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Markets Open After Worst Day; Judge Blocks Deportation of Palestinian Activist; Surveillance Video of Missing College Student; Musk Claims X Outages Caused by Cyberattack. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired March 11, 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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[09:30:53]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're giving you a look. The opening bell just rang, and we are looking at just a slight downturn. It doesn't look like what we saw yesterday, which was brutal. A huge tumble.

Let's look at what stocks are doing. Yes, see, down 0.19 percent. So, not a huge thing. Looks like a little bit of a correction this morning. Investors have been reacting to President Trump's economic policies and fears of a potential recession when he would not say that he didn't think a recession would happen.

Joining me now, Christine Quinn, executive committee chair of the New York State Democratic Committee, and our Matt Mowers, a former Trump administration and official and the president of Valour Global Public Strategy.

All right, first to you. Look, we are looking at aluminum and steel supposed to get hit with Trump's 25 percent tariff tomorrow. That means the price of housing and cars could spike. Why is this a good idea, Matt, for Americans?

MATT MOWER, FORMER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, look, you got to remember that ultimately Donald Trump ran on also protecting American businesses and actually protecting the U.S. steel manufacturers and fabricators that are actually here in the United States. For years they've had to compete unfairly against Chinese imports and even some Canadian imports where you had huge subsidization, especially from the Chinese, and, candidly, the quality wasn't as good very often because of partially that. And so, this is a key commitment Donald Trump ran on, he's been talking about now not just in his public life, but even in his private life. If you go back to the '80s he was talking about protecting the U.S. steel industry at that time. He talked about it vis a vis Japan. And so, this is just keeping to a commitment that he had made quite some time ago.

SIDNER: There was another commitment, though, he made, which was, he was going to change prices on day one, that he was going to help the economy. And people are still suffering with that. That has not happened. Is he concentrating on the wrong things, do you think, Matt? MOWER: I don't. I mean, look, he - he - a few things. One, the stock

market today is still higher than most of what it was last year. So, yes, we saw what happened yesterday. But that's what happens in the stock market. We see that go up and down a little bit. But you actually had a really strong jobs report come out on Friday, 170,000 or so new jobs. At the same time you're seeing a reduction in government jobs, which is actually a sign of a shifting an economy that's becoming more healthy at the end of the day, which is a commitment that President Trump made.

And so, you know, I think it's going to take a little time for some of these policies to play out. Certainly, it's a course correction from the way D.C. traditionally works where it's just been ever growing and more taxpayer money and more subsidies going out. And so, look, they're - they're going to have - the private sector is going to have to get used to not having a massive federal bureaucracy to lean on. But as we make that shift, you're going to see really strong economic growth.

SIDNER: Yes, the jobs report was actually lower than expected, but it didn't tumble as much.

But, Christine, I do want to talk about this. The Republicans are blaming the Democrats. The ones that have - we have come on this show have blamed the Democrats for the economy's woes. They're still blaming Biden. Are Democrats worried that this messaging will work with the American people?

CHRISTINE QUINN, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, WIN AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE CHAIR, NY STATE DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE: Well, I think what Democrats are worried about is the impact of Trump policies on Americans. We saw the stock market not just do a course correction yesterday, but a tumble. We've not seen any relent in prices of goods, services, eggs that really is hitting Americans. And the fear is, it's just going to get worse.

You know, and on one hand, the Republicans can't blame the Democrats and then take credit for what they're putting out as a good jobs report. Either this is their economy or it is not. And I think we've seen for years Donald Trump point to Wall Street as a key indicator of a good or bad economy. He can't step away from that outlook. He owns that outlook.

SIDNER: He now says he doesn't pay attention to Wall Street, which, believe it if you want to.

QUINN: Check his tweets.

SIDNER: Yes.

I do want to ask you, though, what Democrats can do.

[09:35:03]

They do not have the House. They do not have the Senate. They do not have the numbers. So, going forward, what is it that they can do to try and impact some of these things that they do not like that President Trump has put forth?

QUINN: Well, although we don't control anything at the moment, the margins still in the House and the Senate are close. And it is very hard for a leader of any party to always get all of their members in line. So, we do have some power. We are not without power.

But the greatest power we have is to work with Americans. If you've seen the very organic turnout at these town hall meetings Republicans are having, people are mad about the economy. People are mad about this slash and burn attempt by Elon Musk to just gut the federal workforce in places that really are important, like the Veterans Administration, like Social Security, gut the promises that we made Americans. I think if we work more closely and organize with rank and file Americans, we'll have a lot more power. We're seeing Republicans run out of those meetings and actually move to virtual meetings because they're afraid to be in the room with Americans.

