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Growing Republican Concerns About Group Chat Intel Breach; Trump Admin Defending Senior Officials Over Intel Leak; European Leaders: Not Time To Lift Sanctions On Russia; Rubio: Hundreds Of Visa Revoked Amid Student Arrests; Canadian PM Vows To Fight Back Against New U.S. Tariffs; U.S. Health Department To Cut 10,000 Employees; CNN Speaks With Oscar-Winning Palestinian Director. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired March 27, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:10]

MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome. I'm Max Foster. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

Donald Trump's first couple of months in office have been marked by almost complete cooperation between the White House and Congress. But now, for the first time, we're seeing some small signs of a rift. A growing number of Republican senators are calling for an investigation into that group chat that revealed important military plans to a journalist.

On Wednesday, the Republican chair of the Armed Services Committee called for an inspector general report on the intel leak. And we've seen several other Republicans agree with him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME): I definitely support an IG investigation on how all of these high-ranking members used a platform that is not appropriate for what they were discussing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Well, the Trump administration remains defiant. Attorney General Pam Bondi said today that though the leaked tax plans were sensitive, they weren't classified. She went on to fall back on a familiar refrain from Republicans attacking Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden for not being more careful with classified data.

Let's go to CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House with the latest.

I mean, you've spent a lot of time there. I mean, how would you describe the dynamic you're seeing form here?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, look, there's no question that they aren't pleased that this has turned into not only, you know, a one-day, two-day story, but we are now on day four talking about this. And of course, especially with the investigations that are going to be conducted on Capitol Hill, but also what they are asking, as you noted, that Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the top Democrat on that panel asking for the pentagon inspector general to do a formal report, we also know they have asked for a senior official in the Trump administration to give that committee a classified briefing. All to say this isn't going away any time soon.

Now, the strategy we've really seen and they've committed to it this week, is to try and downplay the seriousness of what was discussed in that group text or group signal, we should say. But also, you know, deny the most egregious parts of it and try to disparage the reporter at the heart of this, which is Jeffrey Goldberg.

Now, one thing that was really notable to me was how the president's rhetoric was kind of different from that strategy a bit yesterday in the Oval Office. One is that he openly said that he believed Michael Waltz, his national security adviser, was the one to blame for it. We heard from the White House press secretary again today that he has taken responsibility, that it was a mistake.

But I will say that some of the language, you know, it wasn't as emphatic in his support of Michael Waltz yesterday. And we're also hearing, though kind of the opposite as it relates to Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary. We heard the president say that Hegseth had nothing to do with it.

We heard Karoline Leavitt today strongly defending Hegseth. I'd note that Hegseth was the one who actually, according to the messages that were published yesterday by "The Atlantic", who shared the most sensitive information, including times that the attacks in Yemen would be taking place, the types of weapons that they would be using for those attacks. All to say, you know, they've really tried to keep this story, to downplay it, to kind of, you know, move on from it, that we've seen them kind of do different events.

We had the president announce auto tariff yesterday, kind of unexpectedly. We're seeing them trying to move on from this story. But given how many questions about how this happened, why it happened, and also this yearning from a lot of people, Democrats and Republicans alike for accountability is not going away.

So, this is going to continue to be a huge story from them. But from the White House's part, they're really trying to move on from this, Max.

FOSTER: Okay. White House correspondent Alayna Treene, thank you. We'll see if we talk to you again about it tomorrow.

Now, global leaders are reacting to U.S. President Donald Trump's newly announced 25 percent tariffs on all imported cars as well. South Korea's government says it will work closely with its own auto industry and the U.S. government, while Japan says it's considering all options.

France's president says he's told Donald Trump how he feels.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translator): I think it is not a good idea. I've said this to President Trump. I told him yesterday, and I will keep telling him. At a moment when we can see, well, the markets in the United States do not consider this a good economic policy.

At a moment when President Trump rightly is asking Europeans to make more defense efforts to ensure their own security, saying, it's up to you to do this. We should not have to pay for you. It's not the time to impose tariffs on us. So, it's not coherent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Joining us now, Anna Stewart.

Saying it's not coherent -- I mean quite tough words against Donald Trump there for a European leader. But, you know, whether or not he changes Donald Trump's mind is one thing.

