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U.S. and China Agree to Roll Back Tariffs; Duffy Warns of Air Traffic Issues; Opening Arguments in Combs Trial; Cardiff Garcia is Interviewed about Tariffs; Luxury Plane Gift from Qatar. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired May 12, 2025 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00]
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: He will meet with the Saudi crown prince at an investment forum to strengthen economic ties. He'll also be visiting Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on that trip.
Hamas signaling the imminent release of Edan Alexander. He's the last known living American hostage in Gaza. He could be freed as soon as today. His parents headed to Israel last night to be there for his release. Alexander has been held captive for more than 500 days.
Back now to our breaking news on the trade war. The 90-day clock is ticking for the U.S. and China to come to a new agreement in order to avoid the return of sky-high tariffs on each other's goods. CNN's Marc Stewart joins us live from Beijing.
And, Marc, what more are you learning about this deal in terms of what might be next in the conversation?
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Audie, the broader goal in all of this is to have some kind of mutual agreement, a roadmap for the future, for economic success between the world's first and second largest economies. As we've seen, it's just not a good look when we see a tariff dispute, as we are seeing now.
So, we are seeing in this interim period a reduction in these tariffs. That's very significant. But there's also a very symbolic accomplishment that's important. Number one, we are having this joint statement. The fact that both of these nations put out a statement together to say that they are committed to some kind of economic fairness between them, that's a very big deal. It's just not something we see that often.
The other important measure in all of this is that it's created a mechanism, a channel for these two economic superpowers to communicate. In the past, that just wasn't there. Now that's been established.
As we have seen, China really prefers diplomacy 101, back channel conversations. Whereas President Trump, if he had his way, he would call President Xi directly. That's just not in the Chinese style. So, we have this level of conversation that now seems to be acceptable to both parties. But while there are certainly high hopes, a lot of optimism, there's also some caution. And we're hearing very guarded statements from Chinese government officials.
Take a listen to what the Chinese vice premier had to say just hours ago, speaking from Geneva.
Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HE LIFENG, CHINESE VICE PREMIER (through translator): We're going to promote new development in. China-U.S. trade and economic relations and inject more certainty and stability into the world economy.
China's position towards this trade war has been clear and consistent, and that is, China doesn't want to fight a trade war because trade wars produce no winners. But if the U.S. insists on forcing this war upon us, China will not be afraid of it and will fight to the end.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEWART: A lot of this is also economic necessity, if you will. We have seen in the United States some of the supply chain concerns. We have seen GDP, which measures economic strength. We've seen it take a reduction in the previous quarter. And then here in China, manufacturing is down. And that's on top of a lot of economic uncertainty that the country was facing already. So, in many ways, Audie, money is proving to be the big motivator in all of this.
CORNISH: CNN's Marc Stewart in Beijing, thanks so much.
Now, after another tough weekend for travelers at Newark's airport, the Transportation secretary is warning it could get worse before it gets better. And not just at Newark, but at every airport across the country. This week, Secretary Sean Duffy will meet with major airline leaders to discuss solutions. One could be scaling back flights, and that could lead to a travel nightmare ahead of the busy summer season.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you need to scale back flights coming in and out of Newark while you are addressing these glitches, these problems that are so potentially dangerous?
SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: One hundred percent. So, we actually have brought down the number of airplanes that come in and leave Newark, because, listen, our mission is safety.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Group chat is back.
I feel like this is something everybody can understand or chat about, because summer travel season is starting, right? Memorial Day weekend ahead. How much of a problem is this becoming for the transportation
secretary? Because I remember Pete Buttigieg taking heat for lost luggage. This seems way worse than lost luggage. Like severely stretched out air traffic control.
ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean this is why you saw Secretary Duffy clash with Elon Musk early on in the administration because Elon Musk and DOGE came in and they wanted to shake up the Transportation Department. And Secretary Duffy knew that this, you know. Americans, voters don't like planes crashing. And he understands that simple fact. But also, this has been a long-standing problem. There were a lot of near misses also during Secretary Buttigieg's tenure.
CORNISH: Yes.
