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Katie Porter is Interviewed about Running for Governor; Larry Summers is Interviewed about Tariffs; Leslie Bibb is Interviewed about "The White Lotus." Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired March 18, 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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[09:32:10]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the 2026 race for California governor getting tighter. Former Democratic Representative Katie Porter is throwing her hat into the race. And it comes at a time when Democrats are struggling to find a strategy forward during President Trump's second term.

With me now is former Congresswoman Katie Porter, who is now a candidate for California governor.

Thank you so much for being here with us this morning.

All right, here's the bad news, things not looking good for President Trump's initial policies, his DOGE layoffs, his tariffs, the way he handled Ukraine so far, the way he's just not doing enough about the economy. All of that is highly unpopular in polling. And yet Democrats somehow have no cohesive message that resonates, no sense of togetherness and no strong leadership. How is that possible?

KATIE PORTER (D), CALIFORNIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: (INAUDIBLE) Democratic Party, but I can tell you what I'm doing, which is stepping up in this moment to talk first and foremost about the need to bring down the cost of living. And in California, the biggest issue is the cost of housing, something we haven't seen Democrats or Republicans take much action on in recent administrations. And so really being able to talk about how the cost of living is the biggest problem and it is being made worse by Donald Trump. So, when people say, do you have to stand up to Trump and deal with Trump and what he's doing, or do you have to bring down the cost of living, the answer is, they are now the same thing because these tariffs and other policies are only going to push the economy into a worse place and hit families harder.

SIDNER: Do you blame Gavin Newsom for the cost of living crisis and the homelessness crisis in California?

PORTER: Housing has been a challenge for California for decades. And this has always been a little bit of a boom - boom/bust kind of housing economy. We do need to make structural changes, including reducing, reforming how our environmental laws - our bedrock environmental law, called the CEQA (ph), is applied to housing. We need to make it cheaper to build. That means innovating around the kinds of building materials we use, thinking about how to build things in ways that are more fireproof, for example. The next governor is going to have to head on tackle the crisis that we're facing with home insurance. And I'm' ready to do that.

SIDNER: All right, I do want to ask you about this latest CNN polling, because you were a congresswoman and you are still a Democrat. And I know you're running for California governor now. But we - we're seeing these polls, and it's the lowest approval rating for Democrats that we have seen in modern history, just 29 percent among the American public overall think that the Democrats are doing well. And this was before Chuck Schumer angered Democrats further by helping pass the Republican bill to keep the government open.

Do you think that Democrats, as a whole, need a change in leadership?

PORTER: Well, look, I - when I - I'm running in part because I - we're going to have a change in leadership in California.

[09:35:03]

In Congress, I pushed several times to try to change up some of our rules to make sure that we were rotating leaders in and out, that we were giving those who were new to Congress a voice.

I do think that there is a sort of natural evolutionary process here of electing different leaders because the world has changed, right? So, I went to college in a world where student loans were a ten-year problem after you graduated. There are now lots of people for whom student loans are a lifetime problem after they graduate. So, I do think that because the world has changed, we need people who have experiences living in the world where our voters are struggling.

So, childcare now costs more than college and college tuition in half of all states. If you understand that, if you've tried to pay that bill, like I have, then I think you prioritize, for example, childcare policy differently. I've said for a long time that the Democrats need stronger messages - messengers on the economy. And I think what we've seen sometimes is the Democratic Party be drawn toward messengers about Trump, people who are anti-Trump.

You can and you must be both. Because, as I said, Trump's economic policy is a cost of living problem in and of itself. But that's how we should be talking about Trump. We should be talking about, how is Trump hurting you? How is Trump going to make it impossible for your small business to thrive? How is Trump going to make your retirement more difficult?

SIDNER: All right, you famously used a whiteboard to explain complex ideas in very simple ways, and it did catch on with many voters. If you had your whiteboard today with you, how would you fix the Democratic Party?

PORTER: Oh, I think I would remind them. I would put a number one up. A great big number one. That's the only thing I would write on the board. And then I would remind people that in every single election cycle, in my lifetime, and I am 51 years old, the number one issue, (INAUDIBLE) economy. So, we have got to focus on that. And we have to tie things back to the economy.

So even Trump's chaotic kind of social policies, his attacks on DEI, things like that, those all create economic upheaval. People lose their jobs. They have to spend time doing nonproductive work, like changing websites. It's all about the economy. And, frankly, it always has been.

