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Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Fired V.A. I.G., Michael Missal, Discuss Fired Federal Workers Will Join Dems As Guests At Trump's Address; Supreme Court Appears Poised To Block Mexico From Suing U.S. Gunmakers Over Cartel Violence; Significant Storm Damage Reported In Texas And Oklahoma. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired March 04, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:32:35]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The White House says the theme of President Trump's address tonight is, quote, "The renewal of the American dream." And he's expected to make the case for his sweeping domestic and foreign policy plans.

Democratic lawmakers have some plans of their own. Some will be skipping the address altogether. Others will make a statement through the guests that they are going to bring.

And that includes Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who is with us now, along with his guest for tonight's speech, Michael Missal, who was the inspector general for the Department of Veterans Affairs until President Trump recently fired him.

Senator, and Mr. Missal, thank you so much to both of you for being with us.

Senator, first, tell us why you chose the V.A. I.G, formerly the V.A. I.G, I should say, as your guest.

And I also wonder what you think about Democrats who are skipping the address, if that's effective, since obviously you've chosen a different route?

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): I've chosen to go because I regard it as part of my job. And I do want to make a statement about what I think is the draconian, misguided cuts in spending for the V.A. and other agencies and the hiring freezes.

And, most of all, the firing of these inspectors general, who are the watchdogs against fraud, abuse and waste.

I'm the ranking member on the V.A. Committee, the top Democrat. Michael Missal has uncovered fraud and abuse and waste over almost a decade of service under both Republican and Democratic presidents.

He's rubbed them the wrong way because he has uncovered wrongdoing under them. And I think that's the kind of approach we want going after the waste with a scalpel, not a meat ax.

And frankly, if President Trump were really serious about going after waste and fraud, he wouldn't have fired these inspectors general. That's the statement I want to make.

And Elon Musk is applying his algorithms and his A.I. formulas to remove 2,400 workers at the V.A. and freeze the contracts that are essential to V.A. services.

Which is having real-life impacts in stopping health care for veterans, closing clinics, preventing operations and surgeries that are really important to veterans, causing delays in treatment and elimination of some of the services to veterans who were exposed to toxic substances.

[14:35:06]

So that's part of what I want to do, convey that to the American people tonight, despite what Donald Trump may say from that podium.

KEILAR: A huge influx of veterans now because of The Pact Act, who do need that help at the V.A.

And, Michael -- and I would urge anyone to look at the V.A. OIG report page if you're a little bit nerdy. It's pretty interesting to see all of the different reports in your almost two decades tenure.

You note in your lawsuit over your firing that during your time as inspector general at the V.A., your office delivered a monetary impact of $45 billion.

And just a couple examples that, you know, we found just running through the reports. There was recently this overpayment for dental services. There was also a discovery that the V.A. had improperly approved nearly $11 million in bonuses for executives that needed to be clawed back.

Considering that rooting out waste, fraud and abuse is the stated goal of the Department of Government Efficiency, talk to us about how you were already doing that.

MICHAEL MISSAL, FIRED INSPECTOR GENERAL, DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS: Yes. So as the inspector general, my role was to find fraud, waste and abuse, to make V.A. more effective and efficient, to hold leaders accountable, and to promote transparency of what the government is doing.

So at any one time when I was the inspector general, we had about a thousand active criminal cases, we had about 150 health care inspections, about 100 performance audits.

So we looked at V.A. from a number of different perspectives. And as you point out, the impact, the monetary impact was about $45 billion.

But I'm as proud about how we helped V.A. improve. We helped improve the quality of health care for veterans. And we helped improve the benefits and services that veterans and their families receive.

And so that's what I'm most proud about. And that's what I'm so sorry that we're -- I'm not going to be able to continue to do.

KEILAR: Do you worry watching these firings at the V.A. that they could actually create fraud, waste and abuse? And if so, can you tell us specifically why?

MISSAL: Sure. I think it could have a chilling effect on all OIG offices. A perfect example is the I.G. from USAID was not fired in the initial round of firing.

He put out a very strong report talking about the issues that he identified with the breakup of USAID and how it was going to harm people. It was going to waste a lot of money.

The next day, he was fired. And I think that sends a strong message that if you put out a report that's tough on the administration, that there will be consequences for it.

