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The Source with Kaitlan Collins
Trump's Threat To EU: End Retaliation Or Face 200 Percent Tariff; American Airlines Plane Catches Fire At Denver Airport; Putin Says He Supports Ceasefire Plan But Has "Reservations." Aired 9-10p ET
Aired March 13, 2025 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
IOANNIS A. KALOIDIS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY FOR KIMBERLY SULLIVAN: -- absolutely not true. He was not locked in a room. She did not restrain him in any way. She provided food. She provided shelter. She is blown away by these allegations.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Really something.
The Department of Children and Families has gotten back with me, DCF. They said they have searched their current databases, their historical databases. They cannot find the name of that family.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, ANDERSON COOPER 360: Right.
CASAREZ: And no one they can find even referred that there was abuse in the home.
COOPER: Yes.
CASAREZ: But they say there's a law in Connecticut, after five years, if no abuse is found, they delete all the records.
COOPER: Wow. Jean Casarez, appreciate it. Just sickening.
That's it for us. The news continues. "THE SOURCE WITH KAITLAN COLLINS" starts now.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, CNN HOST, THE SOURCE WITH KAITLAN COLLINS: Straight from THE SOURCE tonight.
My latest reporting from the White House, as President Trump's trade war is starting to hit home for a lot of Americans, with U.S. whiskey- makers warning that those retaliatory tariffs from Europe have their businesses over a barrel.
Kentucky governor, Andy Beshear, is here.
Also tonight, meeting in Moscow. Trump's envoy sent to see Putin face- to-face, as the Russian leader seems to be in no hurry to get a ceasefire. Why President Zelenskyy isn't waiting for an answer.
And protests erupting inside Trump Tower over the fate of that pro- Palestinian activist that the President wants to deport. And there's news tonight on students being expelled from Columbia University.
I'm Kaitlan Collins. And this is THE SOURCE.
Inside the White House tonight, President Trump is shrugging off the growing pessimism, over his expanding trade war, only digging in and becoming more defiant, as he's now threatening some of his biggest tariffs yet.
Even though there are real concerns that this would very quickly spiral out of control, we're hearing from the Vice President JD Vance, in a new interview tonight, sounding confident about his boss' plans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: Can you rule out the possibility, as Reagan faced in his first term in office, coming off a terrible economic calamity for the country, can you rule out a recession, even a temporary one?
JD VANCE (R), U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Well, look, you never can predict the future. But I think the economy, the fundamentals of the economy, are actually quite strong right now.
And we'll see how this unfolds, Laura. But I think that by inducing more businesses to invest in American workers, by reshoring some of those critical supply chains, we are going to make this economy stronger over the long haul, and that is the President's ultimate goal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: But that confidence, coming from the White House, is not really doing much, if anything, to calm the anxiety, as we see markets plunging again today, as the S&P is now in correction territory, meaning it's down 10 percent from its recent high, less than a month ago.
And yet, from my view at the White House today, up close and personal, the President and his aides aren't sounding worried. In fact, they sound just the opposite.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I'm not going to bend at all, aluminum or steel or cars. We're not going to bend. We've been ripped off as a country for many, many years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Many American small businessowners say they are concerned that these tariffs are going to hurt them. What's your message to them?
TRUMP: They're going to be so much richer than they are right now. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Of course, tariffs are taxes, and more often than not, we see a lot of businesses pass those on to consumers. So, it's unclear how small businesses are going to get so much richer, as the President says. That remains to be seen, as that plays out.
We tried to speak to the Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, ahead of critical meetings that he had this afternoon with Canadian officials.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Hi, Secretary Lutnick. Will you take a few questions please from us please?
HOWARD LUTNICK, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF COMMERCE: Unfortunately -- you know I have a meeting.
COLLINS: Right. Can we just talk -- just briefly. Briefly.
LUTNICK: Right now, we have--
COLLINS: Just five minutes. Five minutes.
LUTNICK: --Minister, I have the Finance Minister of Canada.
COLLINS: Just five--
LUTNICK: I don't have any minutes. I have the Finance Minister of Canada, and the Premier of--
COLLINS: How are those meetings going to go? What are--
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The President says he's not going to bend. What are you going to get out of these meetings?
LUTNICK: I mean, I'll have the meeting, and then I'll talk to you later.
COLLINS: What's your goal for those meetings, Secretary Lutnick?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Lutnick was going to sit down with the Canadian officials, hours after his boss warned, earlier, that the European Union will -- he will hit the European Union with 200 percent tariffs, on things like wine and champagne, after they retaliated by slapping tariffs on things like American whiskey.
That translates to real impacts in the United States, especially in Bourbon Country, where some are calling for toast, not tariffs. I'm going to get the Governor of Kentucky's thoughts, on all of this and how it's playing out at home, in a moment.
But we're also closely watching tonight this response the Republicans are getting back home in their districts. Constituents unleashing an earful, banging on the doors for those who couldn't get inside at town halls.
