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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
President Trump's Address to Congress; Interview with Sen. Katie Boyd Britt (R-AL); Interview with Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ). Aired 8-9p ET
Aired March 04, 2025 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HARRY ENTEN CNN, CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Make up for the loss among Democrats. That is very bad math, because you don't just want to be having one party buy your cars especially the party that really hates you. The game with Republicans, simply put, not good enough.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: No, no its not. You don't generally tend to see things go that negative. Obviously, it would be a negative approval rating to go down 126.
ENTEN: Yes, not good enough.
BURNETT: No, all right, Harry, thank you very much. And thanks to all of you. I'll be here with you all night if you are going to be watching the Trump Address and our coverage -- our special coverage of President Trump's Address to Congress starts right now.
[20:00:33]
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: We are live in the Nation's capital, Washington, D.C. where President Trump is about to deliver his first address to a Joint Session of Congress since his historic return to power.
The President, we are told, will leave the White House in just a moment. He will head to the U.S. Capitol and the biggest stage he has had in his second term to address not just millions of Americans, but frankly, some nervous allies around the world.
Welcome to a special edition of AC360. I'm Jake Tapper here in Washington. The stakes for President Trump are quite high when he enters the chamber in just over an hour. One of the biggest challenges for the President tonight, selling his expansive second term agenda to the American people and trying to justify his brand new tariffs against Canada and Mexico, which have already roiled the stock market and sparked warnings about prices you could soon pay.
A White House official says President Trump will also try to explain his efforts to dramatically reshape the federal government efforts, mostly led by Elon Musk, who will be sitting in the House chamber this evening.
It seems safe to assume leaders from across the globe will be holding their breath, waiting to see what President Trump says about the future of the war in Ukraine after his meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy devolved into an Oval Office shouting match on Friday.
Tonight, Democrats are also facing a fresh test over whether they can effectively counter Trump, something they have frankly struggled to do so far. The Democrats rebuttal tonight will be delivered by freshman Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, a former House member.
Our team of correspondents is standing by there at the U.S. Capitol, there at the White House, with a focus group of American voters in Pennsylvania and, frankly stationed around the world, to bring us instant reaction to President Trump's remarks in a way that only CNN can.
We're going to start with CNN's chief White House correspondent, Kaitlan Collins, who has brand new reporting on the President's speech.
Kaitlan, aides tell you some things that are in the speech, tell us more.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, Jake, the President has spent the last several hours really putting the final touches on this speech of what he is going to deliver tonight. I'm told he's expected to go through it a final time before he leaves here at the White House with the First Lady, Melania Trump, to then go to Capitol Hill to deliver that speech, and they know what a moment this is.
Obviously, President Trump has been here before. He's delivered a speech of this nature before and they understand that this is a time when the President gets one of the biggest audiences of their term, and this chance to speak not just to both chambers on Capitol Hill and members of both parties, but also to millions of Americans who will be watching.
And so, expect Trump to touch on the cornerstones of a lot of what he promised on the campaign trail and is trying to enact now that he is back in power, and also to highlight what they have been doing here at a very fast pace, Jake, over the last six weeks and what that will look like.
I'm told there aren't a lot of surprises in President Trump's speech tonight when it comes to those top issues that he'll be talking about, like tariffs and immigration and foreign policy.
But, Jake, one thing given the President will likely stay mostly on prompter during this speech tonight, given the nature and the style of it, the White House says he is prepared to go off prompter and off script if Democrats disrupt his speech in a serious way.
The White House has heard from House Republicans that they do believe Democrats on Capitol Hill could be preparing to do so. And so they say in that moment, if that does happen, that President Trump is prepared to call the Democrats out so we could see those off script moments in this speech tonight, Jake, but obviously, still watching closely to see how lawmakers respond to it, and, of course, how President Trump himself responds.
TAPPER: All right, Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much. Let's turn to CNN's Dana Bash, who is in Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol.
Dana, what's the atmosphere like on the Hill?
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is very energetic. It's crackling. You can feel it in the atmosphere here, as you do pretty much every single time we see a night like tonight, and this is probably heightened because of all of the policy changes that you were talking about with regard to the President and what the expectation is here.
I want to bring in our chief congressional correspondent, Manu Raju.
Manu, I know you have some reporting on what the Democrats will and won't do.
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, tension is really building within the House Democratic Caucus. But really how to respond here? There's the Democratic leaders don't want their members to engage in any sort of outbursts. But there are progressive Democrats, Dana, who actually are weighing whether to mount a protest, whether to raise signs on the House floor.
They're talking about things like holding up signs saying "you lied" or "lying" or "true or false," and bringing in egg cartons to show the price of eggs -- the skyrocketing price of eggs.
[20:05:24]
That is something that the Democratic leaders absolutely do not want. In fact, Hakeem Jeffries counseled his members. He said no signs, no props, nothing like that. That happened in a closed door meeting earlier today. But we're told both me and my colleague, Sarah Ferris telling us today that one Congressman, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, progressive Democrats, said, "I'm effing pissed."
He was channeling the anger, he later told me of his constituents. They want to show that they are fighting Donald Trump, and they want to do that on the floor of the United States House.
So, what will ultimately happen here remains to be seen. The Democratic leaders are concerned because they believe those kind of outbursts will be seized upon by the Republicans, could be used to go after them in the in the hours ahead. But we'll see what they ultimately decide to do here.
BASH: That's really fascinating reporting. I was talking to, Jake, a few Democrats who were saying that there are text chains going on. Really, it's sort of blowing up everybody's phones. And one congresswoman said to me, we're Democrats, so we don't really know exactly how it's going to play out -- Jake.
Tapper: All right, Dana and Manu, thanks so much. My panel is here with me, John King, what is the task for President Trump to do tonight? What does he need to achieve?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, normally what a president who/s just taking office would need to achieve is to explain what he's trying to do and try to reach out to the people who didn't vote for him and say, as of tonight, I'm 43 days in, here's what I'm doing. And for those of you who didn't vote for me, that's not how Donald Trump works. We know that. It's not how he worked in the first term. It's not how he's worked in the 43 days of his second term, which makes this a remarkable moment.
