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Passengers Evacuate Onto Wing Of Plane After Engine Catches Fire; Product Peddling From The White House; Man Last Known To Be Seen With Missing Student Described To Prosecutors How He Rescued Her From Rough Waters. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired March 14, 2025 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST: -- dangerous situation DCA was. And we learned that they had something like a 15,000 near misses with -- or loss -- separation, rather, with aircraft and helicopters in the three years before the disaster.

They took action, as Pete just said today, to stop that. And they're also looking at other airports.

So looking at the trends is very important. And so here I think the trend they will be looking at is on this engine. And then also tangentially on the evacuation. How could it be better? And fortunately I say everyone was saved. And what should they do differently next time?

But I think the engine will get the focus. And an uncontained engine failure where it spews out shrapnel and there's leaks and fires is a very dangerous situation, and it can cause a loss of plane or loss of life.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yes. Mary Schiavo, always great to get your insights there. Thank you so much for that.

And next, "erratic, disruptive and dictator." Those were just some of the words used by Trump voters in a recent focus group to describe the presidents behavior.

But if given the chance, would they have voted differently in 2024? We have the answer right after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:35:26]

KEILAR: It is day 53 -- that's not what it feels like, though -- in this whirlwind of President Trump's second term. And now some of his swing-state supporters are expressing some buyer's remorse.

They're sounding off in a focus group co-conducted by Axios. It's a group that consisted of 13 voters from battleground Michigan who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 but then for Donald Trump last year. BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Axios reported that most expressed

frustration and worry, using words like "erratic, frightening, disruptive and dictator" to describe their concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's getting to the point where I'm almost scared to watch the news.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of his actions have just been disruptive and creating chaos.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think anyone would have voted for him if they expected to see what we're seeing now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I -- I was voting for him based off of the economy the first time around, and I'm -- I'm seeing a significant decline.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's -- it's very scary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Only one voter in that focus group said that she would pick Kamala Harris if she were to do it all over again.

Let's talk about this with veteran pollster and communications strategist, Frank Luntz.

Frank, you said a moment ago, as we were watching that sound byte, that focus group was too small. They need a larger sample to get a range of opinions.

I do wonder, from folks that you've heard from, are they expressing a similar remorse, folks that supported President Trump?

FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER & COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIST: It's more like disappointment. And they love his agenda and they really love his action. They want stuff to change here.

And by the way, I know that you don't want me to use a four-letter word so I'm going to be careful.

(LAUGHTER)

LUNTZ: But they are determined to see action. And so they appreciate that. But they don't like the language. They don't like the approach. The execution is what's failing him.

And in the end, the public will respond to what they see is the actual change. But over the next few months, if his language continues to be off and that of Elon Musk as well, it's going to hurt him in the polls.

KEILAR: When you say the language is off, what do you mean? LUNTZ: If you are taking down the size of government, you do so out of

disappointment, out of regret, that it's not delivering the accountability, the responsibility. We're trying to make government more efficient, more effective. That's not the language he's using.

KEILAR: "Cruelty" is what we're hearing in some cases.

LUNTZ: That's how the voters are responding to it. And it's because it looks like he's doing so out of glee, out of excitement, rather than out of a solemn sense that we have to do better.

I want to emphasize, because I'm going to get this right, they support the agenda. They support the effort. They don't like how it's being done.

SANCHEZ: I do wonder, there is a new CNN poll released today. It shows a majority, 59 percent, do not approve of how the president is handling U.S.-Russia relations.

This was before Vladimir Putin's lukewarm response to the proposed ceasefire with Ukraine. This is also before he essentially rejected that plan altogether.

When you break it down by party, does it go as you expect with Republicans supporting the president? What does it tell you?

LUNTZ: So again, it's all about nuance. The public support for military action in Ukraine, with the tax dollars are going towards it, has dropped considerably since Trump turned against Ukraine.

