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Trump Approval Dips, Still Above Any Point in His First Term; Hamas Hands Bodies of Four Israeli Hostages to Red Cross; Trump Holds Event Marking Black History Month. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired February 20, 2025 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: One month into President Trump's second term, and we have brand new CNN polling on what Americans think about his performance in office so far, and spoiler alert, the nation's still divided.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Shocking. The new poll shows a majority of Americans are worried about Trump's push to expand power though. CNN senior political analyst Mark Preston is here to help us break down the numbers.

Mark, 52 percent say Trump has gone too far in using his presidential power. His approval rating is at 47 percent overall. What do these numbers tell you about this line from Trump and Republicans that he's carrying out the agenda that he was elected to?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, a couple things. One is, we should state, he did win the election, there's no doubt about that, but he talked about this incredible mandate that was given to him by the American people. He did win the popular vote, and he did win the electoral vote college, however, he won it by very slim margins, and now we're starting to see a little bit of a slip.

Let's take a look at these numbers right here. A little bit of slip in those numbers, specifically when you're looking amongst some of the softer groups that he had some support with, and of course, that was with Democrats, specifically independents. But I do want to point out something that's incredibly important, is if you look at that 88 percent approval rating right now from Republicans with Donald Trump, it just goes to show you that he still has support, not only of half the country, but he's got basically his full party behind him.

KEILAR: 11 percent of Democrats though, that's still really interesting, even though it's only 11 percent. He is slipping with some groups that he did make some very noteworthy progress with that propelled him towards the White House. That would be young people, Hispanic Americans, Black Americans.

What are you reading in this?

PRESTON: Well, let's take a look at those numbers as we see them up there right now. You would expect this right away because look, Donald Trump promised that he would fix everything on day one, and younger people are going to tend to believe him, right, because they want action quickly. That's what they expect.

Older people tend to be a little bit more deliberate in understanding that things take time. That's why you're seeing some slippage there amongst young people, but also look at, you're also seeing these deportations aren't necessarily going very well specifically, and also African Americans too are probably looking around wondering why Donald Trump is basically dismantling the American government.

SANCHEZ: I do want to ask you about Democrats. They're obviously concerned about what they're seeing. 70 percent say that American democracy is under attack.

What do you make of the political response from Democrats though? There's been a lot of criticism of how they've handled certain protests, for example, and press conferences. Do you think that they're unified?

PRESTON: No. I mean, look, the Democratic Party right now is very much in the wilderness. This is out of time now.

Look, they are so far in the wilderness right now that they need to figure out what the direction is going to be for them. It might actually be good that they are so far out there. It will allow the Democratic Party, which remember, has been basically run by the Clintons in that era.

If you look at, you know, where we've been the last 20 years, and certainly where we've been the last few years, it's going to allow younger people to perhaps go into the Democratic Party and maybe try to take it into a new direction, but they are certainly not unified and they have no plan right now to stop Donald Trump.

KEILAR: All right, Mark Preston, thank you so much for all of that. We do appreciate it.

PRESTON: Thanks guys.

KEILAR: And we'll be right back.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Hamas has handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza since the October 7th, 2023, attack on Israel. It is the first time the militant group has released the remains of dead captives and they are said to include the two young Bibas children and their mother Shiri. Her baby, her nine-month-old son, was the youngest hostage kidnapped into Gaza.

CNN's international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson has more on the somber moment.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): In a convoy freighted with the pain of a nation, the bodies Hamas says are the youngest October 7th hostage victims and their mother on their final journey home.

[15:40:00]

And in the fourth Red Cross vehicle, what Hamas says are the remains of one of the oldest October 7th victims, Oded Lifshitz.

The early morning handover beginning against the backdrop of Hamas propaganda turning dignified with a short service as the four caskets handed over to the IDF. A moment of closure beginning for the families and a nation hostage to the fate of the Bibas's. Shiri Bibas's fear, clutching 9-month-old Kfir and 4-year-old Ariel, etched in Israel's collective memory. The young family from Nir Oz became icons for hope over despair. Israel is riding an emotional roller coaster over their fate.

Worryingly, Shiri, Kfir and Ariel not released with 105 other hostages freed during the first pause in fighting, November 2023. Shiri's husband, Yarden's fate was also unknown. He too disappeared October 7th, believed taken to Gaza.

