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The Situation Room

Five Years Since COVID-19 Declared Global Pandemic; Ukraine Talks; Markets Dive on Trump Uncertainty; Interview With Ontario, Canada, Premier Doug Ford. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired March 11, 2025 - 11:30   ET

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

DOUG FORD, PREMIER OF ONTARIO, CANADA: But what I recommend is, on the electricity bill, put down, this increase is a tariff from Trump. It's a Trump tariff, which is basically a Trump tax.

[11:30:12]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: As you know, you have called this an unprovoked trade and tariff war initiated by the United States against Canada. Trump is saying that Canada pays very little for national security and relies on the U.S. for military protection.

What's your response to him on that issue?

FORD: I agree that we have to meet our 2 percent commitment, our NATO commitment. I have said it. I have said it for years. Other premiers all signed agreements, sending it to the federal government. We spend 1.4 percent on defense. It needs to go up to 2 percent.

We have to pitch in our share; 100 percent, I agree, on the 2 percent.

BLITZER: Yes, that's what he's been saying now for the last several years, the NATO allies have to increase their spending to come up to what the U.S. percentage of military spending is.

His latest TRUTH Social post earlier today, Premier, also doubled down on Trump's desire for Canada to become the 51st state of the United States, saying,the brilliant "O Canada" anthem will continue to play.

How do Canadians feel about what President Trump is saying about Canada becoming part of the United States and even allowing "O Canada," a beautiful national anthem, to continue playing?

FORD: Well, obviously, the Canadians are infuriated.

And what it's done, it's united the whole country. And the patriotism is running wild across the country, the liked I have never seen before in my entire life. We will never become the 51st state. Canada is not for sale. And we want a great trading partner. We have had -- we had the greatest neighbors in the world, the U.S.

And it's not the American people. They didn't vote President Trump in on this type of mandate. He had a mandate to lower inflation, lower cost of living, create more jobs, and it's backfired on him. Inflation is going up. Jobs will be lost. He's taking more money out of Americans' pockets.

For what reason? We're still trying to figure this out. Let's sit down at the table and negotiate this deal. If there's things he doesn't like, then we sit down and we have a conversation. But just going tit for tat back and forth, all it does is hurt Americans and Canadians. It's unacceptable.

BLITZER: Before I let you go, Premier, I want to ask one final question.

Trump is calling on Canada to drop its tariff on dairy products. Is this a realistic request?

FORD: Well, it's one of the items that obviously gets under a skin. Let's sit down and talk about it. It's as simple as that. Let's renegotiate the USMCA.

Let's stop the bleeding on both sides of the border, as China is sitting there laughing at both countries. Let's sit down and negotiate a fair trade for both countries. And everyone benefits.

BLITZER: Yes, it's amazing what's going on. Hard to believe.

As a kid growing up in Buffalo, New York, along the border with Canada, whenever I would go to a Buffalo Sabres hockey game, they'd always play the U.S. national anthem, but they would always play "O Canada" as well, because so many of the hockey players, almost all of them, were Canadians. And I just remember that as a kid growing up.

Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, thanks very much for joining us.

And we will be right back.

FORD: Well, thank you, Wolf. God bless.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:37:52]

BLITZER: I want to get back to the breaking news right now.

Economic uncertainty is once again pushing stocks here in the United States down this morning. Markets are on a downward slide that started Monday, and it ended as the worst trading day of the year. Look at the numbers over there. You can see it.

Joining us now, CNN business and politics correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich, who's joining us from New York.

Vanessa, what are we seeing right now? Give us the details.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are seeing Wall Street react to this latest news by President Trump saying that he's going to double the tariffs on aluminum and steel coming out of Canada. That's double now, 50 percent compared to the 25 percent on other

countries that are going to into effect tomorrow. So markets there, you can see the Nasdaq just up slightly, but really the Dow and S&P coming off their worst trading day of 2025 last year trying to make sense of what is going on.

We spoke to an investor just a short time ago, who said that the market is blatantly just sick and tired of the back-and-forth and that it's impossible for investors to have any confidence right now. And that is not a good thing when you're talking about the stock market. Investors want to feel some sort of certainty and predictability. And that is not what is playing out right now.

You can see those markets now just reacting and trying to get some sort of sense of what is going on right now. We know that there has been a little bit of talk about a recession. Well, I just want to quell fears a little bit. We know that Goldman Sachs upped their forecast to about 20 percent chance of a recession from 15 percent, but we are not in recession territory yet.

We heard from Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, who said that the economy is in a good place, but so much uncertainty does, Wolf, start to open some cracks, and people are starting to wonder what is to come next. The uncertainty is just paralyzing right now, Wolf.

