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U.S.-Iran Peace Talks Ramp Up; Israeli Military Issues New Evacuation Warnings in Southern Lebanon; Global Fight Against Antisemitism; CNN's Harry Enten Runs the Numbers; Trump to Expand Retirement Benefits; Student Deported After Traffic Stop. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired May 03, 2026 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

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JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR AND FIELD CORRESPONDENT: You're in the "CNN Newsroom." Hi, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean here in New York. And new tonight, peace talks between the U.S. and Iran appear to be ramping up just minutes after the Iranian foreign ministry said the U.S. responded to its newest proposal and Tehran is reviewing the administration's reply. Top U.S. negotiator Steve Witkoff telling CNN negotiations are back on the table, saying -- quote -- "we're in conversation."

Now, all of these comes after President Trump raised serious doubts about Iran's new plan last night, saying he was going to review it soon while adding he -- quote -- couldn't -- "can't imagine that it would be acceptable."

Let's bring in CNN's Betsy Klein, who has been traveling with the president this weekend in Florida. Betsy, President Trump just posted a few moments ago on Truth Social, talking about the U.S., and he says that the U.S. will start guiding other countries' ships through the Strait of Hormuz. What more can you tell us about that?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Jessica, after a long stalemate, the talks between the U.S. and Iran appear to have picked back up, but this is incredibly fluid. So, let me just take you through the timeline here. It was Friday as the president was preparing to leave the White House to come here to Florida, that he told reporters that he wasn't happy with the latest proposal from Iran, and he said that the U.S. could be better off if a deal wasn't reached. Then on Saturday, as he was leaving West Palm Beach to come here to Doral, he told reporters that he had received a 14-point peace plan from Iran and would be reviewing it. But he was casting major doubt.

And just to give you a sense of his headspace, the president, in a post to social media as he was on that plane, said he didn't believe that it would be acceptable given that Iran, in his words, had not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to humanity. It's not clear what the president's price might be. But then today, according to a spokesperson for Iran's foreign ministry, the U.S. had submitted a response and Iran is now reviewing it. Now, we don't know what was in that U.S. proposal. We've been asking the White House.

But President Trump posting just moments ago, really underscoring that there has been a shift here. He wrote -- quote -- "I am fully aware that my representatives are having very positive discussions with the country of Iran and that these discussions could lead to something very positive for all." Now, the president has spent the last four hours or so at the PGA championship at his Doral club, and he is joined there in part by Steve Witkoff, one of his top negotiators. Witkoff, as you mentioned, telling our colleague, Peter Morris, we're in conversation with Iran. So, we'll have to see if the president weighs in further on that as he prepares to depart Florida.

But the president also announcing notably in that post to social media that the U.S. is going to -- what he says is a humanitarian gesture, escort the ships belonging to other countries out of the Strait of Hormuz where the U.S. is currently putting a blockade. He says these other country ships are locked up In the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S., he says, has informed those countries that they will guide their ships safely out of harm's way so they can get on with their business. This operation, he says, will start on Monday.

Now, that U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is in part responsible for spiking gas prices up about $0.34 in the past week up to $4.45 per gallon now, according to AAA, and up about 50 percent since this conflict started. All of that weighing on the president as he weighs a path forward, Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Betsy Klein for us live from Florida, thank you so much for that reporting. And as the U.S. and Iran are reviewing conditions to restart talks, clashes between Israel and the Iranian- backed group, Hezbollah, are intensifying despite that declared ceasefire in Lebanon.

[17:04:59]

Earlier today, the Israeli military issuing an urgent evacuation warning for multiple towns in southern Lebanon.

CNN's Oren Liebermann has more on this. Oren?

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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Since the beginning of the war with Iran some two months ago, more than 2,600 people have now been killed in Israeli strikes in Lebanon, according to the country's Ministry of Public Health. There has been a ceasefire between Israel and the Lebanese government for the past couple of weeks, but that has not affected in any serious way the ongoing fighting between Israel and Iran's proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah. That conflict is not only ongoing but, from what we see on the ground, is very much escalating.

