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Russia Announces 3-Day Ceasefire in Ukraine Starting May 8; Interview with Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA): Trump Criticizes Putin After Meeting with Zelenskyy; China Denies Trump Claims that Tariff Talks are Underway; Small Business CEO Sues Trump Administration Over Tariffs. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired April 28, 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]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Important day today. Kara, thank you so much.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And breaking just moments ago, Russia announces a three-day ceasefire in its war on Ukraine. Can Vladimir Putin be trusted this time?

And then breaking this morning, a brand new interview. President Trump says Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is, quote, going to get it together. He is going to. Does that mean the president does not think Hegseth has it together right now?

And then nearly nine years after robbers held Kim Kardashian at gunpoint and took off with some $10 million worth of jewels, the suspects are on trial.

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking news.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning, Russian President Vladimir Putin announcing a three-day ceasefire with Ukraine and calling on Kiev to do the same. It comes just days after President Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of Pope Francis' funeral.

After that meeting, President Trump got on Truth Social and said there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities, and towns, which is what they have been doing throughout the war.

CNN's Matthew Chance joins us now from London. Matthew, do we have any sense here of whether the Ukrainian president is aware of this and if he is saying anything about Russia's call for a ceasefire that we know they have broken in the past?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, Sarah, I'm sure that Volodymyr Zelenskyy follows the news like the rest of us and he's aware that this latest unilateral ceasefire by the Kremlin has been announced.

But you're right, it comes on the tail of more expressions by President Trump of his frustration with his efforts to try and bring a peace in the Ukraine war with Russia. And this is a three-day ceasefire, a three-day truce that's taking place from the 7th through the 9th of May over the period, in other words, when Russia, as well as Europe, marks the end of the Second World War. Victory Day in Russia is May the 9th and there's usually a big traditional military parade on Red Square on that day. So it's over that period that this ceasefire has been announced unilaterally by the Russians.

But a couple of things.

First of all, it stops well short of the 30 days ceasefire that President Trump has insisted on as a first step in this peace process. And by the way, which Ukraine has already agreed to.

And secondly, it was only nine days ago or so that Russia called another truce, an Easter truce over the Easter period, which was violated according to the Ukrainians on thousands of occasions.

And so look, it's not exactly clear that this latest unilateral ceasefire declared by the Kremlin is necessarily the beginning of the end of the Ukraine war.

SIDNER: All right, Matthew Chance, thank you so much for your reporting on this this morning for us -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now is Democratic Congressman Adam Smith from Washington state. Of course, he's the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee. It's good to see you, Congressman. Thank you for coming in.

What is your reaction to this unilateral ceasefire as we're now learning about it?

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): At this point, there's no reason to believe it. As your reporter just pointed out, the same thing was said over the Easter period, and there was no effort whatsoever by Russia to adhere to it. So it's likely just a PR campaign. But we'll see. We'll see whether or not he holds to that.

But the real big message here is it seems like President Trump is finally realizing what everybody else in the world knew for years, and that is that Putin is going to push this war as hard as he can unless you stop him.

And it has really hurt the process to get to peace that President Trump has put all the pressure on Zelenskyy. He sent a very clear message to President Putin from the start of Trump's administration that if Putin just holds out, eventually President Trump will abandon Ukraine. And that incentivized Putin to keep going forward instead of putting the pressure on Putin to force him to the peace table. Now, maybe, belatedly, President Trump has figured this out, but it's just a shocking amount of ignorance from this administration that has extended the war and placed Ukraine in greater jeopardy.

BOLDUAN: I was going to ask you what you're hearing from your sources and contacts with European allies, with that image of the president's knee-to-knee in St. Peter's Basilica for the Pope's funeral, the way Trump is now talking about it coming out of it and when he landed back in the states on Sunday. Do you truly think there is a shift now from the president in his perspective in terms of a better chance that this ends well for Ukraine?

[08:05:00]

SMITH: I doubt it, but I think the way I would characterize the way Europeans and others who strongly support Ukraine have reacted to this, it's a tiny sliver of hope in what has a dark few months from this administration.

And actually, Vice President Vance has been the worst on this. He has sent the signal over and over again that we're not going to continue to support Ukraine.

