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Teen With Neo-Nazi Ties Arrested in Trump Assassination Plot; Assassination Attempt Made on Pennsylvania Governor?; Tariff Chaos; Trump Administration Refusing to Return Mistakenly Deported Man. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired April 14, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: He was above water, 51 percent, now below water. The disapproval is 56 percent.

Ten seconds.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Most striking thing in the consumer sentiment we have all been paying attention to, inflation expectations are at their highest level in the UMich survey that they have been since 1981.

People are expecting it and pricing it in right now, and that has downstream macro effects that are important to pay attention to.

BASH: All right, everybody, thank you so much. Thanks for rolling with it today. Appreciate it. Thank you for watching INSIDE POLITICS.

"CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Trade war whiplash. President Donald Trump says high-tech-specific tariffs are coming soon, as investors try to sort out what could be next and what this could mean for Wall Street.

And a billionaire investor is warning that President Trump's moves could push America closer to a recession or -- quote -- "something worse."

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Also, how did a man manage to break into the Pennsylvania governor's residence and set a fire while the governor and his family were asleep? The 38-year-old suspect now being held on charges of arson and attempted murder.

And El Salvador's president visits the White House as a legal battle rages over the fate of a Maryland man mistakenly deported to that country, neither leader suggesting they will work to return him to the U.S.

We are following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

SANCHEZ: We start this afternoon with breaking news. The fate of Kilmar Abrego Garcia looks bleak. He's the Maryland man

who was mistakenly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador. And just moments ago, President Donald Trump and El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele took questions from reporters at the White House.

DEAN: They were asked by CNN's Kaitlan Collins if they would send Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. after the Supreme Court ruled the administration should -- quote -- "facilitate his return."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAM BONDI (R), U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: That's up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That's not up to us. The Supreme Court ruled, President, that if, as El Salvador wants to return him -- this is international matters, foreign affairs. If they wanted to return him, we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST: Can President Bukele weigh in on this?

Do you plan to return him?

NAYIB BUKELE, PRESIDENT OF EL SALVADOR: Well, I guess -- I suppose you're not suggesting that I smuggle a terrorist into the United States, right?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's always CNN.

BUKELE: How can I smuggle -- how can I return him to the United States?

It's like I smuggle him into the United States, or whatever it is? Of course, I'm not going to do it. It's like, I mean, the question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don't have the power to return him to the United States.

QUESTION: But you could release him inside El Salvador.

BUKELE: Yes, but I'm not releasing -- I mean, we're not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country. I mean, we just turned the murder capital of the world into the safest country in the Western Hemisphere. And you want us to go back into releasing criminals, so we can go back to being the murder capital of the world?

No, that's not going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Our team of journalists covering every angle of this.

We start with CNN's Jeff Zeleny, who's at the White House.

And, Jeff, Trump officials in that meeting made it very clear that they have no plans to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. What more are you learning?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, they made it very clear, the U.S. officials, as well as the El Salvadorian president there, when our Kaitlan Collins was asking him directly that question, and it really has been hanging over this entire meeting.

Would the Maryland man, Mr. Garcia, be essentially given a reprieve? Now, the administration has called it an administrative error that he was sent to this El Salvadoran prison in the first place. The Supreme Court has weighed in, saying that his return should be facilitated, but there was no sign that it was going to happen, and, in fact, many arguments that it would not.

But listen to Secretary of State Marco Rubio explain why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: The foreign policy of the United States is conducted by the president of the United States, not by a court. And no court in the United States has a right to conduct the foreign policy of the United States. It's that simple, end of story.

STEPHEN MILLER, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF: And that's what the Supreme Court held, by the way, to Marco's point. The Supreme Court said exactly what Marco said, that no court has the authority to compel the foreign policy function of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So that was Stephen Miller there weighing in and essentially amplifying the secretary of state's remarks.

