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Trump Administration Cuts at VA; Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) is Interviewed About the Face Off on Capitol Hill; Auto Workers Worried about Tariff Impact. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired March 06, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:33:06]

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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: And I want to thank all our European leaders, first of all, and for such signals, strong support. This comes - on strong support from the very beginning of the war and what's been during all this period and last week. You stayed with us.

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AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: That's Ukraine's President Zelenskyy just moments ago thanking Europe amid a very public spat with President Trump.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me here on CNN THIS MORNING. Here's what's happening right now.

So, as we mentioned, European leaders and Ukraine's president, they're actually at a gathering at this hour in Brussels for a special summit about Russia's war on Ukraine. And it comes as they face a new reality, a Trump administration that seems to have shifted the tone toward Moscow.

As soon as today, President Trump could issue an executive order to close the Department of Education. That according to "The Wall Street Journal." On Monday, Education Secretary Linda McMahon vowed to eliminate what she called bureaucratic bloat, describing it as the department's, quote, "final mission."

And Republicans in Congress say they want Elon Musk to keep them in the loop when it comes to cutting jobs and spending in the federal government. Lawmakers say he tried to distance himself from the mass firings when they met on Capitol Hill, instead blaming department heads for the choices.

Deep cuts are coming to the Department of Veterans Affairs in that effort. The Trump administration is set to let go about 15 percent of the workforce, or more than 70,000 jobs - 70 - to the VA. That's according to an internal memo. President Trump's allies insisting veterans will not suffer.

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REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Every time I go back to my district, veterans are coming and talking to me about all the problems they have with the VA.

[06:35:00]

So, with or without those employees, they're not - they're not making a difference for veterans. I think they can do better.

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CORNISH: So, we want to put this in context for you. Is the VA actually on the path to privatization?

Stephen Collinson and Nia-Malika Henderson are back. We're also joined by Naveed Shah, an Iraq War veteran and political director of the veteran's group Common Defense.

So, Naveed, I want to start with you because it was a bit of a plot twist, I think, for the administration to learn 30 percent of the workforce, of the federal workforce they were cutting were veterans. But as you see this moving towards the VA itself, do you see it as part of the privatization movement?

NAVEED SHAH, IRAQ WAR VETERAN AND POLITICAL DIRECTOR, COMMON DEFENSE: Absolutely. It definitely seems like - what the - they intend to do is cut the VA bit by bit. And this has been an ongoing problem with different pieces of legislation that the Republicans have passed, like the Mission Act and the Community Cares Act. They've been sniping at the VA, cutting it bit by bit. And now it seems like they're taking a - trying to take a big chunk out of it.

CORNISH: But they don't call it sniping, right? They're saying make it more efficient or I think Pete Hegseth said something like, let the dollars follow the veterans. They take the money and go where they need to go. What's wrong with that?

SHAH: The number one thing is that every veteran that we've talked to, every one of Common Defense's members, says the quality of care that they receive at the VA, they rank it in the 90th percentile. It's the best care that they receive in the entire country.

CORNISH: It's getting the care that's the problem. Because we hear those complaints as well.

SHAH: There's been challenges that the VA has faced with wait times and staffing shortages, but those issues will not be addressed by cutting 83,000 jobs.

CORNISH: Yes.

SHAH: Those issues will be addressed by hiring the right workers for the right jobs to make sure, for example, for every five nurses that the VA loses, that's another operating room that closes.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, there is something Orwellian about the folks who are cutting these workers, them saying, this will make it more efficient, right, going in. It isn't efficient in terms of some of the wait times. And there have been, obviously, scandals involving - involving the VA as well over the last year. So, cutting just seems like a bad idea. And we'll see.

Marjorie Taylor Greene says she's already getting complaints from veterans. I can't imagine that those will stop with these cuts.

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, and you hear a lot of these glib comments about how the VA can be more efficient. You hear that from all sorts of politicians. And it's not just this administration. We've heard it from previous ones.

But there's two things here. First of all, there are hundreds of thousands of young veterans, like yourself, who took part over 15 years in wars abroad. The country obviously owes them a great debt.

When you start working with the VA and cutting programs, you're also taking on a real big political risk. And to your point, we've seen, when people learn that a lot of the federal workers who are being laid off are veterans who make up a great percentage of the federal workforce, that becomes a real political problem for the administration. Some of the problems now are piling up regarding this DOGE stuff (ph).

