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Violent Tornado Outbreak Rips Through Central U.S.; Interview With Governor Andy Beshear (R-KY); Democratic Party Fuming Over Leader Chuck Schumer; Trump Delivers Politically Charged Speech At Justice Department; Trump Invokes "Alien Enemies Act" To Speed Up Mass Deportations; Second Round Of Violent Storms Striking From Louisiana To Ohio; DOGE Takeover Causing Havoc At The IRS Ahead Of Tax Day. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired March 15, 2025 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:01:09]

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

We do have some breaking news right now. A wave of severe storms tearing across parts of the central and southeastern United States. A second round of harsh weather following a deadly tornado outbreak overnight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it's here. It's here. Look at all that debris.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my god, we're in a tornado.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in a tornado.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Wow. At least 11 people were killed as those tornadoes hit Missouri overnight. At least three people died amid severe weather in Arkansas as well. The storm will gather new strength and take aim at the southeast tonight with the highest risk of deadly tornadoes and severe thunderstorms.

Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is joining us now live.

Derek, this is quite a band of storms. What are you tracking?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, we are currently ongoing with this outbreak of tornadoes across the Gulf Coast states, the Deep South, this area heavily wooded, very susceptible.

Let's talk about what is happening in the most immediate threats right now, Jessica. And that is this highlighted area in red. That is our current tornado watch boxes, some of which have been designated a particularly dangerous situation. We reserve that for some of the most high end, most extreme environments for EF-2, which is 111-mile-per- hour winds or greater. So some of these tornadoes have been known to produce catastrophic damage. And we'll highlight those in just one moment.

So we're looking at central Mississippi as well as central and western portions of Alabama as it stands. But you guessed it, this storm system is going to move east and impact portions of Atlanta. We can't forget about what's happening on the northern side as well into southern Tennessee. At any given moment, we have had between eight and 12 concurrent tornado warnings that is either radar indicated or physically observed by a spotter, a trained spotter on the ground.

We're going to zoom in to southern portions of Mississippi, where they've had almost a train of tornadoes moving one over the same location, after another after another, and that is just so concerning. I'm highlighting this area here in southern Mississippi, McComb in particular. This area has been battered by what was an emergency, a tornado emergency, which is reserved for only the most catastrophic tornadoes observed by the human eye.

You can see some of the counties are -- that are impacted with this. And then we go up the line and this tornado here, this is a supercell. And we're starting to see some highly suspect rotation in this radar signature. And as we time this out, this is a kind of showing you the path of this potential tornado. The tornado warned storm. In it is Tuscaloosa, and so anywhere in the next 25 to 45 minutes, we have the potential for this tornado warned storm to impact perhaps the University of Alabama.

So we want to be thinking about taking shelter if you're located within that location. Further to the north, near the border of Alabama and Tennessee, right now, very heavy rain. The other threat here is strong winds, maybe not associated with a tornado. That is still a great risk. Could gust over 75 miles per hour. That will certainly do damage. Take out power and cause some problems.

This hatched area is the Storm Prediction Center's greatest risk of EF-2 or stronger tornado. So where is this line headed? Well, let's take you through this evening. And wow, looks like my computer does not want to participate. But this storm system does have the potential to bring impacts to Atlanta that time frame tonight between 1:00 and 4:00 a.m. in the morning.

And Jessica, the concern there is that these are nocturnal tornadoes. You need to have multiple ways to wake yourself up, as most of us will be sleeping at that stage.

[16:05:02]

We want to have the emergency alert system on your phones, perhaps a NOAA weather radio, and perhaps also the tornado sirens that you cannot rely on to necessarily wake you up. So it is crucial, absolutely crucial, to have multiple ways to wake yourself up tonight -- Jessica.

DEAN: Yes, those overnight tornadoes can be so dangerous.

VAN DAM: Definitely.

DEAN: Derek Van Dam, thank you so much for walking us through that.

VAN DAM: You got it.

DEAN: We are joined now by Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky.