SIDNER: Matt, I do want to ask you about something Christine said, which is about the CR, about whether or not that can be passed just by Republicans repeatedly. And we've seen Donald Trump go after Thomas Massie, who is saying, I absolutely am not going to vote for this. It's not happening. Is this a good policy? It has worked for him in in the past. Is it good for the president to go after Republicans by saying, we're going to run something else against you if you do not do what I say? And will this work over time?

MOWERS: Well, it may or may not. And they'll - they'll kind of bear itself out. I mean no one's surprised that Thomas Massie is going to oppose this. He opposes everything.

I think the real question is, are the Democrats, even though they're in the minority, going to be responsible here and actually try to keep the government open, or are they going to kind of stamp their feet and, you know, say, if we don't get our way, we're going to go home? I mean look at what's in this continuing resolution. It actually increases one - has one of the largest increases of pay for junior officers in the military. It fully funds veteran benefits to push back against what Christine was just saying right now, this actually fully funds veterans benefits. Are Democrats now going to vote against that in the coming days while also trying to shut down the government? It does - increases funding for TSA and for - for important security measures as well that are necessary in order - and for air traffic controllers as well.

So, you know, I think we've actually seen a responsible approach by the Republican majority and the Trump administration on this. The question is, are the Democrats going to try to play politics with the U.S. economy right now and whether they're going to keep the government open.

SIDNER: And the Democrats respond -

MOWERS: And, by the way, if they do -

SIDNER: Yes.

MOWERS: It explains why their approval rating right now is around 20 percent.

SIDNER: Yes. The Democrats response to that is, how dare you put this on us. You have control of both houses.

We will have to wait and see how the American public responds depending on which way things go, as this CR bill. There's going to be a vote today. So, we will see if the House can push it through, and then what happens with the Senate.

Christine Quinn, Matt Mowers, thank you both so much. We really appreciate you coming on.

All right, ahead, investigators release a new image of a U.S. college student that has been missing in the Dominican Republic. What clues that could hold about her disappearance. Police also talking to the last person to have seen her there on the beach.

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[09:42:47]

SIDNER: This morning, a federal judge is blocking the Trump administration's attempt to deport a Palestinian activist at Columbia University. Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by ICE agents acting on a State Department order to revoke his green card. Khalil helped lead Columbia's student protest in support of a ceasefire deal in Gaza.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino has been following this story.

What is the legal basis for the arrest? Has the White House made that clear?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Sara, they have not made it clear. We also don't know what he has been charged with. Hopefully, that's something we're going to learn at tomorrow's hearing in court. But we are getting some clues about how the administration is going to try and justify the detention of Khalil.

Now, my colleague, Priscilla Alvarez, got some brand new reporting this morning that Secretary of State Marco Rubio personally approved the detention of Khalil and that he is leaning on a portion of U.S. law known as the nationality - the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. And I want to just tell you a little bit about what it says because it talks about the secretary having very broad authority to determine that if there is serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the U.S. as a result of a person's actions, that person can be deemed deportable.

What we do not know yet is what crime they are going to charge Khalil with. So far, we know that they have said, the administration, and Trump has posted on social media, about how this is because of his involvement in Columbia's protests last year against the Israel-Hamas war. We have - we have seen Marco Rubio referred to Hamas affiliated activity by Khalil. But the question is, are they going to be able to prove this in court before that deportation proceeding can continue? This is so far a small win for the attorneys of Khalil. So far the

judge has said that they have to stop this now until both parties can come to court. And I did hear from the attorneys last night. Amy Greer, who has been representing Khalil, said that she had finally spoken to him. He's been moved to a detention center in Louisiana. He's in good spirits.

[09:45:00]

And she said in part that, "the remarks by government officials, including the president, on social media only confirm the purpose and illegality of Mahmoud's detention. He was chosen as an example to stifle entirely lawful dissent in violation of the First Amendment."

So, that is what's central to this entire story. Whether or not the government is going to try and argue that Khalil's protest is grounds for deportation.

Now, green card holders, like Khalil, are also protected by the First Amendment, which protects all of us and gives us the right to protest, the freedom of assembly, the freedom of speech. So, it's going to be a very interesting test for this administration.

The question here is, are they going to try and do this to other students? We saw the president said yesterday that this was, quote, the first of many more arrests to come. And that's certainly got student activists, as well as First Amendment and free speech activists very concerned.

SIDNER: Yes, very concerned, as well as the fact that the president and Republicans have been always talking about their First Amendment rights as well. So, we will see how this sort of plays out in court. The judge going to be a very important player in all of this when it comes to what happens to Mahmoud Khalil.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it, Gloria, for staying on this story.