BLITZER: People are worried right now. They see those numbers.

Vanessa, Vanessa Yurkevich, appreciate it very, very much.

And there's more breaking news we're following right now. Top U.S. officials are holding truly crucial talks with the Ukrainian delegation in Saudi Arabia. There's a lot of lot at stake, U.S. military aid to Kyiv, intelligence sharing with Ukraine, and whether the two sides can mend ties after that fiery Oval Office clash between Presidents Trump and Zelenskyy that all of us, of course, remember.

[11:40:11]

Let's discuss this and more with CNN contributor on Russian affairs, Jill Dougherty. She's a former CNN Moscow bureau chief. She has a brand-new book -- there you see the cover -- coming out next month called "My Russia: What I Saw Inside the Kremlin."

Jill, thanks so much for joining us, and thanks so much for writing this important book. I have gone through it, as you know, and it really is eye-opening to learn of your own experiences in Moscow.

First of all, Jill, how critical is this summit that's going on in Saudi Arabia right now for trying to restore U.S. aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN CONTRIBUTOR ON RUSSIAN AFFAIRS: Yes, I think, well, that's the critical part for Ukraine, because without the military aid, but especially, as you noted, the intelligence information that is halted right now, that's having an effect on the battlefield. And so there's a short-term and a long-term game here. Zelenskyy's

team has to try to -- get to convince the other side, the Americans, that they are serious about wanting some type of cease-fire or end to the conflict, but, at the same time, they want the United States to continue that military help and the intelligence, because they are being hurt on the battlefield.

And then the Russians, Vladimir Putin watches this. They are not saying much of anything. And I think you have to listen to the words that Rubio, Secretary Rubio, was using, which are concessions. He said, what concessions will the Ukrainians make and then what do they need from the other side?

So, until they can -- until they can really get this thing moving, it's really more a long-term game for both sides. So it's complicated. And that's why I think these talks, obviously, are going on for quite a long time.

BLITZER: Yes, you're right. The secretary of state, Marco Rubio, says he wants to see, and he used this word, concessions from the Ukrainians. And he said, he wants to know what they would be willing to make during these talks with Russia.

Is now the right time for Ukraine to start putting concessions, their concessions, on the table?

DOUGHERTY: They do not think that this is the time. What they're trying to do, they have proposed a partial cease-fire.

And, essentially, it would be both sides stop the attacks on civilian infrastructure, on energy,they have prisoner swaps. And it's a first move. They're not going for that the full, how do you solve this? And neither are the Russians. I mean, I think for Zelenskyy, his problem is, if you stop the fighting, if you have a cease-fire, even a temporary cease-fire, what are the guarantees that this won't happen again?

What are the guarantees that Russia won't come in again and attack? So that means longer-term security. And for the Russians, the Russians are saying, we're not -- we're -- of course, we want peace, but they're not saying anything specifically about how they would get there, other than to say that it's a long-term -- they want the root causes.

And the root causes, that's NATO borders. It's a very big subject. So, again, we have got short-term, long-term. And until you can get the short-term kick-started, you can't go long-term.

BLITZER: Very dramatic development overnight, as you know, Jill. Russia says it was hit by a massive wave of Ukrainian drone attacks overnight, including actual drone strikes on various targets in Moscow.

Officials there claim they downed more than 300 Ukrainian drones. What do you make of the timing of these Ukrainian strikes on Moscow? DOUGHERTY: Well, it would appear that what they're saying is, hey,

Moscow, we can hit you too, just as you hit us. And so it's kind of like a bargaining chip or -- I guess a bargaining chip.

But the problem is, the Russians did that too just last week. As we remember, they had a huge attack on Ukraine. And that is when President Trump said, oh, we may have increased sanctions and we may have tariffs, but he did not follow through on those.

Now, we have to see, I would be very interested in whether President Trump himself says something about the Ukrainian attacks on Russia, because these things are -- they can change the equation.

BLITZER: Very quickly.

DOUGHERTY: So we will see. The Russians say -- yes.

BLITZER: And we will see how Russia is going to retaliate.

We know, for three years, they have been bombing civilian targets in Ukraine, including in Kyiv, the capital, almost nonstop. And now Ukraine is attacking various targets in Moscow. Hard to believe all of this is going on right now in Europe.

[11:45:03]

Jill Dougherty, congratulations on the new book. I know it's coming out very, very soon. We will discuss it. There's the cover right there, "My Russia: What I Saw Inside the Kremlin."

And Jill and I go way back. We were both White House correspondents for CNN during the Bill Clinton administration, so we share a lot of history.

