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Consumer Protection Bureau To Shut D.C. Headquarters; Super Bowl Halftime: Kendrick Lamar Spikes The Ball In Feud With Drake; China's Tit-For-Tat Tariffs On U.S. Products Begin Monday. Aired 5:30- 6a ET
Aired February 10, 2025 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:30:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Guantanamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens.
PATRICK OPPMAN, CNN HAVANA-BASED CORRESPONDENT: It's not clear how long the migrants will remain or how they would be repatriated to their countries of origin. Despite those questions, the migrants that the Trump administration calls the worst of the worst have begun to arrive at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- for the foreseeable future their new home.
Patrick Oppman, CNN, Havana.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: After the break on CNN THIS MORNING, as the court's take on the Trump administration, Vice President Vance is questioning their very authority over the Executive Branch.
Plus, Kendrick Lamar takes his viral feud with Drake to his largest audience, the Super Bowl halftime show. It was quite a moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KENDRICK LAMAR, RAPPER: Rapping "Not Like Us."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:35:30]
SCIUTTO: Five-thirty-five a.m. here on the East Coast. Here's a live look at the White House. Good morning, everyone. I'm Jim Sciutto in for Kasie Hunt. It is wonderful to have you with us this morning.
President Trump intensifying an aggressive overhaul of the federal government with his newly formed DOGE -- that is Department of Government Efficiency -- headed by billionaire Elon Musk. Consumer Protection Bureau's D.C. headquarters will be closed this week, its staff told not to come to work at all, according to an email obtained by CNN. That's the federal watchdog group which stops unscrupulous and fraudulent business practices.
Nineteen states' attorneys general filed a lawsuit to restrict Musk and his team. Now a federal judge is blocking DOGE from accessing payment systems used by the Treasury Department. Trump slammed that move.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I disagree with it 100 percent. I think it's crazy.
BRETT BAIR, FOX NEWS HOST: You say you trust him.
TRUMP: Trust Elon? Oh, he's not gaining anything. In fact, I wonder how he can devote the time to it. He's so into it. But I told him to do that.
Then I'm going to tell him very soon, like maybe in 24 hours, to go check the Department of Education. He's going to find the same thing. Then I'm going to go to the military. Let's check the military.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Vice President Vance echoed that sentiment on social media saying, "If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that's also illegal. Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power."
Joining us now, Kevin Frey, Washington correspondent from NY1.
Kevin, I mean, there is a Constitution. There are three branches of government. They're intended to be checks on each other.
KEVIN FREY, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, SPECTRUM NEWS NY1: Yeah.
SCIUTTO: Courts have -- well, they've blocked actions by Congress and the executive in the past. I just wonder should we read this as a signal that Trump and his team are going to just straight up defy judges?
FREY: Well, I mean, it certainly seems to be somewhat of a potential break glass moment, depending on how far Vance decides to go with this and the White House does writ large.
One of the things I've been asking on Capitol Hill is essentially, look, is there a game plan -- and this is mainly for Democrats. Is there a game plan if --
SCIUTTO: Right.
FREY: -- they decide to defy the courts? And quite frankly there doesn't seem to be much of one. One Democrat told me well, hopefully, Republicans will work with us to try to interfere in all of this. We will see given the track record we've seen on Capitol Hill.
And I asked Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, the top Democrat in the House, about this and he says that it's always a question whether a litigant will -- can -- always a question a litigant has to confront as to whether or not there will be compliance, I should say, with the court. And then he said that they have seen Article 3 hold to date and has confidence it will continue to do so. But we shall see.
The one other thing I'll add here is if they go through the traditional route of appealing and it gets its way up to the Supreme Court, we know this is a court that seems to have a pretty expansive view of executive authority, so it may end up working for them in the end anyway.
SCIUTTO: Listen, the Supreme Court has endorsed a lot -- a wide view, right -- a wide definition of executive power. But the idea of defying federal judges because you don't like --
FREY: Yeah.
