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Trump Announces Sweeping Tariffs On China, Canada And Mexico; How Americans Feel About Trump's Tariffs; Liquor Industry Braces For Trump's Tariffs On Canada And Mexico; 55 of 67 Victims Identified After Midair Collision In Washington; Trump Imposes Additional Tariff On Chinese Good Starting Tuesday; Some CBS Staff Alarmed By Reports Of Settlement Talks With Trump; "Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story" Airs Tonight. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired February 02, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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


[18:00:28]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

We begin this hour with America's neighbors fighting back against President Trump's aggressive new tariffs. Those tariffs are set to go into effect starting Tuesday kicking in one minute after midnight. The leaders of Mexico and Canada hitting back with tariffs of their own. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling for 25 percent tariffs on most U.S. products, warning there are no winners in a trade war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN TRUDEAU, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: This is a choice that, yes, will harm Canadians. But beyond that, it will have real consequences for you, the American people. If President Trump wants to usher in a new golden age for the United States, the better path is to partner with Canada, not to punish us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Economists broadly agree these tariffs could mean higher prices for Americans on everyday items, like the ones you see here, clothing, food, alcohol, sneakers, toys, and those higher prices could add up to more than $2600 a year, again according to some economists.

President Trump himself, acknowledging that economic reality for the first time, writing on Truth Social, quote, "Will there be some pain? Yes, maybe and maybe not. But we will make America great again and it will all be worth the price that must be paid."

CNN's Alayna Treene joining us now with more details.

Alayna, the president full speed ahead on one of his biggest campaign promises, which was to use tariffs.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's exactly right. And we are expecting these to go into effect on Tuesday morning specifically. 12:01 a.m. Now, there's a couple of things I want to point out here. One is what you mentioned, Jessica, which is of course we are hearing the president directly acknowledging what many economists, lawmakers on Capitol Hill, even some of Donald Trump's own advisers, I would note, in a previous life, not currently, acknowledging and warning really, that this could directly impact American consumers.

Of course, it's unclear when we could start to see some of those higher prices, but one thing that I found very interesting as well is that Donald Trump's officials, the White House officials, did a background call with reporters on Saturday, and they laid out no specific benchmarks for what Canada, Mexico and China could do to try and, you know, find an off-ramp to this. Specifically Canada and Mexico, we know that Donald Trump has repeatedly argued that one of the key things he wants to see change is see these countries stem the flow of migrants and drugs, specifically fentanyl, from coming into the United States.

But again, we have heard nothing from the White House to clarify what specifically levels they need to reach in order to really achieve that. Now, the other thing, of course, is we have heard the president himself say at this point, there are really no concessions he sees and nothing that these countries could do that would have changed their minds.

Now, I do want to mention as well, the retaliatory efforts that we are seeing already from these countries. As you mentioned, Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, levying his own tariffs that will come in two phases, the first beginning on Tuesday as well. But we also heard from Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum over the weekend. She said that she expects to announce more details on Monday about how the country will be responding.

She said they'll be responding with both tariff and non-tariff measures. But she also said this in a statement. She said, quote, "We categorically reject the White House's slander against the Mexican government of having alliances with criminal organizations as well as any intention of intervention in our territory. Sovereignty is not negotiable."

Now, what she said there was clearly referring to what Trump has long been arguing is that Mexico is sending many undocumented immigrants. He's been saying they've been sending criminals and also drugs into this country. It's something that we've seen not only Sheinbaum in Mexico, but also Canada's Justin Trudeau and other officials kind of say as well, that they don't believe some of the things that the president is saying are necessarily true and warrant this kind of reaction from him -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Alayna Treene for us in West Palm Beach, thank you so much for that.

Let's go now to CNN's senior data reporter, Harry Enten, to run the numbers on this.

Hello, Harry.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA CORRESPONDENT: Hello. DEAN: I think one of the big questions around all of this is how

Americans will absorb this tariff, all the tariffs and any price hikes. So how are Americans feeling about this?

ENTEN: Yes. I don't know if you could see me shaking my head here politically. I don't get it.

