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Concerns for Arctic as U.S. Exits Global Climate Change Efforts; Trump's Sweeping 25 Percent Tariff on Steel, Aluminum Takes Effect; Interview with Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE): House Passes Funding Bill Ahead of Friday. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired March 12, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

BILL WEIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The extent right now is millions of square miles below what is normal right here, and so we're headed towards ice-free summers in the Arctic by 2050, and as this happens, the age of the ice disappears. As you can see, this is five-year ice, the darkest stuff here at the bottom. I don't know how I just drew on there.

The five-year ice on the bottom, the first, you know, the young ice at the top there, but as we get to 2020 here, anything that's older than a couple years doesn't exist. So it could be ice-free by 2050, as we talk about, but it has huge implications for life on Earth. This is the air conditioning of the planet. The jet stream is controlled by what happens up here.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: That's what I was going to ask you. You don't want anything to accelerate in this way, shape, or form. How does it impact? How does this melting impact all of us?

WEIR: It is a weather engine for the rest of the planet. That jet stream, when it starts to wobble and you get just ice storms in Texas or heat domes that sit for weeks at a time, that is a result of a weaker jet stream. This means a higher sea level rise at our ports, bigger storms when storm season comes as well, and ice is like a big reflector, like a windshield reflector, and on a sunny day, it reflects a lot of that sunlight energy back into space. As it disappears, that dark water soaks up some more, accelerates climate change.

BOLDUAN: Oh, I mean, it's almost like it begets like faster and faster and faster change is what it sounds like. Wow.

WEIR: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Thank you, Bill. That was an eye-opening one. Wow. Thank you so much. A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

SIDNER: SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, President Trump's new sweeping tariffs on steel and aluminum taking effect just hours ago, adding to the turmoil that has put Wall Street on a steep decline. Moody's chief economist just told me if all Trump's tariffs are enacted, the chances of a recession are high. What are Americans saying about all this? A new CNN poll gives you a good idea.

And any moment now, we will see new numbers from a key inflation report offering a peek at just how the president's policies are impacting Americans.

And an incredible story of survival. A woman found alive after spending six days trapped in her car that had crashed into a deep ditch. The hero who spotted her and acted quickly to get help.

I'm Sara Sidner with John -- nope, John is out today. Kate Bolduan is here working very hard. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

All right, breaking overnight, President Trump enacting sweeping new tariffs on steel and aluminum, 25 percent. Europeans are retaliating in a major way.

And this morning, the huge concern is American consumers who are caught in the middle of all this and could soon be paying the price literally. Let's walk you through this really quick. Overnight, the president slaps 25 percent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports from all countries.

And just a few hours later, Europe's remarkable retaliation. $28 billion worth of tariffs they now have imposed on U.S. goods going into their countries. Bottom line, the uncertainty everyone was already feeling just got upstaged by this word -- unjustified.

That is how the EU and close, close allies like Australia are feeling about Trump's actions right now, as U.S. markets soon open after yesterday's volatile close.

CNN Washington bureau chief and political director David Chalian leads us off this hour. David, because we have brand new reaction from Americans this morning on how they feel Trump is doing. These are important numbers to get a sense of how the country feels, which can fuel a lot of different things like consumer confidence. What are you seeing in these numbers?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINTON BUREAU CHIEF AND POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, I mean, Donald Trump's current approval rating, according to our brand new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, is 45 percent. His disapproval, Sara, is at 54 percent. He's clearly upside down underwater. Any expression you want to use to say this is not where any president would want to be.

And if you look, though, over time, that 45 percent number, that was actually his high watermark in all of CNN's polling throughout his first administration from 2017 to (INAUDIBLE).

SIDNER: All right, we are clearly having some some technical issues. Let's see if we can get David Chalian back. Ah, look at that. The tech gods are with us.

CHALIAN: Disappear and reappear for you.

SIDNER: You did bring magic to the moment. CHALIAN: So he is sitting at what was his high watermark as an entire

first term, but still clearly upside down.

SIDNER: All right. So what about the economy specifically? How are people feeling about the job he's doing there and the economy as a whole?

