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Trump Envoy, Putin Meet After New Russian Strikes on Ukraine; Trump Tells Time Magazine: I've Made 200 Deals in Tariff War; Interview with Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL): Trump's Tariffs, Ukraine War and Peace Talks with Russia; Luigi Mangione Set to Appear in Federal Court. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired April 25, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: I spend so much of my days talking to people. One of my favorite things about diving is that nobody can talk to you. You can't hear anybody. Diving is an amazing way to connect with Mother Nature and to forget about all the crazy stuff that's happening on land or in your personal life.

It's a fantastic way to be in the moment and to hang out with your friends and goof off.

Did a handful of dives, and right now we're kicking back, enjoying the reward, playing some dominoes. Food and booze is on the way.

Look at that! I had an amazing time, especially bringing a camera crew out here to document some of it, to share it with folks. It was unforgettable.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Ah, let's just stay there. That seemed nice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Boris's happy place?

BOLDUAN: I want to stay in Boris's happy place. Yes. You can watch your favorite celebs take you to their favorite places in the new CNN original series, "MY HAPPY PLACE" and join actor Alan Cumming in the Scottish Highlands for the premiere episode this Sunday, 10 p.m. Eastern on CNN.

Let's go to another hour of your happy place.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Breaking news. We believe President Trump's special envoy is meeting with Russian leader, Vladimir Putin at this moment, this after a new night of deadly strikes against Ukraine.

What will the Trump team do to get Russia to stop now that social media posts have not worked? The Vatican says more than 130,000 people have paid their final

respects to Pope Francis as final preparations are underway for the funeral.

And a seven figure starter home, the American dream getting more and more expensive.

I'm John Berman with Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: All right. The breaking news this morning, President Trump's special envoy, welcomed it to the Kremlin just moments ago by Russian President Vladimir Putin. The two are now sitting down for a meeting over, of course, Russia's war in Ukraine.

That face is -- this face-to-face coming as we are getting new images from another night of deadly Russian attacks in Ukraine. The strikes happening -- these strikes happening despite Donald Trump's, I guess we will call it a plea on social media to Putin saying Vladimir stop. That's after Russia's deadliest attack on keys since last summer and that happened just yesterday. At least 12 people were killed.

And in a new interview with Time Magazine, President Trump is saying quite a lot about the war and his frustration, not being able to lock in a deal to end it, including this -- Crimea will stay with Russia. Also saying Zelenskyy understands. Let me read it for you.

Crimea will stay with Russia and Zelenskyy understands that. And everybody understands that it's been with them -- the Russians -- for a long time, says President Trump.

Sources tell CNN that the president is frustrated about private -- and privately venting about how difficult it has been to negotiate an end to the war. Something he vowed to do within 24 hours of taking office. And in this new interview with Time Magazine, Trump now says that campaign promise was made quote, ingest.

CNN's Alex Marquardt joins us now from Washington. And there is much more to what we are hearing from the president, but also much more to come today in Moscow, Alex.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Kate, today's a really big day. Steve Witkoff in Moscow, trying to get the Russians on board with some kind of ceasefire to get them to agree to this framework that the Americans have laid out.

Of course, the Russians have so far rejected this blanket ceasefire that the Americans called for last month that the Ukrainians immediately agreed to. We have heard now from the Russian foreign minister and new comments saying that they think a deal is possible, that the conversations are moving along, but there needs to be some fine tuning to the deal. And if you follow Russian negotiations and everything, they say fine tuning could be code for their intention to continue to drag this out.

Now, the fear from the Ukrainian side, the European side in the -- about this meeting that Witkoff is having is that Putin is going to tell him what they want and that the Americans are simply going to agree in order to end this war, because there's been all this discussion, Kate, about what concessions the two sides will give. And it's generally acknowledged that on the Ukrainian side, it's going to be very painful giving up large swaths of their country. While on the Russian side, we have now heard from Trump saying that the only real concession that he expects from Moscow is to stop their war in Ukraine.