[18:05:01]

Simply put I don't get it. Because if we take a look here, Trump tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico, the support is 38 percent. Now you don't have to be a mathematical genius to figure out that the 51 percent opposed is higher than the 38 percent support. Americans are saying no, no, no when it comes to these Trump tariffs.

You know, there have been some things that Trump has perhaps done in his early days that are popular. I've pointed those out. But this, my dear friend, is not popular at all. I've looked at a bunch of polling data, some with vague polling language, some with more specifics like this one. And in every single one, the plurality or majority opposed the Trump tariffs. And just this tiny bit right here, 38 percent south of 40 percent, support him -- Jessica.

DEAN: And so why do people appear to be against tariffs? I think I know the answer, but why?

ENTEN: But why? You know, sometimes I like the little layups and then I like to jump through them, right? All right.

DEAN: Right. Yes. We all like to look smart like that. It's fine.

ENTEN: Exactly right. I love to look smart. It makes me look good in front of my mother. Look, tariffs' effect on the U.S. economy. Just 38 percent -- 34 percent say they're good. Get this, 47 percent say bad. How about on yourself, right? Your own economic. Look at this. Just 17 percent say good. 46 percent say bad. So you see very similar numbers on the bad effects that folks believe that the tariffs have on either the U.S. economy or their own pocketbook.

So folks think the tariffs are bad because simply put, they don't believe they work economically. And I think if you asked a lot of economists, they would agree with the American people on this one.

DEAN: And what do Americans think about Trump making this one of his top priorities in his first 100 days?

ENTEN: Yes. OK. So I believe the Trump term number two began just 13 days ago. All right. So Trump should focus on tariffs in his first 100 days. Now Reuters-IPSOS asked this question twice. When they asked it back in November of 2024, it was 1 percent. Look at that. It doubled all the way to 2 percent in December of 2024, when just 1 percent or 2 percent of Americans believe that you should be focusing, prioritizing an issue.

Simply put, they want him focusing on the economy at large. They want him focusing on immigration. They don't want him focusing on tariffs. Look, Donald Trump did lay out his position on tariffs going in his election. But folks elected Donald Trump for different reasons, not for tariffs. They simply put don't want him prioritizing it. And simply put, do not like his issue positions on it.

DEAN: And, you know, in his mind, the way he explains it, it helps with his top priority of immigration. He also believes that ultimately it makes America more prosperous. Of course, the question, the devils in the details. We're going to have to see if that is actually what happens, but will Americans ultimately care? I mean, Trump has famously done a lot of things that are pretty unpopular, and Americans, you know, elected him back to office.

ENTEN: Yes, I think this is the big question. And the honest to God truth is, I don't know. But take a look at weekly Google searches for tariffs. Get this. They're up 2400 percent versus a year ago. They've reached a 21-year high. There have been more searches for tariffs this week than for Taylor Swift. So when you're getting more people searching for tariffs than you are for anything related to Taylor Swift, you know the American people are paying attention and the fact that they don't like it and they're paying a lot of attention and they're searching for it, to me suggests that this is a political loser.

The question will be whether or not folks penalize Trump for it, but they ain't going to reward him for it. Much better chance they penalize than reward him.

DEAN: It will be interesting to see.

Harry Enten with the numbers for us as always. Thank you, Harry.

ENTEN: Thank you.

DEAN: And one of the many industries concerned about these tariffs is the liquor industry. For starters, at least five Canadian provinces say they will be removing all American alcohol from their shelves. The U.S. Distilled Spirits Council saying the tariffs, quote, "will significantly harm all three countries and lead to a cycle of retaliatory tariffs that negatively impacts our shared industry."

And joining us now is the president and CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, Chris Swonger.

Chris, thank you so much for being here with us. We really appreciate it. And look, people may -- they might be driven to drink by tariffs and higher prices. But this is not -- this is not good for your industry, you say.

CHRIS SWONGER, PRESIDENT AND CEO, U.S. DISTILLED SPIRITS COUNCIL: Well, I can say this that the U.S. distilled spirits industry and let's include the Mexican tequila industry for that matter and the Canadian distilled spirits industry has always thrived between the three markets because no trade barriers and no tariffs. So we are concerned.

