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Government Shutdown?; World Leaders Meet at Munich Security Conference; Trump Tariffs Hit American Consumers; Top HHS Officials Leaving. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired February 13, 2026 - 11:30   ET

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

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PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: We are following breaking news.

Two of the top aides at the Department of Health and Human Services are leaving the agency in this leadership shakeup.

So let's go live now to CNN's Jacqueline Howard.

What's going on here, Jacqueline?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: That's right, Pam.

We're just now hearing that Acting CDC Director Jim O'Neill will be leaving, as well as general counsel Mike Stuart. And just to put this in perspective, these changes are coming just months after the CDC saw its new leadership acting director, Jim O'Neill, take that position.

And if you think back to last year, all through 2025, it was a year of chaos at the CDC with sudden layoffs, with sudden changes at the leadership level. And now we're seeing this additional change happening.

What we also know is that this is all happening at a time when public trust in health agencies is declining. There's a KFF poll that shows overall trust in the CDC now stands at 47 percent. So, again, Pam, these sudden changes and this kind of turmoil that we have seen at the CDC and that appears to be ongoing could be having an impact on the public's trust and image of the federal health agencies right now, Pam.

So, this is something where we're continuing to watch and follow as more news develops.

BROWN: Yes, for sure.

All right, thank you so much, Jacqueline Howard. Appreciate you bringing us that breaking news. Well, new this morning: The annual rate of inflation is slowing down,

hitting its lowest rate since last spring. January's prices were 2.4 percent higher than they were a year ago and rose 0.3 percent from December. Both numbers are better, though, than what economists were predicting.

New this morning, American consumers and businesses took on the cost of nearly 90 percent of last year's import taxes. That's according to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. And this comes as some Republicans appear to be breaking with the Trump administration over its tariff policies.

Earlier this week, six House Republicans joined Democrats in a vote that would effectively repeal President Trump's tariffs on Canada.

Joining us now is CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich.

Vanessa, what more are we learning about these tariff costs and how they're affecting Americans' wallets, as well as the inflation right now?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Pamela, this report really shed light on just how much Americans are paying these tariffs, these price increases across the board, much more so than foreign countries or foreign exporters, as the Trump administration has suggested.

This new report by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found that Americans are paying 90 percent of the tariffs that we are seeing right now in this country, tariffs that are put on other countries, but that are paid for by Americans.

And when we look at what U.S. households are responsible for, well, according to the Tax Foundation, in 2025, we saw an increase of about $1,000 in taxes paid by U.S. households compared to the year prior. And then, for this year, 2026, that expectation is going to rise by $300, so a total of $1,300 now being paid by U.S. households because of these ratcheted tariffs, these increased tariffs that we have seen over the course of the last year or so.

Now, just putting it in numbers, you can see it right here that, in 2025 -- excuse me -- 2024, Americans and the U.S. was collecting about $88 billion worth of tariff revenue. But look at that. Just a year later, that ballooned to $217 billion. That is because the tariff rate rose from an average of 2.6 percent to 13 percent.

And, remember, Pamela, tariffs only kicked in sort of the middle of last year, so we are expecting that tariff revenue to grow in 2026, again, paid for mostly by Americans. Now, here's the breakdown between businesses and consumers.

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Businesses have really been trying to burden -- excuse me -- shoulder the burden of these higher tariffs, not to pass them down to consumers. But what we are finding from the CBO, Congressional Budget Office, here is that businesses are absorbing 30 percent, but consumers are ending up paying 70 -- or about shouldering 70 percent of the tariffs, so likely paying more.

As you said, inflation in the month of January cooled, which is great news for American consumers. But, remember, we have had sticky inflation over the last year, and so some of those higher prices have been seeping into what Americans are paying, but maybe they're leveling right now.

