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CNN This Morning

Senate GOP Begins Vote-A-Rama Do-Over To Launch Trump's Party- Line Package; U.S. Judge Orders Return Of Wrongly Deported El Salvador Man; March Jobs Report Stronger Than Expected As Stock Market Plunged; At Least 8 Killed As Devastating Storm Pounds Central U.S. With More Flooding, Tornado Threats. U.S. Supreme Court Allows Trump to Freeze Teacher Training Grants; Federal Prosecutors Announce More Charges Against Sean Diddy Combs; Nintendo Postpones Switch 2 Preorders in U.S. Due to Tariffs. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired April 05, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

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[06:00:27]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good to have you. Good morning. Welcome to CNN This Morning. It is Saturday, April 5th. Here's what's happening this morning.

Tornado watches are in effect across parts of the south right now. Storms are stretching from the Gulf coast to the Canadian border. And meteorologists say that some areas will experience generational flooding through this weekend.

The Trump administration has until Monday now to get a man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador back to the US. The judge in the case says the deportation was illegal.

China is also hitting back after the markets closed down Friday over fears about tariffs and inflation. The Foreign Ministry there posted this message to President Trump. The market has spoken.

Plus, some schools are becoming no phone zones. Some districts are now trying out cell phone bans during school hours. We'll tell you how it works and what students think about it.

First up, new this morning, Senate GOP members took a key step forward to advance President Donald Trump's multitrillion dollar agenda overnight. But a half dozen House GOP lawmakers and senior aides told CNN that they're skeptical that the Senate plan will survive in the House.

The Senate's vote-a-rama, as it's called, ended very early this morning. Democrats hammered back by forcing votes and offering amendments, but a lot of them failed, including Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's amendment targeting President Trump's new tariffs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D) MINORITY LEADER: President Trump's tariff tax is one of the dumbest things he's ever done as president. And that's saying something. Markets are plummeting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: GOP leaders are scrambling to pass the full package before recess in August. CNN's Eva McKend is up live with me now. Eva, good morning to you. A lot of the vote-a-rama, not all of it, but a lot of it is to put the majority into the position of making some difficult votes. But what's your main takeaway?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, now the intraparty war between Republicans over how to actually pass this thing, advance this thing rather begins but list Democrats are running out of messaging tools, mechanisms to push back against the Trump agenda.

And what we saw last night in the vote-a-rama is their attempt to do just that, to put Republicans on notice, put the American people on notice on things that they just will not tolerate. For instance, among the amendments we saw from Democrats included efforts to support Ukraine, combat DOGE or the Department of Government Efficiency and save Social Security, as they insisted. Republicans are pushing for tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and argued spending cuts would slash programs like Medicaid.

But now this budget blueprint that includes trillions of dollars in permanent tax breaks and new money for national security will have to survive in the much more conservative, fiscally conservative Republican controlled House where it faces an uncertain future.

And Victor, the blueprint offers very little details about what Trump's bill will ultimately look like. We don't know what programs will be funded, what programs will be cut or how the money for the border will be spent. So Democrats now in the House may be able to negotiate to get this bill to look a little more bipartisan. Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right. Eva McKend watching it for us. Good to have you on a Saturday morning. Thank you so much.

A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. must return a man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last month. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Salvadoran national, is expected to be returned to the U.S. no later than Monday. Now, earlier this week, the Trump administration conceded in a court filing that it mistakenly deported the father from Maryland due to an administrative error. CNN correspondent Priscilla Alvarez has more for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor, a week that began with the Trump administration saying they had mistakenly deported a Maryland man to El Salvador ended with a federal judge in Maryland directing the federal government, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, by 11:59 p.m. on April 7. Now, this is the case of a Salvadoran national who was a resident of

Maryland, who in 2019 was granted by an immigration judge what is known as withholding of removal. That is to say that while he could be removed from the United States, he could not be sent back to El Salvador over fear of persecution.

[06:05:05]

But that is what happened after Abrego Garcia was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last month and then removed to El Salvador along with other migrants and is now being held at the notorious mega prison in that country.

