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It is Wednesday, April 23rd, and here's what's happening right now on CNN This Morning. Pope Francis now lies in state at St. Peter's Basilica, and at this moment, mourners are gathering to pay their respects to the late pontiff.
Later, getting out of Doge, Elon Musk tells Tesla shareholders he's going back to his day job soon where profits are plunging. And in the US, measles cases surging. It's now the largest single outbreak in two decades. Why it could be even worse than we know. And later, smoke choking out parts. Smoke flooded the streets.
Those wildfires double in size in parts of New Jersey. Evacuations in place and a major highway closed for the morning commute.
It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. We want to give you a live look at St. Peter's Basilica, where the late Pope Francis is lying in state right now. Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me. And of course, right now, we're going to talk more about the Vatican. The Catholic faithful are getting their chance to say goodbye to Pope Francis.
And those are the bells tolling in St. Peter's Square as a procession led by dozens of cardinals from across the globe brought Pope Francis' coffin to St. Peter's Basilica. Now, the pope was carried by officials who worked alongside him. He was flanked by Swiss guards who will keep watch as he lies in state until Saturday's funeral.
In a way, we're also hearing from the late pontiff himself because he wrote a new message in February which is just now being published. In it, Pope Francis wrote, "Death is not the end of everything, but the beginning of something." Joining us now from Rome is CNN's Senior International Correspondent Ben Wiedemann.
Ben, the public is of course lining up now their chance to get to honor both the head of state and the head of their church. Can you describe the scene as it stands this morning?
Yes, well, when I was coming in this morning to our location here just outside St. Peter's Square, what I saw was there are thousands of people lined up well beyond the boundaries of the Vatican waiting to get in to have the opportunity to see Pope Francis lying in state. Now, the doors opened about an hour
hour ago and they're going to be open until midnight. Tomorrow they'll be opening at 7 a.m. local time, also open until midnight as well. And officials expect tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people to file slowly, silently through St. Peter's Basilica where they will see the body of Pope Francis in a simple wooden coffin, unlike previous popes who would be buried in three
coffins, one inside the other, made of cypress, lead and ash. So this simple wooden coffin is really reflective of Pope Francis's belief in simplicity, in humility. Now, we did have the opportunity already to speak to one young man, 32-year-old Thomas Natcher from Los Angeles, who was among the first to get inside
St. Peter's Basilica and see the body of Pope Francis. This is what he said. His legacy is going to show the world that to accept everyone and to love everyone. It shows that the church is also kind of with the times a little bit too.
And Italy has announced five days of mourning to mark the death of Pope Francis, who, of course, even though he was from Argentina, he was of Italian origin. And Italian, with a strong Argentine accent, was his preferred language of
public discourse. So there's going to be five days of public mourning. The day of the funeral, Saturday at 10 a.m. local time, Italy will observe an hour of silence. And we expect, as I said, I mean I can see just now many people on their way into St. Peter's Square, all waiting to go
inside St. Peter's Basilica to see the body of Pope Francis. Aude? Ben, we mentioned that on Saturday is going to be the funeral itself. Between now and then, can you talk about what we can expect? World leaders arriving, cardinals gathering. What more is there to know? Yes. In addition to, of course, all these people coming in to see the pope,
world leaders including President Trump and his wife Prince William, Prince of Wales, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, will be arriving in the coming days. And of course the Cardinals are busy preparing A for the funeral and B for the conclave. We expect them to meet this evening to make further plans because once the funeral is over the focus will shift
to the question of the Conclave and the very intense behind closed doors
politicking that goes along with the process of electing a new pope. Now, just to put it in perspective, back in 2013, the conclave only lasted for two days. There were five ballots, which resulted, of course, at the end with the election of Jorge Bergoglio, who became Pope Francis. So even though the
The funeral is just one step in a long and complicated process involved in passing the baton of power, so to speak, from one pope to another. Ben, thank you so much. Ben, of course, will be reporting from Rome throughout the rest of the day.
Coming up on CNN this morning, a tariff treaty. Is President Trump ready to make a deal with China? Plus, you might remember this interview from the 2024 election cycle, Vice President Harris sitting down with 60 Minutes. Well, after all the fallout from that moment, now a major shakeup for the show. And everything's bigger in Texas, including the jackpot scandal dubbed the biggest theft in the history of the state.
