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Trump to Putin After New Russian Strikes on Ukraine: "Vladimir, Stop!"; Trump Threatens to Reimpose Global Tariffs Within Weeks; Karen Read Murder Trial Resumes, First Responder to Testify. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired April 24, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER:That's where there are studies waiting in limbo. I spoke with one scientist at Stanford, Kate, and he told me that his research team has to hold off on starting any new research projects because they're waiting to see whether their funding will be renewed. They expected a decision in February. Their funding has completely run out about three weeks ago.

[09:00:19]

Another researcher in Florida said his team developed a mobile app that can assess and analyze your risk for dementia. That app may never reach it to the public because they're also waiting to see whether funding will be renewed.

And Kate, you know, NIH is the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world, so any move that NIH makes can have these sweeping consequences and ripple effects, sometimes impacting Alzheimer's studies.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely. Jacqueline, thank you so much for having those conversations and bringing that to us. I really appreciate it.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

BOLDUAN: We are following this breaking news coming in at this hour, President Trump issuing a rare criticism, strong criticism of Vladimir Putin after Russia launched its deadliest strikes against Ukraine on Kyiv since last summer. And within the last few moments, President Trump posting on social media this. I'll read it to you.

"I'm not happy with the Russian strikes on Kyiv. Not necessary and very bad timing," he says. "Vladimir stop! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Let's get the peace deal done."

Now, the wave of attacks he's referencing killed at least eight people, wounded some 60 others. The barrage hit 13 different locations in Kyiv, including civilian infrastructure and residential buildings. These were not bombs going to the front lines. These were bombs raining down on civilians.

Right now, rescuers are working through the rubble to try and search for people that they believe are still trapped beneath. But with this now new development with what Donald Trump is saying, let's go to CNN's Kevin Liptak, who's at the White House for us.

This is -- this message is important, especially when you combine it with what we heard from the last of what we heard from President Trump, which was criticizing and going after Ukraine's president, accusing him of slowing down these peace negotiations. And now this. What are you learning, Kevin?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, and it's clear that the president's frustrations at not being able to broker a peace between Russia and Ukraine are now spilling over quite publicly. The president, of course, promised when he was a candidate that you'd be able to resolve this war within 24 hours of taking office. Now we're approaching the 100-day mark of his presidency, and it doesn't appear as if peace is any nearer.

Today, he is venting his frustration at Putin, calling him by his first name, saying Vladimir, stop. But I do think it's notable the difference sort of in scale of the president's criticism. This Truth Social post that he put out regarding these strikes overnight, about 30 words long.

Yesterday, his attack on the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was far longer, almost 260 words. The president criticizing Zelenskyy for not immediately signing off on this U.S. peace plan that would essentially force Ukraine to cede all of the territory that it's lost to Russia over the course of this war, with only some vague security guarantees thrown in there. Also, with the explicit mention that it never be able to join NATO.

And so certainly you see the president now here really becoming more and more angry that this conflict is not being able to be resolved. I think in the sum total of things, his frustration is far greater at Zelenskyy. Obviously we saw that Oval Office blow up a few months ago.

We saw the post yesterday. Certainly he is also frustrated at Putin. And I think the question now is what that frustration will lead to. Does the United States now abandon its efforts to try and broker a peace in this conflict as the Secretary of State, as the vice president, and as the president have all warned, could be possible if the two sides cannot come to some kind of agreement? Or does the president go in a different direction? Does he apply, for example, new secondary sanctions or sectoral sanctions on Russia for its role in these deaths that are occurring in Kyiv today? It's all an open question.

The president had been hoping to have this deal struck by the 100-day mark of his presidency. It does not appear as if that's in the offing now. We do know that his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, will be in Moscow tomorrow to meet with the Russian president. This is the, you know, second or third time that they will have encountered each other. It's not clear what exactly will be able to come from those talks. [09:05:00]

Now, today the president will be meeting in the Oval Office with the Prime Minister of Norway. He's bringing along his Finance Minister, Jens Stoltenberg. If that name sounds familiar, it's because he's the former Secretary General of NATO. He's been considered something of a Trump whisper when it comes to European security, when it comes to the importance of NATO.

So I don't think it's, you know, any coincidence that he will be in the Oval Office today. And certainly Ukraine will be on the agenda when they sit down for those talks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Kevin, you really wrapped it up really well for us. I mean, as you're kind of getting to, it's one thing to pop off on social media. Clearly unclear if that does anything to persuade Vladimir Putin in any direction than the one he's already currently on.