That includes what you're watching here. Tonight, in North Carolina, where the Republican congressman, Chuck Edwards, was challenged by his own constituents.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're lying. I'm a veteran.
REP. CHUCK EDWARDS (R-NC): To--
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't give a (bleep) about me.
EDWARDS: To be clear--
(APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shut the (bleep) up. You want to take away my rights?
[21:05:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why are you doing nothing while Trump destroys the U.S. Constitution?
(CHEERING)
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EDWARDS: I happen to believe very much that President Trump supports our Constitution.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you support Trump on annexing Canada or Greenland? And do you -- do you like the way he treats the Premier or the President of Canada, calling him Governor? Is that the way you do, as a diplomat? Is that the way -- is that the way the United States should act to our closest neighbors?
(APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you support Trump in these things? And this is a yes or no.
EDWARDS: I believe your first question that you wanted yes or no is, do I support annexing Greenland and Canada? The short answer to that is, no, I do not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: And with all of that, we have some of our best White House and also political insiders here at the table tonight.
And Alex, as you look at the difference in what the business community is saying about this trade war, pretty overwhelmingly, and what the White House is saying. I mean, it's a pretty big gulf in between those two assessments of where this will go. The White House still feels very confident that, what the President -- his long game here, is going to work out.
ALEX THOMPSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, AXIOS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: And you had also seem some members of the Trump administration sort of lean in.
You saw the Treasury Secretary, this morning, say, Well, we're focused on the real economy, not necessarily the markets. And you're starting to seeing this messaging, even from allies like Steve Bannon, said that, Well, the markets are full of elites and neoliberals and neocons, We're more focused on individual communities. So the thing is, they're going to keep going.
COLLINS: Yes, I mean, and just seeing this, if they keep going, that's kind of the question with what Trump was threatening today. I mean, 200 percent tariffs on the EU, on wine and champagne coming into the U.S., would effectively cut them off from the United States market, basically, if you look at that.
And it's in response, because the EU is trying to hit the United States, where it hurts by going after things like Harley-Davidsons, like bourbon in Kentucky.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, PBS NEWSHOUR: No, I mean, the President is just continuing to say that he's going to double down, escalate across the board, whether it's with EU, whether it's with Canada, whether it's with Mexico.
I mean, today, when he was making comments that, essentially, the U.S. gets nothing from Canada, we don't need anything from Canada? I mean, it's just frankly stunning, because of the fact that the U.S. -- U.S. farmers rely, I think some 80 percent on potash, which is what they use for fertilization. They rely on -- the U.S., relies a significant amount on lumber, aluminum, steel. So there's all these things that are going to be hit in the U.S., if this continues.
COLLINS: I mean, how does that play? I mean, what is the argument here? And you hear some of these Republicans, who are back at home, just overall on how the last few weeks have gone. What's your assessment?
BRAD TODD, GOP MEDIA CONSULTANT & STRATEGIST, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first off, Donald Trump said that he we're going to have a little pain for a short period of time.
I think it's important to note the difference between long-term tariffs and the threat of tariffs for short-term tariffs. The Europeans cess a 43 percent duty on American wine. Ours on theirs is about 8 percent. So, he's trying to talk the Europeans and muscle the Europeans into a more level playing field. I don't think that we're going to have these tariffs for very long. I think this is a way to bring Europe to the table, and bring it back to a more even field.
Certainly, the markets are -- disruption is a downside of the tariffs. But in reality, today's market closed at the same place it was in Joe Biden's last week in office, two months ago, January 10th, the market's almost exactly the same. So we've merely given back the gains that investors saw from the upside of Donald Trump being sworn in.
COLLINS: But what is that--
TODD: So, I wouldn't get too hyperbolic.
COLLINS: Isn't that a bad sign?
TODD: Well, I think certainly -- look, again, market instability, that's a -- that's the downside of tariff policy.
PAUL BEGALA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No.
TODD: But Trump says he's playing a longer-term game.
BEGALA: That's not the downside. You can't have lower prices and higher tariffs, OK?
Donald Trump is president because of the cost of living. It was by far the number one issue. And it broke my heart, but he carried voters who make less than $50,000 a year. I mean, that used to be the heart of the Democratic Party, the heart of the working-class. Trump carried them. Now he's betraying them. OK? If you eat, drink, drive, or wear clothes, which many of us do, your costs of living's fixing to go up. OK? He is stabbing in the back.
The pain, well just temporary pain, it's not going to be felt by Elon Musk, and Mark Zuckerberg, and the rest of his billionaire bros. It's going to be felt by those working folks who put him in the job. It's really, I think, betrayal is the story here.
I've never seen -- usually, politicians kind of favor the people who vote for them. And Trump, I'm telling you, these -- these tariffs, are going to hit his voters much harder, frankly, than Kamala Harris'. And these cuts are going to hit red counties, red states, red communities, far, far harder. These budget cuts in Education, and Veterans, and the rest.
