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Markets Open After April Ended Down; Neil Irwin is Interviewed About the Markets; Rep. Pat Harrigan (R-NC) is Interviewed about Tariffs; Jesse Keenen is Interviewed About a Major Climate Report; Belichick Defends Girlfriend in Interview. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired May 01, 2025 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:33:40]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Opening bell just rang. Markets are open to start a new month of trading. April marked the third consecutive month in the red for the S&P 500 and Dow, their longest monthly losing streak since 2023.

So, what now? Zain Asher here with me.

How are things looking?

ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR AND BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Let us look. The number that really grabs my eye there is the Nasdaq, up about 2 percent. And that's because we got really solid earnings from both Meta and Microsoft.

BOLDUAN: Very true.

ASHER: But if you look at the Dow, up about a third of 1 percent, the markets right now, Kate, are honestly in wait and see mode for that all-important jobs report that we are getting at 8:30 tomorrow morning. And, honestly, I cannot underscore enough how important these jobs numbers are to really show the United States what impact liberation day has actually had on hiring in this country.

BOLDUAN: And remind people why this one's particularly important versus, let's say, last month.

ASHER: OK, because obviously liberation day happened on April 2nd. So, these are April jobs numbers. And when you think about some of the other hard data that we've gotten, whether it's first quarter GDP, retail sales, these numbers have been somewhat skewed because of front loading. This idea of Americans trying to be smart and trying to outsmart the tariffs and running out and going - buying, you know, a washing machine ahead of when they would have.

So, tomorrow is going to be crucial. We did get private sector numbers yesterday. They came in at 62,000, which is half of what we got in March. That does not bode well, Kate, for what we're going to see tomorrow. and we will see markets react to that if it's a disappointing number, obviously. BOLDUAN: That's absolutely true.

[09:35:01]

And, Zain, we'll require, is back with us tomorrow to help us walk through it.

ASHER: Yes. Yes.

BOLDUAN: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now is chief economic correspondent for "Axios," Neil Irwin.

Neil, I have to say, long time listener, first time caller. It's great to be able to speak with you. Love your stuff.

You wrote, over the last 24 hours, that after the GDP report came out showing an actual contraction for the first quarter, you know, and no one likes shrinkage, you wrote that the backwards looking data may have been better than people first realized, but the forward-looking data, the opposite, a little darker. What do you mean?

NEIL IRWIN, CHIEF ECONOMIC CORRESPONDENT, "AXIOS": Yes, so backward looking, final domestic demand in that GDP report was perfectly fine, perfectly solid. As you were just saying, imports, this front running that we saw from companies trying to front run imports, bring goods in, that was all creating a distortion in this negative number we saw that was the subject of discussion yesterday. Forward looking, that ADP payroll number was quite weak. Forward looking, we have all this evidence that shipments from China have come to a virtual halt. So, that's going to create supply disruptions in the weeks and months ahead.

So, look, the impact of this tariff regime is only beginning. Financial markets went haywire in early April. That will have lag effects that happen as we hit - hit May and beyond. So that's why this is only starting. We're only at the beginning of this economic seismic shift that we seem to be having.

BERMAN: You know, they were just talking about the jobs report. The unemployment report and jobs report coming out tomorrow. What are the expectations and will that really show the impact of tariffs, or are we still a month away there too?

IRWIN: So, it's completely true that this is the first hard data that we're really getting post liberation day. So, the way they do the job surveys and these things, it's really basically the second week of the month that they cover. You may remember the tariffs were announced on April 2nd. So, this is the first report that captures that time period.

That said, companies don't really turn on a dime when it comes to hiring. It's not as if they did layoffs the day after those tariffs were announced. It's not as if, you know, if you were about to hire somebody, you really pulled the plug on that in the space of a few days. So, I think as we get into May, June, we'll have a better sense of whether employers are pulling back. And that's the big question, are employers seeing these tariffs, seeing these risks ahead? Are they - is that causing them to say, I'm not going to do this capital investment, I'm not going to hire these workers. And we haven't seen that in the hard data just yet.

BERMAN: That's the time frame, though, you're talking about, May, June at this point, because that's where you get close to the - that sort of 90-day pause on the tariffs that President Trump was talking about.

