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American Airlines Plane Evacuated after Fire; Programs Cut at USDA; Toronto Mike is Interviewed about New Prime Minister; Trump's Bid to End Birthright Citizenship. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired March 14, 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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[06:31:38]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If there's a shutdown, it's only because of the Democrats. And they would really be taking away a lot from our country and from the people of our country.

REPORTER: Mr. President, (INAUDIBLE)?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump pointing the finger at Democrats as the clock ticks closer to midnight and a possible government shutdown.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. It's 30 minutes past the half - it's 30 minutes past the hour here on the East Coast. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.

Here's what's happening right now.

In just hours, the Senate will try to pass a funding bill. Republicans need 60 votes, which made a shutdown seem inevitable. That was until Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced he would support it. Now all eyes are on what the rest of the Democratic Party will do.

And a federal judge in D.C. set to hear arguments this afternoon in two immigration lawsuits against the Trump administration. These suits involve migrants who were recently detained at Guantanamo Bay. The Justice Department plans to appeal a judge's ruling that ordered six federal agencies to immediately reinstate probationary employees who were fired last month. Another judge made a similar ruling later, but that one covered just 18 agencies.

And right now, in Denver, the FAA is investigating after an engine on an American Airlines plane burst into flames, forcing passengers to evacuate onto the wing as smoke filled the air.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PILOT: Mayday, mayday, mayday! Charlie 48, engine fire.

TOWER: Charlie 48 engine fire, copy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: This flight was actually on the way to Dallas with more than 170 people on board when it was diverted to Denver because of engine vibrations. The fire started after it landed. Twelve people went to the hospital with minor injuries.

Joining me now to discuss this and everything that's been going on in the skies lately, CNN aviation safety analyst David Soucie, who's actually in Denver.

David, I have to keep reporting on these each time because it's having this cumulative effect on the public. What do you see about what's going on?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN AVIATION SAFETY ANALYST: Well, right now, in Denver, they're trying to clean up what happened. But the fact that it was diverted, there was something that happened in the air. The vibration could have been caused by a number of factors. However, once it got on the ground, it appears that there was a fuel leak or a fuel poor that got out onto the ground and then was struck on fire. So, trying to exit this aircraft and the fact that they got exited and out of the aircraft so quickly is - is really a testament to how well the crew is prepared to get people out of the airplanes.

It's very concerning, though, how they had to go out - they couldn't go out through the tarmac door, the regular door, they had to get out through the emergency exits and the slides. And you can see that - that they actually had to go out onto the wings to then prepare to come down the slides, which means the smoke was in the cabin at the time.

CORNISH: Can I ask, as someone who's an expert in this area, how are you thinking about flying now? I mean, we're seeing these moments where people are surviving. There are rescue efforts that - that go well. But what are some of the things you're thinking about right now?

SOUCIE: Well, that's - that's a really good question. And, for me, my perspective is quite different than most. The general public flying and watching these things happen, and they think that, well, it's still going to be the safest place to fly.

[06:35:06]

We're still going to be able to be safe, and it will be. And you can throw statistics at it, but that still doesn't help many people that ask me that question. So, what I tell people is that you have to be comfortable with flying. The worst thing you can do is if you're scared of flying, and you think that all these things are going to cause a problem, just don't fly for a while until you get comfortable with it. That's - that's the only advice I can give to you.

But I can still throw statistics at you about the safety of flying and the millions and millions of people that - that fly and are safe and don't have any kind of difficulty getting on the airplane or have these fires and experiences. When we see this, it's our fear of that happening to us.

We have to remember, though, that we've seen now two different events. One that the aircraft crashed and rolled and no one was injured, no one - well, there were people who were injured, but no one died in that airplane that crashed and rolled. This airplane now, we have this fire that happened, and no one was hurt in this one as well. So, we need to condition ourselves to understand that there are tens of thousands of people trying to make this safe. And when things do happen like this, it's not the end.

CORNISH: Yes, and -

SOUCIE: What happens is there are people that are ready.

CORNISH: Yes. And, obviously, in this incident, people were hospitalized. People are getting injured. But - but to your point, people need to sort of weigh their sense of risk.