[15:05:05]

Europe is going to have to do something to respond to this, surely.

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been an interesting day in terms of the sort of spectrum of responses we've had. So, the E.U. Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, who of course, is taking kind of a measured response, wants to speak to all of the member states, wants to wait until next week after so-called liberation day, before they decide what they're going to do next.

But then you have President Macron. You heard him there. He also said Europeans will respond by reciprocating. We had the German economy minister. He said, we're not going to take this lying down.

So, clearly, some of the European member states want to reciprocate. Very clear about the stance they should take. These are the countries, though, that, you know, have big auto sectors. The E.U. has to respond as 27.

And we've had responses, of course, from all the different countries -- Mexico, Canada.

With Mexico, the president said they're going to wait until next week, April 3rd. We're expecting to hear from Mark Carney, the prime minister of Canada, any moment now. But actually, we have in the last few minutes heard from the Ontario premier, Doug Ford, who told reporters he's spoken to the prime minister and they're going to wait until April 2nd to have a response. So there's a bit of a wait and see.

FOSTER: Because they know that if they come in with a counter tariff, there'll be a counter counter-tariff potentially. And then we're talking trade war and, you know, really important industries like the car industry can't cope with that.

STEWART: And I think the Trump administration is really aware of this. One of the most interesting posts we had from President Trump last night was actually one on truth social, where he said, if the E.U. and Canada were to work together against U.S. economic interests, they would have even bigger tariffs than they are currently expecting being implemented against them.

So, clearly, there is a concern about retaliation and also founded or unfounded, I'm not quite sure where it's coming from, but the idea that other countries could gang up against the U.S.

FOSTER: Okay, Anna, thank you so much.

We'll be watching that. We'll be speaking to someone a bit later on as well who's got some interesting views on that.

Now at least six people are dead and nine others injured after a tourist submarine sank off Egypt's Red Sea coast. Thats according to Egyptian state media, 39 people were rescued after security forces and rescue teams responded. The Red Sea governor says the submarine was carrying passengers from Russia, India, Norway and Sweden and five Egyptian crew members.

Salma Abdelaziz has more on the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Several people have been killed or injured after a tourist submarine crashed off the coast of the city of Hurghada on the Red Sea in Egypt, the crash occurring at about 10:00 a.m. local time, about one kilometer from the shore. According to officials who say that security forces and rescue teams were quick to respond to the crash and head to the scene to provide support to survivors, sending them to hospitals in the area and also, of course, to collect the bodies of the dead.

Now, we don't yet know who are the victims. We understand they may all be foreign nationals. But the Russian embassy did issue a statement saying at least 45 of those on board this submarine were Russian nationals.

Now, the submarine, called the Sindbad, is owned and operated by a hotel with the same namesake. On their website, they advertise these excursions on this submarine, which is described as a luxury experience with tv monitors and great views, of course, of this beautiful Red Sea coast and the marine life and the coral reef that is so famous for that region. We also know that there were minors aboard the submarine. We are not aware if those minors are among the victims. Authorities now, of course, rushing, scrambling to provide support to families.

This is going to be a huge blow to Egypt's tourism industry, which has already been hit by one accident after another. It was only a few months ago that a yacht crashed off the Red Sea coast, killing 16 people. So, the Egyptian government will be doing everything it can, saying its launching an investigation now to provide that support for the families, find out what went wrong and to reassure people that tourism is still safe in Egypt. Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: European leaders say their support for Ukraine in its war with Russia is unwavering, but it appears there's no clear consensus on the path forward.

In Paris, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with leaders from the U.K. Germany and France today at the so-called Coalition of the Willing Summit. It was a strong show of support but ended without any firm security guarantees for Kyiv. Mr. Zelenskyy says the U.S. needs to be stronger on Russia, and leaders were united in saying sanctions against Moscow must remain in place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Now is not the time for lifting of sanctions. Quite the contrary. What we discussed is how we can increase sanctions to support the U.S. initiative to bring Russia to the table through further pressure from this group of countries.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: No lifting any kind of sanctions until Russia will stop this war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Clare is with us.

Why -- why this discussion about lifting sanctions?

