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Erin Burnett Outfront
Trump Blames Biden For Economic Decline, Economists: It's The Tariffs; U.S. Official: El Salvador Made Clear Abrego Garcia Not Returning; Trump Nominee Contradicts Himself On Comments About Hitler, January 6. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired April 30, 2025 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:18]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Trump's blame game. The economy shrinks under Trump's watch and Trump blames Biden, as the CEO of one of America's biggest companies refuses to guarantee prices aren't going up.
Plus, Trump says he could get the Maryland man mistakenly deported back to the United States if he wanted to. So, he's now said that. But he says he doesn't want to. So, what does that actually mean for this crucial case?
Kilmar Abrego Garcia's lawyer is OUTFRONT.
And new scrutiny tonight for a top Trump nominee. What he told senators under oath, how that compares to his past statements. They're looking at it on Capitol Hill tonight. Our KFILE has the tapes to prove it all.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news. Trump blames Biden for the worst economic quarter since 2022. Even though the reason is Trump's tariffs. As one of the biggest three car CEOs talk to me about rising prices.
So, here's what Trump said just moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is Bidens economy because we took over on January 20th. And I think you have to give us a little bit of time to get moving. But this is the Biden economy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, no, I mean, also today you just need to listen to the man at the center of Trump's tariffs. He also spoke today. Here's Peter Navarro.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER NAVARRO, TRUMP'S SENIOR TRADE ADVISER: That is off the charts, when you strip out inventories and the negative effects of the surge in imports because of the tariffs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So when you strip out the tariffs, it's off the charts.
Okay. Well, I mean, I guess -- I guess it's good to hear him say it.
The Wall Street editorial board -- "The Wall Street Journal" editorial board put it this way tonight, tariffs shrink the U.S. economy. And they say the best response to the warning from the first quarter GDP decline would be for Mr. Trump to call the whole tariff thing off.
"The Wall Street Journal" goes on to call the situation a, quote, tariff kidnapping. So, as Peter Navarro put it very clearly, I'll summarize it this way, it's the tariffs, stupid. It's not Joe Biden.
And what "The Wall Street Journal" calls a tariff. Kidnaping is set to have far reaching effects on our lives. I spoke with Ford CEO Jim Farley today about how this is affecting his company.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Are you confident at this point, saying that there's not going to be any price increases coming from Ford trucks or cars this summer?
JIM FARLEY, PRESIDENT & CEO, FORD MOTOR COMPANY: No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying -- I'm saying that I'm not going to be specific about our pricing. But I will say one thing, we're announcing today that were going to extend our employee pricing through July 4th. Thats a big commitment. I don't know if the other competitors are going to be able to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. That's important. Now, you heard him loud and clear there at the end, holding prices through July 4th. And that is significant. But it was at the top. He was categorical. No, I'm not saying that, almost laughing when asked about whether prices wouldn't go up. Well, that is because they most likely are.
We spoke with Patrick Anderson, longtime auto expert at Anderson Economics Group, who tracks auto pricing, and he's got some new numbers. They're actually coming out tomorrow morning, but we're going to show you tonight. They show how much more it will cost to make and soon to buy a Ford Explorer. So that's coming up on the whiteboard in a moment. It's the tariffs, stupid.
But Trump says it's Biden, which is a particularly bizarre accusation, not just because it's Trump's tariffs. Even according to Peter Navarro, but because of Trump's own logic on who got credit for economic strength when Biden was president. Here's Trump's tweet on January 29th, 2024. This is the Trump stock
market. Okay. That was a year before inauguration day.
Trump is now not taking the blame for the stock market drop, so we won't take the credit. When Biden was president, now that he's president, he's not going to take the blame for the drop.
By the way, that stock market was hitting new highs just before Trump announced his tariff war. In fact, Trump, whom we all know loves to talk about the market when it's up and take credit for that today, says we should not even be looking at the stock market.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't view the stock market is the end all. When you look at the stock market in this case is it says how bad the situation we inherited.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay. Just to state a very, very obvious and basic thing, stocks do not trade off of things that happened in the past. They trade off of expectations of future earnings. And when Biden left office, well, let's just show you the situation Trump inherited. Those are those highs I was talking about. Look coming along and then oh God, there it goes, the tariffs.
As for the market not being all that important, I want to get back in that time machine. Remember that tweet back in January of 2024. Let's go back to 2024 and Donald Trump on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You know, to me, stock market is very all of it. You know, all of it together. It's very important.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Now even some supporters are pushing back on the claims that this is all Biden's fault.
Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy posted on social media, quote, and I want -- I want to quote him. He laid it all out. He said, what's that old expression? Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining.
Well, that applies here. The stock market is a direct reflection of Trump's first 100 days in office. Doesn't mean it won't get better, and we don't need to be patient. But this is his market, not Bidens.
