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Mike Waltz Replaced with Secretary of State Marco Rubio as President Trump's National Security Advisor; FAA Imposes Ground Delays at Newark Airport Due to Lack of Air Traffic Controllers; Black Hawk Helicopter Nearly Misses Passenger Jet at Reagan National Airport; Trump Administration Tariffs Set to Increase Costs Related to Car Purchasing and Repair; Port of Los Angeles Reporting 35 Percent Drop in Arrivals Compared to Previous Year; Tensions Between Pakistan and India Rise as Pakistan's Military Conducts Missile Test; Churchill Downs to Host 151st Running of Kentucky Derby; Group of Black Trump Voters Interviewed on Their Attitudes towards President Trump and Democratic Party. Aired 2-3p ET.

Aired May 03, 2023 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

ANTHONY GOMEZ, MANAGING PARTNER, ROCKET RANCH: -- vibrates with joy. It's amazing.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Gomez says turning Star Base into a city will help Elon Musk and SpaceX make even greater progress in space travel.

GOMEZ: They're moving at an incredible pace. The most important thing about this mission is that it's time sensitive, like humanity is finite, consciousness is finite. You have to move quickly.

LAVANDERA: As we reached the beach with Rene Medrano, he pointed out SpaceX wants approval for up to 25 launches a year, and why he fears where this development is headed.

Do you worry about what Elon Musk and SpaceX is up to by trying to create this city?

RENE MEDRANO, LOCAL LANDOWNER: The number one thing that I think a lot of people are worried about is to get to SpaceX, have a gate, and it says "Closed forever." And then now we can never, ever enjoy the beach that we have now.

LAVANDERA: Ed Lavandera, CNN, Boca Chica, Texas.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right, let's begin with growing questions over a major shakeup within the Trump administration just after his 100 days in office. Mike Waltz arriving at the White House on Friday, just a day after he was replaced as national security advisor by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Waltz is now being nominated as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

The White House says the change had nothing to do with the controversy over Waltz's use of the Signal messenger app for a conversation about attack plans on Houthi rebels in Yemen. That chat unintentionally including a journalist from "The Atlantic" as well.

Let's talk more about this with William Cohen. He was defense secretary under President Clinton. He's now CEO of the Cohen Group. Great to see you. So can the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, now do all of these jobs? I'm talking about four jobs now, secretary of state, interim national security advisor, USAID acting administrator, and acting archivist for the National Archives and Records Administration. My gosh, a mouthful. So in your view and your experience, how will this be possible and effective?

WILLIAM COHEN, CEO, THE COHEN GROUP: I think it will be possible only for a short term. And what that means I'm not quite sure at this point. President Trump has talked about several months. I did know Henry Kissinger well for almost 50 years, and I talked to him about the time he was national security advisor and state, and had the State Department, secretary of state. He wrote about it as well in his many volumes, saying what a strain it was because it then puts pressure on the secretary of state to be at home and close to the president in the White House when the secretary of state normally would expect to be traveling the world.

So in terms of the duality, or in this case, quadrupling his titles means that something is going to suffer in terms of attention. And so the more that Secretary Rubio is sitting in the White House, the less he's going to be able to travel. That means that others may take up some of that, quote, slack as such. You've got Mr. Witkoff doing as a special emissary to the Middle East, to Russia. He may be taking up more of the time doing secretary of state's work as opposed to just being a special envoy.

So I think it's going to be difficult, but I assume the president has confidence in Secretary Rubio or National Security Advisor Rubio.

WHITFIELD: So what or who might influence how to prioritize all of these duties?

COHEN: Well, you've got the first duty right now, I think, on the top of the list would be to deal with Russia and Ukraine. Secretary rubio, as secretary of state, said, either we move on this negotiation, President Putin, or we move on. I don't know what that means. It may mean that the United States simply leaves it up to the Europeans to help defend Ukraine. It may mean that the President Trump would then blame President Putin, which he has been very reluctant to do. He'd say a cross word about him. It may mean that we give more money to the Ukrainians to defend themselves.

