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Erin Burnett Outfront
Markets In Free-Fall As Trump Sells Tesla's At The White House; Pro-DOGE Government Worker Promoted Her Influencer Brand Amid Firings; Zelenskyy Agrees To Ceasefire Plan Covering Air, Sea, Front Line; Surveillance Video: Missing U.S. Student Hours Before Vanishing. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired March 11, 2025 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:34]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
The breaking news, Trump's trade war tanks the Dow, down nearly 1,400 points in just the past two days. Today, the president of the United States took action by selling Elon Musk's Teslas in the White House driveway.
Plus, a CNN investigation tonight. A Trump official who works at the agency helping execute the DOGE cuts has been trying to build her online brand on the clock from inside her government office. This is a fascinating report.
And Putin, with all the power tonight. Will he agree to a 30 day ceasefire? The Russian opposition leader, just freed from Putin's prison is my guest.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
And OUTFRONT tonight, we begin with the breaking news. Stocks plunging again. The Dow down 500 points. That's a two day loss of 1,400. That's a plunge. And it's a plunge that has hit Americans retirement.
And Trump came out at the White House for promotional appearance. He didn't appear yesterday after the drop. But he did appear today and he really focused on just one person stock, one person's retirement. That person is the richest person in the world, Elon Musk.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I love Tesla.
REPORTER: Which one did you buy? Which one did you buy?
REPORTER: Mr. President, which car are you going to buy?
TRUMP: The one I like is that one.
REPORTER: How does this work? TRUMP: I want that same color.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Even he couldn't pick a Cybertruck.
He was a car salesman in the driveway of the White House today, though, saying he's personally going to buy that red Tesla. And not only that, that he wants you to buy one, too.
This is fascinating. Remember when we would get those snaps of Biden's notes and they would tell so much? Well, they got a snap today of Trump's notes. And let's show you.
You can zoom in. It's not his handwriting, but whoever it is in sharpie as he likes, wrote the price for every car along with the sales pitch that dealers push. Quote: Teslas can be pushed for as low as $2.99 a month.
Tesla, of course, has lost more than half its value since its high after Trump's election, $700 billion gone since its peak in December, right after Trump took office. I mean, that is a stunning thing to just think about.
Seven hundred billion dollars, poof.
Musk's net worth alone down $150 billion -- $150 billion. And, you know, part of the reason is the reality. The headlines like these: Tesla is in trouble. Elon Musk isn't helping. Tesla sales are tanking across the world.
And this one captures a lot of it. Elon Musk's far right politics are tanking Tesla sales.
Now, as Trump tried to sell Teslas from the White House driveway, though, the company's stock actually rose a little bit at the end. Obviously doesn't erase any of that pain I just laid out, but that was what the intention, of course, of today was. They succeeded in that.
But unfortunately, if you do not own Tesla shares that dog or DOGE and pony show did nothing for you. The Dow is down now more than 2,500 points since Trump took office.
Award winning business investigative journalist Allan Dodds Frank actually points out something that caught our attention on this because while U.S. stocks have plunged, Russian stocks have surged. The major stock index there has been going up ever since Trump won.
And then on February 12th, it spikes. You see that spike in the center of your screen. So what happened that day?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We had a great call and it lasted for a long time over an hour. We had a very good talk with -- people didn't really know what president Putin's thoughts were. But I think I can say with great confidence he wants to see it ended.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So that was the spike. Trump came out and had praise for Putin after that lengthy phone call. Since then, that was it. The market has stayed in the green.
This is the same economy, of course, Russia's that was on life support. Interest rates and consumer loans -- just to go out and get any kind of a loan there, it was 25 percent at best.
Now when you look at what's happening to that market, let's just put it on the same screen with the Dow. So there's -- wow. Well, you can see the difference. It is striking when you compare what is happening in Russia to America.
And yet today, Trump claims that everyone expected the markets to go down in the U.S. once he took office. Somehow he said because of Biden, which the reality is, is in complete contrast to what he said during the campaign.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The next Trump economic boom will begin on November 5th, 2024. It's going to be a boom like no other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: It's fair to say that what has happened since, with the markets and with tariffs is not what people who voted for him expected.
Jeff Zeleny is OUTFRONT live outside the White House, beginning our coverage this evening.
So, Jeff, you know, you had that DOGE and pony show, as we call it, with the Teslas. But then Trump met with a group of very powerful CEOs, the Business Roundtable.
[19:05:03]
It is an important and influential group.
And you're getting new information from inside that meeting, where I am sure many of them were extremely eager to have a chance to say what they thought to the president today. What are you learning happened?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, perhaps they were, Erin, but this is something I'm told was described more as a listen only mode. Yes. There were questions asked of the president. The press was only allowed in for the first question. It was a friendly one. It was for the president to talk about his -- his tariff plan.
