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TikTok back in Apple Store and Google Play; Associated Press Barred from Trump Events; Vance Speaks at Munich Security Conference; American Finding it Harder to Pay Off Their Debt. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired February 14, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And it may be pulling the group a bit to the left, or they could be put in an interesting position. There's a quote, "It's a problem, one New Dem member told us. Technically, there wouldn't be an issue with progressives joining, but if they're doing it because it's the political zeitgeist at the time, then it's a problem."

What problem do you see?

REP. BRAD SCHNEIDER (D-IL), WAYS AND MEANS COMMITTEE: Well, we have a pretty -- I don't see a problem. We have a pretty extensive vetting process. We asked everyone to fill out a questionnaire talking about their policy priorities and what they hope to accomplish. They meet with leadership. They're voted on by the entire New Dem Coalition.

We're growing because I think we are where the American people are. And you look at the election, we protected 87 of -- 85 of 87 incumbents. We added 25 new members and we have a lot of members wanting to join. So, the New Dems I think have a clear vision of where we want to take the country. It is a country that serves American interests, uplifts American lives and makes life easier for working families. And that message is resonating.

BERMAN: Let's talk about TikTok if we can. I believe you did vote for the TikTok ban. Well, this morning, Apple and Google, the app stores are putting TikTok back on. This is after the attorney general, Pam Bondi, assured them they wouldn't be fined. But I guess even with that assurance, isn't this running against what the law that Congress passed and the president signed actually says?

SCHNEIDER: Well, before we talk about the law, let's talk about the concerns with TikTok. TikTok's owned by China -- or a Chinese company with links to the Chinese government. We have an adversarial relationship with China. We are concerned about actions they're taking contrary to U.S. interests around the world, but also contrary to U.S. interests and U.S. safety here at home, and TikTok is a major threat. That's why I voted with my colleagues, bipartisan, to force TikTok to either be sold to a non-Chinese company or to be taken off American platforms. It puts American security at risk.

Unfortunately, going back to where we started this conversation, President Trump seems to be willing to go to a highest bidder or take his orders from Elon Musk, whatever the case may be, but he's countervailing what the will of the Congress has stated is that TikTok is a threat. We know that from security reporting and TikTok should not be on American platforms, it puts American -- the American people at risk.

BERMAN: Just very quickly before I let you go, is there one area you think that you will or the New Democrats should work with the Trump administration?

SCHNEIDER: We'll work with the administration anywhere where they want to put American interests first and work with us on real solutions that are going to last across time. So, you know, one of the things we're talking about federal debt, $37 billion. CBO says that's going to rise to $50 billion. What the Republicans put forward in their budget is raising that debt aggressively accelerating the hole we're already in -- or digging the hole we're already in.

We'll work with them to stop digging and try to put the American people first to make it easier for people, to make ends meet, and get ahead. Lowering prices and creating quality jobs to make sure our communities are safe and make sure our national security is always front and center in our mind.

BERMAN: Congressman Brad Schneider, thanks so much for being with us this morning. Appreciate your time.

This morning, a, quote, "deeply troubling escalation." The Associated Press barred from a new Trump event as they continue to use the Gulf of Mexico instead of Gulf of America.

22 million people without power after a monkey triggers a nationwide blackout.

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[08:35:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, for a third time, the Associated Press has been blocked from attending a news conference at the White House, a move that the news outlet calls a deeply troubling escalation. This first happened after the White House had changed the name of the body of water south of Louisiana and changed it from the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America. And the AP has continued to call the Gulf of Mexico in its style guide, which is used by news outlets around the world. White House press secretary says this about banning the AP now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Nobody has the right to go into the Oval Office and ask the President of the United States questions. That's an invitation that is given. And there are hundreds of outlets on this campus, many of you in this room who don't have the privilege of being part of that pool every single day and getting to ask the president questions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN's Brian Stelter joining me right now. This raises some really important questions. What are you hearing about how the AP is responding about to this?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Right, on Tuesday, we wondered if this was a onetime thing, a one off, but it wasn't. This is now a standoff between the AP and the Trump White House. It's something the AP didn't ask for, it's just trying to report the news for a global audience. And because the AP broadcasts and writes around the world, it has to acknowledge that other countries don't call it the Gulf of America. So, they're sticking with the Gulf of Mexico, while also acknowledging Trump's executive order.

