Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Trump To Deliver State Of The Union Address Tonight; Ukrainian President Speaks To CNN As War Enters Fifth Year; Rep. Mike Lawler (R- NY) On Trump's State of the Union Address Tonight. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired February 24, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Some Democrats are going to boycott the speech and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says he expects those who do attend to will show some decorum.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): And it's my expectation that members who choose to attend will be there in silent defiance -- of course, skeptical of the remarks that the president is going to try to deliver in terms of his spin. But he's not going to be able to spin out of the failures that have occurred over the last 400 days or so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Joining me now are Margaret Talev and -- a senior contributor for Axios, and Jackie Kucinich, the Washington bureau chief for The Boston Globe where it has been freezing. But luckily, you're both in D.C.

So first to you, Margaret. The latest CNN poll has President Trump at 36 percent approval rating. Trump says it's going to be a long speech because he says we have so much to talk about, and he praised his own economy.

What do you expect to hear in this speech?

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR DEMOCRACY, JOURNALISM AND CITIZENSHIP, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY (via Webex by Cisco): Well, on the issues, certainly, I expect him to make a forceful defense of his approach towards the economy and towards tariffs and to blame other people, namely his political opponents, for things that aren't working into position successes in terms of numbers that we've heard him talk about already -- the Dow, so on and so forth.

But I think the question is how much will he stick to the facts and will those facts check out with the fact-checkers, and how much will it become personalized. How quickly will it turn personal and how will that impact Republicans who are standing for office in the midterms.

I think a lot of the Republicans in the room are concerned that he may go off track and lean into, you know, arguments that are unpopular with the very important group of Independent voters. He's lost some important voters in that most recent CNN data, and they do include men, Independents, and Latino Americans.

So these are three big areas that are really important for him to stop his losses and try to turn things around, and whether he can do that the way Americans currently are experiencing the economy is a very big question indeed.

SIDNER: Yeah. I mean, I remember a time when Biden was saying things were going well and Americans were screaming no, they're not, and you seem to have the same thing happening here.

So I guess to you, Jackie. If this is the unofficial kickoff of the midterms, what is Trump's core argument to voters? Is it the economy is strong, trust me, or is it more about drawing this stark contrast with Democrats on things like immigration, crime, and foreign policy?

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE: I think it's both and, Sara, because it -- because you've seen him somewhat make this argument. He seems to end up in different places.

But his advisers want him to make the affordability argument and talk about how he's trying to make the economy better and contrast it with Democrats. The question is, can he do it past tonight? I'm a little skeptical about the weight of this particular speech because the State of the Union used to be the one opportunity where Americans really were plugged into the president. He had everyone's full attention.

This president, in particular, is kind of at the center of a lot of things. He isn't someone who isn't shy about the media, being on camera, being front and center in everyday Americans' lives. So I think a lot --

SIDNER: Yeah.

KUCINICH: -- of people are kind of used to him talking. He's going -- he gives speeches all the time.

Now this one is one that historically he's been able to stay on script, which is a deviation from some of the things he does on the stump or even, you know, in the -- in and about the White House. So we'll see how he drives up -- drives these themes home that we know his staff and his political people want him to do.

SIDNER: Yeah. You just answered one of the questions I had, which is do these State of the Union speeches matter anymore in this presidency --

KUCINICH: Oh, sorry.

SIDNER: -- because -- no, no, no. It's great. Because we're so used to hearing from him not just, you know, at different things like a prayer breakfast where he goes into a long speech but also on social media.

I do want to ask you both about what is happening because Republicans are grappling with something other than what's going to be in this speech and will he stay on message. One of their colleagues, Rep. Tony Gonzales, after -- is in deep water after new details of an alleged affair between him and a staffer who later killed herself.

Can you give us some sense, Margaret, if there is a push from the Republican Party to tell him to step down?

TALEV: Well Sara, yes, we've already begun to hear that from a handful of Republican lawmakers, like his colleagues. But so far, the House Speaker Mike Johnson has really tamped that down and the political reasons for why are obvious. Speaker Johnson cannot afford to lose any votes. Republicans are on a razor barest of bare majorities in the House right now.

