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President Trump Gives Speech to Joint Session of Congress; President Trump's Speech Focuses on Cultural Issues before Addressing U.S. Economy; Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin Interviewed on President Trump's Speech to Congress; Russian Strikes Kill Two, Wound Eight Overnight in Ukraine's Odesa; Fact-Checking Donald Trump's Speech to Congress. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired March 05, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

TRACI TAPANI, CO-PRESIDENT, WYOMING MACHINE, INC: That has a direct relationship to the employment of American workers and manufacturing in the U.S. If we're going to sell less of our product overseas, it could put some people's jobs in jeopardy.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Real quick, Traci, because there's a lot of whiplash on this. Tariffs are coming. Tariffs are coming off. Maybe they're postponed. Maybe they're going to be even more. If you could speak to the president and his team right now, what would your message be?

TAPANI: I think that many people would feel like hearing a thoughtful, comprehensive plan about how were going to improve our economy in the United States. Most businesses would like to see us increase the rate of economic growth in the United States to something like three percent and sustain that, because it can help with a lot of the problems that we experience in the United States. And those are the kind of plans that I want to hear more about, less rhetoric and back and forth about trades and or tariffs and retaliatory tariffs. It's just not helpful at this time.

BOLDUAN: Traci Tapani, thank you so much for coming on. It's really nice to meet you.

TAPANI: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, developing this morning, new confusion over the direction of U.S. economic policy. With the markets already reeling in his big speech, the president leans into tariffs and suggests, yes, they might hurt a little, but a key cabinet secretary seems to back off some of the threats.

New reporting on the situation in Ukraine. What is the status this morning of the relationship between President Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy? What is the status of intelligence sharing after the president seemed to reach out a little in his speech?

And she was the victim of revenge porn at just 14 years old, how one woman is now bringing her fight against deepfakes to Congress with the help of the first lady.

I'm John Berman with Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: President Trump declares he's just getting started. So one big question then this morning needs to be what's changed and what comes next after a nearly 100-minute speech that celebrated the sweeping and abrupt changes that he has implemented in his first 43 days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: America is back.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the golden age of America. From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Those words, swift and unrelenting action, likely the tagline for some time coming from this first big address to a joint session, a speech that was also a fierce defense against the blowback that those changes have received. And it may be least surprisingly, there was big love from Republicans in the room and no love from Democrats there, leading to something that no one says that they really have seen before, a member of Congress being removed from the chamber during this speech after mounting a protest, Congressman, Representative Al Green. A very ununified America on full display.

So today, we are now standing by for what Trump's next move will be on that trade war he triggered. A call with the Canadian prime minister is expected to happen. This is after the White House said a trade deal could also happen today.

Joining me right now to talk about all the big takeaways from this monster, historically long speech, senior political correspondent for "Puck," Tara Palmeri. It's great to see you, Tara. I have up in the wall next to you some of your big takes from the speech. Obviously, he was heavy on the economy and also on immigration. But you also note that he leaned heavy on culture wars as well. Why does that stand out?

TARA PALMERI, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "PUCK": Yes, it stands out to me because usually, what you lay out in the speech and the prominence of it, what comes first tends to dictate your agenda. And Donald Trump, he really didn't start with the economy. You had to wait about a half-hour to get to that. He leaned into culture wars, into kind of owning the libs, as you could say. He really wanted to talk about how he, you know, a war on common sense. That seemed to have a greater precedence to him, the DEI wars, over how Americans are really feeling day to day and why they actually elected him, which is to turn around the economy.

I mean, the way he explained the situation was to blame Joe Biden for the cost of eggs, to blame him for inflation. We're into our second month. How much longer can you really blame the former president? After all, he did promise that on day one he would tackle inflation. He tackled a lot of things on day one, but through executive order. Not all of it is standing up. A lot of it was just messaging. A ton of it was culture war.

[08:05:05]

But I think you can see what Donald Trump values based on the, you know, the precedent that he -- the prominence that that topic took in his speech. And I was surprised to hear the economy taking about a half-hour, 45 minutes to hear about it, and how boastful he was about it, but also saying you're going to feel some pain. I don't think that's what Americans want to hear right now when I just went to the supermarket the other day. You can only buy eggs six at a time and at $8.75 a carton. So, I mean, this is not great.

BOLDUAN: Yes it's kind of like a debate. The first 20 minutes are the most important because that's when people start tuning out. It's a good point about what you're saying, kind of at the priority of how he got to things.