[15:10:02]

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Because this is the condition that Russia has attached to this Black Sea ceasefire, right. We have this situation now where sort of to bring everyone up to date, Russia has rejected a full ceasefire proposed by the U.S. they then agreed to a pause in attacks on energy infrastructure, which Ukraine says they have repeatedly violated. Then they apparently on paper, signed on to this Black Sea ceasefire, but said that it wouldn't come into force until they'd been given extensive sanctions relief, for example, reconnecting their banks that handle agricultural payments back to the SWIFT network.

So, for Zelenskyy, this is a huge concern, right? The Trump administration hasn't said what it's going to do about this yet. Trump is looking at these conditions apparently. So, to hear this from Europe, this almost unanimous, we think support for not lifting sanctions, if anything for ramping them up. That was I think, the key deliverable from this summit in Paris today.

But for Zelenskyy, I think this is a delicate moment, right. Because on the one hand, he spent the last several weeks trying to repair mop up the damage from that Oval Office spat. He cannot afford to fall out with President Trump again. He even alluded to this today, saying, we don't want to send any signals that cause them to pause aid or intelligence sharing.

But we did see a bluntness coming through in the way he talked about how the U.S. has been approaching Russia.

Take a listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENSKYY (through translator): We all need America to be stronger in relation to Russia. We really want the U.S. president to be stronger in relation to the Kremlin's master. It is important for us. We need to work on this issue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: And he also criticized sort of thinly veiled criticism of the U.S. we heard on the mineral deal. He said he's not going to travel to Washington at this point because, you know, they haven't got a firm agreement. He said the U.S. has been changing the terms on this. They said they had a framework. Now, they're trying to put in a full deal, which he says requires a lot of legal scrutiny.

But I think both for Ukraine and for Europe, it's delicate, right? They need to keep up a level of U.S. support. Ukraine keeps repeating that security guarantees without the U.S. are not going to work, and Europe still wants to see some kind of U.S. backstop. But also, they -- they are sort of trying to stick to their principles when it comes to these things like sanctions relief, even though the risk is, of course, that they look like they're breaking with the U.S. at a time when they're trying to salvage that relationship.

FOSTER: France and the U.K. talking about sending in officials into Ukraine ahead of possible deployment of what did they call them?

SEBASTIAN: Reassurance, yeah.

FOSTER: Reassurance forces. Just explain why this is such, you know, a huge issue. Because it does open the way, doesn't it, for a NATO troop, even if it's only one to come up against a Russian troop, and then you trigger the whole NATO system. So --

SEBASTIAN: So, where we are essentially with this reassurance force, they haven't agreed on the contours yet. The next step will be, according to President Macron today, to send a delegation to Ukraine to talk about this. He says that Ukraine will designate sort of specific areas or their work with Ukraine on designating specific areas where these troops will be placed. The deterrent is also about strengthening the Ukrainian army.

Now, the U.S. has made it clear that they will not allow for a sort of a reassurance force to be under the NATO article five umbrella. But Russia has said that it will see any -- any troops from any NATO country, regardless of whether they're under the NATO umbrella, as essentially NATO troops in Ukraine. So that's where it becomes delicate. And I think that's where you have the structure of this coalition of

the willing. They don't have unanimous support for this reassurance force. It's about countries stepping up and doing what they're willing individually, what they're willing and able to do. Not all of them boots on the ground, not all of them. Anything at all, frankly. But some might provide things like logistics, air support, maritime support, things like that.

So, they're still working on bringing in more support for this. We heard today from Zelenskyy and Macron that more countries had sort of signaled a

willingness to join up, but were still sort of in the process of operationalizing, as they call it, this plan. And meanwhile, of course, there isn't a ceasefire at this point for them to police.

FOSTER: Yeah. Okay. Clare, thank you.

At least four people have been wounded in a stabbing attack in Amsterdam. It happened today in an area in the central part of the city that's popular with tourists. Police say a bystander overpowered the suspect, who was then arrested. A motive isn't yet known, and an investigation underway, as you can see.

We are tracking international concern over the latest student to be detained by American immigration officials. The Turkish government says it is monitoring the detention of a Tufts University doctoral student, Rumeysa Ozturk, was taken into custody on Tuesday by masked federal agents. The Fulbright scholar is accused of engaging in, quote, activities in support of Hamas.

