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Trump Vows Tariffs On Mexico, Canada, And China On Day One; Biden Administration Unveils Plan To Expand Anti-Obesity Drug Coverage; Israeli Cabinet To Vote On Hezbollah Ceasefire Deal. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired November 26, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: So -- but this is an important legal concept because this entire thing that's happening here, Donald Trump is cheering it. He's saying that I won. I persevered against all odds. These cases were junk.

But actually, what the department is doing here is they're setting out the course of how this would look like if something like this ever happens in the future. And those words, "dismissal without prejudice," that's about highlighting that it's only temporary where a president can't be charged with a crime.

So Judge Tanya Chutkan in the January 6 case, she wrote, "Dismissal without prejudice is also consistent with the government's understanding that the immunity afforded to a sitting president is temporary, expiring when they leave office."

So all of this is about acknowledging you just can't have a sitting president facing a court proceeding like this.

The other thing they did was dismiss an appeal that's ongoing against Donald Trump in the 11th circuit federal court related to the classified documents case -- bringing that back. But the Justice Department wants to continue that appeal related to his two co- defendants there.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah. I mean, the thing is he's got four years to figure out a way to get these cases dismissed with prejudice or maybe to pardon himself, but those are legal bridges -- unknown legal bridges that have yet to be crossed.

Katelyn Polantz, great to see you. Thank you -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, President-elect Donald Trump says he is ready to make good on a major campaign promise on day one in the White House -- that promise being -- saying on social media he will impose a massive level of tariffs on goods from two of America's closest allies, Mexico and Canada. You see there he's saying 25 percent.

As for China, Trump says he's going to slap Beijing with an additional 10 percent tariff. TBA on what the total tariff toll will be for China there. The Chinese Embassy quickly responding telling CNN, "No one will win a trade war or a tariff war."

CNN's Matt Egan is following this. This is important today and is going to be very important for weeks and months to come. Setting aside the question -- the political one of is Donald Trump serious here -- what does this mean?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Kate, it means that the tariff train has officially left the station, and it left early, right? There is still about eight weeks away from inauguration and the president-elect is already threatening to slap tariffs on friends and foe alike -- day one tariffs. Twenty-five percent, Mexico and Canada. An additional 10 percent on China.

I think all of this another reminder that Trump calls himself the tariff man for a reason. He is deadly serious about tariffs. He views them as a negotiating tool -- a magical tool that can solve almost any problem.

And this is also another reminder of how Trump's strategy on trade could backfire when it comes to the cost of living. Because remember, these are taxes on U.S. imports and even if this is just a negotiating ploy --

BOLDUAN: Um-hum.

EGAN: -- it can cause prices to go up. It can cause chaos. It can invite retaliation from Canada, from Mexico, from China.

Remember, Canada is one of our biggest trading partners -- $300 billion of U.S. imports from Canada from last year alone. We're talking about everything from oil and minerals to cement and wood. It's hard to see how big tariffs of 25 percent on Canadian oil will help when it comes to gas prices or 25 percent tariffs on cement and wood. How's that going to help with building housing and addressing the affordability crisis?

Same thing with Mexico. That's actually our largest source of goods. It recently surpassed China on that front. We get a lot of agriculture. Ninety percent of avocados that are imported are from Mexico. Tomatoes as well. Cars. All of that comes in.

And then China -- I mean, listen, China -- we're talking about furniture, and toys, and sports equipment.

The timing here Kate is noteworthy because just 24 hours ago you and I were standing around this same table --

BOLDUAN: Um-hum.

EGAN: -- talking about how markets were celebrating Trump's selection of Scott Bessent --

BOLDUAN: Right.

EGAN: -- as Treasury secretary. Now maybe Bessent could kind of soften the edges around some of Trump's policies. But there's nothing subtle about what the president-elect announced

last night. Another reminder that at the end of the day Trump alone is making these decisions.

BOLDUAN: And that's the thing about tariffs is the president alone can make -- can make --

EGAN: Absolutely.

BOLDUAN: -- can have this.

There was -- the CFO of Walmart, America's largest retailer, said just last week Trump's tariffs will cause them to likely raise prices on some goods. Just like how many businesses are reacting to this with fear and concern. But you have new reporting about how companies are planning to try to work around this.