CNN aviation safety analyst David Soucie speaking to us.

We also want to turn to new cuts at the Agriculture Department that could impact millions of American families already struggling with food insecurity. The agency is canceling two programs that provided about $1 billion or so to schools and food banks so that they could buy locally grown foods. For one single mom, this will add to her struggle since she visits three food banks in a month in Houston to keep her family fed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIANCA PANELOSA, DEPENDS ON FOOD BANKS: As a single mama with three babies and another one that is coming is very hard. So, for me to start going to the food banks, it helps a lot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you have a big, unexpected expense, would that be terrible for your family?

PANELOSA: Yes, of course. And the ones that is going to feel it is my babies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The USDA says the cut was made to restore, quote, "long term fiscally responsible initiatives." That's not putting food on the table for desperate families. The CEO of Dollar General says, "many customers report they only have enough money for basic essentials, with some noting that they have had to sacrifice even on the necessities."

CNN's Rosa Flores joins us live from Houston.

Rosa, I crossed paths with a food bank on the weekends when I'm doing my own kind of grocery shopping. Can you talk about how this is playing out for people, especially low-income people?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Audie, good morning.

You know, it is having such a drastic impact. There are drastic measures being planned by some of these families as they look at tariffs, as they look at rising prices. And as you know, there's a lot of talk about the middle class, about the stock market, about how stocks are doing. But there is a portion of the population who don't track stocks. They don't have stocks. What they track are food banks. And the food that is available at food fairs.

Now that woman, Audie, that you just mentioned a moment ago, her name is Bianca Panelosa. We spent a day with her. She is a mother of three with another on the way. And she says that she can't work because two of her children have disabilities. And she does get $400 of food stamps every month, but that's not enough for her family. And so she does go to those three food banks.

And we went to one with her. We woke up very early. She actually leaves her home and it's still dark. She arrives at this food bank at about 5:45 in the morning. When we arrived, there were already people there. There was already a long line. I talked to the first woman in line, and she told me that she arrived at 4:30 in the morning to get a box of food. She was a 72-year-old woman on a fixed income who said that she just can't afford to go to the grocery store.

But, Audie, about those drastic measures that some of these people are planning on doing. If prices continue to rise, if tariffs have an impact on the grocery store, where they - they purchase these goods, here this, Bianca Panelosa says that she is planning to feed her children less, that she is planning to dilute juice with water, dilute milk with water for cereal. And then also, she says, if other household goods become more expensive, that she plans to cut old clothes and make toilet paper.

[06:40:04]

Those are the types of plans that people who are low income are making right now as they look at the economy, as they look at rising prices and as they look at tariffs.

CORNISH: Rosa, can I just ask you one more question, which is about the food banks themselves? What were you learning in your reporting about sort of how they are feeling this moment?

FLORES: They feel nervous. They see what the outlook is looking like at the moment, and they know that the need in the community is already increasing. So, the - for example, here in Houston, the Houston food bank serves an 18 county area. And the latest data shows a 22 percent increase in distribution. And, Audie, they are nervous about the tariffs. And there's something that's counterintuitive. Initially, according to the food bank CEO here in Houston, he says that there's a bump in supply when there are tariffs. He was here during the - Trump's first term. And here's what he described happened.

Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIAN GREENE, PRESIDENT AND CEO, HOUSTON FOOD BANK: The last time we had the trade wars, that actually increased supply of food to us because what happens is, when the other countries slap tariffs on the agricultural products, that decreases the demand there, which increases the supply here. So, before they go bankrupt, the USDA steps in and buys the food, and then they give it to us.

FLORES: So that could be a positive effect of the potential tariffs.

GREENE: Yes, it's nowhere near as -

FLORES: Is it temporary?

GREENE: It's nowhere near as big as the - as the negative to the economy when you have a trade war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: So, Audie, in essence what he's saying there is that initially when there is a trade war, there is an increase in supply in the United States. Before those dairy farmers go out of business, the USDA jumps in, buys that milk, gives it to the food banks. So, there's an initial bump in supply. But then after that, Audie, he says it lasts about six months, and then it's back to a lot of worry and a lot of need.

CORNISH: Rosa Flores, thank you for this reporting. Appreciate it.