Priscilla Alvarez has more from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rumeysa Ozturk is the latest in a string of arrests in the United States of foreign nationals linked to prestigious universities, and purported to be related or have ties to a terrorist organization. Now, the administration is using an obscure law to target these individuals.

[15:15:00]

It gives the secretary of state authority to revoke a visa if that individual or individuals is believed to have an adverse foreign policy consequence.

Now, there are no charges against Rumeysa, according to her attorneys. She was here legally, but the Department of Homeland Security, which has not provided evidence, said the following in a statement, quote, DHS and ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas. They go on to say, glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated.

Now, as you see in the video, she was approached by plainclothes officers while she was walking, and it was then that they detained her, arrested her, and then detained her. This was an issue that came up in court where a judge said that she should not be moved out of Massachusetts. The Department of Homeland Security saying, however, that they had already moved her to an ICE facility in Louisiana. She becomes the third student to be detained in that facility.

Her family believes that it is an op-ed that she wrote last year that has served as the basis for this, where she criticized the response to the pro-Palestinian movement. Her brother saying in a statement, quote, it seems that she has been subjected to the activities of ICE, which has been on a witch hunt in the post-Trump period against those who support Palestine, going on to say that the land of the free, the freedom of expression and the freedom of belief are under, or rather that they have been targeted.

Now, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, did weigh in on this, and he has suggested that there are more to come, saying that there may have been more than 300 visas to date that have been revoked.

Now, again, the secretary of state here is critical in the invoking of this law to again revoke visas from those who they deem could be national security threats. But the major concern with immigrant advocates and immigration attorneys is that there is not evidence that is being provided to justify or serve as the basis for this, or at times, the evidence that is being presented is flimsy, and that has been a major concern and is also part of ongoing lawsuits. But certainly, the administration indicating that they are not backing down anytime soon.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: A short while ago, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed Ozturk's visa has been revoked. He said hers is just one of hundreds, though, taken away.

CNN's Jennifer Hansler is at the State Department for us.

I mean, you know, we were showing the video of this situation earlier on, and that's what's really upset people, hasn't it, and really driven this home.

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: -- revoke these visas.

He said that there may have been 300 or more visas revoked up to this point, and that they're doing this every day. He described the people that they are revoking the visas from as lunatics, and he said that he was hopeful that at some point, they would run out of visas to revoke, because we've gotten rid of all of them. We're looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up.

Now, when he was specifically asked about the Tufts PhD students, he confirmed that he had revoked her visa and he implied, without giving any evidence, that she had been part of destructive protests against the war in Gaza on campus. This is what he said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason why you're coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus. We're not going to give you a visa. If you lie to us and get a visa and then enter the United States and with that visa participate in that sort of activity, we're going to take away your visa.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANSLER: Now, Rubio has been consistent in his messaging and has pushed back on the argument that these are activities that are covered under the First Amendment, under freedom of speech, he said. This is not freedom of speech. And he said that if students had said when they were applying for the visa that they intended to undertake these activities, that they would never have been granted them.

Now, of course, there are a lot of concerns about the process in which this has played out, the way in which these visas have been revoked without charges, without any explanation given to them at the time that these students are detained. Now, Rubio also noted that once the visas have been revoked, then these people are not legally in the country, he said. And they must leave.

So there's a lot of questions here, but the clear through line, Max, is that Rubio is standing firm to his push to revoke visas from as many of these people as he can -- Max.

FOSTER: Okay. Jennifer, thank you so much for that.

From immigration to trade to foreign policy, we're taking a closer look at America first with the Trump supporter next for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:23:00]

FOSTER: Now we've just had some new reaction to Donald Trump's tariff plan from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: I reject any attempts to weaken Canada, to wear us down, to break us so that America can own us. That will never happen. And our response to these latest tariffs is to fight, is to protect and to build. We will fight the U.S. tariffs with retaliatory trade actions of our own that will have maximum impact in the United States and minimum impacts here in Canada. We will protect our workers and our industries during this difficult period.