Also, Elon Musk, defending DOGE and highlighting Elon Musk, saying that he is the head of DOGE, which is noteworthy enough because the administration has said that Elon Musk is not the head of DOGE. That was also noteworthy.

PALMERI: Absolutely. And there might be some legal ramifications for that considering that Elon Musk is so tied to the government through all of his government contracts. And how can he really head a government agency? Has he been through proper background checks? How is he able to access so much sensitive information about Americans, and now on private servers? And the guys that are working for him at DOGE, have they been properly vetted as well? I mean, he has basically carte blanche with all of the agencies, which means he has carte blanche with all of our information. But yet it was interesting to hear him say that Elon Musk is the head of DOGE when they pick this kind of seemingly random person to be the DOGE administrator.

BOLDUAN: Tara, great to see you. Thank you so much for getting up early with us. Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, joining me now with his reaction to President Trump's address, Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin. Thank you so much for being here. You've got a huge smile on your face, but I don't think that you or Democrats were smiling when you listened to that speech, which was extremely partisan, the longest in history. What do you think, though, the Democrats accomplished last night with their signs, with walking out, turning their back to the president, and the outburst from the congressman from Texas? KEN MARTIN, CHAIR DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Well, let me just

start by saying thanks for having me on this morning, Sara. Unfortunately, what we saw last night by President Trump is he used his speech, instead of focusing on the issues that Americans actually cared about, He did everything But. the Americans have already lost confidence in his presidency After six weeks. Consumer confidence is low. Inflation is high. He focused more on Joe Biden, which he mentioned 13 times compared to talking about the economy nine times, and health care he mentioned not once in his speech last night. His long, rambling speech he did not address the issues that most Americans care about.

And what you saw from Democrats and what you continue to see from Democrats is the fact that there is great frustration out there amongst the American people that Donald Trump refuses, absolutely refuses to address the issues he promised that he would address. It's going to become more difficult with these tariffs that he's putting in place for people to afford their lives, and he hasn't focused one bit, one single iota on the issues that are driving the American public right now.

SIDNER: I think you're talking about the economy. He did talk a little bit about the economy and told Americans that they might experience a little pain before things get better.

I do want to ask you about one of the things that you have said. You said that Americans have lost confidence in his presidency. I want you to take a think about this poll. CNN did a poll after the speech, and it shows that 50 percent of the viewers said they had confidence in Trump to provide real leadership. That's a large number there, just sort of like what happened with the election. When you look at that, what do Democrats need to do to reach out to that 50 percent who still believe that Donald Trump is providing real leadership?

MARTIN: Well, look, just in the last two weeks alone, I've been in eight different states throughout this country, meeting with -- meeting with Latino voters, meeting with first responders and victims of the California wildfires. And what I can tell you right now, throughout this country, you're seeing deep frustration. And that just continues to grow. It's not abating at this point because Donald Trump is not focusing on any of those issues. Once again, he promised one thing, and he's doing exactly the opposite here.

And I will tell you, at the end of the day, he said he was going to lower prices. He hasn't focused on that. The inflation is continuing to rise. Consumer confidence is going down, and these tariffs are again going to make it harder for people to afford their lives.

What was really sick to me last night watching this address was that Republicans, every single Republican stood and cheered when he talked about attacking Social Security. Every single Republican stood and cheered when he talked about cutting Medicaid and Medicare. The reality is, at the end of the day, I dare any one of these Republicans to go back into their districts and meet with voters like I have been doing around the country right now. There's a reason they're canceling these town halls, Sara. It's because the American public is frustrated. They're mad as hell. And you saw that bubble up last night.

[08:10:05]

SIDNER: Is one of the strategies, because we heard this from the speaker of the House when he was speaking to one of our anchors. He said, look, they're sending Democrats into these town halls. He even said that they were paid protesters, and had no evidence whatsoever of that. But Speaker of the House Johnson said, look, some of these are Democrats going into these town halls and causing trouble. What do you say to that? And they are constituents of these Republican Congresspeople.

MARTIN: Well, it's hogwash. Its absolute hogwash. It's the easy thing for them to say that these are protesters or these are Democrats. They are constituents who are demanding answers from their elected representatives. And instead of having the courage and the spine to face the voters and actually open their ears and listen to what Americans want right now, they're canceling these town halls left and right on the order of Speaker Johnson. They refuse to actually meet with and hear the concerns of average, everyday Americans who are frustrated as hell with what this Trump administration and Elon Musk are doing right now.

