Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

E.U. Leaders Gather For Special Summit On Ukraine & Defense; Trump Pauses Canada, Mexico Auto Tariffs For One Month; Musk Meets With Republicans To Discuss Government Cuts; East, Central U.S. Slammed By Strong Winds, Blizzards, Tornados; Fifteen Injured After Air Force Drops Bombs On Civilian Area. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 06, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:31]

(BEGN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The situation that we find ourselves in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think this will hurt. If it's too high, they're not going to want to deal with us, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They have turned their back on our community.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't believe in DEI. So I don't believe in giving you money.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do not shop at Target. We are boycotting them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let these other corporations know we are going to respond.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just a lot of snow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Totally got stuck by the snow. And I'm trying to remove snow, so it's kind of ironic, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. And a warm welcome to our viewers joining us from the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Rahel Solomon. It is Thursday, March 6th, 5:00 a.m. exactly here in New York, 11:00 a.m. in Brussels.

That's where European leaders will soon kick off a key summit aimed at strengthening defenses across Europe and boosting support for Ukraine. The meeting comes at a crucial time as the new Trump administration in the U.S. has paused critical support for Ukraine and also made it abundantly clear that Europe needs to invest more in its own defense.

French President Emmanuel Macron even warning that Europe may need to be prepared to go it alone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): I would like to believe that the United States will stay by our side, but we have to be ready if this isn't the case. Whether peace for Ukraine is acquired rapidly or not, European countries need to take into account the Russian threat I have described and have to get better at defending themselves and dissuading all new aggressions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: And we are also learning that the U.S. did not just pause military aid to Ukraine, but also crucial intelligence sharing.

Following Friday's explosive Oval Office meeting between the U.S. and Ukrainian president, the Trump administration appears to have ordered at least a partial halt to the intelligence that the U.S. shares with Kyiv to defend against the Russian invasion. Now, the extent of those limitations is not clear, but U.S. officials suggest that the pause could be short lived if president Trump is satisfied that Ukraine is taking steps toward negotiations to end the war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN RATCLIFFE, CIA DIRECTOR: President Trump said as he asked for a pause. In this case, as -- as everyone saw play out, President Trump had a real question about whether President Zelenskyy was committed to the peace process. And he said, lets pause. I want to give you a chance to think about that.

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): I can't say I was entirely surprised. Obviously, we've seen the way that the president thinks about Ukraine and Russia. And then we saw the weapons pause. And so I'm not surprised by it. I am a little disappointed that many of us in the oversight committees, you know, learned about it, you know, about a millisecond before it happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Now, this pause could have dire consequences on the battlefield. The U.S. has provided extensive information on Russian troop movements and intercepted communications about their military plans since the early days of the war, and officials say that that has been critical to Ukraine's ability to fight back.

Let's get to CNN's Nic Robertson, who is in Brussels and joins us now with the latest.

Nic, give us a sense of what we can expect at this summit today.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, it's all these security gaps that you're talking about there that are driving concern here at this E.U. emergency leaders summit, not just about how they're going to support the Ukraine in the longer term. They're putting money, they're putting weapons in today as we speak.

But this is a longer term plan. But it also -- this is really the way European leaders here meet. It is meeting are. And considering the situation is not just about Ukraine, it's about themselves. It's about recognizing that they in the future could be the ones that are not getting the intelligence sharing that are not being supported by the United States as they've traditionally relied on.

And that's why they need to spend more on defense. And that was the message we heard from president macron, explaining that the French people last night and Keir Starmer explaining it to the British over the weekend. So this meeting here, the 27 leaders will be showing up here very, very shortly is about how they get the money to make these massive, massive, serious increases in defense spending.

And we've heard both from Starmer and from Macron explaining this for domestic audiences, this can be a bumpy process. This will mean losing in some areas to spend more on defense. But the European Union, writ large can get access to big money.

And what they're talking about here is as much as 800 billion spent to uplift defense spending, 150 billion of that could come in loans.

[05:05:02]

That's the sort of proposal here, 650 billion of it could come in individual national governments deciding to spend more of their GDP on defense, up to 1.5 percent more of their GDP.

To do that inside of Europe, with some of the sort of financial budgetary constraints and restraints that the European Union have amongst its nations, so they work together and everyone sort of on lock step on the same page. That means they need to relax some of those restrictions. So -- to allow the countries to spend more on defense.

These are the ideas that will be on the table. But this is not about saying yes, we spend 800 billion on defense. This will actually be about, well, how do we raise the money and deciding to allow the European Commission here? Because this is a meeting of the council and the leaders of countries, the European Commission, to go ahead and work out the details of how to get that money.

