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Trump And Zelenskyy Hold Talks On Sidelines Of Pope Francis' Funeral; Trump Questions Putin's Intentions After Zelenskyy Meeting; How Voters View The GOP As Trump's 100th Day Approaches; China: U.S. Claims Of Talks With Beijing On Tariffs "Fake News"; Trump: Won't Drop China Tariffs Unless U.S. Gets Something Substantial; Trump Tells TIME Magazine He's Made "200 Deals" On Trade; Pope Francis Laid To Rest After 250,000 Attend Funeral Service; Argentina Remembers Native Son Pope Francis; Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders Appeals To Trump. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired April 26, 2025 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRYAN LANZA, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Everybody knew there'd be a tremendous amount of more scrutiny in the process. And that scrutiny is welcomed. But the transparency behind it is at a level you haven't seen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Watch all new episode of "THE WHOLE STORY WITH ANDERSON COOPER," one whole hour, one whole story tomorrow night at 8:00 p.m. only on CNN.

And thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The NEWSROOM with Jessica Dean starts right now.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in Washington, D.C.

And President Trump signaling a major shift in his tone toward Russia. Trump questioning whether President Vladimir Putin is interested in peace at all and suggesting the possibility. Of sanctions to stop the fighting. Just hours earlier President Trump was standing shoulder to shoulder with dozens of world leaders at the funeral of Pope Francis. But on the sidelines, he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the heart of the Vatican.

The two leaders, as you see right there, sitting down together for the first time since that fiery clash in the Oval Office.

Joining us now CNN senior White House reporter Kevin Liptak.

So. Kevin, pick it up for us there. What are you learning about Trump's thinking as he's now had this meeting with Zelenskyy?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we got a little glimpse of that as the president was returning from Rome here to New Jersey. He put a post out on Truth Social that I think was so striking because it does reflect something of a different tone for the president when it comes to this conflict, which he has been working, you know, quite hard to try and resolve.

But to his own frustration, he hasn't been able to mediate a deal between Russia and Ukraine. You know, his 100-day mark is coming up next week. And to his own kind of ire, he hasn't been able to bring these two sides together. For the most part, his frustration has been directed towards Zelenskyy. You know, you have that Oval Office meeting 57 days ago. You heard the president just last week say that he was not a fan of Zelenskyy, saying that he thought Zelenskyy was prolonging this conflict.

But now, in the hours after he met, you know, knee to knee with Zelenskyy inside Saint Peter's Basilica, he is offering a harsher tone about Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, and specifically this bombardment that Russia carried out last week on Kyiv. It was the worst aerial assault on the Ukrainian capital in nine months. And now the president saying this, there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns over the last few days.

The president goes on to say, it makes me think that maybe he doesn't want to stop the war. He's just tapping me along, President Trump says, and has to be dealt with differently through banking or secondary sanctions. And I think that's so notable because he's really sort of giving voice to the concerns of so many European leaders that Putin is essentially carrying out these negotiations as a way to play for time, dragging them on because he thinks he has the upper hand.

You know, President Trump hasn't necessarily reflected that view. And really, as recently as last week, said that he thought that Putin was serious about trying to achieve a peace. You know, I asked the president in the Cabinet room on Thursday whether he thought Putin was serious as it came to these negotiations to try and end the war. And he said, yes, he thought that both sides wanted to achieve peace. But now the president, adopting quite a different tone.

And so I think this will be important to see how this unfolds going forward. You know, it's hard to put too much stock into any one thing that the president says about this conflict. But certainly the timing of this is significant. After that meeting with Zelenskyy in Rome, after encountering a number of other European leaders on the sidelines of this papal funeral, an important sort of statement from the president there as he continues to try and resolve this conflict -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Kevin Liptak, there in New Jersey, thank you so much for that.

And joining us now is former Trump national security adviser John Bolton. He also served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Mr. Ambassador, thank you so much for being here with us. I want to start with that image of Trump and Zelenskyy sitting knee to knee right there in the middle of the Vatican. How did you analyze today's meeting and what he said afterward, or what he wrote afterward?

JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, I think the meeting was significant. I think this is a significant step back toward sensible conversation between the two leaders. It was apparently very brief, 10 or 15 minutes, no interpreter. So Zelenskyy was doing it in English, and both the president's spokesman and Zelenskyy's spokesman said it was productive.

So I think you've got to consider it good. It doesn't necessarily mean much progress, but at least they broken the image of what happened in the Oval Office on February 28th. So that's a plus.

[16:05:05]

In terms of the tweet, you know, I don't put much stock in it. I do think it's accurate to say that it reflected what Zelenskyy probably told the president about repeated Russian attacks on civilian targets, and maybe what he heard from some of the European leaders who were there. But within a few days, I have no doubt there will be some kind of contact following on to Steve Witkoff's visit with Putin, three or four-hour visit the day before the funeral, which looked like another victory for Putin in using Witkoff as in effect a propaganda vehicle.

And let's be clear, Putin will have something to talk about, too. This assassination of a very senior Russian general in Moscow is something that he will undoubtedly talk to Trump about when they speak. So it was an interesting tweet. We'll see if the mood lasts more than 24 or 48 hours.

DEAN: Yes. I mean, I think that is the big question. And in terms of the tone shift in that message about Putin, maybe kind of I think his words were tapping him along, and that maybe there need to be more sanctions. How serious do you think that is? Do you think that is actually worth calling it, a tone shift, or to your point do you think it's just kind of this is a kind of a snapshot of this moment in time?

BOLTON: Trump has a short attention span. So for that period of time, that was the kind of message that he wanted to send. I do think that Putin has to be careful about overplaying his hand with Trump. Trump can change his attitude toward people, but Putin has gotten so many concessions from Trump already that even though Zelenskyy is apparently and the Ukrainians are poised to give their alternative possibilities for how this might proceed, really, the advantage is overwhelmingly on the Russian side now. So Putin doesn't want to mess that up. But I still think he's got plenty of room to play with.

DEAN: Yes. And to your point there, there are these two kind of rival proposals for peace being discussed, one from kind of Ukraine and the European allies that would see a ceasefire before discussions over territory. However, the U.S. proposal gives up Crimea, takes NATO off the table, suggests lifting sanctions against Russia.

Do you think that the U.S. is giving too much away to Russia in all of this?

BOLTON: There's no doubt about it. This is shameful, really, to say that you're going to accept the use of military force on the continent of Europe to change boundaries, something we said in 1945 we would not permit, again, something we stressed during the Cold War. And by and large had been successful at maintaining until Russia's first effective invasion of Crimea in 2014, about which the Obama administration did precious little, I'm afraid. Nor did the Europeans thus encouraging the Russians to come back a second time.

I think it's inadvisable for Ukraine to be floating its peace proposals in public because the Russians and Putin in particular are very successful at getting their adversaries to negotiate with themselves. And when the Russians don't give in, this has happened with the U.S. before, the other side compromises its own proposals, and Russia gives up nothing. I think this needs to go behind closed doors. That's obviously not Trump's style, but from the point of view of the West collectively, I don't think we should be compromising with ourselves before we, Ukraine at least gets to sit down with the Russians face to face.

DEAN: Beyond that, how would you be advising President Trump right now?

BOLTON: Well, I think the idea that he's got Steve Witkoff who knows next to nothing about Russia or Ukraine being the lead U.S. negotiator, in effect, the surrogate secretary of state, is very ill advised. And I think Putin has made clear now for over 20 years that his aspirations with respect to Ukraine amount to being part of recreating the Russian empire. That's what's at work here. So nobody should be under any illusions even if you get a ceasefire tomorrow.

That merely gives Putin the chance to rebuild the Russian army, which has been severely damaged over the three years of fighting that we've seen there. And he'll come back again unless he's deterred. He was not deterred in 2014. He was not deterred in 2022. And if he doesn't feel the West has responded in a really meaningful way, it's just a matter of time. Again, assuming you get a ceasefire, it's just a matter of time before the third Russian invasion.

