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Interview with Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA): Trump Defends Hegseth as Fallout Grows Over Group Chat Intel Breach; Law Firms Worry Over What's Next Amid Trump's Executive Orders; Trump Calls Group Chat Fallout a Witch Hunt. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired March 27, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're waiting to see if we will hear more from President Trump today about the fallout that he and his team are facing over the wild national security breach. The president's distanced himself to this point from that group chat among his cabinet that leaked battle plans that were labeled classified when circulated among Pentagon officials, CNN has learned.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth landed in the Philippines -- as you see there -- just a short time ago and is facing mounting calls from Democrats back home to resign.

The Atlantic was essentially forced to publish yesterday a new round of the messages that were shared amongst the group chat. Messages appearing to show Hegseth sharing how, when and in what manner a surprise attack would happen against the Houthis in Yemen. And so far, the president is supporting and defending Secretary Hegseth.

One of the Democrats now calling for him to resign joins us now. Democratic Congressman Ami Bera, California, sits on the House Intelligence Committee, the very committee that the nation's top intelligence officials testified before yesterday. Those officials facing withering criticism and questions on this very scandal.

Thank you for coming in, Congressman. What is your biggest takeaway from the hearing yesterday in terms of what is going to happen today?

REP. AMI BERA, (D-CA): Kate, thanks for having me on. You know, we went through the definition of classified from the DOD, from the DNI, from, you know, all the intelligence agencies. What was posted by Secretary Hegseth was classified.

I mean, you didn't see a lot of pushback. You're starting to see Republican members also say, hey, wait a minute, this isn't good. That's why I'm calling for his resignation.

I mean, you know, let's go through why they use Signal. Let's go through how a reporter got on that text chain. We want to see all of that investigation.

But the Secretary of Defense posted what all of us know is classified information. It's not a good look. It's not good for our allies. Somebody needs to be held accountable.

BOLDUAN: In hearing -- so you are among the Democrats calling for him to resign. The way that the Politico Playbook put it this morning was this.

To be clear, there is no administration in the world -- beyond this one -- where a blunder of these proportions happens and nobody gets fired or resigns. Not in London, not in Moscow, not in Tokyo, not in Pyongyang, nowhere.

But what is your next step? Because Hegseth resigning, his choice, Hegseth getting fired, the president's choice. What will you or can you do to hold them accountable?

BERA: Look, we -- we're not in the majority. So we can hope that enough Republicans are like, hey, wait a minute. If Democrats did this, if the Biden administration did this, they'd be calling for someone's head.

You know, again, do the honorable thing. Leadership is about taking responsibility when bad things happen. It's easy to take responsibility when things go right. You've got to take responsibility when a mistake happens.

And, you know, this might have been different if he had come straight out and said, you know what, this is a blunder. We shouldn't have done this. We're going to learn from it. It's never going to happen again. This was a mistake.

You know, there may have been some leeway, but he's come out and did the exact opposite, and that's what we see from the Trump administration. Right now, I would urge the president to ask for his secretary's resignation.

BOLDUAN: So is your problem with it more the response, a blundered response since, an evolving response since, not the simple fact that it was shared on an un -- what was shared on an unsecured app?

BERA: No, I mean, my issue is that, you know, any freshman member of Congress would know to do better than this. This was a mistake. This was a mistake that put our troops at risk.

Had the reporter not been as scrupulous as, as he was, you know, someone else could have posted this, the Houthis could have seen it. They could have shot one of our pilots out of the sky, which they've done before. This was a proportion -- like, this was a blunder, and the Secretary of Defense should take responsibility for it and do the honorable thing and resign.

[07:35:00]

BOLDUAN: You were also on the Foreign Affairs Committee. We've been tracking some of the reaction amongst foreign leaders. Foreign lawmakers, like opposition party leaders, have spoken out, fuming over this, and the way that Europe -- European allies were discussed on this group chat, especially by the Vice President, J.D. Vance. But from the leaders of America's top and closest European allies, relative silence.

I mean, I was just looking, a spokesperson for Keir Starmer was asked about this mistake in disclosure. And the -- basically said that the government was confident any communications of British intelligence with the U.S. would not be leaked, that they still have confidence in that relationship.

Why do you think that is? What are you hearing?