Let's see what happens. It's great to see you, Kevin. Thank you.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So the Russian strikes on Kyiv are the deadliest since last summer about a year ago. For more on the attack, let's go to CNN's Nick Paton Walsh.

This is coming as Donald Trump has now finally condemned what Russia has done, which is, you know, met this attack on Kyiv, the worst that we've seen in about a year. What do you make of the difference between and what will sort of Kyiv and Russia and Europe make of the difference between the wording to President Putin and the wording and the attacks on Volodymyr Zelenskyy?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I think it's notable that President Trump there criticized President Putin's timing rather than just outright condemning the barbarity of this particular attack. 70 missiles Ukraine says used in the barrage overnight. That is notably higher in terms of the ballistic and other types of missiles fired.

This might be a bid by Russia to try and see if there are weaknesses in Ukraine's air defenses or indeed to overwhelm them. We've been hearing warnings for months now that potentially the vital Patriot interceptor missiles that can take down Russian ballistic missiles have been running out for Ukraine. President Zelenskyy has openly appealed for more and saying that every morning, sometimes they wake up and try and count how many they have left.

Maybe we'll see more intense barrages like this from missiles in particular against the capital city to try and probe that. Many, I think, have been wondering why the Kremlin seemed to be dragging their feet in diplomacy over the past weeks. And perhaps it's late April or May where there might be some kind of change in the dynamic of what Ukraine is able to feel to the battlefield and what Moscow is able to bring separately. This peace move, though, very much working to a deadline of President Trump's own making. He was clear days ago they had days left to try and make something up. A European official very clear with their perception that they want something done within 100 days.

And so where do we go from now? Well, in the post on Truth Social yesterday targeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he urged less inflammatory language, President Trump and that Zelenskyy, quote, "get it done." We don't really know what the it is yet at the moment.

And Trump himself was clear that he doesn't necessarily expect Zelenskyy to have Ukraine recognize occupied Crimea as part of Russia. This may indeed be something the U.S. does unilaterally to sweeten the deal Vladimir Putin. Zelenskyy today said that after the meeting on Thursday in London downgraded from secretary level to that of officials, a new document suggesting peace bullet points has gone to President Trump's desk.

I'm sure he'll be looking at that now. And that may form the basis of Witkoff's visit to Moscow. A lot moving fast here. But the increased pace, I think putting pressure on Ukraine to make concessions, pressure on the White House to offer potentially more sweet parts of the deal to Moscow, and seemingly at this point, putting very little pressure on Moscow at all, Sara.

SIDNER: Yeah, Nick Paton Walsh. Thank you so much for your reporting on this again this morning.

John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now, Meghan Hays, a Democratic Strategist and Ana Navarro, our CNN Senior Political Commentator.

Ana, I just want to read again the beginning of this Truth Social post from President Trump. "I'm not happy with the Russian strikes on Kyiv. Not necessary and very bad timing." How threatened you think Vladimir Putin is by those words?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: By Vladimir's stuff? I don't think he's threatened at all. Look, I think that the reason we're talking about and the reason that it's noteworthy is because for the last, you know, months, if not years, what we have seen from Donald Trump is him kowtowing to Putin. We have seen him and the way he's treated Zelenskyy, basically throwing him out of the White House and the Oval Office.

And so that's why it's not worth it, because it's as mild as it is. Vladimir stop. I feel like that's going to be some sort of meme or T shirt slogan. As mild as it is, it's the first public rebuke public I guess it's foreign policy by tweet from Trump, and it's the first time that we've seen him do something like this with Vladimir Putin.

BERMAN: Yeah. He doesn't say Meghan is that it's wrong of you to be attacking Ukraine at all, he says is bad timing. MEGHAN HAYS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I mean, we have talked about this many times. Russia could end this conflict immediately. They're the ones who invaded a sovereign nation. So the fact that the president is now all of a sudden tweeting something out that says Vladimir stop or, you know, this is bad timing is laughable. This is not the way you do foreign policy.

[09:10:08]

And let's not forget that Ukraine here is the -- is the one who's being attacked, and they're the ones who are trying to defend themselves. And America should be defending Ukraine and its other allies of the coalition that was built to support Ukraine against Russia. So this whole thing is just laughable on the president's part.