[08:05:00]

CHALIAN: So if you look at the issue set overall, how is he handling the whole host of issues that we tested? There are some issues he scores quite high on, 51 percent approve of his handling of immigration. But you ask the key question, the economy. It is by far issue number one for voters. Nothing really comes close overall for Americans. And on that score, he's actually performing a tick below his overall approval rating. Forty four percent approve of his handling of the economy.

You see that they're below his job overall. They're the economy. Forty four percent. Fifty six percent, Sara, disapprove. He is minus 12 percentage points on the issue that Americans say is the most important. That is not a great place to be.

And when we ask, though, overall how the country is doing, 35 percent Americans now say the country is doing well. That is actually a slight uptick from 29 percent back in January.

So it's not that this poll is all bad news for Trump. There are glimmers here, some issues like immigration, an uptick in how the country is doing. But the report card for President Trump on the economy right now is a sour one. And that is the most important issue.

SIDNER: Yes, the two biggest issues. The economy was number one by far. As you mentioned, immigration was second. He's doing well on one. But really, Americans feel like he's failing them on the other. The one that matters the absolute most of them. We will see if this changes anything in what he goes forward to do. David Chalian, thank you so much. I really appreciate your reporting.

CHALIAN: Sure.

SIDNER: Over to you -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Well, thank you, darling. This morning, everyone is keeping a very close eye on futures, of course, and preparing for what is to come with the markets when they open very soon after President Trump's latest round of tariffs kicked in at midnight and across the board, 25 percent tariff on all foreign steel and aluminum coming into the United States. Both metals used in the manufacturing of so many things from cars to medical devices, to food cans. Which means higher prices for American businesses, many of them and all and also American consumers. CNN's Vanessa, Yurkevich, she is here with a look at all this. What is the impact on all this?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, this trade war just went global. The 25 percent tariffs on aluminum and steel coming into the country took effect at midnight. And as you mentioned, so many things are made with steel and aluminum.

And if you just look at all the countries that we import steel and aluminum from, I mean, there they are. And that is a big, big number. Also, to point out that the prices of those steel and aluminum imports will rise, and that will have an impact on U.S. steel and aluminum prices. Already in the past two months, steel up 30 percent, aluminum up 15 percent. And this is critical, obviously, for American consumers, because, as you mentioned, cars, appliances, medical devices are going to see the impact of these tariffs eventually.

We heard from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick last night. He talked about what he thought tariffs meant for the economy. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Will these policies be worth it if they lead to a recession, even a short-term recession?

HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: These policies are the most important thing America has ever had.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So it is worth it.

LUTNICK: It is worth it. A, I don't think -- the only reason there could possibly be a recession is because of the Biden nonsense that we had to live with.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: Now, Goldman Sachs just upped their forecast on a recession to 20 percent from 15 percent. The odds are still relatively low, according to them. But people are talking about this, what this means for the overall economy.

Futures this morning, slightly up. They could just be waiting to see what happens today, a little bit of a recovery from yesterday.

BOLDUAN: Yesterday I think futures were up, too, right?

YURKEVICH: I was going to say, in the morning they were up, and that obviously changed throughout the day. And if we have it here, it's just interesting to see what the markets have done in the first term and the second term with Trump. We may not have that, but essentially, markets were up, up, up, up, up.

They were, OK, markets were up for the first term. You can see it right down there on the left-hand side of your screen. Markets have turned down just in the first six weeks of his second term.

Obviously, many more years to go, but it just shows the really big difference in what is happening in the first couple of weeks of his administration. We will wait to see what happens at the opening bell. So much can change in so little time.

The EU, as we know, just reciprocated against us $28 billion worth of goods now taxed because of these aluminum and steel tariffs. BOLDUAN: And to reinforce where you began, what is really -- what is new -- the new bit about this today is that this is now global. We're not just talking China, Mexico, Canada. We are now talking global tariffs now being imposed.

And what that means, we're now seeing the results with the EU especially. Thank you so much, Vanessa -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, joining us now is Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware. Thank you so much, sir, for being here.

I know it is a busy time on Capitol Hill with a CR that's been approved by the House.

[08:10:00]

And now it's your turn to decide what to do. What will you do?

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Well, Sara, thanks for a chance to be on with you. We've got a tough choice in front of us here in the Senate. But it's important to remember that President Trump and Elon Musk, for the 50 days that they've been in office or that Trump's been in office and Musk has been running the government, is they've been shutting it down piecemeal.

