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The Lead with Jake Tapper

U.S. Tariffs On Canada, China Could Be Hours Away; Trump Pushes To Massively Reshape Federal Government; Now: Salvage Teams Removing Plane Wreckage From River; Trudeau: Proposed Tariffs On Canada Will Be Paused For 30 Days. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired February 03, 2025 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: -- with no male sharks.

[16:00:02]

Zero males, just two females. But it's a bizarre birth that could have been a case of delayed fertilization, or a phenomenon called parthenogenesis, which happens when an embryo develops from an egg without fertilization.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The aquarium says it plans to do genetic testing to get to the bottom of it, but either way, in the famous words of Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park, life finds a way. Or more accurately, he says, life, uh, finds a way.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, the great Jeff Goldblum.

KEILAR: THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER starts now.

(MUSIC)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Just eight hours to go is a deal with Canada on the table.

THE LEAD starts right now.

President Trump spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just minutes ago with sweeping 25 percent U.S. tariffs on most Canadian products set to take effect at midnight. Trump already has agreed to delay tariffs on Mexico after a call with that country's president earlier today. We're digging into the geopolitics at play and how all of this could impact your wallet.

Plus, Elon Musk becomes even more powerful as his team gains access to the system that writes America's checks, that pays salaries to American workers and makes Social Security payments, and on and on. Are there any guardrails in place, any transparency or accountability for the first buddy of the United States? Well, Trump had something to say about that just a second ago.

And today, crews are removing from the Potomac River pieces of the American airlines jet involved in last weeks deadly crash. And now that investigators have recovered the black boxes from both that jet and the Black Hawk helicopter, we could soon get some more answers about what went so tragically wrong Wednesday night.

(MUSIC)

TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

We're going to start with breaking news in our politics lead. In just a few hours, a full blown trade war could begin just after midnight tonight, President Trump's 25 percent tariffs on most goods from Canada and 10 percent tariffs on Chinese imports is scheduled to take effect. The Peterson institute for international economics estimates that Trump's tariffs will cost the median American household about $600 extra per year, while Chinese and Canadian leaders are scrambling to try to stop Trump's looming threat from becoming reality.

Now, Trump and outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just wrapped up a phone call. We will bring you that readout as soon as we get it. This as Canada is announcing its own retaliatory tariffs on U.S. made products with a focus on high dollar exports from Republican states such as orange juice from Marco Rubio's Florida and bourbon from Mitch McConnell's Kentucky.

But what exactly does Trump want from the countries that he is set to punish?

Listen to what Mr. Trump had to say after agreeing to pause the tariffs on Mexico for one month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The president, Sheinbaum, is a woman. I like her very much. They've agreed to put in 10,000 soldiers permanently, like forever, 10,000 soldiers at their side of the border and stop fentanyl and illegal aliens from coming into our country.

We haven't agreed on tariffs yet. And maybe we will. Maybe we won't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: While Trump's tariffs are designed to increase revenue for the U.S. government, and in theory offset his proposed but yet not yet passed tax cuts, Mr. Trump did concede on Sunday that Americans will, quote, feel some pain.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny takes us to the White House now as the world braces for the fallout from Trump's economic power play.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump backed off a trade war with Mexico for now at least, even as punishing tariffs for Canada and China are still looming.

TRUMP: When you're the pot of gold, the tariffs are -- the tariffs are very good. They're very powerful.

ZELENY: Trump reached a last minute deal with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum today, agreeing to a month long delay on imposing a 25 percent tariff on all goods from Mexico, in exchange for Mexico sending 10,000 additional troops to the border, a move that eased a chaotic fall in global financial markets.

As he signed executive orders in the oval office today, we asked Trump if he blinked.

Did you blink this morning?

TRUMP: There was no blinking. No. She's a wonderful woman. But she did agree to 10,000 soldiers on the border. I would say that's a lot.

ZELENY: Canada and China are still in Trump's protectionist crosshairs, with Trump threatening a 25 percent tax on Canadian imports and 10 percent on goods coming in from China.

Talks between Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continued throughout the day. Yet Trump kept alive blistering criticism of a neighbor and longtime ally.

