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Trump's Global Tariffs Take Effect; Scientists Claim They've Resurrected Dire Wolf from Extinction. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired April 09, 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: I hope everybody was OK.

[06:00:04]

Thanks for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Rahel Solomon in New York. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: It's Wednesday, April 9. Here's what's happening right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know once it gets up there, I'm not going to be able to afford it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Breaking overnight: tariffs on nearly every country in the world, now in effect. How the stepped-up trade battle could impact you.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today our nation is -- is full of pain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: There was a roof collapse at a Dominican nightclub. A World Series champion is among the dozens killed. There's now a frantic search going on for survivors.

Also, a manhunt underway in Virginia after a deadly shooting kills three people. Police could be looking for more than one gunman.

And --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM NEILL, ACTOR: It's -- it's a dinosaur.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Just like "Jurassic Park." Scientists say they've resurrected a long extinct wolf. Is that really a good idea?

It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here is a live look at New York City, because the last couple of days, we've just been watching Wall Street react to President Trump's new tariffs, which are in effect. The opening bell, of course, just a few hours away.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me.

Breaking overnight, President Trump's tariffs are now in effect on almost every country in the world. So, goods imported from China are now subject to a 104 percent tax, more than doubling their price. Other countries face rates ranging from 10 percent to 84 percent.

And to hear the president tell it, everything is going according to plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm telling you, these countries are calling us up, kissing my ass. They are. They are dying to make a deal. Please. Please, sir, make a deal. I'll do anything. I'll do anything, sir.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: This morning, the European Union meeting to vote on their response. "Politico" reports that Europe's own tariffs could target a wide variety of American products, with a focus on red states that make up President Trump's base. That means soybeans from Louisiana, for example.

Also facing possible new taxes, cigarettes from Florida, car parts from Michigan, and ice cream from Arizona.

For some business owners, the president's handling of tariffs is fueling uncertainty, in that it's making it difficult to plan ahead.

But what is certain is the price you pay for many foreign products is going to rise. So, here's the head of a California company that sells kitchen appliances that are imported from China.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOBBY DJAVAHERI, PRESIDENT OF YEDI HOUSEWARE APPLIANCES: We don't know if the tariffs are going to stay at 100 percent, which is madness already, or 300 percent. It's -- the unpredictability makes it very, very frustrating.

For example, let's say if an air fryer costs $120 in retail. It could go all the way to $300 retail.

We are the ones that have to pay the government all the tariffs, taxes, whatever you want to call them. A tariff, a tax, it's a synonym to me. And that -- that -- that -- that all gets billed to us, which we in have to bill the consumer at the end. (END VIDEO CLIP)

Bringing in my group chat to discuss: Leah Wright Rigueur, CNN political analyst and historian; Charlie Dent, former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania; and Kristen Soltis Anderson, CNN political analyst and Republican pollster.

OK, my Republican group chat. Let me go over to here to see the emojis that we have been seeing from, let's say, how businesses are reacting. The headlines are screaming that people do not like this.

But more importantly, one headline that stood out, "The New York Times." An op-ed from you, Kristen. Tippity tap, tap, tap. And it said Republicans better watch out. Why? What are you hearing from actual voters?

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: The reason why I think Republicans need to be concerned is that any time you begin pushing your agenda, and you start pushing it a little too far, and voters begin to backlash against you, it can be easy to tune out that noise and say, oh, that's all. That's all fake. Stay the course. It's going to be fine. Politically, it will all work out.

And that's really what you're hearing from the White House now, in the parlance of stock trading Reddit, they want everybody to have diamond hands, right? Like don't sell, don't panic, stay the course.

But when you have that mentality, that can work if there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And right now, there's a lot of voter anger that's bubbling up that we saw in some of those special elections last week that's leading to Republicans, their base going, well, this is fine. Let's see how this plays out.

[06:05:09]

While opponents to Republicans are going, I am furious. I'm turning out to vote.

And that's a tough dynamic, if that persists through more special elections.

