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Taliban Releases American; Trump Targets Education Department; European Union Delays Retaliatory Tariffs. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired March 20, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:02:17]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Happening today, breaking news: retaliatory tariffs delayed. The European Union is pausing those measures for two weeks pending negotiations.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: And we begin with the breaking news.

The European Union is delaying its retaliatory tariffs against goods made here in the United States. Those are now set to go into effect in mid-April, instead of at the beginning of the month.

Let's go live right now to see in a business and politics correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich.

Vanessa, what are you learning?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this is a de-escalation of this retaliatory tariff that the E.U. was promising was set to go into effect starting on March 31.

The E.U. now announcing that they're delaying these retaliatory tariffs until mid-April, pending negotiations between the E.U. and the United States. These tariffs were going to affect $28 billion worth of U.S. goods, including whiskey.

And because of these tariffs, we heard from the president, President Trump threatening a 200 percent tariff on Italian and French champagne and wine. And, remember, this all started in the middle of March, March 12, when President Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum. The E.U. said that they were retaliating right away, announcing these tariffs set to take effect on the 31st of this month, but now being pushed until the middle of April.

But the president says, President Trump says that April 2 is really the day where we're going to see a lot of tariffs take place on other countries, including the European Union. So it will be interesting to see, Wolf, whether or not this two-week delay by the E.U. on these retaliatory tariffs changes President Trump's mind on whether he's going to go forward on April 2 with some of these measures of tariffs on the E.U. -- Wolf.

BLITZER: We will see.

Vanessa Yurkevich reporting for us.

Vanessa, thanks very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, let's turn now to President Trump's plan to start the process of dismantling the Education Department. Of course, this was something that he had promised on the campaign trail. Now it's happening.

We want to talk to our senior chief national affairs correspondent, Jeff Zeleny.

All right, so walk us through what we're expecting this afternoon.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, this has been one of President Trump's long promises.

I can't think of a campaign rally that he held where he didn't talk about this. Many Republican presidential candidates over the years have talked about this, but this is actually going to happen this afternoon.

But we should point out Congress created the Department of Education and Congress will have to abolish it. But Secretary Linda McMahon was pretty open in her confirmation hearings. She said she agrees with the fact that Congress has to shutter it.

[11:05:09]

But what the administration can do and what they are doing already is strangle the finances. They're already laying people off there. So what are the real-world impacts? That's actually the question here. A lot of this will be handed off to the states.

Some other departments of the Education Department like student loans and the Office of Civil Rights will go to various other departments. But the actual impact on the states, on students, which should be the essential concern here, is a little bit unknown.

Each state will have to sort of take the reins of this. So I think we are going to have a patchwork of different things in different states, but also look for legal challenges to this, like we have seen at every single executive order the president has done. It's been followed by a legal challenge. So we shall see how this works.

The teachers union is already threatening to challenge this. But this is something that I think even Jimmy Carter, back when this was signed, he wondered about the wisdom of the education order back in 1979, and wondered if it would be a long-term thing.

It is obviously -- it's been bipartisan, but no longer.

BROWN: No longer. All right, Jeff Zeleny, thank you -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, I want to turn now to the purge that's under way over at the Pentagon, the Defense Department now carrying out President Trump's DEI crackdown by planning to scrub any mention of diversity on its platforms.

CNN has obtained a database showing more than 24,000 articles could be removed. Many already have, including those honoring the contributions of women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community.

I want to go to CNN's Pentagon correspondent, Oren Liebermann. He's over there at the Department of Defense.

Oren, what more can you tell us about this purge?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, if this is a massive purge of DOD Web sites, as you pointed out, more than 24,000 individual sites across what appear to be more than 1,000 different larger sites within the Department of Defense.

Now, many of these, as we have gone through as much of the database and spreadsheet as we can, relate to, for example, Pride Month or the LGBT community, but certainly not all of them. And as we went through this database, we realized that sites have been flagged for deletion and many of them have already been deleted related to 9/11 survivors or stories from the Holocaust.

