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Participants in Insecure Group Chat Defend Its Use; Today: Rubio Heads to Caribbean Focused on Crisis in Haiti. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired March 26, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Wilson is entering his 14th NFL season. He won a Super Bowl with the Seattle Seahawks in 2014.

[06:00:07]

Wilson posted a picture of the Giants' Met Life Stadium with the caption, "Been here before. Can't wait to do it again."

Nice. So, I guess that means Ciara will also be in the area.

All right. Thanks for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Rahel Solomon in New York. I will see you tomorrow. In the meantime, CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: It's Wednesday, March 26. Here's what's happening right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I always say you've got to -- you have to learn from every experience.

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CORNISH: He used to say, "You're fired." This time, he's standing by his cabinet members. But will there be any consequences after a reporter ended up in a highly sensitive group chat?

Plus, this.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're working on, of course, to end illegal immigration, counter transnational organized crime.

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CORNISH: The secretary of state heading to the Caribbean today with immigration top of mind. Do U.S. interests align with priorities there?

And this.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People say they're very unhappy about the state of the economy. They say they feel pessimistic.

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CORNISH: Consumer confidence plunges. Are buyers turned off by President Trump's trade war roller coaster and government cutbacks?

And an Amtrak passenger diagnosed with the measles. Were other riders along the East Coast exposed to the virus?

It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Good morning, New York, New York. And good morning to you. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you all for waking up with me.

Here's what we're going to start our conversation with. The blame game over how sensitive military plans reportedly ended up on a group chat with a journalist. The White House now going on the offensive.

Let's start with national security advisor Mike Waltz. He says he takes responsibility for creating the group chat, centered around an attack on targets in Yemen. He is also starting up his own theories about what might have happened.

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MIKE WALTZ, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: Have you ever had somebody's contact that shows their name and then you have a -- and then you have somebody else's number there?

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: I never make those mistakes.

WATLZ: Right? You've got somebody else's number on someone else's contact. So, of course, I didn't see this loser in the group. It looked like someone else.

Now, whether he did it deliberately or it happened in some other technical mean is something we're trying to figure out.

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CORNISH: Meanwhile, some reported members of that chat are trying to distance themselves from it. One of them, the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, wouldn't say whether she was actually on it. Yet, she seemed to know a lot about what was on it.

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TULSI GABBARD, U.S. DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: There was no classified material that was shared in that.

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): So, then, if there are no classified material, share it with the committee. You can't have it both ways. These are important jobs. This is our national security.

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CORNISH: So, the journalist at the center of this argues that even if the material isn't classified, it is highly sensitive. Jeffrey Goldberg says the texts even included the identity of an active CIA officer.

Goldberg says he intentionally withheld that detail and says he wants to be careful as he weighs further releases.

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JEFFREY GOLDBERG, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "THE ATLANTIC": Just because they're irresponsible with material doesn't mean that I'm going to be irresponsible with this material.

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CORNISH: Joining me now to talk about what comes next with this story, Kevin Frey, Washington correspondent for Spectrum News, New York One; Margaret Talev, senior contributor at Axios; and Massimo Calabrese, Washington bureau chief for "TIME."

Welcome to the group chat. Now, officially the most loaded term in Washington.

But I want to start about how they are talking about this, how they are defending this, because there was this group threats hearing yesterday, where basically, half the people in the chat happened to be at Congress to talk about it.

I don't know who wants to start here, but when I think back to how most of the folks here were approved in their cabinet hearings, people raised questions about their abilities, about whether it was amateur hour. Like, this is such an unusual situation, Massimo.

MASSIMO CALABRESE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "TIME": So, I have a slightly contrary take to -- to a lot of the coverage, which is I don't think this was a huge breach in itself.

CORNISH: How so?

CALABRESE: Like the intelligence that that was apparently discussed, even if it got out, is nothing like past breaches.

Ten years ago, the Chinese hacked 4 million --

CORNISH: Yes.

CALABRESE: -- personnel records from the government. Julian Assange let out -- what this is indicative of is a pattern of loose handling of classified information.

[06:05:03]

President Trump was, of course, investigated criminally for his handling of classified documents. He's shown satellite, highly- sensitive satellite photographs.

So, I think the larger story here is, as you say, there's a whole bunch of people here charged with handling the nation's secrets who don't seem to care very much about protecting them.

CORNISH: Margaret.

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think there's two things going on. And one is that the administration is clearly -- including the president -- circling the wagons, trying to diminish the controversy over this and saying, We're going to move on. I'm standing by these people.

CORNISH: Nothing to see here.

TALEV: They're going to show they can.

CORNISH: Nothing. Yes.

TALEV: But secondarily, there is a real dichotomy between the way this administration is teach -- is treating the idea of leaks to journalists or how journalists publish information with information that, while not leaked, is -- is -- was a breach anyway.

