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Health Ministry, Doctors: At Least 31 Shot And Killed Near Gaza Aid Site; Trump Warns Of Potential Ramifications If Courts Strike Down His Tariffs; A Record Share Of Americans Want the Government To Get More Done. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired June 01, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: George Clooney stars in Broadway's "Good Night and Good Luck," presented live on CNN in a first of its kind broadcast. Watch the Tony nominated play, Saturday night, 7:00 P.M. right here on CNN and streaming on CNN.com.

[15:00:31]

All right, hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Sunday. I am Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin this hour with a developing story. The Palestinian Health Ministry says at least 31 Palestinians were shot dead in a chaotic scene near an aid site in Gaza run by a U.S. backed private foundation. The Health Ministry blamed the Israeli military for the deaths. The Israel Defense Forces said it did not fire on civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid zone.

With us now is CNN's Oren Liebermann in Jerusalem.

Oren, what more are you learning?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF AND CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, this all unfolds early Sunday morning, and here is what we can tell you and then there is a lot we are still trying to understand here.

This is at an aid distribution site in Rafah in Southern Gaza, where crowds, thousands, if not tens of thousands of Palestinians were coming early Sunday morning to pick up some of the aid from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the controversial new U.S. and Israel backed aid plan to distribute aid to Palestinians.

It is at this hour that the Palestinian Ministry of Health says 31 Palestinians, at least, were killed by gunfire and scores more wounded. The Red Cross, which has a 60-bed facility in Rafah in Southern Gaza, says their hospital was quickly filled and overwhelmed by the killed and wounded that were brought to the hospital, to the point where they had to send those who needed treatment to other facilities for care.

They say those who were brought in were suffering from gunshot and shrapnel wounds. They say it is the single highest number of weapon wounded they have seen since they opened their facility more than a year ago. The question now, how exactly did this all unfold?

The Palestinian Ministry of Health says Israeli forces opened fire on Palestinians as they went to that aid site to pick up aid. They say the killed -- those who had been killed had suffered from gunshot wounds to the head and to the chest.

Doctors at Nasser Hospital, as well as paramedics who treated those who were casualties at the scene, say they were also treating gunshot wounds.

Now, the Israeli military issued a statement on Sunday evening denying that their forces had opened fire on Palestinian civilians as they were going to the aid distribution site as they were at or near that site on their way to pick up aid. They say allegations that they did so are "false reports."

And the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that runs the site says there was no shooting or shooting incidents at or near this site, but any of the other total of four sites that they operate to distribute aid.

They say that reports that there were shootings were "untrue and fabricated." But we have spoken to an Israeli military source who says, about a kilometer away from this aid distribution site, there were suspects who approached Israeli forces in that area. Those forces opened fire, shooting warning shots towards the suspect. They say it happened several hours before the aid distribution site opened and is not connected to the accusations that the Israeli military opened fire on civilians heading to that aid distribution site.

Meanwhile, video from Rafah on Sunday morning shows the chaos and the aftermath of the scene as Palestinians rushed wounded and killed to the hospitals or to facilities for treatment and for care. The head of the UNRWA, the U.N. agency that works with Palestinian refugees says these aid sites have become, in his words, a death trap, not only because of the incident we saw today, but because of the crowds and the throngs that have approached them trying to get food ever since they opened one week ago.

The GHF has been running these sites for about a week now, and we have seen multiple videos of the throngs and the crowds trying to approach these effectively, running up to them to try to grab boxes of aid that are supposed to feed a family for about a week and a half before essentially leaving these sites.

But the crowds there are enormous, and it is in this chaos that the shooting unfolded.

WHITFIELD: Terribly sad. All right, Oren Liebermann in Jerusalem, thank you so much.

All right, President Trump is warning of ramifications if courts strike down his tariffs. In a social media post from just moments ago, the President writing: "If the courts somehow rule against us on tariffs, which is not expected, that would allow other countries to hold our nation hostage with their anti-American tariffs that they would use against us. This would mean the economic ruination of the United States of America."

