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The Lead with Jake Tapper

President Trump Gives Remarks At Business Roundtable; House To Vote Spending Bill To Avert Shutdown; Ukraine Agrees To 30-Day Ceasefire If Russia Abides By It; White House: Khalil Led Group Distributing "Hamas Propaganda"; House Passes Spending Bill To Avert Shutdown. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired March 11, 2025 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I ate his ice cream, so that's probably why he's calling 911.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Aww. You heard that right. A four-year-old in Wisconsin got so upset when his mother ate his ice cream that he ended up calling 911. I'm sorry, what? To make sure that there wasn't something more serious going on. The cops did end up showing up at the house and this is what happened when they walked in.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's kind of cold and crowded, so no calling 911 unless it's a real emergency, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You ate his ice cream.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mommy has to go to jail.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Should we take her to jail for eating your ice cream? I agree.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would let you arrest me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So those same officers did stop by two days later with a sweet treat. Two scoops of ice cream and sprinkles. Jake Tapper is standing by for the lead. Jake, have you ever stolen your children's ice cream?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Nope. I would never do such a thing. I have two things. One, kudos to the mom that the kids know to call 911. And second of all, prison. That's what I say, prison.

I've never stolen mine either. So I'm with you.

I would never do such a thing. Then again, you and I are on TV all the time, so we're aware of the perils of ice cream. Thanks, Casey.

HUNT: We are.

TAPPER: We'll see you back in the arena tomorrow.

HUNT: Sounds good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

TAPPER: And welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper. A lot of news happening right this minute. President Trump expected to deliver remarks at a Small Business Roundtable. This comes after his comments on Sunday when he declined to rule out a recession, possibly later this year. And his comments set stocks on a downslide. Though just in the past hour, President Trump tried to walk it back, saying that he, quote, doesn't see a recession coming. We will bring you his upcoming remarks when they begin, but we're going to start now with three other major stories we're tracking.

First, the Republican scramble to avert a government shutdown. Second, President Trump's escalating trade war and its effects on the markets. And third, Ukraine agreeing to a U.S. proposal for a 30-day ceasefire.

Any moment now, the House of Representatives will begin to vote on a bill to fund the government through September, the vote coming just days before the Friday deadline. After this vote, the House will go into recess for the rest of the week. Presumably if it passes, that is leaving the Senate with a crucial choice. Accept the House bill as it is or but the government shut down.

This has Also been another day of what you might call tariff whiplash, starting with the president this morning saying he's going to add a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum coming into the U.S. from Canada, which led to the Ontario premier continuing to threaten to cut off electricity supplies from Canada to Americans getting that electricity in New York, Minnesota and Michigan. This is a tit for tat that went on all day.

It ended with the U.S. and Canada agreeing to meet Thursday to renegotiate the trade agreement. But those U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada are still set to go into effect at midnight tonight. We're going to talk to the Trump administration, senior trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro in the show today.

All of this affecting the markets. The Dow, S and P 500 and Nasdaq closing down, marking the second bad day for the markets this week after yesterday's disastrous plunge. Then also, of course, big news out of Saudi Arabia. Ukraine agreed on a deal with the U.S. calling for a 300day cease fire in Ukraine's war with Russia. Secretary of State Rubio and National Security Adviser Waltz announcing that the U.S. will immediately lift its pause on sharing intelligence and resume giving military aid to Ukraine.

We're going to start with CNN's Kaitlan Collins at the White House today. Kiatlan, what are we expecting to hear from the president at this Small Business Roundtable where they will air his remarks live? KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Jake, you just showed the numbers

of the stock market today. Obviously all the people in that room, more than 100 of the nation's top business leaders have been paying very close attention to those numbers.

But you know, who says they are not the president. He was asked earlier by reporters. He said he was not concerned by the sell-off that happened yesterday, that he's not paying that close of attention to the stock market. And of course, he is now about to address about 100 of the nation's top business leaders who have a lot of questions about where this policy when it comes to his tariffs is going and what it's going to look like in the future. And the president himself, you know, has threatened these tariffs on the campaign trail.

