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President Trump Confident in Making Deals, Answers I Don't Know on Upholding the Constitution; President Trump to Reopen Alcatraz Prison; Israel Vows to Respond to Airport Attack by Houthis; Israel Calling on Thousands of Reservists for Gaza Operation; President Putin Announces 72-Hour Ceasefire; Brazil Police Thwarted Bomb Plot for Lady Gaga Concert; Cardinals to Elect Next Pope on Wednesday; Conclave To Elect Next Pope Begins On Wednesday; GOP Amps Up Trump Impeachment Talk In Midterm Battle; Woman Deported Without Daughter Mourns Her U.S. Dream; Inside The Fight To Save Florida's Beloved Manatees. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired May 05, 2025 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States, around the world and streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church, just ahead. From concerns about sweeping tariffs to questions about upholding the U.S. Constitution, Donald Trump's revealing answers.
Police in Brazil say they foiled a bomb attack targeting Lady Gaga's concert, who they say attackers were targeting.
And as the mourning period for Pope Francis is set to end, we will take a look at the secretive process of choosing his successor.
Good to have you with us. Well, many Americans are worried about the impact of President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs. As a new week begins, U.S. futures indices are in the red, with the current course of the economy causing pessimism. Just a short time ago, the president spoke to reporters aboard Air Force One. And despite how markets have been doing, he remained confident of making good trade deals.
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Nobody understands. We're negotiating with many countries. But at the end of this, I'll set my own deals because I set the deal. They don't set the deal. I set the deal. They've been ripping us off for years. I set the deal. Every country, almost without fail, friend and foe, has been ripping us off for years. So we're meeting with almost all of them, including China. And at the end, I'm setting the deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Meantime, in an interview with NBC News, the president also said he didn't know if he needed to uphold the Constitution regarding due process for deportations. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIRSTEN WELKER, NBC NEWS HOST: Your Secretary of State says everyone who's here, citizens and non-citizens, deserve due process. Do you agree, Mr. President?
TRUMP: I don't know. I'm not a lawyer. I don't know.
WELKER: Well, the Fifth Amendment says --
TRUMP: I don't know. It seems it might say that, but if you're talking about that, then we'd have to have a million or two million or three million trials.
WELKER: But even given those numbers that you're talking about, don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as president?
TRUMP: I don't know. I have to respond by saying again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said. What you said is not what I heard the Supreme Court said. They have a different interpretation.
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CHURCH: Michael Genovese is President of the Global Policy Institute at Loyola Marymount University and the author of "The Modern Presidency: Six Debates That Define the Institution." He joins me now from Los Angeles. Always good to have you with us.
MICHAEL GENOVESE, PRESIDENT, GLOBAL POLICY INSTITUTE, LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY: Great to be here.
CHURCH: So on Sunday, Donald Trump said, I don't know, when asked if he as president must uphold the Constitution. He was talking specifically about his administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants while ignoring due process. What's your response to what he said?
GENOVESE: You know, it was a jaw-dropping few days because of the way he was mumbling and fumbling about easy questions. He was asked a few days ago by ABC if the Declaration of Independence, which is on the wall of the Oval Office, what it means to him. And Donald Trump's fumbled and mumbled and finally said, it means it's a declaration. Then he said, it's a declaration of love. Well, it's a declaration of war. We declared war and separation from Great Britain and so it's a declaration of war. He didn't know that.
Then Sunday morning on one of the interviews shows, he was asked the question that you referred to. Do you have to follow the Constitution? And his answer was, I don't know. Well, he just a few weeks ago took an oath of office that required him to swear that he would uphold the Constitution. And he was also asked about due process. Must you have due process for the people you're detaining and sending to El Salvador? And he said, I don't know. This is not rocket science. He knows the answer an should know the
answer to this. And it's really sort of embarrassing that he did not and that he's trying to sort of squirm around it. He knows the answer. And the answer is you have to uphold the Constitution, period, end of sentence.
CHURCH: In the meantime, President Trump is dismissing concerns that his trade and tariff policies could lead to a recession, saying, quote, "everything's okay," but conceding it could mean higher prices in the short term and perhaps a short-lived recession.
