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Numbers on Pam Bondi; Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) is Interviewed about Iran; U.S. Economy Added Jobs; Adam Frank is Interviewed about the Artemis II Mission. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 03, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:30:44]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, Attorney General Pam Bondi on her way involuntarily to the private sector. So, what do the numbers tell us about what went wrong for her?

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten is here.

Good morning to you, sir.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Good morning.

BERMAN: How popular was Pam Bondi, you know, before yesterday, before she got fired?

ENTEN: Yes, the American people are saying thank God Pam Bondi is gone. She wore on them like an in-law who stayed too late past Christmas vacation.

I mean just take a look here. Net popularity of Pam Bondi. In January 2025, you know what, she was actually on the positive side of the ledger, look at this, at plus one points. But look at this. Down she goes. The more people got to know Pam Bondi, the less they liked her. Her net popularity rating by the end, negative 19 points, a 20-point shift in the wrong direction. Of course, one of the key reasons being why was the Epstein case, which, of course, she was helping in charge of that particular in the Trump administration. And the American people, simply put, did not like Pam Bondi, by the way.

BERMAN: How does this compare to other people who have had the job?

ENTEN: Yes, OK. So, you know, President Trump sees this. He sees, oh my God, he's wearing a -- she's wearing on my administration. And more than that, he might recall that there was actually a fairly popular attorney general at this point in the administration. Look at this, net popularities of attorney general -- attorney general about this time in a presidency. Look, Joe Biden's Merrick Garland was actually on the plus side of the ledger at plus six points. Look at this, Pam Bondi far more unpopular here at minus 19 points at this point. So we're talking about Merrick Garland being more than 25 points more popular in the net popularity rating. And that's the reason why I had to put this former in parentheses right here, because Pam Bondi is bye, bye Bondi.

BERMAN: She's still serving for a little while longer. She's a fired, yet she has, you know, the honor of getting to keep the job for a few more days until she loses her access to the building.

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: You talked about Epstein. You know, how does that issue rank among others?

ENTEN: Yes, how does it rank? You know, the idea is, OK, we'll get rid of Pam Bondi and maybe that would somehow make you more popular, Donald Trump, and the Epstein case. Look, the Epstein case is going to continue to be a big problem for Donald Trump because, just take a look here. Take a look at Trump's net approval rating. Immigration, foreign policy, the economy, trade and tariffs, the Epstein case. Look at this. That is by far the worst issue for Donald Trump of the major issues at negative 40 points. Negative 40 points. Worse than immigration. Worse than foreign policy. Worse than the economy. Worse than trade and tariffs.

So, the bottom line is this, the Epstein case is not going away if you're Donald Trump. Even if Pam Bondi is going away. The Epstein case is going to continue to weigh on the president of the United States.

BERMAN: Yes. But you don't want to be the face of that issue in the administration.

ENTEN: No.

BERMAN: OK, what are the markets saying about who might be next as attorney general?

ENTEN: OK. So, who might be next for attorney general? Let's take a look at the Kalshi prediction market. We'll take a look here. Chance to be Trump's next attorney general. Lee Zeldin is the favorite at this point. Of course, Lee Zeldin from the great state of New York, the great island of long, 60 percent chance. Todd Blanche, a 26 percent chance. So, at this point, Zeldin is in the driver's seat, but I'm not quite sure it's a job you really want.

BERMAN: It'll be interesting to see how much jockeying there is for the job in the next few months.

Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you, my friend.

BERMAN: Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Just in, we have new comments from President Trump on the war with Iran. He posted just a short time ago. I'll read it to you now. "With a little more time, we can easily open the Hormuz Strait, take the oil and make a fortune. It would be a gusher for the world," with some question marks. It comes amid questions of whether the Trump administration is

overstating the damage done so far to Iran's weapons capabilities. Three sources tell CNN recent U.S. intelligence assessments show about half of Iran's missile launchers remain intact, and roughly half of Iran's drone capabilities still exist. According to multiple sources, that includes thousands of one-way attack drones in reserve.

Iran is, as we're seeing, eager to try to show it is still in the fight. State media has now released a series of photos claiming to show debris from a downed U.S. military fighter jet in central Iran. CNN has asked U.S. Central Command for comment on this Iranian claim, as Iran has made similar claims in the past that have turned out to not be true.

Joining me right now is Democratic Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania.

[08:35:03]

She sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Congressman, thanks for being here.