The distinctive nature of distilled spirits products we would make the argument that distilled spirits products shouldn't even be involved in this because you can only make Canadian whiskey in Canada and only American whiskey in the United States. And of course, tequila in the Jalisco region of Mexico. So the impact on the hospitality industry in all three markets, the U.S. market as well, would be significant.

[18:10:06]

The agriculture community, bars and restaurants and bartenders, and the industry hasn't fully recovered, really, from the pandemic. And we're being challenged as we speak because of inflation challenges and so forth.

DEAN: And so help give people some context around how this tariff situation compares to any prior trade disputes that you all have been a part of.

SWONGER: Well, I can tell you, look, first and foremost, we recognize President Trump is focused on pretty significant issues on behalf of the country. The fentanyl crisis is a real one, and he is trying to address that, and border security, reducing the U.S. trade deficit. So we recognize that and appreciate that. Unfortunately, our industry has been embroiled in a tit-for-tat tariffs since June 2018, when the European Union imposed a tariff over a trade dispute related to the steel and aluminum case, where then President Trump certainly tried to create more aluminum and steel production in the United States.

So our industry hopefully will navigate this storm. But there's a lot of anxiety. What some of the provinces have decided to do, they've announced that they're going to pull American distilled spirits off the shelves in Canada. Canada is a big customer. But let me share a great American success story that not too many people know. 20 years ago, there were about 60 distilleries in the United States, and today there's over 3,000.

DEAN: Wow.

SWONGER: Many of them small mom-and-pop distilleries. And they look at markets like Canada and Mexico and the European Union to export those terrific products. They're sprinkled in communities all around the country. And please go visit one. But we want to keep that great American success story going. And, you know, we live in divisive times, no doubt.

And folks, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat, you have a cocktail together, obviously in moderation and responsibly. It can bring our governments together and it can bring and keep this industry growing and thriving, and living a life of conviviality, which is important.

DEAN: And you mentioned some of the mom and pop shops. I think sometimes when people think the businesses or the industries that might be harmed in this are big corporations or something like that. But you're saying some of these are smaller distilleries that are all, I believe, all across America.

SWONGER: Absolutely. 3,000 in total. Just think about it. 20 years ago, 60 distilleries, and now there's over 3,000. So we want to keep that going. And look, there's no -- there's no light between the Canadian distilled spirits industry, the American distilled spirits industry, and the Mexican, the tequila and mezcal industry as well. We all work together. We work together to knock down trade barriers and any time there's zero for zero tariffs our industry has benefited greatly.

Recognizing that we're going to work hard to call on all three governments to work together and find common ground and get this issue resolved as soon as possible.

DEAN: And then I also just want to ask you, what are you telling your members? Because I would assume they're asking you a lot of questions.

SWONGER: We're working together as one industry, and we're going to do our best to try to convince all three governments to find common ground. Obviously, this is going to have a real impact on our industry. It's going to have an even more significant impact on Canada and in Mexico as well, because American consumers love Canadian whiskey, obviously, and American consumers, just over the last 10, 15 years have really gravitated to tequila as well for your margarita and so forth.

And of course, American whiskey has enjoyed terrific growth all around the world. So we want to keep this great industry across borders thriving and look forward to working with the Trump administration, President Trump and his team. The U.S. is open for business. There is no doubt, and countries that can work transactionally with the new administration, I think, can resolve a lot of big outstanding issues. And we're going to do all we can to spread the word and protect our industry as best we can.

DEAN: All right. Chris Swonger, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.

SWONGER: Thank you.

DEAN: Still ahead, 12 victims still unaccounted for after the deadly midair collision near Reagan National Airport just outside Washington, D.C. What we're learning about the recovery and the salvage operation there. Plus, new details on the victims of the medevac plane crash in Philadelphia. We'll have all that for you.

[18:15:00]

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: Recovery efforts are underway at this hour in the Potomac River following the deadly midair collision earlier this week just outside Washington, D.C. The remains of 55 victims have been pulled from the river and identified. That leaves a dozen that still need to be recovered. Many questions remain as to what led to the crash between that American Airlines passenger jet and a Black Hawk helicopter.

