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Governor Jared Polis (D) Colorado On U.S. Markets After Trump Says He Won't Rule Out Recession; Surveillance Image Shows Missing College Student With Friends; Elon Musk's X Suffers Series Of Cyberattacks On Monday. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired March 11, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: That while these losses are big, they're not nearly as big as what we saw as -- during the 2008 financial crisis, during the COVID meltdown, right? I mean, those were crashes.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah.

EGAN: This is a severe sell-off, but it's real and it's stunning how fast it's happened. I mean, it was just three weeks ago that the market was at all-time highs. We saw stocks surge after the election because investors were pricing in all of the pro-business parts of the Trump agenda, right?

SIDNER: Yeah.

EGAN: The tax cuts, the deregulation. They were basically -- they had their heads in the sand when it came to the tariffs and the trade chaos. Not anymore. Look at this. The S&P 500 has now lost $4.5 trillion in market value in just the past three weeks since it hit all-time highs.

Look, the market is trading below where it was on Election Day. I think this is another reminder that --

SIDNER: Yeah.

EGAN: -- confidence is a fragile thing. It's clearly been shaken when it comes to confidence in the economy. But arguably, confidence in policymakers in Washington as well.

Ed Yardeni, a market veteran -- he told me the stock market is losing confidence in the Trump 2.0 policies.

And look, I mean, as policy uncertainty has gone higher and higher we've seen the stock market go lower and lower.

Former treasury secretary Larry Summers -- he said there is now a risk of a spiral here caused in part by the Trump policies. Take a listen to what Summers said.

SIDNER: OK. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY SUMMERS, FORMER TREASURY SECRETARY: This is pretty much a self- inflicted wound. I think we've got a real possibility of a vicious cycle where a weakening economy leads to weaker markets, and then weaker markets lead to a weakening economy. So I'm pretty worried about the whole situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EGAN: And he says now it's moving closer to 50-50 as far as a potential recession --

SIDNER: That's crazy.

EGAN: -- in 2025, which is crazy.

SIDNER: It is.

Where are you seeing -- what are the industries that are really having the worst time?

EGAN: Well, I'll tell you what. The biggest winners after the election have turned into the biggest losers in the past few days, especially the Magnificent 7 -- those high-flying stocks that you and I have spoken a lot about. They've been grounded in a big way.

The best performer yesterday -- the best performer was Amazon, down two percent. Apple and Meta, five percent. Four percent, NVIDIA as well. But look at Tesla -- a 15 percent loss yesterday. Worst day for Tesla since COVID.

There is a growing amount of concern on Wall Street about this backlash against Elon Musk whose net worth took a monster hit yesterday. He lost $29 billion of wealth yesterday alone. That's according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

We've also seen big banks take a hit and that's because of economic fears, right? If there were a severe slowdown over a session you'd see foreclosures --

SIDNER: Right.

EGAN: -- and delinquencies.

I do think though we should tap the brakes a little bit on the recession talk --

SIDNER: Yeah.

EGAN: -- at this point, right? It's just too early to say that's going to happen. This economy has been so resilient. It survived so many shocks over the years, right? There was the supply chain chaos, tariffs. We had the inflation crisis. So this is another test, clearly, Sara. SIDNER: It's a -- it's a big test because uncertainty is the thing that -- the tariffs aren't even in place in places like Mexico and Canada. We will have to wait and see. Canada promising that they are going to hit us back just as hard as we hit them. We will see what happens.

Matt Egan, it is a pleasure. At least you came with a tiny bit of good news. Futures are up but we'll see what the Dow does when the bell rings.

EGAN: We will. Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: All right, appreciate it.

All right, over to you, Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining us right not to talk about much more about this and more is the Democratic governor of Colorado, Jared Polis. He's also the chair of the National Governors Association. Governor, thank you very much for being here in person.

