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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Trump Escalates Trade War With Sweeping New Tariffs; Former USAID Worker Says Pregnant Wife Denied Medical Evacuation; Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) Says, Democrats Lost In 2024, We're A Fractured Party; Rare Maximum Level Tornado Threat In Effect For Several States; Versatile Actor Val Kilmer Dies At 65. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired April 02, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

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[18:00:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome to the Lead. I'm Jake Tapper.

And this hour President Donald Trump is stepping up his massive global trade war, announcing sweeping new tariffs against countries around the globe. President Trump calling it a declaration of economic independence, he calls it liberation day. It is almost certainly to liberate more money from your wallet. It could push the United States economy closer to recession, according to economists.

Also the harrowing real world impacts of Trump's cuts to USAID, why one mother, an American, says the U.S. abandoned her and dozens of other families during their most pressing times of need. You won't want to miss that report.

And millions of Americans in the path of severe weather this evening as a rare high tornado risk threatens the Central United States. Our meteorologists are in the CNN Extreme Weather Center getting minute- by-minute updates. We will bring them to you.

The Lead Tonight, President Trump rolling out those reciprocal tariffs, he calls them, that he has been promising. We're watching the immediate impacts here at home and around the world.

Let's go to Jeff Zeleny at the White House. Jeff, what's the latest from there?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, President Trump declared a national emergency and he announced one of the most sweeping tariff plans we have seen in decades here. The president talked about this as a means of fairness, but the question is for allies and adversaries alike, how will they view this? The second shoe surely to fall already as other countries are watching these retaliatory tariffs that could hit all sectors of the American economy from the ag sector to the lumber sector, to the pharmaceutical sector and more. But this is how President Trump described it in the Rose Garden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: In short, chronic trade deficits are no longer merely an economic problem. They're a national emergency that threatens our security and our very way of life. It's a very great threat to our country. And for these reasons, starting tomorrow, the United States will implement reciprocal tariffs on other nations. It's been a long time since we even thought of that. We used to think about it a lot. We didn't think about it for many decades.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Many decades there, the president said, and that is at least the World War II era. You have to go back to this type of trade policy that is going to begin.

Jake, the fallout from this is far reaching, as other countries are learning what these retaliatory -- what the reciprocal tariffs will be. They are sure to respond with retaliatory tariffs. Just a few examples here, the U.S. already had a 20 percent tariff on China. Now, in addition to the 34 percent that was announced this afternoon, that's a 54 percent tariff on China goods. Think of what that could do for the economy.

So, there is so much concern, really, throughout the economic world from Republicans as well. But earlier today, here, Senate Republicans who were on the Budget Committee were meeting with the administration. That's important because this tariff announcement, along with the budgeting plan is designed to extend the Trump tax cuts, if you will. So, some of this revenue, of course, is needed for that.

But, Jake, this is the biggest gamble of the Trump presidency so far. There's no doubt about it. The markets overseas already reacting in a very negative way. We'll see what they do here in the U.S. Jake?

TAPPER: All right. Jeff Zeleny, thanks so much.

Let's bring in CNN's Paula Newton as well as Danny Freeman. Paula, you are in Canada right now. Trump, notably left out Canada while making today's announcement. How does that impact the trade war that's been building up between the U.S. and Canada?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I still think it's fair to say that here in Canada they'll still see it as a war. And the reason is because while this is a reprieve, there still isn't any certainty, Jake. And certainly, we have seen the government here react quite strongly and they will continue to react strongly.

One thing that's up for questioning right now is whether or not Canada will impose retaliatory tariffs. There were some $60, $65 billion on the table. We're waiting to hear from Prime Minister Mark Carney in the next hour, and he might give some clarity on that perhaps tomorrow. But I want to make clear here that, Jake, the trade deal that Donald Trump signed was frictionless mostly, right? He signed that in 2020. This adds a lot of friction to trade for Canada and it will affect Canada quite a bit, even if it's been given this reprieve.

[18:05:03] I want you to look at something now though that refers to that trade deal and it talks about goods that are USMCA-compliant. They will be zero tariff. Things that are non USMCA-compliant will still get the 25 percent tariff. And then they talk about energy and potash, something the United States needs from Canada, and that is only subject the White House says to a 10 percent tariff.