In terms of what foreign countries, foreign exporters are paying, that report by the CBO found that foreigners are paying just 5 percent of the tariffs. So, Americans going forward, wondering what prices are going to look like, looking like a little bit of stabilization, but, of course, we know the president and the administration can change their minds on tariffs at any moment, but, so far Americans, Pamela, really shouldering the burden of these tariffs and these price increases.

BROWN: And as you look ahead for this year, as you point out, Vanessa, a lot can change. We have seen the president's policy on tariffs change a lot.

What can we expect in 2026 as Americans try to budget and plan for the future?

YURKEVICH: Yes, well, when it comes to tariffs, what we have seen is that tariffs kicked in, in the middle of 2025. So we really haven't seen the full scope of what tariffs mean for the average consumer.

The expectation is that taxes are going to rise for the U.S. consumer by about $300 this year. And consumers can expect that prices may have been able to moderate a little bit, based on what we saw in the CPI report in January. But, of course, the businesses have been trying to shoulder so much of the burden, not to pass the price increases onto consumers, so consumers don't feel stretched and don't -- and that the businesses don't lose out to customers spending money with them.

But, of course, businesses can only shoulder so much. And there's an inclination that, maybe towards the middle of this year, some of those tariff increases that businesses have been absorbing might get passed down to the consumer, but, of course, a lot of surprises in this economy that has been really incredibly resilient in the face of so much adversity and so much of the uncertainty, Pamela.

BROWN: It really has been.

All right, Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much.

Coming up here in THE SITUATION ROOM: Homeland Security is hours away from running out of money all because of a funding fight, and the House passes President Trump's desired election overhaul.

So, what are people saying about a busy week in Washington? We're going to ask CNN's Michael Smerconish ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [11:42:22]

BROWN: Happening now, Secretary of State Marco Rubio leading a U.S. delegation at the annual Munich Security Conference.

And it comes a year after you may remember Vice President J.D. Vance vented at European leaders there, telling them that the biggest threat to their security was -- quote -- "from within."

Earlier this week, a pre-conference report says that the world has entered an era of -- quote -- "wrecking ball politics" and labels President Trump a demolition man of world order.

Meanwhile, this morning, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said this:

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FRIEDRICH MERZ, GERMAN CHANCELLOR: Even the United States will not be powerful enough to go it alone. Dear friends, being a part of NATO is not only Europe's competitive advantage. It's also the United States' competitive advantage. So let's repair and revive transatlantic trust together.

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BROWN: With us now is CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger. He's a White House and national security correspondent for "The New York Times."

Good to see you, David.

So, you just heard the German chancellor there say the U.S. is not powerful enough to go it alone. What is your reaction to that? And just expand on how important these relations are to U.S. national security.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, we were waiting to hear from Chancellor Merz, in part because we wanted to see whether he was going to continue the line that you heard from Canada's prime minister at the Davos meeting just a few weeks ago.

And you will remember that that was known for a discussion of the rupture with the United States. And while you have just heard Chancellor Merz make the case that it was time to repair the relationship, most of his speech was about the importance for the Europeans not to be dependent on the U.S.

And that really has been a theme through the year that he has been in office. And you're beginning to hear discussions here that you never heard before, whether Germany needed to be underneath the French nuclear umbrella, not under just NATO's, because you might not be able to rely on the U.S., whether or not there needs to be a big enough military force in Europe that it could deal with Russia without the U.S. being there, at least for conventional forces.

These are the kinds of conversations that were pretty unthinkable even during Trump's first term.

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BROWN: So, last year, as so many of us recall, President (sic) J.D. Vance basically turned on European allies in that blistering speech that downplayed threats from Russia and China and put the blame on them for their problems, basically.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is taking a different tone already. Listen to what he said about Russia's war in Ukraine.

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QUESTION: Do you expect to meet with President Zelenskyy when you're there?

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I think so. I think he's going to be there, and there's a chance to see him. I believe it's on my schedule. I'm not 100 percent certain. But I'm sure we will.