SIDNER: You cut out a little bit. You said if you wrote a number one on your board, there will be a single thing on the whiteboard that you used. And what would that number one say?

PORTER: It would be the economy. So, I would tell people and remind people that in every single election, for a - for multiple generations, the number one issue has been the economy. So, we have to start looking at the lens of what Trump is doing through the economy. So, even Trump's sort of so-called social issues, like DEI, attacks on DEI policy, those are extremely economically unproductive.

SIDNER: Former Representative Katie Porter, now throwing her hat in for California governor.

Thank you so much. Appreciate your time.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, let's talk a little bit more about the economy.

Just moments ago, the markets opened on Wall Street. Starts - stocks a little bit down for the day. Actually, the Nasdaq down more than a percent so far.

Uncertainty over President Trump's policies, particularly tariffs, have sparked concerns.

With us now is the former Secretary of Treasury Larry Summers. Secretary, thank you so much for being with us.

Last week, you famously told Kasie Hunt, then Wolf Blitzer, you thought that the chance of a recession was around 50%. That was last week. Since then, the markets calmed down a little bit. Has anything changed your assessment since then?

LARRY SUMMERS, FORMER TREASURY SECRETARY: It's not the markets that primarily drive this. The markets primarily reflect what's happening and the sense of huge policy uncertainty. The chill spending is still with us. The sense of risk in terms of rule of law is still with us. The sense of arbitrariness of policy approach is still with us. So I still think it's in the range of 50% that we'll have a recession.

And I think it's possible that the administration, seeing the results of what's happening, is going to back off. If it's steady as you go, if the April 2nd is the big deal in terms of tariff imposition that administration officials promised, then it could even be above 50%.

BERMAN: You know, I was going to ask you, because April 2nd is now the state circled on a calendar here. What do you think might happen between now and then? You really think that there's a possibility the White House backs off?

[09:40:05]

SUMMERS: I don't think it's a matter of a complete back off. But the words reciprocal tariffs are far from fully self-defining. And so the question will be how much tariffs, how much will be imposed, how much there's a sense that they'll be long lasting. And I think there's a lot of uncertainty about that. And so I think we'll get somewhat greater clarity as we move to April 2nd. And that clarity may be reassuring or that clarity may be of a kind that raises apprehensions and further chills spending.

BERMAN: Yeah.

SUMMERS: The important thing for everybody to note is we don't have to be doing any of this. This is a self-inflicted wound, both raising prices and threatening jobs.

BERMAN: So is it more the uncertainty that's the issue for you right now, or is it more the policy? President Trump came out today and said, you know, on this paper, these are the tariffs that I'm imposing April 2nd. This is it 100%. Would that be better than the back and forth?

SUMMERS: It -- in some ways, it might be a bit better. But no, this is fundamentally about the damage and the chance of real damage to the prospects of American companies. Take as an example, the big tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Seven to 10 million people work in the automobile and housing industries, and that's just a direct attack on those industries because it raises their input price. More broadly, this is a big attack on the North American unit competing in the world with Asia and with Europe. And a strategy of simply rejecting cooperation, even with our most natural allies, is a strategy that does damage, both in terms of costs and in terms of jobs.

BERMAN: Very quickly, the Fed meets tomorrow. What challenges do they face in determining what they do with interest rates?

SUMMERS: I think they'll probably leave them constant. They're facing what is the most difficult challenge that a central bank ever faces, when the shock is both to push up prices and to reduce jobs. And that's what the tariffs do. They push up the prices of things that we're bringing into the country. They reduce jobs, for the reason I just said, in terms of input costs.

So you can't figure out, if you're the Fed, whether you're supposed to go to the brake because of the price increases or the accelerator because of the lost jobs.

So I suspect they won't move interest rates. I suspect they'll say they need more data and that they're watching. But they're in a very hard position, given that you've got this kind of stagflationary shock.

BERMAN: Former Secretary Larry Summers, we appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much.

SUMMERS: Thank you.

BERMAN: So, what happens in Thailand will not stay in Thailand. We have new behind the scenes details from the set of the HBO series "The White Lotus."

And at any moment the Trump administration could release tens of thousands of files on the assassination of President Kennedy.

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[09:48:11]

SIDNER: Monkeys.

