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Trump to Hold Cabinet Meeting After Pausing Most Tariffs for 90 Days; Russian-American Woman Released from Prison, on Way Back to U.S.; Kohberger's Attorney Says, New Tip Suggests Alternate Suspect. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 10, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Right now, take a look. U.S. stock features are down and we are standing by to see if the mark, if the market's going to make history. Once again, today after President Trump buckles in the midst of his trade war. China's now responding for the first time to the new 125 percent tariff, and the E.U. is making moves in light of that 90-day pause.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking this morning, a Russian- American woman sentenced to 12 years in Russian prison for treason is headed back to the United States. We're just getting new information about the prisoner swap that led to her release.

And then green jackets, pimento sandwiches, and just a touch of old fashioned elitism. We say it must be the Masters. Game on, who has the early edge this morning.

Sara Sidner is out today. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: The breaking news this morning, China's retaliatory 84 percent tariffs against U.S. goods is now setting in and also now China responding for the first time to President Trump's amped up 125 percent tariff he's slapping on Chinese goods. Here's what the commerce ministry is saying this morning. The door to talks is open, but dialogue must be conducted on the basis of mutual respect and equality.

And just moments ago, news in from Europe, the E.U. announcing it's putting its own tariffs against the US on hold for 90 days, saying that it wants to, quote, give negotiations now a chance.

U.S. stock futures, they're pointed down right now this morning after yesterday's historic rally, a rally that came after Donald Trump abruptly retreated from the demands that, well, only he was making, a 90-day pause on the targeted tariffs. The pause applying to more than a hundred countries all except China.

Some are calling this Trump buckling, others, Trump backtracking. Still, others Trump blinks. But one question, is he bungling it? Yesterday proves a lot can happen in mere moments, so stand by. Let's take a look now at the markets in Asia up sharply, yes, up sharply after Trump announced his tariff pause. The president set to hold his first cabinet meeting today since he sent markets on a rollercoaster ride. Here's how we explained his decision to pull back yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: well, I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy, you know? They were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit afraid.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The White House trying to spin this as all, some kind of a master negotiating tactic. But is damage already done? JPMorgan Chase, the nation's largest bank is standing by its warning that a recession is likely to happen this year. It says it believes yesterday's market rally merely marked the, quote, end of the beginning of the trade war.

Joining me right now is CNN's Alayna Treene who is at the White House, CNN's Marc Stewart is in Beijing. Marc, let me start with you. China now responding. What's happening?

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kate. Good morning. Look, when we look at this trade war between the United States and China, there's certainly this very strong economic component, but there is also, you could argue some ego that is involved. China brought up the point that as far as an opportunity to speak with the United States is not necessarily opposed but there are going to be some conditions, some caveats.

I want to share with you some remarks we heard earlier today in Beijing from an official from China's Commerce Ministry, who said the door is open for talks but there has to be mutual respect. It has to be on this basis of mutual respect. It needs to take place in an equal manner. And that if the U.S. wants to fight, China will fight to the end.

So, there is still very much this theme of defiance mixed with a little bit of diplomacy, and it's that defiance that also was very strong at today's Ministry of Foreign Affairs briefing here in Beijing.

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Let's listen to one official. There had to say.

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LIN JIAN, SPOKESPERSON, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY: We will never stand by while the legitimate rights of the Chinese people are stripped away, nor will we allow international economic and trade rules or the multilateral trading system to be undermined.

(END VIDEO CLIP) STEWART: We heard from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick earlier or in U.S. hours, I should say. He brought up the idea, this idea of a phone call between President Trump and Xi Jinping. But that is something that China may not necessarily welcome. It's not necessarily in the Chinese style of diplomacy. There would be more behind the scenes conversation before an actual face-to-face conversation with the two leaders.

Finally, Kate, I should point out that China, in many ways, is giving indications that this could be a battle for the long haul. We saw the National Film Administration make reference that it would start to restrict American films. Also Chinese citizens and tourists have also been told to be careful, to take caution while in the United States. Kate?

BOLDUAN: All right. Marc, thank you so much.