(END VIDEO CLIP) FOSTER: Fear of upsetting international allies hasn't deterred Mr. Trump, who made clear on his last inauguration day that it was only American interest that he would bear in mind.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs will be made to benefit American workers and American families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: And so, it's proved, despite a regular drumbeat of criticism from overseas, President Trump has forged ahead on immigration and trade policies that he believes serve American interests.

Jan Halper-Hayes is a political psychologist and a former vice president of Republicans Overseas.

Thank you so much for joining us.

I know you can't speak for Donald Trump, but you do share many of his views, and you're very good at explaining them. So that's why we wanted you on today, because there is some confusion outside the U.S. on a lot of these policies.

But if I could just go back to that idea of America first. We're getting a greater sense of it now, aren't we? How would you describe it and how it's shaping up?

JAN HALPER-HAYES, FORMER GLOBAL VICE PRESIDENT, REPUBLICANS OVERSEAS: Well, in the 2016, when he was elected and he came out with America first there, and I have lived in the U.K. now for 24 years, there was panic and outrage because since the Marshall Plan, we have been so willing to take care of other countries.

[15:25:15]

But the problem is we have a homeless situation that is out of control. We have veterans who haven't been taken care of. And Trump is basically saying, I'm going to put our people first. But that doesn't mean that we're still not going to reach out and be part of global citizenship.

For example, the USAID, they have now reinstituted 1,000 of the programs. So, we're not stopping everything. We're just being more circumspect and making sure that the monies that we give the funding is used wisely.

FOSTER: A word that's often used here in Europe about America currently is becoming isolationist. I know a lot of Trump supporters don't like that word because, as you say, still very much involved in the world. But do you think there's some -- how would you describe Donald Trump's view of Americas place in the world?

HALPER-HAYES: Well, one, he loves our country and he really wants to fix the problems, but he also has relationships across the globe with leaders. And he cares about being, in essence, part of that global team, but not at the risk or at the expense of U.S. citizens.

FOSTER: So when we talk about immigration policy, for example, we've seen some of these cases over visas, for example, people being asked to leave the country, not being allowed into the country.

How does that fit into that America first policy?

HALPER-HAYES: Well, if we're talking about an open border that let millions of illegals in, that does not go with it. We very much welcome and have welcomed the legal immigration, go through the right process. I mean, I had been injured and I needed a wheelchair to come off of a plane, and this young man told me that he had to wait four years to join his family, and he paid his dues. He did it the right way.

And that's all we're saying, is do it the right way. Our country was built on immigrants, and its very important because we do consider ourselves rather multicultural. How else do you grow?

FOSTER: I guess the concern is that so many of these decisions feel rushed, and some people who should be allowed to remain in the country aren't being allowed to in a bid to rush this policy through, just to make sure it seemed to be heard.

HALPER-HAYES: Well, that's a shame that the perception is that it's rushed because he felt that way during his first administration and acted on it, and his campaigning prepared everyone for it. I think what people are so surprised at is how coordinated everything is and how quickly he has done things in just over two months. But you have to realize that he's had a lot of time to think about this, to work with people and figure out how to do it right, how to do it well, and how to make sure it succeeds.

FOSTER: You speak very clearly, very eloquently on this. There are, you know, some of the language that's been used about foreigners amongst some of Trump's supporters has been seen as offensive, not least, you know, the chat where, you know, Europe was described as freeloaders.

But I also want to play you this for Marjorie Taylor Greene, which went viral here because I just want to ask you if this is a representative view of, you know, Trump allies, if you like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Should the defense secretary --

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): What country are you? Wait, what country are you from?

REPORTER: The U.K.

TAYLOR GREENE: Okay. We don't give a crap about your opinion and your reporting. Why don't you go back to your country where you have a major migrant problem and you -- no, no, no, no, no. You should care about your own borders. No, no, no, no, no.

Let me tell you something. Do you care about people from your country? What about all the women that are raped by migrants?

REPORTER: Do you care about --

TAYLOR GREENE: No. By -- no, do you care? Okay. You're done. I'm not --

REPORTER: Do you care about American lives being put at risk?

TAYLOR GREENE: No, you want to know -- I don't care, I don't --

(CROSSTALK)

REPORTER: -- members fighting for your country.

