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tv   CNN News Central  CNN  March 4, 2025 11:00am-12:00pm PST

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come to the bargaining table for talks as the white house press pause on shipments of military aid to kyiv. and taking on american gun makers at the supreme court, mexico, arguing it deserves the right to sue those companies, accusing them of designing guns for drug cartels regardless of the consequences. we're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to cnn news central. >> just hours from now, president trump will take the podium before congress to lay out his new administration's vision for the united states. over the next four years. it's a big night for the president, but it comes as his new tariffs have ignited a trade war with canada, mexico and china. right now,
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markets are plummeting in response, while the united states top trading partners are vowing to retaliate. and americans are bracing for higher prices on everyday items, from groceries to electronics and cars. meantime, trump will also use his address to make the case for his foreign policy plan. just as the white house hits the pause button on military aid for ukraine following trump's oval office argument with ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy. the move is reverberating across the globe and now throwing u.s. ukrainian relations into doubt. cnn chief national affairs correspondent jeff zeleny is live for us at the white house. jeff, obviously, a lot at stake here. what should we expect from president trump tonight? boris. >> there certainly is. >> and this is the president's first primetime address since he has been back in power. and really, we are told that he is going to use tonight's address to explain what his. the first of 43 days of his administration have been like, largely focusing
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on trying to focus on some of the department of governmental efficiency things. of course, elon musk's big approach to shrink the federal government. i'm told that elon musk will be on hand in the house chamber. so that, of course, will be one thing that republicans may enjoy and like. but the challenges really are mounting. even in the last 12 hours or so that make this speech even perhaps more complicated than even yesterday, largely because of this trade war. there is no doubt that high prices have been one of the challenges of this administration. presidents don't set prices, but they take the blame for the cost of prices. and this is something that certainly is now going to be fresh in the minds of so many voters. the new prices of automobiles, of vegetables, and so many other things. so the president, of course, i'm told, will defend his tariffs, saying it's necessary. he's described in the past short term pain is necessary for immigration and a stronger border policies. but
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the question is what some of those republican senators from some farm states and others will do to respond. there is deep skepticism and opposition among many republican members of the house and senate about these tariffs. they believe that the prices will rise on consumers and the the farm goods and other things will be hit with the reciprocal tariffs from china. so certainly the challenges for the president have intensified with these policies he's put in place. >> and jeff, we are hearing that some democrats are planning to boycott tonight's speech. i spoke with senator ron wyden of oregon yesterday, who says that he's going to actually hold a town hall with constituents. some are declining to go altogether. what are you hearing about their plans? >> look, we always hear from some members of the opposition party who declined to go to the speech, but i think the vast majority of the seats in the house chamber will be filled. i think a better question is what democrats will do in response. i think we all remember the last time that that the president was
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in this setting five years ago, an entirely different circumstance. speaker nancy pelosi, of course, famously ripped his speech. there will be no democrat sitting behind him. republicans are in complete control of the government. however, the democratic response will be led by freshman senator elissa slotkin of michigan, and michigan is ground zero for the really the aftermath and the effect of this this a trade war with canada and mexico, the automobile front, uh, industry front and center in this. so look for her response to talk about that and how average american consumers have been impacted by all this. but i would not be at all surprised to see if there are some outbursts in the chamber. but i do think that the vast majority of democrats will go. but certainly a long speech, i'm told tonight that begins at 9:00 eastern time, boris. >> and you can catch it right here on cnn. jeff zeleny live at the white house with the key clutch plug. thanks so much, jeff. brianna. >> americans stand to pay a hefty price for president trump's newly imposed tariffs on
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canada, mexico and china. cnn's vanessa yurkevich is with us. more with us now with more on this. tell us about the cost here. vanessa. >> yeah. if you just look at markets on your screen right there, you can see the nasdaq recovering a little bit. but for most of the past 24 hours, markets have been in the red as investors are trying to digest what these tariffs are going to mean for prices, how consumers are going to react. and then what that means for the business outlook and what businesses are going to be doing in the future. this is important, though, of course, for consumers as well. on main street. what does it mean for all of us? well, because of these 25% tariffs on canada and mexico and a 20% tariff on china, we are likely going to be paying higher prices for key things like oil, food, electronics, things like cars right there on your screen. these are things that are going to be seeing higher prices because of these tariffs. and we
