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Trump, Canadian Prime Minister Carney to Meet at White House Amid Trade Tensions; FAA Imposes New Ground Delay for Newark-Bound Flights; Trump Orders Reopening of Alcatraz for Ruthless and Violent Offenders; Interview with Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL): Hearing on Suspected Chinese Espionage Operation in Cuba. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired May 06, 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]

MISTY MARRIS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It's a people and places list, Kate. So this is something that happens at most trials where you go through individuals who, even though they're not part of the case, they're not necessarily alleged victims. They're not -- they may not have anything to do with the actual charges, but they may come up during the trial.

And the idea is to identify them at the beginning of jury selection to find out whether or not jurors have any sort of connection to those individuals, whether or not that would be something that could keep them from being unbiased when the case proceeds. But that people and places list was pretty telling. So while we don't really know where some individuals fit in, I'm thinking about Cassie Ventura, Kid Cudi.

We know that her civil suit alleged that Diddy blew up his car as an act of intimidation. So we can kind of piece some of that together how it may come up during the trial.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So day -- let's see, where are we right now? It'll start back up in just about 30 minutes from now. Let's see what day two brings us. Thank you so much, Misty.

MARRIS: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: A high stakes, potentially high tension meeting getting underway soon. Canada's Prime Minister said to arrive at the White House for a face-to-face with President Trump after all of Trump's tariffs and taunting of Canada. What Carney is saying.

And another bombshell admission on the stand in the Karen Read murder retrial. A firefighter testifying to what she said to him after her Boston police officer boyfriend was found dead in the snow.

And superstar Rihanna revealing more than just a dandy outfit. And she wasn't the only surprise, a VP at the MET.

I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, the big question at the White House to put it in hockey terms, will they drop the gloves? President Trump hosts just elected Canadian Prime Minister, Mark Carney. Trump insists he wants Canada to be the 51st state.

Carney insists that is ludicrous and offensive. They should get along fine. There are genuine questions about the politics for both men today.

Each might think they could benefit from a blow-up like we saw with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, but the economics might be even more important. After the tariff war launched by President Trump and the response from Canada, this is what the president said about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your expectation for your meeting with the Canadian Prime Minister tomorrow?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't know, he's coming to see me. I'm not sure what he wants to see me about, but I guess he wants to make a deal. Everybody does.

They all want to make a deal because we have something that they all want. We have something that they all want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, with us now, CNN's Paula Newton and Mark Preston. Paula, first to you, what's the expectation from the meeting today? And does the Prime Minister think he comes from a position of strength now?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think both are kind of loaded questions, right? Let's begin with why he's there. Look, they do not want this, and I mean Canadian officials, to turn into any kind of a spectacle.

This is to try and get the relationship back on track. And in terms of expectation, Mark Carney said it best at a press conference on Friday, saying, look, don't expect any white smoke, right?

John, you'll be glad to hear I am very old, which means that I covered the original trade agreement between Canada and the United States. This is beyond complicated. Even the White House concedes that a full renegotiation will take into 2026. What does it mean now?

These men need to get along for obvious reasons. I want you to listen now to Mark Carney again from that press conference on Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: Our focus will be on both immediate trade pressures and the broader future economic and security relationship between our two sovereign nations. My government will fight to get the best deal for Canada. We will take all the time necessary, but not more in order to do so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: You know, you look at that last line, he really does want to say, look, we're here for business. We want to continue to be strong allies, but if Canada must pivot away from the United States, it will. Mark Carney was very tough on the president and his policies during the election campaign.

And I was fascinated by the fact that Donald Trump gave him a bye on that. You know, basically said a few days ago, look, that was in the middle of a campaign.

This is still an incredibly important economic relationship. Everyone knows that. And most definitely, not just the cabinet, but Donald Trump himself, who has been hearing from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers who've been saying loud and clear, this relationship is important everywhere.

BERMAN: You know, Mark Preston, since we're talking about Canada, naturally I'm going to ask you about former vice president, Mike Pence. Indiana shares a large land border with Canada. Not at all, actually.

[08:05:00]

But the former vice president is talking about tariffs, I understand.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I know he is. And really, he's hearkening back to what was a major pillar of the Republican Party before Donald Trump came in and it became the party of MAGA. He's not a big fan of these tariffs because, as he explains it, John, he lived paycheck to paycheck most of his life as a career servant.

