Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Ukraine Agrees To U.S. Proposal For 30-Day Ceasefire With Russia; Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) Discusses About 30-Day Ceasefire Deal Between Ukraine And Russia; Ontario Suspending Tariff on Electricity Exports To 3 U.S. States; Dept. Of Education To Close Offices For "Security Reasons" As Pres. Trump Plans To Dismantle The Agency. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired March 11, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:01:17]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We begin this hour with breaking news. A surprise announcement following several hours' worth of peace talks between the United States and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Ukraine now says that it is ready to accept a U.S. proposal for an immediate 30-day ceasefire with Russia. Russia has not agreed to this. We have to be very clear on that. U.S. officials breaking this news a short time ago in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: We'll take this off for now to the Russians. And we hope that they'll say yes, that they'll say yes to peace. The ball is now in their court and - but again, the President's objective here is, number one, above everything else, he wants the war to end. And I think today Ukraine has taken a concrete step in that regard. We hope the Russians will reciprocate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Alex Marquardt is in Jeddah. He's with us now.

Alex, what more do we know about this agreement?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris and Brianna, this is just a remarkable turnaround from the turmoil that we've seen in this relationship in the past week and a half since that meeting in the Oval Office. Here we have the top U.S. official, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, not only praising the Ukrainians for what they say is their desire for peace, but also for the concrete proposals and ideas that they brought to the table today.

Remember, Marco Rubio said that they would be in listening mode, that they wanted to hear what the Ukrainians had to say. And it does sound like Ukrainians did bring some specifics. One of the ideas that we thought the Ukrainians were going to raise today was this idea of a partial ceasefire. The U.S. essentially took that up a notch, saying instead we are going to propose our own ceasefire, an immediate ceasefire for some 30 days, not just partial in terms of long-range bombing and the fighting in the Black Sea, but all of the fighting, the artillery, the drones, the guns need to fall silent.

So, this was - essentially, this was a major step by the U.S. saying this is our proposal, the Ukrainians have accepted it, now it's on the Russians to accept it as well. The U.S. is arguing that at first you need the guns to fall silent, the fighting to stop in order for a more comprehensive peace deal to eventually be agreed to.

The second part of all of this, it was the questions about the military aid and the intelligence sharing that had been put on hold after that disastrous Oval Office meeting. That was a crippling blow to the Ukrainians.

Now, the U.S. defended themselves, saying they continued to share intelligence that would help Ukraine defend itself. But when you're trying to push Russia out of your country and counter those attacks, all of that aid is needed. That pause, that freeze is going to be lifted immediately, according to this U.S. delegation.

So, two major wins for the Ukrainians, and now the U.S. making it clear that a response is needed from the Russians, and if they don't agree to this immediate ceasefire, that they in fact are the impediment in all this. Boris, Brianna?

SANCHEZ: And Alex, Rubio and Waltz also spoke about the security guarantees and the minerals deal that was still being ironed out. What did they say?

MARQUARDT: Yes, these are two other critical points that were addressed today. The security guarantees is something that the Ukrainians have been begging the Americans for, to help them essentially provide what they're calling a backstop if and when a ceasefire is agreed to. We did hear Mike Waltz refer to security guarantees that were discussed in a very positive way. He didn't really put much meat on the bone and say, for example, we're going to put American troops inside of Ukraine, but he did talk about them positively in a way that makes you think that there are going to be further conversations about what the U.S. will be offering Ukraine in the longer term.

[15:05:10]

And then on the minerals deal, there doesn't seem to be any kind of impediment to that happening. It's just a question of figuring out who's going to sign this deal and when. But it does appear that that is fully on track. Remember, that was supposed to be signed two weeks ago in Washington. It does appear that that will be signed at some point soon. Boris, Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. Alex. Thank you for that. Let's talk more about all of this with CNN Military Analyst, retired Major General James "Spider" Marks. We have Jeffrey Edmonds with us. He's former director for Russia on the National Security Council under both Obama and Trump and is a fellow at the Center for a New American Security. We have our CNN Chief National Security Analyst, Jim Sciutto, with us.