We have seen several excuses and reasonings. First, it was that Mr. Garcia was a noted member of MS-13, and the White House has said it had evidence for that. When the administration was not able to provide that evidence in court, the Supreme Court weighed in and said his return should be facilitated.

But you heard from the El Salvadorian president, President Bukele. He said, I do not have the power to return him to the U.S.

So, it's a striking moment when the U.S. president, next to the El Salvadorian president, said they do not have the power to remove him. It's questionable, of course. But the bottom line is, he's not coming back to the U.S. -- Boris and...

[13:05:16]

SANCHEZ: Jessica.

DEAN: Yes, hey, Jeff.

SANCHEZ: It's -- thank you so much, Jeff Zeleny.

ZELENY: Jessica.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: We have got CNN's Priscilla Alvarez, who's been tracking this story, to discuss with us.

Priscilla, first of all, it's fascinating that you have the judge in this case, his attorneys, the Maryland man's attorneys, and the administration all reading the same document from the Supreme Court completely differently, and, on top of that, the suggestion from Bukele that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist, that hasn't actually been proven by the administration.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: So let's rewind here a little bit.

So, in 2019 is when Abrego Garcia had a brush with law enforcement in Maryland, where based, on his attire and the people that he was with, the police made a tie to the gang MS-13. The was not evidence provided in his immigration proceedings to that effect, despite asks by the federal judge to Immigration to Customs Enforcement to provide more.

Fast-forward. We're still in a position where the courts have asked the administration to provide more evidence. That evidence does not materialize. The reason they're using the term terrorist, however, is because the administration has designated MS-13, along with other gangs and cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

So that's how we get to that point. What is remarkable about this, however, is that there you have two leaders. In that meeting, in that span of time, the president and his aides are saying it is up to El Salvador, because he is in Salvadoran custody, to return him if they want to.

And you heard the attorney general there -- and this got buried a little bit -- say, if they wanted to, we could facilitate, say, a plane, but then ask the same question to the Salvadoran president, who says, I don't have the power to return him, and doing so would be like smuggling in this person.

So the plane sort of got disregarded there. So, two leaders who would have the power to return this man essentially don't. Here is why this is concerning for the immigration attorneys who are watching this play out. If you zoom out, the administration wants to send more people to this notorious mega-prison.

What happens if there are additional cases where someone shouldn't have been sent there, as we have known anecdotally through other cases that has happened? The suggestion here is that anyone sent there from the United States will not be returned to the U.S.

And when there are so many questions about due process here, that is the underlying concern, not to mention that the president also mentioned a willingness to send U.S. citizens there. So it raises a host of questions about, if you send someone there by accident, as was the case here -- and the administration conceded that -- will there ever be a chance that they leave this notorious mega-prison?

And that remained unanswered, but the two leaders saying there they have no intention to bring him back.

SANCHEZ: Though Stephen Miller refutes that he was sent there mistakenly.

ALVAREZ: He does, because his argument there is that this man had withholding of removal. That is to say, he could be removed from the U.S. He just couldn't be sent to El Salvador, for fear of persecution.

Well, Stephen Miller is saying that, well, that doesn't exist anymore because we called MS-13 a foreign terrorist organization, which is fine, if that had been done before. There is a way for a government to terminate withholding of removal. You do that prior to sending them to a country. That didn't happen here.

So he's trying to have it both ways. There was a process to terminate it. They didn't do that. They sent him to El Salvador. And that is why there are so many courts that have weighed on this and why it remains such an open question.

DEAN: All right, Priscilla Alvarez, great reporting there. Thank you so much for that.

And I do want to go to CNN's David Culver, who's joining us now.

And, David, you visited the prison in El Salvador multiple times, including just last week. What more can you tell us about that prison and about Abrego Garcia's condition?

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, Jessica, this is CECOT we're talking about. This is the terrorism confinement center.

