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Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) On Trump's Reciprocal Tariffs To Take Effect At Midnight; Source: U.S. And Iran To Discuss A Nuclear Deal In Oman Saturday; Prosecutors Plan To Call Alleged Past Victims To Testify Against Sean Combs. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired April 08, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:31:50]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Happening right now the latest sharp turn in the rollercoaster -- look at that. U.S. stock futures are up pretty handily right now this morning after some White House advisers began hinting at a retreat on their no negotiations over tariffs pledge. On the flip side though China seems to be gearing up for a real fight.

Let's get right to CNN's Matt Egan for where things stand. How far are we --- two hours before the opening.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, John -- wow, what a difference a day makes. You see U.S. stock futures sharply higher this morning, 1 1/2 to two percent gains. Listen, after three days of extreme fear we finally have some calm returning to global financial markets, although I would say it's a fragile calm and there's not really a clear cut catalyst for this rebound other than the fact that the market had fallen so sharply after the president rolled out his tariffs on Liberation Day so sharply that some investors undoubtedly are betting that it was overdone.

Look at these steep losses after the tariffs were rolled out. The market going almost straight down. The S&P 500 yesterday finishing at an 11-month low and briefly dipping into bear market territory.

I talked to Keith Lerner over at Truist and he said look, there is a battle going on right now between fear and greed, and he said that's going to cause wild swings in the market on an ongoing basis.

Now, we did see a historic reversal yesterday. There were those erroneous headlines out about a 90-day truce on tariffs -- a pause on tariffs. And what we saw as the S&P 500 bounce 8 1/2 percent off the lows. This was just a stunning reversal. We've only seen two of these in the last 15 years or so. One of them was during the flash crash in 2010 and also in 2020 during COVID.

And even though this was quickly shot down by the White House as fake news it does show how quickly the stock market could zoom higher if there's any de-escalation, right --

BERMAN: Um-hum.

EGAN: -- in this trade war. This is sort of showing the White House that there is an off-ramp here.

Now, it's way too early to kind of signal an all-clear here, right? We could continue to see markets bounce around. But that didn't stop Peter Navarro, the White House adviser, from making some bold predictions last night. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST, "THE INGRAHAM ANGLE": When do you think the market might turn around?

PETER NAVARRO, SENIOR TRADE AND MANUFACTURING ADVISER, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION: It's finding a bottom now. It's finding a bottom now, but it -- look, here's the thing. It's going to shift over and it's going to be companies in the S&P 500 who are the first to produce here. Those are the ones that are going to lead the recovery, and it's going to happen. Dow, 50,000 -- I guarantee that. And I guarantee no recession.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EGAN: Now, it's sort of stunning to hear a White House official guarantee no recession, right? I mean, this would be kind of like a meteorologist guaranteeing no hurricane even though we can clearly see --

[07:35:00]

BERMAN: Right.

EGAN: -- one swirling off the coast, right? I mean, it's not inevitable but there's obviously risks here, right?

I mean, Goldman Sachs sees a 45 percent chance of a recession and even higher if the tariffs kick in. JPMorgan sees a 60 percent chance. BlackRock's CEO said that a lot of business leaders think that we're already in a recession, we just don't know it yet. Now, hopefully, they're all wrong but it seems way too early to just sort of guarantee no recession especially --

Look at all this. I mean, this is -- this is trade policy uncertainty. This is off the charts. I mean, this goes back -- this chart goes back to the '90s. It goes back even further. And we've just never seen anything like this. And just given all of the questions about where policy is going obviously that's going to do some damage to the economy, John.

BERMAN: I will tell you it makes sense the uncertainty index is high when you have White House officials acknowledging they're delivering contradictory messages on television about trade policy.

EGAN: Yeah.

BERMAN: They seem uncertain --

EGAN: They do.

BERMAN: -- as to what it all is even as Peter Navarro, you just played there, seems to be increasingly on an island on trade policy.

All right, Matt Egan. Thank you very much.

