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Soon: Trump To Give "Law And Order" Speech At DOJ; Today: Senate Votes On GOP Spending Bill To Avoid Govt. Shutdown; U.S. Stock Rebound After Rocky Week Fueled By Trade War; Passengers Describe Exit From Plane: "Everyone Started Screaming"; Engine Fire Forces Evacuation Of American Airlines Plane In Denver. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired March 14, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:17]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We are expecting to hear from President Donald Trump, who is set to make rare remarks in a visit to the Justice Department after weeks of upheaval at the agency that once pursued two federal cases against him.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Plus, on the clock and running out of options, a Republican bill to keep the government funded opening rifts within the Democratic Party over what to do next. The Senate has only a matter of hours to figure out a path forward.

And it is take two for NASA and SpaceX. They're looking at live pictures here as they're hoping to bring Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams back to solid ground, finally, after their eight-day mission to the International Space Station turned into a much, much, much, much longer stay.

We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: We are standing by as President Donald Trump is set to speak shortly at the Department of Justice. These are live images of the stage that he is set to make those remarks from and what the White House is calling a law-and-order speech.

KEILAR: This rare political address will take place inside a storied building that pursued criminal investigations and prosecutions against Trump after his first term. It's also been shaken by firings, resignations and dropped cases since he returned to the White House. Just today, Pam Bondi, Trump's handpicked attorney general, vowing to go after those who she says weaponized our government.

We have a team of correspondents and analysts covering this high- stakes moment for us. Evan Perez is here with us in studio. Let's begin, though, with Paula Reid, who is there live at the Justice Department. Paula, set the stage for what we're expecting to hear from the President.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's a full house here in the Great Hall at Main Justice. In a short time, Trump will take the stage behind me. The signs on the stage say, fighting fentanyl, and there's some evidence, some props that say, quote, DEA evidence up there on the stage. Unclear, though, if he's going to talk about fentanyl.

While it is unusual for a sitting president to address the Justice Department, it's not unheard of. I was here about 10 years ago when President Obama made a speech in this hall. But what makes Trump's address so significant is that for much of the past decade, Trump has been under criminal federal investigation and has made no secret of the anger and bitterness he has towards this institution.

The White House has said that today's speech will focus on restoring law and order to America, specifically, ending what they describe as the weaponization of the Justice Department and no longer pursuing people because of their political leanings. Now, I cannot let that talking point pass without pointing out the fact that since Trump took office, the Justice Department has targeted law firms that have represented his adversaries. They have started investigations into prosecutors who prosecuted the January 6th cases while pardoning those who participated in it and prioritized investigations into threats against his top advisor, Elon Musk.

So, it does appear that political leanings are factoring into at least some decisions here at the Justice Department. What we're watching for today is the extent to which Trump stays on message. We know when he feels passionately about something, he tends to go off script. Be that a negative comment from a political opponent or, you know, the subject of windmills, he will just go off script and go on and on. And we know that there are a few things that he feels more passionately about than how he believes he has been treated by the Justice Department over the past several years. So, we're watching very closely to see what his message is to this packed house. Brianna?

SANCHEZ: Paula Reid, thank you so much for bringing us up to speed on what we can expect to hear. Let's bring in CNN Senior Justice Correspondent, Evan Perez.

Evan, this type of political address at DOJ, exceedingly rare, how do you think it's going to be received?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's going to be received very, very well in that room because the White House has already packed the room with some of the President's supporters, some family members who have an interest in, for example, the fentanyl crisis, their lost family members to the fentanyl crisis or to - their family members have been victims of criminals who were illegal immigrants, right? And so that's part of the theme of what we expect the President to speak about there.

So, we expect - you know, again, normally in these speeches, I've been there for a number of these speeches, and it's typically filled with career people from the Justice Department.

[15:05:08] That's not what we're seeing right there at this moment. You know, the President and the White House has kind of packed the audience with people who are going to be receptive to his message. But one of the things that I think, if you look at that scene right there, what we're about to see is really a vanquishing moment by President Trump, right?

