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Park Service Edits Harriet Tubman References On Underground Railroad Webpage; Naval Academy Removes Nearly 400 Books On Race, Gender & Sexuality; U.S. Stocks Tumble Amid Global Turmoil Over Trump's Tariffs; U.S. Stocks Gyrate Wildly On Third Day Of Market Mayhem; Second Unvaccinated Child Dies Of Measles In Texas. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired April 07, 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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[12:30:34]

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: Harriet Tubman's name is synonymous with the Underground Railroad, but in the Trump administration's rewriting of the National Park Service website, her words are erased. Now, The Washington Post first reported the changes on the "What is the Underground Railroad" page.

On the left website as it appeared on Trump's inauguration day, a picture of Harriet Tubman and her words are prominently featured. The highlighted text shows changes from that day to how the website looks now on the right.

And so today, you see stamps highlighting, quote, "black and white cooperation" on the Underground Railroad. Several references to, quote, "enslaved people" in the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 are removed. And these images are also omitted. Cards depicting slaves reaching for freedom in a mural of one of the first black regiments in the Civil War.

My panel is back. So what is the significance of this --

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: I mean --

RAJU: -- and what is your takeaway?

MITCHELL: Well, it's significant because it's a clear example of whitewashing of history, sanitizing the way we talk about U.S. history. And it's problematic because it's an attempt to keep people from acknowledging and understanding the truth. And it's I think there is some assumption that white people can't handle the truth about U.S. history when it comes to things involving race and racism.

And I don't find that to be true. And it also for -- I think for many black people, it reads as trying to diminish the black experience in the United States. But again, this is about history and it's about telling the truth. And the truth is, yes, there were white people who assisted with the Underground Railroad, and that's well documented.

But we should also be able to talk about that slavery --

RAJU: Yes.

MITCHELL: -- was the reason why the Underground Railroad existed and that there was a Fugitive Act that existed to try to keep people from seeking freedom during slavery.

RAJU: I mean, it seems like they don't want to talk about slavery anymore. There was that executive order that Trump signed last month that called for the removal of anti-American ideology from the Smithsonian Institution, removing exhibits from the African-American History Museum, talking about removing things that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race.

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And I think as the Trump administration continues going down this path, just one distinction to watch out for is how much of those efforts are about erasing. So you were talking about deleting references, the removal of books, cancellation of exhibits or cultural events. That's erasure.

And then you have the straight up sort of rewriting and re-scripting, because then you fast forward four years. And in the first scenario, presumably, you have to bring those things back. In the second scenario, you have to rewrite what has been already re-altered. You could make the case that the second is infinitely more complicated and harder.

RAJU: Yes. And this is what the Park Service said when asked by The Washington Post after reporting about these changes. So "The National Park Service has been entrusted with preserving local history, celebrating local heritage, safeguarding special places and sharing stories of American experiences. We take this role seriously and can point to many examples of how we tell nuanced and difficult stories about American history".

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's clear that they're trying to rewire the national memory on this and a host of other issues. But I think that the Trump administration in this case is benefiting from just the limited outrage bandwidth for a lot of Americans, because Gallup recently did a poll on 16 issues and which are the most important to Americans right now.

The economy was far and away the number one and race and race relations was number 16, the very last of 16 issues that they pulled for. So because there are so many things that Americans and voters are having to be concerned about right now, things like this story and this broader effort by the administration are sort of falling to the back burner.

And people who oppose them are having a hard time fighting them or figuring out exactly how to fight back there because there are so many things --

RAJU: Yes. TAUSCHE: -- for them to fight right now.

RAJU: Like the global trade rule and economic -- potential economic meltdown. But the Naval Academy also removed 381 books based on race, gender and sexuality from its library. Just on your screen, an example of a number of those books.

What do you make of this? I mean, David Weigel, hearing what Trump said on the campaign trail to what he's doing now.

[12:35:00]

DAVID WEIGEL, POLITICS REPORTER, SEMAFOR: Well, part of the same project and it's about undoing what happened in 2020, a little bit before that. But let's date back a lot of this rethinking of the cultural memory of Americans at our official institutions back to 2020. There was an effort.

Corporate America did this and they moved back pretty quickly. And institutions did this. We're going to have more information about slavery. We're going to be more on it. Let's say you go to Monticello. You're going to learn a different story about Jefferson than you used to.

The effort, brick by brick, is to undo that. And it's -- the Claremont Institute, which Trump gave a Medal of Freedom to as he was leaving office, have written extensively about what you need to do to unbuild the storyline that more liberal, more diverse sets of academics were writing for years.