So moving on to other issues on the agenda is ambiguous and unclear at this particular point. But I think the Secretary of State Rubio feels pressure to move on this because President Trump said, I will solve this on day one. Well, it's day 100 plus now. WHITFIELD: Yes. So among all of these global issues, you've got the

U.S. economy, tariffs, the conflict in Gaza, and of course, in Ukraine, as you just underscored. Among those, what would be the heaviest lift for the secretary of state?

COHEN: Well, there are so many heavy, heavy lifts as Ukraine, Middle East, as you pointed out.

[14:05:02]

Certainly, that is not going well. The president thought he'd be able to bring about a solution rather quickly. That's not going well, at least ostensibly. And then there's China. China is set in, has set its mind to say, were not going to cave to this pressure. We're willing to talk to President Trump about these tariffs, but we're going to do so in a very respectful way and we're not going to be bullied. No one bullies China. It's much too big a country to do that. They have a lot of economic power notwithstanding. There are challenges. So I think that will be high on the list. I think the president wants to get a meeting with President Xi, and that would be a good thing for him and for the Chinese and for the world, for that matter.

WHITFIELD: So if Michael waltz is not the right fit for national security advisor, why does Trump think that he's better suited for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations?

COHEN: Well, I hate to classify it or categorize it in this way, but it's almost a consolation prize. It is, in this case, up to motion, in my opinion, not because the title is not important, not because being a cabinet member is not important, but power or proximity to power is critical in this city and virtually elsewhere. The closer you are to power, the more power you gain by that.

So I think by Mr. Waltz now being sent to the state, to the U.N., that's not exactly a promotion for him because President Trump doesn't have very high regard for the United Nations in any event. Plus, the fact that when you're in New York, you're not in Washington, you're not at the seat of power next to the president every day. And so, in one sense, it would be, it's great to have the title and the just the pride and privilege of being an ambassador to the United Nations. But in this particular case, with this president, I don't think that is a promotion.

WHITFIELD: Wow, that's incredible. It's an incredible job, incredible responsibility. But you underscore that it's not necessarily the arena that this president might value the most.

All right, William Cohen, thank you so much. Great to see you.

COHEN: Great to be with you.

WHITFIELD: All right, travelers flying through Newark Airport this weekend, they're experiencing the sixth day of delays now. The FAA imposed ground delays, some lasting for more than two hours because of shortages in air traffic control staffing. United Airlines said it will cancel 35 round trip flights each day starting this weekend. CNN correspondent Leigh Waldman is following the latest from Newark

Liberty Airport. Leigh, what more are officials saying about this?

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, from the last time we talked, the situation here at Newark is getting worse and worse. Officials are saying that it's a combination of issues, the technology being used, but also staffing shortages.

Let's talk about the impact. So here you can see the airport around me getting a lot busier. At this point according to the flight tracking website FlightAware, more than 230 flights have already been delayed here today, 75 flights have been canceled altogether. You talked about how this is the sixth day in a row now where the FAA has placed this ground delay program in place here at Newark airport, and its because of those staffing shortages. We've heard from United. They're canceling 35 round trip flights from this airport starting this weekend because of that issue. It's something that we heard from the CEO, but we're also talking to passengers who are on the ground here about this issue, and they tell us that they're concerned and frustrated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN NORRI, TRAVELING: I have a lot of travel coming up, so hopefully they can resolve this quickly.

IZABELA OLITO, TRAVELING: I think it's time to hire a new, more experienced staff and be more confident in that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALDMAN: So let's talk about the issue at hand here. Right now, over 3,000 air traffic control positions are open. The union that represents air traffic controllers, they say this shortage is nearly the worst that they've seen in 30 years and they think it will take eight to ten years to try and make up the shortage that we're experiencing right now.