And the fact is is that these cheap goods are part of the American dream. This is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT: I do think this version of tariff policy that's broad-based, indiscriminate, applies tariffs to friend and foe alike, is not a win for the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PRESTON: What's interesting, too, is that he said that the American people have to be honest with themselves and that cheap goods are needed here in the country. It's interesting, too, as this meeting's going to take place at the White House, he said very nice things about Canada as an ally and as a trading partner and seemed to hope that this relationship could get fixed rather quick.

BERMAN: All right, Mark Preston, Paula Newton, our thanks to both of you -- Kate. BOLDUAN: All right let's talk about this meeting and the tariff implications here. Joining us right now is Douglas Holtz-Eakin, an economist who worked for former President George W. Bush. Of course, he's now the president of the American Action Forum. It's good to see you again.

So Trump's position on Canada, he keeps saying, we don't need their cars, we don't need their energy, their lumber. I mean, he said, we don't need anything from them. The way he said it is, he said, we buy it because we want to be helpful, is what he said in one comment recently. I mean, how accurate is it how he's describing the trade relationship here?

DOUGLAS HOLTZ-EAKIN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN ACTION FORM: Well that's not a very accurate characterization of the relationship. I mean, trade is beneficial for both parties. We buy things from Canada because they're relatively cheap compared to doing them here and they buy things from us for the same reason.

And so I think the important thing to recognize is that we talk about the U.S. and Canada, but there's one unified economic entity called North America. Mexico, U.S. and Canada have lots and lots of economic linkages. They're tightly intertwined.

And the notion that we can put tariffs on both those countries and somehow separate ourselves is actually courting great economic danger. That's a really -- probably among the most dangerous things the president's proposed.

BOLDUAN: What is your, if you would like to say hope springs eternal, what is your hope or best case scenario coming out of this meeting between the president and the prime minister today?

HOLTZ-EAKIN: Well, I think that the prime minister said pretty clearly that he wants to look past where the United States and Canada are right now and think about the long-term structure of the economic and security relationship. That would allow Mr. Trump to specify what exactly he would like to get out of that relationship and sort of lay down some markers to Canada.

Look, we need these efforts at the border. We'd like you to make these efforts toward China, which likes to reroute goods through you to get to the United States. Whatever it may be, lay down a clear set of objectives for the United States in that relationship and then Canada can counter. And that's the nature of a negotiation.

I think the difficulty thus far has been we don't know exactly what the president is striving for in this relationship. He's put the tariffs on and said, I want you to do better, but they don't know what that means.

BOLDUAN: And that's a great point, because that's what we've heard from, especially leaders in Canada, is that they don't know what the marker or the measure is for when, you know, the fentanyl tariffs would have been lifted or any of that. They had no measure of what was enough and what was progress. Kind of the latest on the tariff front beyond Canada is the

president's saying that he's going to put a 100 percent tariff on the film industry. I want to play for you how he talked about this yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hollywood doesn't do very much of that business. They have the nice sign and everything's good, but they don't do very much. A lot of it's been taken to other countries and a big proportion.

And I'm actually going to meet with some, because, you know, there's some advantages, I guess, and I'm not looking to hurt the industry. I want to help the industry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Can he do this? I mean, what does implementation look like? And I just, I don't know. Give me your thoughts.

HOLTZ-EAKIN: Well, I don't know either. So there are any number of questions about this. Number one, why is it a national security threat? That's supposedly the guys under which he would do this.

Number two, I think it does reveal some of the difficulties in the mindset he brings to this problem, because in most cases, movies are a great example. There are some locations in the U.S. There are some locations abroad. A movie is a mixture of things made in the U.S., things made outside the United States. It's not a U.S. movie or a foreign movie.

[08:10:00]

It's, in fact, something that's a combination of both. Think of Star Wars movies shot all over the globe. So it's hard to take those apart and put a tariff on the piece that isn't the U.S.

That's also true of a lot of the goods that he's trying to put tariffs on. They're not uniquely foreign or U.S. They're mixtures of both, and that's been an Achilles heel of this effort all along.

And the last thing is, I don't know how you implement this. Is it a 100 percent tax when you buy a movie ticket? Is it a -- what do you do with downloads and streaming things? I don't know.

You could imagine the first reel coming into the United States and putting a 100 percent tariff on it, but I don't know the value of that reel, because it hasn't been in the box office yet. So I don't know how you would do this if you wanted to do this.