EGAN: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk more about this. Joining us right now is Democratic Congressman Ritchie Torres of New York. Congressman, thank you so much for coming on.

Let's talk about what Peter Navarro is saying now. I mean, he has the president's ear. He has helped craft this trade policy. He is the president's top trade adviser. He says he guarantees there will be no recession related to this. He also goes on to say there is not going to be any inflation.

What's your reaction to that?

REP. RITCHIE TORRES (D-NY): Well, no one should take a word that Peter Navarro says seriously. He's a voodoo economist. And, you know, Mr. Navarro has said that the golden age of American wealth was the period from 1870 into 1912-1913 when the United States had no indoor plumbing, no electricity, no refrigeration. So the notion that we should turn the clock back to 19th century trade policy is an absurdity.

And the Trump administration's policy is causing the United States to experience the worst of both worlds, both the beginnings of a recession and inflation. The tariff policy is the largest tax increase on the American people in more than half a century, it's the largest tariff in more than a century, and it's wreaking havoc on the United States economy.

BOLDUAN: One of the big focuses today is how China is hitting back and what the president is threatening China with. You are on the House committee focused on American economic competition with China.

TORRES: Yes.

BOLDUAN: You want the United States to have more of a trade advantage there, of course. Trump's not only promising 34 percent tariff on all China goods but also another 50 percent if China doesn't back down on its retaliatory tariffs.

Added altogether do you think a tariff on Chinese goods of more than 100 percent will win the U.S. advantage?

TORRES: It will have the effect of raising prices on the American people and eroding the competitiveness of the United States. Now, there are legitimate concerns about China, right? There has been

cheating on the part of China. China has engaged in intellectual property theft and commercial espionage, but the administration should be pursuing a tariff policy that surgically targets critical sectors in relation to China. Instead, it's imposing tariffs on every imported good on every foreign country, which will make life less affordable for most Americans.

BOLDUAN: What would you -- I don't know if you've thought about this but what would you or could you hear from the president that would if not get you on board with the tariff agenda as he's laid out make you feel better about it?

TORRES: Well, the American people need a day of liberation from Donald Trump. Like, he should reverse his policy. The president is on a kamikaze mission to crash the U.S. economy. He's presiding over one of the greatest destructions of wealth that we've seen in our nation's history.

Since Inauguration Day America has lost $11 trillion in wealth. In the 48 hours following the so-called Liberation Day we lost $6.6 trillion in wealth. The Trump tariffs have had the same single-day impact on the S&P 500 as 9/11, but the difference is that the Trump tariffs are completely self-inflicted. So the president should reverse the wound that he has inflicted upon the American people and upon their pocketbooks.

BOLDUAN: President Trump says to hold on -- there will be some pain, but it will get better.

And a man who runs a steel company -- he actually spoke with CNN yesterday speaking with Jake Tapper. And he is one of the people who said given his line of work and given what he has seen in terms of unfair trade practices he is thrilled with these tariffs. Here's why. Let me play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DREW GREENBLAT, CEO, MARLIN STEEL: When we ship that to Germany the German government taxes our clients $128.95 per basket. If that -- if a German competitor ships it to America, it's $1.25 per basket. It is so unfair what's happening to the American worker. They can't compete when you have that kind of unlevel playing field.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:40:13]

BOLDUAN: And that is what President Trump says he is trying to level here.

What do you say -- what do you say to that man?

TORRES: Well, Donald Trump is achieving the opposite. And look, we desperately need a manufacturing revival here in the United States. I mean that's why congressional Democrats passed the CHIPS Act, which is an attempt to bring back chip manufacturing here in the United States. And it's worth noting that the Trump administration is against it.

And so the ultimate effect of his policy is going to be to plunge the United States economy into a recession, into an inflation. We're going to have the worst of both worlds. And the American people are going to have higher prices, fewer choices, lower quality, and we're going to pay more for less rather than less for more.

BOLDUAN: You -- really quickly before I have to let you go, you're one of Israel's staunchest supporters.