[15:05:07]

That post comes as the President's expanding trade war faces growing uncertainty amid ongoing legal battles.

On Wednesday, Trump's new tariffs on imported steel will double from 25 percent to 50 percent. That increase coming just days after an appeals court temporarily reinstated most of the President's global tariffs, but that victory could be short lived. The administration is now awaiting a looming court decision over his use of emergency powers to pursue the trade war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD LUTNICK, U.S. COMMERCE SECRETARY: We are going to take that up to higher courts. The President is going to win like he always does. But rest assured, tariffs are not going away. He has so many other authorities that even in the weird and unusual circumstance where this was taken away, we just bring on another or another or another.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, CNN's Betsy Klein is joining us right now from the White House. So, Betsy, what more is being said by Trump officials about the plan ahead?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Well, look, despite all of the legal whiplash this past week, top Trump economic officials are making clear that the President's tariff policies are going to continue. On Wednesday, that federal court paused President Trump's global tariffs, and that was temporarily stopped by an appeals court as this plays through the judicial system, keeping those tariffs in place for now and buying them some time.

But Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says the administration has a number of other tools it can use to enact tariffs, says the tariffs aren't going anywhere. And we saw a sign of that on Friday as President Trump announced his plans to enact doubling of tariffs on foreign made steel from 25 percent all the way to 50 percent.

Now, administration officials defended the move Sunday as necessary for national security, but experts have warned that this could raise prices on the construction and manufacturing industries. It could also potentially raise the price of cars.

And all of this comes as the Trump administration is ratcheting up pressure on China. Top economic officials warning that China isn't holding up its end of the economic deal that was struck in Geneva just a few weeks ago, and then we also saw Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth say in Singapore this weekend that China poses a real and imminent threat to Taiwan. All of this leading up to what will almost certainly be a very high stakes critical call between President Trump and China's President Xi, something officials say will happen in the coming days. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR OF THE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: President Trump, we expect, is going to have a wonderful conversation about the trade negotiations this week with President Xi. That is our expectation.

But the bottom line is that we've got to be ready in case things don't happen the way we want, because if we have cannons but not cannonballs, then we can't fight a war. And if we don't have steel, then the U.S. isn't ready and we are not preparing ourselves for something. And if we are not strong, then that's when bad things happen.

So we have to show strength. We have to have a steel industry that's ready for American defense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: Now, all of these recent moves and rhetoric taken together threaten to upend what has been a relatively stable and positive period for the American economy. We saw a key inflation measure out this week show signs that inflation is cooling and GDP numbers expected out this week are expected to show some good signs for the American economy.

But Trump and his team here clearly willing to take a risk by turning up the threat of tariffs once more, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Betsy Klein at the White House, thank you so much.

All right, we've got a brand new CNN poll out today that shows what voters are thinking about both parties. CNN Washington Bureau chief and political director, David Chalian breaks down the new polling numbers with CNN's Manu Raju.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF AND POLITICAL DIRECTOR: We wanted to get a sense of where Americans are right now and one key trend we are looking at here, Manu, is should the government do more or is the government trying to do too much? Fifty-eight percent in our new poll of Americans now say the government should do more. That is a 30-year high that we have seen.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Wow.

CHALIAN: So what is driving that? Why are so many fewer Americans saying that the government is trying to do too much? Well, as you might imagine, we are seeing that movement among Republicans who are in charge of all aspects of government right now. Look at this huge drop from August of '23, seventy-three percent of Republicans said the government was doing too much. That was when Joe Biden was President, now it is down to 57 percent. But we also see this decrease in those saying government is doing too much among Independents as well. We also wanted to test where the country stood with the parties on

various issues, okay. Crime and policing is by far and away the Republicans best advantage, R-plus-13 now, R-plus-14 a couple of years ago.

But look at the economy and immigration, two key Trump issues. You see, it is still a Republican advantage. But you see that advantage is narrowing on both of those key issues. This gets to what Amy was saying I think about some of the anxiety people have about the economy over the tariffs that we were talking about. A dead tie on world affairs, and where the Democrats have the edge, education, abortion, and climate change.