We're going to see other global news outlets take the same position, and that could cause further standoffs with the Trump White House. But for now, it's the AP in the crosshairs. And here's what Executive Editor Julie Pace said last night, when the AP was blocked, not just from an Oval Office photo op, but from a presidential news conference. Pace saying, it's a plain violation of the First Amendment, and we urge the Trump administration in the strongest terms to stop this practice.

[08:40:00]

She has described this as viewpoint discrimination, punishing a news outlet for its editorial choices, and that foreshadows a legal challenge. I expect the AP will probably go to court to challenge this in the days to come.

BOLDUAN: Brian, thank you so much for that reporting. We need to jump back overseas right now. J. D. Vance, Vice President, speaking at the Munich Security Conference. Let's listen.

J. D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: -- always loved its people, and I just want to say that we're very moved, and our thoughts and prayers are with Munich, and everybody affected by the evil inflicted on this beautiful community, we're thinking about you, we're praying for you, and we will certainly be rooting for you in the days and weeks to come.

Now -- thank you. I hope that's not the last bit of applause that I get, but we gather at this conference, of course, to discuss security. And normally, we mean threats to our external security. I see many great military leaders gathered here today. But while the Trump administration is very concerned with European security and believes that we can come to a reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine and we also believe that it's important in the coming years for Europe to step up in a big way to provide for its own defense, the threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it's not China, it's not any other external actor, and what I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.

Now, I was struck that a former European commissioner went on television recently and sounded delighted that the Romanian government had just annulled an entire election. He warned that if things don't go to plan, the very same thing could happen in Germany too.

Now, these cavalier statements are shocking to American ears. For years, we've been told that everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values. Everything from our Ukraine policy to digital censorship is billed as a defense of democracy. But when we see European courts canceling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask whether we're holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard. And I say ourselves because I fundamentally believe that we are on the same team. We must do more than talk about democratic values, we must live them.

Now, within living memory of many of you in this room, the Cold War positioned defenders of democracy against much more tyrannical forces on this continent. And consider the side in that fight that censored dissidents that closed churches, that canceled elections, were they the good guys? Certainly not. And thank God they lost the Cold War.

They lost because they neither valued nor respected all of the extraordinary blessings of liberty. The freedom to surprise, to make mistakes, to invent, to build. As it turns out, you can't mandate innovation or creativity, just as you can't force people what to think, what to feel, or what to believe. And we believe those things are certainly connected.

And unfortunately, when I look at Europe today, it's sometimes not so clear what happened to some of the Cold War's winners. I look to Brussels, where E.U. commissars warn citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times of civil unrest the moment they spot what they've judged to be, quote, "hateful content." Or to this very country, where police have carried out raids against citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments online as part of, quote, "combating misogyny on the internet a day of action."

I look to Sweden, where two weeks ago the government convicted a Christian activist for participating in Quran burnings that resulted in his friend's murder. And as the judge in his case chillingly noted, Sweden's laws to supposedly protect free expression do not in fact grant, and I'm quoting, "a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that belief."

And perhaps most concerningly, I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons in particular in the crosshairs. A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith-Connor, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an army veteran with the heinous crime of standing 50 meters from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes.

[08:45:00]

Not obstructing anyone, not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own. And after British law enforcement spotted him and demanded to know what he was praying for, Adam replied simply, it was on behalf of the unborn son he and his former girlfriend had aborted years before. Now, the officers were not moved. Adam was found guilty of breaking the government's new buffer zones law, which criminalizes silent prayer and other actions that could influence a person's decision within 200 meters of an abortion facility. He was sentenced to pay thousands of pounds in legal costs to the prosecution.