DEAN: And what do you think of the fact, as you noted, Steve Witkoff is the lead negotiator here. He's the one that's been meeting with Putin. He's the one that's been leading these conversations. The Secretary of State Marco Rubio has not been really a part of those specific conversations.

[16:10:03]

Do you think he should be -- Rubio playing a bigger role if you're secretary of state? Is that frustrating that you're not the person leading this or in the room?

BOLTON: Yes, I mean, frustrating is kind of a polite way to put it. It's unprecedented in certainly in recent U.S. experience, compounded by the fact that Witkoff is also the lead negotiator in talks with Iran, which I personally think are a waste of oxygen, but which may signal that Trump is ready to make a deal with Iran inexplicably. But how Witkoff, who has no experience with Iran, with nuclear weapons or with arms control and nonproliferation, how that's going to happen, particularly simultaneously, really must be music to the ears of our adversaries.

DEAN: On Iran, clearly it's obvious where you stand on these talks. You don't think that they're worth having. What is your, like, what do you think is the best case scenario here? What's the worst case scenario that could come out of these talks?

BOLTON: Well, the worst case scenario, speaking of tapping along, which is a favorite Trump phrase, you know, he says somebody is tap, tap, tapping us along. That's exactly what the Iranians are going to try and do. They have taken a terrible pounding from Israel, they and their terrorist surrogates since the barbaric October 7th attacks, and their missile production facilities have been severely damaged, nearly destroyed. They're very worried that Israel, together with the United States or alone, may strike their nuclear weapons facilities.

And so they'd like nothing better than time. They'd like relief from economic sanctions. And the idea that anybody is talking to this Medieval theocratic regime that's been trying to get nuclear weapons for a long time and would be content merely with civil nuclear power, is what was fundamentally wrong with the ill-advised 2015 nuclear deal. And as far as we can tell from what we know publicly, Trump or at least Witkoff, is walking down that same path. It's a big mistake.

DEAN: I also, before I let you go, do want to get your thoughts on Pete Hegseth, the White House saying Trump remains, in their words, strongly behind Hegseth after we learned, of course, he was in the second Signal group chat that was with his wife and his brother and others. Why do you think the president continues to stick with him under these circumstances that for most anyone else would be, or in any other administration would be cause for termination?

BOLTON: Sure. I think it's true. And virtually every other administration this agony would have ended a week or more or two weeks ago. I do think that Trump does not want to be seen early in his administration to give up the pressure from the media and from the Democrats, but I don't see this lasting a very long period. I mean, I think Hegseth is close to being a dead man walking at this point politically.

DEAN: All right. Well, we shall see. John Bolton, thank you for your time. We really appreciate it.

BOLTON: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: After everything we've seen during President Trump's first 100 days of his second term, will it be easy for the GOP to keep control of Congress or part? Harry Enten is going to run those numbers for us. That's next.

Plus, as world leaders gather in Vatican City, large crowds come together across the globe to remember Pope Francis.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[16:18:20]

DEAN: President Donald Trump has accomplished a lot in his first 100 days in office, but will it help the GOP maintain control in both chambers of Congress as we look ahead to the midterms?

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten is joining us now.

Hello, Harry. Happy Saturday.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA CORRESPONDENT: Hello. You as well.

DEAN: He's going to run the numbers for us. So let's start first. The GOP holds the House now, obviously with the tiny little majority. What is the congressional ballot looking like as we approach this 100-day mark?

ENTEN: Yes, I think the key question is we've seen a number of polls that have come out over the last 48 hours showing Donald Trump's approval rating heading down, and would that impact Republicans in the House of Representatives? Let's take a look at the generic congressional ballot right here. And hello, what do we have here? This is the Democrats versus the Republicans on the generic congressional ballot.