Governor, thanks so much for being here with us tonight. I have a lot of things I want to talk to you about. But first, I know your office has been monitoring those storms that we were just talking about over the last 24 hours. I just want to check in on Kentucky, how your state is doing.

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): Well, in Kentucky we're doing OK. We had one of the most concerning weather forecasts that I've seen as governor, and that's saying something, given what we've been through. We were primarily spared, most of it missed us. But really thinking about those families further south from us. We know what it's like to lose far too many of our people to tornadoes or flooding. And so certainly the commonwealth stands ready to help in whatever way we can.

I know one thing we can all do is pray for those families, especially where we know that multiple tornadoes are moving through right now.

DEAN: I know. I know you guys have not have seen your fair share of storms, especially with you in the governor's office. You've been through a lot of those.

I do want to ask you a couple of things just about the effect that the new administration is having on states and specifically with this first one, the federal job cuts with DOGE. I spoke to New York's governor, Kathy Hochul, last week when they were having those brush fires in New York state. And she said that she wasn't counting on the federal government to be able to fund any relief effort. She just didn't know what that might look like.

I'm curious, as a governor of a state that gets hit by a lot of these natural disasters, where is your head when it comes to counting on the federal government for assistance with future storm damage?

BESHEAR: Well, we're actually in rebuilding from our last flooding that hit us several weeks ago. We have FEMA on the ground right now, and while I disagree and disagree strenuously with President Trump's statements on the future of FEMA, it's been going well. I do have to compliment their administration in turning around the disaster declaration, in giving individual assistance to our people and public assistance to many counties.

The process is going better than the last several times they've been in Kentucky. So I do want to give Secretary Noem and the president credit for the way that FEMA is operating right now. But I will say that's the way that FEMA needs to operate into the future. The idea is that we fix it. We don't break it. It is a critical arm of the federal government that's there for our families when they need it the most, when they've been absolutely devastated.

So we should be doing everything we can to lift up FEMA and to make it work better and not be talking about ultimately doing away with it. DEAN: Another issue that it stands to really impact your state, the

tariffs. The Kentucky Distillers Association said Canadian retaliatory tariffs on American whiskey could have far-reaching consequences across your home state. They added that in their opinion hard-working Americans and people in your state are going to suffer.

Are you worried about these tariffs? What kind of consequences are you anticipating in Kentucky now?

BESHEAR: Donald Trump's tariffs are going to harm all of our Kentucky families, but they're going to harm all of our American families. First, they're going to make prices go up, make it harder to pay the bills at the end of the month when it's already too hard to pay those bills. The tariffs on Canada will increase the cost of gas. The tariffs on Mexico will increase the cost of groceries. The tariffs on lumber, on timber, are going to increase the price of new homes and make them further unaffordable for that couple that wants their first home.

When you look at certain industries, it's going to cause major harm. It's not just retaliatory tariffs we're seeing from the E.U. and from Canada on bourbon, some of the state owned or country owned, province owned stores in Canada are removing it entirely. And when you think about the bourbon industry, first, 95 percent of the world's bourbon is made in Kentucky. But all the bourbon worth drinking is made here.

But when you look at all the way up and down, it's the farmers that grow the corn that go into it. It's the folks that drive the trucks to transport it around. There's a lot of hard-working Kentucky families that will be impacted by these tariffs. And in the end, the amount that we pay more for everything that's out there is the Trump tax, the extra we pay for gas is the Trump tax, the extra we pay for groceries is the Trump tax.

And I don't say that because I'm a Democratic governor and he's a Republican president. I say that because it's his decision and his decision alone that's harming our American families.

DEAN: And there I don't have to tell you, as a member of the Democratic Party, you certainly have been privy to a lot of these conversations, I'm sure.

[16:10:05]

There's a lot of discussion over what comes next for Democrats. There's been tremendous fallout over Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's decision to support that Republican funding bill. Do you think he did the right thing?

