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CNN This Morning

Dozens Killed as Violent Tornado Outbreak Hits the Southeast; Judge Pauses Trump's Attempt to Use Wartime Authority for Deportations; Schumer Facing Blowback After Supporting GOP-Led Funding Bill. Violent Storm System Spreads Death And Destructions Across Central, Southern U.S.; President Trump's Tariffs Threats Leave Wall Street Shaken Up; Food Insecurity Rises Alongside High Prices; Pope Francis Continues Recovery At Rome's Gemelli Hospital. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired March 16, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:00:37]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to CNN This Morning. It's Sunday, March 16th. I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to have you along. We're watching some strong storms. Tornado watches are in effect right now in three states. A powerful and deadly storm system is pushing east. The damage in some communities is extensive, and the threat is not over yet. Allison Chinchar is standing by with the forecast.

Also this morning, a new roadblock for the Trump administration. A federal judge has temporarily blocked President Trump from using sweeping wartime powers to quickly deport some migrants. The judge even ordered any planes already in the air to turn around and come back to the U.S.

Pope Francis, he will miss the Angelus prayer for the fifth week in a row. He's recovering in the hospital from pneumonia. But despite questions over his health, the pontiff is signaling that he plans to remain in his post.

And wait until you hear this Peruvian fisherman. He's been found alive after being lost at sea for 95 days. We have details of this amazing story ahead on CNN This Morning.

We're beginning this morning with the powerful, deadly storm system that is currently making its way across the eastern U.S. At least 33 people are dead across six states from the storms after a string of violent tornado outbreaks. The tornadoes left a path of destruction in several states overnight. Video from a family in Tylertown, Mississippi, shows just how powerful these storms were. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no, oh, no. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a tornado.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My car. Oh, man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Camper gone, baby.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Man, man, man, man, man, man, man, man, Lord Jesus. It's crazy. Oh, man. Look at the entire town. Look at my car now. Oh my God.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Wow. Missouri saw the most deaths with 12 people killed from the violent storms. They ripped through Friday night into Saturday. Now after surveying the damage the National Weather Service determined a powerful EF3 tornado hit Bakersfield, Missouri, killed three people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOVERNOR MIKE KEHOE, (R) MISSOURI: Storms had a horrific path over 27 counties were affected significantly and at one time last night between midnight and 4 a.m. we had 150 fires. We had over 150,000 people out of electricity, multiple tornadoes, fatalities, looting, auto accidents, just you name it. Kind of an Armageddon situation for emergency response.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN's Allison Chinchar is tracking the latest for us. They're still active watches now.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, it's still not over. I think that's the thing. It's just -- it's a very large system and it's not moving very fast. It may feel like it is but it's not. It's still moving across portions.

So let's take a look at what we've seen basically since late Friday when this all began. You can see we've had a tremendous amount of reports. You're talking more than 650 total storm reports. Again, it's all these dots that you see here and that could be a tornado report, a damaging wind report, even large hail.

We had several the size of baseballs coming through in some spots and a lot of those strong winds that's been leading to a significant power outages.

Take a look at this map again. The hardest hit states so far have been Georgia, North Carolina and into Missouri. But take Georgia for example. Most of those power outages are actually in the northern and the western part of the state where the storm has moved through. But we could see those numbers go up even more because it's still sliding through portions of eastern and southern Georgia as we speak. That's you've got a tornado watch in effect for portions of Georgia, Florida and also South Carolina. That's valid until 10 a.m. Eastern time today. You've got several warnings still going on several severe thunderstorm warnings in effect as we continue to see that line progress eastward and it will. It's going to keep shifting east as we go through the day today.

So other cities, Charlotte, Columbia, South Carolina, even some cities up into portions of the mid-Atlantic and the northeast are still going to see some of these severe elements.

Yes, the severe component today is lower than it was yesterday, but it is not zero. We are still at a level two out of five. So again, you still have the potential for some tornadoes, damaging winds and the potential for some hail as well.

[06:05:09]

Here's a look at the timeline as the storms continue to slide eastward. You're actually going to start to see more development, especially late morning and early afternoon because now you've got that heating of the day from the sun because the sun's not really out right now for most folks.

So you got to wait for that to come out. So then it's going to continue to slide eastward as we go through the afternoon in the evening hours. But even say tomorrow morning, it's really going to be a focus over portions of the northeast.