He said it's going to make the country wealthy again. But talking to one business leader who was in the room, they tell me this. There was no new clarity or certainty.
And that, of course, sums up the big challenge, really, over the last few weeks, there has been no certainty in the markets. The markets are trying to figure out what the White House is thinking, what the president is thinking, these on again/off again tariffs. Just in the span of this afternoon, the president threatened a 50 percent tariff on some goods from Canada in response to Canada threatening a tariff on electricity. The president then backtracked after Canada backtracked.
So it's just been this confusing series of events. But it was a conversation, certainly. But the president was touting and embracing his plan. So there is no sign, no public sign, no private sign that we can see that the president is changing his -- his operation at all.
That's not to say he's not spooked by the market or concerned by the market. We know, of course, this is something he watches very carefully. But his advisors around him this time are much more true believers than the ones eight years ago, there were many more advisers directly from Wall Street who were always cautioning him. That is not as much what he is hearing.
So, for now at least, embracing those plans for a tariff. And I'm told he talked about the April reciprocal tariffs at this meeting. He says he is full steam ahead on those.
But Erin, as we know, the tariff threat, the actual tariff often is a different thing.
BURNETT: So far. And the fact that you can say often because there's been so much on and off again in just the past 40 some odd days he's been in office.
Jeff Zeleny, thank you very much.
So when Jeff's talking about that, you know, possibly 50 percent surcharge that was going to be charged on electricity to the United States, that was what was coming out of Ontario. And the premier there, Doug Ford, who is OUTFRONT now.
And, Premier Ford, I appreciate your time. I suppose. I'm glad to talk to you again, although it means that -- it means that here we are.
So the White House is going ahead. We've got just a few hours until they impose the 25 percent tariffs that they promised. They came out late this afternoon, Premier, and they say that you had a conversation with the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick. And they said you conveyed that you were, quote, backing down off of your 50 percent tariff threat that Trump was going to match. They described that you, quote, unquote, were backing down.
Is that what you did?
DOUG FORD, ONTARIO, CANADA PREMIER: Well, they can use any terminology. I just feel when its at a fever pitch and we see the market tumbling over $4 trillion, inflation happening, uncertainty and consumer confidence is down. It's not about backing down. It's about sitting around the table and negotiating a fair deal.
Let's move this USMCA, move it up forward as quickly as we possibly can, because right now, no one likes uncertainty, and no matter if your family's businesses, the market, I feel it's very, very important to go down and meet Secretary Lutnick and to have a good conversation with him.
BURNETT: All right. So I presume you're going to do that. But in that vein, I do want to read you the full statement. I told you the words backing down, but I want to give you a chance to hear the full thing.
They said: After President Trump threatened to use his executive powers to retaliate with a colossal 50 percent tariff against Canada, Ontario Premier Doug Ford spoke with Secretary Lutnick to convey that he is backing down on implementing a 25 percent charge on electricity exports to the United States. President Trump has once again used the leverage of the American economy, which is the best and biggest in the world, to deliver a win for the American people.
Now, again, I know you just said you're going to come down to meet with Secretary Lutnick, but what did he say to you today that convinced you to -- to not go ahead with that 50 percent tariff? Or was it literally nothing that he said? And it was just that you saw the market going down?
FORD: No, not -- not at all. We had a very constructive conversation with the secretary, and I mentioned exactly what I said.
We have to speed up this USMCA deal. We have to bring certainty to the markets. We have to bring confidence to not only American companies, but Canadian companies as well. And it's been pretty chaotic, as everyone knows, over the last little while.
I just want to sit down and cut a deal as quickly as possible, to move forward, to have the two greatest countries in the world prosper and be wealthy and safe. That's -- that's what I want to do.
BURNETT: So President Trump and you and I have talked about this, he continues to say he wants Canada to become the 51st state, right? He's not let up on that at all.
"The New York Times" recently reported, premier, that Trump told Prime Minister Trudeau when he was prime minister. So this was last month that he wanted to revisit a 1908 treaty. And this is a really important treaty. You know it because it established the U.S. and Canadian border.
And "The Times" reported that Secretary Lutnick, who we were just talking about, told the finance minister of Canada that Trump, quote, wants to tear up the great lakes conventions and agreements, tear them up. I'm just showing the map here, because the Great Lakes region on the Canadian side is you. It is all about Ontario.
So what do you say to that? I mean, are you hearing that, that they want to tear up the great lakes agreements and essentially put the border between the U.S. and Canada up for negotiation? FORD: That's just not going to happen. That's a nonstarter. We'll
never be the 51st state.
Erin, I always say how much we love Americans. I love Americans, Canadians love Americans. And that's just not on the table.
We'll never be a 51st state. We're proud of our sovereignty, and we'll always stay as Canada.
