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Judge to Rule on DOGE's Access to Social Security Info; Protesters Tased, Arrested At Rep. Greene's Town Hall; Trump Says Harvard Should Receive No Federal Funding; Interview with Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL): Biden Criticizes Trump in First Public Remarks Since Leaving White House; Trump Administration Looking at Closing Nearly 30 Embassies, Consulates. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired April 16, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

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RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Court orders for sensitive personal data held by the agency, including employment, pay history and home addresses, in hopes of using it to help the president's immigration enforcement agenda.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Baltimore heard arguments on whether she should continue to restrict DOGE's access to American sensitive personal data at the Social Security Administration. The judge had asked that the agency's acting commissioner attend the hearing to answer her questions about why DOGE needs such broad access and what specifically they plan to do with the data. But the acting commissioner didn't show up and the judge wasn't very happy about it.

The judge has previously issued a restraining order blocking DOGE from Social Security systems, but that expires this Thursday, so the clock is ticking for her to decide whether she will extend that, but it is worth noting, though, that DOGE has continued to push for access despite the court order.

Rene Marsh, CNN, Washington.

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Chaos at a town hall in Georgia. Protesters tased, you can hear it right there, several people arrested. What Marjorie Taylor Greene has to say about all this?

And we are standing by to see what, if anything, the Trump administration produces to prove they're trying to get a man back from El Salvador. A man the administration admits they sent there by mistake. A judge tells them so far she believes they've done nothing.

And new details about the suspect accused of setting fire to the Pennsylvania governor's mansion. His family tells CNN he was chewing on batteries days before the attack.

Sara is out this morning. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: It was a wild night in Georgia at a town hall hosted by Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. She is one of Donald Trump's closest allies on Capitol Hill. She is a firebrand, and she faced both supporters and protesters as she defended President Trump's agenda back in her home district, and it descended into chaos more than once.

Several people removed by police, three people arrested, two people taken down with stun guns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(VIDEO SHOWING POLICE TASING PROTESTERS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

There's one of the moments the Congresswoman seemed unfazed by the multiple protests that occurred during the event.

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REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Ladies and gentlemen, they're all inside the interior of the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How about the KKK?

GREENE: They're all inside the interior of the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They can't see the terrorist group going after Black and --

GREENE: They can head out. The protest is outside. Thank you very much.

The protest is outside.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You watch, I'll be taken. You watch, I'll be taken.

GREENE: The protest is outside, bye, have fun out there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BOLDUAN: CNN's Eva McKend joining us now with much more on this. One thing is, Marjorie Taylor Greene is holding in-person town halls. We know that a lot of Republicans are not doing this, despite the tradition that everyone basically does because of these protests now -- Eva.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: She did show up, and listen, it was true to form for the far-right ally of President Trump as she sparred with her own constituents in this very combative town hall. She mocked critical questions, accused Georgians of being brainwashed, and it was clear Greene really relished this. We have heard from Republican leadership advising against holding these types of events to avoid these public clashes, but what we saw is that she was very much in her element looking for a fight.

Listen to how she responded to a constituent concern about Medicaid, Social Security, something that used to be a really sensitive issue even for Republicans. Take a listen.

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GREENE: Why is MTG supporting Musk and DOGE and the slashing of Medicaid, Social Security offices, libraries, and more? This is outrageous from Sara. Well, Sara, unfortunately, you're being brainwashed by the news that you're watching.

And you know, a lot of Democrats pride themselves on being educated, and I suggest they educate themselves better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: So Kate, you saw her reading from the monitor there, because that's how she decided to facilitate this instead of answering questions directly.

Now, in at least two instances, our crew on the ground witnessed officers using stun guns after scrums with male attendees as they tried to remove them from the building.

Meanwhile, there was another combative town hall with Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley. It also got testy.

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His constituents thanked him for being there and not hiding from them, but they raised concerns about immigrants being rounded up and railroaded in this moment. That's probably the most passionate it became when he was pressed if he would advocate for that Maryland father to be returned to the United States. And then also there were concerns about tariffs, farmers had issues, and potential cuts to vital services for veterans -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Eva, thanks for wrapping it all up. And there are more town halls scheduled. You can be sure that this will not be the last we'll be hearing of this.

