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Judge Scolds DOJ over Mistakenly Deported Man; Dr. Peter Hotez is Interviewed about the Measles; Republican Lawmakers Face Angry Crowds; Nico Perrino is Interviewed about Harvard's Funding Freeze. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 16, 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]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: To El Salvador right now to push for the return of a mistakenly deported man.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for waking up with me. This is CNN THIS MORNING. And it's half past the hour on the East Coast if you're getting ready.

Here's what's happening right now.

Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said he hopes to visit with Kilmar Abrego Garcia while he's in El Salvador. The senator also plans to speak with government officials there. And it comes as a federal judge has been demanding evidence from the Trump administration to determine if it is following her orders in this case.

Today, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will discuss a new study that shows that the autism diagnosis rate is going up among children in the U.S. The CDC attributes those numbers to better screening and more awareness.

And in just a few hours, a federal judge will hear arguments over whether a data sharing deal between ICE and the IRS is illegal. Immigrant rights groups are asking the court to put a pause on the deal, which they claim violates taxpayer privacy laws. Now, this is a case that could, like so many others, wind up before the Supreme Court. Just like the situation with this man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador.

And so I wanted to bring in Joan Biskupic, because she has been writing about this.

And, Joan, you're my favorite Supreme Court analyst now. You also -

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN CHIEF SUPREME COURT ANALYST: I love being with you. You know that.

CORNISH: You follow John Roberts a lot.

BISKUPIC: I do. CORNISH: That's why I wanted to bring you back. And you wrote this essay that is probably the most strident I've seen you, where you are saying that the position that this ruling did, particularly on this case, actually put the court in a position of being weak to the point of ineffectual. So, what do you - when you said the word ineffectual, I was like, Biskupic, like, what's happening? So, what is it about this case?

BISKUPIC: Well, look at how the administration has bulldozed through this order. The Supreme Court drew a distinction, of course, between the word "facilitate," saying, yes, the -

CORNISH: Oh, yes, let's play this. Let's play this. So, I think we have a clip of Attorney General Pam Bondi talking about that case of Abrego Garcia, calling it a win for the administration.

BISKUPIC: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: It was a win. What the court also said was that these district judges do not have the right to interfere with the executive branch's ability to conduct foreign affairs.

What they also said is just facilitate. Meaning, if he wanted a plane flight, we could give him a plane flight, but we cannot effectuate it. Meaning, making it happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The legalese. Tell me, what about it.

BISKUPIC: OK. And it was legalese. It was written in a very opaque way that gave the administration more running room. And the administration read this order in the stingiest way possible. And I don't know if the Supreme Court justices anticipated the degree of bad faith that would be used here. But they -

CORNISH: Bad faith.

BISKUPIC: Yes. But - well, certainly because of how narrowly they're reading the word "facilitate." The word - you know, to our audience they're probably thinking facilitate, effectuate, what do those words even mean? But in the law, facilitate does mean work with, you know, assist. Effectuate, which was the verb that the lower court judge, Paula Xinis, had originally used, that does mean make it happen. And the Supreme Court said that that - you - it didn't say outright, but it said that they're - the - the judge, the lower court judge, should have given more deference to the administration's work in - with foreign affairs. And that's where Attorney General Bondi, the president, White House Adviser Stephen Miller, they've all latched on to that as they've stonewalled the district court judge who's now in charge of this and who is so frustrated about getting any information.

The administration is - appears to have done nothing to get this man back. You know - CORNISH: And she's now investigating this. So, a Maryland - the judge blasted the Trump administration for this order, saying that - basically commenting that the president saying he can't bring him back, and El Salvador's president saying he can't bring him back, are like to, quote, "very misguided ships passing in the night."

And it just feels like the Supreme Court, while it has tried to rule narrowly in so many different cases with the Trump administration, I see them trying to avoid the big conflict and constitutional crisis.

BISKUPIC: They're - they're definitely trying to avoid a confrontation.

And, Audie, let me draw a distinction between what Chief Justice John Roberts and the majority in this case did, compared to what lower court judges have done. Specifically, a man you remember from all your coverage of Washington, Jay Wilkinson, who's a Reagan appointee on the Appellate Court that looked at this case also. He's very conservative himself. He even had a distinction between "facilitate" and "effectuate" in his opinion. But he said specifically, the government screwed up here.

[06:35:02]

The government should fix this. The government - the government shouldn't just give no answers. And he and other lower court judges, including Judge Paula Xinis, who's handling this now, all expressed a sense of outrage that this Supreme Court majority didn't put forth. So, I think it was an invitation to the administration to go as narrowly as it did. And there's a chance that this will come back up to the Supreme Court.