BESHEAR: Well, what you see from Democrats are people that are trying to represent their districts, that don't always agree. That's what we're supposed to be like. What you see on the Republican side is fealty to one individual, a willingness to change any conviction in any policy position at a moment's notice if one person, the president, tells you that they're going in a different direction. So in a democracy, and yes, within a political party, there should at

different times be disagreement. I think what happened in Congress and certainly the discussion around Leader Schumer is a loss of the messaging war by the time we were to that point. What we we're talking about was whether Democrats were going to vote to keep the federal government open or not. But that's not what it was.

We should have been talking about how the Republicans were holding the country hostage. They were demanding more authority for Elon Musk to lay off thousands of people and then claim it's because of poor performance, which is a lie, and threatening to shut down the federal government if they didn't get their way. We've got to make sure that we are out there proactively talking about the truth, talking about what's happening and talking about what we're for, instead of just who were against.

We're for a well-functioning government. There are things that need to be fixed inside that government, but the other party should never hold the operations of government hostage to give more power to a president who's running all over Congress and Republican congressmen and women being unable or unwilling to do their job to follow their oath. And remember, most of them had their hand on a bible when they took the oath to uphold the Constitution. And they're not doing it.

DEAN: But do you think he's the right person to be leading the Democrats in D.C.?

BESHEAR: Well, I think we have a lot of leaders out there, and that's a good thing. But I'd say this. I got to be in Selma last week for the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday. And I got to talk to those foot soldiers that showed amazing courage that day and opened the eyes of the country. But it was a good lesson at a time when somebody says who is the voice or who is the leader, those foot soldiers in Selma, there wasn't one voice or one leader.

It was collective courage of a group of people willing to do the right thing, to even march towards danger that changed the course of this country.

DEAN: All right. Governor Andy Beshear, thank you very much for your time this evening. We really appreciate it.

BESHEAR: Thank you.

DEAN: Let's turn now to breaking news overseas as President Trump is saying, quote, "decisive" military action against the Houthis in Yemen is now underway.

I want to go straight to CNN's Kevin Liptak, who is live in West Palm Beach near Mar-a-Lago. President Trump, of course, there for the weekend.

Kevin, what more can you tell us about these strikes?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this does appear to be the most significant military action of the Trump administration so far. The president saying on Truth Social that he would use overwhelming lethal force on the Houthis, which are the Iran-backed militia in Yemen that have been disrupting international shipping lanes, targeting commercial vessels and warships in the Red Sea in protest of Israel's war in Gaza.

Now, President Trump saying that he would be targeting bases, leaders and missile defenses to protect the American shipping lanes going forward. And I think it's important that this, according to officials, will be a sustained response. This is not a one-off. According to one official, this will be days, if not weeks of these strikes going forward. Already we've seen reports from the region of a neighborhood north of the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, being targeted. The Houthi backed health agency says that nine people have been killed.

We should say that the Biden administration also targeted Houthi targets in Yemen. It did not necessarily stop the group from its efforts in the Red Sea. The difference, I think here, is the -- how sustained this will be. This will be an ongoing effort. The president also trying to send a message to Iran who you'll remember, he sent a letter in the last week trying to open negotiations on a new nuclear deal.

This, I think, is an opening salvo, saying that if they aren't willing to come to the table, that military force is still on the table for him going forward.

DEAN: All right. Kevin Liptak, with that breaking news for us. Thank you so much for that reporting.

And still ahead, Democrats beginning to lose faith in Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer after he voted for a Republican spending bill averting a government shutdown. We'll talk about what could be next for the fractured party.

[16:15:00]

Plus, chaos at the Internal Revenue Service as DOGE makes sweeping cuts during tax season. One employee saying the agency is paralyzed. How could this impact your refund this year?

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): And I'm proud I did it. I knew I did the right thing, and I knew there'd be some disagreements. That's how it always is. I think I have the overwhelming support of my caucus and so many of the members thanked me and said, you did what you thought was courageous.

