ron brownstein, great to have you. thanks so much.eciate it. >> thanks for thanks for having me. >> some new developments this morning in the investigation into the mysterious deaths of legendary actor gene hackman, his wife and their dog. all were found deceased in their new mexico home wednesday. police now say they're waiting for autopsy and toxicology reports. and while there are no obvious signs of foul play, the circumstances are now being labeled as suspicious. the 95 year old was last seen publicly coming out of convenience store in 2024. cnn's jason carroll reports on what made the beloved hackman the actor's actor. >> i don't like to talk. >> about myself. >> that much. gene hackman. >> had. >> a hard time watching himself on the big screen, but the same could not be said for audiences who helped to make him one of the greatest american actors to grace the silver screen. >> you got. >> a stupid smile, you know that, pal? >> hackman was known as an actor's actor. the new york times called him hollywood's perfect everyman. tha

cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein, with us now, uh, brown. ron. ron. sorry, ron.n, what is happening? uh, you know, at the faa and beyond with these rattled nerves now and just like, you know, mr. shapiro was saying, people are distracted or being distracted when they have very important, vital jobs and now they're worried about, you know, their rent, their mortgage, their kids in school, all of this. >> yeah. >> well, look. >> um, donald trump and elon musk are rapidly accumulating debts that they may. >> have to. >> pay off in the form of events down the road. i mean. you know. >> once you. start slashing. >> the. workforce at federal. >> agencies that do critical. jobs for the. >> american public. >> fred. >> i think you are politically very hostage to events. you know, you're. you're cutting. >> food inspections. >> and if. there are outbreaks. >> of foodborne. >> illness down the road, there. >> is going to. >> be political blowback. you're weakening the cdc guidance. >> um. >> uh, or oversight. and there are outbreaks of disease in schools, as we're seeing i

joining us now, cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein. ron, thanks for being here. i first just want to get your initial thoughts on what president trump had to say at cpac today, notably making that ultimatum about remote workers. but he touched a lot of other subjects as well. >> yeah, and it was. >> a. >> victory lap. that is in many ways, i think, um. >> reflective of. >> the opportunity. >> and the challenge he faced. i mean, donald trump won with 49% of the vote, and he has taken that. historically narrow. >> victory as justification. >> and, you know. >> argument for a sweeping. reimagination of the role. >> of the federal government in american life and the role of america in the world. >> and so, you. >> know. the the he is kind of pushing to the maximum his. vision of. executive power. >> in a way that polls show is thrilling. his base, his. >> approval rating among republicans is 90% or more. >> in most polls. >> but there are now. >> eight public polls. with his approval. >> rating less than a month into his presidency. >> at a net negative. >> among ind

. >> joining me now, cnn senior political analyst and senior editor at the atlantic, ron brownstein. ron, thanks so much for joining this morning. >> good morning. >> so set aside policy for a moment here. and let's talk purely politics. axios has a story out this morning about focus groups in arizona where folks they're swing voters saying keep at it, keep chopping government. and i just wonder, from a purely political standpoint, do trump and musk have the politics right for now? >> yeah. well, look, first, you know. >> i. >> think this. >> what we're. >> watching is less. about reducing the deficit. >> than it is. >> about changing. >> the federal government's role in u.s. society. um, you know, federal workforce is a lot of people, and it seems. >> like a lot. >> of money, but it's. kind of kind of small change next to the big entitlement. programs social security, medicare and medicaid that drive the federal budget. so this is really about changing what the federal government does. i think under the guise of efficiency, more than it is about trying to, you know, control federal s

. >> joining us now, cnn's senior political analyst, ron brownstein. ron, good morning.s good to see you. i want to dig into your your piece on cnn.com in just a second, but i want to start with the elon of it all, because there are all of these you know we've seen and heard the reports. it's going to shut down usaid. there's reporting this morning from the wall street journal and the washington post about emerging plans to shutter the department of education, or at least try to. he's got young aides who are moving sofa beds onto, you know, management floors in government offices. um, what is the upshot of all of this? >> yeah. you know, certainly no. >> one would deny that. >> you know, the federal. >> government, its information. >> systems, its. >> bureaucratic structures, all of that can benefit from a fresh look and an attempt to apply kind of modern management and information management techniques. but that clearly is not what's happening here, or certainly not all that's happening here. and what's basically happening is that under the guise of efficiency, uh, trum

joining us now, cnn senior political analyst ron brownstein. um, ron, okay, let's just play devil's advocate for a second. what if all of this is wrong? and what if trump actually gets these these countries to do what he wants and and these tariffs go into effect and it's it's totally fine. is that possible? >> i you. >> basically have to repeal. >> the law of economics for the tariffs to go into effect and have no impact. right. i mean, there's there's no question in the economic literature about who ultimately pays the price for tariffs. it's the consumers in the country imposing the tariffs. you know, it's not clear what is the problem. >> at. >> the northern border that trump is trying to solve in terms of migration and fentanyl. and even at the southern border. it's not clear why this mechanism, as opposed to negotiating with mexico is a is a more effective way to pursue, you know, the other policy goals that he's listing. i mean, donald trump was elected, jessica, the exit polling is very clear for trump voters. the number one issue was in