And what do we see? According to CNBC out this month, plus two Democrats. How about FOX News was out last night, plus seven points. "The New York Times" out yesterday afternoon, look at that. Democrats up three points. You average it all together and what do you get? You get the Democrats up by four points according to the average of these three polls. Very much unlike what we saw of course in 2024, where Republicans, of course, won the national House vote.

And it does suggest that, in fact, Donald Trump is dragging, dragging House Republicans down. Now Democrats have a lead on this all important measure -- Jessica.

DEAN: I like how Harry helps with also by acting it out, dragging it down for us. Thank you very much for that.

ENTEN: My Shakespeare.

DEAN: Yes. So take us back to the last midterms, when the GOP flipped the House. What is the shift look like here if you compare them?

ENTEN: Yes. You know, yes. You know, I mentioned 2024. But of course the Republicans actually gained control of the House the last time around in 2022, in a midterm election.

[22:20:02]

And I think it's so important to note, look at the difference that we have right now in April of 2025, where Democrats are up four points and look at where they were in October of 2022, according to an average of those same polls, CNBC, FOX and "The New York Times," the Republicans were up two. This is a six-point movement towards the Democratic Party. This is

what you might expect in a midterm election, but it does in fact suggest, again, I'm going to do my best acting here, that Trump is dragging down Republicans and now the Democrats hold the advantage on this all important measure.

DEAN: That's going to be so interesting, too, just because reminding everyone that everyone in the House is up every two years. So that will be interesting to see how that goes.

ENTEN: Yes.

DEAN: OK. So when this -- and when it looks like this, when the opposing party up to the White House is leading so early, what does that mean in the past, if we look to history?

ENTEN: Right. You know, you mentioned that there are 435 House seats. All of them are up in November of 2026. Of course, votes matter, but it's how they translate to seats that actually matter. So I went back through the history books. I opened up my encyclopedia, looked at the Roper Center archives, and what do we see when the opposition party in midterm elections, their average House seat gain, get this, is 35 seats when the opposition party leads by at least four points this early on, like they're doing right now.

There's only two times. Only two times it's happened. It was in 2006 and 2018. And of course, those were when Donald Trump was president, heading into 2018 when George W. Bush was president, heading into 2006, where they were quite unpopular, very much like how Donald Trump is unpopular right now, according to the recent polls. And when that happens and you get a generic ballot like this, you see a massive wave usually.

Will we see it this time around? We'll just have to wait and see, Jessica.

DEAN: We don't know. The voters will tell us in just a few months.

ENTEN: Yes.

DEAN: I do want to talk about Canada for a second because they have an election on Monday, and President Trump has become the central figure in the Canadian election. What have -- what are you tracking on that?

ENTEN: Yes, I think this is so interesting. Right? Donald Trump isn't just impacting potential elections in the States. He is impacting elections north of the border. So what are we talking about here? Well, let's take a look. The Canadian Liberal Party, right. That's the liberal party in Canada, on January 19th, one day before Donald Trump took office, the Liberal Party had only a one less, in fact, less than a 1 percent chance, even less than 1 percent chance of winning the 2025 elections.

Look at their chance now, all the way up to 89 percent. I have never seen such a dramatic shift in polling such as this. And right now the Liberal Party heading into Monday's elections, they are in the catbird seat, Jessica Dean.

DEAN: Interesting. And how much of that is due to Trump's influence?

ENTEN: Yes. So you see this movement and, you know, I kind of point out, January 19th just before Trump took office and then you look today and you say OK, that's correlation. Where's the causation? I'll show you the causation. All right. Let's take a look here. On trade, Canadians better handle U.S. trade war. Look, the Liberal leader Mark Carney 55 percent compared to the conservative Pierre Poilievre. Yes, I took my French and took it well. Poilievre, 31 percent.