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What would be the political consequences of such an outcome?
GENOVESE: Well, you know, the captain of the Titanic told us not to worry. If he pursues the more aggressive side of his tariffs, the United States will face a lot of opposition. There's already a lot of global opposition to Trump. In Canada, for example, they just had a national election in which the liberal candidate who was way behind ran against Donald Trump and won. In Australia, the liberal candidate way behind ran against Donald Trump and won.
In Mexico, president of Mexico is staking her claim against Donald Trump. Her popularity shoots up. So the U.S. brand is tarnished and Donald Trump keeps tarnishing it. We went from global leader to pariah in weeks. And that has consequences. As a measure of our place and our status, we are declining in the eyes of the world and we need to recover that because it has tremendous implications from everything from tourism to trade.
CHURCH: And Michael, what about the reconciliation bill, what Trump calls his big, beautiful bill? Speaker Mike Johnson wants to get this bill through the House by Memorial Day. That's May 26th. So, how likely is it that that will happen given some moderate Republicans oppose cuts to Medicaid and other social safety net programs and, of course, job cuts in that bill?
GENOVESE: That's a very hard sell for the president. You know, we just had the first 100 days and in the first 100 days of Franklin Roosevelt, he passed a lot of legislation. And that's the gold standard. In Donald Trump's first 100 days, he did a lot of executive orders, which the next president can easily overturn. And so he had an active 100 days, but not a consequential one. You have to have laws. You have to pass laws to really be consequential and to have them stick.
So Donald Trump really needs to get some things through Congress. And the reconciliation process will help him because it'll take some of the pressure off the table for him and help the Republicans in Congress. But he's going to have trouble in his own party because if he goes sort of full Elon Musk, the Republicans in the party simply will not take it. And so he's going to be in a lot of hot water if he tries to push for the more extreme version of what he wants.
CHURCH: And President Trump just removed National Security Advisor Mike Waltz from that post. And now U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be responsible for both portfolios. So it's clear Trump trusts Rubio now, but how workable is an arrangement like that?
GENOVESE: Well, Rubio has four different responsibilities now. And the question is, how many balls can you juggle at once? Being Secretary of State is a full time job plus. And so you can't do all these different jobs. And so Donald Trump, who's never been known as a manager, he's never had to manage any large organization, just a family business.
And even in his first term, most of the wonders that he made were a function of mismanagement. And so Donald Trump needs someone who will manage him. In the absence of that, these kinds of things just don't work.
CHURCH: Michael Genovese, we thank you for joining us. I appreciate it.
GENOVESE: Thank you.
CHURCH: Donald Trump says he's directing the Bureau of Prisons to reopen Alcatraz, the infamous former prison that's now a popular tourist attraction. The U.S. president says he wants to bring it back into service because of, quote, "radicalized judges who want to ensure due process for migrants." CNN's Alayna Treene has the story.
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, President Donald Trump on Sunday evening, as he was traveling from Florida back to the White House, posted something on social media that he's not yet raised so far since taking office, which is this idea of wanting to reopen and rebuild Alcatraz to house criminals in the country. I'd remind you that Alcatraz is just off of the San Francisco coast. It used to operate as a U.S. federal penitentiary for 30 years before closing in 1963.
It's currently operated as a museum and open to tourists. But let me get into some of what the president posted. He said, quote, "rebuild and open Alcatraz. For too long, America has been plagued by vicious, violent and repeat criminal offenders. When we were a more serious nation in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals." He said that's the way it is supposed to be.
The post went on to say, "That is why today I am directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt Alcatraz to house America's most ruthless and violent offenders." Now, again, as I pointed out, this is not something that the president has said before that he had wanted to do.
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But it is in keeping with some of the other things that he's done so far in the last several months, which is really to try and crack down on criminals in the United States, but also undocumented immigrants, particularly those who have committed crimes. We've seen that in the deportations of him sending migrants to El
Salvadoran prisons. We've also seen him try to transfer migrants to a naval base at Guantanamo Bay, something that has really raised concerns over living conditions there and the arduous, expensive process of making it a suitable site for deportees.