The first news of Shiri, Kfir and Ariel coming late 2023 when Hamas claimed they were killed in an Israeli airstrike, releasing a propaganda video, exploiting emotional sensitivities of Yarden blaming the Israeli government for their deaths. The IDF called it psychological terror.

Months later, this security camera video captured by the IDF, appearing to show Shiri soon after her abduction but until this day, the IDF unable to confirm the fate of the family, cautioning against Hamas statements.

When Yarden was finally freed by Hamas three weeks ago, everyone in Israel understood the heartbreaking news awaiting him, his father and sister consoling him against the near certainty of his loss.

Along the convoy route Thursday, flag-waving Israelis paid their respects. Hostage Square somber, not celebratory, as with previous releases, white vans carrying the four on the last leg of their journey to a forensic institute for final identification. The country, Bibas' and the Lifshitz's fears closer to realization.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: And we'll be right back.

[15:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Happening now. The Trump White House is marking Black History Month with an event in the East Room. As President Trump's executive order ending DEI programs has led to the end of similar celebrations in other federal agencies.

KEILAR: Joining us now is CNN political commentator and former communications director for Vice President Harris, Jamal Simmons, and CNN political analyst and host of the Conversations with Coleman podcast, Coleman Hughes. Jamal, your reaction to the celebration at the White House today?

JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'm glad the president is having a celebration for Black History Month. Listen, just to be fair, if he was not having a celebration for Black History Month, I think a lot of people would be upset about that. So you've got to give him credit for doing it.

The challenge for us all, though, is who is he celebrating? I mean, some of the folks he has up there are folks that haven't really been at the forefront of advancing rights for African Americans. But, you know, the president's having a celebration. Let him do it. There are far more troubling things happening today, like some of the confirmations on The Hill, that matter a lot more than a party for a few friends.

SANCHEZ: I also wonder, Coleman, what you make of the disparity between Trump having this event at the White House and then this executive order that let DOD declare that identity months were dead. I wonder how you balance those two facts.

COLEMAN HUGHES, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, I think he's made clear what his intentions were today. The reason it's been so confusing up until now is because Trump decided to release a flurry of executive orders and flood the zone without really checking, you know, crossing all his I's and dotting -- rather, crossing his T's and dotting his I's on every executive order. So there was a lot of confusion, and a lot of people thought he was actually getting rid of Black History Month.

But that's been made clear now. Really, what we know his intentions were as of today is keep Black History Month. You know, the Air Force can keep teaching about the Tuskegee Airmen. All of these important aspects of Black history can stay in the culture. But he wants to get rid of DEI, by which he means, really, racial discrimination.

KEILAR: So, Coleman, when, you know, we've heard reports --

SIMMONS: Well, come on, Coleman. DEI is not racial discrimination. DEI is making sure people of different backgrounds are included in American society, which is exactly what it is we ought to want in a country that's becoming more diversified. We want to make sure we have the best people on the field, the best people on our team.

And we're fortunate because we've got people from all over the world who can participate. So I think anybody who's against having everybody participate is somebody who's not really honoring the America of today.

SANCHEZ: Coleman, your response.

HUGHES: It's one thing to say everyone should participate.

[15:50:00]

It's another thing to say, as a university in Texas did, I think, two years ago, we're going to hire a professor for this role, and we are only going to consider professors who are Black, right?

That's hiring based on race or promoting based on race. It's been illegal since 1964. And when people react against DEI, a lot of what they're reacting against is that.

SANCHEZ: I wonder, Jamal, what you make of that argument.

SIMMONS: Well, we don't want to have quotas, right? Because I don't want the quota to say that once we have one, we can't have two. But the problem has been, why is it that they probably don't have as many as they want?

I did a paper a few years ago about the 4 percent problem. And the problem is that across all of the verticals of American life, whether it's law or the military or universities, we can't seem to get more than 4 percent of any leadership class to be African American. That is a real challenge.

And so today what we're wrestling with is the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, talking about taking people out, flag officers, generals, admirals, taking them out of the military because they support DEI.

I think what happened in the last Trump administration is we cut the number of African Americans and women down from the senior leadership down to really low numbers. And then President Biden actually was able to increase those numbers by two and threefold.

So that is what's important because we think in a military that's 40 percent people of color, we ought to be able to have people of color in the leadership.

SANCHEZ: I do wonder, Coleman, as we've gotten over some new CNN polling, it finds that support for Trump among young Hispanic and Black voters slightly dipping since he took office, roughly around 9 percent, 7 percent or so. I do wonder, actually considerably larger than that among Hispanics. Sorry, I'm terrible at math.