Really appreciate it -- John.

BERMAN: All right, a key deadline today in the case of the man mistakenly scooped up and deported to El Salvador.

Cancel your vacations. Cancel your appointments. Be ready to testify. That was the exact message from the federal judge sent to the Trump administration in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. She gave his attorneys until today to submit questions for Trump officials to answer under oath about what they have done to follow the court's order to facilitate his return.

Also this morning, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen, Kate just talked to him yesterday. He arrived at the airport outside Washington to travel to El Salvador, hoping to discuss the case with officials there. He represents Maryland, the state where Abrego Garcia was living with his wife and child before he was rounded up last month.

His wife was outside the courthouse following the hearing, pleading for his return. As for the judge, she has ordered a two-week discovery window to determine what has or has not been done to get Abrego Garcia back. To date, the judge says, quote, what the record shows is that nothing has been done.

In the meantime, that means at least two more weeks for Abrego Garcia inside this notorious mega prison in El Salvador.

Let's get right to CNN's Katelyn Polantz in Washington for where this stands at this moment -- Caitlin.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, the judge is trying to be as clear as possible here. She thought that her order before was clear, that the United States must facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia from that prison in El Salvador where they sent him. He was not supposed to be sent to El Salvador, according to the immigration system.

A judge in the immigration system years ago said that he couldn't go back to his own country, although he could be deported. And so Judge Paula Xinis at a very tense hearing yesterday in the federal court in Maryland said it's time to get to work because I wanted answers every day from the U.S. government about how they were facilitating his return. And those answers, they hadn't come.

What she said is that it is now a fact of the record that every day that Abrego Garcia is detained in El Salvador, it's a day of irreparable harm. The way that she wants answers is she's setting up a series of deadlines. She's going to collect evidence.

John, that's a pretty classic thing for a federal court to do, to look at what they could do next, what the next steps might be, sanctions, additional orders. So how that's going to play out is largely out of the public spotlight, but it's going to start with the attorneys for Abrego Garcia asking questions of the Justice Department, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the Trump administration, getting documents from them. All of those requests are due today.

They're going to be turned over theoretically by next week, according to the judge's orders. And then up to six different officials from the State Department and Homeland Security will be able to testify, according to the judge's order. She wants to have this sorted out by the end of April.

But hanging over this case, John, is the big question. Will the Justice Department, the Trump administration follow the court orders here? How much are they willing to say about what happened to this man and the choice made to remove him from the country whenever he had already been before an immigration judge who said he shouldn't go to El Salvador -- John? BERMAN: Again, the judge said every day that passes Abrego Garcia in that prison causes irreparable harm. Katelyn Polantz for us in Washington. Thank you very much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Still ahead for us this hour, President Donald Trump has a new threat for Harvard University after the school pushed back on his demands and he cut their federal funding.

And we also have new details coming out about the man accused of that arson attack at the Pennsylvania governor's mansion, what the man's family now says he was doing in the days before the attack.

And in moments, we're going to get a fresh look at a key retail sales report. Will it show the president's tariffs are impacting consumer spending?

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BOLDUAN: President Trump is up and posting this morning and targeting Harvard University once again. Accusing the school of teaching, quote- unquote, hate and stupidity in a new social media post and saying that the school should no longer receive any federal funds.

He has already threatened to pull Harvard's -- or try to pull Harvard's tax-exempt status and instead tax the school as a political entity.

But the Ivy League institution, so far not budging and standing up against the Trump administration's sweeping demands for policy changes and government oversight.

CNN's Kara Scannell is here with much more. Day-to-day there seems to be another development in how this kind of standoff is going.

What more are you hearing? What more is the White House saying?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So we heard more about, you know, yesterday Trump focusing in on another pressure point potentially revoking their tax-exempt status.

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And the White House press secretary yesterday during the briefing also was focusing in on the size of Harvard's endowment. They have more than $50 billion. Here's more of what she said.