But saying that we want to work closely with the -- the U.S. and have a great, fair trade deal. That's what -- that's what we want. And we'll see how it goes. But let's just hope we move forward in a real positive fashion.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Premier Ford, I always appreciate talking to you. Thank you.
FORD: Thank you so much, Erin, I appreciate you. Thanks.
BURNETT: All right. Good to see you, Premier.
And now, Allan Dodds Frank, award winning business investigative journalist. I mentioned him, of course, in our introduction. And Diane Swonk, chief economist for KPMG U.S.
Diane, can I just start with you listening to Premier Ford, who obviously is trying to put a, you know, say that he hopes that things are going to turn out on this.
DIANE SWONK, CHIEF ECONOMIST, KPMG US: Take the temperature down.
BURNETT: But he sounds tired.
SWONK: Yeah.
BURNETT: He sounds tired. He's talking about uncertainty. How big of an impact is this having? This on again -- now we're supposed to have 25 percent tariffs starting in a few hours here at midnight. We'll see. But then it was 50 earlier today.
I mean, it is exhausting. What effect is it having?
SWONK: So we you know we know what uncertainty does in our own personal lives. And economists have taken notes, you know, think about when you come to a stoplight that is broken in a busy intersection. Nobody wants to go across it because they're uncertain that somebody else might hit them.
That's kind of what we're seeing in real time right now. We're seeing uncertainty weigh on the economy. We're seeing it have a direct toll. You hear it in all the earnings calls out there where people say, we can't give you any guidance about where we're going because we don't know what's going to happen with tariffs. We don't know what's going to happen with different borders. We don't know what's going to happen with --
BURNETT: What an outrageous thing to say. We don't know what's going to happen with borders.
SWONK: It's hard. And -- and, you know, growing up in the Detroit area, I spent a lot of time in Canada and it was always another country. And I always loved Canada. And I, you know, growing up in the auto industry, I know how integrated it is.
I grew up in the middle of this incredibly integrated situation since the 1960s. So this is something that is just, you know, breaking up is hard to do. This is more than breaking up. It's breaking.
And tariffs are a blunt tool and they're using it for multiple goals. And when you use it for everything from a negotiating tactic to an actual revenue raiser to some kind of an equalizer, you're going to have a law of unintended consequences, and something's going to break.
BURNETT: And meantime, Allan, as you point out, you know, the U.S. market, we talked about the 2,500-point drop, the loss in Tesla shares. Yet when you juxtapose that with the Russian market, as Trump has obviously repeatedly in terms of the signaling and what he has done, you know, to Ukraine, stopping intelligence, stopping the money, Putin has been given an incredible gift. I mean, it is amazing to look at that chart.
ALLAN DODDS FRANK, AWARD-WINNING INVESTIGATIVE BUSINESS JOURNALIST: It's astonishing. I mean, the two day drop really got my attention. That's why I decided to take a look at the Russian stock market. And if these trends continue, they'll be putting up a statue of Trump in Red Square.
I mean, he talks about how he loves to own the stock market, except when it's down. Now, the only thing I can say about my stock portfolio, which is modest, its all American stocks and they're getting clobbered.
Fortunately, I don't have Tesla or Trump media because they're getting clobbered even worse because I think there are two factors. Uncertainty, as Diane talked about, and the repellent factor that a certain large percentage of the population feels for Elon Musk and for Donald Trump. And I think that is going to be driving the way people think about their investments.
And the problem is that if you go into cash because you're worried about the stock market, the dollar is also losing value since Trump's inauguration. So the money you have, if you do nothing with it, is shrinking as well.
BURNETT: Your purchasing power.
And look, Diane, these are scary things. And when you think about that and Trump said over the weekend that the U.S. might go into recession, right, when he -- then -- then today he came out.
[19:15:02]
Now, obviously, that -- that was part of the reason people said the market went down yesterday, but they always look for and everyone should know this. They look for a headline to say why the market went down, when it could be a whole lot of things, right? Okay.
But then today he had to respond. He said, well, no, I don't see it going into recession. In fact, the country is going to, quote/unquote, boom.
So when you look at the data, is that what you're seeing?
SWONK: No, we're not. And, you know, I mean, we've seen a lot of recession scares over the last couple of years. And right now I don't have a recession. I do have a bout of stagflation, which is --
BURNETT: Stagflation.
SWONK: Stagflation. Yeah, throwback to the 1970s.
BURNETT: No growth. Prices go up.
SWONK: Exactly. And that is you know, we have the growth stalling out and prices accelerating. And then, you know, it's a very difficult situation. Now could we get in a recession. We haven't had so many signals all flashing this much at the same time. Now many people felt we were in a recession when inflation was searing because they were losing ground.
BURNETT: Right, right.
SWONK: And that's understandable. And inflation is scarring and it affects everybody.
The bottom line is the flames of inflation are still -- you know, it's still smoldering. We still have a lot of inflation out there. People go to the grocery store. They're still looking at the price of eggs. We know that's partly bird flu.
