Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Judge Blocks DOGE From Accessing Sensitive Social Security Data; Trump on Department of Education: "It's Doing Us No Good"; DC Firefighter Serves Got Meals to First Responders at Emergencies; "Adaptation Nation: A Climate Crisis Survival Guide." Aired 8:30-9 am ET

Aired March 21, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: -- exhibition and called it an intrusion into the personal affairs of millions of Americans.

Let's get right to CNN's Katelyn Polantz for the latest on this. Good morning, Katelyn.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. The judge here from the federal court in Maryland, she says DOGE went about their work at the Social Security Administration in the first days of the Trump presidency. In a way that was hitting a fly with a sledgehammer, that they were getting unbridled, unfettered, unrestricted access to all of the data at the Social Security Administration with essentially very little mechanism to protect sensitive information of millions of Americans.

The laundry list of the type of information at the Social Security Administration that about 10 people working with DOGE could have had access to. It's medical records, mental health records, hospitalization records, driver's license numbers, bank and credit card information, tax information, income history, work history, birth and marriage certificates and home and work addresses.

Judge Ellen Hollander, this is the specific quote that she wrote in determining that she wanted to lock down that information, anonymize it from DOGE, make sure that people like Elon Musk and the administrator of DOGE will not have full access to it.

She writes, "The DOGE team is essentially engaged in a fishing expedition at the Social Security Administration in search of a fraud epidemic based on little more than suspicion. It has launched a search for the proverbial needle in the haystack without any concrete knowledge that the needle is actually in the haystack."

So a pretty significant ruling from this judge locking down sensitive data there, putting the brakes on what DOGE is doing with data at that agency. There's a lot of cases like this and this case is far from over, John. This is just a temporary restraining order.

The judge is going to look even closer at the facts going forward to determine whether there should be a more indefinite lockdown on what DOGE can access at that crucial agency for millions of Americans, John. BERMAN: So the potential for even greater implications going forward. Katelyn Polantz, great to see you this morning. Thanks for sharing your reporting.

This morning, a new report on how one firefighter who pulled remains and wreckage from the Potomac after the plane crash earlier this year is revolutionizing mental health care for first responders. And it is often ranked as the number one Christmas song of all time.

Now, a major court ruling in a year's long lawsuit against Mariah Carey alleging that she stole her mega hit, "All I Want for Christmas is You."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:37:11]

BERMAN: All right, this morning, new questions for public schools, student loan holders and parents after President Trump signed that executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT: The Department of Education, we're going to eliminate it, and everybody knows it's right. We're going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible. It's doing us no good. We want to return our students to the states.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: With us now is Margaret Spelling, CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center and former Education Secretary under President George W. Bush.

Secretary, thank you so much for being with us. You've been on both sides of this. You've done education at the federal level, at the state and local level. Is it even clear to you how this will work?

MARGARET SPELLINGS, CEO, BIPARTISAN POLICY CENTER: I have a lot of questions, as you might imagine, because the federal role really is pretty minimal. Nine cents on the dollar comes from states and locals. They describe curriculum, they develop tests, they set passing scores, book lists, technology requirements, on and on and on, as they should.

And so the federal role really is about holding ourselves accountable for the achievement of every student, shining that light of data in higher ed and in K-12. And so I have a lot of questions about how this is going to work, especially if these programs, and I commend the administration for continuing to support them, but if they get distributed to a bunch of other agencies, how is that going to be more efficient? So I just have some questions.

BERMAN: You know, one of your successors, Arne Duncan, says when he hears rhetoric coming from some, we want to return the power to the states, he feels like saying, congratulations, you did this decades ago. The power for education --

SPELLINGS: Exactly.

BERMAN: -- it's been there.

SPELLINGS: Right, and I don't think any governor is saying, we're holding back on improving student achievement until the federal government gets out of their way. Obviously, they're trying to develop workforces that are competitive and grow their economies. And so it's a little bit of a red herring, in my view, that, you know, the federal government is the one holding us back. It's not the case.

Our thesis in Washington has been that because we Americans believe that everyone should have an opportunity for an education and it's unequally distributed around our country, that we Americans have an interest in helping level the playing field in urban districts, for special education students, for poor students, and on the higher ed side of the house to provide financial aid so people can access post- secondary education and the American dream.