The bottom line is, if people are going to have confidence in the lottery, we have to be sure that no one has an advantage. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much. Please, for the love of everything good in this world, stop. With Mint, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month. Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments, but that's weird. Okay, one judgment.
Anyway, give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch.
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A tariff turnaround? Well, President Trump is hinting at a potential U-turn in his trade war with China. 145% is very high, and it won't be that high. It's not going to be that high. No, it won't be anywhere near that high. It'll come down substantially, but it won't be zero.
So his comments are coming after sources said Treasury Secretary Scott Besant called the back and forth tariffs basically unsustainable. The president also seems to be changing his tune about Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell after calling him a, quote, major loser earlier this week. I have no intention of firing him. I would like to see him be a little more active in terms of his idea to lower interest rates. This is a perfect time to lower interest rates.
If he doesn't, is it the end? No, it's not. But it would be good timing.
Okay, time to hit up the group chat. National politics reporter at the Washington Post, Sabrina Rodriguez. White House and foreign affairs correspondent at Politico, Eli Stokols. And CNN contributor and New York Times podcast host, Lulu Garcia Navarro. Okay, you guys, thank you for coming here to help me make sense of this because obviously people and the markets have been really parsing everything Trump has been saying. Maybe it's getting through to him, the effects of that. Sabrina, what do you think?
Let's start with Powell, because he went from calling him a loser to what we heard there, I have no intention of firing him. What's your sense of that softening of rhetoric? I mean, the reality is we're starting to see Trump actually respond to some of the criticism, respond to some of the market's tumbling.
Yeah, criticism of our markets. It's really the markets at the end of the day. Despite what we've seen in recent weeks about him wanting to move ahead with the tariffs, despite what the markets were showing, despite what investors and major business leaders were saying, the reality is Trump has historically always cared about the markets. He has always cared about the approval of folks on Wall Street.
some of that might be breaking through but i think we have to be very cautious here because we do know trump to say one thing today and another thing tomorrow so i think he may have just kind of a problem right which is what people yeah it's the uncertainty we keep seeing it's markets and it's main street because we're seeing actually effects on both we're seeing a lot of volatility in the markets we're seeing you know
the stock market go up and down, the bond market, everyone's putting their money into gold, et cetera, et cetera. But this is actually having tangible effects on Main Street. People are paying higher prices already. Small businesses are being affected in how they can actually bring things in, the prices that they're offering. So it's two things. And the thing that I find most interesting about this is like,
reality, meet the president. Because the president has often said things that are not true. He will try to shape the world in the vision that he wants. But isn't that the point of the art of the deal? That is. You're the one who creates the atmosphere, Eli. I'm not being facetious here. No, but in this...
you know markets go up markets go down prices go up I mean this is not something that you can pretty much I lay out real money we're talking about real and it's not just the stock indexes but it's the bond markets that it's the other it's other countries are talking about this you know the Japan like Asian indexes you know European markets those are people are putting their money they're taking their money out of the United States because of the uncertainty I think it's really the cumulative effect of all the uncertainty you see Trump threatening
basically every country in the world. I mean, talking about firing the Fed chair, all at the same time. And so whether he ratchets down the tariffs, whether he pulls back on what he's talking about with the Fed chair, I think what people are processing is
There's no certainty out there in the financial markets. And that's problematic. And that's what the Treasury Secretary is trying to reassure people. Exactly. That it won't be so bad. And the president is now trying, you seem to be in reassuring mode. And the highest tariffs have been on China, right? And when he said he was going to institute these super high tariffs, it was like, this is what's happening. We're taking a hard line. Here's what he talked about on Tuesday when he described the negotiations actively underway with China.
Are negotiations actively underway? And do you agree with Secretary Besant, who has suggested that the current standoff with China is not sustainable? We're doing fine with China. We're doing fine with every, I think, almost every country. Are you going to play hardball with them? I'm not going to say, oh, I'm going to play hardball with China. I'm going to play hardball with you, President Xi. No, no, we're going to be very nice. They're going to be very nice. And we'll see what happens.