TAYLOR GREENE: I don't care about your fake news. Do you have a relevant question?

[15:30:01]

Yeah. This is an American journalist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: I mean, these moments often are the ones that go viral. People hear them. You know, is that a representative view of how a lot of MAGA supporters, if you like, feel?

HALPER-HAYES: No, definitely not. But I do have to say that there is an American view -- years ago, there was "The New Yorker" poster that showed New York to be three quarters of it, and the rest of the world, sometimes Americans who have not traveled or. Really explored beyond our states have this perspective that things are so far away and can't imagine that any -- I have been asked, why do I live in the U.K.? I have MAGA supporters who question and challenge me about that, and I say that there are over 9 million Americans living in 120 different countries, but there are some very myopic and limited looking Americans.

FOSTER: Okay, thank you very much for clarifying that.

Just briefly on the tariffs -- I mean, there's a lot of confusion on this side of the water because, you know, a tariff is a tax on an American business and American consumers end up paying it, but it's being couched as a punishment against foreign other countries, as it were. We're seeing this with the car tariffs at the moment as well.

I do understand -- I know that you talked about these just being reciprocal tariffs. But it's not like for like, is it? There isn't a 25 percent tax on tariff on in Germany for example on U.S. cars. But just explain why you do think that broadly they're reciprocal.

HALPER-HAYES: Well, they're reciprocal and they're being executed on the countries that have not treated us fairly. First of all, I mean, Canada charges a 250 percent tariff on Vermont butter and all Trump is doing is trying to push it so that there is an agreement that it's equal tariffs.

It is -- it should be reciprocal tariffs. We don't want to hurt the consumers or the country, but he's really bringing them to the negotiating table. One of the things that I have said for years is that people take Trump literally instead of seriously, and they have knee jerk reactions to when he says something as opposed to connecting the dots and understanding the progression of when he might have come out and said something, and when the issue is finally resolved.

FOSTER: Jan Halper-Hayes, thank you so much for joining us and giving your insights on the Trump policies.

HALPER-HAYES: Thank you for having me.

FOSTER: Still to come, the U.S. Health Department is facing a painful squeeze of funds and staff. We'll explain after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:36:41]

FOSTER: A dramatic change in the U.S. health landscape, 10,000 jobs will be axed across the Department of Health and Human Services, run by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The layoffs on top of the 10,000 employees who left voluntarily, will shrink the workforce by a quarter. The restructuring will also consolidate divisions and reduce regional offices. The department says the cuts will save almost $2 billion a year.

Joining me now to examine the impact of this announcement, CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell.

Thank you so much for joining us.

I guess the question in everyone's minds, you know, apart from the workers here, is how its going to affect services.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Experts we've been talking with in the health world say there's pretty much no way, despite what the HHS has been saying, that cuts this broad and deep wont affect government health services. We're talking about an agency with 82,000 employees before all of this started happening and will end up with 62,000, that's a cut of about 25 percent.

And as part of this, they're going to be shrinking the number of divisions from 28 to 15. And they're creating a new agency under the acronym of AHA, the Administration for a Healthy America, which is going to take five agencies from across the Department of Health and Human Services and put them all into that one, which we should note, sounds a lot like MAHA, make America wealthy again, which is RFK Jr., the health secretary's slogan.

And for the agencies that folks really think about when they think about HHS, FDA, CDC, NIH, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, all of those will be seeing fairly large cuts, 3,500 jobs from FDA, 2,400 from CDC, 1,200 from the National Institutes of Health, and 300 from CMS, where they say that Medicare and Medicaid themselves shouldn't be affected.

At FDA, they say that reviewers of food, medical devices and drugs shouldn't be affected, nor will inspectors. But of course, there's a lot of concern that there will be deep cuts and impacts to all of this.

FOSTER: And what are public health experts saying about, you know, how this plays into the health of the nation?

TIRRELL: Yeah, we heard from the former health secretary, Xavier Becerra, who served in that role under President Joe Biden, just now putting out a statement saying, quote, this has the makings of a manmade disaster, downgrading services for our elderly and our disabled, downgrading services for mental health, downgrading our strategic preparedness and response capabilities. How can that be good for the health of any American?

