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Kurt Volker is Interviewed about the NATO Alliance; Double Haters Could Decide Midterms; Tiger Woods' DUI; White House Cabinet Reshuffle. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 03, 2026 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:53]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good Friday morning. Great to have you with us. I'm Erica Hill. Thanks so much for being here on CNN THIS MORNING.

It is 6:30 exactly here on the East Coast. Here's what's happening right now.

U.S. intelligence determining that Iran maintains significant missile launching capability. That is despite the daily U.S. and Israeli strikes against Iranian military targets over the past five weeks. Sources familiar with the intel spoke with CNN and said those assessments found that roughly half of Iran's missile launchers are still intact and that thousands of attack drones remain in Iran's arsenal. A Pentagon spokesman called the reporting, quote, "completely wrong."

Oil prices continuing to move higher. WTI crude hovering around $111 a barrel. Market anxieties peaking as well after President Trump's recent vow to hit Iran extremely hard. That caused some fear in just how long this war could drag on. Gas prices across the U.S. at their highest level since 2022. Not likely to fall any time soon.

Happening today, the White House officially submitting its 2027 budget proposal to Congress. It will include President Trump's plan to increase defense spending to a staggering $1.5 trillion.

If the United States were to pull out of NATO, as President Trump has been threatening to do, who could benefit? The president, of course, not happy about the lack of support he's been seeing with the Iran War.

Here's more of what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We spend hundreds of billions of dollars a year on NATO. Hundreds, protecting them. And we would have always been there for them. But now, based on their actions, I guess we don't have to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HILL: Poland's prime minister, Donald Tusk, also tweeting this week, "the threat of NATO's break-up, easing sanctions on Russia, a massive energy crisis in Europe, halting aid for Ukraine and blocking the loan for Kyiv by Orban, it all looks like Putin's dream plan.

Joining me to discuss, Kurt Volker, he's former U.S. ambassador to NATO.

Ambassador, it's good to see you this morning.

Is this in fact, do you believe, Putin's dream plan that we're seeing play out right now?

KURT VOLKER, SENIOR ADVISER, ATLANTIC COUNCIL: Well, certainly every single one of those things is something Putin enjoys, has wanted. He wants to break up NATO. He wants to weaken the west. He wants to weaken the United States. He wants to take over Ukraine. So, all of those things are going his way.

And I do have to say that -- a couple things about President Trump's comments there. First off, NATO is not meant to be an expeditionary force going all over the world. It is meant to be a defensive alliance to make sure nobody attacks the U.S. and Europe, the transatlantic community. It's very good at that. That works. So, we shouldn't throw that away.

And then, secondly, I would just say that we have to see that these issues are connected. So, you know, Russia and Iran and China, they're all cooperating. They are sharing technology, they are sharing military equipment. Russia is helping Iran with targeting. And so, we shouldn't look at these separately and say, oh, well, we'll fight against Iran but forget about Ukraine. These are all connected.

HILL: They may all be connected. It does not seem, though, based on the president's comments, that that is a connection that he would like to be discussing. When we look at the future of NATO, and I was talking about this just earlier this hour with Peter Bergen, he was saying this is one of the things he'll be watching most closely is what happens with NATO.

There's the question of, can NATO survive if the U.S. pulls out. I think there's a related question, which is, we're watching, right, other members of NATO reformulate how they work together and reassess what the future looks like going forward. What do you see them doing in the face of a President Trump who is less and less engaged?

VOLKER: Yes. Well, unfortunately, I think they have missed several opportunities to engage in a constructive way here. I agree with them that there isn't a clear goal with what we're doing in Iran. There isn't a clear operational plan. It's not clear what we want European allies to do. But instead of just saying no and shutting down airspace and saying we can't work with them, they should be putting together ideas. They should come forward with a plan themselves and say, here is a viable option for how to get that Strait of Hormuz open again.

