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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Trump Administration Cutting Nearly 50 Percent of Education Department Staff; Man Held Captive by Stepmom for Two Decades; Protesters Demand Khalil's Release Arrested at Trump Tower; EPA to Close All of Its Environmental Justice Offices. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired March 14, 2025 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

SARAH SATTELMEYER, PROJECT DIRECTOR, NEW AMERICA'S HIGHER EDUCATION INITIATIVE: ... the back end systems had been cut, were having trouble accessing various systems that they needed to do their work, and it took longer than it otherwise might have to diagnose and troubleshoot the problem and get the form back up.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: The secretary of the department, Linda McMahon, she has said that these are about efficiency, these cuts, and that these will not impact student loans, it won't impact Pell Grants or funding for special needs students. Do you buy that, Sarah? I mean is that possible with these types of cuts.

SATTELMEYER: I don't think so. You know, I think this will actually have the opposite effect. First of all, this is actually going to make programs less efficient.

If you have less people working on delivering a service, it's going to be slower. There may be disruptions or breaks. Second of all, I don't think that this is going to help us spend taxpayer dollars more effectively.

When you eliminate people whose job is to root out waste, fraud, and abuse in programs that have a deep knowledge of those programs, you're absolutely not going to be spending dollars in the most efficient and taxpayer-friendly way. And then, you know, third of all, students and families across the nation are really going to have a hard time accessing programs that Congress promised them.

SOLOMON: And what about these hopes from some allies of Trump that a different department altogether may be better suited to handle student aid programs like the Treasury Department? Your thoughts on that?

SATTELMEYER: You know, the elimination of the Department of Education and the reduction of its services are actually deeply unpopular with the American public. Only about one in four Americans supports eliminating the department. It's even fewer support moving their functions to other agencies or decreasing the scope and scale of the work.

And I ask again, how would this increase efficiency? Do the people where these programs would move have access to the systems and really the wraparound supports that go with some of these functions? So, for example, if you are providing student loans, there needs to be a call center. There needs to be resources that help borrowers know how to make payments effectively.

There needs to be a team liaising with schools and with families to help them understand complicated rules and regulations. And I don't see how that's possible if the programs are scattered among a host of different agencies.

SOLOMON: Yes, I mean, as we said at the top of this segment, I mean, 20 U.S. states are challenging these cuts. So this too will end up in the courts and we'll see ultimately what the courts decide here. Sarah Sattelmeyer, we appreciate the time this morning. Thank you.

SATTELMEYER: Thanks for having me. I wish it were under better circumstances.

SOLOMON: All right, and still ahead, a Connecticut man says that his stepmother held him captive for more than 20 years. Just ahead, how he finally escaped.

[05:35:00]

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SOLOMON: Right now to Connecticut, where emergency crews made a disturbing discovery last month while responding to a house fire. At the property, they found a middle-aged woman and her 32-year-old stepson who revealed startling allegations of abuse and claimed that he had been kept secret his entire life. CNN's Jean Cazares has a story.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

CHIEF FERNANDO SPAGNOLO, WATERBURY, CONNECTICUT POLICE DEPARTMENT: 33 years of law enforcement, this is the worst treatment of humanity that I've ever witnessed.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When authorities were called to a home on fire, they were looking for anyone who may be trapped inside.

SPAGNOLO: Officers and fire investigators quickly realized that there was a room in the house that appeared to have locks on it from the exterior portion of the house.

CASAREZ (voice-over): A 32-year-old man was locked inside that room.

SPAGNOLO: They began to speak to the male victim, who disclosed that he was being held captive in the house for an extended period of time.

CASAREZ (voice-over): The man was treated for smoke inhalation, and police say he admitted to setting the fire to gain his freedom. He also told them he'd been held captive for more than 20 years by his stepmother since he was about 11 years old. He said he was only fed two sandwiches and two cups of water a day.

Authorities say he was held in an 8-by-9-foot storage room with no heat or air conditioning, and he suffered serious physical consequences. According to a police affidavit, the 32-year-old is 5 feet, 9 inches tall and just 68.7 pounds.

SPAGNOLO: There's a lot of physical therapy that he'll have to go through. There's a lot of healing that he'll have to go through.

CASAREZ (voice-over): According to law enforcement, authorities went to the home twice in April of 2004. The first visit was a welfare check requested by the Department of Children and Families.

SPAGNOLO: Officers went to the house. The house was clean. It was lived in. They spoke to the victim at that point in time, and there were no cause for any alarm.

CASAREZ (voice-over): Later that month, the family attempted to file harassment charges because the school district continued reporting the family to DCF. The affidavit says after that, his stepmother pulled him out of school.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just unfathomable that anyone could treat someone this way.