Over to you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, a new image was just released now showing the missing American college student in the Dominican Republic from the day she disappeared. It comes from surveillance video believed to be really the last moments showing Sudiksha Konanki. The 20-year-old has not been seen since the early morning hours of Thursday. And since then, a young man, who was with her, has been interviewed by police, reportedly offering differing accounts of what exactly he saw that early morning.

CNN's Jessica Hasbun is in Punta Cana for us, joining us right now.

And, Jessica, what is the latest that you're learning?

JESSICA HASBUN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kate. That's right. This is - this Tuesday marks five days since the 20-year-old university student Sudiksha Konanki was last seen here in Punta Cana. That screenshot that you mentioned is believed to be the last known video of the missing University of Pittsburgh student with a group of friends at around 4:16 in the morning before she disappeared last Thursday while on spring break at the Rio Republica Hotel here in Punta Cana. In this image, Konanki is seen with three other women and two young men headed to the beach at the hotel, according to our source who is close to the investigation. This Monday, the FBI has joined the investigation, according to a press release by authorities. A special commission has been formed with Dominican authorities to further investigate the case.

In addition, authorities have announced that they will be re- interviewing people connected to the disappearance of the young woman. That includes that young man that you mentioned that is believed to be the last person to have seen Konanki at the beach in the early hours of Thursday morning according to our source. The young man, like you mentioned, had been interviewed, or has been interviewed by authorities at least three times according to our source about what happened at the beach. They went into the water. He says they got caught up in a wave and he came out feeling ill, threw up and later fell asleep. And that's the last time he says he saw Konanki. Authorities had said that there were conflicting declarations by this young man about that last moment when he saw Konanki. The Dominican president, Luis Abinader, said in a press conference this morning - last Monday that it is, in fact, believed that the young woman had been caught up by a wave, and that's why there's such a wide operation focused on the beach.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: And this investigation now continues.

Jessica, thank you very much for the latest from Punta Cana for us.

Still ahead for us, Elon Musk says a large scale cyberattack took - took his social media platform X down for quite some time for a bit. But what tech experts are now saying, though, about that hit.

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[09:53:45]

BOLDUAN: Elon Musk now says a, quote/unquote, massive cyberattack is to blame for the waves of outages that users saw on his platform X on Monday, and he seems to be blaming Ukraine.

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ELON MUSK, OWNER OF X: 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.

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BOLDUAN: CNN's Hadas Gold has much more on this. She is here with us. This isn't the first time that Musk has like blamed Ukraine, or a tech - they blamed not just Ukraine but not - blamed a tech meltdown on a cyberattack. But what are the facts here?

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, what happened was, yesterday, in the early morning hours on the East Coast for us, that's when X started to go down. And it started to go through waves. And for several hours it was really hard - I couldn't access X either on app or desktop.

BOLDUAN: Right.

GOLD: We were seeing tens of thousands of reports on Downdetector as well. This even affected the actually NFL free agency day because often so the teams and reporters, they use X to understand the player movement. So, this actually had ripple effects beyond just X.

But Elon Musk then eventually posted that he said we get attacked every day but this was done with a lot of resources. He called it either a large, coordinated group and/or a country was involved.

BOLDUAN: Right.

GOLD: And then we heard that Fox Business interview where he mentioned that the IP addresses came from Ukraine.

[09:55:03]

I do want to caution everybody, though. It is very easy to spoof an IP address, which is a location. It's like an address of where you come from, where your computer is coming from. Hackers for hire will even advertise spoofing IP addresses. If you want to hire them to hack something, you'll be like, oh, we can make it look like it's coming from this country or another.

Now, experts we have talked to in cybersecurity say, a, it's both a little bit too early to pin blame on somebody or some country. But they do say that this does have the hallmarks of what's called a distributed denial of service attacks. This is essentially where hackers overwhelm a system. Imagine a group of people blocking the entrance to a store. You can't get into that store because they're just standing there. That's essentially what a ddos (ph) attack is.

But it's - it's still unclear what's happening here. But it is interesting to see Elon Musk so quickly pin the blame on a certain country when he himself says, you know, we don't exactly know what happened. And actually, Larry Kudlow, in that interview, even said to him, well, that's your speculation.

SIDNER: Right. Which is problematic because he has been attacking Ukraine in other ways as well.

GOLD: Yes.

SIDNER: So, we will have to wait and see what actually happened and who we believe -

BOLDUAN: And if we even learn it.

SIDNER: Right. If we ever find out the end (ph).

BOLDUAN: Right.

SIDNER: Thank you so much, Hadas Gold. Appreciate it.

Thank you for joining us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We're out of here.

BOLDUAN: We're out.

SIDNER: Bye.

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