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Americans Turn Anger At Trump And Musk on Democrats; Law Firm Folds To Trump In Face Of Executive Order; Education Department Will No Longer Oversee Student Loans; Protests Ramp Up Outside Tesla Showrooms Nationwide; Federal Reserve Tracking Tariffs, Inflation As It Weights Next Rate Decision; Families Of Deported Migrants Desperate For Answers; Second Round Of NCAA Basketball Tournament Underway. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired March 22, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:01:45]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And we begin this hour with the backlash over President Trump and Elon Musk, and why Democrats are now feeling the heat from outraged Americans at town halls across the nation.

CNN's Eva McKend is with us now.

Eva, you've seen this anger and frustration up close. What are voters saying?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Fred, I saw it for myself this week in Las Vegas and even a few weeks before that, in rural pockets of Pennsylvania. There is a hunger from voters for Democrats to be the opposition party rather than just the minority party. As much as President Trump is operating as if he has a mandate, 75 million people did not sign up for this.

Democrats across the country are looking for a fight. If they have to occupy the halls of Congress or the White House, they tell me, so be it. Anything to confront what they view as the rapid erosion of our institutions and the potential elimination of vital services.

Take a listen to how some Democratic lawmakers are being confronted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just because we don't always get your way does not mean we are not in a representative democracy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know what, you are the most soulless piece of crap I've ever seen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's your opinion.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Soulless, soulless.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, get off -- sir, sir, get off --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are soulless.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, get off the stage right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want you to show some of the backbone and strategic brilliance that Mitch McConnell would have in the minority.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want you to show fight. And you are not fighting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're trying to shield ourselves before we're wounded and we don't know. Would you mind telling your colleagues in Washington that when they're burning down this house, there's people still inside? My kid is inside.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: And Fred, so you see that energy coming organically from Democratic voters. They want lawmakers to be just as upset. Meanwhile, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, they are trying to tap into the economic anxieties so many Americans are facing, trying to paint the common enemy as oligarchs. And they're getting big crowds in the process as they set out on this "Fight the Oligarchy" tour.

So there seems to be the energy right now, the energy center of the left right now seems to be among the folks showing up to hear them, but time will tell if they can recapture the working class voters Democrats lost in the last election, and if they can expand their coalition, not just preach to the converted -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Eva McKend, thanks so much.

All right. A powerful law firm is caving to growing pressure from the Trump administration. This this week, President Trump rescinded an executive order that suspended security clearances for lawyers at the law firm Paul Weiss, a firm that in recent years had been often aligned with liberal leaning legal pursuits.

The president's reversal came after the New York based firm agreed to dedicate the equivalent of $40 million in pro bono legal services over the course of Trump's term to, quote, "support the administration's initiatives."

[15:05:00]

CNN's Alayna Treene is near the president's New Jersey resort, where he is spending this Saturday.

So, Alayna, what more can you tell us about Trump's crackdown on law firms such as this one?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Fred. This is something we've really seen escalate over the past week or so with the Trump administration really moving to try and target some of these law firms that have both targeted him, but also his administration in recent years. Part of that has been with an executive order to rescind their security clearances, as well as a move to cancel their federal contracts.

Now, one of these law firms, the chairman Brad Karp, he's the chairman of that law firm you mentioned, it's a New York law firm, Paul Weiss, he met privately with Trump yesterday, we're told. He sought that meeting in an attempt to get around this executive order, and struck a deal with the president. You mentioned part of it. Part of that deal was agreeing to set aside $40 million in pro bono legal fees over the course of the Trump administration.

And then the other part was committing to overview and look at employment practices, but also do what they called adopt, use or pursue diversity, equity and inclusion practices. Now, during this meeting, we're told that Karp, again the chairman of this firm, told Trump and essentially said that he acknowledged the wrongdoing of one of the firm's partners, Mark Pomerantz. This is what he said. He said, quote, "The grave dangers of weaponization and the vital need to restore our system of justice," while talking about Pomerantz.