IRWIN: That's true. And, you know, we don't know what happens if there is a de-escalation. If we do have these 145 percent tariffs on China go away, that, you know, that would obviously kind of smooth things over and eliminate some of these supply disruptions. But you can't undo some things that have already happened, which is shipments from China have come, you know, really fallen off a cliff. That will have effects one way or another. Has a lag - look, if companies have six to eight weeks' worth of inventory, you can do the math on when we end up in say June with some real disruptions. But you can't undo the fact that there's ships that are not going across the Pacific right now, that do not have goods in them, that will not end up on American store shelves this summer.

BERMAN: Neil Irwin, as I said, a pleasure to talk to you. Please come back soon.

IRWIN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Neil Irwin from "Axios." Appreciate it.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, we've been discussing the major minerals deal made between the White House and Ukraine, but polling showing Americans are extremely worried about other deals, those tariff deals that Donald Trump says he's working on but has not yet made.

Joining me now is Republican congressman from North Carolina, Pat Harrigan.

Thank you so much, Congressman, for joining us this morning. I know it's a busy time.

On tariffs, Donald Trump has just said that Americans should perhaps think of buying fewer dolls for their children, and that those dolls are actually going to cost a couple more bucks. Trump is surrounded by billionaires in his cabinet, and he's telling Americans to cut back. Is that a message that your constituents are happy with?

REP. PAT HARRIGAN (R-NC): I don't think it's indicative of any type of long-term trend. I think we're - what's very clearly happening right now is President Trump is putting the American economy in a position where it can actually better negotiate outcomes for American manufacturers and American consumers long term. So, I think that that was taken out of context. But I will tell you, as a father of two young little girls, I -

SIDNER: It - it was not taken out of context, sir. Congressman, it was not taken out of context. It came out of the president's mouth. He told people that instead of buying 30 dolls for their children, maybe they should only buy a couple, and that they would be more expensive. What is the context that that was taken out of?

HARRIGAN: It - it's - it's a joke, right? And - and you've got to understand the president's sense of humor. As my sense of humor will now come through -

SIDNER: I don't - do think Americans - do your - Congressman, would your constituents think it's funny to tell them to stop buying things and to stop buying particularly dolls for their children while the economy is in a - is declining? We are seeing those numbers every single day.

HARRIGAN: The economy's not declining. It's in an uncertain position because the future of economic trade has not yet been hashed out in a way that is actually productive or conducive for long term American growth and prosperity.

[09:40:01]

That's exactly what President Trump is trying to do through this.

And so I think taking anything out of context that should be humorous, right, I'm the father of two young little girls. I would so much rather have two dolls instead of 30 that I have to buy, because the 30 I just end up stepping on a nose in the middle of the night like a Lego and it hurts.

But look, the reality is, is this economy is set to boom because President Trump is injecting the ingredients that will actually allow American businesses and American consumers to be successful long term. And that is the take here. This is the long-term betterment of the American economy, as well as global financial stability that is at stake.

SIDNER: You do not think the economy is declining when we just saw brand new numbers showing that in April we lost more jobs than were lost in the pandemic. You think the economy is good even though the GDP has actually receded for the first time in many years?

HARRIGAN: I think we've got to understand that core GDP actually increased by 3 percent. Now, core GDP is exclusive of government spending. We have to understand, and I will tell you, as a manufacturer who is friends with many, many other manufacturers around the country, all of us knew that the core of our economy under President Joe Biden was incredibly weak. It was unstable. The conditions were not set for success. And any manufacturer that I talked to that did not derive their revenue from government spending has been in the hurt box for a long time. That's exactly why you've had so many folks in this country that make their money from the government doing incredibly well yet main street is absolutely getting crushed. And that's been happening for years.

But right now, under President Trump, that core GDP is up 3 percent, real wages are up for the average middle class American 4.2 percent, over the inflation rate, all while inflation is down. We have mixed results out of the economy right now, but the underlying indicators, if you look for them underneath the surface, are actually really positive for long term American prosperity.

SIDNER: Do you believe what the world's chief economists have been saying? For example, Mark Zandi, the chief economist of Moody's, KPMG, Morgan Stanley, Nobel Prize winning economist Krugman and Stiglitz, all saying that if this tariff war is not either pulled back on or is - deals are not made very quickly, and were talking days and a few weeks as opposed to months, that we are headed into a recession? Do you believe that?