And still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, Canada vows to fight back against new U.S. tariffs. We're going to take a closer look at how Canadians are responding to a president wanting to make them the 51st state.

Plus, we'll show you a daring water rescue as some nasty weather swamps southern California.

And more from the group chat after this.

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[06:47:00]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE, ACTOR, "CANADIAN BACON": Canadians are always dreaming up a lot of ways to ruin our lives. The metric system, for the love of God. They're just Canadians. They're practically the 51st state.

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CORNISH: OK, so that's a clip from the 1995 comedy "Canadian Bacon," check it out, where a fictional U.S. president stokes fears of Canada in order to distract voters from other issues. Now, 30 years later, the U.S. and Canada are finding themselves divided by a very real trade war. A trade war that Canada is vowing to win.

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MARK CARNEY, LEADER OF CANADA'S LIBERAL PARTY: We didn't ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves. So, the Americans, they should make no mistake in trade, as in hockey, Canada will win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, so that's Mark Carney. He's soon going to take over Canada's fight when he is sworn in as prime minister later this morning.

Joining me now is Toronto Mike. He's the host of the "Toronto Mike'd" podcast.

Welcome to the program, Mike. We appreciate having you.

I want to ask you about this moment because I think just the - yesterday maybe we heard the president continue to talk about this 51st state idea. So, how do Canadians hear it?

TORONTO MIKE, HOST, "TORONTO MIKE'D" PODCAST: Well, it's relentless, really, Audie. Good morning from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, by the way.

So, I have, on my podcast, I have maybe three, four or five times a week I have people over for in-person, long form conversations about what's happening. And they may be politicians or musicians or broadcasters or comedians. Scott Thompson was here on Tuesday from "Kids in the Hall" and "Larry Sanders Show." And without a doubt, in 2025, the number one issue in our hearts and on our minds is this threat of annexation. It's really number one. Nothing comes close right now.

CORNISH: I was listening to your show and was actually struck in one episode by this public service announcement. I want to play it for the group.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CROWD: We're standing proud together. For Canada.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's protect Canadian jobs and Canadian business.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shop as if your country depends on it.

CROWD: Keep your money in Canada for Canada.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Can you talk about just personal spending? We hear boycotts. We hear about, like, whiskey being pulled from the shelves. But for, like, everyday people, is it reaching them in terms of like their lifestyle changes? TORONTO MIKE: Well, without a doubt, Audie, like, if you go to the

grocery store, you'll see suddenly people are reading the labels, right? Like, this is a new thing. You see them looking really closely, where was this product made? We're all trying to buy Canadian made goods, but even more importantly, we're avoiding American goods.

[06:50:02]

I know many people I've talked to are changing their travel plans. They typically - we just had March break here where kids get a week off. That would be a time to go to Florida or somewhere warmer. But people are canceling those plans. They're going elsewhere, exploring Canada. At least in this, you know, the most populous city in the country, we're absolutely changing where we direct our dollars right now.

CORNISH: Can I ask you about the politics of some of this? Andrea Horwath, a Canadian politician, was saying that this actually is a moment to kind of step up for Canadians.

TORONTO MIKE: Well, I can tell you, I can sense this unified pride across the country. Like Mike Myers said on "Saturday Night Live, elbows up. So, we're all very unified, united. We're all willing to pitch in and do what it takes. And we take these threats very seriously. Nothing is more important to a Canadian than our fiercely independent sovereignty. And when that's threatened, we get together and we - we fight.

CORNISH: Before I let you go, I do want to ask one more thing, which is, for a time, obviously, there are competing political factions in Canada. There is very much a conservative movement that was on the rise prior to this election. Is that starting to shift? Are fortunes starting to shift?

TORONTO MIKE: Maybe the greatest shift I've ever witnessed because if we were talking three months ago, Audie, I would tell you, it's a foregone conclusion that after ten years the liberal party will be replaced by the conservative party and Pierre Poilievre. It's funny we're talking today, it's March 14th, but I don't know, in any moment now Mark Carney will be sworn in as the new prime minister, our first new prime minister in ten years.