I think a lot of the leaders inside that room that he is going to be face to face with in a few minutes thought it was just campaign bluster or a negotiating tactic by the president. And of course, it is proving not to be. We saw just the whiplash happening here at the White House today where the president was incensed by those comments that the premier of Ontario made earlier this morning about supercharging the price of electricity to Michigan, Minnesota and New York.

The president then threatening to take that 25 percent tariff that is going into effect at midnight, we are told, against all trading partners and to double it against Canada for steel and aluminum imports. Because of those comments, he has since backed off of that after speaking with reporters earlier in a conversation with the premier of Ontario and Trump's commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, he says instead, it will just be the 25 percent tariff that is going into effect tonight against all trading partners, not that double as what he ordered earlier.

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But that really does speak to Jake, the problem that a lot of these business leaders and that Wall Street has been facing, which is the uncertainty around what is going into effect and how long it's going to stick and whether or not there are going to be any exemptions. The president himself has defended his tack here and what he is trying to do here, which he says is reshaped essentially the U.S. economy and how this works. He defended it earlier to reporters and said this.

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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I think this country is going to boom. But as I said, I can do it the easy way or the hard way. The hard way to do it is exactly what I'm doing. But the results are going to be 20 times greater.

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COLLINS: Of course, the question, Jake, is how the business leaders in that room in just a few moments are going to feel about that. They will get a chance to question President Trump. And obviously comments like that and him saying he's not paying close attention to the stock market will be part of what's fueling those questions to him.

TAPPER: All right, Kaitlan Collins at the White House for us. Thanks so much. Tonight on The Source with Kaitlan Collins. Kaitlan is going to speak with the Democratic senator of Arizona, Mark Kelly. Elon Musk called Kelly a traitor because he had the audacity to visit an ally, Ukraine, and advocate for continued support for Ukraine. Kelly is a decorated Navy pilot and a former NASA astronaut. He'll get his chance to respond to the accusation from Mr. Musk. That interview with Kaitlan tonight, 9:00 Eastern only here on CNN.

Let's bring in my panel. We have with us CNN anchor Phil Mattingly along with senior political commentators for Shermichael Singleton and Jonah Goldberg. Phil, amid this economic downturn, Tesla stocks have dropped sharply. Elon Musk lost $29 billion in net worth just yesterday. Trump today is trying to show Musk some support.

He posted on Truth Social he was going to buy a Tesla and then publicly viewed one at the White House today. Listen to what he said was the reason why he's buying a Tesla.

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TRUMP: Number one, it's a great product, as good as it gets. And number two, because this man has devoted his energy and his life to doing this, I think he's been treated very unfairly by a very small group of people.

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TAPPER: It's interesting considering that this has not been the most pro electric vehicle president in the history of the United States.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: I think there's the policy divergence on some level. But also let's take a step back for a moment. There was a lot going on today. You kind of ran through a lot of it. We had a six-hour dramatic escalation of a trade war that isn't anymore.

And for a period of time, the individual who had donated $280 million to help elect the guy he was standing next to out in front of the West Wing, was standing in front of a series of cars with the President of the United States essentially serving as the pitch man in a local car commercial that you see in the middle of a college football game on a Saturday in support of that individual, who also is in the midst of having more or less free reign inside the federal government to work through agencies and work his will within those agencies.

It's just -- it's not normal. And I know we're getting kind of used to that at some point, but this seems to have a lot of conflicts involved in it. It also underscores though that there's a level of loyalty that the President feels.

He made very clear this was his idea. Musk had nothing to do with this. This has been a very difficult week for Musk and his private companies and the President making clear. I got your back right now. TAPPER: Jonah, I mean, we're not quite at the level of Donald Trump going before the cameras and saying, come on down to the White House, we got a deal on Teslas. But it sure almost looked like that.

JONAH GOLDBERG, CO-FOUNDER AND EDITOR IN CHIEF, THE DISPATCH: Yes, I mean, the whole thing has a certain surreal quality to it and you know, it's sort of rank punditry to say a lot of people voted on eggs and egg prices, but like they didn't vote on Tesla sales.