Now, it's very much unclear how the administration would actually move forward with this, but like some of the other actions he has taken, very likely this would face challenges in the legal system. All to say, something we are continuing to see how exactly they are going to work toward this and whether there are some tangible plans to actually make this happen. Alayna Treene, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.
CHURCH: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is issuing new warnings to Yemen's Houthi rebels and to Iran. They follow Sunday's missile strike near Israel's Ben Gurion Airport. No one was injured, but it's causing concern because most of what's fired from Yemen at Israel is intercepted.
Speaking on Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu said Israel will strike back against the Houthis and their backers in Iran. The Houthis are also issuing a warning to the rest of the world.
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YAHYA SAREA, HOUTHI SPOKESPRESON (through translation): The Yemeni armed forces renew their warning to all international airlines against continuing their flights to Ben Gurion Airport as it has become unsafe for air traffic.
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CHURCH: Several carriers including Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines have suspended flights to and from Tel Aviv until after Tuesday. CNN Jerusalem correspondent Jeremy Diamond has more on the strike and the aftermath.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Houthi militants in Yemen have regularly fired missiles at Israel, but they are almost always intercepted, but not on Sunday. A ballistic missile making impact near Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport after Israel's air defenses failed to intercept this missile. The CCTV video from the area shows the moments that that missile made impact.
But to understand the force of the blast, take a look at this video, which was filmed on a roadside right near the impact.
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DIAMOND: The missile strike shut down operations at Ben Gurion International Airport for about an hour. Several airlines canceled flights to and from Tel Aviv. No one was seriously injured. But when you look at the size of the crater that this ballistic missile caused and some of the damage in the area, you can see how deadly this could have been had it hit in a populated area. The question now is how will Israel respond? The Israeli prime
minister calling urgent consultations with his security cabinet and then posted a video saying that Israel has acted in the past and will act in the future. The Israeli prime minister, we should note, is facing pressure not only from within his own governing coalition, but also from members of the opposition, like Benny Gantz, the former defense minister, to take direct action against Iran in retaliation for this Houthi attack. Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.
CHURCH: The Houthis say they struck near the airport with a hypersonic missile. CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton explains how that technology could change the Middle East conflict.
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CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: The Israelis have a layered air defense system, the most famous part of which, of course, is the Iron Dome system. But that's just only one component. That's a short range component. The Arrow 3 system is designed to intercept ballistic missiles of the kind that came from Yemen or of the kind that we thought came from Yemen. But here's the problem. There is a possibility, if the Houthi spokesman in Yemen is correct, that this was a hypersonic missile.
If that's the case, that would indicate that there is a huge technology leap that the Houthis were able to do. They did that certainly with Iranian help, but probably also with Russian help. And that, of course, would be a major game changer for the Middle East because the Israeli air defense systems aren't built for hypersonic missiles, especially hypersonic missiles like this one that goes, apparently, if all this is true, up to 16 times the speed of sound and is maneuverable.
So if the Yemeni Houthi spokesman is correct, then there are some big changes coming to the Middle East in terms of not only offensive capabilities like this one, but also for the Israelis and their defense capabilities will definitely need to change what they're doing.
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CHURCH: Israel says it's already expanding military operations in Gaza. The Israeli army released this video on Sunday. Army officials say it shows Israeli troops in Rafah. The video's date and location have not been independently verified. Israel's public broadcaster reports that the plan includes evacuating Palestinian civilians from northern and central Gaza ahead of operations in those areas.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, however, warns that any escalation will put the hostages in immediate danger. Israel says it's ordering tens of thousands of reservists to report for duty in the coming days. Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to visit Russia for this week's
Victory Day commemorations. His visit and the 80th anniversary marking the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II would also coincide with Moscow's unilateral three-day ceasefire in Ukraine, set to begin Thursday.
But Kyiv is pushing back on the Kremlin's plan. Ukrainian officials say that if Moscow really wants a humanitarian ceasefire, it needs to be at least 30 days, which was originally proposed by the U.S. in March.