HARRIGAN: These are the same economists that thought that NAFTA was a great idea and saw from 2003 to 2018 1.8 million American manufacturing jobs vaporized, completely leveling my neck of the woods in our country with respect to furniture manufacturing and textile manufacturing. So, forgive me if we do not cooperate or identify with that long term concept when we understand that all President Trump is doing is entering into a high stakes negotiation that is in the best interest of the United States of America. All of our manufacturing companies and our broader world economy, if you like the free world, that's what's at stake. That's what we're doing. And we are going to win this because, as President Trump said, we hold all the cards.

SIDNER: The GM CEO just said that she is going to lose $5 billion during this tariff war. So, we will see if what you're saying comes true in the long run.

Congressman Pat Harrigan, thank you so much.

HARRIGAN: A trillion dollars of investment in domestic manufacturing has already happened under President Trump. That is what you're going to see continue because of what President Trump has done, and will continue to do.

SIDNER: We'll be watching.

HARRIGAN: Thanks for having me today, Sara.

SIDNER: Thank you so much.

We'll be right back.

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[09:48:13]

SIDNER: The future of a major climate report is in limbo after the Trump administration has dismissed the 400 scientists and authors set to work on that report. The 2027 assessment was going to shed light on the effect of climate change on the United States specifically.

Joining me now is Tulane University Professor Jesse Keenan. He is a climate adaptation expert.

What is the impact of this report looking like? It is not going to come out.

PROFESSOR JESSE KEENAN, CLIMATE ADAPTATION EXPERT, TULANE UNIVERSITY: Well, I think the impact that we face as a country is that, you know, the public sector and the private sector, from society to economy, from Wall Street to main street, are going to be less prepared for how it is that we respond to and ultimately adapt to the impacts of climate change. While in the previous report we made some significant assessments and findings associated with climate and the manifestation of accelerated climate change and its impacts, this recent assessment we've been working on was really going to highlight what we've been doing to adapt, among many other facets, across everything from forests, to oceans, again, right down to main street economy.

And so, without this report, without this assessment of what the best available science and data tells us, we're essentially driving in a rainstorm without windshield wipers. And that's a very dangerous prospect for the entire country.

SIDNER: There was a report that came out in 2023, and we've all seen some of the impacts, you know, bigger fires, things are much hotter in the region. You're seeing huge amounts of flooding. You're seeing major storms, very intense weather events. I mean, can we look back at that report and say, OK, things are just going to get worse if there's no change?

KEENEN: I think what national climate assessments have told us, and what the scientific literature has told us, is that the attribution of climate change to extreme events, to natural disasters is well developed.

[09:50:13]

We have an increasingly well-developed understanding of the role that a changing climate plays in driving these extreme events. And those events are accelerating in their frequency and in their impact. And this challenge is, again, it's not just people losing their homes, and that's horrific as it is, it's actually impacting our economy, our pocketbooks, our savings. And that's a broad - that speaks to the broader challenges that we have ahead of us.

SIDNER: If these reports no longer exist over the next five years, six years, ten years, what does that mean to the average American?

KEENEN: Well, local government, state governments, and even the federal governments use the national climate assessments as authoritative sources to take action, to engage a variety of stakeholders in the public and private sector, to make sure that our drinking water is safe to drink, that our power will turn on when we need it to turn on. It drives and supports an awful lot of applications that speak to our critical, everyday functions. So, without these assessments, we're not as well coordinated and not as firmly engaged with the advancements that we see in science - applied science and social science. SIDNER: Professor Jesse Keenan, thank you so much for your great

analysis there. Really appreciate you coming on.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, UNC head football coach and the man with six Super Bowl rings as head coach, Bill Belichick, is defending his 24-year-old girlfriend after this moment during an interview with CBS.

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TONY DOKOUPIL, CBS NEWS: Everybody in the world seems to be following this relationship. They've got an opinion about your private life. It's got nothing to do with them, but they're invested in it. How do you deal with that?

BILL BELICHICK, HEAD FOOTBALL COACH, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA: I've never been too worried about what everybody else thinks. Just try to do what I feel like is best for me and what's right.

DOKOUPIL: How did you guys meet?

