Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

Stocks Sink as Rattled Investors Weigh Fed Chair's Warning; Internal Trump Administration Memo Details Plans for Massive HHS Cuts; ICE Defends Agent Who Smashed Car Window of Undocumented Man. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired April 17, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, the Dow down more than 400 points. The precursor, a feud between the president and Fed chair. The demand, lower interest rates. The consequence, quote, your termination can't come fast enough.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And billions in cuts. New reporting just out revealing major cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services, federal spending slashed for the Centers for Disease Control and NIH, the National Institute of Health. How deep the cuts will go, straight ahead.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

And we start with the breaking news, new worries on Wall Street right now, rattled investors take stock of a stark new warning from the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, says, President Trump's unpredictable economic policies could inflict lasting damage on your wallet.

This morning, the president fires right back on Truth Social saying, and I'm quoting him now, too late, Jerome Powell of the Fed, who is always too late, and wrong yesterday, issued a report, which was another and typical complete mess. The president continued, Powell's termination cannot come fast enough, end quote, Powell's term is not due to end for another year.

I want to go live right now to CNN White House Reporter Alayna Train. Alayna, is there any reason to believe that President Trump will try to force Powell out before the end of his term?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: He could certainly try Wolf. And we know that in the past the president has, on several occasions, threatened to remove Powell from his post. Remember, the Federal Reserve operates independently from the White House. And so if President Donald Trump, or even to try to do that, it would likely face a lot of legal issues in court.

But this is something actually that Jerome Powell, while issuing that very stark warning yesterday about the economic situation in this country noting specifically because of President Donald Trump's tariff policies, he reiterated that the Fed is independent from the White House, and also said it's a matter of law. Listen to how he put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME POWELL, CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL RESERVE: We're never going to be influenced by any political pressure. People can say whatever they want, that's fine. That's not a problem. But we will do what we do strictly without consideration of political or any other extraneous factors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, part of that comes of course, as well after the president, on several occasions, including multiple times during this administration, but also over the past few years and back into his first administration, had called on the Fed to lower interest rates, to cut interest rates. And that's exactly what he did this morning, pointing to how the European Central Bank was doing that as well. But as you could hear there from Jerome Powell, he said that they will not be making decisions based off what President Donald Trump or other politicians are saying.

Also of note, of course, is that Jerome Powell's term is not set to end until May of next year. So, this is going to likely be a continued, contentious relationship between President Trump and the Federal Reserve chair. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Alayna Treene at the White House for us, thank you very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Turning now from your money to your health, CNN has reviewed an internal document from the Trump administration that outlines plans to slash the federal health budget. So, that could mean that the nation's public health policy could be drastically reshaped under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr.

I want to go live now to CNN Health Reporter Jacqueline Howard. Jacqueline, how deep are these potential cuts and how could we all be impacted by them?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Well, Pamela, as for how deep these cuts are, they do include a more than 40 percent reduction in the budget for the CDC, more than 40 percent reduction of the National Institutes of Health's budget. And keep in mind, this document is a preliminary memo. It's dated April 10th, so it's not clear whether this is a final plan. But if it is adopted, it could include those significant cuts, which could impact programs that involve HIV prevention, gun violence, injury prevention, youth violence prevention. We're even seeing that in under the NIH, it could reduce the number of institutes from 27 institutes down to 8.

[10:05:03]

And this seems to be part of the Trump administration's overall plan to transition the Department of Health and Human Services to what they're calling the Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA. And this document gives us a glimpse into what federal health agencies might look like under that transition. We're also seeing potential impacts on global health and even childcare programs, like Head Start.

So, this does give us a glimpse into what the health policies may look like under the current administration.

BROWN: All right. Jacqueline Howard, thanks so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: Happening now. ICE is defending its actions over a cell phone video that shows a federal agent smashing the car window of an undocumented Guatemalan man as he waited for his lawyer to arrive. Juan Francisco Mendez was pulled over by ICE officials in Massachusetts Monday. The Associated Press spoke to his wife who was in the car at the time he was detained. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARILU DOMINGO ORTIZ, WIFE OF JUAN FRANCISCO MENDEZ: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE).

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: CNN has reached out directly to ICE for a statement, but it has not responded.