And something that may have gotten overlooked by many in kind of this terror of chaos is something that the president said while in the Oval Office yesterday speaking with Benjamin Netanyahu right by his side. And he says that we are having direct talks with Iran, and they've started. It will go on -- it'll go on Saturday. We -- that they are going to be speaking directly to Iran now to try to negotiate a deal.

Do you support the president having those direct talks?

TORRES: Look, we should make every effort to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. The Islamic Republic of Iran has said that it's intent on wiping Israel off the map. And so we cannot afford a world where Iran has a nuclear weapons program that it could weaponize against our closest ally in the Middle East. That would be an unacceptable outcome.

BOLDUAN: And if that requires direct talks you would support that?

TORRES: Yes. I mean, I support every effort and every means of preventing the nuclearization of Iran.

BOLDUAN: Congressman Ritchie Torres, thank you so much for coming on. It's good to have you on the show -- John.

TORRES: Of course -- absolutely.

BERMAN: All right. New this morning the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a block on using wartime powers to deport alleged gang members for now. This has to do with the administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act, which the administration used to take planeloads of migrants to an El Salvadoran prison. But in a blow to the administration's use of the law the court said judges can review each case and that migrants do get a form of due process. That's not how the administration tried to implement this initially.

So let's get right to CNN's Priscilla Alvarez of where we all go now. Easy for me to say, Priscilla.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Ha ha. John, look, this was one of the most closely watched emergency pending appeals that was before the Supreme Court and it is a significant victory for the Trump administration, but it is also a victory for the American Civil Liberties Union which brought the case. I'll get to that in a moment.

But what is at the center of this is that Alien Enemies Act of 1798. That is a sweeping wartime authority, and it essentially wipes away the usual course for immigration proceedings and immigration processes for migrants who are subject to removal. It's only been used three times, most recently in World War II.

Now in this case the administration was -- framed its emergency appeal as a fight over judicial power -- of course, arguing that the executive has the decision to invoke this type of authority when they see fit and the Supreme Court allowing them to continue to use it.

And the president, on Truth Social, applauding that, saying, for example, this is "A great day for justice America!"

And John, it does have huge implications for the executive branch and the removal of migrants. Of course, that has been the president's pledge coming into this second term is speeding up deportations, and this is the tool they want to use.

But -- and this is what the victory for the ACLU was is that there does need to be notice to migrants that they are going to be subject to this proclamation allowing them time to go to the courts and file habeas complaints. So that was a key concern for the ACLU and for other immigrant advocates. They got that with this and now we'll see how it is turned back on in the days to come -- John.

BERMAN: We'll see if it's turned back on because that little bit of a review period is a little bit counter to how the administration tried to use this initially. We will have to see where this goes next.

Priscilla Alvarez, thank you very much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, that's a great point.

And so coming up for us, as I just talked to the congressman about, President Trump says the U.S. and Iran are beginning direct nuclear talks for the first time in years. What Iran is saying about it this morning.

And we have new details about who prosecutors are expecting to call to the stand when the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs begins.

[07:45:00]

We'll be right back.

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BERMAN: All right. New this morning -- new this morning sources tell CNN the United States and Iran will hold talks on a nuclear deal in Oman Saturday. A more, I think, direct way of saying that is that sources tell CNN that the U.S. and Iran will hold some kind of talks over nuclear weapons in Oman. The president called them direct talks, which honestly might be an overstatement. It appears they'll be indirect through an Omani intermediary. But if and when U.S. and Iranian officials do meet face-to-face it would be the first time in years.

[07:50:05]

With us now is CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier. OK, direct, indirect -- there are people talking in and around each other about nuclear weapons. What's the significance here?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, the fact that they're moving ahead on talks at all after President Trump has threatened military action against Iran, it shows you that this second Trump administration has come in with a very different ideological framework than the last one.

Trump sees himself as the great peacemaker, the great trade maker, and he wants to open up business with Russia, Saudi Arabia, et cetera. Those are two allies of Iran. So making peace with Iran is also one other step towards his ultimate goal of winning a Nobel Peace Prize.