Israel continuing to carry out strikes across southern Lebanon and issuing more evacuation orders, including evacuation warnings even north of the Litani River, outside of the area occupied by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon. The Israeli military says they have destroyed more Hezbollah tunnel infrastructure and targeted dozens of Hezbollah military sites and facilities as they continued to try to go after Iran's proxy there. Hezbollah, meanwhile, has responded with its own levels of drones and rocket attacks, some of those intercepted above southern Lebanon and northern Israel, according to the Israeli military.

But all of that ongoing conflict means the diplomacy that the U.S. was trying to get on track and trying to push forward is in a very difficult spot right now. The Trump administration is pushing for a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun.

But from where we sit right now with an ongoing conflict, it's very difficult to see that happening. Israel has said in the past that it will not stop the war, stop its strikes in order to continue with negotiations. They say they will only do negotiations under fire while Lebanon has said they will not negotiate under those circumstances, and that makes diplomacy, that makes a more permanent ceasefire and certainly any sort of peace agreement between Israel and Lebanon a very difficult order from where we sit now.

Oren Liebermann, CNN, in Jerusalem.

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DEAN: All right, Oren, thank you for that. We are joined now by Seth Jones, president of the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Seth, thanks so much for being here with us. We appreciate your time. I do want to go back to Iran and the discussions or the potential for discussions that might be happening. We have the president saying that they are very positive, those discussions, as Iran says they're reviewing this latest proposal. There has been a lot of back and forth on these proposals over the last, let's call it, you know, three days. What's your sense of where things stand tonight?

SETH JONES, PRESIDENT, DEFENSE AND SECURITY DEPARTMENT, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Well, Jessica, my sense is that the U.S. is trying to get Iran to budge on at least two major issues. One is the nuclear deal and particularly trying to get Iran to stop enrichment or at least freeze it for a period of maybe 15 to 20 years, something more than the Iranians had been willing to do thus far. And the second is a better deal on opening up the Strait of Hormuz, one in which the Iranians don't collect a toll. That's something that the Gulf states have strongly objected to right now.

So, with the blockade really impacting the Iranian economy right now, I think that's what the administration is looking for right now, at least those two areas.

DEAN: Right. And Iran's foreign ministry says Iran's proposal does not include the nuclear issue, but it would be dealt with after the war is ended. And you're talking about and we have heard from the administration how they're very -- to your point, they want both of those things solved to consider this successful. The Trump administration has really made the nuclear program central to its goals. Do you think these two things can be separated out the way that the Iranians seem to want to do it?

JONES: I Think it's unlikely. I think it would be hard for the administration at this point to reach a deal and not include the enrichment of uranium. The nuclear issue has just been front and center. It was front and center over the past few days in how the Secretary of War Pete Hegseth talks about the deal, same thing with the president. So, I think they've sort of signaled publicly that the nuclear component is critical to a deal. I think it would be hard for them to back out of that right now.

DEAN: And I know you all have been looking specifically at Iran's capabilities and what they are. Obviously, they've been damaged in the U.S. and Israeli strikes. But I'm curious what your assessment is now, what remains and what are the continued risks, and where do you think that all stands.

JONES: Well, Jessica, I don't know that anybody has an exact estimate of what Iran still has with its missiles and its drone program. But what we assess is roughly, based on discussions with U.S. and other government officials, that Iran still has about 60 percent of its missile launchers and that particularly its ship cruise missiles still are capable of striking targets in the Strait of Hormuz.

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And then Iran also still has its Shaheed drones. So, possibly up to 40 percent of its drones. Also, they can be used to target not just vessels in and around the Strait of Hormuz, but also Gulf states or if the U.S. were to land forces somewhere. So, those are not insignificant capabilities that I think the U.S. does have to keep an eye on.

DEAN: OK. And so, to that point, there are two things there that kind of popped into my head when you were talking about that. First, that the Trump administration has fast-tracked these roughly $8 billion in arms sales to Israel, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, including air defense systems and laser-guided rockets, and you're talking about how they still might have capabilities to target some of those places. What does that suggest to you about what the administration thinks?