I mean, you know, the old adage, you know, that you come at the king, you better not miss, right? That's from "The Wire."

SANCHEZ: Yes.

PEREZ: That's really what this is about. You know, the Justice Department went after Donald Trump and they missed. They - he got elected, and those cases have gone away. And he is there, again, emphasizing his vanquishing moment where he has won. And he is there to emphasize, you know, essentially that, you know, I came out ahead, and it's now my way or the highway.

And so, that's one of the things that you've seen at the - in that building. A number of people, dozens of people have been pushed out, either fired or resigned because they've been reassigned. And it's not over. They are now investigating people who investigated Donald Trump and also who investigated those January 6 cases, which, of course, is something that he is very, very much still upset about.

KEILAR: Yes. This is going to be a significant address.

PEREZ: The retribution continues.

KEILAR: The retribution continues, and with these remarks, I think. Evan Perez, thank you so much.

And let's talk now with John Dean. He's a former White House counsel for President Nixon. He's also a CNN Contributor.

John, what are you looking for as we await these remarks? What are you expecting?

JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I'm also a former Department of Justice associate ...

KEILAR: Right.

DEAN: ... deputy attorney general, so I know that hall well. I know the venue.

And I think what Trump is there is to make clear it's his Department of Justice now. There are about a hundred thousand employees in the department. They're career people. There are about 4,000 political appointees. I think he's going to try to go much deeper in politicizing this Department of Justice, whether he'll say that or imply that in his remarks today, I don't know. But I think he's looking upon this as a - as Evan suggested, a victory lap.

SANCHEZ: John, there was a comment from Attorney General Pam Bondi who said that she would be investigating those who weaponized the government to go after someone because of their political affiliation. That was earlier today. I do wonder what you interpret from that. What does that mean from a practical standpoint?

DEAN: I can't begin to imagine what she's thinking about, because the department has never been weaponized. While that theme has been pushed by Republicans and pushed by the President when he was the subject of a very legitimate investigation, very legitimate indictments, he took that to be a weaponization against him.

It's just not true. They followed the facts. The facts led to a grand jury. The grand jury indicted. And he was able to escape the consequence by getting elected and, in essence, putting those cases to bed. He didn't win the cases, but he was able to dispose of them based on a policy that the Department of Justice does not mess with sitting presidents, which is probably the only way it could be, since he's the head of the Article II branch of government, and the department is part of that branch as well.

KEILAR: John, I wonder what you think that - we've seen the Trump administration targeting groups of people who, you know, when caricatured, I think sometimes they don't get sympathy from Americans, whether it's federal workers or, in the case of these law firms, big Washington, D.C. law firms, right? A couple of which he has targeted.

But it's really something that people should pay attention to. What are you thinking about the message that how this administration is approaching that particular thing? What are you thinking about the message it sends?

DEAN: I suspect he will stay away from a lot of the pending cases that - there are some hundred cases that have been filed against the President and his administration in the Department of Justice in their effort to fire people, remove people to politicize the government, to just use the chainsaw that Musk has been wielding in a very unthoughtful way. And the courts are ruling against him, just case after case after case.

[15:09:57]

The judges are also speaking pretty harshly about the evidence and the presentation of the government's case, unusually thin representation for the Department of Justice in these cases. Assistants to the attorney general, staff assistants are showing up rather than the normal trial attorneys from the department.

I heard Evan say that the career people really weren't in the hall today. I think Trump probably fears the career people being in the hall today. So, that speaks in itself that they had to treat it like a campaign event and stack the hall with a receptive audience, because I'm not sure how warm the reception would be by the career people in the department.

So, I think it's an interesting session. I think he will try to address some of the litigation that he - in a very loose way, I don't think directly, because he's losing. And he should lose, because that - it is - what he is doing is absolutely lawless. He has no basis to do these things, to attack law firms. And the judges are being made clear in their understanding and statement of what the law really is.