[06:35:00]
THOMPSON: And there have been near misses for many years going back, you know, ten years. The -- this --
CORNISH: And to be clear, Duffy has said that no air traffic controllers were laid off. And then --
THOMPSON: Yes, but he had -- but he had to push to make sure that didn't happen.
CORNISH: And when I looked into it, a lot of like maintenance people and like kind of other kinds of support has thinned out considerably under the DOGE cuts.
Margaret, at a certain point do people like me become the problem who are like, you know what, let me do a road trip. Like, you know, I don't think I want to deal with this right now. And this administration is not comforting me.
MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, "AXIOS": You know, it's really interesting. There are -- I think with Jeanine Pirro, now 23 Fox personalities that are in the Trump administration in some level.
CORNISH: Did you say 23?
TALEV: Twenty-three.
CORNISH: OK.
TALEV: But here you see the -- I think the real upside to having someone with a strong communications background do the messaging that's a very competent public handling. It's -- he's saying the things that a parent wants to hear. Air travel is safe -- or anyone getting on a plane wants to hear, that it's safe, that his priority is safety.
But to your point, there is polling that shows -- this is AP-Norc (ph) polling, that shows that just in the last year there's been a significant erosion in people's trust about whether it's safe to fly. Most people still feel that it's safe to fly, but a couple important declining groups. The most important one, I think, is women are feeling that it's less safe to fly than even just a year ago.
CORNISH: I feel personally attacked, just so we're clear. I did not answer this poll that just came up.
TALEV: Women decide -- women do play a significant role in deciding whether to put their kids on a plane, or whether to put their families on a plane.
CORNISH: That's -- that's true.
TALEV: So, yes, on the one hand, these are long standing aging and degradation of equipment. These are problems that span multiple administrations. But on the other hand --
CORNISH: Yes, but how does it get fixed? By whom? At what point is it a problem?
TALEV: Well, the -- they were -- the FAA had all these probationary employees that they cut, hundreds of employees that were cut.
CORNISH: Right, which really just meant new, didn't necessarily mean there was a problem with that.
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Well, it's a problem now. The administration, it seems, has taken some strong steps, saying it's trying to invest more, trying to hire more air traffic controllers. That -- the problem with that is it takes time.
TALEV: Yes.
COLLINSON: It takes years to train an air traffic controller.
CORNISH: And it takes money. I think they've got something like 5 billion proposed in the most recent bill.
COLLINSON: Right. But you do wonder whether it's time to treat this as a massive emergency before something goes wrong. And that is the question, can the administration, which in the past has been sometimes questionable on its delivery, can it actually get it done?
CORNISH: Yes. And this is also not the kind of thing you can just blame the past administration, right, because the problem is now and can escalate.
TALEV: Yes, (INAUDIBLE).
CORNISH: Yes, you just can't say it was someone else's problem.
TALEV: He's talking -- look, he's talking about raising mandatory ages. They're talking about a multibillion dollar overhaul. That's an exact multibillion dollar.
CORNISH: A zillion is -- I got it. TALEV: But it does take -- you can't just turn on a dime. And the other thing that I've been thinking about is that this shows, in really visceral terms, the downside of cutting government too aggressively.
CORNISH: Right.
TALEV: Or not making sure that there's a pipeline for talent. It is harder to see in other ways, what's the long term impact for NIH funding, or certain programs. When it's airplane safety --
CORNISH: We can see it right away.
TALEV: You can see how important it is.
CORNISH: OK.
TALEV: Yes.
CORNISH: We're going to keep talking about this today. I know people are thinking about this topic a lot.
Group chats, stay with me.
I'm going to turn to something else because opening arguments are expected as soon as today in the trial of rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs. The trial is expected to last around eight weeks. Now, Combs is facing a range of federal charges that could send him to prison, frankly, for the rest of his life. Prosecutors are expected to call Combs ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, to the stand as one of the first of three witnesses in this case. Ventura sued Combs for abuse, and he settled back in 2023. But this all went very public when a 2016 hotel surveillance video showed Combs physically assaulting her. He later publicly apologized.
Joining me now to talk about this is CNN legal analyst Joey Jackson.
Joey, can I just start with something that will be an easy question for you, which is, I'm under the impression that all of Diddy world is like locked under NDAs. So, can you help me understand, like, how people are going to make it to the stand, like kind of what's happened to that?
JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, Audie, good morning to you.
So, an NDA is a non-disclosure agreement. And that essentially is a private contract. And people use them all the time. Why? Not necessarily to hide criminality, but to keep their affairs private. When I say affairs, meaning business matters, not affairs in the literal sense. And so, they are certainly enforceable.
To your question, however, they do not supersede a subpoena or your obligation to testify. And in fact, Audie, most NDAs, non-disclosure agreements, have a provision that says exactly that, right, with exceptions with respect to coming into court, being compelled to testify about a certain matter. So, the long and the short of it is, you may have any nondisclosure
agreement you want. If you're subpoenaed to testify, as it relates to giving oral testimony or producing documentary testimony, that is documents and materials, then the NDA folds and it's your testimony and the subpoena that takes priority. And so notwithstanding any NDAs, I would suspect that those who are called to testify will do just that.
[06:40:04]
CORNISH: All right, so speaking of which, Combs' lawyers actually previewed their arguments against Cassie Ventura, of course, his longtime partner. And they were saying, quote, "we're going to take the position that there was mutual violence in their relationship." This is from their defense attorney, saying, "that there was hitting on both sides." So, we're probably going to refer to it as domestic violence.
Joey, talk about this approach. We've actually, in a way, seen it before when we think back to the Johnny Depp and Amber Heard trial. What are we expecting to see in their approach?
JACKSON: Yes, so what happened is, is a judge made a very critical ruling. The ruling related to the tape everyone has seen where it appears that Sean Combs is really being extraordinarily violent with her. And so, the defense tried to exclude that, feeling that the jury, having seen that, will be very prejudiced against him. The judge said, no, it's coming in. So, what the defense now has to do is to embrace this.
Remember, what had happened was, is that Sean Combs went out after the tape was released and issued an apology, indicating that he was ashamed of himself, indicating that he had sought therapy and that he would try to be a better man. So, there's not running from that. And so, I think what the defense has to establish is, this may have, in fact, occurred. There may indeed have been domestic violence on both sides. Does that make him, the defense will say, a person who was in charge of a criminal enterprise? Does it make him a sex trafficker? Does it make him a person who is criminal, right, as it relates to the charges he's facing, this case is way beyond, Audie, a domestic violence case. It's a lot more than that.
And so, the defense will use the notion of the tape. They will -- can't run away from it, but they need to explain that that isolated incident, the defense will say, doesn't make him guilty of the five charges that he's facing in federal court.
CORNISH: OK. Joey Jackson, thank you so much for explaining it. Appreciate you.
JACKSON: Absolutely. Thank you, Audie.
CORNISH: Ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, President Trump touting a very expensive gift from Qatar. But one law enforcement source tells CNN the luxury plane could become a security nightmare.
Plus, Pope Leo holds his first audience with journalists today. What he has to say following his historic election.
And, of course, more from the group chat after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:46:44]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's important to understand how quickly we were able to come to an agreement, which reflects that perhaps the differences were not so large as maybe thought.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Stock market futures are pointing up after a breakthrough on trade talks between the U.S. and China. Just hours ago, both countries announced they would dramatically roll back tariffs for a period of 90 days as talks continue. Now the U.S. will impose a 30 percent tariff on Chinese goods. Of course that's down from 145 percent. China, in part, has agreed to cut their rates on U.S. products to 10 percent.
So, all this comes as U.S. port officials on the West Coast warn about looming impacts from the tariffs between the world's two economies. Port of Long Beach CEO Mario Cordero tells CNN a total of zero cargo ships have left China for the U.S. since Friday, something he hasn't seen since the pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARIO CORDERO, CEO, PORT OF LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA: We may be seeing empty products on the shelves. So, this is now going to be felt by the consumer in the -- in the coming months or actually in the coming -- in the 30 days because, again, with the numbers I just gave you, that's indicative in -- a red flag with regard to the cargo essentially is stopping.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now is Cardiff Garcia, editorial director of the Economic Innovation Group.
Welcome back. As always, thanks for being with us.
CARDIFF GARCIA, HOST AND CO-CREATOR, "THE NEW BAZAAR" PODCAST AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, ECONOMIC INNOVATION GROUP: Thank you.