JONES: Well, Jessica, one possibility is that if this war restarts, which I don't get a sense that either side is itching to restart it right now, but if it does, the Gulf states are going to need more of a supply of munitions stockpile for interceptors for Patriot batteries there and fads. As we've seen, even with CNN's own coverage, U.S. and other Gulf states have had infrastructure bases targeted. They're in short supply of those defensive munitions. So, I think there's got to be a race right now to restock those supplies.

DEAN: And then also, too, with that news that my colleague was just talking about, Betsy Klein, about the president saying that the U.S. is now going to escort these ships through the Strait of Hormuz, how dangerous is that when we know that there are still these capabilities that exist should they choose to use them?

JONES: Well, I think, Jessica, what becomes really important is where do U.S. vessels go if what the U.S. is talking about is still in sort of a state of war right now. They are willing to bring in ships through the Strait of Hormuz. They will be vulnerable to strikes. If they are simply willing to escort ships that make it through the Strait of Hormuz and sort of help with that last part, that may be a lot more feasible because that's where most of the U.S. aircraft carriers are. Destroyers, surface fleet, and submarines are just outside of the strait. So, a lot of this really hinges on where the U.S. picks up those vessels.

DEAN: And what is your sense, a bit more broadly of, at this point, the impact this war has had on U.S. relationships with Gulf countries and Gulf countries just generally -- how they've been impacted, the region has been impacted by this.

JONES: Well, I think, Jessica, as you look at what the Gulf states have had to deal with over the past few months with the war, you know, there are a number of companies that are really looking at how much of a footprint they want to have in this area. I think there has been a real concern as airport traffic has come down, travel and tourism to a number of Gulf states has plummeted, oil and gas prices have increased. I think they want this war to end. But I think we're in a new era right now. They also realize that if this war starts up again at some point this week, next week, next month, they're in a very different world than they were when this year started.

DEAN: All right, Seth Jones, great to have you. Thanks for your time.

JONES: Thanks.

DEAN: Still ahead, a warning tonight from the U.S. Embassy in the U.K., cautioning Americans that a terrorist attack there is highly likely. Plus, a man charged with attempted murder after stabbing two Jewish men in London. We're going to talk with a former U.S. official on the global fight against antisemitism. That's next. You're in the "CNN Newsroom."

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DEAN: A new warning from the U.S. Embassy in the United Kingdom, telling Americans a terrorist attack there is, in their words, highly likely. The U.K. recently increasing the national terrorism threat level following the stabbing of two Jewish men in London last week. Both men were treated at the hospital. A 34-year-old has since been released. Police say a 76-year-old is now in stable condition and a man has been charged with attempted murder in that.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz reports.

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SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Golders Green, North London, known as this city's Jewish heartland. Here, a community is under threat, targeted by antisemitic attacks. The latest declared a terrorist incident, a stabbing in broad daylight on this street that left two Jewish men injured.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Drop the gun!

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Leon (ph), who grew up here, says he feels it's no longer safe to be visibly Jewish.

UNKNOWN: Our feeling of freedom to walk around as visibly as a Jew, that has been robbed of us as of yesterday. And this is the consequences of the government failing its population and not doing enough when all the warning signs were there.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): The morning after the attack, Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with criminal justice agencies to demand a swift and visible response.

KEIR STARMER, PRIME MINISTER OF UNITED KINGDOM: There's no getting away from the fact that this was not a one-off.

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This has been a series of attacks on our Jewish community. And there is a very deep sense of anxiety, of concern.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): While the P.M. scrambled his government, his political rival and right-wing populist, Nigel Farage, spoke to community leaders at the scene.

NIGEL FARAGE, REFORM U.K. LEADER: Every single time it happens, there are kind words that come from number 10 Downing Street. Soft words aren't enough and the government needs to be seen to be very, very robust.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): When the P.M. did arrive a couple of hours later, he received a much less welcoming response.

(CHANTING)

ABDELAZIZ: Prime Minister Keir Stammer has just arrived here to reassure the Jewish community that he is doing everything he can to keep them safe. But he has been met by an angry and frustrated crowd. They've been chanting "Stammer, Jew Harmer." They've been calling him a traitor. There is a real sense of anger with the government here in London.

ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): Even with Stammer with an earshot, Ruth told us she feels the authorities are deaf to her fears.

ABDELAZIZ: Why was it important for you to come?