And it's unclear why they were flagged for purge and have been deleted. In doing so, many of the URLs, that is, the Web site addresses themselves, have had the letters DEI added to them, including several of the Holocaust sites we looked at.

Now, in terms of why and what the rationale here is, the Department of Defense yesterday said it's pleased with the pace at which this is proceeding. It was a very tight and quick deadline that was passed down from the office of the secretary of defense. And much of this process was automated, looking for flags or keywords here.

The department does say some of these might come back, a spokesman saying: "In the rare cases that content is removed either deliberately or by mistake that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content, so it recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service along their fellow Americans, period" -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, I want to turn quickly to the southern border. The U.S. military now says it's sending a second Naval destroyer to the area. What's the goal here?

LIEBERMANN: Well, part of this is clearly a show of power at the border. But when the first destroyer was announced, the USS Gravely, just a few days ago, several U.S. officials called it unusual that a destroyer that has capabilities such as land attack cruise missiles and missile defense would be sent to the border.

That's normally a Coast Guard mission that uses Coast Guard vessels, not advanced destroyers that have been deployed and have been used in the Middle East to, for example, target the Houthis in Yemen. Now a second destroyer is even more highly unusual than sending a first destroyer.

That being said, the Pentagon has said this mission is a priority and it looks like they're throwing as many forces at it as they can.

BLITZER: All right, Oren Liebermann at the Pentagon for us.

Oren, thank you very much.

Joining us now, CNN senior political global affairs commentator and former U.S. Ambassador to Japan under President Biden, the former chief of staff to President Obama Rahm Emanuel.

Thanks very much for joining us.

Let me get, first of all, get your reaction to what we just heard from Oren about the U.S. military planning to deploy a Naval destroyer near the southern U.S. border.

RAHM EMANUEL, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: You know, my first reaction is, and having coming from Japan, where we have the Seventh Fleet, as well as INDOPACOM, and we're short ships.

China was just doing major operations against Australia, Vietnam, Japan, India. And INDOPACOM and the Seventh Fleet could use many more resources and we're always kind of borrowing from Peter to pay Paul over there and -- or stealing from Peter to pay Paul. It is ironic to me that you're missing, actually, where you need to actually shadow and show a force of deterrence to China, we're short.

[11:10:00]

And yet here we are deploying resources that could be used from the Coast Guard. So, to me, this is again an example of mispriorities and that leave America more vulnerable to our most important challenging threat, which is China.

BLITZER: On this document purge that's under way right now at the Department of Defense, I want to get your thoughts. What does this say to you about the priorities of this second Trump administration?

EMANUEL: So, look, here, there is a relationship to what obviously Jeff was on and what Oren on.

Look at the pattern here, because they're all saying the same thing. You're asking me a question about what the purge at the Pentagon. They eliminated the Office of Net Assessment, which is a group of individuals that look to future wars and how to prepare the United States for weapon equipment, deployment resources, et cetera.

No discussion. You have the shiny bobble to distract you from a core function and area. Second, Department of Education. They're talking about closing the Department of Education. DEI. You have issues of naming schools. You have issues of locker room access, bathroom access. Worse reading scores and math scores in 30 years. Nobody's talking about it.

Our kids deserve more from adults. And so you have these discussions, arguments, a lot of bloviating by people like me about Department of Education, yet nobody's discussing the most important thing. Our kids can't read. And then we're not discussing what China's doing because we're discussing what is happening on Web sites.

And so to me this is a -- what I think the Trump administration does, which is basically distract you with shiny bobbles, discussions and arguments, and we lose sight of the focus of what these entities are supposed to do. And I kind of step back and I look at this and I go, you have what they're doing at the Department of Education or not doing, what they're doing and not doing at the department of Pentagon.

You have an administration that's driving the economy into a recession. They have given a whole new meaning to March madness. That is the description of this administration. It used to be about college basketball. It's now describing this administration and it's distracting from core responsibilities we have to focus on the future and we're actually as adults failing at that.