Let's start with the new comments just in from the president. It now appears the president does care about the oil getting through the Strait, though he has said otherwise, and that he does care about getting the Strait reopened, though he does say it is not America's -- has said it is not his or America's problem.

If this is now an objective of the U.S. operation against Iran, what do you think?

REP. MADELEINE DEAN (D-PA): Well, it's more of the same with this president. He's incoherent. He's inconsistent. He contradicts himself one day to the next. And that kind of enthusiastic all caps, we just have to get it flowing again and it will be a gusher, it is madness. It's absolute madness for the head of our military, who has assembled probably as many as 50,000 military folks in the theater there. The president understands that the economic numbers are a disaster. He was supposed to be hired to keep us safe, keep us at peace, and to grow the economy. Instead, what he's done is grow inflation, reduced jobs, increase the price of gas.

Right here, in Montgomery County, yesterday, filling up, $4.19 a gallon. The president recognizes he stumbled into something absolutely horrific globally in terms of the Straits of Hormuz and now creating his own reality. I guess he thinks it's just open because the water is flowing.

BOLDUAN: Congresswoman, I'm just looking at this tweet, social media post, a little bit further. When the president says, take the oil and make a fortune, I mean he says it as a "we." I'm not going to try to read in -- too far into this. But when he says "we can open the Strait, take the oil and make a fortune," as sitting on the Foreign Affairs Committee, has it been suggested to you at all, or in conversation at all, that the United States would then control or own the oil passing through the Strait of Hormuz after this war?

DEAN: I sit on Foreign Affairs and Appropriations, and wearing both hats, that is, again, incoherent. I'm trying to figure out the legal path where he can just take the oil. And how does he get title to it? How does he then sell it?

In the meantime, guess what he's done? He's lifted sanctions on both Iran and Russia. They're now profiting from this war of his own making. It's absolutely absurd. But that's what he also did and spoke about in Venezuela. Remember, it was all about the fentanyl. It was all about the fentanyl. Until it wasn't about the fentanyl. It was about the oil and him trying to claim it for himself. Not for America. Not for our revenues. As I said, you got to get title to this stuff. But for himself.

He's making no sense. And when he spoke two nights ago, he was making no sense. I cannot understand how those around him don't say, Mr. President, what you're talking about is utter madness. Not to mention when he talked about bombing Iran back to the stone ages. That kind of language around war, it actually doesn't live up to the rules of war. And again, a war of his own choosing that makes no sense.

BOLDUAN: Pam Bondi is now out, fired as attorney general of the United States. Word is that the president is considering, though not having made a decision yet, bringing Lee Zeldin over to be the new A.G., bring him over from EPA.

Do you think that he is better than Pam Bondi?

DEAN: I can't make a judgment on that. I think it's just one more loyalist.

But what I do want to make clear to your viewing public is, I think -- and you saw from Harry's numbers there, she was well underwater in terms of people having any confidence in what she was doing as the head of the Department of Justice. But that's not why she got canned by this president. Not for her unprofessionalism, not for her lack of understanding, the independence of the Department of Justice, the importance of the rule of law, the importance of moving forward with transparency on Epstein for the victims. Don't tire of it anybody who gets the head of DOJ. She was fired because she didn't do enough that the president liked in terms of retribution against his perceived enemies, and to cover up the Epstein files. The American public needs to understand this. She was terrible at her job. That's not why she got fired.

BOLDUAN: There's new CNN polling showing that Americans -- the portion of Americans -- a growing portion of Americans view both Democratic and Republican parties in -- very negatively and it remains deeply negative, those who are considered those double haters that we talk about in polling.

[08:40:07]

Democrats with those double haters early here moving into the midterm season, Democrats hold an advantage. But right now it's driven more by opposition to the GOP than enthusiasm for Democrats. And in these -- in this CNN polling, the top reason that people say they don't like the Democratic Party is voters saying that the Democratic Party is ineffective and doesn't do anything. Do you think that's a fair criticism?

DEAN: I've heard that criticism, Kate. It doesn't entirely surprise me. But I do -- I would actually point to what we have been able to do. Take a look at the silliness of the speaker of the House, last Friday refusing to move forward with the Senate in the middle of the night passed a compromise deal that passed unanimously, by the way, out of the Senate. The speaker, oh, outraged last Friday, keeping us there until 10:30 at night because he was worried about his own speakership. Let's face facts. But now even the president has tired of all of this. John Thune is trying to figure out a new reality, a new path forward.