UNKNOWN: Because he needs to hear us. He needs to hear. This is the first demonstration I've been on. And I go on many where we're actually angry because we've had enough. And we want him to start doing something positive. ABDELAZIZ (voice-over): In the last few weeks alone, arsonists have set fire to ambulances belonging to a Jewish charity and two synagogues were attacked in separate incidences that were just days apart. Arrests have been made, legislation is being fast-tracked, and $80 million has been pledged to help fund increased security for Jewish communities. But many here worry that's simply not enough to stop the next act of violent antisemitism.

Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, London.

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DEAN: We're joined now by Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt. She served as U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism during the Biden administration. Ambassador, thank you so much for being here with us. I really appreciate it. We just heard that report from my colleague, Salma.

DEBORAH LIPSTADT, FORMER U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY TO MONITOR AND COMBAT ANTISEMITISM: You're welcome.

DEAN: It's good to have you. And we heard the anger, the fear, the frustration from those protesters who believe their fears are not being heard. The one woman said that the government, she believes, is deaf to her fears. What do you think when you hear that, when you see what his, again, as the prime minister said, not just transpired with this one incident of this stabbing but a series of events in the U.K.?

LIPSTADT: This has been a long time coming. It's well before October 7th. But, certainly, in the past year and a half, in September, October during Yom Kippur, there was a man who tried to ram his car into a synagogue. Two people were killed. There have been the fire ambulances, firebombed, as you mentioned, synagogues, people assaulted on the street. There's a real problem. And Keir Starmer took a lot of heckling right now in his visit to Golders Green.

But people there -- I know London well. I know the British community very well. I spend a lot of time there. People there are angry and frightened. They've heard platitudes. They've heard our thoughts and prayers. We take this seriously, whether it was from the mayor of London or the prime minister. But there hasn't been a real effort, A, to name the problem, and B, to prevent it, and C, to address it.

And to name the problem right now, most of these attacks, and the statistics show it, come from Islamist extremist jihadists. That's not the entire Muslim community by a long shot, but the majority of the tax are coming from there. And unless you name a problem, you can't solve it.

So -- and what's interesting is that there are leaders in the Muslim community who are more outspoken on this than the government. Politicians in England and, by the way, in our country, too, are afraid to name this problem. By doing so, they're throwing moderate Muslims sort of under the bus. But it's a real problem. This is not a normal way to live. Jewish stores in Golders Green, and not just in Golders Green, in other parts of the world, lock their doors even when they're open for business.

There is no synagogue in the world except maybe in Israel where you can just walk in. When I was in England, when I was in -- sorry, Washington during my service at the State Department, I lived opposite a Catholic church and there was a big sign, "All are welcome. Come in and pray." You won't see that in front of a synagogue. Even if the person wants to pray, they've got to identify themselves, know the code, get permission, be cleared.

[17:25:04]

Increasingly, you get invitations to Jewish events without the address. This is not normal. And the fact of the matter, I think the most important point I can make, this is an attack on the Jews, but it's not an attack solely on the Jews. This is an attack on western liberal democracy, culture, writ very large. This is an attack on the rule of law and it must be stopped because it will begin with the Jews, but it won't end with the Jews.

DEAN: There are Jewish people across the globe who are and have been for years now as antisemitism has dramatically spiked, but are very frightened by, again, what has just happened, among other things. And some even wonder, are they safe in London? Can they be in London and be safe there? What do you say to them?

LIPSTADT: You know, I'm coming to London and be in London within the month, a little more than a month. I feel safe in London. But after all that has happened, I'm not sure if I'll wear my Jewish star visibly. London, the British Jewish community is a magnificent Jewish community, magnificent. They have done some unbelievable educational projects that have stretched across the globe. Were they to feel that they have to leave? It would be a statement about British society at large if one group, which is so integral to the warp and woof of your society, has been there for centuries, is part of that society. If they don't feel safe, no one should feel safe.

So, I'm hoping that this is addressed seriously, that we call the problem out without, you know, painting a whole community is responsible. It's far beyond -- you know, as some politicians in Britain have called for, we just need more interfaith dialogue. It's beyond dialogue. It's beyond coming together and singing kumbaya. It's about taking this seriously, addressing it, making sure there are consequences and acting quickly because, as I say, Jews are in the vanguard of the -- of being the objects of the terror, but British society, western culture, as I say, very, very large, is also in the crosshairs.