BERMAN: Of course, George W. Bush, when he was governor and then ran for president and then was president, the line was he wanted to make sure no child was left behind. If the Department of Education is dismantled the way that President Trump wants it to be, which children do you fear might be left behind?

[08:40:01]

SPELLINGS: Well, it potentially is going to be very unclear, and that's why one of the things I'm most concerned about is the elimination of muscular data systems that show how we're doing, you know, with respect to the accountability, the achievement of reading and math. You know, the President quoted NAEP data yesterday, and yet they've gutted the Institute of Education Sciences.

And so, you know, if we don't have really the truth-telling that only the federal government can do really, whether it's the Department of Education or the Department of Labor, you know, that is what will help us really shine the light on achievement and, frankly, in the research, show us who's doing it well and who is a laggard.

BERMAN: You think there will be less accountability in education going forward potentially?

SPELLINGS: There certainly could be. There certainly could be. And that's one of the things I'm most concerned about because while we're debating the niceties of which bureaucracy should do what, you know, I fear we're losing sight of the most important thing, and that is more urgent action around reading and math and student achievement.

BERMAN: Margaret Spellings, former Secretary of Education, nice to see you again. Thanks for coming in. Appreciate it.

SPELLINGS: Good to see you, John. Happy birthday.

BERMAN: Thank you.

Jessica? JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: Happy birthday. We're going to come back to that.

A D.C. firefighter is doing double duty. He serves his community during emergencies like the recent deadly collision of an Army helicopter with an American Airlines jet, but he's also serving other first responders with a meal and a special mission. CNN Correspondent Gabe Cohen explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today we're just preparing the food that we're going to enjoy tomorrow, so we have salmon, green beans, going to do chicken.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In this bustling kitchen, Jonathan Tate is on a mission to serve more than meals.

JONATHAN TATE, FOUNDER, FOOD FOR THOUGHT: What does a first responder do when they can't respond?

COHEN: Because he's not just a cook, he's a firefighter in the nation's capital, and this is the ultimate comfort food that stirs up memories of what he and his colleagues have experienced.

TATE: Ongoing support is needed for those first responders just based on the fact that it wasn't business as usual that day.

COHEN: Tate was among the hundreds of first responders called to the icy Potomac River in January when an Army helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet, killing all 67 people on board.

TATE: If I show up to a scene and a person is dead, that's called DOA, dead on arrival. This was a bit different. You still had to engage.

COHEN: They combed the crash site for days, recovering remains and wreckage. And throughout it, Tate brought in hot meals to keep the emergency crews fed on the front lines.

TATE: Just because it's not at the front page of the newspaper or at the headlines of the media doesn't mean those images go away for first responders. And not only that, we deal with traumatic experiences every day. I felt like it was the opportune time to start Food for Thought.

COHEN: Tate, who runs a nonprofit feeding healthy meals to firefighters, came up with another simple yet profound recipe. Bring together first responders every Thursday for a hot meal and a safe space to seek mental health services. He hopes this program will become available to first responders nationwide.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Recognizing that when we're unpacking memories, we need to process it in an expressive way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Getting people moving, doing breathing exercises, but then also having them stop to think. I don't know that in between calls they get that opportunity.

COHEN: Some of them are battling PTSD, which by one estimate, about one in three first responders develop.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prior to Food for Thought, they may not have had those resources.

COHEN: Tackling trauma with a secret ingredient, compassion for those who protect and serve.

TATE: This is what God has called me to do as a first responder. One, to serve my community, but also to serve those who serve us being first responders. And you can't put a price on someone risking their life for you. So let's make sure that those who are risking their lives for us, that we take good care of.

Gabe Cohen, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: All right, Gabe Cohen, thank you so much. Happy birthday.

BERMAN: Thank you.

DEAN: We really fell down on the job. I did.

BERMAN: We brought in a former Secretary of Education.

DEAN: Who had to set us straight.

BERMAN: She was so learned that she knew. In fact, it was my birthday. I appreciate it very much.

This morning, a new CNN report looks into groundbreaking innovations that could allow communities to withstand any climate disaster. And a production dogged by controversy, Disney's new live action version of Snow White is now in theaters. Will the off-screen drama threaten its Box Office success?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:49:10]

DEAN: The past 10 years were the hottest ever recorded. That's according to a report from some of the world's top climate scientists. The record heat helped fuel disasters across the globe. Hurricanes, floods, wildfires. Only getting worse. Costing the U.S. billions of dollars in damage every year.

