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Interview with Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA): New Poll Shows Americans Frustrated 100 Days Into Trump Term; Supreme Court Hears Case Over FBI Raiding Wrong Home; Car Rams Into Illinois After-School Camp Killing Four; Study Shows Chemicals in Everyday Plastics May Contribute to Heart Disease. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired April 29, 2025 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

REP. DAN MEUSER (R-PA): There is, but we're managing the situation.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: They're still at 10 percent. They're still at 10 percent. There's still a --

MEUSER: Most of them are at 10 percent during the course of the Biden administration.

KEILAR: China's the biggest trading partner. That's like the big kahuna right there.

MEUSER: That's right. Brianna, we have not experienced any inflation as of yet. Again, it's at 2.4 percent because of the perceived and some of the tariffs that have already gone into effect. I'm going to grant you that. I'm not going to argue that point.

The tariffs triggered a sell-off within the markets and certainly have sent a rattle through the economy. The president wanted to fix this problem. He got the world's attention.

He's got over 170 nations already coming in to talk about real trade deals. And China is waking up to the fact that they need to also come to the table.

Now, back to your question about having a Pennsylvania-first approach.

Yes, I believe in strong public safety. I believe in strong economy. I believe that Pennsylvania should be the most competitive market in the world.

We're an energy-producing state. We currently have a governor and the previous governor that hated natural gas and put all kinds of restrictions upon them and has not created any competitive nature for small business within our great commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As a matter of fact, Pennsylvania is number 35, number 36, number 37 in most business categories.

But shamefully, it's actually 37 in education, where we continually spend more and get worse and worse results over time. Pennsylvania needs a big turnaround, and that's what I meant by stating we need a governor, could be myself, that runs things in a decisive manner, such as a Ron DeSantis and a Greg Abbott, to truly maximize quality of life and economic opportunities for our citizens.

KEILAR: And then how do you mitigate the prices of groceries are up, even though Trump says they're down? There are -- I mean you see -- there are effects of tariffs. I know you're saying there aren't any, but there are.

MEUSER: I'm not saying there aren't any. They're more perceived than real at this moment in time.

KEILAR: Well, we're out of time, unfortunately. We're going to leave it there. They are in effect. I just don't want to leave our viewers with the impression that they are not in effect. There is a pause on the so-called reciprocal tariffs, but they're still at 10 percent, and China is still very, very, very high. Congressman Dan Meuser, thank you so much for being with us.

MEUSER: Thanks, Brianna.

KEILAR: After the FBI raided a family's home by accident, the family was outraged to learn they couldn't sue for damages. Well, the Supreme Court heard their case today, and CNN was there for oral arguments. Stay with us.

[13:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: If a person's home is raided by mistake, can they sue the government for damages? That question was before the Supreme Court today. This incident happened back in October 2017 to Trina Martin and her then boyfriend.

FBI teams executed a no-knock warrant on Martin's Atlanta area home, and she says they drew weapons on them after bursting into the house, traumatizing her 7-year-old son, pictured here. Minutes later, agents realized they had the wrong address, which was one close to the one they were targeting. Her lawyers interviewed Martin about what happened. Here's a clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CURTRINA MARTIN, PLAINTIFF IN SUPREME COURT CASE: So, when they realized they had the wrong house, it was no remorse. It was just like, everybody rally up and let's just go to the right house.

Thinking back at the raid, the one and the most important thing that sticks out to me is my child being alone by himself in a room underneath the carpet, shaking, shivering from fear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Her boyfriend says an agent apologized and left a phone number for him to call. Now, the pair have sued, and an appeals court dismissed the case. CNN chief Supreme Court analyst Joan Biskupic joins us now.

And, Joan, do you think the justices are leaning in any particular direction in the case? Will they let this lawsuit move forward?

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN CHIEF SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Well, they were certainly sympathetic to the family, to Ms. Martin there. You know, as she recounts, the agents are questioning them. They've been, you know, her boyfriend was shackled.

Little boy's in the other room. She's screaming for the boy. And as the agents are asking questions, all of a sudden they realize the address they've just been given is not the address of the house.

And the lead agent says, I'll be right back. And they go to the correct house. And so, of course, they sue.

But what the lower court said is that federal agents, the federal government, is protected by sovereign immunity. And in their appeal up to the Supreme Court for the case that they brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act, the justices really focused on a 1974 law that arose from an incident in Collinsville, Illinois, that was similar to this. It was much more dramatic when agents stormed two houses in Illinois in 1973.

There was a lot of attention to it. Congress was outraged and passed a law that was essentially a law enforcement proviso that was applied to the Federal Tort Claims Act that could lift the usual sovereign immunity. So there was a lot of discussion about that.

But the federal government is arguing there's an exception to that. And that's when officers are carrying out activities that require their discretion. And at one point, the government's lawyer, Frederick Liu, who we'll hear from in a second here, said, we understand the discretion here is to be, you know, how to identify the target of a search warrant.

[13:40:00]

Here, the agent said it was a bad GPS, but he was saying he was trying to use his own discretion for the target of a search warrant.

And let's listen to what justice Neil Gorsuch said as he responded to that reasoning.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUSTICE NEIL GORSUCH, SUPREME COURT: You might look at the address of the house before you knock down the door.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT LAWYER: Yes, and as the district court found at 52A, that sort of decision is filled with policy trade-offs because checking the house number at the end of the driveway means exposing the agents to potential lines of fire from the windows.

GORSUCH: I'm sure you're on the right street, just the right street -- just the right street. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT LAWYER: No I mean, I, I, I, I --

GORSUCH: Checking the street sign is that, is that you know, asking too much?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Wow!