CORNISH: Right, as they speak out.

I want to play for you guys some actual veterans affairs workers who were speaking out.

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DAVID, FORMER VA WORKER: Its going to cause a lot of delays. And now - especially now with the cuts that have been made, you know, we're going to see more delays on the phones, emails, processing of claims.

BRANDY, FORMER VA WORKER: I hope that we all, each and every one of us, including our leadership, would be a little more careful about the departments that they cut from and the positions that they're cutting in the support, especially in regards to the veterans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: In a way Stephen's talking about unity, right?

SHAH: Yes.

CORNISH: Like, and I think of that, too, as the Republican Party being particularly pain sensitive to veteran's concerns.

However, there's also a huge number of veteran support for Trump himself.

SHAH: Right.

CORNISH: So, is that causing divisions within the community he way we saw it, say, with unions?

SHAH: You know, it's - it's actually causing - this situation right now is bringing veterans together. Because even vets who voted for Trump are saying, this is not what I voted for.

And I'll give you a personal example. My boss, Jose Vasquez, the executive director of Common Defense, just a couple weeks ago went into the VA in New York because he had a stomach ache. They were able to quickly get him into a scan, quickly get him to a biopsy. He had surgery yesterday to remove a mass on his pancreas. And they were able to detect that, get him quickly through the medical process. And because the VA in New York is luckily well-staffed and well-equipped, he was able to get that, you know, checked out before it became a problem. He didn't have to wait months.

CORNISH: But every story like that, there's another story where someone's going to come out and say, I waited for months.

SHAH: Yes.

CORNISH: I couldn't' get -

HENDERSON: Yes.

CORNISH: You know, support for x and y. And I'm just wondering sort of how you think this plays out with the public? Have they finally found a federal agency that the public actually sympathizes with?

HENDERSON: It could be. I mean, Republicans have been expert at sort of painting all federal workers as sort of lazy, nameless, faceless, a drag on the economy and the federal government. But it could be that if you have these stories of our best and our brightest being delayed care, denied care because of these cuts, it could turn things around in terms of these cuts and they want to reinstate these folks.

CORNISH: Stephen, I want to ask you one question very quickly.

[06:40:01]

I think there are some on the right who have said, we're not privatizing the VA. Stop talking about this. This is a boogeyman. But tell me what you're seeing from the administration or past comments from people who are in the administration now. Is this part of a long running movement?

COLLINSON: I think there's certainly evidence to the fact that there are people in the administration that want to move down this path. It would have to get past the president. And he's, I think, somewhat sensitive to political pressures. There are not many occasions in the first term, and so far in this term, where the president has taken a step that goes against his own political interests. Now, he doesn't have to run for re-election. The equation might be slightly different here. But what we're seeing, I think, with this whole DOGE situation is, government isn't just Washington. It has a place in everybody's lives. And the people are starting to realize that.

CORNISH: OK.

Naveed Shah, thank you so much for joining us for this conversation.

Group chat, stay with me, because still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, mayors from some of the country's biggest cities, they're taking heat on Capitol Hill. We're joined by Congressman Suhas Subramanyam. And we'll also have this take on how the contentious hearing unfolded.

Oh, and why Broadway's biggest musical won't be at the Kennedy Center later this month. My guests are here in the room to talk about the room where it's not happening. That's next.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will enter into the record.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Order.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Order.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my right. Thank you.

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): No! No!

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CORNISH: Just a small glimpse of what happened in a heated hearing about so-called sanctuary cities before the House Oversight Committee. There were the mayors of New York, Chicago, Boston and Denver. They faced a barrage of questions from Republican lawmakers accusing them of harboring undocumented migrants.

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REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): Mayors Wu, Johnson, Johnston and Adams will be publicly accountable for their failure to follow the law and protect the American people.

REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): Mayor Wu, yes or no?

MAYOR MICHELLE WU, BOSTON: No. Rape is obviously horrible.

MACE: Then why are you letting rapists back out onto the streets of Boston?

WU: That is not true.

MACE: OK.

WU: That is not what's happening in Boston. MACE: OK. When -

REP. ANNA PAULINA LUNA (R-FL): Based on your responses, I'm all going to be criminally referring you to the Department of Justice for investigation.