President Vladimir Putin believes Russia has the strength to end the conflict on his terms, and he recently told state TV he's hopeful nuclear weapons won't be needed.
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VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translation): They wanted to provoke us so that we made mistakes. There's been no need to use those weapons you just talked about, and I hope it won't be required. We have enough strength and means to bring what was started in 2022 to a logical conclusion with the outcome Russia requires.
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CHURCH: During a visit to the Czech Republic on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged allies to put more pressure on Moscow to end the conflict. Otherwise, he believes Russia won't take any real steps to do so.
A night of long-awaited joy for Lady Gaga fans almost turned into a living nightmare. Just ahead, how authorities say they foiled a bomb plot targeting Gaga's massive concert. Back with that and more in just a moment.
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CHURCH: Jury selection begins today in the federal trial of music mogul Sean Diddy Combs. He has pleaded not guilty to five charges that include racketeering, conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted, Combs could spend the rest of his life in prison. Among the witnesses we're expecting to hear from is Combs' ex-girlfriend Casey Ventura. CNN first reported on video that shows Combs assaulting Ventura in 2016.
Well, police in Rio de Janeiro say Lady Gaga's long-awaited return to Brazil on Saturday was almost marked by tragedy. Our Julia Vargas Jones has the latest on the alleged plots targeting Gaga's massive concert.
JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Disconcerting new details emerging as we're learning one man believed that Lady Gaga had a Satanist religious inclination and as such, he wanted to respond in the same way by carrying out a satanic ritualistic killing of a child or a baby on a live stream during her show. This man had been watched by U.S. consulate who alerted authorities in Rio de Janeiro and now he's charged with terrorism and inducing crime.
In total, 15 warrants of search and seizure were carried out across Brazil in four different states. This is also unfolding as we're learning an extremist group that communicated on Discord was posing as little monsters or Lady Gaga fans online recruiting participants including underaged people to orchestrate attacks with improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails at the concert.
The leader of this organization was arrested in southern Brazil for illegal possession of a firearm as well as a teenager who was in possession of child pornography. The police said that they carried out this work with discretion and precision to avoid panic of the crowds, but the Lady Gaga team did say that they were not aware of these threats before the event saying, quote, "We learned about this alleged threat via media reports in the morning. Prior and during the show there were no known safety concerns nor any communication from the police or authorities to Lady Gaga regarding any potential risks."
Her team worked closely with law enforcement throughout the planning and execution of the concert and all parties were confident in the safety measures in place. We did speak though to one of the concert goers who told us a little bit about what it was like to find out the next day that they had been a target of a potential terror attack.
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DANI MORERA TRETTIN, CONCERTGOER: To know that there was a group actively targeting us and the LGBTQ plus community definitely put a bitter taste in my mouth. I mean I am glad that they didn't tell people about what was going on and they did it with discretion because I believe that could have caused some major panic and would have caused many people not to come.
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JONES: Lady Gaga of course has amassed a massive following. The LGBTQ plus community has been a staunch defender of the rights of that community for years but she also seems to not have let this terror attack plan put a stain on what was a very successful show. She posted on Instagram on Sunday thanking her fans and saying, quote, "Your heart shines so bright your culture is so vibrant and special I hope you know how grateful I am to have shared this historical moment with you." Julia Vargas Jones, CNN, Los Angeles.
CHURCH: Cardinals are gathering at the Vatican ahead of Wednesday's Papal conclave. Still to come, we will tell you what to expect from this week's vote to select the next pope. Back in just a moment.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHURCH: Welcome back everyone. Cardinals will be meeting at the Vatican in the coming hours as they prepare for a new pope. The conclave to elect the next pontiff begins on Wednesday. CNN's Rafael Romo tells us what to expect.
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While the stove where the ballots will be burnt was assembled inside, on the rooftop of the Sistine Chapel the Vatican fire brigade installed the chimney that will announce to the world the new pope has been chosen when white smoke billows out of it. Cardinals have been meeting daily to discuss church matters and the conclave.
