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The Situation Room

D.C. Prosecutor Nominee Under Fire; Harvard University Facing Scrutiny; Cabinet Meeting; U.S. Economy Contracts. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired April 30, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:14]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Happening now, breaking news: convening his Cabinet. In moments President Trump will hold a Cabinet meeting, as a new report showing the U.S. economy contracted, its worst quarter since 2022, is out today.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And we will have live coverage of that.

We want to welcome 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.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: And we begin this hour with the breaking news. New economic numbers are casting a cloud over the Trump White House and a Cabinet meeting that's about to get under way.

BROWN: Right. This report out today shows the economy shrank in the first three months of this year, the worst showing since 2022. Many economists see it as a new measure of President Trump's policies, including his tariffs.

And we are covering all the angles with our correspondents and analysts.

Let's begin, though, with CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House.

Alayna, cameras will be on hand. What do you expect to come out of this Cabinet meeting?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, look, this is mainly a Cabinet meeting to mark his first 100 days in office.

But I would note as well that the president has Cabinet meetings very frequently, almost biweekly at this point. But what is notable about this, of course, is that it comes just after we have learned about the economy contracting for the first time in several years now.

And so I think that's going to be a huge focus, of course, of what they are going to discuss. And just to give you some insight into what we can expect on this, the president likes to go around the room and have all of his different Cabinet members give an update on where they are and on the new things that they have been working on and what we can expect moving forward.

He's likely to take questions from the press. You're going to have some members -- some reporters in there pressing him, again, I think most likely really with the focus on the economy. But the most interesting things, of course, will happen behind closed doors.

We know, in past Cabinet meetings, some screaming matches have come out of these meetings between some of his top economic advisers or Cabinet officials and others. And so that's really where most of the news is going to come from.

But I think one of the big things, of course, to look for is how the president and his top economic advisers are trying to spin some of what we're going to be hearing regarding these numbers today from -- with the GDP.

BLITZER: Alayna, stand by.

CNN business and politics correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich is joining us as well.

Vanessa, walk us through this morning's latest economic reports.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, we got two key reports this morning.

We got GDP and we got PCE. I want to start with GDP first. We saw that, in the first quarter, GDP expected to contract for the first time since 2022, down 0.3 percent. And that was largely driven because of declines in government spending, specifically on the federal level, and an increase in imports, which is actually a subtraction from GDP.

So we saw pretty steady consumer spending, but falling a little bit. We saw really an uptick in investment by private businesses, government spending, as I mentioned, on the decline. Exports actually increased and so did imports.

Just look at these numbers for imports. We saw more than 41 percent increase in imports for the -- for this quarter, for this first quarter. Compared to last quarter, we actually saw a little bit of a drop in imports, a drop by 1.9 percent.

And this really paints the picture, though, of what we're seeing for this entire quarter, which is a contraction of 0.3 percent compared to what we saw last year at the end of the year in the fourth quarter, which was an increase, a growth in the U.S. economy of 2.4 percent.

We also got PCE. This is personal consumption expenditure index. This is what the Federal Reserve likes to look at when they're gauging inflation. Inflation actually cooled. You can see at an annual rate 2.3 percent. That's a cooling from February, which was 2.7 percent.

Also, on the month, inflation was unchanged. But we saw in this report here that consumer spending was pretty robust and people were spending on items to beat tariffs. So you saw big spending on things like cars and auto parts, as people were trying to pay for these big-ticket items to beat the price hikes.

And you can see there that price index. Really, look at what happened over COVID, and then you can kind of see that decline as we head towards that 2 percent target level that the Federal Reserve likes.

Now, these two economic reports, the one that really hit Wall Street the most was GDP. At one point, the Dow was down 700 points. Right now, I'm looking. We're down about 360 points on the Dow, as well as the Nasdaq and S&P are lower this morning.

[11:05:06]

But this is sort of a mixed bag here. You have GDP contracting, inflation cooling. Economists are going to have to make sense of all of this and really try to anticipate whether or not all of this data together suggests that we're headed for a recession. Some economists suggest we are.