But the bottom line is the level of prices are still very high, and the pace of growth and inflation, which were going to get more data on tomorrow, is still elevated. And then you add something on top of that.
Now, in terms of the tariffs that we're talking about, we know in 2018 and 2019, all of the tariffs. And then some showed up in the cost of goods. Tariffs on washing machines showed up entirely in terms of washing machine prices, but also on dryers.
But what's important is also we saw -- yes, steelworkers got an increase in jobs, but that was more than offset by the higher costs of the inputs in manufacturing and the loss of manufacturing.
BURNETT: You don't need to have all 25 percent of these tariffs going through in prices to have a complete crisis. Just to state the obvious, you only need a little bit and then you have a crisis.
SWONK: And that's why you have stagflation, because you're hitting margins, profit margins. And they do layoffs at the same time that you've got to pass along some of the price increases. That's how big these are. And we're talking about tariffs moving from about a 3 percent rate to 16-1/2 conservatively.
BURNETT: Yeah.
SWONK: And that's huge.
BURNETT: Financial.
SWONK: And highest number since the 1930s.
BURNETT: So highest number since the 1930s obviously, Allan, we know what that what that came before. We saw the photo of Trump's notes as he was with the car. You know, he had all the you know what you can pay per month, right? The whole car salesman aspect of it.
He said something else later about why he had the event. Let me play it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And when I saw what was happening with this, you know, the concerted effort by page, I think they're paid agitators. And when I saw what was happening, I said, I want to buy a Tesla.
And we just went to the front. He had four beautiful cars there, and I bought one in front of the press. It was a very public purchase, and they're beautiful and do a great job. Very good competitors with Mary and everybody else. You know, he's done a great job and he shouldn't be sacrificed or have to suffer because he wants to help government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, look, the reality is Tesla shares have lost half their value. And that's not people just selling just because, you know, I mean that there's a reflection there of the business -- the underlying business.
FRANK: Well, there are two things going on. Uncertainty, a lot of people want to buy cars. I mean, I'm thinking about buying a new one myself. I don't know what to do.
Are the stories about the tariffs going to add ten, 12 percent to a new car? Should I run out and buy one now?
I also have a bunch of friends who have Teslas. One of them is now so repelled by Elon Musk's behavior with the federal government that she says, I can't bear to get in the car anymore. I'm going to sell it. I just don't know who's going to buy it, because who knows what's happening to the used Tesla market.
The other friends I have who buy them, get in with reluctance. And they're -- they're now worried about people saying things to them because they're driving a Tesla.
So we'll see how that shakes out. I mean, it's nice Donald Trump may want to have Teslas in every federal agency, save money by buying new Teslas for the government. I don't know what's going on next. BURNETT: Yeah. I mean, I said, it is incredible, though, when you
think about it even eight months ago, to think that that was how the Tesla brand would be seen. I mean, the turnaround of a brand in such a -- that -- that's something for marketing experts. But that's incredible.
All right. Thank you both very much.
And next to CNN investigation, a Trump official working for DOGE spending her time trying to build an online brand while being paid by you and those around her are getting fired.
Plus, J.D. Vance responds to our interview with his cousin Nate Vance, who took issue with the vice presidents support of Russia and treatment of the Ukrainian president. We'll tell you what J.D. Vance is saying about our conversation.
And breaking news, Trump may be just hours away from getting what he wants from Greenland.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:24:20]
BURNETT: Breaking news DOGE striking again. CNN learning the Education Department is expected to begin sweeping layoffs tonight. The goal, we understand, is to cut about half of the 4,100-person workforce. So 50 percent cut for the DOE.
It comes as a CNN investigation looks into a high ranking employee at the office of personnel and management, the agency that sent out the mass email asking federal workers to justify their jobs. That high ranking employee has been filming influencer videos that promote what she's wearing on social media, from inside her government office.
Kyung Lah is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It looks just like any other influencer video, a young woman posing in front of a camera over and over and over again, showing off her trendy but timeless professional fashion.
[19:25:06]
But she's no ordinary influencer, and that's no ordinary office. Her name is McLaurine Pinover, and she's a Trump administration's new director of communications for the office of personnel management. Or OPM, which manages federal employees.
All of these videos were shot in her government office right here, at OPM headquarters in Washington, D.C., ground zero for Trump's plan to cut thousands of workers from the federal government in the name of efficiency. Inside her office, Pinover captures video at her desk putting on makeup, modeling new outfits to her 800 followers. Pinover markets close on her account using what's called affiliate
links. She could get a portion of any item sold through her Instagram page, like this $475 skirt or $300 dress. But it's unclear whether she's made any money.
On February 13th, the day 20 people on her communications team lost their jobs, she posted a moment for mixed patterns and the week when her agency demanded all federal employees list five things they did that week. She posted the businesswoman special.
