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Hearing Today on Mistakenly Deported Man as Trump Administration Accused of Defying Courts; Trump Open to Deporting Homegrown Criminals to El Salvador; White House on Tariff Talks Says We Do Believe That We Can Announce Some Deals Very Soon; Progress Remains Stalled on Tariff Deal Between U.S. and E.U. After High Stakes Meeting This Week; Xi Looks to Strengthen Ties in Southeast Asia in Face of U.S. Tariffs. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired April 15, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:01:02]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Immigration showdown. Soon Justice Department attorneys are set to face a judge in the case of a Maryland father who was mistakenly deported. This as both the White House and El Salvador's president seemingly defy orders to return him to the U.S.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Plus, bracing for blowback. Lawmakers from both parties back in their districts facing constituents at town halls and we are already seeing some tense exchanges. Plus, jury selection begins in the retrial of former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein for his alleged sex crimes. Ahead, why his defense team believes that this will be a very different trial than the first. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

DEAN: The Trump administration says it cannot return a Maryland man mistakenly deported to El Salvador. We'll soon hear what a federal judge has to say about that. A couple hours from now, Justice Department lawyers will face the U.S. district judge who ordered the government to "facilitate and effectuate the return of Kilmer Abrego Garcia." The Supreme Court partly backed that order, but Trump officials now argue that since Abrego Garcia is locked inside a prison in El Salvador, it's essentially not their problem anymore and they can't do anything about it.

El Salvador's president has made clear he's not sending Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. CNN's Paula Reid is joining us now. And so Paula, now we look to this hearing. What are we expecting?

PAULA REID, CNN CHIEF LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, Jessica, I expect some fireworks here because a short time ago, Abrego Garcia's lawyers submitted to the court that they believe that the Trump administration is misreading what the Supreme Court ordered late last week when it ordered that the government help facilitate their client's return to the United States. Now, late last night, the Justice Department had to file its daily status report and they pointed to that Oval Office meeting yesterday, where the president of El Salvador effectively said he is not going to release their client back into the U.S. The Justice Department inferring that, that's really the last word in this case, but clearly not. We'll have this hearing today. The judge here has clearly been frustrated with the Justice Department for not being more forthcoming about details about their efforts to facilitate his return.

But I do want to go back to the Supreme Court opinion that has caused a lot of the confusion here because, last week, the Supreme Court was assessing this judge's order saying that Mr. Abrego Garcia had to be returned to the United States. They gave a deadline of Monday, April 7th, said the government needed to facilitate and effectuate that return.

But the Supreme Court, after looking at that order, said OK, yeah, they need to facilitate his return, but when it comes to effectuating it, they sent it back down to the lower court, said you need to clarify what you meant by that and you need to be deferential to the Executive Branch because we're talking about foreign affairs and they gave no deadline. So, the Trump administration is seizing on this ambiguity and that's why they do not believe that they're actually defying the Supreme Court's order, which again, it was ambiguous. It was nowhere near as clear cut as the district court judge.

So, it'll be really interesting to see what this judge says, but I expect, again, a lot of tension between the judge and DOJ, and between DOJ and the lawyers for this man.

DEAN: And more to come. Paula Reid, thank you so much. I want to go now to CNN's Kevin Liptak. Kevin, what is the White House saying ahead of this hearing?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, they're very much entrenching in this position that we heard from President Trump yesterday in the Oval Office with the president of El Salvador, but also many members of his cabinet and top team here at the White House saying, one, that they don't believe they have the jurisdiction to ask El Salvador to bring back a citizen of that country that the U.S. deported. But two, that a judge doesn't have the capacity to compel the United States to do actions in the foreign policy realm.

[14:05:00]

You heard that argument yesterday from Stephen Miller, the President's Top Advisor who has had such a large role in the immigration policy here at the White House. We have just been listening to Karoline Leavitt, the Press Secretary. She's been holding her briefing here at the White House, and the position that she is trying to take is essentially a character assassination of this man, Abrego Garcia, trying to paint him as a criminal, as a gang member, as a foreign terrorist, not providing any evidence for those claims, but making the argument that the U.S. was always going to deport him.

She says that this was always going to be the end result, sort of skirting around the question of this mistake that the administration admitted making in deporting him in the first place. Listen to more of what Karoline Leavitt said.

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KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Abrego Garcia was a foreign terrorist. He is an MS-13 gang member. He was engaged in human trafficking. He illegally came into our country, and so deporting him back to El Salvador was always going to be the end result. There is never going to be a world in which this is an individual who's going to live a peaceful life in Maryland because he's a foreign terrorist and a MS-13 gang member. Not only have we confirmed that, President Bukele yesterday in the Oval Office confirmed that as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: Now, the other question that came up in the briefing today is this prospect that the president raised himself yesterday of deporting what he called homegrown criminals to El Salvador, essentially deporting U.S. citizens to another country for imprisonment in that mega prison that has been holding so many of these deportees. The president admitted yesterday that he wasn't sure about the legal parameters of this. He said he was asking the Attorney General Pam Bondi to look into it, and that is essentially what Karoline Leavitt said today, that this is all being explored.