So, remember, Republicans have the White House, the Senate, and the House. They're failing to govern. I understand the complaints about Democrats, but we're actually holding a line against this absolutely corrupt, incoherent madness coming out of the administration and his courtiers.

BOLDUAN: Congresswoman, thank you for your time.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this happened just moments ago. New data showing the labor market beating expectations in March by a lot, adding 178,000 jobs. It is worth noting that this is the first report since the war with Iran began, so there is still a lot of uncertainty in the economy. But CNN's Matt Egan joining us now to break this down.

I mean the expectation was, what, 60,000 jobs? And it's 178. Wow.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes. Look, the job market bounced back in a big way in March. And that is good news. Really blowing away expectations. But this does come with a bit of an asterisk because this is really a snapshot of how things looked in early to mid March, really at the early stages of the war, long before $4 gas and $110 oil.

But with that caveat in mind, let's look at the numbers. So, the U.S. economy adding 170,000 jobs in March. As you mentioned, that's basically triple what the forecast was. And that is a major improvement from February. February was even worse than previously reported. February was revised down. It was previously negative 92,000. Now we've learned that it was actually negative 133,000. So, quite a big improvement there.

And when we look at the trend for job growth over the last year or two, you can see it's been a really bumpy ride. We've had a bunch of months of significant job loss and then a few months of significant job gains. And that's why, Sara, they like to look at the average.

And when you look at the three-month average for job gains, that's 68,000. And that's not bad given that we're looking at a smaller workforce because of aging demographics, because of immigration crackdown. So, that's not a bad number. And that does help explain why the unemployment rate came down. The expectation was for 4.4 percent. There were some whispers of 4.5. That didn't happen. Look at this, the unemployment rate came down to 4.3 percent.

So, why did the job market bounce back? Well, let's look at the sectors here. The biggest factor here is the fact that health care, which has been the biggest source of demand for workers in this economy, added 76,000 jobs in March. That's a strong number. And it reflects the fact that about 35,000 workers who had been on strike in part of February, they're back to work. And so that is why healthcare, one of the reasons why healthcare is so strong.

Also warmer weather. Construction lost jobs in February. Look at this, gained 26,000 jobs in March. That's a factor. Leisure and hospitality also weather impacted, also gaining jobs. Manufacturing, a key focus of the presidents, gaining 15,000. However, the federal government, as the Trump administration has shrunk the federal budget, losing jobs, losing 18,000 jobs in March. Also, finance. That's a sector that could be impacted by artificial intelligence, losing 15,000 jobs as well. So, some job loss, some significant job gains as well.

And now I think one of the big debates here, Sara, is, how does the war and this energy price shock impact a job market that has been pretty bumpy? Goldman Sachs has estimated that the war could end up wiping out about 10,000 jobs per month. That accounts for some sectors that are going to lose jobs and some sectors, like energy, that could gain jobs as well. And they're saying the unemployment rate could end up rising to 4.6 percent in the coming months. So, we'll have to wait and see if that happens. But right now, certainly some good news about the job market ahead of the war.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, it's far surpassed expectations.

EGAN: Definitely.

SIDNER: Which is usually good for the markets as well.

[08:45:02]

They get a little bit of a boost. We'll see what happens when it -- when it opens.

Matt Egan, thank you. Really appreciate you.

EGAN: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now, CNN global economic analyst Rana Foroohar.

OK, Rana, so February down 133, March up 178. February, worse than expected. March, much better than expected. What's going on?

RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: Well, thanks for that softball, John.

You know, let's pull the lens back and look at the last year. If you look at the year, jobs have basically been flat. You know, net neutral. And that's part of this no hiring, no firing environment that we've been hearing about. Companies aren't hiring a lot of people until, you know, we're seeing this good number now, which I'll break down in a minute, but they haven't been firing a lot of people either. So, they're kind of in a wait and see mode.

Now, this jobs report is really, really interesting to me. We're seeing, once again, we are in a health care economy. And that says to me two things. A.I. is probably playing a big role there. Healthcare is one of those areas where we've really seen a lot of productivity gains from A.I. On the other hand, health care is also an area where most of the jobs are low wage jobs. You know, they're -- we're not talking a lot of big, middle class jobs here. These are, you know, $20, $15 an hour jobs, oftentimes home health care aides, et cetera.