EGAN: Yeah, absolutely. What we learned is that last administration when Trump was in power a lot of companies -- they tried to get basically a hall pass from the Trump administration to get away from the tariffs. To avoid the tariffs on China. And there's been a lot of concerns raised about what's known as the exclusion process to get -- avoid those tariffs. A lot of concerns have been raised.

Now just one in seven companies who asked for an exclusion from the U.S. trade representative were able to get an inclusion -- only one in seven.

[07:35:00]

And some businesses fear that the process if broken. That it was sort of open to potential political favoritism. That there was a lack of transparency. And some of this has been backed up by academic research that has found that if you had a company that their executives donated to Republican candidates, they had a better chance of getting a tariff exclusion. A one in five chance for firms that donated to Republicans versus a one in 10 chance for firms whose executives backed Democrats.

And all of this, of course, Kate, is going to come back into focus in the coming weeks and months and years as companies try to navigate the latest trade war.

BOLDUAN: Well, but one in five or one in 10, banking on that is not a smart business plan for these huge companies, right?

EGAN: It's not.

BOLDUAN: Like -- and this is big numbers that we're talking about, so this is all very important.

EGAN: Yeah, there's so much at stake here.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much, Matt.

EGAN: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Great reporting as always -- John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now, Pete Seat, former White House spokesperson in George W. Bush's administration. And Meghan Hays, Democratic strategist and former White House director of message planning.

So, Pete, how will Americans feel if prices go up on January 20 after, oh, like, noon?

PETE SEAT, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPOKESPERSON IN GEORGE W. BUSH'S ADMINISTRATION, VICE PRESIDENT, BOSE PUBLIC AFFAIRS GROUP (via Webex by Cisco): Well, welcome to a four season reboot of words versus actions where Donald Trump says something but doesn't necessarily follow through on what he says. There are plenty of examples of that during his first term.

There are plenty of examples also, John, of his verbal threats forcing and compelling action on the part of other parties, particularly when it comes to foreign countries. They hear these threats, and they genuflect to the bully pulpit and do as Trump says.

So I think the real question is what will happen in these next two months? What will Mexico and Canada do to try and stem the flow across the border? And what will China try to do to stop the trafficking of fentanyl? If they make meaningful moves, Trump may back off on this. Otherwise, we're all going to see price increases.

BERMAN: You know, Meghan, The New York Times reported that the Canadian prime minister already called Donald Trump yesterday after this threat was made.

MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION CONSULTANT: Yeah. I mean, but I don't understand why the American people are surprised. This is what the president-elect said he was going to do when he was running, and this is what is going to happen.

We all know economists were saying during the campaign that his tariffs would increase $4,000 on working class people. So we are not surprised that this is going to happen, and this is going -- this will impact working class people.

But it's just unfortunate because I think there are other ways to get some of your -- you know, the border crisis under control without making threats to other countries.

BERMAN: So I'm not sure either of you banked on talking about Wegovy and Zepbound this morning, but all of a sudden there is this political football that is being handed to the incoming Trump administration on the issue of these wildly popular weight loss drugs. Because the Biden administration today is going to propose that Medicare and Medicaid cover them, which would mean savings of 100 percent for about seven million people. I mean, that's a lot of people potentially impacted by this.

It's very possible if not probable that the Trump administration would have to agree with this proposal. And this is where it gets murky because the person who could be secretary of HHS (Health and Human Services), which has a say here, is Robert Kennedy. And it's not exactly clear that these drugs are something that he's particularly thrilled with -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., TRUMP'S PICK FOR HHS SECRETARY: If we spend about one-fifth of that giving good food -- three meals a day to every man, woman, and child in our country, we could solve the obesity and diabetes epidemic overnight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, good food, he says, is the key to solving obesity -- not these drugs.

Meghan, so what do you think of this move the Biden administration is making and the challenge it poses to the incoming Trump administration?

HAYS: Look, I think that the obesity crisis is a real thing as RFK was saying. I think that also this is just not about these medications specifically. The Biden administration has been working to lower prescription drug costs across the board. They've done it for insulin and some other things that are really important to people.

But we all know that if people are less obese, then other things are important too, right, like heart rate. The heart rate disease goes -- or the rate of heart disease goes down, cholesterol goes down. So there are other things that are impacted here by making these more affordable to people.

BERMAN: And Pete, just as a political matter though, if the Trump administration has to approve this it's not cheap, right? I mean, it would cost billions of dollars or add billions of dollars in spending.