CORNISH: So, here and there, you do hear these voices that are still supportive. So, an example, a shrimper from Louisiana, I think we have a little bit of sound of their response in this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know it's going to be a game changer for this industry. We've been fighting for so long. And finally, something is starting to happen. We're looking at raising the prices at the -- at the level to where we can compete with it. And that's what we're hoping for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Charlie. CHARLIE DENT, FORMER PENNSYLVANIA CONGRESSMAN: Well, look, anytime you

go into a trade war, there are going to be people domestically who want the tariffs.

CORNISH: Yes. We should say some auto unions have been talking about this.

DENT: The privileged few want to be protected at the expense of the many.

He just said it. He wants to raise prices, and that's what's going to happen. This will raise prices if we impose tariffs on -- on steel or on shrimp or whatever. The price is going to go up. The domestic folks will use this.

And by the way, I just heard President Trump say that all these countries are coming to him saying, you know, they want to kiss his butt.

Well, I got news for you. One of those calls probably wasn't President Xi, because you know what? He leads an authoritarian regime.

CORNISH: Right.

DENT: He can take a lot of pain.

CORNISH: And we had the foreign minister of China saying, we're going to fight to the end.

I mean, I think the flip side is that you obviously saw, like Vietnam, for example, raise its hand and say, OK, fine, zero tariffs, let's do this. But I don't know what would please this White House.

DENT: Well, can I just say, look, they have two objectives. You hear the objectives. Is their objective, you know, to raise the rates, the tariff rates to collect money so they can allegedly, or supposedly, bring back manufacturing?

Or do they want to get to zero-zero, bring the rates down?

I think they want to keep the rates high. And then, as Trump said, he wants a line full of countries, companies, trade associations knocking on his door, begging for exemptions. And that's the game.

CORNISH: So, how will you sweeten the deal?

DENT: Well -- well, I'll tell you, I'm very cynical about this. And there's a lot of ways for people to raise money off of this.

CORNISH: Yes.

DENT: And so, but -- but anytime you have a policy or a rule that needs so many exemptions, you have a bad rule.

CORNISH: OK, Leah, I want to bring you in. Obviously, there's a lot of history around tariffs, how the U.S. has used it. This is unusual, because you just have a president who -- this is what he's always wanted to do. Like the person who has been liberated by Liberation Day is President Trump.

LEAH WRIGHT RIGUEUR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely. And so, I think we should be clear, too, that this is not a new thing for Donald Trump. It's not even a new thing within the last, like, eight or nine years.

Donald Trump, since the 1980s, has been talking about trade wars and tariffs as something that the United States is being pushed. You know, there's a great quote floating around from him from 1989, where he's like, the United States is being ripped off. And it's something that could have, you know, has definitely come out of his mouth in the last couple of days.

And so, I think that he has seen tariffs as a weapon to wield for a very long time.

What's also interesting is that, you know, even as somebody like Trump leans on this idea of history, and he likes to kind of point to these moments in time and point to these international stories of trade and tariff and things like that.

He also likes to ignore the larger history of tariffs and how tariffs have largely affected U.S. populations, domestic populations. He likes to ignore the facts that don't line up with his very particular agenda.

And in very specific cases, too, he's also willing to say, I am willing to take the pain as a country --

CORNISH: Right.

RIGUEUR: -- given the tariffs.

CORNISH: Yes. Which is --

RIGUEUR: You know, he's come out and said your groceries may cost more.

CORNISH: Yes.

RIGUEUR: Your car parts may cost more. Your computers, your cell phones, those things will cost more. Oh, well, suck it up and deal with it, because we've been getting ripped off.

CORNISH: Or wait it out and trust me, because I'm going to change the economy.

Hold on, group chat. We are going to keep talking about this because of those -- that morning bell.

But there is some news. A shooting in Virginia leads to an urgent manhunt. More than one shooter could be on the run. We're going to have new details coming in overnight.

Plus, there is turmoil at the IRS less than a week before tax day. Why the latest acting commissioner is now stepping down.

And is it possible to de-extinct an animal? Scientists in Texas think they've done it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, NBC'S "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JIMMY FALLON": The world's first successfully de-extincted animal. Yes, I read about it in a new science journal called "What Could Possibly Go Wrong?"