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CORNISH: The roles were reversed for one mayor. New York's Eric Adams facing tough questions from Democrats over the federal charges that the Trump administration is now looking to dismiss.

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REP. SUHAS SUBRAMANYAM (D-VA): I'm going to ask you one more time, have you ever talked about this case with anyone in the Trump administration?

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS, NEW YORK: This case is in front of Judge Ho. And at a deference to Judge Ho, Judge Ho is going to decide the outcome of this case.

SUBRAMANYAM: I think Mayor Adams is not answering the question because he probably has.

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CORNISH: Joining me now to talk about this, the congressman that you just saw there, Suhas Subramanyam, Democrat from Virginia.

Congressman, thank you for being here.

REP. SUHAS SUBRAMANYAM (D-VA): Thank you.

CORNISH: We can get to Eric Adams in a moment. But I saw a sort of divide there. Democrats saying, you're going into schools. You're going to be taking kids out of the classrooms. Republicans saying, you've let gang members hang out in your jails for a hot minute without cooperating with ICE. It's like painting two very different visions.

What can Democrats do for their vision, I think, to maybe resonate more?

SUBRAMANYAM: Well, I thought, you know, the mayors did great. I mean, they talked about how crime has actually gone down, even with an influx of undocumented immigrants. How many of the immigrants coming into their communities actually commit crime at a much lower rate than the average American? And just generally, they talked about what they're doing to try to handle the influx of immigrants. I thought they did great, honestly, and -

CORNISH: But does that worry you? I mean, when I think about the Biden administration, Harris administration, this was often a talking point with Democrats, things are not as bad as you're saying. That did not resonate with voters. SUBRAMANYAM: Yes, well, all they had was facts, right? And the facts

spoke for themselves. They talked about how they were able to get folks housing. They were able to get folks jobs. And they were able to - to run through, you know, what was going on and do a good job of it.

And so, you know, we had facts as well. You know, we - we talked about how the bill that they're trying to put forward, basically defunding any city from any federal funding if they welcome immigrants, you know, that's really bad for a lot of these city's public safety. They're actually going to make crime worse, not better, by doing that.

CORNISH: I want to ask you one more thing.

Mayor Johnston was asked about cooperating with ICE after the hearing last night on CNN. Here's what he had to say.

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MAYOR MIKE JOHNSTON (D), DENVER: We do follow federal law. We, right now, are cooperating on the detention and pursuit of violent criminals all the time. I think what we're not doing is we're not going to do ICE's job for them. We're not going to use our Denver police officers to chase down grandmothers out of church pews that have been in the city for 20 years.

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CORNISH: It's interesting hearing this rhetoric in the years since the Democratic Party had people talking about abolishing ICE. Do you think there - there is some rhetoric, there was some conversation in the past that is coming home to roost now?

SUBRAMANYAM: Well, he's - just, again, this is all about public safety for these cities and these mayors. They're talking about how they do work with ICE when there's a violent criminal who is undocumented. You know, ICE picks them up at the prison, right? They - they do handle these situations. They handle them quite well, actually, and with public safety in mind.

This is more than just talking points to us. We actually care about public safety. Republicans are all talk. We're actually walking the walk and doing the work.

CORNISH: You know, all of these conversations kind of keep coming back to the same thing, what are Democrats doing? I watched a clip of a town hall for you where you were saying to voters, look, come to town halls, have the conversation.

At the same time, in the moments where Democrats try and step up, people are saying it's wanting.

[06:50:03]

Here's Senator Fetterman from Pennsylvania kind of criticizing Democratic protests. Oh, let's see. Hold on one second, because this is actually a very

good quote, "a sad cavalcade of cell phones and unhinged petulance. It only makes Trump look more presidential and restrained."

SUBRAMANYAM: Yes, you know, not all Democrats have the same view, right? You know, what Al Green might think is different from what Fetterman might think, right? Everyone's handling it the way that they can, what's best for their district, what's best for their conscience.

CORNISH: But doesn't everyone need to handle it collectively, together, in one direction? I mean is that the struggle here?

SUBRAMANYAM: Well, we do have one voice. So, you know, talk about all the things that this administration is doing to raise costs, because pretty much everything they've done has actually raised costs when they just ran a campaign talking about lowering costs all last year. And that's just one example.