But perhaps the issue lies in those closest to Trump, none of whom seem to be willing to say that to him, as Dave Portnoy did. None seem to be willing to speak truth to power publicly, at least.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAM BONDI, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: President, your first 100 days has far exceeded that of any other presidency in this country, ever, ever, never seen anything like it.
SCOTT BESSENT, U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY: Sir, it's been a momentous 100 days with you at the helm.
LEE ZELDIN, U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ADMINISTRATOR: This is the 100th day of the most consequential, historic first 100 days in the history of this country.
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Thank you for the honor to be able to serve alongside you, for you and alongside all these excellent people.
ELON MUSK, TECH BILLIONAIRE: Tremendous amount has been accomplished in the first 100 days. As everyone has said, it's more than has been accomplished in any administration before, ever. Period. I think this could be the greatest administration since the founding of the country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. And it was not just the cabinet today speaking like that. Trump actually also gathered business leaders at the White House this afternoon. And, you know, a lot of them were trying to talk about, hey, we're investing in America. You know, they're sitting there with -- with Trump. What did you expect them to say?
Just listen to the CEI -- CEO of A.I. chipmaker Nvidia.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JENSEN HUANG, NVIDIA CEO: Without -- without the president's leadership, his policies, his support, and very importantly, his strong encouragement. And I mean his strong encouragement. I frankly, frankly, manufacturing the United States wouldn't have accelerated to this pace.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay. Jeff Zeleny is OUTFRONT at the White House.
Jeff, you know, back to this point where Trump today is trying to shift the blame for -- to Biden for stock performance and for GDP, which even Peter Navarro says, even though Peter Navarro sees it as a good thing, is because of the tariffs. How worried is Trump actually about the effect the tariffs are having?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, watching that cabinet meeting we counted and president Biden's name was mentioned 51 times, often by the president but often by members of the cabinet as well, who really went row by row by row, saying what the Biden administration had done wrong, how they've improved things. So that is the mindset here. It's deflection, distraction, obviously,
but how worried are they? This is the conundrum talking to a variety of advisers. This is a president who is elected on the promise of lowering prices. He said I would lower prices. I would lower costs.
Now in the cabinet meeting as well, he actually signaled for one of the first times that a higher prices may be coming and a supply chain disruption also could be coming. And he sort of flippantly described it through the analogy of dolls. He said, you know, the young children may get two dolls instead of 30 dolls. And talking about imports coming from China.
But the reality here is that it's the goods and other things that businesses need on those ships, not necessarily dolls that is the issue, but in terms of how worried the administration is on the economy. If you listen to what they're saying, they don't sound worried at all. But underneath all of that, there is a growing sense of anxiety that, yes, this is the Trump, economy. He's been running this even though he is saying that Biden will own the second quarter as well.
But again, talking to advisers, they say this is why the president is urging his team to try and get some type of a tariff deal done in the coming days, as small as it may be to show forward progress. But again, the economy should be a central worry. They're actually not talking about it as much as you might think -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Jeff, thank you very much. Everyone is here with me now.
Peter, I'm sorry. I really do enjoy how Trump says that its Biden's -- Biden's GDP. And then Peter Navarro says the GDP would be just so amazing if you just take out the tariffs. It's awesome.
PETER TUCHMAN, TRADER AT THE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE: You know what? Look, I think it's really important to note that the last meeting that the Fed had in 2024, Jay Powell cut guidance for 2025 and '26 from four cuts to two cuts in interest rates for those -- these next two years. And he did it because not because things were bad, because things were good.
He said there's no point in expending a bullet from the gun unless we need to. And so, he handed -- that was the package that he handed forth to the next administration, right?
[19:10:05]
And so that was -- and he said it was because the economy and the markets were so strong that there was absolutely no reason at the end of the year to cut rates, as aggressively as they had hoped in '25 and '26.
That's the market he received in a beautiful box with a bow, right? And I think this, you know, we talked about it for the last couple of weeks since we've been here. It's -- it's self-inflicted. The last two and a half months since February 19th, when the market was once again trading at record highs.
And that was the first day that the mention of tariffs happened. That was the day he said, we are going to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, and the market sold off 70 points on the SPI that day. And it's really not -- you know, rebounded that well since.
ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR & BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: And just -- just to your point, Peter, just in terms of just looking holistically at what exactly Trump inherited here, were talking about fourth quarter GDP, 2.4 percent. We're talking about inflation really coming down, not quite at the 2 percent. That is the Fed's target.
BURNETT: But it had come down.
ASHER: It had come down a lot, Erin. And then you think about almost full unemployment just over 4 percent. The list goes on. The stock market, the S&P 500 last year ended up over 20 percent. That is significant.
It is the equivalent of a perfectly healthy patient going to the doctor and then leaving in a stretcher. That is what we're seeing. I mean, you laugh, but it's true.