Now, just to remind you who Pomerantz is, he was someone who was a key target and really the center of some legal ire during the president's trial when it came to the hush money payments that he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Pomerantz was one of the lawyers in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office during all of that. And so that's part of where this comes into.

But look, it's not just Paul Weiss that has been targeted by the Trump administration. We've also seen other law firms, like ones that have worked with former special counsel Jack Smith, who have been targeted by the president as well. But the difference here is that Paul Weiss, instead of moving to sue the Trump administration over this, they instead sought to strike a deal. As a result, we saw the president announced yesterday that he would be rescinding the executive order, looking to suspend those security clearance for Paul Weiss.

Now, overall, just taking a step back, we've really seen in recent days with these different moves a lot of shock and condemnation throughout the country at this -- by this effort from the Trump administration to do this. Even one judge, for example, tried to get involved, to block them from doing this. So we're going to see, you know, really how this plays out. Like I said, Paul Weiss is just one of these firms that has kind of caved to this White House pressure, but others haven't.

So this is going to be -- continue to be something that we'll have to monitor and see how it all plays out, whether it's in more deal making or potentially in the courts.

WHITFIELD: All right. Alayna Treene, thanks so much.

All right. Joining me right now to talk more about these developments, Judge Jeff Swartz. He is a former Miami-Dade County judge and is a professor at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School's Tampa Bay campus.

Great to see you, Judge.

JEFF SWARTZ, FORMER MIAMI-DADE COUNTY COURT JUDGE: Nice to see you, Fred. How are you doing?

WHITFIELD: I'm doing great. So what's your reaction to this law firm agreeing to do pro bono work in support of Trump administration initiatives in exchange for the president lifting the suspension of security clearances at that firm?

SWARTZ: I'm immensely disappointed. This battle is between the administration and what we refer to as big law in Washington. Paul Weiss folded. They're trying to protect their income from clients who are Republicans and-or are supported by the administration, or vice versa. $40 million that they're offering to set aside for all of these things is really just a pittance compared to what they're bringing in. The real problem is that --

WHITFIELD: I read somewhere that it was $2.6 billion in revenue last year alone.

SWARTZ: Yes, something like that.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SWARTZ: I had 2.3, but I'll give them the extra $300 million if they want.

WHITFIELD: OK.

SWARTZ: But as far as anything else is concerned, Perkins Coie is one of those other firms, big firms, that actually did not fold. Shopped around and found a firm, another big law firm by the name of Williams and Connolly, who's known for fighting the government to represent them. They filed a complaint against Mr. Trump and the administration and claimed that this was a violation of three amendments to the Constitution for their clients.

First, their First Amendment right to speak out, go to court and speak against the president. Number two, their Fifth Amendment right to due process and equal protection, and a Sixth Amendment right to counsel of their choice. And this is all about clients. The real problem that I see, for example, and I'm going to point this out specifically, no offense to Mr. Johnson. And Mr. Jeh Johnson is a partner at Paul Weiss.

[15:10:02]

He does a lot of work at MSNBC. Does this mean he is no longer going to speak out against Mr. Trump on MSNBC? It waits to be seen. That's part of the quiet part that's out loud. OK. So we have to look at that. So it's very distressing to see what they're doing. It really is. It's very chilling.

WHITFIELD: Yes. On Friday, President Trump ordered the U.S. -- you know, he's taking it further. He ordered the U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to review the conduct of lawyers and law firms the administration considers to have filed frivolous lawsuits against the Trump administration or attempted to block immigration initiatives.

And I wonder, you know, is this White House posture on law firms and even, you know, threats against judges, how much more vulnerable does it make them?

SWARTZ: Well, what really is happening here is that they're having a hard time controlling judges. They keep threatening judges, impeachment, all kinds of things, and they keep losing lawsuits. So the idea now is to attack the judicial system by attacking the advocates against them. They're trying to take the big advocates in Washington and possibly New York and say, you know, you can't do this. We're going to go after you. We're going to go after your client base. And because of that, it reduces the level of the quality of representation that people get.