And there is this new efficiency board with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, although my sons know one of the things that's least efficient when finding an efficiency board is to appoint two people in charge of it. That aside -- but do you think that this administration will want the extra savings?

SEAT: Possibly they'll want the extra savings.

[07:40:00]

But I'm actually -- I'm going to tie this back to the first topic. Top exports from Canada to the United States -- what we import is medicine. So if Trump does follow through on this tariff threat on Canada, that in and of itself could impact the cost of prescription drugs on the American people.

So you're going to have this balancing act and this tension between the tariffs and what the Biden administration is proposing and then obviously, what RFK may want to do. BERMAN: Yeah, but it just -- just as a -- as a pure matter here,

Pete, again, this is expensive. Elon Musk seems to want to cut costs. How does an administration handle -- this is going to be their issue at this point and it's one of those things where it may seem as if they're taking something away that is in the process of being given to the American people.

SEAT: The challenge that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy have in trying to cut their proposed $2 trillion from the budget is that there's not a lot of discretionary spending at their disposal to cut. A lot of what we spend is mandatory spending. It's interest on the day. It's Social Security. And here it is, it's Medicare and Medicaid.

So there's going to be a lot of difficult decisions that they need to make. I think that less costly prescription drugs, particularly these weight loss drugs, are going to be popular with the American people. And lower prescription prices, particularly, are popular with seniors. And guess what? Seniors vote. So they're going to have to look at that very closely.

BERMAN: Yeah. Look, I just think it's interesting and what happens the next whatever we are -- like, 60 days between now and then. We're already seeing posturing on all these things, whether it be the weight loss drug and, Meghan, these tariffs. I mean, you have this statement from Donald Trump -- a policy statement now when he is president-elect basically calling on these other countries to act.

Do you think that they will try to do -- visibly do something before Donald Trump takes office on the 20th?

HAYS: I mean, that remains to be seen. I think it really depends. I think that there are things that they should be doing anyway. I think that there are things that we are going to need to do to get the border more secure in general and it looked like Donald Trump was saying during -- when he was running.

But it will be interesting to see how they act in the next 60 days. I'm not exactly sure that you will see a noticeable difference in the next 60 days, but maybe they can come to an agreement.

But I think that Donald Trump talks so favorably in his mind about tariffs and the election. I think that he will have to put some tariffs in place at some point in his presidency.

BERMAN: All right, Meghan Hays, Pete Seat, great to see both of you. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: The Israeli cabinet is set to vote today on a proposed 60- day ceasefire deal with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. A source telling CNN the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already signed off on the deal.

Despite the rumored progress strikes do continue in Beirut. The IDF says it hit two Hezbollah command centers belonging to the group's, they say, executive council. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz is following the very latest for us. Salma, what are you hearing about how close they really are to a ceasefire deal in this moment?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in fact, we actually just heard from Lebanese officials as well. One official saying that they believe a ceasefire could come into place or could be announced in just 24 hours' time.

This is very welcomed relief, of course, to the many on the ground who have been suffering in these past few weeks as Israel has really pummeled particularly areas in the south -- in the south of the capital. You have thousands that have been killed and over a million displaced in this conflict.

Now, again, this Israeli security cabinet meeting -- where this Israeli cabinet meeting will take place later today, so we'll have a final answer at that point.

But if we go through what's in the deal just to give people an idea it's potentially a 60-day ceasefire. So guns would fall silent and no fighting between Hezbollah and Israel for a period of 60 days. Diplomats are hoping that will allow them to lay the groundwork -- this period of quiet would allow them to lay the groundwork for a lasting truce. That would be based on actually what is an 18-year-old U.N. resolution -- U.N. Resolution 1701, which ended the conflict back in 2006 between Israel and Hezbollah.

And so, U.S. diplomats believe that reviving that resolution -- Resolution 1701 and using it as a blueprint during potentially, a 60- day ceasefire -- that could bring the much needed quiet on that border and bring this conflict to a close.

But it all falls, of course, on that first step. Not to get ahead of ourselves. The cabinet meeting taking place in a few hours' time. We are listening closely to find out what the decision is from Prime Minister Netanyahu.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Salma, thank you so much for bringing us the latest. We're going to keep very close to this one today.

Ahead for us, dictionary.com and its word of the year. It's very cutesy, very mindful.