TRUMP: Canada is very tough. Canada is very, you know, we're not treated well by Canada. And we have to be treated well.

ZELENY: While Trump vowed to press ahead with other tariffs, he conceded the prospect of short term economic pain through higher prices and inflation.

TRUMP: Tariffs don't cause inflation. They cause success -- cause big success.

[16:05:02]

So we're going to have great success. There could be some temporary short term disruption, and people will understand that.

ZELENY: Among Americans, that remains an open question. Among Canadians, their resentment was clear as the "Star Spangled Banner" was met with jeers at a weekend hockey game.

(NATIONAL ANTHEM)

ZELENY: Trump remains steadfast in his longstanding belief in tariffs, which the conservative "Wall Street Journal" editorial page blasted as the dumbest trade war in history.

Rupert Murdoch whose media empire includes the newspaper visited the Oval Office today and was on hand as Trump spoke with reporters Saturday.

TRUMP: I'm going to have to talk to him.

Not only is it not dumb, you're going to see, you're going to see. Every single one of those countries is dying to make a deal, you know. (END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY (on camera): So we will see if there is a deal that has been reached between the U.S. and Canada. Jake, we do know that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as you pointed out, is outgoing. He did have a telephone call the second one of the day with the president here. It ended just a few minutes ago. We do not know the outcome of that call if the trade war with Canada will be averted.

But Trump views Canada in a very different light. Again, today in the Oval Office, as we were there, he referred to Canada as a place that should be the 51st state. So again, not a good negotiating point.

As for the market reaction, which has been significant throughout the day, we asked the president if market reaction led to his decision to hold the tariffs with Mexico. The president feigned indifference, he said, I didn't see the market reaction. He said he wasn't paying attention to it.

Of course, Jake, that would fly in the face of how we know he guard -- he watches the market reaction very carefully -- Jake.

TAPPER: He sure does.

Jeff Zeleny, thanks so much.

Let's bring in CNN's Phil Mattingly here in studio and Vanessa Yurkevich is in New York for us.

So, Phil, I know that the president wants tougher borders, and I know he wants the flow of fentanyl to stop from Mexico and Canada. Is there anything else he's seeking here?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: That's the actual legal predicate for the authorization, the emergency authorization they're utilizing for these tariffs that are supposed to go into place at midnight. The fascinating thing about this, Jake, is you look at the agreement, or at least the willingness to pause for a month based on conversations between the U.S. and Mexico, both Presidents Trump was asked explicitly in the Oval Office today, what does Canada need to offer? What do they need to put on the table? What would get them the same pause that you did with Mexico?

His response had nothing to do with fentanyl, the border or immigration at all. A minute and a half response to it didn't use any of those words. One time, he talked about Canada being the 51st state. He talked about a trade deficit, inflated it by about $150 billion, and talked about industries where the U.S. does import from Canada, most notably things like timber that he believes the U.S. can do itself.

And so I think this is the difficulty we've heard when talking to Canadian officials over the course of the last several days. We knew that conversations between Mexican and U.S. officials have been going well, that they thought there was a prospect of some type of agreement. Canadian officials have been very frustrated. They have not been able to pinpoint what they need to give Donald Trump in order to get a similar pause, and that's the difficulty in this kind of negotiating strategy that Trump deploys here.

It's very different than how were used to seeing tariffs operated. He uses it over and over and over again. But for countries like Canada, they don't know what he wants. If he wants anything specific at all other than his continued talk about a 51st state.

TAPPER: Vanessa, walk us through how these tariffs could increase everyday costs for Americans as economists warn.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICSS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, this is going to hit Americans in so many ways and so many places and really at their wallets. Just take a look at what a 25 percent tariff would mean on Canadian goods, things that we import into this country that Americans ultimately will have to pay for.

Lumber, as Phil mentioned, the rising costs of home building, a more expensive lumber means more expensive homes.

Auto parts in order to make cars here in the U.S. come from Canada. Sometimes -- sometimes auto parts go back and forth across the border multiple times. Every time that gets hit with a 25 percent tariff.

Then, food. You see people struggling with grocery store prices. Well, it's going to be more expensive if were getting those things from Canada.