And this week on "The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper." CNN's Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir travels the globe to see for himself some innovative solutions that could allow us to build safe and sustainable communities that can withstand climate disasters.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After 2025 began with the worst urban wildfire in American history, thousands of burned-out families and businesses across Los Angeles County are wondering what comes next and studying what survived.

[08:50:01]

(On camera): Greg, I'm standing in front of your creation and it looks like it was sort of airlifted in here after the fire. It is so relatively unscathed. How much of that is luck? How much of that was by design?

(Voice-over): After this Pacific Palisades house went viral for its survival, architect Greg Chasen told me that the vacant lot next door was a fire break made of luck. But the house is a definition of fire adaptation. With a wall instead of a picket fence around native landscaping. Tempered glass windows with metal frames.

(On camera): It's striking how clean the lines are and that is advantageous when it comes to blowing embers. There's just less to get hung up on, right?

GREG CHASEN, SANTA MONICA-BASED ARCHITECT: I really think it is. A lot of the other new houses that burned in the area, they have gable upon gable upon gable. It just creates more and more areas for fire and embers to collect and do damage.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: That really is incredible. Bill joins us now. Walk us through what made you decide to go on this journey.

WEIR: It was the birth of my little boy. The height of the pandemic, 2020. I'm holding a little river and realizing this kid could live to the 22nd century. But on this beat, you wonder where should he live? What kind of house? How can he survive flood, fire? Everything that comes with an overheating planet right now.

As Mr. Rogers taught us, look for the helpers when things get serious. I went looking for helpers, contractors, designers, investors who have the cutting-edge ideas to build sustainable communities. And I think we found a lot of hope.

DEAN: And that's the thing, because on your beat of climate change, it's pretty dire a lot of the time. To find some hopeful things must have felt nice and to be able to share them with us.

WEIR: We have such capacity. These brains that made the problem, maybe by mistake, maybe out of greed lately, can fix it if everybody is rowing in the same direction. So, ideas on new kinds of energy, new ways to build, new kinds of communities. How to pull water out of the air in desert communities when there's drought. How to desalinate. There's so many cutting edges, almost like an industrial revolution going on behind the scenes.

Now, the politics on top of that lately is squashing it. Scientists, investors, a lot of people feeling the pain of this new administration that doesn't want to believe in climate change, is scrubbing even references from it, from federal websites. But I would argue that means now more than ever, we have to lean across the fence, meet our neighbors, try to understand how resilient our community is. Where's our water coming from? What's in the air? Turning that anxiety into action can really actually help build more resilient neighborhoods. We're seeing examples from the wildfires, from hurricanes. I look for the survivors, those homes that held up. What's their secret? And it's accessible to everybody.

DEAN: Yeah, that's so fascinating. And did you leave all of this thinking, there is hope for some of these areas, I think, about Southern California, that we can continue living there?

WEIR: Yes, but it's just not the way we used to.

DEAN: Yeah.

WEIR: Right? You have to rethink your relationship with fire, with landscapes, with ecosystems. And this is a -- we call this Adaptation Nation, is the title of this. And for the longest time, people in the climate space didn't want to talk about adaptation because that was surrender. It was all about mitigation, stopping the, you know, planet-cooking pollution. But humanity waited too long, and now there has to be adaptation built in at the same time in order to make these communities survive, because the pain that is built into the system now -- I'll show you a map of the North Pole. This is in February, where temperature is worth 36 degrees Fahrenheit above normal., 36 degrees above.

So sea ice is shedding, land ice is shedding, weather patterns are changing, but knowledge is power, and communities have the tools if they pull together and look at the science.

DEAN: This is fascinating, and we should all watch, because I think it's going to -- it affects all of us.

Bill Weir --

WEIR: I appreciate it.

DEAN: -- thank you so much. And be sure to tune in for an all-new episode of "The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper" at Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only here on CNN.

John?