So I think what you saw and what you've probably heard now from Europeans and others who support Ukraine, it's just that tiny sliver of hope that maybe at some point President Trump is finally going to get what's going on, and we act accordingly. But it's early. And we'll see.

We'll see if the ceasefire holds. We'll see if President Trump's administration actually is willing to put pressure on Putin to force him to the peace table. It's a sliver of hope, but there's still a lot that we have to learn about where it goes from here.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. As the Secretary of State, on up and down, saying that this week they view as critical to see if there's where this is going to go in terms of the negotiations at all.

I also want to ask you, because you have been talking a lot about, you and I have talked about it before, and you've said other places about how the Democratic Party needs to course correct now after the election loss.

In a new interview out just this morning with "The Atlantic," President Trump is giving his take, I guess is the way I would describe it, for the Democratic Party. Let me read this for you.

He said, quote, I think that the Democrats have lost their confidence in the truest sense. I don't think they know what they're doing. I think they have no leader. You know, if you ask me now, I know a lot about the Democratic Party, right? I can't tell you who their leader is. I can't tell you that I see anybody on the horizon.

Now, of course, Congressman, you do not need or want Donald Trump's advice on the direction of the Democratic Party, but do you think he's right that there really isn't a leader of the party right now? SMITH: Well, I mean, he's wrong in the sense that that's not the point. The point isn't whether or not we have one person. And typical of a want to be dictator to look at it from the standpoint of we have to have one person. That's not my issue. My issue is we have to have a message. We have to rebuild our coalition and rebuild our brand.

And I've been saying it's a three-step process. Number one, we have to clearly attack President Trump for the want to be dictator he is, for challenging the fundamental basis of our democracy. And if people don't agree with us on that, we have to make the case.

Stories out today about children being deported without due process. The stories go on and on.

Number two, we have to show how what Trump's policies are doing is harming America. We've certainly seen the financial impact of his chaotic approach to tariffs, of the way he's been decimating our federal government.

But number three -- and this gets to the point -- we have to recognize that Democrats need to offer a reasonable alternative. We have to have ideas.

And number one at the top of that list, economic inequality in this country is the biggest problem. We have to recognize that and tell people that we're going to stand up for the working class and I think admit some of our past mistakes. We have not successfully done that, and there's a lot of different reasons for it.

A lot of policies have gone in the wrong direction. There's been too much of a focus on ideology. We need to come out with a clear set of ideas and a clear set of plans.

It will not be enough to simply criticize Trump, although that criticism is richly deserved and the American people are suffering because of his presidency. We have to build a reasonable alternative, but it is not about one person. It is about a message, an agenda, and building a coalition.

BOLDUAN: When you talk about talking about income inequality, AOC and Bernie Sanders have been talking about that quite a lot. That's the whole theme of their going-across-the-country tour, and they're pulling in huge crowds. AOC really seizing the moment and trying to define the party in its direction now.

But do you think pushing the party more to the left is the right answer to Democratic soul-searching?

SMITH: No, I do not. I think what Bernie Sanders and AOC are doing is they're preaching to the choir. And don't get me wrong, that needs to be done. You need to get the choir fired up. You need to make sure that we stay engaged and energetic. But they're not reaching to a broader base of people.

And look, I don't view this as a left-right thing. I think centrists have made mistakes. I mean, certainly the economic policies that were put in place, the notion that everyone was going to go off and get a four-year degree and become an engineer and that was going to solve the problem didn't fix it.

But I also think, on the left side, that the message that we are sending is we don't like rich people, number one, and number two, we're going to give out a lot of free stuff to as many people as possible. Now I support a robust social welfare state, but the message Democrats need to be sending is we believe in personal responsibility and hard work.

Part of the reason we're losing immigrants, they don't want free stuff. They come to this country because they want to work hard and build a better life for themselves. That has to be part of our message. It can't just be if you vote for Democrats, we're going to give you free housing and free health care and free education and free everything.

[08:10:00]

It's opportunity and responsibility. So I don't think going around rallies with a bunch of really enthusiastic Democrats is enough. It's important. It's a part of it. But how are we going to expand that base?