joining us now to talk about all of this is senior political analyst ron brownstein. thanks so much for being here with us. um, i just it's good to see you. i want to kind of zoom out for a second because we're getting new information about these tariffs, which i do want to touch on. but the trump administration believes and has been very clear, that they have a mandate to dramatically reshape the federal government, that all of these moves that they're making right now are targeted at at that and that they're all connected. the question, though, is about how they're doing it and if it's legal and if it's constitutional. >> right, exactly. i mean, look, every president. >> who wins. >> claims a mandate. you know, donald trump. >> did win. >> he won all the swing states. he didn't get. over a majority. of the vote again, although he did win the popular vote for the first time. i mean, i think there are two ways to interpret what jd vance was saying in that in that tweet, the relatively more benign interpretation and i say relatively, is that he was signaling to the rep

. >> ron brownstein is a cnn senior political analyst. he joins me now from los angeles. good to have you with us. >> hi, rosemary. >> so president donald trump wants billionaire elon musk to get more aggressive with his federal government cutbacks. what might that look like given we're already seeing very aggressive moves? >> yeah. i mean, what we're seeing is not only sweeping reductions in personnel, but the virtual or complete shuttering of agencies that were authorized by congress. and obviously, much of this will go through the courts. but, you know, historically, the courts have trouble keeping up with an executive branch that is committed to going in a certain direction. and certainly we are seeing no willingness among republicans in congress to resist any of this. so the likelihood is that we're going to see some pretty significant rollbacks in the the vitality of many federal agencies. and that is a long term risk for the president and for musk, because they are basically accumulating debts that they may have to pay off at some day in the form of events that ame

ron brownstein is a cnn senior political analyst. he joins me now from los angeles. good to have you with us. >> hi, rosemary. >> so most economists agree that donald trump's new tariffs will cause more pain for americans. and now even president trump himself is acknowledging that fact. in a post on truth social. despite previously promising voters that he would bring prices down. how politically risky is this for the trump administration going forward? >> yeah. >> it's an enormous gamble, not only with the global economy and the american economy, but politically. i mean, there's no question that the central reason donald trump is back in the white house is because voters felt that inflation was out of control under joe biden. the cost of living was unmanageable. and they look back on the trump presidency, the first trump presidency, as a time when, as people said, often, they heard in focus groups, i had more money in my pocket at the end of the week. the contradiction or the tension was even as voters had that perception. economists were warning really all year thr

. >> joining us now is cnn's senior political analyst, ron brownstein. he's in los angeles. appreciate you being with us. >> hey, rosemary. >> so the trump administration appears to be testing the limits of presidential power with these big cuts to the federal government. now, the courts are blocking some of the unprecedented access to government. the billionaire elon musk and his doge team are getting, while vice president jd vance says judges are not allowed to control the president's power like this. so where do you see all of this going? >> all of it. >> is heading directly toward the u.s. supreme court. you know, over a period of months and maybe even years. and ultimately, i think the key arbiters on what america's constitutional democracy looks like at the end of this trump term are going to be those six republican appointed justices on the supreme court. you know, j.d. vance's comments today were you know, there are two ways to interpret them. i mean, the relatively more benign interpretation, and only relatively is that he was sending a clear signal to those republi

with us now is ron brownstein, cnn senior political analyst. ron, great to see you. alayna treene played some sound from marco rubio that, on the one hand seems innocuous, but it really jumped out to me because rubio was talking about whether ukraine should be part of the negotiations. and he had a sentence. he says ukraine will have to be involved because they were the ones that were invaded. now, on the one hand, that seems obvious. on the other hand, it's the type of language you really don't hear from president trump or vice president vance or secretary of defense pete hegseth. it's different than what you're hearing from the administration. and some republicans. and, ron, i just think it's a big sea change that i hope you can explain between where republicans used to be on ukraine and where republicans used to be vis a vis russia. >> yeah. well. >> look, i mean, i think. >> you're right to. >> pick up on that. i think. >> rubio's. >> you know. >> pretty clearly his. >> role in all of this is to be the. >> good cop., kind of papering over. the clear. >> signals f

attorney, elie honig ron brownstein, thank you so much for joining us. thank you. and coming up, sources telling cnn new details on the president's plan to end russia's war in ukraine. what we know about a key meeting set for days from now. >> the boeing 747 has crashed in the lockerbie area. >> trying to find. >> out the why. >> of it became everything. >> nothing is what it seems in the lockerbie story. >> lockerbie. >> the bombing of pan am flight. >> 103 tomorrow at nine on cnn. >> choose advil. >> liquid gels. >> for faster. >> stronger and longer. >> lasting relief. >> than tylenol rapid release gels. because advil targets. >> pain at the source. >> of information. so for faster pain relief, advil, the pain away. >> what took you so long? i'm sorry. >> there was a long line at the thai place. >> you get the sauce i like. >> of course. >> with a man. >> i wish the future isn't scary. >> not investing in it is. nasdaq 100 innovators one etf. before investing, carefully read and consider fund investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and more in prospectus