So it's going to be quite a soggy commute Monday morning for places like New York, Boston, even Hartford, Connecticut. And here you can see that this is more of a zoomed in on the northeast. Again, you can see all of this very heavy rain, not necessarily the severe component as much, but just torrential downpours as folks would be maybe driving in or to work or school, things like that as we go into the day tomorrow.

Also the colder air on the backside. So you're looking at snow for portions of the green and white mountains as we head through the early morning hours. But finally, as we get through the back half of the day, we should finally start to see an end to that.

Just a scope here just to kind of show you. Again, this is a remarkably huge system. You're talking from Canada all the way back down to the gulf coast. So you've got a lot of components to it. You've got the winter side that's in the higher elevations of the mountains or really, really far north where you've got the cold air, you've got very heavy rain on the northern side and then all of the severe thunderstorms on the southern side.

And again, Victor, can't emphasize enough, it's not done, it's going to continue to go through the next several hours. But also through much of the rest of the day as it continues to shift east.

BLACKWELL: All right, Allison, we'll check back with you in a few minutes. Thank you. With me now on the phone is Shane Stoudenmire from the Calera Fire

Department in Alabama, Central Alabama, just south of Birmingham.

Chief, thank you for being with me. Can you give us an update on the situation where you are?

CHIEF SHANE STOUDENMIRE, CALERA FIRE DEPARTMENT, ALABAMA: Yeah, compared to a lot of the cities and communities throughout the southeast and adjacent to us, we are very fortunate. We did have a pretty strong storm come through. We have moderate to heavy damage on a lot of our homes and businesses. But we do not have any injuries due to that are storm related. So we are very blessed in that aspect and our hearts do go out to the other communities that have had deaths.

BLACKWELL: Can you tell us about any potential calls for rescue overnight?

STOUDENMIRE: We did have -- we had some calls for potential rescue. Of course, police and fire units got on the scene and searched everything. And luckily, everybody was not home. Most of them were in the storm shelters that we had opened up prior to the storms getting here. So that was a blessing in itself.

BLACKWELL: Control room. Put that video back up that we were just looking at a minute ago. I think this is an RV park or a mobile home park where there was some significant damage. Chief, what do you know about that?

STOUDENMIRE: Yeah, we had several trailers that were moderately damaged. We had several that were actually destroyed. Luckily, no one was injured, believe it or not. And like I said, a majority of them weren't home. They're actually in the storm shelters.

BLACKWELL: So you have storm shelters there. People, I assume are still there. Now, the sun will be up soon. Do you have, you believe, a full understanding or broader scope of just how bad the damage is yet?

STOUDENMIRE: Not yet. The sun still hasn't come up yet here in Central Alabama. It's been a long night. But hopefully when the sun comes up, we'll kind of actually get a grasp on what kind of damage and what kind of path that we actually had.

BLACKWELL: All right. Well, the good news is that there are no injuries where you are there, but we are seeing a video of some significant damage, not just only there in Calera, but in other parts of Alabama as well. Chief Shane Stoudenmire from the Calera Fire Department. Thank you for your time. Thank you for the work you're doing. And we'll stay close and check on updates throughout the day.

Federal judges temporarily blocked President Trump's attempt to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport suspected members of a Venezuelan gang. It's the President's latest effort to crack down on immigration. The loss gives the president the authority to detain or deport undocumented immigrants of an enemy nation during times of war.

CNN Senior White House Reporter Kevin Liptak has the tales on the judge's decision.

Kevin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: President Trump's decision to evoke a centuries old law to increase the speed of deportations of undocumented migrants is already being blocked in court. It had been subject to a legal challenge even before the president issued a proclamation. But late Saturday, a judge saying that this pause would be in effect for all undocumented migrants who could potentially be affected by the president's order.

Now, this law that the President evoked, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, gave the president sweeping authority to speed up deportations of certain classes of migrants. This is a wartime authority. It had only been invoked three times previously during both of the World Wars and during the Japanese internment era in World War Two.

[06:10:18]

What President Trump was planning to use it for was to try and deport migrants associated with the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. The President's proclamation calling for the subjects related to this measure to be arrested, detained and removed, saying that they had unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.

Now, earlier Saturday, a judge had blocked this order from applying to select individuals for whom it could apply. Later in the day, he broadened out that pause to include everyone who could potentially be affected by it. And so this is just goes to show how the president's actions are being blocked in many cases by the courts.