This is what he said yesterday in the Oval Office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[08:05:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What concessions has Russia offered up thus far to get to the point where you're closer to peace?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Stopping the war, stopping taking the whole country. Pretty big concession. I can't think of one country that doesn't want to negotiate a deal. And they either negotiate a deal or we set a deal that we think is fair.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: So Kate, he just wants Russia to stop the war, not talking about giving back large swaths of Ukrainian territory, not talking about helping pay to rebuild the countless villages and towns that have been destroyed by the Russian invasion.

And so I think in the past 24 hours, we've really seen the clearest distillation of how Donald Trump sees this war, not just that comment in Time Magazine about how Crimea will go back to the Russians or will stay with the Russians. But he again accused the Ukrainians of starting the war themselves.

This is what he told Time.

I think what caused the war to start was the when they started talking about joining NATO.

That, Kate, is the most Russian of talking points. The fact that Russia did not start the war. In fact, it was the Ukrainians who provoked the Russians and the Russians essentially had no choice.

So this is a critical day with Witkoff in Moscow. The White House is claiming that they're putting all kinds of pressure on the Russians, but we really, Kate, have not seen any evidence of that just yet.

BOLDUAN: That's for sure. Great reporting, Alex. Thank you so much -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Actually, Alex, we do want to stay -- have you stay with us. We are also bringing in CNN contributor, Jill Dougherty, our former Moscow bureau chief. I just want to get your reaction to what we are hearing now from Alex Marquardt's reporting from Donald Trump and some of the things he's saying. I mean, what does this tell you about where these negotiations really are?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think Alex made a really good point that the essential issue here for the Russians is that Ukraine wanted to join NATO. It started a long time ago and they were at fault for wanting to join NATO because we think it's a threat to Russia. And so it was justified for Russia to invade another country.

I mean, that's essentially what they're saying. And I listened to Foreign Minister Lavrov this morning who said exactly that. He said, President Trump is probably the only leader on earth who recognizes the need to address the root causes of the situation -- as they call it, they never call it a war -- in Ukraine.

So the root causes, I think, you know, the root causes for the Russians are NATO expansion. That's an old debate. That goes back to the end of the Soviet Union, the early 90s. But I think they feel that President Trump agrees with them on the root causes. And you can see it, that it was NATO is the problem.

So if you have that agreement, any, you know, call by President Trump to stop Vladimir is not going to work. The Russians actually aren't even mentioning that, you know, Sara. They're not talking about stop Vladimir because they don't obviously want the American president to tell the Russian president what to do or not to do.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, Alex, there is this line about Crimea, you know, sort of staying with Russia. That isn't even something Zelenskyy can do, I think, when it comes to the Constitution. What do you what do you make of those statements?

And what Zelenskyy is having to deal with right now is Russia continues to attack. And his people are certainly not going to go for that.

MARQUARDT: Yes, I'm not sure what the Trump administration really appreciates are the domestic forces that Zelenskyy is up against. They have had this three years of war, hundreds of thousands of young and old Ukrainian men have been killed and wounded on the front line. Countless civilians have been killed or wounded.

And so for the Ukrainians, for President Zelenskyy to give up territory could be an extraordinarily painful thing.

Now, I think we need to make clear from what we understand, the Trump administration is not asking President Zelenskyy to recognize Crimea as Russian. That would probably be an American recognition. But he probably would expect -- Trump would probably expect President Zelenskyy to, in fact, de facto allow these large swaths of territory in the south and the eastern parts of the country to become Russian territory.

This is this is territory that has been occupied by Russia over the course of the past three years.

[08:10:00]

What we are now in this moment where the Trump administration is extremely impatient to get to something, they just want the fighting to stop, whether that's a ceasefire, which Russia has rejected, whether that is a fully hashed out peace deal, that we don't know. But what is clear, Sara, I think, is that the Ukrainians and the Americans are operating on two different timelines.