He has brought the disruption he promised to Washington. He has not brought the big changes he promised, which is cost going down quickly, and huge changes at the border. Now border crossings are down but he promised mass deportations. Those numbers are only a little bit higher than Joe Biden was doing at the end of his term there. But the main thing is cost.
Now, it is unfair to say after 43 days any President has "failed." But Donald Trump repeatedly said he would do this thing quickly. The interesting thing to me is some of his actions are making it worse. The trade tariffs, the uncertainty, the bluster, Elon Musk going into agencies have rattled consumer confidence, have rattled financial markets.
So, he's actually made his hill steeper. Got a long way to go. He's 43 days into his term. But he has made his own hill steeper.
TAPPER: What are the risks for President Trump do you think?
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF "NEWSNIGHT WITH ABBY PHILLIP": I mean look, this is a White House that's pretty combative right now. They're not feeling like reaching across the aisle and bringing anybody in. This is not one of those unifying, you know, State of the Union Joint Address to Congress.
This is going to be a President essentially saying, I won, and this is how I'm going to govern.
The one thing, though about this speech, and I think this is actually not just the speech, but how he's actually governed. It's going to be a lot of things that are near and dear to Trump's heart, tariffs, some of the culture war issues like tariffs, he might be touting DOGE and Elon Musk who will be in the audience.
But the issue is that the economy is not shifting in the right direction, to John's point. And a lot of this other stuff is going to be a distraction from the fact that there are not a lot of levers that he can pull. And even if there are levers, he's really not showing a whole lot of interest in pulling them, quite the contrary.
The tariffs have dropped the stock market, people lost money today. The price of food is going up, not down. People are feeling uncertain, businesses are pulling back, and Trump is not going to be talking a whole lot about that.
I think this is going to be a speech that is a lot of bright, shiny objects in one direction. But the reality is that there are some things that the American people voted for that are not really being addressed and Trump is not all that interested in them at this moment. KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Well, and Jake, I was talking to one Republican in the bellwether state of New Hampshire, you know it well, who noted that a lot of this DOGE stuff not really breaking through, but the economy is Trump's vulnerability. That's a huge statement when you consider that voters sent him to the White House to fix that, to fix inflation.
And one thing I'm really looking for tonight, we know we've heard the reporting, Donald Trump is a master showman. You've seen him put that on display in previous State of the Unions or Joint Address to Congress, like when he gave Rush Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom.
For example, I spent all afternoon talking to Republicans and Democrats, and I have to say, most of them are united in saying if Democrats try to disrupt the speech, it's going to be to their disadvantage. And that in some ways, Trump is goading them to do it because he is going to have the microphone.
A lot of the Democrats I've talked to have said, you know what? It's his moment. If you try to get in the way, you're only going to lose. That said, there is very significant appetite in the base of Democrats and to a certain extent, it's a generational thing.
They want to see more. They don't feel like the idea that you're supposed to respect the norms, that civility, those kind of, you know, things that we always held high, that they're effective in the age of Trump.
TAPPER: Interesting. Let's go back to the Capitol, because Dana Bash has a special guest with her -- Dana.
BASH: Thank you. That's right, I have Senator Katie Britt of the state of Alabama. Thank you so much for being here today.
I know there are so many issues that you want to talk about. You introduced a bill today to make childcare more affordable. What everybody is buzzing about is the fact that the President put these tariffs in place today.
What do you think about this policy? And what are you hearing from your constituents about it?
[20:10:31]
SEN. KATIE BOYD BRITT (R-AL): Yes, look, so, we have been down this road before where President Trump utilizes these tariffs as a bargaining chip to try to put America in a stronger place. I believe that's exactly what's happening right now.
BASH: So you think he's going to drop them soon?
BRITT: Well, I think that he will negotiate. He will use them to bring people to the table.
We heard Howard Lutnick today say that he was already talking to Canada, already talking to Mexico. I think you will see more of that. At the end of the day, he campaigned on making sure that America was safe and secure, and he's going to use all the tools at his disposal to make sure that --
BASH: So, you have no concern about the fact that this could spike prices even more for your constituents?
BRITT: I think at the end of the day, making sure people are safe is the number one priority. I think the President will use these smartly and he'll make sure they bring people to the table.
When you look at things like China, I mean, they've been undermining our workers for years and driving down American wages. So, making sure that our workers, that our industry has an opportunity for a level playing field, I think is critically important. So, I do think you will see more of that as those negotiations --
BASH: You gave the rebuttal to the President's speech. Elissa Slotkin is doing it tonight. I know she's across the aisle, but any advice?
BRITT: Yes, I actually sent her a text and said, congratulations. I mean, it is a huge honor to be selected by your party to speak on a national stage, and she'll do a great job.
BASH: Senator, thank you so much for being here.
BRITT: Thank you for having me, I appreciate it.
BASH: Jake, back to you.
TAPPER: Thanks, Dana, we're standing by for President Trump to leave the White House. There remain many questions about how Democrats inside the chamber are going to respond during his speech.
We're going to ask Democratic Senator Cory Booker from the Garden State about Democrat's plans when he joins us live in moments.
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[20:15:50]
BURNETT: President Trump is set to leave the White House in just moments, heading to the U.S. Capitol to address the nation.
Sources say the president has spent the last few hours on his speech. He is expected to tout DOGE's efforts to slash government spending tonight, it is a big part of what he will say.
Let's go back to Dana Bash at Statuary Hall, of course and Dana, you have another special guest joining you as everyone is getting ready to go in.
BASH: That's right.
Senator Cory Booker, a very tall Senator Cory Booker is with me from the great state of New Jersey. Senator Chris Murphy told me on Sunday that he didn't want to come tonight because he said it's going to be a farce. Why did you decide to come?
SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): I respect the presidency, even though I don't have a lot of respect for what this President is doing. This is a vaunted tradition. I want to be here and show my respect to the institutions that I think in many ways, he's disrespecting.