BURNETT: It's a powerful analogy.
TUCHMAN: Out of 212 trading days that we had last year, we had 58 record closes. That's in every indices, from the Russell, S&P, Nasdaq and the Dow Jones, 58. That's 25 percent of the days, 25 percent. Yes. A quarter of the days, we closed at record highs.
I mean, I traded. I was there every day trading that market. The market was extraordinary. The breadth of the rally was amazing. It's baffling to hear Jensen say what he said there. I don't know what -- what he -- they were holding him up with.
But you know, just think about it. That is the man who they just cut off at the knees, costing $5.5 billion when they said, you can no longer sell products to China. That's like telling McDonald's they can't sell burgers to kids under ten years old. I mean, it's just -- I'm baffled by that. That little scenario we just saw.
BURNETT: Margaret, I'm just -- I'm starting my whiteboard here because the Ford CEO was talking about prices. And I think this is so important because this doesn't affect people, right?
MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah.
BURNETT: Ford Explorer, the original tariff. Patrick Anderson from Anderson economics group, who's been doing this forever. He's coming out with these numbers are going to come out tomorrow morning. We're going to show them now.
So, for Ford Explorer, this is a regular workhorse car. The original tariffs were going to add $4,300 to the cost of each Explorer. So, then they came out this week and adjusted them, okay? So I'm just going to write ADG, adjusted, ADJ. Sorry. So, now, it's $2,400. So that's with the drop. It's still going to add
$2,400 to the cost of every single Ford Explorer. That's a $50,000 list car. That price is still going to go up.
I'll give you one more car, the Mach-E. Now, you may not have heard of this. This is a an electric car, made by Ford, Mach-E. This car, this car usually goes $55,000. The average tariffs there were $12,000. Okay? And now they're still $12,000. Okay.
That is going to go straight to consumers.
HOOVER: I just want to say I personally am very gratified that if Amazon can't put the tariff prices on their websites, at least Erin Burnett can do it on the white board --
BURNETT: Patrick Anderson is going to break it down, right? You're not allowed to put this on Amazon. You're not -- you're allowed to pretend its turn.
HOOVER: But we just turn into ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT and you've got the whiteboard. The whiteboard is going to be everything.
I mean, there -- it is -- it is a lie to look into the camera and say, this is not going to affect prices. And yet his entire economic team is out there. So, I mean, they're all saying different things. But even, you know, you know, they're in trouble and, you know, they're feeling the heat. The real tell is that even the economic team that's on the sidelines is trying to get back in.
You know, who's doing the rounds right now is Ambassador Bob Lighthizer, the former USTR, who's been benched from this economic team. And now he's out talking to the press, trying to be helpful. And he won't even say on the record that he suspects tariffs will cause prices to go up. It's -- it's -- it's like Trump can defy gravity only for so often.
BURNETT: But economics can't, Shermichael. And here's the thing. When you look at this $2,400 on a car, that's about $50,000.
Now, Ford can eat that for a while. That's why you're going to get employee pricing. They can't eat it forever. $12,000 on a $55,000 car. They can't eat.
Patrick Anderson, they can't eat that, right? So, you know, to the point of Amazon, Amazon's not allowed to put this up on their board. People like Patrick Anderson, people buying cars who are looking at prices all the time and going out and looking what's the list? What's the list? What can I get $1,000, $2,000? That matters a lot.
SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, look, politically, I still think as a strategist, Erin, the president has an opportunity to correct this. And I would probably advise to move pretty swiftly. The labor market, for the most part, is still steady. Consumer spending is soft, but it hasn't completely fell down through the rabbit hole. Thank God for that.
The economy, for the most part, is contracting. The ADP numbers weren't very great. GDP numbers obviously weren't great at all.
[19:15:01]
BURNETT: Right.
SINGLETON: So, it's a telltale sign where the market is saying, hey, we're trying to give you some room here, but you have got to give us some type of stabilizing message that this is coming to a close.
And so, if I'm advising the president politically, I would say, Mr. President, we have got to have some type of a blanket percentage pertains to tariffs and say to the 75 nations, 2.5 percent, 2 percent, whatever it is, come to the drawing board. This will be the Trump flat tariff number, if you will. If you want to make it fancy, close that deal, be done with it and put the focus on China, where I think a lot of investors would probably even agree we have some real work there.
So again, there's opportunity but we're running out of time. And I would advise the president, let's bring this to --
BURNETT: And "The Wall Street Journal", Zain, is not mincing words. I mean, not that they have not been clear where they stand on this, but they're calling it tariff kidnapping.
ASHER: Yes. Just in -- just in terms of Jim Farley not being able to say this is going to raise prices.
BURNETT: CEO of Ford.