And fertilizer, a key component is made in Canada. We import about 80 percent of fertilizer from Canada. That's going to affect farmers here in the United States.

And then don't forget, there's that 10 percent tariff looming on China that's going to impact things like toys, electronics and footwear. We import in the U.S., 90 percent of footwear, 56 percent of that comes from China alone.

And of course, Jake, there are retaliatory tariffs. We've already heard from Canada that they're slapping a 25 percent tariff on goods coming out of the U.S., heading into Canada. Things like orange juice, clothing, handbags and bourbon.

[16:10:00]

And we're waiting to see what China may do. Jake. Historically, what they've done is they've targeted U.S. agriculture, and that has hurt farmers. There is already a 25 percent tariff in place from the previous trade war in 2018. Any additional tariffs would hurt U.S. farmers as they try to negotiate the best prices for consumers in China. China may look elsewhere and say, hey, were going to look to Brazil, for example, for our soybeans, not America, because those prices are simply still too high and are getting higher -- Jake.

TAPPER: Vanessa Yurkevich and Phil Mattingly, thanks so much.

Joining us now is Mark Carney. He's the former governor of the Bank of Canada and England, and he's a member of Canada's liberal party. He is running to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Thanks for joining us, sir.

So Trump -- President Trump said today that Canada is, quote, very tough to do business with, unquote. Have you heard anything about the phone call between Trump and Prime Minister Trudeau that wrapped up just moments ago?

MARK CARNEY, FORMER GOVERNOR OF THE BANK OF CANADA: Well, it wrapped up while I was in the seat, so I haven't heard directly. I'll just observe that this is the most successful commercial relationship in the world, and that Canada is both the largest supplier for the U.S. in many of the most important items your reporters just mentioned some of them, but we're also your largest client. We import more than China, the U.K., France, Japan combined.

So we are the largest client. We have liked that arrangement. We'd like to continue it if we can.

TAPPER: You heard that President Trump earlier today was complaining about the trade deficit that the U.S. has with Canada.

CARNEY: Well, the deficit is entirely caused by imports of Canadian oil. We provide 60 percent of your imported oil. Your refineries are geared for that oil. And the U.S. runs a trade surplus in all other goods and services.

So, again, it's a very complimentary relationship. If the U.S. wants to change that in a more permanent way, we can make choices to change with whom we trade as well.

TAPPER: I don't know if you heard Phil Mattingly talking about this, but he said Canadian officials seem flummoxed. They don't know exactly what President Trump wants in order to avoid these tariffs going into effect. Is that accurate?

CARNEY: I think it is accurate, having spoken to them. And let me -- let me say one thing. I absolutely understand the presidents concern with fentanyl. It's a scourge in the United States. It's a real challenge in Canada as well.

We are not your supplier of fentanyl, as you know. We supply less than 1 percent, or at least those are the seizures relative to Mexico. But even that said, what we want to do, what we have to do is work more closely between our two countries to really stamp this out on both sides of the border. We're absolutely willing to do that and deploy all resources necessary. But the conversation, as you just alluded, it keeps shifting. It shifts to energy.

This morning, Canadian banking was brought up, brought up for the first time, at least in the public domain. So it's very hard to have these discussions when things are moving so rapidly and just not being consistent.

TAPPER: President Trump keeps bringing up the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state of the United States. Listen to what Prime Minister Trudeau told me on this show last month about that notion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: Canadians are incredibly proud of being Canadian. One of the ways we define ourselves most easily is, well, we're not American. There is such a depth of pride that that's not actually an issue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Kind of a curious answer. I don't define myself as not being Phil Mattingly. How do you define being Canadian, and what did you make of Trudeau's comment?

CARNEY: Well, I think there's many differences between our two great nations. One of them is that Canada -- look, Canada is a mosaic. The U.S. is a melting pot.

Canada puts greater weight on social services, on health care, protecting each other. Canada has different ties. We have deep, deep ties with the United Kingdom through the commonwealth. We have deep ties through Europe.

We have a different approach to international relations. We're not the superpower. We're looking to support it.