SCIUTTO: -- their -- I mean, it's not just traditional, it's a legal constitutional path to appeal rather than just say you're not going to listen.
I suppose I wonder in the near term as we wait for the answer to that question --
FREY: Yeah.
SCIUTTO: -- what's happening in terms of hearings? Like, what are the next steps in the courts?
FREY: Right. So, I mean, we've got a lot that are currently of actions by the White House that are currently on hold be it pausing access for DOGE and its authorities --
SCIUTTO: Um-hum.
FREY: -- to get to the Treasury Department. The hold on -- which we should get some answers to today on this federal buyout option for federal employees because that's tentatively, I believe, supposed to expire today so we'll see what the federal judge does there.
SCIUTTO: Um-hum.
FREY: So it's going to be as kind of was previewed by this administration before they even took office. It's a matter of throwing things at the wall and seeing what the courts end up striking down and not. And we'll start getting answers presumably starting today.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. And maybe if you don't like the outcomes just ignore those outcomes of the court. I mean, it's possible.
[05:40:00]
FREY: That's also -- that is also possible. SCIUTTO: The Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem says she welcomes the
Musk-DOGE audit. This was on CNN with our colleague Dana Bash Sunday. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTI NOEM, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: We can't trust the government anymore.
DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR, "STATE OF THE UNION": Having access to personal data.
NOEM: Yeah. Oh, absolutely.
BASH: But you are the government.
NOEM: Yes. That's what I'm saying is that the American people now are saying that we have had our personal information shared and out there in the public.
BASH: But now Elon Musk has access to it. Yes, he does.
NOEM: Yeah, but Elon Musk is part of the administration.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: I mean, as you hear that it just sounds like certainly cabinet officers are lining up saying hey, you know, it's fine -- personal information. I mean, the question will be, of course, whether the American public is comfortable with that.
FREY: Yeah. And certainly, the polling, as you were looking at, I think a little earlier this hour, suggests that there --
SCIUTTO: Um-hum.
FREY: -- is at least some positive view of Trump at the moment. The question is at what point does all that's going on in the federal bureaucracy -- if there are services that get suspended that people depend on and people are like wait a minute, what's going on here --
SCIUTTO: Yeah.
FREY: -- or if you see inflation start to go up again or finances don't go down in terms of daily expenditures, do people get tired of all this and say what is going on over here when we wanted you to focus on this? Time will tell if that actually plays out.
SCIUTTO: Indeed.
Kevin Frey, thanks so much.
FREY: No problem.
SCIUTTO: I appreciate you joining. Well, there was not a lot of drama on the field but there is a whole lot more this to the Super Bowl than, of course, just the football game. The commercials, for example.
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MEG RYAN, ACTRESS: Oh my gosh.
BILLY CRYSTAL, ACTOR: Oh boy.
RYAN: Oh, good, um. Oh, it's just -- whew.
CRYSTAL: Oh.
RYAN: Oh, ah.
CRYSTAL: This one's real.
RYAN: Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh.
CRYSTAL: Lunch and a show, huh?
RYAN: Whew.
CRYSTAL: How about that?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: A little throwback to "When Harry Met Sally." That was one of the best.
The halftime show also generated a lot of buzz. Samuel L. Jackson sporting a star-spangled suit introducing the headliner Kendrick Lamar. The rapper taking a victory lap one week after winning five Grammys for his Drake diss track "Not Like Us."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAMAR: Rapping "Not Like Us."
SERENA WILLIAMS, TENNIS LEGEND: What?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: You might recognize her. That was tennis star -- tennis legend Serena Williams dancing along on stage.
Adding to the spectacle, Donald Trump became the first sitting U.S. president to attend a Super Bowl.
CNN senior media analyst Sara Fischer joins now. So what were your favorite commercials?
SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: Ooh, Jim, good question. And I loved Martha and Charli XCX for Uber Eats. We tell the truth. We do not judge. That was super funny. We had a ton of -- SCIUTTO: Um-hum.