ASHER: Yeah. The CEO of Ford saying this is not going to be able to -- this is not necessarily going to raise prices. He didn't give you a definitive answer.
It is so hard, Erin, when you are in an industry where the rules of the game, especially as it pertains to tariffs, are changing literally by the second from one day to the next. And I think what's hard for Jim Farley is that, you know, he has no idea at what pricing there's still going to be going to be demand for his vehicle.
So, for example, even if the prices go up, which we do expect them to do, just in terms of passing on prices to consumers --
BURNETT: Yeah.
ASHER: -- a lot of people might just say, you know what, I'm going to go and get a secondhand car. You know, I'm not going to actually -- I'm going to hold on to my Ford F-150 that I currently own for a little bit longer, because I don't want to go out there and spend money on a brand new car.
The bottom line is, when you think about what, 20 -- and I know that obviously Donald Trump has actually issued some relief for the 25 percent auto tariffs, but just that number alone, 25 percent on auto parts. That is devastating.
BURNETT: And even with the adjustments I just laid out, right, even without Ford explorer went from 4,400 or 4,300 to 2,400. I mean, you know, you're still talking real money here, obviously. And that's --
TUCHMAN: I think it's more important with this nice gentleman just said, it's a matter of -- there's no clarity --
BURNETT: Shermichael.
SINGLETON: I'm taking that, I am. There is a legend. So I'm taking it.
TUCHMAN: If he had come in in the beginning, we knew that he was talking about tariffs. He talked about it during the whole lead up to the presidency. We knew that was going to be his agenda. And if he had come in and just said, listen, there may be a little bit of a hard time. This is what we're going to do and give us clarity, give us numbers.
Who's going to suffer? Who's going to benefit and lay it out there? We could have -- the stock market can handle anything. It's dealt with COVID. It's dealt with wars. It's dealt with the financial crisis.
It can handle anything except uncertainty and surprises. If he had laid it out that way, we would have been in a different place now. We did not need that drop off for 12 weeks of an -- with absolute. We still don't know. We are sitting here in, what are we, in May 1. We still don't know any numbers and anything particular.
BURNETT: No. The auto tariffs changed this week. They changed the other day.
TUCHMAN: We are moving the goalposts every time we get to the end of the game here. And that's -- that's insanity.
HOOVER: Which is -- which is why he's I think he's got to have a couple of big wins quickly. It looks like India -- you know, there are rumblings and begins to report that there might be a free trade deal. There might be some kind of deal with India. If he can get India and a couple of these other countries sort of locked in --
ASHER: Japan negotiators are here.
HOOVER: Look at how huge these deals are. They came to the table.
BURNETT: Whether they are, it's not even the point.
HOOVER: But like the market, as you say, it's about confidence, right? And nobody\s about confidence, man, than Donald Trump. He's got to take some wins and inject some confidence back into the market so that so that they can lean in and cheer.
TUCHMAN: So why have we not gotten any of that? We still even when yesterday they said we got a deal, deal, deal. Who's the deal with? Are you crickets, right? Well, that's why we -- that's where the confidence starts to break down.
HOOVER: Yeah.
TUCHMAN: When given the opportunity to give us anything, it's like there's nothing to see here.
ASHER: It's not just the deal with any country. It's literally with the most strategic trading partners. It is with the E.U. It is with South Korea. It is with Japan. We all know that -- I mean, literally trade deals take years to negotiate.
BURNETT: That's right.
ASHER: Typically. So, anything that we're going to get is going to be a watered down, tiny little sort of framework of a deal, which obviously --
BURNETT: Memorandum of understanding.
ASHER: Yes, market is going to be excited about that because any win is good.
SINGLETON: Erin, I would say politically that I would argue would be a good sign for investors and hedge fund managers. I mean, the PCE numbers weren't terribly bad. They weren't a boom, but it wasn't necessarily a bust. So again, for my assessment here as a strategist, I still see opportunity. But I think the time is running out and I would advise the president, hey, I'm thinking about midterms, Mr. President, you're thinking about midterms.
Let's figure this out. Let's let those numbers rally back to where they were and really focus on the crux of the previous election, which was cost for the average worker. If he can do that, I think he wins this thing.
BURNETT: All right.
TUCHMAN: The market is seeing opportunity. Think about it. We just had six days of a reasonable rally.
BURNETT: Right. They're waiting.
TUCHMAN: We closed out the day to day going from the negative to the positive. We had a $5 billion buy program come into the market at 3:49 and 59 seconds today. That was $2.5 billion for sale, notional dollars coming into the market. That was not a short cover. That was money with intent to buy the market.
They did not want to close out April without having they wanted. The market was down 13 percent earlier in the month.
[19:20:00]
They wanted to participate in where the market is today.
BURNETT: All right.