And without a doubt, this threat from your president, the 51st state rhetoric, calling our prime minister governor, these insulting comments, without a doubt there's been a shift from the conservative party, which seemed aligned with the MAGA movement and with your president, there's been a shift to the liberal party, and this foregone conclusion of a majority for the conservative party has switched. Now, it's a real fight and we'll be going to the polls this spring. So, there's a lot going on in this country, Audie.

CORNISH: And I hope we can check back in with you again. That's Toronto Mike.

It's now 52 minutes past the hour. I want to give you your morning roundup. Some of the stories you need to get going. Johns Hopkins University says it's laying off more than 2,000 workers

globally. This comes after the medical research institution lost $800 million in funding from USAID.

And take a look at this video. See the light red in the trees. That's a firefighter rescuing a man who was stuck in a creek full of rushing water. This was in southern California. He had been hanging onto a tree after his SUV somehow ended up in the creek. The fire captain said the heavy rainfall that they had earlier made the rescue challenging.

And Columbia University says it expelled or suspended some of the students involved in a campus protest last spring over the Israel- Hamas war. They had barricaded themselves inside one of the school's main buildings.

And police arrested nearly 100 protesters who filled the lobby of Trump Tower in New York. They were with the group Jewish Voice for Peace, and they were protesting the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, who faces deportation over the demonstrations at Columbia.

And the Trump administration is taking its bid to end birthright citizenship to the Supreme Court. Several lower courts have already blocked it. In January, one judge called it blatantly unconstitutional. Days later, another judge said it "runs counter to our nation's 250-year history of citizenship by birth."

That is not stopping the president. Sources say as early today he could invoke a wartime law from the 1700s to expedite mass deportations. So that law gives a president the authority to remove migrants who come from enemy nations if they are deemed a threat to the U.S. It's something Trump vowed to do on the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (October 23, 2024): I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Group chat is back.

Elliott, I got to ask you, as a lawyer and someone who worked at ICE, I believe.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I did. Five years. Yes.

CORNISH: Tell me sort of about whether or not the Supreme Court is really going to get a chance to talk about this.

[06:55:05]

Like, how long is this legal conversation been brewing?

WILLIAMS: Oh, it's been brewing for quite some time now. The Supreme Court will inevitably get the case at some point. Someone is going to challenge this action. Any of these aggressive moves to revive tactics that existed in the 1750s or whatever else always seem to end up getting challenged in some way. And they create strange bedfellows in the Supreme Court.

The big picture point is that the court tends to be pretty deferential to the president's ability to carry out law enforcement and immigration enforcement. So, I would assume they tend to side with him in some way.

CORNISH: Yes.

WILLIAMS: But again, strange bedfellows.

CORNISH: But this is birthright citizenship.

WILLIAMS: Oh -

CORNISH: Yes.

WILLIAMS: Well, speaking of birthright citizenship.

CORNISH: Yes.

WILLIAMS: Oh, my gosh, I thought you were talking about the - sort of the last point of Alien -

CORNISH: Yes.

WILLIAMS: Oh, gosh. Now, separate issue here. Now, birthright citizenship, it - it's - there's a fringe argument that the Trump administration really is making on birthright citizenship. It has been the case since 1898 that the Supreme Court has interpreted people born in the United States to be citizens of the United States.

I think, though, if you read between the lines of what they're doing, they're more challenging federal judges' abilities to create nationwide injunctions, right? The mere fact that one judge can -

CORNISH: OK, you're nodding because you understand these words?

ROB BLUEY, PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE DAILY SIGNAL": Absolutely. Absolutely.

CORNISH: OK. Yes. Yes.

So -

WILLIAMS: "Daily Signal" folks really love this stuff.

CORNISH: Yes. No, exactly. And I - I think it - "Daily Signal" once connected to Heritage, right? Am I making that connection correct?

BLUEY: Yes.

CORNISH: It feels like these are long-time wishes, you know, ending birthright citizenship, making English the main language. Like, now that you're - now that the - the right and Republicans are getting these shots, is the goal the Supreme Court?

BLUEY: Sure. Well, Elliot has it exactly right, because conservatives, right now, are concerned that these federal district court judges are using these universal or nationwide injunctions to put a stop to a lot of Trump's policies. And I think that that's what they want the Supreme Court to resolve.