And one Alaskan taking neighborly love to a whole new level. The unusual way one woman is getting turkeys to isolated members of her community.

[07:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL)

BOLDUAN: Democrats have been in a state of soul-searching since Donald Trump's election victory trying to pinpoint the exact reason Kamala Harris and her forward movement struggled to resonate with the American people. Last night, speaking to John Berman, Democratic Congressman Dan

Goldman offered one blunt assessment. Reacting to the special counsel dropping federal charges against Donald Trump here is what Goldman said is why voters did and didn't vote for Trump.

[07:50:10]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DAN GOLDMAN (D-NY): I would argue that the American people did not vote Donald Trump in to subvert our democracy to undermine our Constitution. They voted, at least according to the exit polls, because there's an affordability crisis in this country and they believed that Donald Trump would help the middle class. I have strong, strong reservations that he will do that, but that's what he was elected on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: So now, as Donald Trump and the country prepare for a second Trump term, one prominent name is laying out a blueprint for how he thinks the Democratic Party can win from here on out.

And joining us right now is Rev. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign and one of the country's most persistent advocates for poor and working class Americans. It's good to see you. Thank you for coming back in.

This blueprint -- in this blueprint you say the winning equation is what you call fusion politics. How is that different from what other Democrats, like Kamala Harris, have already tried to do?

REV. WILLIAM BARBER, CO-CHAIR, POOR PEOPLE'S CAMPAIGN, PRESIDENT, REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH (via Webex by Cisco): Well, I don't frame it so much of what Kamala Harris has tried to do or has not tried to do. Actually, she had a tremendous campaign and had points of this.

I think in our whole political system we're missing something. It's a theological framework that also has political significance. It's called the stones that the builders rejected can be the chief cornerstones in building a new reality.

Who are the rejected? Moral fusion says you look at what unites people regardless -- not left and right, Democrat-Republican, but what unites us. And one thing that we find is that in this country right now we have 87 million poor and low-wage people who have not -- who do not -- who are potential voters.

Thirty million of them did not vote. We did a study and asked why, and the number one reason was no one talks to us. No one talks to us. And what connects them.

For instance, the issue of living wages. There is not a state in this country, particularly all the battleground states where poor and low- wage voters don't make up at least 40 percent of the electorate. And yet, many of them do not vote because they say nobody talks directly to us.

If we were to have a campaign around living wages, we're talking about over 40 million people who would be raised up out of poverty and low wages. We've not had a conversation and not moved the minimum wage since 2009. The minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and $2.13 an hour for people working as waiters and waitresses. That is immoral and we need to talk about it in that sense.

We have over 800 people that are dying a day from poverty and low wages. We need to have this conversation in our public discourse and speak to the people who feel like they are being rejected.

And oftentimes, lastly, our debates and our conversations -- you think about it. We have debate after debate after debate and you don't have nobody running for president gets asked this question. If you get elected, how will you address the 140 million poor and low-wage people in this country? And what will you do specifically -- not as a Democrat or as a Republican, but as a moral agent to make their lives better? And how will you raise the living wages?

How will you make sure people have health care -- but framing it on a moral perspective. Three hundred fifty thousand people died during COVID from the lack of health care. It's COVID. The essential workers. How are we talking to those people who make up 40 percent of the electorate in battleground states?

BOLDUAN: And talking about morality and politics honestly, Reverend, is quite a novel thing today when consider that I think everyone would say morality has been so far from a central focus in politics for so long.

On that note, you wrote this weekend something that caught my attention, which is you wrote, "And now two men who have never known hunger, hurt, or hard times say they are going to cut government when we most need it to lift people out of poverty and low wages."

This speaks to the blueprint that you're laying out.

BARBER: Um-hum.

BOLDUAN: I assume, of course, that you are talking about Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy who are heading up Trump's project to cut federal spending.

BARBER: That's it.

BOLDUAN: Musk has said that he would like to find and could find $2 trillion in savings.

Why does their effort, as they described it, to cut wasteful spending concern you so much?

BARBER: Well, you know, that's a -- that's a cute way of saying we can find this spending -- all this overspending they claim, but now we won't have to chase ghosts anymore. We're actually going to see. And when the American people see what they're talking about cutting that's when they will see the danger of it.

