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Inside Politics

Supreme Court Rebuffs Trump in Fight Over Foreign Aid; Trump Makes 13-year-old Brain Cancer Survivor an Honorary Secret Service Agent; Reuters Poll: Majority Think Cost of Living is Going in the Wrong Direction; Sources Say Trump and Trudeau Spoke This Morning About Tariffs; Pete Buttigieg Mulls Michigan Senate Bid in 2026. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired March 05, 2025 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:31:08]

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF 'INSIDE POLITICS': We're looking at President Trump last night in a rare public encounter with the justices of the Supreme Court. Just hours after that jovial encounter at the joint address, the high court rejected the Trump Administration's request to keep billions of dollars in foreign aid frozen. The ruling was five to four with the Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining their liberal colleagues in the majority.

I want to go straight to CNN's Joan Biskupic, who spent the morning at the court. Tell us what happened.

JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN CHIEF SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Sure. What a set of tableaus, you know, there they were, you know, being thanked for their ruling, the chief being thanked for his ruling earlier for Donald Trump and then to see them all on the bench today after a fairly dramatic order that actually, Dana, is not doing all that much. What the court did in its five-four order today is say that, you know, the administration cannot keep these funds frozen.

But it offered a caveat saying that they still need to hear from the district court judge in terms of how this is going to be paid out. So in terms of the real-world consequences, we still don't know when the money will flow and how these groups that are trying to do so much assistance overseas are going to be able to -- to be able to continue that mission.

But for these nine justices, what this order revealed is how even a modest compromise, led obviously by Chief Justice John Roberts and enlisting Amy Coney Barrett, the one other conservative who joined with the three liberals, that the four other conservatives are not having any of it. Because as I say that when all is said and done, this was not a dramatic order. It kind of, you know, says we're waiting for more steps from the lower courts.

But Justice Alito joined by Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Neil Gorsuch wrote a very hot, nearly eight-page statement finding fault with the majority, saying that they had shirked their responsibility. And Justice Alito said he was stunned by what the majority did, but he reserved most of his complaints for the lower court judge who had, you know, just at this preliminary stage, said that the Trump Administration could not suddenly freeze these billions of dollars that had already been authorized and spent.

And he used words against the lower court, the district court judge that had originally heard the case and will continue to be hearing the case because it's ongoing, used phrases such as judicial hubris, said that the lower court judge had, you know, kind of shrugged off administration arguments, that had just plowed ahead. So what it shows, Dana, and I think this is the thing we'll continue to see, is members of the Supreme Court being suspicious of what lower court judges are doing right now to put some sort of check on this Trump Administration and all the very bold actions that has been taken since January 20th.

So I think that's -- that will hold. I think we'll still see a lot of scrutiny of what the lower court judges are doing. But one thing, Dana, I just want to caution all our viewers is saying this kind of split, the five-four, is not going to be permanent. I think that we have seen Justices Barrett and the Chief certainly go with the liberals, but I do not think either of those conservatives, John Roberts or Amy Coney Barrett can be counted on for, you know, down the road to be giving a stamp of approval to challengers to the Trump administration. I think we have to realistically say this is going to be a case by case enterprise.

BASH: Yeah. Well, I definitely heed whatever warnings or analysis --

(LAUGH)

BASH: -- Joan Biskupic gives me when it comes to the Supreme Court. So I hear you loud and clear, and it's incredibly important right now. Thank you so much, Joan. Good to see you.

BISKUPIC: Thank you. Thanks.

[12:35:00]

BASH: When we come back, two veteran pollsters will be here to break down President Trump's address, the moments going viral, and what will stick in voters' minds beyond last night.

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BASH: Welcome back. I am joined now by two expert political pollsters to debrief on last night's joint address. Terrance Woodbury, a Democratic strategist and alum of the Harris Campaign, and Brenda Gianiny, a long-time Republican strategist.

[12:40:00]

I will get that right. You can call me Dana the entire time.

BRENDA GIANINY, REPUBLICAN POLLSTER: It's a lot of vowels. It's tricky.

BASH: It was just -- it was also a long night (ph). Let's just start with a moment that we are all talking about because it was a moment that just kind of got to your heart, which is there was a young boy, 13-year-old boy D.J. Daniel who has suffered from brain cancer and the president anointed him a member of the Secret Service.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Tonight, D.J., we're going to do you the biggest honor of them all. I am asking our new Secret Service Director, Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States Secret Service.

(CROWD CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: So, I mean, I challenge you not to feel all the feels when you see something like that. And look, I mean, this is the kind of thing, you know, sort of pulling at heartstrings and connecting to real people that Republicans and Democrats have done for a very long time. But in today's, we were talking about this earlier -- in today's media age, where you have these viral moments, that was certainly one of them. How important is it from your point of view for these kinds of moments to go out and how lasting are those versus the big impact moments that will really determine how people live their lives?

