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Trump's Speech to Congress Tonight; Slotkin to Deliver Democratic Response; Federal Workers Come Back to Chaos; New Orleans Reworks Mardi Gras Due to Weather. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired March 04, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

REPORTER: because of poor performance, when in some cases they haven't even had a performance review yet because they've only been on the job a couple of months.

KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: Yes, I've never seen a person who was laid off for poor performance say that they were performing poorly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: How do you react to that and what are your plans now?

ADAM MULVEY, TERMINATED FEDERAL EMPLOYEE: Well, I definitely appreciate you telling the stories of myself and other civil servants and veterans because we have the receipts. I - I believe I've already sent your staff my performance evaluation showing how well I've done. And the same with other veterans who have been on the news media lately. It's not based on performance. The employees who were terminated, were terminated simply because they were working for less than one year with the federal government and didn't have the full protection of due process. They fired those that were the easiest to fire, and then they're moving on to other categories.

If it's about performance, please, step up and someone from DOGE or the federal government tell me where I was wrong and tell me where I can improve, because I'm going to continue serving the veteran community in some way, shape or form. I will do it in the private sector, in health care. I will do it in local government. If my performance is poor, please let me know. I want to improve for this community that I'm a part of.

BOLDUAN: A fighter, an Army veteran and continuing to fight even today.

Adam Mulvey, thank you very much for coming in.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking this morning, economies rattled, markets plunging in response to President Trump's new tariffs. The CEO of Target just warned, consumers will feel the impact within days.

No wi-fi, no electricity, random wires sticking out of walls. Just some of the issues that federal workers found when they went back to the office after President Trump ordered their return.

And more than 55 million Americans under severe weather threats, fires, tornadoes, blizzards set to wreak havoc across the country.

Sara is out today. I'm John Berman, with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: And there is a lot to get to this hour. Let's start with it all.

An escalating trade war with the U.S.' largest trading partners after President Trump hits Canada, Mexico and China with sweeping new tariffs. And they hit back. We are keeping a close eye on stocks, which have plummeted yesterday, to see where they're going to be headed when Wall Street opens up.

Everyday Americans are set to feel the pain of this. Just last hour, we spoke with Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn, and he told me that the impacts could be catastrophic for his state, South Carolina. And now, as John was just alluding to, this warning from the CEO of Target.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN CORNELL, CEO, TARGET: The consumer will likely see price increases over the next couple of days. If you think about all the fresh produce. You know, we depend on Mexico during the winter. We're going to try to make sure we can do everything we can to protect pricing. But if there's a 25 percent tariff, those prices will go up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Feeling the price increase within days.

Also happening right now, Russia is escalating its war on Ukraine after President Trump decides to halt U.S. aid to Ukraine.

And tonight, President Trump makes his first major speech before a joint session of Congress since his return to power, where all of this is expected to be in focus.

CNN's Alayna Treene is live at the White House to start us off again.

And, Alayna, we're all going to see a very big moment this evening with this first big address to a joint session of this term. You have seen in person so many of the president's speeches while covering him on the campaign trail. What are you expecting to see tonight?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, I think one key question, Kate, is which version of Donald Trump we are actually going to see tonight? Is he going to try and be presidential, call for unity, something that we know his advisers had said in the past that his inaugural speech and other victory speeches were supposed to be. Or is he going to give into his impulses and try to really garner this speech, this address to his base? Throw red meat to kind of the MAGA wing of his party.

Now, we do have some sense of what this is going to be about. We know that the White House said that the theme of this address is going to be, quote, "the renewal of the American dream." We also know, and from my conversations with White House officials, Trump administration officials, they argue that really he wants to take a victory lap during this speech. A lot of this is going to be focused heavily on domestic policy and heavily on some of what he has done in his first six weeks in office, including his moves to widely slash the federal workforce and reshape it in his image, but also trying to talk about the economy. Something, of course, that Congress is currently trying to recon with in this bigger budget plan, whether to - you know, how they're going to reinstate his 2017 tax cuts, the tariffs, as you were mentioning, that's going to be a big part of this speech I'm told. But then also talking about the immigration - about immigration and the border, as well as - and I think this is the big one, what he's going to say about trying to end foreign wars.