Let's go from Beijing now back to Washington and to the White House where Alayna Treene is standing by. Alayna, what are you expecting to happen today?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: I mean, look, I think a key question, of course, is where do they go from here? But I do want to just focus on what this really shows, Kate, because this really, I think, is revealing on what the president's threshold for pain is, and it really is one week. This is a stunning reversal from what, really, up until yesterday, all of the president's top advisers, the people I had been speaking to at the White House what they had been saying publicly were essentially they were not going to back down. They were not going to back away. And then, of course, we saw that post on Wednesday.

Now, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had argued that this was the president's plan on along, that they had talked about it on Sunday. However, I had actually asked just 24 hours before the president announced that he was going to be pressing pause on these tariffs, of course, except for China. I'd asked White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, was this something that they were anticipating now that so many countries were coming to the table is a potential extension, a rethinking of these tariffs, a potential reversal in the cards? She explicitly said no. And then, of course, 24 hours later, we saw what the president did, all to show that, behind the scenes, this was a much quicker and more abrupt decision than maybe they are making clear publicly.

Now, we know from our conversations with Trump administration officials, White House officials, that the real key thing, I think the question is what changed the president's mind? And we're learning that it was the bond market, that so many different business leaders, allies, donors, et cetera, were calling up the president, calling up people at the White House and telling them, you really need to look at what is happening here. This is not the path forward. And that ultimately led to this decision.

Now, we did hear the president say, yes, or you played some of that sound that he did believe the bond market had a role in this, that he was watching it, that he realized some people were queasy, and that's ultimately what played a role in his decision-making.

Now, I do think a key question, just looking ahead and getting into some of what Marc said is, what is going to end up with China? You know, China is the one that he is kind of doing the opposite with. He's ramping up these terrorists. The president had this to say about that strategy.

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TRUMP: China wants to make a deal. They just don't know how quite to go about it. You know, it's one of those things they don't know quite. They're proud people and President Xi's a proud man. I know him very well and. They don't know quite how to go about it, but they'll figure it out.

I told them, if you retaliate, we're going to double it. And that's what I did with China, because they did retaliate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, one key thing here is that's not exactly true what the president was saying, that China wants to make a deal. They have been very adamant that they are going to fight this, that they believe these tariffs are unjust. I actually asked President Trump yesterday in the Oval Office, do you -- are you waiting for President Xi to blink? What is the endgame here with China? He said, no, I'm not waiting for him to blink. But then he kind of dodged the question.

So, I think that's something that they are still navigating, and as well we're also hearing from top investors, like billionair investor Ray Dalio, that they believe he needs a pullback on his terrace with China as well. All of that's still playing out behind the scenes here today. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Alayna, thank you so much, Marc as well. John?

BERMAN: All right. Breaking this morning, a Russian-American woman sentenced to 12 years in Russian prison is now on her way back to the U.S. We've got new details on the overnight prisoner exchange.

This morning, a twist in the case against the man accused of killing four Idaho college students. A defense attorney says she has evidence that someone else carried out the murders.

And then LeBron James is more than enough, the first male athlete with a Ken doll.

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BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, a Russian-American who was imprisoned in Russia for treason is now free. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says she is now on her way back home. She was sentenced to 12 years in Russian prison last August after donating just a little more than $50 to a charity supporting Ukraine. CNN's Nic Robertson following all the twists and turns here. Nic, what's known about this exchange?

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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, the details are only just sort of coming out at the moment, John. We understand that she was charged last summer, convicted last summer by the Russians of, as you say, of while she was living in the United States. She's Russian-American giving about $50 to Ukrainian support charity That, in Russian court, was enough to get her this treason trial and the sentence of 12 years.

She's been exchanged for a German-Russian who was based in Cyprus, working in a company there that was shipping sensitive electronic equipment to Russia that was then used in weapon systems to target Ukraine.

Now, he is -- well, the exchange has happened in the UAE. This is -- there isn't really any video yet of the exchange actually happening. But this is what we've seen in the past in these prisoner exchanges in Turkey. It's happened before in the UAE. It's happened before. Both planes arrive at the airport, they're handed over and now Ksenia on her way home back to the United States.

