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Trump Administration Dismisses Authors of Major Climate Assessment; About 70 Percent of Justice Department's Civil Rights Division Resigning; White House Proposed Sending Up to 500 Alleged Venezuelan Gang Members to El Salvador's Mega-Prison; Un precedented Legal Challenge Threatens Thousands of Overseas Votes. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired April 29, 2025 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: President Trump marked the end of his 100 days, his first 100 days of his second term, by firing hundreds of people in charge of a critical report on how climate change is affecting the country. CNN obtained an e-mail sent last night confirming the dismissal of scientists and authors tasked with putting together the National Climate Assessment. Scientists say the report is a valuable resource for officials dealing with extreme weather events at the regional, state, and local levels.

Let's get more from CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir. So, Bill, what is the goal here by eliminating these scientists?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's to eliminate the science that is the underpinning of many lawsuits. That could be a main sort of motive. We saw that in the Project 2025 layout there.

But just to set some perspective here, in 2000, Congress passed a law that every few years, the best earth scientists in the country, about 400 of them, would put together a comprehensive assessment that would inform local governments, states, even private industries about what's happening to the country. Water supplies, energy supplies to farms and fisheries, every aspect of the economy. And let them know, just no holds barred, so we can better prepare.

In 2018, it was a really blunt assessment. And with a prediction that 10 percent of the global economy could disappear by the end of the century as a result of an overheating earth, too much fossil fuel pollution. The Trump administration then buried it.

[15:35:00]

They released it on Black Friday, the shopping day after Thanksgiving. I still remember this. I was in Paradise, California, covering that epic wildfire there. And nobody really paid attention. In 2023, under Biden, a new one came out. But this next one, which is supposed to come out in 2028, was just killed in the cradle.

Like, they're working on it right now. And it is a law that they have to deliver something. So the fear is that they're going to just deliver pseudoscience and ideology, the kind of stuff we're seeing in all these environmental and climate-related press releases and executive orders coming out of the White House right now.

But this is yet another blow, Boris, in the first 100 days of just an all-out assault on science across every agency. Anything with a hint of climate change attached to it, or even ground-level pollution, PFAS, plastics, these sorts of things. Lee Zeldin just announced they're going to tackle microplastics, these sorts, but with no real policy plan in place.

Meanwhile, laying off the best and brightest earth scientists, really, in the world at a time, is creating, as you can imagine, incredible angst in the space right now. But at the same time, the price of oil is about 50 bucks a barrel, which is a huge money loser for all the oil executives that Donald Trump promised to help with deregulation. So right now, everybody's hurting on the front of this story.

And it remains to be seen what becomes of this assessment, the people working on it. If they can do one that they release to the public, who knows? But once again, really hiding the science, telling people essentially to stay seated in a burning theater and removing the exit signs as well.

SANCHEZ: Staying seated in a burning theater, what a way to put it. Bill Weir, thanks so much for the reporting. Appreciate it.

Still to come, new details on a White House proposal to send up to 500 alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador's mega prison. We have details in just moments.

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SANCHEZ: The Department of Justice is about to undergo a mass exodus in its civil rights division, the unit that works against discrimination based on race, sex, disability, and more.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: There's a source that says roughly 70 percent of its staff will be accepting a severance package, allowing them to leave now but receive pay through the fall. The deadline to accept the offer was last night. CNN chief legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid is with us now on this story.

70 percent, Paula, that's a lot of people.

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It is a lot of people. This division has roughly 340 individuals working there. So with 70 percent heading for the exit, we're talking about well over 200 people.

But what's so interesting right now about the civil rights division at the Justice Department, as many people may know, the Justice Department has different divisions to handle different kinds of legal matters, so national security, criminal, tax, antitrust. And the civil rights division is there to defend people's civil rights. Under Democratic administrations, they usually focus on voting rights, police use of force.

In the past two Democratic administrations, they have focused on protecting the rights of transgender individuals to conduct their lives in a way that is consistent with the sex that they have chosen, not necessarily the one on their birth certificate.

