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CNN This Morning
Stock Market Sees Big Losses, Trump Officials Blame Biden; Today Marks 5th Anniversary of Declaration of COVID Pandemic. Aired 6- 6:30a ET
Aired March 11, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[06:00:36]
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: It is Tuesday, March 11, and here's what's happening right now on CNN THIS MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: Near term, we've got a Biden economy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can't disregard the damage that the Biden administration did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Stocks plunge, sparking fears of a recession. The Trump administration blames Biden. Do the voters buy that?
Plus, this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: You're not going to get a ceasefire and an end of this war unless both sides make concessions.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: U.S. and Ukraine holding crucial peace talks right now about ending Russia's war. What concessions will Ukraine have to make?
Then later.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are going on the presumption that she's still alive. We want to make sure that -- that we're exhausting every possible lead that we can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: A desperate search for a missing American in the Dominican Republic. New -- new details about the last time she was seen.
And later, the Menendez brothers' bid for freedom hits a roadblock. Why a top prosecutor says they should stay in prison.
It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at the city that never sleeps, New York. Good morning. Also, all eyes on Wall Street there before the opening bell.
Good morning. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me.
We're going to talk this morning about tariff threats, recession fears, mounting layoffs, and falling consumer confidence. Stay with me. Because we're talking about how all of this fuels economic uncertainty.
And we've seen that now in a selloff in U.S. stocks. Here's a look at U.S. futures for today. So, here we are just a few hours away from the New York Stock Exchange opening. The markets were basically hit with really heavy losses on Monday. The Dow and -- and the S&P 500 both posted their worst days of the year. And the NASDAQ saw its biggest single-day decline since 2022.
Now, this selloff was met largely with silence from the White House. President Trump stayed out of sight on Monday. Members of his administration say that they do think there's someone to blame.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HASKETT: Near term, we've got a Biden economy that, you know, still, most of the Biden policies are in place. If you look at the Atlanta Fed GDPNow number, it's showing negative first quarter, which is kind of, if you like, a metric of the inheritance of President Biden.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Individual companies are also feeling the squeeze. Delta slashed its earnings forecast in half on Monday over what the airline calls, quote, "a recent reduction in consumer and corporate confidence," a loss in confidence which could have wider consequences, according to former treasury secretary Larry Summers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY SUMMERS, FORMER U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: On January 1st, no one thought that a recession was a substantial likelihood, and today market prices and consensus opinions of economists suggest a very real risk of recession.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now to talk about all of this: Jackie Kucinich, CNN political analyst and Washington bureau chief for the Washington -- for "The Boston Globe"; Chuck Rocha, former senior advisor for Bernie Sanders' presidential campaigns; and Ashley Davis, former White House official under George W. Bush.
I want to bring it to the group chat now because -- and maybe start with you, Ashley. Welcome to the table. ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL UNDER GEORGE W. BUSH: Thank
you.
CORNISH: Can you have and complain about Bidenomics without Biden?
DAVIS: I don't think this ever works. First of all, good morning.
CORNISH: Good morning.
DAVIS: And thanks for having me on your show.
CORNISH: Yes.
DAVIS: And your voice is so calming. I -- I don't think that blaming a prior administration is ever a good idea, because you're automatically looking like you're on the defense.
CORNISH: Yes, also -- checks notes -- it's March.
DAVIS: Exactly.
CORNISH: It's not a January conversation.
DAVIS: Exactly. It is -- but it is 50 days in. However, this is -- this is around Trump's neck right now. And obviously, what the markets like.
We are still in a bull market, which I think is very important. However, I think that what markets obviously love is certainty and stability. And that is not what these -- what Trump's doing in regards to tariffs; is really what's happening and showing them, you know, the stability that they need.
So, I think we're going to continue to see this for a while.
[06:05:02]
On the tariffs, I think --
CORNISH: Well, hold on one second. I want to stay with the market for one second.
DAVIS: Yes.
CORNISH: Because we all thought that that was a barometer that Donald Trump was happy about. You're calling it a bear market.
But here's what Trump had to say when he was asked about people having an eye on the stocks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: What I have to do is build a strong country. You can't really watch the stock market. If you look at China, they have a 100-year perspective. We have a quarter. We go by quarters. MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS HOST: That's true.
TRUMP: And you can't go by that. You have to do what's right.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It sounds like someone who's looking at a stock market that's not doing too great, because we know that President Trump watches the stock market. It's one of the only things that causes him to change course.
It's likely why we've kind of seen this back and forth and back and forth with the tariffs.
So, it -- that's fine --
CORNISH: Yes.
KUCINICH: -- what he said there. But I think, in reality, we know this is someone -- he brags about it.
CORNISH: He cares about it.
KUCINICH: He cares about it very much.
CORNISH: I'll say that I'm one of these people that's like, the stock market is not the economy. They are not the exact same thing.
However, they are a vote, right? Like, and when Trump came into office, the markets were like, we're into this. Deregulation. It was a party.
And now, you're seeing them in real time, basically decide, actually, one too many markets don't know what's going to happen next. And that's bad.
