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Stocks Plummet Over Fears About Trade War, Recession; Search for Student Missing in Dominican Republic; ICE: Former Student Who Protested War in Gaza Facing Deportation; DA Asks Court to Withdraw Resentencing Request for Menendez Brothers. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired March 10, 2025 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: ... of President Trump's tariffs and his refusal to dismiss the possibility of a recession.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Bounce back for the Dow. It was down about 1100 points not long ago.

Let's discuss with Roben Farzad. He's a business journalist and host of Full Disclosure. Robin, great to see you as always. Your reaction to another ugly day for markets.

ROBEN FARZAD, BUSINESS JOURNALIST AND HOST, FULL DISCLOSURE: I know, Brianna, Boris, you guys are young millennials, but this is the 25th anniversary of Nasdaq 5000. Right. And that was a catastrophe. That was a market top. Nobody remembers that. Look where the Nasdaq is now. Look what the big components were back then. And Intel and Cisco and long forgotten. Now it's all about Tesla, Nvidia.

Markets pull back. Markets correct. Markets have bear markets. It's all part of what is inevitably kind of an inexorable rise upward.

KEILAR: I'm an old millennial, so I'm going to take that compliment like I'm the oldest of the millennials. I'm not even included in some of what they consider millennials. But I do wonder, Roben, as we hear the president being asked about a recession and he won't dismiss it.

I mean, what are you seeing when it comes to that question?

FARZAD: Yes, on Wall Street, it's called kitchen sinking it. You throw everything but the kitchen sink in it because he could still technically blame the Biden administration and policies of the Biden administration. Like I'm only trying to put us on a right footing.

So if he jawbones tariffs and worries and the talk of recession into, you know, actually self-fulfilling prophecy, it might well force the Fed's hand. I think it's a long shot because the Fed is laser focused on inflationary pressures right now. And there's definitely inflationary pressures that remain.

But if the economy were to sink, if the bond market were to keep reacting like this, the stock market itself has its own wealth effect. And people feeling less wealthy by the day, sooner or later, they're going to start blaming this White House.

SANCHEZ: I want to play a clip for you. Here's what Trump said in a Fox News interview yesterday about the stock market.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What I have to do is build a strong country. You can't really watch the stock market. If you look at China, they have a hundred year perspective. We have a quarter. We go by quarters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's true.

TRUMP: And you can't go by that. You have to do what's right. What we're doing is we're building a tremendous foundation for the future. Tremendous foundation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: I guess it's a really interesting question because his argument is that for national security reasons, for long term manufacturing, this is a -- in his words -- a transitory, a transitional phase, a minor disturbance for a long term good. Is that actually the case?

FARZAD: You know, and it's also called harsh medicine. He is talking about this in stereo. Right. You saw last week when he had the Taiwan semi plant announcement very proudly in the United States. That's onshoring jobs.

We have the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, the main benchmark in the U.S. about half of its sales are derived abroad. As our currency is more expensive, you're going to see these exporters complain.

Where importers are going to say, even with tariffs, you're seeing the European currencies, you're seeing various currencies, Canadian currencies, the big Mexican peso, the weakness, they're going to be able to dump their wares. It's very interesting when a stock market is at an all time high or the way he was running victory laps when the market did rally after his election in November. But when the market is selling off, it's very easy to say, oh, this is short term thinking.

Trump is clearly a kind of a master of heads, I win, tails, you lose rhetoric.

SANCHEZ: Roben Farzad, appreciate the analysis. Thanks for joining us.

FARZAD: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: So civil rights groups are speaking out today after ICE arrested a prominent leader of Columbia University's pro-Palestinian demonstrations. How federal authorities are justifying the move's legality and how the president is signaling this could just be the start.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: This just into CNN. A young man who is believed to have been the last person with a University of Pittsburgh student on the day that she went missing allegedly told police three different versions of their last moments together in the Dominican Republic. This is according to a CNN source with the Dominican National Police.

Authorities say 20-year-old Sudiksha Konanki was last seen on surveillance camera early Thursday morning entering a beach in Punta Cana with seven other people. All of them were eventually seen leaving except Konanki.

CNN's Rafael Romo has the latest for us on this story. All right, so Rafael, this young man is an American tourist as well. Tell us about him. Tell us what he's told police.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there's been different versions as to what happened. And according to a CNN law enforcement source, Brianna, the young man who was the last person 20-year-old Sudiksha Konanki was with first said in a verbal statement that once he was out of the ocean, he saw her still in the water and she was OK but didn't see her again when he turned around. Then he said in a written statement that he got out of the water, threw up and laid down on a lounge chair and when he didn't see her, he believed Konanki had left.