I will tell you what. Get out there, listen to voters, and they will tell you. You can see that reflected in the polls. Donald Trump's approval ratings continue to slide right now as Americans have lost confidence in his ability to actually address the issues that are impacting their lives on a daily basis.

SIDNER: Ken Martin, thank you so much for coming on early with us this morning. I appreciate your time. John?

BERMAN: Right, 100 minutes, how much honesty? A brand new fact check of the president's speech overnight.

Also overnight, Russia launches a new wave of attacks against Ukraine as CNN reports, the U.S. has curtailed some intelligence sharing with Ukraine, intelligence that's been key to saving lives.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:16:24]

BERMAN: This morning, thousands of people in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa are without power following fresh attacks by Russia overnight. Drone strikes hit critical infrastructure and left two people dead, many more wounded. President Zelenskyy's office responded, saying Russia, "must stop daily shelling if it truly wants war to end."

Let's get right to CNN's chief international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh in Kyiv for the latest from there. Good morning, Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN, CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, a daily reminder that Ukrainians are losing their lives as this extraordinary diplomatic theater, I think it's fair to say, has been playing out over the past two weeks.

Now, yesterday, they woke up to the shocking news that the United States had paused military aid. Now we're also hearing from the head of the CIA, Director John Ratcliffe, a bit more detail about that in an interview with Fox Business. He says that actually it was military aid and intelligence sharing. Remember, that second part is absolutely vital to Ukraine that were indeed paused.

And he says, "I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause that allowed that to happen, I think will go away." And he's essentially referring to the rapprochement that appeared to build last night.

During his speech, President Trump said he received a letter from President Zelenskyy, which essentially suggested that they were willing to commit to peace to sign the rare earth minerals deal at a time that was convenient to the White House and Trump seemed essentially pleased with the tone of that letter, which had been preceded by a social media statement and a video in which Zelenskyy used the word regrettable about the scenes in the Oval Office, which many Ukrainians frankly think were disrespectful towards their President.

But Ratcliffe's statement is interesting because he essentially suggests that the military aid pause and the intelligence sharing pause contributed to Zelenskyy's change in tone to that letter to those videos and the social media posting. It was essentially an existential moment for Ukraine. They really ultimately need that intelligence sharing to be able to move forward in their defense against the Russian aggression here.

But Ratcliffe goes on to say, "I think we'll work shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine as we have to push back on the aggression that's there." So, he's holding out the idea that once we see Ukraine closer aligned to a Trump administration vision of a peace deal, that they may get this aid back.

But it is clear that there was a quid pro quo there that after the Oval Office, they withdrew that vital element of support to Ukraine. It's anywhere between a fifth to a third, depending on how you count it. But it's vital things like U.S. intelligence, like patriot air defense missile, things that Ukraine really can't persist without.

I should also add that we understand intelligence sharing isn't really necessarily a real-time thing. So, a pause of a couple of days may not be transformative on the front lines, but we're seeing here a lot of the tactics, I think, being used by the Trump administration, a lot of the immediate fallout from that Oval Office meeting, which left European leaders scrambling to shore up their solidarity around Zelenskyy.

And a question, too, I think, is the tone of what goes forward. We simply don't know what kind of peace the Trump administration have in mind here. Is it a peace that they forge with the Russians without the Ukrainians at the table? Is it one that the Europeans who are working on their own separate plan bring to the Trump administration with Ukraine's support, and to see if trump wants to approve it? Or is it a more general feeling amongst the Trump administration that Zelenskyy is ready to enter into talks?

They've always said they want to talk peace. It's just the nature of the deal that's problematic for Ukraine and its European allies. They want to be sure that Russia doesn't get a chance to rebuild and then attack again as it's done, they say 25 times over the past decade.

So, it's clear that a lot is moving suggestions maybe of more European involvement to try and get this over the line. But to some degree, both relief and darkness too. And it's clear what the leverage being used against Zelenskyy is and that may lift, although things back and forth so fast here, Ukrainian's are often struggling to keep up and losing lives day-by-day -- John.

[08:20:22]

BERMAN: Losing lives, look notable if the CIA Director John Ratcliffe, was confirming that intelligence sharing had been paused for a time. Notable also, if that pause is being lifted, as he suggested there.