DEAN: And I just -- I hear you say step one, in your opinion, is name it. What else, if you were advising the British government right now, what else can actually be done that could help this?

LIPSTADT: There's a debate -- yes, there's a debate going on in London about the protest marches because so many of them and so often, and I've seen them, I've witnessed them, I've witnessed them from afar in videos, but I've also seen them up close and personal, there is hate, there is antisemitism, there's a debate going on. I'm very reluctant to say freedom of speech should be limited.

But, you know, this has often descended from controversial comments to incitement. And we see what happens. It escalates. So, there also have to be consequences. It was well over a year ago that a group of young Muslims drove through Golders Green, yelling, "kill the Jews, rape their wives." I was bemused by the fact that, not amused, bemused by the fact that I guess women are not considered Jews, they're just the wives, but there were no consequences.

The man who did this, who has been accused of the stabbing that took place a few days ago, a number of years ago stabbed a British policeman and his dog who was trying to protect the police officer. He was involved in other attacks, yet he got British citizenship, and then he went on to do this. Take it seriously. Thoughts and prayers, we don't need. People need to know that this is an attack. It's starting with the Jews, but it will not end with the Jews.

DEAN: All right, Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, thank you for your time. We appreciate it.

LIPSTADT: Sorry to be so sober, but I'm trying to be realistic.

DEAN: No. We appreciate that. We wanted to hear your thoughts, and we are glad that you gave them to us. Thank you so much.

LIPSTADT: Thank you for the time. Bye-bye.

DEAN: Yes. Coming up, new polling out tonight showing a bleak outlook for Republicans ahead of the midterms as President Trump's approval rating hits a new low. Harry Enton breaks down those numbers for us when we come back.

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DEAN: New polling highlights the growing number of Americans who disapprove of how President Trump is handling his job. A new Washington Post/ABC News Ipsos poll has the president's disapproval rating at a new high of 62 percent. You see there just 37 percent of Americans approving of the job he's doing.

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten joins us now to run the numbers on this. Harry?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Hey there, Jessica. Happy Sunday to you. Look, we've got a number of polls over the past few days, including from "The Washington Post" and ABC News, as well as from the Pew Research Center, and I really think it indicates and illustrates where President Trump's problems are within the electorate.

So, for example, you know, we often talk about, oh, is the Republican base leaving Donald Trump? And then, of course, you look at polling, you see, hey, he's actually still doing pretty good with those who identify as MAGA.

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But here is a group that traditionally has been Republican and voted Republicans in elections that he's really struggling with. That is Trump and then independents who lean towards the Republican Party. That is on a follow-up question amongst independents. Do you lean towards the Democrats, Republicans or nobody else? These are the folks, the independents who say they lean towards the Republicans, and there has been a massive deterioration in support for the president of the United States.

Just take a look here. OK, GOP-leaning independents on Trump. In the 2024 election versus Kamala Harris, Trump got 91 percent of this vote. Look at where he is right now, though, in the average of the Pew Research Center and the ABC News-Washington Post poll. He is way down. He is all the way down. Get this, just 53 percent support right now, his job approval rating. That is a drop of nearly 40 points since the 2024 election.

And, you know, I was pointing out, of course, GOP-leaning independents. They are very different from Republicans on the initial question, are you Republican, independent or Democrat? Those who are Republicans, their support for Donald Trump is holding strong. It's really within this independent block.

Take a look here. OK, Trump approval at this point in a term. Take a look at term number one, among independents, indies who lean GOP. In term one at this point, he was at 73 percent. Look at again, though, where he's down to now. He's down at 53 percent. So, this is a 20- point drop from the same point during Trump's term number one as we are right now in terms of Trump term number two.

But look at those who identify as Republican on the initial question. That is Republican only, not those who lean independent or those who lean independent -- who are Republicans -- independents who lean Republican. At this point in term number one, look at this, Trump was at 83 percent, and now he's still at 83 percent. So, this deterioration, you know, we keep looking at.

