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Smoke Blankets Carolinas As Crews Fight To Contain Fires; FAA Investigating Why Plans Get False Collision Alerts Near Reagan National; Rep. Greg Murphy (R-KS) Discusses Trump/Zelenskyy Feud Over Peace Negotiations & Military Families Rocked By Trump's Federal Government Cuts; Trump Says 25 Percent Tariffs On Canada & Mexico Still Start Tomorrow. Says Will Give Update On Status Of Ukraine Minerals Deal Tomorrow. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired March 03, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So they kicked your door in, not -- not knowing whether or not you were evacuated.

ROBERT SMITH, MYRTLE BEACH RESIDENT: Yes, because we were out of town in Charlotte. We got back yesterday. And I guess because both of our vehicles were here, they didn't know if we were asleep. And they kicked the door in to check on us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: The South Carolina governor has declared a state of emergency to try to shore up resources for these firefighters.

And also, they're telling residents to keep an eye out. This is the peak of their fire season where most -- you know, most accustomed to seeing fires in the west during the summertime. Of course, we just had those devastating Palisades fires.

Here in South Carolina, this is the peak of it. And the numbers of amount of fires just show go to show just how bad it is here. Over 150 fires have popped up since this weekend.

And with these conditions and these smoldering hotspots, they know it's just going to take a little bit of fuel and there's a ton of it around here, for more fires to pop up in the coming days and weeks -- Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Nick Valencia, live for us in Myrtle Beach. Thank you so much, Nick.

We have some sad news to pass along this afternoon. Former Florida Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart has passed away. His brother, Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, announced the death on social media earlier.

The Cuban-American lawmaker represented south Florida in Congress for nearly two decades and was known as a strong opponent of the Castro regime.

As well as one of the key authors of the last comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by Congress, creating a pathway to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of migrants.

In a statement announcing his death, his brother called him a defender of the silenced and oppressed. Lincoln Diaz-Balart was 70 years old.

As Europe embraces Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Trump says the U.S. will not put up with the Ukrainian leader's perceived resistance to a peace deal with Russia for much longer. We're going to discuss with Republican Congressman Greg Murphy after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:36:31]

SANCHEZ: This just into CNN. The FAA says it's investigating why multiple commercial flights trying to land at Reagan National Airport over the weekend received mid-air collision alerts, even though there were no aircraft nearby.

Some pilots actually aborted their landings because of these warnings. Reagan National, of course, is where 67 people died when an American airlines plane collided with a military helicopter in January.

CNN aviation correspondent, Pete Muntean, has this new reporting.

Pete, help us understand how the system works and what pilots were hearing and what they should have heard.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: This is a system called TCAS. It stands for Traffic Collision Avoidance System. It's in every commercial airliner actually mandated after another similar mid-air collision back in the late 70s.

And essentially, it tells pilots when a mid-air collision is impending in front of them. It warns them of other airplanes in the area.

The big mystery now is that pilots were getting these alerts when no other airplane was nearby, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

And now it's opened up this probe into why these alerts could have been going off erroneously.

This is a pretty weird and eerie kind of incident because it happened only three miles away, in some cases, from the site of that mid-air collision over the Potomac River only 31 days prior.

The FAA says that these mid-air collision warnings were going off in the cockpit of commercial flights repeatedly on flights that we're coming into land on Saturday. So we're talking on March 1st.

I want you to listen now to some of the audio here of the exchanges between the pilots coming in to land at National Airport and also the air traffic controllers in the tower.

Listen.

(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)

UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: Vacaya (ph) 4469, we're covering.

TOWER: 4469, would you like to go around?

UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: Negative. We got it.

TOWER: 4469, you remember how high that was?

UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: We're about 1,200 feet. There was somebody diving straight on to us.

TOWER: 4469, at 38 preceding arrival. Reported ATA. Two more miles at 1,200 feet. It's been happening all morning. Let me know if you see anything. No one else has seen anything except for on the takeoff.

UNIDENTIFIED PILOT: All right, well check it out. We'll let you know.

(END AUDIO FEED)

MUNTEAN: So the pilots refer two things. They're called T.A.s and R.A.s. T.A. is a traffic advisory. R.A. is a resolution advisory, meaning that pilots have to take that very seriously.

They're required by the federal aviation regulations, required by law to take action immediately, as directed by that system on board these commercial flights.

This also calls into question the fidelity of the system called TCAS, which is not perfect at low altitudes when coming into land. And oftentimes pilots get these alerts and essentially just keep going on and into landing.

So there's some pretty big questions here about why this was occurring. There's so much radio and antenna frequency traffic in the D.C. area, not only from the air traffic control facilities that are here, but also because of the military facilities, police channels, et cetera.