CHUCK ROCHA, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR FOR BERNIE SANDERS'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS: It's really bad. And it's bad for folks that are out there, like, We voted for something different. We thought Joe Biden was old and weak or feeble, whatever they thought. They wanted to go -- or take a chance with Donald Trump for one reason.
And in focus group after focus group all around the country, it was about the economy and what we've talked about on this program, which was affordability.
Regular folks, to your point about I don't care what the stock market is doing, eggs are this price. Gas is this price. That hits them in the face every day.
During the last speech to the joint sessions, he mentioned Biden over 20 times, and now he's mentioning Biden again. That only goes so far. But Donald Trump is really good at blaming somebody and going after him, being the victim. But that time is running out.
CORNISH: Let me show you grocery prices right now, because there have been some monthly increases over December. I think eggs are up 19 percent, coffee is up 4 percent.
Shout out to my husband, who's probably panicking when he sees that.
Cookies are up. Shout out to my kids who are not going to like that. Bacon and flour.
These are small increases now, but for people who are already price- sensitive, which I'm under the impression voters were the last two years, aren't they going to feel it?
ROCHA: Yesterday, I put on my Twitter, in case -- for those of you following my Twitter, that in Islamorada, Florida, at my favorite Mexican restaurant, they put a note on the door that there's no more free chips and salsa because of the price of tariffs and the things that are going on with Mexico and Canada right now.
And that's where real people start feeling; when they're used to getting free chips and salsa.
CORNISH: OK. Ashley, on the salsa index?
DAVIS: You're exactly right on that one. As I ate Mexican last night.
But I do -- more importantly, the reason Biden was not popular at the end. I mean, there's obviously many reasons.
CORNISH: Yes.
DAVIS: But one of the main is exactly what you said. The markets were good, but you weren't feeling it on Main Street. And this is actually what's happened now.
Even though we're all watching what's happening in the markets, I don't know if everyday Americans are watching the markets as close as we are.
But the egg prices and some of these prices that people are going to the grocery store can't afford X, Y, and Z is what's really going to impact them.
And Trump said he could change it on day one. Obviously, that's part of his bravado, but that's what everyone's going to watch and measure.
CORNISH: All right. I want you guys to stick around, because we have a lot more to talk about this hour. This is a great, fun group, so I'm loving the energy.
Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, gearing up for a funding fight. Can the U.S. House pass its budget bill today? Republican Congressman Ryan Zinke is here to discuss that and much more.
Plus, is all hope lost for the Menendez brothers? A new twist in the 36-year-old murder case.
And at this hour, U.S. and Ukrainian officials holding crucial talks. Can they repair relations after that disastrous White House meeting? (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE WITKOFF, SPECIAL ENVOY TO THE MIDDLE EAST: Zelenskyy sent a letter to the president. He apologized for -- for -- for that whole incident that happened in the Oval Office. I think that was a -- an important step.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:13:49]
CORNISH: It is 13 minutes past the hour. I want to give you your morning roundup, some of the stories that you need to know to get your day going.
Russia claims it was hit by a massive drone attack just hours before Ukrainians began crucial talks with the U.S. about the war. Moscow's Defense Ministry says it downed more than 333 drones last night.
In Ukraine, the air force there says it defended itself overnight against a Russian ballistic missile.
Voters in Greenland heading to the polls as President Trump keeps up talk about annexing that nation. All five parties in Parliament are opposed to becoming part of the U.S., and many people are now calling for independence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need that identity for our people in the arctic.
NOA REDINGTON, POLITICAL ANALYST: There will be a new government, and it will put a tremendous pressure on the Danish government to have a position, a real position in terms of, if Greenland wants independence, what will the cost be?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Because of all the international attention, Greenland's Parliament outlawed political donations from foreign entities and anonymous donors.
A new twist in the Menendez brothers' case. The L.A. County district attorney says he will not push -- he will not push back their push for resentencing for the 1989 murder of their parents.
[06:15:06]
He says that he believes Eric and Lyle Menendez are lying about killing them in self-defense. The previous D.A. had filed a motion for the resentencing.
However, ultimately, this is a decision up to a judge.
And you've got to see this, because it looks like something straight out of the Old Testament. Red rain falling in Iran.
Don't worry, it is not a biblical plague, we think. It's actually caused by the soil at that beach, which is high in iron oxide, and that is turning the rainwater and the waves in the ocean red.
Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, COVID five years later. How the pandemic fractured society and reshaped our politics.
Plus, market jitters. All eyes on Wall Street and those shrinking 401(K)s.
And good morning, Baltimore. It's in the mid-40s right now.
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[06:20:15]
CORNISH: It was five years ago today that the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
Now, since then, there have been more than 1.2 million deaths from COVID in the U.S. Beyond the human toll, the pandemic also hopelessly fractured this nation in so many ways.
In a recent Pew survey, 72 percent of U.S. adults said COVID did more to drive the country apart than to bring it together. Now, because with the pandemic, came this mountain of misinformation that also triggered distrust in U.S. institutions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Many people argue that this pandemic was a plan-demic, that it was planned from the outset, that it's part of a sinister scheme.