We heard from Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy earlier this week, and he says they're rolling out these incentive programs to try and get people into this field. That includes $5,000 bonuses for people who go through the academy, and also offering some bonuses to keep people on until they reach the retirement age there. But it's not just this area that's experiencing some problems here, Fred. We're also hearing from the FAA website that the Albuquerque, Jacksonville, Chicago, and L.A. areas are experiencing some staffing issues.

WHITFIELD: All right, Leigh Waldman, thanks so much at Newark Airport.

[14:09:57]

Officials are now investigating the aborted landings of two commercial flights at Reagan National Airport on Thursday. New video showing a U.S. army Black Hawk helicopter flying around the Pentagon nearby when it came dangerously close to one of those passenger jets. CNN's Pete Muntean joins us now from Washington, D.C. with more.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Helicopters near Reagan National Airport have faced intense scrutiny since the January 29th midair collision that killed 67 people. And this latest incident is eerily similar because it involves another Black Hawk helicopter from the very same Army unit involved in that crash, and two commercial flights coming in to land at DCA. Thankfully, the FAA says air traffic control called off those flights landings, avoiding collisions.

But an early incident report shared with members of Congress says this was way too close. The first flight, Delta 1671, was 0.89 miles from the helicopter and separated by 400 feet of altitude. The second flight, Republic 5825, came within 0.4 miles and 200 feet according to that preliminary data.

The Black Hawk helicopter from the Army's 12th Aviation Battalion was about to land at the Pentagon. The preliminary report shared with members of Congress says it appeared the Black Hawk, quote, "did not proceed directly to the Pentagon heliport' and instead, quote, "took a scenic route around the Pentagon versus proceeding directly from the west."

Senator Maria Cantwell, the top Democrat on the Senate committee overseeing the FAA, says this incident occurred only a week since the army battalion resumed flights in the D.C. area. She called the latest incident outrageous and called on the FAA and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to intervene before another disaster happens.

By the way, both Delta Airlines and Republic Airways say they are cooperating with the NTSB's investigation that is just beginning.

Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, Pete, thank you so much. And the U.S. Army spokesperson responded to the incident with a statement, saying, I'm quoting now, "While conducting flight operations into the Pentagon in accordance with the published FAA flight routes and DCA air traffic control, UH-60 Black Hawk was directed by Pentagon air traffic control to conduct a go around overflying the Pentagon helipad in accordance with approved flight procedures. As a result, DCA air traffic control issued a "go-around" to two civil fixed wing aircraft to ensure the appropriate de-confliction of airspace. The incident is currently under investigation. The United States army remains committed to aviation safety and conducting flight operations within all approved guidelines and procedures," end quote.

All right, still to come, how President Trump's trade war could impact drivers and potentially your next car repair bill.

And a plane crashes into the middle of a swamp infested with alligators. The survivors had to wait to be rescued for two days.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:17:50]

WHITFIELD: Another round of Trump auto tariffs are now in effect. The new tax hikes, which kicked in just after midnight, could sharply raise the price of every car made, sold, and repaired in the U.S. This one involves a 25 percent tariff on imported auto parts, which are used in every car made in the U.S. and could upend the auto industry. While consumers may not see any price hikes in the short term, experts estimate that the added cost of the tariffs could average to about $4,000 per vehicle that is purchased.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones joining us now from the port of Los Angeles. Julia, how soon can consumers start to see the impacts from these tariffs?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, that $4,000 to $5,000 on new cars might not come that soon. But if you need to take your car to a repair shop or need a new part, that might come fairly quickly. But it will depend just as much as where that part came from as when it left the port of origin. That's because we are also hitting another milestone this week. Everything that had left China, one of the main places of imports for the United States before April 9th, has now arrived already in ports like this one. The largest port in the United States is here in Los Angeles, and we are just seeing the beginning of the new shipments that have arrived post tariff, meaning all those boats, those ships that left China before April 9th did not have to be subject to the 145 percent tariffs, but now they are. And that means that we're seeing a reduction on those arrivals.

