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National Security Adviser Mike Waltz Expected to Leave Post; In First-of-Its-Kind Ruling, Trump-Appointed Judge Says Trump's Use of Alien Enemies Act is Unlawful; Attorney for Newly Freed Columbia Student of What Happens Next; HHS Review of Youth Gender Dysphoria Treatment Doesn't Name Authors. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired May 01, 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]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: We are following the breaking news. Sources say National Security Advisor Mike Waltz will leave the Trump administration here in the coming days.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Remember, it was just over a month ago that editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, published this piece detailing what happened after Waltz accidentally added him to a Signal group chat discussing plans for airstrikes on Yemen.

CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter is here with more on the media's impact on this firestorm. Now, Brian, full disclosure, you know Jeffrey Goldberg. Did he ever tell you exactly how he wound up in the group chat? What his theory is about why Waltz had him in his phone contacts?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: He was coy about that and didn't want to talk about his relationship with Waltz in the past. I've checked in with Goldberg again today. He's not commenting on this news about Waltz's expected departure.

But The Atlantic is out with a notably sympathetic column about Waltz today, basically saying, look, Trump has an allergy to expertise. He doesn't want to know about national security, and so it makes sense that the national security aid is now in the discard pile. That's the take on The Atlantic website this afternoon.

It's also really telling who is celebrating this news today, including Laura Loomer. Who is Loomer? She is a far-right Internet activist, online personality with a sordid history of conspiracy theories, and she loves to pick fights online.

Loomer is considered so toxic by some Trump aides that they've tried to keep her out of meetings with President Trump in the past. But you might remember about a month ago, Loomer was able to get into the Oval Office and have face time with Trump, and today she is celebrating this report about Waltz and others being out. She's basically saying she's winning scalps, and she's telling our colleague Steve Contorno that there's a vetting crisis, a broader vetting crisis inside the White House. She says that in that Oval Office meeting a month ago, she was going to raise concerns about Mike Waltz directly to Trump, but then Waltz entered the room. And so she is essentially saying that Waltz is one of the many figures who needs to be out of this White House because they're insufficiently loyal to President Trump.

She refers to it as a vetting crisis. She's on X today celebrating this news. But the people that she would consider qualified for jobs in the White House, the people who she would consider appropriate to work with Trump, I think that's a very different list than what kind of a normal mainstream America would consider the appropriate people to be in the White House working with President Trump.

KEILAR: And it was the defense secretary who put information on that Signal group chat that by various agency standards you would expect to be classified, but it was really Waltz's position that was undercut at the White House. Talk a little bit about that, Brian.

STELTER: And Hegseth, of course, has been perhaps the most sycophantic in his praise of President Trump in recent weeks. You know, if you go back and look at that Cabinet meeting earlier this week, it was a very competitive situation with these Cabinet secretaries and others going over the top in their support of Trump. But Hegseth has been right at the top of that list, working harder than ever in order to earn Trump's -- I don't know if respect is the right word -- but keep his job as defense secretary.

Ultimately, though, Signalgate, as we started to call it about a month ago, it's not going away, right? Just this week there was an attempt in Congress to hold folks accountable and to follow up on Signalgate. This is not going to go away, even though Mike Waltz is reportedly going to be going away from his role as national security advisor.

This is something that continues to haunt this White House. Trump just a couple of days ago at ABC said the lesson of it is that people shouldn't use Signal. And that, well, that might be one takeaway.

Signal use is widespread, and there are many other lessons that could be taken away from it. We don't know what Hegseth has learned because, you know, he's been in denial about the entire ordeal.

[13:35:00]

SANCHEZ: It was really interesting, Brian, because just yesterday Waltz was in a Cabinet meeting praising the president this morning. He had an appearance on Fox News touting this new minerals deal with Ukraine. His response to this controversy seemingly may not have helped his case, right?

STELTER: There was an interview on Laura Ingraham's show that he, I think, viewed as an attempt to speak directly to the president and to the MAGA base to defend himself, to blame Goldberg for all of it, and to shift the conversation. That interview went sideways very quickly. And maybe it's a testament, maybe it's an example of what can go wrong when Trump and his aides try to program around Fox, when they try to program to right-wing media, when they try to go on television and use that platform in order to win support or to make an argument.