Jeff, to you first here. What questions do you have coming out of what you have learned? As Rubio put it, the ball is in Russia's court.

JEFFREY EDMONDS, FORMER DIRECTOR FOR RUSSIA, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: I think it'll be very interesting to see if the Russians latch on to this while they're still making gains in the - some gains in the east and in Kursk. Russian troops are tired. They're losing a lot of troops. Do they use this as an opportunity to, in a certain sense, rest and regroup?

But the broader question is, how is this maintained going forward? What happens if there are violations and what happens when Putin does not - when it appears he's not going to be getting his strategic objectives, what does he do then?

SANCHEZ: I do wonder, Jim. We were speaking with Ian Bremmer earlier and he made the point that the momentum is on Russia's side. It's unclear at this point if Russia would actually take this deal ...

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Right.

SANCHEZ: ... without some sort of broader deal with the United States that would fold in Ukrainian peace into that. He's suggesting that Putin wants a meeting with Donald Trump. How do you see the Kremlin responding to this?

SCIUTTO: Listen, the momentum has been on their side for a number of weeks and months. They've been making grounds, though, at enormous cost to Russian forces and North Korean forces that are, of course, fighting alongside Russian forces there on the front line, you know, thousands and thousands per week, but gaining ground.

The suspension of U.S. intelligence sharing and weapons had an immediate impact on Ukrainian forces because while it was often described as just taking away offensive capabilities, not defensive capabilities, frankly, it did impact defensive capabilities as well because they weren't getting the intelligence they need to strike Russian firing positions before they fire on not just Ukrainian forces, but Ukrainian cities. So that gave Russians another boost, in effect.

And bigger picture than that is that Russia's strategy, its gambit from the beginning really has been to wait out the West, that while this war has taken far longer than we wanted or expected, or frankly the West expected, that eventually the West will get exhausted and split and divide, and we will still be there. And listen, that reading has not been inaccurate, right, today, given the divisions you have between the U.S. and its allies, and Trump's own comments about Ukraine, et cetera. But in the moment, this is significant because that intel sharing will begin again, and those words I would say from both Waltz and Rubio were significant because they said quite explicitly, Ukraine has shown, as the President has demanded, it's interested in peace. Now the ball is in Russia's court to prove that it is also interested in peace or at least a ceasefire, I should say.=

KEILAR: That's the question, General, right? This goes to Russia and they go, no thanks. Then what happens?

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, clearly Russia has a decision to make right now, and it's very obvious that with Ukraine stepping up and making the determination that a ceasefire is in their best interest, there's a lot of entangled forces that are right now in Ukraine, and any type of a ceasefire, first of all, is difficult to initiate and then to assess, and through what filter do you assess that the ceasefire is taking place effectively?

A lot can go wrong, and if Russia comes forward and simply stalemates and says, no, thank you, we're not interested. Then, immediately what has happened is the Ukrainians have in good faith said, we'll accept a ceasefire. This administration has indicated that they will immediately begin to resupply and provide intelligence. Then, the fighting starts anew.

And as Jim indicated, look, the Russians have maintained a significant amount of momentum, but still these are very small tactical gains that are being achieved at incredible price on both sides. So, the Russians have the advantage of what large - you know, in large numbers going to their advantage. Ukrainians now have at least a guarantee from the United States that they'll continue to support primarily in terms of intelligence so that the targeting can resume. What you really want to make sure is if there's a ceasefire and it can be sustained, you've got to be prepared for the thing to go sideways at some point down the road.

SANCHEZ: And if it does, Jeff, President Trump said that he would follow through on crippling sanctions against Russia if Vladimir Putin does not express an interest in peace and take steps toward that goal.

[15:10:07]

Do you believe he would keep that promise?

EDMONDS: I think he might, but I don't think that they'd have much effect on Putin's decision-making in this regard. He's been - Putin has been very steady on what he wants to gain in this war, and I worry that any kind of ceasefire just enables him to rebuild forces and to recoup somewhat before start on the offensive again.