Wrongfully detained is how Marco Rubio describes her detention in Russia, undoubtedly a huge sense of relief for her family. She'd gone to visit her family in Russia when she was detained in Russia, and that was at the end of 2023, early 2024. And it really just kind of indicates how dangerous it is for Russian-Americans or any other Russian-German nationals to go back to Russia that they can be picked up or for such apparently minor misdemeanors and handed such stiff sentences and then used, it appears, in bargaining chips at a time of thawing diplomacy between the White House and the Kremlin in exchange for someone Russia once. And they wanted this businessman back from U.S. custody where he was in jail accused of smuggling, of wire fraud amongst other things, John.

BERMAN: Yes, it really does seem like a policy by the Kremlin and they get one chip back. But it's good to see this Russian-American woman freed after being wrongly detained.

Nic Robertson for us, thank you so much for all that reporting.

This morning, is this a textbook case of selective prosecution? The president orders investigations in two well-known figures from his first administration who said things he did not like.

And new video shows the moment a train collided with a truck on a highway. Something got split clean in half. Wait. Wait for it. Wait for it. And boom.

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[07:20:00] BOLDUAN: So, there are new twists in the case against Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of stabbing and killing four Idaho college students. His lead defense attorney now says that she's chasing a tip, quote, of an alternate suspect, that the alternate suspect carried out the murders. That is just one of many new developments that came from a marathon court hearing ahead of his trial. There's also a ruling from the judge on what particular language can be used to describe Kohberger now.

CNN's Jean Casarez is following this very closely, and you said yesterday this was going to be an important hearing and it certainly proved to be.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was so much. It was all day and into the evening even. But let's start with Amazon Business Records, because the fact is that according to prosecutors on Amazon Business Records, Kohberger had actually purchased a KA-BAR knife, sheath, and sharpener in June of 2022. That is five months before the murders. And the prosecution wants very finite business records to just show that.

The defense says no. This was a family account. Many people purchased from that. We want a large range of dates here because you cannot say that Kohberger was the one that purchased that knife.

Next has to do with the surviving roommate. There's going to be so much scrutiny with the surviving roommates, especially D.M. And the defense was saying she's given five interviews to law enforcement. She's inconsistent in every single interview. We want to let you listen to her herself. This is from the defense. She's just not credible.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: D.M. is uncertain about the lighting. The stairs to her left were not lit. The kitchen may or may not have been lit. And the twinkle lights in the living room may have been lit. She described seeing the person for, quote, only a second.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: D.M.'s the only living individual who saw the person responsible for these four homicides. Her description of the male, including any characteristics such as bushy eyebrows, is relevant to the identity of the killer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: Here's what's critical. She's the only one that saw the perpetrator, whoever he was. She is the one that said bushy eyebrows. However, she didn't say it. Law enforcement on the second interview asked her about the eyebrows. And that's how that came out.

BOLDUAN: Okay.

CASAREZ: So, there's going to be a fight. We'll see what the judge's ruling is on this.

First, what you're talking about, the tip, this is at the end of the evening. They're talking about the autism disorder, right, trying to get death penalty off the table. No ruling on that. But the defense lead attorney says, by the way, we're still going through all the tips, and we found a really credible tip. Someone has told us in all certainty that Bryan didn't do this, and they know who did. So, they say there's an active investigation. They're looking at that.

But one of the big things was, and the defense started off with this.

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They don't want the word sociopath or psychopath used during the trial to describe Bryan Kohberger. And they're concerned the prosecution is going to do that. Prosecution said we're not going to do that. Judge said there hasn't even been a diagnosis of that, and they agreed. But then the judge said this. Listen closely.

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JUDGE STEVEN HIPPLER, U.S. COURTS, DISTRICT OF IDAHO: These murders, whoever committed them, were brutal and were horrific. And so I suspect that the evidence will reflect that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: And that's a preview, Kate.

BOLDUAN: There is a lot still to come, amazing. Thank you so much for bringing it so much, Jean, and thank you for watching it so closely.

Still ahead for us this morning and this hour, this morning, U.S. stock Futures, take a look, they're down still. What the E.U. is now saying about Donald Trump's tariff backtrack and new reporting on how long China is preparing for this fight.

The Masters officially begins this morning. What's in store for this tradition, unlike any other this time around? We're going to take you live to Augusta.

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