And then only after that do you actually get to the nuts and bolts of what you spend it on, how you spend it, where you put the factories, the additional factories to make the additional equipment? So, all of that yet to come. So this absolutely important. But I think as we were speaking about earlier, it highlights, you know, the White House can make decisions at speed. The E.U., it just institutionally takes longer.

Right now, they're working really fast, third summit effectively in in about 12 days. They're working fast. But it's not as fast as the White House moves.

SOLOMON: Yeah. And, Nic, as you -- as you talk about the goal of the E.U. sort of moving in lockstep, moving unified, explain for us some of the divisions that that exist. I mean, there are nations like most notably Hungary, but Slovakia as well. I mean, how much could those divisions really impact the overall E.U.'s efforts? ROBERTSON: Yeah. So you have Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime

minister, a known supporter of Putin, a known non-advocate, a known sort of if you were grit in the machine of the European Union, diplomacy and spending to support Ukraine, he doesn't want to do it.

Robert Fico of Slovakia as well, you're mentioning both these leaders are primarily opposed to supporting Ukraine, and they primarily support Putin. They will likely today be voices of dissent in the room amongst those other leaders. Now, Orban perhaps has the bigger clout. Fico relies more on European financial support in other areas, perhaps more malleable.

But this is where some of the sort of the difficulty comes in the details of how you manage this. Now, the 150 billion in loans that that can be done at sort of high speed, big loans from big banks because the E.U. works together and it will -- it will arrive at that decision through a sort of a get out clause, what they call Article 122 here in the European Union, which allows them to sort of access this financing without having full consent of every European Union leader.

But, you know, trying to get Hungry, for example, to spend more on defense to support Ukraine, that's a big ask. And I don't think anyone here will be holding their breath that that's about to happen.

SOLOMON: Yeah. Fair enough, certainly a tall order. Nic Robertson live for us in Brussels, thank you.

And we should say that we also expect to see the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at that summit. If that happens within the next hour or so, we will bring that to you live at home.

Now to the tariff war threatening to bring higher prices and an economic recession across North America. Donald Trump has decided on a one month pause on auto tariffs on Canada and Mexico. U.S. President saying that he wants to protect the big three U.S. automakers from financial harm.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF U.S. NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: President Donald Trump often talks about imposing tariffs, and he's often talked out of actually going through with them. That is exactly what happened at the White House on Wednesday, at least for the big three automakers who have been tremendously concerned about the unfair competitive advantage. They said that they would be at with these new tariffs to Canada and Mexico.

Ever since the U.S., Mexican, Canadian trade agreement was passed during the first Trump administration, there has been effectively free trade flowing from Mexico to the United States to Canada, which has benefited the automotive industry, which, of course, have suppliers in all three countries. Well, giving a reprieve for the -- the tariffs for one month at least offers some relief, but raises questions about what is to come.

The market of course, all week long the financial markets have been a key concern at the White House, the White House press secretary said this about the markets.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: For folks on Wall Street who may be concerned, look at what this president did for you in his first term. Wall Street boomed, the stock market boomed. The president expects that to happen again. But most importantly, Main Street is going to boom.

And that's why the president has this whole of government economic approach, which includes tax cuts, tariffs, regulation cuts and an energy industry that will bring down costs for American consumers.

[05:10:04]

ZELENY: Now, Leavitt said the white house is open to additional carve-outs as well. They did not give any specifics on that. But could that be bourbon? Could it be syrup? Could it be gasoline? Other things?

The other tariffs are still scheduled to go into effect on April 2nd. Those are the broader reciprocal tariffs. Now all of this is coming as the Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is trying to urge the White House to back off of those broader tariffs. The president of the United States said he is signing them to protect the U.S. from a fentanyl.

Of course, Canada is responsible for very little of the fentanyl that actually comes into the United States. More of that, of course, comes from Mexico.

Topping all of this, the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is scheduled to speak with President Trump on Thursday. Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: And we're also now getting a clearer picture of how Americans feel about the Trump tariffs and the U.S. economy. A CBS/YouGov survey finds that 64 percent of respondents say that they oppose U.S. tariffs on Canada, 80 percent think that President Trump should focus on inflation.

Meanwhile, a Yale lab survey finds that the annual cost of tariffs to the median household would be about $1,300. That's a 1.5 percent cut to the share of spendable income. Now, when it comes to specific products, the Yale survey found that computers would be about 11 percent more expensive, natural gas about 5 percent, and white rice 4 percent more expensive.

And just a reminder now of what the candidate, Donald Trump, said while he was campaigning for president, his main promise to the American people. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again, to bring down the prices of all goods.