I have made two visits there. You're right. Six days ago was my most recent one. We asked while we were there to go into Sector Eight. That's where the deportees from the U.S. are being held. They said, absolutely not. Instead, they took us back into Sector Four, which is key, because that's where they have what they consider to be the worst of the worst, the Salvadorans who have been convicted in El Salvador and have said to be a part of MS-13 and 18th Street gangs.

And so, when you go into that facility, it's totally militant in order. They are all going against the -- going by the commands, really, of the prison guards and the officials who are with you. And they don't really have much interaction with each other.

What I'm hearing from sources, though, who have been inside Sector Eight, two in particular, is that it's a bit more lax. By no means does it mean that this is more comfortable. And the facility structurally is exactly the same, but that they don't enforce it quite to the same rigidness, if you will, that we saw in Sector Four.

But I think, if you go big picture here as to what we heard from President Trump in there with President Bukele, this is not going to be (AUDIO GAP) reiterated to me on the ground. There was a key figure who you may have missed in that back-and-forth of the Oval Office who was just to the right of President Bukele. He was standing up behind the couches.

[13:10:16] His name's Gustavo Villatoro. He is the public security and justice minister. I spent time with him last week. And the reason he's so key is, this is a man who prides himself on data and records, criminal records. He wouldn't speak specifically to the case of Abrego Garcia or any individual deportee, but when I pressed him and I said, is it possible you have innocent people in your custody, he looked at me and he said, "Absolutely not."

And he referred as well to the deportees. What's more is, he says that El Salvador is actively cooperating in sending criminal records of certain individuals and saying to the U.S., here's who we want, here's who we want to see come back until El Salvador, and here's who's going to be put into CECOT.

And so even if it's possible that this was an administrative error that Abrego Garcia was sent out of the U.S. and wrongfully deported, El Salvador certainly knew he was coming in. Two other sources, government officials, have said that they have incriminating information on Abrego Garcia.

When I asked for that evidence, they wouldn't provide it. And, of course, Abrego Garcia's attorneys have said that's a lie. That's -- they refute that totally and said it's not true and it's being fabricated.

But it does show you, in this moment, El Salvador is sticking by, and President Bukele saying that they're saying essentially he's powerless, but sticking by keeping Abrego Garcia. One of those officials, by the way, Boris and Jessica, when I asked, is it possible that he could at some point be released, they said, he's not going anywhere.

DEAN: All right, David Culver, thank you so much. We really, really appreciate that reporting.

So, obviously these deportations, a key storyline we're following through this Trump administration, another one, tariffs. They're on again. They're off again, apparently soon to be on again, and, today, President Trump's deepening trade war with China facing fresh uncertainty, and this time with electronics.

We're talking about some of the most popular products really anywhere, smartphones, laptops, hard drives. Right now, these exports from China are exempt from the steepest of Trump's tariffs. But the White House warns, new tariffs will be announced soon, also tariffs on pharmaceuticals, the timeline for that, and really both of these, still unclear.

And with us now to talk more about this is Rick Newman. He's a senior columnist at Yahoo Finance.

Rick, thanks so much for being here with us. Good to see you.

There is so many -- I hear those word over and over again from everybody across the economy right now. It's the uncertainty. That's the one thing that we keep getting for sure is the uncertainty. And you say keeping a close eye on the dollar and the bond markets can provide some clarity. So what are they telling you right now? What are you reading into this?

RICK NEWMAN, SENIOR COLUMNIST, YAHOO FINANCE: Well, they're telling us that Trump has reached a limit of what he can do with tariffs without facing pretty significant market consequences.

And that's why we saw Trump pull back on these so-called reciprocal tariffs last week. So, just to sort of put the state of play as of this moment, so what we now have is those reciprocal, those pretty high tariffs on a lot of countries, it was like 60, 70, 80 countries.

Those have now -- Trump has now pulled those back, and those countries now are just facing the 10 percent baseline tariff. What this means is that if Trump -- Trump has had to decide which tariffs are most important to him, and he decided the ones on China are most important to him.

