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Upside for Trump in Polls; Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) is Interviewed about the Unclassified War Chat; Spring Heat Wave Hits Western U.S.; Dr. David Higgins is Interviewed about the Measles Outbreak. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired March 25, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: And I'm going to do that right here because all we talk about is how unpopular Donald Trump is. But in reality, he's basically more popular than he was at any point in term number one, and more popular than he was when he won election back in November of 2024.

What are we talking about? His net favorable rating right now comes in at minus four points. Compare that to where he was when he won in November of 2024, when he was at minus seven points, or March of 2017 when he was at minus 10 points. So, when you compare Trump against himself, he's actually closer to the apex than he is to the bottom of the trough. And, of course, that's so important because Donald Trump, historically speaking, has had his numbers underestimated. So, I think it's very important to compare him to himself, to understand, he's actually more popular now than he was when he won, or certainly where he was at this point back in his first term.

The bottom line is, Trump is more towards the ceiling than he is towards the floor.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: So, when - when you do that it makes my knees hurt.

So, when you look at this compared to sort of historically -

ENTEN: Yes.

SIDNER: What does it tell you about the percentage of folks that think the country itself, with him at the helm -

ENTEN: Correct.

SIDNER: Is on the right track?

ENTEN: This, I think, is rather important because, again, if the polls have historically underestimated Donald Trump, what is a metric that might get at understanding at how popular he may actually be.

So, let's take a look at the percentage of the country who say that we're on the right track. It's actually a very high percentage when you compare it to some historical numbers. What are we talking about? According to Marist. 45 percent say that

we're on the right track. That's the second highest that Marist has measured since 2009. How about NBC News, 44 percent. That's the highest since 2004.

SIDNER: wow.

ENTEN: The bottom line is, the percentage of Americans who say we're on the right track is through the roof. And if you were to compare it to when presidents have historically been re-elected, of course, Trump is not constitutionally eligible to run for re-election, but I think it sort of puts it in perspective, 42 percent of the country says the country is on the right track when the incumbent party is re-elected.

And also keep in mind, back when Kamala Harris lost and the Democrats were turned out of power, only about 27 to 28 percent of the country said the country was on the right track. The bottom line is, right now, a much higher percentage of the country says we're on the right track.

And finally, Sara Sidner, I want to put it all in the congressional generic ballot.

SIDNER: What about Congress?

ENTEN: What about Congress? Because those are the folks who are up in 2026. And take a look here. The Dems versus the Republicans on the generic congressional ballot. Back in November of 2020, when Democrats won, it was plus five Democrats. Tied in November of 2022. Plus one in November of 2024, when Republicans maintain control. And then you look at March of 2025, this number looks a lot more like 2022 or 2024, when Republicans won control of Congress.

The bottom line is, yes, Donald Trump's approval rating is lower than compared to a lot of his predecessors, but it's higher when compared to himself. A lot of folks say the country's on the right track, and the generic congressional ballot looks a heck of a lot more like when Republicans win than when Democrats win.

SIDNER: It will be interesting to see if any of what just happened with these leaking of the texts plays into it in a - in a later poll. But this is very telling.

ENTEN: This is very telling. At least at this point Republicans are still in the catbird seat.

SIDNER: All right.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Coming up for us, one Republican congressman says he'd have lost his security clearance for a lot less than what the defense secretary and the president's national security advisor did with that unclassified group chat about Yemen battle plans, which is - one question swirling today is, can Mike Waltz survive the day? A member of the House Intelligence Committee is our guest. And only in Texas does this become a problem. Chaos on a busy highway, all because of cattle. Officers called in to wrangle dozens of them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:38:11]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. WES MOORE (D-MD): Who's going to lose their job for this? Who is going to lose their job to know that we have violated serious and significant national security operational secrets? And I'm still wondering, who is going to be held accountable?

When I was leading soldiers in Afghanistan, we took operational security very, very seriously. And it's my hope that the federal government is doing the same thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: That is the Democratic governor of Maryland speaking to Sara just this morning on the show. And the questions he is asking is, why the president's national security advisor, Mike Waltz, for one, is in the headlines this morning, to say the least, for all the wrong reasons, after the White House says he is the official who added a journalist to a group chat sharing Yemen battle plans. That chat playing out in wild fashion on an unclassified messaging app. To state the obvious, that is not protocol. And, yes, there are many easily accessible and established ways for national security officials to communicate safely.