For more on all of this, we're joined by CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. She's here with us in The Situation Room. Priscilla, so we reached out, we tried to get a statement but they did issue a statement, but they're not responding directly to CNN,

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: But they did issue a statement and they said that the actions of the officers in that video that you just watched were, quote, deemed appropriate by the officers on the scene, going on to say that those officers are trained, quote, to use the minimum amount of force necessary to resolve a situation.

They also provide a little more background as to the man that they took into custody. Juan Francisco Mendez. He's 29 years old, and they say in the statement, quote, is an illegally present Guatemalan alien who is detained by Ice Boston, a New Bedford, Massachusetts, April 14th, going on to say that during the course of the arrest, he refused to comply with officer's instructions and resisted apprehension.

Now, his wife talks about this a little bit and their attorney elaborated to say that when they were pulled over, they did call the attorney. The attorney had recommended to them that they give the business card, her business card, to the officers and told them to remain silent. But as you can see, it escalated there with them smashing the window.

Now, the attorney also says, and his wife says, that he has no criminal record, that while he did cross into the U.S. legally, they were trying to adjust his status and he appears to qualify for a form of asylum. So, that was underway when, of course, this happened and he was detained.

Now, I will also note that the Department of Homeland Security often defers to Immigration and Customs Enforcement on how they decide to proceed with any type of encounter and their discretion. We saw this earlier in the year with some of the memos that they put out, particularly when doing enforcement, for example, New York churches or schools, essentially putting the onus on the officers to decide whether something is appropriate or not.

I will also note that not long ago, we were similarly covering the story of a Salvadoran woman who was in the vehicle with her daughter in Maryland, and her window was also shattered and she was taken into custody. We've continued to report on what exactly it is that they have held her for. But, certainly, this is something that we have seen over time now.

[10:10:01]

BLITZER: And since they insist it was appropriate for them to smash the window and damage the car, I take it ICE is not going to pay to repair the damage?

ALVAREZ: That would not be something that they would do, no.

BLITZER: Yes. All right, well, it's probably several hundred dollars in damage to that window into that car.

Priscilla, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. The wife of Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, for the administration's own admissions in court, is hitting back at the Trump administration and it follows the administration's latest attempt to portray her husband, who has not been accused or charged with any crime as a violent criminal and member of MS-13. An informant did say he was a member of MS-13 in 2019, something. Abrego Garcia and his family have denied.

BLITZER: The Department of Homeland Security yesterday posted a 2021 Civil Protective Order, Jennifer Vasquez Sura filed against her husband to X, prompting this response. In a statement to CNN, she says, and I'm quoting now, after surviving domestic violence in a previous relationship, I acted out of caution after a disagreement with Kilmar by seeking a civil protective order in case things escalated. Things did not escalate, and I decided not to follow through with the civil court process. We were able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling. Our marriage only saw stronger -- only grew stronger in the years that followed. No one is perfect and no marriage is perfect.

That is not a justification for his -- for ICE's action of abducting him and deporting him to a country where he was supposed to be protected from deportation. Kilmar has always been a loving father -- loving partner and father and I will continue to stand by him and demand justice for him, close quote.

That statement, by the way, coming on the same day Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador in a direct appeal to the government there for Abrego Garcia's release. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D-MD): I'm asking President Bukele under his authority as president of El Salvador to do the right thing and allow Mr. Abrego Garcia to walk out of prison, a man who's charged with no crime, convicted of no crime, and who was illegally abducted from the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And we are joined now by CNN, Congressional Correspondent Lauren Fox. So, Lauren Democrats are clearly seizing on this, right? You have Senator Van Hollen going to El Salvador, and he also said that he was denied a meeting with Abrego Garcia. What more do we know?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, basically Van Hollen went down to El Salvador trying to do some of the constituent service work that we know that lawmakers do all of the time. It's not always so high-profile, but this is exactly the kind of situation where a U.S. senator or congressman would get involved on behalf of their constituent. So, he flies down to El Salvador. He meets with the vice president of the country, but he's unable to access a meeting directly with Abrego Garcia. He says he's asked repeatedly to have a phone call with him or for his family to have a phone call with him.

Here's what he said happened when he made that request.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAN HOLLEN: I asked the vice president if I could meet with Mr. Abrego Garcia, and he said, well, you need to make earlier provisions to go visit CECOT.

