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Trump to Speak from Oval Office; Student Loan's Future Uncertain; Hamas Wants to Maintain Talks with U.S. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired March 07, 2025 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We'll have live coverage coming up right here in the Situation Room. But joining us right now, Democratic Senator Peter Welch of Vermont. He sits on the Senate Finance and Judiciary Committees.

Senator, these mixed jobs report comes amid growing confusion around President Trump's tariffs and the fact that thousands of federal workers are being laid off right now. What do these numbers tell you about the overall state of the U.S. economy?

SEN. PETER WELCH (D-VT), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE, FINANCE COMMITTEE AND AGRICULTURE, NUTRITION, AND FORESTRY COMMITTEE: It's very sketchy. I mean, the Trump administration seems to have chosen disruption as opposed to stability. as a way to try to address our economy. And the disruption is really creating havoc. The tariffs, by the way, are still in effect on parts of Canada, but Canada has imposed its tariffs on Vermont. And we are looking at, in Vermont, a 25 to 40 cent increase in the cost of gasoline. We're going to have higher --

BLITZER: What does Vermont export to Canada?

WELCH: Well, we're one of 34 states where Canada is our biggest trading partner. So, it's not just Vermont. And we do a lot of electronics to Canada. We do -- we work with them on maple syrup, of course, and manufactured goods to Vermont. So, -- pardon me, to Canada.

So, Vermont is our biggest trading partner. But keep in mind, it's 34 states that have the biggest trading partnership with Canada, and Canada has remained imposing its retaliatory tariffs on us.

BLITZER: So, it's going to have an impact on Vermonters.

WELCH: Big impact.

BLITZER: The president, as you know, though, is temporarily, key word, delaying most of the tariffs he slapped on Canada and Mexico, for that matter. The effect is the president's chaotic on-again, off- again tariff strategy is having on the country is questionable right now. What do you think of it?

WELCH: It's really making it hard for folks who have to make everyday decisions about their business, about their manufacturing, about their supply chain issues. We had a round table in Vermont and what we did there is true all along the northern border. They just don't know what they can count on. So, it is making them extremely uncertain, really affects what they can invest in, it affects what their employment situation is, and they literally never know from day to day who's on top. And this disruptive approach that the president is taking is undercutting even whatever his objective may be.

You know, the tariffs with Canada are supposedly national security. I can see Canada from where I sit in Vermont. No tanks are massing. I mean, we get along with Canada. So, this is an idiosyncratic position by the president that just has immediate in negative economic consequences on everyday families in Vermont. Higher electricity bills, higher home heating fuel bills.

BLITZER: And it's causing an enormous amount of criticism on the part of not just Democrats, for that matter, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, I assume you saw the editorial is slamming President Trump's tariff, saying he doesn't even have the power to oppose sweeping tariffs and that someone should sue him over it. Do you agree?

WELCH: Well, I do agree. I mean, the Congress decades ago gave national security emergency authority on tariffs to the president. It was done with an expectation that a president would do it with restraint and where it actually had some military protection component to it. What the president is doing, as he frequently does, is totally overreach, and then using this as a bargaining tool for whatever it is he wants to bargain for. And the other issue is that he's doing it in a chaotic kind of way.

You know, he should sit down with Democrats and with Congress because we're supportive of tariffs on China. You know, there's a real trade imbalance there, and its unfair trade practices. But it's just shooting ourselves in the foot to essentially unravel the USMCA. Ironically, an agreement that he said was the best ever, and he negotiated. This is doing extraordinary harm to trust between us and our partners and it's doing real harm to Vermonters.

And you don't unwind this that quickly. You know, I heard Mark Zandi. I do think the economy is starting to deteriorate a bit. The consumer confidence numbers are way down. And part of that is because of the instability. And chaos is not a policy that reaps good rewards for everyday Americans.

BLITZER: A lot of uncertainty, and a lot of economists don't like all that uncertainty. After Elon Musk got a mixed reception from Republicans up on Capitol Hill this week, Senator, President Trump says he wants to use a scalpel, not a hatchet, on federal agencies. You've been sounding the alarm over Musk and DOGE. Do you see this as an acknowledgement from the president himself that some of his cuts have simply gone too far?