SUSAN REYNOLDS, INTERIM DIRECTOR OF CATHOLIC STUDIES, EMORY UNIVERSITY: The conclave will begin on May 7th with one vote. After that the cardinals will take four votes a day two in the morning and two in the evening, Rome time of course.
ROMO (voice-over): But who are these men who will choose a new pope? The cardinal electors come from 71 countries across five continents. The Vatican says that during his 12 years of pontificate Pope Francis significantly reshaped the College of Cardinals making it a less Eurocentric and a more international body.
And for the first time in the church's history, 15 new nations will be represented by their native electors including Tonga, a Polynesian kingdom in Oceania, South Sudan, a war-torn and landlocked nation in East Africa, and Paraguay the neighbor of Pope Francis native Argentina in South America.
REYNOLDS: We don't want someone too young, right. Think of the papacy of John Paul II. He was in that office for 27 years. There was a consensus that maybe that was a little too long to have one person at the helm.
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ROMO (voice-over): The youngest elector, Cardinal Mykola Bychok, who serves in Melbourne, Australia, but was born in Ukraine, is only 45 years old, while 79-year-old Cardinal Carlos Osoro Sierra, the retired archbishop of Madrid and a Spaniard, is the oldest.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think there's any room for politics here. I think we need somebody that follows in his footsteps with the same type of belief system, to make the catholic church all inclusive and not turn people away.
ROMO: While it will be a less European conclave, 53 cardinal electors, the majority come from Europe, with Italy still having the largest number with 19, followed by France with six and Spain with five. Sixteen cardinals hail from North America, four from Central America and 17 from South America, while 23 traveled from Asia, 18 from Africa and four from Oceania.
The teachings of Pope Francis loom large as a top cardinal reminded the faithful on Saturday about how much the late pontiff cared for the less fortunate, especially the poorest, the last the discarded, because in them is the Lord, Cardinal Fernandez said.
It remains to be seen whether the cardinal electors stick with a reformer like Francis, or someone who charts a more conservative path for the Roman Catholic Church.
Rafael Romo, CNN, Rome.
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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get more now from Mathew Schmalz. He is a professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross, and joins me live from Worcester in Massachusetts.
Appreciate you being with us.
MATHEW SCHMALZ, PROFESSOR OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES, COLLEGE OF HOLY CROSS: Thank you for inviting me.
CHURCH: Of course.
So when the conclave gets underway on Wednesday, what's the process involved? From the first day, the College of Cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel and prepare to vote for the next pope to the actual announcement of the new bishop of Rome.
SCHMALZ: Well, first, the cardinals will process into the Sistine Chapel to the hymn of "Veni, Sancti Spiritus", which means "Come, Holy Spirit". They'll take a vow of secrecy. And then they'll have a vote after the rest of the entourage leaves us. And then they will stay there until they decide on who will be Pope Franciss successor.
CHURCH: And this is considered to be the most diverse conclave in history, with most of the cardinals appointed by the late Pope Francis. So how significant is that, and how equipped are they to tackle the many issues confronting the Catholic Church right now?
SCHMALZ: Well, good questions. I think in one sense its going to be very difficult to choose a pope who has a different style than Pope Francis. But the diversity of the conclave means that many cardinals really don't know each other very well. And so we might be looking at not a radically extended conclave, but one that lasts longer than usual because many cardinals simply don't know each other, and they have to work through some very complex issues regarding the state of the church in the modern world.
CHURCH: So, who do you think are the top candidates, and how likely is it that the next bishop of Rome will carry on the reforms of Pope Francis?
SCHMALZ: Another good question, because many times cardinals choose a successor who's somewhat different. Right now, the two top candidates seem to be Cardinal Parolin and Cardinal Luis Tagle. Cardinal Parolin, former secretary of state, comes from Italy. And of course, Cardinal Tagle comes from the Philippines. But they've both been getting very bad press recently. And so, what I'm looking at now is a fairly open conclave where it'll take the cardinal electors some time to discern who they want to be Pope Francis's successor.
