out recommended steps to roll back the policy. Joining me now is David Graham. He's staff writer at The Atlantic and I wanted to talk to him because he's the author of a new book. It's called The Project: How Project 2025 is Reshaping America.

David, I should just say, people can't see in the picture, your book is about this thin compared to the actual Project 2025 document. And in it you talk about basically the overlap and how it came to be. One of the things I found most interesting is that it was born out of Trump 1, right? Where essentially the authors behind it felt like it wasn't a failure of Trump the first time around, it was sabotage. Can you talk more about that?

Yeah, you know, many of them came through the first Trump administration and they felt like when Trump came into office, he wasn't really prepared for the first hundred days. He wasn't really prepared with a good staff. And so he had civil servants who were able to block him by sort of working the system, knowing the rules better than they did. And he had political appointees who weren't really on board with Trumpism.

were kind of just there for themselves, or they were sort of, you know, George W. Bush holdovers. So they wanted to come in with a staff that was much more prepared and a plan to get a lot more things done in the second four years than they did in the first four years. Would it have mattered who was the next Republican president?

You know, they say they were -- they started working on this in 2023 -- or 2022, rather. They say that, you know, it was not intended to be specific to Trump. But it's hard to imagine another president being willing to do these things and driving it through in the same way. And so many of them, you know, are Trump loyalists themselves.

Project 2025 was a huge talking point for Democrats on the campaign trail. People might remember them sort of hauling out this big pretend cartoon-sized copy of it during the Democratic National Convention. Here's kind of like how they would talk about it. Project 2025.

You ever seen a document that could kill a small animal and democracy at the same time? They went ahead and wrote down all the extreme things that Donald Trump wants to do. Donald Trump's Project 2025 would abandon our troops, abandon our veterans, our allies, and our principles. Usually Republicans want to ban books, but now they're trying to shove this down our throats.

Obviously voters still went for Donald Trump and if we look at his cabinet now, there are many contributors to that project who actually have roles in the administration. Why do you think that this didn't break through, so to speak, to voters as a quote unquote concern?

Yeah, I think there are two things that happened. One is that Democrats talked a lot about specific policies in there, but there's just so much. The two things you were talking about in education at the beginning here are examples of, you know, it's hard to get into all that detail. But I don't think they talked about the broader scheme to really take over the executive branch and give the president all the power in these methodical ways. They treated it like a wish list. But even when voters knew about these things,

We found that they were polling found that they didn't like Project 2025, but they simply just didn't believe that Trump was really going to implement these policies. And in fact, it's been a really good roadmap to many of the things that he has done. David Graham, thanks so much for being here with me. And of course, his book is called The Project, How Project 2025 is Reshaping America.

Now, news overnight, crews in Ukraine's capital of Kiev searching for survivors in the rubble. After a wave of Russian strikes, Ukraine says at least eight people are dead, more than 70 wounded. Meanwhile, President Trump once again going after Ukraine's president, saying, quote, we're very close to a deal, but the man with no cards to play should now finally get it done.

I think we have a deal with Russia. We have to get a deal with Zelensky. And I hope that Zelensky, I thought it might be easier to deal with Zelensky. So far, it's been harder. I have no favorites. I don't want to have any favorites. I want to have a deal done.

So sources say in the peace deal proposed by the U.S., it would recognize Russian control of Crimea, something that Ukraine's president wouldn't get on board with. Joining us now for more, CNN's international diplomatic editor, Nick Robertson. Nick, I have to talk about the timing here, right? Right as the U.S. is saying time is running out, you don't have the cards, there is an attack on Ukraine. Can you talk about the context?

Yeah, diplomatic pressure from the United States and military pressure from President Putin, the biggest onslaught on the capital, Kyiv, in, well, pretty much since last summer. A total of 70 missiles fired, 145 drones. Of those missiles, 11 of them were ballistic missiles. And why do I mention those?

because they're the ones that fly up really high, come down really fast. They're really hard for the Ukrainians to stop. These are not, and I think it's totally important to emphasize this, these are not being fired at troops on the front line. They're being fired at cities. So yes, it is...