BOLDUAN: I really, I haven't thought about it the ways, it's almost like a movie is like a car. Like there's no singular foreign or domestic. That's really an interesting way and an important way of thinking about it.

It's great to see you, Doug. Thank you -- John.

BERMAN: Yes, Tatooine is definitely not the U.S.

All right, breaking news. The FAA imposing a new ground delay at Newark Liberty Airport, major delays and now safety concerns after air traffic controllers lost contact with planes mid-flight.

And then a rocket that malfunctioned in space more than 50 years ago, headed to earth, the odds of hitting someone or something, not zero.

And time is up. Today is your last day to secure a Real ID ahead of the deadline. What you won't be able to do if you do not get one in time.

[08:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: I've got some breaking news for you out of Newark. Newark Liberty International Airport has just released new audio, and it reveals more about the terrifying moment that has led to travel chaos there. The FAA imposing a ground delay this morning for Newark-bound flights.

The ninth straight day of travel chaos there. Dozens of new delays and cancellations this morning at the airport, a major hub for the New York metro area. And of course there was a knock-on effect for other airlines.

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said he sent a letter to the Department of Transportation urging it to prioritize the region, the busiest airspace in the nation, by immediately addressing staff levels in the Philadelphia area, traffic control, and developing a plan to address chronic staffing shortages at New York.

CNN's aviation correspondent Pete Muntean joining us now. You have been over this since the beginning. I sent you a text I've never gotten before while at Newark saying, hey, we don't have enough air traffic control as your flight may be delayed. I have never seen that in my life. So give me some sense of how this mess is going to get solved, if at all.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, no real clear timetable here from the FAA on when they could make this actually go away. The latest here from the FAA is that the average delay for flights going into Newark this morning, two hours and 41 minutes, now the ninth straight day of these delays. And that new audio and a new statement from the FAA are essentially confirming a reporting that paints the best picture yet of how this all started.

This all goes back to an incident last Monday at a key radar facility responsible for Newark flights. And a source familiar with that incident tells me that Newark approach controllers lost both radio and radar systems for an undisclosed amount of time, meaning they were doing their jobs blind and they could not communicate with planes via voice. The source tells me that led to at least five air traffic controllers taking what's called trauma leave. That legally entitles controllers to 45 days off.

It's a huge development and really explains the repeat delays caused by these staffing shortages. I want you to listen now to the audio from LiveATC.net.

In it, a controller explains to a small airplane to essentially go away because he has no ability to pick up that plane on radar. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

APPROACH AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: No you do not have a bravo clearance. We lost our our radar and it's not working correctly. Radar service terminates. Squawk VFR -- Change approves. If you want a bravo clearance, you can just call the tower when you get closer.

PILOT: OK, I'll wait for that frequency from you, OK?

APPROACH AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: OK, no, just squawk VFR, look up the tower frequencies. And we don't have a radar, so I don't know where you are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: You can hear the frustration in that controller's voice.

We also have this new analysis from flight tracking site Flight Radar 24. And it says that between 15 and 20 flights were being controlled by Newark approach controllers during last Monday's equipment outage. The FAA has been investigating a cause.

Though all agree here that technology is at the center of this problem. Aging technology, which has been plaguing the FAA for decades. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says the Trump administration will announce a sweeping overhaul of air traffic control this week.

But again, still no clear timetable on when these delays at Newark will end. The FAA says controllers who are on trauma leave cannot be replaced quickly because their jobs are highly specialized -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Pete Muntean, terrifying hearing an air traffic control saying, I don't know where you are. Thank you so much for all of your reporting. You've been all over this from the beginning -- John.

BERMAN: All right. I have almost all of those outfits. On this morning, Mattel issuing a new warning that prices for Barbies are about to go up.

And a new report claims to have photo evidence of a large scale spy operation by China on the United States.

[08:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BOLDUAN: So President Trump in the last few days has become laser focused on something peculiar. His plan to try and rebuild and reopen the former prison Alcatraz in order to hold what he calls the nation's most ruthless and violent offenders. Now that project would be wildly expensive at a time when his administration is so focused on slashing federal agency budgets across the government.

So why is the president putting this idea out there now? CNN's Harry Enten is looking into that for you today. The president talks often and when he talks about Alcatraz, he also reiterates law and order.

[08:25:00]

A key phrase and a key issue that was important during his campaign.