GIANINY: I think these moments are huge. One, most of the American public doesn't watch it, especially when it's an hour and 40 minutes long. So they probably wouldn't have made it to see that. I question why the Trump team put that at the end of his speech. It would've been so good upfront. But what's really good about it is it shows, you know, Trump in his sweet spot, nobody really likes Trump's style when he goes out there and he's bombastic. We always hear from voters, you know, I really like what he's doing, maybe not on your side, but I hear on my side, we really like what he's doing, but I just wish he'd stay off X or I just wish he'd tone it down on Truth Social.

so this human -- seeing this human side of Trump, which people that meet him one-on-one say really exist, he really does have a warmer, compassionate side. I think it's really important. I think it counters --

BASH: Especially, since if you look at the whole of the speech, which I understand most people don't do, he didn't have any intention on looking, you know, touchy feely. He wanted to be the guy who's got his foot on the gas, and he doesn't really care if people are upset about the things that he's doing because he knows that his base is happy with it.

TERRANCE WOODBURY, PRESIDENT, HIT STRATEGIES: That's right. I mean, that's exactly right. Look, this is a very moving moment. I think that, you know, Donald Trump has the lowest approval rating of any president in the first 30 days, second only to the record lows of his first campaign. And so, these moments are an opportunity for him to, to reach those heartstrings. He know -- Donald Trump is producing a reality show, right? He's producing television, and that was a great made-for-TV moment.

But that doesn't change the fact that what voters are concerned about right now, the number one issue of the campaign and the number one promise that he made was to reduce cost. And we didn't hear any of that yesterday. In fact, we heard a concession that in fact his tariffs will likely raise costs. So I don't know that that moment is going to break through or have the viral reach that he expects it to. But it's a moving moment and I agree it would've been more touching at the beginning of the speech.

BASH: And on that note of costs, Brenda, I want you to look at the latest public polling that we have. Is the cost of living improving? This is from Reuters out this morning. Right direction 22 percent, wrong direction 60 percent. Is that what you're seeing in your polling as well?

GIANINY: It is to some extent what we've seen, specifically when it comes to the tariffs, and I think you saw Donald Trump kind of lay the groundwork for this. Voters universally say tariffs are going to drive up costs, even Republicans. The difference is Republicans say it's going to create jobs. You have over 60 percent of Republicans saying, OK, costs are going to go up, but in the long term, it's going to be good for America.

And I think you saw Trump really reinforcing that, that thinking instead of laying the groundwork, particularly for farmers and those that might be hurt, say OK, I know this is going to be painful upfront, stick with me. And I think that's why he sort of buried it in the middle of his speech, to your point as well. He really came out triumphant. I mean, this is a speech Donald Trump has wanted to give for eight years. Not only did I want to do all these things, I am doing all of these things. And I think he came out with all of his wins and then set the stage for this economic.

BASH: And Terrance, let's talk about the Democrats. I know you did a focus group with Democratic voters last night. Let's just look at what they were watching from their side of the aisle. First of all, you had a lot of Democrats holding up signs, paddles, Stephen Colbert called them auction signs --

(LAUGH)

BASH: -- auction paddles. They said a lot of things, protect veterans, no kings, that's a lie. Then of course, you had Al Green get up and interrupt, disrupt, point his cane at Donald Trump.

[12:45:00]

So that was the scene in the hall. And then you had Elissa Slotkin, the moderate Democratic new Senator from Michigan. Here was her official Democratic response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN, (D-MI): Look, the president talked a big game on the economy, but it's always important to read the fine print. So, do his plans actually help Americans get ahead? Not even close. President Trump is trying to deliver an unprecedented giveaway to his billionaire friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Which is the winning message there?

WOODBURY: Look, Democrats in that chamber are representing the 73 million Americans that voted no to Donald Trump in the last election and the 10 million Republicans that voted for him and now disagree with the actions that he has taken. So, you know, it's important for Democrats to remember that they're not the minority party. They are the opposition party and there's a growing opposition that wants to express their discontent. And we had a focus group with some of those voters last night.

And what I recognize there is an urgency, a righteous indignation that they believe that they're on the right side of history and they want to fight. And they don't want to wait until election day to oppose. They want to begin opposing now. And that's why I think, we saw in some of the courage expressed by Al Green to represent the discontent, the outrage.

BASH: You don't think there's backlash there? Because in our -- we just had a snap poll afterwards and I recognize that a lot of people who are doing the snap poll like Donald Trump because they watched his speech, but it was like 80 percent against his move.

WOODBURY: No, look, at this point, I think Democrats should take every opportunity that they can to match Donald Trump's political theater, to break through the noise in the echo chamber, and to reach voters that are in fact outraged by what they're seeing and want to see some action and not just rhetoric, but to begin taking action and to begin expressing an alternative to how Democrats would do it different.