CORNISH: Just a chance?

BISKUPIC: Well, you just - we just don't know.

CORNISH: Yes.

BISKUPIC: I mean she's giving him - when Justice Sotomayor broke off from what the majority did last time, and she said, he has been in this terrible prison for 26 days and counting. And now it's 32 days and counting. And then we're going to have two more weeks. So, we're going to - he is - he is in this terrible situation, wrongfully deported. So, who knows what's going to happen in coming weeks in terms of what the district court judge will get and what will happen.

But that's why I don't want to predict that it's definitely coming back to the Supreme Court.

CORNISH: Yes.

BISKUPIC: But there's a strong chance. And I think if it comes back, the justices may try to clarify and perhaps even be more forceful in what they write this time.

CORNISH: Joan Biskupic, thank you so much, CNN's Supreme Court analyst.

Now, we want to turn to the measles outbreak because this is the second worst since the disease was declared eliminated in the U.S., and that was 25 years ago. More than 700 cases have been confirmed across 24 states, and some experts believe that number is actually a lot higher, like it could be in the thousands.

So, despite all the data, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly claimed that measles cases have essentially plateaued. He's encouraged people to get the vaccine, but then he said this yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: People get measles because they don't vaccinate. They get measles because the vaccine wanes. The vaccines wane about 4.8 percent per year. And so, you know, that is a leaky vaccine, and that problem is always going to be around. And we can't rely simply on the vaccine. We also have to know how to treat measles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, so I want to bring in Dr. Peter Hotez. He's the co- director for the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital.

Doctor, thanks for being with us here this morning, especially because Texas is very much at the center of this outbreak.

We heard RFK Jr. say two things there of note. One is the idea of it being a weak vaccine or a weak case, and then the other, a leaky vaccine. First, can you just give us a definition? What is he saying?

DR. PETER HOTEZ, CO-DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT, TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL: For me to know what he means by a leaky vaccine, the MMR vaccine, the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine is one of the safest and most effective vaccines that we have. I mean I develop vaccines for a living. We developed a low cost Covid vaccine. We developed parasitic disease vaccines. When we design a vaccine, Audie, our goal is to make something as good as the MMR vaccine. It is the - kind of the gold standards of vaccinology. It is 93 percent protective in one dose, 97 percent protective in two doses. It is incredibly effective.

And the evidence for it. Well, we eliminated measles by vaccinating the U.S. population in 2000. And the only reason it's coming back is because vaccination rates have markedly declined in many counties in west Texas, and then moving up into Kansas and Oklahoma, in the Great Plains. And that's what the problem is.

So, for him to disparage the MMR vaccine is - has no scientific basis, point one. And, point two, this is not the time to be even trying to do something like that when we're - it's all hands on deck, because the only way we're going to slow or halt this terrible, terrible measles epidemic that's now led to three deaths is to do a catch up vaccination campaign. CORNISH: Yes.

HOTEZ: And both making vaccine available and to do the public relations for it.

CORNISH: I want to ask you about something else because there's this new study from the CDC that shows autism rates diagnosis is on the rise. People are saying it's because more people know about it, more - more doctors are able to diagnose it.

RFK Jr. says he's actually going to launch an initiative to look into the causes of what he calls an autism epidemic. We know that in the anti-vaccine communities they very much feel that vaccines are a part of this, but can you talk about, like, what is it that you could even start looking for? What would an investigation like that look like? Is it even necessary?

HOTEZ: Yes, it's a good question, Audie. And I got involved in this because, you know, as you may know, I have a daughter with autism, and I'd written a book after a year of discussions with RFK Jr. back in 2017.

[06:40:02]

And the book is called "Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism," about my daughter. And it goes into the genetic basis of autism and the autism genes that we've identified, all operating in early fetal brain development. The point is, autism occurs in early pregnancy.

Now, there are some potentially environmental factors that - that could affect those autism genes in early pregnancy. For instance, if you're pregnant and not aware of it and you're on an anti-seizure medicine called Depakote or valproic acid, your child has an increased likelihood of being born with an autism-like phenotype. And in my discussions with him, I'd say, look, Bobby, this is - this is where we have to go in terms of there are some potential environmental factors that could influence autism rates. I think most of the increase in autism rates is due to diagnosis. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that pediatricians begin screening for autism at one to two years of age, starting in around 2005. So, I think most of this is due to increased diagnosis.

But there could be some additional environmental factors. But it's all about early pregnancy. So, the fact that he continues to harp away at vaccines is very discouraging when it's clear that it absolutely has no role in autism rates.