And it's a strange political calculation. I'm not sure how much it's going to damage Trump per se, particularly with people who like him, because it is part of the Trump show, as it were. And like, as reality show stuff goes, it's. I think a lot of people will find it entertaining, maybe less so against the backdrop of all the trade war and uncertainty stuff and their 401Ks plummeting down. But it's definitely not responsive to what were all told the sort of majority making median voter was voting for in 2024. And I don't see how he kind of rights the ship from this and is a reassuring presence anytime soon.

TAPPER: Yes, I think Tesla's are about $200,000. So there are a lot of Americans out there still worried about the grocery prices that went up during the Biden administration. I don't know that they're running out and buying a $200,000 automobile.

Shermichael, let take a turn here. Trump's former vice president Mike Pence posted on X praising the first Trump administration for the tax cuts passed in 2017, saying the Pro-Growth policies of our administration worked for America before and will again. Let's go.

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But if you take a look at the image he attached, it's a chart showing the market growth going up during Trump's first term. And then if you look at the other line there, I think the one in red, it's a market downturn for the start of Trump's second term. We know Vice President Pence does not support this tariff war. Are you surprised to see this from Pence?

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. And look, I think tariffs can be a powerful economic tool, Jake, when executed strategically and in a limited fashion. I think there's a lot of evidence to suggest that. I think if the argument from the President is that we want mutually beneficial trade deals to enhance American competitiveness, that makes perfect sense.

I'm not necessarily opposed to potential tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum. President Biden placed tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum in May of last year. Again, I'm citing it as an example of how tariffs can be used strategically.

I am not even as a conservative. I got to be honest, I'm not a big free trade guy. I think a lot of these free trade deals we have seen over the past 30 years, it's made a lot of investors rich while increasing income inequality. We have seen the complete disruption of the Rust Belt. Not everybody

in America is going to be able to work in an office suit. And so I think if the premise of the President's argument is that I'm attempting to place some type of economic strategic aims, to have a reset, to rebuild the Rust Belt, to strengthen the middle class, I am certainly open to that argument. I think a lot of people will be open to that argument.

My only caution to the President would be, Jake, you need to be consistent with this approach. The market does not like these types of sporadic disruptions. If he can fix that, then I think he might be on to something.

TAPPER: All right, thanks one and all. We're standing by to hear from President Trump on the subject of the economy. We're also watching closely the House of Representatives chamber where Speaker Johnson hopes to keep enough Republicans on board to stop a government shutdown currently set to happen at the end of this week.

Today, President Trump threatened one key Republican lawmaker insisting on voting against the Republican bill. We're going to go live to Capitol Hill. Plus, we're going to speak with the House Republican about this tense moment for his party. That's next.

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TAPPER: President Trump speaking at the business roundtable right now. Let's listen in.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Make America great again. We have a bloated, very dishonest in many cases, federal government and bureaucracy that's been a long time coming. Somebody should have done this many years ago. And we're cutting numbers that, you know, nobody's ever seen before. DOGE, as we call it affectionately, you've been all hearing that term a lot. Elon's been doing really a fantastic job. He suffers a little bit because of it. People go after him. But actually if you -- I think in the end it'll maybe reverse itself and be just the opposite. That's happened before.

There's people that they tend to go after one group or another, but basically it's the other you have. They go after conservatives. And when somebody stands up and fights, it ends up their business ends up doubling. You can see that.

Just a little example. Goya Foods. He was just a wonderful man, the owner and family and largely Hispanic foods. And they went after him because he supported me. And this was the end of the first term and he fought back and it ended up that he ended up tripling his business and it's today a much bigger business than it was before, and there are many examples of that. And maybe it's going to be that way with Elon.

When I saw what was happening with this, you know, the concerted effort by paid -- I think they're paid agitators. And when I saw what was happening, I said, I want to buy a Tesla. And we just went to the front. He had four beautiful cars there, and I bought one in front of the press. So very public purchase. And they're beautiful and do a great job.