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[06:13:56]

CORNISH: If you're getting ready, it's almost 15 minutes past the hour. I want to give you your morning roundup, some of the stories you need to know to get your day going.

So, first, we're following that disaster in the Dominican Republic. The roof of a nightclub collapses onto more than 300 people. I want to give you a warning first, because some of these images are disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(CRASH)

(SCREAMING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, at this point, rescue workers are still searching the rubble for survivors. At least 98 people are confirmed dead, although that toll could still rise. More than 200 others were injured.

And among those confirmed dead, at least two former Major League baseball players, including pitcher Octavio Dotel.

The cause of the collapse is still undetermined.

And right now, an urgent manhunt underway in Virginia. At least three people are dead and three others hurt after a shooting in the Northeastern part of the state.

Now, a suspect hasn't (ph) been captured, and police say one or more shooters actually could still be on the run.

And the flow of millions of gallons of crude oil from Canada has stopped after the Keystone, the Keystone Oil Pipeline, ruptured in North Dakota. It had to be shut down.

That pipeline delivers more than 26 million gallons per day. And economists warn the shutdown could cause gas prices to spike in the Midwest.

And the president of Ukraine says his troops have captured two Chinese nationals fighting for the Russian army in Eastern Ukraine. And he believes more Chinese soldiers might be on the battlefield.

Zelenskyy is ordering his foreign affairs minister to contact Beijing and get an explanation.

And you have got to see this. A narrow escape for a driver in Pennsylvania. So, this is surveillance video. It's showing the moment that a tree fell and smashed into her car.

Here's the thing. Seconds later, the driver actually able to get out of the car and walk away. Police say she went to the hospital and got checked out.

Still to come on CNN THIS MORNING, recall of the wild. Scientists claim they've brought back a species from 12,000 years of extinction. Is that really accurate?

Plus, are the politics around tariffs giving Democrats a new opening on the political stage?

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[06:20:40]

CORNISH: OK, I want to go off-script today for a second because, what? These are Dire Wolves. These are the howls we have not heard in 12,000 years.

Researchers at the biotech company Colossal Biosciences claim that they have re-erected the prehistoric Dire Wolf from extinction. The same fearsome creatures that were in HBO's hit series.

How did scientists decide to turn this fantasy into reality?

So, we're going to talk about it today, because they say the way they did it was to edit the genes of the Dire Wolves' closest living relative, the Gray Wolf. And while it may not be a 100 percent match, genetically, it's pretty -- pretty close.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN LAMM, CEO, COLOSSAL BIOSCIENCES: We're just trying to bring back those functional traits. So, we think it will sound like a Dire Wolf. We think it'll behave like a Dire Wolf. And it definitely looks like a Dire Wolf, because we brought back all of the physical traits that have been lost to time in the wolf lineage.

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CORNISH: Joining me now to discuss Jeff Corwin, host of "Wildlife Nation."

Thank you for being here. Because of all the stories I'll talk about today, this is the only one that my mom will ask me about. Is this actually a good idea?

JEFF CORWIN, HOST, "WILDLIFE NATION": Wow, that's a tough one for a conservationist. I think it's exciting. I think it's fascinating. It provides promising opportunities that could apply to conservation, but it doesn't equate to conservation.

And while this is thrilling to see that we get a glimpse of what existed way back into the Pleistocene, this ancient, mighty predator, it is not 100 percent Dire Wolf.

It looks like a Dire Wolf. It barks like a Dire Wolf. But if we get down to the nitty gritty, the genetic -- the genotype, which is basically the genetic fingerprint of an animal, is different than the genetic fingerprint of that ancient Dire Wolf.

And the phenotype, which is the physical characteristics, the representation is similar, but it is not exactly like a Dire Wolf.

CORNISH: Yes. So, I'm glad you mentioned conservation, because obviously, there are so many animals threatened with extinction. I think more than 47,000 at this point that we know of, different species. And amphibians are a large number of those; birds; different kinds of reptiles.

So, there's a whole world of, you know, species that maybe, like, not a Dire Wolf predator, that we might be interested in bringing back.