COLLINS: Well, and the question, really, to your point of what the President said in the Oval Office earlier, is what is short-term. I mean, how long is that pain? That hasn't really been a timeline that's been established for many of the White House officials that I've heard from.
THOMPSON: Well, it's because they don't know. I mean, that's why you're starting to see both Trump and JD Vance, they have dodged this recession question.
[21:10:00]
You saw -- you played it earlier, you saw Trump do it this weekend, about they don't know how long this is going to end. Because what they're promising is they put high enough tariffs on, then industry is going to come back, manufacturing is going to come back. I mean, that can take years.
TODD: But we've already seen some of it. We've already seen some of it. Honda's already going to make a car in Indiana that it had previously planned to make in Mexico. Apple is going to make computers that it previously planned to make in China.
He's trying to change the mindset of CEOs of these global companies, and that's something we haven't had before. We've never had an economy so chained to global CEOs, who can put it anywhere.
BEGALA: We just did with Biden, in the opposite way, the good way. Biden created incentives that brought enormous amount of manufacturing home.
Trump is not using carrots. He's using sticks. And who he's hitting with the sticks are those folks, who he's betraying who voted for him. I'm telling you, this is a huge tax on the working-class.
TODD: The incentives -- the incentives Biden--
BEGALA: By the way, the Democrats better get out on this. And I think they are.
TODD: The incentives Biden used though were just tacking on to the national debt. I mean, that's a--
BEGALA: What's Trump's tax cuts doing?
TODD: --short-term strategy. He's not cutting taxes.
BEGALA: And he--
TODD: He's trying to keep taxes the same as they are now.
BEGALA: He is going to hand out $4 trillion--
COLLINS: But--
TODD: He--
BEGALA: --to the wealthiest people in the world.
TODD: He's trying to not make taxes go up. That's what--
BEGALA: That's what Elon Musk--
(CROSSTALK)
COLLINS: To the voters' point, tonight, who was -- who was asking the Republican congressman about how the United States treats its neighbors.
In the Oval Office today, there was this line that was -- it has become commonplace because Trump says it almost every day, but it's about the border between America and Canada, and how he is talking about it now that is actually quite remarkable when you when you listen to it closely.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: If you look at a map, they drew an artificial line, right through it, between Canada and the U.S., just a straight artificial line. Somebody did it a long time ago, many, many decades ago, and makes no sense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: I mean, it's a sovereign border--
BARRON-LOPEZ: Yes.
COLLINS: --that he is referring to as an artificial line repeatedly.
BARRON-LOPEZ: Made-up somehow, somewhere. But he also said that Canada only works as a state, which again, just repeating that, saying over and over again, that they have to be the 51st state.
So, I think, that goes to that anger that you saw in that town hall, that I think you're starting to see more and more, in these red districts, where these voters are upset, not just because of the potential threats of prices going up, because of the tariffs, but also the cuts that they're seeing with DOGE, and how it's impacting their communities, which they haven't even felt the full impact of yet. And they're starting to voice that more and more because they're not happy with Elon Musk and what he's doing.
COLLINS: Yes, thank you all for being here.
Speaking of impacted communities. We are talking in real terms of what that's going to look like, because Trump is talking about that 200 percent tariff that he is threatening, he hasn't imposed it yet, on all European wine and champagne.
To put that into perspective, a bottle of French wine, Italian Prosecco, costs $20 without tariffs, could now climb to $60. And President Trump argued, in his threat today, that this will be great for the wine and champagne business in the United States.
But in Kentucky, which is also being affected here, bourbon is one big business. The state makes 95 percent of the world's bourbon, and has a workforce of more than 23,000 people in that industry, farmers, distillers, truckers, a lot of people who work in that.
My source tonight is Kentucky's Democratic governor, Andy Beshear.
And Governor, just as you look at the magnitude of this, we're talking about the numbers here. I mean, it's a $9 billion industry in your state, I don't have to tell you that. What does that mean, come April 1st, when a 50 percent tariff from the EU goes into place?
GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): Oh, these tariffs would be devastating on the bourbon industry, and for my people. You think about those numbers. We make 95 percent of the world's bourbon, but all the bourbon worth drinking.
But then you look at the impact that we have already seen in Canada. Canada is not only retaliating with a 25 percent tariff, but some of the state-run liquor stores are pulling it entirely off their shelf. That's more than just making it more expensive.
And a lot of people think about the bourbon industry in terms of the distillers. But it's the farmers that grow the corn. It's the truck drivers, who transport it back and forth. It's so many different jobs, up and down my state, that this is going to impact.
And then you look at the broader impact of tariffs. Kentucky has broken its exports record two straight years, that Canada is about 23 percent of all of our exports.
And so, I tell people, Listen, Trump's tariffs are going to increase the price of gas. The amount it increases it, that is the Trump tax. It's going to increase the price of food in your grocery store. The amount it increases it, is the Trump tax. It's going to increase the price of a new home. The amount it increases it, is the Trump tax.