BASH: Have you thought about or talked to your colleagues about the way to react in order to get across how you're feeling? Or do you think that this speech is such that, as you said, it's about the presidency and not the President?
BOOKER: No, I mean, this is his speech and for him to present to the American public, I feel like, again, like, you know, Ricky Ricardo, you know, Lucy, you have a lot of explaining to do. Because he said he was going to lower prices for Americans, prices are up, stock market down, pension funds, 401 (k) is down, from egg prices to housing prices up.
We're less safe than we were with infectious diseases now more threatening to the United States from the measles epidemic, to treatment resistant tuberculosis overseas. And we don't have the scientists on the front line fighting them.
There are so many things he said that he would do. Some of them he bragged about doing in his first day. Well, here you've had more than a month, and we see things moving in the opposite direction.
And we see the American public, their confidence in his handling the economy is sinking really quickly. And now with these tariffs, and the average American is going to be paying more than $1,000.00 a month just for basic needs, not to mention car prices going up and so much more. This is a President who needs to explain himself.
And then the larger foreign policy issues, the fiasco we saw in the White House Oval Office, unbelievably, us siding with North Korea and China against Western democracies when it comes to Ukraine. These are the kind of things that are really unimaginable that he's doing.
So, I'm going to see how he's going to explain himself tonight to American people that he promised one thing and has delivered really little.
BASH: Do you -- how do you think Democrats are doing in finding your footing in order to push back against a lot of the things that you're talking about?
I know you have been out there trying to do it, but there doesn't seem to be a unified approach in how to counter President Trump.
BOOKER: Look, I saw this before. Donald Trump won his first term, he had the House and he had the Senate, and he came after people's health care. And after a while, there was a massive blowback, not just by legislators, but people joining together across the political spectrum that ultimately stopped him by convincing some moderate Republicans to do the right thing.
This is very similar to that in the sense that they control the House, they control the Senate, they control the White House, they have the levers of power, but they're not delivering.
And now, they're again going to go after health care. And when it comes to Medicaid, that affects the majority of our seniors that are in nursing homes, almost half of our children being born on Medicaid.
And so, I think there's going to be an opposition that's coalescing, not a partisan opposition, but to the bad plans he's doing.
BASH: And the President is, if not anything else, he is somebody who understands theater, understands television, and he's got a big audience tonight.
What do you think Democrats should do in how they react and how they are perceived on their television screens or on their phones tonight?
BOOKER: Look, I just want people to be their authentic selves. This is not about performance politics. Let's leave that to the carnival barker that he's been in the past.
Presidents in moments like this should be calling us together, should be calling us to higher ground, should be appealing to our better angels of our nature.
What Donald Trump does routinely is demean, degrade people he thinks are his opposition. He doesn't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat. Think about all of the Republicans he has demeaned and degraded on Twitter and the like.
So, I don't expect the kind of magnanimity that everybody from Reagan to Obama used to show in rooms like that. And I think people should be at their honest reaction and ultimately focus on the facts and the substance of what he says. He is one of the presidents that in his speeches has been shown to be more of a liar than any president we've had in my lifetime, has fact checked by independent folks.
So sit there, respect the office, but react honestly to what he's saying.
[20:20:31]
BASH: Senator, thank you so much for being here.
BOOKER: Thank you.
BASH: Appreciate it. Thank you and I'm going to go over to Kaitlan Collins. Kaitlan, you got some breaking news.
COLLINS: Yes, Dana, of course, we know a lot of those Democrats are going to be bringing fired federal workers into the chamber with them tonight as their guest. That's to highlight the work that Elon Musk has been doing over these last six weeks and we do know Elon Musk will be in attendance at the speech tonight. I'm told that he is going to be sitting in the First Lady's box where the White House guests go, designated, of course, to the Cabinet members and others will be sitting on the floor listening to the President's speech. Elon Musk will have his own perch here, which just really shows his stature that he has inside President Trump's orbit and the work that he's been doing to reduce the size of the federal government and eliminate federal workers, which has certainly caused a lot of controversy and the Democrats have tried to highlight over the last six weeks.
I'm here on the White House North Lawn with CNN's Jeff Zeleny and, Jeff, obviously, who the White House brings, Elon Musk is an employee. He's not a guest. He is someone who is certainly deeply influential in Trump's orbit. But obviously, this guest list really does speak to the priorities and what they are trying to highlight tonight during this speech.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It absolutely does and it shows that Elon Musk is far more than a senior adviser. He is a central figure of the president's efforts here. And he is sitting in the First Lady's box because the President wants to point him out. And that's where he can look over the House chamber. So, that will be quite a moment.
Usually, advisers are behind-the-scenes, but we know from the first 43-days Elon Musk is not behind-the-scenes. He is very much in public and the President likes that. But some of the other people in the box are actually so interesting. And we've talked a lot about the reset in relations with the Russia and the U.S. one of the people who symbolizes that is Marc Fogel. Of course, he was released.
He was a Russian prisoner, a Pennsylvania schoolteacher. He was released here at the White House. And his mother, Malphine, 95-years- old, she will be on hand tonight. And she is someone who advocated directly to Donald Trump.
In fact, last summer, at the same rally in Pennsylvania, where there was the assassination attempt on his life, that's where she met with the President and said, please, if you're elected, sir, please do something about my son. And then, of course, Marc Fogel was released. So, that's certainly going to be a dramatic moment, as well as the mother and sister of Laken Riley, of course, she's the Georgia student who was murdered by an illegal immigrant as well, as well as several other people who have stories of crime and loss and whatnot.
So, we know the President likes a moment, but I think that Marc Fogel moment certainly will be one.
COLLINS: Yes, and that was obviously such a moment here at the White House when he came in, the American flag draped around his shoulders, still big questions about what the minerals deal and the progress with Ukraine is going to look like after that blow up here inside the White House last week, Erin.
And obviously, that will be a moment that the White House is trying to highlight. But also people will be listening closely to see what Trump does say, if anything, about Ukraine tonight, as we have not seen the progress on that minerals deal following the acknowledgment from Zelenskyy today about just how poorly things went inside the Oval on Friday.