Now, the federal judge on Friday asking many questions about this particular instance, the fact that he was granted a protected status but was removed anyway. Now, the federal judge had asked for evidence both on this, but also about his alleged ties to MS-13, as the Trump administration has said. He has the Justice Department attorney saying during the hearing, quote, the government made a choice here to produce no evidence.

Now, the family was relieved by the ruling that he be returned to the United States, but maintained that they, too, are going to keep up the fight. His wife saying earlier in the day Friday that this has had a tremendous impact on their family and her three children.

Now, the Trump administration has appealed the case, so these legal proceedings will be ongoing and we'll see what happens there. But certainly a remarkable end after a week where the Trump administration had admitted to an error and then been directed to return one of those migrants who they say is in Salvadoran custody. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right, Priscilla, thanks so much. Let's talk about all this now with Errol Louis, political anchor for Spectrum News and host of the Big Deal with Errol Louis. Errol, good to have you.

Let's start with this vote in Washington, and Eva set the table for us. It's now going to a far more conservative, fiscally conservative chamber. Where do you see this going?

ERROL LOUIS, POLITICAL ANCHOR, SPECTRUM NEWS: Good morning, Victor. I think they're going to have a very hard time making this happen. What the Senate is leaning towards, the Republicans who control the Senate is far less conservative in a lot of ways, does not have the very, very deep cuts that the House Republicans some have been calling for.

So this is going to be where the issue gets hashed out. This is going to be where they decide whether or not they're going to make deep, deep cuts to Medicaid, which for viewers who are not clear on it, is not just for poor Americans, but about 50 percent of people who are in nursing homes, adult care, a lot of that is paid through Medicaid. They're talking about deep and serious and permanent cuts to that program. It's not going to be an easy lift, but they'll go behind closed doors and try and figure it out. BLACKWELL: Let's talk now about the impact of these tariffs. $6.6

trillion of wealth erased from the market over the last couple of days, 2,200 plus point drop yesterday. And the president is at his beach resort this weekend, a White House source told the Washington Post. He's at peak of just not giving an F anymore. Bad news stories, doesn't give a F. He's going to do what he's going to do. He's going to do what he promised to do on the campaign trail.

How long do you think congressional Republicans stick with the president, especially if the market on Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday, on implementation day on Thursday looks anything like it did on Thursday and Friday?

LOUIS: Well, look, where all of this is heading, Victor, is that we're going to have some very tough times ahead economically. There's going to be a lot of chaos and confusion. While there's chaos and confusion, businesses tend not to invest. Consumers tend to withhold their spending decisions, whether to buy a new car, for example, and that's how you get a recession.

So I say if I had to project, assuming this all continues and goes forward, I'd say no later than say when lawmakers go home for Memorial Day, they are going to get an earful. I mean, one estimate that was cited by the Wall Street Journal, Victor, suggests that these tariffs can lead to $2,100 per household in additional costs, and that's enough to send people into the streets with torches and pitchforks. I don't think it's going to be an easy lift.

BLACKWELL: You know, Errol, this is something I've been thinking about, that if the president is, as he says, not going to change his policies of something that is so transformative, something that is obviously consequential, where is the messaging? Should there be an Oval Office address straight down the line to the camera to explain this to the American people, especially if they are using words like pain that they know are coming for people.

LOUIS: You know, it's an interesting question, Victor. This idea of these tariffs, this whatever it is that Donald Trump is hoping to get out of this is core to his thinking. I mean, he wrote books or his name is on books that go back more than 10 years talking about this even before he got into politics. This is central. This is not going to go away.

Can he explain it? I don't know that he can. I mean, he'll explain why there's pain and why somewhere down the road there are going to be apparently new factories, new investment, new great things for America.

[06:10:09]

I don't know that he can explain why we're all supposed to wait for the five or 10 or even more years it would take for this to happen under a best case scenario. So I don't know that we're going to get that Oval Office address.