Of course, the other backdrop to this are the frustrations inside the White House that the deportations that President Trump promised as a candidate have not been occurring swiftly enough. He has told his advisers that he wants this to see he wants to see this ramped up, certainly so he is able to fulfill that pledge he made as a candidate to really take a hardline stance on immigration.

And so the fate of this particular step remains to be seen. The judge has ordered another hearing in 14 days. But I think, you know, and all of the other president's actions, including on immigration, just goes to show how judges may have the ultimate say in how the president's agenda will be carried out.

Kevin Liptak, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Kevin.

Still to come, President Donald Trump has signed that bill to avoid a government shutdown, while some Democrats are calling it a blank check to allow the Trump administration to cut domestic spending. Plus, almost home. Almost. Two NASA astronauts will head back to Earth

soon. Now that SpaceX's crewed 10 astronauts, the mission has now arrived at the International Space Station.

Also, President Trump's on-again, off-again tariffs have seriously spooked Wall Street. What this could mean for your wallet, and some jobs. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:17:12]

BLACKWELL: President Trump has now signed into law that stopgap bill to fund the government till at least the end of September. The Senate passed the bill on Friday, just hours before the midnight deadline. President Trump praised Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for helping to advance the Republican-led bill and avert a government shutdown.

And Schumer's dealing though of that situation. He's getting a lot of blowback from within his party for supporting the Republican-backed measure.

Joining us now, Luke Broadwater. He's a "New York Times" White House Correspondent and author of Mad House. The book will be released March 25th.

Congratulations on the book. Thanks for coming back.

LUKE BROADWATER, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: So you're recently a congressional reporter, so let me lean on that before we go to the White House. And my colleagues Edward- Isaac Dovere and Annie Grayer, they've got some new important reporting out that kind of gives us the backstory of how Democrats are feeling about Schumer's performance over the last week or so, even beyond that.

I'll read a line here. "They say Schumer flubbed weeks of strategy, essentially negotiating with himself for less to make the final bill worse than they could have gotten it to be with better pushback." That's according to interviews with three dozen Democratic senators, House members, top aides. How is this episode, Luke, influencing Democrats' approach to the fights that we know are coming on the agenda, on the debt limit?

BROADWATER: Well yeah, this stopgap funding bill was really Democrats' only leverage point against the Trump administration for their foreseeable future. I mean, this was really their only chance to fight Donald Trump's agenda in any real way where the Republicans actually needed their votes. And what actually happened was Democrats talked a lot about fighting and, you know, gave a lot of speeches about fighting, but in the end folded and, you know, the leader of the Senate Democrats voted for Donald Trump's bill and a lot of people in the country are looking at that and they can't believe it. And especially young Democrats and, you know, more progressive Democrats are really outraged at Senator Schumer. They just cannot understand how, when you see what Donald Trump and Elon Musk are doing to the government, how he could cast his vote this way.

Now of course, he has a decent -- a pretty good reason for doing that, right? Which is, yes, Donald Trump's budget bill, Donald Trump's spending plan is bad, but the alternative is worse. And he believes that had Democrats gone forward with a shutdown, that Elon Musk and Donald Trump would have wreaked even more havoc with the federal workforce. They would have been able to determine who was non- essential in the government and basically push those people out. They would have been able to keep the government shut down for even longer and cancel even more agencies.

[06:20:12]

And so he -- yes, he didn't get anything out of this. Yes, it looks like a terrible vote, but in his view, this was actually the smarter vote for the country. And so that's Senator Schumer's position.

BLACKWELL: Yeah. He says there was no off-ramp, is that it just would have been up to the White House to determine when it would end and how.

Let's go to the White House now. This judge blocking the Trump administration's executive order, the president invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to try to deport members of this Venezuelan gang has only been invoked during times of war. The judge actually ordered planes that were in the sky to turn around and come back to the U.S. Give us a little more. Kevin Liptak started talking about it, but give us a little more on the sense of frustration in the White House about the speed of this mass deportation, the President promised?

BROADWATER: Right now, obviously, deportations are way up from where they were in the Biden administration and border crossings are way down. So the message has gone out that there is a crackdown on the border. And in many examples, it's been effective.

But the Trump administration has sort of reached back into the annals of history to find many old laws and provisions that they can use to enforce a maximalist approach to immigration. And in fact, people, they don't want the country, right?