[15:10:13]

We also took a look at some key attributes. This is how Americans sort of see parties, which party is better described as the party with strong leaders? Look at this.

RAJU: Wow.

CHALIAN: Sixteen percent of Americans say democrats, 40 percent say that of the Republican Party. Now, overall, no party is doing great. Lots of Americans say neither of these qualities apply to either party. But look at how much worse off the Democrats are. A party that gets things done, only 19 percent of Americans say that about the Democrats, 36 percent say it about the Republicans.

In fact, the only place that the Democrats are numerically ahead, the party of the middle class, this is basically a tie, though 34 percent say that of Democrats, 32 percent say that of Republicans. But this, I think, is the most fascinating. How do partisans talk about their own party?

So among Democrats and Democratic leaners, 32 percent say Democrats are the party with strong leaders, I mean, of their own kind, right? Eighty-two percent of Republican or Republican leaders say that about the GOP, only 41 percent of Democrats say that they are the party that gets things done, of their own kind and I will just say, 51 percent, Manu, a majority of Democratic and Democratic leaners say neither party is the party that gets things done attribute.

Imagine, that is the whole -- that's the project the Democrats are working on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, David Chalian and Manu Raju, thanks so much for that.

I'm joined now by CNN senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein. So, Ron, what do you think about that polling and I guess how it reflects voters are thinking and feeling?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think it reinforces what we know, which is that the Democrats are probably in their deepest hole in terms of public assessment of them since the Reagan and Bush years, probably since before the nomination of Bill Clinton. But the time frame for the consequences of that, I think, are often misunderstood. Those ratings are a problem for Democrats in 2028 if they can't improve them for the 2028 race.

I think they are very unlikely to have as much impact in 2026 as people think. The midterm elections tend to be overwhelmingly referenda on the performance of the current president, rather than assessments of the party out of the White House. You know, go back to 2010, when Republicans made the biggest gains in a midterm since 1938 for either party. And yet, going into that election, their image was below, was weaker than the image of Democrats in public opinion.

They made such big gains because people were expressing discontent with Obama's first two years at that point and that really is the issue for '26. Democrats can't really solve the kind of problems that those numbers reflect, Fred, until they have a presidential nominee, no guarantee they will then, but they are very unlikely to solve it before then. It just probably won't matter as much as people think in 2026.

WHITFIELD: Fascinating. Okay, meantime, equally fascinating, you have a piece out on CNN.com today titled: "Why working class people of color may determine MAGA's political future."

So elaborate on this because, you know, you write that, you know, the gains that Trump enjoyed among non-White voters in the last election may not necessarily, you know, stick around through his term. Why not?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, well, we have some new data, important new data on the composition of the electorate in 2024 and it shows us two big things. One is that Trump's best group, White voters without a four- year college degree, continue to decline by about two percentage points as a share of all voters, even though they turned out at enormous levels for Trump, they simply were declining as a share of the voter pool too much for them to overcome, and as a result, they continue declining along the trajectory they have since the 1970s, about two points over every four-year election.

Secondarily, the share of voters with a college degree increased among both Whites and non-Whites. You know, the number of Black and Latino adults with a four-year college degree is about double now what it was in 2000, and if you kind of look at those first two things, Trump's best group of non-college Whites are shrinking, college educated voters of all races who always have been more resistant to his agenda, particularly on cultural grounds, are growing. That is a real demographic squeeze on Republicans.

The way Trump found out of it was to run better than any Republican in modern times, better than George W. Bush, better than Ronald Reagan among minority voters without a college degree, mostly men, but also to some extent, Latino women and that was where he kind of escaped the squeeze of those other two changes. But what we are seeing, as I wrote a few weeks ago at the 100th-day mark, a lot of those -- a lot more of those voters are expressing kind of second thoughts about Trump.

[15:15:06]

His biggest gains in 2024, as we said, were among those non-college non-White voters. Now, his approval rating among them in multiple national polls is below 30 percent. So really holding those voters is absolutely critical to the future viability of his movement if you consider the other demographic changes that are squeezing MAGA from the opposite directions.