TUCHMAN: So I agree with you 100 percent. There is a -- there's an opportunity and there's a --
SINGLETON: And the legend agrees. I'm done with TV. I'm done. BURNETT: When we were talking about car CEOs, you know, GM, when the
tariffs were adjusted this week, pulled their forecast for the whole year and said they couldn't figure out the numbers they needed some time. Well, they are going to be giving some of that color tomorrow morning. And the CEO of General Motors, Mary Barra, is going to be my guest tomorrow morning. That will be here at 8:00 a.m. Eastern live. And you'll see some of it also here, of course, tomorrow OUTFRONT at 7:00.
And next, El Salvador's president refusing to release Kilmar Abrego Garcia. That is the wrongly deported father that Trump now admits he could get back. He says he could get him back. So, Abrego Garcia lawyer is going to reply to this. This is a new admission from the president.
Plus, a top -- a top Trump nominee under the microscope saying he could not recall ever saying things like this.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
ED MARTIN, TRUMP NOMINEE: President Joe Biden is Hitler. And I am not joking when I say that.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BURNETT: It's hard to not remember saying that. Well, new KFILE reporting is coming up.
And did Elon Musk just make his last appearance in a Trump cabinet meeting, as you just heard him?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:25:38]
BURNETT: Breaking news, CNN learning that El Salvador has rejected the Trump administration's request to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia. That is the man who was mistakenly deported to a notorious mega prison over a month ago from Maryland to El Salvador.
One U.S. official telling CNN that El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, has made it clear that he will not release Abrego Garcia. But of course, the reality of it is, is that he's there because Trump sent him there because he asked Bukele to take these deportees. And Trump is now making a stunning admission. I mean, it's maybe not. Maybe it shouldn't be stunning, but it is because he's actually saying it now.
He is saying that he could get Abrego Garcia back if he wanted to, but he doesn't.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
INTERVIEWER: You could get him back. There's a phone on this desk.
TRUMP: I could. INTERVIEWER: You could pick it up. And with all the power of the
presidency, you could call up the president of El Salvador and say, send him back right now.
TRUMP: And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that.
But the court has ordered you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay. Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg is OUTFRONT now, the attorney for Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
And, Simon, I'm glad to talk to you again. And obviously this story is moving here even as we speak. Your reaction to what we just heard there, the president saying he could pick up the phone, acknowledging he could pick up the phone. He could make the call. He could say, bring him back. And that Kilmar Abrego Garcia would come back.
I believe that contradicts what the Trump lawyers have been telling you in court, right? They've been saying that he couldn't just pick up the phone and bring your client back.
SIMON SANDOVAL-MOSHENBERG, ATTORNEY FOR FATHER WH SAYS WAS DEPORTED DUE TO "CLERICAL ERROR": Yeah. I mean, the government has been talking out of both sides of their mouth pretty much since the beginning of this case. They say one thing in the press, they say another thing in court filings. This is just another example.
I find President Trump entirely credible when he says that he could get Kilmar Abrego Garcia with one phone call. Later in that same interview, he said that there were lawyers of his who was -- who were advising him not to make that phone call. We don't know who those people are, but we're going to find out.
BURNETT: Who those lawyers are.
So, you don't know who they are if he's referring specifically to individuals, I mean, it's unclear if he's -- if he's referring to lawyers, general people, but he says lawyers, but you don't know who they are right now.
SANDOVAL-MOSHENBERG: Right. The judge today essentially restarted the discovery process. So, now, we're going to be getting documents from the government. We have nine days to take depositions of various government officials, and we're going to get to the bottom of it. We're going to find out who said what, to whom, when and if anyone is telling, you know, the cabinet officials and the president not to act in good faith here. We're going to find out who that is.
BURNETT: All right. Simon, literally, as we were coming to air, there was another development in this case. And this is from the Department of Homeland Security. They have just shared another request for a protective order filed by the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. So, we knew about one petition for a protective order. They have now said that there was a second one. They're putting it out there.
In it, she describes him taking her phone and slapping her during an argument that this particular incident that this refers to is in August of 2020. She describes him breaking her phone and acting violently with police officers.
Now I just want to be clear he wasn't charged with a crime connected with that incident or the other one that DHS has put out, and his wife rescinded the request. But what is your request to the -- I guess, I guess, two things. Your response to the government releasing this, and were you already aware of it prior to, you know, us talking about it here?
SANDOVAL-MOSHENBERG: Yeah. Look, I mean, I've been representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia for over a month now and I've never had the chance to speak with him in my life. Right. Because he's being held incommunicado in Salvadoran prisons. We've all the whole country has been talking about him for over a month. Weve been, you know, the one person who hasn't had the chance to speak yet is Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
If the government is so convinced that they've got him dead to rights, that they've got all this evidence against him, bring him back and put him on trial, and then he'll take the witness stand, and he'll get to speak for himself, and he'll get to respond to all these allegations.