But what happens now? Where will the fallout go?

Joining us right now is the Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, thank you for coming in.

You have said that you are demanding a full accounting from the agencies on how this happened. What do you think should happen here?

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): Well, there needs to be an investigation. I think the fact that if you read that Signal conversation, the fact that nobody said, hey, maybe we shouldn't be doing this, should we take this offline to the Skiff, a classified space to discuss this in person. Nobody asked, who is this guy J.G. on - on the chat, suggests to me that perhaps this is happening in other instances. They're using Signal to transmit classified information and other conversations.

So, we need to figure out the full extent of that and whether there's been any damage done through that particular potential pattern of communication and who needs to be held accountable.

[08:40:07] BOLDUAN: If this is investigated, who - who should be doing the investigating, considering who all was involved in the chat? The White House, State, Defense, DNI, CIA.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Right.

BOLDUAN: I mean even Treasury was on there, apparently.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yes. I mean, you know, it's - ordinarily you'd think the inspectors general of the different agencies would collaborate on this. But as you know, a lot of these inspectors general were fired. There aren't independent, truly independent people to investigate. And that's one of the reasons why Congress, at least many of us in Congress are very upset about that.

All that being said, now there has to be some independent investigation, whether it's by the acting inspectors general or committees of Congress.

Tomorrow we're having a worldwide threats hearing in the Intelligence Committee in the House. I'm sure this is going to come up today in the Senate as well in their analogous hearing. But we need to have answers quickly.

BOLDUAN: I mean this - as this was - I mean this started playing out yesterday afternoon-ish. Have you heard anything - you can't, obviously, speak about classified matters. We definitely know that from this - from - from how this played out. But is there a conversation among Intelligence Committee members -

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Let me send that to you on Signal.

BOLDUAN: Yes. That also not funny at this point.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yes. Yes, exactly.

BOLDUAN: Is - has - is there a conversation amongst intelligence committee members on pulling people to The Hill in a classified setting to get some of these answers? That can be as - that can be quick and easily done?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Yes. There's extensive conversation. And that's actually going to happen tomorrow. We're going to have this hearing that I call the worldwide threats hearing in a classified setting, along with an open setting. So, in the classified setting, I'm sure that all of us are going to be asking very pointed questions of the new DNI, as well as others, about this particular situation, you know, basically because they were part of this chat as well.

BOLDUAN: They were. I have seen some reporting that some of the conversations now underway among White House officials are over whether the president's national security adviser, Mike Waltz, should be forced to resign or should lose his job over this. Do you think he should?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Potentially, yes. I'd like to see this investigation, though. I think - I - I - I have a feeling that this isn't the only Signal conversation that happened involving classified information. Just before I came on air, I got this text from the mom of a sailor who showed a bulletin informing the sailor and all of his colleagues that Signal is not an appropriate place to be having a transmission of classified or even, in some cases, confidential information or top secret information. And so, the fact that an average enlisted person knows this, and the fact that if they had engaged in this same behavior they would be court martialed or - or forced to resign means that whether it's Mike Waltz or Pete Hegseth or anyone else, they need to face similar consequences if they're responsible.

BOLDUAN: Well, let's see what happens in this Senate hearing today and also very interested to happen - what happens in the House hearing tomorrow before your committee.

Congressman, thank you for coming in.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, a major spring heat wave is hitting the western U.S. More than 75 record high temperatures are expected this week.

Let's get right to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam.

A lot of people feeling record highs, Derek, just like me.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, And spring has sprung for so many of us. But this is not the news that people in and around Phoenix want to hear considering that last year, if you recall this, they had a 113 day stretch where the mercury in the thermometer climbed above 100 degrees. And today they could break another record. And I'll tell you about that in just one moment.

Look at the scattering of all these locations that could have record heat through the course of this week. Spring really kicking into high gear for so many locations. But if we focus in on what happens in Phoenix later today, potentially we could be talking about the earliest that Phoenix has ever reached 100 degrees. It's going to be a close call, but certainly something to monitor.