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KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: More than $2 billion out the door to Harvard when they have a more than $50 billion endowment. Why are the American taxpayers subsidizing a university that has billions of dollars in the bank already? And we certainly should not be funding a place where such grave anti-Semitism exists.

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SCANNELL: Now the thing about the endowments is that the donations come in but a lot of them are legally earmarked for specific things including academic programs, scholarships, and faculty positions. So according to the universities a number of them have filed sworn affidavits in different court cases. They said that they can't just easily pull this money away and it's meant to fulfill the school's funding for years and years to come. They only use about 5 percent of it a year so it's not quite that simple.

I mean we did see though, we haven't seen any further reaction from Harvard. Nothing more that they have said.

But we have seen other leaders at other schools stand up and stand alongside Harvard. We saw statements from Stanford's president out there saying that they stood with Harvard, Princeton University, and even Columbia where they have had $400 million of their funding frozen and they're kind of in this negotiation with the White House to try to sort it out. Their acting president came out yesterday saying, you know, that they would make some changes but they weren't going to go as far as things that would go against the principles of higher education.

BOLDUAN: It is interesting because that's part of the question is like Harvard taking the stand is that the turning point in what it seemed when you look at the law firms that had been bowing to the pressure of the administration and somewhat Columbia and saying that they were going to work with the administration on this in order to secure their funding. Does what Harvard has now -- now that Harvard has done does that mark a turning point? We'll see in the next couple days, right?

BERMAN: Yes, I mean that's what everyone's talking about. We saw a lot of the law firms capitulate and now the question is is Harvard here going to be the turning point in a lot of these different areas, these different industries that Trump is focusing on?

BOLDUAN: Yes, it's great to see you Kara. Thank you so much.

Coming up for us, tragedy at the southern border. Two U.S. service members die after their vehicles were involved in an accident. Some more details coming in about what may have occurred. We'll bring that to you.

And remember all those mysterious drone sightings in New Jersey last year? How can we forget? Well, now the FAA is testing new drone detection technology in the state.

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BERMAN: Overnight, former President Joe Biden gave his first public remarks since leaving the White House. Now, without mentioning President Trump by name, he slammed the administration on its tenure so far.

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JOE BIDEN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Fewer than 100 days, this new administration has made so much, done so much damage and so much destruction. It's kind of breathtaking it could happen that soon.

Well, they're following that old line from tech startups. The quote is, move fast, break things. Well, they're certainly breaking things. They're shooting first and aiming later.

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BERMAN: With us now is Congressman Mike Quigley, a Democrat from Illinois. I think the former president was out in your neck of the woods giving that speech, Congressman. You were one of the first and loudest to publicly call for President Biden to exit the presidential contest last summer.

So now that you see him out there, A, how do you feel about his message? But B, how do you feel about the fact that he's out there at this moment delivering that message? Is he your best messenger?

REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL): Yes, sure. Look, I think President Biden had a great time, his term as president of the United States. I think he shouldn't have run again.

But we welcome his voice because he's spot on about what's taking place in our country. A lot of what he talked about yesterday was Social Security. And if people think that Republicans are getting pushed back on Medicaid, this is the absolute third rail.

It's what I hear from my constituents at every opportunity. They can deal with a lot of things, but they don't want the government to touch Social Security in any way, shape or form.

So, look, I welcome President Biden's voice. I think he was right on yesterday.

BERMAN: You know, it's interesting because your fellow Chicagoan, Rahm Emmanuel, former mayor of Chicago, I talked to him last night. And he agrees with you and the president, former president, on the message. But he kind of says he wishes that Joe Biden weren't out there talking right now.

Listen.

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RAHM EMMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: On a political level, this was wrong. And I say that with a broken heart because in 2025 elections in both Virginia and in New Jersey and in the 2026 midterms, we want this to be a referendum on the President Trump and the Republicans. And so to me, anything that distracts from that is bad political strategy.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: He's basically saying Republicans want Joe Biden out there.