Yesterday, the British foreign secretary called together a Zoom call of about 30 countries with that in mind.

[06:35:02]

They really need to accelerate that. And maybe when Mark Rutte is in Washington next week, that will be the main topic.

HILL: When it comes to that reopening of the Strait, of course, one of the biggest issues is Iran's control and the fact that, you know, we were just talking about some CNN reporting --

VOLKER: Yes.

HILL: About the large arsenal of drones, which they still have, in terms of their capabilities, just how easy it is, right, to continue making that waterway dangerous.

VOLKER: That's exactly right.

HILL: With Iran controlling that, it's such a leverage point. How do you chip away at that?

VOLKER: Right. So, you're absolutely right. And even if the CNN reporting is half right, it doesn't take much for Iran to deny access to the Persian Gulf. Any threat to shipping, any threat to the gulf states. And that is devastating economically. So, they have a lot of cards there.

In my mind, you basically have a binary choice. You either change the regime in Iran, get in place a government that we can deal with, or alternatively, you're negotiating with this regime, access to the Persian Gulf in the future. It's one or the other.

And I think that President Trump doesn't want to go in for a full- scale invasion and regime change in Iran. So, we're going to end up having a negotiated settlement with the Iranians that will probably net them a lot of money. They'll probably be charging fares for everyone to get in and out of the gulf.

HILL: What do you see as the new world order that is shaping up here?

VOLKER: Well, it's too early to say anything about a new world order. We have a situation where President Trump is not following, you know, the norms that we've seen of a free world sticking together, hanging together, or else we all hang separately. He is playing each one of these very aggressively on his own terms. And the, you know, we're very divided right now between the U.S. and Europe. We're divided within NATO, as we were just talking about.

But this doesn't have to be a permanent situation. As I said, I think our adversaries have figured this out and are all working together. If we can figure that out and work together, we are far stronger and we are able to reestablish some security and prosperity in the world.

HILL: Ambassador Kurt Volker, always appreciate your insight. Thanks for being here this morning. VOLKER: My pleasure. Thank you.

HILL: Well, this is coming into CNN. Brand new polling out this morning shows Americans are fed up with both parties in Congress heading into the midterms. Take a look at some of these numbers. This new CNN poll finds 26 percent of Americans do not have a favorable opinion of either party. They're what we like to call the double haters. Could those double haters, though, actually be the deciding factor come November?

So, among that group, 55 percent, they plan to vote for a Democrat for Congress. That outpaces Republicans by 31 points. This group of voters, it's important to note, they broke Trump's way in the 2016 and 2024 elections according to CNN's exit polls. Double haters, though, are pretty clear, though, both parties, they need to get their act together. One independent voter who responded to the survey telling CNN, quote, "there is such a divide and no one can compromise to get anything done. They act like spoiled brats."

The group chat is back.

I think that sums up how a lot of Americans are feeling certainly in this moment when they look at Congress. And I just think back to the number of Americans that my colleagues were talking to at airports over the last couple of weeks, and how many of them said, I don't care what letter comes after your name, I am fed up with the fact that none of you all are doing anything for us in Congress. This is a major hurdle for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. This feeling that Americans look at them and they say, you don't get me and you're not trying to. Is there an effort to get Americans?

BRYAN LANZA, SENIOR ADVISER, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: Yes, I have to -- I have to believe so. I mean, but I would say this, the double haters is what led to Donald Trump's rise, right?

HILL: Yes.

LANZA: And so it makes you wonder who's going to come in after Trump and sort of capitalize on the double haters and come up with that message that resonates and that it's us against them and Washington's broken. Is it J.D.? Is it -- is it -- is it Senator -- Secretary of State Rubio? Is it Gavin Newsom or whoever on the Democratic side? You know, the double haters -- also the thing that can happen is, they can just not show up to the polls, and that would be devastating to the Democratic Party.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes. And I think more than anything else gas prices can really shift people's loyalties in terms of who they support and who they don't and what letter is after their name or whatever else.