Look at this. Remember what happened over the past couple of seasons? They had back-to-back record number of 100 degree plus days. Well, today, if they reach 100 degrees, would be the earliest that the city has ever recorded triple digit heat. And that's really saying something about what we're facing this season as we head into the spring and eventually the summer season for the location. Remember, Phoenix, some of the standard equipment on ambulances and fire trucks last season were body bags with ice to help cool peoples internal core temperature down.

It's not just Phoenix. It's other locations.

[08:45:01]

Palm Springs, up the West Coast. This is where the heat will build through the next coming days. And you can see how it shifts from the West Coast today and tomorrow through the Rockies for Wednesday and Thursday and eventually spreading to the east. And you'll see the temperatures start to rise for various locations from the West Coast all the way to the deep south.

John.

BERMAN: Awfully early to see these temperatures.

All right ,Derek Van Dam, thanks so much for being with us.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, a six-year-old girl who had been missing for more than a month was rescued after a traffic stop in Kansas. A highway trooper had stopped an SUV and discovered a man in the passenger seat was wanted for kidnaping that girl. A child matching her description was in the car as well. And then the driver had a criminal record that included homicide. Both adults were taken into custody. Authorities say the girl was coached to give a fake name, but she eventually told the trooper who she really was.

All right, this morning, a Florida man - they are always messing with my state - is charged with aggravated assault after police say he drove his car toward a group of people protesting outside a Tesla dealership in Palm Beach, almost hitting some of those protesters with his car. The sheriff's office says he drove his vehicle up onto the sidewalk and then forced a bunch of people to jump out of the way. Thankfully, they did, because everybody is OK. An employee at the dealership says the driver then went inside to tell them that he stands with Tesla, and then he walked out to be arrested.

All right, a picture for the ages. This is Texas, y'all. And, yes, those are steers on the run on the freeway. Six of them managed to escape from their trailers on their way home from the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, shutting down traffic and weaving around cars. It took four hours, but all six were eventually wrangled back in the trailer. The sheriff's office says they are investigating potential charges for the driver of that trailer that let all those steers out onto the freeway.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, this morning, a preview of my special project, two years in the making, what emergency responders are facing with this fentanyl crisis the country's still in the midst of. And the new first of its kind solution that we followed as EMTs try to do more than just save the lives ravaged by this horrible drug. That's coming up.

And one pediatrician is warning that measles is only one flight away as cases around the country continue to climb now into the hundreds. How the Trump administration's global health cuts may make the problem worse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:52:04]

SIDNER: This morning, the number of reported measles cases in the U.S. is 404 by CNN's count. A majority of those is from the ongoing outbreak in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma. Cases are also on the rise around the globe now because of under vaccination. Experts say that controlling measles abroad could become harder with the Trump administration's recent global health funding cuts. That could also have a huge impact here in the states. One pediatrician told CNN, and I'm quoting here, "for the United States, measles is only a plane flight away."

Joining me now is pediatrician Doctor David Higgins of the University of Colorado medical campus there.

Let me first ask you, can we just be very, very clear? Measles was all but eradicated in the United States. Can you make - give us the reason why we are back here at this point where we're seeing more than 400 cases and a child has died of measles?

DR. DAVID HIGGINS, PEDIATRICIAN, UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO ANSCHUTZ MEDICAL CAMPUS: Yes. So, thank you for having me on this morning to talk about this really important issue.

We're in the middle of a global measles crisis right now. So, for example, last year, Europe reported its highest number of measles cases in 25 years. And, as you already said, here in the U.S., we've already reported more cases in the first few months of 2025 than in all of 2024. And this is a tragedy because measles is entirely preventable with vaccines.

Now, the global surge in measles that we're seeing is due to two major forces. One is pandemic era disruptions to vaccination programs, especially in lower income and conflict afflicted regions, and growing vaccine hesitancy in wealthier countries, such as America. And just as global vaccination programs are struggling to recover from Covid-era setbacks, the U.S. is pulling back support for global immunization and measles prevention efforts.

SIDNER: What - what can be done right now to try and prevent this from exploding even further? Because we're on sort of the brink of an explosion of this. And a lot of people don't think of measles as any big deal. And then you hear, a child has died from it.

HIGGINS: Yes, so here in America, because of vaccines, we don't see measles very often. Vaccines are a victim of their own success. But measles is among the most contagious viruses on earth. Far more contagious than Covid-19 or influenza. And it is also one of the most preventable.