But, at this point, it's probably too early to make that call, Wolf.

BROWN: All right, I want to pivot to immigration now and bring in our CNN senior political analyst, Mark Preston.

Let's talk about these new CNN polling numbers and Americans' concerns about this.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, bad news begets bad news. And we see this in these immigration numbers right now.

Donald Trump's signature issue shows that, over the past couple of months now, Pam, he has lost seven points on his signature issue of immigration. Now, people think that he is going too far when it goes to deporting these undocumented immigrants.

In addition to that, though, it does go to show you how divided this country is, as one-third of Americans are supportive of how he is handling this issue. But Trump always talks about safety and he talks about sanctuary cities. Do Americans think that his policies are making it safe?

Apparently not. You look at these numbers right here, 52 percent, Americans say that his policies are not making it safe. But, again, look at that yes number, 47 percent. Again, it is close. The country is very much divided on this issue.

BLITZER: Interesting point.

Priscilla Alvarez is with us here in THE SITUATION ROOM as well.

Priscilla, as you know, the new CNN polling shows Americans are concerned about the accidental deportation of a Maryland father, as we all know. When asked if the White House should try to bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 56 percent said yes, 20 percent said no. President Trump has weighed in. Tell us what he's saying.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, of course, this is the story of a Salvadoran national who was sent to El Salvador mistakenly, according to Trump officials, because he had an order in the United States that withheld his removal to that exact country.

Now, up until this point, U.S. officials and senior Cabinet officials have said that El Salvador was the one that was ultimately going to decide the fate of Abrego Garcia and whether or not he would be returned to the United States.

President Donald Trump, however, appeared to dispute that in an interview with ABC just yesterday. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is not an innocent, wonderful gentleman from Maryland.

TERRY MORAN, ABC NEWS SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm not saying he's a good guy. It's about the rule of law. The order from the Supreme Court stands, sir.

TRUMP: He came into our country illegally.

MORAN: You could get him back. There's a phone on this desk.

TRUMP: I could.

MORAN: You could pick it up.

TRUMP: I could.

MORAN: And with all the power of the presidency, you could call up the president of El Salvador and say, send him back right now.

TRUMP: And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that. But he is not.

MORAN: But the court has ordered you to facilitate that release.

TRUMP: I'm not the one making this decision. We have lawyers that don't want to do this, Terry.

MORAN: You're the president. Yes, but the buck stops in this office.

TRUMP: No, no, no, no. I follow the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: So there you have it. He said: "I could."

Remember, the president had a meeting with the Salvadoran president in the Oval Office not that long ago, and they were really deferring to Salvadoran President Bukele on the question of whether or not he would be returned to the United States, but the president making clear there that he could. Now, this is part of an ongoing legal proceeding. There haven't been

many public developments in the case. The reason for that is that the federal judge had paused that quick discovery process last week. Now, she had said at the time that it was at the decision of both the Justice Department and the attorneys for Abrego Garcia, without explaining much else.

The deadline for that is today. So it's possible that, later today, we could resume this process of fact-finding, as well as the daily updates that the Department of Justice was providing as far as how they were facilitating his return to the United States.

But the question also here, the big outstanding one, is, how is the judge going to interpret what President Trump said when he said he could bring back Abrego Garcia, that it's ultimately up to him, even though up until this point they have said it's completely up to El Salvador?

BROWN: Yes, we know judges pay close attention, right, to what the President Trump -- to what President Trump says publicly.

I also want to go to foreign affairs, what's going on, on the national security front.

Sources telling you, Alex, that Ukraine is expected to sign that mineral deal we have been talking about for a while with the U.S. today, right?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we will be watching very closely to hear what Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, has to say about this.

We do know that Ukraine's economics minister is on her way to Washington. We heard from Ukraine's prime minister earlier today, saying that they expect this deal to finally be signed in the next 24 hours. I would just caution that there have been a lot of twists and turns throughout this process.