So, basically, we now have a very large trade war between the United States and China. And this -- so Trump pulling back on the electronics tariffs, that's only about 20 percent of the stuff we get from China. Those very high tariffs of 145 percent are still there on things like appliances, clothing, shoes, handbags, leather goods, and things like that.

So, trade experts say that -- tariffs at that level are basically an embargo. We are basically saying to China, don't bring any stuff in, and they're not going to sell it with those tariffs. So, significant tariffs are still there. But they're not quite as bad as they were a week ago.

DEAN: Yes, and it just seems that -- with that scene you just set, specifically with China, it appears to be, who's going to blink first, right, America or China, when it comes to all of this?

What happens in the meantime is the big question, too, right?

NEWMAN: Yes.

And it's possible that nobody blinks and everybody gets hurt. So, really, it's a question of, which leader is going to hold his own people hostage the longest? And I wouldn't want to be in this position against Xi Jinping, the president of China. Trump can hurt China with these tariffs. These tariffs will hurt the Chinese economy and businesses.

But Xi Jinping is not really an elected leader, and he has more ability on behalf of his own people to endure the pain of tariffs more than Donald Trump does. I mean, Donald Trump has basically kind of shown his card.

[13:15:07]

I mean, when we got wobbles in the treasury market and interest rates rising last week, when they should have been following -- falling, very clearly, Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, went to Trump and said, this is trouble. We need to put a stop to this.

So Trump showed his pain point on that. And Xi Jinping, without a doubt, was paying attention. Another thing Xi Jinping is going to be doing is putting tariff, other types of restrictions on key products in Trump districts in the United States. That means farmers in red states, for example. They're going to be targeting those people.

So they -- the Chinese learned a lot when they went through this the first time in 2018 and 2019. And it's going to be worse this time. So every -- right now, everybody's getting hurt.

DEAN: All right, Rick Newman, thanks so much for your time. We appreciate it.

Still to come: the Pennsylvania governor and his family forced to flee their home in the middle of the night after it's set on fire by an intruder who was inside the home. Hear what the attacker told police about his plans.

Plus: Federal prosecutors accuse a teenager of killing his parents and say their murders were just the start of a plot to assassinate President Trump. More disturbing details on that ahead.

And, later, hear what the star-studded all-female Blue Origin crew is revealing about their flight to space.

We will have these stories and more all coming up this hour right here on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[13:20:29]

SANCHEZ: We're getting our first look at the damage left behind after an arson attack on the Pennsylvania governor's residence.

You can see the scorched remains left behind, walls and ceilings torched, floors covered in ash, furniture destroyed as well. The fire erupted early Sunday morning as the governor and his family slept.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D-PA): While my family and I were asleep upstairs here at the governor's residence, one of the state troopers assigned to our detail banged on our door, woke us up, and told us we had an emergency and needed to leave immediately.

Together, we secured all of our children, our two dogs, our family that was staying with us, and the Troopers safely evacuated us from the governor's residence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The police say that this man, 38-year-old Cody Balmer, admitted to breaking into the home and then igniting Molotov cocktails. He's now facing attempted murder, aggravated arson, terrorism and other charges.

Let's discuss with CNN law enforcement analyst and former Secret Service agent Jonathan Wackrow.

Jonathan, thank you so much for being with us this afternoon.

Balmer had to hop a fence and then break into the home, evading State Troopers. What does that tell you about the security at the governor's residence?

JONATHAN WACKROW, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, it tells me that security needs to be enhanced significantly.

And I think that, in today's political environment, where we are seeing a significant rise in political violence towards elected officials, it necessitates a greater focus on applying physical security measures or enhancements at the residences of these political leaders.

I mean, this incident alone, this individual was able to easily defeat multiple layers of defense, first starting with the perimeter fencing, then the electronic surveillance and detection system, gaining access into the residence and then launching the attack, all while the State Police that was providing the protective resource there was unable to locate him.