BLACKWELL: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, now the Maryland father of three who is mistakenly deported to El Salvador. Do you see politically like there's the legal fight that's going on that the administration has appealed to the 4th Circuit that politically, even with the admission of the mistake, that the administration will bring him back to the United States?

LOUIS: I'm going to assume that if there's a lawful order for this administration to correct what everyone seems to agree is a mistake, that they will do so that, you know, we can't have a government run by people who acknowledge a mistake and then say, well, sorry, you're just out of luck.

By the way, this is not the only mistaken case. The Civil Liberties Union says they're looking into some others and there could be as many as a half a dozen. So we're going to find out if there are others who are suffering the same problem. And the whole issue, by the way, Victor, is that the due process works both ways.

It protects certainly a person from being wrongly deported in this case, but it also protects the government from the embarrassment and the expense of having to fix mistakes when they could have done it the right way up front by giving people a chance to be heard and said, we think that you're a gang member and we're going to deport you. And the person has should have a chance to say, you got the wrong guy.

BLACKWELL: Yes. And of course, the court says that this man should be brought back by Monday. Errol Louis, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

Everything shipped to the U.S. now costs 10 percent more this morning. President Trump's tariffs on all imports went into effect overnight. Steeper ones are on the way and more countries are promising to retaliate. We're going in depth on it all ahead.

Plus, jury selection in Sean "Diddy" Combs. Federal trial starts a month from today. The two new charges he's now facing. Those are coming up.

And nearly half of the country could soon ban cell phones in the classroom. How a ban changed one Virginia high school. That's coming up a little later this morning.

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[06:17:16]

BLACKWELL: All three major indices saw steep drops at the end of the week because of President Trump's sweeping tariffs and China's retaliation. But there was some good news on the economic front. The latest job report came in stronger than expected with the U.S. adding 228,000 jobs last month. That was nearly double February's number that was revised down. CNN correspondent Sherrell Hubbard has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERRELL HUBBARD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. Stocks plunged again Friday after China retaliated against the United States for President Donald Trump's latest tariffs.

SCHUMER: This week, Donald Trump made one of the dumbest decisions he's ever made as president, and that is saying a whole lot.

HUBBARD (voice-over): In response to Trump's newest 34 percent tariff on Chinese imports, China said it will impose a reciprocal 34 percent tariff on all imports from the U.S. starting April 10. This is the second day that U.S. markets have tumbled since President Trump made his April 2nd announcement of sweeping tariffs on practically all U.S. imports, vowing to make America wealthy again.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Now it's our turn to prosperity.

HUBABRD (voice-over): The latest jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday showed the U.S. job market did do better than expected last month. But analysts say things could change soon. Citing recent economic data that suggest layoffs and overall uncertainty could rise due to Trump's policies. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that inflation is likely to pick up as well.

JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR: We face a highly uncertain outlook with elevated risks of both higher unemployment and higher inflation.

HUBBARD (voice-over): One economist says consumers are already feeling it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're feeling it in their 401ks. They're feeling it in their retirement accounts.

HUBBARD (voice-over): Some are questioning the end game of the global tit for tat.

NICK LEVENDOFSKY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, KANSAS FARMERS UNION: How long is this short term pain going to be? I don't think we really know, but I'm worried that we're about to find out.

HUBBARD (voice-over): I'm Sherrell Hubbard reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right, with me now to discuss The New York Times economic reporter Lydia DePillis. Lydia, good morning to you.

I want to read something for you that the on social media overnight, big business is not worried about the tariffs because they know they are here to stay. Fact check that for us.

LYDIA DEPILLIS, ECONOMIC REPORTE, THE NEW YORK TIMES: You know, what I'm hearing from big businesses is they are betting that those tariffs, as they have occasionally when Trump has announced them before, will go away once he's negotiated what he sees as satisfactory concessions from the many countries that now have tariffs on them.

So that is why we are wondering whether companies will actually make these kinds of shifts that the president wants them to in terms of drawing their supply chains back to the U.S. because it's a really big investment to do that.