FISCHER: -- star-studded commercials with Ben Affleck and Dunkin'.
But I think a huge highlight for me was that we had big pharma come out pretty big last night. Novartis ran its first ad ever for breast cancer --
SCIUTTO: Um-hum.
FISCHER: -- awareness with Hailee Steinfeld. Pfizer had an ad. It's kind of a big deal considering RFK Jr. says he wants to ban pharm ads.
But definitely a huge newsy night -- not just the president, the big Drake and Kendrick battle coming to the scene. Of course, the Eagles massive win was pretty unexpected. And so overall, I think it was going to be a pretty hot Super Bowl. I don't know that ratings will be as good as last year, but they'll be pretty good.
SCIUTTO: Yeah, that Pfizer ad with the little boy coming out of the hospital bed -- that definitely -- that definitely got to me. That was a -- that was a powerful story.
I mean, what did you think of the Kendrick Lamar moment because there are a lot of talk would he pull his punches against Drake? And boy, he did not. I mean, I think you could say he dove in.
FISCHER: Yeah. I mean, it was an iconic thing to do for sure bringing out Drake's ex --
SCIUTTO: Um-hum.
FISCHER: -- Serena Williams to crypt walk on his grave. You know, theoretical grave. It was like an unbelievable mic drop moment that had social media completely blowing up.
You know, from a legal perspective, Drake has been dropping lawsuits for months now against his label. He says that Spotify and his label UMG colluded against him. And so there was some concern that if Kendrick were to come out and sing this great track and namecheck Drake, which he did, if he could -- would open himself up to legal action.
SCIUTTO: Um-hum.
FISCHER: But overwhelmingly the internet seemed to be siding with Kendrick, calling it a landmark performance and bringing in Samuel L. Jackson. And so I still think he won the night.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. I mean, we'll see what Drake's lawyers say to that, I imagine.
One moment going viral this morning and that's Taylor Swift who didn't get the friendliest welcome, at least from Eagles fans seen booing her last night when she appeared on the Jumbotron. She's, of course, you know, quite a Chiefs fan for obvious reasons. Trump took a jab at her on social media writing, "The only one that
had a tougher night than the Kansas City Chiefs was Taylor Swift. She got booed out of the stadium."
[05:45:05]
I mean, listen, that's not entirely new. He did say he hates Taylor Swift when she endorsed Kamala Harris.
Tell us about that moment.
FISCHER: Yeah. Well, the big thing to know, I was in New Orleans all week. I left late last night. There were so many more Eagles fans in that city than there were Chiefs fans I think in part because this was the third time in a row the Chiefs were going --
SCIUTTO: Yeah.
FISCHER: -- to the Super Bowl. And so the fans had already had their moment. So it didn't shock me that was the overall sentiment that you got from the crowd.
But Trump being there brought a whole heightened sense of awareness to any sort of celebrity that he may had feuded with, or he may had an opinion with because we all know Donald Trump will say something. So that definitely sparked a lot of interest throughout. Notably, when Fox sort of rolled the camera over him during the National Anthem hearing those huge cheers for the president was something that was new. We've never had a sitting president at the Super Bowl.
So just interesting to see that he took advantage of so many viral moments during the game as well.
SCIUTTO: No question, Sara Fischer. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.
FISCHER: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: Coming up next on CNN THIS MORNING China hits back. Its own retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. begin this morning.
Plus, the staff behind DOGE and the concerns about their access to sensitive personal information.
(COMMERCIAL)
[05:50:55]
SCIUTTO: The tit-for-tat tariff clash continues. In the coming hours President Trump says he will announce a 25 percent tariff on all steel and aluminum imports into the U.S. What's not clear is whether these new levies will be on top of the ones already in place on exports from places such as China and Mexico.