QUIGLEY: Look, it's a big tent with a lot of voices. It's not just former President Biden talking out there. Right. You know, it's it's AOC. It's me. It's people from across the political spectrum.

So I don't think it really hurts to have the former president talk about that. At the same time, we have President Obama talking about these issues.

[08:25:02]

Now, still a very effective spokesman. I don't think people are turned off by the fact that Biden speaks out about an issue that they probably agree with.

BERMAN: Obviously, we are in the midst right now of President Trump's tariffs and the impact it's having on the U.S. economy.

He put out a post overnight -- actually a short time ago -- saying Japan is coming in today to negotiate tariffs, the cost of military support and trade fairness. I will attend the meeting along with Treasury and Commerce secretaries. Hopefully something can be worked out, which is good. Great for Japan and the USA.

What's your feeling about the possibility of deals coming from these tariffs?

QUIGLEY: Look, if there's trade deals that are negotiated ahead of time with both parties agreeing on it, that's what it's all about. But this crazy Helter skelter policy has put the stock market in the position it's in. It's hurt a great number of people and it's hurt our relationship with the rest of the world.

We're talking about Japan now and under the Biden administration, negotiations to have them increase their defense spending helps keep us safer as a bulwark against Chinese military threats. They are our largest investor, Japan. They are the largest holder of our bonds. They're a critical ally.

So I would argue the economic damage has already been done, but also the political damage and the damage to our national security. As FDR said in his last inaugural, to have a friend, you need to be one.

Who do we think is a friend to the United States right now? Telling NATO that they're on their own, treating Ukraine the way we are doing, eliminating our soft power with USAID, you know, telling Japan, maybe we'll let you in through talks. But in the meantime, you know, putting literally a gun to their head with these extraordinary tariffs that are taking place.

It just doesn't work. It's not helping on an economic or defense point of view.

And talk about strange bedfellows. When the liberal Democrat from Chicago agrees with The Wall Street Journal, this is the dumbest trade war in history. Something must be up.

BERMAN: All right, Congressman Mike Quigley, quoting from The Wall Street Journal, didn't necessarily have that on your bingo card. Appreciate your time this morning, sir -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: There are some potential big changes coming to America's diplomatic presence overseas. The Trump administration looking now to close nearly 30 embassies and consulates. And this is according to an internal State Department document obtained by CNN.

CNN's as Jennifer Hansler has this reporting. She's joining us now. So, Jennifer, tell us more about what -- more about this, about your reporting and also where this is going to be impacted.

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: Well, Kate, most of these proposed closures are in Europe and Africa, though there are some in Asia and the Caribbean as well. The embassy proposed closures include places like Malta, Luxembourg, the Republic of Congo and South Sudan. There are also consulates spread throughout Europe. Numbers in France and Germany, some in Italy and Portugal as well.

Now, these are not finalized. This was a recommended list from a State Department office. But there are 10 embassies and 17 consulates in total on this recommended list. The list also proposes downsizing the number of diplomats at our embassies in Somalia and Iraq. These are places that have served important functions on counterterrorism missions.

Now, Kate, embassies and consulates play an important role. They process visas. They provide emergency services for Americans abroad. They also relay information from the host countries back to Washington, D.C.

Now, all of these changes, these proposed changes are coming amid what is expected to be a broader overhaul of this State Department. This is part and parcel from what DOGE and the Trump administration is doing throughout the federal government to downsize the amount of federal workers and the federal government.

Now, it's important to note, Kate, that it is unclear if Secretary of State Marco Rubio has yet to sign off on this proposed list and whether or not these changes will actually get implemented.

But we'll be watching to see what actually comes about of these proposed closures -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Jennifer, thank you, as always, for your reporting. Really appreciate it from you and your team there.

Still to come for us, we're going to be keeping an eye on -- right there -- on Dow -- on stock futures slightly down, pointing down right now at least this point in the morning. And we're going to have the opening bell in just about one hour as the White House and the president are talking more and more about the deals, the trade deals that they are negotiating with other countries. The impact of that, we'll find out. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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