One of the things I'm going to be watching is that those travel and tourism numbers, because if the war stretches on, we've all felt -- anybody that's been booking a plane ticket recently or trying to, you know, drive on a long trip somewhere, you're thinking twice. So, I'm going to be watching that carefully.

And again, I'll just caveat by saying, in my world, three's a trend. You know, talk to me -- talk to me in the early summer. And if we're still seeing numbers like this, then we'll have an interesting rebound story.

BERMAN: Yes, right now we're on a one month streak, right, because February was down, March was up.

FOROOHAR: Yes. Right.

BERMAN: And I'm not sure. And the employment numbers obviously, you know, matter so much to so many people. If it's your job, it matters a lot. But in terms of trying to figure out what the economic impact of the war is, what will you be watching in the coming weeks?

FOROOHAR: Oh, boy. Well, for sure, I'm going to be looking at any kind of industry that touches the energy sector. You know, petrochemicals, manufacturing, things like that. Travel and tourism, I think they're going to take a big hit.

And also, you know, you'd be looking just at stock price reactions. I think Sara's right, you may see some gains today off the back of a positive employment number. But, you know, as we pull back -- and again, as we just heard, these numbers came from the very beginning of the war. Even a whole month of war wouldn't be enough for you to look and say, here's what the effect is going to be. But if I, if I look at what's already happening internationally, major supply shortages in Asia, supply shortages in oil coming to Europe this summer, all that's going to affect American companies that still get, you know, anywhere from 30 to 50 percent of their revenues from overseas. That could mean that they'll be in that wait and see or even pulling back mode if we don't see some big changes. BERMAN: What about the Fed? What do you think the Fed thinks? Talk

about conflicting signals for the Federal Reserve to try to figure out what to do with interest rates.

FOROOHAR: Oh, man. Yes. Yes, for sure.

Well, Powell has said in advance of this job report that he feels that the Fed policy is in a good place to wait and see. He's been very confident about what he's done in a -- in a, you know, difficult environment. But I got to say, if you start seeing oil creeping up further, I mean, analysts are talking about $200 a barrel oil at some point in the next few weeks and months if the stretches on. He's got to be thinking about hiking rates. That would then, of course, affect people's mortgages, their car payments, any kind of debt that they have on the books. And that just adds pressure to an already pressured environment.

One thing I will say, there have been some consumer stress reports looking at, not the official inflation numbers, but just what people pay for food, fuel, kind of the basics that you really can't knock off your balance sheet. Those stress levels are as high as they've been since the Covid period. So, I think people are wary.

BERMAN: All right, well, wariness, looking forward, some good news today. Enjoy that while it lasts.

Rana Foroohar, thank you very much for being with us this morning.

Sara.

SIDNER: You know what I heard? I think she said, I think Sara was right.

BERMAN: That's right. That's right.

SIDNER: Did you -- did you hear that?

BERMAN: Everything after that -- nothing after that mattered.

SIDNER: I didn't hear anything else after that.

BERMAN: I think Sara was right was the headline there.

SIDNER: I was like, wow, this is Good Friday. Miracles happen.

All right, we're getting a brand-new look this morning at video of the moments after golf icon Tiger Woods was involved in a rollover wreck. Who he told police he was talking to moments before he was arrested.

And one of the most exotic purses ever made. A handbag made from dinosaur collagen. OK, people.

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[08:53:47] BOLDUAN: So, one month before trial, a federal judge has now tossed out Blake Lively's sexual harassment claims against co-star, and "It Ends With Us" director, Justin Baldoni. Lively accuses Baldoni of harassment during production and or -- and of orchestrating a retaliatory smear campaign against her. Allegations that he has denied. The judge dismissed now most of this lawsuit, but three claims remain, all against other defendants, not against Baldoni personally. Jury selection is set to begin next month.

And police in Florida, they've now released videos of their interaction with Tiger Woods on the day of his latest DUI arrest. He's first seen kneeling near his SUV. He's heard telling deputies that he looked down at his phone and was changing the radio right before he hit that truck. The video also shows the field sobriety test that deputies say that Tiger Woods failed. Looks like one right there. Listen to this moment also where he says he called the president immediately after the crash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIGER WOODS: Say again?

DEPUTY: I just keep you down here with us please.

WOODS: Yes, I was just talking to the president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN has reached out to the White House to see if President Trump and Tiger Woods actually spoke that day. In the arrest affidavit, the deputies write that Tiger Woods had bloodshot, glassy eyes, was in no condition to drive.