You can see where I'm going with this in terms of the complication. As I said, it adds friction, it adds more costs, and it really does, at this point in time, affect the tenor, the tone, you know, what was in that trade agreement and what this was supposed to mean between Canada and the United States.

And, Jake, I'm not even getting to the point that the government here is quite thankful that Donald Trump has stopped talking about Canada as a 51st state, but they have made very clear, this government, at least, the one that's in power now, we have an election on April 28th, that there's no going back here. They are going to try and diversify trade from the United States and also try and diversify the security relationship. Because right now, as the foreign minister here called it, she called it a psychodrama and they do not want to continue this month after month.

TAPPER: And, Danny Freeman, you're outside Philly in Delaware County, a blue collar suburb. You've been on the ground at an auto dealership there in the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Are they seeing any impact at all on sales?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And, Jake, when it comes to sales, it certainly seems like it, especially when it comes to vehicles and cars. We met someone named Rosa Scott earlier today. She said that she came to this dealership here in Delco over the weekend and it was packed. And while she was thinking about buying a new Jeep Wrangler maybe in a couple of months, she told us once she saw that and once she heard more about the news about the tariffs, she came back here today to pick up her car and buy it and drive it off the lot, because she said, frankly, Jake, that she could not afford it if the price went up.

And know what I'm talking about here. I'm talking about a Jeep Wrangler. We're at a dealership right here that mostly sells American cars, Jeeps, Dodges, Rams, Chryslers, and yet still the owner of the dealership emphasized that these American cars will still be impacted, not only because some of the cars by these companies actually are straight imported from either Canada or Mexico. We also saw a car here that was imported from as far as Italy, but also there are the looming threats of tariffs on auto parts that are being imported as well. And a lot of these Jeeps right here, they have auto parts from all over the world as well. So, that's part of the challenge here and that's part of the risk still to American cars.

I want you to take a listen to how the owner of this dealership really emphasized the specific cost to say middle class families that could be faced here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAVE KELLEHER, PRESIDENT, DAVID AUTO GROUP: That car could go from $30,000 ostensibly to $37,500, and it's that quick. And that kind of change in a price moves that payment $175 a month. And our customers, they're middle class people. They just can't afford that kind of bump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Now, one thing I'll note, Jake, that the owner noted and experts I spoke with today noted as well, the cars that are on the lot right now, they have already gotten past these tariffs. So, there will be a little bit of time for folks to buy these cars without that penalty until these new cars with the tariffs start coming in. Jake?

TAPPER: All right. Danny Freeman in Delco. Paula Newton in Canada, thanks to both of you.

Let's bring in Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California. Congressman, over the weekend, you posted ahead of Trump's announcement, got hand it to Trump, he has brought China, Japan, South Korea together in an economic alliance against us, almost impossible to do, given their history. Maybe China will nominate him for his coveted Nobel. It's obviously a little cheeky reference to the fact that the enemies of Japan, South Korea, and with China are all coming together in opposition to this. Are you worried about this economic alliance forming in like in a long lasting way?

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): I'm very worried. Look, I share the president's goal of making us a manufacturing superpower. I share his frustration that 90,000 factories closed since 2000 and that there was a huge mistake of globalization. But why would you put tariffs on Japan? Why are you putting tariffs in the same way on South Korea? Focus the tariffs on China, not blanket tariffs on our allies. And that is really driving not just Japan and South Korea to China, it risks driving some of Europe into China's sphere. And our biggest challenge, as Tom Friedman wrote this morning in The New York Times, is China. We should be viewing them as the peer competitor.

TAPPER: I want to ask you, there's another big story breaking this afternoon, Politico reporting, Dasha Burns, that Mike Waltz's staff, Mike Waltz, obviously the national security adviser, that they were using Signal for at least 20 other foreign policy discussions obviously a week ago and change.