[07:35:00]

There is, of course, as we have all been following, a Texas primary coming up in a very short period of time and the polling suggests right now that in that internal GOP primary that Congressman Gonzales is in a lot of trouble -- like, more than a double-digit gap between he and his opponent.

But the question is there is a long time between now and the end of this year. So regardless of what happens in that primary and who is the next congressman from the district, can he continue to serve out the rest of his term and if not, what does that do to the congressional majority and who controls Congress, and whether the president and the speaker can maintain any of their agenda.

So this is a tragic individual story with massive political implications for the Republican Party for the rest of the year.

SIDNER: Yeah. I mean, but there's also such big implications for the family of that young staffer.

Margaret and Jackie, thank you both so much for walking us through that. I'm sure we will all be watching the State of the Union speech even if some Democrats will not and will not be there. Appreciate you -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Today marks four years since Russia's full- scale invasion of Ukraine. The day observed across that country with a national moment of silence to remember the lives lost in the fight.

Just this morning Ukraine's President Zelenskyy addressed the European Parliament thanking them for their support throughout the last four years and tying the survival of his country to the future success of Europe.

The Kremlin, maybe no surprise, is offering a very different message on this day, saying that the goals of their war, or however they described it "have not yet been achieved."

CNN's chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward is live in Kyiv. And Clarissa, you had the opportunity to sit down with Ukraine's President Zelenskyy for a long and wide-ranging interview. What did he tell you? CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well Kate, I have to say the president was quite emotional at times. There's no question that this war has taken a huge toll on its people, and you can really feel it right now. There's a palpable difference. The morale is the lowest I have ever seen it. President Zelenskyy says that he feels it acutely and he feels a strong responsibility to try to end the war.

But when we pressed him on what the holdup was in those talks, he talked about these crucial security guarantees from the U.S. and from Europe that he says would allow him to then make territorial concessions that are almost certainly needed to end this war. But he said that the U.S. has still not signed those security guarantees yet, and he said there's something crucial that's missing in those security guarantees. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARD: So you want a very specific, in-writing guarantee.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I want very -- I -- we have good things in this guarantee, it's true, between us. It's true. But I want very specific answer what partners will be ready to do if Putin will come again. And I think this is what Ukrainians want to hear -- just want to hear. I'm sorry, it's not pressure; it's just to understand.

WARD: If you get those security guarantees, would you be willing to accept a frozen front line whereby Russia keeps the territory that they have already seized?

ZELENSKYY: We already said that we are ready for the compromise to freeze the points where we stay -- the places. It's a frozen contact line. We are ready for this. It's not a very good position for us, but anyway we have defending lines. We have these fortifications. But if Russians or partners with -- in dialogue with Russia want us to withdraw our army from our fortifications, I mean, this -- we can't be such, sorry, foolish guys. We are not children.

WARD: What would you like to hear from President Trump tomorrow at his State of the Union address?

ZELENSKYY: Ah. I want him to stay on our side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WARD: Well, there you hear it, Kate. A plea from President Zelenskyy to President Trump -- "stay on our side."

President Zelenskyy said that the communication between the U.S. and Ukrainian teams has been good. That they're talking every day. That he had good meetings with President Trump in December. But he said that really, he believes the U.S. is the only power that has the force to compel President Putin to come to the negotiating table to make the compromises necessary. And he said, of course, he understands that Ukraine will have to make painful compromises as well, Kate. [07:40:05]

BOLDUAN: "Stay on our side." It seems a simple request from the leader of Ukraine -- one that has proven quite challenging.

It's great to see you, Clarissa. Thank you so much for bringing us that interview, especially on this very important day -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now is Congressman Mike Lawler, a Republican from New York. Congressman, nice to see you this morning.

The State of the Union address is tonight. A brand new CNN poll found that 68 percent of Americans say that President Trump does not have the right priorities. Sixty-eight percent say no. Just 32 percent say yes.

Why do you think they feel this way?

REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): Look John, I think the American people want us to focus on the issues most acutely impacting them, and that is the economy and the issue of affordability, health care, housing, energy.