[09:05:10]

Of course, I think a lot of people, including the world - I mean this isn't just an address to Congress, the global stage is going to be watching this speech - is how he talks about, particularly Ukraine and Russia, what type of rhetoric he uses. You mentioned, you know, me going to dozens of speeches over the last two years. The president often used kind of favorable language when talking about authoritarian leaders. I think that rhetoric would be seen in an entirely different light now that he is president, and he would be addressing both, you know, the House and the Senate. So, very much many people looking forward to what he says there.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Alayna, thank you so much.

John.

BERMAN: As for the Democrats, one of the Senate's newest members, Elissa Slotkin, will deliver the Democratic response tonight to the president's address.

Let's get right to CNN's Lauren Fox, who is on Capitol Hill.

What else do Democrats have planned for the evening, Lauren?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, one of the challenges for Democrats is to really drill down where they want to respond to President Trump in this address tonight, specifically Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, said that Democrats are going to have to deal with the fact that Donald Trump is going to hit on a lot of issues, he's going to raise a lot of concerns for Democrats, and then they need to have some kind of unified message coming out of the speech.

Elissa Slotkin will be the official Democratic response. She is a newly minted U.S. senator from the state of Michigan. She's also someone who has won a series of really tough congressional races in a swing district in that state, and she really has focused on kitchen table issues, the economy, preserving Medicare and Social Security and Medicaid. She's also going to be focusing likely on the auto industry and what tariffs could mean for that industry that's so crucial to her state back home.

You know, it's really interesting because a lot of Democrats are grappling with what happened on Friday in the Oval Office between President Zelenskyy, Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. But they said that that is not really the kind of issue that's going to resonate for everyday Americans. And if they are trying to reach across the country and make it clear what the Democratic message is right now in response to Donald Trump, their argument is they need to be focusing on the economy, they need to be focusing on issues that matter to more Americans.

So, that, I expect, is going to be the focus for a lot of Democrats coming out of this. We should also note that many Democrats are going to be bringing federal workers who have been furloughed or fired as their guests to the State of the Union. That also gives you a sense of what they want to be focusing on tonight.

John.

BERMAN: Watching it very closely up there. Lauren Fox, on Capitol Hill, thank you very much.

And we should note, on "INSIDE POLITICS" later today with Dana Bash, Senate Majority Leader John Thune will be there. So, do not miss that.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now, David Sanger, White House and national security correspondent for 'The New York Times," and Errol Louis, political anchor for Spectrum News, columnist for "New York Magazine."

Guys, thanks so much for being here.

Let's talk about the big speech tonight, gentlemen. Errol, I was - I was wondering, as we were walking in here today, how different tonight's speech would be had it been given one week ago with - because within that week you had an Oval Office blowup with the president of Ukraine, and now you have a trade war upon us.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, there's going to be a lot more eyeballs on this, including the whole world watching to hear what President Trump has to say. It's going to be a real important, pivotal moment.

Essentially what this administration is doing is changing sides in the war between Russia and Ukraine. It's devastating. Europe is still trying to make sense of it. The president will address it tonight. And I think that this will sort of complete the process of moving the U.S. from siding with our ally Ukraine, to siding with Russia in ways that are going to be very disruptive. And certainly when it comes to the market, when it comes to the

economy -

BOLDUAN: Yes.

LOUIS: What we're - whatever is going to happen on Wall Street today, we know that the tariffs are going to make changes that everyone is going to feel. It's going to be something that's undeniable. So both Wall Street and main street are going to feel the effects of something that's happened just this week.

BOLDUAN: I mean the warning from top - the CEO of Target, just this morning, that people are going to feel price increases within days. That's going to be something that the president is going to have to contend with.

LOUIS: Yes, look, the vast majority of our - all of our fresh fruits and vegetables come from Mexico. And if -

BOLDUAN: He said, we depend on Mexico in the winter. Yes.

LOUIS: Right, in the winter especially.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

LOUIS: They have a better climate and so forth.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

LOUIS: And, you know, grocery stores, they operate on something like a 2 percent margin. So, it's not like they can absorb or even defer an increased expense. The expense goes up today because of the tariffs. The prices will go up tomorrow, literally.

BOLDUAN: David, on Ukraine and what that - what we're going to hear tonight, Donald Trump cutting off military aid to Ukraine, what we're going to hear about it tonight.