[18:10:07]

There was that scandal really when they when Waltz accidentally put Jeff Goldberg on a Signal chat. A spokesman for the National Security Council says, quote, it is one of the approved methods of communicating but is not the primary, or even secondary it is, pardon me, one of the host of approved methods for unclassified material with the understanding that a user must preserve the record. Any claim of use for classified information is 100 percent untrue. But, of course, we saw that there was classified material in the Signal chat that Jeffrey Goldberg from the Atlantic was in included on. What's your response to this explanation and to this story from Dasha Burns of Politico? KHANNA: Well, it's real disappointment. Look, I know Mike Waltz. We chaired the India Council, India Caucus together when he was in Congress. We had a good relationship. He was on the Armed Services Committees. He knows better. He would never have classified information on the Armed Services Committee on a Signal chat. You'd use Signal as Congress members do to discuss policy, not to discuss information in a SCIF.

And I guess what I'd ask him and I'd ask Hegseth is to come before the Armed Services, Mike Waltz served on the Armed Services Committee, and explain what happened and accept some accountability. When Lloyd Austin was not present for three days, the Armed Services Committee called him immediately, and we had a hearing within two weeks on that. Well, why aren't we having a hearing on this Signal issue where both Pete Hegseth and Mike Waltz come and explain what went on and how they're going to make sure this never happens again.

TAPPER: On Monday, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the case is closed on the signal scandal. Do you think there is going to be? I mean, Republicans control the House, Republicans control the Senate, Republicans control the White House. I don't see any way that this is going to become more of an issue, or even that Hegseth or Waltz will say, look, we get it, we're not going to do it again, we understand mistakes were made, et cetera, unless Republicans do something about it.

KHANNA: I totally agree. And, look, Jake, Republicans have been very reluctant, even in private, to criticize Donald Trump on almost anything. I don't want to mention names, but there are Republicans on the Armed Services Committee who, in private, are very concerned with what happened on Signal. And I think on this issue, which cuts across parties, which is about our national security, you are going to have Republicans speaking up. So, the White House is delusional if they think this is just going to go away. It's frankly the first time I've heard in private Republicans criticizing the administration.

TAPPER: Interesting. Congressman Ro Khanna of California, always good to see you, sir, thank you so much for being here.

KHANNA: Thank you, Jake.

TAPPER: Coming up next, I'm going to be joined by a mother, an American, who says her family's suffering because of President Trump and Elon Musk's cuts to the federal government. She says that the United States abandoned her.

Plus, CNN's Manu Raju just caught up with Senator Cory Booker after he broke the record for the longest Senate floor speech in the history of these United States. What does Booker think Democrats need to do now to build on that momentum?

Stay with us.

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[18:15:00] TAPPER: In our World Lead, buildings in Myanmar continue to collapse five days after that powerful earthquake killed more than 2,700 people by official count and injured thousands more according to the country's military-run government. On Monday, the U.S. State Department pledged $2 million of aid to Myanmar, but the response of course follows the Trump administration's efforts to completely dismantle USAID by shuttering lifesaving programs and laying off thousands of foreign service workers around the globe, many of them American citizens, such as Charlee Doom. Charlee Doom is a conflict specialist. She often risked her life working for the U.S. State Department in places such as Somalia and Myanmar.

When Charlee learned, she'd been laid off, she was serving at that time as the deputy director for economic growth and food security coordinator for Burma for USAID, and was based in Thailand, along with her family, which included a small child and a pregnant wife, at the time her wife was 31 weeks pregnant and suffering medical complications deemed life-threatening to both her and the baby. But their request for a medical evacuation was denied, not once, but twice by the U.S. State Department. The family has been stuck in Bangkok, Thailand, where her wife just gave birth.

And here now joining us is Charlee Doom, who might be a little bit distracted right now. Congratulations on the birth of your beautiful daughter. I'm so glad that that part of the story it ended up okay. On top of all the stress and trying to come back home to the United States, there was, of course, the earthquake. We're showing right now the damage to where you and your family were living and an image of your wife who was afraid your apartment building was collapsing and had to run down 15 flights of stairs barefoot after being on bed rest for seven weeks, 37 weeks pregnant. How are you and your family doing during this time?