BERMAN: Hey, thank you. I appreciate it.

LESLIE BIBB, THE WHITE LOTUS STAR: That is a monkey.

BERMAN: I appreciate it.

BIBB: Monkeys.

SIDNER: It's my favorite thing.

BIBB: Pause, pause.

SIDNER: Monkeys, and you can see why we're losing our minds.

BIBB: I like the way you just said that. Monkeys.

SIDNER: I need to be ready. OK, monkeys.

BIBB: You are ready.

SIDNER: I'm not ready.

BIBB: And we're watching you on camera. You are ready.

SIDNER: I'm not ready.

BIBB: She's here.

SIDNER: She'd just take over the show. We don't even know what we're doing.

BIBB: Yes, you do. You're both lovely and funny and inviting. And I'm happy to be here with you.

SIDNER: OK..

BERMAN: This is the best thing that's ever happened to any of us. SIDNER: Literally.

BERMAN: Leslie Bibb from "The White Lotus" is here. Before we ruin it all, let's just play a clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIBB: Do you remember meeting me?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, your hair -- your hair was different, right?

BIBB: Well, maybe, maybe, maybe. These are my friends. This is Jacqueline and Lori.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.

BIBB: Gosh, it's such a small world, isn't it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes.

BIBB: I just saw Clare right before I left.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God.

BIBB: If I talk to her, I'll tell her you said hello.

OK, well, you all enjoy your vacation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You too.

BIBB: I'll leave you be. Bye.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bye.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bye.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So awkward.

BIBB (on camera): So --

SIDNER: But you're not like that in person. You're perfectly lovely, Leslie Bibb.

BIBB: Well, but you're not the Ratliffs. I mean, she is warm and fuzzy. She is not.

[09:50:02]

I mean, Parker is warm and fuzzy.

SIDNER: What's it like actually working with her?

BIBB: Well, that was the first time we worked together. So, I'm a huge Parker Posey fan. Like, party girl. That's indie royalty.

SIDNER: She's an 80s hero and an indie hero.

BIBB: And like a 90s, like, she's everything. So, it was my first scene, and my partner, Sam, who's an actor, is -- like, I feel like they were the king and queen of, like, Sundance together. They were doing all the movies with like, Sundance you'd get, like, a washing machine when you'd go there before it became, like, something else.

And that was my first scene with her. And so, I was so, I mean, my hands were shaking. I was like, oh, my God. So, it actually is kind of great. Because, again, it's like art imitating life. Like, it's like all the nerves I had, I just put it into old K-4, old K-4. (ph)

BERMAN: First of all, you mentioned Sam. You're talking about Sam Rockwell, who people may know was on this week's episode. I'm not going to ask about that because I know a lot of people aren't up to speed on that yet.

BIBB: I know, right? But yes -- but how about the fact that I had to keep it secret? So, we --

SIDNER: Did you help him or did you just know about it and you had to hold it?

BIBB: No, no, no. He was a last minute. That came in last minute, like maybe two weeks before he was going to -- they were going to film it. So, it was very last minute. I said to them when they offered it to him, I was like, if he doesn't do it, don't get mad at me. And they were like, Mike's like, I'm not going to get mad at you.

I was like, please do not take it out on me. That guy has his own choice. But, yes, it was very, very, very last minute.

BERMAN: So, my wife and I and now my two sons who are 18 are obsessed with the show. So, thank you for that. And we're particularly obsessed with your characters. The dynamic between the three women.

BIBB: Yes, right.

BERMAN: Which is extraordinary. And there's so much tension. And I have to say it's almost from the first moment you walk on the screen. You walk in there, the three of you and my wife and I look at each other like, oh, no. Like three people going on vacation together. That's in and of itself. Why do you think it struck such a chord?

BIBB: Well, I think -- well, I think there's two things that have happened.

I think, one, I think there's something that Mike does with, you know, these women are supposed to know each other better. They've known each other since they were eight years old. And, like, who you are, will the people still love you for who you've become?

He's, you know, Michael -- Michael. Mike White, he's never been called Michael in his life. Mike, you know, he's working in themes and doppelgangers and mirrors and, like, reflections of how we see ourselves, how the world sees us.

But I also have to say that I think part of the thing with the show is the fact that you only get it once a week. And I think it somehow feeds, because we've become a society of, like, quick fixes --

BERMAN: We want it right away.

