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Markets Open Ahead Of Trump-Trudeau Call; Commerce Secretary Suggests Backing off Some Tariffs; Measles Outbreak Growing In Texas. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired March 05, 2025 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:30:57]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the bells are going to toll. The opening bell ringing on Wall Street. Investors taking note after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick seemed to change the status of President Trump's tariff talks, saying the president is, quote, "thinking about a plan to reach some kind of deal with Canada and Mexico.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich watching these numbers real closely.

Trump's also - sorry, Lutnick is also talking about some of the things that might be off the table when it comes to tariffs. What are you learning?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Yes, well, those markets are interesting. They were mostly in the green, if we put them back on the screen there.

SIDNER: Yes.

YURKEVICH: The Nasdaq, I believe, was the only one maybe that was down.

SIDNER: Pop those back up, if we can.

YURKEVICH: But that's just -

SIDNER: There we go.

YURKEVICH: Oh, look at them, all up right now.

SIDNER: Yes

YURKEVICH: That's such a recovery from yesterday. And that is possibly -

SIDNER: Tiny one.

YURKEVICH: Tiny. Tiny. In the green.

SIDNER: But in the green. YURKEVICH: But its possibly about what Lutnick said this morning on

"Bloomberg," saying that there could be some exemptions with tariffs, specifically autos, the auto industry, which is so critical to U.S. manufacturing here.

Take a listen to what Lutnick just said earlier this morning on "Bloomberg."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: The president is listening to the offers from Mexico and Canada. He's thinking about trying to do something in the middle. He's thinking about it. We're talking about it. We're going to - when I leave here, I'm going to go talk about it with him. And I think early this afternoon, or this afternoon we expect to make an announcement. And my - my thinking is, it's going to be somewhere in the middle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: So, somewhere in the middle. A compromise, perhaps.

We know through our reporting that President Trump has been speaking to folks from Canada and Mexico. He's been hearing from a lot of people within his own party that these tariffs are maybe not good for the overall economy.

Interesting last night we did not hear President Trump mention the stock market, Wall Street, which we know through our reporting that he does watch. Maybe he likes these numbers a little bit better today compared to the past two days where the numbers were down by 600, 900 points.

But we did hear President Trump talk about tariffs. And he was steadfast in why he was doing it. But you heard Howard Lutnick right there saying that there could be a little bit of a turnaround today, a compromise, maybe, particularly, in the auto industry.

SIDNER: It makes you think they're not well thought out when you're putting something in place, touting it, and then having someone, the commerce secretary, have to go, oh, wait, wait, we're going to do something a little bit different. We will see what happens. The markets are responding and they're responding positively, although the jump isn't anywhere near the amount lost.

I do want to ask you about some box stores. What are you hearing from Target and Best Buy when it comes to what consumers might see because of all this?

YURKEVICH: Yes, we just heard from Target's CEO yesterday who said that consumers are going to feel the impact in a matter of days because they get - Target gets so many fruits and vegetables, which are perishable items, from Mexico, from Canada. And those items are going to be more expensive in the next couple days.

We also heard the same from Best Buy. They're likely going to have to raise prices. We heard from Walmart just a few weeks ago. The bellwether for the U.S. economy, where consumers go to find affordable prices, that they're expecting consumers to pull back on spending because of all of these questions around tariffs.

There's going to be a lot happening today, potentially hearing from the president. We know there's a meeting on the phone between Trudeau and President Trump. What does that look like? What does that look like for the markets? We'll see.

And then, of course, all of us, what do we end up paying at the end of the day? It's going to keep changing.

SIDNER: I always appreciate you paying close attention. Vanessa Yurkevich, appreciate you.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Still ahead for us, we are following the breaking news out of the Supreme Court. The justices rejecting President Trump's request to keep billions in foreign aid frozen. We're going to talk much more about that breaking news and the impact of it.

And the CDC is now on the ground in west Texas as the measles outbreak there is getting worse still.

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[09:39:22]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we keep showing you this live look at the markets, mixed at best right now. The Dow a smidge up. The Nasdaq and S&P down. This after the president's speech to Congress where he talked about tariffs. And he acknowledged there will be a little disturbance by the tariffs he imposed. Twenty-five percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada.

Now, that was last night. This morning, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, for the second time in two days, seems to be trying to clean up some of what the president has done.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: The president is listening to the offers from Mexico and Canada.

[09:40:01]

He's thinking about trying to do something in the middle. He's thinking about it. We're talking about it. We're going to - when I leave here, I'm going to go talk about it with him. And I think early this afternoon, or this afternoon we expect to make an announcement. And my - my thinking is, it's going to be somewhere in the middle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, with us now, CNN's senior political commentator David Axelrod and former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, Marc Short.

Great to see both of you.

In these mornings after addresses, one of the ways I like to look at it is, what's changed, or where do things go next?