China declared its own retaliatory tariffs on $14 billion in U.S. goods such as coal and natural gas. They go into effect today. Here is Trump speaking on Air Force one on Sunday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'll be announcing probably Tuesday or Wednesday at a news conference reciprocal tariffs -- and very simply, it's if they charge us, we charge them. That's all.
REPORTER: When does it go into effect, sir?
TRUMP: Almost immediately. If they are charging us 130 percent and we're charging them nothing it's not going to stay that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Kristi Lu Stout joins us now live from Hong Kong. And Kristi, the president has telegraphed this for some time. China had its response ready.
What impact will those measures have? How broad do they go?
KRISTI LU STOUT, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, they are broad, and the potential impacts are potentially deep. China's response to Trump's tariffs -- it could be the start of just a new tit-for-tat trade war. They go into effect starting today and we have the breakdown.
The Chinese tariffs -- they include this: 15 percent tax on certain U.S. coal and liquified natural gas. Ten percent tax on crude oil, farm equipment, trucks, big-engine cars shipped to China from the United States. And again, it kicks into gear today.
And they join other countermeasures from China like controls on metal exports as well as an anti-monopoly investigation into Google.
Look, China is striking back after the U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 10 percent tariffs on Chinese goods all in a bid to hold China accountable for the fentanyl trade. The U.S. says China is a source for fentanyl precursor chemicals. China has called fentanyl "America's problem" and has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization.
But what about the bottom line? Like, what will be the material economic impact of these new Chinese tariffs? Now, analysts say -- and they've said this in the last week -- that the tariffs from China -- they're modest, they're measured, especially compared to U.S. tariffs, and they're more symbolic in value. They're designed to send a message.
But I want to share new analysis from the Brookings Institution which says that China's retaliatory tariffs, which kick into gear today, will hurt Americans on a local level, saying this. "Similar to the 2018 tariffs, the industrial heartland is again bearing a disproportionate impact from Chinese retaliation. Some of the most intensely affected counties are energy and manufacturing communities in North Dakota, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Alabama, and West Virginia."
And the study adds -- it says between 400,000 to 700,000 American jobs could be affected by these Chinese retaliatory tariffs -- Jim.
SCIUTTO: So given the view is that China's retaliatory tariffs are somewhat measured, what do you hear about China's view of this? Do they believe they can come to some sort of deal with Trump? That they could negotiate their way out of this --
STOUT: They --
SCIUTTO: -- or are they preparing for a new normal?
STOUT: And this is what we anticipate China's new move and analyze China's --
SCIUTTO: Hmm.
STOUT: -- elite politics and exercise you are very, very familiar with, Jim.
Look, as we've been reporting, China's moves here designed to be symbolic. Designed to create room for more talks. But still, up to this day, no phone call, no deal.
SCIUTTO: Yeah.
STOUT: Canada and Mexico -- they managed to strike deals with Trump. Not the case with China. Trump says he's "in no hurry" to talk with China. But observers say China has more to gain from talks.
Look, China has learned the lessons from Trump 1.0. It has, yes, diversified its supply chain in the last few years but its economy is still in a very bad way. It is still very much reliant on exports, especially to the U.S.
SCIUTTO: Yeah.
STOUT: Jim.
[05:55:00]
SCIUTTO: So therefore likely to hurt more.
Well, Kristi Lu Stout, in Hong Kong, thanks so much for joining us.
STOUT: You got it. Thank you.
SCIUTTO: In our next hour on CNN THIS MORNING as Russia's war in Ukraine approaches its third anniversary later this month Ukraine's president says he is ready to head to the negotiating table with Putin if certain conditions are met.
Plus, the Eagles holding off the Chiefs, keeping them from what would have been an historic three-peat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICK SIRIANNI, HEAD COACH, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES: I think at the end of the day you saw this team embrace adversity throughout the entire year. Now it's hard to say that when you won 16 out of your last 17, but there was adversity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL)
SCIUTTO: It is Monday, February 10. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No three-peat. No dynasty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