So you see the White House very much digging in to this hard-line deportation policy even amid all of these questions from the courts.

DEAN: Kevin Liptak from the White House, thank you so much for that. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Now to President Trump's escalating trade wars. Just moments ago, the White House was asked for a status update on deals. It says it's negotiating right now. Here's what the Press Secretary said.

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LEAVITT: We've had more than 15 deals, pieces of paper put on the table, proposals that are actively being considered, and as we've said, consistently more than 75 countries have reached out. So there's a lot of work to do. We very much understand that, but we do believe that we can announce some deals very soon

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SANCHEZ: As for a potential deal between the U.S. and Europe, we just learned moments ago that progress on that front remains stalled. Let's discuss with Ian Bremmer. He's the President and Founder of Eurasia Group and GZERO Media. Ian, thanks so much for being with us. I want to start with one of the administration's stated goals when it comes to the E.U. would it benefit U.S. producers and consumers if E.U. nations dropped some of these non-monetary trade barriers that the administration has talked about? Could these tariffs actually yield that outcome? IAN BREMMER, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER, EURASIA GROUP AND GZERO MEDIA: Yes, I think it can and I fully accept the administration saying that they're going to be cutting deals with other countries in short order. The U.S. is, of course, the most powerful economy, the largest economy in the world and countries do not want to be on the wrong side of a trade war. But Europe will not be an early adopter of a deal. It is 27 countries. They are hard and they're very bureaucratic. They have to organize by consensus.

Trade is their primary competency as the E.U. and the relationship with the United States, frankly, with this administration is untrusted and they don't know exactly what Trump wants and the willingness to communicate, E.U. is not going to be a top priority. So I'd be very surprised if we actually see an agreement between the U.S. and the E.U. within the 90 days that the Americans have offered this suspension, unlike say Japan, where I wouldn't be surprised if we see an agreement in a week or two.

SANCHEZ: Wow. How likely is it do you think that for allies, specifically in relation to the E.U. who are going through this process now with the administration, some bellicose rhetoric, some tariff threats back and forth, how likely is it that they wind up moving economically closer to China? What are the implications there?

BREMMER: They're going to move economically closer to lots of countries. For the last 10 years, you've probably heard the term de- risking, a term of art that the U.S. and other countries talks about China, that they want to reduce their exposure to China because China can't be trusted.

[14:10:00]

They don't respect intellectual property. They don't respect contracts. They don't respect treaties, all of these things. Well, the Europeans and many other countries are now starting to talk about de- risking the United States. Very hard to do because the U.S. is such a large economy and also because the Europeans need the U.S. for some advanced technologies, need the U.S. for defense of course.

But I'm already seeing the E.U. speed up their conversations with Latin American countries to make sure that they get a fast-track approval of an E.U.-Mercosur trade deal. I see the same thing happening with Delhi between the E.U. and India, to try to improve and fast track those relations. China's going to be a bigger challenge because the Europeans don't suddenly trust the Chinese more just because they trust the Americans less. They still have big problems with dumping.

Their automotive industry has been destroyed by the Chinese. There are lots of places where they don't want Chinese advanced technology or chips because they're concerned about China scooping up their data and surveillance. None of that has gone away. So, I think that it's less about Europe tilting towards China and more about hedging with pretty much everybody else they can, and that will take a long time.

SANCHEZ: That is a really good point. I do wonder about U.S. trading partners in Southeast Asia where Xi Jinping is touring right now. Countries that at one point were eying this U.S.-led trade pack, the TPP, it was supposed to be this way to counter a rising China. Obviously, Trump tore that up. Isn't the administration pushing those same partners away while claiming that it wants to fortify relations with them in order to present a united front against Beijing?

BREMMER: Well, first, just a little fact check on the history, right? So this was Obama's deal. He failed to get it passed. Hillary Clinton ran against Trump. She refused to support it, even though privately she obviously did. The American people did not have a political willingness to support more free trade, even with core American allies all over the world. And so, yeah, the TransPacific Partnership would've been great for globalization, but if Americans don't support globalization, then how do you get it done?

So Trump was in a sense, ahead of his time on this one. But now, you have Xi Jinping leading a trip all this week to Southeast Asian countries. He just went to Vietnam, 45 deals, economic deals that the Chinese are cutting with Vietnam. And Trump says, well, the Chinese and Vietnamese are trying to screw the Americans. Well, a lot more effective in doing that on the back of all of these U.S. tariffs.