Pam Bondi knows better. We saw her in Florida. She's tough. There's no question about that. But she understood the role of attorneys in the judicial system and the way that things work. She knows better than this. She knows these firms are not going to file frivolous or vexatious litigation. She is just carrying the president's water by saying, OK, we'll look into those things. But she does know better.

And it's very disappointing to see someone who did eight years as the attorney general in Florida, whether you agreed with her policies or not, who did a really good job and understood what the system is all about. This is just a complete abrogation of her responsibilities as the attorney general.

WHITFIELD: All right. Judge Jeff Swartz, we'll leave it there for now. Great to see you and hear from you. Appreciate it.

SWARTZ: Nice to see you, too, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Always saying the quiet parts out loud.

All right. Coming up, President Trump announcing the Education Department will no longer oversee federal student college loans as he moves to dismantle the department for good. Plus, the president comparing attacks on Tesla to the January 6th insurrection. What the FBI is saying about those attacks on the car company's facilities, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:17:28]

WHITFIELD: All right. More big changes coming to Washington. President Trump now says the Small Business Administration will immediately handle all federal college student loans. This after Trump signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education. Since taking office, the president has slashed the department's workforce by more than half and cut dozens of contracts deemed wasteful. It would take an act of Congress to completely dismantle the Education

Department, which distributes billions of dollars annually to schools and colleges while maintaining the massive student loan portfolio, which totals more than $1 trillion.

Joining us now former Education secretary under President Obama, John B. King Jr.

Secretary, great to see you.

JOHN B. KING, JR., FORMER EDUCATION SECRETARY UNDER PRESIDENT OBAMA: Good to see you.

WHITFIELD: All right. So as someone who once oversaw this agency, what is it like to watch the White House do this?

KING: It's really painful to see this. It's painful to know that this is going to harm students and families whether we're talking about the funding that goes to schools serving low-income students or the supports for students with disabilities, or the federal financial aid system, that's so crucial for students accessing higher education. And it's painful to know so many good, hardworking public servants are being treated so horribly by the administration.

WHITFIELD: And now we're hearing the Small Business Administration will be handling student, you know, college loans. What do you think about that transition?

KING: Well, look, in order to dismantle the department, the president needs Congress. And I think Congress ultimately is going to reject this approach. But there's no evidence that the Small Business Administration is better positioned to manage the student loan portfolio. In fact, they just announced they're laying off 40 percent of their staff. Really, the focus should be on how do we improve education, not on this effort to dismantle the department just to prove a point.

WHITFIELD: So we keep hearing from the president that, you know, dismantling the Department of Education means that states will handle their own education system. So I wonder, you know, what does the Department of Education do, you know, or secure that states, in your view, cannot carry out?

KING: That's a great framing because it's so disingenuous to say that this is about restoring the power of states. States and districts make the vast majority of decisions in K-12 education, whether it's about curriculum or teacher hiring or the standards that schools will pursue.

[15:20:05]

The federal role is really about civil rights protection, ensuring that schools do not discriminate against students on the basis of race, religion or gender. And that's how the federal role began during the Civil Rights era to ensure that states and districts would treat students fairly. WHITFIELD: On Friday, a federal appeals court, you know, said that the

Trump administration must continue millions of dollars in grants to states for addressing teacher shortages, while litigation over the funding continues. The court left in place a trial judge's temporary restraining order halting the Department of Education's termination of the K through 12 funding programs.

Do you think the courts will ultimately save the Education Department as opposed to Congress?

KING: Look, I think the courts are going to stop the current actions of the administration because they're clearly in conflict with the law. Now, the administration will propose to Congress dismantling the department. I think Congress will reject that.

I hope we can get back to a bipartisan conversation about how we improve educational outcomes. Student performance is below where it was before COVID. We have a lot of work to do to get students the tutoring and other supports they need to make up ground. That's what we should be talking about.

WHITFIELD: We'll leave it there for now.

Secretary John B. King, Jr., thank you so much.