He's kind of his own good cop, bad cop. Well, he's mocking the press as sort of a way to get past the question. There are no talks with China that are happening. So he can say, oh, I'm going to be nice, we're going to be nice. I mean, ever since they ratcheted up the tariffs, he has been sort of subtly, or maybe not so subtly, trying to kind of coax China to make the first move
uh... you know it's kind of this awkward like high school situation and just like one china to a jimmy diamond is on t_v_ saying like you know guys we don't hate the air was on t_v_ was in an interview with financial times saying this doesn't have to wait like this needs to happen soon so i think there are a lot of cues out there uh... on both sides saying this you know this would be better if we could
get past the staring contest and get down to it. And an enormous amount of political capital is being wasted here. Oh, in what way? For Trump? For Trump, no. Because what is happening is you're seeing this administration doing so many things on so many fronts. You know, conflicts with universities, trying to gut the federal government, you know, immigration, etc., etc., etc.
If the economy is humming, if people feel confident in that, people are going to be much more inclined to go along with what are pretty radical changes. We are seeing in polling that actually what were Trump's strongest polling numbers, which were on the economy, on immigration, those are becoming softer because people are losing confidence. And so he needs a lot of momentum to implement some of his plans. And this kind of stuff with the economy,
It's not what they want to be discussing. It's hard to walk away from. Everybody stay with me. We've got a lot to talk about today. Still to come on this morning, we're going to be talking about the Catholic faith mourning the late Pope Francis at St. Peter's Basilica. That is happening right now. This is leading up to the beginning of a unique tradition, electing the next pontiff. We're going to talk about what happens next.
Plus, measles cases in the U.S. are surging. Why, the number may be even higher than we think. And live pictures from southern New Jersey. A wildlife, a wildfire burning through the night, forcing thousands to evacuate and leading authorities to close a portion of the Garden State Parkway. We're going to have more on this story throughout the hour.
Once upon a time, a young couple inherited their grandfather's castle in France.
Renovating the chateau is keeping my grandfather's legacy alive, but it is falling apart. The bottom floor is the beauty. May I present to you this secret passageway. The three floors above are the beast. Oh, my gosh. Will their fairy tale have a happy ending? Castle Impossible series premiere Tuesday, April 29th at 9:00 on HGTV. Stream next day on Max.
If you're getting ready, it's 20 minutes past the hour. Here's the morning roundup. Some of the stories I want you to know as you're getting your day going. So a jury in Arizona found the woman nicknamed the Doomsday Mom guilty of conspiring to murder her estranged husband. Prosecutors say Lori Vallow Daybell plotted with her brother to kill him for his life insurance. She's already serving multiple life sentences for the deaths of her two children and her new husband's first wife.
And a measles outbreak in the southern U.S. has now reached 739 cases. That's according to health officials in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Kansas. Experts warn the true scale of the outbreak is actually much larger as so many cases go unreported. Two children at this point have died from the measles. A third death is under investigation. In all three cases, they were unvaccinated.
and the executive director of the texas lottery has resigned this comes during multiple investigations into some jackpots in 2023 a group in europe won a 95 million dollar prize by purchasing more than 25 million tickets almost every possible combination but they used a texas-based courier company to do it and that company denies any wrongdoing as do lottery officials and i want you to see this a volcano in hawaii spouts lava as tall as a skyscraper
It went more than 650 feet high on Hawaii's Big Island. This is the latest in a series of eruptions that actually started back in December.
Coming up on CNN this morning overnight, a crucial meeting about Russia's war on Ukraine won't be happening after all. But Vice President Vance is indicating the U.S. could be ready to walk away. Plus, if you need help navigating all this financial uncertainty, we've got a money expert here to help you out. And of course, a live look at St. Peter's Basilica. That's where mourners are gathering to pay their respects to Pope Francis.
- Uncertainty is kind of where the consumer sentiment in the markets are at right now. - So the Trump administration is looking to cool trade tensions as the president claims the ultimate tariff on China will not be 145%. Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I wanna thank you for joining me on CNN this morning. It's half past the hour and here's what's happening right now.