BASH: OK.

GIANINY: I love hearing this because that's -- we see time after time where the far left pulls Democrats further and further to the left into unpopular positions. And it sounds like that's exactly what your focus groups might be.

BASH: OK. I definitely wanted to be continued on this conversation now. Unfortunately, we have to leave it there. We have some news just in, we just learned that President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did speak this morning in the wake of the president's new tariffs and Canada's retaliatory tariffs. We are waiting to hear the details about the substance of that conversation. Is there something to announce? We're going to sneak in a quick break. Don't go away.

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[12:51:55]

BASH: Mayor Pete for Senate, the former transportation secretary is reportedly weighing a 2026 Senate run in Michigan after President Trump won the pivotal swing state last year. This is an open seat, and Buttigieg recently met with the Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, to discuss a potential bid. That is according to Politico. He had a television appearance and he was on a show where he discussed this possibility, left the door pretty wide open.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST OF "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT", CBS: There's going to be an open Senate seat in 2026. Is there anything you'd like to tell us?

(LAUGH)

PETE BUTTIGIEG, FORMER TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: Not tonight. I've been looking at it. Look, I've decided that I'm going to continue to work on the things that I care about, to defend the values that I was just talking about. I have not decided what that means professionally, whether that means running for office soon or not. But, I will make myself useful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I'm going to start with our political director and -- read those tea leaves for us.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF: Well, you know, talk among Democrats in the, I would say, the last two weeks, 10 days prior to this, was that he was kind of leaning against a Senate run. That's sort of been the scuttle, but we'll see how seriously he is going to consider this. Obviously, taking the meeting with Schumer indicates that he has clearly not ruled it out. You know, he was on last night with Colbert in a live show in responding to the State of the Union.

BASH: Right.

CHALIAN: I was looking at sort of the content of how he was responding to the State of the Union, which was not terribly dissimilar from what we saw from who would be his Michigan colleague, should he be successful on the Senate run, with Elissa Slotkin. You know, he centered it really on kitchen table issues. I don't know, I -- he, I think has a tough time breaking through this media environment. He's a pretty earnest guy --

(LAUGH)

CHALIAN: -- but I think his message is one that Democrats think are in the right place of where you need to be.

BASH: Yeah, he's one of the -- I mean, let me talk about the media environment. He's one of the few Democrats who is truly comfortable on Fox News.

TAMARA KEITH, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NPR: Right. And I would say the other thing about him is that he was Mayor Pete from Indiana and now, he is -- (LAUGH)

KEITH: -- man in Michigan, a state where a Democrat has more options for a political future. There's a governor's race coming up eventually. There's a Senate race. It's a state where a Democrat could win statewide. And so, he certainly --

(LAUGH)

KEITH: -- is not being shy about keeping his political options open, even with his geography. You know, he mentioned, oh, and I live in Michigan now --

BASH: Yeah.

KEITH: -- during his speech, during the convention (ph).

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think his husband was born --

BASH: Yes.

HENDERSON: -- and raised in Michigan. You know, Democrats have a problem in terms of appealing to working-class voters. You could see in some of the returns from Michigan, African American voters, Latino voters there, I don't know if recruiting a Harvard-educated McKinsey guy is the right answer to solving some of these electoral challenges that Democrats have in states like Michigan. But we'll see.

He's obviously ambitious. His appeal has mainly been to those upper- class, highly-educated Democrats. You saw that when he ran in 2020, so you know, we'll see.

[12:55:00]

ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, I mean, I think the second he moved to Michigan, we all started the clock, right?

(LAUGH)

HERNDON: Like whether this is going to be Senator or governor or whatever it might be, it seems likely. So, I don't think it's terribly surprising, but to your point, like, you know, Mayor Pete has kind of been, his appeal has been kind of an old person's young person, and I feel as if the challenge --

(LAUGH)

HERNDON: -- that the Democrats have is that legitimately among young people, among non-college, among the folks that they have been losing, they've not found someone who can really compete in the native language of the internet, of -- and I think -- I think that's really their biggest challenge. To be honest, like, if I was a Democrat who was thinking about 2026 or 2028, I will be thinking about the trust that's been lost within your own party, among the groups that he identifies. And so, I would look at them, I would look at the camera and say, I know the Democratic leaders weren't honest with you last time, and I will be. And I think that's the type of message you see folks like Stephen A. Smith, those type of outsiders really pushing. There is fertile ground for an establishment takeover in the Democratic Party. But Pete represents, I think, one of the better options on the opposite end.

BASH: I had such a good time with you all on the show. Thank you so much. Thank you for joining "Inside Politics." Today's "CNN News Central" starts after the break.

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