CHARLEE DOOM, FORMER FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICER: Considering all we've been through and over the last seven weeks, I'd say we're doing really well. We're resilient and I think that we represent all of the USAID employees around the world in being really capable under duress.

TAPPER: When the Trump administration placed you on leave, you moved quickly to secure a medical evacuation for your wife. And the State Department denied you that request twice. What were the reasons you were denied?

DOOM: My wife was the first person that I have been able to find in the entire 61-year history of USAID that was denied an obstetric medical evacuation, which is a standard right of all Foreign Service officers and their families.

[18:20:07]

And she was denied that right because Peter Marocco and others that are part of this administration deemed the funding for medical evacuation and hospitalization support for USAID officer wasn't necessary. And so they zeroed that line item out.

TAPPER: You have spoken to U.S. senators and members of the House for help. Have they been supportive at all? And now that your wife has given birth and thankfully your baby girl's okay, what are the next steps to get you all back to the United States?

DOOM: We've been really thankful for several senators and representatives that have been extraordinarily supportive. It started with Mitch McConnell reaching out initially to overturn the denial, the first two denials of the medical evacuation. Unfortunately, that wasn't -- it didn't happen in time and my wife did hemorrhage and then spent, as you mentioned, seven weeks on bed rest in between hospitals and at home.

And so what does it look like going forward? So, we fortunately had this baby, we're going to spend the next probably eight weeks trying to get the necessary paperwork to get her back to the United States safely because my wife has had a hemorrhage and also lost more blood during the C-section than she should have.

She is again still at increased risk for further hemorrhage. So, we're going to try to keep her on light duty as much as possible and make sure that she's healthy before we get on a plane to get back to America at some point.

TAPPER: It's just inhumane. Just -- I mean, you're American citizens. I don't even understand it. You've also spoken to multiple USAID families who also are in pregnancies, situations, and in limbo, who are also trying to get home for medical care. What have they told you?

DOOM: There are more than 70 other pregnant and postpartum families that I've identified since February 11th when I sent out a note to colleagues to see who else was in a similar boat. In the time since February 11th, three of those families have experienced miscarriages. Six of those families have had preterm births with multiple babies spending extensive time in NICU. These are all things that didn't need to happen. These are women and families that should have been supported by the United States government because they were overseas on deployment with the United States government.

And take one other example, one of my friends gave birth. She was fortunately able to ultimately medevac because of the advocacy that I've been doing, and she was able to medevac to Oregon and deliver there. But because of all of the stress that she was put under, she had to be induced several weeks early. And one day after her baby was delivered, she got her reduction in force notice one day postpartum.

And she can't think about her baby. She can't think about lactation, breastfeeding her baby, caring for her baby, because she's wondering how she's going to keep a roof over their heads, how she's going to ensure that her other two children are able to go to school. It's unconscionable what's been done to all of these women.

TAPPER: You are currently pursuing legal remedies for your situation. You've shared with our team that you're concerned about retaliation. Why is it important for you to speak out now about your story? And if Secretary of State Marco Rubio were watching right now, what would you want to say to him? DOOM: If I had the chance to speak with Secretary Rubio, I would speak to him parent to parent and say, I know you have, I believe, four children. You're a dad. You are a father. Let us be mothers. Let us be fathers in dignified and respected ways. Let us know where we're going to be living safely with our newborns instead of literally being left on a razor's edge week after week.

It has been seven weeks of hell for us, and this should have been one of the most joyous times of our life. And it has literally been completely robbed of each one of these families. There's just so many different instances where what is being done to us is intentionally cruel.

And America is better than this. I've been representing the United States of America overseas for 13 years, and I've always been proud to be an American. I'm from a rural community in Central Kentucky. I'm proud to have come from very little, to be able to represent the best of America overseas.

I'm having a really hard time understanding how the face of America right now is the face that my child can look forward to projecting herself in 25, 30 years.

[18:25:11]

TAPPER: It's not pro-life. It's not pro-family, I'll say that.

Charlee Doom, thank you so much for your courage, sharing your story, and best of luck to you and your family.

DOOM: Thank you.

TAPPER: CNN reached out to the U.S. State Department for comment on this story. We have yet to hear back. If we do, we will bring you their response.