[18:20:03]

Here's what Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CNN's Jake Tapper this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: What was happening inside the tower? Were they understaffed? Was it a right decision to consolidate the positions of the air traffic controllers from two to one? Those are questions that we need answers to. And the position of the Black Hawk, the elevation of the Black Hawk. Why are they flying at 9:00 at night when DCA is so busy? They should be flying at 1:00 in the morning. That's information we don't have yet. But when we get those answers, we can make decisions to make sure fliers are safe in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Gabe Cohen is joining us now from Reagan National Airport.

And, Gabe, I know you've been there today tracking all of these developments. We heard from those officials this evening more on this recovery operation. What did they say?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jess, one of the big details you mentioned from that briefing is that response crews have now recovered and identified 55 of those crash victims, which means 12 people are still missing in the Potomac River. And so at first light on Monday, a crew, salvage crews are going to begin a lift operation. They have brought in heavy equipment. That includes that barge crane that we have seen at the site today, and they are going to start removing the wreckage from the water, hoping that it is going to help them find those 12 missing people.

But this is going to be a heavy lift in more ways than one. It could take days. And I asked DC's fire chief who is leading this operation what he is expecting as they get underway.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: How confident are you that your team knows where those additional 12 victims are in the water, and that you will be able to recover everyone who died in the crash?

CHIEF JOHN DONNELLY, WASHINGTON, D.C. FIRE AND EMS: So it is my belief they were going to recover everyone. If we knew where they were, we would we would already have them out. So we have some work to do as this salvage operation goes on and we will absolutely stay here and search until such point as we have everybody.

We believe we're going to be able to recover all of the victims. But no, we don't know where they all are at this point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: And Jess, such a big part of why they want to recover each and every victim who died in this crash is for their family members. I want to show you this powerful moment that we witnessed Sunday morning as those response teams actually brought loved ones, family members of the crash victims out to the end of Runway 33 here at Reagan National Airport, out to the water, where they laid a wreath into the Potomac River and spent some time at the wreckage site.

And the images there just really speak to the scale of loss that we are talking about as part of this tragedy. So many family members who are grieving right now who are searching for answers, as so many of us are as well, that investigation, of course, just getting underway -- Jess.

DEAN: You just ache for all of those people.

Gabe Cohen at DCA, thank you so much for that reporting.

We are also learning new details tonight about the victims of the deadly plane crash in northeast Philadelphia. That one happened Friday night. All six people on board the medevac jet, which crashed less than a minute after taking off, were citizens of Mexico. The plane was carrying a pediatric patient and her mother, as well as a doctor, a paramedic and two pilots. We know one person on the ground was also killed.

Philadelphia's mayor today revising the number of people injured when the jet came down in a densely populated neighborhood.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR CHERELLE PARKER (D), PHILADELPHIA: That number has now increased to 22. Five of the victims remain hospitalized currently and three of them are in critical condition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Officials still searching the wreckage for the aircraft's flight data recorder in hopes it can provide some answers as to what caused that crash.

Joining us now is CNN aviation analyst Miles O'Brien.

Miles, thank you so much for being here with us. Let's go back to that crash in Washington and start there. When you look at what happened and the information that we are slowly getting, again, this investigation likely to take up to a year to really get at the heart of exactly what happened. But what would be your takeaways at this early stage?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, Jessica, it will take a year before that final report has all the I's dotted and T's crossed. But I think it's significant and it may not have been stressed enough that that helicopter corridor has been shut down. And so the immediate response, in a sense, has already happened. That was fundamentally flawed airspace and an accident waiting to happen.

And there were many, many near-misses, near collisions over the years involving airliners approaching Reagan National Airport and helicopters along that low level route. So the fact that that's been shut down is a good sign.

There are two places where the investigation will focus, inside the cockpit of the Black Hawk helicopter.

[18:25:05]

Were they fixated and focused on another aircraft, or for that matter, another set of lights on the ground and not seeing the aircraft which they collided with? Clearly they didn't see it. Were they distracted by some aspect of the training mission that they were doing?

The second area of focus will be the control tower. Were the controllers -- was the controller who was doing a double taking care of both the helicopters as well as the arriving airliners? Was he too spread thin to do his job properly? As we listen to the air traffic control tapes, there was a little bit of a muddled communication between the control tower and the Black Hawk helicopter. It's unclear, and some of the language was nonstandard, so it's really unclear what the helicopter knew, when it knew it, and when the notification went out.