We have made significant progress over the last year reversing many of the disastrous policies that were put in place under the prior administration. The tax cuts that we passed last summer are taking affect now. People are going to file. And I can tell you in my district, you know, I'm getting people coming to me talking about getting a $5,000 to $15,000 tax refund. That is significant. It is money back in their pockets.

And I think as we move forward you are going to see people feel better about where the economy is. Purchasing power is up. Under Joe Biden we saw Americans losing on average $3,000 in purchasing power. We have already started to make gains on that.

The job market is getting better. Last month, 130,000 jobs created. You saw third-quarter GDP growth over four percent.

So things are moving in the right direction, but the American people haven't yet fully felt it. And so they want us to laser focused on these issues and I think that's what the president needs to talk about tonight.

BERMAN: You conveniently left out fourth-quarter GDP, which was at 1.4 percent when you mentioned third-quarter GDP was at 4.4. So fourth- quarter GDP was way down from that.

LAWLER: Which was revised and you go through the revisions but go ahead.

BERMAN: Also -- also -- also -- also -- also -- also this poll I read you wasn't on Joe Biden's presidency. This poll was asking about is President Trump focused on the right priorities and 68 percent said no. Then you said you think the American people want you, members of the government, to be focused on the issues they most care about. Is this a suggestion that they don't think President Trump is?

LAWLER: Look, I really don't focus my time and energy on polls, which are a snapshot in time. I focus on what we actually have to do. And the American people want us laser focused on the economy, on the issues most acutely impacting them.

You look at housing, for instance. The fact is we're eight million units underbuilt. We just passed, last week, the 21st Century Housing Act to actually start robustly building in America again.

We are working on issues like permitting reforms so that we are actually increasing domestic production of energy.

Back in December we passed legislation that would reduce health care premiums in America by 11 percent. Every single Democrat voted against that.

So we are tackling these issues, but the American people obviously want us to continue to be laser focused on it. That's what I expect the president will be --

BERMAN: OK.

LAWLER: -- talking about tonight in his State of the Union address.

BERMAN: He is also behind the scenes talking about it and quite publicly the possibility of some kind of military strike on Iran.

How well do you think he has explained the justification for that to the American people?

LAWLER: Well look, both Republicans and Democrats agree that this unholy alliance between Iran, Russia, and China has sought to destabilize and undermine the United States, Europe, Israel, and the free world.

You just highlighted the 4-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine. Iran and Russia have been in cahoots throughout that, Iran sending drones to Russia. China purchasing Iranian petroleum, which funds Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other terror networks across the region.

So when you look at the situation right now in Iran, number one, President Trump was right to strike their nuclear program last summer and cripple that network.

BERMAN: Um-hum.

LAWLER: Working with Israel we brought down their air defenses, depleted their ballistic missiles. But you need to continue to apply the pressure. It's why I have a bill, the Enhanced Iranian Sanctions Act, to cripple their oil trade with China and others who are fueling this terrorism.

[07:45:05] The bottom line is Iran is the greatest state sponsor of terror --

BERMAN: I understand.

LAWLER: -- anywhere in the world.

And the president -- and the president is right to apply pressure to move assets and resources to the region as he did back last summer when he gave the Ayatollah 60 days to negotiate over their nuclear program. As he did with Nicolas Maduro when he gave him numerous opportunities to leave. He is giving the Ayatollah and the regime numerous opportunities to negotiate. There's going to be further --

BERMAN: Yeah.

LAWLER: -- negotiations this week.

BERMAN: OK. Congressman -- Congressman --

LAWLER: Hopefully they prove fruitful. But in the event they don't, the president needs to be prepared.

BERMAN: I want to get you on the record, Congressman, on one other thing. A number of your colleagues -- Republican colleagues are now calling on Congressman Tony Gonzales to resign.

Representative Nancy Mace put out a statement saying "The allegations against Congressman Tony Gonzales are deeply disturbing: a sitting member of Congress accused of soliciting explicit photos from a staffer and subjecting her to graphic sexual texts. This is an abuse of power."