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as americans consume about $1.4 trillion worth of goods that are now going to be taxed by these tariffs. that's 40% of all imports that we get every single year. and of course, now we have retaliatory tariffs. we know that china is retaliating specifically on agricultural products. if you look on your screen, you can see just the images that will show you look at them. that's all farm products. that's going to be hitting u.s. farmers at their bottom line. also, canada similarly retaliating against things like meat, vegetables, dairy and alcohol. and when you put this all together, this is about $1,200 more per year than american families are going to have to be spending because of these tariffs. and the signal is from president trump and the white house is that this is only the beginning. this is the beginning of the trade war. this could certainly escalate. that is not what american families want to see right now. and that
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is not exactly what the president promised in terms of prices. so we are waiting to see what the president says tonight, how he validates all of this. but, brianna, a trade war is certainly brewing at this moment. >> sure is. vanessa yurkovich, thank you so much. >> joining us now to discuss all these developments is justin wolfers, a professor of economics and public policy at the university of michigan. andrea kendall taylor also joins us. she's a former u.s. national intelligence officer for russia. and mark preston, cnn senior political analyst. thank you all for being with us. justin. how do you think this trade war is going to impact specific goods that americans buy from canada? and also the stuff that canadians are buying from americans. >> yeah. so there's some specifics that you'll see. things like fruit and vegetables. we import a lot of our fruit and vegetables from canada and mexico. so that next trip to the supermarket is going to be a whole lot more uncomfortable. now those tariffs are in. but i think rather than
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listing specific goods, it's worth noting that when there's less competition from abroad, it's also the case that american companies, when they face less competition, are going to hike their prices. so there'll be higher prices all around. and i think more generally, it's worth putting this in a broader context, which is this is the largest tax hike in the united states since 1993. and you can you bet your life you're going to see some economic consequences out of that. >> yeah. that's no fun. add that to what is this. don't check your 401 k week i think month. let's hope it's just month. it's going to maybe be a while here. mark preston second day in a row. stock markets have dropped sharply because of the tariff war. and i know trump acts like he's not looking at that. but we know that he does. he really likes when it's booming to claim credit for it. how does he reconcile that. because that does put pressure on him. >> well he doesn't reconcile it in the real world. he'll reconcile it in his world. and if you look at any issue
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necessarily that he likes to champion and you know when things are going well, he loves to take credit for it. i mean, we could talk about polling, public polling, for instance. he always goes out there and tells polls that say that he's, you know, beloved by america, but he hates polls that say that america is not very happy with how he is behaving. but basically, the fact of the matter is he can't reconcile it. the question is, what is the amount of time that he has to get his agenda through congress before some of these house members and some of these united states senators start pushing back against donald trump? look, i think he gets through the year and then, you know, all bets are off at that point. then we head into the midterms. >> andrea, we are also expecting trump to bring up ukraine and the situation there during his speech tonight. i wonder how you think his feud with volodymyr zelenskyy has impacted peace talks with russia. do you think putin feels emboldened to make a deal when the white house
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hasn't explicitly said what concessions they'd like to see from the kremlin? >> well, i think you're right that the kremlin is emboldened because everything seems to be going in the kremlin's direction. certainly, the big blowup in the oval office on friday with president zelenskyy has given the russians great glee that we could see a rupture in u.s. ukraine relations. and then the announcement about curtailing u.s. security assistance for ukraine. you had the kremlin spokesperson, dmitry peskov, saying that this will push ukraine to the negotiating table. but when the russians say that, they basically are talking about the capitulation of ukraine. so right now russia really is in a wonderful position and you can see it from public statements in the way that it's being covered in russian media, that everyone is quite jubilant about what president trump seems to be willing to do to the ukrainians, and his obvious desire to normalize relations with russia.