KING: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Up next, Tesla owners could get caught up in the outrage against Elon Musk as many cars and Cybertrucks have been damaged and destroyed in what the Trump administration is calling domestic terrorism.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:10]

WHITFIELD: A new warning from the FBI urging the public to watch out for signs of planned attacks against Tesla vehicles and property. It comes after multiple facilities have been targeted in recent months, with individuals setting fire to charging stations and vandalizing buildings. The attacks began as backlash over CEO Elon Musk's involvement with DOGE and the department's efforts to shrink the federal government.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones joining us now live, where people have gathered to protest the automaker again for a second weekend.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and they said they're going to keep going, Fred. We're here in Pasadena in the Los Angeles area. There's a group of protests. A lot of them we've been seeing committed. They were here last week.

This Tesla dealership has actually boarded up their door. They told us because a brick was thrown out there on Tuesday, and they still haven't repaired it. They're saying, look, as long as no one in here is injured, that's OK. We're happy to have people protest outside their stores. So far, it hasn't actually changed their business. But we did catch up with someone who did trade in their Tesla. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE ROMER, SELLING HIS TESLA: Password incorrect. Of course it's incorrect.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Rolling his Model Y back to factory settings, Joe Romer is a Tesla owner no more.

A week ago, while covering a protest at a Tesla service center, we found Romer as he drove past the picket line.

ROMER: I'm in the process of getting my car repaired so that I can sell it.

JONES: Today, he says a weight is lifted.

ROMER: I feel better because I was getting to the point where this was being embarrassing driving this car because of Elon Musk and the things he's doing right now, and that just I find annoying and not acceptable.

JONES: Even though he's selling for less than a third of what he originally paid four years ago, Romer is not alone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From our hub as I were picking up eight Teslas today.

JONES: In 2025, thousands of Americans are breaking up with the automaker. Tesla cars for model year 2017 or newer made up 1.4 percent of all vehicles traded in through mid-March. That's more than triple the rate from this time last year, according to Edmund's data shared with Reuters. And some Tesla drivers are hiding in plain sight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then I just took my finger and I just pulled it off. It makes me feel like I'm doing something.

JONES: Masking a Tesla costs almost nothing. But in the week Romer waited to sell, he got $800 less for the car.

BRIAN MOODY, KELLEY BLUE BOOK SENIOR STAFF EDITOR: There's always going to be opportunity to either do the right thing, or at least signal that youre doing the right thing. But for most people, the average consumer taking the hit on the depreciation of a relatively expensive electric car by selling it just to prove a point is not something that they're in the business of doing.

JONES: Protests continue at dealerships across the country, and some Tesla properties have become targets. Torched with Molotov cocktails, shot at, and defaced. And all this comes as Tesla faces new headaches, including potential import tariff woes and recalls. After Cybertruck panels have been reportedly falling off. The stock price has also plunged.

That has liberals cheering.

GOV. TIM WALTZ (D), MINNESOTA: They've got that little stock app. I added Tesla to it to give me a little boost during the day.

JONES: And the Trump administration taking unprecedented steps to defend the company. On Thursday, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced charges against three people accused of destroying Tesla property in Oregon, Colorado and South Carolina. If convicted, each faces a minimum of five years and up to 20 behind bars. And on Friday, President Trump comparing attacks on Tesla facilities to the January 6th insurrection.

[15:30:05]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I view these people as terrorists just like others. These are -- when I looked at those showrooms burning and those cars, not one or two, like seven, eight, 10, burning, exploding all over the place, these are terrorists. You didn't have that on January 6th.

JONES: All of that going too far for Romer.

ROMER: It is done.

JONES: How do you feel?

ROMER: Better.

JONES: Better?

ROMER: Happy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES (on-camera): And, Fred, I want to make it very clear that these are peaceful protests. Some of the organizers here said they don't agree with the violence happening across the country. But a warning from the FBI I want to read to you, specifically asked the public to watch out for those violent threats specifically against Tesla facilities for surveillance happening around those facilities or employees of Tesla documented the security related equipment so there are security cameras as well as anyone trying to get access into Tesla facilities or dealerships like this one -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Julia Vargas Jones, thank you so much there in Pasadena.