Very good competitors with Mary and everybody else. You know, he's done a great job and he shouldn't be sacrificed or have to suffer because he wants to help government. It's not that he's a Republican, which he's, you know, not the strong. I mean, I don't -- sometimes I'm not even sure what he is in terms of his philosophies, but he's a great guy. He's a patriot. He wants to see the country straightened out.

And he's done a fantastic job with DOGE. We've found massive fraud, abuse, waste. And we had many, many jobs where there was nobody working but getting a check. We had contracts that expired years ago, but they were continuously being paid. Probably, I'll bet you it's $500 billion, perhaps if you added up so far, and we're trying to get to a trillion dollars. That's a big number.

And he did have an ability to do something that a lot of people didn't think of. He'd come in with bigger ideas. We'd say, we want you to cut down the size of your agency by 2 percent. And we thought that was good. He came in, he said 80 percent. I said, what the hell's going on? 80 percent.

And largely, I mean, we had to do it carefully. And we had some little hiccups, not big hiccups, but we saved a tremendous amount of money for the future. This is going into the future. And in some cases it would be 80, and in some cases it would be 5 percent or 2 percent or 3 percent, you know, depending on the agency. And you can almost -- you're all great professionals the top.

And you can almost look at some of the agencies and see which ones had to be cut and which ones didn't, also in terms of their importance and in terms of being current.

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So we saved a tremendous amount of money. And I think, you know, I don't know if it's going to reach a trillion, but it's going to reach a lot. And it was an honor to have Michael there yesterday. You got to see a little bit of it. We had a conference and a lot of investment coming into our country, much more than I've ever seen. Apple is investing $500 billion. IBM was with us yesterday and they're investing a lot. Just companies all over. I could name them. You've read most of them, many of them. But hundreds of billions of dollars is being invested.

That wouldn't have happened if I didn't win the election, number one. And I think, number two, the tariffs are having a tremendously positive impact. They will have, and they are having. We have car companies that are not building in Mexico. Now they're building in the United States. Some of them. The plants were already started and they stopped construction and now they're going to build in the United States.

It was very unfair that they'd build in Mexico and sell them across the border with no tax, no nothing. They'd take away our jobs. They'd close up places in Michigan and all over the country and they'd build them in Mexico. In many cases, they were owned by China, built in Mexico, owned by China. And that's all stopped now. They're all coming here.

Honda is building a massive plant and different places, Indiana, South Carolina, but also in Michigan. A lot in Michigan, a lot of activity is happening. They're looking all over the place for places. And that's because there is a good spirit. There's a new -- a renewed spirit. And also, very importantly, the tariffs are. They don't want to pay 25 percent or whatever it may be. It may go up higher, maybe go up higher.

Look, the higher it goes, the more likely it is they're going to build. And ultimately the biggest win is not the tariff. That's a big win. That's a lot of money. But the biggest win is if they move into our country and produce jobs. That's a bigger win than the tariffs themselves. But the tariffs are going to be throwing off a lot of money to this country.

And we've been ripped off for years by other countries, many, many decades. And they were doing the same thing. But I think we'll do it better. And I think we have a bigger advantage because we really are the piggy bank. They weren't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. President. You've also mentioned rebuilding the American. I guess. What's your strategy to lower the overall cost of living, make everyday expenses more?

TAPPER: All right. It seems like we're having some sort of issue there at the Business Roundtable. You've been listening to the president speaking at the business roundtable in DC. We're also following some breaking news in our other major story in Washington, DC. In just moments, the House of Representatives is going to vote on the Republican spending bill to fund the federal government in hopes of averting a government shutdown.

Republicans hope to present a united front given that they have control of the House and the Senate and the White House. Joining us now to discuss Republican Congressman Brandon Gill of Texas, a freshman, a member of the House Oversight Committee.

Congressman, apologize for the interruption there, but you can take it up with Mr. Trump. How will you vote? And is your party united? We understand Congressman Massie of Kentucky is a no. Are there any other no's?