WHITFIELD: All right, and so one has to wonder if that means that becomes fertile ground for the Democrats.

BROWNSTEIN: Well, clearly, I think Democrats have a better chance of regaining ground among non-white non-college voters than among the white non-college voters. I mean, the fact is that really, no matter what happens for Democrats, they have had very limited ability to claw back non-college voters, non-college White voters in the last 15 or 20 years.

I mean, Joe Biden did slightly better than Hillary Clinton in '16 and Kamala Harris in '24, but not a lot better. And that, I think, is because there are cultural attachments to the Trump message, the kind of the very aggressive messaging on race and culture.

Whereas among the non-White blue collar voters, the attachment is mostly economic. They believe that Biden failed them on the economy, life was getting less affordable. They thought that Trump would make it more affordable. And now, you know, as we are seeing, after a few months, they are not seeing the kind of progress that they expected.

I think it is highly likely that their disposition in '28 will turn more on results. If Trump can improve their cost of living, Republicans have a real chance of cementing these gains. But if he can't, there isn't as much cultural attachment as there is among the blue collar Whites, and in fact, there is some backlash we see in polling among Latinos to the breadth of their deportation efforts, even though they are still supportive mostly of what he is doing on the border.

WHITFIELD: All right, Ron Brownstein, glad you could be with us. Thank you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: Still to come, a disturbing scene inside a congressional office. Why DHS officers handcuffed a staffer for Congressman Jerry Nadler, and how the massive wildfires in Canada will mean unhealthy air quality for millions of Americans this week.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:22:03]

WHITFIELD: All right, smoke from massive Canadian wildfires is now pushing further South into the U.S., but across three Canadian provinces, the smoke and flames threaten lives, forcing evacuation of thousands of people. In Manitoba, officials have declared a state of emergency.

CNN meteorologist, Allison Chinchar looks at the growing threat, both from the fires and the smoke.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You're still looking at nearly 200 wildfires across more than half a dozen provinces in Canada, but the concern really has been across the ones in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, because a lot of the smoke from those fires is what is really starting to trickle down into the U.S., both in the High Plains as well as the Upper Midwest.

As we go through the evening hours, you're still going to see quite thick amount of smoke, especially across Minnesota into Iowa and portions of Northern Missouri.

Now, by the time we get into Monday, you'll see it starts to spread back to the East. So that little bit of a break we've had the last 24 hours across states like Michigan, it is all going to come right back again, not just for Michigan, but Illinois, Indiana, even some of the southern states like Kentucky and Tennessee, probably looking at some pretty sunsets and sunrises because of the added smoke into the higher levels of the atmosphere there.

Now, we are going to see some changes coming in the next few days. Take Minneapolis, for example. Still well above average temperatures, but once that cold front slides in, you're not only going to see temperatures drop, you're also going to be looking at the chance for some rain and hopefully that will help clear a lot of the smoke out, not only from the air in Minneapolis, but also take care of some of the fires, because the same rain that's going to be coming into Minnesota is going to be sliding across the High Plains and also into Canada, especially across portions of Manitoba.

The southeastern portion of Manitoba, especially, could end up getting some decent amounts of rain as we head into late Monday and into Tuesday.

Now, when we say decent amounts of rain, in most cases, we are likely talking about a half an inch up to an inch. That may not sound like a lot of rain, and overall it really isn't, but it is enough that can hopefully help a lot of the firefighters in those areas be able to make some big advancements in the containment numbers of those fires.

The one concern, though, is before a lot of this rain comes in, we are going to see winds begin to increase a little bit later today and even into the early hours of Monday. So hopefully we don't see the fire spread before things can get better.

WHITFIELD: Allison Chinchar, thanks so much.

All right, still to come, a New York Congressman says DHS forcefully entered his office and handcuffed a staffer. Details straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:28:53] WHITFIELD: All right, we are learning new details about an incident in

which New York Congressman Jerry Nadler says federal agents forcefully entered his New York office. Footage of the incident shows one of the Congressman's aides being handcuffed by a federal agent from the Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday.