But under Republican administrations and the last Trump administration, the division, it's very quiet. It's not completely dormant, but it's certainly not as active.

We reported back in December that the Trump administration actually wanted to make this one of the most active divisions at the Trump DOJ. They wanted to use it to push back on DEI policies, to combat anti- Semitism, and to protect girls participating in sports from transgender athletes. So it is not surprising that we're seeing this exodus, but let's take a listen to what the head of the division, Harmeet Dhillon, had to say.

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HARMEET DHILLON, ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL: On mass, dozens, and now over 100 attorneys decided that they'd rather not do what their job requires them to do, and I think that's fine. The job here is to enforce the federal civil rights laws, not woke ideology, and so, you know, that's fine. We need to replace those people because I have a very robust affirmative civil rights agenda that I think many Americans will be pleased with.

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REID: So a source familiar with these offers says that, in fact, it was implied that people would be fired if they did not accept them. So Dhillon's quote there, not exactly accurate.

KEILAR: Good context. Paula Reid, thank you so much.

We are learning some new details now about a proposal that the White House made to El Salvador.

SANCHEZ: According to e-mails seen by CNN, the Trump administration proposed sending up to 500 migrants with ties to a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador's notorious mega prison.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joins us now with more on her reporting. Priscilla, what else have you learned about this deal?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, the administration has not been very forthcoming about what this included, what the deal-making was as they were going back and forth with El Salvador, and it has been a pretty central part to the court cases that have been ongoing on this very matter.

Now, according to e-mails seen and according to sources that spoke with me and my colleague Jennifer Hansler, what we have learned is that even in the days just before those deportation flights took off in mid-March, there was correspondence between senior U.S. officials and senior Salvadoran officials trying to iron out what this would look like. One number floated was up to 500 migrants sent from the United States.

There was also requests by El Salvador to receive MS-13 gang leaders as well.

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Now, I was told by a U.S. official that the 500 number was really notional, and what it ended up being was up to 300, and that's what happened. 238 Venezuelan migrants sent in March to El Salvador to this notorious mega-prison.

We also learned a little bit more about the payment schedule here. So, $15 million had been approved. There was at one point where they were talking about a $10 million figure.

The way that this is -- the math here, really, is that it was $20,000 per person. So, eventually, the U.S. sent just under 5 million -- or $6 million to El Salvador, and any other tranche of money would also be contingent on who they send there.

Now, when I've spoken to immigration officials, they say, look, that is ultimately still cheaper than it would be to detain migrants here in the United States, but it's still an unprecedented step, and, of course, part of the issue here has been who has custody of these migrants who were sent from the United States, and U.S. officials tell me that is El Salvador. And now we're getting a bit of a better picture as to why that is.

I will also note that in the course of my reporting, what officials told me is that this was really a non-binding agreement. It was an arrangement. There is no formal agreement here. It's really about the transfer of funds, which was really remarkable given, again, that this is the United States sending deportees to El Salvador, some of whom, or many of whom, are not actually from there.

SANCHEZ: Really fascinating reporting. Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much.

When we come back, thousands of overseas ballots are in limbo in North Carolina after an unprecedented election challenge by a Republican candidate. This legal fight could wind up in the Supreme Court. We'll discuss in just a few minutes.

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KEILAR: A North Carolina Supreme Court race is still undecided nearly six months after the election. An unprecedented legal challenge by the Republican candidate is threatening to toss out thousands of overseas ballots, despite voters appearing to follow the rules for voting abroad.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher is in North Carolina. So, Dianne, a U.S. District Judge could rule on this challenge at any time.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brianna, but that's not necessarily going to be the end of this. We anticipate this could still go on for months and potentially up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

So, this is very complex. Try and follow along with me here. After two recounts, unofficial results show incumbent Justice Allison Riggs -- that's the Democrat -- ahead of the Republican Judge Jefferson Griffin by 734 votes. Very narrow margin.