BURNETT: Is it just so I understand, though? Is it -- is it -- are you literally finding out about things like these protective orders, I mean, in the media or when DHS puts them out? I mean, are you even able to have that information prior to, say, us talking about it in this interview?
SANDOVAL-MOSHENBERG: Oftentimes, we find out about these allegations when they come out in the press, precisely because they're not bothering to file any of this stuff into the court case, because they know it's irrelevant, because they know that none of these things, you know, make up for the fact that they deported him, admittedly, by them by mistake.
[19:30:03]
BURNETT: All right. So, President Trump in this interview insists that Abrego Garcia has MS-13 tattooed -- tattooed on his knuckles. That literally MS-13. And he seemed to refer to this photo.
So here's what he said to ABC News, to Terry Moran about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: He had MS-13 on his knuckles, tattoos.
INTERVIEWER: He had some tattoos that are interpreted that way, but let's move on.
TRUMP: Wait a minute. Hey, terry. Terry. Terry.
INTERVIEWER: He did not have the letter MS-13. TRUMP: It says MS-13.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. I'll just say, Simon -- we'll put them up. On the left is the photo Trump is talking about. Someone apparently added MS- 13 above each symbol. Thats the photoshop that Terry Moran is referring to, claiming that that is what those symbols stand for. On the right is your client's hand when he met with Senator Van Hollen earlier this month. So that's when we got the photo from El Salvador. No, MS-13. There are those symbols there.
I just want to ask you a couple of really basic questions that odd to ask, but has your client ever had the actual letters and numbers MS-13 tattooed on his knuckles?
SANDOVAL-MOSHENBERG: No. And this is why we don't try cases, you know, in the media with drip by drip. We try cases in court with admissible evidence. Right. And there's no way that that that photoshopped photo would ever stand up in court.
BURNETT: All right. Well, I appreciate your, you know, laying this out as we know. And I will just say MS-13 experts tell PolitiFact that none of the symbols that were actually on the knuckles, you know, they put MS-13 above them, but are known signifiers for the gangs, the things that were actually there, PolitiFact says, are not known to be known signifiers for the gang. Just to make sure that we put out as many facts as we can in this.
Simon, thank you very much. I appreciate your time.
SANDOVAL-MOSHENBERG: Always good to be here.
BURNETT: All right. Good to see you.
And next, a top Trump nominee telling senators under oath that he does not recall denigrating police officers injured on January 6th. But, of course, KFILE has been digging and you will see what he found him saying about those very officers.
And as Putin brags about his military gains in Ukraine, Trump's lead peace negotiator now appears to be fawning over Russia.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
STEVE WITKOFF, U.S. ENVOY: I got to the kremlin. It's a -- it's an impressive place. And I -- you know, I was a little bit awestruck.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:36:56]
BURNETT: Breaking news, President Trump's pick for D.C.'s top prosecutor, Ed Martin, under new scrutiny tonight, just two days after CNN's KFILE discovered that Martin repeatedly praised this alleged Nazi sympathizer. And KFILE has new reporting tonight revealing that Martin, under oath, repeatedly said that he does not recall things that he clearly said even very recently.
And KFILE, of course, has the tape to prove it.
KFILE's Andrew Kaczynski is here with me now.
So, you know, Martin is -- is -- obviously, this is an important job. D.C.'s s top prosecutor. So, he's answering questions to senators. He comes out in writing and in in this answer to for this confirmation hearing, he says he does not recall some of his most controversial past statements, including comparing Joe Biden to Hitler.
ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Yeah, look -- and look, Martin told them under oath that he couldn't remember making many of these statements, but we found that he did make many of them, many of them within the past year. And we brought all of these receipts for you here. Let's look at some of the examples of what he told the committee versus what he said.
That first question that you referenced was pretty pointed to Martin. It said, quote, the senators to Martin, have you ever equated a Democratic politician to hold off Hitler? Martins answer was, I do not recall doing so well, he did do. So, let's roll the tape and see what he said.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
MARTIN: President Joe Biden is Hitler, and I am not joking when I say that.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BURNETT: Okay, hard to imagine not -- not recalling that one. That -- that one's -- that one's pretty black and white. Okay.
So, Martin also refused to answer questions about whether or not and this is really important, whether or not he denigrated police officers -- in the service of police officers who were injured on January 6th. Again, you have tapes on this.
Tell us.
KACZYNSKI: Yeah, he was asked directly, like you said, have you ever denigrated the officers service? He replied, not that I can -- not that I recall. Additionally, police officers perform an important role in our society. I support and respect the men and women who take on this role.
We did find, Erin, that he actually did just that. He suggested on one radio show, we saved all of his radio shows before he pulled them down. We talked about the last time I was here.