CNN was given texts by the staffer's late husband -- we should say she later took her own life -- that included one exchange asking for a "sexy pic."

Gonzales, we should note, has denied an affair and says he's being blackmailed.

But do you think Congressman Gonzales should resign?

LAWLER: First of all, I think the allegations are deeply disturbing. The text messages that came out yesterday are entirely inappropriate between any member of Congress and a staff member and have no place here.

I think there needs to be a full and thorough investigation and I think Congressman Gonzales needs to answer questions immediately as to the full extent of this alleged affair. Obviously, it resulted in the tragic death of this individual. And it is something that I think needs a thorough investigation here in Congress.

Obviously, there's a primary coming up --

BERMAN: Um-hum.

LAWLER: -- in which he is on the ballot and I'm sure voters in his district will make a determination.

BERMAN: Congressman Mike Lawler from New York. Thank you for your time this morning -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, John.

First on CNN, hours ahead of President Trump's State of the Union address Democratic Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Peter Welch, and Cory Booker sent a letter to President Trump demanding tariff refunds for Americans and small businesses. As you know, last week the Supreme Court ruled the president's sweeping emergency tariffs are illegal.

CNN's Matt Egan is joining us now. First of all, what are the senators asking for? And then secondly, will any consumer or business see any of this money?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well Sara, look, tariff refunds -- they are emerging as the latest flashpoint in this battle over the president's tariffs because remember, the Supreme Court did not say whether or not the federal government has to refund all of that tariff money that has been paid. They're leaving that for lower courts to settle.

Now, these Democrats, including Elizabeth Warren, they argue that any tariff refunds that are paid, they should go to consumers and small businesses who in their words were "illegally cheated out of their hard-earned money."

In this letter they write to the president, "Your inability or unwillingness to provide tariff refunds to American families would represent an egregious abdication of your responsibility as president -- a giveaway to giant corporations that amounts to theft from the middle class."

And these lawmakers -- they say to the president that it appears that he has no plans to refund these costs and no idea how to do so.

Now we reached out to the White House and have not heard back. But the president has indicated it could take years to settle this in court.

Now to your question about who is going to get these tariff refunds. Now the stakes are massive. We're talking about $134 billion that were raised by the government --

SIDNER: Yeah.

EGAN: -- just from the tariffs that were struck down.

SIDNER: Yeah.

EGAN: That's from over 300,000 importers. And that's just since the middle of December. These tariff payments continued to pile up until early this morning when they were finally halted.

But experts say that it's really unlikely that all of us are going to see refunds because remember, it's the companies that are paying the tariffs. And to the extent that they've raised prices they're reluctant to lower prices because they see that more tariffs are on the way.

SIDNER: Yeah. It is a concern for everyone and anyone who has paid those --

EGAN: Yeah.

SIDNER: -- which amount to paying extra tax.

FedEx has now filed a lawsuit, I understand, against the Trump administration demanding a full refund after the Supreme Court ruling. And even though the Supreme Court said, you know, we're not going to tell you what to do with the money you've already collected, it is illegal. So when somebody, for example, gets sued for stealing money they usually have to pay it back.

[07:50:00]

EGAN: Yeah, and I think that's FedEx's point here. This does appear to be the first big company to file a lawsuit against the administration after the Supreme Court ruling. FedEx -- they want that full refund, plus interest. This is applying specifically to the tariffs that were struck down. They named the U.S. Customs and Border Protection as a defendant.

We reached out to the White House and customs and have not heard back.

But they're joining a long list of companies that have filed a lawsuit -- some of them last year, including Costco, Kawasaki Motors, Bumble Bee, and the parent company of Ray-Ban.

And Sara, look, I said that FedEx is the first one to file a lawsuit --

SIDNER: Yeah.

EGAN: -- since the Supreme Court. They're not going to be the last one.

SIDNER: Right. It's going to tumble.

Thank you so much, Matt Egan. Really interesting.

EGAN: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: Kate.

BOLDUAN: Stranded in paradise. Americans stuck in Mexico after violence erupts. They're flooding the State Department's crisis hotline now for help and direction. What the State Department is telling them.