CORNISH: Yes. Well, we're going to be hearing from RFK Jr. later today. There's going to be a news conference.

In the meantime, Dr. Peter Hotez is co-director for the Center for Vaccine Development. That's at Texas Children's Hospital.

All right, we want to move on because with Congress now on recess for two weeks, there is more anger boiling over at town halls as they visit their districts. (VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, this was the scene at Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene's event in Georgia Tuesday night. Three people were arrested for disruptions, including two men who were subdued with stun guns.

And in Iowa, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley took questions from voters ranging from topics from tariffs to those deportation flights to El Salvador.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We would like to know what you, as the people, the Congress who are supposed to rein in this dictator, what are you going to do about it. These people have been sentenced to life imprisonment in a foreign country with no due process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Group chat is back to talk about these town halls.

First of all, stun guns for people who come out to a town - Charlie, your eyebrows went up. OK, so you've had to hold a town hall.

CHARLIE DENT (R), EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ASPEN INSTITUTE CONGRESSIONAL PROGRAM AND FORMER PENNSYLVANIA CONGRESSMAN: Yes.

CORNISH: What - tell me the scenario where that makes any sense.

DENT: Well, first, after Gabby Giffords was shot, I - I basically insisted that we always have a police presence in any noticed public event we would do. So, I'm not at all surprised there are police officers there. But I am shocked that police actually had to deploy a weapon on constituents, you know, who were obviously - probably some of whom got out of control, I suspect, and that's why they were stunned.

But I am - I guess I am not stunned by what I'm seeing across the country, this anger. It feels like 2010 with the Tea Party. It feels like 2017 with the health care debates. And this is where we are. There's a lot of anger in the country, and it's being directed at their members of Congress for not providing enough of a check on the executive.

CORNISH: Yes, there's a couple ways to handle it. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene actually told a constituent who was speaking out that they were being brainwashed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Why is MTG supporting Musk and DOGE and the slashing of Medicaid, Social Security offices, libraries, and more? This is outrageous, from Sarah. Well, Sarah, unfortunately, you're being brainwashed by the news that you're watching. And, you know, a lot of Democrats pride themselves on being educated, and I suggest they educate themselves better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: How does it go when you tell the people who came out, who voted for you, that maybe they're just not very bright or haven't watched the right news?

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: So, first of all, kudos to Chuck Grassley at 90 holding a town hall. That's -

CORNISH: Oh, in the midst of his like 99 county run that he does annually.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Right. Yes. Yes.

CORNISH: Yes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: No. So just - like, want to just -

CORNISH: Props, yes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Props - props to that.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, there is - she is part of, like, a general Republican talking point that a lot of these people who are protesting are Democrats. There's been -

CORNISH: Are activists or paid activists even. Yes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Oh, and then - and then activists or paid activists. They don't see them as constituents. So, the dismissiveness is part of that. The general ethos that they don't - that they don't feel like they have to answer to that particular group of people.

I would say that they do that at their peril. I think there's been robust reporting that this is not actually paid activists. Sometimes not even Democrats.

[06:45:03]

But, you know, there are Democrats, and they are part of your constituency, and they are entitled to show up at a town hall meeting should you hold one. And so, what I think you're seeing is a lot of grassroots anger, as Charlie was saying, like 2010, like 2017. Where it's going to take the Democratic Party and how it's going to affect the Republicans remains to be seen.

CORNISH: Yes, it is not there yet.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: But we are seeing a lot of energy.

CORNISH: And I'm not picking on her. So many lawmakers have tried to hold town halls. They've ended in different ways. But I am focusing on her because she is - was an activist, right? She came up through an activist kind of column into the public space.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yes.

CORNISH: And is now a lawmaker. She is now on the other side of this.

You know, CNN's Harry Enten was looking at Trump's approval rating, which people are often keeping an eye on. Here's how he is describing the state of things.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: He now holds, in this particular term, the worst ever net approval rating at this point, in a presidency, among independents, at get this, minus 22 points. He is 22 points underwater with independents. That breaks the old record that belonged to Trump. He has set the new record. He is completely underwater with the center of the electorate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK, it's the last part that I wanted to wrestle with, independents.

JASMINE WRIGHT, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, "NOTUS": Yes.

CORNISH: It's one thing to look at the big number, which has its mix of Republicans and Democrats kind of skewing at independents. This is not going over well in a lot of ways.