Putin appears to be trying to create a military and emotional effect on Ukrainians while President Trump is doubling down on Zelensky to cross Zelensky's own red lines, which are Ukraine's red lines, constitutional red lines, and previously have been a red line for the United States as well, not to recognize Russian control over Crimea. So it

I think we get a sense of just how bad the strikes were last night, how much Zelensky is feeling this city has literally cut short a trip to South Africa where he's only just sort of really touched down and arrived to head back to Kyiv. And last night, Zelensky was talking about how emotions were running high. That really feels this morning to be an understatement. This peace deal or peace process fragile at best.

It really is. You know, and it's not just Ukraine. I mean, look at this from the European perspective that supports Ukraine and thinks that Ukraine's sovereignty is important. And of course, Ukraine's sovereignty includes not handing off and rewarding President Putin's aggression with a territorial gain of Crimea, which is important to Russia because they have very important naval facilities there.

that is actually ukrainian territory the united states allies don't believe in handing that off to uh... to uh... to russia uh... it would

it would they believe encourage Putin to attack more again in the future which they believe would make Europe less safe so this isn't just the division we're talking about here between what President Trump believes it should happen and and what Ukraine and President zelensky believe should happen it's a division it appears because we don't have all the details it appears between the United States and it's

biggest military allies in the world's strongest military defense pact. Secretary General for that NATO is in Washington today. That's CNN's Nick Robertson in London. Thank you so much. Still to come on CNN this morning, a wildfire spreading across southern New Jersey. We're also going to have the latest on that fire and more importantly, the efforts to contain it as weather conditions improve. Plus...

Thank you for quitting. Ahead, why many Democrats are celebrating the retirement of one of the party's longest-serving leaders. More from the group chat after this. How much pain can Harvard absorb here? We don't know how much we can actually absorb, but what we do know is that we cannot compromise on basic principles like defense of our First Amendment rights.

The Trump administration is taking another step to exact control over institutions of higher learning. He signed several new executive orders Wednesday. One involves the financial ties that colleges have with foreign donors, and another targets the process that decides what schools can access in terms of billions of dollars in federal money.

We want to focus on results, we want to focus on actual fairness, we want to focus on merit, not things like disparate impact theory and the whole sort of diversity, equity and inclusion cult. They're allowing people into school that can't do math and yet kids who've worked really hard and number one in their class in a high school someplace in New Jersey or in Mississippi, they can't get into the best schools. What is that all about?

Joining me now is CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein. So Ron, good morning. Yeah, thank you for coming in here in person. So I actually want to play for you something that Alan Garber said. He's the president of Harvard. We've been talking about them so much, but he finally did an interview with NBC. Here's how he talked about what's at stake. What's at risk?

is the excellence of higher education in the United States and in particular the research mission of many of our universities which plays such a vital role in the US economy and in the health and well-being of the American people.

Harvard famously has a $53 billion endowment. They can take the hit, but what point are they trying to make here? You know, it's really striking. President Trump is saying the economic competition with China is so imperative that every American should pay significantly more for pretty much everything they buy every day: toys, clothes.

etcetera and at the same time he is going after what has been the the foundation of our technological strategy really since Sputnik in the fifties you know the federal government that sometimes we've heard from the White House press secretary the argument that universities don't deserve public funding the public the

public funding for universities for research is not some favor we're doing for the universities. The federal government for more than half a century has been relying on them to deliver a service to the country and the public. - So you're talking about this pipeline that goes research,

to the private sector, to the industry, to us. - Yeah, I mean, and medical industries that have built around these research universities, and in fact, acting as the sun around which all of these clusters of innovation develop, whether it's biotech in Boston, medical technology in Madison, Silicon Valley. You know, there are, if you look at the 100 counties that generate the most GDP in the country,

Roughly 45 of them have a research university that is among also the top 100 of federal recipients, of federal research. That's 1.5% of all the counties in the US. It's more than a third of our total economic output is generated in those counties. So when they are targeting these research universities, it's not just kind of a bunch of snooty academics who may pay the cost. It's the parts of the country that are both driving our domestic economic growth

and are central to our international economic competitiveness. One of the reasons why I wanted to talk to you is because you have been looking at it economically and down at the level with the rest of us, right? Because we don't all live near Harvard. Some of us just live through near a state college and whatever research or benefits that are conveyed through that.