OK, where are these traditional Republican voters who are leaving Donald Trump? Are there any? Yes, there are, Jessica Dean. Yes, they are. But it is those independents who vote Republican. Those are the people who are abandoning Donald Trump and the Republican Party at this point. And perhaps there's no better way to see that than looking at the congressional elections come this November. OK?

So, again, these are voters, independents who lean Republican, who traditionally vote Republican. But look at what's going on now. OK, choice for Congress, GOP-leaning independents, the Republican margin over Democrats in percentage points. Back in 2024, Republicans won this vote, won GOP-leaning independence by, get this, 83 points. But look at where they are now. The lead is down to 67 points. So, that is a difference right there of 16 points.

So, what we're seeing is these Republican-leaning independents, they are not only leaving Donald Trump. But if you are a Republican who is on the ballot come this November, you really have to be worrying about this block because this is normally a core Republican block, voted for the Republicans for Congress by 83 points, and Trump got, get this, 91 percent of their vote against Kamala Harris.

But you see the drop here. We're talking about a nearly 40-point drop. And then in Trump's job approval rating, and then in the choice for Congress, while it's a smaller decline, it is still quite significant. This movement alone would likely be enough for Democrats to take back control of the House of Representatives. But, of course, this is just one block in which Republicans right now are struggling at versus the 2026 baseline as they have this support at 67 points. But again, it was 83 points back during the 2024 election.

Jessica, happy Sunday. Back to you.

DEAN: All right, Harry Enten, thanks so much for that. Still to come here, President Trump is hoping to expand access to retirement plans for millions of Americans. An expert will join us to explain how these Trump IRA accounts might work. Stay with us. You're in the "CNN Newsroom."

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DEAN: Some 56 million Americans could soon have access to retirement plans. President Trump signing an executive order Thursday, calling for the creation of a new government website called trumpIRA.gov. On that site, workers who are not currently offered a retirement plan through their employer could open a low-cost IRA account.

Joining us now, Michelle Singletary, a personal finance columnist for "The Washington Post" and the author of the book, "What to Do with Your Money When Crisis Hits," a survival guide. Michelle, good to see you. Thanks for being here. This program aims to close that gap in coverage for Americans who are earning low and moderate incomes throughout the country. And the president announced this at the State of the Union. They just signed this executive order, kind of putting some more meat on the bone, as it were. How significant is this? How do you see it working?

MICHELLE SINGLETARY, PERSONAL FINANCE COLUMNIST AT THE WASHINGTON POST, AUTHOR: Well, I don't think it's significant yet. It's still in theory. And what -- there's a missing component to this, the idea that people get set up automatically, and that's what makes people sign up for retirement plans. So, this is still voluntary. People have to go to a website. They have to search for the companies and then sign up. And so, if they can add that automatic part to it, then it could be a game changer. But right now, the way it's working, I don't think it's going to work.

[17:45:00] The most important thing is that when people work for a company and the company sets it up and they say, hey, this is there, they automatically sign you up, they often at a default rate. And so, you don't have to do a whole lot to begin to save for retirement. And so, right now, this is just still a pie in the sky thing that might help.

DEAN: Because there are so many steps, you're saying -- I mean, look, it's tens of millions of people that could be eligible to sign up. I believe it would take an act from Congress to make it automatic, like what you're talking about. But is that -- is that what the barrier is? Is that -- it's just -- it is -- it is the steps. It's having people having to find the time and take the time to sit down and do all of these.

SINGLETARY: Yes. Right. And it's not just time. I mean, listen, anybody who has ever done with anything, with money, it's very complicated. People are trying to take care of their kids and figure out how to pay for the high gas prices and, you know, worry that they're going to lose their job.

And so, to ask the regular person, to say, hey, go to this website and there's going be all these companies that are offering you ways to save for retirement, and you've got to look through this and figure out what did you want to sign up for, and then fill out the paperwork and have your employer do it so they can take your money out of, you know, automatically on your paycheck, that's a lot.

And, you know, I think it's a distraction right now. It is a theory that a lot of experts are saying would work if we could figure out how to automatically sign up millions of people whose employers don't provide a 401k. That's the key. People can go and sign up for an IRA right now. But what's different is that when your employer does it, they do all the work for you and it really helps you because they can vet the companies, they look at the offerings. And that's the difference of when people sign up to save for retirement.