[16:20:08]

My caucus and I are in sync. DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have great respect, by

the way, for what Schumer did today. He went out and he said that we're going to have to vote with the Republicans because it's the right thing to do. I couldn't believe what I heard. But, you know, I think he's going to get some credit for it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Have you lost confidence in him, the fact that you guys see this so differently?

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Next question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: What started out as a problem for the Republican Party trying to pass a funding bill before the Friday deadline with very slim majorities, has now turned into a nightmare for the Democrats. Many on the left fuming over Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's decision to help Senate Republicans pass their bill and avoid a government shutdown.

So we jump off there. Joining us now, CNN senior political commentator and former senior campaign adviser for President Trump's 2020 campaign, David Urban, and former Biden campaign senior spokesperson Adrienne Elrod.

It's so good to see both of you. Thanks for being here this afternoon.

Adrienne, I want to start first with you. Let's talk about Schumer's decision. Was that the right thing for him to do?

ADRIENNE ELROD, SPOKESPERSON, HARRIS CAMPAIGN: Look, I'm not going to sit here and tell Leader Schumer how to do his job but as a personal -- and my personal opinion, Jessica, this was not the right thing to do. I mean, look, the bottom line is this. Democrats do not have any power right now. We have, you know, a thin -- the margins in the House are thin, and we don't even have, I mean, it's relatively close in the Senate. It's certainly closer than it has been when Democrats have not had control of the White House before.

And of course, we don't have control of the White House, which means in these situations, Jessica, if we're going to actually create cohesion as a party, we've got to be disciplined, we've got to unite. We've got to figure out how to fight back.

Now, it would be one thing if Senator Schumer had been at the negotiating table for the CR, if he had, you know, been given a seat, you know, by Republican leadership, if he had been given a seat, you know, by House leadership, by Mike Johnson. But he wasn't. So to take this step was really disappointing.

I was actually. Jessica, with the senator on Thursday night who was really, really expressing his dismay. And I think if we're going to get back on track as a party, we've simply got to be more disciplined. We don't really have a referee out there, and we've got to make sure that with the little power that we do have, that we wield that power effectively and were simply not there yet. DEAN: David, what does this mean for Republicans?

DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Look. Jessica, I've been there. I've been on the other side as Adrienne, when your party is not in power and doesn't have a coherent message, doesn't have a coherent strategy. I just watched Andy Beshear on, you look at the disparate wings of the Democratic Party there are a lot of different voices right now speaking pretty loudly, and they're all kind of speaking at each other right now and kind of pointing fingers.

Look, Republicans have been in that position before. Fortunately, we have a president, right, who's kind of united the party in a singular direction, and we're moving forward in a course that the Republicans believe that's best for America. Democrats have to figure out what that message is for today, tomorrow, the midterms and the upcoming presidential election, or they're going to continue to wander in the wilderness haplessly.

DEAN: And Adrienne, look, you just said it, like the party, the Democratic Party looking for a cohesive message, looking for everyone to get united behind that message and then execute on some of this stuff. But the fallout kind of is continuing. I think Senator Sanders, Bernie Sanders calling this a failure, Democratic leadership. We saw in that clip that we played before we came into you. Hakeem Jeffries refusing to answer kind of his thoughts on Schumer's decision.

Do you think that ultimately Senate Democrats are going to move toward new leadership in the Senate?

ELROD: I don't know, Jessica. I think it's a little too premature to talk about that and to look at that. But I will say this, if we cannot figure out, if Democrats cannot figure out as a party apparatus how to move our party forward, how to gain back some of those working class voters, how to grow a spine and have a little bit more of an effective pushback on Trump, I mean, we are going to have some challenges.

And when you, you know, get to a certain point, you know, we'll see how things look this summer when you start looking at the generic Democratic numbers on the generic ballot, you start looking at some of the off-year races, the Virginia governor's race, the New Jersey governor's race, for example. If Democrats are lagging a little bit in those races, then we're going to have bigger problems on our hands.