Stock futures all in the green. The rally seems to be helped by President Trump's comments that he has no intention of firing the Fed chair and the possibility of a de-escalation in the trade war with China. Right now in London, it was supposed to be a major meeting about Russia's war on Ukraine between top officials such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio. But instead, just lower level officials are going to be there. Secretary Rubio's office said he had to cancel because of "logistical issues."
And at the Vatican, Pope Francis now lying in state at St. Peter's Basilica. The public is getting their chance to pay their respects. His coffin will actually remain there until his funeral Saturday morning. And with memorials and honors for the Pope officially underway, cardinals will soon begin the process of choosing his successor.
Now they're going to convene what is known as the Papal Conclave. More than 100 cardinals gather inside the Sistine Chapel where rounds of voting take place until a new pope is elected. It's a secretive process. It's expected to begin between 15 and 20 days following the death of Pope Francis. Technically, the next pope could be
baptized Catholic man, but in reality he's going to come from the College of Cardinals. So who is going to lead in that conversation? Nobody can say. There's only one person who knows, the Holy Spirit. We've got to figure out who the Holy Spirit wants, and that's a heavy responsibility. And these next days are extraordinarily important when we're together. So the Cardinals now meet every day.
- All right, joining me now, Joseph Capizzi, the Dean of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America. And Joseph, thank you so much for being here. - My pleasure. - Before I get to the sort of details ahead, what struck you about this morning? I know for me, seeing that coffin, seeing an open casket was very striking. - Yeah, the simplicity of the coffin, of course, right? Bearing, you know, sort of the character of the Pope. He entered as a simple Pope.
And he's leaving us as a simple pope. So that simple wooden coffin is striking. The body. Catholics value the body. The bodies are often present at Catholic wakes. And any time you're confronted with a dead body, there's something deeply moving about it. So I was struck by, yeah, just seeing him there, lifeless, in that simple coffin. I mean, that's a kind of reminder. We all go out that way.
I want to talk about what these cardinals are thinking about going into the next couple of days. I'm under the impression you have to be under the age of 80 in order to vote. Now, unfortunately, a lot of people have been watching Conclave, the Oscar-nominated film, to get a sense of what's going to happen. That's not a documentary. So why don't you give me a sense of...
what goes into their choice, who has the qualities of a pope and what does that even mean? - Sure, they're looking for the spirit to speak to them. And what's going to happen is first they're gonna get together with a general meeting or a few general meetings before they even think about voting. And in those meetings, men will emerge who seem to express
sort of the moment, the guys that they're looking for who have the character or the disposition to lead the church forward. That conversation is gonna be much more important than what anybody's talking about right now. You may recall when Pope Francis was elected,
He was somebody who was viewed as sort of having his moment had passed to some extent. Yes, because he had come in second during the conversation about Benedict. And I think people thought that was as close as he was going to get and now there was going to be somebody else. But in those general congregations, apparently, that's when he reemerged as a live candidate. So I think that's when you're going to get a sense of, okay, we're not going to hear about that, of
- Yeah, but then why do we have so many names of potential front runners? I know that Pope Francis had so much influence in the makeup of this recent college because people aged out, so to speak. So he was able to bring more cardinals in. Give us a sense of then why these certain names have come forward. - There's different reasons. One is the age range looks right for a lot of these guys. So to some extent what you're looking at is
somebody who's not too young and obviously certainly not too old so somebody around 79 or 80 is probably not going to be a candidate it's going to be somebody in the you know mid to late 60s to early 70s the the church is much more global the cardinal the college of cardinals is much more global than it used to be before because of pope francis so there are candidates from africa and from asia who
look papabile, you know, as they say, right, popable. And those guys, you know, seem to be people who are thought of as forerunners. Sometimes it's agenda-driven, like people who seem like they might actually carry forward Pope Francis' agenda or people who, in fact, might sort of slow it. So some of those sorts of things are the things that are
presenting some of these guys as looking like they could be candidates. - Yes, 'cause there was a more conservative movement, especially in the US, but who had been pushing back or very critical of Francis and the things that he was doing. And he also undermined the kind of career track, so to speak, of being in the bureaucracy. - He was really concerned about that. He was concerned about what he called clericalism, just this idea that you're sort of settled into certain positions or even bureaucratic positions within the church, and to some extent,
He sort of gave off the notion that this is repellent. This is not what Catholics should be. This is not what men who lead the church should be. They should be servants first. Simple people are here to serve. And anybody who looked too interested in being positions of authority doesn't look like they're as interested in serving. So that was something he was quite concerned about.