[06:20:00]

If you're going to build a factory or pull out of someplace like Vietnam, you want to know that it's going to pay off for four or five, six to 20 years. And that's just not something that big companies can depend on at the moment.

BLACKWELL: As I mentioned in the last segment, $6.6 trillion of wealth erased over the last two days of trading. S and P 500 losses, 10 percent over those two days. Is there an expectation of when the slide will end? At what point will traders say it's factored in? Or is the expectation that we'll see this type of drop every day through implementation day on the 10th.

DEPILLIS: If you saw that, we would have no stock market left. So I don't think I can tell you when the bottom will hit. But I do know that big reaction is due in part to the realization that consumers cannot sustain prices at these levels where they are projected to go.

The reason you're seeing such a big reaction is that Wall Street banks are forecasting a significant increase inflation. JP Morgan Chase just yesterday updated their unemployment forecast to 5.3 percent by the end of next year, and that is dramatically higher than it is today and where it was forecasted to go absent these tariffs. So the U.S. consumer is the absolute engine of economy.

And if they pull back, if they decide that they're not sure whether they'll be employed in the coming months and what they're going to be expected to pay for big ticket items or everyday things like groceries, they are not going to keep spending. And without that, this economy is toast.

BLACKWELL: How much of the reaction on Wall Street was not that there was just retaliation, but that it was China first?

DEPILLIS: China is obviously one of our biggest trading partners, so that is a big deal and trying to impose 34 percent tariffs in response to ours on them. And you know, we don't export as much to China, but our farmers do depend on that market or hoping to get into that market even more than they are now.

So I think a trade war between giants is always more scary than a bunch of smaller bilateral trade wars. I mean, we, some of the biggest tariffs we imposed were on Cambodia and Vietnam and Southeast Asian countries, where we get a lot of things like apparel that we haven't really produced in large quantities in the U.S. for decades.

So, certainly when these big countries start fighting, that's when the global economic order gets upended and we could end up seeing really strong ripple effects throughout the rest of the world. So I think that is partly why the response you saw was so large, especially for companies that had their supply chains deeply embedded in China.

You know, Apple, for example, I think shouldn't have took off like 10 percent of its market capitalization because even though it said it's going to reshore some of its production right now, it still depends largely on China. And that's why iPhones are within the range of affordable even though they're still pretty expensive.

BLACKWELL: Yes, they're still pretty expensive in the range of affordable. Somewhere near it. Let me ask you about the comments from Fed Chairman Jerome Powell weighing in on inflation. Not a surprise what he said, just certainly noteworthy that he said it. We know that it was the persistent high inflation that dogged the Biden administration and their suggestion that then in '21, '22 that it was transitory. Put into context what we're hearing from Jerome Powell as we hear this pressure from the President to lower interest rates.

DEPILLIS: Sure. So the Fed Chair has been extremely careful to not get engaged in politics. He is protecting his institution and its independence at all costs. But you cannot ignore the likely effect of these tariffs. And there is a difference between tariffs and the kind of inflation caused by supply chain disruption and aggregate demand increases that we saw earlier in the pandemic. Right.

A tariff is technically a one-time increase in prices, but this economy reacts in complicated ways. If people see prices of things that they import increasing, there may demand wage increases to compensate for that, which drives up the goods of the things they produce. So it can touch off a bit more of a spiral. And so that I think is what the Fed is concerned about.

The Fed is in a very difficult place because interest rate increases are not necessarily the best medicine for this kind of price increase. They're not going to force the President to take off tariffs or force people to pull back on their spending in a way that brings down those prices.

So I think the Fed is really trying to navigate some extremely tricky waters here. Their next meeting isn't for a few weeks and investors aren't expecting rate cuts quite yet.

[06:25:04]

But it's just not clear that even if they did cut rates at this point that it would put the economy back on a stable footing.

BLACKWELL: A lot to happen between now and then. Lydia DePillis, thanks so much. Communities hit with severe storms this week are now bracing for more rain and the chance of generational flooding.