So why these errors were occurring, that is the big question. And that's what the FAA is trying get to the bottom of now.

SANCHEZ: To be clear, Pete, is this an automated system? Is there any way that someone could be trolling and, obviously, in very poor taste. Could somebody intentionally be doing this?

MUNTEAN: It seems unlikely. It could be maybe just sort of -- these are old-fashioned radio frequencies. So it could be something bouncing off of something and getting a little bit of interference here and there.

This was occurring in a pretty particular spot on the approach, as planes were coming in from the north to the south at International Airport, that's called the river visual.

You may have been on it before coming into DCA. You see the National Mall very clearly. That's the approach that these planes were on.

It was a relatively clear weather day, so probably not somebody trying to do something nefarious, maybe just some radio interference here.

[14:40:02]

But of course, the FAA want to get to the bottom of it, especially because people are so, so vigilant now after the crash that occurred a little over a month ago.

SANCHEZ: Pete Muntean, thank you so much.

Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: President Zelenskyy making it clear moments ago that he is still counting on American support to end the war with Russia.

The Ukrainian president posting this on social media, quote, "We are working together with America and our European partners and very much hope U.S. support on the path to peace. Peace is needed as soon as possible."

That post came shortly after President Trump took to his Truth Social site today to slam the Ukrainian president for telling his war-torn country that he believed a peace deal with Russia was still very, very far away.

Trump, responding, in part, quote, "This is the worst statement that could have been made by Zelenskyy and America will not put up with it for much longer."

Joining us now to discuss is Republican Congressman Greg Murphy of North Carolina.

Sir, thank you so much for being with us this afternoon.

You heard Trump saying -- or, right, I should say, responding, that Zelenskyy does not want peace. Do you think that's the case?

REP. GREG MURPHY (R-NC): No, I think he wants peace. But there's just a different avenue of what's going on. Trump wants this immediately. The -- Europe wants this immediately. Sadly enough, Zelenskyy, understandably so, is trying to salvage his country. That's not going to happen in toto.

And so what we're trying to do, and what I think President Trump is trying to do is say, look, let's get this done.

Stop the needless killing of millions, millions of -- of -- of civilians and other individuals. Let's stop this. let's get the war done. And the best way to do it is to not say things are far away. Things should be imminent. KEILAR: If he wants security guarantees, and that's something that

takes time. Is he just being honest about that?

MURPHY: Yes, I think he understandably wants security guarantees. But that's not going to happen with NATO. That's not going to happen. Nato is not coming on the ground or going to be a partner with Ukraine.

That said, there can be security guarantees. If we have mineral rights, if we have businesses in Ukraine, that is an American president.

And that's what Trump is trying to do, he's trying to thread the needle of trying to get an American presence there, not a military one, but probably an economic one that's going to be mutually beneficial for both countries.

But that still tells Russia that America is there in Ukraine, and that they should back off and stop any further plans of aggression.

KEILAR: Do you think an American economic presence is a deterrent to Russia, that Ukraine can hang it's hat on?

MURPHY: Sure. I think that is something. You know that same thing going on with energy promises, energy cooperation that can be done.

You know, Russia -- and I am a believer in this. This thing would have never happened had we not had our debacle in Afghanistan. Russia, sense weakness and weakness is not what the United States is all about, especially with this president.

If we are in Ukraine -- Russia is going to think second, again, for trying to invade Ukraine or push things further if we have a presence there.

KEILAR: I do want to ask you, because you're on the Veterans Affairs Committee, and we're hearing so much about veterans right now.

The Department of Veterans Affairs, of course, provides medical care and benefits for our nation's -- those who served in the armed forces. What concerns are you hearing from voters about the firings specifically at the V.A.?

MURPHY: Well, I think one thing needs to be put in perspective, as with all things. The V.A., by their own admission, last administration, said they over-hired. They came before us and said that -- that they were trying to figure out what to do with these people.

Again, the -- the word that we're finding really in the -- in the lexicon today is accountability. And we really need to get the nation's finances under control.

Everybody is, of course, up in arms because they don't want their issue or their particular agency, you know, dealt with. But this is a national emergency to try to get our finances under control.

KEILAR: But what are you hearing --

(CROSSTALK)

MURPHY: The V.A. was mismanaged in the last four years.

KEILAR: I understand -- I understand what you're saying. But we're hearing reports of people who work on the veterans crisis line. And yes, some of them are being reinstated.

But then you have a lot of support staff that is crucial to the veterans crisis line that is still affected by the hiring freeze. You have those who are processing disability evaluations and they are really understaffed. They have been affected by this.

Are you hearing from voters who have concerns? What are they telling you?

MURPHY: Sure, sure. I mean, we're hearing voters. You know, a lot are calling our offices. Of course, they're calling our Republican offices voicing concerns.