CORNISH: All right, first I just want to tackle that because that -- he's calling it a red flag. And we're hearing his comments about the ports and potential empty shelves in a moment where the Trump administration is saying, look, there's some -- there's some movement in our deals. We're doing the thing we said we would do.
But I know over -- you guys have been talking about a kind of Wiley Coyote economy.
GARCIA: Right.
CORNISH: What does that mean?
GARCIA: Well, it means that so far the effects of the tariffs have not yet shown up --
CORNISH: Oh, wait, we want to remind people, because young people don't know what this is.
GARCIA: Right.
CORNISH: This is called the cartoon, everybody. And back -- back a long time ago --
GARCIA: Yes, we don't need reminding, but --
CORNISH: We were entertained by this.
GARCIA: Yes.
CORNISH: But the point is, running and running and running.
GARCIA: Yes. Not knowing that the ground may have already fallen off beneath us, right? And so the idea here is that the effects of tariffs have not yet shown up in the official data, the hard government data, because it operates with a lag. But that doesn't mean that there aren't some indicators looking forward that don't point to trouble ahead.
And one of the things that people have been looking at is the number of container ships coming to the U.S. from China. They have been waiting (ph) out (ph).
CORNISH: It's like a concrete thing you can look at.
GARCIA: It's something you can look at that points to the future. But with this big de-escalation yesterday, I actually think you might start seeing those ships start coming back to port again, partly because people are still uncertain about what the eventual outcome will be of the 90 days of negotiations.
CORNISH: Yes.
GARCIA: So, you might see a lot of American manufacturers that import equipment from China rush their purchases. You might see American consumers rushing their purchases again of the stuff that they buy that's typically made in China.
CORNISH: We've also been hearing from companies because they're -- they've been warning investors here and there. Let's -- there's Mattel, GM, Ford, all sort of signaling, hey, the impact, as it stands, if we continue on this path, is real.
But you just told me, because I looked at all your notes last night, and you're like, throw away these notes because --
[08:50:01]
GARCIA: Because of everything that's happened.
CORNISH: Because now there's been some kind of deal.
So, help me understand, I'm using the word "deal" very liberally.
GARCIA: Yes.
CORNISH: What are we in the middle of? China. U.K. What do you see?
GARCIA: I'm calling it a temporary de-escalation for now, right? But what we have seen is that a lot of companies have come out and said that they are, in fact, going to pass on the price hikes to consumers, the tariffs to consumers. You played a clip earlier from Howard Lutnick, commerce secretary, essentially saying that that's nonsense. Well, I'm sorry, but --
CORNISH: Not essentially saying. Don't listen to people who say that.
GARCIA: Sure. Sure. Companies are directly contradicting him already. And what I would say also, though, is that there are only two options here, either companies pass off the tariffs to consumers and then prices go up for them, or the companies eat it themselves, which is bad for workers because it means that the companies are less profitable, fewer employment opportunities, job losses, smaller wage hikes for workers as well. So, those are the -- those are the possible options here, right?
CORNISH: That's where we are now. Yes.
GARCIA: Sure.
CORNISH: And we still have many more days to go because if you're doing these deals country by country --
GARCIA: Yes.
CORNISH: We're actually -- we're not at the start of this, right? We're kind of in the middle. China is -- China is a big deal, having that tentative conversation.
GARCIA: Yes, that's right.
CORNISH: But --
GARCIA: And I think you have to put it in the context of everything else that's happening too.
So, at the same time that there's this pause with China, there was also the trade deal with the U.K. last week. And we're still negotiating with Europe and the rest of the world. And if we don't arrive at deals with them, we go right back to the April 2nd tariffs, not the baseline 10 percent that Trump had lowered them to on April 9th. And so there's still profound uncertainty. And if you put it all together, what it suggests is that for now we are headed for a world in which tariffs are meaningfully higher than they were before April 2nd. They're just not as high as the worst case scenario.
CORNISH: So in that way, Trump has -- Trump has reached his goal, right? He wanted to reset the global economic order in some ways around his favorite economic lever and tool, tariffs.