So I don't necessarily see and I've certainly not heard from my colleagues on the Hill, my friends on the Hill, that there's any real valiant effort at this moment to change leadership. But I think that we've got to figure out, Democrats have simply got to figure out how to get together and how to move forward as a party. And when you don't have a seat at the table on a major spending bill and your party's leadership, the top person in your party's leadership votes for it. That is not exactly the direction that a lot of Democrats want to see our party go.

DEAN: And David, so --

URBAN: Yes, but, Jessica -- DEAN: Go ahead.

URBAN: I would just say this. Chuck Schumer didn't have a big hand to play.

[16:25:01]

If you're going to shut the government down, what's the outcome? What's the end game? If Democrats had an articulate endgame, they had a vision, they had agreed on some coherent like, this is going to be our vision. This is going to be how we're going to resolve it.

Chuck Schumer smart. He knew there was no endgame. You shut the government down. You get blamed for it year in and year out. Parties that vote against, you know, the vote, you know, against keeping the government open and shutting the government down always get blamed for it because they don't have a way out of that box. They put themselves in.

Chuck Schumer decided to take the punches up front, played it smart, took a tough vote and now he's moving on to fight another day. I think he had a bad deck of cards he was dealt and he played it. He played it pretty poorly, but he played the best he could.

DEAN: So -- OK, so to that end though, David, I do want to ask you that like Schumer argued that if he had -- if they had shut down the government, it would have given President Trump and DOGE, in his words, effectively unchecked power. And we know "The New York Times" had reporting that Musk wanted a shutdown, was planning on how to use that to his advantage. Do you think Schumer had a point in all of that?

URBAN: No, that's what I just said, Jess. Right? I think that, you know, the Trump administration gets to determine what are, you know, what are necessary and important functions to keep going. Right. And so they could pick and choose what agencies to close down, who to furlough and for how long. And Schumer recognized that, right? He recognized he was going to be up against. He was going to get beaten up pretty badly by his caucus and by his supporters.

But, listen, Chuck Schumer is a tough guy. He's in the role for a long time for that reason. He made the only decision he could have. If he would have done something else, people would be complaining about him today for shutting government down without a without a path forward. There'd be workers furloughed. People would not be getting their checks, and people would be complaining about that -- that movement.

So look, Schumer, I don't agree with Chuck Schumer on basically anything, but I agree that he did what he had to do on keeping this government going and voting for the CR.

DEAN: OK, we have more to talk about. David and Adrienne, stick with us. We're going to talk more on other subjects when we come back from this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [16:31:23]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The American people have given us a mandate and really a far reach -- just a far reaching investigation is what they are demanding into the corruption of our system.

We will expel the rogue actors and corrupt forces from our government. We will expose and very much expose their egregious crimes and severe misconduct of which was levels -- you've never seen anything like it.

The case against me was (EXPLETIVE DELETED). That's why I'm so impressed with Judge Cannon in Florida. How strong she was, how she held up. It actually made her more resolute than anything I've seen. I mean, it was amazing because they were hitting her so hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: The president there giving his vision for the Justice Department during a politically charged, at times, vengeful speech at the department's historic Great Hall Friday.

Our panel is back with us now.

David, was it -- was that appropriate, did you think, the president's words and the tone of his speech.

URBAN: Yes. Listen, Jessica, I -- for a guy who's been -- who's been persecuted -- and I will use that word because for the first two years of the Trump administration, I lived every day waiting to get a subpoena from the Department of Justice.

Because of Russiagate, right? Because of some Russia collusion hoax, which the Department of Justice knew or should have known was complete B.S.

And so many young people in the administration, their own nickel, had to go get lawyers and fight to clear their names of something that never occurred. Right?

And so, yes, Donald Trump, I think, has a right to be a little P.O.'ed.

But if you look what happened, the FBI, the FBI admits, the I.G. admits that the FBI persecuted Catholics, persecuted, as domestic terrorists. Right? They went after Catholics. They went undercover in Catholic Churches.

There's -- there's a lot that needs to be answered for. And so, yes, I think the president has a right to some indignation in that instance. And I think there's a lot of Americans standing behind them. Me, number one.