[05:40:00]

CASAREZ (voice-over): The alleged victim says he wasn't allowed to use the bathroom and instead had to use bottles and newspaper. His stepmother, Kimberly Sullivan, was arrested on charges of assault, second-degree kidnapping, and first-degree unlawful restraint. Her attorney says the allegations against her are not true.

IOANNIS A. KALOIDIS, KIMBERLY SULLIVAN'S DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Absolutely not true. He was not locked in a room. She did not restrain him in any way. She provided food. She provided shelter. She is blown away by these allegations.

CASAREZ (voice-over): Jean Casarez, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: Still ahead, she has kept a low profile since the re-election of President Trump. Now, former First Lady Michelle Obama is back in the public spotlight. We'll tell you why.

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[05:45:00]

SOLOMON: Welcome back. I'm Rahel Solomon and here are some of the stories we're watching for you today. U.S. markets open in a few hours with the S&P in correction territory. A sell-off Thursday left the index down more than 10 percent from the record high that it reached just last month. Now the Nasdaq also slid as President Trump threatened new tariffs on the European Union. Congress appears on track to avoid a government shutdown after Senate

Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that he will now vote for the Republican Party's funding bill. His decision, though, has angered some members of his own party who wanted to take a stand against President Trump's agenda. Schumer said that the bill is very bad but that the consequences of a shutdown are worse.

And a second federal judge has ordered the temporary reinstatement of thousands of probationary employees laid off by the Trump administration. The ruling covers 18 agencies and will last two weeks as legal challenges to the mass firings move forward.

Now to New York, that's where protesters filled the atrium of the Trump Tower on Thursday. They gathered there to denounce the arrest of Palestinian activist and U.S. resident Mahmoud Khalil. He remains detained by immigration authorities over his involvement in last year's protests at Columbia University against the war in Gaza. Demonstrators chanted, free Mahmoud Khalil and held banners that read, never again for anyone. Ninety-eight people were arrested and CNN's Omar Jimenez picks up the story from there.

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OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A little less than a hundred protesters were arrested in total for demonstrating inside Trump Tower in support of Mahmoud Khalil, the now former Columbia University student who last year was one of the leaders or who helped lead some of the protests we saw happen on that campus. He's currently being held in an ICE detention facility in Louisiana.

But as for the protesters here, they entered Trump Tower with jackets and coats on, as we understand from law enforcement source, and then opened those jackets and coats up to reveal those red shirts. That's when the chanting began. Law enforcement showed up not too long after, asked them to leave, which some did, but then others did not. And many were then zip tied with their hands behind their backs before they were put onto buses to then face what we understand to be some minor charges.

Now, as they were being let out, groups started to form in the area outside of Trump Tower and we heard chants, things like fight Nazis, not students, of course, in reference to Khalil. The group that organized these protests, known as Jewish Voice for Peace, they describe themselves as a grassroots organization, but they do typically support many Palestinian causes.

Take a listen to what one of the leaders of that group told me about some of why they wanted to be here.

SONYA MEYERSON-KNOX, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE: We ourselves are Jewish and we know what happens when a government, be it the Israeli government or our own government, when an authoritarian government starts scapegoating and targeting and making threats and or genocidal actions against people, we know where that leads. As Jews, we know our history and we are here to say never again. JIMENEZ: Now, she also said they believe President Trump and the Trump administration are infringing upon Khalil's civil rights. The administration has equated Khalil's protest activity to terrorism, at least the president has on social media -- supporting terrorism. And the deportation efforts come under a broad range of power that the secretary of state has to deport someone who may have adverse effects on the United States foreign policy interests.

Regardless, Khalil's attorneys have argued that all of this is just retaliation for protest activity and infringing upon Khalil's First Amendment rights, which green card holders generally do have.

Omar Jimenez, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOLOMON: Meanwhile, the Trump administration is looking to speed up mass deportation efforts. Multiple sources tell CNN that the president is expected to invoke a rarely applied 18th century law in the coming days. So doing so would give Trump extraordinary authority to target and remove undocumented immigrants, though legal experts say it would face an uphill battle in court.

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 was intended to be used if a foreign country had invaded or threatened to do so. It has only been invoked three times in history. It played a role in the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.

President Trump also asking the Supreme Court to give the OK for his administration to move forward with its plans to end full birthright citizenship in the U.S. Trump is challenging the long held reading of the 14th Amendment that guarantees citizenship to anyone born or naturalized in the U.S.

[05:50:02]

Courts in Washington, Maryland and Massachusetts have issued nationwide injunctions blocking his plan to limit birthright citizenship to children born to at least one U.S. citizen.

