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Protesters, Furious Constituents Blast Lawmakers at Town Halls; Trump Expected to Sign Order Aimed at Dismantling Education Department; Fed Holds Rates Steady, Projects Slow Growth and Rising Inflation. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 20, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: A fiery confrontation ending one lawmakers town hall, police forced to escort constituents out of the building. Both Democrats and Republicans facing the heat over outraged about everything from Gaza to President Trump's many policies.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Subtraction and division, we are standing by for the president to sign an executive order dismantling the Department of Education.

And then a smiling selfie taken just hours after four Idaho college students were killed. Court documents reveal a new photo and new details on weapons.

I'm John Berman with Sara Sidner. Kate Bolduan is out. Everything is just fine here. This is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: All right. Breaking overnight, anger and frustration boiling over at town halls across America, officials on both sides of the aisle drawing large crowds and harsh critique from constituents. Republicans continue to be blasted by voters demanding answers about President Trump and Elon Musk's gutting of federal jobs and programs and agencies. Now, Democrats are feeling the heat as well for their inability to push back hard against the DOGE purge.

though it was a different issue that took center stage last night. Pro-Palestinian protesters took over Illinois Democrat Sean Casten's town hall in the wake of Israel's strike shattering the fragile ceasefire with Hamas. Casten faced a barrage of vocal, borderline physical attacks, so much so police stepped in and asked the congressman to end the event.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What you're saying is I'm not going to get my way when my people are being slaughtered and I want you to stop funding them.

REP. SEAN CASTEN (D-IL): If you would like to run for office, run for office, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. You are the most soulless piece of crap I've ever seen.

CASTEN: That's your opinion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Soulless, soulless.

CASTEN: Sir, get off the -- sir, get off the stage right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And in Wyoming, Republican Harriet Hageman was showered with boos after seeming to downplay the sweeping cuts to federal jobs at the hands of Elon Musk and DOGE.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HARRIET HAGEMAN (R-WY): Here's the only thing that does is stop, which is it's so bizarre to me how obsessed you are with federal government. But here's the thing --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Wow. CNN's Arlette Saenz is with me now. Arlette, this is a trend that we saw first really targeted at Republicans. It is growing now both to Republicans and Democrats, but over and over and over again, these town halls are getting really heated because constituents are fed up. Are officials, do you think, going to stop these town halls? I know the Republicans were told by their leadership to stop doing them, but that some of them are doing it anyway.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara. And town halls have really been a staple in American politics, especially in the first year of a new administration. But decisions about whether to continue holding these kinds of events are likely to fall on a case by case basis. Democratic Congressman Sean Casten at that town hall last night said that he doesn't want to stop holding town halls, but did say that some people may decide not to attend if they feel like they are not productive.

As you mentioned, the head of the Republican -- the House Republican campaign arm advised Republican lawmakers to hold virtual instead of in person. You have some lawmakers, like Mike Flood in Nebraska and Harriet Hageman in Wyoming who has bucked that advice. Hageman herself is holding multiple town halls over a few days in Wyoming, where they're really hearing a lot of frustration directed their way about the way the President Trump has handled his first few months in office and those DOGE cuts being made to the federal government as well.

But it's not just Republicans who are feeling the heat from constituents. We have seen Democratic Casten and others really hear a lot of the frustration that constituents are feeling at this moment. Now, one thing that a lot of Democratic lawmakers had wanted to do over this recess was hold town halls to talk about the cuts that Trump and his team are trying to make, talk about potential cuts to Medicaid that could be coming.

[07:05:05] But you also have these Democratic lawmakers who are hearing an earful from constituents about their strategy, about the way that they have approached the Trump administration.

Now, Senator Elissa Slotkin is one of those who held a town hall last night in Michigan and she was pressed by some constituents asking when she's going to step up more in the way that people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders have done in the party. And this was her answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): I can't just chain myself to the White House and become an activist full time because you and others here are going to call me for things that you need.

All of those things require me to be more than just an AOC. I can't do what she does because we live in a purple state and I'm a pragmatist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, a bit later today, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders will be in Nevada hosting one of their fighting oligarchy tours. And really what we are seeing on display in the wake of that government shutdown fight last week is that Democrats are still strategizing, still figuring out how they are going to approach Trump going forward. And constituents are not being shy with voicing some of their frustrations about the way the Democrats have handled things so far.

SIDNER: This is how democracy generally works, though. Arlette Saenz, thank you so much.