KEILAR: Senator, you're on the V.A. Committee. As you've had conversations with your Republican colleagues -- I know you're all hearing about these veterans who are federal employees, three in 10 federal employees are veterans -- getting fired in this -- in these mass firings in the government.

What are they telling you? Are you guys working on anything in a bipartisan way to deal with this?

BLUMENTHAL: I wish I could tell you, Brianna, that my Republican colleagues are ready to take action. But the fact is that they have proved utterly and totally spineless in standing up for veterans.

And I say that with great regret and sadness, because I believe that they are committed to caring for our veterans.

We had testimony today from the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the commander-in-chief, Al Lippert, said very movingly to my Republican colleagues, as well as to all of us on the committee, you know, you're breaking a contract. You're violating a trust and a promise that you made to veterans.

It isn't charity. When a veteran goes to the West Haven, Connecticut, V.A. facility and is told that his surgery or her review of her mental health condition or the veterans crisis line, which saves people from suicide, have all been cut back or delayed, it is a violation of that trust.

And I think that Elon Musk is trying to gain more revenue so that they can finance tax cuts. They're trying to do it on the backs of veterans. They regard veterans as disposable trash.

They have no sense of what veterans mean to our country, how they have served and sacrificed. And I think that is a blind spot among many in the way that they are going about these draconian, indiscriminate cuts across the board. One-third of our federal workforce are veterans. Almost half of all

the employees of the Department of Defense are veterans. And they are just slashing 8 percent, 10 percent.

[14:40:03]

KEILAR: I -- I do want to challenge you on something because you told my colleague, Manu Raju, today that Trump's remarks tonight would be contentious, hit all the usual themes. But you also said that it would be -- not be very appealing to the American people.

You describe these cuts. A lot of Americans like the idea of them. They like the idea of the things they see Trump doing. How do you know that what he is talking about won't be appealing to the American people? You may not find it appealing, but the American people just elected him.

BLUMENTHAL: The American people find appealing the rhetoric about slashing waste and fraud. If Trump and Musk were really serious about cutting waste and fraud, they wouldn't be firing inspectors general.

And what the real-life impacts are going to be, as our veterans are discovering at West Haven Hospital and others around the country, is that services have been cut back.

The Pact Act, which provides care and benefits in cases of toxic exposure, for example, the burn pits, people won't be getting the screenings that they need to detect cancer and prevent the more serious illnesses across the board.

Air safety, where we've had hundreds of cuts in key safety positions, in USAID, where farmers' production won't be bought any more by the -- that agency to be sent abroad to save people's lives.

When the real-life impacts become clear, Americans are not going to like it. And if they look behind the rhetoric, they will find tonight's theme more revenue for tax cuts to the ultra-wealthy, financed the billionaire tax cuts by cutting for everyone else.

And I think that Americans will find it less appealing than Donald Trump thinks.

KEILAR: Senator Richard Blumenthal and former V.A. I.G. Michael Missal, thank you to you both.

MISSAL: Thank you.

BLUMENTHAL: Thank you.

KEILAR: When we come back, Mexico's fight against gun violence heading to the Supreme Court. Justices will hear arguments on whether to let Mexico sue American gunmakers over cartel violence. We'll have the latest on that.

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[14:46:49]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: It now looks like a majority on the Supreme Court will block Mexico from suing U.S. gun manufacturers. The Mexican government first brought the case in 2021, alleging that Smith and Wesson, along with six other major U.S. gunmakers, design and market guns specifically to drug cartels.

CNN's Joan Biskupic joins us now.

So, Joan, what happened in court?

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN CHIEF SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Yes, it was a pretty lively argument. Well argued on both sides. But you could really feel the tide going against Mexico.

Just to remind people what it's all about, Mexico sued Smith and Wesson and other gunmakers saying that there was a connection, a close connection between their marketing attempts, how they -- how they sell their guns to various distributors and retailers that then get smuggled to drug cartels in Mexico that causes all sorts of murder and mayhem.

And the justices on both the right and the left did not seem sympathetic to the argument. There's a 2005 federal law that generally bars these kinds of lawsuits and says that gunmakers should be shielded from any kind of liability when someone uses a firearm unlawfully.

And let me just read some of the comments from two key justices right from the start, the chief and chief justice, John Roberts, on the right wing, and then Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson on the left.