This is great insight for the days ahead. Stay with us. I want to turn to one other thing for a minute, because in this economy, I know it is easy to feel stressed out. OK, we're talking about markets being up and we're talking about markets being down. What the president is saying, tariffs are on, tariffs are off.
Serious question. How are people affording anything in 2025? American dream to buy a home is dead.
Okay. Voices of the people right out in TikTok land. And we want to know, we want to help you figure out your finances during this uncertain time. And my next guest is here to help. Ramit Sethi is the author of Money for Couples. Thank you so much for being here. People may know you from your Netflix show, from online. And what are you hearing from people who reach out to you about what it's like to be in this economy right now?
A lot of confusion. And the biggest question is, what should I do now? And the good news is that we don't react to short term changes in the market. The bad news is that this trade war, these tariffs are completely unnecessary and they are really disrupting most people's personal finance.
you know in your book money for couples you actually listen I found startling statistics for example you say fifty percent of couples don't know their income which I i don't even totally understand how that works on but yeah all these details about kind of how people on are kind of in the dark about what their financial situation as so in this moment can you help I mean or is it just wait and see seems tough for people who might be tipping on the edge
No, there are things you can do. And you're right. It is shocking that 50% of people I speak to do not know their own household income. It happens every single week on my podcast. You've never heard a couple just admit openly when I say, hey, did you know you actually make that much?
And they just look at me like, nope. That's because most of us think on a month to month basis. Most of us are not thinking beyond what happens this month or next month. And you have to. So one of the biggest changes I'm recommending right now for the second time only in 21 years is to keep a 12 month emergency fund. Now that might seem shocking. How am I supposed to get 12 months? I don't even have two. We can talk about how, but this just shows the severity of what is going on. We don't know what will happen. And again,
Nobody can predict, but from what we're seeing in early data, it does not look promising in terms of employment. So I always want to provide a buffer. I want to be safe. I want to be conservative. That's why I want to be targeting a 12-month emergency fund.
We've got some news here that late credit card payments have been higher. And, you know, one of the things that strikes me about your show is that there's a lot of shame in financial struggle where people are trying to kind of cover it up, either using credit or just not wanting to feel themselves in that position. What do you tell people in this moment where, I don't know, it's like not really their fault in a way? How do you think about it? I tell them to read a book.
By the time people are 40, the biggest worry they have is their finances. It's very simple. And they worry and they fight and they feel anxious and guilty. But the vast majority of Americans have never read a single book about money. Now, it could be my book, it could be somebody else's. But if you want to get ahead, if you want to know how to build an emergency fund, or if you want to know the difference between a Roth IRA and a 401k, which can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,
you need to be conversant in the basic language of money. So while we have things happening politically, we need to focus on what we can control. And that means knowing our four key numbers, how much we earn and what we're doing with our money. And what I hear you saying is that it's not too late, which, Ramit Sethi, I appreciate you saying.
It's never too late. You can always start right now and you can make rapid changes. Okay, you can find his book Money for Couples wherever you find fine bookstores if they're left. I want to talk about something else now which is actually kind of related to books. The Supreme Court has a case that touches on identity, religion, and parents' rights.
And the court's conservative majority is signaling that it will require schools to allow parents with religious objections to opt their children out of lessons that involve LGBTQ books. So here's one of the lawyers who's arguing on behalf of some of those parents.
We are optimistic about our chances. They seem very concerned about the content of the school books, the instruction to teachers to disrupt students either or thinking about sex, to rewrite the norms, and to just really do things that are contrary to the things that their parents are trying to teach them. Okay, many other parents, teachers, even students see this case as a chance for the court to decide whose stories can be excluded.