GARCIA: Part of what's tricky here is that depending on which Trump official you listen to, its not actually clear what the goal of the tariffs is. Some say that it's to raise revenues for the country, to shrink the budget deficit. Some people say that they're good on their own terms and that they're not actually, you know, going to be -- going to be as devastating to the economy as people think because it's going to actually lead to more free trade with other countries because we're using them as a negotiating tactic. Some of those goals are contradictory and they don't make sense together, right?
CORNISH: But we can't measure them if we don't know what the goal actually is.
GARCIA: That's right.
CORNISH: Cardiff Garcia, always great to talk to you. Thanks so much.
Cardiff is editorial director of the Economic Innovation Group.
So, it is 52 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.
Pope Leo XIV met with over 6,000 journalists at the Vatican. It's standard practice for a newly elected pope to share their vision for the world. Pope Leo called for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine and Gaza during his first Sunday blessing at the Vatican.
And a ceasefire seems to be holding this morning between India and Pakistan. Kashmir saw its first calm night in recent days. According to an Indian army spokesperson, both sides stressing their commitment to the truce after several days of deadly back and forth strikes.
If you went to the Era's Tour or Cowboy Cart (ph) or any concert, frankly, you know the cost of your ticket doubles or sometimes triples at checkout. Well, starting today, the FTC will require live event ticket websites, hotels, and short term rental companies to display the total price before checkout. This won't make your tickets cheaper, but the FTC says it should save you time.
And it's being called a flying palace. The Qatari royal family is giving President Trump a new plane. One that could become the new Air Force One. The luxury Boeing 747-A jumbo jet is valued as high as $400 million. That's according to an ABC News report. But one question remains can the president actually accept and fly in this new plane from a foreign government?
Group chat is back.
I don't even know where to begin with the, like, appearance of impropriety or the security concerns of getting a plane. Who wants to start? THOMPSON: I can say, like, they're doing this legal rationale, which
is that they're not giving it to Trump, they're giving it to the Air Force, who then is giving it to Air Force One, and then they will give it to the presidential library afterward. So, they clearly are trying to get around, at least the spirit of -- of the Emoluments clause.
I'll also say, Donald Trump has not liked Air Force One going back to his first term.
CORNISH: Yes.
THOMPSON: He has been trying to get it replaced. And there have been so many delays with the Boeings new project that he basically is fed up.
CORNISH: Yes.
THOMPSON: He's like, he wants a new plane.
CORNISH: And Boeing is struggling a bit as a company.
TALEV: He's a -- he's trolling like a few different players at the same time. One is Congress, because this is supposed to be a job for Congress to decide whether a gift can go to the president in a way like this.
CORNISH: Yes.
[06:55:06]
TALEV: And the other is Boeing, because there is going to be a new Air Force One. At the earliest it will roll out roughly within the very last year of President Trump's presidency. And it may be later than that. So, he might not get to fly on it. So --
CORNISH: Oh, so you don't think this is him being like, Boeing, why don't you hurry up?
TALEV: Ah --
THOMPSON: No, I think he wants the new plane.
TALEV: No, he definitely --
CORNISH: OK.
TALEV: Yes, but also --
CORNISH: That's fair.
TALEV: Also, like, look, there is -- a foreign government could not give a president $400 million in cash, or at least I don't think they can.
CORNISH: Give it a minute. TALEV: And so -- and so there are obvious ethical discussions and
questions and considerations and reasons that the Constitution was written in a way to try to prevent foreign influence on U.S. leaders. So, all of that stuff becomes part of this conversation for very obvious reasons.
CORNISH: And Trump was kind of boasting about it on Truth Social, basically saying that they're getting it free of charge. And then interestingly he says it "bothers the crooked Democrats that they insist we pay top dollar for the plane. Anybody can do that. The Dems are world class losers."
COLLINSON: Well, this is a scandal in plain sight.
CORNISH: There's exclamation points there. You think so?
COLLINSON: You know -- well, imagine if this was happening secretly, and then it was suddenly exposed. The fact that it's out there and Trump saying, here's what we're going to do. Not only is it an infringement of the Constitution, even if they say it's going to the Pentagon. If Trump gets to keep the plane at the end, it's a gift to Trump.