[09:10:01]

Everyone will be listening in. Because one thing that, while the president has said, and everyone around him has said, what Zelenskyy needs to do is apologize, is it clear yet exactly what Zelenskyy can do or say that would unfreeze military aid?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It isn't. And, you know, we heard the president say he's got to be more grateful. But if we're making our foreign policy decisions, decisions of life and death, whether or not a nascent democracy survives on the basis of whether there is a peek at the way two leaders have dealt with each other, that's going to be a hard argument to make, I think, on the global stage.

Look, Errol had this just right. What we have seen happen in the past four weeks has been a rapid shift of the United States from backing a flawed democratic ally and basically moving itself - the president would say to a middle position to negotiate, his critics would say to a pro-Russian position, in an effort to reorient the foreign policy of the United States. And the result is that the president, tonight, I think, has a - the high burden of explaining the moral basis for this shift, because here we had a country that was invaded - he wouldn't admit, use that word - by a larger power, and we came to their aid. And I think you've seen in the polls most Americans still support that idea.

And then there's the question of the tactical shift, Kate, which is to say that he somehow believes that this will enable him to negotiate a peace. But a peace on whose terms? If you've already given away many of Putin's demands before you even actually get to the negotiating table. So, he's got a - he's got a tough argument to make here.

BOLDUAN: I want to lean on a little bit of your reporting as well, David, on that front, because one of the things I was saying in "The New York Times" is that, "in the aftermath of the Oval Office meeting, the Trump administration immediately began having discussions about cutting off or reducing military assistance." OK, we have now seen that. But then there's this, "training and possibly military intelligence support for Ukraine. That according to a senior official.

Our reporting is that the intelligence sharing continues, at least as of this morning.

SANGER: That's right.

BOLDUAN: But how devastating would that be to Ukraine if that is then the next move to have that cut off?

SANGER: That would be a critical loss for them because much of that comes from American unique capabilities, satellite capabilities, electronic capabilities. There's a facility I've written about in Germany where the Ukrainians, the British, the Americans are constantly meeting to evaluate the intelligence about what's happening on the battlefield. And it's a big part, not the only part, but a big part of how the Ukrainians have eyes on what the Russians are doing and therefore had to be able to target what their attacks are.

So, think about this. Even if there is just a cut off in the arms, and we provide about 30 percent of that to Ukraine, or there is some cut off in the intelligence, and the Russians make major gains in the interim, you're going to end up entering a negotiation with the Russians potentially holding more territory, or certainly an upper hand.

So, if you're Vladimir Putin, everything that's happened in the past week, from the blow up in the Oval Office, to this decision, is great news.

BOLDUAN: Yes. When Vladimir Putin is pumped about the moves that you're making on the global stage, as Fareed Zakaria put it yesterday -

SANGER: Time to rethink.

BOLDUAN: The world is - the world is upside - the world is upside down.

Errol, on the speech tonight, this is obviously going to be a big part of it. I just spoke with Congressman Jim Clyburn about how Democrats are planning to, or he thinks should be responding to the president during the address before and after. I want to play with you what he said he'd like to see Democrats do.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): I'm a product of the '60s. I believe sit ins were very effective. I have advocated us sitting in tonight. Go. Everybody. Show up. Get in your seats. And when he's introduced, sit in.

Illustrate how displeased we are with this administration. And I believe that we can do that by sitting on our hands rather than playing into his hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: It kind of illustrates a key question that Democrats have been struggling with ever since the election, with, how do you resist and not play into his hands, and also learn from what voters said when they went to the voting booths?

LOUIS: Yes. It's - it's important to keep in mind that we're only a few weeks into this administration, and I think there has been a bit of shock and awe.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

[09:15:00]

LOUIS: Democrats and other groupings are sort of trying to figure out how they're going to resist.

I mean you had that great interview just a few minutes ago with a fired federal worker. Well, there are a lot of them. And 30 percent of them are veterans. So, they're going to organize in their own way. We saw this last weekend, a number of sort of spontaneous rallies and pickets outside of Tesla dealerships all over the country. That's a different kind of an energy from a different kind of an activist. But Jim Clyburn, of course, has it exactly right. Yes, there have to be legislative fights. Yes, you have to go to court and fight against some of the transparently illegal actions that have taken place. Yes, you have to call out some of the self-dealing and corruption that's going on, where Musk and Trump are openly profiting from some of these moves and some of the chaos.

But you also have to sort of do what they're probably going to do tonight, which is sit there and make clear that they're not going along with this.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

It's good to see Errol. LOUIS: You too.