We all remember when the first deal was supposed to be signed when President Zelenskyy came to Washington. That, of course, fell apart. But the two sides do appear to me to be much closer. We have been shorthanding this, calling it a minerals deal. What it essentially is, is a joint investment fund co-owned by the Ukrainians and the Americans, 50/50.

The Ukrainians are going to be putting in cash that they get from their own minerals industry. The Americans are going to be putting in their contributions to Ukrainian security. And that's a very important point, because Trump has talked about getting payback for everything the U.S. has contributed to the Ukrainian effort.

[11:10:07]

But what the Ukrainians manage to achieve in their negotiations is that it's only -- they're only going to be paying out based on what the U.S. puts in going forward. And then, just zooming out, the importance of this deal is to convince the Trump administration that they're getting something for their continued support of Ukraine.

But that support is very much in doubt. Remember, we have heard from a number of top Trump administration officials that they would move on, that they would walk away if there is no cease-fire or peace deal signed soon, as soon as this week, we have heard from some of these officials.

President Trump asked yesterday in that interview whether he would cut off aid to Ukraine if there is no truce, and he declined to answer.

BLITZER: What's the status of the three-day proposed cease-fire that Putin has put on the table?

MARQUARDT: Well, we will see if the Russians follow through with it on their side. It was -- it is for May 8 to 11.

It has been completely dismissed by the Ukrainians and the Americans. We heard Keith Kellogg, the U.S. envoy to Ukraine yesterday, calling it absolutely absurd. Of course, the immediate question is, well, if you're willing to put into place a cease-fire for those three days in 10 days' time, why don't you just do it now? Why don't you do it for much longer?

And the appearance is that Putin is asking for this because he's got this big military parade on May 9. We know that the Ukrainians have been able to target Moscow in the past, and he's afraid that the Ukrainians could do that again.

So there's a lot of pressure on both sides to agree to a cease-fire, but the Ukrainians already have. So, really, the onus is on Moscow now to agree to this.

BLITZER: We will see what happens.

BROWN: Everyone, stay with us. We will be monitoring the Cabinet meeting.

We will be right back.

BLITZER: And still ahead, we will also break down the latest changes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:16:22]

BROWN: Well, this morning, Harvard University is facing disturbing new concerns. Two task forces set up by the school found that Jewish and Muslim students feel they face bigotry and abuse on campus.

The divisions were fueled by protests and tensions over the Israel- Hamas war. And the findings come as the Trump White House is freezing more than $2 billion in funding, claiming antisemitism and leftist bias at the nation's oldest and wealthiest university.

CNN's Kara Scannell has the latest on the reports. KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These were two distinct task force

reports, but they did have common conclusions, and that was that the students and faculty that were surveyed found that the climate on Harvard's campus was hostile and that they were dissatisfied with Harvard's response to the tensions on campus.

Harvard's president, Alan Garber, acknowledged that, apologizing in the report for what he said were for not meeting expectations. He also summarized the conclusions by saying that: "Some students reported being pushed by their peers to the periphery of campus life because of who they are, what they believe, eroding our shared sense of community in the process."

Now, this report on antisemitism and the report on anti-Muslim, anti- Arab, anti-Palestinian bias also found that students and faculty felt that they were uncomfortable and alienated on campus. The antisemitism report said that some students felt that they're -- they needed to hide their own identity and that if they did acknowledge and say that they were Jewish, that they were made to feel that that was offensive in some way.

Now, the anti-Arab, anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian report found that Muslim, Arab and faculty reported feeling abandoned and alienated and silenced. And there was also an example in that report of a student who was doxxed on campus, her face, her phone number put on a truck that was driven around. And, according to the report, she'd received death threats as a result of that.

The reports also found that 92 percent of Muslims surveyed said that they were likely to face academic or professional repercussions if they expressed their views. The survey also found that 61 percent of Jewish students also held that view.