How are we going to deal with concerns that people have about border security, about crime, homelessness and drug abuse in our inner cities, about our inability to build housing? Ezra Klein has written a great book about this, how Democrats stopped having the ability to get things done, and instead we focused excessively on inclusion and process.

We need to show people we can get things done. We need to show people that we still believe the work hard, play by the rules, get ahead. We have to be able to deliver that message.

BOLDUAN: Congressman, thank you so much for coming in. It's always good to have you. I appreciate your time -- John.

BERMAN: Blunt talk there.

All right, developing this morning, at least one person is dead after a boat collided with a ferry full of passengers and then sped off.

And breaking news, a date is officially set for the Papal Conclave. Cardinals from all over the world set to gather to elect a new pope.

And new comments this morning from the U.S. Treasury Secretary, negotiations on tariffs that raise questions about whether President Trump has been telling the truth.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: All right, this just into CNN. We have now gotten some new, very disturbing video that shows the moment a private boat crashed into the back of a packed ferry in Clearwater, Florida, killing one person and injuring many others. Here is that video.

You can see here, in the spot shadow there, the smaller boat runs straight into the back of that ferry, and then the ferry coming to an immediate stop. The smaller boat then fled the scene, making this a hit and run. Police have identified the boat, they've found that, but they are asking for witnesses to come forward -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Sara, thank you so much.

New this morning, China again denying President Trump's claims that he and Xi Jinping have talked on the phone. China now saying that there have been no talks between the two on tariffs.

I'm going to play for you what the Treasury Secretary said just yesterday, explaining -- let me play this for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: In game theory, it's called strategic uncertainty. So you're not going to tell the person on the other side of the negotiation where you're going to end up. And nobody's better at creating this leverage than President Trump.

You know, he's shown these high tariffs, and here's the stick. This is where the tariffs can go. And the carrot is, come to us, take off your tariffs, take off your non-tariff trade barriers, stop manipulating your currency, stop subsidizing labor and capital, and then we can talk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: So the Treasury Secretary is saying that uncertainty is strategy and part of this game. And caught in the middle of that strategic uncertainty are American businesses. One of those business owners now fighting back, suing the Trump administration and challenging the president's authority to issue some of these tariffs.

Rick Woldenberg is who we're talking about here. He's the CEO of the education toy company Learning Resources. He says the trade war with China could be catastrophic, will be catastrophic for his business.

Rick Woldenberg joins me right now. Rick, thank you so much. I want to get to the lawsuit in just a second but just set the table for me.

How hard are you being hit by this trade war? Give me an example of what tariffs, especially what's been imposed on goods coming from China, means for you.

RICK WOLDENBERG, CEO, LEARNING RESOURCES: Well, we've been hammered tremendously, and it all started on April 2nd. We tried to stop shipments to the U.S. and we were unable to stop 19 shipments. Those shipments last year, if we brought them in, would have produced about $15,000 in duties and tariffs, I estimate.

The amount, if we cleared everything that was shipped by mistake because we got there one day too late, is over a million dollars. It's not affordable. It's going to cause tremendous problems under lines of credit, and it's sent our company kind of into a form of chaos.

BOLDUAN: Businesses like yours, you face something of a choice when it comes to if nothing gives here. You pay the tariff and either eat it, eat the cost, or pass it on to customers, or you bring in less inventory. Which is it?

What is your calculation? Which is it for you?

WOLDENBERG: Well, we really can't afford to pay the tariff at the end. You know, what used to cost us $10 because we would be able to bring it in at 0 percent duty. Now it costs us $24.50. In no fantastical world do I have a markup like that in the most competitive consumer market in the world. This is the most competitive market, so it's just not possible. So we've just stopped. We've brought in very few shipments from China, basically things that we have to bring in and don't have a choice, and everything else just ceased.

We are scrambling to move as much as possible out of China immediately. We did have an alternative supply chain. It's not like we were napping. Just no one was prepared for this. And we were given no warning.

BOLDUAN: And there was no warning of it. That's exactly right.

So your lawsuit filed Tuesday.

[08:20:00]

Why did you do it? Why did you take that step when so many businesses, very large corporations, very small, you know, even in smaller businesses, they are not taking that step? Why did you?