And, Max, really, that's what I've been hearing across the board, is that this is definitely going to affect things, even though they say that they're going to do a lot more with a lot less. And even if there are certain things that are not being cut, the people around those things are going to be cut. And that's going to affect the ability of the government to provide these services.

FOSTER: Okay, Meg, thank you so much. We'll see how it plays out.

Next hour, the same judge at the center of a deportation battle with the White House is expected to hear arguments involving the group chat, and that intel leak we've been reporting on. A watchdog group has filed a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of violating federal records laws. The case was randomly assigned to U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, which is typical using a so-called drawer system.

[15:40:01]

Judge Boasberg has faced harsh criticism from President Trump already for his rulings on the El Salvador deportation case.

Katelyn Polantz has more now from Washington on what's being called chat-gate.

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KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The lawsuit here, the hearing at 4:00 p.m., what it's about, Max, is the use of Signal, not necessarily the classified debate. Was this information so protected? It should have been in this chat or not that Jeffrey Goldberg got access to.

The lawsuit is about federal records. In the U.S., the way that you approach federal records is that they should be preserved, especially when secretaries at the cabinet level are speaking to one another, preserved for the public, preserved for history's sake, for the archives. And then, of course, if there were to ever to be an investigation, including into this particular signal chat about

strikes in Yemen.

So what Judge Jeb Boasberg, he's the chief judge of the federal court in Washington, D.C., what he's going to be looking at is a request from a group called American Oversight, asking him to step in and tell the administration they must cease the destruction of records. This use of signal in this chat is so problematic to at least American oversight because they say it's not just private, it's not just encrypted, it has that auto delete function, including on this particular chat in the middle of March between these cabinet secretaries.

Now, there has been a response from the administration just in the last hour or so in court, setting us up for this 4:00 p.m. hearing. The Treasury Department says they did take some steps to make sure that they had that signal chat imaged from the device of the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent. So, those existing messages are now being preserved adequately. The Defense Department, the lawyers there are saying they're reaching out to the secretary's office and they're working on it -- Max.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Okay. Thanks, Katelyn, for that.

Still to come, we hear from an Oscar winning Palestinian filmmaker attacked by Israeli settlers.

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FOSTER: Beaten, blindfolded, held overnight by the Israeli military, Oscar winning Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal says he thought he was going to die when a group of Israeli settlers attacked him outside his home.

Our Jeremy Diamond spoke with the filmmaker in the West Bank.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just a few weeks ago, Hamdan Ballal was being celebrated in Hollywood after winning the Oscar for best documentary. Today, he is back home in Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank, a bruise now underlining his left eye.

HAMDAN BALLAL, PALESTINIAN DIRECTOR: Look, this is outposts.

DIAMOND: Ballal and other eyewitnesses say he was attacked by the very same Israeli settlers whose attacks on Masafer Yatta were the subject of his Oscar-winning documentary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Back to the car. DIAMOND: This video, captured by an American peace activist,

documents a part of Monday's attack as settlers pelted their car with rocks.

Alongside one of those damaged vehicles, Ballal says he arrived here that evening after he was alerted to the presence of settlers.

BALLAL: The settlers started like to throw stones to the house and destroyed the water tank.

DIAMOND: As some Palestinians began throwing stones back at the settlers and more settlers and soldiers arrived, Ballal thought of his family down the hill.

BALLAL: If the settlers come down there and they start to attacking them, okay, what's happening with them? So, directly and quickly, I back to my house and I stand there. And I told my wife., if you see me die, don't open the door. I close it like here and stop here, exactly. And they came from -- from this side.

DIAMOND: He says an Israeli soldier then approached him, his rifle drawn as one of the settlers, began beating him from behind, hitting him in his head.

BALLAL: When I saw I'm bleeding, I felt, I will -- this is the last moments in my life.

DIAMOND: In that moment you thought you were going to die? Yes, because that's that -- the attacks was so, so hard. And you know, my head, like, was like a football between the legs and the wall. Here I was shouting and screaming, crying, but they don't care.

Ballal says the soldier pressed his rifle into his leg and threatened to shoot. He was then arrested. In custody, he says he was blindfolded and forced to sit on the ground, hit by soldiers every time he tried to move, a claim the Israeli military denies.