CORNISH: Yes. Because it puts the reporter in the position -- and bear with me, because who cares about reporters? But you've either got to release information that could be classified and get in trouble for that, or not release information and be called a liar.

KEVIN FREY, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, SPECTRUM NEWS, NEW YORK ONE: I mean, there's like, there's -- you can't -- it's a no-win situation.

CORNISH: And either way, the public doesn't get an answer.

FREY: Correct. And look, I mean, this -- this oscillating by this administration has been really fascinating over the past 24 hours: to go from suggesting that there is no classified information, to there is classified information, to Jeffrey Goldberg -- I accidentally added him; this is my fault, to he nefariously got onto this chat.

CORNISH: Yes. Which, if reporters were good at hacking, we'd live in a very different world.

FREY: Yes, exactly.

CORNISH: I would say.

TALEV: There is -- there is this playbook --

CORNISH: Yes.

TALEV: -- of -- of blame the journalists, or try to diminish them, or accuse them --

CORNISH: Yes.

TALEV: -- of having done something wrong here.

But I think, you know, there's also the political component to this --

CORNISH: Yes.

TALEV: -- which is how -- how much do most Americans care?

And I just, like, happened to be listening to a voter focus group last night that wasn't about this. And voters are thinking about the economy.

CORNISH: Yes.

TALEV: Voters are thinking about their jobs. I don't think at this moment that most American voters are like, what's going on on Signal chains?

CORNISH: Yes.

TALEV: And so what you're going to have -- and the challenge for not just Democrats, but the challenge for people who are concerned about the national security apparatus, people who are inside intelligence agencies and are still in the government, people who want to protect the government from other countries or potential adversaries seeing stuff. The challenge is going to be how do you apply pressure on this administration to change, if the public barometer --

CORNISH: Yes.

TALEV: -- is what is going to decide how they perceive?

CORNISH: Well, I want you guys to stay with this, because we are actually going to be talking with someone from the House Armed Services Committee. We are going to have a lot of chat today about what does it mean to hold anyone accountable in this current environment under this administration?

All right, so coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, Congressman Dave Min is going to be here. House Democrats demand answers about how this all went down.

And a doctor under arrest, accused of trying to kill his wife while on a hike. Why police say it all started over a photo.

And what was billed as a cultural visit now adding another notable name. Vice President Vance joins the trip to Greenland.

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JIMMY FALLON, HOST, ABC'S "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": In light of this embarrassing group chat scandal, I have decided to go thousands of miles away from here, too. If you need me, do not text me on Signal.

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[06:12:54]

CORNISH: If you're heading out the door, it's about 12 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup: some of the stories you need to get your day going.

Vice President J.D. Vance is going to be joining his wife Friday on her trip to Greenland. Vance says he wants to check out what's going on with security there.

Greenland's prime minister calls the visit, quote, "highly aggressive," since President Trump has expressed a desire to annex the territory.

Police arrested a doctor in Miami who's accused of trying to kill his wife on a popular hiking trail.

Police say he tried to push her off that trail. She hit her head, or hit her head with a rock. According to Hawaii News Now, there was a six-hour manhunt to find him.

It also reports that he is accused of attacking his wife after she refused to take a picture with him.

And wildfires are scorching parts of North Carolina that are still trying to recover from Hurricane Helene. And in South Carolina, two fires are burning in the mountains.

Forecasters are warning of an elevated fire risk along parts of the East Coast today.

And welcome to New York, Russell Wilson. He's officially signed a one- year deal worth up to $21 million with the Giants. The Super Bowl- winning quarterback had been in discussions with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns before going with the Giants.

And you've got to see this. A paw-some rescue. A cat pulled from danger by a good Samaritan in Peru. It was stuck on a rock surrounded by rushing water from flooding.

The man heard the cat meowing somehow, so he tied a rope around his waist -- Oh, there it is -- and trudged into the water to save it.

Still coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, as Haiti's capital faces dire threats from armed gangs, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, heads to the region. So, what are the big issues he's going to be tackling on this trip?

Plus, what year is it? We'll tell you how much somebody paid to buy Napster.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, ACTOR: I founded an Internet company that let folks download and share music for free.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kind of like Napster?

TIMBERLAKE: Exactly like Napster.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you mean? TIMBERLAKE: I founded Napster.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[06:19:12]

CORNISH: Secretary of State Marco Rubio heads to the Caribbean today, and a big focus of his trip will be Haiti.

The U.N. says more than 60,000 people have fled Port-au-Prince in just the last month, as gangs take greater control of the capital.

Joining me now to discuss foreign policy and national security expert Rebecca Bill Chavez.

Now, you were recently writing an op-ed in "The Miami Herald" about this. We know that the issue of Haitian immigrants is kind of a live conversation for the Trump administration, as they basically crack down on asylum seekers and refugees. So, what do you think this trip is about?