Now, I wish I could say that this was a fluke, a one off, crazy example of a badly written law being enacted against a single person. But no, this last October, just a few months ago, the Scottish government began distributing letters to citizens whose houses lay within so-called safe access zones, warning them that even private prayer within their own homes may amount to breaking the law.

Naturally, the government urged readers to report any fellow citizens suspected guilty of thought crime in Britain and across Europe --

BERMAN: You're listening to the Vice President of the United States, J. D. Vance, speaking at the Munich Security Conference. This comes after several days of comments from senior U.S. officials about the future of Ukraine, and a lot of people are watching this speech to see if there is anything further on that --

BOLDUAN: Like clarity?

BERMAN: Clarity, discussions about negotiations, what the U.S. means when it says that Ukraine should not be part of NATO, what's on the table, and what's not. And of course, J. D. Vance gave an interview with the Wall Street Journal, it's had some clarification in just the last few hours as well.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: That's not what this speech is about.

BOLDUAN: Nope.

BERMAN: What he is doing, as you said, is basically taking --

BOLDUAN: It's like taking Europe to the principal's office, is what it feels like, talking about cancel -- like social media censorship, free speech, religious freedom, and calling out certain instances and certain -- yes, instances in various countries, from Sweden to Belgium to Scotland and beyond.

BERMAN: Talking about free speech, social media. I will say he's criticized a number of countries, has not criticized Russia over free speech issues. Russia, a country where Alexey Navalny died in prison.

With us now, CNN Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh and Kimberly Dozier as well. Nick, first to you here. What do you hear in this speech and his choice to deliver this speech at the Munich Security Conference?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, clearly, he's not going to have the message he wanted to deliver, one of culture wars, one of trying to suggest that what the U.S. would consider to be the liberal governments of Europe have lost touch with core values of free speech.

But to many European audience here, he's mistaking misinformation with free speech. He's talking about hate speech, which many here would consider to be anti-extremist legislation. I mean, this is quite a conflated series of values he's putting forwards here, criticizing the fact that Romania's election is being rerun. Well, that was riddled with irregularities and some say potentially a pro-Russian slant in some of that. Talking about essentially abortion legislation in the United Kingdom, criticizing some of the rights put in to make sure women's freedom of choice is respected here in the United Kingdom.

You know, this is a bizarre message to hear, given everybody wants to really hear the clarification of his interview with the Wall Street Journal. Quite what he meant, whether he seemed to suggest that the United States were going to put -- or could potentially put boots on the ground in extremists when it came to Ukraine.

Ukraine is the only thing people want to hear about, but instead on the stage, I think we're hearing this very interesting projection of sort of what you might find more common on x.com, Elon Musk's platform, the kind of cultural war that had been so successful, it seems, in getting the Trump administration to power that has percolated through Europe for a decade or so.

Here in the U.K., to some degree, the previous Tory conservative administration were proponents of all of that. They lost to a much more moderate reformist agenda here. It still percolates around in social media on the extremes, but Europe less grasped at times with the culture wars that he seems to be talking about, and I think we'll be wanting to hear more clarity as to exactly what the Trump administration's position is when it comes to Ukraine.

Remember, we've had a bizarre 48 hours in which Secretary of Defense Hegseth basically said that there would be no Ukrainian nation membership and it wouldn't get its old borders back and then, radically reversing everything's back on the table. There's whiplash, frankly, in Munich and he's not addressing that yet.

BOLDUAN: Kim, what do you hear in this, and this whiplash, and what we're now -- what J. D. Vance is now choosing to focus on in this big speech?

[08:50:00]

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yes, to jump on Nick's points, that Romanian election, I happened to be in Romania just ahead of the presidential election, talked to one of the presidential candidates, it was canceled and had to be rerun because a court ruled that Russian disinformation, paid for by Russia, had slanted public opinion and thrown the elections in favor of the Russian-backed candidate. You don't hear J. D. Vance mentioning that at all.