CORWIN: Sure.

CORNISH: But why do you say conservationists are -- would be reluctant to do it this way?

CORWIN: Well, Audie, I don't know if -- if we're reluctant about this technology, because it is exciting, and it has some promise there. Right? And it's flashy, and it's interesting.

CORNISH: Yes.

CORWIN: And as a scientist, I love that stuff.

But I'm talking about the practicality. We are in a war. We are in a battle to save our species, and we are in the triage state. Right? So, if you have all these soldiers lined up to get on a helicopter, you're not like saying, well, that one's going to need cosmetic surgery, and that one, you know, is going to need some lift in his shoes. It'd be like that soldier is going to live, and that soldier is not going to live.

We have 70 Javan Rhino. We have ten Vaquita Porpoises left, 40 Sumatran Rhinos. I want people to think about this. In the North America, only 350 North Atlantic Right Whales. What are we? Only 100 'Alala Crows in Hawaii. They're all in captivity.

We are in an urgent state where we need practical, real solutions today. And when we look at the amount of resources that it takes to recrystallize a species that's been gone for tens of thousands of years, what could we do with those resources today?

I also -- I love the idea of -- of exploring, of bringing back a mammoth or fixing the wrongs of the loss of the thylacine, the taz -- the Tasmanian Wolf.

But we have wolves that are about to go today. The American Gray Wolf, the Mexican Gray Wolf. That population is less than a few hundred.

CORNISH: Right.

CORWIN: And most are surviving in captivity. We could do things today with those resources.

You mentioned amphibians, right? It would cost under $1 million to save every South American species of endangered species that are amphibians.

[06:25:03]

And while we're talking about this exciting technology with incredible science, Audie, we live in a world today where scientifically with, for example, our Endangered Species Act, we're dragging our knuckles back to the Stone Age.

We have this weird juxtaposition of this incredible technology, while at the same time we're shuttering and eviscerating the incredible regulations that have allowed us to bring back the Bald Eagle, bring back the American Alligator.

CORNISH: Yes. Jeff --

CORWIN: Give a chance to the condor.

CORNISH: I want to let you go in a minute, but I think one thing that's happened is everyone is going to read this story and make a "Jurassic Park" joke. I am not immune.

So, what are you going to be listening for out of this company? What do you think are the things we should be paying attention to going forward, as people keep talking about this?

CORWIN: Well, that is interesting. You brought up "Jurassic Park," one of my favorite movies. I think we have to ask ourselves, why did the Dire Wolf, this incredible predator, this apex canine of ancient times, go away?

And if we're going to restore species, what does it mean, Audie, to be a wild species? Does it mean living in an high-security electrified fence with video monitoring?

Or do we do the practical things, for example, restoring habitats?

You know that saying: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure? Well, that applies today. There are real-world things we could do saving habitat. You can -- you can genetically crisp all the creatures back from extinction. But if we're still losing 3,000 acres of rainforest every hour, if we

are -- only have 4 percent of our coral reefs in Florida, that's what I'm filming right now in Florida. That's what I'm here.

CORNISH: Yes. So, we can bring them back. But if they have nowhere to go.

CORWIN: What's the real-world solution today?

CORNISH: Yes. Well, Jeff Corwin, host of "Wildlife Nation."

CORWIN: It's exciting. I like the idea.

CORNISH: It is -- I don't want an apex predator back.

CORWIN: I would like to see this Dire Wolf.

CORNISH: How about a lower one? How about some prey? I don't know, some -- some other thing that can't hurt us.

CORWIN: Yes, but the Columbia Basin Pygmy Rabbit. Only 300 left.

CORNISH: Oh, OK, then tell them to start there, Jeff. OK? Tell them to start.

CORWIN: You can start crisping -- crisping rabbits. Easter is around the corner.

CORNISH: I appreciate the peg, Jeff. Thanks so much.

Ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, the other shoe about to drop. The European Union is going to be voting on what they plan in terms of retaliatory tariffs. And how is that going to hit you?

Plus, the communication breakdown that nearly caused another mid-air collision near Reagan National Airport.

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