All right. Straight ahead, the Federal Reserve is keeping interest rates unchanged, but warns about the potential results from Donald Trump's tariffs. How will it impact your budget for the next few months?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:36:05] WHITFIELD: The Federal Reserve this week holding the line on interest rates. The key decision shows the central bank is waiting for more evidence on where inflation is headed. It's also weighing the potential impact on President Trump's aggressive economic agenda. All of this could also have a big impact on your own financial outlook.

Joining us right now is Greg McBride. He is the chief financial analyst for personal finance at Bankrate.

Greg, great to see you. So walk us through why the Fed left interest rates unchanged and for how long might this last.

GREG MCBRIDE, CHIEF FINANCIAL ANALYST, PERSONAL FINANCE, BRANKRATE: Reason that they're not in a position to cut interest rates at this point is that inflation remains stubbornly high. And what's concerning, Fredricka, is that not only did they not -- do they not expect inflation to continue to move lower this year, they actually expect that it's going to tick up. So from the standpoint of inflation, they could be on hold for quite a while.

I think the wild card is what happens with the economy. If the economy were to weaken suddenly, then they would be forced to cut interest rates sooner. But that's in the category of careful what you wish for.

WHITFIELD: And the European Union says it is delaying retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. But President Trump is still threatening even more tariffs on Europe and Canada. So what kind of impact are Americans likely to feel from what is shaping up to be a real trade war?

MCBRIDE: Well, already we've seen a big dent in both consumer and business sentiment. Consumer sentiment is at some of the lowest levels we've seen since the great financial crisis. And that's because people are expecting higher unemployment. But mainly they're expecting still higher inflation. And business sentiment has also been dented. And so when businesses don't have clarity as to what the rules of the game are going to be, they don't go out and hire a bunch of people. They don't expand production, and that can be a headwind to economic growth.

That's, you know, kind of what's happening now. You know, down the road, I think there's just a real concern is what is the impact is this going to have on inflation and also economic growth? The Fed revised down their projections for economic growth and they revised up their projections for inflation for 2025.

WHITFIELD: We've also heard from the president and his advisers that a recession in the U.S. is not out of the question. So how does that shape the priorities for the average American family? Like, should we be saving more or, you know, for a rainy day or paying down debt right now?

MCBRIDE: I get that question all the time, and it's not either-or. You can and should attack both of those at the same time. 35 percent of Americans tell us they're doing just that. They're focusing on both paying down debt and boosting savings. So set up a direct deposit from your paycheck into a dedicated savings account. That way, the savings happens automatically without you having to think about it. And then on that credit card debt, then you can really channel your efforts toward using your take home pay to pay that down aggressively.

Take advantage of those zero percent balance transfer offers that are out there. That can really turbocharge your debt repayment efforts. And if you have to take on a side hustle just for a short period of time to get that debt paid off, just, you know, do what you have to do to get it paid off once and for all because interest rates aren't going to come down soon enough or fast enough to provide much relief.

WHITFIELD: So how concerned are you that the U.S. is potentially headed for a recession?

MCBRIDE: Well, those odds are never zero. So I think people were alarmed whenever, you know, you know, the president didn't just dismiss the chance of a recession out of hand. Those odds are never zero. We learned that during the pandemic, you can always get broadsided by something, but the odds are still very low.

We polled economists every quarter at Bankrate, and their odds that they've been putting on recession have been 15 percent, 20 percent, 25 percent. And so, yes, those have been bumped up in recent weeks. So now it's 25 percent, 30 percent, 35 percent. But those are still very, very low. And by contrast, Fredricka, a couple of years ago, about 70 percent of economists were predicting a recession. It didn't happen.

[15:40:01]

So not only did the recession not happened, the economy actually strengthened. So I wouldn't lay awake at night worrying about it. I think for the viewer at home, control what you can control, pay down that debt, boost your emergency savings. That way you stabilize your financial foundation. You're better able to weather whatever the economy may throw at us.

WHITFIELD: Well, great advice. Greg McBride, thank you so much.