The from what we understand, these negotiations in London that happened earlier this week, the Ukrainians are moving along. They are getting to a place where they might acknowledge that they have to give up some territory. But essentially what the Americans are saying is take it or leave it. We want to get this done now. And Vladimir Putin might be very happy to freeze the conflict along the lines of where it is right now -- Sara.

SIDNER: Not what you will hear from President Zelenskyy as his country is continuing to be bombarded over and over again. Jill Dougherty, Alice Marquardt, it is always a pleasure to have both of you on at the same time. Lucky for me. Thank you -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So right now, tens of thousands of people from around the world are gathering and headed to Vatican City, preparing to say their final goodbye to Pope Francis. And coming up, we're going to talk to one of the Pope's friends about all of this and what all of this means.

And accused murderer Luigi Mangione is heading to court -- to a courtroom in New York today, expected to enter a plea on new federal charges.

And Football Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe stepping away from ESPN as he fights allegations of sexual assault.

[08:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: This morning in a newly released interview with President Trump, the president claims to have made 200 deals with other countries on tariffs. Now, we should have zero deals have been announced. I want to read you the exchange between Time Magazine national political reporter, Eric Cortellessa, and the president.

Cortellessa asks, Not one has been announced yet. What are you going to announce them?

The president says, I've made 200 deals.

Cortellessa asks, you've made 200 deals?

The president says, 100 percent.

Cortellessa says, Can you share with whom? And then the president says, Because the deal is a deal that I choose, view it differently. We are a department store and we set the price.

With us now, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. The president says he's made 200 deals. What information do you have about progress on any negotiations with other countries right now?

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): I have zero information because I don't think there are any deals. In fact, the other day he said that he's talking to the Chinese and the Chinese Communist Party basically said, we are not in any talks with Donald Trump. I mean, this is kind of a situation where I think his nose is lengthening by the day with regard to these tariffs.

Yesterday, I actually visited businesses throughout Illinois who have been affected. I went to a soybean farm that's facing retaliation by the Chinese and others. I went to a produce market where they're basically saying working families are going to pay five to 10 percent more for their fruits, flowers and vegetables.

This is a tax on working families. And I think that right now people are very, very upset.

BERMAN: One of the things the president has said in this interview is he would view it as a success if tariffs on China were still at 50 percent a year from now. You have moved over the last several years to be tougher on China. What are the areas which you would be tougher on?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, I think that we should continue what the Biden administration did following up on the first Trump administration with regard to strategic tariffing where the Chinese practice, for instance, dumping or other tools of economic aggression, where they dump products at prices less than the cost of even producing them. So glass, paper, steel, aluminum, solar panels, electric vehicles. Those are areas where I think strategic tariffing makes sense to level the playing field to make sure that our companies are able to compete.

However, if you impose blanket tariffs on everything, including from everywhere, whether they are friends, partners or allies or China, basically what you do is you just increase prices. It's a tax on working families. And now it's leading to potential layoffs as well as a pause in hiring and investment.

So we're headed toward a recession because of Trump's policies.

BERMAN: We just reported. I don't know if you heard that the president's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, is believed to be meeting at this moment with Russian leader Vladimir Putin talking about the future of Russia's war on Ukraine. Inside the same Time Magazine story we've been quoting from, the president was asked about various proposals on the table.

Time asked him, should Ukraine give up any hope of ever joining NATO? The president said, I don't think they'll ever be able to join NATO. I think that's been from day one. I think that's been, that's I think what caused the war to start when they started talking about joining NATO. If they weren't brought up, there would have been a much better chance that it wouldn't have started.

Your view on that, but also what concessions at this point do you think Ukraine, Ukraine should be willing to make? Will they have to accept a Russian presence on part of its territory?

[08:20:00]

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, first of all, the reason for this war is that Russia invaded Ukraine. That is the reason. And basically, with regard to recognition, for instance, of Russia's conquest of Crimea, which is another demand that the Trump administration is making. Basically, what that's going to do is that kind of recognition of conquest by force is going to invite more conquest by force, whether it's in Europe or with the Chinese Communist Party in Taiwan.