I asked him if I came back next week, whether I'd be able to see Mr. Abrego Garcia. He said he couldn't promise that either.

So, I asked him if I could get on the phone, either a video phone, or just a phone and talk to Mr. Abrego Garcia. He said maybe if the American embassy were to ask, maybe that could happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: So, obviously, not a lot of answers, not a lot of clarity on when they can make contact with Abrego Garcia to check on his health, to check on his wellbeing, to find out how he's doing. But also this is something that we expect Democrats are going to continue to seize on. Lawmakers are on recess right now, but earlier, we saw a letter sent from two House Democrats, Robert Garcia, as well as Maxwell Frost, who were requesting that there be CODEL from the oversight committee to go down to this maximum security facility and meet with Abrego Garcia, as well as check on the welfare of others who were deported to El Salvador.

BROWN: All right. Lauren Fox, thank you so much.

BLITZER: CODEL is a congressional delegation.

BROWN: Yes, that's right.

All right, happening now, the L.A. County District Attorney's office is pushing to delay a court hearing set to begin today for the Menendez brothers. The D.A. wants more time for the court to review a risk assessment carried out by the California Parole Board. Lyle and Eric Menendez are seeking resentencing of their life sentence for the 1989 murder of their parents

BLITZER: For more now we're joined by CNN's Nick Watt.

[10:15:00]

He's joining us from Los Angeles. Nick, the Menendez brothers have been behind bars now for decades. Could they be a step closer to freedom today?

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Maybe. we still don't know because this petition was filed at the 11th hour by the D.A asking for today's hearing to be pushed forward and it's supposed to start two hours and change. We still don't know if maybe the court will meet and the judge will say, yes, we can push it off.

Listen, Wolf, this case now hinges on basically one word. The Menendez brothers were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole for killing their parents. No one denies or disputes that they gunned their parents down in their Beverly Hills mansion back in 1989. The previous D.A. said, I'd like some resentencing. The Menendez brothers' legal team and indeed their entire family say, we would like resentencing, to change the sentence to life with the possibility of parole, which would make them immediately eligible for parole and they could be out in a few months.

Today's hearing was supposed to address all that. The new D.A. says they haven't changed. They're still lying. They should stay behind bars. The defense team obviously says, they've changed, they've paid their debt, they should be let out.

So, let's see if this hearing even happens. If it doesn't, there are two other avenues that they're also pursuing, clemency from the governor and perhaps a retrial. This resentencing hearing will happen at some point. Wolf, Pamela, we still just don't know whether it will happen today. Obviously, huge interest in this case ever since it was one of the first televised trials in this country back in the 90s, a docuseries, a drama reignited this, generated interest among a whole new generation. It is captivating.

We still don't know what is going to happen today. But, yes, to answer your initial question, they could be a step closer to getting out today. We just don't know yet. Just one more twist and turn in this case. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Nick Watt reporting for us, Nick, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Still ahead right here in The Situation Room, the Trump administration is fighting back as a federal judge prepares to move ahead with contempt proceedings.

BLITZER: And town hall demands for Democrats to fight back. I'll speak with a Democratic congresswoman about her party's messaging.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:00]

BLITZER: I want to get some more right now on the massive budget cuts potentially in store for the nation's public health institutions. Internal Trump administration documents reviewed by CNN detailed $40 billion in reduced funding for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Joining us now is the Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts. Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

If these cuts are enacted, what kind of impact is that going to have on public health here in the United States?

SEN. ED MARKEY (D-MA): Well, first of all, it's a 44 percent cut in the Centers for Disease Control. That's tracking measles, tracking COVID tracking any disease, which is inside of our country. It's the early warning system. It's the public health system that was challenged as part of the COVID crisis in 2020-2021. And it not only -- shouldn't be dismantled, crippled, it should be reinvested in. We've learned the lessons of the past in terms of what the CDC was not able to do. Instead, they're dismantling it.

On top of that, they're proposing a 40 percent cut in the National Institutes of Health Research into Alzheimer's, cancer, heart disease, into Parkinson's disease, into all of the diseases that run through the genes, the families of everyone in our country. NIH isn't just the National Institutes of Health, it's the National Institutes of Hope. It gives families hope that they will find the cure for those diseases. And this is a 40 percent reduction in hope because a whole generation of young researchers will now walk away because there won't be funding for them, and we're going to delay finding the cure for Alzheimer's and cancer and heart disease and so many other diseases as well.