So we are quite different. But look, we love America. We love Americans. This is, as I say, one of the greatest relationships in the world.

We want it to continue. But if it's changing, we too will change. And I would say if I can, Jake, the -- I would say the mood of the country has moved from one of confusion to a sense of betrayal, and now very much to a sense of resolve and the resolve from Canadians is if the U.S. has changed, if it's changed its priorities, how the U.S. is going to treat us, we'll move forward on our own.

TAPPER: Just a gaming it out for a second, if Canada -- just humor me for one second. If Canada were to become the 51st state, how many House Democrats would that add to Congress?

[16:15:00]

CARNEY: There's -- there's it's -- it's an impossibility. It would never happen.

TAPPER: Okay. Mark Carney, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Good luck on the campaign trail.

Today, President Trump also made major changes to the United States humanitarian agency, the USAID, a move the White House says is meant to protect your tax dollars.

My next guest calls that move dangerous and corrupt. We'll ask him why in a few moments. Plus, the details we could soon learn as investigators reveal, they

are preparing to release new data from the black boxes from both the Black Hawk helicopter and the American Airlines jet involved in last week's deadly collision.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our politics lead, thousands -- thousands of government websites have gone dark. If you try to log on to rural.gov, for example, which helps rural Americans, this is what you get. This site is offline.

Senior FBI officials have been ordered to resign or be fired. Potentially thousands of FBI agents who worked on January 6th cases could be next. More than a dozen prosecutors from the January 6th investigations were fired by the U.S. attorney.

Elon Musk and his team are gaining access to the system that writes Americas checks, and the unelected billionaire said he spoke with President Trump to shut down USAID.

[16:20:04]

That's the agency in charge of humanitarian aid around the world.

All of those events that I just mentioned, that was just this weekend. It has been a very busy couple of weeks.

Let's turn to Democratic Senator from Connecticut, Chris Murphy.

Senator Murphy, let's start with USAID. You joined protesters outside the office responsible for USAID after employees were told to not come in to work.

Secretary of State Rubio said today he is now acting director of USAID. It's moving under the State Department. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: There are a lot of functions of USAID that are going to continue, that are going to be part of American foreign policy, but it has to be aligned with American foreign policy. USAID has a history of sort of ignoring that and deciding that there's somehow a global charity separate from the national interest. These are taxpayer dollars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Does he have a point, do you think, Senator, that that money should be spent in a way that's not contradictory to American interests?

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Well, listen, Marco Rubio knows better. He knows what he said isn't true. USAID doesn't spend money independently. They spend money based upon specific allocations of money to spend in advance of U.S. national security interests prescribed by Congress. So Congress writes a law that dictates how USAID spends money to make sure that we're countering -- countering Chinese influence inside Africa, to make sure that we don't lose access to critical mineral supplies so that were fighting back against Hezbollah in Lebanon, so that were helping South American countries stop the flow of migrants to the United States.

It is just not true, as Elon Musk, and now, unfortunately, Marco Rubio are saying that USAID has some independent mandate separate from how money is authorized to them from congress.

The fact of the matter is, USAID is not moving inside state. USAID is shut down. They are effectively shut down. There are a handful of programs that are continuing, but most all of their activity around the world that helps protect U.S. interests are not functioning, and as you mentioned today, nobody showed up for work today and likely tomorrow. That means U.S. taxpayers are paying the salaries of USAID employees who are sitting home all week instructed to do nothing.

That's a fraud that's being perpetuated on the taxpayers of the United States that were paying these peoples salaries, and they are being told, don't report for work, don't do anything. And I guess the question everybody is asking today is why? Why is the Trump administration doing this? Who does this benefit?

And that's something Congress has to get to the bottom of. Elon Musk and his aides are have gotten access to critical government computer systems, including the one at the Treasury Department that writes the checks appropriated by Congress for the U.S. checks to federal government employees, checks for Social Security recipients, et cetera. Do you have an issue with that?

Of course I do. First of all, every American needs to know that your information, your personal tax records have been potentially compromised, that unelected billionaires and his Silicon Valley right wing friends may have access to all of your personal information. And all of this seems to be in service of taking control of the federal government and using the resources of the federal government to reward Trump's friends and Musks friends, and to punish their enemies, at least to punish people who don't line up with the political priorities of the administration.