REP. BRANDON GILL (R-TX): Well, first of all, thank you for having me on, Jake, and I am a strong yes on this. And as soon as we get done here, I'm going to head right to the House floor and stick my voting card in the terminal and vote yes.

This is a funding bill that will keep the government open, that provides about $500 million for desperately needed border security funding. It also provides the largest pay increase for junior servicemen, enlisted men in 40 years. That's something that everybody should be able to get behind, whether you're a Republican or a Democrat. We'll see how the vote goes today. I think that we'll get everybody on the Republican side, minus, of course, Mr. Massie, who has already said that he's a no, but I think we're going to get everybody else.

TAPPER: So your colleague, Mr. Massie, Congressman Massie of Kentucky, said earlier today it was a hard no on the bill. And he added, quote, I guess deficits only matter when we're in the minority, unquote. Now, this is your first such legislation, so I'm not going to judge you too harshly. But does Congressman Massie have a point?

GILL: Well, listen, I agree with his concerns. Broadly speaking, we have got to get our debt and deficit under control. President Trump inherited an economy and a government that is bankrupt, running $2 trillion deficits every single year. Unfortunately, he also inherited an appropriations process that has been busted.

And the reality is that we just don't have and haven't had the time to bring us back to regular order to run a regular appropriation process.

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So what this CR does is it buys us more time as President Trump and DOGE are doing their incredible work that they're doing in identifying waste, fraud and abuse across the federal government. That process takes time. This gives us the time that we need to identify that waste, then quantify it and then figure out how we're going to cut it.

And I think that, you know, we'll see further measures after this CR to cut some of that spending even for this current fiscal year. So, you know, I don't like CRs, nobody does. But I think that this is 100 percent the correct play call from the President and I am fully supportive of it.

TAPPER: I want to get your reaction to something Elon Musk said just yesterday. Take a listen.

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ELON MUSK, DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY: The race report in entitlement spending, which is all of the, which is most of the federal spending is entitlements. So that's like the big one to eliminate is that's the sort of half trillion, maybe 6,700 billion a year.

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TAPPER: Do you really think there's $700 billion a year in waste and fraud in programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security?

GILL: Well, I can tell you what the nonpartisan GAO has identified and we had a hearing on this earlier today. They've identified what they believe to be about 500 billion dollars just in fraudulent payments across the federal government. That's Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. This is not payments that are legitimately going to people who deserve

it and actually should be getting this money. This is fraud. They've identified on top of that $161 billion just last year in what they believe to be improper payments.

So there's an enormous amount of waste, fraud and abuse in our federal government. That's why the DOGE work that they're doing is so important. You know, for decades Congress has been trying to figure out what's going on at the executive branch where they're spending and doling out all of this money.

And finally we're getting some answers. And I think that the American people are shocked by it. And you know, I think in the coming months you're going to see some action from Congress to get rid of this as well.

TAPPER: Republican Congressman Brandon Gill, the great state of Texas. Thank you, sir. Good to see you as always.

GILL: Thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: And more breaking news. Ukraine has agreed to a 30-day cease fire with Russia. This was a deal proposed by the United States. What about Russia? What is Vladimir Putin saying about this? We'll get into that next.

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MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: Today we made an offer that the Ukrainians have accepted, which is to enter into a ceasefire and into immediate negotiations to end this conflict in a way that's enduring and sustainable.

MIKE WALTZ, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: The President has decided to lift the pause on aid and on our security assistance to Ukraine going forward, and that's effective immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: You just saw there U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump's National Security Adviser, former Congressman Mike Waltz. After more than eight hours of diplomatic -- diplomatic talks in Saudi Arabia with Ukrainian officials, the ball is now in Russia's court, according to the U.S. delegation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the ceasefire covers not just the Black Sea, but the entire front line. Let's get right to CNN's Matthew Chance as well as CNN national security analyst, Beth Sanner. Matthew, to you first, Trump, the President also mentioned he would likely talk to Putin next week. You've just been in Russia covering Russia. How likely do you think Putin's buy in is? MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, he faces a big choice, doesn't he? I mean, look, you know, whether or not he accepts this, or if he does accept it, rather, I think -- I think the sort of balance of opinion is that is likely to go along with it in these initial stages. It's -- it's going to have to involve some serious compromises of Russia's war aims, which is something that Putin has repeatedly said he would never do.

