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CNN This Morning

Trump Reiterates Support For National Security Team; President Maintains He Was Unfamiliar With Signal Before Scandal; Protesters Call For Global Day Of Action Against Tesla And Elon Musk; NBC: Trump "Couldn't Care Less" About Rising Car Prices; White House Correspondents' Association Drops Comedian From Dinner Next Month; More Than 100 Million People Under Severe Storm Threats From Texas To New York; American Woman Detained In Afghanistan Has Been Freed; No Survivors From Small Plane That Crashed Into Minnesota Home; Protests Over Arrest Of Istanbul Mayor Keep Up Momentum; More Than 1,700 Dead As Rescuers Struggle In Aftermath Of Myanmar Earthquake. 25 percent Tariffs On Imported Cars Begin Thursday; 100M+ People Under Severe Storm Threats From Texas To New York; Deadline Extended For Homeowners To Request Debris Removal; "Fentanyl In America: A Way Out" Airs Tonight At 8PM ET/PT; Cherry Blossoms Reach Peak Bloom In Washington, DC. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired March 30, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:35]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: You're up early. It's good to have you. Welcome to CNN THIS MORNING. It is Sunday, March 30th. I'm Victor Blackwell.

Here's what's happening this morning. There's a new interview and in it, President Trump is publicly expressing support for his national security team after the Signal text chain became public. We're learning of concerns, though, that he's expressing privately some questions about his national security advisor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROTESTERS: Deport Musk. Deport Musk. Deport Musk. Deport Musk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: More than 200 Tesla takedown demonstrations were planned across the country yesterday. Activists are ramping up their opposition to Elon Musk's DOGE. We'll tell you the message they say that they're sending to Washington.

Rescuers are still finding survivors in the ruins of the buildings after that 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar. Seventeen hundred people are confirmed dead, but it could be weeks before we get a full picture of the devastation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd like to keep Altadena., Altadena. I'd like to keep the diversity as it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And we're going to Altadena, California, months after wildfires devastated the community. People there say, the mission now is about so much more than just rebuilding the homes.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And severe thunderstorms are already starting to fire up across the country. We'll take a look at where they're going to spread to in the timing of those storms coming up.

BLACKWELL: All right. New this morning, President Trump is reiterating his support for his national security team despite that Signal text debacle. He told NBC News that he's got no plans to fire anyone. He said in part, quote, "I think it's just a witch hunt. We had a tremendously successful strike."

He reiterated that he does not know or care what the Signal app is, but "The New York Times" reports that firing his national security advisor, Mike Waltz, was on the table at one point. CNN's Betsy Klein details those new developments for us.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: This entire Signal text chain debacle, starting with the sharing of almost certainly classified information about strikes in Yemen by top Trump national security officials, followed by the White House's subsequent messaging efforts, really marks the first self-inflicted crisis of President Donald Trump's second term.

Now, Signal, that encrypted messaging app, is something that the president himself was quite unfamiliar with. And an aide had to explain to him what it was and what exactly had happened here. Ultimately, the president pinning the blame on his national security advisor, Mike Waltz, who added the journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to that text chain.

Of course, new reporting in "The New York Times" that the president has been pulling allies and advisers inside and outside the White House of Waltz asking, quote, "Should I fire him? "The Times" reports that Trump is privately very unhappy with the news coverage around this, but does not want to be seen as caving.

And National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes saying in a statement that Waltz, quote, "Serves at the pleasure of President Trump and the president has voiced his support for the National Security advisor multiple times this week." Hughes added that, "Unnamed sources should be treated with the skepticism of gossip."

And it doesn't appear, at least for now, that anyone will be fired after this episode. Listen to the vice president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We all accept that a journalist should not have been invited into the chat, and members of the administration, including my dear friend Mike, have taken responsibility for it. And if you think you're going to force the president of the United States to fire anybody, you've got another thing coming. President Trump has said it, on Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday, on Thursday, and I'm the vice president saying it here on Friday, we are standing behind our entire national security team.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: Now, sources familiar with his views say that the entire episode has frustrated President Trump, who believes it has marred what has otherwise been a strong and unified messaging operation in his second term. Trump has privately told his top officials to review the use of Signal going forward.