[08:55:05]

They found -- they say they found two pills in his pocket. And you can hear in this video Woods identifying those pills as -- in the video as a narco. The affidavit says they were hydrocodone. Tiger Woods has pleaded not guilty.

So, could a teal-colored handbag made of dinosaur collagen be the next it thing? Scientists are now showcasing this lab-grown leather, and they sure hope it is about to take off. They unveiled it, this handbag, at a Dutch museum. It is made from ancient protein fragments from dinosaur remains that were then inserted into an unidentified animal cell. The result? Collagen turned into so-called t-rex leather. After the exhibit ends, the bag is going up for auction. Bidding will reportedly start at more than half $1 million.

SIDNER: Really, Kate, they use collagen to make that bag?

BOLDUAN: Yes. Yes. I clearly --

SIDNER: Do we want this bag? Do we need this bag in the world? I -- ew.

BOLDUAN: Do you think I understand anything of what I just said?

SIDNER: Ew.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely not.

SIDNER: I don't want --

BOLDUAN: Collagen, protein, all the things. I just know -- yes.

SIDNER: All right, maybe I'll ask the astrophysicist I'm about to talk to you about how this happens. OK.

BOLDUAN: Good idea.

SIDNER: OK. All right, we'll try it.

All right. The Artemis II Orion spacecraft is -- Orion spacecraft is now blazing its way toward the moon. The four astronauts aboard Orion are the first to head into deep space in half a century. They carried out a critical step last night to leave earth's orbit. Orion fired its main engine for about six minutes to provide about 6,000 pounds of thrust, putting it on course to fly around the moon. Commander Reid Wiseman talking about completing that step, which is known as the trans lunar injection burn.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REID WISEMAN, ARTEMIS II COMMANDER: It was pretty tense moments there for a -- for a second. And when we got done with that burn, we just kind of looked at each other as a crew. We have been to the moon before in 1969, 1968 through 1972. It's been a long time since we've been back. And I got to tell you, there is nothing normal about this. Sending four humans 250,000 miles away is a herculean effort. And we are now just realizing the gravity of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Excited voices there.

Joining me now is Adam Frank, professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester and author of the newsletter, "Every Man's Universe."

Love the name of the newsletter. It is so cool.

Look, they're excited. You can hear the excitement in their voices. What excites you about this particular mission?

ADAM FRANK, PROFESSOR OF ASTROPHYSICS, UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER: Yes. Well, first of all, I have no idea about the dinosaur handbag, so I'm going to take a pass on that.

SIDNER: That was going to be my last question.

FRANK: But --

SIDNER: All right. Fine.

FRANK: Right. What's amazing about this is that we're going back. We're going back and we're going back to stay. That's really the thing is that, you know, 50 years ago, there was no reason -- I mean other than curiosity, et cetera, to continue on. But I wish we had. But now, really, we have this burgeoning space economy. We are on our way to mars to find out whether or not mars, you know, has life. So, this is really about our first step for human society, for the human race to really become a spacefaring civilization.

So, you know, going back to the moon is really just a first step for all of us because I always like to say that, you know, our grandkids or great grandkids could easily have jobs in space, living in space.

SIDNER: OK, that just made me flinch because that sounds so cool. I probably won't be around for it or be able to do it, but that sounds amazing. You're talking about the possibility of our lives changing dramatically, in part because of this mission.

I'm curious as to what the difficult maneuvers that exist in front of these four astronauts.

FRANK: OK, well let's just, first of all, talk about that mission or that maneuver they just had. You know, in space, you don't fly, you surf basically. And what you're surfing is gravity. It takes -- the rockets are so big because most of what you have to get into space is your fuel. So, your fuel is so -- it's so valuable that all you do is you turn your rocket on briefly to get yourself onto the right course, and then you turn it back. And the rest of the time you're using gravity to sort of surf it. It's like when a surfer, you know, a wave is coming and they sort of paddle and then they ride the wave to keep going.

So, if they were wrong by even a little bit, if the math, the very complicated math was wrong by even a little bit, they would have gone sailing off into space, never to be seen from again. So, that was actually the most important course adjustment that is happening through almost the entire mission. And that's why you could see, they were so stressed out about it.

SIDNER: I mean, you just said the word gravity and surfing in space.

[08:59:58]

Kind of reminds me, I think "Wicked" fans would be really pleased with you this morning because they are -- they are using gravity, not defying it, right?

FRANK: Right.

SIDNER: Adam Frank, you are wonderful. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.