WELCH: Here's the acknowledgement. They cut first and looked and planned later. You know what they did in their cuts is they really got e-mail lists of people in these various departments like, Veteran Affairs, like Social Security, and they sent out 7,000 -- to each of these cases 7,000 firing notices. Somebody goes to their inbox and they're fired.

[10:35:00]

There was no plan. How do you make government more efficient? How do we better deliver services for Social Security beneficiaries? How do we help our veterans better? They just fired people. So, DOGE essentially is about getting a body count, as many people as you can fire as quickly as possible and then claim savings. But that unravels the capacity of that organization to do its work.

The second thing that I think people are really starting to see, there's a lot of cruelty in this. We've got 7,000 veterans who've been fired. They served our country, and for no reason. Not because of performance, but just because that's what DOGE decided to do. We fired 7,000 folks from the IRS when it's tax filing season. So, you call the IRS, you're going to be on the phone for 30 minutes or 45 minutes. That's not right.

So, what's really so terrible about this is the idea of making our government more efficient, we're all on board on that. We could sit down and do this in a thoughtful way, where at the end of the day, we're doing more for less, but we're not also inflicting this cruelty on people.

BLITZER: I think you're not board to dismantling and firing the Department of Education, all the workers who work at the Department of Education?

WELCH: Not at all. I think there's got to be a thoughtful plan. I mean, if this was any business, and you're looking at how can we save money and be more efficient, you'd actually -- and you do an inquiry, you do a plan, you'd assess where you're doing well, where you're not, and then you'd implement. What DOGE did is essentially drive through the building with a tank, just wrecking everything in sight.

And there was a lot of human suffering as a result of that. But also, at the end of the day, it means they'll fail, not succeed.

BLITZER: Senator, thanks so much for joining us. Enjoy the skiing in Vermont too. It's coming up.

WELCH: Thank you.

BLITZER: Appreciate it very, very much.

WELCH: Thank you.

BLITZER: Senator Peter Welch, appreciate it.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: It's been a great ski season in Vermont.

BLITZER: Yes.

BROWN: Just ahead, the Education Department, as we were just talking about, oversees more than 1 trillion in student loans, but dismantling the agency could put current and future borrowers in limbo. We have the new CNN reporting up next.

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[10:40:00]

BLITZER: We're following the breaking news from the White House right now. We're being told that President Trump will speak at the Oval Office right at the top of the hour. We'll bring it to you live once it begins. Pamela, it'll be interesting to hear if he just makes a statement, for example, on the jobs report, or if he starts answering questions from reporters.

BROWN: Yes, we're going to be watching out for that. I wouldn't be surprised if he takes questions. So, we will have to see at 11:00. Stick with us for that.

And we also know that President Trump is mulling dismantling the Education Department. The future of trillions of dollars in student loans is now uncertain, leaving millions of borrowers confused and in the dark. They have lots of questions. So, here to help us better understand the CNN's Kayla Tausche. She has been digging into this.

So, Kayla, if you have student loans right now, what does this potential order from President Trump mean for you?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, borrowers who have student loans already are facing long customer service backlogs because of a shrinking staff at the Office of Federal Student Aid. They're also facing fewer loan repayment options because of legal limbo that some of these lawsuits have put these more affordable repayment plans into.

I've learned that FSA officials have been meeting to try to figure out which new plans they can offer to some of these borrowers to get them back on track in paying their student loans, but they haven't reached any conclusions because of some of this legal fallout.

If you are a high school senior or someone who is looking to go to college or to take out loans, there is potentially going to be some lapses in disbursement or lack of clarity from schools. We've learned that some of these schools have been asking the agency for communication that they can offer to help them navigate some of this uncertainty, and I'm told by employees that the agency simply has not been able to offer that.

BROWN: Yes, because, you know, some people might be wanting to take out loans for college right now or whatever, you know.

TAUSCHE: And just a few weeks they're going to get their admissions letters.

BROWN: Exactly. So, what does this mean for them?