MCBRIDE: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Up next, families of some of the men deported to a prison in El Salvador say they are being falsely accused of being in a gang and say it's a mistake all over tattoos.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:45:19]

WHITFIELD: As the courts weigh in on the legality of deporting dozens of alleged gang members to Venezuela, some of their loved ones are left looking for answers.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez spoke to the family of a man who says he was deported just because of his tattoos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Yurli has been searching for her brother. She is one of several Venezuelan families whose relatives have disappeared. They were subject to a sweeping wartime authority that allowed their swift removal from the United States. All accused of having ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Their tattoos appearing to factor into that determination.

She says he's not a criminal. Yurli's brother, Jhon, arrived in the United States last October after securing an appointment to request asylum, where he was later detained. Jhon is a tattoo artist with tattoos of his own but she says he has no criminal record or ties to the gang. The Department of Homeland Security did not provide CNN the basis for his deportation despite multiple requests.

YURLIANA CHACIN, SISTER OF VENEZUELAN DEPORTED TO EL SALVADOR (through translator): He was asked at that time about the tattoos and if he was associated with the gang.

ALVAREZ: While in detention, Jhon called his sister often, sometimes multiple times a day, to check in.

Every morning, she says, she would sign on to this app, including in the evenings or whenever she got a notification, so that she could talk to her brother, who was in detention.

(Voice-over): In early March, he was moved to a facility in Texas. He had become more anxious, his sister says, and believed he might be deported to Venezuela. Then he vanished. On Sunday, Yurli learned planes had arrived in El Salvador carrying migrants and had a lingering suspicion he might be one of them. As videos and photos released by the Salvadoran emerged, Yurli spotted a photo on the news. She felt confident it was her brother.

So she sent this photo to her family because she could see the -- she put the arrow to send it to them and say, this could be our brother. She noticed his hair was cut.

(Voice-over): She needed confirmation. Then finally a call with the Department of Homeland Security confirmed her worst nightmare. Her brother had been sent to a notorious mega prison in El Salvador.

I am with his sister. Where was he removed?

(Voice-over): It was the answer she was desperately seeking but also feared. El Salvador Center for Terrorism Confinement, known as CECOT, is the largest prison in the Americas and is infamous for its harsh conditions. Her brother, like other migrants, is now in Salvadoran custody, raising questions about what happens to them next. Trump officials have maintained that those sent to CECOT were, quote, "carefully vetted," but also conceded that many of those removed did not have criminal records in the United States.

The United States has given you some opportunity, as you've described, but also it's the U.S. government that sent him to El Salvador.

CHACIN (through translator): I just think it's their laws. But you can't judge, imprison or jail an innocent person based on your laws. They had to investigate thoroughly.

ALVAREZ (voice-over): Yurli now has some answers but also plenty of questions. Among them, how and if she'll ever get her brother back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Wow, thank you so much to Priscilla Alvarez for that report, and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:53:28]

WHITFIELD: All right. The second round of March Madness is underway today. The first round of the NCAA basketball tournament saw plenty of upsets and bracket busters. But believe it or not, there are a few lucky bracket submissions that are perfect so far.

For more on the madness, let's bring in Michella Chester. She's a reporter and host of NCAA.com.

Michella, great to see you.

MICHELLA CHESTER, REPORTER AND HOST, NCAA.COM: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to talk about brackets.

WHITFIELD: I know. This is so great. I got to explain, though. I have not --- I did not do a bracket this year. I've been historically so terrible that this year I was like, I got to stop this habit. So I'm just going to learn right now from you. So you've been the host of the "Quest for the Perfect Bracket" for a few years now.

How many perfect brackets, you know, made it through the first round on your March Madness app?

CHESTER: So this is with tracking over 35 plus million brackets. So this number I'm about to tell you is going to seem low, but we had 181 perfect brackets remaining after the first round. And now we're down to 141 left. So it seems like a small amount, but this is actually the most we have ever seen since tracking, which is a little over a decade.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh. OK. So still, you know, several rounds to go to maintain this perfect bracket. How difficult is it to kind of fill out the perfect bracket? I mean, what are -- I guess what are people doing to try and nail it?

CHESTER: Well, it's the March Madness Holy Grail is trying to get a perfect bracket. It has absolutely never happened.