And what's really interesting -- and Iran, in the context of all of this, you know, we talk about the Strait of Hormuz and do we need that oil or whatever. Oil prices are set globally. If there's a global conflict, prices are going to go up and it's going to hurt people back home. And I think it's going to affect the kinds of things we're talking about here where people just get mad at politicians and --

HILL: Yes.

WILLIAMS: If they're having to pay more for all the driving they're doing.

LANZA: I would add, you know, and it's no disrespect, the vast majority of the electorate is very misinformed on all things.

WILLIAMS: Of course.

LANZA: Especially the Middle East, right? You're going to get to a point where people see the gas prices maybe hit six, potentially seven in California, and they're not going to blame Trump. They're going to blame Iran for closing the Straits.

[06:40:02]

And then you're probably going to see a more unified coalition, and certainly the American people unified against Iran and their activities. That actually works in President Trump's favor.

WILLIAMS: That's a really rosy --

JERUSALEM DEMSAS, FOUNDER AND EDITOR, "THE ARGUMENT": I don't know if that's true.

HILL: Yes.

DEMSAS: I mean we see all the time when prices are high, voters are pretty good at just saying -- and whether or not this is correct, they're pretty good at just saying, it's the presidents fault. Even in situations where the economic reality doesn't really make a lot of sense. Like with housing prices, where the president has almost no effect on this. Under Biden, people got very upset with their federal elected officials, even though housing policy is really set state and locally. So, when prices are high, they just -- people have expressed in voting. They say, whoever's in charge, we're upset with you. There's a Republican trifecta right now. I would be shocked if high gas prices didn't really hurt the president.

WILLIAMS: Yes. Government shutdowns are another one.

DEMSAS: Yes.

HILL: Yes.

DEMSAS: Regardless of who's in power. It's Congress who's fighting about it. But often it goes up to the president, whoever the president, whatever party they are.

HILL: And we saw that in our most recent polling. I will say, I don't have this number in front of me, but our polling that we released earlier this week did find, right, that, you know, it was the disadvantage, right, was on Republicans and President Trump --

LANZA: No, absolutely.

HILL: In terms of who was bearing the brunt of responsibility for the partial government shutdown.

I also found this interesting. So, there was a question about how people feel about the system in general when we talk about voting and election confidence. Under half of Americans, 47 percent, say they're confident in the election system. That has just declined. Continued to decline since January of 2021. As you see, that's the last time that a majority of Americans were confident that elections actually reflect the will of the people. That's a big note for lawmakers and any candidate out there.

DEMSAS: It's also --

WILLIAMS: It's a big -- oh, sorry, go ahead.

DEMSAS: No, it's also really hard to know exactly what voters mean by this. There are a bunch of polling questions where you have voters saying, you know, I don't think the election system is trustworthy. I think things are rigged. And you have -- some of those people mean, we think that people are stealing votes. The question about, you know, the false allegations that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, filtering down to the Republican Party's electorate.

But there's also, on the Democratic side, feelings of like, OK, well, I think it's really, you know, the system is really unfair to minority groups because of voter I.D. laws or whatever it is. And so like, what -- how we interpret these polls is actually quite difficult.

HILL: And also the confidence in your -- in your elected officials actually doing the -- doing the job that is the will of the people. That's the other thing that -- I mean that's what's coming into play there, right? It's like, I elected you to go and do a job. I don't see you doing any of the things that you promised you were going to do for me.

LANZA: Yes, listen, I think of presidents who've sort of done a good job of completing their promises, you know, over the last 20 years, it's probably been Donald Trump because he's been the most aggressive.