I mean, just last week when I was there, he sat down with the mothers of, you know, 20 mothers of dead soldiers on International Women's Day on March 8th. And he -- he promised them that he would not make any compromises when it came to what he still calls the special military operation. But if he accepts this, these ceasefire proposals, there's all sorts of things going to be left on the table.

Territorial compromises from the Russian point of view, denazification, you know, whatever that is. You know, how -- how is that going to be implemented? The security on Russia's western flank, there -- there's certainly going to be all sorts of conditions that Putin is going to want to negotiate if it's going to accept these proposals. Because if he doesn't accept them, of course, then he risks incurring the, well, the wrath of President Trump. Who knows where -- where that would lead. Certainly that's the kind of unpredictability that Moscow doesn't want.

TAPPER: And Beth, Secretary Rubio said multiple times that the reason this deal that Ukraine has agreed to came about is because Ukraine is ready to stop the fighting. Let's listen in.

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RUBIO: What we left levier with today is a commitment that the Ukrainians are ready to stop fighting. They're ready to stop the shooting so that they can get to the table and bring about peace for their country and for the world.

TAPPER: Now, critics say that Secretary Rubio, like that almost sounds like Ukraine was the aggressor in -- in this. What's your response?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, yes, it's certainly not a statement that you would hear if a Biden administration person said it. But look, we're on a different spectrum of what people say. And the statement congratulates and lauds Ukraine for its courageous fight for its country. You know, so that's good. It talks about long term security. It talks about return of POW and those tens of thousands of children who have been stolen from Ukraine.

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So it talks about a lot of things. It's a win for Ukraine and it gives them a chance now to flip the narrative that -- that, as you said, the ball is in Russia court -- Russia's court. And now if Russia wants to be the bad guy, as Matthew said, you know, Putin has to decide.

TAPPER: All right, Beth Sanner and Matthew Chance, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. Again, today, the White House is defending the controversial arrest of anti-Israel activist who led protests at Columbia University and is not an American citizen. They're trying to deport him. See the documents CNN obtained the Trump administration says are evidence that his organization was pushing Hamas propaganda, as well as a discussion of the long list of questions the White House has yet to answer about this.

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KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is an individual who organized group protests that not only disrupted college campus classes and harassed Jewish American students and made them feel unsafe on their own college campus, but also distributed pro Hamas profit propaganda flyers with the logo of Hamas. And I have those flyers on my desk. They were provided to me by the Department of Homeland Security. I thought about bringing them into this briefing room to share with all of you, but I didn't think it was worth the dignity of this room.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Our National Lead now, the White House continuing to dig in on the arrest and attempted deportation of anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University amid serious free speech concerns from protesters and civil rights groups. CNN has now obtained the very images of the flyers that you heard Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt referring to. A White House official tells us that it is the, quote, Hamas propaganda distributed by the group organized by Khalil, unquote. A judge has blocked Khalil's deportation for now. A hearing is set for tomorrow.

Joining us now, Nic -- Nico Perino from the Foundation of Individual Rights and Expression or FIRE. And CNN's Priscilla Alvarez. Priscilla, tell us more about the White House and what they had to say about the arrest today.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, the White House is suggesting this is certainly not the end of the road, that they are looking for more people, that they are targeting more activists that fall under a very specific legal provision. I have learned through my sources some of what happened here behind the scenes, being that the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, had been the one that approved over the weekend the targeting of these activists for their arrest and detention.

There were two in particular, one of which we know now has been publicly detained, arrested and detained. And what they're using here is a very rare legal provision and it essentially gives authority to the Secretary of State to determine if someone is a threat to U.S. foreign policy. This is stated in immigration law and that is what they plan to use in the future as well. That's what sources tell me will be the basis of these arrests.

Now, again, the White House press secretary saying that a list had been submitted to Colombia and also claiming that they have not cooperated. Take a listen.