So I mean, the problem is, if you are going to go after China, which you know is flouting WTO rules, which you know is a serious competitor and adversary, you should not be beating up on America's friends simultaneously. You'd be much better off coordinating with friends against China. And that of course has -- is not the way that President Trump has chosen to go about these trade and tariff wars and deals. And as a consequence, he's backing away, he's offering concessions and exemptions, and a week into this, he looks weaker on the global stage than he did on Liberation Day.

SANCHEZ: Ian Bremmer, always appreciate hearing your perspective. Thanks so much for joining us.

BREMMER: Sure, bro.

SANCHEZ: Still to come. Democratic voters are calling for stronger opposition to the Trump administration. Just ahead, we're talking with Congressman Ro Khanna about what he thinks will happen next. Plus, it's the day when most Americans can agree on one thing, how much we dread doing our taxes. We'll run the numbers on those hated 1040s. And 'Old Town Road' singer Lil Nas X hospitalized, saying he lost control of one side of his face. A health update and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

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SANCHEZ: New today, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley just wrapped up a town hall in his home state of Iowa, the Senator answering questions from frustrated voters on topics ranging from the state of the economy, tariffs, cuts to federal programs, and President Trump's deportation policies, which sparked this heated exchange.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We would like to know what you as the people, the Congress, who are supposed to rein in this dictator, what are you going to do about it? These people have been sentenced to life imprisonment in a foreign country with no due process.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our government cannot do anything?

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SANCHEZ: CNN's Steve Contorno was at that town hall. Steve, we've seen a lot of bipartisan dissatisfaction at both Republican and Democratic events. What did voters say there?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Quite a bit of frustration here, Boris, with Senator Chuck Grassley. Although there was a lot of appreciation for him for coming out and holding this town hall, many of them expressing concerns that other Republican members of Congress are avoiding their questions.

[14:20:00]

And Senator Grassley has been someone who has been doing these types of town halls all across Iowa for the last 45 years. But there is a considerable and palpable angst in this room, urging him to do more, to stand up for Iowans, and stand up to President Donald Trump. Concerns ranging from local issues like how the tariffs will affect farmers, what's going to happen to veteran hospitals and rural hospitals, to some of the larger concerns we've seen over Medicaid cuts and proposed cuts to Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security.

There was also this heated exchange over the future of that Maryland man who was erroneously deported to El Salvador. Take a listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe very strongly in my Christian faith. I preach on Sundays and I believe very strongly and we welcome the stranger. I think turning away people who have come here for asylum is one of the most shameful things we are doing right here.

CROWD: You got to bring that guy back.

SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA): That's not our -- that's not a power of Congress.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Supreme Court said to bring him back.

GRASSLEY: The president of that country is not subject to our U.S. Supreme Court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now, overall, I would say that the tone of today's event was civil. This is Iowa after all. I spent a lot of time here covering the presidential candidates in 2024 and that sort of Iowa nice certainly carried through this meeting as well. Although there were some very direct questions at Senator Grassley, one person asking him point blank, are you proud of Trump? And Grassley notably not answering directly, saying "There's no president I have agreed with 100 percent of the time." Boris?

SANCHEZ: Steve Contorno in Iowa for us, thank you so much for that update. Jessica?

DEAN: In just a few hours, Former President Joe Biden will give his first public speech since leaving the White House. That event in Chicago happening as Democrats are searching for a unified voice to combat President Trump's more controversial policies. Joining us now, California Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna. Congressman, thanks so much for your time this afternoon. We certainly do appreciate it. I know that you have repeatedly recently said about the Democratic Party, that the old guard isn't cutting it. Do you think it's helpful for Former President Biden to be speaking right now?

REP. RO KHANNA, (D-DA): Well, he is a former president. He certainly can speak and hopefully, he'll speak out for due process of the law. What the Trump administration is doing is unconscionable, by defying the Supreme Court, by not doing anything to bring Abrego back. I mean, they sent Abrego to El Salvador and this prison. It's not that Abrego was abducted by El Salvador. They need to direct El Salvador to return him.

DEAN: And so, who would you say is the leader of the Democratic Party right now?

KHANNA: Well, the leader in the House of Representatives is Hakeem Jeffries, and he will be the next speaker of the house. He has earned that --

DEAN: Do you think he is the voice though of the Democratic Party? Like, is that who the Democrats should be rallying around pushing forward? That's who should be driving the message?

KHANNA: Well, I think we've got a whole new generation of talent. People who are speaking out on economic issues. I gave a speech in Cleveland on economic patriotism, our vision of how we're going to bring prosperity and manufacturing back around the country. But the most urgent issue is to stand up against the attacks on the rule of law, on the Constitution, on universities, and then to make sure that we elect Hakeem Jeffries Speaker of the House, so we have one check on Donald Trump's unconstitutional actions.