That said, they still see Vladimir Putin as the enemy. They see him as the reason why this is happening. They don't want pressure put on Ukraine. They want to put on Putin.

But they don't want American dollars being spent. And this is why this is such a hard administration to analyze.

Because you can take both sides of the case, you can say that he's succeeding, you can say that he's failing, and you're going to be correct. But you have to do both sides. It's the only way that you're being honest with the American people.

KEILAR: That's why we have you here, because you can sort of parse that.

I do want to talk about something. This is something that Vice President J.D. Vance said in an interview last night.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE: Rome wasn't built in a day. Of course, this is not going to happen overnight. But I think that both businesses and workers are ultimately going to benefit from President Trump's policies. UNIDENTIFIED CORRESPONDENT: Can you rule out a recession, even a

temporary one?

VANCE: Well, look, I think you never can predict the future. But I think the economy, the fundamentals of the economy are actually quite strong right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LUNTZ: Here's the issue.

KEILAR: Well, wait. Can I play one thing?

LUNTZ: Yes.

KEILAR: Because we were both around in 2008 and we remember someone talking about the fundamentals of the economy being strong. It was a different economy.

But let's listen to John McCain saying this in September of 2008.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN MCCAIN, FORMER ARIZONA REPUBLICAN SENATOR: Our economy, I think still -- the fundamentals of our economy are strong, but these are very, very difficult times.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:40:06]

KEILAR: Infamous words. I do want to be very clear. Like I said, it's a different economy. That was just days after the collapse of Lehman Brothers. This is a different economy, to be clear.

But messaging is so important and those are words generally you want to stay away from, I don't know. What do you think?

LUNTZ: I'm looking at this and all I can think of is one word, "tariff." And this administration has been all into applying them. Or maybe not, or maybe so.

So you've got this going back and forth. He's using it as a negotiating tool. And for that, it's OK.

Here's the problem. The public does not fully understand why tariffs are used, does not fully understand the impact of them. He's trying to explain that there's a long-term and a short-term difference, and that you have to go through a little bit of pain to get a lot of benefit.

The public does not understand that. They cannot take this whiplash. They're watching the markets, which the president did define as a good economy back five years ago. And the markets hate this.

Look, he's going to be unsuccessful on the economy if the prices of food and fuel don't come down, housing and health care, and now because of tariffs, the automobile.

These are the five areas that he needs to be tracking every single day. He's not explaining it. This is not a given. The public does not understand it. They hear the arguments against it.

And one more point. Harris figured out to call it a tax increase. But the problem is she wasn't talking about this enough during her campaign, that all she was doing is beating up on Trump.

If she had started the campaign about two weeks earlier saying this is not a tariff, this is a tax, she would have done better than what she did.

The president has a responsibility to explain to the American people why we need this entity, why we need this strategy. If he does, his numbers will hold. If he doesn't, they will continue to deteriorate.

SANCHEZ: We are set to hear from President Trump in just a few hours. We'll see if perhaps there's a shift. Maybe. Maybe not.

Frank Luntz, always appreciate your analysis. Thanks for joining us.

So we are following some developing news in the Dominican Republic, where officials are searching for a missing student.

This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:46:30]

KEILAR: This week, President Trump turned the South Lawn of the White House into a Tesla showroom, hawking Elon Musk's electric vehicles. "The Daily Show" spoof of the moment practically wrote itself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's very safe. It's very strong. Heavy. It's all steel, stainless steel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on down to Pennsylvania Avenue, just off Route 29 to get our best deal ever on a brand-new Tesla.

TRUMP: I want to make a good deal here. They have one, which is $35,000, which is pretty low.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get a Model 1 with a different panel and everything computer.

TRUMP: This is a different panel. Everything's computer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Everything is computer and everything's a huge conflict of interest. This isn't the first time, of course, that a president has promoted

American-made vehicles. President Biden held an electric vehicle summit on the White House lawn in 2021.