They say they're just, you know, sorting through all of government spending to make sure that it doesn't contain funding for woke ideologies. That is just fancy talk to say we're going to give money to people who pledge loyalty to Donald Trump, and we're not going to give money to people who don't pledge loyalty to Donald Trump. Today, it may be government contracts, but tomorrow, it may be your tax refund.

So I just think this is a super dangerous moment that doesn't just impact government contractors, that now may impact ordinary Americans. And I think you're seeing this weekend and today, folks, realizing the scope of this crisis, and you're starting to see the American public really speak out and speak up. TAPPER: You're on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. There are

reports that a gentleman named Darren Beatty is going to be put forward to be acting undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs. That's a key post.

And we should note, Beatty left the first Trump administration after the tide of criticism because he attended a conference tied to white nationalists. Beatty has also posted on social media things like this, quote, competent white men must be in charge if you want things to work. Unfortunately, our entire national ideology is predicated on coddling the feelings of women and minorities and demoralizing competent white men, unquote.

What's your reaction? And is it true that he's up for this post?

MURPHY: My understanding is that he is up for this post. Listen, he sounds particularly dangerous, the brazen chauvinism and racism. He also has been a very frequent apologist for the Chinese genocide of Uighurs.

[16:25:03]

He says the United States should have no interest in protecting Taiwan, and we should in fact hand Taiwan to the Chinese.

He has really radical views, but I don't know. They don't seem super different than Elon Musk, who has amplified vicious antisemitic information on Twitter, who gave the Heil Hitler salute on inauguration day. It seems to be standard that the qualification to serve in the Trump administration is affection for racist and misogynist philosophy.

So this guy is dangerous. But there seems to be people like him being peppered throughout Trump's government.

TAPPER: Just for whatever it's worth, the Trump team says that wasn't a Heil Hitler salute, but we have not. I don't think we've heard from Elon Musk on what exactly it was.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, thanks for your time.

Thousands of FBI agents are now being questioned about their work on the January 6th investigation. The fear is this could lead to a mass firing. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:30:32]

TAPPER: In our politics lead right now, President Trump's new Justice Department leaders want to know the names of and the extent to which FBI agents were involved in the January 6th investigation of the people who attacked the Capitol. And these individuals have to put it all in a questionnaire. This all began Friday, when the new Justice Department leaders asked the acting FBI director to fire eight top FBI officials and to provide a list of any agents or analysts who may have worked directly or in some tangential way on the January 6th investigation into the mob that attacked the Capitol.

Driscoll, the acting head of the FBI, refused. That led to the questionnaire demanding the agents themselves fill it out and detail their work. The FBI agents association fired back in a memo saying, quote, employees carrying out their duties to investigate allegations of criminal activity with integrity and within the rule of law, should never be treated as those who have engaged in actual misconduct, unquote.

Let's go to CNN chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid, CNN chief law enforcement analyst John Miller and Carrie Cordero, who served at the Justice Department as counsel to the assistant attorney general for national security.

Thanks, one and all, for being here.

John, let me start with you. What are you hearing from FBI agents asked to fill out this questionnaire?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, the FBI has been reeling since the weekend. I mean, agents spent the weekend at home or at work, literally calling each other, calling colleagues, calling retired agents at home to say, you know, how do I respond to this? First, they asked the agency to put a target on my back, and now I'm being asked to put a target on my own back by filling out this form.

Now, the agents association and the FBI management has said participating in the January 6th investigation is not tantamount to misconduct. Neither is being on this list.

But, Jake, when you look at the questions that they're asking the agents to fill out, what's your name, current title? Were you a supervisor or supervisor, intelligence analyst, or were you an executive? What division are you currently in? What division were you in at the time of the case?

What was your exact role in the case? Were you analytical support? Did you approve electronic communications or other documents in a case file? Did you lead an operation for an arrest or make an arrest? Were you the case agent on an individual?