BURNETT: Yes. KACZYNSKI: But we -- we found on his radio shows, and he suggested that police officers lied about ones who had been attacked had had suggested that they lied about it, may have committed perjury, listened to him right here.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
MARTIN: With him were two of the guys who have claimed that they were officers. They were officers on January 6th and have claimed that they got really mistreated, except as someone yelled out of the crowd, they both appear to have lied. It looks like they lied and maybe committed perjury. Fanone is one name and Dunn is the other.
Dunn just lost his race for Congress. He ran for congress in Maryland, lost. Fanone had a book that he got paid a lot of money for. And I think he's been accused of fabricating parts of it.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KACZYNSKI: Now, look, that's not all that we found when it came to him in January 6, police officers.
[19:40:01]
We also found this tweet where he was talking about Officer Fanone, and he called him a, quote, fake cop. And Fanone is one of those officers who was pretty severely beaten by the mob. He was tased. He was beaten.
He suffered a heart attack. He suffered traumatic brain injuries. And he's still been dealing with a lot of the issues from that attack physically.
BURNETT: I mean, it's pretty incredible heart attack. And to suffer all of that and --
KACZYNSKI: Ahen get called a fake cop.
BURNETT: Fake cop.
All right. KFILE's Andrew Kaczynski, thank you very much.
And OUTFRONT now, Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.
Congressman, I know you believe this is all incredibly important and what the role Ed Martin is up for is the top prosecutor in Washington, D.C., is incredibly important.
So, KFILE's latest reporting, numerous times that Ed Martin claimed that he did not recall some of his most controversial comments, including calling Joe Biden Hitler. Hard to imagine one would forget doing that so directly and publicly. And it all comes two days after k file reported that Martin repeatedly praised an alleged Nazi sympathizer.
So, at this point, Congressman, can you do anything to stop his nomination? Or does it just proceed ahead?
REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Oh, no. I think that the dam is about to break here because his -- the extraordinary praise of antisemites and racists in January 6th insurrectionists, is going to be very well known all across the country. This is a guy who, on January 6th itself described it as Mardi gras and celebrated the atmosphere.
He has engaged in every known version of January 6th denialism in attempts to minimize the violence against the police, to try to pretend as if it didn't happen, to blame it on everybody from antifa to the FBI, anything to distract from what really happened. And then when he got into the Department of Justice, the first thing that he did was to settle cases or dismiss cases, rather against his own clients. In other words, he was operating on both sides of the v, both as the government and as lawyer for the defendants. I mean, it's just a cardinal breach of the ethical duties of a lawyer.
But his praise of well-known antisemites and Hitler lovers is just getting to be known in the public. And as you can see, he's dodging and weaving about all of that.
BURNETT: I mean, you know, we just, you know, make the point. You know, sometimes, you know, if you're asked something by a lawyer and a deposition, you know, you, you know, you would prep for what you expect, maybe or maybe not be asked, right, with lawyers. But then they ask you and you see what they actually ask you.
These he's given the opportunity to provide written answers, right? Which means the time to think and, you know, look at what you said. So, when he says he could not recall, and he had posted on social media that Michael Fanone was a fake cop, a person who was stun gunned, beaten with a flagpole and suffered from a heart attack, right, an officer, a police officer. And he calls him a fake cop -- I mean, what are the implications of this when you actually come to the vote in a confirmation hearing in the world we live in right now, does this stuff matter?
RASKIN: I mean, Michael Fanone and Harry Dunn and Sergeant Gonell, Officer Hodges, these people saved our lives. On January 6th, they fought against people who wanted to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which Donald Trump had lost by more than 7 million votes to Joe Biden. And this is the seminal lie of the current period we're still in. And these people still want to assert that Donald Trump won in 2020. And that is a litmus test job qualification for the Trump administration.
And Ed Martin is right in the front and center of that. Remember, they not only did they pardon more than 1,500 insurrectionists, including hundreds of cop beaters, people who violently assaulted our officers. But then they also fired more than a dozen federal prosecutors just for working on those cases.
BURNETT: So, so what -- what happens at this point? I want to ask you one thing here. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had an exchange a few moments ago with Manu Raju that I wanted to play for you in the context of the fact, Congressman, that you were the lead impeachment -- impeachment manager for Trump's second impeachment trial that was connected to January 6th, which were talking about right now.
So let me just play this exchange between Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez and Manu.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you think that if you guys take the House, impeachment should be on the table?
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): Of course. I mean, we should never take impeachment off the table. We should never take -- where we see law breaking, we should never take accountability off the table.
[19:45:01]
It should be on the table for every president. Every president should know that if you break the law, you could be prone to removal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, is she right? Or do you worry that Democrats being open that. Of course. I mean, we should never take impeachment off the table when you're talking about impeaching Trump for a third time could backfire or somehow delegitimize Democrats.