BISKUPIC: Yes, and that was the tone of a lot of it, Boris. So it gets to your original question. It looks like the Supreme Court is leaning toward reviving this case, letting it go forward, but there was enough confusion over exactly how the 1974 law interacts with the exception that the government's asserting here.

So it might not be as broad of a ruling, but it will at least bring this case back to the table.

SANCHEZ: Yes, a pretty clear indication that skepticism we heard from Justice Gorsuch. Joan Biskupic, thank you so much. Don't go anywhere.

CNN NEWS CENTRAL continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Investigators are back at Monday's deadly crime scene in central Illinois where a driver raced across a field and plowed a car into an after-school camp. This crash killed three kids, one teenager and it injured half a dozen other children. One of whom remains in critical condition.

The car left a huge hole in one of the school's buildings where police say it slammed into one side and came out on the other. But investigators say they don't believe this was actually a targeted attack.

CNN law enforcement correspondent Whitney Wild is following this story for us. Whitney, police have identified the driver. What do they think happened here?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, they don't know exactly what led up to this crash, Brianna, other than to say at 3:20 in the afternoon this car left the road, went into the eastbound side of the building. Drove directly through and exited the building on the westbound side. They are identifying that driver as 44 year-old Marianne Akers.

They are now also saying the names of these children who were killed. Sadly, this is Ainsley Johnson, she was just eight years old. Kathryn Corley, she was just seven years old. Alma Buhnerkempe, she was just seven years old. And Rylee Britton, who is 18 years old. This is a community very much in mourning. And Bri, throughout my conversations this morning, what I can tell you for sure is that this is a very tight, very strong community.

Here's what people there are saying. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL LINDER, CHATHAM RESIDENT: Chatham Strong means that everybody cooperates with everybody else and they all work together and they'll all pray together for the children.

LEON LINDER, CHATHAM RESIDENT: It is a small community, but a lot of people know a lot of people.

CINDY SEDAM, CHATHAM RESIDENT: Who would have ever dreamed something like this would happen. And it's just very, very sad. It's a new experience for them to understand that death can come at their age.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WILD: Brianna, no charges have been filed. They are continuing to investigate what led up to this crash -- Bri.

KEILAR: Yes, that should be a safe place for them. Whitney Wild, thank you so much for the update.

And when we come back, there's a new study that links chemicals in household plastic products to heart disease deaths. We'll have more on that.

[13:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: So today we're learning the possible cost of our dependence on plastics. There's a new study that shows the chemicals that are found in many plastic products, everything from toys to food containers, could be contributing to an epidemic of heart disease. The problem involves synthetic chemicals called phthalates.

Researchers found those chemicals may have contributed to more than 10 percent of global deaths from heart disease in 2018 among men and women ages 55 through 64.

SANCHEZ: Joining us now to discuss is Dr. Jonathan Reiner. He's a professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University. Doctor, how exactly do phthalates affect the heart?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Hi Boris. Well, potentially in several ways. But before I get into it, let me just say that when I read a study like this, sometimes it just becomes interesting or maybe even just hypothesis generating.

But this particular study adds to really an emerging, enlarging body of evidence suggesting a link between plastics and their chemical additives, like phthalates, with cardiovascular mortality. Phthalates, which are chemicals that make the plastic more flexible, potentially affect the heart by disrupting our endocrine system, potentially lowering testosterone levels. They interfere with carbohydrate and cholesterol metabolism. And maybe most importantly, these compounds may promote inflammation. And what we've learned over the last 10 to 20 years is that systemic inflammation and then inflammation in the coronary arteries are really important risk factors and contributors to the development of acute coronary events like heart attacks. So this study and others that have preceded it suggest that perhaps some of the substances that we are ingesting inadvertently may be contributing to our cardiovascular risk.

KEILAR: OK, so talk to us about how we can reduce that risk. I think we're all, you know, looking back on our childhoods of microwaving our leftovers in plastic and making sure we don't do that anymore. What else should we be doing?

REINER: Well, first of all, our traditional cardiac risk factors are things like cholesterol and hypertension and diabetes and tobacco use. And over the last 75 years, we've become increasingly effective at reducing our exposure to this, which is why cardiovascular mortality has dropped 60 percent since 1950.

But these plastics are not just present in food containers or plastic bags. They're present in the air that we breathe, which may be one of the reasons why air pollution has been linked to increased rates of coronary disease.

[13:55:00]

We dump plastics into the ocean and you can identify microplastics, nanoplastics, even smaller particles and their chemical additives in the fish we eat.

So I think, you know, from an environmental standpoint, we need to do a better job at disposing of these substances, which have been very helpful, but also now apparently pretty toxic. You know, I think if I was, you know, packaging lunch for my for my kids, you know, I would consider other ways of maybe delivering their sandwich, maybe thinking about reusable containers that are not plastic, perhaps using, you know, wraps like, you know, aluminum foil. And again, looking for opportunities to reduce the exposure.

And I think, again, not heating any food in a plastic container in the microwave. And, you know, again, as a society, looking for ways to improve the quality of the air and the quality of the food that we eat.

KEILAR: Yes, such important points. Dr. Reiner, thank you so much. This is a very significant finding and we appreciate your insights.

REINER: My pleasure.

KEILAR: Amazon says its Hall store was considering this idea of breaking out the tariff charges on certain products. But now it's not going to do that. What we're learning about a phone call between founder Jeff Bezos and President Trump. We'll have that ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) END