And to the general's point, you have to - you know, we and the Europeans really have to have a plan in place, let's say this does go on for a couple months. What happens if the Russians do start to aggress again, what are we going to put in place to stop that from happening or from deterring the Russians from doing so? SCIUTTO: Essentially, just to that point, I asked some folks on the ground in Ukraine, but also U.S. military officials involved in this effort, and a U.S. military official said, talked about the Russians abiding by a ceasefire, said they haven't before, why should they now? There's a track record there. And by the way, that goes back before even the full-scale invasion in 2022. There were a series of Minsk agreements, et cetera, where Russia said they do one thing and did the other.

SANCHEZ: Georgia, Crimea, et cetera.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

KEILAR: Exactly right. And so, if it just gives Russia time to rearm, right, this ceasefire, how do you see this in terms of a strategic move on the part of the Trump administration?

SCIUTTO: It's a good question, right? Because there are genuine questions from Ukrainians I speak to. There are still doubts, right? Because I asked for Ukrainian reactions to the ceasefire, and they said, well, let's look at the fine print first, right, which is understandable given the President's public comments about the Ukrainian side, who's responsible for the war, et cetera.

And the trust with our European partners on Ukraine is, if not broken, severely damaged. And that's why you have Europeans saying, listen, we've got to step in and fill the breach here. So, one day's events and comments here, and even if you do get to a 30-day ceasefire, does not necessarily convince those parties that Trump will bring Ukraine to a deal that it and Europe are satisfied with, right? And how much are they still going to ask of the Ukrainians to give up to bring this forward to a more lasting peace? It's an open question.

SANCHEZ: General, last word to you.

MARKS: Well, yes, I was going to say, let me pile on to the kind of the skeptical perspective that we all legitimately have. If the Russians sign up for a ceasefire right now, they can, you know, look, there's the art - they have mastered the art of what's known as maskirovka, deception to an incredibly high degree.

They can agree to a ceasefire, and during that interregnum, they can reposition forces and they can get ready to initiate at some future state. So, based on conditions, the assessment of how the ceasefire takes place is what's most critical.

SANCHEZ: General, Jeffrey, Jim, appreciate you. Thank you so much.

Let's expand the conversation now with Democratic Congressman of Florida, Jared Moskowitz. He sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Congressman, thank you so much for being with us.

First, your reaction to the U.S. and Ukraine agreeing to terms for this 30-day interim ceasefire. How do you view this development? REP. JARED MOSKOWITZ (D-FL): Well, look, this is a little bit of good news. First, the U.S. is undoing the pause on aid, undoing the pause on information - intelligence sharing with Ukraine, which is good news. I had been - it was curious to me why we were being tougher on Canada, Ukraine and Greenland than we were on Russia and Iran. We got confused, obviously, for a moment. So, that's good news that we're undoing those pauses.

I think it's also smart that Ukraine is agreeing to the ceasefire and putting the onus on Russia to do it as well. So, this is a good development at the moment, and I'm glad that the President and his team had figured out that it's Ukraine that's our ally and not Russia.

SANCHEZ: We have a lot to cover here, so pivoting to your point about being tough on Canada, we are learning - this is as of just moments ago, that as a result of Donald Trump doubling tariffs on Canadian aluminum and steel, the premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, is now rolling back that 25 percent surcharge that he wanted to implement on energy imports into three U.S. states. He's suspending those tariffs amid this trade clash. Do you think Doug Ford blinked? Is this emboldening Donald Trump's vision for his trade war with Canada?

MOSKOWITZ: Well, yes, look, I mean, that's what happened, obviously, in Latin America when he did the same thing. And, you know, but this chaos is not something that the markets are going to be able to absorb. I mean, you know, we're down, obviously, from when Donald Trump took office in the stock market.

I don't - I remember Donald Trump talking a lot about having dinner with Hannibal Lecter. I don't remember him telling the American people just a little bit of pain. And so, look, we're in a full-blown trade war with Canada at the moment. I hope it gets diffused. I do hope it gets diffused.

[15:15:03]

I think it's a good step that I read that. Ford and the Treasury Secretary are going to talk - talking to our allies is a good thing. Again, Canada being an ally. Again, we're being tougher on Canada than we are on Iran, you know, and - but it's good to see, potentially, that situation getting diffused at the moment.