Now, as a former assistant director of the FBI, I can tell you, you don't have to be an FBI agent to know they are not asking these questions to decide who should get the merit award for the best work in the January 6th investigation. So there is much nervousness, much fear, much gnashing of teeth at the bureau as to once these questionnaires are filled out, where do they go and what happens to them?

TAPPER: Well, really, in the upside down, I mean, people out there should just take a second to think about the fact that what's going on here, FBI agents, theoretically and in practice, could be and have been fired for investigating the crimes committed by people who beat up cops, who assaulted cops on January 6th. That's just a fact. I mean, it's -- it's insane. Paula, are officials planning to fill out the questionnaire? What's

the guidance?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: So it's unclear how much cooperation they're going to get. There's already been some pushback. In fact, some leaders within the FBI have encouraged people not to fill it out and say, look, I'll deal with the blowback.

The FBI Association told members to consult with their supervisors and gave them some boilerplate language. But we know this request to fill out this questionnaire comes as CNN is reporting that Trump wants to expand his purge at DOJ. So we are potentially talking about the fate of thousands of FBI employees on the line. And I just want to underscore this is highly, highly unusual.

TAPPER: It's a nice term for it.

Carrie, there's a bigger picture a bigger picture -- picture question here. Is this kind of questionnaire even legal? And if FBI agents are forced to fill it out this time, what's stopping the administration from forcing agents to fill one out for any thing they want to, to find out if they've ever run crosswise of anybody? I mean, like, what if there's a prosecution of Elon Musk? What if there's a prosecution of somebody else close to Trump?

CARRIE, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, look, the question is, is what's the purpose of the questionnaire, and if the purpose of the questionnaire is to create some kind of record that the administration thinks is then gives them justification for firing these career officials, whether they are agents, special agents in the field offices, or whether they're intelligence analysts or whether they're supervisory agents at headquarters, if this is designed to create a record to fire them, then that is a situation that is going to make the country less safe.

[16:35:09]

You know, if you go to the White House website and you look at the number one issue that the White House has, it says to make America safer again, if they gut the FBI, what they are doing is making the country less safe. And that's because in the short term, agents who are today right today, while they're focused on this questionnaire and all the chaos that this has created, if they are conducting cybersecurity investigations, counterintelligence on Iran and on Russia, international counterterrorism investigations, they are now distracted. And they are not doing that job.

And in the long term, if these agents and analysts are fired, potentially thousands of them, for working on a case that they might not have even agreed with, that they might personally have thought was not necessarily what they thought was the right thing to do, but they were directed to do it. If they are fired, we are looking -- the country is looking at decades and decades of experience on national security and complex criminal investigations, walking out the door.

TAPPER: Why would anybody want to work for the justice department if somebody some politicians political whims could affect your career? I heard, by the way, that today at DOJ and the FBI building, a lot of people, instead of prosecuting crimes, instead of investigating, they're putting together resumes.

CORDERO: Of course. Every as a former Justice Department attorney, I can tell you, all of my colleagues, everyone on the outside of government is flooded with phone calls, resumes and questions about what people should do.

TAPPER: Not to mention all the reassignments of people that like -- like Toscas (ph), who's this national security division legend reassigned to a different division?

CORDERO: There are. But I do want to distinguish Jake between the reassignment.

TAPPER: Right, right, of course.

CORDERO: And the firings, they are in different categories. Reassignments are something. 25 years ago I saw that kind of maneuver at DOJ. It happens. Its unpleasant, but it happens. It's in a different category than corrupt or illegal motivated firing.

TAPPER: Thanks to our panel. Appreciate it.

Democrats sounded the alarm on the campaign trail about what was called Project 2025. Democrats warned that a second Trump term would bring those changes in Project 2025. That blueprint changes that we have since been reporting on, from the immigration crackdown to dismantling diversity programs.

CNN's Tom Foreman examines now how those warnings are playing out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Reforming or doing away with the Federal Disaster Relief Agency, FEMA, dismantling diversity programs, rolling back environmental restrictions, accepting only two genders, replacing nonpartisan federal workers with administration loyalists, and aggressively pursuing undocumented immigrants -- all of those ideas are being pushed by President Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're getting rid of all of the cancer. I call it cancer. The cancer caused by the Biden administration.

