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Secy. Rubio Speaks As New Group Chat Messages Are Published; WH: Trump To Announce New Auto Tariffs Today; GOP Senate Armed Services Chair Wants Probe Into Signal Chat; Supreme Court Upholds Background Check Rules For "Ghost" Guns. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired March 26, 2025 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: -- made a mistake and added a journalist. Nothing against journalists, but you ain't supposed to be on that thing. So they got on there and this happened.

I've been -- you know, I can speak to myself or my presence on it. I think my-- my role on it was -- just speaking for my role, I contributed to it twice. I identified my point of contact, which is my chief of staff.

And then later on, I think three hours after the White House's official announcements have been made, I congratulated the members of the team.

I've been assured by the Pentagon and everyone involved that none of the information that was on there -- though not intended to be divulged -- obviously, that was a mistake and that shouldn't have happened. And the White House is looking at it.

But that none of the information on there, at any point, threatened the operation or the lives of our servicemen. And in fact, there was a very successful operation, and it's an ongoing operation. But that was the intent behind it.

And -- and again, I think the Pentagon's made clear that nothing on there would have endangered the lives or the mission. And the mission has been very successful.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Is it classified, the information?

RUBIO: Well, the Pentagon says it was not. And not only does it say it was not, they make very clear that it didn't put in danger anyone's life or the mission. The intelligence -- there was no intelligence information.

And understand, when this story first broke, they were sort of alluding to where there were maps or this -- there was no war plans on there. This was a sort of description of what we could inform our -- our counterparts around the world when the time came to do so.

Again, look, I think the White House is looking at this entire thing. How did that journalist get on there? Why was this appropriate? I think there will be reforms and changes made. So this never -- this was not going to happen again. It can't.

But I wanted everybody to understand why this thing was even set up in the first place. And also understand very clearly the mission was successful, and at no point was it endangered.

And that's coming from the highest-ranking officials at the agency that was in charge of -- of the actual operation, which is the Pentagon.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: In terms of Haiti --

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: All right, Secretary Rubio there addressing a question about, of course, these messages that we have seen stating very clearly, laying out what his role was.

Noting that he contributed to that text chain two times to identify his chief of staff, his contact, and to congratulate the team.

He has said what we have heard from -- from the White House, a number of other folks. The Department of Defense said this wasn't classified information, admitted that a big mistake, in his words, was made, in adding a journalist.

Also really reiterating what we've heard from the White House and from, I would say, the intelligence community, as we saw in some of the hearings today on the Hill.

Focusing instead on the mission and that the mission was successful. They -- he believes that none of this information put lives or the mission in danger at any point in time, but did notably say that as they're looking into this, there will be reforms and changes made.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Yes, he acknowledged, he said, "Someone made a big mistake." It is clear that Rubio wants to diminish any role that he --

HILL: Yes.

SANCHEZ: -- had in the conversation, pointing to just two messages that he sent, as you said.

And also saying that this information about information not being classified, U.S. forces not being at risk, the -- the operation not being threatened is coming from the highest levels of the Pentagon, which is, of course, defense secretary Pete Hegseth --

HILL: The defense secretary, yes.

SANCHEZ: -- who we just heard from, who has repeatedly made these accusations that "The Atlantic" played up the content of what was in this group chat.

Nevertheless, if we go back to what was actually inside the text messages sent by Pete Hegseth, there is the timing of bomb drops, the kind of equipment that was going to be used. And indications of areas that they we're targeting, though there was no longitude and latitude. And this was coming before the operation actually took place.

HILL: Right. And as we're hearing from our own military analysts, former generals, for example, who we're saying, maybe this is not classified because the secretary says it's not right, but it should have been right.

SANCHEZ: Right. Right.

HILL: Absolutely.

All right. We'll continue to follow all of this. Stay with us. Much more ahead.

Now, of course, we're also waiting to hear from the president just about 90 minutes from now. The White House just announcing a short time ago that he is going to make an announcement, not about the Signal-gate, but about tariffs.

Could it be yet another escalation of the trade war that has been launched since the president came back to the Oval Office? We will take a closer look also at the impact on the American consumer.

[14:34:16]

Stay with us. You're watching CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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SANCHEZ: President Trump's retaliatory tariffs are set to take effect in seven days, what he's describing as Liberation Day.

But as we just learned from the White House and a couple of hours, Trump will announce new tariffs on cars shipped into the United States in what could be a major escalation.

HILL: CNN's Matt Egan is joining us now.

So, Matt, what exactly could these tariffs look like? And what would be the overall impact on car prices?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Erica and Boris, this sounds like a major escalation. But right now, we just have a lot more questions than answers.

We don't know at this point exactly how high these tariffs are going to be, on which countries, when they're going to kick in, or crucially, what exactly would be targeted here, whether or not these would be auto parts or if it would be finished vehicles.

But what we do know is that car prices are already near all-time highs. And analysts have warned that tariffs, depending upon how they're structured, could make prices go even higher. This has really caught the auto industry off guard. Executives in the

industry told CNN that this is not something that we were expecting to come out today.

This has also caught investors off guard. We saw the market dip as the White House announced that there's going to be this 4:00 p.m. Eastern time event, where these auto tariffs are going to be announced.

[14:40:05]

Now you see the market is down. So the Dow is off 140 points. Only about a third of a percent, but much steeper losses. The S&P down 1 percent. The NASDAQ off 2 percent.

And one of the reasons this is catching investors off guard is because we entered the week with a big sigh of relief on Wall Street. The news was that the president was going to take a more targeted approach with tariffs.

And so we saw the stock market really take off on Monday. A lot of investors were breathing a big sigh of relief.

But within hours, the president then announced tariffs on countries that buy oil from Venezuela. And now we have the auto tariffs coming out.