SANCHEZ: Initially, when we agreed that you would come on, we were supposed to talk about the continuing resolution and keeping the government running. That deadline, obviously, set for Friday. You were voting no on the CR.

Historically, the party that votes against keeping the government open gets blamed for a shutdown. You're not concerned about public opinion?

MOSKOWITZ: Well, listen, at the end of the day, there was an election, whether I like the results or not. There was an election. The President won. The Republicans won the House. The Republicans won the Senate. They have all branches of government. They even have more votes on the Supreme Court. So they control the whole kit and caboodle, right? So, they're in charge of what passes and what doesn't pass. Remember, they've told us all that they have a mandate. So, you know, this is their deal at the moment. I want to keep government open. But the American people voted against the status quo. A CR is the status quo. The Speaker promised his own party that he would do 12 individual spending bills. That was a promise he made to his party to stay Speaker.

He has broken that promise to his party, and he's broken that promise to the American people, so I'm not going to vote for the status quo. I'm not going to vote for a bill where Elon Musk says, I found all this waste, fraud, and abuse. Whether he has or he's not, he's found it. I'm not falling into a trap so he can say Democrats went to go vote for all this waste, fraud, and abuse.

And so, look, they should talk to Democrats if they want to talk to us, so we can put a bipartisan deal together. But they're not talking to us because they tell people they have a mandate. Well, if they have a mandate, then they should pass their own bill.

SANCHEZ: Congressman, one more thing I wanted to get your perspective on. You were one of four Democrats to visit the campus of Columbia University last spring. In the wake of these protests and these anti- Semitic instances of harassment, what is your reaction to Mahmoud Khalil's arrest and his potential deportation?

MOSKOWITZ: Well, look, we're in this instance because universities for an entire year refused to enforce their code of conduct when it came to Jewish students. And Jewish parents around the country looked at that and said, if this was happening to another minority group, it would not have gotten past lunchtime on the first day. But when it came to Jewish students, assaulting them on college campus was okay. Preventing them from going to class was okay.

And they weren't targeted because of their position on Israel. No one asked them how they felt about Netanyahu. They saw their Jewish star. And so, this was blatant anti-Semitism. And universities across this country couldn't enforce their code of conduct.

So look, I support the administration. People here on student visas, if you're here on a tourist visa and you're going to Hamas rally, then yes, you probably shouldn't be here anymore. You should get due process in this country, but you probably shouldn't be here anymore.

And so, you know, when it comes to that, this is all on the universities. They should have enforced their code of conduct.

SANCHEZ: I just want to point out, according to reporting, Mahmoud Khalil has a green card. So he's not here on a student visa. I don't think the administration has put forward any evidence that he's provided any material or intellectual support in the sense that he's helped recruit folks for Hamas or had any communication with them directly. We haven't seen evidence of that. So, I wonder where do you see the line between vocally expressing support for an idea, no matter how reprehensible and then being deemed a National Security threat? MOSKOWITZ: Well, again, I said he should get due process, right? So, the facts should come out. And then, once the facts come out, we should also look at what the law says. And so, I'm supportive of anybody getting their due process, right? And so I'm not prejudging anything.

But what I am saying is, if you're here on a student visa, if you're here on a tourist visa, and you're attending one of our universities, that's not a right. And since it's not a right to do that if you're here on a visa, if you're going to Hamas - if you're going to terrorist sympathizer rallies, then yes, we should look at deporting you. You should get due process. Of course, you should. The facts should come out, right? And we've got to see if you're breaking the law. But, you know, this is all because the universities did not protect their Jewish students.

SANCHEZ: Congressman Jared Moskowitz, we have to leave the conversation there. Very much appreciate your time and perspective. Thank you.

MOSKOWITZ: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: We have much more on the breaking news, a major development in the U.S. trade war with Canada. The premier of Ontario agreeing to suspend, as you just heard me discussing with the congressman, its 25 percent tariff on electricity exports to three U.S. states. This is just hours after the President threatened to hike tariffs on Canada even more. Is the market responding?