The Israeli military said they arrived here on the scene of what they described as a, quote, violent confrontation between Israelis and Palestinians, according to the IDF, sparked by Palestinians throwing rocks at Israelis, something that everyone here denies.

While their Oscar win is shining a light on settler violence in the West Bank, Balla and his co-director Basel Adra knew they would come back to the same reality, or worse.

BASEL ADRA, CO-DIRECTOR, "NO OTHER LAND": We know that the settlers would be with the occupation army, and police would be more angry and do revenge and punishment, mainly to silence us and to try to prevent us from transferring the message and the truth and reality of what's happening.

DIAMOND: Ballal believes he was targeted because of his Oscar win, but he says he won't be deterred. You are determined to stay. This attack won't change that. BALLAL: You see, my blood is here on the ground. This is my house.

And here my blood. Okay? So, I will -- I will stay here. Well, the connection is becoming like more and more. Now, the connection between me and the land, this is blood. So, I will never, never, never, okay, left my home.

Jeremy Damond, CNN, Masafer Yatta in the West Bank.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Still to come, new details on secret messages being sent to murder suspect Luigi Mangione. We'll tell you where they were and where they were hidden.

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[15:51:56]

FOSTER: Prosecutors are crying foul over the contents of a bag given to murder suspect Luigi Mangione by his attorneys. They say heart shaped notes were included in a bag of clothes given to the man accused of gunning down Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare. The prosecution also says it has questions about Mangione's fashion choices.

CNN's Kara Scannell has been following the case and joins us from New York.

Sometimes it feels like you're covering a celebrity, I'm sure, rather than a crime story. But I've also heard that he's allowed a laptop. Does that mean he's able to get online because he's a big -- you know, he's a big name online now.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The amount of support for him just is growing every day. He has an online fundraiser that has raised more than $750,000 since he was arrested just in December and charged with the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO.

But now, there's been this back and forth. Between the prosecution and his legal team. Because of some of what the prosecutors say is the D.A.'s efforts to fan the flames, to drum up some more publicity in this case.

And so, they've taken issue with the green sweater that Mangione wore at his last court appearance because outside of the courtroom. There are -- there were dozens of supporters, many of them wearing green shirts, green hats, free Luigi scarves, all these signs in support of him.

So, the prosecutor is calling that out by his legal team, saying that they're trying to coordinate with them and then also pointing to this bag of clothes that Mangione was provided, prosecutors saying they gave him special privileges by allowing him to change out of a prison jumpsuit into that clothing. And then what they discovered was that there was a pair of socks in there for him. And wrapped within the socks were these two heart shaped notes, one of them wishing him support.

So, the prosecutors saying that was an abuse of the special treatment. Now, Mangione's lawyers said that it was inadvertent and an innocent note. They -- they've been arguing that that he should get a laptop behind bars as he's in custody. And the prosecutors were saying that these letters were a form of abusing a special privilege. So, they opposed it.

But a judge just a few moments ago said that Mangione could have the laptop behind bars if federal authorities are okay with it, because even though he's facing state charges as well as federal charges, he's being held in federal custody. So, it is not uncommon for prisoners to be given access to laptops, but they come with a lot of parameters. This will have evidence. Some of the surveillance videos, some surveillance photos loaded into it, but he will not likely be allowed to just contact the, you know, the public unfettered and engage with these supporters.

But certainly that is going to be probably the next step here. Once he is given this laptop, there is probably likely to be additional fights about just the contours of what he will be allowed to do and what he won't be allowed to do, especially given just the huge public interest in this case -- Max.

FOSTER: Absolutely. Kara Scannell, thank you so much for bringing us that.

And finally, tonight, a stunning sight in the night skies above several European countries. This slow moving, glowing spiral left spectators on Monday wondering if this could be the work of extraterrestrial visitors.

But the explanation was -- explanation was quite simple, actually much closer to home as well. The extraordinary event is believed to be the result of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch. The blue spiral likely formed by the rockets exhaust interacting with the atmosphere.

There are pictures all over it in the U.K. media. People are utterly baffled at a very simple explanation.

Thanks for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster.

"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is next.