DEAN: Addrienne, what are your thoughts? ADDRIENNE ELROD, SPOKESPERSON, HARRIS CAMPAIGN: Yes, I think it's

inappropriate, Jessica. I mean, there's a separation of powers. The DOJ is supposed to be a separating -- a separate arm of the administration. That's how it's always been.

Yes. This is a -- this is a problem. And I think when you look at this politically, I realize that, you know, even the Trump says he may run again for president, he can't run for a third term. That is illegal. That is unconstitutional.

But if he we're to be able to run for a third term, Jessica, when you look at the polling that allowed him to win this last time in the 2024 election, the reason why he won this election is because prices we're too high and he had his numbers on the economy we're stronger.

When Americans we're polled, especially swing voters we're polled on, you know, what do you think about Trump trying to seek political retribution on his enemies? You know, how do you feel about that? Those numbers pulled very, very low.

So this is not good for him. It's not a good look for him. People voted for him because they were frustrated about high prices. This stuff does not sell with the American people.

And it's and it's a huge problem, obviously, for our government and for, you know, the pillars of our government across the board.

DEAN: OK. Hang on.

URBAN: Just to be clear, I listened -- I listened to the speech. I didn't hear him talk about seeking retribution about anybody. I heard him talking about cleaning up some things.

I didn't hear him saying, I'm going to go after my political enemies. I didn't hear him talking about the weaponization. To the exact opposite --

EDLROD: He said it. He did.

URBAN: We -- we -- no, no. Hold on. No, no, hold on. Listen, let's be fair. You could -- you could admit it. You can say he didn't talk about it.

He said, we're going to ensure this never happens again to anybody else. And everybody in America should want that to happen. We should want a system of justice that doesn't seek to punish their political enemies.

Look, Democrats, in my opinion, thought --

ELROD: David, why -- why --

(CROSSTALK)

URBAN: -- Donald Trump was --

(CROSSTALK)

URBAN: Listen --

ELROD: Why is he calling out --

URBAN: Would you please listen? Just let me finish.

ELROD: -- the rule of law definitely --

(CROSSTALK)

URBAN: Would you let me finish --

(CROSSTALK)

[16:35:07]

ELROD: Sure.

URBAN: OK. Are you done? Are you done? Because what happened is your party found Donald Trump so repulsive that they decided to bend the law and do whatever they could to go after him because he was too dangerous to have in there.

So they charged -- they found all these charges. They fabricated all these charges. They went after him. They threw everything they could after him to stop him. And they couldn't.

They got thrown out. Case after case after case got thrown out because they're bogus. So that's what happened.

So I'm hopeful that this -- this administration and every future administration takes heed to what President Trump just said in the Department of Justice. And we never see that happen again. We never see --

(CROSSTALK)

URBAN: -- the FBI going after religious groups, ever. It's terrible.

DEAN: David, I'm just going to --

ELROD: I got to --

(CROSSTALK)

ELROD: -- David. But I'm glad you think that.

DEAN: I'm going to pause for one second because we do have some breaking news. Just hang on with us for one second.

Because we are getting news that Trump has invoked these sweeping wartime authority to target members of a Venezuelan gang.

And we're going back to Kevin Liptak to -- to help us understand what exactly this means -- Kevin? LIPTAK: Yes, this is the Aliens Enemy Act of 1798. This is a move that

the president had been signaling that he was preparing to take for some time.

And what it does is give him sweeping authority to remove undocumented immigrants from the United States. It's designed to be used during wartime. It's only been invoked three times previously, including during the world wars, including during the Japanese internment period, during World War II.

What the administration and what President Trump wants to use it now is to remove migrants who have been suspected of being involved with gangs, and specifically the Venezuelan gang, Tren De Aragua.

And what this order says is that, in the proclamation, it says, "Many of them have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States."

And so this is a sweeping action. In fact, a judge had already weighed in on this ahead of the president invoking it, saying that certain migrants wouldn't be able to be removed using this law.

There will be a hearing on this later today, essentially saying and determining whether it can be broadened out this pause on the law.