We heard from Gene Seroka, the executive director of the port of Los Angeles, 35 percent drop in arrivals expected for this week compared to March of last year. A lot of importers are saying we're just going to wait and see what happens with these tariffs in the hopes that it could get better for them. They could get a better margin of their -- in their, in the sales of their products. We spoke to one business that actually was about to go out of business, and now they're back.

[14:20:00]

It's Bonded Warehouses. This is a place that is completely legal where you can hold your products for up to five years and only pay the tariffs or taxes on it once you withdraw that product. Take a listen to what they told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER HARTY, PRESIDENT, HOWARD HARTY INC.: The other benefit is maybe you find a buyer. Maybe you sell your product at a higher price, and you find a buyer who is willing to pay that higher price. You can still house it here until you find that buyer. So it's just giving everybody a pause to try and figure out, is it their new price structure? Is it where -- I think right now we're waiting to see if the tariffs are going to come down. That's the biggie, the tariffs on the Chinese products.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And that business owner, Fred, she told us about 95 percent of the inquiries that she's getting to hold are products that are coming from China. Of course, this is a bet that things will get easier for those business owners and those tariffs will go down. But while they're waiting, all of those products are definitely not hitting any shelves.

WHITFIELD: All right, Julia Vargas Jones, thanks so much.

So President Trump is downplaying the country's economic anxiety and the impact his tariffs may have on the country. In an interview with NBC News, Trump said the U.S. will be OK in the long term, even if the country takes an economic downturn in the short term.

All right, we're having a problem with that same sound bite. We'll still try to bring it to you.

All right, joining me right now to talk more about the economics of these tariffs is Justin Wolfers. He is a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan. Justin, great to see you. So the president --

JUSTIN WOLFERS, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: I can fill -- I can fill in for that missing soundbite for you. The president said we might be looking at a recession, and he doesn't really care that much.

WHITFIELD: Yes, he says that it will be a little uncomfortable for a little bit, but that it's OK. So how does anyone brace for that?

WOLFERS: Yes, so, first of all, it's not OK. A recession means lower incomes. It means fewer people with jobs. It means people losing self- esteem and connection with the labor force. It means families doing without. It means higher rates of depression, higher rates of divorce, higher rates of suicide. It means hard times for families. And it's not OK.

So how do we prepare for that? The first thing is we do whatever we can to get Washington to reverse course from this disastrous pathway. The second thing is what I think a lot of families are already doing. They're on recession watch and they're putting a little extra away for a rainy day.

WHITFIELD: One of the world's top investors, Warren Buffett, criticized Trump's tariffs today. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WARREN BUFFETT: CHAIRMAN AND CEO, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY: There is no question that trade, trade can be an act of war. And I think it's led to bad things. Just the attitudes it's brought out In the United States, I mean, we should be looking to trade with the rest of the world, and we should do what we do best, and they should do what they do best.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Do you agree with his comments?

WOLFERS: Absolutely. Listen, one of the things I teach my students in economics 101 is it's too easy to think about economics as if it's all about competition, or to think about a fixed pie. If I win, you lose. The truth is, and this is the part that I think Trump doesn't quite understand, is economics is actually about cooperation. I do a little bit more of what I do well, and you do a little bit more of what you do well, and we trade with each other.

And so there's this miracle of cooperation that I looked at my dinner plate last night and realized that some fishermen in Norway had understood that I wanted to eat salmon, that some farmers in Peru realized that I wanted to eat quinoa and that it would be healthy for me, that some greenhouses in Israel had grown the dill that went with my salmon, and so on and so forth. It's a miraculous thing that all of those people got together to enrich my life. I also work to try and enrich their lives. And that's the miracle of trade. And that's what tariffs stop.

WHITFIELD: Yesterday, the new jobs report in this country was released, and it showed the economy added jobs, 177,000 jobs there in April. That's good news, right. But why does it not seem to allay fears of people who are concerned about what's around the corner?