WRIGHT: Right. And I think that you are seeing the White House on the front end be defensive. Just yesterday they were touting a poll in which he had 54 percent approval rating from "The Daily Mail." I'm not sure how that shores up with CNN, but certainly that's what their - that's what they were saying publicly.

I think privately they acknowledged that some of these things, particularly when it comes to tariffs, when it came to that federal freeze, that maybe not all the public likes it, and there is - there are fires to put out.

I think the question is, is how changed is Donald Trump by that? He doesn't have to run for re-election theoretically. He doesn't have to - he is not ruled by whether or not he can get elected again. And so I think you're seeing Donald Trump -

CORNISH: And also they believe they had a mandate coming in.

WRIGHT: Not only do they believe they have a mandate, they believe that the American people voted and trust Trump to do what he feels is correct.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: But poll after poll is showing that - that what Trump is doing is unpopular. His numbers are soft on the economy. His polling -

CORNISH: Or the way he's doing it.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: The way he's doing it. The way he's doing it. WRIGHT: But I - but I think that the White House believes that the American public will be better off, and they will see, down the line, that he was right. And they say that, you know, basically - basically what they're asking the American people is to trust President Trump. And he is not the first president to make that argument to the American people.

CORNISH: What's it like when a politician says, trust me, Charlie?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: On the economy. On the economy.

WRIGHT: On tariffs. On higher prices. That's what I want you to ask.

DENT: Well, Donald Trump is not the first president to misread his mandate, or overread his mandate. Clearly, you know, when people voted for Donald Trump, I don't think they were voting to annex Canada. I don't know that they were voting to retake the Panama Canal or to pay an extra $10,000 for a car. So, you know, a lot of people say they voted for Donald Trump and they're getting what they thought. I think there are a lot of people, as that poll just points out, these independent voters didn't vote for higher prices. I don't think they voted for a trade war.

And so, I think right now, if you're a congressman, and you're hearing this, you know, you're right, Donald Trump is not running for re- election, right, officially, but he can't run for re-election. But these members of Congress will. And they are - all this stuff is going to be taken out on them.

WRIGHT: And soon.

CORNISH: Yes.

DENT: They know that.

CORNISH: Yes, they're feeling it.

DENT: And that's why these midterms are going to be so difficult for many Republicans, particularly in the House.

CORNISH: OK, group chat, stick around. We've got a lot more to discuss. Ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders drawing big crowds and bigger dollars, but are they delivering the message that can resurrect the Democrats?

Plus, high school students forced to take a citizenship test to graduate. One state wants to make it a law.

More from the group chat after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:53:22]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LAWRENCE SUMMERS, FORMER PRESIDENT OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY: This is an attempt to impose the kind of regulation on Harvard that is imposed by government on universities in countries that we don't think of as democracies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: That's the former president of Harvard reacting to the Trump administration's demand that the university make major changes or lose billions in funding. Now, Harvard rejected that ultimatum. Still, President Trump and his allies seem eager for a fight against colleges that they say are elitist, woke and simply out of touch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): These schools get billions of dollars of U.S. taxpayer funds. They are not entitled to those funds if they are not protecting civil rights of Jewish students on campus. So, yes, it is time to defund Harvard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now, Nico Perrino, the executive vice president for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, otherwise known as FIRE.

Welcome to CNN THIS MORNING.

NICO PERRINO, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, FOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND EXPRESSION: It's good to be here, Audie.

CORNISH: So, I have followed the work of your group for a long time, because every time someone came to a campus and maybe espoused right wing views or was deemed to conservatives too conservative and liberal students, you know, yelled them down or they canceled the speech, FIRE was there to be, like, that's not right.

PERRINO: Yes.

CORNISH: So, the report card from FIRE for Harvard is like -

PERRINO: Harvard's at the bottom.

CORNISH: OK.

PERRINO: And has been for the past two years.

CORNISH: Now, are we actually in a moment of reckoning with free speech?

PERRINO: I believe so. I believe so. I believe these colleges and universities don't have clean hands. Over the last decade, they have censored, they have deplatformed speakers, they've implemented microaggression policing, they violated academic freedom rights, and they didn't reform themselves. After October 7th, I think they've started to get back to their mission. [06:55:03]

They've started to recognize -

CORNISH: And they faced a massive backlash.

PERRINO: They faced a massive backlash. And so this reckoning was sort of forced upon them. But you see institutions like Harvard adopt policies like institutional neutrality, the idea that they're not going to comment on every political issue that happens across the globe. They're focusing on their students and faculty, and their students and faculty can comment on those issues, but they're not going to censor the students or faculty who do comment on those issues.