BURNETT: Yes, absolutely and all of this, you know, no doubt why this could end up being a rather long speech. We'll see, uncertain, they haven't given us those exact indications of how long it will be.
We're moments away, though, from President Trump heading to the U.S. Capitol to deliver that address to Congress.
So, next, how do Americans really feel about the President's first six weeks back in office ahead of his speech? The numbers.
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[20:28:02]
BURNETT: In just moments, the House will be officially called to order. President Trump will start his short trip from the White House to the U.S. Capitol to address the nation. Tonight, President Trump will need to sell his agenda not just to the American people, but to Republicans who are divided about the best way to carry that agenda out.
So far, the President has relied mostly on executive action. In fact, you know, we talk about how presidents use that all the time, well, he has done more executive action than President Biden or Obama or even than he did himself his first term.
Overall, number 119 executive actions total, so far. That's according to our analysis of White House data, 36 of those, I mean, just look at this, all these tabs here, 36 focused on the federal government, 22 on the economy, 10 on immigration, eight on National Security, eight on climate and energy, seven on foreign policy, five on education, five on health, and 18 in the other category.
These executive orders are already being challenged in courts across the country. By our count, nearly a hundred lawsuits have been filed so far. You have got 119 orders, a hundred lawsuits already filed.
So how is all of this playing out? How do Americans feel already, just you know, 40 some odd days into Trump's second term?
John King is at the magic wall. So, John, how are you able to, you know, judge to gauge how all of this is falling on the American public?
KING: Well, Erin, a number of ways to look at it. So, let's get straight to it. One of it is where's the President's approval rating. And how does that relate to other presidents when they did this, not a State of the Union. But in your first term, you get an address to the Congress.
Well, President Trump right now has a 48 percent approval rating. If you look, going back almost 45 years, 44 years for Ronald Reagan in 1981, that is the lowest number, except for Donald Trump in 2017.
So Donald Trump, in his first term, after the contested 2016 election and all of that, had the lowest standing. He's higher now. That's about what he got on election day, right, 49 percent of the national vote. He's at 48 percent now. I think it's safe to say presidents don't get a honeymoon like they used to anymore. We live in a very polarized country, so he hasn't slipped, but he hasn't grown in the 43 days since he's been in office.
Now, we know Donald Trump is a very divisive figure. Well, these numbers show it out: 90 percent of Republicans approve of the job he's doing so far, 90 percent of Democrats disapprove of the job he's doing so far.
If you're a House Republican trying to protect your tiny majority, you're worried about this number a little bit. Donald of the job has lost a little ground among independents since election day. That's something to watch as we go forward. Again, 43 days in, let's not rush to judgments, but the early numbers are not great for Donald Trump. They might not be miserable, but they're not great.
[20:30:29]
These numbers are a little troubling for the president. He's trying to sell his agenda to Congress and to the American people. Is Donald Trump taking the country in the wrong direction, the right direction, or no opinion? Well, 45 percent -- that's not a majority, but 45 percent say the wrong direction. Only 39 percent, 4 in 10, say the right direction. And 15 percent aren't so sure 43 days in.
So remember this 39 percent number. 39 percent say Trump is right, heading in the right direction. Then we ask, has he paid enough attention to the top priorities, the most important problems in the country? 52 percent say he has not. About the same as his base. This is his base. 40 percent say he has.
So 39 percent say, you know, we're going in the right direction. 40 percent say he has the right policies. That's the Trump base. You need more than your base to sell things. 8 percent say they have no opinion.
This is where, Erin, the warning signs for the president are clear and evident. He said on day one he would lower costs. Now that's not fair. The president exaggerates a lot. That's how he conducts himself. Not fair to judge a president like this.
Erin, let me throw back to you as you see the president now leaving the White House.
BURNETT: Leaving the White House there with the first lady, getting into, obviously, the armored vehicle, known as the beast. And it's a very short ride up to Capitol Hill where he's going to be giving that speech to the joint session.
Kaitlan, I don't know if you and Jeff Zeleny can see them from where you all are sitting as they get ready to leave. COLLINS Dana Bash: Yes, and he is surrounded by senior aides who are out there. As he was getting inside the motorcade, you saw the first lady, Melania Trump, also getting into the car with President Trump. The lights are on, so you can actually see him as he's preparing to go up there.
Now, the president hasn't personally involved, Erin, we know, in the crafting of this speech tonight. They were running through it this afternoon. He often makes his final touches. As you can see, both of them, they are preparing to leave in terms of what this looks like, and with his famous Sharpie that he uses to mark up his copies.
And I should note, Erin, you know, he is going to address a Capitol Hill and a Congress that he views differently than he did in his first term in office. I was looking back at some of the moments in his previous addresses to Congress.
And at one point in 2018, he asked them to give the executive branch the power, more power to fire federal workers, which is such a notable moment given, of course, Elon Musk is going to be one of his guests tonight. And they have used the executive power and blown past Congress and essentially embraced the lawsuits that they knew were coming when it came to this moment.
And so you're just seeing he is going to address the chamber where some of the Democrats, I should note, have invited those fired federal workers to join him -- join them inside as they wait to listen to what President Trump is going to say as he prepares to address them tonight.
BURNETT: All right, Kaitlan, thank you very much. And of course, Speaker Johnson is going to be calling the House to order in just a few moments. And all of this carefully choreographed process is going to begin.
You've been there, Alyssa, with him as he's given these in his prior administration. So -- and it's hard to say -- it's hard to, you know, draw the same analogy. But what exactly is happening there in that car as they're driving up as you see it?
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, for one, this is always the shortest motorcade in D.C. The first car is arriving at the Capitol as the final one's basically leaving the White House. But listen, Donald Trump loves the State of the Union.
He sees it as an opportunity that he has a captive audience to really market and sell his message. And his team does a very good job with it. Stephen Miller tends to lead the crafting. They bring guests that will feed into kind of the narratives that they're pushing and the policy priorities.