BERMAN: So we are approaching 100 days of this Trump presidency, which means we're going to see a whole bunch of polls and we're starting to see some of these 100-day polls come out. Pew Research came out and has the president's approval at 40%, disapproval at 59%. And then Fox also came out with polls with his approval at 44%, disapproval at 55%. That's the lowest that Fox has registered among the last six presidents at this point in their term on the economy. The president's at 38%, disapproval 56%, way underwater on the economy. Ana, what do you see here?

NAVARRO: Look, I think it's a very direct effect of the tariffs. The tariffs have been a catastrophe to the point that people who have been his staunch supporters, people who've been big donors to him, are actually speaking out publicly. It's the first time we've seen that in these 100 days where people speak out.

They've gone to the press, which they know he watches, and spoken out against these tariffs. It's had a terrible effect on the American psyche. We are also seeing what Ken Griffin from Citadel described yesterday as the damaging of the American brand.

I'm incredibly worried about the drop of tourism. I live in Florida. I know that Canadians are canceling their trips to Florida. I know that there's now countries in Europe issuing travel advisories against coming to the United States.

So I think it's -- you know, it's the chaos, it's the drama, it's the incompetence, it's the Pete Hegseth news, it's the foreign policy by tweet, it's the tariffs, it's the pardons, it's the lack of due process, it's the defying of the Supreme Court. I mean, we could spend all hour going through just the horrible things that Donald Trump has done in the last 100 days. I can't believe it's only been 100 days.

BERMAN: 95 so far, still 5 more to go. Meghan, you've been in the White House before. You've seen how these things work. How could the Trump administration dig itself out on these tariffs issue now if it wanted to?

HAYS: Well, I think they need to reverse course and I think they need to create stability. They need to message that's completely different. I'm not sure that they'll ever be able to regain some of the chaos and the damage that's already been done.

But to have a stable policy and actually have a policy they stick to for more than 12 hours, I think would do a lot of good, not just in the United States, but also in Europe and around the rest of the world. I think that just -- I agree with what Ana was saying. And the only thing I would add to that is we are seeing a devaluation of the American dollar around the world and that is going to be very problematic for our economy moving forward.

So the president needs to just cool it, stop talking about it, stick to a policy and move forward.

BERMAN: Ana, I want to ask you a little about the Democrats. You've got a little bit of an outsider's view out of both parties, frankly, right? Dick Durbin announced he's not running for re-election. They're going to elect a new number two in the Senate in a couple of years, a new Democratic Whip. What do you think the Democrats need to do in terms of fostering a new generation, if not a people of ideas?

NAVARRO: You know, I think all elected officials, but particularly Democrats right now who seem to be in an existentialist crisis and constantly staring at their navel and wondering where to go from here, I think what they need to do is listen to their base. All these people who are fearlessly showing up on the streets of America and protesting, who are fearlessly showing up at town halls, Republican and Democrat town halls, and giving elected officials a piece of their mind. They need to listen to the people.

It needs to be bottom up, not top down, because people are just not happy with Congress. They're not happy with their leaders. Democrats aren't happy with Republicans, but they're also not happy with their own leaders.

I will say Dick Durbin, I think, despite the fact that he is that older generation, I think he's a big loss for the Senate because he has been a very steady voice. He is very well liked, very well respected, known as a straight shooter. He's a man who has fought incredibly on issues like immigration. He's known to be fair.

BERMAN: Yeah, one of the fondest, I think, farewells he got, and he's not going anywhere for a little while, was from Chuck Grassley, of course, the Chair, the Republican chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who said he loved working across the aisle with Senator Durbin.

Ana Navarro, Meghan Hays, thank you both so much.

Sara?

SIDNER: Right ahead, happening now, testimony is resuming and the retrial of Karen Read, the woman accused of killing her police officer boyfriend. That following really emotional testimony from the victim's mother on the stand. We will have more on that.

And with hurricane season just weeks away, growing concern about the nearly 1,000 workers leaving FEMA.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:19:29]

SIDNER: Brand new details just revealed in the Karen Read murder retrial. Because the case has resumed today, we're expecting to learn the judge will allow a clip from a documentary about the case to be shown to the jury. This follows Wednesday's emotional testimony by the mother of Read's police officer boyfriend. Read is accused of hitting him with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow. She says she is innocent.

Joining me now to discuss CNN Correspondent Jean Casarez is watching every single detail of this. And you have the answer to the question that we posed, which is what did the judge do with this clip that is very significant for the prosecution?

[09:20:02]

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She just made the announcement and she is going to allow this audio-visual clip from investigation discoveries document that is a part of Warner Media, our company, but it's going to be allowed to be played before the jury and the defense fought hard to keep this out.