Betsy Klein, CNN, traveling with the president in West Palm Beach, Florida.

BLACKWELL: All right. Betsy, thank you for that. Protests happened at Tesla dealerships around the world Saturday, part of a campaign that demonstrators dubbed the Tesla takedown.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROTESTERS: One, two, three, four.

[06:05:01]

Let's push Elon out the door. One, two, three, four. Let's push Elon out the door.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Here in the U.S., more than 200 demonstrations were planned at Tesla locations. There were protests also in Europe, London, and Berlin, specifically. The campaign wants people to sell their Tesla vehicles and the shares of Tesla stock to denounce owner Elon Musk and his efforts to cut federal government staffing and budgets. CNN's Marybel Gonzalez was at a protest in southern California -- Marybel.

MARYBEL GONZALEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The protests against Tesla and Elon Musk continue nationwide, with over 200 reported just this weekend alone. Now, here in Pasadena, California, dozens and dozens of people have come out outside of a Tesla store with signs saying, democracy is not autocracy. Keep Elon Musk out of the federal government.

All sorts of messages they hope get to the ears of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk himself. They're critical of Musk's recent downsizing of federal agencies and their employees. And they say they're worried about the future, especially when we're talking about their health care and their other needs. We spoke to one organizer who tells us what drove him to attend this protest, which is now his third one in recent weeks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SCOTT VICTOR, PROTESTER: These are not regular protesters here. This is a pretty seasoned crowd, if you know what I mean. Probably most people here are over 60. And you know, these aren't the activist type of people. So, you better ask a question. Why are these people coming out? There's been a wholesale gutting in Social Security. There's a threat to Medicare and Medicaid. I mean, there's so many people in our state that are utterly depend on that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GONZALEZ: Now, the protest, part of this movement happened, by and large, peaceful, with organizers asking protesters to remain calm when sending their messages. But we know that this has not been the case in other incidents. There's been violent attacks and also acts of vandalism against Tesla vehicles and Tesla facilities, acts that the attorney general has called domestic terrorism.

Now, the organizers and protesters we've spoken to here say they strongly denounce these acts. They say that is not the way to send a message. Instead, they're asking people to do what they're doing, taking to the streets and boycotting Musk's companies until Musk steps down -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right. Marybel, loud crowd out there. Thanks so much. With me now Julia Manchester, national political reporter with "The Hill." Julia, good morning to you.

So, let's start here with this interview with NBC News and the president told there, Kristen Welker, quote, "I don't fire people because of fake news and because of witch hunts." The news is obviously real. Jeffrey Goldberg didn't hunt for the chat. He was invited by the national security advisor.

The president says he's not going to fire anybody. That's what he said about his first national security adviser, General Flynn, until he fired him. Does it appear that they are out of the woods on this?

JULIA MANCHESTER, POLITICAL REPORTER, THE HILL: Good morning, Victor. You know, I don't necessarily think they're out of the woods yet. This isn't a story that's going away. We know that even Republican senators on Capitol Hill are really ramping up the pressure on the administration, really, to investigate this matter. We know that lawmakers would like to investigate this matter.

The story isn't going away. So, they're not out of the woods yet. However, I would say the difference between this story or this incident involving President Trump's national security advisor, and Michael Flynn during his first administration, is that he has a whole other team, you know, surrounding him.

We know that that first administration was very chaotic and, in many ways, unorganized. But this administration, it seems that it's more organized chaos. And they have, you know, seasoned political veterans, White House veterans surrounding the president. So. for now, they feel that, you know, obviously, they're going to keep Mike Waltz on the team. There's also the question, though, of, I would say defense secretary Pete Hegseth's future. He's actually come under you know, a lot of scrutiny as well because he was the one sharing a lot of this information in that group chat.