But listen, I think you're right, Elliot, you know, the gas becomes an issue. You know, and it touches everything. And they don't have a solution for it. And like I said, you know, maybe the administration can find that pivot point where they are successful in actually blaming Iran and sort of trying to change the electorate. Donald Trump has been lucky in those -- in those moments in the past. But as it continues to bleed out this economic cost, you know, more -- he's -- the president has less and less options that exist, right? You know, before we were talking about interest rates, he was going to lower interest rates potentially in June, July. Now, as the start of the war, interest rates being lowered is even -- is a non probability.

HILL: Right. Well, also, he can't lower interest rates, right? It is important to note. I mean that's the Federal Reserve. But also in terms of his promises, prices are not down, right? LANZA: No.

HILL: Inflation is not down.

LANZA: No.

HILL: You know, as you point out, we're sort of not out of forever wars it would seem.

WILLIAMS: Yes. And all I would say is that, back to the -- back to gas, interest rates, is everybody buying a house? Not really. Is everybody buying milk or eggs or whatever else? Every -- perhaps every single person almost in America touches gas, petroleum in some way. It's the one thing that transcends party, transcends regions, transcends geography in America and it's --

DEMSAS: It's also so visible.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

HILL: Yes.

DEMSAS: Even if you don't, like, you're not driving, you just see, oh, that number is high.

LANZA: In everything.

HILL: Right. And even if you don't drive, right?

DEMSAS: Yes.

HILL: Like, let's say you live in a city where you take public transportation every day. The cost of what you buy at the grocery store goes up because it costs more to transport it, or potentially your Amazon deliveries, as we just talked about.

Clearly this is a topic we'll continue to visit.

Also still ahead here, the revolving door at the White House working on overtime. Pam Bondi, the latest cabinet member to be given the boot. So, who could potentially be next?

Plus.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIGER WOODS: Looked down at my phone and all of a sudden, boom!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: He was looking down at his phone and then a short time before that conversation it turns out that Tiger Woods had been on the phone with a pretty well-known person. We'll tell you who it was.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:48:43]

HILL: In the immediate aftermath of his rollover crash, Tiger Woods phoned, it turns out, a very powerful friend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIGER WOODS: Say again?

DEPUTY: I just keep you down here with us, please.

WOODS: Yes, I was just talking to the president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: I was just talking to the president. His call there, apparently, according to him, with the president.

Though, just before, of course, he was walked through a number of moments and different field tests. We have some of the video. You can see him there on the trooper's car. He ultimately was charged with a DUI.

How about we lawyer up on this Friday morning with CNN legal analyst, former federal prosecutor, our good friend, Elliot Williams.

So, you know, there's been a lot made since this video was released as people look at, you know, what was Tiger's demeanor? I mean, he's --

WILLIAMS: Of course.

HILL: Complying, you know, as he's going through all these different exercises. What do you make of that and what it could ultimately mean for him moving forward?

WILLIAMS: Oh, I think it's a great time to be a defense attorney for Tiger Woods right now because I actually do think he -- despite all we've seen and, OK, we know he's been injured. We know he's been -- he's dealing with pain and -- but they don't do a great job of establishing that he's intoxicated.

Number one, he's arrested in part for declining the urine test, right? They're -- they are merely assessing him on the scene --

HILL: Yes.

WILLIAMS: And saying, well, you're not walking straight. Maybe you look like your pupils are dilated.

[06:50:00]

Those are all inherently subjective. And a smart defense attorney can say, OK, show me where you established that our client was actually intoxicated.

Now, again, I would think they work out some kind of plea deal. And let's be clear, I'm not saying that Tiger Woods was or was not under any sort of substance right there.

HILL: Right.

WILLIAMS: It's just what a good defense attorney could beat. And I -- and I think he actually has a bit of a case here.

HILL: And also in terms of, in terms of beating that, how much does it -- does it also help his case that he has said, look, I'm not only pulling back from golf, he is allowed to leave the country because he's doing that to seek treatment. That also helps.

WILLIAMS: I think it helps his sentencing --

HILL: Yes.

