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March Madness Is In Full Swing With Tipoff Of The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament; Tesla Investor Calls For Elon Musk To Step Down As Tesla CEO; Commerce Secy. Urges People To Buy Tesla Stock, Raising Ethics Questions; "Have I Got New For You" New Episode Airs Tomorrow At 9P ET/PT; Comedian Amber Ruffin To Host White House Correspondents' Dinner. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired March 21, 2025 - 09:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:31:43]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: All right, this morning I want to show you someone who is perfect. He's over here. He's over here.

Harry Enten is perfect, OK? Let's just establish Harry Enten is perfect. But you know what's not perfect? His bracket, or nearly anyone else's. There are virtually no perfect brackets anymore. So our Chief Data Analyst Harry Enten here, is to tell us exactly how few.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: How few perfect brackets remaining on the men's side after, of course, the first round Thursday. Under 40,000 out of at least, what is this, 34 million to 35 million brackets online.

This is not much of a surprise, folks. This happens every single year because the chance of getting a perfect bracket are, by the end of the tournament, 1 in 9.2 quintillion. Your chance of getting struck by lightning during your lifetime is 1 in 15,000.

So there's a better chance that you get struck by lightning during your life than getting -- ending up with a perfect bracket. And at this particular point, there only less -- there are less than 40,000 perfect brackets in the nation. Don't be surprised that that number is zero by the end of this weekend. And, in fact, it's the most likely outcome.

BERMAN: I like the 1 in 9.2 quintillion. So you're saying there's a chance?

ENTEN: It's only 19 digits out, John.

BERMAN: OK.

ENTEN: It's only 19 digits out. So, yes, of course, there's a chance.

BERMAN: You know, I'm going to go put down, I'm going to go lay down $10 on that because I might make, you know, several quintillion dollars. There is some good news for people and their brackets this morning.

ENTEN: Right. Look, nobody's ever ending up with a perfect bracket. But the key is to get into the later rounds with your champions still alive. So how many folks' champions are still alive on the men's side? A significantly higher percentage than last year.

Last year was 91 percent by the end of the opening day Thursday. This year, get this, it's 98 percent. Yes, March Madness is wild. But yesterday wasn't particularly wild, right?

McNeese won as a 12 seed. But for the most part, there really weren't that many big upsets. The Johnnies, for instance, won as a 2 seed. Of course, the team I'm hoping goes all the way on the men's side. And they won in a blowout.

There really were just not that many close games involving a potential real chance for an upset. Maybe one of those later games last night that I was barely kind of paying attention to. But the bottom line is most people's championship choices still alive after the first Thursday.

BERMAN: I don't think they like the March, this isn't really madness slogan.

ENTEN: That's fine. You know what? We're CNN facts first.

BERMAN: All right, right. All right. Talk to me, the women's tournament starts today.

ENTEN: Yes, the women's tournament starts today. And so I'm going to have to take this off. I borrowed --

BERMAN: Just that.

ENTEN: Just that. Don't worry about it. We are on in the morning here. This isn't a late night show. And I'm borrowing this because Columbia's women's team actually made it past the first four winning yesterday. Their first ever tournament win. I do believe.

So let's talk about the top women's picks for the nation. Look, the chances, South Carolina Dawn Staley. Of course, her squad always in contention. 30 percent chance. UConn in second at a 20 percent chance of going all the way.

Interestingly enough, America's picks to go all the way. They flip it. UConn 30 percent chance for Geno Auriemma's squad, excuse me. 30 percent of all brackets filled out online. Have them as being the number one squad compared to 21 percent for South Carolina.

But the bottom line is either one of these two picks are pretty gosh darn good. And I will say I put on this Columbia shirt, it's actually my girlfriend's. I stretched out. I think I look pretty good, John. Don't you agree?

BERMAN: You look great. Hey, can you work the wall with the foam hand?

ENTEN: Let's see.

[09:35:02]

I kind of, kind of. I kind of look like a Huskies kind of going at the wall, right?

BERMAN: All right.