I was just looking this morning. According to the office of the U.S. trade rep, Colorado was the third-largest state exporter of goods in 2024. Also a huge customer of Canadian oil.

How have the -- are the tariffs impacting your state already?

GOVERNOR JARED POLIS, (D) COLORADO: So, yeah. Our number one and number two trading partners are Canada and Mexico. Our biggest export is ag and beef -- Canada and Mexico, right?

So this is devastating. I mean, the nefarious thing about tariffs, of course, for consumer products -- you're buying groceries and the price goes up, but it's a lot worse than that. It also means that our manufacturing, which has supply chains and integrate raw materials from Canada, Mexico, and other countries -- that manufacturing is likely to move overseas if we can't continue the strong hemispheric free trade that we have with Mexico and Canada.

So it's pretty darn bad. There's a lot of uncertainty right now. Nobody is investing in additional manufacturing capacity because they're waiting to see whether the president is serious about this tariff threat, which a lot of people thought was bluff at first. That's why the market, you know, until recently says hey, maybe he's serious about these tariffs. These would be devastating.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, and that -- it was actually my question. You've got -- over the past few weeks you have the president who has threatened, imposed, suspended, resumed tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China. Is it the tariff that is worse for -- most impactful in a negative way for your state or is it the uncertainty that it's created -- the way they've gone about it?

[07:35:10]

POLIS: It's really both, right? Here's why a tariff is so -- is so -- is so nefarious, right? When you talk about, like, a corporate income tax rate that's only on the income a company makes. You pay the tariff even if your company isn't making money. Or let's say your company is making a little money. You could be launched over into the losing money category because you're paying your tariff. Think like it's more like your property than your income tax, right?

And so it's really a dangerous tax and nobody knows what the president is thinking here.

BOLDUAN: Right.

POLIS: And we all hope -- I hope as an American this is some game of chicken and bluff and we're going to have less tariffs at the end of the day. But I think the markets, and me, and most observers are getting more and more skeptical of that as we think wait a minute here -- this guy actually wants to raise taxes on American consumers and companies.

BOLDUAN: A big part of the conversation in Washington and now throughout the country is kind of where is federal spending going. And you have been outspoken in speaking out against potential cuts to come to Medicaid, and so has many governors across the state because Republicans are eyeing cuts to Medicaid in a way to help pay for extending tax cuts.

And now we have Elon Musk weighing in on entitlements and saying that entitlements -- Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid -- are targets of his.

Let me play for you what he said about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSK, TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: The waste report in entitlement spending, which is all of the -- which is most of the federal spending is entitlements. So that's like the big one to eliminate. That's the sort of half-trillion, maybe $600 billion-$700 billion a year. That is also a mechanism by which the Democrats attract and retain illegal immigrants by essentially paying them to come here --

LARRY KUDLOW, FOX BUSINESS HOST: Yes.

MUSK: -- and then turning them into voters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Ending it there with some -- with something of an unfounded conspiracy theory --

POLIS: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: -- but calling entitlements the big one to eliminate.

I mean, what do you say to that, as well as Elon Musk maybe spearheading the effort? POLIS: Well, I'm not sure that he truly understands, for instance, the largest -- what we call entitlement program is Social Security. This is people paying in over time and then it pays out.

You know, again, should we make it actuarily sound? Absolutely. Does it need improvements? Absolutely. I don't know exactly what he's talking about. The American people won't take well if he's saying I'm going to take the money that you've already paid in and spent it on something else.

BOLDUAN: What about Medicaid? I mean, that's something that you've been speaking out because that is something very tangible that Republicans maybe are targeting.

POLIS: You know, there's certainly -- there's ample ground for national health care reform --

BOLDUAN: Um-hum.

POLIS: -- and doing it better. Our country spends twice the percentage of GDP of any other wealth industrialized country in health care. But what we have now Medicare is a lynchpin, right? Without Medicare millions of Americans would not have access to health care. And just as bad we would lose many of our rural hospitals, rural health providers who absolutely rely on that every day.