A new book offering, a bleak assessment of the state of the Democratic Party, which has not regrouped, recovered, realigned ever since the 2024 election loss. Behind the scenes, details of party in fighting surrounding that election loss, next.

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[18:30:00]

TAPPER: In our Politics Lead, Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill heaping praise on Democratic Senator Cory Booker after Booker delivered a record chattering marathon speech on the U.S. Senate floor speaking for 25 hours, 4 minutes straight in protest of President Trump and his administration.

CNN's Manu Raju joins us now. Manu, what are Democrats saying today about whether this inspires any sort of path forward?

MANU RAJU, CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's a lot of Democrats that I spoke with said that this is precisely what Democratic voters have been calling for, to show in the vote view of some voters more spine, more fight against Donald Trump. Even though they are in the minority and have very little leverage on Capitol Hill, they want to do things that are more perhaps theatrical or more just to show that they are standing up to the Trump agenda. That's precisely what they said that Cory Booker did over 25 hours and 4 minutes in the longest floor speech in history and standing up, not taking a break, not moving, leaving the Senate floor or even going to the bathroom over that period of time.

I did catch up with Cory Booker about the message he tried to send and about the grueling nature of standing up in the Senate and delivering that speech overnight through the day and without even having to being able to leave the chamber.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ): I mean, my spirit's soaring, my body is definitely weary.

RAJU: Yes?

BOOKER: Yes.

RAJU: What did you do to recover?

BOOKER: Not enough yet. I went home and I couldn't even fall asleep.

I tried to make it about bigger than just the partisan politics and really about the moral issues. As I told my mom, I said, I felt like I was healing during the journey because, clearly, Democrats have made a lot of mistakes.

Look, we lost elections. There was a noble contest in this country for whose ideas, vision, communication. And we lost. We lost the Senate, we lost the House. We're a fractured party.

But I'm hoping everybody, including people who just want a better country, take a hard look in the mirror and say, how did we end up here?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And I also asked Cory Booker about his own plans. There's been a lot of speculation in the aftermath of his speech that this is a launching pad of sorts for a 2028 presidential bid. I asked him about that. He didn't precisely go that far, Jake. He said that he is looking instead at his own reelection to the Senate, and that, of course, is next year in 2026. The 2028 question will come later. Jake?

TAPPER: Okay. Manu Raju, thanks so much. I appreciate it.

As Democrats try to get their groove back in their fight against President Trump and the GOP, a new book out this week shows just how dire morale is within the party. It shares new details about all the infighting that occurred throughout the 2024 election. That book is called Fight, Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House. Authors Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes join me now. The book was just published yesterday. Congratulations to both of you.

Amie, let me start with you. Near the end of the book, you framed the 2024 election this way for Democrats. You say, quote, Democrats tried to break Donald Trump. Instead they shattered again. They said they were saving the country, the presidency and the Congress from Trump and his MAGA movement, they saved nothing, not even themselves. Democrats lost everything, including their friendships.

Based on your interviews with top Democrats then and now, is the party still in the shambles it was November, December of last year?

AMIE PARNES, CO-AUTHOR, FIGHT: It's honestly even worse right now, Jake. And I think they're scrambling to find out who their leader is, but they're also in the midst of an identity crisis. They don't know who they are right now. They don't know what their message is.

And, you know, I've said this repeatedly over the last couple days, but I think what they need to do and what I think a lot of strategists are telling me is that they need to almost burn the house down, but not only burn the house down, accept some accountability and say, this is what went wrong. This is what we need to do now and, you know, responsibility for President Biden and maybe not getting him out sooner. And, you know, they really need to have a little bit of introspection here.

TAPPER: And, Jon, the night that Biden dropped out in July and endorsed Harris as the Democratic nominee, Governor Tim Walz called Harris, you guys report, and he pitched himself to be her number two. He says, quote, I'm the one who can do this, he told her. Was Walz always going to be her pick, even from day one, do you think? And do you think he will run in 2028?