JORDAN HUDSON, BILL BELICHICK'S GIRLFRIEND: We're not talking about this.

DOKOUPIL: No.

HUDSON: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Well.

BERMAN: OK, so the 73-year-old Belichick is now accusing CBS of trying to create a false narrative about his girlfriend.

CNN contributor Cari Champion is with us now.

And, Cari, I have to say, never before in my life have I achieved this kind of singularity. All my sports friends and all my pop culture friends are talking about the same thing. We have complete convergence here. Why do you think this is so fascinating to so many people?

CARI CHAMPION, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, one, we know nothing about Bill Belichick. Anytime you've paid any attention to him, it's only because of the Patriots and how great he's been on the field as a coach. We know nothing about his personal life in this real way. And so this is why we're fascinated. Obviously, the age difference. But his girlfriend has come in and created a role for herself in his life. Maybe she's his manager in some ways. But it is fascinating to watch. And I cannot believe that this is going to end well, because this is a man who does not like attention.

BERMAN: So, you bring up just what we're used to with Bill Belichick. You know, I'm a huge Patriots fan. I don't know that I ever saw him smile. You know, six Super Bowl championships, 20 years of coaching, I don't think I ever saw him smile before. Now it's all smiles.

The other thing that Patriots fans will tell you is it's not like Bill Belichick ever took direction from anybody, ever, or cared what anybody thought, ever.

CHAMPION: Yes.

BERMAN: And so now what people are saying is, well, this seemed like a different Bill Belichick, who was willing to be managed. At least the appearance of being managed there.

CHAMPION: Yes, it definitely has the appearance of being managed. I know nothing about this relationship. All I know is that we are seeing an entirely different side of Bill Belichick, to your point, which makes everyone - I even heard Charles Barkley, of all people, because I love Chuck, say, I'm concerned. This might get out of hand. I might need to give my good friend a call. And I'm like, if Chuck is concerned about what Bill Belichick is doing, then things are getting very intense.

BERMAN: Let me just read the Belichick statement here. He goes, "I was surprised when unrelated topics were introduced." He thought the interview, he said, was going to be about the book. "And I repeatedly expressed to the reporter, Tony Dokoupil, and the producers that I preferred to keep the conversation centered on the book. And this occurred several times. Jordan, with whom I share both a personal and professional relationship, stepped in to reiterate that point to help refocus the discussion."

I will say, the media side of this is a little bit less interesting to me, but when you do an interview, you say we will focus some on the book. I don't think CBS promised solely on the book here.

CHAMPION: John, you and I are - we have been in this business long enough to know that especially an outlet such as that would not go in and do a gotcha. I'm pretty sure they were very clear that we were going to talk about all things encompassing, as they mentioned before.

It's a little unfortunate that we find ourselves dealing with this type of conversation, considering Bill Belichick.

[09:55:02]

He's - I would think he's near the end of his career, even though he started this new job at UNC. And there's so much more that we are focused on outside of his legacy now. And that, to me, is the real disappointment here, especially for the fans of Bill Belichick.

BERMAN: Maybe they just need to redefine what that legacy really is, or what else is part of that legacy.

SIDNER: It's interesting to learn the human side of folks, the - not just the -

BOLDUAN: It's also part of the deal when you're selling a book. Like -

SIDNER: Yes, 100 percent.

BOLDUAN: You know, like -

SIDNER: Yes.

BERMAN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: You're going to be asked questions - you're going to be asked about it.

SIDNER: But you know why he's smiling? Cari, you know why he's smiling?

BERMAN: Why?

SIDNER: Because he's got a cutie by his side, a woman. You're welcome.

BERMAN: I believe in love. I just want to say -

SIDNER: (INAUDIBLE).

BOLDUAN: I love love, Cari.

BERMAN: The power of love.

CHAMPION: I do too.

BERMAN: Cari Champion - Cari Champion, great to see you this morning. This is really all about love and nothing else.

SIDNER: Hearts to you and John.

BOLDUAN: If you've ever watched this show, you know it is all about -

BERMAN: Bill Belichick, only ever been about love.

Thank you all for joining us.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much for joining us.

BERMAN: This has been -

BOLDUAN: This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. This is -

BERMAN: We're not going to talk about that, as Jordan says. We're not going to talk about that.

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