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CNN This Morning
Deadly Tornadoes Devastate Central and Southern U.S.; Tom Di Liberto is Interviewed about DOGE Cuts at NOAA; Trump Administration Downplays Market Volatility; Benjamin T. Smith is Interviewed about Gangs; Democrats Losing Faith in Schumer. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired March 17, 2025 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00]
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to have something - to do something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump teases his next round of tariffs overnight.
Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.
Here's what's happening right now.
We're just hours away from the opening bell. Stocks rallied Friday after a brutal week. Right now futures aren't looking too good, in the red early this morning. President Trump's on again, off again tariffs have been fueling uncertainty in the markets.
Today in Boston a judge demands the Trump administration explain whether they willfully disobeyed a court order involving a deportation of a doctor from Brown University. She's an assistant professor there, and she was sent to Lebanon despite a judge temporarily blocking her deportation.
And will storms wash out some Saint Patricks' Day parades? The northeast is getting rain today. Some of it could be heavy. And it is already affecting commutes this morning in New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
And a family says they're in shock after a tornado went right by their home in Mississippi. That was one of dozens of twisters that hit across the central and southern U.S. over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, man.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no. Oh Lord.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: At least 39 people have been killed. That's across seven states. Many of those deaths in Missouri, Kansas and Mississippi.
There have been at least 80 tornado reports and dozens of those now confirmed. Also, large hail, severe winds. More than a half a foot of rainfall left behind a trail of destruction.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANITA OWENS, STORM SURVIVOR: All she could say was, mama, her house is gone. It's leveled. And, it's leveled. I mean, that's all I know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: There were so many close calls with people finding themselves in danger and no time to escape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in a tornado.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are in a tornado.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: I want to take you live now to Alabama, where there are three confirmed deaths from severe weather.
CNN's Michael Yoshida is on the ground in Talladega.
Michael, what are you seeing at this hour?
MICHAEL YOSHIDA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Audie.
Here, just outside Talladega, Alabama, the power of these storms, the strength of those winds clearly evident. You can see the gymnasium behind me, the roof ripped off, the siding, destroyed, metal, bricks strewn across the parking lot at the gymnasium of this school. This is just one of the sites we've seen across Alabama. The governor, over the weekend, saying 52 of the 67 counties in the state experienced some sort of reported damage, but the surveying is still ongoing.
Across the region, though, the power of these storms just evident. In Arkansas reports for the first time in more than 25 years of potentially two EF-4 tornadoes touching down in a single day. You talked about Missouri. At least 12 reported deaths there. Many homes, buildings destroyed following this weekend's severe weather.
And as we start to move towards the cleanup process now just beginning here in Alabama, we saw yesterday utility crews throughout the streets as we were driving through the state. We've seen community members coming out a church nearby. They are members going through the cemetery at that church, starting to move some of the bricks, some of the metal that had been thrown around. A really small step forward in this recovery process. We know lots of power outages as well. Good news this morning, we're down from about 28,000 people without power over the weekend to just around 1,000 this morning. So again, a long road of recovery ahead for - for Alabama and the others in this region.
CORNISH: CNN's Michael Yoshida with reporting from Alabama. Thank you.
You know, as we're covering these devastating storms across the central and southern U.S., we've got to talk about the fact that many of the nation's climate scientists are being laid off. Sources tell CNN as many as 800 staffers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, have been fired, including many severe weather forecasters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JON MARTIN, ATMOSPHERIC AND OCEAN SCIENCES PROFESSOR: They're taking a meat axe to something that's already short staffed. People are going to feel that effect immediately when we make these kind of sloppy, not well thought out decisions about cutting government services is we're putting people's lives in danger.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: I'm joined now by Tom Di Liberto. He was a climate scientist at NOAA until he was recently fired.
Tom, first I want to say, welcome to CNN THIS MORNING, and I'm sorry for your job loss because I know that that is difficult.
TOM DI LIBERTO, CLIMATOLOGIST/METEOROLOGIST: Yes, thank you. I appreciate that.
CORNISH: Help us understand what it - what NOAA does in the situation of tornado forecasting, I think of tornadoes as feeling random, intense, surprising, because I'd like to get a better sense of what the cuts mean.
[06:35:07]
DE LIBERTO: Sure. NOAA runs the weather models that forecasters use to predict these events weeks in advance. NOAA is also the agency that is following these events, the 24 or 48 hours before the event. And -
CORNISH: And you're calling it an event. We're talk - it's a storm prediction center.
DE LIBERTO: It's a storm. It's a storm prediction center, right.
CORNISH: Yes.