JONATHAN ALLEN, CO-AUTHOR, FIGHT: He was always most likely to be her pick. There was a small set of people, it was a short run to do the vetting process. There were problems with most of the other candidates that she was looking at. And the big thing that I think the folks around her worried about was that she might pick somebody who could overshadow her.

And they were not worried about that with Tim Walz in particular, Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania, your home state, Jake. Governor Shapiro was somebody who was very much in the mix. I think he had his own considerations when he went in and met with the vetting team. He started treating the situation like a negotiation, sort of said, here's what I would want to do with the vice presidential role.

[18:35:05]

It was clear that he was ambitious. That didn't match up with what the Harris folks wanted. Whether he was preserving himself for a future run and sabotaging himself or simply being who he was and saying, this is what I need to be a vice presidential candidate, in the end, it was not going to be him. It was not a good match for Harris. Walz was a better personal match for her.

Is he going to be a candidate in 2028? I think he thinks he's going to be a candidate in 2028, but I'm not sure that he showed the Democratic Party or the American people that he had what it took in 2024 to be particularly helpful to Kamala Harris. And if he's going to do that in 2028, he's really going to have to improve.

TAPPER: And, Amie, one Harris advisor told you guys about the election loss, quote, I don't think we needed more time, we needed more substance, and she did not have more substance. Is that how a lot of members of her own campaign felt, that there wasn't enough substance to Kamala Harris?

PARNES: Yes. I think in retrospect, they felt like there wasn't -- they weren't doing the media interviews they needed to do. There was no clear message when this election was about the economy, and they made it about so many different things. And they really should have made it about the economy and maybe immigration.

But the issues that people care about, I think Donald Trump was a little more clear about what he planned to do, like him or hate him. He just ran a better campaign. It was a more -- it was a tighter campaign and Susie Wiles ran a tighter ship. In the past he ran a chaotic campaign, and so it was different in that way. But I think they need to really hone in on their grassroots operation, fundraising and message. Most importantly, they lacked a message in this election.

TAPPER: And, Jon, on the matter of Susie Wiles, then co-campaign manager for Donald Trump, she had an emotional moment. You guys write in your book, Fight, we should call it again, Fight, there it is, had the emotional moment in the days leading up to the Trump assassination attempt. She said to a campaign aide, quote, I just wish people understood what this man goes through. I just worry that if they can't get him this way, they're going to -- they'll try to kill him, unquote. That was a real fear for the campaign and then it happened, thankfully, not successfully.

ALLEN: Yes, absolutely. And I think it's something that that a lot of folks forget about watching Trump this sort of epic comeback, the most epic comeback in, in political history, certainly in all any of our memories, and dating back to to Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison more than a century ago. And this was a fear for his campaign that he might be taken out legally, and then obviously Susie Wildes, who went through all that with him as his campaign manager, was fearful even before the assassination attempt that that might happen. And, of course, you know, blessedly it didn't happen.

TAPPER: The book is Fight, Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House. It is available right now wherever you buy your books. Jon Allen and Amie Parnes are the authors. Thank you so much. Congratulations and I hope to see you guys soon.

ALLEN: Looking forward to your book, Jake.

TAPPER: Thank you so much.

PARNES: Yes, me too.

TAPPER: Cell phone bands are becoming increasingly popular in schools across the country. How much of an impact are they actually having? We're sitting down with some students and teachers to find out.

Stay with us,

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[18:40:00]

TAPPER: In our National Lead, more and more schools are turning to total cell phone bans in order to keep their students from scrolling in class.

CNN's Pamela Brown visited one high school in Virginia to see what this looks like in action and to hear what the teens have to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Raise your hand if you're a fan of this new phone free policy at the school.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's complicated.

BROWN (voice over): This Virginia high school looks like any other during passing periods, but notice one thing's missing.

ALEX HEATON, JUNIOR, WAKEFIELD HIGH SCHOOL: I remember the first day I was sitting in physics, my phone was locked up in my back and I kept reaching for it, but I couldn't. And the only thing I can do was sit on my computer and listen.

BROWN: Wakefield High is a guinea pig of sorts. Students are expected to store their phones in this magnetic locking pouch throughout the day. At first, there was resistance.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People were putting dents and holes in the wall, like there were tables we had to like get fixed

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right after we got them, when I walked into the cafeteria, all you hear is just like the bang.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like it sounded like gunshots.