BERMAN: What does Iran want out of this? How might they be approaching this differently now than they would have a year ago? They've had a rough go of it over the last year.

DOZIER: Yeah. Look, Iran has no reason to make peace with the U.S. beyond a lifting of economic sanctions that have caused both economic distress inside the country but also have fed into political unrest. The problem is what Trump is asking in return.

Steve Witkoff, his Middle East envoy, laid out in recent interviews they want Iran to get rid of its proxies, its support to Hezbollah, to the Houthis. They want Iran to get rid of its ballistic missile program, which menaces the whole region. And they want Iran to dismantle its secret nuclear weapons program and allow intrusive snap inspections of all of their peaceful so-called nuclear facilities. And all of that is going to take a lot of convincing.

These are all the ways that the Iranians exert their influence across the region and protect themselves. So the carrot is going to have to be pretty big. There's got to be a lot of convincing to get them to say yes to any of this.

BERMAN: Now, all of this is happening, and it literally happened right in front of another very interested party here, and that's the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. President Trump was talking about this, like, right in front of him.

What does Netanyahu think about all this?

DOZIER: Yeah, Netanyahu seemed to have a little bit of a Cheshire cat smile on his face at the time.

Look, this meeting was last-minute in the White House. The Israelis were proposing to have it a couple of weeks from now and according to Israeli reporting the White House is like, no, let's do it this week. It looks like Trump wanted to make sure to brief Netanyahu before these indirect talks broke -- made headlines.

And Netanyahu, you know, needs Trump right now to lift the looming 17 percent tariffs against Israel that could cost that country $2.3 billion to $3 billion annually. So Trump has Netanyahu over a barrel.

But one thing Bibi did do in the Oval Office yesterday is he sort of spiked the talks already by saying yeah, we'd be happy with this deal if it resulted in Libyan style denuclearization.

Now, Libya's Gaddafi gave up his secret nuclear weapons program in return for economic incentives. But later, when he was challenged for power, got driven out of power and killed quite violently. So that's the kind of lesson that Iranian leaders do not want to follow.

BERMAN: We will see what happens on Saturday if it goes past these initial indirect talks.

Kim Dozier, thank you very much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So there are new court filings that reveal federal prosecutors are expected to call alleged victims of sexual assaults by Sean Combs to testify against him in his upcoming trial. Jury selection for the trial begins in a few weeks and right now Combs is facing several serious criminal charges, including racketeering, conspiracy, and sex trafficking. He has pleaded not guilty.

CNN's Kara Scannell has the very latest on this and she's here with us now. And Kara, calling an alleged victim of sexual assault to testify is always a very serious decision. What are you hearing about this?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: Right. So we know so far, and we're in the final throes of this, right, before the trial. What we know so far is that four of the alleged victims of the sex trafficking are planning to testify at the trial. What prosecutors want to do now is they want to bring in other alleged victims of past sexual assault. And what their reasons for doing that is they say that they need this to bolster their case because Combs has been saying that what the prosecutors charged as sex trafficking was consensual between him and people he was in long-term relationships with. And so prosecutors are now saying there are all these other alleged victims of sexual assault, and they want to bring that in. And they say that goes to his knowledge and his intent.

[07:55:05]

And in this court filing -- so the judge -- they wrote, "When the defendant inevitably argues at trial that he had no clue these four women did not want the sexual experiences that he demanded the government should be able to point out that someone as practiced as he is in sexual assault surely recognized the signs of nonconsent. And when the defendant claims that he only ever intended to have a consensual, loving, sexual experiences with the statutory victims the government should be able to point out his repeated intent to sexually gratify himself with unwilling participants."

BOLDUAN: Hmm.

SCANNELL: Now, Combs' lawyers -- they don't want any of this and --

BOLDUAN: I'm sure not. SCANNELL: -- and they're arguing that it is too old. That it is worse than what he is charged with -- these charges of sex trafficking. And that they're saying that none of these victims had filed any criminal complaints at the time. And they're saying some of these allegations are fabricated.