So he's got angel moms tonight, someone whose daughter was killed by an undocumented migrant in the country. I think that, listen, he's got some opportunities to highlight some bipartisan wins, safeguarding IVF, effectively ending the border crisis, new investments in artificial intelligence. But then there's some really hot button issues that the country is on edge about. So I'm going to be curious to see what does he say about cost of living? What does he say about tariffs when we saw the market just tanking today? And of course, all eyes on Ukraine.
BURNETT: David, I mean, it's a chaotic moment. It's a fragile moment. It's a moment that there's a lot of fear.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There's no doubt about that. But I also want to say this. You know, all presidents sort of feed off of perceptions of the person who came before and they want to position against what people found lacking in the person that came before.
So the sheer energy of what Trump has done, the perpetual motion of Trump, the action has benefited him. People say, well, at least he's doing something. Eventually, they're going to focus on the impact of what he's doing. That may be less, less pleasing to him.
[20:35:01]
But absolutely, one of the things that have stunned me just as a strategist of these first 43 days is how little he's talked about the issue that people most cared about, which is cost of living. And this morning, the night of this -- the day of the speech, they wake up to the news that guess what? Your household bills are going to go up because of these tariffs. I think he's got some work to do tonight.
BURNETT: And he's got, I mean, Scott, lots of calls from Republicans complaining about those tariffs. You know, his social, you know, Truth Social posts have been something along the lines of, well, things might be rough for a little while here. Have fun.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, he's acknowledged there could be some short-term pain. I mean, they believe there is long-term gain in this strategy on two fronts. One, by getting Canada and Mexico to do more on stemming the tide of illegal immigration and fentanyl coming across the border.
And two, you know, he just believes in it. He believes that it will stimulate American manufacturing. And, by the way, there's some evidence of it. I think already they've announced nearly $2 trillion in new investments in the United States. Honda's moving a plant to Indiana. This Taiwanese chipmaker is opening up operations in Arizona.
BURNETT: They want something. Yes.
JENNINGS: They have some evidence that the tariff strategy is working on the job creation front. To David's point, on the cost of living front, that is still a sore point for most Americans. However, I do think most people realize this debacle was four years in the making, and they're willing to give Donald Trump more than five minutes to sort out what is a huge knot that was left behind.
ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I actually don't disagree with you in terms of the time, but I want to point out a couple of things. Tonight, Donald Trump does what he typically does. He's going to speak to his base. And so when you look at 45 percent of the American public who think he's doing it in the wrong way, that number is not going to get any better if he doesn't talk to that 45 percent.
But the big question is, OK, if you say today I'm going to do some things that make your life better in July. Indicators today from the stock market, that doesn't make people feel that way. We all sat on these panels and said it's about how people feel. The numbers aren't always the best indicator.
BURNETT (ph): Yes.
ALLISON: What happens in July? I was on the phone today with some farmers. They're telling me that the programs that this administration, be a DOGE, be a -- just cutting funding or attacking, are going to have collateral consequences to our crops in the fall, not because of immigrant work, but -- well, some of it because they're immigrant workers they don't have people working the fields, but also because they just are not being resourced enough to actually be able to meet some of the food supply demands.
And that is going to make prices go up again and hurt the American public. So he really needs to -- he won't, but he needs to think about the people who are not with him right now. And can he buy himself some more time to fix what he says he's going to fix? But I don't think --
AXELROD: Can I --
ALLISON: -- it's a lie.
BURNETT: Yes?
AXELROD: Yes, I just want to say two things. One is the fentanyl argument as it relates to Canada is absurd. That's not where fentanyl --
JENNINGS: Do you know how much fentanyl it takes to kill you? Very little.
AXELROD: Yes, I understand, Scott.
JENNINGS: I mean, it's not absurd. And I would --
AXELROD: But that's not the -- that's not -- nobody --
JENNINGS: I would say it was absurd to some family --
AXELROD: -- would say that is where the big problem is coming from. And --
BURNETT: As you're talking, you're seeing the Vice President Vance is walking.
AXELROD: They -- I think they recognize it because now they're saying, well, we just want to be treated equally. And we're going to, you know, it's reciprocal. That doesn't make much sense either. And he negotiated the treaty that we're --
BURNETT: Yes, he negotiated the treaty that is now so bad.
ALLISON: Right.
FARAH GRIFFIN: USMCA was one of, I would argue, the greatest successes of his first administration. But Scott makes an important point. In the first Trump term, Trump believes in tariffs --
BURNETT: Yes.
JENNINGS: Yes.
FARAH GRIFFIN: -- in his bones, but he was often talked out of them by more free market Larry Kudlow types in the first administration.
BURNETT: Yes.
FARAH GRIFFIN: Now he's not running for re-election. Now he's not really worried about the midterms.
JENNINGS: Yes.
FARAH GRIFFIN: I think he might actually give these time to see if they take effect. And if they do, what do you think --
AXELROD: He may not be worried about the (INAUDIBLE) --
BURNETT: When you say pause for a second here --
AXELROD: but a lot of Republicans are going to be worried.
(CROSSTALK)
BURNETT: Pause for one second. Let's go back to Kaitlan Collins at the White House. Kaitlan, I know you've just learned who the designated survivor is for tonight?
COLLINS: Yes. And Erin, for those who don't know, of course, the entire line of the presidential succession is inside that chamber tonight. So always on these nights. There is one person who is selected to hang back in case of a catastrophic event.
And I have just been told by a White House official that tonight that person is the Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, of course, someone who has been in that chamber himself as a former member of Congress from Georgia and has attended many of these.
Tonight, he will not be doing so because he is the designated survivor. And I should note that in Trump's first term actually in office, there was the Veterans Affairs Secretary then, David Shulkin, was also the designated survivor at that point. That means that person is taken to a different place in case there is a worst case scenario, a catastrophic event. And that person then serves as the designated survivor. BURNETT: All right. Well, and of course, that's, you know, as this all starts to come into place and as Kaitlan points out, such an important part of the procedure.
Scott, as we're watching, JD Vance just has come in. You're going to see the Joint Chiefs.