It can sometimes backfire. It can backfire. And so as you mentioned, Waltz back on Fox again today. You know, we've seen almost everyday Trump aides using the television platform to try to get through to the president. But today is an example of how it does not always work, and in some cases may actually backfire.

SANCHEZ: Brian Stelter, appreciate the reporting. Thanks so much.

Still ahead, a first-of-its-kind ruling. A federal judge in Texas deciding that President Trump unlawfully invoked the Alien Enemies Act. We have new details next.

[13:40:00]

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KEILAR: Some breaking developments on a big legal loss for President Trump. A federal judge who was appointed by Trump has just ruled it's unlawful for the administration to use the Alien Enemies Act and block deportations that invoke the law in his district in southern Texas. This is the first time a judge has concluded the president exceeded his authority when he invoked the sweeping 18th century wartime authority to speed up some deportations.

Let's bring in CNN's Katelyn Polantz for the full story here. There have been a few rulings on the White House invoking this act. Explain how this judge's decision is different.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, this is the first judge to get to the full idea of the administration using the Alien Enemies Act for deportation. So all those other court challenges we saw, they were all in preliminary stages. And the big court case that we were following about this, when those Venezuelan men were put on a plane and the judge in D.C. said turn the planes around and the administration didn't and sent them to El Salvador, that ended up being this case. ecause it went up to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court said you have to try and do this a different way. Bring it in the districts where people are being held. This is one of those cases. There are others, too, across the country still ongoing.

But this judge, Fernando Rodriguez Jr. of the Southern District of Texas, he's the one that takes on this big, bold attempt by the administration to use the hammer that is a wartime power of the presidency, the Alien Enemies Act. It's only ever been used before in the two world wars and the War of 1812. And the judge is taking on the choice of the president to use this.

What the court says is this isn't a time of an invasion by a foreign nation, and the courts are the people that get to decide that along with Congress, not the president. Here's what the judge writes.

The president cannot summarily declare that a foreign nation or government has threatened or perpetrated an invasion or predatory incursion of the United States, followed by the identification of the alien enemies subject to detention or removal -- that would remove all limitations to the executive branch's authority and would strip the courts of their traditional role of interpreting congressional statutes.

So now we watch what other judges in other courts are going to do. Appeals courts, courts that are looking at people in Colorado, Pennsylvania, New York, other states, and then ultimately the Supreme Court. Where is the president's power on this and the use of this act?

KEILAR: Because this keeps going --

POLANTZ: It does.

KEILAR: -- this issue. All right, Katelyn, thank you so much for that -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: A Columbia University student is now free after being detained by the Trump administration. He's making clear that he will continue to keep speaking out for what he believes in.

Mohsen Mahdawi saying after his release, quote, I am not afraid of you. And also telling supporters they have to mobilize and organize. The Palestinian activist is one of several student activists swept up in the administration's crackdown.

One of Mohsen Mahdawi's attorneys joins us now. Nathan Freed Wessler is also deputy director of the ACLU's speech, privacy, and technology project. Thank you so much for being with us.

So Madawi was released on bond yesterday. His immigration case remains active. I understand there was a brief hearing today. What comes next?

NATHAN FREED WESSLER, ATTORNEY FOR MOHSEN MAHDAWI: That's right. Well, yesterday was a day that demonstrated that our court system is doing just what it should. It's scrutinizing the arguments of the parties. It's looking hard at the government's assertions. And it let a man free who should not have been locked up in the first place.

He is now free during the pendency of the rest of the case in federal court where we'll make our full arguments about why punishing Mr. Mahdawi for his constitutionally protected free speech rights violates his rights and is not permissible. So he'll be able to remain in his home in Vermont while that case plays out.

In parallel, there's a proceeding in federal immigration court dealing with the government's attempt to deport him. And we have immigration attorneys that he's working with that are dealing with that case. And those will proceed along their separate tracks.

But the really critical thing today is that he's not going to be sitting in a jail cell as punishment for his speech while that all plays out.