[15:20:02]

It looks like it's starting to tick upward from the low today, but it is still several days of hundred-point losses for the Dow Jones' industrial average. Stay with CNN. We have much more after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:24:38]

SANCHEZ: More breaking news to CNN. The province of Ontario, Canada is suspending its 25 percent retaliatory tariff on electricity exports to three U.S. states after its premier, Doug Ford, spoke with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick today. In a statement, Ford said that he and Lutnick will meet again to discuss the prospect of a renegotiated USMCA, the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.

[15:25:03]

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich joins us now live with more.

Vanessa, what are you hearing about this meeting?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, this meeting between the Commerce Secretary and Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, is going to take place on Thursday. This will be with trade representatives as well to try to get ahead of this deal on USMCA that is set to expire next year. They're going to be meeting about that. But as a result of this meeting, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, said that they are repealing the surcharge on electricity that Canada was essentially sending to the U.S. to power three states. And markets right now seem to be encouraged by this meeting that is going to be happening on Thursday.

The NASDAQ is up a bit. And you see the S&P and the Dow coming up just a slight bit off the lows of the day. We've seen markets reacting all day long, just trying to make sense of all of these different nuances and all of these different back-and-forth reciprocal tariffs here and there. This is just the latest in what has been a long week, only two days long, but a long week of news on tariffs. We'll see, though, if President Trump decides to repeal his 50 percent tariff that he put in place on Canadian steel and aluminum because the Canadian premier just announced that he is repealing his electricity tax.

And to that point, Vanessa, we've not yet heard from the administration what they plan to do with those newly announced tariffs on aluminum and steel.

YURKEVICH: Yes, we have not heard yet. At last check, I didn't see anything from President Trump on this. But the reason that President Trump essentially escalated this trade war, putting a 50 percent tariff on aluminum and steel coming from Canada, was because of the electricity tax that was in place. That has now been taken off, according to the premier of Ontario.

But you see there, as it stands right now, at midnight tonight, there's going to be a 50 percent tariff on Canadian aluminum and steel and 25 percent on all the other countries that the U.S. import steel from and aluminum from.

But the thing to point out here is that Canada is the main importer of U.S. steel into the U.S. Out of all the countries that we get steel from, for example, Canada is number one. And then when you look at aluminum, same thing. Aluminum, we get the most amount of aluminum from Canada.

I just spoke to a manufacturer and said, well, hey, is this good if we're putting a premium on Canadian steel and aluminum. And he said no, because ultimately what that does is that raises price here in the U.S. and it is a lose-lose situation, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much for that update. Brianna?

KEILAR: We're also following breaking news out of the Department of Education. According to a memo obtained by CNN, all offices are going to be closed tonight and tomorrow for, quote, "security reasons," and they will reopen on Thursday. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is here with us.

So, this is all offices. This isn't just headquarters.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It's all offices here in Washington, D.C. at the department headquarters, but also regional offices across the country of the Department of Education. And this is certainly significant, although I do want to preface it by saying we do not know the reason for this.

The only reason that this memo, which we obtained and was sent to all employees at the Department of Education today, says that their offices will be closed citing security reasons. Now, that's the only specifics they gave in this memo, where they instruct employees to leave the office at 6 PM tonight.

Those who have been approved for telework will take their laptops with them. And they say in this memo that the offices will be closed tomorrow throughout the day and that they intend to reopen on Thursday.

Now, again, they did not cite the reasons for this. They did not cite the security reason for closing the offices, but the news certainly has hit many of those employees at the Department of Education very hard, many who are concerned about impending layoffs, who are concerned about President Trump saying that he wants to dismantle the agency.

One source I spoke to a short time ago said that they cannot remember a time that the offices were closed, and this was a source who had been there for many, many years as career staff. So, certainly, it's making an already on-edge staff even more so. CNN, of course, has reached out to the Department of Education to get specifics on what the security reason is and they have not responded or gave us any more information than what was in this memo sent just a short time ago to employees.

KEILAR: Very interesting. Sunlen Serfaty, thank you so much for that.

And still to come, the NTSB just gave an update on its investigation into the deadly midair collision that killed 67 people here in Washington, D.C. What the agency is saying about helicopter routes near Reagan National Airport. We'll have that next.

[15:29:56]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)