WILLIAMS: After he either is convicted or pleads guilty. But he's got to be careful with the things he says and the things he admits to. When you start talking about, I have a problem, I am struggling, I have dealt with pain and so on, you're also acknowledging that you might have been under the influence of a substance at the time that the police pulled you over.

HILL: Yes.

WILLIAMS: The other thing that helps him, and I just want to add one more thing, he acknowledges his injuries at the scene of the crime.

HILL: Yes.

WILLIAMS: And he's wearing a sleeve on one leg and says, I'm hurt. I've been hurt. That affects --

HILL: I've had multiple surgeries.

WILLIAMS: Multiple surgeries. I have issues with my back and my knee. That could suggest, well, that might impair how he walked, your honor.

HILL: Right.

WILLIAMS: And I think a smart defense attorney could really push (ph) that (ph).

HILL: Which was also part of the reason they did some of that testing with him sitting down, right, on the car, leaning against the car.

WILLIAMS: Yes. Yes. Exactly.

HILL: Does it matter at all that he gets off the phone -- I mean this is the thing that's getting a lot of attention, right? Oh, I was just on the phone with the president.

WILLIAMS: I think if you're a police officer, you roll your eyes at that.

HILL: Yes. WILLIAMS: Because people are always trying to say -- well, God bless Tiger Woods for not saying, do you know who I am, which many famous people and athletes do when they're in that position. I think police officers at the scene of a crime, when someone is flexing that they have a very important friend, do not look at that very favorably. And I don't think that helped him that much.

HILL: OK. Moving on.

Blake Lively.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

HILL: Justin Baldoni. There was a big moment. So, most of the allegations, I guess, thrown out --

WILLIAMS: Yes.

HILL: That Blake Lively had put out there.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

HILL: So where do things stand?

WILLIAMS: Right. Now, very, very serious and sensitive claims at the heart of this, which is that ultimately Justin Baldoni's production company, and he himself, created a sexual harassment environment on the job. Comments, all kinds of things that made Blake Lively uncomfortable. But in particular, one instance on actors on set where she was touched or encountered in a manner that they did not clear with the intimacy coordinator.

HILL: And they had to -- part of the agreement -- they had an agreement that everything had to be cleared prior to the scene.

WILLIAMS: Right. So, that's the backdrop there. She sues for sexual harassment. And a lot of those claims were thrown out. But a lot -- on a lot of technicalities, largely on account of the fact that she's not an employee of the entity that she was suing, his production company. So, most of the sexual harassment claims dropped away.

HILL: Yes.

WILLIAMS: And it's not really about that anymore.

What is left in the case is charges on his countersuit for retaliation against her, right? He -- she is claiming that he retaliated against her on account of her having brought the sexual harassment claims. That brings up still a lot of dirt here and a lot of the badness in this story.

So, this hasn't gone away, but the heart -- the core sexual harassment claim is gone.

HILL: All right, but some of it is still there. So, there will still be more headlines and more drama. WILLIAMS: Drama. Oh, more drama.

HILL: And there will be more for you to weigh in on from a legal perspective.

All right, how about we shift gears a little bit, bringing everybody back for the group chat.

So, we were talking, of course, about Attorney General Pam Bondi being the latest member of the Trump cabinet faithful to feel you're fired. And so the question now is, there is sort of this -- and you alluded to it earlier, Jerusalem, there is now this sort of parlor game starting of, OK, is this when we start to see more turnover in this second administration? Do you see anyone who's particularly vulnerable in this moment?

LANZA: Oh, yes. I mean you certainly see secretary -- the secretary, Chavez, at Labor, we've heard things about her being particularly vulnerable, considering all the activities here. You heard Tulsi Gabbard at DNI was also.

So, you know, I think the president, you know, is willing to mix it up. He wants some changes. He knows he's, you know, he's -- he knows he's going into his second term. He -- there's a lot of news. A lot of traffic took place in his first term. And, you know, he's never shown any hesitation to make changes when he thought it was necessary.