In terms of concessions by the Ukrainians, I think, look, we may end up with some kind of an armistice or truce the way that we have in the Korean Peninsula, at least temporarily, where the current battle lines are, you know, used to help draw the armistice lines. But I don't think that we should recognize conquest by force anywhere, and certainly not with regard to Crimea or the lands that were conquered by the Russians.

BERMAN: Congressman, I'm not sure if you've heard, but Illinois Senior Senator Dick Durbin has announced that he is not running for reelection. As you sit here this morning, what are your plans regarding what will be an open Senate seat?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I'll have an announcement about that on a later date. But today, you know, basically we're talking about Dick Durbin's legacy and his service to Illinois, his exemplary work in Illinois. He'll go down as one of our great senators. And as a fellow son of downstate, I'm very grateful for his service.

BERMAN: How much of a later date and what kind of an announcement?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I'll be having an announcement on that shortly. But today, you know, I'm talking about Dick Durbin's service, as well as the fact that, you know, Donald Trump is absolutely hurting working families through his tariffs. I'm also going to be doing an event today with regard to Vietnam veterans.

Now we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their service in Vietnam. And so those are the issues that we're talking about today.

BERMAN: Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, we appreciate you talking to us and we look forward to hearing from you on a later date. Thank you very much -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, John.

Today, Luigi Mangione set to appear in federal court as prosecutors file notice they will seek the death penalty. And a wild police chase in Florida. Deputies say a suspect even

offered an officer some booze mid chase. More on Florida man coming up.

[08:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Today, Luigi Mangione is expected back in a courtroom. He'll be in federal court where he will enter a plea on stalking and murder charges. The most serious charge, murder through the use of a firearm, could get him a life sentence or send him to death row if convicted.

Just hours before this hearing, federal prosecutors submitted formal notice and paperwork that they intend to seek the death penalty. Mangione is facing all of this related to, of course you will remember, the brazen shooting death on a New York City sidewalk of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, back in December. Mangione also faces state charges in New York and Pennsylvania related to the shooting and the week-long manhunt that came right afterward.

Joining us right now to talk about today and all of this news coming in is Bob Bianchi. He's a criminal defense attorney and host of the Law and Crime Network. It's good to see you.

This latest move -- let's start there -- with DOJ filing notice that they plan to seek the death penalty. Is that surprising to you?

ROBERT BIANCHI, HOST, THE LAW AND CRIME NETWORK: Well, Kate, as a former homicide prosecutor, actually where I started my career, this is not surprising to me at all. This is the prosecutors getting together, hopefully playing well in the sandbox, and leveraging the power of each jurisdiction to apply as much pressure as possible on the defendant, hopefully for a resolution of the case. When I used to prosecute death penalty cases, sometimes the charges were filed in conjunction with other jurisdictions.

Again, applying the direction of the case in a different way for defense lawyers. Instead of just trying to say he didn't do it, he's not guilty or defense, now they have to look to save his life. And that is a completely different defense.

So this application of these additional charges and now with the ultimate punishment, possibly the death penalty, puts the defense in a very, very difficult position. So strategically, very smart by prosecutors.

BOLDUAN: And as Reuters is reporting it and justifying their decision, prosecutors wrote in their filing that Mangione, quote, presents a future danger because he expressed an intent to target an entire industry and rally political and social opposition to that industry by engaging in an act of lethal violence.

You talked about what this file, what this approach now does for the defense. How, what does it change for prosecutors? How hard is this -- what they just presented -- to show in court and what it means for their approach to the trial now?

BIANCHI: Well, prosecutors have to be extra specially attentive when they're seeking the death penalty because there's going to be more scrutiny and review by the appellate courts down the road.

Now, listen, here's how I used to look at it. I'm not a big fan of the death penalty, even though I used to prosecute those cases for multiple reasons.

But if you have a death penalty, it is a law. It's on the books. The question as a prosecutor becomes, in which cases do you apply it? In which cases don't you apply it? And the prosecutors here are saying, and not surprisingly to me.