So you see the trade war definitely helping out the liberals. But then we can just ask the voters in Canada, why did they switch their votes over to the Liberal Party? Well, get this, get this. Why did Canadians switch to the liberals, 48 percent who switched their vote cited Trump as a top reason. Trump is not just impacting elections here in the States, Jessica. He is impacting them north of the border and helping, at least at this point, it looks like the liberals are going to maintain their power in the Canadian parliament, in large part because of Donald John Trump.

He has been a gift to left parties worldwide, Jessica Dean.

DEAN: Yes, that is very interesting. All right. Harry Enten, as always, excellent to see you. Thank you so much.

ENTEN: I'll see you tomorrow.

DEAN: OK. Sounds good.

As a trade war threatens the world's two biggest economies, a new fight is brewing over whether or not the United States and China are even talking about tariffs.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:28:32]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Mr. President, you said that you have spoken to President Xi? When did that happen? China says it hasn't happened.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I spoke to him numerous times.

They have meetings this morning and we've been meeting with China.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Has there been any direct contact between the. U.S. and China on trade at all?

TRUMP: Yes. Of course.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And -- TRUMP: Every day.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you talking to them actively now?

TRUMP: Actively. Everything is active. I would say they have reached out. A number of times. Yes. we're talking to China.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Despite those claims from President Trump, it is still unclear whether he has indeed spoken with President Xi Jinping as a trade war between the U.S. and China threatens to harm the global economy.

In a new interview with "TIME" magazine, President Trump again claimed he'd spoken with Xi but does not give specific details. Part of that interview went like this, "TIME" asking, will you call President Xi if he doesn't call you? Trump saying, no. "TIME," you won't? Trump, no. "TIME" says, has he called you yet, to which Trump says, yes. "TIME" then asks, when did he call you? Trump said he called. And I don't think that's a sign of weakness on his behalf.

Now, the wrinkle here is Chinese officials say that is not true. They claim the U.S. and China are not engaged in direct talks and called suggestions otherwise, quote, "fake news."

Joining us now, the senior director of the Atlantic Council's Geoeconomics Center, Josh Lipsky.

[16:29:54]

Josh, thanks so much for being here with us on this Saturday afternoon, President Trump's own Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, has denied any formal talks with China have taken place.

Look, we don't know whether they've spoken or not. Trump is on the clock. He's trying to land some deals. I think a lot of people, including Bessent, would like him to do it quickly. What's at stake if we remain kind of in this limbo place?

JOSH LIPSKY, SENIOR DIRECTOR, ATLANTIC COUNCIL'S GEOECONOMICS CENTER: Well, thanks, Jessica. Everyone's losing in the trade war so far, and that's what we heard this week at the IMF World Bank meetings, which are just ending today. The U.S. GDP forecast got slashed to under 2 percent. It was closer to 3 percent after the inauguration.

And China's GDP forecast got slashed as well, down to 4 percent. And many people think it will go lower, as did global GDP growth. So the entire world is suffering. The U.S. had the biggest downgrade of any advanced economy. So everyone's feeling the pain.

Inflation expectations are edging higher as well. And the bottom line is what this means for people is as we head into the summer, you can start to see empty store shelves for everyday consumer goods, thinking backpacks and sneakers and the things people start looking toward back to school. I know it's only end of April, but that's how shippers and Target and Walmart think about these issues. So the costs are real, and that's why you see the pressure building on all sides to say that they're talking to each other. But then the confusion, as you said, are they actually talking to each other? It doesn't seem like it at any high level.

DEAN: Yes. And where -- what do you make of kind of that back and forth? Is this China -- with China saying, no, no, no, we're not talking and describing it as fake news -- Trump saying we are, but not being specific. Is everyone just trying to kind of outmaneuver each other with power moves? What is this?

LIPSKY: There's a lot of gamesmanship going on. That's how trade negotiations and trade wars work. But China's finance minister was in Washington this week and he did not have a bilateral meeting with Secretary Bessent. So I think that's all you need to know is a signal of whether there's any real serious negotiations happening.