Just yesterday, they announced a forced layoff of half of the folks at the Department of Education. That's bad news for any American who cares about education for disabled children, about higher education, about a skilled workforce.

They've been laying off people at the Social Security Administration, Veterans Agency, EPA, lots of different federal services that help keep us safer and stronger.

I'm going to vote against what came over from the House Republicans to the Senate last night because I don't want to give my vote to support what Trump and Musk are doing. I do think there's real risks to a government shutdown. So I respect those who are saying they are concerned that President Trump will go even further if we hand him that possibility.

But what's come over, which is often called a clean CR in the talk of the Congress, is not clean. It's dirty. It's got lots of provisions that will make cuts and harm organizations and communities all over our country. So, Sara, I think this is a terrible idea. We should instead be working together to finish our 2025 bipartisan appropriations that we've got ready to go here in the Senate and find an agreement that keeps the government open for 30 days while we finish that work.

SIDNER: While the Republicans do not need any Democrats to help them push something through, as we saw yesterday, they do need you in the Senate. So we will see if some of your colleagues also feel strongly and the same.

I just spoke to Moody's chief economist about Trump's tariffs. And he said if Trump's tariffs stay in place, the chances for a recession are high but could still be avoided. What do you see and what can Democrats do if these trade wars go off the rails and stay in place, creating a recession?

COONS: So, Sara, what I saw yesterday was that President Trump really only cares about Tesla's stock price. He turned the White House into a car show trying to help put a floor under the plummeting stock value of Elon Musk's Tesla. In the meantime, the stock market's lost trillions of dollars in value in the last two weeks.

Anybody who's got a 401K shouldn't check it, because you're just going to be more depressed. I think we are heading towards a recession. Because of Trump's on again, off again, let's hit all of our allies. Let's tariff everything that comes into the United States approach.

And he is driving a wedge between the United States and our closest allies and trading partners. My state of Delaware exports more to Canada than any other place in the world and imports more from Canada than any other place in the world.

And the on again, off again, double digit massive tariffs that Trump has proposed, pulled back, reimposed this week, is creating chaos in the markets and uncertainty with those with whom we have close alliances and long standing trading relationships.

SIDNER: It was also interesting talking to Moody's chief economist about the way in which Donald Trump came into office and how the economy was doing at the time. Donald Trump has said the terrible economy he inherited from Joe Biden. Moody says actually, he was handed an economy that was strong.

Where do you sit on on this? Because they're saying, look, prices are still high. And they were high during the Biden administration, but they are currently still high. So who is to blame for where we are right now on March 12th?

COONS: Well, Sara, this isn't a matter of opinion. This is a matter of fact. First, yes, when President Trump came in, President Biden had left him an economy with steady growth, with all time high stock markets and with inflation coming down.

President Trump over and over on his campaign trail in his inaugural speech and in his address to Congress last Tuesday said, I'm going to make America affordable again. He said on day one he was going to bring prices down. Prices haven't come down.

In fact, by slapping tariffs on Canada and Mexico, he's raised prices on things from the lumber that we use to build housing to the fruits and vegetables that Americans buy at the grocery store. And slapping tariffs on all of Europe just yesterday will increase prices even more. He said recently that this is just a small disturbance.

[08:15:00]

And maybe for billionaire friends of his like Elon Musk, a little bit of a rise in prices is a small disturbance. But bluntly, the markets don't like it. Consumers don't like it. And we're already seeing predictions that there will be shrinking growth and a recession this year.

SIDNER: That is terrible news if it does come to fruition. You know, I just wanted to remind people of what Donald Trump said about electric cars. Not so long ago, let's just put up on the screen what he said about electric cars, because as you mentioned yesterday, he did have a parade of Tesla cars outside of the White House to show people.

Here's what he said in 2023: All electric car lunacy and so much more are looking to destroy our great USA. May they rot in hell again, Merry Christmas.

That was his Christmas message. That was December 25th. How times have now changed.

Senator Chris Coons, thank you so much. I really do appreciate you coming on and talking to us through these important issues.

COONS: And Sara if I might. The stunning thing is that in addition to putting on a car show in front of the White House explicitly to benefit the stock value of Elon Musk, his billionaire buddy Elon Musk pledged another $100 million to support Trump's political campaign efforts. The public corruption at the very core of this is just shocking.