[15:55:03]

And when I tell you the odds, you're not going to believe me. It's 1 in 9.2 quintillion. And it's kind of a hard number to wrap your head around. So I really love this analogy. There's about 7.5 quintillion grains of sand on this earth, right? If I were to pick out one and then asked you to find that exact grain of sand, you would actually have 23 percent chance. Better odds of picking a perfect -- of picking that grain of sand than getting a perfect bracket. So it really is impossible to do. But every year there's somebody that says, you know what? I've got the perfect bracket.

WHITFIELD: Well, this further justifies why I've been so terrible at it for so many years now, and why I decided I got to stop. Not this year.

All right. So who are the most popular picks for the championship this year?

CHESTER: So looking at all of the brackets that were filled out, Duke was actually the number one pick picked in about 31 percent of brackets this year, which is a lot. You know, last year UConn was the most dominant team all season long, and they were only picked in 26 percent of brackets. So a lot of people are going with the Blue Devils this year. They felt like Cooper Flagg, one of the best players in the country, back from injury. They won a few games even without him in the ACC tournament. So they went with the Blue Devils. And that's a really, really popular pick.

As far as upsets go, because everybody likes to pick the correct upsets in brackets, the number one upset pick was Drake. Usually fans like to go with a team that has a proven track record this season --

WHITFIELD: And they're playing today.

CHESTER: And has a lot of wins, and Drake, they won in the first round, so it looks like the fans got it right this time.

WHITFIELD: Oh, OK. And so who do you have in the final round -- final four?

CHESTER: I was wondering if you were going to ask me that. So I tried not to go -- I tried not to go totally chalk with my bracket because that's no fun. And anything can happen in March Madness. So I ended up going with Duke, Auburn, Texas Tech and Houston. So I did switch it up with Texas tech in there instead of Florida.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness.

CHESTER: As a four one-seeds.

WHITFIELD: OK.

CHESTER: There's only been one time that there have been four one- seeds in the final four. So I figured, you know, odds are not really stacked up there for me.

WHITFIELD: Well, it sounds pretty impressive, you know, to my zero, zero and zero. I got nothing for you. But I'm living and learning through you.

Michella Chester, thank you so much. Great to see you.

CHESTER: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me.

WHITFIELD: All right. And all the best to those of you who are trying to nail down that, yes, perfect pick.

All right. We've got stunning new video to show you right now. It's nothing short of a spectacular show of lava fountains erupting for a straight 28 hours. The U.S. Geological Survey says the lava shot up to 700 feet in the air between Wednesday and Thursday. And this is the 14th time that Kilauea Volcano there on the big island has erupted since late December of last year.

And right now, the eruption remains confined to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and it has not yet threatened residential areas. That's always good news.

Researchers are calling a new discovery of footprints an unprecedented snapshot of early Jurassic dinosaurs. According to a new study a five- foot slab of rock had been on display for the past two decades at a high school in eastern Australia, and researchers knew that the 200 million year old rock was home to some visible dinosaur footprints. But they had no idea just how significant that find was going to be.

Using advanced 3D imaging and light filters, researchers were able to make a dramatic discovery. You see it right there. They found 66 fossiled footprints from 47 individual dinosaurs. Extraordinary. It's one of the highest concentrations of footprints ever documented in Australia.

All right. A new episode of "HAVE I GOT NEWS FOR YOU" is just hours away, right here on CNN, hosted by Roy Wood Jr. with team captains Amber Ruffin and Michael Ian Black. The show serves up smart, edgy and opinionated takes on news of the week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROY WOOD JR., HOST: Question, does anyone know what Mike Flood had to say about Trump's now infamous Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy?

MICHAEL IAN BLACK, CO-HOST: Zelenskyy needs to apologize for insulting our president by asking for help in the war that he didn't start. That -- except that he did, right?

WOOD: Here's Flood.

REP. MIKE FLOOD (R-NE): I do believe that that White House meeting was a disaster, and I believe that President Zelenskyy should have signed that agreement.

WOOD: He had them with the setup.