And, Marc, I think we are watching this tariff discussion play out before our eyes because the president acknowledged a level of pain, albeit short he said last night, but the commerce secretary keeps trying to will this middle ground on tariffs into being. And the markets just don't know who to listen to right now.

MARC SHORT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: Yes, John, I thought that the president had a really strong night last night. And it seems like this is unfortunately mixing a lot of the messages.

I do think that - I think it was actually on your network, John, that during the transition when Lutnick was in charge of the transition, he went on air and promised us that that Robert Kennedy would never be nominated to be head of HHS.

And so, I'm not going to become a day trader based on what he's saying this morning. I think the reality is the president has laid out a pretty strong protectionist agenda. And he said on April 2nd, there are going to be tariffs on lumber, on copper, on pharmaceutical, on autos, on reciprocal tariffs. And so, he is very clearly signaling an incredibly aggressive protectionist trade agenda.

And I think that, again, one of the differences, markets believe they've seen him do this kind of cry wolf and use it just as a negotiation tactic, as he did during the first Trump administration.

But the team he has around him now, John, of economic advisors and national security advisors, are true disciples in believing that tariff policy and protectionist policy is better for our economy. And I think that, you know, for a president that was elected on border issues, that I think he's had a great start to, but also economic issues, this is creating a lot of uncertainty and I think portends a lot of challenges when the data suggests that, in fact, the first quarter we may actually have a contraction.

BERMAN: Yes, a lot of uncertainty. We've seen it in the markets. You know, big drops the last few days. And this morning it was up much higher than this, and then it dropped to about even.

And, David Axelrod, we know from our reporting at the White House, Donald Trump watches the stock markets.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Yes.

BERMAN: He cares deeply about the direction of the market. So, one does wonder if he's just trying now to have Lutnick, if he is sending Lutnick out to say these things, to try to direct it one way or another.

AXELROD: Yes. I'm sort of with Marc.

I - you know, there's a lot of improv around this whole Trump deal, but he does believe deeply in tariffs. He's said it again and again and again. And the one thing I think that we've learned is, like when he says stuff, believe him. That he - he means what he says. He thinks tariffs are beautiful. He thinks they're a great tool. And we'll see.

I mean, one of the unresolved questions here Marc pointed out, I think he did have a strong night last night for his base. He talks to his base. I think it resonated with his base, that 48 percent that supports him. But there are economic realities. And the - the chief issue that he ran on was in bringing down prices and raising incomes and essentially proving - improving the economic standing of people. And the question is, does this lead to that or does it lead to higher prices? And how long will people tolerate that?

BERMAN: And if we talk about what else is changed or what questions exist this morning after the speech, David, and hearing from both Democrats and Republicans and just viewers, Al Green getting escorted from the chamber four minutes in and shouting, the signs that Democrats were holding up, is that the right way for Democrats to push back against Donald Trump, or, it was a very different message after the speech and the Democratic response from Senator Elissa Slotkin from Michigan.

AXELROD: Yes.

BERMAN: Which way do you think is right?

AXELROD: Well, I don't think there's any question that Slotkin hit the right tone there. You don't - the truth is, the government should be reformed. There are ways to save money. There are ways to be more efficient. It's just not with the chainsaw and the 20 year olds, as she said, and Elon Musk deciding, you know, based on AI who, you know, who stays and who goes over a period of hours. That's not the way to do it.

She was right about a lot of what she said, and her focus on the economy. No, I don't think the performative stuff was very helpful at all last night. But, you know, here's the deal. Both parties in some ways are captives of their bases. And I think that there are a lot of members of Congress who probably come from districts that are overwhelmingly Democratic, who - who feel like their constituents are expecting them to be very actively protesting what the president is doing. So, just as on the Republican side, you know, the base loves the stuff that enrages people who aren't in the base and so the members respond to that. This is one of the problems with a highly polarized country.

[09:45:09]

BERMAN: Marc. SHORT: Well, look, I think the reality is that the president loves

having a foil, and I think the Democrats looked foolish last night waving those silly paddles. And I think Al Green looked like an angry old man waving a cane. And I think that that just benefits the president. And it sort of paints a caricature of what his opposition is. And so, I think that he relishes that sort of a foil, and I think Democrats played right into his hand last night.

BERMAN: In just the last few minutes, the Supreme Court ruled five to four against the White House, which wanted to freeze foreign aid spending. It goes back down to the lower courts. Right now it's unclear when this money may need to be spent, but it's possible this is a sign where the Supreme Court is on a very important discussion, which is, who gets to decide where and how money gets spent. Is it Congress who passes the laws and appropriates the funds, or is it the White House? Where do you think this goes, Marc?

SHORT: I think that's exactly the right question, John. I think the reality is that Elon Musk and the president have illustrated to the American people where a lot of wasteful spending is. And I think that's good. But I think you have to take the next step and bring that to the American people and convince Congress to stop this funding when you're $36 trillion in debt. And I don't think that the executive branch probably has the ability to just whimsically decide, I'm going to do this or not do that.