It's terrible. It's a war. That's why we want the war to end. People are suffering. It's the coldest time of year. It's unimaginable, the suffering. That's the problem with wars. That's why wars are bad. And that's why we have worked so hard for over a year now to try to bring this one to an end.

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BROWN: So, how does this change in tone resonate with the allies of America right now there at the security conference?

SANGER: Well, Secretary Rubio is going to be talking on Saturday morning. And I think many of the people who were in the hall for Vice President Vance's speech are going to want to go hear him.

They will be particularly listening for whether or not he uses the phrase from the national security strategy, which said that Europe was heading toward civilizational erasure, in other words, it was losing its European nature. But I think he will be a little bit more conciliatory.

What's been striking here, though, is hearing the Europeans and the Ukrainians say, we want peace, but not at any cost, and a lot of skepticism that you will see President Zelenskyy ultimately be willing to give up land or settle for what may be halfway security measures. And we simply don't know enough detail yet about the negotiation and what the Russians will accept to know whether he will have to make that choice.

BROWN: Does it feel like there is actual progress being made on the war in Ukraine, or has it all just been a lot of motion and activity without progress?

SANGER: Well, certainly, there has been a lot of motion and activity, and I think you have to give the Trump administration credit for the fact that Ukrainians, Americans and Russians are now all sitting down together and talking.

But, as one European very senior official put it to me, there's a belief out there that Putin has every reason to want to continue the negotiations and no reason to want to conclude them, in other words, keep dragging this out, thinking that it will keep the United States from turning back on a lot of aid for arms and so forth -- right now, only the Europeans are really supplying arms -- and that Putin is dragging President Trump along.

You hear a very different account from the Trump administration, which says, look, we're making progress that the Biden administration never did because they never did actually get talks going.

BROWN: So I want to turn to something else, the Canadian prime minister and what he said last month in Davos. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CARNEY, CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER: It seems that every day we're reminded that we live in an era of great power rivalry, that the rules-based order is fading. Let me be direct. We are in the midst of a rupture, not a transition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So he noted this rupture of the international rules-based global order. How are other major world leaders looking at the U.S. right now as you're speaking to them there at the security conference?

SANGER: I think they have come out largely where Mark Carney came out, not all of them, obviously. The U.S. has got a fair number of other advocates there.

But Prime Minister Carney got a lot of applause in Davos for that. He was supposed to be here, but stayed in Canada because of that awful shooting that you have seen happen in Western Canada. And I think he probably would have been the star of the show had he shown up here.

But what you heard from Chancellor Merz I think was pretty much a slightly toned-down version of what you got from Mark Carney. And what you get in private over dinners and lunches here and so forth when the cameras aren't on is a much more bald view of the same attitude.

BROWN: All right, David Sanger, always great to have you on and hear your analysis. Thanks so much.

More when we come back.

SANGER: Great.

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BROWN: Happening now: The government is on the verge of another partial shutdown, as lawmakers leave town with no deal to fund the Department of Homeland Security before tonight's midnight deadline.

Meanwhile, earlier this week, the Republican-led House passed legislation that would require photo I.D. and documentary proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in federal elections. It now heads to the Senate, but Democrats are unlikely to support it.

So, here to break down the news of this week is CNN political commentator and host of "SMERCONISH," our very own Michael Smerconish.

Always great to see you, Michael.

I want to start with this impending government shutdown. This will be -- it's a partial one this time, but this will be the third funding lapse during President Trump's second term. What are your viewers saying about who's to blame? Are they really even paying attention to this right now in Washington?

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: No, I don't think they are.

I think they will if they're standing in a TSA checkpoint line at an airport and all of a sudden have a delay. The impression, I think, is that there's dysfunction, plenty of it to go around. This will last as long as each side sees political advantage in having this type of a standoff.

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But, in the reality, I think both sides suffer and the public says they're all to blame and that's why you see a disapproval rating of about 80 percent for the Congress.