I mean, Eric Adams, for instance, coming to our committee and not answering my questions. I mean, they're tacitly - not tacitly, they're - they're endorsing corruption, right? He pardoned Blagojevich as well. If you're a corrupt politician, if you're a dictator, this administration is embracing you and pardoning you right now.

So, we have a pretty easy and pretty - I mean, the talking points write themselves, right? We haven't even talked about Medicaid yet. There's so much that the Republicans are doing that are going to hurt American people.

And so, on that front, you know, all Democrats are actually pretty in line with pushing back on that. How they push back, you know, is different from community to community. But, you know, I like town halls. I think that's the best place to push back, telling the stories of people. And I think, you know, others might have a different way of doing it.

CORNISH: Yes.

Congressman, thank you so much for taking the time to come in and talk to us here on CNN THIS MORNING. Appreciate you.

SUBRAMANYAM: Thank you.

CORNISH: It's now 51 minutes past the hour. Want to give you your morning roundup. Some of the stories you need to know to get your day going.

There's dry air, gusty winds causing fire threats from western Texas to southern Colorado. It's happening this morning. The worst is expected across western Texas to central and eastern New Mexico, where there's a critical fire weather alert. The winds were so strong, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection surveillance blimp became untethered and was found nearly 600 miles away, popped.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). I've never seen any kind of balloon that big.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The balloon was huge. Like, hugemungus (ph).

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CORNISH: Meanwhile, parts of the Midwest digging out after being hit with blizzard-like conditions.

Police arrested at least nine people during a pro-Palestinian demonstration at New York's Barnard College. This happened after a bomb threat.

So, officers ordered everyone to evacuate. Later, they determined that the threat was a hoax. The protesters had been staging a sit in when this occurred.

And the Nova-C lunar lander is expected to touch down on the moon's south pole in just over five hours. It's part of NASA's plan to establish a long term presence there. Included in this mission, a cellular network to help future astronauts communicate and a drone that can hop across the moon's surface.

And the Kennedy Center is throwing away its shot to host a Broadway hit.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He knows nothing of loyalty. Smells like new money. Dresses like fake royalty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Wait in passionate and smashing it.

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CORNISH: The musical "Hamilton" was set to run at the D.C. venue, but the show's producer is teaching them how to say goodbye, canceling the shows in protest of President Trump's firing members of the center's board and naming himself chairman.

I feel like this was a "Saturday Night Live" skit, actually, the "Hamilton" - no, OK. I'm the only one on "Hamilton" watch.

Also, President Trump tapping the brakes on auto tariffs for 30 days. In a speech before Congress this week, the president insisted U.S. automakers were excited about his 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada. The thing is, panicked might be more accurate. And despite a couple of stock market plunges, the administration remains all in on tariffs.

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HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: There's going to be a short period of time where there will be some higher prices on certain products. It's not inflation. That's nonsense.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: Higher prices, but it's not inflation. Many auto industry workers we spoke to in Michigan are not buying that spin from the commerce secretary.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the tariffs will hurt.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, you think they're going to hurt?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I do. I personally do. Because if it's too high, then we're not going to - they're not going to want to deal with us, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We might not see it maybe right away, but it's going to hurt down the line.

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CORNISH: OK, so, that's the word from workers. Union leaders, well, they seem to be on a different page. In a statement, United Auto Workers praised President Trump's tariffs, saying they are, quote, "a powerful tool in the toolbox for undoing the injustice of anti-worker trade deals," end quote.

[06:55:03]

Stephen, Nia-Malika, Margaret, you're back.

Can I just touch on that quote for a second because I feel like it was just a few months ago that the UAW was not into Trump policies. Am I misreading it?

COLLINSON: No, I don't think so. I think there is some division there. But the question here, though, is between short term and long term. The point of the tariffs, if there is one in the administration, is to bring manufacturing back to the United States, instead of building cars half in Mexico, half in Canada, et cetera, et cetera. The problem is, that is a long term project. There's going to be a lot of short term pain. And when you hear the commerce secretary, for example, talk about prices and inflation, it does remind me a little bit of the early years of the Biden administration, when they were telling everybody that inflation was transitory, even when everyone was feeling -

CORNISH: It was the supply chain. It was like, it will be fine.

COLLINSON: Yes, right, and everyone was feeling the prices going up.

CORNISH: Yes.

COLLINSON: And when a government tells people something that they're seeing with their own eyes is not happening, that's a problem.