And I don't say that because I'm a Democrat and he's a Republican. I say it because he and he alone, is making these decisions, and is responsible for how prices are going to rise.
COLLINS: But Trump won Kentucky by about 30 points. I mean, he talked about tariffs, every day almost, on the campaign trail. He has talked about this for decades. So, I mean, what do you say to the argument that people knew that this was what he was going to do, and they voted for him?
[21:15:00]
BESHEAR: Well, Trump said a lot of things on the campaign trail, including talking about things like Hannibal Lecter. But he never talked about raising prices for the American people. He said he would lower prices for the American people.
And I believe that he is President, because the last group of movable voters was convinced that, that he would focus on prices and the economy, and then he convinced them that his opponent was distracted by other issues. But look at his presidency. He's obsessed with every issue other than the economy.
You see the tariffs raising prices. You see the DOGE cuts, meaning tens of thousands of Americans are losing their jobs, and being told it's their fault. You see potential cuts to Medicaid that would decimate rural health care. Between Trump and Musk, I'm not sure which one's Thelma and which one is Louise, but our economy is that car, and they are driving it off the cliff.
COLLINS: That's a statement Paul Begala is laughing at, I should note.
But on what Trump was asked in the White House, I don't know if you saw this at the top of the show, but the President was asked earlier about concerned small businessowners, and what his message is to them? And he said that he told them they are going to be, quote, So much richer than they are now.
Is that how you see it?
BESHEAR: No. They're struggling just to survive. Many of them voted for Donald Trump, because they thought they'd struggle just a little bit less. But right now, everything that they need to make their goods, or everything that they sell, is costing more.
And because everything is costing more, because of these on again, off again, on again, off again tariffs, the people that would buy these products have less money. It's hurting all business. I mean, overall, it's hurt the stock market. You see consumer confidence going down. I mean, put simply, Donald Trump is tanking an economy that was on the rise.
But listen, if he's Thelma or Louise, he can pump those brakes, and that's exactly what we need him to do. And it's going to take the American people speaking out, picking up their own phones, recording how much the prices are changing at the grocery store, and the pump, and demanding better. Now, that's how I think we get the attention that we need, and hopefully stop a lot of these actions.
COLLINS: Well, I mean, speaking about what elected Democrats are going to do. I know you were just at a policy retreat for House Democrats. They seem lost, and without a unified response, in any way, shape, or form, to Trump. We're seeing that play out tonight with the spending bill on Capitol Hill.
What was your advice? What do you think that they should be doing differently than they are now?
BESHEAR: Well, first, I think they're trying. They lost the majority. And the day after the election, what we heard through the media was they're not going to have a way to stop Donald Trump. And now, what we're hearing is, Why can't they stop? And well, they're speaking out, and they need to continue to speak out.
My advice is that we always speak out about the core concerns that worry Americans most, when they wake up in the morning. That's their job, and whether they make enough to support their family. That's their next doctor's appointment for themself, their parents or their kids. That's the roads and bridges they drive every day. Now, that's a public school they drop their kids off at, and it's whether they feel safe in their community.
So, think about these first 40-plus days. Donald Trump's tariffs wars are going to raise prices, meaning it's going to be harder to support your family. The potential cuts to Medicaid could mean as a rural American, you got to drive two hours just to see the doctor that's currently in your community, because your hospital is going to close.
It means you're less safe because we're cutting CIA analysts. I lost a classmate in 9/11. I know how important CIA analysts are. We're losing FBI agents. I worked with them to catch child predators, when I was attorney general. But always bringing it back to our families, their everyday life and whether they're better or worse off. And for the first couple weeks of this administration, they're certainly worse off. COLLINS: And we heard from Speaker Mike Johnson, said they're not going to cut Medicaid. He said, to stay tuned and watch this process play out. Of course, we will. We'll speak to you about it.
Governor Andy Beshear, thanks for your time tonight.
BESHEAR: Thank you very much.
COLLINS: Up next. We're hearing from the President of Ukraine, slamming President Putin's response to that U.S.-proposed ceasefire. He says, it's manipulative. As Trump is calling it promising. But we're still waiting for answers tonight.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: We have some breaking news for you tonight, as what you are looking at here, an American Airlines plane, on fire, at the Denver International Airport.
(VIDEO - AMERICAN AIRLINES PLANE CATCHES FIRE AT DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT)
COLLINS: This happened just a few moments ago, and this video has been circulating on social media, showing the plane being extinguished, as it was on the tarmac at the airport, not far from where the gate was.
And look at what you're looking at here, passengers standing on the wings of the plane, some of them carrying their bags, as they seem to be trying to evacuate this plane, as you can see the smoke filled, as the tarmac and emergency workers nearby trying to get stairs up to those passengers, standing on the wing of this plane.
Now, here's what we're hearing from the FAA. They say this Boeing 737 was headed to Dallas. It was going from Colorado Springs. It diverted to Denver, after there was some sort of engine vibration. We don't know exactly what, as we are looking at this.