So you're looking at, you know, what Secretary Rubio is doing with protesters on college campuses. You're looking at this new measure that the Trump administration invoked just this weekend.

And really, the only check on the administration in many of these cases is the federal courts, because Congress, as I just said, really can't do much to stop them, right? Congress is controlled by Republicans. The Democrats are weak there. They don't hold any cards, as -- as the president would say.

And so what we've seen is time and time again, the only people that can stop Donald Trump right now are federal judges. And so this is the latest example. There have been a series of court rulings where the federal courts have had to step in and said, I'm sorry, Mr. President, you're going too fast. You're interpreting these old laws too broadly and using them for reasons they weren't supposed to be used for. And so we have to put an end to it. And we'll see where this one ends up.

BLACKWELL: So the president yesterday characterized the U.S.-Russia talks as very good, making progress. On the same day, we had this summit from the Europeans. Keir Starmer, U.K. Prime Minister, called this virtual summit. And afterward, President Zelenskyy of Ukraine said that there needs to be foreign troops on Ukrainian soil.

I wonder how the White House sees the European conversation and the residue of that potentially influencing the talks they're having with Russia. While they think they're making progress, in a different chat, you have Zelenskyy saying, I need foreign troops, I need security guarantees, and European leaders talking about future economic sanctions on Russia.

BROADWATER: Yeah, this is an extremely complex and difficult negotiation that's going on to try to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine. And we should remember that it's the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It's not some both sides war, where they're each attacking each other equally, right?

And, you know, President Trump has upended America's stance here. He has sort of flattened the guilt between the two countries and trying to have each side negotiate on equal footing instead of imposing all the sanctions, the penalties on Russia. And then you have all the other countries in Europe, and they have their wants and desires, which we've heard the French talk about, the French playing a bigger role here.

So look, you know, Trump has called these negotiations, he views them as his path to a Nobel Peace Prize. He thinks if he can get this done, he will finally get the recognition from the world that he has long desired. But it's very complex and very tricky. And I'm not sure, you know, either side is really all that eager to come to the table, and especially the Ukrainians, the Ukrainians give up land that was essentially stolen from them by Russia. As part of a negotiation, I think that's a big ask, and I'm not sure how willing they are to do it.

[06:25:03]

BLACKWELL: All right, Luke Broadwater. Thanks for coming in. Congratulations on the book.

U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff will join Jake Tapper on State of the Union today at 9 Eastern, right here on CNN.

The ride home has arrived. SpaceX Crew-10 astronauts are now at the International Space Station. Coming up, when NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are expected to head to Earth after, let's call it, an extended stay in space.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:30:00]

BLACKWELL: President Trump ordered strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen in what he called, quote, "decisive military action" yesterday. According to Yemen's Houthi-run health ministry, the strikes have killed at least 31 people, injured more than 100. The President vowed to keep using lethal force to stop Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes, and he warned Iran to end its support or face consequences.

Iran's foreign minister condemned the strikes and accused the U.S. of fueling violence.

Four Crew-10 astronauts are on the International Space Station after docking overnight. That means NASA's Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore will soon return home after a nine-month stay.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Onishi, the first Crew-10 astronaut through the hatch, followed by Peskov.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Crew-9 will spend a few days handing over their duties to the new team. If all goes well, Williams and Wilmore and their crewmates will leave the spacecraft this Wednesday.

Their extended stay has sparked political debate, but NASA says their return is part of a routine rotation.

A Peruvian fisherman was found alive in the Pacific Ocean after spending 95 days lost at sea. Maximo Napa Castro set out from the southern coast of Peru on December 7th, but was thrown off course by bad weather.

He was discovered last week severely dehydrated and in critical condition. He's 61 years old. He survived by drinking rainwater, eating insects and birds and a turtle. He was released from the hospital yesterday.

Wow.

All right, we continue to follow the breaking news as the death toll from the massive storm system climbs to at least 33 across six states. Twelve confirmed deaths in Missouri, eight in Kansas, six in Mississippi, three in Arkansas and Texas, and at least one in Oklahoma.

Let's go down to CNN's Allison Chinchar with details of a new tornado watch.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST (on-camera): Yes, just got it in a few moments ago.

Again, it's, it's, we kind of expected it's -- it's where the storm is moving to. So Eastern Georgia, North and South Carolina now getting a tornado watch as well.