I can't tell you the answer to that. I don't have enough evidence. A lot of it feels very planned to me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: The pandemic has changed so many dynamics here, whether we're talking about schools, public health, and just office culture, not to mention our politics.
So, I want to start with the group chat. I know where I was in March 2020: nine months pregnant and wondering if I had to tie a handkerchief on my face on the way to the hospital.
Chuck, I want to start with you. What do you think has changed when you think about impact?
ROCHA: I remember where I was, too. I had to shut down a presidential campaign. It was March of a presidential year, is what we don't think about. And it was the end of that primary for the Democrats in 2020.
And I remember getting the call of -- because I helped run the office here, shut everything down.
CORNISH: Wait. Which candidate, again?
ROCHA: Bernie Sanders.
CORNISH: OK. But I mentioned, because an older candidate, right --
ROCHA: Right.
CORNISH: -- in a moment that people started to be concerned about that.
ROCHA: We forget about that. We were talking off air. And I was like, oh, I remember where I was, because it was very moving that I had to let a thousand people go over 30 days, and I couldn't look eye-to-eye with.
It was very -- it was something that really made me very sad, because we'd spent so much time together.
And what's changed now with this is the way we looked at it then, and the way we look at it now.
CORNISH: Yes.
ROCHA: I would remind everybody that Donald Trump just signed an executive order for every military person who refused to take the test to reinstate them. That's how far we've come on this disease.
CORNISH: Ashley.
DAVIS: Yes, it's a very complicated topic. I was actually still in Washington at my office. I told my team that I was going to close down the office as the -- speaking of the stock market, remember how that was freefalling --
CORNISH: Yes.
DAVIS: -- that week? And then I said, don't worry, guys, we'll be back in the office on Monday.
CORNISH: Spoiler alert: they would not be back on Monday. That is not.
DAVIS: Nine months later.
CORNISH: But that brings us to a big change: office culture. When you think about so many offices and retail spaces and downtowns around the country that fundamentally suffered economically and how much that drove voter anger.
DAVIS: And -- and also, if you even look what Mayor Bowser is doing here in Washington, D.C. She is begging people, the federal government, to come back to work, because my office was at 12th and Pennsylvania.
So, around all those offices that just -- all the restaurants around were just completely closed.
But I do have to say one thing that I wish would go back is why can't we go back to regular phone calls? Everyone still wants to have a Zoom.
CORNISH: A plea from Gen X, asking for the phone calls. Jackie Kucinich.
KUCINICH: Well, no, it's funny. Not funny, but Chuck mentioned shutting down the campaign. I had reporters in the field, and they were -- and one of them actually sent me his story from trying to go to the Bernie Sanders rally.
And that he's like, happy anniversary. This is when everything shut down. And getting them home, trying to figure out how to cover a presidential campaign during a pandemic, which is very different than trying to run one, was also a challenge.
Because I feel like when you're thinking about coverage, you kind of harken to the past.
CORNISH: Yes.
KUCINICH: And we were in completely uncharted territory at that point.
CORNISH: And I don't know about you, but you know, you heard the health and human services secretary sort of being like, is it planned? Who among us? Do your research, which I feel like is one of the mantras that came out of that.
I also think about maybe the -- I hesitate to use this word, but kind of radicalization of, say, parents, right? People who were really upset about those school closures and were struggling at home, struggling to be heard. They became a voting bloc.
ROCHA: It exposed a lot of weakness in our society, because we weren't prepared for that.
And now you skip forward to today. What's happening five years later is you have a measles outbreak in Texas, because folks don't trust vaccines because of things that are spread on the Internet.
That's where you see from the beginning of this, the shut everything down to at the end, where we're having to live through something else happening in Texas.
CORNISH: Yes.
KUCINICH: But the other consequence, probably because of that, I mean, I'm old enough to remember when the current president was really trying to get a vaccine as fast as humanly possible in order to send -- get people back to work, to get back to normalcy. And you don't hear him --
CORNISH: At the same time, yes.
KUCINICH: -- or any of the advisers talk about that now.
[06:25:03]
CORNISH: And in fact, I think the federal government is no longer offering free vaccines.
DAVIS: No, I don't think they are. Definitely not tests. I think that ended, too.
But from my homeland security background, especially after 9/11, knowing where people, bad people around the world watch. Here's my thought on this. You watched how the world shut down over this virus. And so, if you ever think of biological warfare as a weapon, like they did in regards to planes, to us in 2001, the society around the world shut down.
And what could happen if something like smallpox or something like that was ever released into our society? It's a perfect game plan to watch.
CORNISH: Yes. And actually, I'm glad you brought it up, because Bush was known for being very concerned about biological warfare and pandemics.
DAVIS: Exactly.
CORNISH: That's one of his legacies.
I want you guys to stay with me, because there's more to talk about.
Still ahead, on CNN THIS MORNING, a college student disappears in the Dominican Republic. We'll show you the last known image of her, just into CNN, as that search intensifies.
Plus, a student activist faces deportation by the Trump administration. Could the move chill free speech on campuses nationwide?
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[06:30:00]