RASKIN: Well, look, the constitutional standard is treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors. And Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is absolutely correct that if a president engages in though in any of those actions, he or she should be subject to impeachment investigation or proceedings. But it shouldn't obviously be any kind of fetish with us because we know, how difficult it is. Certainly, when you get over to the senate to actually convict somebody because of the cultish conformity of views among a lot of the Republicans still.
But I will say this, if you go back and look at the speech that Mitch McConnell gave, after voting to acquit, he said he believed the president could still be prosecuted, but he also said he wasn't voting because he thought that way, because he thought Trump was innocent. He said he was voting that way, even though Trump was morally and ethically and personally responsible. He voted that way because he thought the Senate didn't have jurisdiction over a former president. Well, he's no longer a former president.
BURNETT: No, he is not. Well, he is, but he's also a current. All right.
RASKIN: Yeah.
BURNETT: Well, Congressman Raskin, I so much appreciate your time. And thank you very much.
And next, Russia unleashing a new wave of brutal strikes on Ukraine as the kremlin firmly rejects Trump's timeline for any peace deal.
And Trump appearing to say a sort of goodbye to Elon Musk. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: He wants to get back home to his cars.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:51:07]
BURNETT: Breaking news, a major agreement has just been reached between the U.S. and Ukraine, giving America access to natural resources in the region. Those rare earth metals. The deal comes as new video tonight shows the aftermath of Russia's latest attack on Ukraine.
In the past 72 hours, Putin has launched at least 374 drone attacks, 374 in the past 24 hours. Even as Trump is trying to get a peace deal.
Fred Pleitgen is OUTFRONT tonight. He is in Moscow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): While President Trump believes he can unite Russia and Ukraine at the negotiating table, Russian state TV showing their disdain for Ukraine's president, claiming he threatened Moscow's parade to commemorate victory in World War II, even though Zelenskyy only vaguely said Russia should be concerned about it.
I advise Zelenskyy to follow the example of the idol of the Ukrainian Nazis, Hitler, who shot himself in his Fuhrer bunker 80 years ago on April 30th, 1945, the host says.
Ukraine says the Russian army has drastically ramped up offensive operations in several sectors along the front lines, while the kremlin bluntly says the unconditional 30-day ceasefire president Trump wants is not going to happen anytime soon.
Before it is established, several questions should be answered, the spokesman says, and several issues should be settled. They were all listed by President Putin.
Those questions include the areas Russia currently occupies and wants to keep, and questions about Ukraine's future political and military status. Complicated long term issues as the fighting remains in full swing and the Russians feel they currently have the momentum on the battlefield, after all, but completely ousting Kyiv's forces from the last pockets of Russia's Kursk region.
We have driven the enemy out of the Kursk region, but they're still sitting in some cracks and some basements, Vladimir Putin says.
While the Trump administration warns it's close to walking away from its own initiative to try and broker a peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv, Trump telling ABC he still believes Putin wants peace, even though the Russian leader might be stalling the process.
TRUMP: He could be tapping me along a little bit. I would say that he would like to stop the war. I think that if it weren't for me, I think he'd want to take over the whole country personally.
PLEITGEN: A recent meeting between Putin, his senior negotiators and Trump envoy Steve Witkoff appears to have produced little in the way of tangible results. Witkoff now telling podcasters he's struck by the magnitude of his task.
WITKOFF: I got to the kremlin. It's a -- it's an impressive place. And I -- you know, I was a little bit awestruck, but awestruck in the sense that I was there on behalf of the -- of the United States government trying to get a peace deal. And the -- you know, the -- the enormity of it sort of struck me.
PLEITGEN: But while the Trump team may be awestruck, the kremlin is showing its firmly in control of the process, saying Russia will not agree to any ceasefire if Moscow's demands are not met.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: And next, Elon Musk sort of says goodbye to the White House. Wait till you see.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:59:20]
BURNETT: Tonight, Musk appears to be eyeing a Washington sort of exit. He's been a near-constant presence with Trump, his righthand man, first buddy, now no longer technically working from the White House campus. Now, this is according to "The New York Post". Today, Musk appeared to bid farewell to Trump's cabinet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUSK: A tremendous amount has been accomplished in the first 100 days. As everyone has said, it's more than has been accomplished in any administration before, ever, period.
TRUMP: You know, you're invited to stay as long as you want. At some point, he wants to get back home to his cars.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Of course, just for, reporting reasons. And, you know, financials that he'd have to put out. He can't stay much longer.
But he needs to get back to his cars for the very obvious reason. This has been brutal for Tesla, sales down for the first time in the company's history, shares have plunged from the peak in December. Musk's net approval rating in the red now, minus 17 points. While he's stepping back, though, he won't be gone. He tells investors
he'll be spending a couple of days a week on DOGE for the entire remainder of Trump's term.
Thanks for watching.
It's time for Anderson.