If he was in town and had an opportunity over four or five days to meet with his U.S. counterpart and didn't, I wouldn't take that as a good signal. And if President Trump and President Xi were talking on the phone, which I think is unlikely in the past week or two, we would probably know about it.

So I'm skeptical that these talks are happening at the level they need to be. For anyone to feel confident, we're headed toward a serious de- escalation of the trade war anytime soon.

DEAN: And yesterday, the President said he's not -- he won't drop these 145 percent tariffs on China unless China gives the U.S., in his words, something substantial like open trade. Do you think that's likely?

LIPSKY: No, I don't. And China had their own hardening of their position this week, saying they wanted the tariffs to be unilaterally dropped before negotiations started. Obviously, that's not going to happen on the U.S. side.

We're seeing shipping containers leave China half empty right now. So we're seeing the real impact start to filter through. And you have U.S. companies going to the White House saying this is not sustainable for us in the days and weeks ahead.

And this is the issue happening at the moment. But we don't see any high level talks happening and we don't see the kind of de-escalation path that you would want at this point. Everyone agrees.

And Secretary Bessent said 145 percent tariffs are unsustainable. He said it this week. The question is, how you step off that ledge. And we just haven't seen the concrete evidence that either side knows how to do it at the moment.

DEAN: Yes. And that becomes the question, right? How do they step off the ledge? LIPSKY: Well, there's no easy answer here. One side has to blink first and there's all the back and forth in terms of who's going to make the first phone call. China approaches this very different than the United States. They will not have a phone call with their leader until they've had the low level and mid-level negotiations lay the groundwork for some kind of deal.

I think the best thing we can hope for at the moment is what I would call an intermediate ceasefire, meaning, the tariffs drop from 145 percent to something like 60 percent, which is what President Trump promised in the campaign, by the way. That still hurts, but it doesn't hurt quite as much.

And maybe that becomes the framework for negotiations. But we're not even there at this point. So I think this is going to be worse before it gets better.

DEAN: And in that same time interview, the President claimed he's made 200 trade deals, though he would not say with whom or give any details. His press secretary gave a smaller number this week, citing 18 written proposals since the 90-day pause on the blanket tariffs begin.

But how does all of this impact the way trade partners around the world see the U.S. and really move forward with the U.S. in all of this?

LIPSKY: Well, there's 195 countries in the world. I don't think we're making trade deals with North Korea. So obviously, the 200 number is inflated and even anything half of that is unrealistic.

What we heard this week from the finance ministers we met with is it's much closer to a dozen that are in serious negotiation. But even our friend Japan, India have not yet announced and they may soon some kind of trade framework. And that just tells you if you can't get your friends to announce a trade deal 30 days after Liberation Day, how hard is it going to be with a country like China?

[16:35:02]

So I think the next phase of this is going to be some kind of announcement over the next few weeks of a framework with a country like India, maybe South Korea. But that's only one that doesn't really solve the broader issue here.

It turns out the negotiating trade deals is hard in practice. They actually take years. And that's why reality is setting in for the markets. And reality is setting in, unfortunately, for the U.S. consumer.

DEAN: I did find it striking this week. We heard from the founder of one of the largest hedge funds in the world, billionaire Trump supporter Ken Griffin, who openly criticized the trade war, warning it's going to hurt America's standing in the world.

I liked how he -- it was really interesting to hear how he described it, which was that the U.S. is a brand, and this is really harming the American brand across the globe. Do you agree with that?

LIPSKY: Well, that was similar to the sentiment I heard this week in Washington at the meetings. A lot of countries are frustrated. What they don't understand is recessions happen, downturns happen. These are part of natural economic cycles.

But this was a self-owned goal on the global economy, is how the ministers call it. We didn't need to be here. We were in such a better position going into January and in the inauguration. And all of their economies are hurting.

So they're frustrated. They're also still willing to negotiate, but many of them don't understand who to negotiate with in the White House or what the White House wants. So I agree with that sentiment in terms of the hurt to the U.S. brand.

Countries have to be in negotiation with the U.S., but many of them would like to have another option if they could find it. I don't think that's a good thing for the United States long term.