So, for now, President Trump, unsurprisingly, standing firm and not caving to calls or he would say, caving to calls. You know, to fire Mike Waltz or Pete Hegseth or any of these officials. But the story is not going away.

BLACKWELL: Another headline from this interview with NBC News on the tariffs on auto imports that are supposed to take effect next week. The president said potential price increases, quote, "I couldn't care less. I hope they raise prices, because if they do, people are going to buy American made cars. We have plenty."

Well, there is no 100 percent American made car. And four out of the five voters, according to CNN's exit polls from the 2024 election say -- who said that they are voting for the economy, voted for Donald Trump.

[06:10:10]

So, they didn't vote for someone who wanted prices to increase. How is this landing?

MANCHESTER: Well, look, we'll have to see what, you know, public opinion polls are showing this and how, you know, the -- you know, the American public reacts to this. But President Trump making a bit of a gamble here. He is in, you know, in many ways, you know, putting, you know, all of his eggs in this basket, thinking that, you know, auto manufacturers are going to make American. People are going to buy American.

He's very much hoping that instead of, you know, going overseas, people are going to stick with American made cars, American made products. The problem is, like you said, we know that no car is 100 percent American made. And we know that, you know, not everyone is going to necessarily want to, you know, get an American car.

You know, they're not necessarily going to want to import American cars. So, it's a gamble. Because we could see an increase in prices. And we know that we're seeing volatility in the markets. A lot of uneasiness about this idea of raising prices. Not only that, but also inflation. We're seeing inflation continuing to hold steady across the board.

If you're an American voter watching all of this, you're really hoping for some change here. And you're not necessarily seeing it yet. The administration would say, you know, it's going to take some time, take some time. But you know, they're not seeing it yet. So, it's a gamble the president is taking.

BLACKWELL: The White House Correspondents' Association announced that it is dropping Amber Ruffin as the entertainment from the dinner next month. The president -- association says that the board voted unanimously. Let me read the statement from yesterday.

At this consequential moment for journalism, I want to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division but entirely on awarding our colleagues for their outstanding work and providing scholarship and mentorship to the next generation of journalists.

Every moment is a consequential moment for journalism. What's behind this decision? Just six weeks ago, she was, quote, "the right person for this."

MANCHESTER: Yes.

BLACKWELL: The ideal fit for this current time, according to the association.

MANCHESTER: Well, there had been a clip leaked from a podcast she did -- you know, she took place in an interview for podcast. And, you know, Amber Ruffin, you know, sort of said that, you know, the Correspondents' Association had asked her to sort of play both sides to make fun of both sides of the aisle, to attack both sides of the aisle during her speech. Republicans and Democrats or her skit, I should say, during the correspondents' dinner.

They also -- you know, she also referred to the administration as, you know, a bunch of murderers or, you know, kind of like a bunch of murderers. I think that was the quote. And she said she was only -- she wasn't going to attack Democrats or the left. She was going to keep this to Republicans and the Trump administration.

So, over the past few days or this week, we've seen that interview circulated and Trump administration officials really using this to attack the correspondents' association and, you know, push back on it. And it seemed that that pressure campaign, you know, and that backlash eventually worked.

Look, it's going to be a really weird White House Correspondents' Dinner weekend here in Washington because you not only have, you know, the switch up when it comes to the comedian, the headliner comedian for the dinner. But you also have, you know, conservative media, in the administration potentially wanting to do their own counter programing.

So, it's going to be very different from last year, during the last four years of the Biden administration. I think much more similar to sort of the tone down Correspondents' Dinner weekends we saw during the Trump administration, the first one.

BLACKWELL: One, Julia Manchester with "The Hill, thank you. This morning, more than 100 million people from Texas to New York are facing a threat of severe storms. CNN's Allison Chinchar is back with me now. So, we're seeing some storms already this morning.

CHINCHAR: Yes. So, some of them already starting to fire up. We've had several severe thunderstorm warnings out to the west, mostly in Texas. But as more of those storms develop, you're going to start to see more of those watches and warnings begin to fire up. So, let's take a look at what we're talking about for today. Here's a wide look. Because again, you've got a lot of showers and thunderstorms, some at the severe category level. Others maybe it's just some light showers, especially across the Midwest.