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>> and, you know, we're talking about these different things that are going to be in the speech tonight, andrea. but they do kind of tie together because one of the reasons that he makes this argument for restricting aid to ukraine is let's spend the money at home. and that's something, as you know, that's very popular with his supporters. but at the same time, can you speak a little bit to what you think the impacts will be of restricting that military aid? how quickly we can see that and actually how, as expected by so many observers of this war from here in the u.s., this actually could really hurt american. interests. >> oh, it absolutely hurts american interests. i mean, in terms of curtailing the aid, we might not see an immediate impact on the battlefield in ukraine, in large part because ukraine has become less dependent on the united states
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for that aid. but it will have serious impact over time. and the real risk is that ukraine will have to ration artillery, that there will be a dearth of air defenses to protect their cities and their infrastructure. it will make it harder for ukraine to address the manpower issues that the trump administration keeps pushing on, because who will want to sign up without u.s. backing? and i guess if you extrapolate that forward, if we do really see a united states that pulls the rug out from under ukraine, and putin, who believes that he has been able to accomplish his objectives, then i think we have a real problem, not to mention the fact that the united states is also talking about lifting sanctions on russia and pulling u.s. forces back away from the eastern flank. and so what i worry about is what the trump administration is doing is creating conditions for russia to increase its aggression. and if that does destabilize europe,
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that will all come back and hurt the united states, in large part because our economies are so interlinked. so what happens there does matter. and that was the point that president zelenskyy was trying to make to trump in the white house, which is we might have this ocean, but the united states will ultimately feel the effects if we walk away from ukraine and we downsize our commitment to europe. >> mark, i think on both the situation in ukraine, the way that the u.s. approaches its allies in europe and this trade war that trump has sparked, there's a clear dissatisfaction among a lot of folks that support the president with the status quo, the way that the united states has established the world order since world war two. in fact, we just got the statement from the united auto workers union, and it's praising president trump installing these tariffs on china, mexico and canada. and it specifically states trump taking aggressive action on ending the
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free trade disaster that has dropped like a bomb on the working class. you would think that folks benefit from free trade in the united states, and the way that the u.s. has flourished and developed these alliances with other countries. but a lot of folks don't see the benefit. >> well, a lot of folks in industries necessarily that don't do well in europe and elsewhere overseas. right. the auto industry is somebody, you know, the united states auto industry is something that has struggled behind the japanese, you know, and elsewhere who produce cars. so that's why you're going to see a pushback by the likes of of the unions. and we've seen donald trump court the unions over time. he has a very smart way of delivering a populist message that can actually attract people. but at the end of the day, just as like vanessa was saying earlier, your gas prices are going to go up, your grocery prices are going to go up. and at some point, when do people push back again? i think he's got some runway, but at some point he will have to step back
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and listen to the american people. >> and justin intertwined in all of this, you know, with europe and tariffs is he's been talking about expanding this trade war to europe. he hates that vat that value added tax. right. and if he really does go with what he's talking about, that would be a giant tariff on europe at a time where he's also putting them on the hook for the war in ukraine. what's the effect of that? >> look what we're seeing all around the world. you can actually tie all of these threads together from from ukraine to tariffs to doge. what we're seeing in the united states and in europe is economic policy. uncertainty has just absolutely skyrocketed. we have measures of it that suggest that during my lifetime it's been high, the highest levels it's ever gotten were during the covid pandemic, when there really was something going on. and right now, um, so this is a chaotic, uh, white house that's sowing economic chaos. and what
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you're also seeing then is very sharp declines in consumer and business confidence. and so if i were a ceo right now trying to think about a big investment, i'd be sitting on my hands for a couple of months waiting to see how everything shakes out. and if that turns out to be what people do, that in itself would cause economic harm. >> justin wolfers, andrea kendall taylor, mark preston, thank you so much to all of you for the conversation. a lot of important topics that we'll be looking at tonight. still to come, no wi-fi, no electricity, missing desks. what some federal workers are running into after returning to the office. >> and later, an unusually powerful march storm threatens to create blizzards, tornadoes and fires as it crosses the united states. that and much more coming up on cnn news central. don't go anywhere. >> maybe if he hadn't been such a, he would have gotten away with. >> it. >> i'm still not sure that you're.