BLITZER: And, as you know, the Federal Reserve is now warning that Trump's tariffs could significantly dampen the U.S. economy, potentially, potentially ushering in higher inflation, slower growth. How could this impact his second term, and what's your recommendation for Democrats how to respond to this?

EMANUEL: Well, two things I would say. One is, I worked for two administrations that inherited recessions and tried to get out of them. I have never seen an administration try to drive towards a recession.

As Trump's tariffs go up, people's 401(k)s goes down. I think the core job for Democrats, which will both help the Democrat Party, help the country, the American dream is unaffordable. It's inaccessible and that is unacceptable to us.

And he is facing and the Republicans are facing, going into a midterm with not only a slowing economy, but an administration knowingly, consciously, and willingly shoving the economy into a recession. I have never seen that in my lifetime. I have never -- I know presidents try to do everything they can to not only avoid it, but if you inherit it, dig out of it.

This administration has openly talked about putting the economy into a recession. And I think the core purpose of the Democratic Party and the core focus should be how to make sure not only we avoid a recession, but how do we grow the middle class and ensure their children have a future.

And, to me, you're going to have obviously the elections in Virginia and New Jersey in 2025, the off-year elections, and going into the midterm, that's a political implication. But the bigger point is, people have their entire 401(k) and life savings, kids' college education in the market, and you have an administration that is being careless and cruel to people's life savings and openly talking about, well, that's what the market needs.

That's not what an American family needs. That may be what your friends need, but not what they need. They're saving for their kids'' college education. And you're saying we're going to put the economy into a recession. I have never seen anything like this.

BLITZER: You and I have known each other for a long time. Before I let you go, I want to get your...

EMANUEL: Too long. It's very stressful on me.

BLITZER: I want to get your thoughts on this Politico story that came out a few days ago. As you well know, it reported that you are gearing up to run for president of the United States.

Let me know what you -- well, whether or not that's true.

EMANUEL: Look, I said, look, I have been honored with a lifetime of service. I just got back in America. I'm not done with public service, and I'm hoping it's not done with me. And if I have something to say, obviously, I have never been shy.

BLITZER: So, you're leaving that door open?

EMANUEL: Well, it's a revolving door. It closes and opens up the same time.

BLITZER: I will take it as a yes.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: Do you have a question?

BROWN: Yes, I just want to...

EMANUEL: You want to get a word in edgewise?

BROWN: Yes, please. Can I get in on this conversation?

I just want to follow up with you because you were talking about education. I know as mayor that was a big priority for you.

BLITZER: He was mayor of Chicago.

BROWN: Of course, mayor of Chicago.

And, as we have been discussing, President Trump is set to sign that executive order dismantling the Department of Education.

Where do you think this takes us in terms of education? Because you're saying that kids can't read right now, right? Well, the Department of Education clearly hasn't addressed that. Do you think potentially this could help by leaving it more to the school districts?

[11:15:05]

EMANUEL: Look, so let's step back, a couple things.

If you look at every period of great economic growth for America, it was led by and underpinned by an expansion of education, from land grant colleges under Ronald Reagan -- rather, under Abraham Lincoln, to the G.I. Bill under Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Democratic and Republican presidents, Ronald Reagan with the issue of "A Nation at Risk" report, Leave No Child Behind by George Bush, Race to the Top by President Obama, public school choice under President Clinton, it has been a bipartisan effort to improve reading and math scores.

A president should call all the governors in together, all of them, Democrat, Republican, say, we have a crisis. Now, Alabama is the only state that actually saw reading scores go up post-COVID -- rather, math scores. What are they doing?

There's a thing in reading called the Mississippi Miracle. What are they doing? Learn from each other, do a report, a six-month task force that it says, here's how we get out of this post-COVID disaster we have. We as Democrats have to be honest. Schools that were closed way too long created a crisis for our kids and adults did that to the children.

BROWN: And do you think Democrats have done enough to own that?

EMANUEL: No, I don't. I don't think Washington's done enough to own it. So I'm not about -- the Department of Education, I don't believe should be closed. Put that aside, though.