What it is, Peggy O'Keefe, mother of John O'Keefe, had taken the stand yesterday and she was asked, did you have a conversation with Karen Read in your kitchen over your kitchen island after he died? She said, no, I never talked to her in the kitchen, never.

Karen Read says in this clip, I was in the kitchen with Peggy and she looked at me and she said, I think he was hit by a car. And the prosecutor wants that in to show consciousness of guilt on the part of Karen Read and also, that she's not telling the truth right there.

SIDNER: Trying to impeach her on the sort of truthfulness of her testimony, but also going against some of the things she said.

SIDNER: If you said he think it was hit by a car, then how is it that you're also saying that he was beat up and killed by other officers in the house where he was? What else did you learn as you're watching each of these really dramatic testimonies that have happened over the past two days?

CASAREZ: It was dramatic because Peggy O'Keefe, John's mother, was on the stand yesterday. This is the mother of the victim and it was so emotional, but she talked about that she had a phone call with Karen Read as she was being taken to the hospital and she wanted to know what happened. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEGGY O'KEEFE, JOHN O'KEEFE'S MOTHER: I asked her, "What happened?" And she said, "We went to a party. I left him there." I said, "You just left him there?" She said, "Yes, I just left him there." UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did she say whether she left him inside or outside?

O'KEEFE: No, she just said, "I left him there."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did she tell you whether or not she left them in the driveway or the street?

O'KEEFE She just said, "No, I just -- I just left him there."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: Now, we also learned at the end of yesterday, a paramedic took the stand who had come in an ambulance because there was, he had to take her to the hospital for a psych evaluation, Karen Read. And he testified late yesterday that before she got in the ambulance, she said, you know, how long do you think it takes for somebody to die in the cold if they're out there for hours and they don't have a jacket on? And he says that once she got in the ambulance, she repeated it four to five times.

SIDNER: Wow. This is a lot of testimony coming back up in this retrial. And there are more details that the prosecution now has to work with because of this judge's ruling.

Jean Casarez, thank you so much for watching all of the details of this case. That is really riveting.

John?

BERMAN: We are standing by for the opening bell on wall street. You can see Futures are flat right now. Might be the investors don't know what to think anymore. Are there going to be new tariffs or retreat from tariffs? The old tariffs? Stand by.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:27:29]

BOLDUAN: So, we are just minutes away from the opening bell on Wall Street. So, stand by for another roller coaster because President Trump is injecting new uncertainty to the market. First, he announced a 90-day pause on his so-called reciprocal tariffs, the really just targeted tariffs for most countries. Now, it's the earliest month. That was April 9th. We're about 15 days into that.

And now, he says that he could reimpose those tariffs in two to three weeks if these countries don't cut trade deals with the United States right now. Adding to that, more mixed messages when it comes to China. After the two countries slapped sky-high tariffs on each other, Trump appeared to soften his tone this week, saying yesterday that the two sides are talking every day. But China this morning says that is not true, that there are no negotiations over trade.

The "Wall Street Journal" editorial board putting it bluntly, saying, quote, "China called Mr. Trump's bluff and seems to have won this round." Joining me right now is Ernie Tedeschi, Director of Economics at the

Yale Budget Lab and former Chief Economist in the Biden administration.

Good to see you again. Thanks for coming back in.

The posture from China seems to be weighted out. The reporting I'm saying is that China believes that Trump will eventually cave if they wait it out. And I'm wondering, where's the data on who can do that? Can China wait out Trump more than Trump can wait out China?

ERNIE TEDESCHI, DIRECTOR OF ECONOMICS, YALE BUDGET LAB: I mean, I think what China sees is that the Trump administration wants a deal. They've predicated this entire tariff strategy on reaching deals with other countries, and they have yet to reach a single deal with anyone. And so when you do that, it really compromises your position. It puts you in a weaker bargaining position.

So look, China and the United States are dependent on one another. They're both big countries, but they both trade a lot with one another. They will both -- you know, we will both hurt enormously if we have this trade war.

I think what China has calculated, though, is that if they wait it out, the markets, in particular the equity and the bond markets, are going to do the talking for them to President Trump.

BOLDUAN: We're now more than, as I mentioned, a dozen days into this 90-day pause on these targeted tariffs. And now with what the President is saying, he's thinking of cutting it short and re- escalating things before that mark.

[09:30:03]

My colleague Matt Egan was reporting for us this morning.