As OPM spokeswoman, she defended the memo at the time as a commitment to an efficient and accountable federal workforce.
DONALD SHERMAN, CHIEF COUNSEL: I would be very curious if she included her efforts to promote her brand as part of the five things that she accomplished that week.
LAH: Donald Sherman, the chief counsel for an ethics watchdog group, says more than anything, this behavior is insulting to the thousands of federal employees being fired.
SHERMAN: This Trump administration appointee is violating the public trust at the same time as she seems to be instrumental in the administrations attack on civil servants.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH (on camera): And you just heard him there say she's a Trump official. She has only been on the job since January with the new administration, and some of this does appear to have happened on the clock. We were actually looking at her account this morning, and she posted a couple of Instagram stories during normal business hours. You can also see the time on her watch and at least one of the videos she filmed, all during work hours.
Now, about 15 minutes after CNN reached out to her requesting comment, her Instagram account was deleted. She declined to comment officially to CNN. But we did get comment from former OPM workers who told us, quote, are you kidding me? That's my office. Another called it absurd and ridiculous to post fashion videos as people are being laid off -- Erin.
BURNETT: It's incredible reporting.
Kyung Lah, thank you very much.
And now, Brian Barrett, executive editor at "Wired", which has been leading in so much of the breaking news about Elon Musk and DOGE.
Brian, I mean, that story that Kyung was just sharing is just so incredible. And I know you have new reporting tonight at wired that Elon Musk had expressed he wanted a government shutdown, which, of course, President Trump had rallied House Republicans to avoid tonight. What are you hearing?
BRIAN BARRETT, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, WIRED: Yeah. Well, I think it's interesting that this is a -- a potential rift that we've seen. But our reporting shows that Elon Musk has -- has been in favor of a government shutdown.
The idea being that a government in a shutdown state is sort of a DOGE utopia. You've got a bunch of non-essential workers, which is the technical classification not working, not getting paid. After 30 days, if the government shutdown lasts that long, then you can officially start to fire them and those jobs disappear forever.
Obviously, the House of Representatives got their act together and they passed the continuing resolution today. So, we'll see what actually happens with the -- the shutdown when it gets to the senate. But our reporting has shown that Elon Musk was in favor of it. He thought this would be a good chance to sort of rip the band-aid on a lot of what DOGE is trying to do anyway.
BURENTT: So we saw Trump today vowing, you know, to buy a Tesla on site at the White House. And he did write there was a Cybertruck there. Interestingly, he didn't pick it. He picked the red colored Tesla.
And then the president said this about why he was doing it, Brian.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The time I've known him, he has never asked me for a favor. He didn't ask me for this. I said, you know, Elon, I don't like what's happening to you. He has never asked me for a thing. And he's built this great company, and he shouldn't be penalized because he's a patriot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: What does it tell you, Brian, that the president is doing this? I mean, going to the extent to have all these Teslas in the -- in the White House lawn. Is this essentially trying to make Tesla, which had been sort of a status symbol for liberals, to become an aspirational MAGA car?
BARRETT: Yeah, it's -- it's amazing to see the president of the United States do an infomercial for the worlds richest man's car line. You -- astounding that we got to this point. I think what it really shows you, obviously, it's a very handy metaphor and also very on the nose literal thing that shows you how intertwined Donald Trump's political interests and Elon Musk's private business interests are at this point, and how kind of unhealthy that is in practice.
[19:30:11]
I know Donald Trump said that he never -- Elon never asked him for anything. But remember that Elon Musk spent hundreds of millions of dollars getting Donald Trump elected, and now is in charge of a lot of the federal government and reshaping it the way that he sees fit. Sometimes you don't have to ask. Sometimes you just sort of put yourself in a position to receive. BURNETT: Yeah, quarter -- a quarter of a -- a quarter of $1 trillion.
All right. Thank you, or a quarter of $1 billion, I'm sorry, on that campaign, $250 million.
Thank you very much, Brian.
And OUTFRONT next, all eyes on Putin, Ukraine agreeing to a 30-day ceasefire. So now the ball is in Putin's court. Russian opposition leader just freed from Russian prison weighs in next.
Plus, breaking news, a crucial vote underway tonight that could pave the way for Trump to get what he wants when it comes to Greenland.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:35:05]
BURNETT: Tonight, Putin in charge. It's his decision whether to go ahead with a ceasefire after Ukraine tonight agreed to an immediate 30-day ceasefire on American terms.
And when Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked if Ukraine saying yes to a ceasefire means that the relationship between Trump and Zelenskyy is back on track, he said something a little snarky that was essentially rewriting history.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: This is not "Mean Girls". This is not some episode of some television show. This is very serious. People are going to -- today, people will die in this war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Rubio was shaming a reporter who had asked the question by acting as though in the past few weeks, you know, Trump was the one who was had the moral high ground on being serious. Of course, after the embarrassment in the Oval Office, Trump said this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This is going to be great television. I will say that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So when it comes to the episodes of television, well, that's who was looking at it from that perspective.