Nick Paton Walsh in Kyiv, thank you for your reporting on all this. Appreciate it -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, in his address, President Trump threw out some big claims on everything from climate change initiatives to transgender mice. Our fact check is next.

Also, minutes from now, we have Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer with his response to the President's attack speech. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:25:11]

BOLDUAN: So, President Trump, unapologetic and not done yet. That was his message last night in his first major address to a joint session of the second term, celebrating the sweeping changes he has implemented in his first 43 days in office, nearly 100 minutes in speaking length that speech was, and he said a lot in those 100 minutes.

But how much of it now needs to be fact checked and clarified? CNN's Daniel Dale is taking a look, and he's joining us now.

Daniel, first, let's talk about something -- I heard you saying that this is the one that has stuck out the most to you, and that's why I wanted to start with it.

The President, in touting his DOGE efforts and the sweeping cuts that they've put into place, he spoke at length last night about finding fraud in Social Security payments. Let's play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Three point nine million people from ages 130 to 139; three point five million people from ages 140 to 149; and money is being paid to many of them because it just keeps getting paid and paid and nobody does -- and it really hurts Social Security and hurts our country.

And one person is listed at 360 years of age. More than 100 years older than our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Daniel, what did you find?

DANIEL DALE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I found that this is wildly misleading at best. So the President is at least strongly suggesting that millions of obviously dead people, you know, 200-year-olds, 300-year- olds are receiving Social Security benefits. That is not the case and that's because he didn't explain something critical.

While there is a well-known issue with people's deaths not being marked in the Social Security database, that does not mean those people are still getting money because Social Security has an automated system to automatically cut off people who are listed as being 115 years old or older.

Now, I'll give you some specifics. In 2023, the Inspector General who oversees the Social Security administration looked into this, found that about 19 million people didn't have their deaths marked in the database even though they were a hundred years old or over. So, not good, an issue that has to be fixed.

But the Inspector General also found that only 44,000 of those, about 19 million, were actually getting money. And I spoke to a conservative expert about this. He said the vast majority of even those 44,000 are likely to be legit payments, given that about 86,000 people were alive in the U.S. at age a hundred or older.

Now, we have more recent data from Social Security. It shows that about 89,000 people age 99 or older, not millions, were receiving Social Security benefits as of December 2024. So these numbers in the millions are just way, way off.

BOLDUAN: I mean, look, my grandmother lived to be 107, so she was one of those people that was getting those Social Security benefits.

DALE: But they're suggesting that's fraud and it's not.

BOLDUAN: And, the acting head of the Social Security administration has even spoken to knock this one down. So, do you --

DALE: Yes, Trump appointed.

BOLDUAN: Yes, exactly. Let's move on to the president speaking about military aid to Ukraine. Let's play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Europe has sadly spent more money buying Russian oil and gas than they have spent on defending Ukraine by far. Think of that, they have spent more buying Russian oil and gas than they have defending. And we have spent perhaps $350 billion like taking candy from a baby, that's what happened, and they've spent $100 billion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: What did you find here?

DALE: The President keeps using those numbers $350 billion from us, $100 billion from Europe. Those are both imaginary figures. So there's a German think tank that closely tracks U.S. and European aid to Ukraine. It has consistently found that Europe has collectively provided way more aid to Ukraine than the U.S. has, rather than the reverse like the President keeps saying.

I'll get more specific in terms of aid committed is about $263 billion for Europe to about half that, $126 billion from the U.S. In terms of aid actually allocated, they found it's about $140 billion for Europe to about $121 billion for the U.S.

Now, you can get different numbers if you use a different counting methodology. But even the U.S. government's own figures have not come anywhere close to the $350 billion the president keeps using.

BOLDUAN: That is so interesting. And that context is so important. Then there's this moment on efforts to combat climate change. Let me play this to you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I terminated the ridiculous green new scam. I withdrew from the unfair Paris Climate Accord, which was costing us trillions of dollars that other countries were not paying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: What is he referring to?

DALE: So, it's not exactly clear what he's talking about when he says the green new scam.

The Green New Deal was a contentious, broad, progressive Democratic Congressional Resolution. The thing is, though, it was never actually passed.

Now, President Biden, did of course sign a major climate environmental law known as the Inflation Reduction Act. But President Trump has not terminated that, it would take an act of Congress to terminate it. So while he has reversed some of Biden's Environmental policies, I don't know what he means.

[08:30:29]