Starting on day one of my new administration, we will end inflation and we will make America affordable again because the prices are too high.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Now, Labor Department statistics show that inflation so far this year is running at an annual 3 percent. That is down from a near 40 year high in 2021, during the COVID pandemic, that was closer to about 9 percent, but it is up slightly from the final year of Joe Biden's presidency.

Now, Republican lawmakers are privately pushing Elon Musk for control over sweeping cuts to the federal workforce and government spending. The world's richest man met with congressional Republicans behind closed doors on Capitol Hill Wednesday. One Republican said that Musk acknowledged making some mistakes while carrying out the Trump administrations efforts to shrink the federal government. But another lawmaker said that Musk blamed the widespread firings on federal department heads.

Overall, though, it appears that Republicans support his efforts.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DUSTY JOHNSON, U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN: He has adopted, I think, the Silicon Valley motto of move quickly and break things. Some of these things needed to be broken. Clearly, there are some things -- nobody bats a thousand.

And so I think what thoughtful people need to come together to do is figure out, all right, where do we miss the mark? How do we come back around? And how do we rebuild what really needs to be rebuilt? I'm not --

LINDSEY GRAHAM, U.S. SENATE REPUBLICAN: He won the room. He actually gave out his number. We need a system where if you see something that you think is not what it was intended, who do you call and how do you fix it? And he said, when I -- I want to fix it quickly. So what he said, I want to keep the momentum.

But from a political point of view, we need to take the work product of DOGE and put it in a rescission package.

RON JOHNSON, U.S. SENATE REPUBLICAN: Elon is very up front. He said, they're moving fast. It's not going to be perfect. There will be mistakes made, but well correct those mistakes very quickly.

TIM BURCHETT, U.S. HOUSE REPUBLICAN: It's very encouraging of the things that he's -- he's disclosing and -- and where he's headed with this, because they haven't even really cracked the nut. ELON MUSK, TECH BILLIONAIRE: There's a lot of room -- a lot of

opportunities to improve expenditures in the government and they're making good progress there.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Should Congress have a vote on this? Should Congress have a vote on this?

MUSK: Well, they do have a vote on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: House Speaker Mike Johnson says that they discussed the legislative package that would codify the cuts. Musk joking with reporters about giving out his number to Republican lawmakers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Elon, can we get your cell phone number if you're giving it out?

MUSK: Yeah. Yes, something 88008.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: All right. Let's bring in CNN political analyst Laura Barron-Lopez. She is the White House correspondent for "PBS NewsHour". She is with us this morning from Washington.

Laura, always great to have you.

I just want to circle back to the tariffs of it all. I mean, I think a lot of people waking up this morning, perhaps breathing a sigh of relief. What more can you share with us, sort of about how the president came to -- to have this decision? We know it obviously followed the call with the big three automakers, but were also seeing this polling about how Americans feel about it. We've obviously seen Wall Street this week.

I mean, what more can you share with us about how we got here?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, ultimately, like you said, Rachel, there was a lot of pressure and incoming on the White House from the automakers.

[05:15:05]

And so I think that you've seen in the past where the president has at some times threatened things, including tariffs. And then after having conversations, after feeling some pressure and from the automakers, you know, them saying that this would hurt them be a disadvantage. It would raise the cost of car parts, which would be passed on to the consumer. And that ultimately the president came to the decision that he wanted to pause these.

Now, the question is, does he do this across more of these threatened tariffs? Because right now, all indications, whether you talk to conservative or liberal economists, is that the longer these tariffs are in effect, the more pain that the consumer will feel.

And the other things that have obviously will go up for them are the cost of different types of food, whether its vegetables or fruits, the cost of appliances and electronics.

And so this is not necessarily something that the average American voter, especially voters who supported Trump, want to see in effect.

SOLOMON: Yeah. And we know that in the past, Trump has seen a lot of value in tariffs. Laura, I'm curious if this sort of pause yet again, sort of undermines the credibility of the administration when it comes to tariffs as a -- as a geo sort of political tool if we have this history of threatening tariffs, pausing tariffs, threatening tariffs, pausing tariffs,

I mean, what do you think?

BARRON-LOPEZ: Well, it's certainly not an effective way potentially to treat American allies. Um, and, you know, the president has given a variety of so-called justifications, you know, reasons for why he wants to impose these tariffs. It's not necessarily been just one thing. Yes. The White House in recent days has said it's because of the flow of fentanyl, which, as Jeff Zeleny noted, the flow of fentanyl from Canada is less than 1 percent, in total.

And so, yes, Mexico is responsible for much more of the flow of fentanyl, but that Mexico has taken steps to try to curb that, whether it's cracking down on cartels or other things. And so that's one reason that the White House has given. President Trump has also at times said that if Canada were to become the 51st state, then no tariffs.