BROWN: Yes.

All right, let's turn to the SAVE Act. I was just talking about it. What kind of public reaction have you been getting in response to this legislation around showing proof of citizenship around the elections?

SMERCONISH: People like the idea that you need to prove that you're a citizen in order to register to vote. Additionally, both anecdotally from my callers, as well as the polling data, people like the idea that you show an I.D. when you go to vote.

But it's a lot easier said than done, because, when you look at the SAVE Act, all of a sudden now, it's not a testing to citizenship. It's proving citizenship. And the means of proving citizenship are to have a passport or a certified copy of a birth certificate.

And many people who are watching right now might say, well, OK, I have one of those or I have both of those, but there are many among us who have neither. In fact, the Brennan Center says 21 million Americans will be disenfranchised if that all of a sudden becomes the requirement.

So, very difficult to carry out the edict that people seem to agree with.

BROWN: That is a very important point.

I also want to talk about Attorney General Pam Bondi's testimony on Capitol Hill this week. It was full of clashes, vitriol and insults really from Democrats and Bondi herself suggesting that Democrats should be talking about how much the stock market has surged under Trump at a time when you had the Epstein survivors there in the audience, and that was a big line of questioning.

What did your listeners think about that and how she's doing overall?

SMERCONISH: So I thought it was a circus, Pamela. I just -- no one came out of that, in my view, with their reputation intact. And what substantively we learned -- I mean, there are so many things I would like to learn from the attorney general about what's going on relative to Epstein and other matters of law enforcement.

But I fault them all. She came loaded for bear, took no quarter. But the questioning was hostile, from what I saw, from half the aisle. And I just don't think that we learned anything. I mean, all of the headlines the following day were about the battle between both sides and not that there was some revelation.

And that's a shame.

BROWN: Yes, because it's supposed to be about oversight of DOJ and learning about what's actually happening. And, like you said, we didn't really learn a lot that was substantive.

I also want to ask you about the news that Gallup, one of the country's well-known polling firms, will no longer track presidential approval. Your thoughts?

SMERCONISH: I'm a sucker for these polls, but I think that there's a real value to them. I think that they're a guardrail on pub -- I referenced a few moments ago the disapproval rating of Congress being 80 percent.

That's a Gallup data point, because they have been tracking that for many, many years. So Gallup got out of the business of the presidential horse race, and now they're saying we're not going to do presidential approval ratings.

I like having it. I think it sends a message, good or bad, depending on the current circumstances, to a commander in chief. I wish they would continue it, because, although others will have approval rating, their name has really been a benchmark.

BROWN: All right, Michael Smerconish, always great to have you on. Thank you so much.

SMERCONISH: Thank you. Nice to see you.

BROWN: And be sure to catch Michael's show, "SMERCONISH," every Saturday 9:00 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

And before we go today, it's Friday, so I'm going to bring you some great news. As you all know, I adopted little Lucy Blitz Brown last week after doing a segment on this show to help promote the Puppy Bowl and more importantly to raise awareness about why it's important to adopt when it comes to our furry friends. Many of them, so many need homes.

Lucy is from Operation Paws for Homes. She was one of eight puppies. The litter was known as the Redbone Rascals. And, as of now, all of Lucy's siblings have pending adoptions. So exciting. But her mom still needs to be adopted. So you can go to their site if you want to look into that.

There are still millions of dogs and cats out there. There's a mom right there who's just in need of a loving home. And these dogs bring so much joy. Molly right here, she's still waiting for her family to come along. And we're told that she was a very good mom to Lucy and her siblings.

So just check that out. Go to Instagram @PamelaBrownCNN for more information on how to adopt. And check out Operation Paws for Homes if you're in the DMV area. Wanted to end on some good news, because who doesn't love puppies, right?

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

"INSIDE POLITICS," today with our friend and colleague Manu Raju, starts right now.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.