DEAN: Do you think in terms of just political strategy, obviously you all have a lot of priorities. I hear you about what you're trying to do, but in terms of political strategy, is that step one, getting the House back in the midterms?

KHANNA: I think step one is to stand up for the Constitution. We have people in this country who are getting knocks on doors from police, who are not getting due process. Some of them deported, some of them deported to an El Salvador prison, where they're potentially being tortured. And that needs to stop.

You have the Supreme Court nine to zero saying that this is unconstitutional, that the Trump administration needs to facilitate the return. This is a huge crisis, and I think every Democrat needs to be speaking out about that. Democrats need to be standing up for President Garber at Harvard University who had the courage to stand up to the administration's basic takeover of freedom of speech.

So, we have an immediate issue right now, which is standing up for the Constitution. After that, politically, yes, building -- making Hakeem Jeffries Speaker is important. But right now, we have a very immediate fight.

[14:25:00]

DEAN: And I know you appeared with Senator Bernie Sanders and your colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez over the weekend. They have been going around the country. Why are you confident that the message that the three of you are putting out there right now is the right one for the Democrats and for the country?

KHANNA: Well, the message they're putting out is pretty simple, that we shouldn't have billionaires spending unlimited money to buy elections. I think that's a pretty bipartisan message. I mean, we shouldn't have any billionaires spend $250 million to send Trump back to the White House. We shouldn't have billionaires on our side, get the money out of politics and Super PACs and that we shouldn't be having tax breaks for billionaires or the very wealthy and cutting Medicaid, cutting Social Security offices. That is a core message that I think many Americans will agree with.

DEAN: But respectfully, sir, they knew when they elected Trump that Elon Musk, a billionaire, had spent a lot of money to get him elected. That was all very much out there. Do you think that that really is going to resonate with people?

KHANNA: They didn't like it even back then, all the billionaires spending on both sides. But what has really hurt is they didn't expect Elon Musk to become the second most powerful person, to be handed the keys and the cuts to Medicaid. I've been out there in these town halls in rural California and Bakersfield with people really talking about how this is going to impact their lives, their kids' lives, their parents' lives. They don't like the cuts in education. They don't like food stamps being cut. And that is something that really has angered people around this country.

DEAN: And your -- another one of your colleagues, this one from California, Congresswoman Laura Friedman had a town hall last night, and one of the questions she received from her constituents was, what is the plan to resist? That was the question. I just want to listen to how she answered that.

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REP. LAURA FRIEDMAN, (D-FL): The plan is to keep fighting in the courts because that is our best road to getting relief, because this administration is overstepping and what they are doing is illegal. And it is up to the courts to draw that line.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Do you agree with her?

KHANNA: Well, the courts are one avenue, but it's not enough. I'm at Yale Law School, today, where I'm joining you from, calling out J.D. Vance who went here, who was urging the administration to defy the courts. I mean, they're currently defying the court order asking them to facilitate the return of Abrego. One of the things I'd like the House of Representatives to do is pass a bipartisan resolution saying that the administration should uphold and follow court orders.

The other thing we need to be doing is going out into red districts and explaining what the administration is doing in terms of the cuts of Medicaid and food stamps, and getting people to speak out so that we can have some Republicans speak out. But we need to be out there mobilizing and understanding the stakes. Yes, the courts have a role to play, but American history rarely has moved forward just by reliance on the courts.

DEAN: And you're out there. You mentioned you're in Connecticut right now, talking to people at Yale. You were in Ohio. Are you maybe considering running for president?

KHANNA: No. Right now, I'm calling out the major, major challenge that we have. We have an administration that is basically openly defying court orders, where the vice president has said, the vice president has said that the president should tell the Supreme Court you've ruled, now tell us how you're going to enforce it. That's unprecedented in American history, why the court needs to direct President Trump to tell El Salvador that they need to send back the person that we sent there.

And then secondly, we've got an administration that's calling universities the enemy. Universities are the great asset that America has, hundreds of them. They're calling them the enemy. They're threatening to cut Harvard's funding if the academics there, the scholars aren't in line with what the administration believes. They're asking for audits of the decision of every student who's applying there, whether they get accepted or not, and accountability not to the Harvard Admissions Office, but to Donald Trump. And it's scary what's going on in this country. We need to make sure that the American public knows and pushes back.

DEAN: All right, Congressman Ro Khanna, thanks for your time. We really appreciate it.

KHANNA: Thank you.

DEAN: Still to come, Harvey Weinstein is back in court. Jury selection now underway in the retrial for his alleged sex crimes. Up next, how the case could be different this time.

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