And by the way, Congressman Sean Casten will join us in the 9:00 hour for his reaction and a chat on the town hall last night. John?

BERMAN: All right. Happening now, the Trump administration planning a big lesson in subtraction and division. The president is expected to sign an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education. One administration official says the president will order Secretary Linda McMahon to, quote, take all the necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the states. About 90 percent of authority already resides in the states.

Completely shutting down the department would, of course, take an act of Congress. Last week, the department announced it was cutting nearly half of its workforce, including 1,300 layoffs. The president's order will almost certainly ignite a major legal battle. The nation's largest teachers union already is firing back, saying, quote, Donald Trump and Elon Musk have aimed their wrecking ball at public schools and the futures of 50 million students in rural, suburban, and urban communities across America.

Let's get right to the White House. CNN's Alayna Treene is there for the latest on this. What do we expect, Alayna? ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, we're going to see the president later today really holding a made for T.V. event, John, for this executive order signing. He'll have Republican governors there. He's going to have state education officials as well as some school children in the Oval Office with him, really wanting, again, to make this a huge event because, remember, this is a long held campaign promise and something that the president has continued ever since taking office to say that he would do.

Now, I do want to reemphasize, John, what you said. To officially eliminate and fully dismantle the Department of Education would require an act of Congress. However, Trump officials believe that they will be able to effectively render it useless by slashing funding as well as slashing staffers.

Now, this is something I remind you that the president tried to do when he was first in office during his first term, he actually had proposed merging the Education and Labor Departments together. But, again, because of this requires an act of Congress, that effort failed. But this time around, he said that he's far more committed to it. I've heard that behind the scenes in my conversations with White House officials as well. And he essentially said that the only reason he put wrestling executive turned Education Secretary Linda McMahon in this job is essentially put herself out of a job. Take a listen to how he's put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I told Linda, Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job. I want her to put herself out of a job.

I want the states to run schools, and I want Linda to put herself out of a job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, John, unions are warning that this is going to be devastating to children across America, specifically those who are more unfortunate. This is what Becky Pringle, the president of the National Education Association, said. She said, if successful, Trump's continued actions will hurt all students by sending class sizes soaring, cutting job training programs, making higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle class families, taking away special education services for students with disabilities, and gutting student civil rights protection.

So, I don't think this is going to be the end of some of the criticism we hear from unions and others, but the president is going to barrel ahead with that order later today.

BERMAN: And we will see how it is all implemented.

Alayna Treene at the White House, thank you very much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Ahead, new overnight, President Trump pushing the Fed to cut interest rates after a stark warning on the economy from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell.

And a CNN investigation has found a growing number of conservative influencers, some of President Trump and Elon Musk's most public supporters, are increasingly becoming targets of swatting.

[07:10:08]

And now, the FBI is taking action.

And breaking overnight, a notorious gang leader taken into federal custody, why police say he was the kingpin of a mafia-like criminal enterprise.

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BERMAN: All right. New this morning, we are standing by to see how the markets feel today after the Federal Reserve decided to hold interest rates steady. The Fed also warning of weaker growth and higher inflation in the economic uncertainty created by President Trump's threats and actions on tariffs.

[07:15:01]

Let's get right to CNN's Matt Egan, who spent the day with the Fed and its chair yesterday. What did you learn, Matt?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, John, the word of the day was uncertainty. Again and again, Jerome Powell stressed how little visibility that officials have into all of these policy changes coming out of Washington and the impact on the economy. And Powell's thesaurus was working overtime. He described uncertainty as high, considerable, unusually elevated, and my personal favorite, really high.

Now, this is notable because it means that even Fed officials have less confidence in the direction of this economy. And that's why they're staying put right now. I mean, it's the Fed equivalent to getting out and asking for directions.

Now, even though rates are staying right where they are, the Fed did make some notable changes to its forecast, and none of these changes were positive ones. The Fed downgraded its GDP forecast for 2025, now calling for sub 2 percent growth, calling for inflation to move further away from the Fed's 2 percent goal and slightly increasing its unemployment rate forecast, so weaker growth, accelerating inflation.

This has at least a whiff of stagflation. Not saying that's where we're going, but at least directionally, that's where these forecast changes have gone.

Now, take a listen to Powell's explanation for why the inflation outlook has deteriorated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME POWELL, CHAIR, FEDERAL RESERVE: Inflation has started to move up now, we think partly in response to tariffs, and there may be a delay in further progress over the course of this year.