So it's really playing with fire when you're talking about this. It's not that there's not room for improvement. There absolutely is. You'll remember the Simpson-Bowles Commission --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

POLIS: -- attempted this in a bipartisan way a number of years ago. There's thoughtful improvements that can be made. But when you somehow have this misconception that Social Security is something other than the fact that people pay in and expect that they're going to get what they've -- what they've earned, I think that's a dangerous approach.

BOLDUAN: Your perspective is interesting and that's because you do have -- I mean, I'm going to put you in a pigeon hole. You've been -- you have an independent streak when it comes to a lot of kind of what you're taking position on a lot of national issues, which is why it is so interesting.

When you took over as chair of the Governors Association you kind of launched an initiative pushing to put a new focus on education. Expanding access to education and taking a new look at how to better evaluate student progress.

How does that fit into and how is that impacted now by the new push by the administration to eliminate the Department of Education?

POLIS: So with the National Governors Association -- our initiative involving all 50 governors -- let's get ready educating all Americans for success. So we're really challenging the states to say how do we better measure whether kids are learning and what they need to succeed in life.

Like, if they're going to college -- well, they shouldn't need remediation. They should graduate in three or four years. If they're not going to college, how do they have a certificate or skill, whether it's welding, whether it's shop -- that they can get a great job right out of high school.

We don't know what is happening nationally. It's another area of great uncertainty, right? When they talk about oh, we're phasing out or eliminating the Department of Education, what does that tangibly mean for title one funding, for Pell grants, for these different programs. Does it simply mean somebody else will administer them? Does it mean there's more opportunities for state flexibility, which we could welcome? Or does it mean they're going away and that would leave a big gap.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

I also saw -- taking a bit of a turn here but the Supreme Court just yesterday, Governor, agreed to take up a case out of Colorado. And this case challenges Colorado's law that bars mental health professionals from practicing conversion therapy as -- with minors. The ban in Colorado has been in place since 2019.

What is your reaction to the Supreme Court taking this up? I mean, they won't hear it until later this year but still they're going to consider this case.

[07:40:05]

POLIS: Well, and this is -- many states have similar laws with regard to, you know, to this.

BOLDUAN: Yes, dozens -- yes.

POLIS: And really, the American Psychological Association -- all of the science shows that this is a -- not a valid activity. A parent should not be able to -- and, in fact, it has a detrimental psychological effect -- force their child to effectively have -- you know, scare the gay out of them or whatever it might be. It doesn't work. Also, negative consequences for the child.

If you're an adult, have at it. I mean, people can learn -- you know, do whatever they want. But this is about how -- it's a form of child abuse that has been legal until it was made illegal, as you mentioned, a few years ago.

So again, there will be a lot of facts about what states can and can't do but generally, states do authorize different medical practices in our state. That's obviously a fine line because we certainly value a --

BOLDUAN: Right.

POLIS: -- a parent's ability to raise their kids the way they want. But at the same time you shouldn't be able to have your own kid kidnapped and taken somewhere that could be very harmful for them.

BOLDUAN: Very important and very interesting to see when they do take it up -- those oral arguments.

Governor, thank you for coming in this morning.

POLIS: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: I really appreciate your time -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Breaking overnight we're not getting a look at a screenshot of surveillance video showing a missing U.S. college student in the Dominican Republic that still show Sudika Konanki -- sorry, I said her name wrong -- it's Sudiksha -- with her friends at the Riu Republic Hotel in Punta Cana on Thursday morning.

The group went to the beach that morning and investigators say she stayed behind with a young man. Police say he is not a suspect, but he has told different versions of the last time he saw her.

Joining us now is Daniel Brunner, a retired FBI special agent and president of the Brunner Sierra Group, a forensic accounting and security firm. Thank you so much for being here.

First, the young man who was believed to be the last person who was with her and who saw her has told police several different stories.