But the strongest storms right now are really focused across the center portion of the country. So, you've got that line kind of spreading into portions of Missouri all the way down through Texas. That's where we have that first severe thunderstorm warning, at least as you wake up this morning.

But we've had a couple off and on throughout the overnight. There's even a severe thunderstorm watch across portions of the country, at least for about the next 15-20 minutes. This is going to be the area of concern as we go through the rest of the day.

Now, the bulk of the really strong thunderstorms will hold off until later on today, especially through the evening hours. But even a couple this afternoon could have that potency to them to kind of fire up some damaging winds, maybe, perhaps some large hail.

[06:15:03]

All of these areas, though. And you're talking roughly 100 million people under the threat for today.

So again, here's a look at the timeline. Again, you've got a couple of those showers and thunderstorms already firing up this morning. More of that line really starts to develop once you get the heating of the day into the afternoon and into the evening hours.

And then again, look at tomorrow morning. Again, it's going to be pretty stormy for places like Atlanta, Birmingham, as you're starting off the day tomorrow. Maybe even unfortunately around the time of your morning commute. Then we get to later on into the morning.

And look down here. This is where that really big cluster of thunderstorms really starts to develop down there along the Gulf Coast. That line will continue to slide off to the east and begin to impact some other cities as we head into the afternoon rush hour of later into the day on Monday.

BLACKWELL: More to come.

CHINCHAR: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Allison, thank you for watching it. Rescuers are still searching for survivors after that powerful 7.7 earthquake in Myanmar. Still ahead, how conditions there are complicating the search.

Also, President Trump is going through with his threat to impose tariffs on foreign made cars and car parts. How so many people will be impacted? We'll get into that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:53]

BLACKWELL: An American woman who had been detained by the Taliban in Afghanistan since February has now been released. Faye Hall was arrested for using a drone without permission. She was freed Thursday after a court order and taken to the Qatari embassy in Kabul for medical checks.

And Qatar mediated her release on behalf of the U.S. Officials say Hall is in good health, and she's preparing to return home to the United States.

Fire officials say there were no survivors from a small plane that crashed into a home in Minnesota. No one was inside the home when the plane went down. A Ring camera captured the moment the plane crashed. Watch.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

BLACKWELL: The FAA says the plane was headed to Minneapolis at the time. Look at that. Firefighters arrived there and the house was completely engulfed in flames. And the wreckage was not visible until after the fire was out. The FAA and the NTSB are investigating the cause of the crash.

Thousands of people demonstrated in Istanbul yesterday where the mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu -- I'm sorry, Imamoglu, was detained on corruption charges last week. He was detained just before he was selected to be the opposition's candidate in the next presidential election in 2028.

The mayor denies the charges. The arrest led to Turkey's largest anti- government rallies in years, as the mayor's supporters slammed the detention and politically motivated, as they say they were.

The death toll continues to rise in the aftermath of that 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck Myanmar. It now stands at more than 1,700. Rescue crews are still racing to free thousands feared trapped in the rubble of the largest earthquake that country has seen in over a century.

New video into CNN shows rescue crews pulling one man alive from the wreckage 40 hours after the earthquake. International aid has reached the most devastated parts of the country, but aid groups say they are still facing major shortages of medical supplies.

Joining me now from Singapore is journalist Manisha Tank. Manisha, give us the latest.

MANISHA TANK, JOURNALIST: Well quite right. That death toll in Myanmar has gone up over the course of the last few hours, and one wouldn't be surprised if it went up even further. Lots of aid agencies and local authorities warning us that it's very likely that the death toll will rise significantly. And that is because it's actually been very difficult to get to many of the areas that have been affected.

The United Nations has said roads have been wrecked and we've seen pictures of those roads. They look as if they have been torn apart by the force of mother nature. Like you said, is this -- the sort of devastation that has not hit Myanmar in centuries, actually. Only ever tremors, but nothing this big or this devastating. And this is a country which faces a very difficult backdrop as well, that it's working against.