BERA: I mean, I think they want to preserve lines of communication with the Trump administration. It probably doesn't do them any benefit in negotiations around tariffs and other things to criticize the Trump administration. In private though, someone on the Foreign Affairs, someone on the Intelligence Committee, Britain's one of our closest allies.

They've got to be worried about this. And we are having those conversations with our Five Eyes allies, who are our closest allies. This does not boost confidence.

BOLDUAN: Congressman Ami Bera, thank you so much for coming in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You see what we're doing with the colleges. And they're all bending and saying, sir, thank you very much. We appreciate it. And they are -- nobody can believe it, including law firms that have been so horrible, law firms that nobody would believe. And it's just saying, where do I sign? Where do I sign?

Nobody can believe it. And there's more coming. But we really are in the golden age of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, several powerful Washington, D.C. law firms fear they could be hit next by a Trump executive order. The decision now is to lay low or push back. Some attorneys general, Democratic attorneys general, from more than 20 states and Washington, D.C. are pushing back in an open letter.

Let's get right to CNN's Katelyn Polantz for the latest on this. You're talking to sources. What are they telling you?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: John, there is great fear across Washington in the legal industry. These are major businesses employing hundreds of people in the city they represent. Essentially all of America's corporations as defense law firms. And they are very fearful about what the White House has been doing. Nobody wants to be a target if you are a major U.S. law firm working in Washington. And there is widespread fear of who may be the next target by Donald Trump.

A lot of these firms, not only do they represent corporate clients, but they're also popping up in a lot of these cases that are suing on behalf of different groups against the Trump administration policies that are coming into play.

So far, John, the White House has issued four executive orders against very large, very powerful law firms in Washington. Those are Jenner and Block, Perkins Coie, Paul Weiss, and Covington and Burling.

You may never have heard of them before, but all of them have people in their ranks that you very likely have heard of. People who are on TV as commentators. People who are former members of Congress. Very powerful people from the U.S. government at those firms.

What Trump has done, what the White House is doing is, for all four of them, suspending security clearances of lawyers. And then for three of those firms, restricting their access to federal buildings and also punishing clients of theirs who may be government contractors.

So the sort of thing that has the potential to destroy these businesses and deprive people, companies, lots of different groups from being able to use the lawyers they choose. The lawyers with lots of experience in Washington. So this is a really dire situation that the White House has made clear for the legal industry.

The firms that they are issuing executive orders on, they're ones with different ties to people that Trump doesn't like politically. A former Mueller prosecutor. The Democratic Party, that's what their wrongdoing is, supposedly, at least from the White House's perspective.

And the White House continues to want to draft more executive orders. Now there aren't a lot of options for these firms, John, to respond to this. One firm, Perkins Coie, has sued. They've gotten a favorable ruling so far from a judge.

Another firm, Paul Weiss, cut a deal. And there's a lot of people in Washington who are criticizing that behind the scenes, even if they're not willing to speak out and take a side.

The American Bar Association and several other bar associations across the country put out a statement this week about what it's like in the legal industry right now.

We will not stay silent in the face of efforts to remake the legal profession into something that rewards those who agree with the government and punishes those who do not.

And the American Bar Association called on the entire profession to step up and take a stand against the White House.

[07:40:00]

It is quite an unusual time here in Washington -- John.

BERMAN: Unusual to say the least. I mean, there is a chill through the whole industry. And as you say, of movement for some to fight back with solidarity, solidarity that might not be there just yet because there are so many nerves. We'll see what happens. Katelyn Polantz, thank you for that report. Appreciate it. All right, overnight, a LeBron James buzzer beater. And I got to say, the Lakers, they needed it. Let's get ready to see his Coy Wire for the latest. Good morning to you, sir.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Top of the morning to you, Mr. John.

Yes, the Lakers still at the four spot in the West, their Western standings, but they had been derailed a bit. LeBron was out for a while. They lost seven of their last 10 heading into Indianapolis, but they got back on track.

LeBron streak of consecutive game scoring and double digits dating back 18 years in jeopardy, just three points heading into the fourth. But then he catches fire in the fourth and his 13th point is the buzzer beater. The game winning tip in 120 to 119. Ending the Lakers three game losing skid.

Then check this play out, John. MVP favorite Nikola Jokic back from injury. He doesn't skip a beat. Look at the big man passing it off slicker than the notes you used to slip to your crush during class in middle school. A 39 point triple double for Jokic and 127-117 is the final in their win over the Bucks.