[21:25:00]
But these are just the videos that we're getting in. You can see the emergency response, people responding, very quickly, to this, as they are moving ahead with this, and seeing what's happening here. The smoke filling the airport, as we are still raising major questions about what's going on tonight, and also waiting to hear new details from the FAA on this.
It's just a remarkable scene, given what has been playing out over the last several weeks with so many different aviation incidents. And now tonight, this, with this American Airlines plane, again.
What you're seeing here is at the Denver International Airport, as we're watching all of this and just getting initial reaction from the FAA.
I'm also joined now by CNN's Aviation Correspondent, Pete Muntean.
I mean, Pete, to see this video earlier. It was from a different angle. The plane was on fire. It seemed to be excused pretty quickly. But that image alone is remarkable.
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this shows, at least so far as we know, to be a successful evacuation, here at the Denver Airport.
We know the narrative pretty clearly now. That this flight was on its way from Colorado Springs. According to the FlightAware data, left at about 04:30 Mountain Time, which, if I do the math properly, is about 06:30 on the East Coast. Was on its way to Dallas Fort Worth International, major hub for American Airlines, one of their biggest, and then apparently had some sort of engine vibration. The crew--
COLLINS: What does that mean?
MUNTEAN: Well, I mean, it's--
COLLINS: We don't know?
MUNTEAN: We don't know a ton yet. I mean, it's an indication that they needed to divert. And so they went to a much larger airport. Rather than going to Colorado Springs, they went to Denver. Typically, that's a decision made by the operations team, at an airline, to try and figure out the best place for a crew like this to go.
They landed there at the Denver International Airport, were able to at least taxi to the gate. And this is all video from inside of the terminal there. And you can see the passengers evacuating from the overwing exit of this 737-800, not a 737 MAX, to be clear.
The Airport Crash, Fire, Rescue crew's clearly on the way there. There was apparently an engine fire, while the airplane was on the ground, and then they were able to, at least, it sounds like, put it out. Still unclear, right now, if anyone was injured in this. Relatively harrowing for folks to end up there on the wing, while the airplane is on fire.
I can see, in this video, that is the left side of the airplane. That's engine number one, on the 737. There are two engines on the 737. It's a twin. Engine number two is on the other side, and it looks to me like the smoke is being carried by the wind there from the right side of the airplane.
So we're seeing this side of the airplane, and I'm making some speculation here, but we're seeing the side of the airplane that appears to not be on fire.
If I had to guess from this, if I'm just analyzing this live, it seems like the other side of the airplane was on fire, which would explain why folks are evacuating onto that left side of the wing that we're seeing. That's clearly a much safer spot, although very, very smoky, and it's not very clear whether or not they're completely in safety there, so. COLLINS: Yes, can I -- that's -- that was my first thought. Is that typical? I mean, obviously, when there's an emergency like this, you're kind of doing whatever you can to get people off.
MUNTEAN: Right.
COLLINS: But is it typical to evacuate people like that to the wing of the plane, as you're seeing here, where, I mean, they're still pretty far off the ground, and there are--
MUNTEAN: Yes.
COLLINS: --a few dozen people standing on the wing of that plane.
MUNTEAN: Yes, I mean, the wing there is, is 10-, 15-feet above the ground. So it's not necessarily an easy jump down to the ground.
I would want to know whether or not the jetway there at the gate was actually put up to the plane. You usually board, and deplane out of the left side of the airplane always. So maybe they could not get to that part of the -- they could not get to the front of the airplane, or maybe the jetway wasn't there yet, so they couldn't evacuate that way.
So maybe the best possible scenario here is to evacuate onto the wing, although clearly folks are still there, essentially waiting to be rescued.
COLLINS: And have we heard anything else from the FAA in the last few moments?
MUNTEAN: We're--
COLLINS: I mean, this is all really preliminary, just topic (ph).
MUNTEAN: I'm just going to go back to the statement from them. And this is all very, very preliminary. This -- let's just reset here. American Airlines flight
COLLINS: Here's a new picture here.
MUNTEAN: Yes.
COLLINS: Just as you start to read this--
MUNTEAN: OK. So, this is--
COLLINS: --to show what that looks like.
MUNTEAN: And so, we can sort of build the narrative here. That appears to be flames and fire there, not on the left side, that looks to me on the right side of the airplane, although that's dark smoke, and that's not a good sign.
COLLINS: Why is that not a good sign? MUNTEAN: Well, just generally, I mean, it's much thicker than the gray smoke. It looks to me like maybe the fire crews got there, and were putting it out, while we're seeing some of this gray smoke imagery. The black smoke is usually the worst possible sign, just because it's much more thick, and there, it seems to be actively burning.
But let's just reset here on what the FAA tells us. American Airlines Flight 1006 landed safely at Denver International Airport, 05:15 local time. That's 05:15 Mountain Time, 07:15 on the East Coast, on Thursday. Crew reported engine vibrations at some point in the air. They landed. While taxiing to the gate, an engine caught fire and passengers evacuated the aircraft using slides.