ENTEN: So it kind of works. We synthesize this all together on CNN News Central with your chief data analyst and, of course, your chief data analyst correspondent friend, John Berman.

BERMAN: That's my favorite television ever right there.

Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right. This morning, investors calling for Elon Musk to step down from Tesla amid a major recall of Cybertrucks. The company now the worst performing stock in the S&P 500 this year?

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[09:40:08]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: New this morning, Tesla is facing a bit of a crisis. Sales are falling around the world amid backlash over Elon Musk's seemingly ever expanding role in the Trump administration. The company is seeing the worst performing stock in the S&P 500 so far this year, and it just issued a recall of nearly all of its Cybertrucks in the U.S. because an exterior panel can come off while driving.

And now, a major investor in Tesla is calling for the billionaire CEO to step aside.

Joining us now is Ross Gerber, President and CEO of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth and Investment Management. Ross, thanks for being here with us this morning. I really appreciate it.

I know you've said Tesla needs a new CEO. Explain to us why.

ROSS GERBER, PRESIDENT & CEO, GERBER KAWASAKI WEALTH AND INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT: Well, because Elon doesn't work at Tesla. I think we can all just accept that he works at the government. And I have no problem that he's chosen this role that he wants to do in the Trump administration. But Tesla has been severely harmed by not only just his lack of attention and his association with Trump and the politics he's brought in, but also his just ridiculous rhetoric that, you know, it just infuriates customers and shareholders.

DEAN: And I want to play a clip from Howard Lutnick, who had this to say about Tesla. I just want to listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP) HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: Buy Tesla. It's unbelievable that this guy's stock is this cheap. It'll never be this cheap again. When people understand the things he's building, the robots he's building, the technology he's building, people are going to be dreaming of today.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

DEAN: Ross, this comes on the heels, of course, of that -- the President on the South Lawn of the White House with the Teslas and trying to kind of amp up sales from a business perspective. Does that help?

GERBER: No, I don't think that helps at all. You know, Lutnick and Trump -- first of all, Trump doesn't drive, OK? So having a non- driving person like say, oh, I'm getting a car and then basically not drive it doesn't sell cars.

We'll see. Maybe he got MAGA to buy the cars, you know. But I think this is an act of desperation. And instead, they should be advertising to the public with traditional ads, which I've been saying for two years. It's like, the only advertising Tesla has is what Elon does. And it's now causing people to literally attack Tesla owners and burn dealerships.

Like, this is a crisis of a situation in a business world that I've ever seen. So, you know, not ever, but it's pretty -- there is my cat -- it's pretty bad. So, you know, I think from my perspective, there's a CEO, Gwynne Shotwell at SpaceX, there's a CEO.

We asked him to get a CEO of Twitter and he found Linda Yaccarino, who's an amazing executive as well. And he can find an amazing executive or promote somebody like JB Straubel. But get somebody to run Tesla and focus on all these issues, because it's clear that he's not. And the results are starting to show.

And especially in the sales numbers dropping so precipitously, it's just like, you know, I mean, people are going to see this year the damage that's being done to the brand. And I think it's just so, like, distressful because Tesla's mission is advancing sustainable transportation and energy. And it's a critically important company for climate change.

And it might be a really cheap time to buy the stock if they actually get a real CEO. I'm not saying Elon shouldn't be involved with Tesla. What I'm saying is that somebody needs to be running the company just like every other company in America today. The CEO is 100 percent focused on that company's success.

DEAN: And, you know, it's interesting. I interviewed Dan Ives, who I'm sure you know, and he's one of Tesla's biggest champions. And he told me he thought Musk would reach essentially a tipping point in the next several weeks where he would have to decide between DOGE and being the CEO of Tesla.

Do you think that Musk himself can get there with that, that he can get to the point where he thinks he needs to choose?

GERBER: I'm the tipping point. I've had enough, OK? And I'm going to keep saying it until it happens. Somebody needs to address the issues at Tesla. And if it's not going to be Elon, it needs to be somebody else.