So, for over 60 years, we've had safe, highly effective vaccines. And these work at preventing measles in our communities. But when vaccination rates fall, it's not a matter of if an outbreak will occur, it's a matter of when. And measles is only a plane flight away. Every imported measles case that comes into the U.S. enters a patchwork of communities where vaccination rates are falling. And every single imported case is another spark that can launch a measles outbreak.

[08:55:02]

SIDNER: Can you give us some sense of what the cuts that the U.S. is certainly making to - to funding abroad, including U.S. aid, and some of the health care funding cuts, how that impacts the spread of a communicable diseases like measles?

HIGGINS: Yes, so global funding cuts are impacting key partners around the world. The World Health Organization, UNICEF and Gabby (ph), these are just some examples of the organizations that are leading global efforts to prevent vaccine preventable diseases like measles. And this isn't just about international humanitarian aid. It's also about public health here at home.

So, when the U.S. cuts funding for global measles prevention, we're not just turning our backs on children abroad, we're dismantling our own first line of defense. Viruses like measles, they don't stop at borders. Investing in global measles immunization efforts is both a moral responsibility and smart, strategic public health for America. Protecting children around the world protects all of us.

SIDNER: Dr. David Higgins, thank you so much for being so stark and so clear about what is causing the spread of this. It is that people are not getting vaccines. Thank you. I really appreciate it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, Naloxone, is known also as Narcan, is a medication that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose. When it comes to the fentanyl crisis, it has been credited as a big reason overdose death rates have dropped in this country. But what happens after Narcan is administered to opioid users? Actually, to put it another way, what should happen after? What you're about to watch is another excerpt from my special project, two years in the making, set to air this Sunday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC TUTTLE, PARAMEDIC: You are in withdrawal, OK?

What we'd like to do is give you a dose of high dose buprenorphine to get the withdrawal symptoms away. It goes in your cheek.

ON SCREEN TEXT: Cooper paramedics are the first in the nation to carry buprenorphine.

TUTTLE: The buprenorphine is kept with the rest of our narcotics. We're already precepting (ph) withdrawal with the Narcan -

BOLDUAN: Yes.

TUTTLE: But we don't have a choice. You know, the Narcan is needed to get them resuscitated and breathing again.

We want to make your COWS score to go down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

TUTTLE: The treatment for withdrawal is more buprenorphine. Give them two strips. And usually within four to seven minutes we start seeing their heart rate decrease. We keep asking them, like, how's your stomach feel? How are your tremors? And we just gradually watch the numbers decrease.

And I'll put one in each cheek, OK?

And then just let them dissolve and we'll be done.

BOLDUAN: What was the result you were seeing when you were only using Narcan?

TUTTLE: We would still try to talk to them and tell them that there is treatment available. But a lot of times those patients were so far into withdrawal after receiving the Narcan.

BOLDUAN: They weren't even listening.

TUTTLE: They just wanted to get away before the withdrawal got worse. Once you treat the withdrawal, then you can have a nice casual conversation.

She pulled into the gas station. Bystanders helped pull her out of the car. And they started throwing water on her to try to get her to wake up. And then they called 911.

This is high-dose bup, OK? You're going to put it in your - open your mouth real wide. We're going to do one on one side, one on the other. Now just close your mouth. As that dissolves, you'll start to feel better, OK?

You - we found you overdosed in a parking lot at the gas station, OK? You weren't breathing.

We're going to have you talk to a doctor from addiction medicine, OK?

Hopefully she'll get into treatment and do well. If not, at least we kept her from getting more sick.

BOLDUAN: Has your view of substance use and addiction changed from what you've seen?

TUTTLE: There was a time when I could look at somebody that was struggling with addiction and think that they made a lot of bad choices and they did this to themselves. Every individual has a different story. You don't know what led them down this path.

BOLDUAN: There's a study of this exact program on EMTs carrying buprenorphine and giving it to opioid - people who have overdosed. And what they found is the intervention was associated with a nearly six- fold increase in the odds of engagement with treatment within 30 days. Meaning, it gives them a much more higher likelihood of getting to rehab than if they had not gotten this from the EMTs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:00:04]

BOLDUAN: So, experts say even buprenorphine has its limits when it comes to fentanyl.