WOLDENBERG: We're a fourth-generation family business, and we're a mission-driven business. We think what we do is important. And I think the future of our business overnight was threatened by the tariffs.

And so I felt like I had no choice. We'll do anything we can to fight to save our business as I said, we think what we do is important. We also have 500 families, the families of the people that work for us who are depending on us for their livelihood. And I can't give up on them either. So we had to.

BOLDUAN: There are a lot of politicians and also a lot of businesses who are not taking action, who are not even speaking up like you are because they fear retaliation from the administration. Are you afraid?

WOLDENBERG: As I said, I think the end is near. So like, what am I more afraid of? I'm more afraid of doing nothing.

Honestly, I think the emperor has no clothes here. Strategic uncertainty is the same way of saying we have no plan. Honest to God, somebody needs to stand up and call nonsense here or use a stronger word.

We just can't go on like this. They're going to asphyxiate us. BOLDUAN: Wow. How long before you think -- I don't even like to say the words -- but before you would have to make some really tough choices with your business, like potentially shut it down?

WOLDENBERG: Well, we've already cut our spending to shreds. I am going to defend the jobs that people have at our company to the last day. But the reality is our business will never be the same.

Since April 2nd, our business will never be the same. And I'm paid to keep the company healthy and that's what I'm doing 24 hours a day.

So we are hobbled. We have had irreparable harm, but I'm not going to give up. That's not -- my job is not to give up. So I will fight on.

BOLDUAN: And here we are. Rick Woldenberg of Learning Resources. Thank you very much for coming on.

WOLDENBERG: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SIDNER: Extremely strong words from him. Hobbled, irreparable harm, and asphyxiated during these tariffs. Wow.

All right, coming up, drug trafficking, prostitution, and violence. An overnight raid in an underground Colorado nightclub where active duty members of the military worked. More details on that story.

And Kim Kardashian will head to Paris courtroom to face some of the men accused of holding her at gunpoint and robbing her of millions of dollars of jewelry. You remember the case back in 2016.

[08:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: This morning, we have new poll numbers as President Trump nears 100 days in office. It's a critical benchmark for any commander- in-chief, and Trump is approaching it with historically low numbers. Our latest CNN poll shows his approval rating has dropped to 41 percent.

That is the lowest for any president at this point in his term in seven decades, going all the way back to Dwight Eisenhower. His numbers are even slipping on immigration, an area where he has been considered the strongest.

Moments from now, Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, is expected to speak in the White House briefing room. It comes amid reports that ICE deported three children who are U.S. citizens, including one of those children who is battling cancer.

And this morning, in a new interview with "The Atlantic," Trump was asked what would happen if his administration accidentally deported an American citizen.

He responded, quote, Let me tell you that nothing will ever be perfect in this world.

CNN Senior Political Analyst Mark Preston is joining us now. That is quite a statement. Mark, what is fueling --

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Trump.

SIDNER: Yes. And I know that we've heard from Tom Homan, and we're going to hear from him, we think, a bit earlier -- a bit later today. But what do you think is fueling Trump's drop in support in the polls?

There are so many things that people expected from him, especially the economy.

PRESTON: So many promises made too by the president as well, not only on the campaign trail, but certainly in these first 100 days. If you look at this right here, if you look at some of the issues, what is fueling this right now, it shows us really across the board right now. And if you look at where he was in mid-February, and you look where he is right now, he is underwater on every issue from a minimum of three percentage points to a maximum of nine percentage points, specifically when it comes to inflation in the economy, as you point out, which is supposed to be his, you know, his expertise at this point.

What is also interesting just overall too, Sara, is that he is down seven points from late February, as we note him being an all-time low. That is an amazing drop in such a short period of time. So Donald Trump right now is having to deal with some of this -- some of the fallout with the reality that many of his programs that he's trying to institute, and many of his cuts that he's trying to institute, are just not taking hold.

SIDNER: Yes, and to be honest, the tariffs have really rattled people.

Now, how is he doing when it comes to border security and immigration, which is the one of the things that he was -- that really pumped him up for this particular presidential election?

PRESTON: Collapses as well. He's underwater right now. And you have to wonder, is that because of the effort we've seen put forth by the administration and their strident comments, just like we heard about there being some problems.

[08:30:00]