So, let's take a look at the map. So, you can kind of understand where we're talking about specifically, because we already had portions of Southern Georgia and areas of Northern Florida under a tornado watch that one valid until 10:00 a.m. Now we have this new one that encompasses pretty much more than half of South Carolina and a good chunk of Southeastern North Carolina. This one is valid until 2:00 p.m. Eastern time today, because again, the system's not moving very fast, so it's got to take its time as it crosses these areas. But as it does, it has the potential to bring some tornadoes, some damaging winds and also some hail.

We also have some several tornado warnings and severe thunderstorm warnings right now. One of those tornado warnings we want to highlight, it is going right over downtown Augusta, Georgia. So, you can see right here where that tornado warning is. And then there's the city of Augusta.

So again, if you live in and around this area, or even if you live to the North of it, it's headed towards you. So please get down to that lower level of your home right now.

The rest of this system is going to continue to spread Eastward. So, if you live in some of these other cities that aren't yet in the path now, but will be later, get those preparations underway. All you have to do is look at what this storm system has done the last couple of days to really understand to take this seriously.

It's also a very large system spreading even into portions of the Mid- Atlantic and the Northeast. These are all of the areas that we have the potential for severe weather today. Yes, mostly the yellow area, but even some of the fringe portions where you see the green could still end up having some damaging winds that can bring trees down, that can bring power lines down.

We already have a tremendous number of power outages as it is that number likely to rise as the rest of this system continues to slide Eastward.

In addition to that, you also just have very gusty winds out there. All of these orange areas you see here, these are wind advisories, high wind warnings. You've got a lot of folks there and that could also then trigger additional power outages as well.

BLACKWELL: And so, we should expect these watch and warning boxes to pop up throughout the rest of the day.

CHINCHAR (on-camera): Throughout the day. Yes. I would imagine they'll continue through the evening.

BLACKWELL: All right, Allison, we'll check back. Thank you.

Still to come, how the stock market loss of confidence could impact you as President Trump puts on and off and then sometimes on again tariffs. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) [06:38:49]

BLACKWELL: Wall Street was shaken last week as fears grow over President Trump's tariff threats. Despite rebounding some on Friday, the S&P 500 lost more than $5 trillion in value over the last three weeks.

Here with me now to talk about the economic impacts of President Trump's trade war is the Chief Economist of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, Jerry Parrish.

Jerry, thanks for coming in.

JERRY PARRISH, CHIEF ECONOMIST, METRO ATLANTA CHAMBER: Thanks for having me.

BLACKWELL: So, let's start here. Last week on Friday, we saw that there was a resurgence of confidence after there was the averted government shutdown. But as we look ahead to next week, should we expect that same volatility as we're looking at whatever the President decides on tariffs?

PARRISH: Well, there certainly is a bunch of uncertainty right now because of the tariff situation. Businesses that I talk to are having a hard time planning. They don't know, you know, about how much the tariffs they're going to face, what it's going to look like, are their export markets going to retaliate? So, there's still a lot of uncertainty with the business community right now.

BLACKWELL: Yes, and you know, we talk about tariffs in the context of what it means for the consumer. What -- how much that bottle of wine is going to cost or the cost of grain. But for employers, how does this impact the job market?

[06:40:02]

PARRISH: Well, it's interesting because, you know, when you're doing your long-term plans as far as, you know, how many employees you're going to need to have, you know, part of that is, you know, what's stuff going to cost? What are you going to be able to sell it for? And so businesses, I think right now are kind of sitting on their hands, you know, they may have wanted to hire some people, but they're going to wait to see what shakes out with the tariff situation and which countries are going to have tariffs and which one of them are go away.

BLACKWELL: And the President argues that the tariffs protect U.S. industry, protect U.S. jobs. It's those retaliatory tariffs that could impact those U.S. jobs here, right

PARRISH: Right. That's true. You know, if when -- when you have a tariff, which is basically just a tax on goods that come into the country, U.S. producers actually face less competition. You know, they can it'll be easier for them to sell their product.

And so in the long term, tariffs will help protect the native industry and should lead to more jobs and more productivity here. However, it doesn't happen overnight

BLACKWELL: I took a note, excuse me, voice going out on me. Gold hit $3,000 per ounce last week for the first time. People are retreating. Is that panic or something else?