Now, dust off those brackets. Brackets are what's left of a men's March Madness tipping off today with the sweet 16. Two of the four games on our sister channel, TVS, BYU and Bama, Maryland and number one, Florida, Arizona and 1C Duke in Arkansas. Texas Tech for the nightcap. You can follow all the action and the go -- on the go with the live updates and live analysis on our March Madness live story launching at 6 p.m. Eastern at CNN dot com.

All right, also today, MLB opening day. 14 games start in a new season of World Series. Dreams fans cheering on their favorite teams. Most of them will be chasing the defending champs. The Dodgers are heavy favorites to win it all again with superstars like Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and of course, Showtime, Shohei Ohtani, nobody can hit and pitch like him. And he is expected to pitch again at some point this season.

But don't sleep on John Berman's Red Sox. Maybe the best outfield in MLB, Jarren Duran or Rafaela. If he isn't needed at shortstop again, John, could they become the first team to win all three outfield gold glove awards? John Berman smirks slyly.

All right, one of the best parts of catching a game, ballpark foods. And John, I need your input on these. Which one would you love to eat? Which one would you loathe?

The Yankees have this tiramisu. Oh, that's yes, there it is. The tiramisu helmet, espresso, mascarpone cream, lady finger cookies and cocoa powder. The Orioles, though, they're rolling out a double burger with queso fundido, pickled pico de gallo, fried onions on a pretzel bun that will have you rolling out of the stadium. And the White Sox look out. The unicorn, a batter dipped corn dog, marshmallow base drizzled with sweet, condensed milk and fruity pebbles sprinkled on top. John. Holy moly.

BERMAN: Good and good for you. I think --

WIRE: That's right.

BERMAN: -- as you look at that.

Coy, I have to say the right answer to this question is you don't eat anything at Yankee Stadium. Period. You shouldn't go.

BOLDUAN: You're like making me a Yankees fan and I'm not even a Yankee. Oh, my God.

BERMAN: What?

WIRE: Oh, we're missing his chain. I see you Flavor Flav.

BOLDUAN: Oh, my God.

WIRE: Oh, you making Flavor Flav jealous.

BOLDUAN: You are one handsome man, Coy Wire. Is that heavy? Is your bling heavy?

BERMAN: You know, sometimes when you've won four championships this century, the weight is heavy on your shoulders.

BOLDUAN: This century, yes. And Coy, you don't have to suck up to John. I will have you on the show. You don't need to like just because I don't know. His team might be good. Might not.

WIRE: Look, listen, all these years I've been on with him. Had I not mentioned the Red Sox, we would have heard all about it even more than this. But that right there --

BOLDUAN: There is no pleasing him. And there's no appeasing him. I don't know what he's -- pick a camera, John.

WIRE: He's trying to go to the right camera.

BOLDUAN: Pick a camera.

WIRE: Just trying to go to the right camera.

BOLDUAN: Oh, my God.

WIRE: I think he made this. Where do you even buy something like that? You made that, didn't you, Berman?

BERMAN: It was --

BOLDUAN: Do not criticize small business owners, Coy. I don't know. And by the way, Fruity Pebbles on a corn dog. That is America being awesome. That is that is American.

BERMAN: Winning.

BOLDUAN: OK.

BERMAN: Winning.

BOLDUAN: Yes, sir. OK. Can I take it now, boys?

BERMAN: Go for it.

BOLDUAN: Thank you, gentlemen. Coy, come on. Come on. Where am I going now? I don't know what camera I'm on. How about this one?

Get the Trump family -- the Trump family's plan to sell a new cryptocurrency raising new red flags. We will bring you the details on that.

A heated confrontation over gun control in the Tennessee state House leads to one state -- state lawmaker, one lawmaker being escorted out from the hearing.

[07:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, moments ago, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has arrived in the Philippines, where he took no questions on the attack plans that he posted in a Signal group chat. This comes as he seems to have secured the support of President Trump, at least for now. In an Oval Office meeting with reporters, the president really did point the finger at National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, the one who added reporter Jeffrey Goldberg to the group chat.

[07:50:02]

With us now, CNN military analyst, retired U.S. Army Major General James "Spider" Marks. And Spider, since this story broke, at every stage, actually, I've been dying to talk to you, because you really did, you lived in this world.

MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, absolutely.