Of course, Trump -- Rubio shouldn't be shaming a reporter on this when the person making those comments originally was Trump. And on the substance of what Rubio said, this is not "Mean Girls". I mean, take it seriously. Trump has called Zelenskyy a dictator, shamed Zelenskyy for wearing his signature wartime attire to the White House, canceled intelligence sharing, canceled all U.S. aid to Ukraine and with the help of his vice president, provided this made for TV moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You've got to be more thankful, because let me tell you, you don't have the cards.
J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Have you said thank you once this entire meeting?
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: A lot of times.
TRUMP: The problem is, I've empowered you to be a tough guy. And I don't think you'd be a tough guy without the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: It's a moment that will live in history. And Secretary Rubio, of course, wanted to shame that reporter who was asking a crucial question, because the reality is hundreds of thousands of people already have died in this war. More people did die today. That is all true.
OUTFRONT now, Vladimir Kara-Murza, Russian opposition politician, one of Putin's fiercest and bravest critics. He was sentenced to 25 years in a brutal Russian penal colony after being convicted of treason for denouncing Putin's invasion of Ukraine. That was it.
And then they put him in the penal colony, served more than two years of his sentence, much of it in solitary confinement. He was just released in August in a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia.
And, Vladimir, it is -- it is a great pleasure to speak to you again. You know how Putin operates, and we're in this moment now that Ukraine says it's accepted the terms for a 30-day ceasefire. Do you think Putin will accept this ceasefire?
And most importantly, Vladimir, do you think that he will go ahead with what this is all about, which is to enter into a true, serious peace negotiation with Ukraine?
VLADIMIR KARA-MURZA, RECENTLY FREED FROM RUSSIAN PRISON AFTER CRITICIZING PUTIN: Well, good evening, Erin. Thank you so much for the invitation. It's always great to be on your program.
Well, any day when Russian bombs are not falling on Ukraine and civilians and children are not being killed is a good day. So any ceasefire is good news. But of course, the devil is in the details and there are more questions remaining than we have answers so far. What are going to be the security guarantees? What are going to be the territorial lines of division? What are the conditions are going to be discussed?
But in answer to the to the second part of your question, I think it is very important to understand that we can only be talking about a temporary ceasefire at best, because as long as Vladimir Putin is in power, as long as there is a regime in the Kremlin that disrespects the rights and freedoms of its own people, that tramples on its own laws and on its own constitution, it is never going to abide by the civilized norms of international behavior for as long as there is an authoritarian, belligerent, repressive regime in Russia, Russia is going to continue to remain a threat, both to its own citizens and to the outside world.
And so the best we can hope for under the Putin regime is a temporary ceasefire. And here it is very important to see what position the free world will be taking at the negotiating table. And to me, the most important aspect of these coming negotiations is that we, you know, we should talk less about raw earth minerals and talk more about human lives.
BURNETT: Yeah.
KARA-MURZA: As you've just said a few minutes ago, there are hundreds of thousands of lives that have been lost because of this war of aggression that the Putin regime launched against Ukraine, unprovoked war of aggression.
But there are tens of thousands of human lives that can still be saved. And these are the captives, the hostages of this war. I'm speaking about thousands of Ukrainian civilians who've been abducted by Russian forces during the three years of the full scale invasion. I'm speaking about thousands of Ukrainian children who have been abducted to Russian territory. That is an internationally recognized war crime. That is the reason the International Criminal Court has indicted Vladimir Putin as a war criminal and issued a warrant for his arrest.
And I'm speaking about Russian political prisoners who, just like I was a few months ago, sitting in jails today for the only reason that they have spoken out against this dictatorship and this aggression against Ukraine.
And so whatever else, whatever other terms are discussed as part of these negotiations, in my mind, it is absolutely imperative that any agreement, any cease fire agreement includes a provision on the release of all the captives of this war. Of course, the prisoners of war on both sides, but that's provided by the third Geneva Convention anyway.
BURNETT: Yeah.
KARA-MURZA: But also those that I've just mentioned, Ukrainian civilian hostages, abducted Ukrainian kids and Russian political prisoners who are jailed because they've spoken out against this criminal war.
For many of them, this will be the last chance to survive. If anything, whatever else this agreement does, it has to save those human lives that can still be saved today.
BURNETT: You know, when you were in prison, Vladimir, you -- you had a radio on the wall and were sort of forced essentially to listen to propaganda every day. The refrain then was Russia was winning. That's the refrain now, peace on Russia's terms. That's the refrain. Now, one of the voices that you may have heard a lot, of Vladimir
Solovyov. He's often on Russian state media. Here's what he's saying now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR SOLOVYOV, RUSSIAN STATE TV HOST: You note that suddenly Trump isn't saying anything about Russia's aggression. There is no condemnation. None of the Biden style insults against Putin, not even close.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Vladimir, how does Putin see Trump now?