It is 9 percent, sorry. I do wonder, though, if you think that some of these folks who are saying that Trump has handled the presidency in ways that they did not expect is going to continue reverberating forward.

How much of that do you think has to do with the gutting of DEI programs, for example?

HUGHES: It's a good question. You know, DEI programs mostly affect elites. We're talking about the top colleges, corporate America. Really, working class people are far less affected by DEI programs one way or the other. So I do find it very hard to believe that DEI programs and his approach to it are the reason why his numbers are dipping.

That said, you know, Trump has a lot of flaws as a speaker, as a communicator, as a leader, and it doesn't surprise me at all that his numbers would dip both with Blacks and Hispanics and with whites in the long run.

SANCHEZ: You would make the case, Coleman, that a lot of it has to do with the rhetoric, then?

HUGHES: It may. You know, I really don't have a good theory now. I think we'll know more in the coming months.

SANCHEZ: Jamal, obviously these are folks that historically --

HUGHES: (CROSSTALK).

SANCHEZ: Yes, go ahead.

SIMMONS: Well, as I say, here's a challenge, Boris. What we know is that when Latino-owned businesses get contracts, they tend to hire more Latinos. When women-owned businesses get contracts, they tend to hire more women.

When African-American-owned businesses get contracts, they tend to hire more African-Americans. Right? The math is not hard.

So if we're trying to address the idea of everybody getting to participate, it does matter when the largest contractors in the country, which is the federal government, says that we're no longer interested in hiring people who come from diverse backgrounds. I think we want them to go out and look for it. I'm not for quotas.

I don't think we should have them. But I do think when you're looking for African-American staff, maybe you should go to historically Black colleges and universities and see if you can find some folks who can also do the same job that they could do at some of the historically, you know, white-serving institutions. Let's just broaden the tent and get everybody in and not exclude people.

SANCHEZ: And, Jamal, when it comes to those demographics that I mentioned earlier, historically large majorities of African-Americans, young people, and Latinos have supported the Democratic Party. When you've seen this slippage in the last election and now you see a diminishment in the numbers over about a month of Trump in office, do Democrats have a plan to win those voters back?

SIMMONS: Listen, Democrats need to be on the job about coming up with a positive agenda that's going to make a change for people. I mean, I think one thing that we ought to be focusing on is what's happening with the post-COVID learning loss. That's affecting everybody all over the country. So Democrats have got good ideas for how do we change education, not just save the education department, which is important, but what would we do differently if we were in charge? I think Democrats have got to come up with that, and that's going to help win some of those voters back. People aren't satisfied with the way the country is working.

They want Democrats and Republicans alike to get at it. The problem with Donald Trump is he's not trying to fix things. They're trying to break things, and that's the real challenge that I think Americans are having with what's happened over the last month. It doesn't look orderly.

[15:55:00]

They're firing FAA scientists. They're getting rid of CDC folks while the bird flu is happening. That just doesn't seem like it makes a lot of sense.

SANCHEZ: Jamal, Coleman, we have to leave the conversation there. We're going to keep monitoring this Black History Month event at the White House, and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Please don't attack me, bro. That's the plea from a lone kayaker out fishing off of New Zealand's northern coast when a great white shark pulls up right on top of him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATT WELLS, 19-YEAR-OLD KAYAK FISHERMAN: Great white. Great white. Great white shark. Cutting the live bait off. F*** this, I'm out of here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Great white shark. The 19-year-old Matt Wells says, yes, he's just fishing with live bait during that close encounter, says he noticed a swirl behind his kayak that ballooned to the width of three cars, sending shivers down his spine.

[16:00:00]

He was a good hour's paddle away from dry land, but he did make it safely after the shark eventually went about its way.

You like sharks, Boris.

SANCHEZ: I do like sharks.

KEILAR: What would you think about that happening?

SANCHEZ: It's not surprising at all. Humans aren't the only animals that are smart and can adapt.

KEILAR: No, don't give me some academic thing. Would you be like scared?

SANCHEZ: I don't want to say what I do on TV because my mom watches this show. But they're actually not really that interested in people. Chances are, if you're seeing a shark in the water, you're not in any danger because they're ambush predators. They'll come up and surprise you.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper, not surprising us. It starts right now.

END