In a very rare televised address, the head of the ruling military junta has actually said that pathways for aid are open for foreign aid agencies, which it's very rare for the Myanmar ruling government to ask for help like that. So, I think that gives you a sense of just how widespread this devastation is.

We've seen satellite photos as well. This imagery showing us before and after. You can see entire communities that have been leveled. You can see possibly centuries old temples, pagodas which often litter the skyline in the country. They're hugely beautiful, but many of them toppled, leaning to one side. Their beautiful, ornate surroundings, completely crumbled.

So, you can imagine the kind of situation that rescuers, the rescue teams, will be up against. And we know that there is a rescue team that has landed from China. Help is also being sent from Russia, from India. Singapore has sent 80 members of its civil defense force. And many countries Australia, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Ireland have all pledged millions of dollars of support.

[06:25:00]

So, at least that's coming in. The question is, how will it get to where it's needed most?

BLACKWELL: And, Manisha, you detailed the complications caused by the problems of -- the literal landscape, the topography and the damaged roads. But there's also the political landscape that's causing its own complications. Explain those.

TANK: Absolutely. Rescue and relief is going to be so much harder in this situation, because Myanmar has been beset by a civil war for the last five years. It means there's a ruling military junta, but there are also opposition groups.

So, the government that fled when the junta took power, well, they are the National Unity Government. They act in a very shadow capacity. And it's complicated.

The United Nations' special envoy -- rights envoy, Tom Andrews, has talked about how international aid agencies should work with the shadow government to get help to where it's needed. And so, there is a very complicated difficult balance to strike in terms of that internal political situation.

The questions will be, which organizations, which rulers have access to which areas that have been affected the most, and which countries will be worked with? These are all questions that don't yet have answers. And because of the power outages, because there is intermittent internet, it's very difficult to get the right kind of data or reliable information about how all of this aid is going to be channeled to those who really need it.

BLACKWELL: Manisha Tank, reporting for us from Singapore, thank you. And for information about how you can help Myanmar earthquake victims and survivors, go to CNN.com/impact.

You could soon be paying 25 percent more for cars not manufactured in the U.S. But the impact of those Trump auto tariffs will be widespread. The potential impact to anyone who's buying or actually owns a vehicle, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:31:26]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, just as 25 percent tariffs on imported vehicles is set to take effect this Thursday, and tariffs on certain auto parts soon after, President Trump made an admission. According to a phone interview with NBC News, Trump responded to a question about reports that he pressured auto company CEOs not to raise prices by saying this, quote, no, I never said that. I couldn't care less if they raise prices because people are going to start buying American-made cars.

Joining me now to discuss is the executive editor of the Kelley Blue Book, Brian Moody.

Brian, thanks for coming in.

BRIAN MOODY, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, KELLEY BLUE BOOK: Yes, thanks for having me.

BLACKWELL: So, we talked about the political angle of that and how that might resonate with voters. How does that land with the auto industry, the automaker industry?

MOODY: Well, prices are going to go up. If these tariffs go through and we're applying tariffs to different cars based on where they're built, most likely prices are going to go up by a few thousand dollars at least, but it would vary from brand to brand and maybe even from model to model.

BLACKWELL: So, we've been talking about this in the context of new car buyers.

MOODY: Sure.

BLACKWELL: But as it relates to the car parts, when you go into a repair shop, are people going to feel it there too?

MOODY: Maybe. Because remember, when cars are built today, a lot of the car is built by a supplier.

So, the company that sells the car doesn't make every single thing that goes into that car. They use suppliers and partners. And those partners and suppliers often provide the parts that you and I purchase to fix our cars. So yes, it's possible that the prices for cars that are repaired, even a car that you already own, that could go up as well.

BLACKWELL: Insurance?

MOODY: Insurance, depends on how the parts availability are. So, yes, that's also possible. That's probably more of a delayed reaction. The first thing you would probably see is new car prices. And then remember, used car prices tend to follow new car prices.