KARA-MURZA: Well, first of all, Vladimir Solovyov is really the Julius Streicher or the Joseph Goebbels of the Putin propaganda machine today, one of the most despicable, one of the most disgusting human beings who works for this regime, who perpetuates this relentless propaganda. And yes, you're right, I was forced to listen to -- to him also, as well as the others on this radio that was in a wall of myself.
Well, look, I think it's been really obvious for many, many months now that Vladimir Putin's strategy has been in the war in Ukraine, has been to basically wait until Donald Trump gets into the White House and this is what he got, because however, the, you know, the Kremlin propaganda tries to present this as victory, however much it plays up, sort of the so-called successes of the Russian war machine in Ukraine. Let's not forget the original goals of this invasion. Putin wanted Kyiv in five days, right? That's what he wanted. That's what he said. That's what everybody remembers.
Instead of that, we have a stalemate. For three years, the Ukrainian state survived. Despite what Putin hoped for, the Ukrainian state maintained its independence, its sovereignty, despite what Putin hoped for.
And in terms of the Russian military casualties, we are talking ten times higher than in the ten years of the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and this is only in three years of full scale invasion.
So sometimes it's actually really useful to sort of read between the lines, as it were, and listen between the sounds of this propaganda. And from about last spring or last summer, when I was still in prison, I was still forced to listen to that radio every day in my prison cell. I was hearing these noises from Kremlin officials and sometimes from Vladimir Putin himself, basically about the need for some sort of a negotiated settlement, because it has not been this war has not been the success that that Putin wanted.
And so, actually, this ceasefire is as much in the interest of the Kremlin as it is in anybody else. But -- but back to -- back to your question, Erin. I have really been astonished and flabbergasted. And I don't know what other word I can use in reference to what's been happening in the past several weeks, in a sense of the position that the current American administration has taken against, you know, in relation to the war in Ukraine.
This is not a war where two sides are somehow at fault. This is a war with one clear aggressor on the one side, an aggressive, repressive dictatorship. And on the other side, you have a democracy that is defending its own people and its own borders.
As the great Elie Wiesel once said, neutrality always helps the oppressor, never the victim. But it's not even neutrality that the Trump administration has adopted with regard to this war. Donald Trump basically is going for a full blown alliance with Vladimir Putin. I think it's shameful. I think it's despicable. And I don't think this policy will pass the test of history.
BURNETT: All right. Vladimir Kara-Murza, I appreciate you. Thank you so much for being with us.
KARA-MURZA: Thank you for having me.
BURNETT: All right. And also tonight, Vice President J.D. Vance responding to our interview last night with his cousin, Nate Vance. Nate fought with Ukraine's elite Da Vinci Wolves for the past three years. He just came back in January. He told us that he disagreed with his cousin's position on Ukraine and support for Russia, revealing that he witnessed Russian soldiers executing their own troops as they retreated from.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NATE VANCE, J.D. VANCE'S COUSIN; FOUGHT ON FRONT LINES IN UKRAINE: These people. As a policy will eat their own, so they will not hesitate to eat an American president or an American vice president. They don't care what we think. They're not our allies, and they never will be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Nate Vance also took issue with how his cousin treated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VANCE: I was surprised, I think what surprised me the most was regardless of the situation, there's a certain level of decorum that should be reached when you do that and you publicly, you know, kind of ridicule someone in public that they have to almost defend themselves.
[19:45:04]
So it was just -- it was really disappointing to see it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: The vice president tonight, in a new statement to Fox News digital and "The New York Post", said he never publicly spoke about Nate service because he didn't want to endanger his life more than it already was. He then continued to say, as far as his criticisms, I have no interest in arguing with him in public, but I do feel the need to address one issue in particular his failed effort to contact me. I'm unsure why Nate felt the need to reach out to my Senate office, rather than to his mom, dad or sister, all of whom I am in contact with regularly.
And then the vice president added this: I've always considered Nate the toughest guy. I knew and that he was always happy, he said, to talk to him.
OUTFRONT next, breaking news, a crucial vote underway tonight that could pave the way for Trump to take Greenland. We'll see. It is a crucial vote going on right now.
Plus, an American student missing in the Dominican Republic. Surveillance video from the morning she went missing now out, showing her walking on the beach with a young man.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:50:08]
BURNETT: Breaking news, Trump could be just hours away from getting what he wants when it comes to Greenland. We are about to get the first results from an election that could set up the independence of Greenland from Denmark, which, of course, is what Trump wants.