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LEAVITT: I do know that DHS is actively working on it and I also know that Columbia University has been given the names of other individuals who have engaged in pro-Hamas activity and they are refusing to help DHS identify those individuals on campus. And as the President said very strongly in his statement yesterday, he is not going tolerate that. And we expect -- expect all America's colleges and universities to comply with this administration's policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, Trump officials had said quite clearly coming in that they were planning to go to -- to look at these activists on campuses. This has been talked about on the campaign trail. This is part of that effort. And as you mentioned, Jake, there will be a hearing tomorrow. We will hear more from both sides.

TAPPER: And just to reiterate, I know you said it all right, but this is for non-citizens, people who are citizens of other countries, who are here legally but under various visas or green cards or what have you. Nico, let me ask you, let's bring up these flyers again that the White House got us. They show former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, we should remember, remind people, Hamas, the U.S. government considers Hamas to be a terrorist group. Former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah, also labeled a terrorist group by the U.S. a reference to the October 7th massacre of 1,200 Israelis from the Hamas media office with their logo.

Now, these flyers were distributed by the group that Khalil did negotiate for. It's called the Columbia University Apartheid Divest, or CUAD. We have not been told at all that Khalil, that Mahmoud Khalil directly was distributing this. They just say the group he was part of distributed this. Is that enough to justify deportation?

NICO PERRINO, EXECUTIVE VP, FDN. FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND EXPRESSION: Certainly not. And the fliers themselves are not enough. This press secretary used the word propaganda. What's another word for propaganda? Speech. And that's the problem here, is that were talking about expression. Now, there were questions when Mr. Khalil was detained as to whether it was the unlawful conduct that we saw at Columbia University post October 7th or the protected free expression. And that stuff gets muddied.

But what we've seen subsequent to that is Marco Rubio and President Trump come out and say that they are targeting for Mr. Khalil's viewpoint. And that's a problem in this country. We have the First Amendment. We can't tell people you can come to this country, but when you get here, you better watch what you say. And I think that's the message that's being sent to foreigners who are in this country right now. TAPPER: And Priscilla, what are you going to be looking for at -- at tomorrow's hearing?

ALVAREZ: Well, to your point, the bottom line here is, is this free speech or does it go with the adverse effect to foreign policy as this immigration law states? Now, look, this is going to be what the judge is going to have to parse through because the government will have to give their argument here. We've only heard bits and pieces of it. And then we'll hear from the attorney, who's already teased that they will be talking about free speech in this case.

[17:45:12]

So certainly what we'll be looking out for is how exactly the judge comes down on this. So far he has said or halted efforts to deport him. But this is really going to be a case of can you -- does this amount to material support of -- of a terrorist organization or was this free speech on campus?

TAPPER: And Nico, your organization, FIRE, which advocates for free speech for left, right, center, it doesn't matter, wrote a letter to administration officials, Trump administration officials about the arrest. You asked some key questions. What's the specific and factual reason for his arrest and detention? What's the specific and legal reason for his green card revocation? If he's going to be afforded due process rights at all, if the basis for all this is speech protected by the First Amendment? You gave him a close of business deadline today. It's 5:45. Have you heard back?

PERRINO: I haven't heard back yet. But I think we have learned something about the reasons for his arrest and detention. And as you were mentioning, it has to do with adversarial impact on foreign policy and national security. Now we have to remember that J.D. Vance was just in Europe a few weeks ago, premised an entire speech on free speech being necessary for America's national security, chastising the Europeans for their censorship.

Now here we are censoring people because of their viewpoints. President Trump mentioned in a Truth Social post that they'd be targeting people engaged in anti-American activity on college campuses. What does it mean to be anti-American in America right now? Are we going to set up another House on American Activities Committee? How are we going to figure this out? That's the problem here. It's very vague. The lines aren't clear. And as a result, you're going to have a chilling effect on speech on campus and beyond.

TAPPER: And again, we don't haven't -- we haven't been told yet directly that he himself was even handing out misinformation.

PERRINO: No, we don't. No. And that's why we were asking the administration --

TAPPER: Yes.