And making matters even worse, the suspect was able to get away without being detected. So there's a lot of questions that need to be answered by the Pennsylvania State Police as to what type of security posture was active that evening, and really looking at the timeline from when the first alarm went off to when the suspect gained entry into the residence.

We really need to understand what happened during that time period, because, at the end of the day, that individual should never have been inside the governor's mansion, especially now knowing the intent that he had, which was to cause physical harm to the governor.

SANCHEZ: We should point out that Pennsylvania State Police are conducting a security review right now. Walk us through what that kind of review consists of. What changes do you imagine could be made?

WACKROW: Well, listen, whenever you're talking about asset protection -- in this case, the governor's mansion is an asset of the state.

You have to look at three things, people, process, and technology and how those elements are applied against the backdrop of today's threat environment. So, we do know that there was a level of physical security that was there. We heard from the State Police that video surveillance with alerting capabilities did detect that there potentially was an intruder.

Now, what I would like to know is, what was the response to that? Did they send officers to that area to investigate? Oftentimes, those are false positives, false alarms because of wildlife. Again, we actually have to understand, what was the process once they detected that there was a potential intruder?

What assets went directly to the governor, right? We know that, after the fire was set, that Troopers were banging on the door. We heard the governor's comments that Troopers then safely evacuated the family and guests to another location.

But exactly how many resources were going to the governor? How many were actually looking for this problem that was ongoing? Because, when you talk about protection, Boris, what you don't want to do is, you don't want to go from -- take protectees from one destabilized environment into another.

And there could have been a high likelihood that the fire that was set within the mansion could have been a diversionary tactic. That is in the mind of these Troopers as they're engaging. So I would call -- at the end of the day, because the governor and the first family was safe, it is a victory, but it's a victory by default because it was a successful attack by the aggressor.

[13:25:17]

SANCHEZ: Yes, we're certainly glad that they turned out OK.

Jonathan Wackrow, appreciate the perspective, as always. Thanks for joining us.

WACKROW: Thanks, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Jessica.

DEAN: A teenager in Wisconsin could soon face federal charges, including an attempt to assassinate President Trump after he was arrested for allegedly killing his own parents.

Investigators say the teenager was involved with a neo-Nazi group and concocted an elaborate plan he hoped would cause enough chaos to overthrow the U.S. government.

CNN's Whitney Wild is following this for us.

And, Whitney, there are some new details that are coming in now from these newly unsealed court documents. What are you learning?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, what's unsealed now is this real effort toward working toward what would eventually result in what he hoped would be a presidential assassination.

This case focuses on Nikita Casap, 17 years old from Wisconsin. And this case began February 11, when police say he shot and killed his mother and stepfather. He then, according to police, stole an SUV. A nationwide lookout went out after February 28, when police found his parents dead, for the vehicle that was stolen.

And when police found him in that vehicle, Jessica, what they found was $14,000 in cash, jewelry, a firearm. And through the course of their investigation, they found on his cell phone materials related to this manifesto. And the manifesto made clear that, according to police, that he had this affinity for a group called the Order of Nine Angles, which police say is a neo-Nazi network.

And, again, he was working toward this goal, which would end in the assassination of President Donald Trump. And what the affidavit says is that the intention here was to cause chaos, to overthrow the U.S. government, because he wanted to -- quote -- "save the white race."

In addition, he was communicating with a Russian speaker. He intended to go to Ukraine. Obviously, it never got that far. He is now facing nine felony counts, which includes two counts of first-degree murder as well as presidential assassination, but really a very, very fascinating, sprawling case that ended, fortunately, with him in custody.

But there's still quite a bit to learn as investigators work through all of this -- back to you.

DEAN: Yes, a lot of details there.

Whitney Wild in Chicago, thank you so much for that update.

A pop star, a journalist, and a billionaire's fiancee all blast off to space. How about that crowd? Well, what the star-studded Blue Origin crew are sharing about their trip to the cosmos, that's next.

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