Forecasting right now, it's -- you know, forecasting is always very, very hard, and in the current situation, I just think it's -- uncertainty is, you know, remarkably high.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EGAN: Remarkably high. So, I think one of the keys though here from the Fed is that they're making clear they're not going to overreact to any acceleration in inflation that they believe is being driven by tariffs and is going to be short lived.

So, that's why Fed officials are still penciling in two interest rate cuts this year. Powell even brought back the dreaded T word, saying that at times it can be appropriate for the Fed to look through inflation if they believe it's transitory. Of course, John, we learned a few years ago that it can be really hard to know in the moment how transitory inflation is going to be, especially when it's driven by tariffs.

BERMAN: Yes. After big gains yesterday, you can see market futures down a little bit today. Penciling in two rate cuts, Matt, but I think maybe a little bit lighter shade of pencil than it was a few days ago.

Matt Egan, very in Washington, nice to see you, Matt.

This morning, newly released court filings in the murder case of four Idaho college students revealed the alleged killer took a smiling selfie just hours after the killings.

And information about the Holocaust, sexual assault and suicide prevention, all being removed from Pentagon websites in a new effort to eliminate, quote, diversity content.

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SIDNER: All right. Breaking overnight, new court filing in the Idaho quadruple murder case claimed the suspect took a selfie just hours after the killings. In the picture, Brian Kohberger is seen smiling and giving a thumbs up sign. This comes as defense attorneys in their own filings question prosecutor's timeline of the murders, claiming the surviving roommates used social media before the 911 call was placed.

Joining us now is CNN Legal Correspondent Gene Casarez. Holy smokes, there's a lot of like --

GENE CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I don't know where we start.

SIDNER: Where do you start? There're so many new details and they all bring up so many more questions.

CASAREZ: It's so interesting because this case has been so in secret for all these years. But now the trial is coming close and it feels like, of course, the public has a right to know what these documents, right? But now it also seems like both sides want the potential jury pool to hear what they've got and to combat it.

But I guess the first thing, let's start with the first thing here about this selfie that he took himself conceivably just hours after the murders happened. And, remember, he's pleaded not guilty and his attorney fights hard that he's innocent and all of this.

But the roommate, one of the surviving roommates, D.M., that actually opened her door and said she saw him in the hallway. Well, she explained that later to law enforcement in several interviews, and that's now in documents, and she said, he was all in black. He was covered up through his nose and the forehead. So, the only thing she could really see were some eyes and eyebrows. She said she couldn't remember the eyes, but the eyebrows were bushy. That's how she termed them.

And so then -- so this is a picture prosecutors want to bring before a jury to say, bushy eyebrows, look at that picture. And they will have to decide, right?

You know, she also says, though, that when she saw the mugshot, she says, I don't know if that's him or not. She could not identify him at that point. So, now the other aspect, KA-BAR knife. The KA-BAR knife sheath was found next to the body of Maddie Mogan. No murder weapon has ever been found.

SIDNER: Right.

CASAREZ: But they subpoenaed his Amazon purchase records. And between November 20 -- between March 20th and March 30th, 2022, according to legal documents, Brian Kohberger purchased a KA-BAR knife, a KA-BAR knife sheath and a sharpener.

[07:25:00]

Now, the defense is going to push back on that. We've read in filings from the prosecutor that they're going to say that was planted there. He wasn't in the house. He was someplace else. They can prove it. And that was planted there.

Last thing, the roommates. We know that this happened, law enforcement said, between 4:00 A.M. and 4:25 A.M. They started texting after that saying, I'm scared. I saw this guy ski mask on. We'll come to my room, which she did. But then they started looking at social media, Instagram, Snapchat, all of these social media sites for a long time. There's a little span of about two hours there. I don't know if they were up.

They also tried to contact the victims. They tried to call their mom and dad. We don't know why, but continue to do the social media, not calling 911 until about noon the next day.

SIDNER: There are so many questions. From your first sentence, it's hard not to be drawn into this, and I know the public is watching this very, very closely. But you are watching it closer. You know every single detail. Jean Casarez, I always appreciate you coming on.

CASAREZ: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Ahead, breaking news, new strikes are launched between Ukraine and Russia, hours after Ukraine's President Zelenskyy agreed to a partial ceasefire.

All right, somebody is here to murder me and my wife. That is a quote. The FBI has now launched an investigation after several bogus emergency calls are made at the homes of influencers who support President Trump. The FBI investigating, we will have that story and more ahead.

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