REBECCA BILL CHAVEZ, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR WESTERN HEMISPHERE AFFAIRS: Well, I think the trip is about -- well, first of all, what I would say is that I'm so glad that we're paying attention to the Caribbean. It's so often overlooked.

CORNISH: I think you've got -- people call it the third border.

CHAVEZ: The third border. Exactly.

And I think this is an opportunity to create a positive agenda, an affirmative agenda with the Caribbean in recognition of how important the Caribbean is to U.S. national interests.

You mentioned Haiti. We've got the transnational organized crime organizations. We have -- energy security is tied very deeply to -- to countries like Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad, and Tobago.

And we also have sort of the environmental concerns in the Caribbean.

CORNISH: Can you talk to us about the homeland security secretary? He basically announced that they were going to be ending legal status for -- I think, for more than half a million Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans, which we've been talking about.

And the idea originally was to have a way for people to come to this country legally. Now, they could face deportation. I want to play to you some reaction from some Haitian refugees.

CORTEZ: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I prefer to die than go back to Haiti, because I will definitely be killed if I go back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gang members threatened my son with guns. Returning is not an option. I leave it in God's hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: This instability in the region is quite serious. It brought a lot of people here. It even came up during the election, right, when J.D. Vance made up stories about refugees in Ohio.

Can you talk about what this asylum policy can do for people there?

CORTEZ: So, the asylum -- the asylum policy was actually to provide a legal pathway for countries -- for -- for individuals from those --

CORNISH: Yes.

CORTEZ: -- four countries that you mentioned to come to the United States for two years. That could be extended. And as you mentioned, and as the -- the -- we just heard, the situation in Haiti is Haiti is a failed state, basically.

CORNISH: Yes. I mean, so it's not in a position to take people back, so to speak.

CORTEZ: No. It's absolutely not in a position.

CORNISH: But are other nations in a position to help them? Right? So, if Rubio's going to the region or talking to the head of state of Jamaica, is he saying, hey, you should be doing more here?

CORTEZ: So, what I -- what I would say to that is we tend to look at the migration crisis in the United States as about our Southern border. It's really a hemisphere-wide migration crisis.

And the countries of the region are already accepting much larger numbers of migrants than the United States is.

And Venezuela, for example, is one of the countries that is going to be affected by this. Colombia has taken in over 2 million Venezuelans. So, these countries -- and in the Caribbean, for example, Trinidad and Tobago -- and I know Marco Rubio is going to be meeting with the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago. They have taken in so many Venezuelans.

So, I think pushing this issue on the countries of the Caribbean is -- is not -- is not a -- a fair request.

CORNISH: Can you talk about the relationship overall? These are countries that live in the shadow of the U.S. They consider themselves allies. But at an era when even Greenland feels that the tone of the U.S. is highly aggressive, what does it mean for these countries here?

CORNISH: Well, that's -- that's a great question. And I hope that this -- So, I think Secretary Rubio's trip to the region is an opportunity to actually create a positive agenda with the countries of the Caribbean.

The countries of the Caribbean, we've just seen their unity when they -- the CARICOM, the nations of the Caribbean community, banded together to elect the new-secretary general of the Organization of American States, Albert Ramdin.

It's the first time we have a representative of the Caribbean as secretary general of the OAS.

So, we see that there's a lot of unity in the Caribbean, and this is something that the U.S. should actually be encouraging. Regional integration is a good thing.

So, my hope is that when Marco Rubio is in -- he's going to be visiting Jamaica. He's going to be visiting Suriname, and he's going to be visiting Guyana. And he'll have the opportunity, especially in Jamaica, to meet with other heads of states. That he can highlight that the U.S. is here to be a partner.

CORNISH: Right. Rather than China, which is their other option.

CORTEZ: Yes. And this is -- over the past two decades, across the Western Hemisphere, across Latin America and the Caribbean, China has gained influence.

And we see this in the Caribbean, where the Belt and Road Initiative has led to major infrastructure projects, telecommunications.

And so, the historical U.S. approach has been, say, choose. You have to choose between the United States and China, without offering an alternative.

So, what I hope, and what I think is necessary for U.S. interests, is to, when Rubio meets with these Caribbean leaders, is to say, hey, we are an alternative. We're going to provide development financing, infrastructure. [06:25:16]

CORNISH: Yes.

CORTEZ: We are a reliable partner. We are an alternative to China.

CORNISH: We'll see if it's carrot or stick.

CORTEZ: Yes, exactly.

CORNISH: In that offer today. Rebecca Bill Chavez, president and CEO for Inter-American Dialogue.

Now, still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, Congress weighs in on the group chat heard around the world. How did a reporter end up in a text thread with top U.S. officials? We're going to have Congressman Dave Min here to talk about that and a lot more.

Plus, consumers' confidence is not so great right now. Could that perception become reality for your wallet? And good morning, Miami. It's in the mid-'60s right now.

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