BROWN: Greg Cabana, a government teacher at Wakefield, noticed it too.

GREG CABANA, GOVERNMENT TEACHER, WAKEFIELD HIGH SCHOOL: The fact that they're banging pouches around the cafeteria trying to unlock their phone, this is proving our point right here of how meaningful and how powerful that phone is.

BROWN: It may be too soon to fully understand the impact of phones on academic performance, especially talking to this group of high performing students.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it depends on who you were before the phone policy.

BROWN: But other benefits inside the classroom are clear. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even just picking it up for a small time can take away from like your learning experience.

BROWN: The 2023 surgeon general's report says, up to 95 percent of kids 13 to 17 use social media. Former Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy even called for tobacco-style warning labels on social media platforms, saying their associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents.

DR. VIVEK MURTHY, FORMER U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: The data also shows when kids are spending more than three hours on average, that they face nearly double the risk, increased risk of depression and anxiety symptoms.

BROWN: But a recent CDC study found about 50 percent of teenagers between ages 12 and 17 had four or more hours of daily screen time.

JAM'HARIE PRICE, JUNIOR, WAKEFIELD HIGH SCHOOL: Every day I go straight to my phone when I get home, don't even think about the homework,

BROWN: But when he's in the walls of Wakefield, he's opening up in other ways.

PRICE: It's definitely helpful with like social issues, for sure, like without the phone.

[18:45:00]

Because like I feel like connect with more people and like have better conversations than I could have had with the phone.

BROWN: Student Karen Mein (ph) says it's led to a new kind of engagement.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Even just like at lunch, you, like, talk to each other, you know, like people bring games to class.

BROWN: You never experienced that kind of engagement.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was just like, and maybe not since kindergarten, maybe not since preschool.

BROWN: And the students and teachers here say less isolation has meant less interpersonal conflict.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There were a lot less fights. I haven't seen any this year.

BROWN: The movement to restrict cell phones in classrooms is growing, with nine states having already passed a ban or restricted cell phone use in schools and 15 states plus the District of Columbia have introduced legislation to do the same. But not every educator is on board, including Brandon Hernandez, a former public school principal in New York. BRANDON CARDET-HERNANDEZ, PRESIDENT, MRS. WORDSMITH: We have to teach

digital literacy. Skills like kids need to know how to use social media. And by -- an outright ban of smartphones in schools. We are not getting any closer to teaching those skills. Kids who are already the most vulnerable and the most under-resourced, schools who are already experiencing skill gaps. Those are the kids who are going to be the most harmed.

BROWN: There's also a very real concern about what happens during an emergency.

ALEX HEATON, JUNIOR, WAKEFIELD HIGH SCHOOL: I know one of the biggest things that people were worried about was if there's like a lockdown and like there's someone in the school and you need to text your parents, and then all the parents would be going crazy because they can't text their kids. They don't know if they're okay.

BROWN: Cabana points out that he thinks phones can do more harm than good in those situations.

GREG CABANA, GOVERNMENT TEACHER, WAKEFIELD HIGH SCHOOL: Misinformation can be put out on phones, incorrect rumors, perhaps panicking when there shouldn't be. That would just be a hindrance to keeping students safe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (on camera): Well, Jake, we're parents. We know how kids can be crafty. So, I asked about the pouch and some of the workarounds that students have found. And yes, they do admit that sometimes maybe they'll put a burner phone in or not put their phone in at all. But the bottom line is, cell phones are not part of the culture at this high school like it was before. When it comes to laptops and iPads, the students say that they don't use those the same way they do with their phones, that those are mainly for educational purposes, not for scrolling through social media -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Ban them all. That's what I say. Ban them all. Pamela Brown, thank you so much.

Millions across the United States at risk for severe weather tonight. Our meteorologists are standing by with the latest forecasts for you and telling you where the storms are headed next.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:51:23]

TAPPER: In our national, you're looking at just one of many homes destroyed by extreme weather in the United States today. This comes as more than 16 million people are under tornado watches across the central United States. And if that was not serious enough, around 1 million of those people are also facing the risk of destructive flooding. It's a pretty rare combination. CNN's Allison Chinchar is in the CNN extreme weather center for us.