So how much of this can they do in the rest of the administration? Probably a lot. One of JD Vance's mandates now is the Smithsonian, how they're going to retitle their exhibit. So I think definitely right now is the outrage bandwidth for people who might be offended pretty tapped out. It is.

But this is going to keep happening. You're going to keep going to museums and saying, didn't this used to be here? What happened to that exhibit?

RAJU: It's almost putting a MAGA stamp on culture, whether it's the Smithsonian or whether it's the Kennedy Center or whether it's this.

MITCHELL: Yes. And I think they're hoping it has to trickle down to cultural institutions that aren't under federal control. But I think there's also a limitation for the impact because you think about the Naval Academy. These are some of our best and brightest students.

They are going -- first of all, they come in with a lot of --

RAJU: College students.

MITCHELL: -- yes, they're college students. They come in with a lot of knowledge. They know how to seek that knowledge, even if the book isn't available on the shelf in the library. But what could be a consequence at a place like the Naval Academy, what students no longer feel comfortable matriculating at this school because they see what the federal government is doing.

And maybe they choose a different pathway in their careers. And that could affect our military ranks for generations to come --

RAJU: Yes.

MITCHELL: -- because there are high achieving black and brown and LGBTQ and disabled students and all -- even white students who might say, maybe I don't want to enter the Department of Defense. Maybe I don't want to have a pathway that puts me into, you know, in the purview of what the federal government is doing right now.

RAJU: We'll see the implications and the fallout of all of this.

All right, coming up, one of Donald Trump's billionaire backers is warning of an economic nuclear winter if the President does not pause on his tariffs. We'll get the inside scoop from a renowned financial journalist. That's next.

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[12:41:58]

TAPPER: We are following a wild day on Wall Street as President Trump's sweeping new tariffs and all the confusion surrounding them continue to rock markets here in the U.S. and around the world.

I'm lucky enough to be joined by William Cohen. He's a founding partner of Puck, who spent 17 years on Wall Street before becoming a financial journalist. Bill, thank you so much for joining me this afternoon. Really appreciate it.

You are someone who's very plugged into the senior players on Wall Street. You've heard so many concerns over the last week. Tell me what a lot of Americans want to know, and perhaps this is an impossible question, but I'm going to ask you anyway. How much worse can this get or are we anywhere near the bottom?

WILLIAM COHEN, FOUNDING PARTNER, PUCK: Manu, it can always get worse, unfortunately. I mean, Wall Street is a confidence game, and I mean that in a good way. I mean, the markets depend on the confidence that investors and creditors have in it, and at any given time when that confidence is lost, there can be no bottom.

I mean, I don't think things are going to go down 100 percent, but we know from past experience that markets do correct when that confidence is lost, and we're right in the middle of that now.

RAJU: Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman, who's been a staunch supporter of Trump's, wrote a very long post on X last night. It's got a lot of attention, but here's some of that post. He said, "The President has an opportunity on Monday to call a timeout and have the time to execute on fixing an unfair tariff system. Alternatively, we are headed for a self-induced economic nuclear winter, and we should start hunkering down". Now, Ackman is one of multiple leaders from Wall Street and Silicon Valley who supported Trump's re-election. You talk to a lot of these people, Bill. Are they having regrets about backing Trump?

COHEN: Well, clearly Bill Ackman is, and, you know. to me, he's getting what he deserved. It was quite obvious what Trump was going to do. He telegraphed it throughout the campaign, and we all lived through it in Trump won.

Bill became a huge supporter of Trump during this election, and now he's seeing his net worth decline. You know, he's still got plenty of money, so I'm not feeling sorry for him. And I think a lot of the billionaires on Wall Street who have supported Trump, who've seen their net worth decline 20 or 25 percent in the last few days, are obviously, you know, concerned a little bit about what Trump is doing, but it's not going to affect their lifestyle one bit.

So they haven't been able yet, except for Bill Ackman, to come out publicly and say, you know, maybe this guy's on the wrong path here and we should do something about it.

RAJU: President Trump tried to explain his economic plans yesterday. Here's some of what he said.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The problem that we have with China, with the European Union and other nations. I said we're not going to have deficits with your country. We're not going to do that because to me a deficit is a loss. We're going to have surpluses or we're at worst going to be breaking even. This is not sustainable. The United States can't lose $1.9 trillion on trade.

[12:45:13]

RAJU: What do you make of that argument, Bill? And is it factually correct?

COHEN: Look, I think most economists don't understand what he's talking about here. I mean, just because you have a trade deficit doesn't mean you're losing. It doesn't mean your economy is in the tank. Last October, the Economist magazine said that the American economy was the envy of the world.