At least eight people were killed across Tennessee, Missouri, Indiana and Kentucky this week. One of them was a little boy swept away by floodwaters on his way to a school bus stop in Kentucky.

Right now the Mississippi Valley is under the highest possible risk for flooding, rain that's almost unheard of outside of hurricane season. And the National Weather Service has identified at least 31 tornadoes since Wednesday. One woman Indiana was trapped in a car as that storm rolled overhead. While she survived, one of her dogs was trapped in her home when it collapsed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASHLEY RICHARDSON, STORM VICTIM: My windows busted out and that's all I remember, the debris coming everywhere and hitting me and I ducked my head and then he got me out of my vehicle because I couldn't open my door. He was trapped underneath and I think it crushed him. But he was alive when they found him and my sister in law and brother took him to the vet and he was. There was nothing they really could do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Let's take a look at that storm system again right now. Texas, Arkansas, parts of the Midwest getting slammed right now. Arkansas is where we find CNN's Michael Yoshida. Michael, what are you seeing?

MICHAEL YOSHIDA, CNN NEWSOURCE NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning Victor. You talk about that flooding concern, that generational flooding. We're in Hardy, Arkansas near the border with Missouri where they are dealing with major flooding concerns overnight.

You can see some of the water from the Spring River. We're up by Main Street but already out of its banks pushing up towards this part of the historic part of town. And in terms of the impacts, we know in talking with law enforcement a short time ago, we've already seen rescues happening throughout the night from all of this water starting to fill the low lying areas here.

In terms of water level at last check were around 23 feet for the gauge at the Spring River. To put that in perspective, flooding still stage is 10 feet so we're well above that. When you look historically in terms of the amount of water they normally see here, you have to go back years to get to these levels. If we're looking in terms of some of the more recent history we know 18 feet, that's life threatening situation for this town.

Again we're around 23 feet right now. Back in 2011 we saw the waters rise to about just under 21 feet. That flooded most of the old town here. Again, lower line areas, elevated homes, they were flooded. And then back in 2008 we know the river crested just under 23 feet so we're already above that.

And talking with law enforcement here and hearing from emergency management. Again the concern has been this water rising in the overnight hours like it has reaching these levels they haven't met before. And again we've already heard of some rescues talking with law enforcement.

We know some people living in a mobile home area, some people had to be rescued there. We know the sheriff and the police chief had to rescue dogs from homes as well. So a lot happening here and a big concern especially following the last few days. We saw that severe weather. We saw those tornadoes throughout this region. We were in Lake City the last few days covering that.

Now you add this water to it and it's just a very tough situation. And officials telling us they're not going to be out of the woods for the next few days based on what they're seeing with the forecasts.

BLACKWELL: Michael Yoshida for us there in Arkansas, thank you.

China hits back at the U.S. with new tariffs. Says the markets have spoken after the sell off on Wall Street. We'll tell you what the Chinese government is urging the Trump administration to do, next.

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[06:30:00]

BLACKWELL: In a narrow 5 to 4 vote, the Supreme Court sided with President Trump on Friday to temporarily freeze roughly $65 million in teacher training grants. It's the administration's first win in the Supreme Court of the second term. Now, the funds were supposed to help several states address teacher shortages, but the states could still ultimately win the case.

And the court pointed out that they could get the funding back in later lawsuits. Federal prosecutors have announced two more charges against Sean "Diddy" Combs. There are additional counts of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. Authorities allege that the acts occurred between 2021 and 2024.

The charges were announced just one month before he is set to go to trial in New York on sex trafficking charges. Combs has pleaded not guilty. Nintendo has postponed its new switch to gaming console preorders in the U.S. The company says the latest tariffs are to blame. The company revealed the pricing and release date for the device on Tuesday, just a day before President Trump introduced a series of tariffs on foreign goods, including ones from Asia, where Nintendo's tech supply chains are based.

Nintendo has not given a new date for when preorders in the U.S. will begin. The market has spoken. That is China's latest response to President Trump's sweeping global tariffs announced this week. All three major indices fell more than 5.5 percent on Friday. CNN's Marc Stewart joins me now from Beijing.