BOLDUAN: Good to see you, David. Thank you, buddy.

So, a programing note. Remember to tune, CNN - to CNN tonight for all of our live coverage of the president's address starting at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, missing desks, no wi-fi, no electricity. That's what federal workers are finding as they return to the office under a new mandate from President Trump.

And we have some pictures, live pictures, from Mardi Gras. People showing up, getting out on the streets this morning. The party is on for now, but forecasters are warning of really powerful storms, very strong winds that could cause some problems there and around the country.

And just in, we've got new reporting on who the first lady will bring as her guests to the president's address to Congress tonight.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:21:13]

BERMAN: Happening now, federal workers are returning to their offices full time after an order from the president ending the ability to work from home. One problem, the offices are not quite ready for the return. There was no wi-fi or full electricity in the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education had random wires sticking out of walls, other buildings did not have desks for employees.

Let's get right to my friend, Sunlen Serfaty, for the latest on this.

Kind of a complicated return, Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: It certainly was, John. Many of these offices, frankly, were just not ready for employees to come back and actually get work done. Last week was - for a lot of these agencies, the first day, last Monday, where - where federal workers were mandated to come back into their offices and report in person to their offices. And what we found is that these offices were certainly not ready to host them.

Myself and a few of my colleagues spent the week last week trying to figure out how it's going. We talked to many federal workers in many agencies, not just here in Washington, D.C., but also agencies across the country. And what we found was that it was a very chaotic return. It was a messy return, according to one office worker. And it was confusing. And it left many workers with an inability to actually do their jobs.

We heard that they were basically lacking very basic things to do their work, phones, wi-fi, computers, desk space, and many things that really slowed them down, to random wires sticking out of the floor, lack of ethernet connectivity. In some cases, electricity in some offices, lights in some offices. So, these were all the hurdles that many of the federal workers faced last week when they went back to work.

I spoke with one Department of Education employee. She was in her office and tripped over some cords in her office that were laying on the floor that had not been installed properly, and it led to a huge gash on her foot. And she has since submitted a worker's comp complaint.

So, these very basics of employees having to get back were not there. There also was the element that many employees have to deal with sensitive information. A Department of Defense official said that he was placed in an office with other employees, and he deals with sensitive information, and he did not receive any privacy. So clearly, a lot of issues with workers returning back to work.

BERMAN: Clunky at times, one might say.

Sunlen Serfaty, great to see you. Thank you very much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Blizzards, fires and tornadoes. That is what the country is facing today with a triple threat of storms sweeping across the central and southern portions of the United States. Right now more than 50 million people are under severe weather threats.

CNN's Derek Van Dam has the very latest for us from the CNN Weather Center.

And, Derek, what should people be preparing for?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, there's a tremendous amount of wind associated with the system, regardless of the tornado threat that is ongoing. This is what it looked like in El Paso, Texas, yesterday as 60 mile per hour winds gusted through this very dry desert area. And that was, by the way, 170-mile-wide dust storm that pressed through the region.

Now, this is all part of a larger storm system that has got a lot of wind associated with it. And I'm concerned about the high wind warnings that are in advance of the approaching thunderstorms in and around New Orleans because today is Fat Tuesday. We've got Mardi Gras celebrations, hundreds of thousands of people starting to flock to the city streets. Outdoors, very exposed. And the Storm Prediction Center has included New Orleans, from Shreveport, all the way down to the Gulf Coast, with this potential of EF-Two tornadoes. That's 111 mile per hour winds or greater with some of these storms that could roll through the greater NOLA region later today.

So, this is a QLCS, a quasi linear convective system.

[09:25:01] And this line often has embedded tornadoes within it. We talked about it yesterday. The rotation in the atmosphere, those purple boxes are concurrent tornado warnings occurring across eastern sections of Texas. It rolled through Dallas, Fort Worth earlier today, knocking nearly 400,000 power outages, at least in terms of customers. And this line is going to advance eastward very quickly before impacting the East Coast by this time tomorrow. So, a multi-day severe weather threat currently happening. On top of that, we've got blizzard conditions to the north.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: My goodness.

Derek, thank you so much for tracking all of it.

We are moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. So, how's a new trade war going to land? We will soon find out together.

And Ukraine could run out of crucial artillery shells as soon as May. That is new reporting. And that's what the new reporting coming in on how quickly the halt of U.S. aid to Ukraine could be felt on the battlefield.

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