But it is the first time a White House has been turned into a car lot to promote a president's top adviser's car company, whose bottom line is suffering even as he gains more notoriety as a top presidential adviser. Tesla stock dropped 15 percent Monday, the worst performer in the S&P 500.

Trump has long monetized his political station by pitching products, so this week's jarring transformation of the South Lawn into a Tesla dealership isn't new.

Here's what else has been hawked: Bibles, cryptocurrency meme coins, actual coins, Trump watches, sneakers and non-fungible tokens like this one of a muscular Trump. And this one of him holding the Liberty Bell, which he marketed on his Instagram account as digital trading cards.

But if ethics and politics is your thing, there's something especially icky about hawking merch from the White House. That's why the great Bean Debacle of 2020 was such a debacle.

Ivanka Trump promoting Goya black beans after the company's CEO backed her dad, and Trump following suit amid the backlash from the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

Earlier, in 2017, top adviser, Kellyanne Conway, was, quote, unquote, "counseled" for promoting the first daughters fashion line from the briefing room.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, FORMER ADVISOR TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: Go buy Ivanka's stuff, is what I would tell you. I'm going to go --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FOX HOST: I hate shopping.

CONWAY: I'm going to get some myself today.

(CROSSTALK)

CONWAY: It's a wonderful line. I own some of it. I fully -- I'm going to just give it -- I'm going to give a free commercial here. Go buy it today everybody. You can find it online.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: But after that early acknowledgment that a norm may have been broken, any outward concerns about these ethical matters quickly evaporated.

When Trump has deemed an associate is in need of a government handout, he has shown no reservation about a product endorsement from the White House.

And Tesla is in need, perhaps now more than ever. Just this week, company representatives sent an unsigned letter to the Trump administration asking it to consider downstream effects of Trump's tariff policies as Trump's trade war threatens to jack up the price of Teslas.

That's right, that Tesla pricing in Trump's hand right there could go up, in which case, ironically, Trump may have a point. Now might really be the time to buy.

[13:49:37]

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: We have new details to share with you in the disappearance of University of Pittsburgh student, Sudiksha Konanki, who vanished in the Dominican Republic last week.

The man who was the last known person to be seen with her has been identified as Joshua Reeb from Iowa. He has not been named as a suspect.

Let's bring in CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, John Miller.

John, Dominican prosecutors have actually released the transcript of their interview with Reeb. What do we know?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT & INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, he gives an account, his version, of what happened that night where he says they met in the bar in the hotel lobby.

[13:54:56]

He, his friend and a bunch of students, girls, that they went to the beach together and that he remained after with Sudiksha, that they went into the water, that they got pulled out.

That he was able to kind of get to her. And in his interview, he says using his experience as a former lifeguard at a swimming pool, you know, he pulled her back in, but he took in a lot of water while he was trying to keep her head above water.

That they made it back to the shore, that he laid down, and she was last seen by him in about wastewater-deep kind of walking back in the direction where they had left their things.

And that's his account of what happened that night, except that he doesn't see her again.

SANCHEZ: And then there were a few questions that he refused to answer. Tell us about those. MILLER: Well, these are basic questions. And it's, you know, what --

how do you feel about what happened? What is your reaction to the statement that your friend says you made?

And you know, to these simple questions, which he could have easily answered, he says, my lawyers advised me not to answer that question, and I heed to them.

It appears that his lawyer instructed him to tell them what happened from his personal knowledge, but not to answer any questions about what anyone else said, or questions that would cause him to offer an opinion, which is probably a prudent thing for a criminal defense lawyer to say.

But the fact that he doesn't answer these questions, and they're fairly basic, certainly is something that captures the attention of anyone who reads this document.

SANCHEZ: Yes. John Miller, thank you so much for bringing us the latest there.

Any minute, we're expecting new numbers from the multi-state measles outbreak. Already, there are more cases in the first three months of this year than all of 2024. Details minutes away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)