CORNISH: But is there a difference between cancel culture, or, please don't come in here and give this speech, and the president of the United States saying, I want to make curriculum changes or else I take away your funding?

PERRINO: It depends where the cancel culture comes from. So, if cancel culture is coming from civil society, that's a problem. We think it violates free speech norms in this country, this idea that we can talk across lines of difference.

CORNISH: Again, the White House, Nico.

PERRINO: Yes, I agree. But, yes, when the federal government comes in and tells an institution like Harvard, a private university, that it has to adopt speech codes, it has to censor faculty, that it has to reform its disciplinary processes to punish students and faculty, some who have already been tried for alleged violations, so this risk double jeopardy issues, it essentially federalizes these universities, makes them vassal institutions. It installs the federal government as provost and president of these universities. And this is a conservative government we're talking about here against big government that wants to make these universities federalized for all intents and purposes.

CORNISH: Do you want more free speech advocates, especially on the right, libertarians, to be speaking out about this? Because the silence is deafening.

PERRINO: Oh, absolutely. We want people across the spectrum to be speaking about that.

CORNISH: But specifically the people who were saying, look, it's one thing to - these universities, as you said, they don't have clean hands. It feels like right now people are saying, look, they're elitist, they suck, we don't care, let's let this happen.

PERRINO: They make easy political targets, yes. But we had a lot of allies over the last ten years when we were fighting conservative censorship on campus. Some of those conservatives now are absent. And I would warn our conservative friends, the values that make America great are values like free speech, like due process, like the rule of law. If we dispense with these values when it's convenient, we give up much of what makes America exceptional.

So, I would urge people to think, not just in the short term, but in the long term. This is a loaded gun. These same tools that the presidential administration is using right now to get some outcomes that maybe conservatives like are the same tools that can be used by a liberal administration to get outcomes they don't like once the power changes hands.

CORNISH: All right, Nico, thank you for coming on CNN THIS MORNING.

PERRINO: Thanks, Audie.

CORNISH: I appreciate your time.

Nico is the executive vice president for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.

All right, if you're getting ready, its' almost 7:00. Three minutes to go. Here's your morning roundup. Some of the stories you need to know to get your day going.

Honda moving production of its Civic hybrid to the U.S. in Indiana. It says the move is in part because of President Trump's auto tariffs, but also it says it likes to produce its cars in places where there is demand.

And the Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Fighting Oligarchy Tour drawing massive crowds, even in deep red states. Today, they head to Montana, and they're raising a lot of money. AOC bringing in a stunning $9.6 million in just three months. Senator Sanders is close to $12 million.

Students in Iowa may need to brush up on their civics lessons. A new bill approved by the state's senate would require them to pass the U.S. citizenship test to graduate high school. If it eventually becomes law, this would start in the fall of 2026.

OK, the group chat is back because we're looking ahead to the rest of the week, what we are keeping an eye on.

And, Lulu, I want to start with you.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I am going to start with David Hogg, who is the Parkland survivor who is now at 25 years old, the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. And what he is about to do is try and primary old Democrats to get them out. And it is part of his -

CORNISH: And you don't mean Democrats that have been there for a long time, or do you mean senior -

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean age, senior Democrats.

CORNISH: OK.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Democrats that are like - have been there and they might be octogenarians or more. CORNISH: OK.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: We know that Congress has an age problem. And there is this generational fight within the Democratic Party right now. Basically what David Hogg says is, there needs to be space made for a new generation. This needs to happen now.

CORNISH: And they're going to force it. OK.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And so it's part and parcel of a lot of the energy that we're seeing on the Democratic side that things need to change.

CORNISH: Charlie Dent, you?

DENT: What I'm watching for is not the town halls that these congressmen are facing, but what they're hearing in small meetings with their small businesses or with their farmers and with individual constituents. That's when people are going to get real candid, and people are going to tell them exactly what they're thinking without the cameras on and saying, congressman, what are you going to do to help me with these high prices? How are you going to protect my export markets? And how are you going to make it easier so I can make my products here with all these tariffs?

CORNISH: So they're home. Real conversations are happening. We'll keep an eye on it.

And Jasmine Wright.

WRIGHT: Well, I'm watching what was the subject of your last segment, which is, which other universities come under kind of that target from the administration, which universities and also which more law firms?

[07:00:07]

Obviously, I think there is a question of who is going to continue to try to stand up against Donald Trump. It's something that Democrats have wanted these institutions to do. And so who is next?

CORNISH: All right, you guys, this was a great chat. We covered a lot of ground today. Loved having you.

I want to thank you for waking up with us. I'm Audie Cornish. And "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.