DEAN: All right. Josh Lipsky, thank you so much. Great timing with the conference that you were just at, talking to all of those, you know, world official -- global officials across the world and how they're kind of metabolizing all of this. We really appreciate you breaking that down for us. Thanks so much.

LIPSKY: Thanks, Jessica.

DEAN: Massive crowds and leaders from across the globe fill the streets of Rome to pay their final respects to Pope Francis. That is next right here on the CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:41:47]

DEAN: The Catholic Church has laid Pope Francis to rest at the St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome. People paid their respects as his coffin passed in the streets today. Earlier, more than 250,000 mourners attended the funeral service at the Vatican. The gathering included more than 100 delegations from around the world.

President Trump was there along with First Lady Melania Trump. Former President Joe Biden was also there. The service lasted nearly two hours, honoring the people's Pope. Francis is being remembered for his humanity and humility.

The homily was delivered by the dean of the College of Cardinals. Now that's the group that will choose a new pontiff.

Cardinal Giovanni Re telling mourners of the Pope's opposition to war, repeatedly echoing Francis' message to, quote, build bridges, not walls.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP) LARA, ATTENDED POPE FRANCIS' FUNERAL: He was different. He was not afraid to speak. And according to me, in my opinion, he was always ready to give a voice to the voiceless.

Yes, I mean, he's just different. Really humble. He love the poor people. He went to the border between Africa and Europe and went to Iraq or Iran. And I think he was the best, still the best, actually.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

DEAN: Francis made history when he became the first pope from Latin America. Born in Argentina, he hailed from a humble background. His father had immigrated there from Italy.

David Culver has a look now at the Pope's hometown of Buenos Aires.

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: For the several days that we've been here in Buenos Aires since Pope Francis' passing, we've seen isolated, small memorials, devout nonetheless. But this, this is the mass gathering of so many in this city coming together for a final mass and memorial for one of their own who became the world's pope.

And you can see in the Plaza de Mayo, crowds packed in here to be together in a very celebratory mood too. I mean, you notice they have banners, they wear t-shirts that they've had made, they've got music, and there's a positive uplifting spirit about all of this. And yet at the same time, there's a lot of symbolism in the folks who are here and where they have come from.

Many of them have traveled in and we were able to get on a bus and go with a few of them, but directly from the margins. And that's exactly what Pope Francis would speak of, wanting to reach out to those who are on the fringes. And they offered several different shuttle buses to bring in folks from these communities, from the villas, the humble, simple, lower income neighborhoods.

And they were able to bring them here and to be together. And it doesn't end with just a mass, it continues throughout in what's going to be essentially a pilgrimage of sorts through Buenos Aires, going to sites that were important to then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio.

They'll then end the day with what will be a very personal sporting event, San Lorenzo Soccer Club. They're playing and they will be wearing commemorative jerseys. All of this coming together in what is a country bidding farewell to their beloved Pope.

[16:45:13]

DEAN: The White House wants to make it much harder for states to qualify for federal disaster assistance, and that could start very soon. More on the other side here in the CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:50:02] DEAN: Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who once served as President Trump's press secretary, is asking him to reconsider her request for aid in the wake of deadly storms that hit Arkansas last month. The Trump administration had earlier denied Sanders' requests.

Both President Trump and the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem have argued for the elimination of FEMA. And now, a memo from the acting director of FEMA, obtained by CNN, would put that plan into motion.

CNN's Gabe Cohen has the latest.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump has made it clear he wants to shift more responsibility for disaster response and recovery to the states. Well, now we've obtained a memo that gives us a much better sense of what that could look like. I say could because, to be clear, this is just a proposal.

But this is a memo that was sent up by FEMA's acting administrator, a Trump appointee, with recommendations for the President to potentially implement starting this hurricane season that would dramatically cut down the number of disaster declarations that get approved by the President and the amount of federal dollars that go out the door to states and communities hit by storms.