I don't see the emergency slides in these images, although I do see the response from below-the-wing ground crew there at the airport, on the ramp.
[21:30:00]
This was a 737-800, according to the FAA.
COLLINS: Well, and if you freeze on this image--
MUNTEAN: Yes.
COLLINS: --I mean, you can still see the fire on the bottom of the plane--
MUNTEAN: Right.
COLLINS: --as the people are literally in the middle of evacuating.
MUNTEAN: And you can see the overwing emergency exits. They're open. Folks streaming out under the wing there of this airplane.
We're still sort of waiting to get a little bit more here from American Airlines. They have had an incredible string here of incidents, where they've had to respond to these, not only the PSA crash, that was American Airlines regional jet over the Potomac River, not even just about six weeks ago, almost exactly. But now, they're having to deal with this. And so, they're sort of getting spooled up, to give us more information from the airline.
We have the very preliminary data, right now, from -- the preliminary information right now from the FAA. And we have the preliminary data from FlightAware. And we can see that this flight was actually airborne and at least circled the Denver Airport once. I'm going to pull it up again.
COLLINS: And seem to get pretty close to -- to where the gate is.
I'll let you look up stuff, Pete, once again.
MUNTEAN: Sure.
COLLINS: I'm going to check in, because we have CNN Aviation Analyst, Mary Schiavo here.
I mean, Mary, I feel like you and I have had several conversations now about aviation incidents that are happening. What stands out to you from what you're seeing here in these photos? Stunning images to see dozens of people standing on the wing of this plane at Denver International Airport.
MARY SCHIAVO, CNN TRANSPORTATION ANALYST, FORMER TRANSPORTATION DEPT. INSPECTOR GENERAL: Well, and Pete's right. He zeroed in some of the major clues. The fact that the color of the smoke, the fact that they reported engine vibration.
One of the common reasons for fires on planes is uncontained engine failures. It can be indicated by engine vibration. And sometimes, it's not the fuel that leaks out and burns, but rather the oil or other fluids that have leaked out and burned. In particular, sometimes, of a very large fire can be caused by leaking oil, which of course would be very good for those people standing on the wing.
The fact that some of the fire appears to be on the tarmac gives us another clue that something has leaked from the plane onto the tarmac. And so, those passengers on the wing will be there until they can be assured that it's safe to get down. They were there until it was safe to get down onto the tarmac.
So, there are a lot of clues there that something was wrong with one of the engines, and something does appear to have leaked from the engines, and that's one of the major causes. Engine cargo, sometimes the tug and the ground crew have a fire. But I think Pete zeroed in on some of the major clues.
COLLINS: All right, Mary, thank you so much for that, and thanks for hopping on with us so quickly.
SCHIAVO: Thank you.
COLLINS: And Pete, as you're looking at this, she makes a good point about where the fire is placed, and what that could indicate.
But also just the timeline of events here. That it was able to take off from Colorado Springs. It had to divert. They got pretty close to the gate, it looks like, based on -- I mean, that's obviously a massive tarmac there in landing runway at Denver International.
MUNTEAN: Yes, Denver is a huge airport. It takes a long time to taxi. There are many runways crisscrossing and intersecting, and then some.
So what took place between the landing after they diverted to Denver, and getting to the gate here, will be of particular interest to investigators. They always sort of break it down into three big buckets, the airplane, the environment, and the pilots.
This is primarily what they will zero in on, is the airplane here. And this seems to be more of a mechanical issue rather than an environmental issue, which could have been a major factor in the Toronto crash that we saw, that Delta regional jet flip over. And then also the midair collision on the Potomac River, that was maybe more of a piloting and set up of the airspace issue.
They will especially want to look at the engines on this airplane. And the engines in a 737-800 are used very widely. They're called the CFM56 engine. It's made by a French conglomerate.
And they've had some issues in the past. There was a CFM56 that threw a fan blade off of it, that's --those are the big fan -- the blades that you see on the front of a jet engine, in an incident in 2018 or 2019, I may be misremembering here, on a Southwest Airlines Flight. It killed a passenger on board that flight. There was just recently some new suggestions by the FAA to ramp up the inspections of those engines.
So, of course, investigators will want to look particularly at that, because that seems to be -- we know there was a vibration, never a good sign for a pilot, and then there was a fire, apparently, on the ground. They will have to figure out exactly what precipitated and caused this fire, so they can really get to the bottom of this.
COLLINS: Pete Muntean, thank you for joining us on this breaking news. We'll continue to monitor and bring you any updates from Pete, as he reports out on this.
Up next. We're going to speak with former National Security Adviser to President Trump, and now -- Ambassador John Bolton, about his view on very critical talks that are happening right now inside Russia, as we're awaiting a readout of how President Trump's top envoy's sit-down with President Putin went.