PARRISH: There often is. People purchase gold to hedge against inflation. And, you know, tariffs absolutely are going to be inflationary. I think that's pretty, pretty well understood.

And so sometimes people buy gold as a hedge to inflation. Real estate's another thing that sometimes people buy to hedge against inflation. But there's been a lot of gold imported into the U.S. here recently as well. And that probably has something to do with the price of gold going up.

BLACKWELL: So, there is some good economic news. AAA has the average price of gas down to $307 a gallon for regular. It's about a dime lower than it was a month ago. Thirty-five cents lower than it was a year ago. Egg prices are off their highs. Inflation cooled last month.

But there is a poll that shows Americans are split on expectations over the next year and share expecting things -- that the share expecting that things will be bad in seven year -- excuse me next year is up seven points since January.

So how do you reconcile those people think it's going to get worse? But actually, at this moment, things are getting a little bit better by those metrics.

PARRISH: Well, yes, there are some commodities that are coming down. However, that's pre tariff, you know, numbers, depending on what the tariffs are. Cars could go up and different things. But one of the things you have to think about this economy is there's a really good article in The Wall Street Journal that said, you know, 49.7 percent of all consumer spending is done by the top 10 percent of earners in America. And that's up from about a third to nearly a half right now.

So, we're really dependent on those, you know, higher income folks. They continue to spend money. They're keeping this economy going right now. And they're certainly not nearly as affected by, you know, price increases of eggs or anything else.

BLACKWELL: We've got a Fed meeting coming this week. They'll decide if they will cut. Most people, I think, expect that they will keep the same. The interest rates, they'll keep them steady. How do they view this daily, sometimes tariff fluctuation?

PARRISH: I can't speak for the Fed, but here's my guess on what what's going to look like. You know, they're concerned about inflation. We've brought down inflation substantially over the last couple of years by keeping a little higher interest rate, even though they brought them down a little bit this fall.

My suspicion is they'll wait and see what actually happens with tariffs. Will they stick? How long will they last? And judge that effect on what it will have to do with inflation before they change anything.

BLACKWELL: All right. Jerry Parrish, Metro Atlanta Chamber, thanks so much.

PARRISH: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: Our President Trump's trade war is not only rattling Wall Street, as we discussed, it's raising anxiety for people who are already struggling to make ends meet.

Here's CNN's Rosa Flores.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BIANCA PANELOSA, HOUSTON RESIDENT: Everybody needs something, you know.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bianca Panelosa takes her place in the back of the line of this North Houston food fair.

PANELOSA: Look in the front, baby, because your ponytail is going to be crooked.

FLORES (voice-over): The single mother of three children with another on the way.

PANELOSA: I have a good, good babies. All my family, they're good.

FLORES (voice-over): Is a survivor of domestic violence and was on the brink of homelessness after a divorce. Forced to move in with her parents. Now, food banks are her lifeline.

PANELOSA: This is the only way that I can survive.

FLORES (voice-over): Bundled up in the cold pre-dawn hours. Many elderly on fixed income. All increasingly worried about what rising food prices and the impact of tariffs will mean for them.

FLORES: This is Maria Marta de Leon. Cuantos anos tienes? How old are you?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Setenta y dos.

FLORS: She's 72, and she's on a fixed income.

[06:45:01]

FLORES (voice-over): She was the first in line, arriving at 4:30 a.m. to secure one of 250 slots for a box of food.

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

FLORES: You're worried about the tariffs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Si. Si.

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

FLORES: She says that with the tariffs, she just doesn't know if she's going to have enough money to buy food.

FLORES (voice-over): The food from the food fair comes from the Houston Food Bank, which saw a 22 percent increase in the amount of food distributed this January compared to January of last year.

FLORES: The CEO of the food bank describes a potential nightmare scenario that he says could happen if there are cuts in social programs coupled with job losses, which could mean an increase in demand and desperation.

BRIAN GREENE, PRESIDENT & CEO, HOUSTON FOOD BANK: If we do go into a recession, then it's going to be even more people. If not only are we not able to meet the increase in need, we're actually having to make significant cuts in what we distribute.

ROSALVA HERNANDEZ, MANAGER OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, BAKERRIPLEY: OK and (INAUDIBLE) 197.

FLORES (voice-over): The head of the monthly BakerRipley food fair gets emotional watching familiar faces.

HERNANDEZ: These is my family. These are my people.