TAUSCHE: Well, there's going to be a lot of uncertainty going forward. And it comes at a time, Pam, where a lot of these students have had payment pauses for the last several years. And they're about to start to have to repay these loans at higher payments per month. And employees say there's going to be a wave of defaults on a portfolio of $1.6 trillion in loans where 40 percent of those loans are already delinquent.

One employee tells me that it is like a tidal wave coming for an unprepared village. The fallout, this employee says, is not even hypothetical now.

BROWN: Wow. Kayla Tausche, thank you for bringing your reporting. We appreciate it.

TAUSCHE: Of course.

BROWN: Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Kayla, thank you very much for me as well. Meanwhile, there's more news this morning. A senior Hamas official is now telling CNN that the group wants to maintain direct talks with the U.S. over a hostage deal, but accuses President Trump of, quote, "blatant double standards." The official says the Trump White House is focused on dozens of Israeli hostages, but ignoring thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

The direct U.S. talks with Hamas by the Trump administration, by the way, marks an abrupt change in long standing U.S. policy. For decades, Washington has refused to engage with groups it considers terrorists. No direct talks. The U.S. designated Hamas a terrorist organization back in 1997.

Joining us now here in the Situation Room is Ruby Chen. He's the father of the Israeli American hostage, Itay Chen. Itay was just 19 years old and a soldier in the Israeli military when he was killed in the October 7th terror attack. His body was then taken by Hamas into Gaza.

[10:45:00]

Ruby, thanks very much for joining us. I know you've been here in Washington for the past few days. You listened to Trump's joint address to Congress. You've had some meetings, I take it, at the White House as well as with Pentagon officials. What's your reaction, first of all, to this new U.S. policy during the Trump administration of having direct, not indirect but direct talks with Hamas? Normally, those talks go through Qatar or Egypt, or some other country.

RUBY CHEN, FATHER OF ISRAELI-AMERICAN KILLED, BODY TAKEN TO GAZA: I welcome those talks, you know. The U.S. in the past has also spoken to the Taliban when needed. There's a function inside of the State Department called SPEHA, which is the Special President's Envoy for Hostage Affairs. And, legally, they are allowed to speak to anybody in order to get U.S. hostages out.

And if there is an impasse, and the Israeli prime minister and Israel is not able to move talks, we do not want to see these talks stalled. So, I welcome the president for thinking out of the box, and willing to do what is needed in order to get the 59 hostages out, including five, five U.S. citizens, including my son.

BLITZER: Your son grew up where?

CHEN: Grew up in Tel Aviv, but we have family here in New York, New Jersey, and we come here every summer.

BLITZER: So, you're still hoping that perhaps you'll get some closure on this?

CHEN: Yes. We were notified by intelligence, but we do not have any evidence, concrete evidence. Hamas have not acknowledged or given any type of indication about my son. And we -- you know, we'll always have that hope or belief that until it's not done, it's not done.

BLITZER: I want to read to you, President Trump has issued what he's calling a last warning to Hamas to immediately release all the remaining hostages in Gaza. Let me read to you what he wrote earlier in the week. Release all of the hostages now, not later. And immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered or it is over for you. Only sick and twisted people keep bodies. And you are sick and twisted. This is your last warning. For the leadership, now is the time to leave Gaza while you still have a chance. Also, to the people of Gaza, a beautiful future awaits, but not if you hold hostages. If you do, you are dead. What's your reaction to that?

CHEN: I think that the United States needs to tell anybody that takes U.S. citizens as hostages, this is a liability, not an asset, and there are consequences to the fact that you are holding U.S. hostages. And I welcome that type of language, and I do hope that Hamas are listening very carefully to what will happen to them if they do not release these U.S. hostages.

BLITZER: I know, Ruby, you've been in touch with other hostage families. What are they telling you about what they hope happens now?

CHEN: Well, we saw this week that we saw returned hostages coming to Washington, and they actually met the president. And I would ask you, why is it that the returned hostages are actually getting on a plane coming to the United States to meet President Trump, and not meeting the prime minister? It means that we have a lot of faith in this president and this administration to think differently to get all of the hostages out, including my son and being able to have the closure that all of us are looking for after over 500 days.