And it's called a flour fight. Why all of these people are oh so happy to get just covered in it.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:55:40]

BOLDUAN: So you could call it the Punch effect. Perhaps you have heard by now about the adorable monkey in a Japanese zoo who had been carrying around his equally adorable little plushie as a companion. The 7-month-old is named Punch. He was abandoned by his mother and zookeepers had experimented with lots of things, like rolled up towels and other stuffed animals to bring him comfort. Of course, he clearly took to this one.

Videos of Punch dragging his little buddy around have gone viral and sparked a surge of visitors to the zoo. And now another side effect. The stuffy is from IKEA and now completely sold out in Singapore and several other countries as well. CNN saw only a handful available in stores, even in the United States. And some are now selling for hundreds of dollars, of course, on eBay. Hello, American capitalism.

While that may be a bad -- some bad shopping news for Punch fans all over the world, the good news is Punch is doing great. Zookeepers say he is steadily integrating with the troop.

So forget about a food fight. How about a flour fight? It's an annual tradition in a coastal Greek town. Participants march through the streets throwing colorful flour everywhere as they go all along the way and things clearly get serious, as you can see. Many of them are wearing eye protection as well as costumes and even hazmat suits because flour is so dangerous.

This dates back to the 19th century and marks the start of Lent leading up to Orthodox Easter -- J.B.

BERMAN: That's tomorrow morning here on this show.

BOLDUAN: Oh, yes.

BERMAN: We're covered in flour.

BOLDUAN: It's going to go over great.

BERMAN: Absolutely.

All right. This morning Mexico's president says her country is slowing returning to normal after Mexican security forces hunted down and killed drug kingpin El Mencho.

But many American tourists are still stuck in the country after cartel members set off explosions and lit fires. The U.S. State Department warned Americans to shelter in place, and they set up a 24-hour crisis hotline. Flights from the resort town of Puerto Vallarta and Guadalajara -- they could see disruptions until tomorrow.

Tyler Johnson is with us now from Puerto Vallarta. He was on vacation with his family there when the violence broke out. Tyler, just take us back to that moment when it really all started going haywire. What was it like, what did you see, and what were you thinking? TYLER JOHNSON, AMERICAN STRANDED IN MEXICO (via Webex by Cisco): Well, good morning, John.

We were one of the last families to get out of our resort and when we got to the front desk they were like if you're going to go, you've got to go now and you've got to go fast. So automatically there was a weirdness that started. And then once we got out to the street -- turned onto the street, which was normally very busy -- a lot of people, a lot of traffic -- it was dead. And we went a little further and all of a sudden you started to see buses on fire -- city buses, taxis. I think I saw about 10 city buses and about 12 taxis.

And our driver did not stop. He put his foot on the pedal and he just went. And we were hitting places on parts of roads we shouldn't have been on, et cetera, and he clutched his rosary and kissed it a couple of times, and I don't think any of our family -- we did not say anything. We were just kind of in such a state of shock. And quite honestly, I -- there was several moments where I didn't think I was going to get to the airport alive.

So it was -- it was very scary.

BERMAN: Moment where you did not think you would get to the airport alive. I imagine when you see a bus on fire on the streets that's probably not something you're used to.

JOHNSON: Well, it's not just one, there were several. So yeah, it was -- and it still shakes me up a little bit to talk about it in that regard. It's just something you don't ever see. It -- I've said before it felt like I was at Universal Studios but also such fear of not surviving that -- again, it was such a weird mix of sights and feelings, you know. We were just grateful that our driver got us there safely and that he also was able to be safe as well.

BERMAN: That is a good thing.

What's the situation now?

JOHNSON: Well, right now things did improve a little bit yesterday afternoon. About 2:00 we started to see more activity of flights coming in.

And we've been in contact with some state officials and they had said that, you know, your hotel is pretty close. You could shelter in place a little more comfortably there. So we reached out to the condo folks that were here and they sent over an employee and gave us a safe ride back over here. And we just tried to take a shower and be as comfortable as we can.