But this is where management of the V.A., where Doug Collins is going to come in. And I think I think there's a fantastic pick with Doug Collins. He's going to get back to the V.A. doing what it's supposed to be doing.

The V.A. is not there for itself. It is there for our veterans. And trying to reorganize the -- the V.A. into doing something that is an efficient, workable organization and agency is what's after.

Is there going to be short term pain? Is there going to be some issues? Absolutely. And this is what happens with restructuring. But we have to get government back to doing what it's supposed to be doing, and that's working for the people.

[14:45:06]

KEILAR: I guess the question is, will that pain be borne by veterans? Can you guarantee that veterans benefits and care will not be affected by these cuts?

MURPHY: No, I can't guarantee anything. But the whole purpose, again, of restructuring is to make sure that that agency is efficient.

And, you know, look, I care for our veterans. One out of 10 constituents of mine are veterans. It's a real issue in eastern North Carolina.

But the real issue is also when somebody can't get benefits and they're put off their doctors' appointments for eight to 10 months when they can't get care. That is where an agency has failed.

We're trying to get an agency that actually works for the people that is supposed to be taken care of.

KEILAR: Yes, you have Camp LeJeune there. You certainly are aware. And 30 percent of the federal workforce --

MURPHY: Yes.

KEILAR: -- is veterans. And so far, the firings have not accounted for any veteran status, which means you can kind of extrapolate that it means thousands of veterans have been fired across the federal workforce.

President Trump was asked about this on Friday if he is tracking how many vets have been fired. And here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are -- and -- and we take good care of our veterans. And we're watching that very carefully. And we hope it's going to be a smaller number as possible. But we're taking care of our veterans. We love our veterans. We're going to take good care of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: What are you hearing from voters about the firings of veterans more broadly across the federal government?

MURPHY: Well, thankfully, this country cherishes it's veterans and for those who literally sign on the dotted line to try to serve this country and keep us free.

Look, nobody wants to get rid of anybody that has a job. I understand that completely. I don't know that one special status has a -- has a higher up on anybody else. Again, we go back to where we started --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: -- our hiring process, as you're aware. And the federal government is --

MURPHY: Yes, sur. But I --

KEILAR: The federal government has tried to attract them into the federal workforce.

MURPHY: Absolutely. And we should do all that we can to bring our federals into the workforce, into -- into the private sector also.

But again, we have to go back to the fact that this -- we are in dire straits as far as our nation's finances, and it's going to be painful in some regards.

Absolutely. And I'm sorry for those individuals. But we won't have a country in the next few years if we don't get our finances under - under -- under control.

KEILAR: What is your advice to a veteran if they believe they have been fired unfairly? I've spoken to many who make very good cases for what their employment is, even when it comes to helping farmers and ranchers in rural states like yours.

They are crucial to maintaining that sustainability in farming and all kinds of jobs that aren't just, you know, I think --

MURPHY: Sure.

KEILAR: -- these typical jobs that people caricature in the media.

MURPHY: Yes. And I understand that. There is an appeals process. And, you know, I think as we've --

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: The merit board is understaffed and now overburdened by all these appeals.

MURPHY: Well, I mean, so is so many of the things that happened during the pandemic. I'm not downplaying that whatsoever. But there is an appeals process there also still.

And, you know, I had a former staff member that was on a probationary period with the DOD and has been let go, but he's applying for another job within the DOD.

And so at some point in time, as the pendulum swings, we're going to swing back the other way and that people will be employed with our government. Our veterans will be taken care of.

But we're also going to be on a pathway of financial security and stability for this country.

KEILAR: Congressman Greg Murphy, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

MURPHY: Thank you, Brianna. Have a good day.

KEILAR: All right. You, too, sir.

[14:48:48]

As companies bracing for the impact of Donald Trump's incoming tariffs, some are banking on a different strategy to attract consumers. But will it pay off?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:53:23]

SANCHEZ: Breaking news to CNN. We want to take you straight to the White House, where, moments ago, President Trump was answering questions from reporters in the Roosevelt Room.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: Tariffs, as you know, will start a week earlier than the reciprocal, which is going to be in a couple of weeks earlier.

Reciprocal starts -- reciprocal tariffs start on April 2nd. And I wanted to make it April 1st but I didn't want to do -- I didn't want to go April Fool's Day because that cost me -- that cost a lot of money but that one day. But so we're going April 2n\d.

But very importantly, tomorrow tariffs, 25 percent on Canada and 25 percent on Mexico. And that will start. So they're going to have to have a tariff.

So what they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things in the United States in which case they have no tariffs.

In other words, you build -- and this is exactly what Mr. Way (ph) is doing by building here. Otherwise they'll build -- if they did them, in Taiwan to send them here, they'll have 25 percent or 30 percent or 50 percent or whatever the number may be.