And the chief first referred to the aggressive marketing for some pistols.

Said, you know, might be aggressive but it's not illegal. And he referred to different adages, such as, "It's better to die on your feet than live on your knees."

And he said, "There are some people who want the experience of shooting a particular type of gun because they find it to be more enjoyable than, say, a BB gun." Using a kind of extreme example.

"And I just wonder exactly what the manufacturer is supposed to do in that kind of situation."

And then Justice Jackson, who, again, on the left side of the court, she has the lawyer arguing for Mexico, "All of the things that you're asking us for here" -- you know, to hold these manufacturers liable -- "would amount to the kinds of different sorts of different kinds of regulatory constraints that I'm thinking that Congress didn't want the courts to be the ones to impose."

So I would say we're at a very preliminary stage of this litigation. But a lower appellate court said it could go forward. And Smith and Wesson is saying, no, we don't even think it should go forward because it should not be allowed under that 2005 law.

In terms of the larger context, Boris, you know that there's just -- you know, the relations between the U.S. and Mexico are tense right now --

SANCHEZ: Yes.

BISKUPIC: -- for a couple different reasons.

Justice Alito, you know, referred to that toward the end of the arguments when he -- when he said, "I just thought I would ask you a question" -- and this is to the lawyer for Mexico.

"I just thought I'd ask you a question that may be on the minds of ordinary Americans who hear this argument and learn about this case. Mexico says the U.S. gun manufacturers are contributing to illegal conduct in Mexico. There are Americans who think that the Mexican government officials are contributing to a lot of illegal conduct here."

Now, that was a bit of a sideshow question, but it just kind of shows the atmosphere there.

Bottom line, though, I think that Mexico is probably going to lose this case, and Smith and Wesson's appeal will succeed at the Supreme Court. And we will know by later this spring.

[14:50:02]

SANCHEZ: Yes, it will be one of many cases you'll be watching.

BISKUPIC: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Joan Biskupic, thank you so much.

BISKUPIC: Thanks.

SANCHEZ: Still plenty more news to come on NEWS CENTRAL, including a violent storm with hurricane force winds moving across the United States. Tens of millions at risk. We'll tell you where it's headed, next.

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KEILAR: There is a line of severe storms roaring through parts of Texas and Oklahoma. Earlier today, at least one tornado reported in Oklahoma, according to the National Weather Service.

Strong winds swept across north Texas. In Irving, near Dallas, portions of an apartment complex were destroyed when high winds took down a wall and scattered that debris.

And then in Fort Worth, the storm is also being blamed for pushing two planes under a military transport plane at Alliance Airport. No word on injuries.

Let's go to CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam.

Derek, what's the latest?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, look at the damage, Brianna, that this line of severe weather did in the Lewisville, Texas, region. Just completely upending this storage facility.

[14:55:06]

Really incredible to see the wind damage, which, by the way, clocked at over 74 miles per hour at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport earlier this morning when the line moved through.

Now guess what? The line is not done yet. In fact, we've got a newly issued tornado watch that's inclusive of New Orleans and Baton Rouge and parts of Mississippi.

As this line marches eastward, the potential here for tornadoes to spin up, that could be significant through the course of the afternoon and evening hours.

Something we're monitoring very closely, considering there's so many thousands of people outdoors right now in New Orleans celebrating Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday.

Here's this line. We do have severe thunderstorm warnings in place for that area now. Aa it advances east, the worst weather should arrive in New Orleans between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m. this evening, local time.

Then that severe weather threat advances eastward. And we see the threat of severe weather for the day tomorrow along the Atlantic seaboard.

This is part of a much larger storm system that has blizzard conditions to the north, but an extreme fire risk on the western side of the cold front that has brought a fire warning just recently issued to Bexar County, where San Antonio is located.

There's actually a wildfire burning out of control in and around the downtown area. So something we're monitoring very closely, trying to gather more intel on that developing situation as we speak -- Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. We'll keep an eye on that.

Derek, thank you so much.

And still to come, a trade war erupting with some of the biggest trade partners for the U.S. China, Canada and Mexico threatening to push prices higher for Americans who are already struggling with inflation.

We'll talk about how President Trump will explain it to the nation in an address tonight.

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