So those things together will conspire to see whether or not the parts and the insurance go up after.

BLACKWELL: The President, when he was asked on Friday, rejected the premise of the question when he was asked, should people go out and buy new cars now before those tariffs take effect? He rejected it. Do you think they should? Would it behoove people who are in the market to do that?

MOODY: Well, it would certainly be to your advantage to start that process now. I mean, it's not going to advantage you in any way to wait, especially if you're looking for a used car. From a consumer perspective, that was already going to be a price increase for used cars, no matter what happened. Now this is going to sort of compound that.

BLACKWELL: The President's argument is that, you know, just build everything here. If you build all the parts and bring the assembly here to the U.S., then you won't face it.

If all that was brought here and the cost of labor in the U.S. and all of everything that's built here, how would that impact the cost of a car?

MOODY: Well, it could bring the cost of a car down, but it could also raise the price of a car. Because remember, the reason that we have this system in place where the borders between U.S., Mexico and Canada are, for trade purposes, invisible. The reason we did that was for economies of scale. Where do the cars go other than the U.S.? Where does it make sense to build them? What is the labor rate in those places?

So it could, but that's not going to happen tomorrow. Even if it did bring prices down, that's not going to be for a while.

BLACKWELL: Yes, and we should also say that it was the President in his first term who got rid of NAFTA and then negotiated USMCA.

The question of on again, off again, right? Some of the other tariffs, there's been a deadline and then maybe another two weeks for a 30-day extension. Is there some residual impact just of the unsurety, the anxiety maybe of will it happen even if these are pushed off a couple of weeks?

[06:35:14] MOODY: Yes, because in a market-based economy, that can rattle consumers' confidence. They want to be confident that when they go to buy a car, it's going to be the price they expected. They don't want to be surprised.

So on-again, off-again tends to lead towards surprises. People don't like surprises.

BLACKWELL: UAW President Shawn Fain applauded these tariffs coming. He, as many people might remember, called the President a scab before he was re-elected.

The concept of them bringing jobs back, and that's part of what the President's sell is, how long of a play is that?

MOODY: Well, it would be years out at the very least. But remember, a lot of cars today that we think of as traditionally import brands are actually built here in the U.S. already.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

MOODY: And a lot of cars that we all think of as traditionally domestic brands are already built either in-hole or partly outside the U.S. border.

BLACKWELL: Yes, Hyundai is celebrating. They have a huge facility here in Georgia.

MOODY: Yes.

BLACKWELL: There's facilities in the Carolinas as well.

Brian, thanks for coming in.

MOODY: Yes. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: I've learned a lot.

MOODY: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: All right. People who lost their homes in the L.A. wildfires have a little longer to request help.

Now, a group of volunteers are helping displaced homeowners navigate this difficult process.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:41:16]

BLACKWELL: This morning, 100 million people in cities across Texas to New York are in the path of severe storms.

With me now, CNN's Allison Chinchar.

I can see the map over your shoulder. It is busy and colorful. ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST (on-camera): Yes, and lots of lightning too. I mean, you've already got some showers and thunderstorms firing up already this morning.

Not all of them are up to the level of severe, but we're going to probably start to see more and more of those begin to pick up as we head through the afternoon, especially once the sun comes out. It heats things up. It helps fire up some additional storms.

So yes, this entire red area here, this is where there is some type of potential for severe weather, at least at some point today. Not everybody's timing is going to be the same.

So, let's look at where they are right now.

Again, you can see that really strong line of clustered storms around portions of Missouri, stretching down into Arkansas and back into Texas. We've even had a couple of severe thunderstorm mornings off and on this morning. You've got some more just general showers across portions of the Ohio Valley and even across areas of Florida, but the strongest thunderstorms, obviously, right here in the central portion of the U.S. Those are going to continue to slide eastward as we go through the rest of the day.