[06:35:00]

Marc, good to see you. President Trump's plan to put 34 percent tariff on all Chinese goods imported to the U.S. That's what he's going to do he says on the 10th. China's not backing down. What are you hearing there?

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, Victor, China is not backing down. In fact, when you look at a trade war, and that's what we are now in. There are really two components, there is certainly the money aspect of it, and then there is the messaging aspect of it. And that's where China has been focusing on today, being Saturday here in China, its latest weapon of all things is social media.

I want to show you a social media post from Facebook that you referenced just a moment ago, where the Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the markets have spoken, and on that graphic, on that Facebook post is a picture, a graphic of the three major U.S. stock indices, all showing the recent losses.

He went on to call the action by the U.S. unprovoked, unjustified and urged the U.S. to reverse course and try to settle the differences of opinion here. But what's really notable is the fact that this post is in English and it's on Facebook. Facebook is pretty much banned here in China. It's not something that everyday Chinese citizens can access.

And the fact that it is in English signals to me that this is a deliberate effort to get the attention of the United States and the West. And this is all coming as even more tariffs are set to go into place beginning next week. It's a real test for both Beijing and for Washington. Take a listen to the thoughts of one economist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM LEE, CHIEF ECONOMIST, MILKEN INSTITUTE: I think the response from China that raising the tariffs is more like using a rifle rather than a cannon, in response to President Trump. And like every other political leader, President Xi has to demonstrate very quickly he's not going to get pushed around by the American President.

He has to appeal to the domestic audience to show that he wants to maintain China's sovereignty, and he will not allow Americans to push him around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: And on that point, that raises the question, who will be the first person to pick up the phone? Will that be Xi Jinping or President Trump? That remains to be seen. But Victor, what is very clear at this moment is that China is being very smart about this. It's being very strategic, in particular, targeting American farmers, the agriculture industry. China really knows where these tariffs, these new looming tariffs will certainly hurt the most.

BLACKWELL: Yes, well, it's obvious the President -- President Trump's open to phone calls, the one with tow of Vietnam. But that message in English on Facebook, the audience might be the American people more than the American President. Marc Stewart for us there in Beijing, thanks so much. This is an interesting one.

More schools across the country are now introducing a rule that some parents would have a tough time following. No cell phones. How the bans are changing the lives of students at one school. We've got the story for you next.

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[06:40:00]

BLACKWELL: So, we're all connected to our phones all the time. I bet yours is maybe max, 2 feet away from you right now. Well, now some schools are turning to total cell phone bans to keep kids from scrolling in class. CNN's Pamela Brown visited one Virginia high school to see how it works, and to find out what the students think about it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT & ANCHOR (on camera): Raise your hand if you're a fan of this new phone-free policy at the school.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's complicated.

BROWN (voice-over): This Virginia high school looks like any other during passing periods. But notice one thing is missing.

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

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

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

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

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bang, like it sounded like gunshots --

UNIDENTIFIEED MALE: Everyone --

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

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

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

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

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Policy.

BROWN: But other benefits inside the classroom are clear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even just picking it up for a small time can take away from like your learning experience.

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

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

[06:45:00]

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every day, I go straight to my phone when I get home. Don't even think about the homework.

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's definitely almost like social issues for sure. Like, without the phone, because like -- I feel like I connect with more people and like have better conversations than I've could have had with the phone.

BROWN: Student Karen Mines says it's led to a new kind of engagement.

KAREN MINES, SENIOR, WAKEFIELD HIGH SCHOOL: Even just like at lunch, you, like, talk to each other, you know, like people bring games to class.

BROWN (on camera): You never experienced that kind of engagement.

MINES: Oh, it was just like, and maybe not since kindergarten, maybe not since pre-school.

BROWN (voice-over): And the students and teachers here say less isolation has meant less interpersonal conflict.