WILLIAMS: Yes. Because they know they can't win on the birthright citizenship point because it is settled law. So, what - in their current filings, what they're challenging is the fact that one judge said a decision that affected the whole country.

Now, to be clear, I'm not endorsing that view, partly because if something is a matter of constitutional law, if one judge makes a ruling that only applies to people in one state, that means you have 49 other states that don't have the same constitutional protection. That's silly. A judge needs to be able to - to reach across -

CORNISH: Yes. Like, kind of the point of a federal court.

JERUSALEM DEMSAS, STAFF WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": And this also feels, though, like a question of who's in power, right? Because when Biden was president, nationwide injunctions were a way for Republicans to piggyback on policies they didn't like. They would go judge shopping in the same way that they accuse Democrats of doing so now, to challenge laws that they didn't like. So, it's one of those things where, depending on who's in power, you're against nationwide injunctions, you're for nationwide injunctions.

CORNISH: I mean here's what feels different to me. I feel like, in this second term, most - the attempt to expand executive power is very public, very direct and really pushing as far as possible, right? And, I mean, Carter wanted more executive power in the '70s. Rob, you're nodding. I mean does this make sense?

BLUEY: Yes.

CORNISH: Like, it feels like 90 percent of the push in any of these policies is about, actually we should be in charge of that.

BLUEY: There are a lot of conservatives on Capitol Hill who exert their Article One authorities. They want to see Congress take more action. Unfortunately, we've seen, over the course of decades, Republicans and Democrats try to accumulate more power in the executive branch. And so, I don't think Donald Trump is doing anything different than his predecessors have tried to do with - with their own needs.

WILLIAMS: I strongly disagree with that view.

More than anything - more than anything else, the presidency has gotten stronger throughout time. What we've seen over the last three months has been an alarming expansion of presidential power with an eye toward what's probably a friendly Supreme Court. A number of the justices, including Justice Roberts, Justice Kavanaugh, have embraced the idea of a very strong executive. And I think they're trying to push that way in a way that past administrations have.

CORNISH: Yes.

Jerusalem.

DEMSAS: And I think, though, we shouldn't lose sight of the core argument that's being made about birthright citizenship, because it's not just a legal argument, it's a cultural argument about who gets to be an American. This is maybe one of the only countries in the world where someone can come here and become a citizen and be seen as that.

CORNISH: Yes.

DEMSAS: That not just because you don't have the same - your grandmother wasn't born here -

CORNISH: Which is that exact sentence as a - a for and against argument.

DEMSAS: Exactly. I mean, exactly. Some people don't like that.

CORNISH: Yes.

DEMSAS: But it's also - it's a fundamental part of the American identity for generations. And changing that, I think, is a much more important part of the Trump agenda than, you know, specific laws or specific wins at the Supreme Court.

CORNISH: I want to do a look ahead. What are you guys keeping an eye on in the coming days?

Jerusalem.

DEMSAS: I'm keeping an eye on these measles cases. We're at 250 cases nationwide now. We've seen deaths at this point for measles. You should get your measles vaccine. It is safe. It is effective.

CORNISH: But spreading to a number of states.

DEMSAS: Spreading through states, yes.

CORNISH: Yes.

Elliot.

WILLIAMS: Donald Trump speaking at the Justice Department today.

CORNISH: Oh.

WILLIAMS: It's not on - it's not on -

CORNISH: No, no, I - that's intriguing, yes.

WILLIAMS: It's not - no, no, it's wild. It - it's not unprecedented but very exceptionally rare. He will say something that defies all norms of law enforcement. The question is, what does he say and how egregious is it?

CORNISH: Rob Bluey.

BLUEY: As we just saw, protesters took over Trump Tower yesterday.

[07:00:02]

I think that this debate that's raging within the Democratic Party over the shutdown could fuel more protests over the weekend.

CORNISH: All right, I want to thank you guys for talking with me. We talked about Snow White. We talked about the Supreme Court.

DEMSAS: Yes.

CORNISH: Per the usual. This is a late group chat. I appreciate your time and I appreciate you for waking up with me.

I'm Audie Cornish and "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.