And for Europeans, for Britain's listening to this, this has echoes and reinforces what they've been hearing out of the Oval Office this week that President Trump says he trusts Vladimir Putin on Ukrainian peace negotiations, that he has talked with Putin about denuclearizing, that he wants to meet with Putin, a man that has been shunned from European capitals because of his invasion of Ukraine and stands accused of war crimes at the International Criminal Court.

It's a shocking sort of turnabout for Europeans. They knew it was coming, but I've had various different officials, including intelligence officials, ask me, what is Trump's fascination with Putin? Putin must have something on him. And I'll say, look, we've never been able to prove that. But that's the kind of questions that Trump's attitude triggers in Europe. And this speech is only going to reinforce that.

BOLDUAN: It's interesting. What I'm hearing from both Nick and Kim there is while the speech, it has nothing to do with Russia, may have actually everything to do with Russia. Nick Paton Walsh in London, Kim, thank you guys both as always.

Coming up for us, the fight against inflation. The number of Americans not able to keep up with their debt payments now hits a new high. We'll be right back.

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[08:55:00]

BERMAN: This morning, Igloo is pulling more than a million of its coolers from stores after customers reported injuries, including fingertip amputations. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says the 90-quart flip and toe rolling coolers have a handle that can pinch. The company says 12 people have reported injuries.

This morning, there is a nationwide blackout in Sri Lanka, and officials think they know who is to blame, a monkey. A monkey came into contact with a transformer at a grid station, disrupting supply to the island's 22 million people. Power cuts were implemented to manage demand, and an investigation is launched into how the monkey got in. Now I should say, we do not know the condition of the monkey, but I'm betting not good. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Right now, Americans are finding it harder to pay off their debts, that is according to a new report from the Federal Reserve of New York. The report also shows American households are taking on more debt as everyone continues to struggle against inflation. CNN's Matt Egan joins us now. This is interesting. What are you learning?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Kate, this is evidence of financial stress. I mean, look, unemployment is low, historically low. The economy continues to grow, but beneath the surface, some families are hurting, clearly. This report examined consumer finances at the end of last year, and it found that the share of households that are 90 days or more late on car loans and credit cards hit a 14-year high. That is considered severely delinquent. At the same time, people are turning more and more to credit cards to try to get by right now.

Credit card debt topped $1.2 trillion at the end of last year for the first time ever. I think this is a reflection in part of how expensive life is right now, right? It's hard for people to keep up. Obviously, prices are high at the grocery store and inflation has been this longstanding problem. The typical family is spending each month $1,300 more for the same goods and services than they were four years ago.

Now, it's true that paychecks are also up by about the same amount, but think about it, some families have more expenses than they did four years ago, right? They might have more kids. They're buying more food than they used to. And so, they're trying to grapple with this higher expense level, and some of them are turning to credit cards, which obviously is a very expensive way to try to get by.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EGAN: So, I think when you zoom out, none of this is to say consumer finances are in terrible shape, right? They're not. But it does seem like some families are kind of just one emergency, one layoff, one medical issue away from being in a really bad spot.

My colleague, Alicia Wall, she talked to a mom in Utah. Three kids. Her husband got hurt, couldn't work in his job. She's been looking for a job for almost a year. She's piling up credit cards, draining through retirement, and she's missing some payments. So, just another reminder that, yes, the national economic statistics look pretty solid in the jobs market, but there are some signs of stress.

BOLDUAN: Yes. You're also learning some more about -- we've been hearing so much about firings across the federal government and there are -- there is some new reporting about dozens of people being let go at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What are you hearing?

EGAN: Yes. We were talking about the consumer watchdog that has been effectively sidelined by the Trump administration in the past week, and CNN has learned that, yes, dozens of employees at the CFPB found out last night that they're being terminated effective immediately.

So, we're talking about mostly term employees. These are people who are working at the CFPB for a specific amount of time, but they are still considered career employees. One source told CNN that the technologists who have been hired in recent years to work on A.I.

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