WOLFERS: Right. So it's good news, but good news with asterisks. So because of the way the April numbers are reported, it turns out, actually it's telling us a lot about how many people were on payrolls in March. That turns out to be really important right now, because the most destructive moment of the Trump presidency so far was April 2. That was the day he announced those chaotic, extremely high tariffs, and pretty much we've all been reeling from ever since.

[14:25:05]

And businesses have been trying to organize and reorganize as the policy gets announced and re-announced and tweaked and changed. So it tells us that the pre-liberation day economy was still moving along pretty well. And that's great news. But it doesn't really tell us much about what damage the Trump tariffs have done.

WHITFIELD: All right, Professor Justin Wolfers, always great to have you. Thank you so much.

WOLFERS: Pleasure, mate.

WHITFIELD: All right, still ahead, stranded for days in a swamp filled with alligators. What could be worse than that? Find out how these plane crash survivors managed to stay alive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:30:10]

WHITFIELD: New today, Pakistan's military conducting a new military conducting a new missile test.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(EXPLOSION)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The test came just hours after Pakistan conducted military exercises. Tensions between India and Pakistan have been intensifying in recent weeks. CNN's Nic Robertson reports efforts are underway to try to bring the temperature down between the two nuclear powers.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: There's been this intense diplomacy over the last few days. Saudi, UAE, Kuwaiti diplomats all talking to Pakistani officials, the foreign minister talking about de-escalation, cooperation, not inflaming the situation. And the United States in a huge way, has played a big public role in diplomacy here, not just Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaking there with the Pakistan prime minister, his opposite number in India. Pete Hegseth on the phone with his Indian counterpart, J.D. Vance, also speaking to both sides publicly by saying do not -- or try to find a way to avoid escalating this regionally.

The diplomacy may be going on in the background, but in the foreground, it looks and feels very different. The tensions remain. Pakistani officials still believe that India is poised to make a strike. That test firing of that Ababeel missile today, 450 kilometer range, that's about 280 miles, surface to air missile. They say it's got advanced functionality and maneuverability.

So I spoke with a senior security official today about this, and I said, is this test firing of the missile a message to India? And he said, look, just look at the title of this military exercise, Exercise Indus, which refers to the Indus water treaty that India has decided to withhold from, which feeds water from three major rivers into Pakistan, which is vitally needed for power and agriculture, absolutely fundamental to the relationship and tensions in the region. The message this security source says to India, don't touch it.

These countries are still poised in a position that they are ready to respond to whatever the other does. And the perception in Pakistan is that the Indian military will do more. What India has done today, they have announced a ban on the import of all goods from Pakistan, trade across the border. They have banned all Pakistani ships from entering Indian ports, and have also cut the postal service from Pakistan as well. It points to the tensions still at a very, very high level.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: Nic Robertson, thank you so much.

All right, straight ahead, it's one of the most prestigious days in the world of sports, Derby Day. What to know before the horses take to the track. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:37:47]

WHITFIELD: It's the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby, the first leg of horse racing's famed Triple Crown. And the horses are set to enter the gate at Churchill Downs soon, a few hours away. CNN's Patrick Snell is joining me right now to discuss the world's most famous race. Don't they say it's like the most exciting two minutes in sports.

PATRICK SNELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: They really do.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

SNELL: And it often is. I will say that. And of course --

WHITFIELD: I'm looking forward to it, 19 horses.

SNELL: Yes.

WHITFIELD: All right, let's go.

SNELL: Yes. Ready to go. And a lot of attention on one man in particular, we're talking Bob Baffert. I think it signifies his return, as far as he's concerned, that he's moved on and he's looking forward. He told the Associated Press, Fred, "I'm going to have fun now that everything is behind me." Well, what's behind him? Well, let's recap for our viewers worldwide.