There are no results that have been certified, though. They're still uncertified because Griffin has challenged more than 60,000 votes, not on the basis of fraud. There is no fraud alleged here at all.

But mostly on clerical errors, technicalities, (INAUDIBLE) should not have been in place or not properly followed. Griffin's team and the state GOP say that this is about a sloppy state election board that just doesn't follow the law.

But Riggs and voting rights advocates believe this is about changing the rules of the game after it's over because you don't like the final score.

A candidate trying to pick the voters after the fact rather than the voters picking their candidate during an election.

Now, Griffin challenged three different types of voters in his original complaint. There was a temporary hold on all action at the moment as a federal judge is considering what the state Supreme Court determined earlier this month.

First up are the never residents. These are the overseas U.S. citizens who have never lived in North Carolina, but they have a parent that is a resident here. These are typically the children of military, missionaries, and overseas employees.

There are about 260 being challenged, and the state Supreme Court said despite a law that has allowed them to vote here for about a dozen years, it violates the state constitution, so those ballots should be tossed.

Well, the problem is we're learning that not everybody labeled a never resident is one. I spoke with 20-year-old Josiah Young. He's a college student born and raised in western North Carolina. He was doing a semester abroad in Spain in the fall, so he cast his ballot in the 2024 election using this online portal that military and overseas voters use. Well, documents that we obtained show that he checked the wrong box in the federal form.

It said, I'm a U.S. citizen living overseas. I've never lived in the U.S., but his registration data readily available, including the fact that he voted in person twice as recently as March of 2024 shows that it's, well, not the case, and he would love to be able to prove that, but he's not sure that he can. An independent journalist here in North Carolina, Brian Anderson,

actually uncovered several never residents voters with similar stories to Josiah. Advocacy groups have done the same. But the state Supreme Court said in addition to those ballots being tossed, they didn't provide an option to fix them or to cure them. The state board says it wants those who are wrongly labeled never residents to be able to prove they are. Griffin has objected to that.

Now, the 60,000 voters who had incomplete information in their registration, the Supreme Court says that look, those should be counted. It's not their fault. But finally, there are military and overseas voters who did not provide an ID when they cast their absentee ballots.

That's because the state board exempted them from doing so. They were told not to for security purposes. The state Supreme Court says they should have done this and is giving them the opportunity, maybe to cure those ballots.

But there's also a discrepancy, Brianna and Boris, on how many of those voters there are. The state says it only applies to one county because of a deadline that Griffin may adhere to. He says it applies to voters in six counties, and the difference there could determine who the eventual winner is.

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Look, election rights advocates worry that this case, regardless of the outcome, is setting a dangerous precedent and a potential roadmap for future election challenges, while further basically eroding the general public's faith in public confidence in elections.

KEILAR: Yes, you can see why. Dianne Gallagher, thank you so much for that.

When we come back, how a climber had to be rescued not once, but twice after going back for something we all really like, to be honest. But my goodness, I'll tell you after the break.

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SANCHEZ: Here's a question. How far would you go to find your phone? One man tested the limits at one of the most iconic places on Earth.

Officials in Japan say they had to rescue a man from the slopes of Mount Fuji, not once but twice in just a week. The 27-year-old college graduate, or rather, college student, actually scaled the summit last week, more than 12,000 feet up, but he needed to get rescued to get down.

KEILAR: And that's where the trouble started because his phone and some other belongings did not make it down the mountain with him.

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So then on Saturday, feeling better, he decided to go up and get them. Wasn't a good idea. This time he made it about 9,000 feet, only to become nauseous again and require another rescue. Police say he's doing fine now, despite all of that. Unclear if he got his phone back.

SANCHEZ: You lose your phone a lot? Do you have to like --

KEILAR: Oh yes, I have a dinger on my watch and my husband makes fun of me for it.

SANCHEZ: Would you go back up a mountain for it?

KEILAR: Hell no.

SANCHEZ: Would you throw your hand into a porta potty the way that our producer, Michelle's sister did?

KEILAR: No, I wouldn't do it.

SANCHEZ: Yikes. "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

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