PERRINO: -- in our letter, what's the factual basis? What's the legal basis on which you're arresting upon? In 2018, Trump's Department of Justice said that it's unsettled law whether foreigners have free speech rights in this country. They have cases that go both ways. And whether this case for Mr. Khalil is going to be the one that the Supreme Court answers that question or it's another case. It needs to be answered. Because right now I think there are a lot of people in this country who don't know what they can say.

TAPPER: Interesting. All right, Nico Perrino and Priscilla Alvarez, thanks to both you. Really appreciate it.

On Capitol Hill right now, the vote aiming to prevent a federal government shutdown. Can Speaker Mike Johnson hold enough Republicans? We're going to wait for the final vote count on the House floor. We'll be right back.

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[17:52:25]

TAPPER: Breaking news from Capitol Hill. The House of Representatives just passed that Republican spending bill to avoid a government shutdown on Friday night. Now the bill goes to the U.S. Senate. Let's get right to CNN's Manu Raju on Capitol Hill for us. Manu, what was the vote at?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Two hundred and seventeen to 213, Jake, by the almost the narrowest of margins in this bitterly divided Republican-led House, this bill passes with one Republican voting against this plan. That was Thomas Massie of Kentucky. One Democrat voting for it, that's Jared Golden. He is a moderate Democrat from a swing district in Maine voting to advance this plan, sending it to the United States Senate.

Now this -- this bill is essentially they're going to be left as a take it or leave it proposition with the United States Senate because right now, members are streaming down the steps of the United States House. They're leaving pound, Jake, for about a week and a half right now. And there are such a say daring Senate Democrats to block this bill. Republicans are, they're saying, you want to block this bill, then there's going to be a government shutdown by Friday midnight if this bill is not ultimately passed.

And Democrats are very concerned about this bill because of the domestic spending cuts that are in this measure, which is why House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries tried to rally opposition behind this bill, arguing that it'd be devastating to some key domestic programs. And there is now major tension, Jake, growing in the ranks because there are a lot of Democrats in the House who are calling on Senate Democrats to kill this bill.

But a lot of Senate Democrats right now are holding out their positions, not seeing how they will ultimately come down. And that's why some members, like this one Congressman Hank Johnson of Georgia, are warning their Senate Democrats not to back the Republican position.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RAJU: If they vote for this, allow this to go forward, allow this to become law without getting anything in return, without trying to constrain Trump, what message would it send to your voters?

REP. HANK JOHNSON (D-GA): It would be a capitulation to the Trump style of democracy, which is the movement of democracy to dictatorship.

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-OR): Recognize that this version of the continuing resolution was written completely by Republicans. It contains a whole set of provisions that President Trump wanted. To me, we're just rolling -- rolling over and saying, let Trump have his way. And that's why Hell no. I'm a hell no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: But the problem is this, Jake, there are a lot of Democrats who are more concerned about the possibility of a government shutdown, and they may ultimately vote to -- to essentially enact this into law. That, as you heard from those members right there, that would cause a lot of anger in the ranks. This was their Democrats first piece of leverage to go -- to push back against everything the Trump administration has done so far. But the question is, will they get anything out of this or will this ultimately become law with Democratic support in the Senate? Jake?

[17:55:18]

TAPPER: So, Manu, just to walk us through quickly, do they need Democratic votes in the Senate for this to pass, given the fact that the Republicans have 53 seats there? And what are the Democrats going to do?

RAJU: Yes. And we expect one Republican in the Senate to vote against it, Rand Paul. So that means that we need eight Democrats to break a filibuster where 60 votes are needed in the United States Senate. And the question is, what will Chuck Schumer do? He is holding his cards close to his vets, Jake. He said he was going to wait to the House to act. We'll see what he says now.

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TAPPER: All right. Well, the House acted. He needs to tell us what he's going to do. Manu Raju on Capitol Hill, thanks so much.\

Some major news coming in. Sources tell CNN that the U.S. Education Department is expected to slash about half of its workforce. Those cuts are set to start tonight. The specifics coming up.

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