And on top of that, they want to eliminate Head Start, eliminate Head Start. That's 800,000 young people in our country who get extra educational opportunities, help with their nutrition, to give them a head start. What's wrong with the Head Start program? There's never been an argument made that it's not working. They want to eliminate that as well.

And, again, Wolf, it's all in order to have a tax break for millionaires and billionaires. They have to find the funding for all those tax breaks and they want to take it out of NIH, out of the CDC, out of Medicaid, out of the Affordable Care Act, out of veterans' health benefits, and they need all of those hundreds of billions of dollars to take care of billionaires and millionaires. That is absolutely going to make America sick again. We're going to defund the healthcare infrastructure in our nation.

BLITZER: Yes, the consequences of this could be truly devastating.

I want to turn, while I have you, Senator, the growing controversy over Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father sent to a notorious El Salvador prison. Your Democratic colleague, Senator Chris Van Hollen, traveled to El Salvador to advocate for his release, but says he was unable to visit the prison where he is being held or even to speak with him. Other members of Congress may visit as well.

[10:25:01]

Will that pressure campaign have any impact, do you believe, on officials at El Salvador or actually Trump administration officials here in the U.S.?

MARKEY: I don't think that it's a decision to be made by the president of El Salvador. This is a decision to be made by the president of the United States. A federal court has ordered the return of Mr. Garcia. The Supreme Court of the United States has said that the administration must facilitate the return of Mr. Garcia. This is not a question of whether or not the administration has a choice.

In law school, Wolf, the first case that every first year law student learns is Marbury versus Madison, which says that the courts determine what is the law. The courts have determined this. Mr. Garcia must be brought back to the United States. If they want to charge him with a crime when he comes back, present the evidence. Thus far though, they have not presented the evidence. They have not charged him with a crime. But we have a system of due process in our nation.

In Boston on April 19th, just another few days from now, we're going to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Lexington and Concord. And that was to make sure that King George could not arbitrarily make decisions about how the law would be imposed upon those who lived in Massachusetts and the other colonies.

We cannot substitute King Donald for King George. That is what is at stake here. We have a Constitution, due process and it was democratically created, and Donald Trump does not have a right to ignore legally obtained court orders. And if he does not comply, then he is heading towards a constitutional crisis in our nation.

BLITZER: Senator, on another very sensitive issue, President Trump is now freezing funding to Harvard University in your state of Massachusetts and threatening to revoke the university's tax exempt status if they don't make a series of policy changes. Harvard, as I said, is your home state. It's fighting back, but not every university is. We've also seen several prestigious law firms cave to Trump's demands. Do you worry about the precedent that all of this is setting?

MARKEY: I do. But I'm very proud of Harvard for standing up and ensuring that this president or any president is not given the power to act in a way that turns us into an authoritarian nation. We are the resistance here in Massachusetts. Harvard is showing that.

One of our law firms, WillmerHale, the very law firm that defended the U.S. Army against Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s, it too is resisting. Universities should be following Harvard's lead. Other law firms should be following WilmerHale's lead. They should stand up and fight. Because, otherwise, what Trump is actually doing is running an extortion racket across this nation trying, trying to extract concessions from universities or from law firms that are completely and totally at odds with the traditions of our nation. So, we're at a critical point.

We're very proud of Harvard. There is no way that they're going to win, that this administration win a lawsuit that removes the tax- exempt status of Harvard. It was created 150 years before the American Revolution began. It is going to remain strong, and I think it is going to actually benefit ultimately by taking the lead in fighting the Trump administration. Stifling research as a penalty for a university not complying with Trump's order is just wrong.

What Trump is saying is that he's going to cut the funding at Harvard to find the cure for Alzheimer's and cancer and other diseases, and that just cannot be allowed to happen. We have to fight. Harvard's in the lead. So is at WilmerHale. We're very proud of them.

BLITZER: All right. We will see what happens. Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, thank you very, very much.

MARKEY: Glad to be with you.

BLITZER: Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Up next, right here in The Situation Room, a federal judge says he could hold Trump officials in contempt for violating one of his orders. What comes next in the case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:00]