[13:45:00]

SANCHEZ: The government claims that he is a risk to national security. So I want to ask you about some of the accusations that they're making more broadly. Can you confirm that your client has never had any contact with or provided any kind of support for terror groups or organizations aiming to harm national security?

WESSLER: Of course not. Our client is accused by the government of one thing. That is engaging in lawful speech during protests, in advocacy, the kind of thing that everyone in this country has an unequivocal right to do.

By the government's own charging document, that's what they accuse him of doing, engaging in lawful speech. Their argument is that they just get to lock him up anyway because they disagree with the content of his speech about human rights violations in Gaza and the human rights of Palestinians. That's the First Amendment problem in this case.

Active in many of the debates and protests that have been going on across this country about one of the most pressing issues of our day. And he's being punished for that. And that is just a violation of his constitutional rights.

SANCHEZ: And he's never advocated for violence or harassment in his activism.

WESSLER: In fact, the judge had before him in this proceeding a remarkable record, more than 130 sworn declarations and letters of people writing in support of Mr. Mahdawi and attesting to his good character, including many Jewish students at Columbia, many of whom said they disagreed with what he was saying in his protests and his advocacy. But they respected the way that he did it, that he always was open to more dialogue, not less.

A letter signed by more than 200 Israelis, members of his community in Vermont, longtime Vermonters, members of his Buddhist religious community.

There's actually just an incredible upswelling of support and attestation to what an amazing man Mr. Mahdawi is, which makes it all the more galling that the government chose him to try to make an example of.

And I think that's important to recognize what's happening here. It's not just an attempt to silence this one man. It's really an attempt to chill the speech of everyone in this country on a green card. Where Mr. Mahdawi has been here on a lawful permanent resident status for a decade. He was on the cusp of becoming a citizen. An attempt to chill the speech of students here from other countries, and an attempt to chill the speech of U.S. citizens who all of us, no matter what your immigration status, have a bedrock right, a longstanding constitutional right to speak our mind.

Whether it's about violence and destruction in Gaza, whether it's about opposition to the U.S. government policy in some area or anything else, that's what the First Amendment protects. And that's what Mr. Mahdawi is being punished for.

SANCHEZ: Nathan Freed Wessler, we have to leave the conversation there. Very much appreciate your time. Please keep us posted with the latest on the case.

WESSLER: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: We'll be right back. Stay with us.

[13:50:00]

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KEILAR: Today, the Trump administration published a 400-page report on gender dysphoria treatment in children, without saying who wrote or peer-reviewed it. The Department of Health and Human Services says the report finds that science and evidence do not support these, quote, drastic medical interventions for our nation's youth.

CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard is with us now. Jacqueline, whatever your opinion, and there are so many on this topic, it seems like this is some very important information that has been left out.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Brianna, yes, this report describes itself as a review of evidence and best practices when it comes to treatment for pediatric gender dysphoria. And in the report, it highlights what it's describing as the risks associated with medical interventions like puberty blockers and surgery. And the report also points to other treatment approaches like what it's describing as exploratory therapy.

And in a statement, the director of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, said this, quote, Our duty is to protect our nation's children, not expose them to unproven and irreversible medical interventions. We must follow the gold standard of science, not activist agendas, end quote.

Now, Brianna, in response to this report, we have seen many statements come out from LGBTQ plus advocacy groups like GLAAD and like the Trevor Project who argue in response that what the report describes as exploratory therapy is the same as conversion therapy.

We've also heard from medical groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics just put out this statement moments ago. I'm looking at it on my phone because this just came out. And the American Academy of Pediatrics is saying that it is deeply alarmed by this report, saying that there is a medical consensus that gender affirming care is beneficial for children and adults.

[13:55:00]

So we are seeing this tension emerge between the Trump administration's report and what some different advocacy groups and medical groups are saying in response at this moment -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Jacqueline Howard, we know you'll continue to follow this. Thank you.

Shake up at the White House, President Trump's national security adviser, Mike Waltz, now expected to leave in the coming days, the first major turnover since the president took office.

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SANCHEZ: The President's National Security Advisor will soon ...

END