What does this usually indicate to investigators?

DANIEL BRUNNER, PRESIDENT, THE BRUNNER SIERRA GOUP, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT (via Webex by Cisco): Well, the most important thing about here is all the investigators are not going to look at just one possibility. They are considering all the possibilities -- that she may have been kidnapped. That she may have drowned.

Obviously, focusing on their -- some investigators that are going to be talking to this young man and finding out exactly what happened. His story. What he remembers. And obviously from what we've understood allegedly, the story has changed up to three or four times. And we have to understand that he may have been drunk. He may not remember. He may have been passed out.

So you have to consider all the possibilities and not only focusing on one individual and not only focusing on one possibility but looking at all the possibilities.

But having this individual is very similar to the Natalie Holloway situation -- you know, having investigators -- some investigators focus in on him. That's very important to figure out what he -- because his information -- he was the last one to see her alive allegedly is very important.

SIDNER: When you get several different versions of what happened from someone, in your experience do these stories often have kernels of truth in them that investigators can sort of use to go on to try to figure out what really happened? BRUNNER: Absolutely, because the possibility that this individual may have been involved in her disappearance, there may be some parts. So an individual, when they are being investigated they may say little bits of truth along the lines where they're trying to tie up a lie and they're trying to cover up their tracks, and to lead the investigators. So there may be some kernels of truth in there.

So that's why investigators who -- and from what I understand the FBI is involved and the legal attaches from the -- from the Dominican Republican are involved. So their expertise will be very, very valuable into analyzing. Maybe behavioral analysis unit from Quantico. They'll be involved and they'll coordinate and help out the alats (PH) and to analyze and to look into this individual's mind to see if he was involved in her disappearance.

And like you said, look at the little bits of truth that may be involved there and pick up that information, and that will provide and create new leads for the investigators.

SIDNER: Yeah. And at this point we should be very clear he is not a suspect. Police are not calling him a suspect. But they are looking into these sort of different versions of the story and trying to understand why there are different versions coming from him.

There is a massive search team out there that are working on this with authorities from the U.S. and India. You talked about the different agencies. They're using a bunch of specialized marine equipment trying to find her.

What can you tell me about how difficult it is to try to coordinate this when somebody is abroad and they're not a citizen of that place, and there is several different groups that are trying to come together to figure this all out and to try to find her?

[07:45:00]

BRUNNER: Well, a situation like this is even complicated here in the United States. So having a central command center is very important to have all the information coming to one location. Obviously, hopefully, in the Dominican Republic they train for this sort of event. But the FBI is going to be there. They hopefully will provide their command crisis situation.

And funneling all the information into one location so that there isn't multiple streams of information and that one person finds or one agency finds out information and that's not funneled to the other agencies, which could be -- provide a crucial clue. So it's very important that all this information is brought together.

Hopefully, the U.S. Navy, who has extensive experience in doing search and rescue -- they'll be involved. They'll be analyzing tides. They'll be analyzing the flows of the ocean to look at possibilities of where -- if she had alleged drowned where her body could end up.

So there's lots of different information all piping in just like you said. So it's very important that this information all come to one central location so that there isn't one agency finding out information that may provide a vital clue to another group of investigators and putting all these pieces together.

SIDNER: And it's just devastating for a family who is -- who is sitting and waiting and not being able to do anything but trying to keep her name out there and hope that people do the right thing and help find her.

Daniel Brunner, thank you so much. I really appreciate your expertise on this -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us Tesla stock tumbling and X is supposedly under cyberattack. So how is Elon Musk handling this -- his businesses -- while also running DOGE?

And voters in Greenland are headed to the polls today as President Trump continues to say he would like to buy it.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:51:30]

BOLDUAN: So this morning police in Seattle are investigating an incident where four Cybertrucks at a Tesla lot were damaged or destroyed in a fire. Not clear what caused it or if the fire was set deliberately, but there have been numerous incidents targeting Tesla since Elon Musk became what he is now: a very close adviser to President Trump.