DE LIBERTO: And NOAA and the National Weather Service, and these local weather forecast offices, the day of the event, they're the ones issuing the tornado watches, the tornado warnings. And then even after the - these events, these tornadoes are over, the next day, the next weeks, the weather service officers are the folks who then go out and then look at the damage and they assess the damage that occurred due to these tornadoes.
CORNISH: It's interesting because, I mean, I - my family has had to hide in the basement due to a tornado warning. It's different from a hurricane or a winter storm where it's moving very slowly. It comes quick, and the time for warning is key.
DE LIBERTO: It's key. It's super key. Yes. And these firings, what they've done is that they were indiscriminate across NOAA, and that included weather forecasters across the United States. These are the people who are trying to keep their communities safe. And all this is going to do is make the country less safe.
CORNISH: Is there anywhere for them to go? Like, if there's a brain drain from NOAA, what happens? Because maybe there's going to be an alternative private industry we're going to turn to.
DE LIBERTO: Sure. Yes, there could be other countries that these forecasters go to. There could be other places where scientists go to help continue to improve our ability to forecast these tornadoes. And, yes, they could go to private industry. But when it comes down to it, NOAA and the National Weather Service are the only people who issue tornado watches and tornado warnings. So, if you reduce the capacity of the weather service to be able to do that, you're going to cause there to be issues when it comes to safety.
CORNISH: And we're saying "they," I guess I mean you.
DE LIBERTO: Yes.
CORNISH: You're looking for work right now, right?
DE LIBERTO: I am looking for work. And there's a lot of people just like me who are looking for work. And even the people who are still working at NOAA know that there might be future cuts to come. It's not the environment you want to create when these people have to have the very stressful job of watching radar every moment to make sure that that community is going to be well warmed before a tornado hits.
CORNISH: Tom Di Liberto, thank you so much for your work and best of luck with your search.
DE LIBERTO: Thank you.
CORNISH: All eyes are on Wall Street today after what happened to the markets last week. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent seemed to downplay it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTEN WELKER, HOST, "MEET THE PRESS": Mr. Secretary, can you guarantee the American people here and now that there will be no recession on President Trump's watch?
SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: Well, Kris, you know that there - there are guarantees if we kept on this track.
What I could - what I could guarantee is we would have had a financial crisis.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, markets had a minor rally on Friday, but we're wondering whether an overall economic downturn could spell trouble for the Trump administration.
My next guest, CNN's senior political analyst Ron Brownstein, he actually looks at that very thing in his latest piece for CNN. It's titled, "Why Trump's greatest first-term strength may be his second- term weakness."
Ron, first of all, good morning. Welcome.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
CORNISH: So, the reason why we wanted to talk about this is because there were so many voters - I remember looking at exit polling - who talked about the economy and the idea that Trump would be better positioned to handle it, basing that on their memories of his first term.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
CORNISH: So, can you talk about what are the differences now?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes, look, confidence in Trump's management of the economy was among his greatest and certainly most consistent political assets in his first term as president. Every time, in his first term, that Gallup or CNN or CNBC measured it, his economic approval rating was higher than his overall approval rating. And as you say, the - kind of the comparison, the belief that the economy was better, life was more affordable under Trump was absolutely central to his victory in '24, when more of his voters cited inflation as the reason they were supporting him than anything else, even immigration.
Now, here we are in the second term, and the picture looks very different. In a raft of recent polling, including the CNN poll, yesterday's NBC poll, Gallup, Quinnipiac, Trump's approval rating is below his overall approval rating, something his economic approval rating is below his overall rating, something we never saw in his first term. Both NBC and CNN produced virtually identical results in the last few days. About 55 percent of people disapproving of his handling of the economy.
Audie, he never reached majority disapproval in either of those polls at any point on the economy in his first term. And the reason really isn't that hard to discern. People do not feel that the cost of living is improving. As many as three quarters of Americans in recent CBS polling said their incomes are not keeping up with the cost of living. And what's more is that most voters do not see Trump as primarily focused on the issue. We're getting routinely 60 percent of Americans, including in last week's CNN poll, saying they do not believe he is prioritizing the country's biggest problems as he, you know, engages in all of these firefights on so many fronts.
[06:40:01]
So, when you add it up, what was his greatest first term strength is, I think, most clearly his - his most conspicuous second term vulnerability at this point.
CORNISH: In the meantime, Trump is making very aggressive moves in the areas where he does poll well, right? And that's where people believe he is doing what he said he would on immigration. When there was reporting this weekend about that doctor from Brown who's being deported against court orders, you tweeted, quote, "on so many fronts, the water has become very deep, very fast." I really want to know what you meant by that.
BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think, you know, people who were worried about whether Trump would respect the rule of law, as we have understood it for the past 250 years coming up, have ample reason to be concerned on so many fronts. You know, whether it's the targeting of law firms because you don't like that they have represented Democratic clients, the detention of the protester with a green card at Columbia University, the magnitude of the DOGE cuts in defiance of congressional authorization of programs, and now this and the flights to Venezuela in which we seem to be very close to, if not over a gray area of openly defying judicial rulings, all without really any complaint from the Republican majority in Congress. I mean, you know, the question of whether the rule of law, as we have known it, is going to be sufficient to constrain Trump, I think is a very - is a very open one.
And as I've said before, I think what our constitutional democracy in 2028 really is - looks like is going to depend on the decisions of those six Republican appointed Supreme Court justices. How far they let Trump go, and, ultimately, how far does he go anyway?
CORNISH: Ron, because I love your writing, I want to ask one more thing. You draw from history.
BROWNSTEIN: Sure.
CORNISH: All of these things, you've told us a lot of issues. When people want to oppose them, when they want to have that conversation and offer an alternative vision to voters, what can you pull from history that you think would be relevant here?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, we have gone through cycles in the past in which rights have been rolled back in American life, usually in the aftermath of a war. I mean, you know, post reconstruction, obviously in the south, after World War I, when there was a crackdown on dissent, as well as the restrictions in immigrations that - that went on for 40 years, internment in World War II.
And the scholars who study this, I think, as I said, the lesson is, you know - and the McCarthy era. I mean the lesson really is twofold. One is that it really does take time and popular resistance to - in defense of rights that matters. But ultimately, how far these periods go really does depend on the Supreme Court and how far they let it go.
I mean you see in public opinion a lot of concern about this already. The CNN poll, I think, over 60 percent said they worry that Trump is not following the rule of law. Congress does not seem like it's going to put up many obstacles on any of these fronts. We are seeing a lot of decisions against him by the lower courts, but every one of those trains, Audie, the terminus (ph) of every one of those trains is the Republican majority on the Supreme Court.
CORNISH: Yes.
BROWNSTEIN: And it's really in their hands, above all, how much of our constitutional democracy survives in a form that we will recognize it, I think, by 2028.
CORNISH: That's Ron Brownstein keeping us informed. I appreciate the insights here.
Still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer now facing heavy criticism from his own party over his vote to keep the government open. But in a new weekend interview, he's standing by his decision.
Plus, it's March Madness time, and you could win big if you end up with a perfect bracket. More with the group chat after this.
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[06:48:10]
CORNISH: The Trump administration is now deporting hundreds of alleged gang members to El Salvador as part of a promised crackdown on illegal immigration. The deportees arrived at the notorious El Salvador Super Prison this weekend with a massive show of force by local police. Among those arrivals are alleged members of a Venezuelan gang that Donald Trump talked about repeatedly on the campaign trail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The savage Venezuela prison gang, known as Tren de Aragua, the TDA Venezuelan prison gang, has, quote, "sneaked" into the United States among the millions of migrants who have crossed the border and is peddling drugs, guns and women all across the 50 states. To expedite the removals of these savage gangs, and I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. Think of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, what is the Tren de Aragua gang? Joining me now to help us answer that question, Benjamin T. Smith. He's the author of "The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade."
Benjamin, thank you for being here this morning.
As we mentioned, your book talks about the Mexican drug trade. For years I was hearing about MS-13 around El Salvador. What's going on with this gang that's put it on the radar of federal officials?
BENJAMIN T. SMITH, AUTHOR, "THE DOPE: THE REAL HISTORY OF THE MEXICAN DRUG TRADE": Well, effectively, the Tren de Aragua gang was established more or less a decade ago. And like many of these gangs, it started off as a prison gang. It was set up in a prison in kind of north Venezuela called Tocoron prison. We think the head of the - the head of the gang was a man called Hector el Nino Guerrero.
And, first of all, it started as your standard prison gang basically running the prison. In actual fact, they built up an extraordinary livelihood within the prison.
[06:50:05]
And when eventually the Venezuelan government raided the prison in 2023, they found not only kids play things, a park, they found also a zoo with monkeys and flamingos and a couple of swimming pools. After the raid on the -
CORNISH: So, Benjamin, can I jump in here for a second?
SMITH: Certainly.
CORNISH: So, sending them back to prison, like it sounds like that's not fearsome for them?