And I think the tipping point is here. I mean, what's worse than literally Tesla owners are scared of having their car vandalized, including me. I drive a Cybertruck and it's like I shouldn't have to feel like I'm like taking some sort of risk driving my truck. Like, you know, it's absurd.

I live in Santa Monica, you know, where everybody has a Tesla. And it's like people drive with their heads down because it's like we all love the cars and the brand. But now it's like this tainted thing. So --

DEAN: Yes.

GERBER: -- I think there's still time to repair Tesla and a really good crisis communication team can really help, you know, like real professionals who know what they're doing, who could help repair the brand.

[09:45:13]

But for some reason, Elon thinks he's above like anybody else and he knows exactly what he's doing. Well, let me tell you, this sucks, OK? It sucks to be a Tesla shareholder and it sucks to be a Tesla owner. And that's why I'm here.

DEAN: All right. Ross Gerber, who says he is the tipping point. He's ready for change. Thank you so much for being with us this morning. We really appreciate it.

This morning, global travel disrupted as a major fire shuts down one of the world's busiest airports. We're going to continue following breaking news out of London's Heathrow Airport.

And Roy Woods Jr. is leading a fresh episode of "Have I Got News" for you this Saturday. And he's here in the studio to give us a preview.

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[09:50:20]

BERMAN: All right, tomorrow, a brand new episode of "Have I Got News For You" is coming to CNN, hosted by Roy Wood Jr. with team captains Amber Ruffin and Michael Ian Black. The show serves up smart, edgy and opinionated takes on the news of the week.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

ROY WOOD JR., HOST, "HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU": Here's your headline, "The U.S. Is Making More Seizures Of Blank Than Fentanyl At Its Canadian And Mexican Borders". UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Straight up crack.

WOOD: Take a stab, Manesh (ph). What do you think other than fentanyl?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not eggs, but --

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What -- like, what's --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What else is illegal? Yes. Livestock, vegetables.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's got more street value than fentanyl at the moment?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think you were right with eggs.

WOOD: OK. Answer, the U.S. is making more seizures of illegal eggs --

(APPLAUSE)

WOOD: -- than fentanyl --

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

WOOD: -- at its Canadian and U.S. borders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not an audience (ph).

(END VIDEOCLIP)

BERMAN: That's like when life imitates comedy. I don't think I've ever seen that before. With us now, you can see him, Roy Wood Jr.

DEAN: Yay!

WOOD: Good to see you all.

DEAN: Good to have you.

WOOD: Thank you all for having me this morning. I like the no chair thing. It give you energy.

DEAN: Yes, you're just -- you're here.

WOOD: It forces me to wake up.

BERMAN: And it's cost conscious as well.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: It's funny because it's true.

(LAUGHTER) BERMAN: What's in store for this week's episode?

WOOD: We're still figuring out some of the headlines. You know, the news changes so fast. One minute you think you got it set, then Trump shut down the Department of Education. I know one thing's for sure. We'll probably dig into a little bit of what you were talking about earlier with Elon and just the whole thing of whether or not Tesla vandalism is that terrorism or just basic vandalism.

I think it errs on the side of terrorism. But the problem is that, like, don't you miss bin Laden? Do you remember when terrorism, like, somebody would do a thing and then their leader would release a video and go, that is why I did the thing to you.

Now everything is just all over the place. We don't know who's doing what. We don't know why. We don't know if it's outside agitators or we don't know if it's people that are actually liberal that are doing this. So I think it's one of those things where I feel like between myself, Amber, and Michael, we can try and get to the bottom of whether or not it's terrorism.

If it is terrorism, who's responsible for it? And if this is a new baseline for terrorism, then we need to use this going forward any other time somebody says OK (ph).

DEAN: OK, we will look forward to all of those answers.

BERMAN: You're just the people.

WOOD: You all just smooth ignored that question, but it's OK. I'm going to let you smooth ride.