[21:35:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: The man -- one man who could end the war in Ukraine, has just made his first public comments on the U.S.-backed plan for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine. This was Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, on the deal that was already agreed to by the Trump White House and Ukraine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): The Ukrainian side should certainly get a ceasefire for 30 days, and we are for that. But I have reservations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: In the Oval Office, President Trump called those comments promising but incomplete.
Meanwhile, we heard from the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying that Putin's response was, quote, Very predictable and very manipulative.
[21:40:00]
My source tonight was Donald Trump's National Security Adviser, in his first term, Ambassador John Bolton.
Trump's envoy to handling the situation, who was in Moscow tonight, Steve Witkoff, had a one-on-one -- or a meeting, a direct meeting with Putin. We don't know there was one-on-one, I should be careful to say.
We haven't yet gotten a readout. What does that say to you?
JOHN BOLTON, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO UNITED NATIONS, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, I find that very strange, because this is something that if there were agreement, or if they had narrowed the differences, they would want to make a public announcement, to show progress. So, I think it must have been more complicated.
My take on all this is what Putin really wants is a conversation directly with Trump. You've had Mike Waltz, the National Security Adviser, talk to Yuri Ushakov, a former Russian ambassador to Washington. You've now had Witkoff talk to Putin, which, by the way, is a very strange circumstance in and of itself, but with no clear outcome.
I think Putin feels he has gotten so much from Trump. The statements that Ukraine will not be restored to its full sovereignty and territorial integrity, Ukraine will not join NATO, Ukraine will not get security guarantees from NATO, and there will be no security guarantees from the United States. He has no incentive to negotiate with anybody other than Trump.
So, I think all of this is designed to set up that call that Trump himself wants with Putin, so that Putin can get what he wants directly from Trump.
COLLINS: But if that call happens, which they were saying, essentially, it could happen today, that they could materialize. Trump was saying in the Oval Office earlier, though, that if this doesn't, if Russia doesn't agree to this, he said, It would be very disappointing for the world.
Is there not some pressure on the Russian leader to at least come to the table a little bit with Trump.
BOLTON: Well, I think he doesn't want to give up what he's already got from Trump, but he's not just going to agree to the ceasefire. And anyway, it doesn't work that way, in real terms. There are soldiers on the battlefield engaged in active combat, and you just can't say, OK, ceasefire, everybody stop, and expect it to happen.
What Putin said in the clip you showed was, I agree in principle to the ceasefire. Now let's talk about a few details. Which can take who knows how long to resolve.
So, I think, as I say, that's why Putin wants directly to talk to Trump and say, I'm with you. I agree. Let's have a ceasefire. But let's iron out these important operational questions beforehand.
COLLINS: If you were the National Security Adviser now, what would you say about having a call with Putin right now? Would you say to hold off and let the principals, Secretary of State, Rubio, National Security Adviser, Mike Waltz, kind of do the talking?
BOLTON: Look, the pressure that Trump has put on for a ceasefire is motivated by one thing, Trump's desire for good publicity and to buttress his case to get a Nobel Peace Prize.
You want a ceasefire between two warring parties? They need to decide it. There really are legitimate operational questions on the ground. You don't want to jeopardize your own troops' safety.
I think Zelenskyy has it right. He sees this as Putin trying for advantage on the ground.
And I think specifically what the Russians want before they agree to a ceasefire is eliminating the remaining Ukrainian troops from the ever- diminishing positions they still hold inside Russia. Then I think he'd be more willing to talk. That could happen within a matter of days.
COLLINS: But we saw Putin, last night, wearing his military fatigues, visiting this area of Russia, their territory that Ukraine has captured. I mean, what does that say to you, overall, about where his head is at on any kind of ceasefire, not just a 30-day one?
BOLTON: Well, he was there with his -- the Russian equivalent of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Valery (ph) Gerasimov. I think they're there to declare victory. They expect that they're going to move the rest of the Ukrainians out, and he will declare that, the liberated territory. So that gives him a big political boost, going into the talks.
COLLINS: Yes, we'll see what happens here.
Ambassador John Bolton, thank you for joining us.
BOLTON: Thank you.
COLLINS: And up next. We are talking about the latest government program, here in Washington. It's about to be shut down, over the executive order President Trump signed, one of his initial executive orders on DEI. The impacts of that, ahead.
[21:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: As we look at the -- as we, tonight, here are monitoring what has been happening at the Denver International Airport. We brought it to you just a few moments ago.
Obviously, it was quite remarkable to see this scene of this plane, which, as Pete Muntean, reported for us here earlier, and I'll show those images to you now, took off from Colorado Springs. It was diverted and landed at Denver International Airport, of course, a massive airport with a huge runway, very intricate and complicated. But as you can see here, the plane got quite close to where the gate was. But obviously, something went terribly wrong, and passengers ended up having to evacuate, in part, on the wing of that plane.
This is the left side of the plane that you're looking at here, still covered in smoke, as we saw the crews on the ground, emergency response, fire trucks going in, and trying to deal with this, the best that they could, still figuring out what exactly is at play here.