You've also been looking at Medicaid and healthcare and the effects of some potential changes from Republicans who want to roll back Obama-era Medicaid expansions. I recall from covering Congress that there were actually quite a few states, red states, that ended up taking advantage of this. So what can you tell us, again,

What does it mean at the district level in our towns and neighborhoods? - Yeah, well first of all, there's a lot of things going on, but I think if you're thinking about what Congress does, this is going to be the legislative fight that has the biggest impact on the 2026 election. The idea that Republicans are going to advance one big bill that is likely to, certain, to cut taxes in a way that primarily benefits the affluent and pay for it in part by cutting programs that benefit the middle and working class. That has been a toxic combination in the past.

Medicaid is the biggest pot of money available to them. And what they are zeroing in on is the expansion of Medicaid. The Affordable Care Act allowed states to expand Medicaid eligibility to more. And states took advantage. States said thank you. 20 million people are now getting coverage through the Medicaid expansion. But the 10 states

that never expanded Medicaid. 40 states did. 10 states did not. Those 10 states are red-leaning states. Those 10 states already alone account for 40% of all the Republicans in Congress. So for Republicans, it may seem like an easy target to go after this expansion. But what I was able to show with data from KFF, which is the think tank on CNN.com, 32 Republican House members

represent districts where there are more people receiving care through coverage, through the Medicaid expansion than nationally. There are 14 where there are at least 80,000 people alone in their district. In Mike Johnson's district in Louisiana, a

117,000 people are receiving coverage specifically through the ACA's Medicaid expansion. 6.8 million total in Republican held districts. So there is simply, you know, they may feel that blue targets are kind of the center

of a blue states are the center of the target here but there is no way for them to do this without directly affecting the health care access of a lot of their own voters and by the way the medicaid expansion is even more important in rural than urban areas which are now reliably ruby red that is a fight to come ron brownstein thank you so much for this reporting i really appreciate it it is now 53 minutes past the hour one more uh... morning roundup things you need to know to get your day going

Live now, we want to show you St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican where thousands of Catholics are streaming in to view the body of Pope Francis. The late pontiff is lying in state in the historic church until his funeral on Saturday. We were so lucky to be able to pray near his body and it was really full of emotion. The Vatican says over 19,000 people lined up to pay their respects to the Pope on Wednesday.

And today is Holocaust Remembrance Day. In just a few moments, at the top of the hour actually, 80 Holocaust survivors will walk the nearly two miles from Auschwitz to Birkenau in Poland in observance of the day. They will be joined by 10 hostages who were held by Hamas and families of those still in captivity along with Israel's president. And the wildfire in New Jersey, it spread to more than 20 square miles. Officials say the fire is now at least 50% contained.

Weather conditions are looking more favorable this morning, and the state's acting governor says that there have been no deaths, thankfully, related to the fire. FEMA is expected to lose 1,000 workers to doge cuts just ahead of hurricane season. Sources telling CNN that as much as 20% of its staff are expected to take the Trump administration's buyout offer.

Separately, the White House denied Arkansas' request for federal funding following a tornado outbreak that killed more than 40 people across three states. The Trump administration telling Arkansas Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders that state and local governments could pay for the recovery themselves, along with the help of volunteer groups.

And the second ranking Senate Democrat, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, is retiring at the end of next year. His plans triggering questions about who might replace him both in leadership and his Senate seat. Durbin is 80 years old and age has become one of the big questions for Democrats. When you have people that are above 90, when you have people that are like mid 80s,

running the show or at least I don't even think there's a running. I think they're like just pushing the show at this point. It's like, when do we say as American people, hey, we don't want to pay the salary anymore. Like we don't, we cannot. You have to go home.