CORNISH: Yes. HENDERSON: Yes, I mean, they're actually telling people just to accept

the pain, right? That there's going to be some disruption. There's going to be some pain. But there's - it's a negotiation.

CORNISH: And it's a negotiating tool. That's probably the number one talking point I hear.

HENDERSON: Yes. And it's about fentanyl. I mean, there are all sorts of excuses and contexts they're giving for this. But in the meantime, you're going to be paying possibly higher prices for cars and guacamole and all sorts of things.

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, "AXIOS": It is not just line workers and union leaders. It is the automakers themselves telling the president himself, hey, this is a really big problem. And explaining a little bit about the way the process works, which is that Morth American production is different than importing automobiles from Europe or, you know, from Japan. And that, remember, this isn't Donald Trump's first rodeo. This is President Trump's second term. In the first term, they came up with pacts and agreements on which these automakers based all of their plans. Like -

CORNISH: Yes. And remember the auto industry, like, they got bailouts under Obama, right?

HENDERSON: Yes.

CORNISH: When the - when the market crashed. And they're a powerful constituency in of themselves.

TALEV: And they're a driver of employment in key swing states. There are political ramifications for this. There are economic ramifications for this. And it is - it's not as simple as saying, not enough of this car was made in America. When American automakers have, with the government of many administrations -

CORNISH: Yes.

TALEV: Support and policies created systems where components are made in North America for American made cars that American made workers. There are a ton of questions here. What's going to happen to BMW workers in South Carolina? What's going to happen to American employees -

CORNISH: Right, as they spread across to right to work states and things like that.

TALEV: Yes.

CORNISH: You know, don't look at my 401k because it's like not impressive.

TALEV: (INAUDIBLE).

CORNISH: So, this is going to be a question about markets, Stephen, because you actually were writing about this. Markets don't like uncertainty.

COLLINSON: Right.

CORNISH: What does that mean?

COLLINSON: Your word you used there was planning. And it's very important, not just for big car firms, but for small businesses. They have certainty of costs going forward.

When that doesn't happen, the market senses that there's uncertainty. Markets hate uncertainty. So, that's what we're seeing. And this - the problem here is, there are early signs in the economy of softening. Consumers are already spending less. There's less consumer confidence.

CORNISH: Yes, the Consumer Confidence Index is down.

COLLINSON: Right. So, you had in one of the earlier segments, you - you were saying, if you want to buy a car, you should buy it now.

CORNISH: Or later? Or now? Yes, uncertainty.

COLLINSON: Well, this is problem.

CORNISH: Yes.

HENDERSON: Yes.

COLLINSON: Because the consumer doesn't know, right? And then the natural reaction is to stop spending money. And that fuels a cycle that can be threatening to an economy that's always looking - already looking a little vulnerable.

CORNISH: OK.

HENDERSON: Yes, and voters thought that Donald Trump was going to fix this, right?

CORNISH: We can say day one.

HENDERSON: Day one. It was going to be fixed. Egg prices, you're going to be able to get a dozen for $2 or whatever. And none of that has happened. And you see some of the polling reflecting that Americans think he's not spending enough time with the economy in dealing with that. Even in his speech, he barely talked about the economy. It was mostly about culture wars. So, there is going to possibly a price to pay for this president going

forward with all of this uncertainty and prices still remaining fairly high in the grocery stores.

CORNISH: Yes.

Margaret, I want to give the last word to you. What should we be paying attention to going forward in this conversation about tariffs?

TALEV: Mexico's next move is going to be really important. They made a number of steps and concessions that they thought - CORNISH: A new president who has to show she is up to the task.

TALEV: Guess what, presidents in other countries and prime ministers also have their own domestic politics to deal with. Mexico's next steps could be tremendously important here because here's the other thing, if you crush economies in - in Mexico in particular, you could get more pressure for more immigration to your border, which is exactly what you're trying to prevent. All of the stuff is intertwined. The president and his team know that, But they are going to have to deal with the ramifications of it and the strategic moves, how one of their policies impacts another policy in real time.

[07:00:01]

CORNISH: Margaret Talev, Nia-Malika Henderson, Stephen Collinson, who I love to read online, columnist at CNN, I want to thank you guys for being here, having a group chat with me.

I also want to thank you for waking up with us.

I'm Audie Cornish. And "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" begins right now.