JENNINGS: Yes.
BURNETT: All of these things right now, though, you can't take them out of the context where in JD Vance, who just had the biggest moment of his vice presidency so far in the Oval Office, was Zelenskyy after his Munich speech.
[20:40:04]
The Joint Chiefs, it's going to be all white men because they've just fired two of the Joint Chiefs. I mean, you can't take that layer out of the conversation, can you?
JENNINGS: Well, I don't know what that means because Donald Trump's entering the chamber tonight with a net positive job approval, 50 or maybe slightly better than 50 percent. And he's speaking to a room full of Democrats who have an approval rating of 21 percent. All of the political clout in that room resides on the podium with Johnson, with Vance and with Donald Trump.
ALLISON: I think, though, I'll just --
BURNETT: And Vance, was just -- vice president, was just announced as he's walking in there. You can see him there with Majority Leader John Thune, also Senator Barrasso, as now everyone's, you know, formally starting to come in. So we do expect those Joint Chiefs to be coming in any second here, Ashley.
ALLISON: I'm curious to see what Democrats do on that row when Donald Trump walks in. Most of the time, people flood to the end of the aisle to try and shake the president's hand. Democrats are not excited about Donald Trump. They're very frustrated about Donald Trump.
So are you going to try and shake the president's hand or do you just sit in your seat if you actually are attending and let the business play? I'll also say there is a piece of the American population that is not even watching the speech tonight.
AXELROD: Oh, yes. Big piece.
ALLISON: Because they are so frustrated with American politics. I agree. I actually don't think the political power is in that chamber at all, including with Donald Trump. There are Americans who want to know, are these elected officials going to do something to improve the quality of their lives? And if they don't, all of those guys in there and women in there are going to not be in that seat there --
AXELROD: I'll tell you one thing. I think Democrat -- BURNETT: Hold on, Cameron (ph), when you said that -- I should say
when you said I agree with you, it was to Scott. I just want to make it clear to the world. Go ahead, yes.
AXELROD: I think Democrats would be very foolish to go all Marjorie Taylor Greene here and WWE stuff and so on. I think they should respond. But I don't think they should, you know, heckle and do the kinds of things that some have talked about.
I don't know why people skip the speech. I mean, he's president of the United States. He was elected. They should be there.
FARAH GRIFFIN: And listen, millions of people will watch this. But what will really live on is the viral moments.
BURNETT (?): Yes.
FARAH GRIFFIN: And I would argue that Donald Trump is better on his feet than most politicians. If you are going to, as a Democrat, heckle him, expect that he's going to clap back and it might not actually go anywhere.
ALLISON (?): Right.
BURNETT: Right. And you see Nancy Mace there speaking to the vice president -- Vice President Vance, Jake. And for Vance, you know, he is new to this, right? This is only his third time in the chamber for an address. Now, he will be there sitting as the vice president.
TAPPER: Right. And it's been a meteoric rise for author and Marine veteran JD Vance, who was just elected to the U.S. Senate and just a couple of years after that picked to be a candidate Trump's running mate. And here he is, second in line to the presidency.
He'll be sitting behind President Trump during the address. And he's walking down the aisle. And you see a number of conservative members of the House on the right there. There's Chip Roy, Byron Donalds, who's going to run for governor of Florida. Tom Cotton in the top left of your screen.
It is, I have to say, you can really sense, John King, you can really sense Republicans with a pep in their step and Democrats rather demoralized. I mean, understandably so, given the fact that Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House, not to mention a conservative lean on the U.S. Supreme Court, but beyond that, even when Republicans are out of power, you sense like an energy quite often when Democrats are controlling things.
The Democrats, not to be cliche about it, but they are in disarray. They do not know how to be the opposition force.
KING: They're having a hard time trying to figure out how to deal with Trump. And they're also having a hard time trying to figure out who they should put forward to deal with Trump. That is not uncommon for parties that are in power. What is the flip here is that when the Republicans were out of power and Joe Biden was president, Donald Trump never disappeared, never disappeared. Donald Trump was the voice of the Republicans in the four years Joe Biden was president.
There was a little bit of dissent from the people who challenged him in the primaries, but they never were able to break through. So Donald Trump had four years while Biden was president to run up. Now Trump is president again. And who is the leading Democrat?
Is it Vice President Harris? Is it Leader Schumer in the Senate? Is it Leader Jeffries in the House? You have seen some issues like Elizabeth Warren on sort of working class issues, ethics issues has tried to come forward.
Seth Moulton, former member of the military on national security. The Democrats are trying to find their way and trying to find their voice right now, which is why they're even debating whether they should show up or whether they should protest or whether they should shout at him.
To your point about Republicans, this has been said before, it's not new, but the takeover is complete. I mean, John Barrasso was just there with those House Republicans you were talking about. He was a free market, free trade Republican not all that long ago.
Now you don't hear him. He's concerned about Donald Trump's tariffs, but you don't hear him talking publicly about it. He was an anti- Putin, anti-communist, Ronald Reagan-like conservative not all that long ago.
Now Donald Trump has pulled the party mostly his way. And those who don't like and are worried actually about the policy of Ukraine tend to keep quiet about it because they don't want Trump to pull them over.
[20:45:08]
TAPPER: Yes, there's Elon Musk, the first buddy or whatever exactly his title is, the guy who is helping to run the reduction in the size of the workforce, Kasie Hunt. He's there enjoying his power, quite frankly, his power which mostly comes from the proximity he has of -- to President Trump.
HUNT: Indeed. And I will say I had at least one person raise the question of whether he was going to be on the floor of the chamber with the Cabinet secretaries, which would have been unprecedented. He is going to be up in that box with the other members that were -- other people who were invited with the White House as opposed to being someone who actually has been formally invested with power by the United States Congress.
So at least that distinction stands. One of the interesting things we'll see tonight, too, are there going to be two Republicans behind Donald Trump tonight. You remember that moment Nancy Pelosi famously tearing Donald Trump's speech apart back in 2020. We're not going to get anything like that tonight. And, you know, John, as you noted kind of the takeover is complete. And what we've really seen here has been the story of a great man or woman theory of politics, right, driving the presidential power here.