Now, the reports do have some recommendations for Harvard officials, including looking at their admissions process, asking prospective students how they would handle interactions with someone who has a different view and maybe leaning more towards those who respond with answers that are about bridge-building than about confrontation.

Of course, Harvard dealing with the Trump administration at this time and what implementations they want. The takeaways from these reports seem to be that Harvard wants to make its changes for itself and they don't want the federal government to dictate what they do -- back to you.

BROWN: All right, Kara Scannell, thanks so much.

BLITZER: And there's more news we're following.

Up next, new CNN reporting on the top D.C. prosecutor and the previous statements he made under oath that he now says he can't recall.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:23:53] BROWN: President Trump's nominee to be one of the country's most powerful prosecutors is facing a tough confirmation battle amid controversial statements that he claims he now can't remember.

Ed Martin, Trump's pick to serve as U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., says he can't recall making numerous statements, some of which have been called antisemitic.

BLITZER: And all this comes in response to questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee reviewed by CNN where Martin also said he could not remember comparing Joe Biden to Hitler, yes, Joe Biden to Hitler.

CNN Capitol Hill reporter Annie Grayer is here with us in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Annie, Martin is also trying to distance himself from other inflammatory views he's had about the January 6 confrontation up on Capitol Hill, as well as the 2020 election. Tell us more.

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: This is Martin's latest submission to the Senate Judiciary Committee, in which he is under oath, and he is saying he doesn't remember some of his most controversial statements.

So he was asked if he had ever said anything about prosecutors who gave stiff sentences to January 6 rioters. And Martin, who's defended January 6 rioters, said he didn't remember saying anything like that.

[11:25:01]

But we found a podcast episode where he did say just that. He talked about how he has no connection or affiliation with any white nationalist group, but we found a podcast from 2021 where he was on that is known for being affiliated with white nationalists.

And then, when it comes to President Joe Biden, former President Joe Biden, as you mentioned, he was asked if he'd ever compared any Democrat to Hitler. And I want to play for you what -- the clip that we found from a 2022 episode of his podcast.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

ED MARTIN, ACTING D.C. U.S. ATTORNEY: There's only one character on the world stage right now who actually is utilizing some of the techniques, maybe many of them, that were used by people like Hitler and by Hitler himself. And that's Joe Biden.

President Joe Biden is Hitler. And I am not joking when I say that.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

GRAYER: Now, meanwhile, Martin said he didn't remember if he had ever said anything like that.

So this is all in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Democrats are doing everything they can to delay or stop this nomination from happening, but it's going to come down to Senate Judiciary Chuck Grassley and the Republicans if they are going to decide, are they going to support this nomination who President Trump has put forward, or are they going to push back?

BLITZER: That is so disgusting to compare the former president to Hitler, a man who ordered the murder of six million Jews, including members of my family.

It's just a disgusting, disgusting statement.

GRAYER: And this is not the only time that Martin's nomination has come under fire. We have been reporting on this, that he failed to disclose nearly 200 of his appearances to the Senate Judiciary Committee, when you're supposed to give a paper trail of your entire life.

He also has since denounced his ties to a known Nazi sympathizer, but we found that he's appeared with this individual and spoken positively about him so many times. So there is a lot to unpack here, Wolf and Pam, and Senate Republicans are going to have to answer for this and figure out what they're going to do.

BROWN: Yes.

BLITZER: The fact that he could be the U.S. attorney for the nation's capital, that's pretty amazing, when you think about those disgusting words.

BROWN: Right.

And we've seen the -- I mean, absolutely. And we have seen that Senate Republicans have not been -- have not had the appetite to not confirm some of Trump's nominees. But this could -- we will see if this changes with this.

BLITZER: Annie, excellent reporting.

GRAYER: Thank you.

BROWN: Thank you, Annie Grayer.

BLITZER: And just ahead: How are Americans feeling the impact of President Trump's trade war? CNN's John King heads to Arizona to find out.

That's next.

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