CNN correspondent, Gloria Pazmino is following all of this. I mean, pretty alarming video. What's the story behind it? What's happened from there?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fred.

What you have here is definitely two very different versions of the story. You have the Department of Homeland Security claiming that these officers were there to do a security check. And you have Nadler's chief-of-staff saying that that is a complete fabrication.

Now, here is what happened. This happened on Wednesday of last week. The staffers of Congressman Nadler's office noticed when they arrived to work that morning that there were federal officers in the building. Now, Nadler's office is housed in the same building as immigration court.

And they were there with court watchers and some pastors that were there to observe court activity that day. They noticed that migrants were being detained after showing up to their immigration appointments.

[15:30:13]

Now, Nadler's staffers invited the court watchers to sit in their office and to have a meeting about what they had just witnessed and while they were waiting for that meeting, that's when you see the officer arrive here at the front door. There was a staffer, the staffer that's being put in handcuffs, who tries to deny the officers entry and it is during this back and forth that they take her into custody. They handcuff her and they detain her for several minutes.

In fact, the Congressman was not inside the office when this happened. He arrived shortly after, and he talked to the agents to try and defuse the situation. Here is what the Congressman said in a statement. He said: "The decision to enter a congressional office and detained a staff member demonstrates a deeply troubling disregard for proper legal boundaries. If this can happen in a member of Congress' office, it can happen to anyone and it is happening."

And I think that last point, Fred, is important because both Nadler and other Democrats have said that this is part of a pattern by the Trump administration to intimidate members of Congress. We had the incident that happened in Newark a few weeks ago involving Congresswoman McIver. She was arrested, along with others, when they tried to gain access to an ICE facility in Newark, and now we are seeing this incident.

Another point that's important to highlight here, and that the chief- of-staff at Nadler's office spoke to me about in the last hour is this pattern of activity that's being reported at many courts across the country, including right here in New York City, and that is federal agents showing up to arrest migrants who are showing up to routine immigration check-ins.

Now, I want you to take a listen to Congressman Hakeem Jeffries speaking to our Dana Bash this morning about this strategy by the Trump administration. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): I think the administration is clearly trying to intimidate Democrats in the same way that they are trying to intimidate the country.

This whole shock and awe strategy, this flood the zone with outrageous behavior that they've tried to unleash on the American people during the first few months of the Trump administration, is all designed to create the appearance of inevitability. But Donald Trump has learned an important lesson, the American people aren't interested in bending the knee to a wannabe king.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: Now, Fred, I have been told both by the Congress member's staff that the staffer was eventually let go. They are not facing any sort of charges related to this incident, and so that this whole situation was able to be defused once the Congressman got there, but it is very clear in his statement and by those who I have spoken to this morning and throughout the day, that they see it as a total just boundary crossing on part of the federal agents -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much.

All right, still to come, a rise in violence has led to a booming industry in Mexico, armored cars. CNN takes you there, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:38:16]

WHITFIELD: All right, citizens in Mexico are at the polls today for the first ever judicial elections in the country. Hundreds of judges, magistrates and justices are on the ballot. New CNN video showing very long lines there at a polling station in Mexico City.

Candidates and those seeking higher office in Mexico have faced security threats for quite a long time now, and now some candidates aren't just wearing bulletproof vests, they're actually driving around in armored vehicles. CNN's David Culver has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR US NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: What do you take out --

GASI MOKOTOV, OWNER, ETTS BLINDAJES: Everything. CULVER: Everything comes out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: it is going to look like this.

CULVER: (voice over): Across Mexico fear is fueling a push for personal protection.

MOKOTOV: This door if you want to take a shot from inside and this door is like escape door.

CULVER: An escape door?

MOKOTOV: Yes.

CULVER (voice over): For 16 years, Gadi Mokotov's company has armored vehicles for Mexico's police, military, government officials, VIPs.

MOKOTOV: This is a level five.