If you cut and remove resources from the federal government how do you then address the issue of millions of people in this country who still do not have health care in a democracy where our moral call of the Constitution is to establish justice and provide for the common defense and promote general welfare?

[07:55:08]

How -- if you're going to do all of this cutting how are you going to raise the minimum wage? We have not done that, as I said, since 2009. I want folks to hear that. That's 15 years. Prices have gone up, work has gone up, but wages have stayed -- the minimum wage has stayed at a rate that's less than what it should have been in the 1960s. If you raise the minimum wage, it would actually add 300 and some-odd billion dollars to the economy.

It actually costs us more to have child poverty. Fifty-one percent of all the children in this country are poor and/or low wealth.

And what I'm arguing is we have to get away from looking at this as left and right or it's going to cost too much to fix these problems. The problem is how much is it costing us now to leave things as it are -- as it is? How much does it cost us right now to have this many people without health care? This many people without living wages?

And when you look at these issues across the board, poor and low-wage people have a power.

But the number one -- we did a study, and they said the number one reason they don't vote is because nobody talks to them. When they hear somebody talking about cutting government and destroying government that doesn't move them. But if they were to hear about how government will be used to lift them up -- and we're talking, first of all, about poor, working people.

And whether you're in Alabama or Appalachia, this is serious business about people's lives. It's not just about politics. People are dying. Two hundred ninety-five thousand people a year, one study said, from poor poverty and low wages.

What to do is not be cutting the government but how do we use the government to speak to the issues of the most hurting people in this country who represent the biggest, largest possible swing vote in the country.

BOLDUAN: Not about politics. It's more than politics, as you say, but it can also be everything to do with politics when you talk about the impact.

Reverend William Barber, thank you very much for coming in. Thanks for your time -- John.

BERMAN: All right. This morning, dictionary.com has announced its 2024 word of the year. This is a hint.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOOLS LEBRON, TICTOKER: See how I do my makeup for work? Very demure, very mindful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So the word 'demure' exploded in popularity thanks to that post from TikToker Jools Lebron.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: See how I'm reading this book. Very demure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You see how I show up to work? Very demure. Very mindful.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Straight hair, very demure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wearing a seatbelt, very mindful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So those people, along with Dunkin' donuts, the White House, NASA all got in on the coveted demure action.

This morning the worst possible tourist attraction for people afraid of heights -- 5,000 feet in the air. The Sky Ladder in China's Yunnan province stretches 550 feet between two cliffs. You're supposed to walk across it carefully. The ladder is equipped with handrails, footrests, tethers, and cables. I suggest using them.

A pilot in Alaska delivering on her annual Thanksgiving promise. For the last three years, Esther Sanderlin has delivered frozen turkeys to fellow Alaskans who live off the road system. This is how she got the idea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ESTHER SANDERLIN, DELIVERS FROZEN TURKEYS TO RURAL NEIGHBORS IN ALASKA: And I was visiting our newest neighbor and they were talking about slitting a squirrel three ways for dinner and how that didn't really go very far. And I just had a thought at that moment. You know what? I'm going to -- I'm going to drop them a turkey for Thanksgiving because I recently rebuilt my first airplane with my dad and so I could do that really easily.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: This year she's delivering 30 to 40 turkeys. She eventually hopes to turn this into a mission -- into a nonprofit and reach more people across Alaska. It sounds wonderful. Though I do have to say when I heard turkey drop it made me think of one of the best television episodes of all times, the "WKRP IN CINCINNATI" turkey drop episode -- enjoy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CLIP FROM "WKRP IN CINCINNATI":

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no parachutes yet.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It can't be skydivers. I can't tell what they are but --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my God, they're turkeys. Oh they're crashing to the Earth right in front of our eyes. One just went through the windshield of a parked car. This is terrible. Everyone's running around pushing each other.

Oh my goodness. Oh the humanity. People are running about and the turkeys are hitting the ground like sacks of wet cement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: You are actually contractually obligated to show a clip from that episode whenever you use the word "turkey drop," Kate.

BOLDUAN: Oh, when did we use the word "turkey drop" though? That's like this is a -- maybe a singular moment. We should enjoy it together. Like, wet cement -- the wet cement. Thank you, J.B.

Let's go to this now. If you mark it down, they will come. That is how one department store executive put it this -- puts it this holiday season. But there are some early warning signs they are currently bracing for a shopping slowdown.

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