CHURCH: Do you have a sense of who may be the next pump -- the next pope?
SCHMALZ: Well, there is what I would call a stealth candidate who I have my eyes on. I lived in Sri Lanka and managed a study abroad program there and studied Catholicism there. And Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith, who was papabile or candidate for pope on anyone's minds the previous two elections, is still eligible and he brings both a traditionalist bent, but also one in terms of interreligious dialogue that reflects very much what Pope Francis's teachings and actions were.
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And so he's a candidate who I'm looking at quite closely, especially the conclave lasts for an extended period of time.
CHURCH: It is a very interesting time. We'll all be watching very closely. You particularly, I suspect, Mathew Schmalz. Many thanks for talking with us. Appreciate it.
SCHMALZ: Thank you for inviting me.
CHURCH: Of course.
Well, Pope Francis legacy of peace will go on in Gaza. In one of his final wishes before his passing, the pontiff requested that one of his popemobiles be transformed into a health clinic for children in the enclave. Vatican News says it will be refitted as a mobile health station that can examine and treat children in areas without functioning health care facilities. The popemobile was used during Francis's trip to the Holy Land in 2014. After a short break, a dramatic rescue after a semi truck crashed and was left hanging from an overpass. We'll have details on that after the break.
Stay with us.
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CHURCH: A dramatic rescue in Louisville, Kentucky, where a semi truck crashed and was left dangling off an interstate overpass early Sunday. Fire crews spent about 30 minutes getting the driver hoisted out of the cab, with crews also waiting below in case the truck fell. The driver was not injured. The cause of the crash is under investigation. Incredible there.
Well, TikTok is being offered yet another lifeline. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he would extend the pause on banning the platform if no deal is reached by June 19th. The Chinese parent company ByteDance has until then to divest the U.S. assets of TikTok or face a nationwide ban. Trump has granted a reprieve from the ban. Twice Democratic senators have criticized the move, arguing Mr. Trump has no legal authority to extend the deadline.
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Well, Donald Trump has ordered a 100 percent tariff on foreign made movies. In a social media post, he wrote that the movie industry in America is dying a very fast death, with other countries offering incentives for U.S. filmmakers and studios. Mr. Trump characterized this as a national security threat and propaganda. It's not entirely clear how such a tariff would be implemented, though, because films are classified as intellectual property, not goods, and represent a kind of service that's not currently subject to tariffs.
Well, a strong showing for the McLaren team at this year's Miami Grand Prix with Oscar Piastri earning the victory. It is the Australian's third win in a row and his fourth of the season, stretching his Formula One championship lead. His teammate Lando Norris took second, while George Russell finished third for Mercedes, a whopping 37 seconds behind.
Well, ahead of the Grand Prix, fans were treated to an unusual race between full scale cars made of Legos. Each car has nearly 400,000 Lego bricks and can reach speeds up to 12mph. Thats about 20 kilometers per hour. It took a team of engineers, designers and Lego builders. More than 22,000 hours to build all ten cars.
I want to thank you so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church.
For our international viewers, "WORLD SPORT" is up next.
And for those of you here in the United States and Canada, I'll be back with more CNN newsroom in just a moment.
Do stay with us.
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CHURCH: Welcome back to our viewers here in North America. I'm Rosemary Church.
President Donald Trump won't be on the ticket in next year's midterm elections. So Republican leaders are searching for ways to turn out the MAGA faithful. And they think that one winning strategy could be to talk up the chance of impeachment.
CNN's Manu Raju has details.
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MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Republican leaders and Donald Trump are in intense discussions about how to hold the House come 2026. Typically, a midterm election is very painful for a party in power and with the economy struggling, as well as concerns about Donald Trump's policies and voters fearful about some of the actions that he has taken in office. Democrats are hopeful that they will be able to flip the chamber.
However, Republicans see an opportunity here as well. They recognize the map for the House much smaller. There are very few competitive seats that are truly at play, and they believe they can rev up the MAGA base by talking up the prospects of the Democrats if they take the House, could pursue a historic and record breaking third impeachment for Donald Trump.