DEAN: You know, we're just asking the questions here. So I host our show on the weekends that oftentimes leads into your show or is right before it. So we always play these clips and we do have a good chuckle. But what I love watching is how genuinely shocked you guys are at kind of the answers and, like, you get tickled with it too.

WOOD: It's legit a quiz show.

DEAN: Yes.

WOOD: I mean, our show is essentially, it's we are summarizing the news of the week in quiz show form. No one on that panel but me knows the answers. I'm your bootleg Steve Harvey. Timu (ph) Steve Harvey.

(LAUGHTER)

WOOD: For the older people, great value. Sam's choice, Steve Harvey. And I have all the answers on the cart. And so that's how we walk through the week. And so we're able to best as best we can try to laugh at some of it because it's not all a laughing matter.

DEAN: Yes.

BERMAN: It's so funny you say the answers on the cards. You know, Alex Trebek, may he rest in peace. People always just think he was so smart. I was like, the dude's got the answers.

DEAN: Right there.

BERMAN: It's a lot easier when the answers are right there, right?

WOOD: Yes.

BERMAN: Who's better, Amber or Michael Ian Black? I mean, who do you root for?

WOOD: Don't do that.

DEAN: Pick your favorite.

BERMAN: I mean, I know, you know, no one, you know, no one has favorite children except they do.

WOOD: You let me choose. Don't do that to me. They are both loved equally and have I got news for your family?

BERMAN: That's right.

WOOD: I think their chemistry is great and the way they play off of one another. It's chaotic. It is completely unscripted. And I'm thrilled and excited that, you know, that we're back and able to still do this.

DEAN: It is so fun. We were talking -- we hosted the White House Correspondents pre-coverage -- CNN coverage the year you hosted.

WOOD: Yes.

DEAN: So we watched you together.

WOOD: Are you all going this year?

DEAN: Very funny.

WOOD: Amber's hosting this year.

DEAN: So Amber's hosting this year. Have you guys talked about it at all?

WOOD: Casually in the hallway, but I'm one of those like, if you want to know something, ask me, but I'm not going to go up to her. Here's what you need to know, kid. I'm going to get you to the top.

Amber has, as I call it, attended 30 Rock University for a greater part of her professional career. So she has been up and down the hallways with some of the best political satirists. So I think she'll be perfectly fine in the role.

And I'm going to be thrilled to be at the Correspondents' dinner. And I can drink and not have to be nervous.

DEAN: And not have to perform. WOOD: And make small talk with Jill Biden for two hours before standing up. Nothing wrong with Jill Biden.

[09:55:05]

It's just, I'm about to go embarrass myself, ma'am. I need to focus on these notes. So it'll be good to be there in a relaxed capacity and support my colleagues.

BERMAN: What surprised you most when you did do it?

WOOD: The immense size of the room and the fact that the audience is lit and that you can see everybody --

BERMAN: Lit you mean, as in with lights, not as in drunk.

WOOD: Like, comedy clubs, I can just not see you and pretend you're laughing. But when you look at Lester Holt, and if Lester Holt ain't laughing, you're bombing. Or if Lester Holt's laughing and then you track to the left and you see Kellyanne Conway in behind, or you see Caitlyn Jenner and you're like, oh, Lord, what am I doing up here? And then you look over to the right and you see your mom and your mom goes.

DEAN: Oh, that's what moms are always good for that.

WOOD: That's all you need.

DEAN: Well, it's great to see you.

WOOD: Thank you all for having me.

DEAN: Thank you. We'll be watching on Saturday, Roy Wood Jr. And again, tune in to a new episode of "Have I Got News For You". It's tomorrow at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific. This week's guests are former Congressman Tim Ryan and comedian Jenny Hagel.

BERMAN: That's a great line.

DEAN: So that'll be fun.

BERMAN: Yes.

DEAN: Thanks so much for joining us.

BERMAN: Let me just say a very special goodbye to our friend Bob.

DEAN: Oh, Bob.

BERMAN: Bob's ditching us for sports.

DEAN: Yay!

BERMAN: This has been CNN News Central. Situation Room's up next.

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