BLITZER: You -- when you were at the White House this week, did you and your fellow hostage family members have a chance to meet with the president?

CHEN: No, we went -- met with the NSC folks, which is more of a walking session. I understand why the returned hostages got the ability to meet the president, which was very important. They also met Mr. Steve Witkoff to listen to them one-on-one and hear the atrocities that they've gone through and what they needed to endure for such a long time.

Even if this administration has had 100 percent effort, hopefully, it moves them to 101 percent effort to get the hostages out. And they should not wait on the Israeli government. And wait for them to lead. This is for the U.S. to lead to get its citizens out and hopefully, that way, all the other hostages will come out as well.

BLITZER: And I understand you were invited to a meeting at the Pentagon as well, is that right?

CHEN: Yes. We see all the different components of the government working in togetherness, you know, like, football team, we got the quarterback, that's the president. You got the running back, you got the wide receiver. Everyone is like moving together to make sure everyone's on the same page to get the hostages out and putting extreme pressure, financial, military, whatever is needed to get those hostages out.

BLITZER: Well, good luck in your efforts. Thank you so much, Ruby for coming in.

CHEN: Thank you for having me.

BLITZER: And give our love to the whole family.

CHEN: My wife said the best as well.

BLITZER: And give her our love too. Thank you very much. Pamela.

BROWN: Yes. We're following some breaking news from the White House. Well, we are being told -- I'm texting with White House officials that at around 11:00 a.m. President Trump is expected to talk about the jobs report that just came out today that economists are saying is solid. It's a little below expectations, but we know the White House has been embracing this jobs report. And now, President Trump coming up is expected to talk about that. And I'm also told that he's expected to take questions from reporters. So, we will see if that happens. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:00]

BROWN: It is an iconic East Coast versus West Coast battle, and the Lakers held on in overtime to pull off the late-night win over the Knicks.

BLITZER: I want to go live to CNN Sports Anchor Andy Scholes. Andy adding insult to injury was a major -- there was a major injury for the Knicks, right?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, that's right. Wolf and Pam. You know, Knicks' fans, they got the fingers crossed today, just hoping for good news about their star guard, Jalen Brunson.

You know, to show you how it all went down. Pick up the game in the fourth quarter, and New York is down three, under a minute to go. Brunson here gets the bucket plus the foul. He was pumped up. So, is was Spike Lee who was sitting courtside. We'd go to overtime and it was in O.T. where Luka just getting it done, the fade away over Karl- Anthony Towns. Then the three. He finished with 32 points.

[10:55:00]

Then it was under two minutes ago, Brunson was trying to tie the game again. He drives here, rolls his ankle badly on this play. He was in a lot of pain. He would get up, make both free throws before exiting the game. Lakers, though, they would win 113 to 109. Luka and LeBron have now won eight in a row. It's the longest winning streak for the Lakers since 2019, 2020, which is a season they won the title. So, we'll wait and see the news on Brunson.

Now, during this game, a Lakers fan named Mike had a chance to make a half-court shot for $100,000. And you know, we never show you these when they miss. As you can see, he banked it home to win and showed off his Kobe tattoo that he had there on his bicep. So, congrats there to Mike for winning the $100,000 with that shot.

Wolf, can you make a half-court shot if you were out there at a Wizards game?

BLITZER: I'm not going to try. A foul shot, maybe, but a half court, I don't think so.

BROWN: Oh, come on, Wolf. I could.

BLITZER: You can make a half-court?

BROWN: Of course.

BLITZER: All right. I'm going to test you.

SCHOLES: We're going to sign you up. Let's see.

BROWN: How tough could that be.

SCHOLES: Be seeing you in that Wizards court.

BROWN: There you go.

BLITZER: All right. Andy Scholes, thanks very, very much.

BROWN: Thanks, Andy. And coming up, we are just minutes away from hearing President Trump. I'm told that he's going to be speaking about the new jobs report at the top of the hour from the Oval Office. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:00:00]