HILL: I do want to play -- I think it's interesting that you brought up both of -- two more women, right? Because this was something that Ty Cobb brought up independently last night.

LANZA: Oh, wow.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

HILL: He was speaking with Brianna.

LANZA: I don't think in those terms.

HILL: Take a listen.

LANZA: Wow.

WILLIAMS: I did too (ph).

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TY COBB, FORMER TRUMP WHTIE HOUSE LAWYER: He doesn't have the respect or the -- or the admiration for women that you would expect for somebody who holds this exalted office. Also, though, I mean, yes, are there -- are there men? Yes. I mean, look at, you know, Lutnick, Mr., let's go visit Jeffrey Epstein on his island with my family and lie about it. Mr. Hegseth, of course, who, you know, is basically a, you know, a high schooler with a new toy who humiliates himself every day.

(END VIDEO CLIP) HILL: I thought it was interesting when he brought that up independently last night. Brianna then followed up with him, like, what did you mean by that?

LANZA: I think he's wrong. Look at the most powerful woman we would say in the world, Susie Wiles. It's a woman. He chose a woman to be his chief of staff, which had never happened before.

[06:55:03]

Look what he did in the first campaign. You know, 2016. You know, Kellyanne Conway, a woman. I think Trump likes strong women. He just likes them to be able to execute. And whether it's male or female, if you don't execute, you know, a businessman has the propensity to say, if you guys can't execute, regardless of gender, we're moving on.

WILLIAMS: I think two things can be true at the same time, though, which is that, sure, the president wishes for results or whatever else, or all the points you're making, and the four people who have either lost their jobs or are on the chopping block right now all happen to be women.

Now, given that a much higher proportion of the cabinet is male, it's worth the question, what is it? Why is that happening here? Or is it just a remarkable coincidence?

HILL: What are you hearing in terms of, I mean, you know, we just heard a number of names mentioned. There's also some question about Kash Patel.

DEMSAS: Yes. I mean the real thing is that there's a lot of chaos within the Trump administration, both in the first administration and second one. People who are in favor of how he governs view it as someone who's willing to make quick decisions and give up on someone if they're not working for whatever he wants to do. But I think this level of chaos makes it very hard to actually prosecute a specific policy over a long period of time when there's this kind of turnover.

A, it means that the political appointees at the agencies have much less control because, you know, now there's a deputy who's an interim person there. Like, OK, so now you have much less ability to prosecute the president's role -- goals at DHS or wherever it is that he wants to do that.

And so, I think that like, in many ways, his own supporters who want to see mass deportations or whatever it is that they want to see from the president are going to have a hard time getting their policy preferences through if he can't keep a cabinet together for more than six months.

HILL: How much of this could be tied to what else we're seeing too, which is, there's a lot going on in this moment, right? There is a war with Iran. There are higher gas prices. People are unhappy. They were unhappy, you know, we had the government shutdown. You know, all of these things at once. I mean how much -- is there any sense that any of these firings could also be tied to that? WILLIAMS: Yes, I mean, that's a great question, not to put you on the

spot, Brian, but, no, but just thinking through, we all know, we've followed politics for a long time. It's a great way, particularly at the end of a week of a tough week, to take over the news cycle by taking a big action, like firing cabinet secretaries or something like that. And I'd be curious as to how much that --

LANZA: I would say, having worked in, you know, in two campaigns with President Trump, there is no better executive producer at television to Donald Trump. And he knows the audience is tuning in. He knows how to create the arc of a story. And the arc always has an ending. And that's what he does here. He has these characters, Pam Bondi, Tulsi, all these people sort of play a role. And then, just like a "Dynasty" episode, they all die at the end.

WILLIAMS: Wow.

LANZA: And I think that's what happens.

HILL: Wow.

WILLIAMS: He just made a 40-year-old television reference. You understand that, right?

LANZA: Oh, absolutely.

WILLAMS: OK. Great.