So that's why this entire area you see here has the potential for those severe thunderstorms. Yes, we are talking the potential for tornadoes. We're also looking at large hail. It could be baseballs or even larger. You're also talking about damaging wind gusts, 60 to 70 miles per hour. That is more than enough to bring down trees and cause some power outages for any of these cities you see here.

Obviously, orange is going to really be the target point, but even if your city is, say, in the yellow or the green color, that doesn't mean you're in the clear. It's just more likely the timing isn't necessarily as ideal as it is for those folks in the orange.

As we move into Monday, this is where the main threat is going to be Monday. So that includes places like Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, even stretching down to New Orleans, but also going up along the eastern seaboard. So New York, you've also got D.C., portions of Philadelphia, all of these areas looking at the potential for those strong to severe thunderstorms on Monday. And here's the timing.

So again, you can kind of see that strong line as we go through the afternoon. There's the really one that begins to pick back up as we head late into tonight and into very early Monday.

BLACKWELL: All right, thank you, Allison.

FEMA has now expanded its debris removal program for people who lost their homes in the Los Angeles fires. The agency has also extended the deadline to register for debris removal.

Now, it can be difficult to navigate this process, especially for displaced homeowners and for the elderly. CNN's Stephanie Elam is in the historically black area of Altadena, where people are stepping up in huge ways to help their neighbors rebuild.

Stephanie?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor, more than 13,000 parcels of land were destroyed in the Los Angeles wildfires in January. However, to get all that toxic debris removed from their properties, you've got to opt in to that service to get it done.

And so far, it's approaching about 10,000 owners who have opted in. Still, there's about 1,200 people who have yet to say whether they want it or not. And that's where this group of architects is stepping in, helping people navigate those difficult steps so that they can keep Altadena residents here in Altadena.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is our neighborhood, and it looks like 95 percent of the houses are gone.

ELAM (voice-over): What Charles Bryant (ph) lost in the Eaton fire wasn't just a house. It was his sanctuary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's gone.

ELAM (voice-over): Bryant's (ph) home of 20 years, where he and his wife, Lynelle, raised their children, was destroyed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ashes. Ashes. This is what's left of our house.

ELAM (voice-over): For about 40 years, Bryant's (ph) lived in Altadena, a historically black enclave about 15 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can look around, and you can see people that look like you.

ELAM: Do you worry about people selling their lots?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do. I'd like to keep Altadena, Altadena. I'd like to keep the diversity as it is. I don't want to see large developers coming in, buying up multiple properties and stamping out houses like cookie cutters.

[06:45:11]

ELAM (voice-over): Bryant (ph) jumped into action to begin rebuilding. But building homes is his wheelhouse. He quickly realized his neighbors needed help.

ELAM: If you weren't an architect, would it be easy to do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think it would be easy.

ELAM (voice-over): Bryant (ph) is a member of the National Organization of Minority Architects, a few others in his chapter also lost their homes. Together, they realized this is how they could help the community rebuild.

ELECTRICE HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT, SOCAL NOMA: We are really open to helping anyone that comes, but our main focus is the preservation of the African-American community that developed here early on in the 1920s when blacks were fleeing the Jim Crow laws of the South.

Black families were able to buy property in Altadena, and a lot of those families still own properties.

ELAM (voice-over): Through their Altadena Rebuild Coalition, residents are getting free help from architects, builders, as well as insurance and legal advocates.

HARRIS: We pulled out every single thing that they needed to do, and we broke it up into small steps.

ELAM (voice-over): The first step is granting the government rights to remove the toxic debris from private property.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think this is the most critical step in the rebuilding process, and it's really important that we move safely and quickly, and we don't want them to be gone too long that they decide to give up hope of rebuilding.

ELAM (voice-over): The deadline was March 31st, but FEMA just pushed it to April 15th, so the pressure is still on to get as many homeowners to fill out the paperwork as possible.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We didn't know anything. We didn't know what to do.

ELAM (voice-over): And help people like Michael (ph) and Harriet Dickens (ph), who escaped in the middle of the night with barely more than the clothes on their backs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It gives us ideas on how to rebuild, where to start from.