A highly decorated trainer, legendary. Remember, until last year, the 72-year-old hall of famer was banned from running horses at all for two years at Churchill Downs after his horse, Medina Spirits, failed a drug test. That was in 2021. Remember the controversy around that race? The horse having initially crossed the line in first place in that Derby of four years ago. Now the result later nullified.

Now, Baffert, who has trained six Kentucky Derby winners, then seeing his suspension, it was extended further in 2023. Baffert saying at the time the banned drug was in a topical ointment used for a skin infection and that Medina Spirit had not been injected with it. But now he's back, though, and he'll be hoping relative outsider Citizen Bull can bring home a record breaking seventh Derby victory for him. We shall see. That's his horse and that's who he's pinning his hopes on.

WHITFIELD: OK, well, this is going to be very exciting because, you know, at least those of us in the business, we're really rooting for one horse in particular, Journalism. Hello.

SNELL: Yes what a great name for a horse --

WHITFIELD: We want Journalism to win at all times.

SNELL: -- on so many, so many levels. A wonderful name for a horse, absolutely wonderful. WHITFIELD: Yes, I love it.

SNELL: But look, from just the fact that there's so many good storylines around the horse. I will say Journalism is coming off the back of three, three straight wins, Fred. So that bodes very well indeed for the horse, hoping to buck this recent trend we've been seeing, though, in the Derby of outsiders actually winning. I like the chances of Sandman, a horse with some very famous fans. Why? Because that's a nod to "Metallica's" 1991 hit "Enter Sandman."

[14:40:8]

And in the build up to this year's race, guess what? This is a really cool nugget. The heavy metal band actually sending Sandman's stable some merchandise as a way of showing off some support. And what an emotional triumph it would be if Render Judgment were to win, a thoroughbred racehorse partially owned by the late American country music singer Toby Keith. That would be really, really special indeed, for everyone concerned in his family.

I will say, as far as the elements are concerned, the weather, lots of rain today in the Kentucky area. It's going to be muddy out there, but you know, the 150,000 fans packing in there with great excitement. Plenty of those famed mint juleps, I'm sure will be.

WHITFIELD: Of course, and the --

SNELL: -- consumed in abundance as well. The wonderful hats, you can be sure of.

WHITFIELD: Oh, so fun.

SNELL: Actually, I do want -- I like Journalism, but I'm going for tis Tiztastic. That's my personal choice, 20 to on eshot. I was drawn by the name only.

WHITFIELD: Wow, I love it. One of these days I want to be there.

SNELL: Let's go together.

WHITFIELD: OK.

SNELL: Lets tell our bosses we need to be there one year.

WHITFIELD: Let's make a date. We need to be covering that in a very special way. We will bring something very special to the sidelines of the racing.

All right, thank you so much, Patrick Snell, appreciate it.

All right, we are learning the details of a stunning story now. Listen to this, five people, they survived a plane crash and they fought to stay alive now for days in an alligator infested swamp. Bolivian officials say three women, a child and the pilot were rescued finally on Friday morning, plucked from that swamp two days after their small airplane crashed into the Amazon jungle. And it happened to crash right next to an alligator nest. The pilot says, luckily, fuel from the crashed plane scared the alligators from coming closer to them. Miraculously, they say no one was hurt. They survived on rations of chocolate and cassava flour before local fishermen spotted them.

Is that not crazy, Patrick? Oh my gosh. The Bolivian defense ministry said in a statement that about an hour after takeoff, the pilot reported technical issues before contact with the aircraft went dark. The group was airlifted to the city of Trinidad, their original destination. And were just so glad they're OK. What a story to tell and an experience.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:47:08]

WHITFIELD: A cabinet shakeup, trade talks, a funding showdown, it's a lot to keep up with. That's only just a small portion of what has unfolded in the last three months of the second Trump administration. The real question here is, what are voters making of all of it?

CNN's Van Jones met with a group of black voters who all voted for President Trump. And CNN's exit poll shows Trump got eight percent of the black vote in 2016. It grew slightly into the teens over the next two elections. And here's what some of the voters told Van.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SETH DAWKINS, VOTED FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: You do well.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR (voice-over): And here we are in South Carolina with three Trump voters.