Some day, it will go only up. But by doing it here, he has no tariff. So he's way ahead of the game.

And I would just say this to people in Canada or Mexico, if they're going to build car plants, the people that are doing them are much better off building here because we have the market. We're the market where they sell the most.

And so I think it's going to be very exciting, very exciting for the automobile companies, very exciting for -- I can think of any -- as an example, North Carolina, they had the great -- I used to go there to buy furniture for hotels.

And it's been wiped out. That business all went to other countries. And now it's all going to come back into North Carolina. The furniture -- furniture manufacturing business.

[14:55:06]

Please.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, is the Ukraine minerals deal now dead or can it be revived? What's your -- your --

TRUMP: Well, I'll let you know. We're making a speech -- you probably heard about it -- tomorrow night, so I'll let you know tomorrow night. But no, I don't think so. I think ==

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President --

TRUMP: Its -- look, it's a great deal for us because, you know, Biden very, very foolishly, stupidly, frankly, gave $300 billion and $350 billion more accurately to a country to fight and to try and do things.

And you know what happened? We get nothing. We get nothing. Just gave it. We could have rebuilt our entire U.S. Navy with 3$50 billion. Think of it, $350 billion. We could have rebuilt our U.S. Navy. So he gave it away as fast as the money could be gone. And what we're

doing is getting that all back. And a lot more than that.

And we need, it's very important, for this business that we're talking about here, with chips and semiconductors and everything else, we need rare earths. And the deal we have is we have the finest rare earths.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, what do you need to see from President Zelenskyy to restart these negotiations?

TRUMP: Well, I just think he should be more appreciative. Because this country has stuck with them through thick and thin. We've given them much more than Europe, and Europe should have given more than us. Because, as you know, that's right there. That's the border.

This -- this country really was like the fence on the border. It was -- it was very important to Europe. And I'm not knocking Europe. I'm saying they just they we're a lot smarter than Joe Biden because Joe Biden didn't have a clue. He just gave money hand over fist.

And they should have been able to equalize with us. In other words, if we gave a dollar, they should have given. Well, we gave $350 billion. They probably gave $100 billion.

But on top of it all, they get their money back because they're doing it in the form of a loan. And it's a secured loan. So when I saw that which I've known about for a little while, I said, it's time for us to be smart.

At the same time, it's great for them because they got us in the country taking the rare earth, which is going to fuel this big engine, and especially the engine that we have in a very short time created, and we get something and we're in the we're there, we have a presence there.

With all of that being said, I want one thing to happen. I want all of those young people to stop being killed. They're being killed by the thousands every single week. Last week, 2.700 we're killed, 2,700 young -- in this case -- just about all young boys from Ukraine and from Russia.

And that's not young people from the United States, but it's on a human basis. I want to see it stop.

The money is one thing, but the death. And they're losing thousands of soldiers a week. And that's not including the people that get killed every time a town goes down or a missile goes into a town, and we -- and I want to see it stop.

Yes?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you considering canceling military aid to Ukraine? And can we get a reaction to what the prime minister said? That your administration is bringing U.S. worldview in alignment with Moscow's.

TRUMP: So this is a deal that should have never happened. This is a deal that would have never happened. And it didn't happen for four years. It didn't happen. It was never even close to happening.

If I we're president, would not have happened. And October 7th would have happened -- would not have happened in Israel. And inflation would not have happened.

And Afghanistan, disastrous the way they withdrew, not the fact that they withdrew, but the way they withdrew would have never happened. And we would have had Bagram right now, instead of China having it. It was one hour away from where China makes their nuclear weapons. We would have kept Bagram, one of the biggest air bases in the world.

All of these things happened, and it's a shame. But it is what it is. And now we're here.

I want to see it end fast. I don't want to see this go on for years and years.

Now, President Zelenskyy supposedly made a statement today in A.P. -- I'm not a big fan of A.P., so maybe it was an incorrect statement -- but he said he thinks the war is going to go on for a long time. And he better not be right about that. That's all I'm saying.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- this project, could this minimize the impact to the U.S. with chips should China decide to isolate Taiwan, or the Chinese try to take Taiwan?

TRUMP: Well, it's a very interesting point. It's a great question actually. But this would certainly -- I can't say minimize. That would be a catastrophic event, obviously.

But it will at least give us a position where we have - it is very, very important business, we would have a very big part of it in the United States. So it would have a big impact if something should happen with Taiwan.

(CROSSTALK)

[14:59:58]

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And Russia, are you looking at relieving Russian sanctions if there is a peace deal?

TRUMP: Well, we're going to make deals with everybody to get this war -- including Europe and European nations. And they've acted very well.