CULVER (voice over): But now he says he's getting more and more requests from lower-level politicians and even from those who work for those elected officials.

CULVER (on camera): So you're seeing staffers now say we need armored cars, too.

MOKOTOV: One of them.

CULVER: This is a staffer.

CULVER (voice over): Spending tens of thousands of dollars not for status, but survival.

MOKOTOV: It's not nice to see a man coming here. And, you know, I need to protect my sons. But they're afraid. They're scared of the -- of the kids.

CULVER (on camera): What does that say about the state of security right now in this country?

MOKOTOV: The people, it's scary. They are scared to go to the streets.

[15:40:01]

CULVER (on camera): And it was here on this street where, just last week, two close aides of Mexico City's mayor were gunned down. You can see they still have flowers and a memorial left behind for them.

It happened just as the morning commute was getting underway.

CULVER (voice over): Violent crime in the capital, including murders and kidnappings, is up more than 150 percent compared to this time last year, that, according to El Pais. We've reached out to Mexico City officials to verify those numbers.

All of this comes on the heels of Mexico's most violent election cycle in history. Leading up to the 2024 elections, at least 37 political candidates were assassinated, with more than 800 attacks on campaign staff, officials, and their families.

And yet, this democracy forges ahead.

CULVER: Have you ever run for office?

CESAR GUTIERREZ PRIEGO, LAWYER AND CANDIDATE FOR JUSTICE OF THE SUPREME COURT: No. For anything. I've always been in a private practice. So --

CULVER: So, this is all new to you?

PRIEGO: Of course. I don't know. Not.

CULVER (voice over): Cesar Gutierrez Priego allows us in just after he wakes up, but before he suits up for the day.

CULVER: You've been wearing this for 45 days?

PRIEGO: Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Even -- doesn't smell very good. But it's -- it's something that I needed to do it, because I have to protect myself. I have two kids, and I don't want to be just another number.

CULVER (voice over): He knows the dangers. Years ago, his family was kidnaped and tortured by organized crime. At the time, his father was Mexico's top anti-drug official.

Now, Cesar says he's running to fix the system from within. He's one of 64 candidates vying for a seat on Mexico's Supreme Court, now being decided by popular vote for the first time. And that means meeting voters.

CULVER: So, he's been walking this street here with a crowd that's kind of grown as he's continued along.

CULVER (voice over): But aside from his vest, Cesar chooses not to hire bodyguards. He thinks a heavy security detail can make you too insulated, out of touch.

PRIEGO: Because they don't know the reality that the people is living.

(CESAR GUTIERREZ PRIEGO speaking in foreign language.)

CULVER (voice over): And while more focused on combating corruption, Cesar believes the streets are actually getting safer.

CULVER (on camera): You don't think it's as bad as it's being portrayed right now?

PRIEGO: I don't even think; I know.

CULVER: He's even praised President Claudia Sheinbaum's recent crackdown, which some say was triggered by President Trump, who's been pressuring Mexico to do more to secure this country and the border.

CULVER (voice over): But many voters see it differently.

(DAVID CULVER speaking in foreign language.)

CULVER (on camera): How's the -- how's the situation?

(UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE speaking in foreign language.)

CULVER (on camera): "As far as crime is concerned, it's bad."

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE speaking foreign in language.)

CULVER: He says even with security, police all around us doesn't make you really feel any safer because criminal elements can seep in at any moment.

CULVER (voice over): It's no surprise that so many are turning to armor, desperate for any sense of safety.

And outside, a line of cars waiting for their turn.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: David culver, thank you so much for that reporting.

All right, still to come, triumph in the face of protests for a high school transgender athlete.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:48:02]

WHITFIELD: All right for new college grads about to enter the workforce, a few more challenges ahead. Economists and top policymakers at the Federal Reserve warn the job market is weak and will likely become weaker as the tariffs war rages on.

But financial expert, Suzy Welch says grads should not just focus on chasing cash or even career. In fact, as she teaches to her students at NYU, success is really just about becoming authentically you.