So those would be the two areas that they will focus on marching forward. But at least that corridor has been shut down.

DEAN: And we also today, we're looking at images of the crane there in the water. We know that they announced today that tomorrow morning they're going to start to pull out the fuselage and other bits from the water. They are still looking for a number of bodies to try to recover those as well, but just I was really struck by the care that those officials were talking about, just with the care they're taking for that site, for these families who are going through unimaginable grief, and also the first responders in all of this.

O'BRIEN: Yes. You know, I don't know how to express my admiration for the individuals that do this grim work. And it's so -- such a tender and difficult time for people who have suddenly lost loved ones. And over the years, the NTSB and organizations have become better at being attuned to the needs of the families. There were some accidents where they were not well-informed, and it was unfortunate. And that lesson has been learned.

You know, it is a watery grave. And it is appropriate that they are taking actions in the way they are with great respect for where they are and for how important this is to people who've lost loved ones. I -- it's positively heroic work.

DEAN: Yes, it certainly is. Miles O'Brien, thank you so much. I'm sure more to come on these investigations, but we certainly appreciate your analysis. Thank you.

O'BRIEN: You're welcome.

DEAN: Still ahead, tonight, a special episode of "THE WHOLE STORY." Anderson Cooper has a deeper look into the safety of our skies. Again that's next hour. It's going to air at 7:00 p.m. right here on CNN.

Still ahead, could Trump's tariffs turn out to be good for China? What might happen if U.S. allies have to rely on a different trading partner?

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:32:30]

DEAN: "The Wall Street Journal's" editorial board doubling down on its criticism of President Trump's tariffs. Its opinion and headline tonight, "The Dumbest Trade War Fallout Begins." And one big question around this is whether Mexico and Canada might end up strengthening their trade ties with China.

Our Marc Stewart is in Beijing.

Marc, could this ultimately end up helping China when it's supposed to be punishing them?

MARC STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That is certainly a possibility, Jessica. I mean, I think if we look at this tariff issue, this is something that China was expecting. But it's also been working behind the scenes, expanding where it exports its products. Not so heavily focused on the U.S. In recent months we have seen China really beef up exports to places in Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa, even Russia.

And it also fits in line to its bigger ambitions of being a leader of new world order. So in a sense that could help China. As far as, you know, what it's going to do with this U.S. situation, would it retaliate with more tariffs? It's a possibility but right now China is dealing with so many economic struggles of its own. As someone who lives here, I can tell you that the economy is shaky. People are afraid to spend money.

It's dealing with the housing crisis as well as trade tension right now with Europe. The one thing China has to its advantage that certainly the United States knows, but also the rest of the world, is its factory system. China has such large capacity. I have been to these factories. They are huge. They are sprawling, and they're also very flexible. So when Americans want everyday products, whether about clothing, electronics, furniture, China can deliver.

America sees value in that. And China is also hoping the rest of the world will see value in that as well -- Jessica.

DEAN: And President Trump has blamed China's failure to stop the flow of fentanyl into the U.S., in part for these tariffs. What has Beijing's response been to those allegations that it hasn't done enough?

STEWART: Right. This has been an ongoing issue. In fact toward the end of the Biden administration, I remember we had a group of senators come to China. They actually met face to face with Xi Jinping and talked about this fentanyl issue before. China is saying it is offering its support.

[18:35:01]

It's been doing what it can do. But the response over the weekend from Beijing, quote, "It's America's problem." And that's where Beijing stands right now.

DEAN: That is so interesting and certainly not what President Trump is certainly going to want to hear. We know that.

It's worth noting there are already tariffs on some Chinese products. The tariff that President Trump is putting into effect on Tuesday is 10 percent, while the others for Mexico and Canada are 25 percent, save for Canadian oil. How does Beijing interpret that number?

STEWART: Well, Beijing already, as you mentioned, is facing very high tariffs from the United States on a long list of products. So this 10 percent is an additional supplement. We have not heard a response from Beijing directly to that question, but it is clear that China and Xi Jinping are trying to maintain some dialog despite all of this, as much as President Trump wants to be a disrupter, he does realize that there is value in China from a manufacturing standpoint, also from perhaps a stability standpoint.