FOREMAN: And a CNN analysis has found many of Trump's plans reflect deep ties to Project 2025, the 900-page plan of action put out by the conservative Heritage Foundation.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Look, I think the data speaks for itself. There is a clear overlap between what Donald Trump is doing so far and what project 2025 has proposed.

FOREMAN: During the campaign, Trump repeatedly denied any links to the project. TRUMP: I have nothing to do with Project 2025. That's out there. I

haven't read it. I don't want to read it purposely. I'm not going to read it.

FOREMAN: And yet, of the 53 executive actions in his first week in office, CNN's analysis found more than two thirds align with the project's proposals. At least 140 Trump administration officials and dozens of allies helped craft that document, including his new CIA director, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and Tom Homan, the border czar.

TOM HOMAN, BORDER POLICY ADVISER: We're going to go we got to go, whether it's a school, a church or a hospital.

FOREMAN: More specifics. When the South American country of Colombia initially refused to accept military planes loaded with deportees, Trump quickly and aggressively threatened to impose a punishing tariff, right on script with what Project 2025 proposed.

TRUMP: As you know, in Colombia, they agreed with us almost immediately after I got involved.

FOREMAN: Trump immediately revoked the security clearance of top government officials suspected of not supporting his goals. And he's talked up more oil drilling in the far north, where the Project 2025 plan says Alaska is a special case and deserves immediate action.

For all that, a Trump spokesman still insists the new president had nothing to do with Project 2025, and he's just securing the border, restoring common sense, driving down inflation and unleashing American energy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN (on camera): Of course, critics are going to say that's just a bunch of Trump 'splaining. The simple truth is, they warned that Project 2025 was the roadmap for the Trump administration.

[16:40:04]

And so far, Jake, it's a very accurate map indeed.

TAPPER: All right. Tom Foreman, thanks so much for that.

Large parts of the wreckage of American Airlines Flight 5342 are being removed from the icy Potomac River today. Coming up next, I'm going to be joined by U.S. Coast Guard official who's helping with those recovery efforts. I'm going to ask him about the challenges crews are facing and the questions they're hoping to answer.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our national lead, today, salvage teams removing pieces of the aircraft from the chilly Potomac River after that deadly crash between the Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines plane last Wednesday night, killed all 67 people on board, both aircraft.

[16:45:08]

Let's bring in U.S. Coast Guard Captain Patrick Burkett, one of the members of the unified command in charge of responding to the collision.

Captain, what is the Coast Guard's role in the recovery effort right now -- right now?

CAPT. PATRICK BURKETT, U.S. COAST GUARD: Well, good afternoon, Jake. Thanks for having me.

Our role today is primarily to support the responders that's conducting the salvage operations by enforcing the safety zone that we have on all waters north of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge on the Potomac River, essentially, to ensure we keep all recreational boaters and non-essential vessels so that they can conduct all salvage operations.

TAPPER: So you oversaw the U.S. Coast Guard's response the night of the collision. What's been the biggest challenge so far for you and your team?

BURKETT: Well, the challenge is to make sure we keep teams out there 24 over seven, primarily right now to, like I said, maintain the safety of and monitor the security, the safety zone. But we're doing that by bringing in multiple crews from across the coast guard to rotate crews out to keep them fresh and make sure we maintain presence on the waterway the entire time.

TAPPER: So the coast guard flies helicopters in this airspace yourselves. How concerning is this data discrepancy between the air traffic control and the jets' recorder?

BURKETT: Well, the Coast Guard helo operation is a different part from what I am responsible for. My area is more so the water assets from the local coast guard station. But I know the Coast Guard operations with the helos have always done in a safe and effective manner. So I don't think that any of that is really affecting what they're doing for their operations.

TAPPER: The visibility in the -- in the Potomac is near zero. This must really have complicated your ability to conduct this recovery operation.

BURKETT: Well, actually, we've been fortunate here over the last couple of days. The water has cleared up, so the visibility has been really good for dive operations. And it has aided in us being able to start with the salvage operations and recovery operations this week.

TAPPER: All right. U.S. Coast Guard Captain Patrick Burkett, thank you so much. Appreciate your time, sir.