SIDNER: And we will let them comment because I'm sure they will comment on what you just had to say. Senator Chris Coons, I know you got work to do. We will wait to see what happens with this stopgap measure in the Senate coming up this week. Appreciate you -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, the lead spokesperson for the Office of Personnel Management, a key Trump administration agency. Well, she is now under scrutiny and facing real questions, not for any of the government work that she's doing, but rather for her apparent side hustle as an aspiring influencer. A CNN investigation, we have that ahead.

And it happened again. Another person trying to sneak another live animal onto a plane, a traveler this time caught trying to hide a turtle in his pants while going through security at a New Jersey airport.

[08:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: So a new CNN investigation raising serious questions about a high-ranking Trump administration official on a surprising front. Not about her work as a top employee at the Office of Personnel Management, but rather her apparent side hustle as an aspiring fashion influencer. CNN's Kyung Lah has the story.

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KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It looks just like any other influencer video. A young woman posing in front of a camera over and over and over again, showing off her trendy but timeless professional fashion. But she's no ordinary influencer. And that's no ordinary office.

Her name is McLaurine Pinover, and she's a Trump administration's new Director of Communications for the Office of Personnel Management, or OPM, which manages federal employees. All of these videos were shot in her government office, right here at OPM headquarters in Washington, D.C., ground zero for Trump's plan to cut thousands of workers from the federal government in the name of efficiency.

Inside her office, Pinover captures video at her desk, putting on makeup, modeling new outfits to her 800 followers. Pinover markets clothes on her account. Using what's called affiliate links, she could get a portion of any item sold through her Instagram page, like this $475 skirt or $300 dress. But it's unclear whether she's made any money.

On February 13th, the day 20 people on her communications team lost their jobs, she posted a moment for mixed patterns. And the week when her agency demanded all federal employees list five things they did that week, she posted the businesswoman special.

As OPM spokeswoman, she defended the memo at the time as a commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce.

DONALD SHERMAN, CHIEF COUNSEL, CITIZENS FOR RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICS IN WASHINGTON: I would be very curious if she included her efforts to promote her brand as part of the five things that she accomplished that week.

LAH (voice-over): Donald Sherman, the chief counsel for an ethics watchdog group, says more than anything, this behavior is insulting to the thousands of federal employees being fired.

SHERMAN: This Trump administration appointee is violating the public trust at the same time as she seems to be instrumental in the administration's attack on civil servants.

LAH: It does look like some of this happened on the clock. We were actually looking at her account this morning as she posted a couple of Instagram stories during normal work hours. You can also see the time on her watch and at least one of the videos she filmed clearly during work hours.

Now, about 15 minutes after CNN reached out to her requesting comment, her Instagram account was deleted. She declined officially to comment to CNN.

We did get comment, though, from former OPM workers who told us, quote, are you kidding me? That's my office. Another called it absurd and ridiculous to post fashion videos as people are being laid off.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE) SIDNER: All right, overnight, Russia launched deadly airstrikes in Ukraine, killing at least 14 people as Ukraine agreed to a ceasefire, putting the ball in Russia's court.

[08:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: This morning, the ball is in Russia's court. That is the message from Secretary of State Marco Rubio after Ukraine agreed to a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the United States following the marathon session meetings in Saudi Arabia. Now, Secretary Rubio saying just moments ago that there will be contact, his words, with the Russians today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: As far as the Russian reaction to it, that's really the question here. And that is, this is a few hours old. We're going to bring it to them directly. We're going to say that Ukraine is prepared to stop all battlefield activity and begin the immediate process of negotiating a enduring end to the war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining me right now, Josh Rogin. He's the lead global security analyst for The Washington Post and CNN anchor and chief national security analyst, Jim Sciutto. Morning, gentlemen. Thank you for being here.

Jim, how much do you think the dynamic has shifted in the last 24 hours?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it's a good question. Listen, the relationship, it seems, between Ukraine and the U.S. has been repaired to a large degree following that infamous Oval Office meeting, to the point where you have them talking again in Riyadh. Ukraine agreeing to a ceasefire, and crucially, the U.S. removing that enormous pressure they placed on Ukraine, which was to stop U.S. military assistance and intelligence sharing.