And as we have seen in recent weeks, a lot of diplomatic speak between these two nations, in fact, when the TikTok decision came down, we know that President Xi and President Trump had a conversation. So they want to maintain a dialog. So this is perhaps, as many have seen or viewed these additional tariffs to be a point of negotiation, it's just not clear how kindly Beijing is going to respond to all of this.

DEAN: Yes. Well, more to come. Marc Stewart in Beijing, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

Still ahead, reports say CBS is in talks to settle with Trump on a lawsuit over the "60 Minutes" Kamala Harris interview. We're going to be joined by CNN's chief media analyst, Brian Stelter, to talk about what this could mean for media covering the president.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:41:48]

DEAN: Some CBS staffers are alarmed by reports of settlement talks with President Trump over a "60 Minutes" interview with Kamala Harris. Trump sued CBS after the October interview included an edit that Trump said was unfairly favorable to Harris.

CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter is joining us now.

And, Brian, one CBS correspondent that you quote in your reporting says Trump's lawsuit was a joke but if we settle, we become a laughingstock. What's going on over there?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Right. A cynic would say, this is just the price of doing business in the Trump era. And a cynic might be right. The Trump administration has to review and approve Paramount's pending merger, and CBS executives believe that Trump, the Trump administration is going to make the company's life miserable until this lawsuit is made to go away.

Now, Trump's lawsuit against "60 Minutes" was and is frivolous. There's no evidence CBS doctored any segment. It was just doing basic editing. So CBS would have a very strong case in court. But if they choose not to go to court, if they choose to settle, and our reporting indicates they are trying to settle, this has the appearance of payoff, meaning CBS would be paying off Trump in order to win his favor and win government approval of the merger. That's why CBS news staffers are so concerned.

DEAN: Yes, and an admission of guilt in a way. Right? When, as you note, they didn't really do anything here.

STELTER: Right. That is exactly the concern. Now, CBS and Paramount are not commenting. Neither is the Trump lawyer handling this case. But it seems clear to me CBS is trying to play nice, play -- curry favor with the president to win this deal.

DEAN: OK. I also want to ask you about something else, which is the Pentagon announcing what it's calling a new media rotation program. And what that means is they are reassigning office spaces, clearing out some media organizations to make room for different ones who happen to be a lot of pro-Trump organizations. Walk us through this.

STELTER: Thats right. NPR losing its office space this year. Breitbart being brought in. This is another example of the pressure campaign that's under way. It's related to the Paramount story. Journalists at the news outlets that are being evicted at the Pentagon, they're left wondering if they were chosen to be kicked out because of their tough critical coverage of Pete Hegseth before Hegseth was sworn in as Defense secretary.

Now, the Pentagon hasn't said how it chose these news outlets to be rotated out of the office space this year. But the change is obvious. It's replacing a big network like NBC with a small pro-Trump propaganda outfit like One America News. It is what it looks like, and it's all related, Jess. Removing news outlets from the Pentagon, the FCC investigating NPR and PBS. This probe against CBS as well.

The government deleting Web sites full of valuable data. The White House deriding real news stories as hoaxes. Trump saying a news channel he doesn't like shouldn't be allowed to broadcast. It's all of a piece. It's all related. It's all about telling the public to only trust Trump and tune out everything else. In Trump's first term in office, that effort failed. Will it work this time? Well, we're only in week two.

DEAN: We're only in week two, and look, Brian, you did such a good reminder to all of us. Like put the pieces together because none of these things are happening in a vacuum, right? It's all happening together. And that's where we can kind of get a better picture of what's happening.

[18:45:02]

All right. Brian Stelter, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

STELTER: Thanks.

DEAN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: "SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY" chronicles the personal and professional life of actor Christopher Reeve before and after the horseback riding accident that left him paralyzed from the neck down. The film shows a man who refused to be defined by his physicality, and proved you don't need a cape to be a superhero. Here's a preview.