And finally, this is a third version, our source said he told police he turned around after throwing up and saw the young woman walking along the beach with water up to her knees in the direction of where she had left her clothes.

But at the same time, several things have remained the same. In every version, he said they were at the beach of the Riu Republica Hotel in Punta Cana and went into the ocean, but he got several things have remained the same.

[15:40:03]

In every version, he said they were at the beach of the Riu Republica Hotel in Punta Cana and went into the ocean, but he got out after feeling sick and fell asleep on a lounge chair, according also to our source. In the last hour, we've also learned that authorities found a sarong-style cover-up belonging to Konanki on a lounge chair on the beach. We've also learned that so far, investigators have found no sign of violence.

Konanki was last seen on surveillance camera with seven other people entering the beach at the Riu Republica Hotel in Punta Cana on Thursday at 4:15 in the morning. She was reported missing to the hotel staff at 4:00 in the afternoon that very same day.

On Sunday night, Brianna, I spoke on the phone with her father, who has traveled to the Dominican Republic. Subbarayudu Konanki described his daughter as a very nice girl and very ambitious young woman who wanted to pursue a career in medicine. She's a pre-med student at the University of Pittsburgh, where she's a junior.

The Dominican National Emergency System is coordinating search efforts on the island for Konanki, and according to a statement, officials are using four teams of drones equipped with advanced technology that have been deployed to conduct a thorough search in the coastal area where she went missing -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Rafael Romo, we know you'll continue to watch this. Thank you so much -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: President Trump is hailing the arrest of a student protester who helped lead the demonstrations at Columbia University last year, demanding an end to the killing in Gaza. Mahmoud Khalil, seen here in a CNN interview last April, is a recent graduate whose green card is expected to be revoked based on a law that allows the deportation of a legal resident if the person's activities would have potentially seriously adverse foreign policy consequences for the U.S. That's according to a senior Homeland Security official.

And this just into CNN NEWS CENTRAL. A source is telling CNN that Khalil is now at a detention center in Louisiana. He was first taken to a facility in New Jersey. President Trump posted that Khalil is, quote, a radical foreign pro-Hamas student on the campus of Columbia University.

Trump goes on to say, quote, This is the first arrest of many to come. We know there are more students at Columbia and other universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity. And the Trump administration will not tolerate it. Many are not students, they are paid agitators.

Let's discuss with Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union. Donna, thank you so much for being with us. DHS via social media is accusing Khalil of having led activities aligned to Hamas. Do you know what that is in reference to?

DONNA LIEBERMAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NEW YORK CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION: Well, I know what it's in reference to, but it's totally wrong. And it's an attempt to justify what is really a McCarthyite attack on free speech. This is a targeted attack on Mr. Khalil because he opposes the politics of the Trump administration. It's retaliatory and it's a violation of the First Amendment.

You know, the First Amendment protects everyone in the United States. And this outrageous arrest and detention are obviously designed to intimidate and chill speech on one side of the public debate.

SANCHEZ: I do want to get some clarity on that definition of activity. So I wonder if you were able to tell us, if you're able to confirm, as far as you're aware, that Khalil never offered any money to Hamas, any supplies, any expert advice, training, coordinating on recruitment. Did he take any money from a terrorist organization? Was he a paid agitator?

LIEBERMAN: There is not a hint of a claim that he did any of those things. The claim is that his opposition to the activities of Israel with regard to the Palestinians are grounds for him to be deported. And that is simply illegal. It's wrong. And it reeks of McCarthyism.

SANCHEZ: The administration has argued that pro-Hamas vandalism and calling for an intifada amount to intimidation. We've been covering this story last year. A university task force found what they described as a troubling pattern of behavior toward Jewish students, citing a long list of incidents.

I wonder if you think anything Khalil did would lead the United States government to think he would pose a potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequence.

[15:45:00]

LIEBERMAN: Yes, well, listen, I'm relying on the public record so far. And what we have heard, what has been reported in the media, is that he was a negotiator for the students with regard to the encampment at Columbia. There is not a single hint of any tangible support for Hamas. What the administration is calling support for Hamas that would be grounds for deportation is publicly disagreeing with American policy and publicly criticizing the state of Israel.

And that activity is protected by the First Amendment. And when you have a green card, whether you're a student or a lawful resident, married to an American citizen, which he is, his wife, by the way, is eight months pregnant, you have the right to due process. What the government is trying to do is try this case with false and one-sided information in the media and not based on facts.