DEAN: Yes. And in terms of just retirement in this country and saving for retirement, what grade would you give Americans right now? Look, to your point, they're doing a lot right now and trying to make sure that they can get through a day, a week, a month, and make sure their kids have what they need, et cetera. And it's hard sometimes to see beyond that or even be able to plan beyond that for retirement. How would you evaluate how Americans are handling, saving for retirement right now?

SINGLETARY: I think -- I'm not going to give them a grade because I'm going to give them grace. And I think what happens is that when you are in the moment of your life, you're trying to figure out how to pay for rent. We know that it's really hard to buy a home. So, the idea to say, hey, you know, 30 years from now, 40 years from now, you're going to need money for retirement, forget all the stuff that's happening right now, sign up for that. Now having said that, it does behoove people to try to think long-term.

You know, I try to do that work, I work in my community, I work for my church, I have a financial literacy program for my church. I'm trying to get people to get there, to say, you do need to think about your retirement. We know, for example, that social security is going to have a funding issue and not too long from now. And so, while I believe social security will always be there, we don't know what form. And so, you got to look down the road.

You know, I think this is a step, but it is not going to solve the problem until we figure out how to automatically put people into a retirement plan, and then automatically increase their contributions. So, they take the burden off of that. It's not that they're lazy. It's not that they don't want to do the work. It's that life is tough. And the easier we can make it for people to save for retirement, it's going to benefit all of us in the end.

DEAN: All right, Michelle Singletary, thanks for being here. We appreciate it. And we'll be right back.

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[17:50:00]

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DEAN: An Atlanta area high school student who had no clue there was a pending deportation order against him has been uprooted from the only life and family that he has ever known and sent back to Honduras.

CNN Rafael Romo spoke exclusively with the teenager, a teenage soccer player who's now living with his grandmother in the city where he was born. Tell us more about this, Rafael.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, this is the first time the teenager speaks publicly since he was arrested in suburban Atlanta and subsequently placed in ICE custody less than three months after his 18th birthday. Axel Gerardo Archaga Rios was deported from the United States to his native Honduras on Thursday night, the country the 18-year-old barely remembers because he left his birth place when his mother -- with his mother, I should say, when he was only four years old.

The teenager says a police officer in Dunwoody, Georgia, where he lived with his family and went to high school, arrested him in late March. Dunwoody Police told CNN in a statement that Archaga Rios was pulled over for running a stop sign. In addition, a spokesman said he did not have a driver's license. Archaga Rios told me from Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, that it was not until he was booked in the DeKalb County jail that he was informed he had a final order of removal pending against him.

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AXEL ARCHAGA RIOS, DEPORTED TO HONDURAS: I was eating lunch, and then I come back from lunch to my cell, and then they asked me if I was Axel Archaga Rios. I told them yes. And then they took me to the intake office, and they told me that Trump did not want me in the states no more, that I'm being deported to Honduras.

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[17:55:03]

ROMO: In a statement to CNN, the Department of Homeland Security said that Archaga Rios illegally entered the U.S. on June 25, 2014, near the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, and was released into the country by the Obama administration. An immigration judge issued him a final order of removal on September 1st, 2015.

Immigration attorney Alejandro Cornejo tried to stop the deportation by asking Immigration and Customs Enforcement to consider an asylum petition filed by the teenager's mother. That was denied for reasons that had nothing to do with her son.

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ALEJANDRO CORNEJO, IMMIGRATION ATTORNEY: Axel's mom is a victim of domestic violence. She was forced to leave the state and move to Georgia. All the documentation that she received from the immigration judge in Florida, she never received.

ARCHAGA RIOS: Everything just flips upside down in less than a month. And the next thing I knew, I was being deported to Honduras.

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ROMO: Archaga Rios says he lost almost 30 pounds in detention and had to see a doctor to be treated for what appears to be a skin infection. But all of that pales, he says, when compared to the pain of being torn apart from his family and the only life he ever knew. Jessica?

DEAN: All right, Rafael Romo, thank you for that. We'll be right back.

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[18:00:00]

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