Now, Democratic leaders don't want to talk about impeachment. Some on the left believe that Donald Trump has already engaged in impeachable offenses, and that has given enough for Republicans to seize upon, to point to, as they try to make their case to voters.
This is what Mike Johnson said to me last week when I asked him about Trump's interest in keeping the House.
How concerned is he about impeachment if the Dems take the majority?
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Well, we've already seen this before. They've already tried it twice. I'm certain they would try it again.
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): If the Republican campaign message in the midterms is vote for House Republicans and vote for Republican candidates for Senate to stop the Democrats from impeaching Trump. The American people are not going to care because they've seen that show twice. And it didn't matter. It won't work. No.
RAJU: But that last comment from Marjorie Taylor Greene saying that Republicans need to do much more in order to keep the House. They need to actually deliver on their agenda. But in addition to the House, there's, of course, the furious battle for the Republicans to keep control of the Senate there. They have a much more favorable map in keeping that chamber. But there are one big recruit who Republican leaders have in mind that is Brian Kemp in Georgia. We're learning that John Thune, the Senate majority leader, flew down to Atlanta over the easter holiday, talked to Kemp and his wife, tried to encourage him, answer some of his questions about whether to run several other Republican senators talked to him as well, including Senators Tim Scott, Senators Pete Ricketts and Senator Steve Daines, who used to be the Senate GOP campaign chairman, all hoping that they could put the seat currently occupied by Democrat Senator Jon Ossoff in play.
But if Kemp passes, that would be a big black eye for Republicans as they try to keep the Senate and try to put try to pick off a Democratic seat in a chamber they currently hold by 53-to-47 margin.
Manu Raju, CNN, Washington.
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CHURCH: A Guatemalan migrant is facing the threat of deportation just days after giving birth in the United States. The woman is identified only by her first name, Erica. Her attorney says she was detained by border patrol after walking in the Arizona desert for two days alone while eight months pregnant. Erica's attorney says she is seeking asylum in the U.S. due to fears of violence in Guatemala. She gave birth in an Arizona medical center with federal agents posted outside her hospital room. She's been released with a notice to appear before an immigration judge. A U.S. official says her baby is with her.
A woman who says she was separated from her young daughter by the Trump administration is speaking out. Last month, she was deported to her native Cuba, even though both her daughter and husband are U.S. citizens and she has never been charged or convicted of any crime. She tells CNN about life without her 17-month-old child, who was left behind.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PATRICK OPPMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Heidy Sanchez spends her days watching videos of daughter Kaylene (ph). It's as close as she can be to her child now, just days after Heidy was deported from the United States to Cuba.
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Kaylene, who was born in Florida, stayed there with her father, who, like Kaylene, is also a U.S. citizen. But she does not comprehend where her mother is.
She's very intelligent, Heidy says of her one year old daughter. When she talks to me, she says, mama, come. And they say, your mama is working. She says, mama, come.
Heidy lived for six years in the U.S. and although she tried to become a legal resident, she was placed into deportation proceedings after missing an immigration hearing in 2019. In late April, in what she thought was a routine appointment with immigration officials, she says they told her she was being deported and to have her husband come get their daughter.
I told them, don't take away my daughter, Heidy says. They never said if I could take her or not with me.
Heidy had to hand over her daughter to a member of the legal team to then give to her husband, her lawyer told me.
CLAUDIA CANIZARES, IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY: What they told her was that she needed to call her husband, and that she needed to ask him to come and pick up the baby. There was not an option of, oh, I want to take my baby. Can I take her?
OPPMAN: Two days later, Heidy was deported on a U.S. government flight to Cuba without her daughter, who she was breastfeeding and suffers from convulsions.
In a statement to CNN, the Department of Homeland Security contradicted what Heidy and her attorney told us, saying they always allow parents to decide whether their children are deported with them or stay behind with relatives. And that, quote, the Trump administration is giving parents in this country illegally the opportunity to self-deport and take control of their departure process with the potential ability to return the legal right way and come back to live the American dream.