So clearly, though, a lot more is expected to come out. We do know that four victims will testify and now, potentially, if the judge allows this in, others from his past. It's looking to be -- it's going to be a pretty compelling and --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

SCANNELL: -- disturbing trial.

BOLDUAN: Well, and explosive testimony for sure when -- if and when it happens.

Thank you so much, Kara. It's really interesting to see. I mean, but this is all really ramping up because it's about to get underway. Thank you so much -- John.

BERMAN: All right. This morning thick black smoke rising above the skyline in Paris. That smoke is coming from what is clearly a very large fire at a recycling plant just a few miles from the Eiffel Tower. Hundreds of firefighters are still at the scene. No word yet on what caused the fire. So far, no injuries are reported.

This morning the National Park Service has restored an image of Harriet Tubman and a quote by her to a webpage about the Underground Railroad. The image of Tubman, remarkably, was removed from the site in February amid an anti-DEI push. The Park Service says top leadership did not approve the removal. Nevertheless, it was taken down. Tubman led scores of enslaved people to freedom during the Civil War via the Underground Railroad.

And this morning one elementary school in Las Vegas has the first-ever "buddy bench." Listen to this. The idea was created by an 8-year-old girl named Phoenix to fight loneliness. Students can sit on the bench -- the buddy bench at recess to let others know they feel lonely and they want someone to talk with or play with. One viewer saw the idea on the news and decided to donate the funds to build the bench.

Phoenix is looking forward to the bench making a difference. She says, "Now kids can be really happy, and they will have a friend to play with."

It really is a lovely, lovely idea -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: It's really sweet. I mean, my youngest daughter talks about kind of the loneliness of the playground and that -- how it feels for kids. That is a really sweet idea. Hmm, wonderful.

So in his first term, President Trump faced more than 120 legal challenges coming from the state of California. And now in his second term, California's attorney general is on pace to double that. CNN's Nick Watt reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROB BONTA, CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERAL: You've got to follow the rules. It's that simple. And we are here to stop him when what he wants and what he does is unconstitutional or otherwise unlawful.

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): California's Attorney General Rob Bonta, backed by other Democratic state AGs, has filed 12 suits against the Trump administration in just 10 weeks.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That's a good one -- birthright.

BONTA: Stopping a unconstitutional revocation of birthright citizenship.

WATT: Right.

BONTA: Stopping a freeze of $3 trillion of critical funding for essential services.

WATT (voiceover): California filed 123 suits over four years in the first Trump term. The pace is now near double.

JON MICHAELS, LAW PROFESSOR, UCLA: The previous Trump administration did back down, did regroup and go back into court with stronger claims. I'm not sure this administration is going to take the same approach.

WATT (voiceover): The vice president posted "Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power."

And when a judge ordered that deportation flight turned around it wasn't.

WATT: There is possibly a point that we've may have already reached where he doesn't care what you say. He doesn't care what a judge says. Then what?

BONTA: We are not at a blatant disregard for court orders --

WATT: OK.

BONTA: -- period -- yeah. We can move for contempt -- civil contempt where someone goes to jail --

WATT: Who goes to jail?

BONTA: -- until they follow the court order. It's usually a department head or a department -- or an agency head. I hope we don't need to.

WATT: But then somebody would also have to arrest those department heads and jail them.

BONTA: The courts are very motivated to have their orders followed.

WATT: I'm sure.

BONTA: They have marshals that can carry out with force their orders. They can arrest people and put them in jail.

MICHAELS: It's theoretically possible but I think it just escalates a constitutional standoff that most judges know they're not going to ultimately win. There's no one to enforce the actual kind of perp walk as it were because the U.S. Marshals ultimately take their marching orders from the attorney general.

WATT (voiceover): The U.S. AG Pam Bondi, a Trump loyalist.

PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: The president is going to comply with the law.

WATT (voiceover): If not, then what?

MICHAELS: There is no playbook anymore. We say well, I would -- I would hope Congress would step in.

[08:00:00]