FLORES (voice-over): And says there's been a 13 percent increase in need this month compared to last month.

HERNANDEZ: We hear, you know, they're not getting food stamps, they lost their job, they're ill.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning.

PANELOSA: Good morning. We get some potatoes, broccoli. What else? Oh, bananas.

FLORES (voice-over): Bianca says she can't work because she has to care for her two boys with disabilities. They're six and 11, and the $400 in food stamps she receives each month is not enough.

PANELOSA: I have to be grateful for everything that they give us free.

FLORES (voice-over): But with tariffs looming, Bianca is preparing to take more drastic measures to make ends meet.

PANELOSA: Here.

FLORES (voice-over): Like boiling tap water instead of using bottled water, diluting juices and milk for cereal.

PANELOSA: More?

FLORES (voice-over): And feeding her kids less.

PANELOSA: Less fruit, less vegetables. To eat a little bit less than we're supposed to be eating.

FLORES: So, you would ask your kids to eat less?

PANELOSA: To eat less. So that's why I'm telling them it's going to be, you know, very tough for us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Rosa Flores, thank you for that story.

Still to come, Pope Francis is in stable condition, but he is still in the hospital.

We'll go live to Rome for the latest update on his health.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:51:47]

BLACKWELL: This morning, Pope Francis is in stable condition at Rome's Gemelli Hospital and reports of gradual improvements in his health. His recovery is processing and progressing, and he, though, will not lead Angelus prayer for the fifth consecutive Sunday.

Let's go now to CNN's Christopher Lamb. He's reporting live outside the hospital.

Christopher, what's the latest on his condition?

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): Well, Victor, the Pope has been at the Gemelli Hospital behind me now for more than a month.

The Vatican have been saying in recent days that he's been improving gradually, that there's been a reduction in some of the oxygen therapy that he's been receiving. And there is a slow improvement, but we just don't know how much longer the Pope is going to be in hospital. It's all very uncertain in terms of what that recovery is going to look like.

The Pope's been in the hospital now for over 30 days. He has pneumonia in both of his lungs. He's 88 years old. It's obviously a very uncertain, worrying situation for people. However, a lot of people have been gathering to show their support for Francis.

Behind me at the Gemelli Hospital, there's a group of schoolchildren who've come to show their support for Francis. They've got balloons in the Vatican colors of yellow and white. They've been shouting Viva el Papa, long live the Pope. And there is a hope that the Pope might appear. Nothing's been confirmed and it seems at this point unclear.

But every Sunday, of course, the Pope is usually leading the Sunday Angelus prayer. We're not expecting him to do that in person, but there's obviously some expectation, some hope maybe that he might make an appearance. We haven't seen the Pope for now several weeks. We are going to be getting more updates from the Vatican in the coming hours about the Pope's condition. But as I say, the general message has been that the Pope is slowly improving.

Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right. Some good news there.

Christopher Lamb for us outside the hospital. Thank you.

A new episode of "UNITED STATES OF SCANDAL WITH JAKE TAPPER," follows the story of Enron.

It was considered one of the most successful Wall Street corporations in the '90s and was led by a charismatic leader, Jeffrey Skilling. Enron was often referred to as the darling of Wall Street until 2001, when large scale fraud was revealed, shocking investors and everyone.

Here's a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: What was he doing that was so alarming and such a no, no.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In effect, if I just bought a company for $10 million from you and one month later, I'm saying it's really worth $15. We're going to write it up to $15 and put $5 million in the income statement.

That $5 million is just bogus. You just made it up.

TAPPER: And that's what Jeff Skilling did.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's what they did. Yes.

TAPPER: They would just assess what they thought it was worth.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. But just a month ago, we had just bought the asset.

TAPPER: There actually is a hard number.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's a hard number.

TAPPER: But they would not do that. They'd say, well, we think we can get five times this on the market.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TAPPER: And so, we're going to say this is worth $50 million.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. It was all legal. But you just can't write things up like that. I mean, that was the beginning of -- of the seeds of the of the fraud that killed him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[06:55:03]

BLACKWELL: Watch a new episode of the "UNITED STATES OF SCANDAL WITH JAKE TAPPER, " tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

Still to come, we're tracking those deadly storms and possible tornadoes that hammered several states, parts of Alabama we're looking at now, other parts of the South. We have your forecast.

You're watching "CNN This Morning Weekend." Stay with us.

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