Look, Manu, you know, for 50 years now, I've been getting my hair cut and, you know, I have a deficit with my barber. I pay him once a month to cut my hair. He buys nothing from me. He gets my cash in return and we have a wonderful relationship and I don't feel like I'm being taken advantage of.

I don't feel like I'm a loser and I don't feel like he's getting something over on me. And that now I have to, you know, he's going to impose a 50 percent tariff on that haircut because I have a deficit with him. So this idea that we're somehow losers and suffering because we have deficits with various countries makes no sense at all. We provide certain services to them. We buy other services from them that they can provide much more inexpensively to us. And so this is the nature of trade and so it makes no sense for us to, you know, try to retaliate because we're feeling like we've been losers or are losing something in this relationship. It makes no sense and you can see why the markets are reacting the way they are because of this nonsensical theory that Donald Trump has been pursuing for 40 years now.

RAJU: All right, Bill Cohen with Puck. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your expertise. I really appreciate your time.

COHEN: Thank you.

RAJU: After a second unvaccinated child dies from the measles, HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy visits Texas and seems to change his tune on the vaccine. But is it too little too late?

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[12:51:33]

RAJU: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has publicly endorsed the measles vaccine after a second unvaccinated child in Texas died from the virus. On Sunday, Kennedy tweeted, quote, "The most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine". Now this after Kennedy has come under fire for downplaying the multi-state outbreak and the efficacy of the vaccine.

CNN's Meg Tirrell joins us live. Meg, what happened in Texas to prompt Kennedy's change in tune about the measles vaccine?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Manu, I mean, seeing a second death in a child from measles is extremely unusual. Before the first death during this outbreak, which was in February in a school- aged child, we hadn't seen a death from measles in this country since 2015. And so now we are seeing the second death of a school-aged child in Texas on top of another suspected death in New Mexico.

So we're talking about three deaths here in this outbreak. This child we have learned was unvaccinated and was previously healthy, no reported underlying health conditions. The cause of death was listed as measles pulmonary failure.

We know that measles can cause pneumonia in some children. That is a complication and can make this virus very dangerous. This outbreak now has spread to at least four states. So Texas is the epicenter and the most cases are there, but we've also seen cases in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Kansas. And we're watching this very closely.

The vaccination status of the cases in Texas, 481, 471 of them or 98 percent of those people were unvaccinated or had unknown vaccine status. And so that is why it's so important that RFK Jr. is now emphasizing at least the efficacy of the MMR vaccine, although, you know, not necessarily going as far as public health experts would like to see, Manu. RAJU: Yes. And Meg, Kennedy has that long history of being an anti- vaccine activist. So how much of a difference do these statements from Sunday really make?

TIRRELL: You know, it's amazing that like the lead of a lot of our news headlines on this, our top health official says that the MMR vaccine is effective. I mean, that's just sort of like, that shouldn't be news, but it is news when it's RFK Jr. saying it.

So it's important that he's saying that, but experts I'm talking with are saying he is not going far enough. He's not emphasizing that it's safe and he's not saying people should be vaccinated. And those are the messages epidemiologists and infectious disease doctors say need to be out there to convince people to get vaccinated.

Now, also, even though he tweeted that hours later on X, I should say, he put out another message talking about some doctors on the ground in Texas who he said he visited with. He says he's treating children, 300 measles stricken Mennonite children, he says, using aerosolized, budesonide and clarithromycin.

Those are asthma treatments and an antibiotic. I talked with an infectious diseases pediatrician today who said those have no role in treating measles. And so that is continuing to spread misinformation about how measles should be managed, which is through vaccination.

We should also say, Manu, in that original tweet about the MMR vaccine or X post, he noted that he said rates of cases and hospitalizations of measles have flattened. Well, if you look at the graph of cases over time, particularly in Texas, they're almost vertical right now. So this is still an outbreak that is big and it's growing fast. And we are getting mixed messages from Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Manu?

RAJU: And very, very quickly, Meg, how much has RFK Jr. changed HHS already or is the jury still out?

[12:55:03]

TIRRELL: Well, he's fired 25 percent of the workers or convinced half of those folks to leave on their own. And he's wiped out huge parts of the CDC. We know that there are still folks working on outbreak response at CDC that is one of the less touched areas, but really essentially no part of HHS has been untouched as a result of this. And we're really not hearing the messaging from CDC we'd be expecting to hear around an outbreak like this.

RAJU: Yes, that's a great point. Not much from the CDC yet.

Meg Tirrell, thank you so much for joining and for giving your expertise. Really appreciate it.

Thank you for joining Inside Politics. But before we go, I just wanted to quickly wish my wife of 18 years, Archana, a very happy anniversary today. Time flies by and I am, of course, a very lucky guy.

CNN News Central starts after a quick break.