You weren't always a Republican.

DAWKINS: No. Actually, I come from a family that was, like, super Democratic. My first time voting, I voted Democrat. I voted for Joe Biden.

JONES: What about Trump appealed to you?

DAWKINS: Am I allowed to gossip?

(LAUGHTER)

JONES: Yes, you can, yes. It's OK.

DAWKINS: I mean, part of it is, he's an asshole. I like authenticity.

JONES: You voted for Obama, and then you voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016. But 2020, you voted for Donald Trump. What made the change?

DETRA GERMAN, VOTED FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: I began listening to someone. Her name is Candace Owens. And I read her book, and it just opened my eyes to, maybe he's not this person that I have been led to believe that he was.

JONES: So you voted against Trump in 2016.

KYASIA KRAFT, VOTED FOR PRESIDENT TRUMP: Yes.

JONES: But then in 2020, you voted for him?

KRAFT: Absolutely.

JONES: Why?

KRAFT: I saw how things were going during his first term, and I was pleasantly surprised, and I was pleased with what was happening. I saw the economy getting better. I saw country relations in certain countries getting better.

JONES: What are some things that he's doing that you do like?

DAWKINS: For me, I like the border. I just don't like the idea of someone coming here illegally and getting benefits that can serve my community. So that's the reason why I support him on that border policy.

JONES: When you think about the border, you think about people coming here who are getting more help than people who live here, who were born here?

DAWKINS: Yes. And I got that perspective not from news channels. I got it from social media. TikTok is like a holy grail. We even see it with the things that we learn about the United States government outside of the United States. People are showing Americans, hey, look at what's going on. Do you all know that your government's doing this? Have you seen this? Have you looked at it from this perspective?

JONES: Yes, people, when they think about a Trump voter, they usually think about a white dude with a red hat on and a pickup truck, and you all are not that at all.

(LAUGHTER)

JONES: So, Donald Trump's team went in. They took down Harriet Tubman's picture for a quick minute. They're trying to, like, knock out the black museums. What does that have to do with the price of eggs and how does that impact you?

DAWKINS: In some ways, it's a slap in the face. In other ways, I don't care. I care more about how I'm going to take care of my children.

KRAFT: I don't think the average American cares about that. I know I'm frankly, I am sick and tired of seeing black people sit there and complain about something, but not taking action, steps to actually try to change things in an appropriate manner.

JONES: Under the Trump and Biden administration, they came to certain agreements with police departments to be less brutal toward the black community. Trump has now ended all that. How does that help the black community?

KRAFT: I have a lot of issues with police reform and just with how police officers are treated as a whole. My husband is currently going through the process to become a police officer. The amount of hatred that cops get, even the best ones, I think has become a huge problem because it has been, especially around election times when it definitely comes out of, like, oh, no, the cops are bad. The cops hate you because you're black. They're immediately deemed as evil.

JONES: This man is talking about running for a third term. Now, what do you think about that?

GERMAN: I mean, a third term, for me absolutely not. I think it's at the end of these four years, it's just -- it's time to move on.

KRAFT: This is a prime example of him trolling people, because people have said, like, oh, if he gets in the office, he's going to be a dictator. He's going to try to run for a third term. So he's like, OK, you all think I'm going to do that? I'm going to mess with you all and say this to tick you all off.

JONES: I thought you loved this man because he's so authentic and he's such a truth teller.

KRAFT: But you need to know the difference between somebody trolling somebody, and this is a prime example of him being a troll.

JONES: If you had to do it all over again, would you vote for Donald Trump again, yes or no?

GERMAN: Yes, I would. Now, in the future, I am not a diehard Democrat or a diehard Republican. If there were a Democratic candidate who was more aligned for me, then I would vote Democrat.

JONES: If you go back in time, would you vote for Donald Trump, yes or no?

DAWKINS: Yes.