SANCHEZ: John Dean, thank you so much for the analysis.

DEAN: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: So, the Senate's top Democrat is now facing harsh criticism from members of his own party after choosing to help avert a government shutdown. Some Democrats, though, say there wasn't much of a choice at all.

Plus, dozens of passengers forced to climb onto the wing of their passenger plane to escape during an engine fire. And now federal investigators want to know what led to these terrifying moments.

And parts of the U.S. are now under the highest possible risk of tornadoes this weekend as a storm crossing the country explodes in strength. We'll have that and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[15:16:15]

SANCHEZ: Breaking news on Capitol Hill. We're keeping an eye on the Senate. These are live images right now of Kentucky senator Rand Paul giving a speech. There's a key vote happening today on a Republican plan to keep the government running. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said that he's a yes, a decision that has left many in his party fuming.

Several other Democrats have already come out against it, saying that it hands President Trump and Elon Musk a blank check to decimate the government. But the pressure right now is on, because the midnight deadline is just hours away. CNN's Lauren Fox is watching all of this unfold live for us on Capitol Hill.

Are you getting any indication, Lauren, on where some of these key Democrats might land?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, we are watching as things develop on the Senate floor right now. I want to walk you through procedurally what we're seeing. First of all, we had expected that there was going to be a procedural vote right after that second vote. This was a three-vote series. The last vote in this series was going to be that key cloture vote.

But right now, what we are seeing instead is Sen. Rand Paul speaking for what we expect will be at least about 20 minutes on the Senate floor. We do expect that he's going to be a no on this bill. That does tell me a couple of things. As someone who is used to watching Senate floor procedure on days like this, there could be many things happening behind the scenes.

One, they may be trying to come up with a time agreement to quickly speed up the final vote on this process. It could be that they're still searching for those Democratic votes. We don't know in this exact moment what is happening. But we did expect that this vote would have taken place by this point or at least would have gotten started by this point. So, obviously, we're watching really closely.

Senator Rand Paul is expected to be a no vote. He has been expected to be a no vote. That's why we keep saying that there will need to be at least eight Democrats to help Republicans advance this piece of legislation.

As you noted, there has been a lot of angst within Democratic ranks right now, despite the fact that Chuck Schumer, their leader, came out saying that he was going to vote to advance this legislation, arguing that going into a shutdown was a bad idea because there was no off- ramp when Republicans controlled the House, the White House and the Senate. There have been a lot of Democrats who have already come out saying that they are opposed to this bill and there's a lot of frustration with the leadership, with the fact that they waited until the last minute to make decisions, with the fact that they had several caucus meetings over the course of the last several days. And just last night, Schumer came out with his announcement.

So, Democrats have been a little bit all over the map in this moment. And the fact that this vote hasn't started. Again, we don't know the reason for that. But we're watching really closely as things transpire on the floor. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Lauren Fox, thank you so much for the update from Capitol Hill.

So, federal investigators are expected to arrive in Denver today, where they're going to try to figure out how this plane's engine caught fire, pushing panicked passengers to climb out on one of its wings in an effort to escape the flames.

And NASA just hours away from what could be the first step in getting two astronauts back home as their original weeks-long mission stretches into almost ten months. Live images from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. We're back in just a few minutes. Don't go anywhere.

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[15:24:17]

KEILAR: Wall Street is rallying after a brutal week of heavy losses suffered during President Trump's whirlwind of tariff announcements. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is following the markets for us.

Vanessa, what's the latest?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, we're seeing that picture right there. We're seeing markets claw back some of the losses that they've seen over the past week, and this is coming on the heels of just so much tariff news. Tit-for-tat retaliatory tariffs between the U.S. and trading partners and other countries. The S&P and NASDAQ entered correction territory, which means that they saw 10 percent of losses off their record highs, which happened just a few weeks ago.