ELAM (voice-over): The Dickens (ph) now have their rebuild plan and opted in for debris removal ahead of the deadline, a few steps closer to rebuilding their home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, it really is my castle. I loved everything about my house.

ELAM (voice-over): In the community they love.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, our neighbors are more like family.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I love Altadena. I believe there's no better place in the world to live. ELAM: And Victor, out here in Altadena, take a look at this property here behind me. This is what it looks like when it's almost done with the debris removal. There's a couple more steps left to be done, but obviously it's much easier to envision what your property is going to look like in the rebuilding process to get underway if you've got that toxic debris gone.

And this is why these architects, other people are working here in Altadena to help people navigate this, get through this, so they can envision their new home and return to their property here in Altadena.

Victor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right, Stephanie Elam for us, thank you so much.

Visitors to Washington, D.C. are celebrating cherry blossom season, but those famous trees have been endangered for decades by rising water.

We'll tell you what the Park Service is doing to protect them for generations to come.

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[06:52:31]

BLACKWELL: For the past two years, CNN anchor Kate Bolduan has been on the front lines of the evolving fentanyl crisis, documenting through the eyes of paramedics, dealers, active users, and a doctor treating the youngest victims, newborns.

Here's a look at Kate's reporting for this week's episode of "THE WHOLE STORY."

(BEGIN VIDE CLIP)

LAUREN DAVIDSON, NEONATOLOGIST: She is having some tremors. The fentanyl crisis has been very real. I mean, opiate use in general.

Since the time I started practicing in pediatrics and neonatology, there's been an increase in over 300 percent of --

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: My God.

DAVIDSON: patients. I know.

What we found is that there's so many of these moms that are using that we're not comfortable with sharing that information.

BOLDUAN: If a pregnant woman comes in and she holds this information back, how does that impact the care?

DAVIDSON: If they wouldn't have shared it with their provider, they wouldn't know that it's actually more dangerous to stop using if you're already pregnant.

So, they would try to get themselves off of it, and sometimes cold turkey, stop using.

BOLDUAN: People are going to hear them, what?

DAVIDSON: The baby can die inside. So, the baby will then also go through withdrawal, much like the mom will if she stops using, and it can cause the baby to actually die in utero.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Watch "FENTANYL IN AMERICA, A WAY OUT," on "CNN'S THE WHOLE STORY," presented by Anderson Cooper, tonight at 8:00 p.m.

Well, spring is here, which once again means cherry blossoms are in bloom. More than a million visitors a year go to D.C. to see the iconic flowers reach their peak bloom. And this year, they'll not just see the incredible trees, but the massive infrastructure, the project underway to protect them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But this will be our first time walking through them and under them and smelling the blossoms as well as looking at them.

MIKE LITTERST, CHIEF OF COMMUNICATIONS, NATIONAL MALL & MEMORIAL PARKS: We are on the south side of the tidal basin, which has become home to not only iconic monuments, but more than 2,500 Japanese flowering cherry trees.

The seawalls were originally constructed in the 1880s. Some additional areas were built in the 1930s and 1940s. And quite frankly, they've been failing for decades. We have seen sea level rises combined with settling of the seawalls, now putting water six feet higher than the walls were built to keep it out. We are in the process of rebuilding the seawalls on the south side of the tidal basin.

[06:55:13]

Now, one of the interesting things that they've done is they salvaged some of the original stones that they took out from the old seawall and they've included it in the new wall. So, anywhere on the new seawall where you see stones that are a different color, those are historic stone from the 1880s up to the 1930s that were used in the original construction.

It's a $113 million contract funded by the Great American Outdoors Act. Construction began in earnest in August of 2024 and we look forward to being finished no later than spring of 2026.

We remind everybody to pack their patience. We're going to see a million and a half people here over the next four weeks. Most of that concentrated during peak bloom.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: They are beautiful. There's much more ahead on the next hour of "CNN This Morning Weekend."

Groups of protesters carried out a global day of action on Saturday ahead the Tesla takedown movement and the backlash against Elon Musk.

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