She sat down with our Sara Sidner to explain.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUZY WELCH, FINANCIAL EXPERT, AUTHOR, "BECOMING YOU":: This is not a hack. I mean this is a process.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

WELCH: I mean thousands of people have now done it, so we can say it works. And we've seen it work. But it's -- it's not like it's a layup, it's easy. You've got to do the work. But the work is doable.

SIDNER (voice over): What Suzy Welch teaches at NYU has changed the entire trajectory of some of her student's lives by helping them find their purpose. Now she's hoping to do the same for all of us. WELCH: If you're in a job that you like and you feel exquisitely

alive, which I think is the way I describe your -- when -- when you are living your purpose, or as we call it your area of transcendence. If you're -- you feel it. You -- people say, how will I know? You'll know. It's a little like being in love. You feel different. You feel like, as I said, exquisitely alive. You feel not necessarily happy, because life can get in the way of you being happy, but you feel some sense of meaning and purpose.

SIDNER (voice over): If you don't feel that way, she's got a solution for you in her new book, "Becoming You."

WELCH: We do a lot of work to actually identify your values, your aptitudes, which is what you're good at, and then you're economically viable interest, which is the work that calls you intellectually or emotionally, but can pay you what you need and want to be paid according to your values. So, there's these three interlocking circles at the intersection, at the center is your purpose.

SIDNER (voice over): She calls it your area of transcendence. It's a three-pronged approach, identify your values, test your aptitude, and find your economically viable interests.

[15:50:06]

SIDNER (on camera): I find self-examination hard because as we all do to some degree, but because it often turns into self-interrogation and then self-criticism to the point where it's painful. And I just keep criticizing, criticizing. What I don't have.

WELCH: I know.

SIDNER: What I'm not doing. Why am I not doing it? So how do you deal with that?

WELCH: I've designed it to be enjoyable. And also, we're kind of unreliable observers of ourselves. So, there have to be kinds of exercises that take you away from sort of picking on yourself and being your own judge. Some of these exercises remove that stuff that you're talking about, otherwise it would never get done.

SIDNER (voice over): Thousands of her students have done it.

WELCH: They go through the whole process and they tweak their life. At the end, they go, oh yes, okay, 10 percent change here. But there is like 15 to 20 percent of people who go through it, either as students at NYU or in one of the workshops. And it -- we're talking like, you know, TNT, full explosion.

So, Toshi (ph) was one of those students. And I actually, you know, I must admit, I did not think he was a particularly good student because he came into class and he went to the back row and he put his head down and he didn't really engage. And he -- I thought, oh, okay, what's this kid doing here?

But on the last day of class, every student has to stand up and tell the narrative of their life going forward for the next 40 years based on what they learned doing the methodology. And he got up and I thought, oh, oh, okay, he's going to go from retail banking to investment banking. Well done. You know, I thought --

SIDNER: So, he was -- he was in retail banking.

WELCH: I thought. I -- I -- yes, I thought he was going to go from one form of banking to another. He gets up and he looks at the class and he goes, okay, my area of transcendence is I'm going to dress Kim Kardashian.

SIDNER: True?

WELCH: And when he said it, I was like, what is going on? Like, I didn't think this kid was actually present. He was inside and he discovered he'd been living by his parents values. His values -- his list of values was so different from what he was told his value should be.

His aptitudes were not in banking. When he got all the testing back, he thought no wonder my co-workers can't stand me. I mean, he said that was the moment of truth was getting the aptitude testing back. And then he knew his interests were not at all in banking, but in fashion. He wanted to make women irresistible to look at, he told us. And he just blew up his life. And he really did. I mean, of course, I was in the back of the room saying, God, I hope his parents don't know where I live.

SIDNER: How did you get here? How did you find your area of transcendence?

WELCH: Well, by accident, like most people.

SIDNER (voice over): She built a career and raised four children, but it wasn't until tragedy struck that she figured out her true life's work.

WELCH: And then there was this, you know, transformative event where I lost my husband and he passed away in 2020, and I was like, okay.

SIDNER (voice over): Her true life's work.