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it was quite literally a mess, is what one federal worker told me and a few other of my colleagues who were looking into this. they described the working conditions of lack of wi-fi repeatedly and over many days, lack of electricity, at least for a few hours. on that return to office date last monday, wires sticking out of walls. wires laying on the floor. so much so that at least one worker tripped and had a gash on her foot and actually had to file a worker's comp complaint on her first day back in the office. so essentially here we're talking about the real basics of workers having to do their work in their office, and they don't have that. it was insufficient at best. and many of the workers that i talked to said that it's hard to read this any other way than they feel like the trump administration is, in essence, trying to make them uncomfortable in their jobs, trying to force them to quit. i spoke with shariah smith. she's president of the american federation of government employees local 252 unit in dallas, and the department of education, and she described these conditions at her local
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department of education office. and she says no one is on site to try to fix the issues. i guess that they don't didn't expect us to come. i do want to add in all of this, even though we're talking about how the first week was super bumpy for these employees, a lot of the federal employees i talked to did say, look, i'm very thankful to have a job. obviously, given the climate right now, with all the layoffs and the cutting. we just want to be able to do our job. and certainly the reports that we received is an effort to make things more efficient, bring these employees back, at least for the first week, is making a whole lot less efficient. >> what is the trump administration saying about this? well. >> it's very clear this is happening over a massive part of government, many agencies. so we did go to many of the agencies that we spoke with in this article, and they got back to us. some did, some did not. but very clear that they're trying, in essence, to just carry out this mandate. hhs communications director said. we look forward to seeing and collaborating with our colleagues in person to make america healthy again, saying that they are going to comply
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with trump's return to the office executive order. another agency, the department of education. they sent out an email to their employees, which we were able to see, and it admitted the shortcomings in being able to provide for many of these remote offices. so very clear. a lot more work has to be done to allow workers to do their jobs. >> certainly. sunlen, thank you so much. boris. >> cnn has learned that during the trump administration's purge of foreign assistance funding, it also eliminated specific programs that were supposed to be spared by the state department because the administration said they were life saving programs that provided clean water and shelter, and treated babies and kids with infectious diseases and hiv and aids. cnn's state department reporter jennifer hansler joins us now. live with more. jennifer. which program specifically were impacted and how did this happen? >> well, boris, last week, the trump administration began rolling out termination notices for nearly 10,000 foreign assistance awards at the state department and usaid. the trump
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administration had said in a filing to the court earlier in the day that they had finished this review of their foreign assistance freeze, and these were the programs they deemed should be terminated. however, much like that freeze, the scope of these terminations was incredibly broad, and it included programs that they themselves had said were lifesaving and should be granted waivers to continue that lifesaving work. to give just one example, the elizabeth glaser pediatric aids foundation, which works to combat hiv aids in children and families around the world, said that three of their programs that had been granted waivers were terminated last week. they said that these were programs in lesotho, eswatini and tanzania, that these were projects that were supporting more than 350,000 people on hiv treatment, including nearly 10,000 children and more than 10,000 hiv positive pregnant women. and that's just one example out of dozens and dozens that i've heard about boris, including temporary shelter and clean water, efforts to stop children
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from being radicalized. these were all put to a halt last week when these terminations were rolled out. now this comes on top of the already impact that we had seen from that more than month long foreign aid freeze that humanitarian groups and workers at usaid and the state department said we're having devastating consequences, as well as the reduction of the workforce at usaid. they say all of these had had massive implications, not just for people around the world, but also here in the united states. >> boris and jennifer, are these programs going to now be reinstated? >> it's a great question. we have heard some examples here and there of some programs that had been terminated and now have been told by the government that those contracts have been restored. however, those stories are few and far between, and there's greater questions about whether it is too late to mitigate some of the damage that has been done. many of these groups say they have not been paid in more than a month for a lot of the work they had done
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even before that late january, foreign aid freeze. so they have had to furlough and terminate employees. and there's been a lot of damage that may be irreversible here. >> boris jennifer hansler live for us at the state department. thank you so much. coming up, democratic lawmakers are hoping to send a message to president trump by bringing fired federal workers along with them to tonight's joint address to congress. we're joined by senator richard blumenthal and his guest in just moments. >> are you hungry? i'm hungry. oh, perfect. >> i'm so excited. >> this is cuisine at a different level. >> oh, yeah. >> food makes me so happy. >> eva longoria searching for spain premieres april 27th on cnn. >> want a next level clean? swish with the whoa of listerine. it kills 99.9% of bad breath germs for five times more cleaning power than brushing and flossing alone. get a next level clean with listerine. feel the. whoa!