SMITH: I suspect that the prison that they've been sent to in El Salvador, the CECOT prison, which is a hyper high security, they call it the terrorist prison. It's got a - it's got about 40,000 people, I think, is the - the limit on the numbers there. It's going to be far more controlled than the one in Venezuela. So, I suspect that it will be a fairly fearsome place. I mean the other major problem is it's mostly full of MS-13.
CORNISH: I want to ask you also about how the president is using the law by naming cartels as terrorist organizations. Usually this is delineated by being a foreign entity country doing, you know, violent acts. What - what's helpful about using it here to fight drug cartels?
SMITH: Well, I think you've really got kind of two ideas about being terrorists. The first is, there is absolutely no doubt that these cartels, these gangs do use terror. And like terrorist organizations, they use terror partially to extract money, finance and support from local populations. And you can see that. That is what the cartel Jalisco has done in Mexico. It's what the Tren de Aragua has done in Venezuela and many other areas of Latin America.
However, what these cartels do really lack is any real ideological impetus. This is not ISIS. They don't want to create a caliphate on earth. They basically want to make money. So, one of the major questions is, when are they going to stop? I mean how are you - their aim is simply to make money, something which is - has a kind of infinite prospective.
CORNISH: Yes. Benjamin Smith, he's author of "The Dope: The Real History of the Mexican Drug Trade." Thank you for joining us this morning on CNN THIS MORNING.
It's now 51 minutes past the hour. I want to give you your morning roundup. Some of the stories you need to get your day going.
President Trump claims that the pardons President Biden gave members of the January 6th Committee are, quote, "void." Trump alleges, without providing any evidence, that the pardons were signed by a machine without Biden's knowledge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Somebody was using an autopen to sign off and to give pardons to, as an example, just one example, but the J6 unselect committee.
I don't think Biden knew anything about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: In a post on social media, the president warned that people who receive the pardons could be investigated, quote, "at the highest level."
And pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil remains in federal custody in Louisiana. Federal agents arrested him earlier this month over protests at Columbia University. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended that move over the weekend.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: We don't want - we don't need these people in our country. We never should have allowed them in in the first place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: A second Columbia student now saying she's fled to Canada fearing immigration officials would take her into custody. The Trump administration claims she self-deported, which her attorney denies.
And Auburn, Florida, Houston, Duke, they're the top seeds in this year's men's NCAA basketball tournament. UCLA, South Carolina, Texas and USC are the top seeds for the women's game.
And get this, X is giving away a trip to Mars for anyone who picks a perfect men's bracket. The odds of that happening, one in 9.2 quintillion.
All right, we're going to turn to politics for a second because after helping Republicans pass their spending bill, which avoided a government shutdown, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is taking heat.
Lulu, here in the group chat, spoke with him this weekend. Here's some of their conversation, including some talking about some in his own party who suggested that he should step down. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Let me say this, there is spirited disagreements on which was the right vote. But as I said, I think we have mutual respect in our caucus. I am focused on bringing Trump's numbers down, his popularity down, exposing what he has done to America and what he will do. That's my focus right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Lulu, he gave two reasons, right? There was one. The other was the fear that who knows what would happen while the government was shut down.
[06:55:01]
Can you talk more about what you learned from him?
LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, I mean, he is facing an unprecedented amount of fire. I have heard after this interview from other Democratic leaders, and they really were shocked by his tone. They feel that he does not understand the severity of the disconnect between Democratic leaders like him and the voters.
CORNISH: Yes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: This is not actually even about the backlash that he is receiving within his own party for what he - for the decision that he took. This is actually about what polls on CNN and others have shown that actually Democrats themselves at this point want to see their elected officials fight Trump. And so, whatever the merits of his decision, the fact is, they feel that he did not make the right one because he did not show that as the leader of the Democratic Party, he is willing to take on Trump and the Republicans.
CORNISH: Although he seemed reluctant to take on that mantle. He was sort of saying, look, I'm the Senate minority leader. I'm not exactly -
GARCIA-NAVARRO: But he - but he is.
CORNISH: Yes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, at the end of the day, he is a leader of the party, whether or not he wants to take that mantle or not.
CORNISH: Alex.
ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Listen, it wasn't just Schumer, but the entire Democratic Party got caught flat footed last week because they did not believe that Mike Johnson could muster up enough votes to pass a clean CR with only Republican votes.
CORNISH: Right.
THOMPSON: They thought they would have to cave on a few issues. CORNISH: And in the end they lost one Democrat in the House, right?