When you have your kids in public schools, and especially with the diversity we have in our public schools, you need to make sure everybody's included. All right, group chat is back, and we asked Joseph Capizzi to enter the chat from Catholic University of America because of this case has these religious implications. Do you mind setting the table for us? Why is this, of all the kinds of cases, prayer in school, things like that, why is this one of interest to you?
to so many different constituencies? Sure. The first right a parent has as a parent is educating their children. And from a religious perspective, that's your most important obligation towards your children is to educate them into your faith. And when something conflicts with your faith, you become deeply concerned about the
that and we should be clear people want the right to say okay this is a lesson I don't want my kids and they're the ones who get to leave the classroom correct that's right and the schools are arguing basically everyone's gonna be getting up for all kinds of reasons and maybe this doesn't make sense in a public school setting what do you hear in the arguments so what's interesting to me about this is what the actual Supreme Court is debating it looks like or considering is what the idea of a burden is right because this has been implemented before people were allowed to opt out of Montgomery County
and the school found it too onerous. And so what the Supreme Court is actually looking at is, is it too onerous or is this actually something that they can do in order to respect religious freedom? Now, on the other side of this, there is the parents rights group to say that parents really should be the last arbiters to decide what kids should be learning, especially if it conflicts with their religious belief. On the other side of this, there is this sense that
do you want, especially in a public school setting, what are schools for? Are schools to reflect the world as it is, which includes LGBTQ people, or is it to reflect the world as parents wish it to be? And so it is this idea of like,
What are the schools actually there to do? - I wanna let you guys jump in here, 'cause this is one of those things where people actually will send this to me in my group chats, because there's horseshoe politics when it comes to parents and parents' rights, where you might have immigrant communities that might consider themselves more progressive, say, "But wait a second, on certain issues, "I don't want the school telling my kid they have to X, Y, and Z. "You have these progressive parents." And we're like, "But look, da-da-da." So what do you hear in a discussion like this? It's one of those moments where the politics aren't totally clear.
I have a four and a two year old, and my four year old's class there is a very active parental chat. We haven't gotten to this yet. Give it a minute. Yeah, exactly. Prepare. I think it's fair to say that even at a really-- like at a preschool level, you can sense that the curriculum, the experience for kids is far different than it was when I was growing up, when I was in school. That's just the nature of a changing society, nature of public education adapting to it.
Beyond the legalities of the case, I will just say having a four-year-old who's incredibly and surprisingly observant about the world, I know we're going to get these questions about the world. Sooner rather than later. Whether they come in a top-down educational environment or whether they are just questions about the world, as a parent, you're going to have to be prepared for this. Yes, but people have been arguing about whether or not
the parent, as you said, is the parent the final word? Are they the gatekeeper? And also the question is, should these things be excluded? I mean, they're not just talking about saying... Hold on, Lou. I want to give someone else a chance here. We're not just talking about exclusion. We're talking about the option, right? Which is what it sounded like the Supreme Court was leaning into those arguments. As you said, onerous. Is it really that difficult for the schools to let kids walk out? But what schools might end up doing, because you saw some of this legislation pass in my home state of Florida, the Don't
quote unquote, the don't say gay law. And it started with the option of talking about, you know, four and five year olds and should they be exposed to some of this? And it ended up that actually it was such a chilling effect that now there is practically no discussion in public schools about LGBTQ all the way up through high school. And so, and there's a real sense of
And so that is part of the wider discussion. - Yeah, that's part of the broader debate here is the reality is it's not just about this. It's us having a conversation. Is there a slippery slope here? Is it gonna turn into schools having a hard time navigating how exactly to implement this? And as Lulu said, in Florida, we've seen that, okay, now schools are handing out permission slips and oh, how do you get, people aren't turning in the permission slips or there's just a broader debate
how to implement it and does it translate into more shoes. - And more aggressive parents after the pandemic, parents' rights movement. - But the case is not going to be decided on a slippery slope argument. It's gonna be decided on a fundamental rights argument. - Because of the way this court is leaning or just because? - Because the way the court seems to be leaning and because the way it should, to be frank.