But obviously, this is all coming amid a crackdown on illegal migration into the United States.

And what you hear from advisers to the president is that both him and some of his top immigration officials are not pleased at the speed of the deportations. They want this to be happening faster. Certainly, it's a promise that the president made on the campaign trail.

And what this proclamation does certainly is take this a step further and allows him, if it's not blocked by the courts, to really speed up some of these deportations, specifically for this Venezuelan gang and some of it's members.

DEAN: OK, Kevin Liptak, with our breaking news there, thank you so much.

I want to go back to Addrienne Elrod and David Urban, who are still with us.

Thanks for hanging in there, guys.

David, just I want to get your first thoughts. This was this was something that we thought was going to happen. But now he's obviously made taking this step. Just what do you think about that?

URBAN: Yes. Listen, bravo, right? I mean, who is who is on the side of keeping Venezuelan gang members in the United States and giving them due process?

If you are a violent criminal alien and you are in our country, I want to get you the hell out of the country as soon as possible.

I'd like the president to use everything at his disposal to round up violent criminal aliens. Put them on a bus, on a plane, on a boat, whatever, and get them out of our country.

And anybody who doesn't take that stance, I think, needs to have their head examined.

DEAN: And, Addrienne, what are your thoughts? Obviously, there are still some legal questions around this. What if these people aren't criminals? This just gives a lot of, as Kevin used the word, "sweeping" -- it gives them sweeping power.

ELROD: Yes, I think, look, I completely agree with David on the fact that if you are an illegal, if you're a gang member and you -- you've --

(LAUGHTER)

ELROD: -- and you've invoked some sort of violence or you created some sort of violence, or you are a gang member that has been violent in the United States, of course, you should be deported.

I think the question, Jessica, as you mentioned, is how far has he taken the law? You know, what are the -- what -- is he stretching the law too far beyond what the confines are? But I think that will be determined by the courts.

DEAN: All right. More to come on this.

David Urban and Addrienne Elrod, thank you both.

ELROD: Thanks.

DEAN: I appreciate your time. Good to see you.

URBAN: Thanks.

ELROD: Thanks, Jess.

DEAN: Yes.

[16:39:27]

Still ahead, a severe weather outbreak leaves more than a dozen people dead in Missouri and Arkansas as more severe weather hits the southeast tonight. We are live in one of the hardest-hit areas. Well take you there next in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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DEAN: Back now to our breaking news. As a deadly storm system rages across the southern United States, the National Weather Service is pleading with people to heed it's warning, saying, quote, "This is no longer a risk of deadly storms. It is an ongoing disaster." Today's outbreaks, following a night of devastating weather that saw a

series of tornadoes touching down in Missouri, where at least 11 people we're killed and a whole swath of destruction and damage were left behind.

Jeff Cunningham is an anchor with CNN affiliate, KFVS. He joins us now from Wayne County, Missouri.

Jeff, I know you're at a shelter now. You've been touring damage. What have you been seeing?

JEFF CUNNINGHAM, REPORTER, KFVS-TV: Yes. That's right, Jessica. Behind me is the shelter you just mentioned. The Clearwater Elementary School here in Piedmont, Missouri, is serving as a shelter for people who may have been displaced.

[16:45:05]

As you mentioned. we're in Wayne County, Missouri. It's a rural area. And this county was hit pretty hard by those storms last night.

It's not official, but we talked to some emergency management folks just a little bit ago who think they may have seen three up to four tornadoes just in Wayne County alone.

And as you mentioned, the fatalities here in Wayne County, six people lost their lives in those storms last night.

I believe you have some video that we shot just a little bit ago, just to the north up here, just across the county line in Iron County of Des Arc, Missouri, a small little community that really got hit hard.

You can see every building in that little town has been damaged or destroyed.

But the -- the good news is something that you see every time when a storm like this hits in this area is that people have come out to help each other, people helping people, neighbors helping neighbors, strangers helping strangers.

And that's what they're doing today as the sun came up and just a lot to clean up.