He has given a variety of other reasons for why he may want to impose these or not impose these. And it's something that you're seeing our allies to the north and south are not taking kindly to.

SOLOMON: Yeah. Laura, any sense of how closely the administration may be watching the performance on Wall Street? We know in his last term, Trump did follow the markets quite closely. Obviously, he is a businessman, but followed it quite closely when he was in office as perhaps an indicator of how investors were responding to his moves.

Obviously, it has been a rough week for the markets. Do we know if that is factoring into the presidents decision making this time around?

BARRON-LOPEZ: I think it's definitely factoring into the president's decision making. The president is known, as you said, to be someone who follows the markets in the past. He has said that if, when, when his predecessor was in office or when the opposing party was in office, that if the stock market remained low for too long, then -- then that sitting president should be impeached.

So we saw in the immediate aftermath of these tariffs of him saying that these tariffs were going to take effect, that that stock market took a hit and that something that the White House is watching closely.

SOLOMON: Yeah. It's also been interesting to sort of hear some of the remarks from his commerce secretary, which have really been the driver of some of the news on tariffs this week. And you've seen the markets react to that. Its created a lot of uncertainty in terms of, you know what were listening to, who were listening to and who -- who is ultimately to be believed at any given moment.

Laura Barron-Lopez, we appreciate your time this morning. Thank you.

BARRON-LOPEZ: Thank you.

SOLOMON: And more severe weather in the Eastern and Central U.S., where powerful storms have killed at least five people this week. High winds, blizzards and tornadoes have left a trail of destruction. More than a foot of snow fell in parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota with dangerous driving conditions like you see here. You hear the wind there also.

Governor of Minnesota Tim Walz authorizing the national guard to provide emergency support for hard hit areas where conditions are especially precarious. The powder more agreeable in some areas, with one person ditching their car for a pair of ice skates to get around.

Others took advantage of the snow and saw it as an opportunity to have some fun.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was trying to pull out of my shop area, and I totally got stuck by the snow and I'm trying to remove snow, so it's kind of ironic, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just a lot of snow. It -- I -- if you're not looking at it in person, it probably doesn't do it justice because it's a lot of snow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We brought the ice skates in the sled after this, were going to head to the -- to the little pond over there, hit some ice skating and we outside today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is our first really good sledding day. So we're going to sled until they drop.

[05:20:01]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were presented with this beautiful snow right now so got to take advantage of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: All right. Still ahead for us, South Koreas air force making a shocking mistake during a live fire exercise with military jets. The results? Large bombs falling on civilian homes and more than a dozen people hurt. That story coming up straight ahead.

Plus, more college campus arrests in the U.S. during a pro-Palestinian protest.

And later, find out why a larger than life balloon that is apparently of Kim Kardashian, why this popped up in New York's Times Square. Maybe it has something to do with skims. We'll explain a little later.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:25:06]

SOLOMON: All right. Now to South Korea, where one mayor says that parts of his city look like a battlefield after the country's air force accidentally dropped eight bombs on a residential area. Fifteen people were hurt before the military suspended all live fire exercises there. This happened in the city of Pocheon several hours ago during military drills with U.S. forces close to the demilitarized zone, with North Korea.

South Korean officials say that the bombs fell outside of a shooting range, destroying two residential buildings and part of a church. Two of the victims were seriously hurt. Officials also suggest that initial findings suggest a pilot had entered wrong bombing coordinates.

U.S. president has issued what he is calling a last warning to Hamas. Quote: Release all of the hostages now, not later, or it's over for you.

In his post on Truth Social, he also demanded the return of hostages who have died in Gaza, saying, quote, only sick and twisted people keep bodies and not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don't do as I say. Hamas says that his threats could undermine the ceasefire, and for what's believed to be the first time ever, the U.S. is negotiating directly with Hamas.

This marks an abrupt change in policy for the U.S., which for decades has refused to engage with groups that it considers terrorists. The U.S. declared Hamas a terrorist organization in 1997. No comment yet from Hamas about the negotiations.

Nine pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested on Wednesday during a college campus sit in. That's according to a U.S. law enforcement source. Police were responding to what turned out to be a fake bomb threat at Barnard College in New York, and said that anyone refusing to leave the building would be subject to arrest.

Now, the student government of Barnard, which is part of Columbia, condemned administrators for calling police during a nonviolent demonstration. But the president of the college called it a necessary decision.

Still to come for us, shopping chain Target becoming the target of a new boycott. It is the latest challenge for the retailer. We'll tell you what's behind the boycott.

And you can buy a golden passport to a Pacific island. We'll explain why this small country hopes to save itself by selling citizenships. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)