Group chat is back. Lala Halter 77 just said it. Just said it out there. Pushing the show. I just want to. It's changed my entire world. Okay, so Notice, of course, had this scoop about this fight over David Hogg. Before I get to that, I want you to talk about this because there was this element of the former Parkland activist. He now has a role in the party saying, look, I'm going to start leaning in.

and pushing this thing about new youthful. And I actually, I remember getting texts from some Democratic operatives that were like, what a jerk. They were like mad at him. Tell me why. Two things can be true. Look, I don't have a problem with David Hogg, but I do think that, you know, they're,

Democrats do need new leadership and new younger people in the party, but I don't think David Hogg understands that process. - I heard that butt loud and clear. - He's not been around for a long time. He does not understand the Democratic Party. I'm happy that he's vice chair, because I do think that new voices are important, but he's gotta be a little bit more cautious in how he's approaching this. Not because the old guard, but just because he doesn't know what he's doing. - Okay, what have you heard when you tried to figure out what was going on? - Well, my colleagues, Catherine Swartz and Alex Rorty, scooped this morning, actually, that there's gonna be a conference call

Democratic conference call today in which they're going to lay down the law with David Hogg and say to him, look, you either do your project to primary our candidates or you get to be DNC vice chair, but not both. And it's actually quite a fascinating turn because, look, this is a huge problem for this party to figure out what to do to get new blood in. Right. I mean, you talk about the idea of Dick Durbin retiring now in this moment with the Senate map the way it is and how it might scramble to make it harder for Democrats to keep that how are

or to win more seats in that house, right? This is because they hang on people for a really, really long time, right? Well, in fairness, it's Bernie Sanders who's drawing crowds. It's Elizabeth Warren who goes out there giving very punchy interviews. But Bernie Sanders is going around with AOC with him, too. Oh, you think that helps? He's bringing somebody younger with him. I feel like he would have drawn that crowd anyway. But I mean, he's trying to open the door up, right? Yeah, that's true. The question is, this is the DNC saying to the younger people, we're closing the door. I just love it so much, though, the David Hogg of all of it, and now that

The Democrats are, oh my gosh, I love it. It's like housewives now and they're leaking to the press to be like, David, prepare yourself. We're going to yell at you later today. It's like the Joe, the, you know, renouncing or Jojo says, it's too little, too late. Like you can't change it now. Democrats, he's our, the argument is,

- The arsonist is in the house next to the firefighters. - That is not true. Okay, speed. But here's the thing. I remember sitting in panels where Republicans were just like, Trump, come on, no. Trumpists, come on, no. We got all these people. They're all, I mean, yeah, you were working with DeSantis, right, at one point? So the idea that you can have someone who comes out of nowhere, not in the system, and is aggressive,

Like, there's a model now. There's AOC, right? She came out of nowhere, right? Her ads were about her being a waitress and a bartender. And yeah, she came out of nowhere. There's nothing wrong with fresh blood. That's not the problem. The problem with David Hogg is, and this would be a problem for Republicans too, if we elected a vice chair and their immediate position was,

Hey, I'm going to primary our members. I saw Reince Priebus talk about it. That's $20 million you're taking away from the party against the party. It's just, it doesn't make sense. I understand wanting fresh blood, but to your point, the caution he needs to take and how he approaches this instead of just trying to blow it all up,

This really could backfire on you. This is going to be a very interesting moment. You guys, we talked about a lot today. Thank you so much. Group chat was lit. I want to thank you all for waking up with us. I'm Adi Cornish. We've got more news headlines, especially, of course, out of the Vatican. CNN News Central starts right now.

I'm Eva Longoria, and I'm exploring Spain and its 17 regions to see how the land and its people have created one of the world's most exciting cuisines. Eva Longoria, Searching for Spain, premieres Sunday at 9 on CNN.