Allison, how bad could it get for these people?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: All right. Again, it's the double kind of threat that we're talking about here. You could see tornadoes. You could see flooding on top of some of the severe thunderstorms that end up coming in, but also to the scope of this system, when you look at how many areas are impacted, this is a very widespread system. It stretches from upstate New York, all the way back to Central Texas.

Now, the greatest threat is obviously going to be in this red, pink shaded area here. But even some of the cities on the fringe, say, Detroit, Cleveland, even around Dallas, they still have the same potential for tornadoes, damaging wind gusts up around 70 to 80 miles per hour and hail that could be tennis balls, baseball size as we go through the next 24 hours. So, here's a look at that strong line of thunderstorms right through there.

Don't ignore the northern side of this, though. I know a lot of the focus is on the severe weather, but you've got a lot of snow and ice and over 100,000 people without power right now in Michigan. But the biggest threat for tornadoes is on the southern side. All of this red shaded area here is under a tornado watch.

Now, some of those will expire here in the next hour or two. Others will continue well into the evening hours as this system continues to slide eastward. You have active warnings as we speak. The orange- colored boxes, severe thunderstorm warnings. The pinkish purple color there. Those are tornado warnings.

Also note, too, this is the main line, but look at some of those warnings popping out ahead. So even if you live far east of the main line thinking I've got plenty of time, we'll be okay, keep in mind, you've got a lot of these isolated storms that are developing well out ahead of the front, and they can kind of pop up at a moment's notice and can be very severe in their own right.

Here's a look at the system. It will continue to slide east through the evening hours. Notice even by 4:00 a.m., still raining across Memphis just now, starting to slide into Nashville. This is a concern because this means a lot of these areas could be going through multiple hours in a row of these severe weather conditions.

It also means they're going to go through multiple hours of very heavy rainfall. Thats why you've got all of these flood watches in effect, including this one across portions of Arkansas and Tennessee that is labeled a PDS, a particularly dangerous situation just for the high volume of water that's expected.

TAPPER: Allison Chinchar, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

Breaking news in our money lead, a strong reaction as investors digest the new tariffs just imposed by President Trump about 90 minutes ago. Now as you see Dow, Nasdaq and S&P futures all down. Keep it here on CNN to see how this story develops. We'll see if this

situation holds in global markets overnight, and when the New York Stock Exchange opens tomorrow morning at 9:30 Eastern.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:58:41]

TAPPER: In our pop culture lead, we remember the life and career of actor and leading man Val Kilmer. Kilmer died of pneumonia Tuesday. Although a battle with throat cancer in 2014 required surgery that significantly altered his voice.

The big breaks of his career came in the 1980s.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAL KILMER, ACTOR: Congratulations on Top Gun.

TOM CRUISE, ACTOR: Thank you.

KILMER: Sorry to hear about Cougar.

CRUISE: You know, we're like brothers in flight school. He was a good man. He still is a good man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: He played opposite Tom Cruise in "Top Gun" in 1986. He had the title role in "Batman Forever". He played rock star Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's "The Doors". He was also a part of the gang of robbers alongside De Niro and Pacino in "Heat", the teenage rebel in "Real Genius", gunslinger Doc Holliday in "Tombstone".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KILMER: Don't any of you have the guts to play for blood? I'm your huckleberry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: He used I'm your huckleberry as the title of his memoir about his roles in health struggles. Despite the years ups and downs, Kilmer spoke of leading a magical life. We will miss him on THE LEAD. May his memory be a blessing.

I have two books coming out. In just a few weeks, in May, "Original Sin", about President Biden's decision to run for reelection and the cover up of his decline with co-author Alex Thompson. In October, "Race Against Terror", about the hunt to prosecute an al Qaeda terrorist who killed Americans and was out to kill more. You can check him out and preorder at jaketapper.com.

If you ever miss an episode of THE LEAD, you can listen to the show whence you get your podcast.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts now.