THOMPSON: Yes. Exactly. So, they - and so Mike Johnson did it, and then he left town. And then the Senate was left - was left with this tough - tough position, you know, and it was not clear what was going to happen. Basically, it was a very risk averse decision. But to Lula's point, I think there is an underestimation of how angry some of the Democratic grassroots are at this moment.
CORNISH: Yes. Doug, one of the things he talked about in his cut there was also, like, we're trying to push down Trump's favorability numbers, and that's going to make the difference. But would it?
DOUG HEYE, FORMER RNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR AND REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Maybe. We don't know.
CORNISH: Yes, it's not clear.
HEYE: You know, ultimately having worked during shutdowns, you - it's very easy to overestimate what your ability is, especially when you're in the minority. They don't have a majority in the House, in the Senate or, obviously, the White House. So, what they can do is pretty limited here.
But I go back to last year when Mitch McConnell was majority leader, every day his crack press team would put out Dems in disarray. Sometimes it was true. Sometimes, well, maybe. Right now they're -
CORNISH: Yes. To this day everyone still says it.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yes, exactly. I mean -
CORNISH: Regardless of what's going on.
HEYE: And right now it is 100 percent true.
CORNISH: Yes.
HEYE: And it's not just rank and file, it's leadership as well. They are fighting amongst themselves. That's not what they want to be doing.
CORNISH: OK, jump ball for the group, really quickly.
One of the things that's happening, and you will remember this, is the idea that when your party loses the presidency, the person who lost doesn't necessarily become the de facto leader of the party afterwards, right? Like, Mitt Romney had a role. Oh, my goodness, what's the budget here? Mitt Romney had a role, but he was not the leader, so to speak. And I do feel like I'm watching Democrats struggle because a new leader has not emerged.
THOMPSON: When you're seeing every single person that might run in 2028 is trying to fill that vacuum in - unprecedentedly early. I mean you're seeing Governor Beshear of Kentucky. You're seeing Gavin Newsom try to make news. You're seeing Gretchen Whitmer try - I mean - CORNISH: But they're not capturing the public's imagination.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: They're not. And the real problem here is, what is leadership right now actually mean?
CORNISH: Right.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: What are you trying to capture? What is the - what is - what are you trying to articulate as the vision? You have Chuck Schumer telling me, listen, we're going to basically run an old playbook, which is go back to our old message that we're for working people -
CORNISH: People, yes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And we're just going to basically try and inch by inch claw our way back into power.
CORNISH: Yes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: But look what's happening. It - it's a playbook that (INAUDIBLE).
CORNISH: Yes, but, Doug, Trump - Trump, there's a lot of people that ran into that lane for Republicans, right?
HEYE: Trump's, obviously - yes.
CORNISH: It was wide open and he walked right in.
HEYE: He's, obviously, a very different political animal. But part of this is, you can't do that when you're out of power. You don't have a de facto leader. They don't exist. You have to sort of -
CORNISH: Let me argue about that, though. You get to oppose,, right? And there's nothing easier in the world than getting up and saying you're opposed to something. And that does feel like a platform.
HEYE: Sure. And if you're in the minority in the House, you vote no on everything.
CORNISH: Yes.
HEYE: That's sort of your job. But, you know, in 2009, Republicans were labeled an endangered species on the cover of "Time" magazine. We didn't have a de facto leader. But what we did have was something called Obamacare. And the vote that went through. That galvanized Republicans. So, will Democrats have something that really galvanizes them? If they're infighting right now, that makes it a lot harder.
THOMPSON: The one thing that's different about this time is that Democrats are completely divided on whether or not they should do the, quote/unquote, resistance playbook, which they were very unified in doing in 2017, or if they have to moderate or find places, despite their feelings about Trump.
CORNISH: Right.
THOMPSON: Find places to work with them.
CORNISH: And what places are those, yes.
THOMPSON: And there's just - there's a complete divide within the party over what to do.
HEYE: They have to figure out who they are.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yes.
HEYE: Yes.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, I think that's right. And I think part of the problem is that a lot of Democrats, both in the Senate and in the House, they are in districts, some of them, where they feel like they can't just oppose everything that Trump does.
CORNISH: Yes, it will come back to them.
[07:00:00]
GARCIA-NAVARRO: And so, you know, they are caught constantly in this difficulty. And then Democratic leaders, like Chuck Schumer, are trying to manage all this. So, he is in a very difficult position.
But I have to say, I've heard from a lot of people, they don't know that he survives this.
CORNISH: OK. Well, we're going to - check your DMs during the break.
I want to say thank you to the panel for this lively discussion on a Monday morning. Thank you for waking up with us. I'm Audie Cornish. And "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.