I can tell you, on a personal note, I've worked in this market for almost 22 years, and last night was the worst that I can remember as far as sheer number of storms and tornadoes happening at the same time -- Jessica?

DEAN: It can be just so scary, especially when it happens after the sunset and you really once the sun comes up, as you mentioned, we're looking at video now, you can really only then begin to really see the amount of damage, which looks like just a tremendous amount.

Walk us through what -- what recovery might look like. Obviously, this is quite early. I know you said people are coming together to help as many people as they can. CUNNINGHAM: Yes. So recovery is just starting. Just happened last

night. As you mentioned, it's scary when it happens overnight.

We do know that Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe is in the area. Again, I'm in Piedmont, Missouri, which is one of the bigger towns in this rural area of Wayne County.

But he has been in Missouri surveying the damage so far. And we're hoping that the governor can provide us and the people here with some more information about what Missouri will offer them as far as assistance.

But I can tell you, again, like we showed you that video in Des Arc up the road here, they're going to need a lot of assistance because there's really nothing left there.

DEAN: Yes, it really does just level whole communities.

All right, Jeff Cunningham, for us there in Missouri, thank you so much for that reporting. We appreciate it.

And when we come back, accounts from chaos inside the IRS, courtesy of DOGE and the rapid job cuts its been pushing. That chaos is hitting the agency just weeks before the end of tax season.

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[16:52:18]

DEAN: The Trump administration's mission to slash the size of the government is causing havoc at the IRS. Since DOGE staffers set up shop inside the agency last month, thousands of workers there have been fired, and there are plans to lay off nearly 20 percent of all IRS employees by mid-May.

The IRS also shutting down taxpayer assistance offices across the country. That makes it more difficult for people to get help with their taxes.

CNN's Julia Benbrook is joining us now.

And, Julia, Tax Day is a month away. Just a nice reminder for everyone out there as well. But this seems like pretty bad timing.

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No doubt, awful timing for the uncertainty that these IRS workers are feeling.

And as you outlined, thousands of IRS employees have already been laid off. And then there are plans to cut the workforce by nearly 20 percent by May 15th. That's just two months away now.

And new CNN reporting is giving us a glimpse into what these days are like for these workers as they prepare to see more cuts.

Some current and former IRS employees who spoke with CNN have described the current atmosphere as one of intimidation. And one source who spoke with our team anonymously had this to say

about DOJs recent efforts.

They said, quote, "They just randomly dropped by peoples offices demanding access to systems. They're bullying us. And there's no discipline in what they are doing, which really worries me."

Another current IRS employee who works outside of Washington and is a local union leader, has said that they're concerned about morale as they have seen people crying in the office and managers going around and apologizing to people for firings that they really had no say in.

Now, when it comes to that CNN reporting that I've been referencing, we did get a response from White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt that will pull up for you now.

She said, "This story is based on anonymous sources, and the fraudsters always scream the loudest. The vast majority of Americans support President Trump rooting out waste, fraud and abuse."

What's taking place at the IRS is a part of the Trump administration's broader efforts to shrink the size of the federal government.

And new polling shows that Americans are concerned about some of these actions. In fact, 62 percent of those surveyed said that they are worried that these cuts are going to go too far and that important programs will be shut down.

Now, on the flip side of that, 37 percent said that they're worried that the cuts don't go far enough when it comes to cutting out the waste, fraud and abuse that the Trump administration continues to reference -- Jessica?

DEAN: All right. Julia Benbrook for us. Thank you so much for that.

[16:55:00]

The Vatican says Pope Francis is seeing, quote, "gradual improvements" thanks to the respiratory treatment he's been receiving. He remains in stable condition and is relying less on his nightly ventilation treatments.

The Vatican also says he's expected to recover, but he will not lead the Angelus Prayer for the fifth consecutive Sunday. The pope has been hospitalized since February 14th.

Still ahead, extreme and potentially -- potentially deadly weather now hitting parts of the southeast. We're tracking it all here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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