BERMAN: I mean, exactly, exactly this space for decades, military intelligence. You looked at this text exchange yesterday, when you see a line like, the bombs will definitely drop now. What does that --?

MARKS: Yes, when you connect time, place, and target, that in the aggregate is classified. If you were trying to -- but none of that was stamped classified. That document, those digits were not stamped classified.

So the legal high bar to say this was classified and now you must go to jail, you must be put in pretrial confinement, is pretty high. However, it's a distinction without a difference. When you put all this together, it's classified, it should have been handled as classified. And we have procedures for that. BERMAN: And that's where this administration -- and I never want to drag you into politics -- but the administration is waging the fight on classified, not classified, war plan versus attack plan. Jennifer Griffin, Fox News reporter, she put out a report that said, you know what, OK, technically, in military terms, this isn't a war plan, but you know what? It's actually worse, because of the operational details.

MARKS: Yes, the specifics are very troubling, troubling. You certainly put service members at risk. You run the risk of missing the target, missing the opportunity. The window closes because that information, that intel has gotten out, and your opponent, your target has now adjusted in some way.

So the primary, and oh, by the way, you then look at how this has come together. And if I'm an opponent, I can now discern what type platforms are being used. How do they sequence them? What do the timings look like? How does all this kind of come together?

So you get into the procedural plans, if you will, so you can get ahead of what you're trying to achieve.

BERMAN: So just not the type of thing that should be out there.

MARKS: No, and from a bad guy's perspective. I look at this from the enemy's perspective. This has got some great intelligence. I'm going to use that to my advantage.

BERMAN: You spend a lot of time with journalists, which we appreciate. Thank you for this.

MARKS: I have scar tissue as a result.

BERMAN: You do have some questions about what Jeffrey Goldberg did.

MARKS: Oh, big time. Big time. So Goldberg was given, if I am to believe what is put out there and what he has described, he got an invitation from Mike Waltz to join this group chat.

Absolutely. I'd join that group chat, too. Include me. What is this all about? Then when he gets it, he opens it up. It's got operational detail. This is sensitive stuff. He doesn't know if it's classified or not. This is an experienced, very savvy, very bright, top-of-his-game journalist.

He knows he's in a conversation that he does not need to be in, and he had choices to make at that point. Primary is, you turn your device off, you call Mike Waltz and say, hey, get your guys over here. Burn this. Swipe this. Get rid of this. I don't want to be in the middle of this. This has to be classified. Explain to me why I got this. So he had a choice.

Then I think he also described it as initially thinking this might have been a spoof. This might have been a hacking attack. Well, if that's the case, what do you do, John? If I get some, what I clearly see as an attempt to penetrate my device, get me to respond, I delete it. I'm gone. Why didn't he do that?

BERMAN: I do hear what you're saying. The flip side of this, though, again, outside of politics, isn't it good to shine a light on a practice that you yourself have described as not safe, as not good for the country?

MARKS: Oh, absolutely, put a light on it. And the way to do that recommendation would have been, Mike Waltz, you've got a problem.

BERMAN: You think they would have stopped had they not been caught and exposed publicly?

MARKS: I have to assume. I mean, I know Mike Waltz. I don't know him deeply. He's a professional. This is a man who understands holding information, trying to improve what it is we're trying to achieve, get better at what we're doing. I mean, you want to improve.

BERMAN: That's another good point, too. So Mike Waltz, the error he made was inviting Jeffrey Goldberg, the reporter. Pete Hegseth, who the president seems to excuse in all of this -- Pete did nothing wrong, he says, the Secretary of Defense -- he's the one who posted the information that you think is problematic. I mean, which act is worse here?

MARKS: I've got the information. I'm sharing it with my national security advisor. The national security advisor then opens the aperture.

This is more about stupidity, making a tremendous mistake. And we're way beyond at this point, unfortunately. We're way beyond the point where anybody's going to raise a hand, mea culpa. We're going to look into it. Let's investigate the heck out of this thing. We're going to get back to you. And we're going to unclassify -- you know, declassify what we can, and we're going to give it to you guys.

BERMAN: As I said, Major General James "Spider" Marks -- Spider, I've been dying to talk to you about this. Thank you so much for humoring me and humoring my questions. I appreciate it.

MARKS: Thank you.

[07:55:02]

BERMAN: All right, new video shows the moment a Tufts graduate student was arrested on the streets by federal agents in Massachusetts.