And President Trump's plan to take over Greenland is perhaps unsurprisingly getting some pushback from political leaders there. The outgoing prime minister of the Danish territory promised that he would summon party leaders to strengthen their rejection of any American annexation plan. And the leader of the party that won this week's election also dismissed the idea, calling it, quote, inappropriate.

On Thursday, Trump once again said that a takeover of Greenland, quote, will happen.

Meanwhile, Canada is getting a new leader who has also made it clear that his nation will never be absorbed into the U.S. Mark Carney will be sworn in as Canada's prime minister in just a few hours. Relations with the U.S. are a priority for Carney, who was a former central banker. He takes over for Justin Trudeau, who will resign officially today. The U.S. and Canada embroiled in an escalating tariff war. And

President Trump's talk of making Canada the 51st U.S. state has triggered tensions and outright anger among some Canadians.

And what's seen by many as a blow to public health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is closing its environmental justice offices. The 11 offices work to monitor and combat high levels of pollution that often burden poor and minority communities.

The administration says that the closures align with President Trump's push to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs and what it calls, quote, wasteful spending. The Environmental Justice Division focused on areas like Louisiana's so-called cancer alley. That area is home to more than 150 chemical plants and oil refineries and also some of the nation's highest cancer rates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN, FORMER EPA ADMINISTRATOR: These regulations were based on science and are there to protect people because that's the simple mission of the agency. And it's one of those things where you want to say you've got to take these seriously. How can you not when you have the proof, as you laid out so well of the cancer alley, of what we see in those in those sludge ponds?

There is mercury, there's arsenic, there are all kinds of things that get into the water and people are drinking that. And that's inhibiting their development, in children particularly. And when you mentioned environmental justice, it's a tragedy to close those offices because those communities didn't have the political clout to push back against the location of those factories. And now they've already paid a huge price and now it's just going to get worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Michelle Obama has been a vocal critic of President Trump, but she's kept a low profile since his reelection. Well, now the former first lady is back in the spotlight. She spoke at South by Southwest, the conference in Austin, Texas, about the new podcast she's doing with her brother.

A large crowd lined up to hear her. And while she didn't mention President Trump by name, she did tell attendees that they have the power to bring about change.

According to the Austin American-Statesman newspaper, she said, quote, the truth is the small power that each of us has to do something is right in front of us. If we're all doing that, it outweighs anything that some big leader somewhere can do.

Well take a look. This video and the tourists that's in it, sparking widespread outrage in Australia. She's even been criticized by the country's prime minister. We'll explain why when we come back.

[05:55:00]

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SOLOMON: Welcome back. The Vatican says that Pope Francis had another peaceful night at a Rome hospital where he is being treated for double pneumonia. He has now spent one month at the medical facility, and it's still not clear how much longer he will remain there, though the Vatican says that his condition has been improving.

On Thursday, he marked the 12th anniversary of his election as Pope with hospital staff who served him cake with 12 candles.

The storm system that drenched Southern California has forecasters now worried about what's ahead for the rest of the U.S. The risk of severe thunderstorms are expected to impact central states Friday and Saturday, bringing tornadoes, damaging winds, and even blizzards in higher elevations.

In Southern California, the storm dropped heavy rain, which triggered dangerous mudslides. Roads were damaged, cars were swept away, and several people even had to be rescued.

Sky gazers were treated to the rare sight of a total lunar eclipse today. The cosmic display featured what's known as a blood moon. So this is when the moon creeps through the darkest part of the Earth's shadow and turns a dramatic reddish hue. I thought that's what I saw. Good to know I'm not losing my mind here. It was actually what I did see.

All right, now to outrage and disbelief in Australia. This is after a video shows an American tourist picking up and running off with a wild baby wombat.

In the background, you can actually see the joey's distressed mother. You can actually hear her too, chasing after the woman and then hovering near the car. Wombats are marsupials native to Australia and protected by law.

Australia's prime minister had some choice words for Sam Jones, the woman in the video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY ALBANESE, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: They are gentle, lovely creatures to take a baby wombat from its mother and clearly causing distress from the mother is just an outrage. And, you know, I suggest to this so-called influencer, maybe she might try some other Australian animals. Take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOLOMON: Jones later said that she did return the baby to its mother. She has now left Australia after officials threatened to cancel her visa. CNN did reach out to her for comment, so far no answer.

All right, thanks for joining us here on "EARLY START" and being with us this week. I'm Rahel Solomon, live in New York. I will see you next week. But in the meantime, CNN "THIS MORNING" starts right now.