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

BROWN: The movement to restrict cellphones in classrooms is growing, with nine states having already passed a ban or restricted cellphone use in schools. And 15 states plus the District of Columbia have introduced legislation to do the same. But not every educator is on board, including Brandon Hernandez, a former public school principal in New York.

BRANDON CARDET-HERNANDEZ, FORMER PUBLIC SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: We have to teach digital literacy skills, like kids need to know how to use social media, and by an outright ban of smartphones in schools, we are not getting any closer to teaching those skills. Kids who are already the most vulnerable and the most under-resourced schools, who are already experiencing skill gaps, those are the kids who are going to be the most harmed.

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know one of the biggest things that people were worried about was if there's like a lockdown --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And like there's someone in the school and you need to text your parents, and then all the parents would be going crazy because they can't text their kids. They don't know if they're OK.

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

CABANA: Misinformation could be put out on phones, incorrect rumors, perhaps panicking when there shouldn't be. That would just be a hindrance to keeping students safe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right, Pamela, thank you. OK, so for those kids, once they get the phone out of the bag and get home, President Trump is giving TikTok another 75-day extension. Why he says the deal to avert a ban needs more time. That's for you ahead.

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[06:50:00]

BLACKWELL: Men's final four tips off in Texas with two predicted epic battles slated for the national spotlight later today. Game two features a man leading the local favorite at the tournament and inspiring difference maker, who has been passionately leading and advocating to preserve his tribe's identity and way of life. CNN's Coy Wire has it for us.

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COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: I just caught up with Houston Cougars head coach Kelvin Sampson minutes ago. One of the greatest leaders in all of college sports, and his impact reaches far beyond just his team. This is his fourth final four appearance, and this time in San Antonio, he's sharing some of the spotlight with native American communities all across the country specifically, his Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.

He's helping them on their generation's long mission to receive full federal recognition and benefits. He's asking other leaders to step up, be a difference maker alongside him.

KELVIN SAMPSON, HEAD COACH, HOUSTON COUGARS: I wanted a generation of young kids and Pembroke and Robeson County and Lumbee kids throughout this nation to be proud of their roots, be proud of their native American roots. We've always had to fight for what we have. And I think that's why I've always taken a little Pembroke with me no matter where I've been. I don't like the government telling us who we are and who we aren't.

Our history tells us who we are. Our history tells us where we've been. But there's so many people that are fighting the good fight, but we need the congressmen, the senators, this administration and the White House to do the right thing.

And me having this opportunity on a national stage to advocate for -- not because I want it done, because it's the right thing to do. And the more people that have platforms and stages like this, the closer maybe we'll be -- we'll come to getting what's right.

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BLACKWELL: Coy Wire, thank you for that. All right, firing researchers studying opioid addiction, delaying clinical trials to treat cancer. The Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency are making some dramatic, often controversial cuts to government. In his new documentary special, Fareed Zakaria looks at the conservative movements long-running war on government. Here's a look.

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FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): As he took the oath of office in 1981.

RONALD REAGAN, FORMER LATE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I, Ronald Reagan, do solemnly swear.

ZAKARIA: Ronald Reagan began his big crusade against government.

REAGAN: So help me God.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I congratulate you, sir.

ZAKARIA: He believed in ever-growing federal bureaucracy was stifling the American people.

REAGAN: Thank you.

ZAKARIA: Culminating in the malaise of the Carter years.

REAGAN: In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.

ZAKARIA: Reagan's solution, the most radical attempt to down-size government since the new deal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ronald Reagan, his supporters hope the new FDR of the right.

[06:55:00]

ZAKARIA: He would not waste any time, therefore, he even left the Capitol, Reagan signed an executive order to freeze all hiring in the federal government. Conservatives hopes were sky high, but in the end, the Reagan revolution would fall far short. Big government got even bigger. And many hardcore conservatives once again felt betrayed.

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BLACKWELL: Be sure to watch the war on government, a Fareed Zakaria special airs tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. President Trump's trade war is just wreaking havoc on Wall Street. Next hour, I'll talk to an expert on where this battle over tariffs could lead.

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