Now, the memo lays out several recommendations, like denying all disaster declarations for snow storms, for example. But by far the biggest piece of this is a proposal to quadruple the threshold of damage needed to qualify for federal disaster assistance.

Now, what that would mean is that a community, a state, would have to suffer four times as much damage as they currently do from a storm in order to qualify for federal aid. And that would focus federal funds almost exclusively on large-scale storms, like Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Helene. And it would leave states to handle and to pay for smaller storms on their own.

Now, the idea of raising that threshold really isn't controversial in and of itself. I've talked to top FEMA officials from the Biden and Obama administrations who told me, frankly, they think the threshold should be raised, that the federal government has been bailing out too many communities for storms that the state should really help handle.

But raising it four-fold ahead of hurricane season, well, that could pose serious problems to states who have not budgeted or prepared for that. One state emergency official told us the proposal is, quote, "alarming". Another said, quote, "that is a massive increase".

We are fully anticipating that states are going to have to take on a larger burden to respond to emergencies. We just need some clarity. We're trying to develop a path forward without really knowing what the path looks like.

Now, at this point, there's no clear indication that these guidelines are being followed. But I do want to mention that President Trump recently rejected a request from Washington State for additional assistance after a bomb cyclone that hit last year. Their damage was more than twice the current threshold.

And at this point, the White House and FEMA have not said why Washington State was rejected, despite that fact.

Gabe Cohen, CNN, Washington.

DEAN: Gabe, thank you.

The new CNN Original Series, "My Happy Place", takes viewers on a captivating journey across the globe as six celebrities travel to the places that have become their personal sanctuaries.

Anchor Boris Sanchez traveled to Key Largo, Florida, where he and his childhood friends dive shipwrecks off the coast as a way to connect with Mother Nature and find some peace.

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Florida oozes from my pores. It is home. And I feel special when I'm here. I feel right when I'm here.

I grew up in South Florida, not very far from the water. Got started with snorkeling, free diving. One thing led to another. I started scuba diving and I've never looked back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got Fabio, Junior, John.

SANCHEZ: These are my childhood friends. I've known them for many years. We've done dive trips down here now for seven years.

The ocean itself is like a mystery. You sort of see what's happening above the water. And while that is captivating, what's happening underneath is unbelievable.

SANCHEZ: Key Largo is a place unlike any other in the United States. You have these massive shipwrecks just offshore.

These wrecks are not only historic, they're teeming with life. We're right above the Spiegel Grove. It's an enormous wreck. It's about two football fields long and it's like a haunted mansion underwater.

It's been underwater for about two decades. Famously, the folks who sank it messed up and it sank on its side. Then a hurricane came in about 2005. It fixed the boat. It lifted it upright.

The second dive, we moved about 6 miles. We went to the Duane. This is a Coast Guard cutter. One of the cool things about the Duane, it's sort of a thin vessel and on the sides of it, you almost get this waterfall of fish. Hundreds and hundreds of fish all moving up and down the side of this wreck.

[16:55:02]

We saw this really big hawksbill turtle. They're gorgeous and hilarious and also not shy around people. So we got to swim with it for a while and check out what it was doing. I spend so much of my days talking to people. One of my favorite things about diving is that nobody can talk to you. You can't hear anybody.

Diving is an amazing way to connect with Mother Nature and to forget about all the crazy stuff that's happening on land or in your personal life. It's a fantastic way to be in the moment and to hang out with your friends and goof off.

Did a handful of dives and right now we're kicking back, enjoying the reward, playing some dominoes, food and booze is on the way.

Look at that. I had an amazing time, especially bringing a camera crew out here to document some of it, to share it with folks. It was unforgettable.

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DEAN: That seemed so fun. Boris, I love it.

Be sure to tune in. The all-new CNN Original Series, "My Happy Place", premieres tomorrow night at 10:00 Eastern and Pacific. On that episode, you can join actor Alan Cumming in the Scottish Highlands for the first episode only here on CNN.

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