Last week Tesla charging stations at a mall outside of Boston were set on fire. And in Portland, Oregon several shots were fired at a Tesla showroom. No one was hurt.

And in a post on Truth Social this morning, President Trump is weighing in accusing liberals of "illegally boycotting Tesla" and saying that he will be buying a Tesla in support.

But troubles for Elon Musk have also spread beyond that and have spread online. Tens of thousands of users reported waves of outages on X yesterday. Musk claiming that it was a massive cyberattack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSK, We're not sure exactly what happened but there was a massive cyberattack to try to bring down the X system with IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN media and Axios media correspondent Sara Fischer joining us now for more on this. Sara, just -- let's start, like, right where Elon Musk just ended mentioning and blaming Ukraine for the cyberattack. I mean, what are you hearing about this? What are you seeing in this? Is there any way to verify that? SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT, AXIOS MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. So these types of attacks are called DDoS attacks. They're very common but they're very hard to pinpoint where they originate from because the way that they work is they just flood a particular system with a ton of traffic ultimately shutting it down.

Now, there have been third-party reports that have suggested that the bulk of traffic when this outage happened was not coming from Ukraine. It was coming from heavily populated areas and areas with heavy Twitter user bases such as the United States and Brazil. So Elon Musk might want to go around and say it was Ukraine but it's very hard to actually prove that it was Ukraine that was behind the attack.

I will say though, Kate, again, these attacks are pretty common on a lot of different social media platforms. We've seen them with media companies. We've seen them with broadcast companies. It's unusual, however, for a CEO to come out and blame somebody without full proof on national television. That we don't see a lot.

BOLDUAN: That is the context that is key here because Musk even says that X or Twitter, or whatever, gets attacked all the time.

Why -- if this one was so successful why is it so successful?

FISCHER: Yeah, it's just the amount of flooded traffic. Now you could argue that maybe since Elon Musk has taken over their defense systems have not been as strong. I think a lot of users have reported that when their accounts get hacked or when they tried to get help it's not as responsive -- the platform -- as it used to be.

Elon Musk has made a ton of positive updates to the platform. The video is much better. But in terms of actually defending from a cyber perspective this might show a weakness.

This, by the way, Kate, is not the first time that X has been down in the past few months, in years since Elon Musk took it over. They're going to continue, by the way, to get a lot of these types of attacks whether they are from a state actor or from a nonaffiliated state actor that just wants to get underneath his skin.

BOLDUAN: Sara, Tesla's stock has been taking a beating. The company -- what is it -- now lost more than half of its value since peaking in mid-December.

I mean, what is next for Tesla? Like, what do you see here?

FISCHER: Yeah. It's not looking good, Kate.

Now part of that big decline stems from a poor earnings report that came out in January. Sales are down, especially in places like Europe, and part of it is because they're to reduce prices to get more people access to these cars.

[07:55:08]

But one of the challenges that analysts are noting is that because of all that vandalism that you pointed out at the top of this segment, people are wary about buying the cars. They don't want to buy a new vehicle only to see it get vandalized. So this is a huge reputational issue for Tesla.

Now, I will say they are saying that Model Y cars, which was the number one best-selling EV in the world in January are still waiting to hit the lots for people to buy, so it could just be a lag.

But overall, the downward trend is really bad for Elon Musk especially considering the fact that so much of his personal wealth is still tied up in that stock. Tesla has lost, like, hundreds of billions of dollars in the past few weeks. It is not looking good.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, that is definitely going to be something that will be interesting to watch to see where -- how that trend continues.

It's great to see you, Sara. Thank you for -- so much for coming in -- Sara.

FISCHER: Thank you.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, Kate.

This morning an investigation is underway after a school bus with 31 people on board overturned on a New Jersey highway last night. At least 13 people were taken to the hospital with injuries. A child was critically injured. The bus was heading to New York when it flipped over on the Garden State Parkway. The cause of that accident still unknown this morning.