Thanks, Jill, very much for all the good work you're doing.

And we're still following our breaking news. We're getting more reaction right now to President Trump's newest tariff threats targeting Canada.

We will have details straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:50:26]

BLITZER: New today, the federal government is stopping the program that provides free at-home COVID tests, the news coming five years to the day after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic.

The virus had found a foothold on every continent except Antarctica. And in several countries, transmission was sustained and very, very substantial.

CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta calling the outbreak, by the way, a pandemic days before even the World Health Organization did so.

Sanjay is joining us live right now.

I know, Sanjay, you have had your eyes on this the whole, whole time. It's been five years.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BLITZER: Where do things stand right now in 2025?

GUPTA: Well, I think, Wolf, for a lot of people, there's still a component of post-traumatic stress almost, if you look at the images that have become sort of lasting images from the pandemic, paramedics in those early days rushing to people's homes to try and provide care, people being reunited after a few months of not being able to see each other, grandparents and grandkids, for example.

Then just all that social distancing that became a part of controlling the pandemic for some time. That's what a lot of people remember. I think time is a bit warped, Wolf. I think, for some people, it feels like a year ago. For other, people it feels like a decade ago. Some people have post-traumatic stress. Other people think this is way in the past.

But just to give you an idea of where things are now, if you look overall at the world, how many confirmed cases of COVID there was in the world versus the United States, 778,000 -- a million, rather, versus 103 million in the United States, if you look at deaths overall -- and keep in mind as you look at these numbers that the United States is about 4 to 5 percent of the world's population, and yet we had 1.2 million deaths compared to seven million deaths around the world, so close to a seventh -- more than a seventh of the world's deaths.

Again, these are confirmed sort of cases. So those are the -- that's sort of the snapshot of where things are now, Wolf. One thing I will point out is that you know we had a vaccine by the end of 2020. And now, looking back four years, you say, well, how much of a difference did it make?

If you look for a six-month period, for example, between October of 2023 to April of 2024, you say there was about 5,300 deaths that were averted because of the vaccine, 68,000 hospitalizations averted. So that's a bit of a snapshot, some dire numbers in terms of what the pandemic did, but also some glimmers of hope in terms of what the vaccine was able to prevent, Wolf.

BLITZER: And, Sanjay, I know we have been asking our audiences about the lasting impacts of the pandemic.

And I want to read some of the notes that we have received, first from Priscilla, who told us this: "My mother died from COVID, and this is a year I can't get past. It seems I am still reliving it every day since then."

Also, Cheri wrote, this saying: "It was utter devastation. Within a month, I lost two close co-workers to COVID. One beloved E.R. doctor took his own life, and that's when I left. I never want to experience anything like it again."

What are the other reactions, reflections that you're learning and you're getting, Sanjay? Because I know you're getting a lot of feedback.

GUPTA: Well, I think, among health care workers, Wolf, especially that last comment you read, that really strikes close to home, and people lost people that they knew, that they worked with. They saw patients dying in hospitals.

I think it's very different for people who didn't see that. I think people who have a component of post-traumatic stress are more likely, clearly, to be people who were affected by this, either directly because of loss of loved ones, or because of caring for patients in hospitals.

I think there's two things that really spring to mind. One is that there was this wondrous technology of the mRNA vaccines. I mean, I think it forever probably changed the pace of medical innovation to be able to develop a vaccine that quickly.

On the other hand, even before the pandemic, public health was not invested in well in this country, and now it feels like it's slowly being bludgeoned even further. I mean, more than 500 people have been let go from the CDC, more than 1,000 people from the NIH, at a time when public health really matters. We have seen measles outbreaks.

I was just in West Texas a couple of weeks ago seeing what's happening with measles there. We're still keeping an eye on things like H5N1. So it's at the extremes, Wolf. On one hand, we really rose to the task in terms of developing a wondrous vaccine for COVID-19. On the other hand, basic public health infrastructure is still being sacrificed, which is a real shame, Wolf.

[11:55:04]

BLITZER: Should we still be getting COVID shots and COVID booster shots?

GUPTA: I think, if you have not had COVID, if you don't have any natural immunity, and especially if you're at high risk, yes, that makes sense.

BLITZER: Yes, we always listen to you. Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks for all your important work.

And Sanjay will be back tomorrow to answer some of the many questions we have been getting. And, for our viewers, please send along your questions and reflections on COVID-19. And we will share some of that with you tomorrow as well.

And, to our viewers, thanks very much for watching. You can keep up with me on social media @WolfBlitzer. You can find my co-anchor, Pamela Brown, @PamelaBrownCNN. "INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" is coming up next right after a short

break.