Fred Pleitgen is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): A high stakes vote in the high north, people lining up in Greenland's polling stations for an election they feel is decisive and could determine whether they will seek independence from Denmark soon, as President Trump wants.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We don't want to be a part of the USA for obvious reasons, like health care and Trump.
PLEITGEN: But president Trump does very much want Greenland to become part of the U.S.
TRUMP: And I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland. We need Greenland for national security and even international security, and we're working with everybody involved to try and get it.
PLEITGEN: Fewer than 60,000 people live in Greenland, a semiautonomous region of Denmark. But underneath the vast arctic ice shield lie vast quantities of oil, gas and rare earths, and global warming is causing that ice to melt fast.
Greenland also hosts a radar for Americas missile defense shield. President Trump saying its strategic location between America and Europe means the U.S. must have it. Trump, even deploying his son, Don Jr., on something of a fact finding
mission in January with a documentary film showing him speaking to some local folks, most of them wearing MAGA hats.
DONALD TRUMP JR., SON OF PRESIDENT TRUMP: So you like the U.S.?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like the U.S.
PLEITGEN: Even putting his dad on speakerphone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are right.
TRUMP: I want to thank you, everybody.
TRUMP JR.: You guys like that, right?
PLEITGEN: But most here don't actually seem to like it that much. None of the major political parties favor joining the U.S., and threats from the Trump administration against Denmark, an important U.S. ally, including a reportedly fiery phone call between the president and Denmark's prime minister, caused a stern rebuke from Copenhagen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Greenland is today a part of the kingdom of Denmark. It's a part of our territory and it's not for sale. The chairman, the leader of Greenland, has been very clear that they are not for sale.
PLEITGEN: Both the Danes and the Greenlanders making clear Greenland's future will be decided at the ballot box, and not in the White House.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Berlin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Amazing, 26,000 people voted in the 2021. We'll see how many vote tonight. All of it could come down to those votes.
And next, the desperate search underway for an American college student missing in the Dominican Republic.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:57:14]
BURNETT: Tonight, you're looking at the last known image of the University of Pittsburgh student before she disappeared in the Dominican Republic. This surveillance screenshot was obtained by CNN. It captures her with friends at a hotel in Punta Cana.
Danny Freeman is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is some of the last known footage of 20-year-old Sudiksha Konanki before she disappeared in the Dominican Republic. The new surveillance video shows Konanki and her group of friends walking away from their hotel in Punta Cana early Thursday morning.
You can see Konanki and a young man embracing each other on the hotel path. This video, part of an evolving investigation into what happened to the young University of Pittsburgh student.
For days, the Dominican national police has been using drones and K-9s to comb the Punta Cana beaches and coast for signs of Konanki.
(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
FREEMAN: Police telling CNN Tuesday more than 300 men and women are now helping with the search, including members of the Dominican army, navy and air force.
Law enforcement officials are expanding their search area and re- interviewing witnesses to try and figure out if this was a tragic accident, or if there was foul play involved.
On Tuesday, police updated the timeline of events. At around 4:15 on Thursday, March 6th, after drinking with her friends in the hotel's lobby, Konanki and her group were seen on camera heading to the beach with two men. Initially, police said the group returned to the hotel about two hours later, but that changed after a closer examination of the recovered surveillance video.
Now, police say the group came back from the beach just 40 minutes after they left at 4:55 a.m., but this time without Konanki and one of the men.
That man who has not been publicly identified, then left the beach alone at around 8:55 a.m. This young man told authorities he and Konanki both went into the ocean, but he got sick, came out of the water and fell asleep on a lounge chair, he said. Konanki may have been swept away by a wave.
While the man is not considered a suspect at this time, a law enforcement source told CNN Tuesday he's being kept in a hotel room under police watch as the investigation continues. Konanki's family, now on the ground in the Dominican Republic, told ABC news.
They met the young man.
UNBIDENTIFIED MALE: She walked to the beach along with the boy, and the boy helped us and -- and he was demoing us kind of like what really happened.
FREEMAN: Back stateside, officials from Konanki's home of Loudoun County, Virginia, are helping in the search and holding out hope.
SHERIFF MIKE CHAPMAN, LOUDOUN COUNTY, VIRGINIA: We are going on the presumption that she's still alive. We want to make sure that that we're exhausting every possible lead that we can.
(END VIDOETAPE)
FREEMAN (on camera: And we have some new information we actually just got in in the past 30 minutes or so. A law enforcement source telling CNN's John Miller that that young man, believed to have been the last person with Konanki before she disappeared, is still not in police custody, is still not considered a suspect, and that there were no significant, significant inconsistencies in the story that he told multiple police officers and multiple interviews.
Authorities, though continuing to search for Konanki in the water. Officials believe that the only way they can find out what truly happened to her is when they find her -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Danny, thank you very much.
And thanks to all of you for being with us.
"AC360" starts now.