But look, Boris and Erica, the devil here is going to be in the details. When do these tariffs kick in? How high are they going to be? And what products are going to be tariffed?

Because that will really decide here the impact to the economy. And most importantly, of course, to consumers who are thinking about potentially buying a car.

HILL: Yes, absolutely. Waiting on those answers.

Matt, appreciate it as always. Thank you.

EGAN: Thanks, guys.

HILL: A lot happening on Capitol Hill on this Wednesday. Lawmakers from both parties grappling with the growing fallout from that group chat scandal. The latest after this quick break.

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[14:45:52]

SANCHEZ: There is now a bipartisan plea, a demand for a deeper investigation into the Signal group chat controversy. The top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee says he and the panel's top Democrat both want a formal inspector general's report into what happened.

HILL: Senator Roger Wicker also says they are asking for a classified briefing from a senior Trump official. CNN's Manu Raju joining us now from Capitol Hill.

So, Manu, what more are you hearing from lawmakers?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is a divided Republican response. Of course, from Democrats, they are outraged about this. They want Pete Hegseth, in particular, fired in the aftermath of this controversy.

Republicans are on different pages. There are some who are circling the wagons, defending Donald Trump, defending his administration, defending all of this.

Including the speaker of the House himself, who just put out a statement just moments ago talking about -- talking about his defense of the saying that, "The messages 'The Atlantic' released only proved that America is strong again.

"President Trump's national security leaders are patriots who collaborate and then act decisively to take out terrorists. A welcome needed change after four years of weakness from President Biden."

But not everybody is on the same page, including the top Republican leaders. Senator John Thune, the Senate majority leader, just told me that they need to own up. The administration needs to own up to those mistakes and make sure that it does not happen again.

And also, Senator Lisa Murkowski, someone who actually did not vote for Pete Hegseth initially, but somebody who was raising some serious concerns about everything that occurred in that Signal group chat.

I just asked her about her concerns about the revelations from "The Atlantic" this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): I'm worried about everybody and how they have handled this Signal controversy.

RAJU: Do you think -- (INAUDIBLE)

MURKOWSKI: It's -- it's really concerning.

RAJU: Should he resign?

MURKOWSKI: I think -- I think we're going to figure out -- it appears that Mr. Waltz has accepted fault for it. I don't know. Yes.

RAJU: But Hegseth had all those battle plans he discussed. And is that 0--

MURKOWSKI: Does it concern me? Hell, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And some other Republicans also have similar concerns. You mentioned Senator Roger Wicker. He is the chairman of that key committee, the Senate Armed Services Committee, joining with efforts with the top Democrat on the committee to call for an inspector general investigation of this matter.

And also, he contended that the information that he saw that was revealed in these messages suggests that they could potentially be classified material.

And, of course, we've heard the opposite from the White House suggesting this was not classified material.

So you're seeing a muddied Republican response with some serious concerns, like Senator Lisa Murkowski and others, like the speaker of the House, who are ready to move on -- guys?

SANCHEZ: Manu Raju, live for us on Capitol Hill, thank you so much for bringing us those updates.

[14:48:37]

Still ahead, a rare win for gun control advocates at the Supreme Court. The details straight ahead.

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[14:53:07]

SANCHEZ: We got some major news from the Supreme Court today. A rare win for advocates of gun control.

In a 7-2 ruling, the justices upheld some Biden-era regulations that require serial numbers and background checks for so-called "ghost" guns.

The components of these weapons are sold in mail-order kits, allowing users to assemble them at home piece by piece, and they are untraceable, making them a growing problem.

HILL: The ATF says over the course of just five years, so from 2017 to 2022, the number of ghost guns -- look at those numbers there -- recovered from crime scenes, jumped from some 1,600 to more than 19,000.

CNN chief Supreme Court analyst, Joan Biskupic, is joining us now.

So this was one of the most watched cases. Is this a ruling, a surprise? I mean 7-2.

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN CHIEF SUPREME COURT CORRESPONDENT: It was in this respect that it's one of the rare times where they're ruling on the side of gun control.

But let me tell you, there are some limits here. And that explains why, of all people, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority. He's someone who's been very skeptical of gun regulations in the past. And what he stressed is that there are some kits that could be

lawfully covered by this 1968 gun control law, which says that if you have a weapon that could expel a projectile or be susceptible of ready conversion to operate that way, then it would be covered.

Now, he said, not all gun kits would be covered this way. But he used a really interesting example of something called Buy, Build, Shoot. And he said perhaps a half hour of work is required before anyone can fire a shot.

But even as sold, the kit comes with all the necessary components and is intended -- and its intended function as instrument of combat is obvious. Really, the kits name says it all, "Buy, Build, Shoot."

[14:54:59]

But here's the exception. Its -- he said that there might be other gun kits that would take longer. That would be more complicated. That wouldn't be as ready to fire a projectile that might not be covered by the law.

You know, obviously, law enforcement has really been concerned about these untraceable weapons. And this ruling says that at least some of these gun kits that people are using at home would be covered, would have to have serial numbers, would have to be recorded.

But there's -- there's still a loophole for others. In fact, there were several justices who broke away to write about just how broad this ruling is.

Justice Sotomayor said, "People shouldn't take this ruling as saying that it has to be almost fully assembled." And Justice Alito countered and said, "Nope, that's wishful thinking. This is narrow."

Although Justice Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas, they both dissented fully from the opinion, saying that the ATF regulation here was not valid.

HILL: Wow. All right, Joan, appreciate it as always. Thank you.

BISKUPIC: Thank you.

HILL: Well, the country's top intel chiefs getting another earful from lawmakers today right after more of this text exchange, of course, was released from that infamous Signal group chat.

Just ahead, we'll speak with one of the lawmakers who was inside today's contentious hearing, doing some of the questioning.

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