JONES: I think I might know the answer on the next one.

(LAUGHTER)

DAWKINS: She said yes.

(LAUGHTER)

DAWKINS: It's immediately yes. No, I'm sorry.

JONES: If you had to do it all over again, would you vote for Donald Trump, yes or no?

KRAFT: 1,000 percent absolutely yes.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: Van Jones, thanks so much for that report.

All right, still ahead, new tariffs on auto parts are now in effect. What is President Trump saying about concerns over the economy and what it means for the long haul?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, tomorrow Eva Longoria is back with another episode of the CNN original series "Searching for Spain." CNN's John Berman sat down with her for a meal at a Spanish restaurant in New York to learn about the region considered the birthplace of tapas.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, cheers.

EVA LONGORIA, ACTRESS: Cheers.

BERMAN: What am I drinking here and why?

LONGORIA: You're drinking vermouth, which is very popular. This was my drink while I was in Spain. It was very, very, very popular.

BERMAN: Is there a wrong time to be doing vermouth?

LONGORIA: No. I guess every hour is vermouth.

BERMAN: Andalusia.

LONGORIA: Yes.

BERMAN: Where is that?

LONGORIA: In the south.

BERMAN: And?

LONGORIA: It used to be called Al-Andalus, which is the south of Spain that had the longest rule of the moors. So when the Reconquista, when Spain reconquered, it started as Asturias. And then they pushed the moors out towards the south. That's how they came in, and then came up from Africa. And so. Al-Andalus is the south.

BERMAN: And this is jamon?

LONGORIA: Jamon.

BERMAN: Jamon.

LONGORIA: Jamon.

BERMAN: And which is?

LONGORIA: Cured pig. BERMAN: Cured pig.

LONGORIA: But it's a special pig, and especially if its Pata Negra, which means "black foot." They're very spoiled pigs. They only eat acorns.

BERMAN: Is it a finger food or is it a fork food?

LONGORIA: No. Finger, finger. Yes. You grab a piece like this. And it's cured for a long time. And when you eat it --

BERMAN: Acorns?

LONGORIA: They eat acorns.

BERMAN: I think, do you taste a little bit of that?

LONGORIA: Oh, yes. Thats how you can tell if its really good, because not all of them are Pata Negras, not all of them are of a certain pedigree. So you wrap it in this little thing. Yes. And you're that.

BERMAN: Can I have another piece?

LONGORIA: Yes, but clean your chin.

BERMAN: Do I have it on my chin. That's gross.

LONGORIA: No, it's great.

BERMAN: I had jamon on my chin.

LONGORIA: But it's great. I mean, the greasier the better. The way --

BERMAN: It means I'm doing it right, then?

LONGORIA: It means you're doing it right. The way they test if this is good ham is that it won't fall off the plate. Well, this not the decoration, but it has so much fat that it doesn't come off the plate. Thats when you know its good jamon.

BERMAN: You were saying this was the Moorish region, the region that was conquered by the Moors, and that the ham actually played an important historic role.

LONGORIA: In Spain, it's hanging like this, and they'll have a lot of legs of the jamon hanging in their shop. And during the Spanish Inquisition, it was to prove that you weren't Jewish. You hang pork in your storefront, and that would keep the Spanish Inquisition away.

BERMAN: Well, you know what? I'm going to eat it anyway. Even though I am Jewish.

LONGORIA: Are you Jewish?

BERMAN: Don't tell anyone. I'm breaking many traditions, Spain's and my own. (LAUGHTER)

LONGORIA: This is to me is comfort food. When I get to Spain, everywhere you go, they will give you a plate of jamon.

LONGORIA: And has it ended up on other people's chins too? Or is it just mine?

LONGORIA: Just yours?

BERMAN: I'm the first?

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: A food and educational journey. Be sure to tune in a new episode of "Eva Longoria Searching for Spain," airing tomorrow, 9:00 p.m. eastern and pacific right here on CNN.