LANZA: I'm 52.

WILLIAMS: OK.

HILL: We're OK with that.

WILLIAMS: We're OK with that.

HILL: We know what your reference is.

LANZA: Yes. Yes.

WILLIAMS: But the vast majority of the world is much younger than the three of us is not OK with that.

LANZA: Yes.

WILLIAMS: OK.

HILL: That's OK. They may not be watching right now. We skew a little older.

WILLIAMS: Touche.

HILL: But if you have young people you would like to join you, you should bring them in to watch in the mornings. We'd love to have them.

All right, let's move on to a little group chat, shall we? It's Friday.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

HILL: I'm saving yours for last.

WILLIAMS: OK. Good.

HILL: I'm just warning him to save it. So, I'm going to start with you first, Jerusalem.

DEMSAS: Yes. So, OpenAI, which has -- getting out of the Sora game, its video producing A.I. system. It was supposed to be focused on selling its product to consumers and businesses. Anthropic is pulling ahead of it in terms of selling to enterprise industries. Instead, yesterday it announced that it bought an internet streaming show called TBPN. If you haven't heard of it, it's like a three hour a day streaming show where they're talking about technology, talking about business, et cetera. And it's a bit bizarre because they're not journalists in the traditional sense, but they are independent commenters on technology and business.

And now they've been bought by this massive company that was supposed to be focusing its efforts on selling its product. And it's -- it's a very, very weird situation because, you know, it all really stems from this belief within tech that, you know, the media isn't fair to it, that they can't get a fair shake when they come to CNN or "The Times" or whatever it is. And so, they need to go around these institutions and go straight to the -- to the consumers, to the -- to the news watchers. And I think we're going to start seeing more and more of this type of thing, these smaller internet companies being bought up by these tech industries.

HILL: It will interesting to see how that one plays out.

You have been following what's happening very closely in Venezuela.

LANZA: Yes. Yes. Listen, I just had friends who returned from Venezuela. I have visited Venezuela in the past. I've spent a lot of time in Latin America. And the big thing you would notice in the past in Venezuela, there were posters of Chavez and Maduro all -- almost at every block there was these gigantic murals or posters. They're now being wiped out. They're being painted over. They're being replaced. And that is a huge step for the sort of the turning of the chapter of what happened with Chavez and socialism, communism in Venezuela. And I think that's a good thing. That's my group chat as more of us decide to get involved in Venezuela, that we were going to see substantial differences. And it's more of a mind tone than anything else.

(CROSS TALK)

HILL: OK, so Elliot's group chat is going to bring us all together.

WILLIAMS: Yes, I know. Yes.

HILL: For breakfast. WILLIAMS: Regardless of the age group of whoever you are. And so, you know, the heir to the Reeses peanut butter fortune, Mr. -- this 70- year-old man who originally (ph) took a bite of a Reeses Cup and said, wait, this isn't chocolate, this is disgusting.

[07:00:04]

HILL: Yes.

WILLIAMS: And it turns out, and I have two pieces of candy here, both from the Hershey's Company, they both say milk chocolate on them. However, for some time they've stopped using milk chocolate.

Well, the scion of the two great tastes, it tastes great together fortune sort of, you know, felt that this was all really bad.

HILL: Yes. Yes.

WILLIAMS: And so needless to say --

HILL: Now they're changing it.

WILLIAMS: Now they're changing it. 2027, were getting chocolate back.

HILL: Real chocolate is coming back.

LANZA: Old school words. Old school words.

HILL: And let's hope -- we're out of time here on the show, but we're going to sit here on the set and let's hope that Elliot is going to share that chocolate with us because sharing is caring and chocolate, my mom once told me, releases the same endorphins as a hug. So, there's your hug on a Friday morning.

DEMSAS: Awe.

WILLIAMS: Awe.

HILL: Thanks for joining us. I'm Erica Hill. Stay tuned. The headlines are next.