The question here is, as Lula said, the burden, right? And it's a burden weighed against the most fundamental right that we have, the right of free expression of our beliefs. And we're only asking to opt out here. I'm a Montgomery County resident. This is all that's being requested here is what was initially extended in the first place, the right to opt out of something that you find unlawful.
to be contrary to your faith and to be forming your childhood as a thing. - Well, it'll be interesting to see how this develops, especially as the growing movement of homeschooling, people could be having their kids in Catholic school. They don't have to be in this discussion. It'll be interesting to see sort of where the public sentiment is. Joseph, thank you so much for sticking around. - My pleasure. - Thanks for entering the chat. The rest of you stay with me because coming up after the break, we're gonna talk about Elon Musk because he claims he's gonna shift his focus back to Tesla, which has been suffering as the company's earnings plunge.
Plus, thousands evacuated as wildfire rages throughout parts of New Jersey. We're going to have more from our friends here at the table. Please stay with us.
There's been a shakeup at CBS's 60 Minutes. Longtime executive producer Bill Owens is out, resigning because he says that the network won't let him do his job. In a memo obtained by CNN, Owens told show staff, quote, over the past months, it has become clear that I would not be allowed to run the show as I have always run it. Now, this comes as part of the fallout from President Trump's lawsuit against the network over a 60 Minutes interview with Vice President Kamala Harris last fall.
Now, Trump's team had claimed that it was deceptively edited. Joining me now, CNN media analyst and senior media reporter for Axios, Sarah Fisher. Sarah, can you help us understand why this matters? Maybe even why this Trump case leaned so hard on CBS?
Yeah, it's because it represents a broader attack on the news media that people feel is stripping its independence to be able to cover the government and hold it accountable. Donald Trump sued CBS as a civilian, Audie, last year.
Then when he took office, his FCC chair, Brendan Carr, waged an investigation against CBS. And so the challenge is CBS's parent company, Paramount, is currently seeking regulatory approval from Trump's government, from his administration, for a broader merger that will essentially save the future of the company. But
But if they are battling this legal battle with Donald Trump in a separate court, it begs the question, do you settle not because you think what you did was wrong, but because you're trying to get regulatory approval for your merger? It sets a very, very bad precedent. People at 60 Minutes are furious. This has completely disrupted the operations of 60 Minutes and CBS News. And I think, unfortunately, people look at this as a sign of the times that press freedom in America is not what it was.
Before I let you go, do we know if this was a sign, as he implies, of actual exertion of pressure of some kind on him running the show? Because when I think about Jeff Bezos at the Washington Post talking about what their op-ed pages can have, the owner of the LA Times kind of being more aggressive there, is this another case where these external political pressures are having an effect?
I mean, if you look at the episodes all year, they've been very critical of Donald Trump. So it doesn't look like there's been interference so far. But I think that Bill Owens saw the writing on the wall, which is that if his parent company doesn't get approval for its merger, it's super hard to figure out how it's going to continue to live on, especially in this economic environment.
And so it likely means that they're gonna have to settle this case. And that would mean that Bill Owens, who's been at CBS for well over three decades, would sort of have to concede wrongdoing when he doesn't believe he did it. I think it's just a moral clash and that's why he's out. CNN media analyst, Sarah Fisher, thank you so much. Thank you.
Okay, it's 53 minutes past the hour. One last morning, round up some of the stories I want you to know to get going with your day. New this morning, Vice President J.D. Vance says that both Russia and Ukraine need to reach a deal now or the U.S. will walk away from peace talks. Sources tell CNN the U.S. ceasefire proposal requires Ukraine to recognize Russia's annexation of Crimea. But that's something Ukraine's president says his country cannot do.
The current line somewhere close to them is where you're ultimately, I think, going to draw the new lines in the conflict. Now, of course, that means the Ukrainians and the Russians are both going to have to give up some of the territory they currently own. There's going to have to be some territorial swaps. So I wouldn't say the exact lines, but we want the killing to stop.
Talks are underway right now in London, but only with the lower-level staffers after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other diplomats bowed out. And in a few hours, opening statements are set to begin in Harvey Weinstein's retrial. The jury is made up of seven women and five men. An appeals court threw out his previous conviction and 23-year prison sentence last April. The retrial beginning today includes a new allegation from an accuser who wasn't part of that first trial.