A responsible president would call everybody together and say, we have a crisis. It's the future of the country and it's with our kids. Here's what we have to do. We have examples of success. And you could just call mayors together and say, here's what to do.

But doing DEI, doing Department of Education, arguing about locker rooms and bathrooms and access to sports, et cetera, are missing the core function of why all of us, as a father of three children, what do you expect the school to do? Reading, writing, and math. Character development. And we are losing focus and we are failing our children.

And we, all of us, are guilty of it and all of us therefore have a responsibility to fix it. And what the president should focus on, as I said, you could say the Department of Education should be -- is misguided, and it should do this, this, and this. OK, that's a worthy discussion.

I'm more interested in, what do we learn from each other, what are the cases and examples of where people have succeeded against the currents, and how to then scale that to force so every state can either on math, on reading, on other types of efforts -- and I do think one of the things that we're learning from all this post-COVID is one-on-one tutoring is -- in addition to what you're doing in the classroom, is a success for kids.

BROWN: Yes. Not every family can afford that.

BLITZER: Rahm, thanks very much for coming in.

EMANUEL: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: We will continue this conversation.

BROWN: Thank you, Rahm.

EMANUEL: Thank you for getting...

(CROSSTALK)

EMANUEL: ... question in.

BROWN: I got it in.

(CROSSTALK)

EMANUEL: Thank you very much.

BROWN: All right.

BLITZER: All right, Rahm, thank you.

BROWN: And just in to CNN, officials in Canada have released a preliminary report about that Delta plane crash in Toronto. Remember this? The details ahead on that.

You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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[11:22:50]

BROWN: And we're following breaking news right now. The Taliban have freed an American who'd been held in Afghanistan for more than two years. The State Department says he is on his way back to his family this morning, certainly some good news there.

Let's bring in CNN chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt.

So how did this come to be?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is very good news, and it is years in the making.

George Glezmann was in Afghanistan on a personal trip, as he said, to explore the cultural landscape and rich history of Afghanistan back in December of 2022, so, long after the Taliban had taken over after American forces left. And he was taken by the Taliban. The Biden administration had been working feverishly to try to get him released.

Now, thankfully, he has been released after more than two years in custody. This was brokered by the Qataris. The Qataris have a much better relationship with the Taliban than the United States. There was a breakthrough, we understand, in their conversations with the Taliban a couple weeks ago.

And, in those weeks, the U.S. and the Qataris had been working to get Glezmann home. He was not traded. This was just a release by the Taliban. And so Adam Boehler, who was in charge of hostage affairs for the Trump administration, joined Zalmay Khalilzad, who's a former U.S. ambassador who was actually working in the first Trump administration on Taliban negotiations.

They went to Kabul. They got him released. And we do have a tweet from Khalilzad calling this a good day and saying that this is a goodwill gesture to Trump and the American people from the Taliban.

We have also heard from the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who is celebrating the return of George Glezmann. He says, in part, this "is also a reminder that other Americans are still detained in Afghanistan. President Trump will continue his tireless work to free all Americans unjustly detained around the world."

Now, this is the third American to be released under the Trump administration. There were two, William McKenty and Ryan Corbett, who released the day of Trump's inauguration. The Taliban essentially wanted to give him a gift and give him a win. This is the third, but there are other Americans, some of whose names we know, others we don't.

Mahmood Habibi is a name that we have heard repeatedly, but the Taliban denies even having him. But, bottom line, very good news for the Glezmann family. Of course, we're very happy for them today.

[11:25:00]

BROWN: It's interesting they're calling it a goodwill gesture, right? We don't always get that from the Taliban.

MARQUARDT: Exactly. They're trying to curry favor.

BROWN: Exactly, clearly.

Thank you so much, Alex.

BLITZER: Very good news indeed. Alex Marquardt, thanks very, very much.

Up next: how recent gains and losses on the battlefields of Ukraine could hurt Kyiv's negotiating power as Washington and Moscow prepare to hold more talks to try to end the war.

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