TAPPER: Let's go to Manu Raju, who's on Capitol Hill. Manu?
RAJU: Yes, we're just sitting right by where Elon Musk just entered. A lot of Republicans in the audience turning around, applauding him. Really no response by the Democrats who are sitting on the opposite side of the chamber. It's unclear if they actually noticed that he has arrived here.
But we are noticing an interesting thing on the Democratic side of the aisle. They have decided to color coordinate their outfits in a lot of ways to try to create their own silent protest of sorts. Democrats, I'm told, women members wearing pink to showcase power, they say.
I was told from what Democratic source showcase protest of Donald Trump. Also, you're seeing blue and yellow being worn by a number of Democratic members. Why? Of course, those are the same colors of the Ukrainian flag.
They're trying to show some support for Ukraine at this critical moment. Also, watch out for some members of the Congressional Black Caucus who were told by their members to wear all black as well. So some members of the Congressional Black Caucus will be wearing all black.
There's some of the ways Democrats are trying to silent protest. We'll see if then they actually try to protest in any sort of vocal manner. That's something, of course, the Democratic leaders hope that they don't do, but perhaps they might if Elon Musk is introduced here, because there's so many members here on the Democratic side, particularly concerned about Elon Musk's role.
We'll see how they respond when and if Donald Trump singles him out during his speech, Jake.
TAPPER: There's the House Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, one of the two leaders of the Democratic Party right now, along with his fellow New Yorker, the Senate Minority Leader, Chuck Schumer, Abby Phillip. And as we watch the U.S. senators come down the aisle and take their seats, there you see Senator Andy Kim who was getting a selfie. And there is the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, with the Vice President, JD Vance.
One -- we just got some excerpts, and it's interesting, we have here. If anybody was wondering if President Trump is going to address the high price of eggs, he will. He will blame it on President Biden. Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control, and we're working hard to get it back down, he says.
PHILLIP: You don't get to control the things that you inherit. I think Joe Biden learned that, frankly, when he walked into the White House to the tail end of a pandemic. But I don't know that it's going to be enough for Donald Trump to blame the price of eggs or anything else on Joe Biden for much longer.
He promised to bring prices down, and there has not been a whole lot of attention to that. So the question is, what are they going to do now? You know, one of the interesting things, I think, when I talk to Democrats about the predicament that they're in, is that they are in this world in which Trump is an almost irreverent, no-holds-barred president. And everybody around him is in that same mode.
JD Vance, the vice president who will be sitting right behind him this entire time, he said in an interview yesterday that normally you just sit there and you try not to put too much on your face because the camera's on you the whole time. But he said, I don't know if I'm going to do that.
I'm going to have a little bit of fun, because that is the tone and tenor that Trump has brought into Washington. And Democrats want to match that energy, but I think that there's some division about whether or not that's actually going to be effective at this particular moment, or if you should just let Trump be Trump and stay out of the fray.
TAPPER: Well, letting Trump be Trump and staying out of the fray are two different things, of course. And Kaitlan Collins --
PHILLIP: Yes.
TAPPER: -- one of the things that is definitely true is that President Trump, when he's reading from a teleprompter, is generally not as energetic and charismatic as when he's riffing.
[20:50:04]
But, Kaitlan Collins, it is also true -- there's Kash Patel, the new director of the FBI -- along -- isn't that Chris --
COLLINS: And Chris LaCivita, and there's Ivanka Trump as well.
TAPPER: Yes. But one of the things that's also true is that -- there's Asha Vance, the second lady. One of the things that's also true is that he likes to riff. And when he does, he sometimes says things that get him into some sort of trouble here.
COLLINS: Yes. Jake, I'm told he'll riff tonight if Democrats are severely disrupting his speech. He is prepared to do that. There you can see the entire Trump family. There's Donald Trump Jr., Tiffany Trump, her husband, Laura Trump as well, in addition to Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner in different positions than they were ever during these moments before, where they were members of the White House. Eric Trump is seated there to your left, as you can see.
And also one person, Jake, earlier everyone was looking at Elon Musk --but Steve Witkoff was also inside that room. Obviously, he has proven to be a critical player over the last six weeks when it comes to Trump's foreign policy, from Israel to Russia and Ukraine as well.
We've just gotten some excerpts of what we are going to hear from President Trump tonight. And Jeff Zeleny is here with me. And Jeff, obviously, Ukraine has been a huge question of how Trump will address that and what exactly he'll say.
ZELENY: It certainly has been. And this is something that he clearly wanted to make a deal. It was the whole reason President Zelenskyy came to the White House on Friday. That deal will not be announced, we do not believe, but the President inches right up to it by saying, I'm working tirelessly to end this savage conflict in Ukraine.
Millions of Ukrainians and Russians have been needlessly killed or wounded. He goes on to say the United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars. Meanwhile, Europe has not sent as much. Of course, we've heard that before. But he also goes on to blame President Biden.
And Kaitlan, that is a theme we are seeing not just on egg prices, but also on Ukraine, and many other examples. As you know, he talks about Joe Biden a lot.
COLLINS: Well, and he promised to bring down inflation and high prices and also to solve the war in Ukraine on day one. Obviously, those are tough, difficult tasks to do, as any White House would acknowledge, and have proven very much to be so for President Trump, as he's talked about, you know, a myriad of issues that he is in turning office with.
I do expect we'll hear that criticism of President Biden throughout this.
ZELENY: For sure. And as he comes in, we're certainly watching the Cabinet. But the Supreme Court is something else that is a major difference here as the president enters his second term. This is a majority Supreme Court with three of his members on.
COLLINS: Let's listen in to Speaker Johnson.
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: The chair appoints as members of the committee on the part of the House to escort the president of the United States into the chamber the following. The gentleman from Louisiana, Mr. Scalise. The gentleman from Minnesota, Mr. Emmer.
The gentlewoman from Michigan, Mrs. McClain. The gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. Hudson.