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>> the presidential address to congress tonight at eight on cnn. >> the white house says the theme of president trump's address tonight is, quote, the renewal of the american dream. and he's expected to make the case for his sweeping domestic and foreign policy plans. democratic lawmakers have some plans of their own. some will be skipping the address altogether. others will make a statement through the guests that they are going to bring. and that includes democratic senator richard blumenthal of connecticut, who is with us now along with his guests for tonight's speech. michael missal, who was the inspector general for the department of veterans affairs until president trump recently fired him. senator. and mr. missal, thank you so much to both of you for being with us. senator. first, tell us why you chose the va. ig, formerly the va, ig, i should say, as your guest. and i also wonder what you think about democrats who are skipping the address if that's effective, since obviously you've chosen a
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different route. >> i've chosen to go because i regard it as part of my job, and i do want to make a statement about what i think is the draconian, misguided cuts in spending for the va and other agencies and the hiring freezes and most of all, the firing of these inspectors general, who are the watchdogs against fraud, abuse and waste. i'm the ranking member on the va committee, the top democrat, michael missal, has uncovered fraud and abuse and waste over almost a decade of service under both republican and democratic presidents. he's rubbed them the wrong way because he has uncovered wrongdoing under them. and i think that's the kind of approach we want going after the waste with a scalpel, not a meat ax. and frankly, if president trump were really serious about going after waste and fraud, he
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wouldn't have fired these inspectors general. that's the statement i want to make. and elon musk is applying his algorithms and his a.i. formulas to remove 2400 workers at the va and freeze the contracts that are essential to va services, which is having real life impacts in stopping health care for veterans, closing clinics, preventing operations and surgeries that are really important to veterans, causing delays in treatment and elimination of some of the services to veterans who were exposed to toxic substances. so that's part of what i want to do. convey that to the american people tonight. despite what donald trump may say from that podium. >> a huge influx of veterans now because of the pact act, who do need that help at the va. and michael and i would urge anyone to look at the va oig report page. if you're a little bit nerdy, it's pretty interesting to see all of the different
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reports in your almost two decades tenure. you note in your lawsuit over your firing that during your time as inspector general at the va, your office delivered a monetary impact of $45 billion. and just a couple examples that, you know, we found just running through the reports. there was recently this overpayment for dental services. there was also a discovery that the va had improperly approved nearly $11 million in bonuses for executives that needed to be clawed back, considering that rooting out waste, fraud and abuse is the stated goal of the department of government efficiency. talk to us about how you were already doing that. >> yes. so as the inspector general, my role was to find fraud, waste and abuse to make va more effective and efficient, to hold leaders accountable and to promote transparency of what the government is doing. so at any one time when i was the inspector general, we had about
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a thousand active criminal cases. we had about 150 health care inspections, about 100 performance audits. so we looked at va from a number of different perspectives. and as you point out, um, the impact, the monetary impact was about $45 billion. but i'm as proud about how we helped va improve. we helped improve the quality of health care for veterans. and we helped improve the benefits and services that veterans and their families receive. and so that's what i'm most proud about. and that's what i'm so sorry that i'm not going to be able to continue to do. >> do you worry watching these firings at the va that they could actually create fraud, waste and abuse? and if so, can you tell us specifically why? >> sure. >> i think it could have a chilling effect on all oig offices. a perfect example is the ig from usaid was not fired in the initial round of firing.