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, a federal judge who was in the minority of a gun safety decision later posted a video with guns expressing his opinion. He went on YouTube about the federal appeals court decision banning large-capacity gun magazines. Judge Lawrence VanDyke, in the video, loads various guns in his chambers and gives something of a tutorial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LAWRENCE VANDYKE, ATTORNEY: It didn't appear that counsel understood what I was asking. So take a look again at this handgun. What you see on here are iron sights. You have a front and a rear iron sight, and the way that you fire this handgun, the way you aim it is you take and you line up these two sights and you line them up on what you want to shoot at, and that's how you hit what you're aiming at with this firearm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So one of the other judges in the case criticized Judge VanDyke, saying he was basically making himself an expert witness in the case and adding facts that were not part of the official record.

Tesla is recalling nearly all of its cyber trucks in the U.S. because of an exterior panel that could come off while you were driving. This covers more than 46,000 vehicles built from November 2023 to February of this year. It's a new setback for Elon Musk's company, which has seen its stock plummet more than 40% this year.

[08:55:12]

Then a major ruling on the number one-ranked Christmas song of all time. A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that Mariah Carey did not steal "All I Want for Christmas Is You."

So the writers of a 1989 country song, which was also called "All I Want for Christmas Is You," accused Carey of copyright infringement and filed a $20 million lawsuit. This was their song.

On Wednesday, a judge ruled in Carey's favor without going to trial, saying she did not steal the song.

Jessica?

DEAN: All right, Disney's live-action Snow White opens this weekend in theaters, but controversies over casting and the depiction of some of its most notable characters made bringing this movie to life far from a fairy tale. Here's the star of the film, Rachel Zegler, talking about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL ZEGLER, ACTRESS: It's no longer 1937, and we absolutely wrote a Snow White that is --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's not going to be saved by the prince.

ZEGLER: She's not going to be saved by the prince, and she's not going to be dreaming about true love. She's dreaming about becoming the leader she knows she can be, and the leader that her late father told her that she could be if she was fearless, fair, brave, and true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And joining us now is art historian Carmenita Higginbotham to talk about the latest adaptation of Snow White.

Good morning to you. Thanks for being here with us. Just for people cluing in, why has this Snow White been so plagued by controversy?

CARMENITA HIGGINBOTHAM, ART HISTORIAN: Well, we really have to think about the original film. And to be honest, most individuals have not seen that film. They are operating on a sense of the memory of, or memories of pieces of the film, the character, the dwarfs, the ending.

And that film from 1937 very much is rooted in the culture in which it derived. So when Disney tries to adapt one of its legendary films, one of its key founding films for the entire Princess franchise that we have known since the late 80s and through the early 90s, it's going to hit a brick wall. It's going to cause audiences to react quite significantly to the way that their own memories of that film or pieces of that film exist in their lives.

DEAN: And you've said that the original animated Snow White from Disney is, in your words, the perfect embodiment of 1930s culture. And to your point, that would mean it would need a fair amount of updating to connect with a 2025 audience. Tell us -- just tell us a little bit more about that, because I think you make such a great point, which is how many of us have actually watched that animated movie recently, right? It's just pieces of it that we remember.

HIGGINBOTHAM: Right. Pieces. And most individuals haven't seen it all the way through. They've only seen components. It's hard to get a sense of the feeling of what a Disney film means in a particular historical moment, what it meant for audiences, the type of technology that was produced at the time in the 30s, seeing it on the big screen for the first time.

Now you have quite savvy audiences who are thinking about their own relationship to childhood, to dreams, to the state of women being rescued by princess, how that narrative is meant to unfold. And it's almost a pretty incredible feat to try to take that narrative that was so prominent to the brand of Disney, recast it (technical difficulty) climate to make it palatable for contemporary audiences, and then represent it.

You would almost need (technical difficulty) Disney knows. It knows that there is still capital with these princess characters. It knows that these princesses are very much a part of the brand. It is why audiences keep returning. It's what they visit at the parks.

And so needing to redress this in a live-action feature film, this is important to Disney, but to audiences, many of them could feel like it's a betrayal for how they engage with the brand overall and with these films.

DEAN: That is very interesting. All right, Carmenita Higginbotham, thanks so much for your time. We appreciate it.

And a new hour of CNN News Central starts right now.

[09:00:00] BERMAN: All right, breaking news. We're just learning that London Counter Terror Police are taking control of the investigation into the fire that shut down one of the world's busiest airports. We've got new --