Rumeysa Ozturk is from Turkey here on a valid visa, but Homeland Security is accusing her of taking part in activities in support of Hamas. It's unclear exactly what those activities are. No charges have been filed.

She did co-write an op-ed in the school's newspaper last year criticizing the university's response to the pro-Palestinian movement. Despite a judge's order not to move her out of the state of Massachusetts, DHS says she was moved to an ICE processing center in Louisiana.

New concerns from doctors this morning. They say they're finding some measles patients with vitamin A toxicity as cases spread now to Kansas. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. has promoted the use of vitamin A during the outbreak that started in West Texas. Now doctors say some patients have abnormal liver function, which is a sign they've taken too much of it. And there's no evidence that vitamin A can prevent measles like a vaccine can.

A tense confrontation in a Tennessee state subcommittee meeting led to Tennessee State Rep. Justin Pearson being escorted out. Pearson was proposing a bill that would repeal Tennessee's permit less gun carry law. That's when State Rep. Andrew Farmer questioned Pearson's work ethic due to his recent absences.

The situation escalated when Pearson walked up to the dais where Farmer was sitting and stood over him, yelling at him. Pearson explained his absences were due to his brother's recent suicide by gun and Pearson's bill was rejected by a vote of 72 -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right. Today, the Pacific Northwest is looking at the threat of some severe weather, lightning, hail, damaging winds, heavy rain, even tornadoes. In South Texas. People are bracing for a half a year's worth of rain potentially to come over just the next couple of days.

CNN's meteorologist Derek Van Dam tracking all of it for us this morning. What are you watching, Derek?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Kate. People in the Emerald City may be taken by surprise when their beautiful city was lit up by lightning as thunderstorms moved through. This is a live look at the Emerald City, also known as the Rainy City. There's the Space Needle.

Something interesting about this very rare thunderstorms, as you put it. It was actually 25 years ago. We're talking June 1999, the last time severe thunderstorm watch was inclusive of Seattle and King County. So that's saying something. Another round of storms will move through the area.

This is the future forecast radar, and I want you to show those kind of little convective cells. So that gives an indication that these storms could produce more lightning, more thunder and the potential for some strong gusty winds and hail as well.

Other areas we're monitoring for severe weather across northern Missouri and south Texas. These two areas highlighted in red. We want to highlight what's happening with heavy rainfall in south Texas as well. So far, some locations have already received about five inches of rain, but this is far from over because this band of showers and thunderstorms you see on the current radar will start to congeal, kind of get larger in size and impact much of the coastal bend right here. And some of our computer models are picking up nearly 10 inches of additional rainfall. So we're talking about over a foot of rain for some locations. And as Kate so aptly put, this is over a half a year's worth of rain just in a couple of days time.

Remember, this area has been plagued by drought, so the ground is extremely, extremely dry. So when you have that dry environment, this amount of rainfall will actually make the ground act like pavement. So it won't be able to absorb that rainfall, and that could lead to a higher risk of localized flash flooding. So heads up. Corpus Christi southward towards Brownsville. This is where we have our greatest risk of flash flooding today. Kate, back to you.

BOLDUAN: All right, Derek, thank you so much for keeping an eye on it. Really appreciate it -- John.

BERMAN: All right new this morning, President Trump's crypto ties have raised red flags and concerns about possible conflicts of interest. Now, the Trump family is launching a new stable coin.

CNN's Tom Foreman has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, JR., WORLD LIBERTY FINANCIAL: I think it's the future of our financial systems, and I want to make sure that's domiciled in America, done by Americans.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There was Donald Trump Jr. crowing about Trump family plans to sell a new crypto coin called a stablecoin for its steady value linked to another currency like the U.S. dollar. It will be offered by World Liberty Financial, a company which was started by the Trumps last September and is also linked to Steve Witkoff, a close Trump adviser whose most recent overseas trip included a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Here is Witkoff son Zach, co-founder of World Liberty Financial.

ZACH WITKOFF, WORLD LIBERTY FINANCIAL: We view stablecoins as an integral part of not only crypto, but the entire financial ecosystem.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Crypto backers push tens of millions into Donald Trump's reelection amid his promises to aggressively help their industry.

TRUMP: We will ensure that the future of crypto and the future of bitcoin will be made in America.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Jeff John Roberts covers crypto for "Fortune".