BERMAN: Yes.

SHORT: That's why Congress appropriates the dollars.

BERMAN: Yes, and I'm fascinated, Axe, from a - just a Supreme Court perspective, filled with so many self-proclaimed textualists.

AXELROD: Yes.

BERMAN: The text of the Constitution gives Congress the power to appropriate funds, yet they seem to be somewhat deferential to Trump on many things. But will they continue to say, no, no, no, no, you've got to spend this money if Congress says so.

AXELROD: No, that is the big question, and that is what Trump is - is gambling. But he's pushing the limits on all of this. You know, he believes in this unitary executive theory, which arrogates to the president much more authority than I think that the framers of the Constitution intended. So, we'll see how this works out.

But on this foreign aid issue, listen, he lost on this. This - this was money already obligated. As a policy matter, I - I - I'm happy that that happened. But as a political matter, he probably figures, I can - you know, I can push off against foreign aid. People don't like foreign aid. You know, it will give him - he probably considers it a political win.

BERMAN: Yes, all of these things can be true.

AXELROD: Yes. BERMAN: David Axelrod, Marc Short, great to see both of you. Thank you very much.

SHORT: Thanks.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, ahead for us, millions are facing severe weather threats today from tornado watches in the Carolinas, to blizzard conditions in the Midwest. We have live pictures here. This is Minnesota. We'll get an update for you, coming up.

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[09:52:17]

BOLDUAN: So, this morning, more than 10 million people are under a tornado watch right now in the Carolinas. This is the same system that brought heavy rain to the Mississippi River near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Just take a look at this video, just showing the rain battering, just battering a boat on the river yesterday. Whoo, a lot going on there.

This system is also responsible for a massive dust storm and fires in Texas, and also blizzard conditions in parts of the Plains.

Also this, in a new move to try and get the death penalty off the table, attorneys for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students, they are - they are now leaning on the fact that he has autism to make the case. In a newly unsealed court filing, they say the 30 year old has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, and, they argue, sentencing him to death would violate the Eighth Amendment's ban on excessive punishment. So, the - and saying it exposes him to unacceptable risk that he will be wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death. Again, Kohberger is accused of stabbing those four students to death on their off campus home in 2022. His trial is set to begin in August.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, right now there are 159 confirmed cases of highly contagious measles in west Texas. A child, of course, you know, has already died. And now after downplaying the outbreak, HHS Secretary RFK Jr. is finally saying people in unvaccinated communities should get the MMR vaccine to slow the spread. But the vaccine skeptic is also muddying his message, promoting alternative treatments, such as vitamin a and cod liver oil.

CNN's Meg Tirrell has been following the outbreak since it began.

First, Meg, what can you tell us about just how quickly this outbreak is growing in Texas at the moment.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so if you look at the number of cases, really the first ones we're just reported in these west Texas counties at the end of January. So, these have been climbing quickly through the month of February. We're now approaching 160 cases. We expect our next update from Texas on Friday, if not sooner. And that includes 22 hospitalizations and the death of a school aged child that you mentioned, which was the first death from measles in this country in a decade.

Now, this outbreak in west Texas is the largest one we're seeing in the United States right now. But we have been hearing about cases in multiple states across the country. Eleven states to our count at this moment. Many of these cases are travel related. Folks who are unvaccinated, going to another country where measles is spreading and coming back with measles.

The big decider about whether they spread measles to other people often is how vaccinated the people around them are. And we know that in Gaines County, the vaccination rate, particularly among school aged children, is especially low. Just about 80 percent.

[09:55:04]

And you want to keep measles vaccination rates above 95 percent to try to protect everybody through herd immunity.

And just to give a sense of how many cases we're seeing of measles this year compared with the previous two, the rate is already so much higher, 164 cases in this year alone, compared with 285 in 2024 and 59 in 2023.

Sara.

SIDNER: The fact that they were - it was eradicated, that is just extremely disturbing to see those numbers that way.

What is the deal with vitamin a and cod liver oil? Why is he touting that on top of finally saying to go and get the vaccine?

TIRRELL: Yes, these messages are pretty mixed, Sara. We heard from Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in an interview yesterday on Fox News. And, you know, what he said was, yes, they are saying that people, especially in the under-vaccinated Mennonite community, where this outbreak has been centered, should consider getting the vaccine. But it was quite a mixed message because he also talked about treatment with, as you said, vitamin a, cod liver oil, with a steroid, with an antibiotic. And this is making doctors nervous because vaccination is the safe and effective way to prevent measles. And the message they worry is getting muddied because he's talking about treatment, as if that could somehow be on the same par. And they argue it's obviously not.

Sara.

SIDNER: No. The best way to deal with measles is not to get it at all.

Meg Tirrell, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

My advice of the day.

BOLDUAN: Exactly. BERMAN: (INAUDIBLE).

SIDNER: Small, but I think it's OK.

BOLDUAN: Thank you all so much for joining us today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SITUATION ROOM" is up next.

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