Former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has been arrested in Manila after a warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court accusing him of crimes against humanity. He was taken into custody by the Philippine government as he returned home from Hong Kong.

This is in connection with the ICC's investigation into Duterte's anti-drugs crackdown. As president, he had swept to power promising to wage war against drugs and drug dealers. Thousands of people were killed in that crackdown.

And a 4-year-old in Wisconsin called 911 to report a serious offense by his own mother. He called to let police know that his mom ate his ice cream.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

4-YEAR-OLD: My mommy is being bad.

DISPATCHER: OK, what's going on?

4-YEAR-OLD: Come and get my mommy.

MOTHER: Oh, this little one got the phone and he's four. I ate his ice cream, so that's probably why he's calling 911.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SIDNER: Mom! She admitted it? Like --

BOLDUAN: I mean --

SIDNER: -- that's not what you're supposed to do.

BOLDUAN: Well, anyway, your heart would stop.

SIDNER: Seriously.

BOLDUAN: I mean --

SIDNER: If your child is calling 911 at -- yeah, as a parent, you'd be like, sir, no. This is not what we do.

BOLDUAN: I'm calling -- this is about the ice cream and they'd be like OK, lady.

SIDNER: Sure.

BOLDUAN: We'll be right over.

SIDNER: You make a good point because police were trying to make sure that this wasn't a call -- a cry for help. And sometimes people use different codes. But it turned out it really was about the fact that --

BOLDUAN: Look at that stinker.

SIDNER: I mean, seriously. She was mad at her mother for taking the ice cream. Now, mom, you shouldn't have taken the ice cream. OK, that's true. But police showed up a couple of days later and brought her two scoops of ice cream, which is what she wanted, with sprinkles on it. So all is well and right with the world.

BOLDUAN: In defense of the mother, she probably hasn't eaten in a long time --

SIDNER: That is true.

BOLDUAN: -- and she is doing everything for this adorable little baby and just --

SIDNER: Twenty-four hours a day.

BOLDUAN: -- and just needed a little ice cream.

SIDNER: All she wanted was a bite.

BOLDUAN: You know --

SIDNER: You don't call the police on mommy.

BOLDUAN: Oh, sure. I mean, the things that my girls would call 911 on.

SIDNER: I hope they're not watching.

BOLDUAN: We need to ensure -- are they at school? Thank God, they've left for school. We need to ensure they never see this segment.

SIDNER: Agreed.

BOLDUAN: Oh, boy.

SIDNER: Kate.

BOLDUAN: OK, let's turn to this. Right now Greenland is heading to the polls in a key election that could shape its future. Independence from Denmark not directly on the ballot but it is a key theme in this election. Most of the territory's political party support breaking away from Denmark but they also do not want to be part of the United States either, no matter what President Trump says.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen joining us. He's got much more on this one. So Fred, talk to us about this election. When are they going to the polls and what are they voting on today?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, a very high-stakes election there in Greenland. And, of course, Greenland only has about 57,000 people and so normally they don't get that much international attention about their elections. But because of a lot of the comments that have been made by President Trump in the past couple of weeks obviously right now everybody looking at Greenland. And the Greenlanders themselves also say that they feel that this is a very important election for the future of their country.

And you're absolutely right, Kate. Independence really is the main theme for Greenlanders but, of course, they see things a little bit more nuanced. They don't necessarily want to become part of the United States and they don't necessarily want independence from Denmark immediately.

Here's what voters are saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need some identity for our people in the Arctic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There will be a new government and it will put a tremendous pressure on the Danish government to have a position -- a real position in terms of if Greenland wants independence what will the cost be?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: So those are some Greenlandic voters there.

And Greenland is really one of the most dynamic regions right now in the world because, of course, it's very high up in the Arctic. There's a lot of ice up there but that ice is melting very quickly.