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he put out a very strong report talking about the issues that he identified with the breakup of usaid and how it was going to harm people. it was going to waste a lot of money. the next day, he was fired. and i think that sends a strong message that if you put out a report that's tough on the administration, that there will be consequences for it. >> senator, you're on the va committee. uh, as you've had conversations with your republican colleagues, i know you're all hearing about these veterans who are federal employees. 3 in 10 federal employees or veterans getting fired in this in these mass firings in the government. what are they telling you? are you guys working on anything in a bipartisan way to deal with this? >> i wish i could tell you, brianna, that my republican colleagues are ready to take action. but the fact is that they have proved utterly and
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totally spineless in standing up for veterans. and i say that with great regret and sadness, because i believe that they are committed to caring for our veterans. we had testimony today from the veterans of foreign wars and the commander in chief, al lippert, said very movingly to my republican colleagues, as well as to all of us on the committee, you know, you're breaking a contract. you're violating a trust and a promise that you made to veterans. it isn't charity. when a veteran goes to the west haven, connecticut, va facility and is told that his surgery or her review of her mental health condition or the veterans crisis line, which saves people from suicide, have all been cut back or delayed, it is a violation of that trust. and i think that elon musk is trying to gain more
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revenue so that they can finance tax cuts. they're trying to do it on the backs of veterans. they regard veterans as disposable trash. they have no sense of what veterans mean to our country, how they have served and sacrificed. and i think that is a blind spot among many in the way that they are going about these draconian, indiscriminate cuts across the board. one third of our federal workforce are veterans. almost half of all the employees of the department of defense are veterans, and they are just slashing eight, 10%. >> i do want to challenge you on something because you told my colleague manu raju today that trump's remarks tonight would be contentious, hit all the usual themes. but you also said that it would be not be very appealing to the american people. you describe these cuts. a lot of americans like the idea of them. they like the idea of the things they see trump doing. how do you know that what he is
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talking about won't be appealing to the american people? you may not find it appealing, but the american people just elected him. >> the american people find appealing the rhetoric about slashing waste and fraud. if trump and musk were really serious about cutting waste and fraud, they wouldn't be firing inspectors general. and what the real life impacts are going to be as our veterans are discovering at west haven. hospital and others around the country, is that services have been cut back. the pack act, which provides care and benefits in cases of toxic exposure, for example, the burn pits. people won't be getting the screenings that they need to detect cancer and prevent the more serious illnesses across the board. air safety, where we've had hundreds of cuts in key safety positions in usaid, where farmers
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production won't be bought any more by the that agency to be sent abroad to save people's lives. when the real life impacts become clear, americans are not going to like it. and if they look behind the rhetoric, they will find tonight. theme more revenue for tax cuts to the ultra wealthy financed the billionaire tax cuts by cutting for everyone else. and i think that americans will find it less appealing than donald trump thinks. >> senator richard blumenthal and former va ig michael missal, thank you to you both. >> thank you. thank you. >> when we come back, mexico's fight against gun violence heading to the supreme court, justices will hear arguments on whether to let mexico sue american gun makers over cartel violence. we'll have the latest
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attempts, how they how they sell their guns to various distributors and retailers that then get smuggled to drug cartels in mexico. that causes all sorts of murder and mayhem. and the justices on both the right and the left did not seem sympathetic to the argument. there's a 2005 federal law that generally bars these kinds of lawsuits, and says that gun makers should be shielded from any kind of liability. when someone uses a firearm unlawfully. and let me just read some of the comments from two key justices. right from the start, the chief and chief justice, john roberts, on the