And another piece of economic news that we were following today is how consumers are feeling about the U.S. economy.

[15:25:04]

We got consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan. This was picking up just the few - first few days of March, how people were feeling. Look at that number, an 11 percent nosedive in the month of March from February. And a lot of that was driven, according to this report, by just how people were feeling about the economy. So much uncertainty around these tariffs and what it meant for their wallets. And a lot of this survey also picked up on how people were feeling about the future, about the future of inflation. Those numbers, those fears around what inflation would do in the next year to even five years grew.

I also want to throw to this soundbite right now from U.S. Treasury Secretary - former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, who talked about what consumers are feeling right now. Take a listen.

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LARRY SUMMERS, FORMER TREASURY SECRETARY UNDER PRES. CLINTON: They're completely right. This is like being in the back of a car where the driver is weaving wildly. You're scared about what's going to come next and they're absolutely right, given what this would mean for higher prices, given what this could mean for reduced investment, given what this could mean in terms of retaliation from other countries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: And this consumer sentiment survey just picked up the first few days and weeks of this month. When we looked at February's survey, we got initial readings that showed a 5 percent drop in consumer sentiment. By the end of the month, it had doubled to 10 percent.

So, Brianna, we'll have to keep a close eye on this, where this number ultimately ends up, but double-digit declines in sentiment for U.S. consumers as this trade war rages on, Brianna.

KEILAR: And we could get a look at retail spending next week, right?

YURKEVICH: Yes, and that'll be critical because it'll show exactly how much consumers are willing to spend. We saw in January retail sales dropped by 0.9 percent. That was really stunning. That was not what economists were expecting. That just showed already weakening consumer spending, which is critical to U.S. GDP.

The Atlanta Fed in their GDP model suggests that for the first time since 2022, we could see a contraction, so negative GDP for this first quarter. We'll ultimately have to see how that pans out. But some indicators that consumers are starting to weaken in spending, and that is obviously very important for the U.S. economy. Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, it certainly is.

Vanessa, thank you so much for that. Boris? SANCHEZ: Some harrowing accounts today from passengers who had to quickly evacuate an American Airlines plane that caught fire after touching down in Denver. Watch this.

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MICHELLE WOODS, AMERICAN AIRLINES PASSENGER: The minute we landed, it was like smoke started filling the cabin, and people started kind of screaming, and pushing, and jumping up and yelling.

INGRID HIBBITS, AMERICAN AIRLINES PASSENGER: There's flames out of the window where I was looking out. It started bubbling, like melting. It was really weird, and everybody was kind of pushing to get out of the plane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: That passenger says she was among those who had to climb out on the wing of the plane yesterday. Look at that, 178 people were on this flight. It was destined to go from Colorado Springs to Dallas- Fort Worth when it wound up getting diverted to Denver after the pilots reported engine vibrations. CNN Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean.

Pete, engine vibrations. What can you tell us?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It's a bit of a mystery, but any time you have something like that in a flight like this, you essentially want to get it on the ground, and that's exactly what this flight crew did. The dramatic video that keeps coming out will be so key to investigators as they try to figure out what started this fire on the ground of American Airlines flight 1006.

And as they look into the response and the evacuation here, the fire on the right side of the airplane, you can see some of the white smoke there as passengers are there on the ramp at Denver International Airport. But many passengers evacuated and streamed out of emergency overwing exits on the left side of the plane and then essentially waited helplessly on the left side of the airplane as that fire raged.

Let's reset here because this is pretty interesting. This flight took off from Colorado Springs about 5:15 Mountain Daylight Time last night. That's about 7:15 on the East Coast. When passengers say about 20 minutes into the flight, the pilots informed them that there were engine vibrations that they needed to divert to the Denver International Airport.

The FAA tells us that this fire started as the plane was taxiing in after landing. The landing itself was successful. And I want you to hear now the air traffic control audio from LiveATC.net in which the pilots initially described these vibrations with a fair amount of calm. Listen.