WELCH: And then there was this, you know, transformative event where I lost my husband, and he passed away in 2020. And I was like, OK, what's it going to be for me now?

SIDNER (voice over): Her husband, Jack Welch, an American business icon, died from kidney failure. As she grieved, she eventually got a spark, and Welch came up with the class she wished she had in her youth. She called it "Becoming You."

SIDNER (on camera): Can you give us a tool, something that people can take away from what you teach on a daily basis, and the book --

WELCH: Yes.

SIDNER: -- something we can take away to help us down the path of the area of transcendence?

WELCH: Sometimes we have a lot of trouble admitting to ourselves what kind of life we want because we may have a little, like, oh, wait, I want to be famous. Oh, I'm not going to admit that. Or I want to be extremely rich. I'm not going to admit that either.

And so we have a little bit of trouble. And so I have an exercise. I call it "whose life do you want anyway?" And I ask people to write down a list of five people that if I came into their house and I said, I'm the queen of the world, you must trade lives with somebody. Don't fight with me. Choose five people whose lives you would trade in a second. You don't have to know them. They can be living or dead. And write down their names, who they are, what it is that you like about their life, and you can leave one thing out. Look for the patterns.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:58:15]

WHITFIELD: So "Searching for Spain," Eva Longoria takes viewers to Galicia, a hidden gem on the country's northwestern coast. CNN anchor, John Berman and Eva discussed the fresh seafood, wine, language, history and traditions that this region is known for. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EVA LONGORIA, CNN HOST, "SEARCHING FOR SPAIN": We have moved on to the Galicia Region.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Galicia.

LONGORIA: Which they speak Gallego there. They are really known for their seafood, specifically for its octopus. But it is also known for its beef. It has a very, very famous Galician blond beef that you can only find in Galicia.

And it is rare. It is expensive. It is a cow that is massaged and taken well care of until it is on your plate.

BERMAN: Is this where you had a piece of meat and then called your dad in Texas. And said. You guys, you guys think you know meat?

LONGORIA: I did. I did call him. We have a cattle ranch in Texas. I am like, if anybody knows beef, it is me. It was the best beef I've ever eaten by far.

Albarino.

BERMAN: Cheers.

LONGORIA: Cheers. Another favorite of mine in Spain.

BERMAN: I think that might be my favorite. LONGORIA: No, I love Albarino too, but Albarino is a grape specific to

Galicia. Galicia is really a rich region of Spain that is known for the best products, whether its produce, seafood or beef.

But the interesting thing about pulpo, which is the octopus, so the pulpo has to be prepared by a pulpera, which is a person who specializes in making octopus. And it is a very simple -- you just boil the octopus and then you put a little bit of paprika on it, and then you usually eat it with a toothpick, but we can eat it with our fingers.

BERMAN: Okay.

Sometimes in the U.S., we have octopus --

LONGORIA: Chewy.

BERMAN: Yes, it is chewy. This is not chewy.

LONGORIA: When you're in Galicia it is out of the ocean onto your plate. The other thing I drank in Galicia was Queimada, which is the drink that they light on fire. And you have to say this incantation in Gallegos that burns off evil spirits.

And so I got to make that mix it, pour it in a cup and burn away any negative energy.

BERMAN: You know, we could all burn away some evil spirits.

LONGORIA: Yes. Exactly.

BERMAN: I think, it is something we could all use a little bit of.

LONGORIA: Exactly. And, you know, Galicia was the only region that had never been to. I had always wanted to go to Galicia because it is the end of the Camino de Santiago, which is a Catholic pilgrimage that could start in France and ends at the cathedral in Santiago, Galicia.

And so to be there in Galicia, in front of the Cathedral and you see all of these groups, they arrive and they're in tears and they're praying at the Cathedral that they made this pilgrimage. It was really beautiful to watch.

And I want to do it. I want to do the pilgrimage one day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And now I do, too. I want to do that.

All right, be sure to tune in to a new episode of Eva Longoria "Searching for Spain." That's tonight at 9:00 P.M. Eastern and Pacific, right here on CNN.

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