And we're following the massive wildfire spread overnight across southern New Jersey. More than 3,000 people have been evacuated. Smoke flooded the streets. People were evacuating. At first it was, you know, voluntary, your choice to evacuate. Then it was mandatory. So everyone started leaving, packing up their cars and heading out.
The winds may be dying down this week. As of now, officials say the fire is just 10% contained part of the Garden State Parkway. One of the busiest highways in the state is now closed. We're
We're going to turn to one last thing. Elon Musk saying he's planning to pay more attention to Tesla as its earnings report showed profits had plunged. It says its overall revenue is down 9% with auto revenue dropping 20%. But its net income falling a whopping 71% compared to just a year earlier. Musk told investors yesterday he's planning to limit his time working for the Trump administration moving forward and will return to Tesla next month.
There's been some blowback for the time that I've been spending in government with the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. There are some challenges, and I expect that this year will be, there'll probably be some unexpected bumps this year. - Right, bringing back the group chat to talk about this. So I always think that what people tell the money
is what's really going on. Like it's one thing to go out and message things in interviews, but when you have to look the investors in the face or have those calls, that's when it gets real. So what did you hear and what he had to say? Can you kind of give us a sense of how that call went down? Yeah, I mean the reality is that again, this is where we see the actual impact that's happened financially in his life. But for me the question is, he said on that call that his efforts with Doge were mostly done.
I think there's a real open question in the weeks and months to come about what exactly has Doge accomplished. We know about the headlines, about the chaos that has ensued in agencies across Washington. But they have a list of receipts, right? Don't they post actual... They do, but the reality is we've seen from more intensive reporting that some of those receipts have not been accurate and some of the cuts that they've said that they've accomplished
accomplished, you know, judges have stepped in and said, oh, well, you need to reinstate these workers. So the reality is how much money has actually been saved from this project that's supposed to be, you know, promoting government efficiency. And he's saying, you know, he's going to stay on and keep, you know, a watchful eye. I think there's also just a question, how much is he actually stepping back and what actually has he accomplished? Plus all of his people.
are working. Like a lot of them are people who had worked for him in one capacity or another. Again, the Doge is not an official agency. It is a, you know, creation of the mind of Elon Musk. And the way that it has been implemented is, you know, with him at the center. The real question for Elon Musk is, you know, one to two days a week. What does that actually mean?
And the issue is not what he's done at Doge. It's also about how he's handled himself and Twitter, the kinds of political statements that he's made. That is what's hurting his company. - Which if you're watching the business channels, they have been talking about. What kind of leader is he? - And the fall in the price and all the impact on Tesla, that's market driven. That's a reaction from people who used to want to buy these cars who are now saying, "I'm not supporting this guy." And so I don't know how you put that toothpaste
back in the tube saying, "I'll stick around for a day or two a week and continue to do this work," seems a little more like face-saving rhetoric than anything real. Obviously, the tone he had on that call with investors, as you noted, a lot different than sort of much more rambunctious Elon with the chainsaw on stage at CPAC. I mean, this is a different phase now that they're entering into. And Sabrina's right. They have scaled down the talk about what Doge was going to do. Initially, they were talking the trillions. A week or two ago, it was,
Musk in the Oval Office saying well 150 billion dollars and we don't even know if that's the case. Yeah exactly. And Elon's very unpopular. I mean this is the other thing if you see poll after poll and this is among Democrats definitely but Republicans also increasingly and so if Elon steps back
that might be an opportunity for a reset with the administration. - Here's the thing I was kind of watching out of this call. I don't know if we have it, but he started to also talk about what future innovations he has coming up, especially in manufacturing. And of course he has these robots, which he hopes
to be the future, I guess, worker. And I felt like that was such a weird footnote to have in this conversation about re-industrialization, about bringing manufacturing back to the US and the person who has kind of the ear of the president, this is actually the worker he's looking forward to. I wanna thank you guys so much for being here at the group chat. We covered so much ground on this very,
you know, a difficult day, I think, as people are mourning the Pope. And we're going to be following that today. I want to thank you all for waking up with us. I'm Adi Cornish. Please stay with us because CNN News Central has more out of Rome, out of the Vatican. And that's going to start 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.