COLLINS: And House Speaker Mike Johnson has now gaveled in. Of course, he was in a very different moment than he was a year ago when he was seated next to Vice President Harris. And President Biden was delivering this message, and he had to watch his reactions maybe a little more carefully than he will have to tonight this evening with JD Vance next to him and President Trump in front of him.
And, Jeff, obviously, what you were saying was such a great point, because watching the Supreme Court justices that show up tonight, given Trump fundamentally reshaped the Supreme Court in his first term, and it had a massive impact on his entry into office this time, the indictments against him and what that looks like, and also on the court cases of those very important executive orders and the very critical issues that could wind up before the Supreme Court.
ZELENY: No question, for as important as this House majority is and Senate majority is, the Supreme Court majority equally important deciding these key questions that will define his presidency.
COLLINS: Yes. And a question, of course, if he will get another chance during his second term to nominate someone else to the court, Jake. Obviously, these are the people that everyone watches in these speeches, not just what the president himself says, but also everyone who's in the room.
And that moment from last year with Senator James Lankford, where he agreed with President Biden as he described that bipartisan deal that was sunk by Trump. Those are the moments that also can stand out on a night like this.
TAPPER: Let's check in with Dana Bash, who's inside the Capitol, I think still in the Statuary Hall. Dana?
BASH: Yes. And Jake, one of the things that I think you all saw as the senators were walking over, as is the tradition from the Senate all the way across the Capitol into the House chamber, it really did feel like there were fewer senators. And the reason is because there are, because a number of Democrats have made the decision to boycott tonight.
We know that Senator Chris Murphy, for example, I was discussing this with Cory Booker earlier, he said that tonight is a farce. He's not the only one. Senator Patty Murray, for example, of Washington, she is a veteran senator. She certainly is somebody who respects the process of the presidency and this kind of process. She has said, I'm not going to come.
And although there are --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Speaker, the dean of the Diplomatic Corps.
BASH: Diplomatic Corps coming in now to the House chamber.
[20:55:02]
Although there are certainly a lot of Democrats in the House chamber, and as Manu was describing, they have made decisions to wear different things, to potentially protest in different ways as this speech comes out. We do have to remember that there are going to be absences, and we could definitely feel that as these members of Congress, members of the House and the Senate began to enter the chamber.
TAPPER: Fascinating stuff. It is going to be interesting to see. We're going to have a whole new Joint Chiefs of Staff come in when they come in because, of course, President Trump fired the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, C.Q. Brown, and some other top military officials.
He is -- he was elected the first time and the second time to be a disruptor. And I think that -- I think he's disrupting more now than he did the first time, even though there was the ban on visitors from countries -- Muslim-majority countries, et cetera. It was pretty disruptive the first time, but this time, he -- there was a plan and specific goals that are all being carried out.
KING: The pace is much more frenetic, and the picture that was just up, the Republican speaker and the Republican vice president, Jake, is one of the reasons why. Donald Trump remembers the first term. And his first -- when he did this for the first time back in 2017, there was a Republican speaker and a Republican vice president.
But then in the 2018 midterms, the Democrats won the House, and Nancy Pelosi was there for the rest of Trump's term. He realizes the first time he had only two years, really, where he had Republican-controlled Washington. They didn't get much of his agenda done. That's time he wants to move quickly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- justices of the United States Supreme Court.
TAPPER: Here is the chief justice of the United States, John Roberts, and other justices, usually not all nine attend. We'll see who chose to come at this time.
(APPLAUSE)
TAPPER: And then we see the chief justice, John Roberts, and Brett Kavanaugh, who owes his job on the Supreme Court to Donald Trump. I'm guessing all three that Donald Trump appointed will be there. There is Elena Kagan, Amy Coney Barrett. Former Justice Kennedy is there.
You know, the point was made by Kamala Harris and by Joe Biden before her that the next president may get as many as two new Supreme Court justices. But it's something we shouldn't lose sight of. He could dramatically reshape the court even more than he already has.
PHILLIP: Yes. And he has done so incredibly dramatically. I mean, I think this is why this last election was seen as so pivotal, especially on the Democratic side, because it was their opportunity to potentially get ahead of that. And they haven't.
And it's very likely that there will be other vacancies on this court as some of the older justices age out, frankly. And the ones that Trump put on the bench were intentionally among the youngest ever to be put on the court, because Conservatives have had a, you know, decades-long effort to reshape the court and to make it younger so that they have more justices on there for longer.
I noticed that there were some absences from the Supreme Court, including some of Trump's biggest allies on the court.
TAPPER: I didn't see Alito or Gorsuch.
PHILLIP: Or Justice Thomas --
TAPPER: Or Justice Thomas.
PHILLIP: -- is not there, as far as I could tell. So they don't always come. They come when they feel like it. Sometimes they just choose to stay home. But it is notable for the first joint address of the second Trump term to see, especially someone like Justice Thomas, who's been fairly closely aligned with, you know, Trump and his allies in the White House.
TAPPER: One of the things that is often forgotten in the coverage of JD Vance is just how young he is. He's 40 years old. That is -- in Washington, D.C., that's --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If it's millennial vice president. I believe.
TAPPER: That's an infant in Washington, D.C., where we have several senators in their 80s. But yes --
HUNT: It's a statement about the Republican Party, Jake, honestly. And this is one of the big struggles with Democrats have ?is moving on generationally to, in style, substance, and actual age. It's something that -- you know, Nancy Pelosi did a pretty masterful job of handing over power to Hakeem Jeffries, and something of a new generation of leadership in the House, but that "new generation", quote unquote, so much older than the new generation of Republicans.
TAPPER: Erin Burnett?
BURNETT: All right, Jake and, you know, David Axelrod, looking through some of these excerpts here and we're going to -- soon you're going to have the First Lady coming in, the Cabinet's going to come in. We'll note, last time six members of the Supreme Court came, looks like only four this time. So, you know, obviously they don't always all go, but you've got less --
AXELROD: MahJong night over --
BURNETT: -- for this time than -- right. Alito and Thomas did not go last year either.