We have some breaking news for you now. A major update on the proposed tariffs on Canada that had been set to go into effect this evening at midnight, East Coast time. Stay with us.

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[16:52:05]

TAPPER: We have some breaking news for you in our money lead.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just said moments ago that the proposed U.S. tariffs on Canada are set to go into effect tonight at midnight are going to be paused for at least 30 days.

Let's go straight to CNN's Kaitlan Collins.

Kaitlan, this major update follows a long phone call between Trump and Trudeau. Was this an expected outcome?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jake, actually, two phone calls that happened between President Trump and Prime Minister Trudeau. One this morning and then one that just happened before this event that he held here at the White House with the hockey winners of this year of the Stanley Cup and moments before. He entered the room for that event. This was when he had this conversation with Prime Minister Trudeau. And the big question going into that was whether or not Trump was also going to pause the tariffs that were set to go into effect at midnight tonight against Canada, 25 percent.

I should note that comes after a question after he had a call with the president of Mexico earlier this morning. And after that conversation, she announced that they would be pausing those tariffs, that they would not go into effect for at least a month as they worked on sending members of the Mexican National Guard to the U.S. southern border. Now, we've just gotten this announcement from Trudeau himself, who, I should note got out ahead of the White House in this.

He said he had a good call with Trump. He said that Canada is going to be implementing a $1.3 billion border plan, where they talk about reinforcing the border. I should note that's actually something that Trudeau announced and Canada announced back in December, about mid- December. But also in this announcement, Jake, he says that they are going to have frontline personnel working and protecting the border after concerns about fentanyl coming across. And he said that they are going to be appointing a fentanyl czar and that they will list cartels as terrorists and ensure 24/7 eyes on the border.

I believe it is the fentanyl czar that is new here. But it's that last sentence, Jake, there at the end is the most important here. He says proposed tariffs will be paused for at least 30 days while we work together. That is the news here, where Canada's prime minister is coming out and saying that these tariffs that Trump threatened and that came out in more detail this weekend from the White House, are not actually going to be going into effect for at least 30 days, he says.

That echoes what we heard from the Mexican president earlier. And, Jake, when we were in that event here at the White House, I asked President Trump how that call with Trudeau went. And this is what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: How did call with Trudeau go?

TRUMP: Say it?

COLLINS: How did the call with Trudeau go?

TRUMP: Very good.

COLLINS: Are you still doing the tariffs? Are you still doing the tariffs tonight?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Jake, that was just about maybe 25 minutes ago here at the White House inside the East Room. I should note we have not heard yet from President Trump himself on this after the president of Mexico, Sheinbaum, came out and announced that they would agree to pause those tariffs. We heard from Trump almost immediately on truth social relaying his version of that conversation.

We'll be waiting to see what he says, of course, here, because we have the statement from Trudeau. But we'll see how -- the White House's version of that phone call and that agreement, Jake, but obviously would be notable if neither of these tariffs are set to go into effect tonight after we saw what they were doing to the stock market.

[16:55:04]

Though, when Trump was in the Oval Office earlier with Jeff Zeleny asking him about, you know, the effect of what his announcements were doing on the stock market, he dismissed it and said he doesn't pay much attention, though, of course, Jake, we know he certainly does.

TAPPER: He certainly does. But it does appear as though he, at least on paper, got what he wanted from both Mexico and Canada for now.

COLLINS: Yeah, but there is a real question in terms of what he's getting on fentanyl. Yes. That is something that you heard Kevin Hassett saying here earlier at the White House, Peter Navarro as well, saying its not a trade war, it's a drug war. They're upset about fentanyl coming across the border, though certainly way less by Canada's standards compared to the U.S. southern border.

We know a lot of that comes through legal ports of entry, unfortunately, Jake. But also, he has a complaint about just the trade that goes back and forth between the U.S. and Canada.

Overall, that does not appear to have changed as a result of this conversation. So it is still an open question of how he tries to wield this in the future.

TAPPER: All right. Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much. We're going to have much more reaction to our breaking news in just moments.

Sweeping American tariffs set to go into effect tonight on both Canada and Mexico have been paused. Keep it here.

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