Heidy now lives with relatives on the outskirts of Havana. There is no cell signal inside the house, so she shows us how she climbs up on the roof to be able to call her daughter and sing her to sleep. In Florida, Heidy says she was working as a nursing assistant and had
no criminal record, not seeming to fit with the image of the dangerous undocumented immigrants that the Trump administration says it is removing from U.S. streets.
Photos of her wedding in the U.S. are reminders of a different world, a different life.
I ask Heidy if she thinks she was living the American dream.
I don't know if it was the American dream, she tells me. But it was my dream. My family, a dream and family that seemed farther and farther out of reach.
Patrick Oppmann, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: Now to an environmental crisis in Florida. Pollutants in the Indian river lagoon are killing the states beloved manatees at an alarming rate.
CNN's Randi Kaye takes us inside the fight to save them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We're heading out on Florida's Indian River Lagoon, which stretches from Palm Beach County to Daytona Beach. The lagoon is where Florida manatees come for the warm water, but in recent years, the northern end of the lagoon has been a death trap for them.
PETER BARILE, MARINE BIOLOGIST, MARINE RESEARCH & CONSULTING, INC.: All these homes along the lagoon that are on septic tanks are slowly leaking, literally tons of nitrogen and phosphorus into the system.
KAYE: Marine biologist Peter Barile has studied manatees for decades. He says those pollutants are being released by septic tanks and water treatment facilities along the lagoon, and are fueling algae growth in the water, which is causing the manatees' main food source, seagrass, to die.
BARILE: So, this algae is reducing light down to the seagrasses, essentially smothering them and killing them.
KAYE: He says, manatees need to eat nearly 100 pounds of vegetation a day. Between December 2020 and April 2022, more than 1,200 manatees died of starvation, most of them here in the northern part of the Indian River Lagoon.
Just a couple of decades ago, the water in this Indian River lagoon was crystal clear. You could easily see down to the bottom. Now, it's dark and murky and polluted with chemicals and algae.
With their seagrass gone, the manatees had little choice but to eat the algae that killed it, which is toxic for them. Their normally round bodies became flat as they became more and more emaciated.
Katrina Shadix is the executive director of Bear Warriors United, which sued Florida's Department of Environmental Protection in 2022 to help protect the manatees.
KATRINA SHADIX, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BEAR WARRIORS UNITED: They suffered immensely and for a very long time. When manatee starves to death, it's an extremely painful process and basically their insides melt and turn to liquid.
KAYE: These photos from Bear Warriors United show how desperate some of the manatees were attempting to pull themselves out of the water to eat leaves off dry land or grass along the water's edge. And this video shows manatee carcasses being taken to a landfill for necropsies and disposal.
[02:55:05]
On this beach in the lagoon, Katrina says she found many manatee carcasses. She showed us some of their bones that still remain and shared this picture with us of manatee's skull.
SHADIX: There was a carcass of a mom and the skeleton had started to show and there was a baby skeleton inside of her body. So, she died pregnant. And the bones of the baby were fitted perfectly inside the bones of the mother.
KAYE: Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled in favor of Bear Warriors United and against the state, finding Florida's Department of Environmental Protection was in violation of the Endangered Species Act.
BARILE: There was lax leadership from the state of Florida over decades that allowed this problem to get worse and worse.
KAYE: The judge in the case ruled that there is a definitive causal link between Florida's Department of Environmental Protection wastewater regulations and the ongoing risk to manatees. Based in part on Peter Bareli's testimony, the judge found it will take at least a decade for this part of the lagoon to start seeing recovery.
BARILE: The state of. Florida has admitted that it will be 12 to 15 years before seagrasses start to recover.
KAYE: We reached out to both the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, but neither provided a response to our questions.
Are you hopeful the manatee population will come back here?
SHADIX: I am hopeful now. I wasn't at first. I was convinced that this home herd was going to go extinct and that the rest of the manatees would follow. But now that we won this lawsuit, we think we have a really good chance of working with the state to make sure the manatees don't go extinct on our watch.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And thank you so much for your company this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. I'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment.
Stay with us.
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