And this is designed not to serve any interest of free speech or fair immigration policy. This is really designed to chill and intimidate people from expressing viewpoints that are contrary to this administration. It is a shot across the bow. It is an attack on our universities. And the New York Civil Liberties Union is deeply troubled, as should all Americans be, by this effort to use immigration to suppress opinion.

SANCHEZ: I just noted that he has been transferred to a facility in Louisiana. Several folks that CNN spoke with, migrants' rights organizations, argue that that is designed to make his defense and access to legal resources more difficult. Are you aware as to whether he's secured legal representation? I don't imagine you've spoken with him, but I imagine you've spoken with his wife.

LIEBERMAN: I have not spoken with him or his wife. But I do understand that he's been transferred to Louisiana. And 100 percent, that is designed to take him away from his roots, from his family, from access to counsel and from his support network.

But I know that there are lawyers involved, and they're fighting hard to ensure that he is released immediately. The government does not have a legal basis to hold him. They don't have a legal basis to rescind his green card.

In fact, it appears from the reporting that they didn't even realize he was a green card holder when they detained him initially. And we hope that he will be released very soon. SANCHEZ: Donna Lieberman, we have to leave the conversation there. Very much appreciate your time.

LIEBERMAN: OK, thank you.

SANCHEZ: Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We're back in just a few minutes.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The Los Angeles County District Attorney says he does not support the resentencing of Eric and Lyle Menendez and accused them of lying about why they killed their parents. But he says he's prepared to move forward with next week's hearing.

The Menendez brothers were convicted in the brutal 1989 murders of their parents inside their Beverly Hills home. Both claimed their father physically and sexually abused them and that their mother was aware but chose to do nothing. They filed motions for clemency, resentencing and a new trial as they serve life sentences without the possibility of parole.

CNN's Veronica Miracle is here now with more on the DA's decision and reaction from the Menendez family. What are you learning, Veronica?

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, this isn't entirely surprising because just a few weeks ago District Attorney Nathan Hochman said he does not recommend that the brothers should get a retrial and now today he's saying he doesn't believe that they should be resentenced either. He says the reason behind that is he doesn't believe that the brothers have ever fully accepted responsibility for their crimes.

He points to 20 lies that he says the brothers told leading up to and during their trials. He says four of those lies have been acknowledged including the fact that they eventually said they did kill their parents but he looks to the 16 that he says have never been publicly acknowledged and he says until they sincerely and publicly acknowledge those 16 lies he will not consider a resentencing. He's giving them a pathway for hope though. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NATHAN HOCKMAN, LA COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: So if the Menendez's go ahead and want to at any point, whether it's today, whether it's weeks from now, months from now or years from now finally and unequivocally express that they had acknowledged the lies that they have told and persisted in for over 30 years then we will certainly evaluate the quality of that sincerity and decide whether or not it's real or fake whether or not it's just designed to get out of jail or whether or not they truly believe and acknowledge the full breadth of the crimes and lies they have told in deciding what to do at that point.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MIRACLE: Of course, it will ultimately be up to a judge to make that resentencing decision but DA Hochman is the one who gives the recommendation. In addition to not recommending a resentencing Hochman is also asking the judge to withdraw the former DA's recommendation for resentencing.

[15:55:00]

Now the family of Lyle and Eric Menendez are not happy. They have sent us a statement that essentially says they don't believe that this is right and, you know, all of this will go in front of a judge in the next 10 days -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, we'll be waiting for that. Veronica Miracle, thank you for the latest.

Ahead, minutes away now from the closing bell, we are following a wild and very negative day for Wall Street. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We're about a minute or so away from the closing bell on Wall Street. And no question, investors want to forget days like today. The Dow, Nasdaq and S&P in the red.

KEILAR: That's right, well into it. The widespread sell-off, mostly driven by concerns over President Trump's tariffs and their effect on economic growth. Plus, market watchers are noting how he said the U.S. economy would see a period of transition. He said that's because of how big the things are that they're doing.

But also, he was asked about the possibility of a recession.

[16:00:00]

And he wouldn't rule it out. And no one likes the R word, Boris, for sure.

SANCHEZ: Yes, it's interesting that he would not rule it out. He says he doesn't want to make predictions. That was during a Fox News interview that aired yesterday.

Yet his Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, much more bullish. He says a recession is not going to happen this year. And there is your closing bell on Wall Street.

Yes, it's a tough one. And there's a lot to discuss regarding the stock market. You're going to hear more about it, though, in just a few seconds.

KEILAR: That's right, on "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt.

END