[18:50:10]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER REEVE, ACTOR: When the first "Superman" movie came out, the most frequently asked question was, what is a hero? My answer was that a hero is someone who commits a courageous action without considering the consequences.

Now my definition is completely different. I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: And joining us now to discuss is Christopher Reeve's daughter, Alexandra Reeve Givens.

Thank you so much for being here with us. You know, this film is such an incredible look at your dad, who was just an extraordinary man and made such a difference for so many people with his legacy. What was it like for you seeing this film and just watching it come together?

ALEXANDRA REEVE GIVENS, DAUGHTER OF CHRISTOPHER REEVE: The whole thing has just been an amazing experience. This started as an independent film, an archivist reached out to us and said, your dad had a pretty interesting life. Do you have any home movies you could share? And they found directors, found producers, and now, you know, being seen around the world, shown on CNN tonight, having people connect with his story. It's a really beautiful thing.

DEAN: And what do you want people -- there's so much that -- to your point, your dad had a fascinating life and there's so much to take away. What do you want people to know about your dad? What do you hope they learn when they watch this?

REEVE GIVENS: You know, one of the things I think about is that his life was pretty unique. But the themes in this film are really universal. What is it to experience hardship in your life and to persevere? What is it to be there for your friends, to continue connecting as a family even when you have to find entirely new ways to do it? In the months since this film has come out, we've been hearing from people all around the world about the fact that they're seeing themselves and their own relationship in this story, and that makes it incredibly powerful, because it's about a lot more than just him.

It's about what it is to go through the human experience and to find connection with other people in the world.

DEAN: Yes. So often I've heard the more personal it is, the more universal it is, because there is just like that commonality of just being human like you're talking about. And you can relate to that. Even if you weren't Superman, right? And so that that is, I totally can understand what you're saying. And as people are watching this, they're seeing someone they don't know and a story they -- but a story that they can identify with.

This was obviously your father, and you're talking about childhood videos and old photos, probably maybe videos and photos from before you were around. What has that been like to kind of get a refresher on all of that?

REEVE GIVENS: It's been such a gift to go back. I mean, there are beautiful stories, obviously, about my dad and surviving his accident and the strength that he showed thereafter. But there's also just really fun footage of him when he was auditioning for "Superman." The skinny kid, he has huge sweatpants like sweat stains under his armpits. Jeff Daniels tells this wonderful story about kind of hearing that his friend had made it and been selected for this film.

And going back and just imagining what that time period was like, and then, of course, all of the adventures and highs and lows that came thereafter, reliving it and seeing some fun video of my siblings as well has been great.

DEAN: Yes. And you mentioned some of his friends, too. I know he had a special connection with the late Robin Williams. What -- tell us more about their friendship.

REEVE GIVENS: They were classmates at Julliard. So in their early 20s, far before anybody knew who they were, and together they rode this rocket ship to stardom. And they remained lifelong friends. And the film really shows what that was like. And what I love about it is it spends time really exploring what it is to be a friend, to show up for someone, even when you're not connecting and partying in the ways that you were before, to just be steadfast and loyal.

And Robin and his wife Marsha and his family were that for our entire lives. And, you know, his kids and Marsha still remain that for us today. And so seeing that kind of human side of it again is a lovely thing to be sharing with people.

DEAN: Yes. And you sit on the board of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. So you are continuing your father's advocacy, your mother's advocacy through the work at the foundation. Tell us more about that.

REEVE GIVENS: The Reeve Foundation is going from strength to strength today and really is carried on by so many people living with spinal cord injury and paralysis. We run the nation's paralysis resource center. So for anyone who is living with a spinal cord injury or other form of paralysis, this is the place you call for help getting back home, navigating insurance, returning to work and then investing, continuing to invest in this fine art of medical research, which is continuing to see incredible breakthroughs even today.

DEAN: It is incredible.

Alexandra Reeve Givens, thanks so much for being here. We really appreciate it.

REEVE GIVENS: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: And be sure to tune in tonight, the Bafta nominated documentary "SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY" airs tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific right here on CNN.

[18:55:06]

I want to thank you so much for joining me this evening. I'm Jessica Dean. I'm going to see you again next weekend. "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER," "Flight Risk" is up next. Have a great night, everyone.

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