The second point is, if you accept a plane from a foreign power, you're going to have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars checking that there's no surveillance devices on that plane. You don't know where it's been. And so, under this scheme, the president is going to presumably spend hundreds of millions of dollars doing up this plane while billions of dollars are already being spent on the two Air Force Ones that are coming down the line.
TALEV: Yes.
COLLINSON: At a time when they're gutting government and normal Americans are facing a lot of trouble paying for their grocery bills.
CORNISH: Right.
COLLINSON: Politically --
CORNISH: And are nervous about getting on planes themselves.
COLLINSON: Right. You know, it doesn't look like it's going to fly. Pardon the pun.
CORNISH: It's -- it's too early, Stephen Collins.
THOMPSON: Yes. You're not pardoned.
CORNISH: You are not pardoned.
TALEV: You landed that plane, yes.
CORNISH: OK. Oh my God. OK, let's move -- let's move to keep an eye on it, OK. It's Monday. There's a lot going on this week. What are you guys paying attention to? COLLINSON: I'm interested to see if Vladimir Putin turns up to these
peace talks supposedly taking place in Ukraine. The Europeans wanted a ceasefire before these talks. President Trump said that's not going to be necessary. They should just hold the talks. Zelenskyy, therefore, had no option but to agree to show up to Turkey.
CORNISH: Yes.
COLLINSON: Will Putin be there?
CORNISH: And also, Putin has not exactly been pleasing the Trump administration with sort of --
COLLINSON: True, but it seems like, once again, the scales were tipped towards Putin by the administration this weekend.
CORNISH: OK. You guys, keep an eye on it.
TALEV: Look, the big White House development this week is going to be that trip overseas. But I have 13 college athletes here this week to learn about how the media and politics work. And so, I think --
CORNISH: (INAUDIBLE).
TALEV: For all of them, all of our focus is going to be on these reports late last week that President Trump is going to personally get involved in NIL and the future of college sports.
CORNISH: Which is name, image and likeness. Their ability to profit off of their own name, image and likeness.
TALEV: Is this good for students? Is it the wild west? Is it going to save college sports? Is it going to destroy it? And can President Trump and the billionaires and former coaches that he puts together improve the outcome or unravel it?
CORNISH: Yes.
TALEV: We're going to find out in the weeks and months to come. And that's what I'll be watching.
CORNISH: I'm fascinated by this also because of the portal. I'm like learning sports things. So, there are so many kids basically who can like switch schools, right, if they get a better deal, so to speak.
THOMPSON: Yes.
CORNISH: And so there's a lot of upset college sports fans out there.
Alex, to you.
THOMPSON: I'm going to be a bit shameless here because I have a book coming out with Jake Tapper next week. But I can tell you very confidently from a source familiar that some of the first scoops from that book will be coming this week, and I think they're going to make a splash. CORNISH: Wait, this -- is the source Jake?
THOMPSON: No, it's me.
CORNISH: The source is you?
THOMPSON: Yes. Yes, yes, yes.
CORNISH: Oh, I thought -- I couldn't tell. OK.
But people have been talking about this for a while, especially as Biden is out there doing a kind of image rehab. I mean going to "The View," right? Having --
THOMPSON: Yes.
CORNISH: And Jill -- Dr. Jill Biden saying, no, actually, he was fine. Like, what do you make in that campaign, so to speak, ahead of the book's publishing?
THOMPSON: I mean a lot of Biden people believe that this -- that they are going out there specifically to pre-but our book. And that's them saying it, not me, because I think our book is about Biden's decline, and they are trying to show, no, he's fine. He could have served another four years.
CORNISH: Yes. Well, it will be interesting to see the response to that. I think there's a lot of incentives, particularly for Republicans to continue to talk about that issue.
[07:00:03]
And I think I heard -- I think Senator Klobuchar saying, like, this isn't the History Channel. Stop talking about all of this.
THOMPSON: Yes. But she also said, Democratic Party would have been better off if they had had a primary.
CORNISH: Exactly.
THOMPSON: And Biden had not run.
CORNISH: Exactly. So, the conversation continues.
Group chat, thank you so much for talking with me. Thank you for waking up with us. I'm Audie Cornish, and "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.