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>> your fracture is supposed to do in that kind of situation. then justice jackson who again, on the left side of the court, she has the lawyer arguing for mexico. all of the things us for here, you know, to hold these manufacturers liable would amount to the kinds of different sorts of different kinds of regulatory constraints that i'm thinking that congress didn't want the courts to be the ones to impose. >> so i would say we're at a very preliminary stage of this litigation. but a lower appellate court said it could go forward. and smith and wesson is saying, no, we don't even think it should go forward because it should not be allowed under that 2005 law. in terms of the larger context, boris, you know that there's just, you know, the relations between the u.s. and mexico are tense right now for a couple different reasons. justice alito, you know, referred to that toward the end of the arguments when he when he said, i just thought i would ask you a question. and this is to the lawyer for mexico. i just
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thought i'd ask you a question that may be on the minds of ordinary americans who hear this argument and learn about this case. mexico says the u.s. gun manufacturers are contributing to illegal conduct in mexico. there are americans who think that the mexican government officials are contributing to a lot of illegal conduct here. now, there was a bit of a sideshow question, but it just kind of shows the atmosphere there. bottom line, though, i think that mexico is probably going to lose this case, and smith and wesson's appeal will succeed at the supreme court. and we will know by later this spring. >> yeah, it will be one of many cases you'll be watching. joan biskupic, thank you so much. thanks. still plenty more news to come on news central, including a violent storm with hurricane force winds moving across the united states. tens of millions at risk. we'll tell you where it's headed next. >> before the spotlight, we struggled to keep the lights on. i saw more from myself. and sophie gives members the financial tools to see more for
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reported in oklahoma, according to the national weather service. strong winds swept across north texas. in irving, near dallas, portions of an apartment complex were destroyed when high winds took down a wall and scattered that debris. and then in fort worth, the storm is also being blamed for pushing two planes under a military transport plane at alliance airport. no word on injuries. let's go to cnn meteorologist derek van dam. derek, what's the latest? >> yeah, look at the damage, brianna, that this line of severe weather did in the lewisville, texas region just completely upending this storage facility. really incredible to see the wind damage, which, by the way, clocked at over 74mph at the dallas fort worth international airport earlier this morning when the line moved through. now guess what? the line is not done yet. in fact, we've got a newly issued tornado watch that's inclusive of new orleans and baton rouge and parts of mississippi. as
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this line marches eastward, the potential here for tornadoes to spin up that could be significant through the course of the afternoon and evening hours, something we're monitoring very closely, considering there's so many thousands of people outdoors right now in new orleans celebrating mardi gras, fat tuesday. here's this line. we do have severe thunderstorm warnings in place for that area now as it advances east, the worst weather should arrive in new orleans between 4 and 6 p.m. this evening, local time. then that severe weather threat advances eastward, and we see the threat of severe weather for the day tomorrow along the atlantic seaboard. this is part of a much larger storm system that has blizzard conditions to the north, but a extreme fire risk on the western side of the cold front that has brought a fire warning just recently issued to bexar county, where san antonio is located. there's actually a wildfire burning out of control in and around the downtown area. so something we're monitoring very closely, trying to gather more intel on that developing situation as we speak, brianna. >> all right. we'll keep an eye on that. derek, thank you so
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much. and still to come, a trade war erupting with some of the biggest trade partners for the u.s., china, canada and mexico threatening to push prices higher for americans who are already struggling with inflation. we'll talk about how president trump will explain it to the nation in an address tonight. >> you might know harbor freight for affordability. what you might not know performance and durability. go along with it. you see, we test and then we test again. world class engineering and rigorous testing to ensure our tools stand the test of time without testing your wallet. now it's time for you to put us to the test. whatever you do, do it for less. at harbor freight. save even more at our parking lot sale this weekend. >> my parents worked hard for everything we had. they taught me the value of a dollar and how to use it wisely. those lessons
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