BIBB: -- three seconds, swipe, swipe, swipe, this, yes, comment, heart, this.

And you can. You have to sit. You have to wait. You watch it for the hour. And people will just walk up to me. You were asking me about, like, the white lotus of it all. And I've never experienced a job quite like this of like, beloved.

SIDNER: We're obsessed.

BIBB: Obsessed. I've never had it.

SIDNER: Literally, it's almost crazy at times.

BIBB: People will stop me on the street and be like, hey, well, here's my theory. And I'm like, OK, OK. And then I was like, I can't tell you anything, but that's an interesting theory.

They're like, I'm worried about you. I think you might die. And I was like, OK, I'm worried. I mean, I don't like the way Lori's looking at you. That's what they're, you know.

So it's so interesting, but I find it so charming that people are sitting and they're looking at everything from, like, the imagery and the monkeys in the sea. No, they speak no, they hear no evil. You know, there's, I mean, it's awesome.

SIDNER: There's some messages in there. It's very tricky.

BIBB: There's deep messages.

SIDNER: There's some deep messaging. You are spoiled. You are entitled. You're wealthy. You're vulnerable.

BIBB: I am?

SIDNER: No, you're a character.

BIBB: Yes.

SIDNER: My bad. And you play this, but somehow it resonates. Why does it resonate? Why does that character, who people kind of love to hate, but then also kind of feel a little bit bad?

BIBB: Yes, I don't know. When I read it, I felt like this trip -- I don't know if it's the same for the other girls, but for me, I made the decision that this trip was very important.

That these women knew her probably when she was her most fearless. Like, you're most curious. You're most, you know, the world hasn't happened to you yet. You're sort of untouched. And I think this trip is very important that the friendship survives that -- for Kate.

And I think she loves these people. And when she's with them, she feels her best, which is ironic because they talk a little turkey about each other.

SIDNER: It's like frenemies. Sort of.

BIBB: Yes, but I think it's their way. But listen, if you watch those Real Housewives shows, that's all they do. They leave the thing and then they start --

SIDNER: Yes, but this is far better written.

BIBB: Yes.

SIDNER: Let's be clear.

BIBB: I'm not saying it's not. It's very -- but that's also, that's not written. You know, that's happening. And I think that Mike is really, he's doing something. He's talking about how the way we connect is in this comparative way and this competitive way.

[09:55:06]

And like, I wonder if Sam has this monologue that happens in this episode five, and it's a very confronting monologue. But I think what's cool, because Carrie and Michelle and I said, if these women had just walked in, in the very beginning, and were really honest, which is very scary to do and very vulnerable to say, here's my truth.

My marriage isn't this or this is this. I just got laid off. I'm drinking.

Whatever your truth is, to just say this with your friends, I think it would have been a very different trip. And that's what's so sort of the juxtaposition of Sam giving this monologue that's like fully, unapologetically his truth. And we'll see what happens with that truth and how it all shakes out.

But I feel like there's something that Mike is really saying about living. I keep going back to unapologetically and honestly.

SIDNER: And authentically.

BIBB: And authentically.

BERMAN: That is the best description of the show that I've heard or read.

BIBB: I feel like I just said mumbo jumbo.

BERMAN: No, no, no. That is as clear and I think as meaningful of a description perfect that I've heard or read since it started several years ago. So thank you so much. BIBB: You guys are awesome.

SIDNER: Thank you. You didn't do too many spoilers and people will thank you for that.

BIBB: It's so stressful not to do the spoilers. I've been lying about Sam alone at our Christmas party. I saw somebody and he saw me yesterday and he was like --

SIDNER: Why didn't you tell me?

BIBB: I didn't. He said, I sort of guessed. And I said, how did you guess?

He's like, we came to visit you. I was like, big deal.

BERMAN: That's that's the, you know, the producers worry that you're about to tell us something.

SIDNER: Yes.

BERMAN: They've been playing us off, playing us off --

(CROSSTALK)

SIDNER: -- literally playing us off. It's like the Oscars, which we will never win, but you might. Anyway, Leslie Bibb, thank you, thank you, thank you.

BIBB: Thank you so much.

SIDNER: So wonderful.

BIBB: Thank you.

BERMAN: "SITUATION ROOM," up next.

BIBB: Whoo, I'm not in "THE SITUATION ROOM."

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