What does that have to do with this, do you think, and why it could be driving?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes, I mean, it speaks to one of Trump's best issues, right? The idea Alcatraz, you think law and order, you think Donald Trump. I mean, look here.

All right. Net approval rating handling crime. What do we have here? We have a positive rating for Donald Trump, even in the most recent polling. Look at that at plus two points.

Far better than Joe Biden, who was so far underwater. My goodness, he was setting records at minus 26 points. You rarely ever see it. So Donald Trump ran in part on law and order. It was one of the reasons that he got elected. And at this particular point, Americans like what they're hearing from him on the issue of crime. And you see this right here with a plus two net approval rating.

Far better than Joe Biden left office with back in 2024.

BOLDUAN: How does this then compare to how people viewed it in the first term?

ENTEN: Yes. So this is another interesting thing, right? We compare Donald Trump's first term to now his second term.

And what do we see here? We see that Donald Trump's net approval rating on handling crime is far better now at plus two points. The view of term number two.

Then we go back to a retrospective approval rating back in March of 2024, in which he was underwater at minus 13 points. So he's doing 15 points better in terms of how people are viewing his handling of crime now than he was doing back in March of 2024.

So when you hear Donald Trump talking about stuff like Alcatraz. Yes, I know it's late night fodder for a lot of different folks. But what it actually speaks to is Donald Trump focusing the American people's attention on an issue in which they actually do like what he's doing. And you see it here with a net positive approval rating of plus two points, which, again, is 15 points higher than what we saw for Donald Trump in term numero uno.

BOLDUAN: What about just how people are -- how worried people are actually about crime, about this exact issue?

ENTEN: Yes, exactly right, Kate. So, you know, we think about crime and we say, OK, it's one thing how they're viewing Trump. But are their views of overall crime changing as Donald Trump gets into the White House?

And what do we see here? Well, the percentage of Americans who worry a great deal about crime, we actually have seen that percentage drop over the last year. It was 53 percent last year.

And look at where we are now. We're at 47 percent. It's the first time in about five years in which the percentage of Americans worry a great deal about crime has actually dropped under the 50 percent mark.

And more than that, it's a rare issue that we've seen from 2024 to 2025, in which the percentage of Americans who worry a great deal about a particular issue has actually dropped by five points or more. In fact, it's one of only two issues in which we saw a five point decline among both Democrats and Republicans.

So I think Donald Trump is going to continue on this law and order issue because the bottom line is it is working for him -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: That is very interesting. One of only two issues that saw an actual, you know, measurable decline.

ENTEN: A measurable decline among both Democrats and Republicans.

BOLDUAN: Super interesting. Thank you, Harry.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: All right. Happening this morning, Congress is set to hold a hearing on a suspected spying effort by China. Witnesses are expected to show new photos as evidence that China is running a surveillance operation on the United States out of Cuba.

With us now is Congressman Carlos Gimenez, a Republican from Florida. He will be leading this hearing. Congressman, thanks so much for being with us.

What is China up to here?

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ (R-FL): Well, what we think they're doing is actually they're upgrading a lot of existing spy facilities in Cuba in order to spy on the United States. Cuba is only about 90 miles away from Florida. We have the largest range, aerial range in the United States, the only one that really can simulate a fight on straits.

And so I think that the Chinese are very interested to look at our tactics, also intercept our communications. And that's why there are facilities. And so we're going to hear from some experts on it and see -- and get to the bottom what's going on down there, what they think is going on down there.

And are there any things that we can do in the United States to protect the national security?

BERMAN: Yes, these are basically listening posts, signals intelligence, as it were. You say you want to think about what the United States can do. What do you think a response should be?

GIMENEZ: Look, the only thing that we can do at the end of the day is that we need the Cuban regime to go. The Cuban regime right now, the Cuban regime is at probably its weakest point that I have seen in over 60 years.

They can't keep the lights on. They can't feed their people. They don't have adequate medical, you know, supplies to help their people. So it's a failed regime and it's been failing for a long time.

And so we need to put maximum pressure on that regime and change the regime and change it from an adversary nation into a friendly nation. And that's about the only thing that we can do. And that's the thing that we should be looking at right now.

How much pressure can we put on that regime, not only in Cuba, but also in Venezuela? These are oppressive regimes that deny basic freedoms to their people. And it's time for a change.

BERMAN: And you also consistently have been pressuring whichever administration is in power to be tough on China, given that China is upgrading, you believe, these listening posts in Cuba.

[08:30:00]