The FAA is now investigating this. They put out a preliminary statement earlier that didn't have a lot of information, as to what exactly they are looking at here. So, we are still continuing to watch this live. We're hearing from some of the passengers on that plane, who were evacuating it and getting off from the wing.
We're still waiting to learn more, though, because we saw some statements saying that slides are being deployed. We did not see that in those images. So, we'll continue to follow that closely. That is at Denver International Airport.
Here in Washington, as we are following the latest moves from the White House, the administration is planning to immediately eliminate all of the EPA's Environmental Justice Offices. That is a move that was in response to an executive order signed by President Trump, targeting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives.
My source tonight is CNN's Chief Climate Correspondent, Bill Weir.
[21:50:00]
Bill, what can you tell us about this news, given there's been a flood of deregulations, we talked about this yesterday, coming out of the EPA. Just walk us through and explain what these Environmental Justice Offices do, and what does their closure mean for people?
BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting, Kaitlan. Much to my surprise, the history of Environmental Justice, the timeline is still up on epa.gov.
And it's really interesting to look back at, it came out of the civil rights movement in the 80s. Actually, the United Church of Christ did a study on toxic waste and race, and determined that so many toxic waste sites were basically put into minority communities, low-income communities.
George H. W. Bush then started the Office of Environmental Justice in the 90s, trying to make good on America's long history of putting these polluting industries and places next to those who have the least voice and power.
But Lee Zeldin, of course, announced that under President Trump, anything that even has a whiff of racial discrimination is being eliminated. He -- they argue that they'll give everybody environmental protection, regardless of race and creed. It'll be interesting to see how they do that. They dropped the lawsuit in Louisiana, from the Biden administration, against the petrochemical plant that's near a Black community. They just dropped it before it could go to the judge, next month.
But this is just one of 31 actions we saw yesterday. We had 20 different press releases come out, in about two hours.
And I have to make a correction. On one of those, last night, as we were trying to make sense of this, I speculated that this particular press release that says, Trump EPA Announces OOOO b/c Reconsideration of Biden-Harris Rules Strangling American Energy Producers.
Because we had seen a couple typos on the other press releases, and the haste of this, I speculated that that that was some sort of a typo or a placeholder.
I now know that OOOO (ph) b and OOOO c are parts of Clean Air regulations. Some of those were put in definitions of different substances, like methane, limits on leaks in oil and gas production, all of that that now the Trump administration wants to strip out.
So, it is important to be precise in these days. So we regret that error, and making this correction now.
But these declarations, Kaitlan, yesterday are just the beginning of a long process. They have to list these new rules online. There's public comment period. Some of these decisions will go to court before anything really changes for the American people.
So, it'll be interesting to see if Administrator Zeldin can explain how these moves, as he said in his video, will make driving your car cheaper, or heating your home, or running your business cheaper, when some of these are just allowing big companies to pollute more.
So, this is all very early in the stages, as we know. And we'll see how it plays out, Kaitlan.
COLLINS: Yes, that's a good point. Bill Weir, thank you for that update. Great to have you.
And of course, up next, we're going to look into the next episode of the "United States of Scandal," and we'll speak to our buddy, Jake Tapper.
[21:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: This week's new episode of the "United States of Scandal with Jake Tapper" follows the downfall of Enron. Once, one of Wall Street's most successful corporations, led by its charismatic leader, Jeffrey Skilling, Enron was once referred to as the darling of Wall Street. That is, until 2001 when large-scale fraud shocked investors and the public.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Americans love a visionary, someone bold and maybe kind of quirky, unafraid to challenge the status quo, and launch us into the future.
But over the past few decades, we've learned that just because someone appears prescient, doesn't mean you should give them all your trust and all of your money.
In the 90s, Enron brought us the ultimate visionary, Jeffrey Skilling. Before 2001 the energy company stock seemed unstoppable, until the company went bust, and the world learned that its top executives were as crooked as Enron's logo.
But when I was covering this story, what made my jaw drop was how hardly anyone understood how the company actually made money. Enron was only able to implode, because so few people publicly questioned the sky-high financial returns, even when the math clearly didn't add up.
At what point, does our faith in a visionary devolve into group-think, and cost us everything?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: And joining me now is CNN Anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent, Jake Tapper.
And Jake, this whole series is so fascinating.
But what was it about Enron and Jeffrey Skilling, as we see the people that we're so familiar with now, with Elizabeth Holmes, and everyone else, that made people believe in the company, before all of the fraud was discovered?
TAPPER: Well, I mean, Jeffrey Skilling was celebrated as a charismatic, inspiring, innovative leader, and had been for years and years. And there were very few people willing, inside or outside Enron, to even question, How is this firm making money, exactly?
And it turns out, internally, there was a tremendous amount of fraud. So it is, honestly, in some ways, it's very much like the emperor-has- no-clothes story, like everyone thinks the emperor has clothes. And then, all of a sudden, one little boy says, Wait a second, he's naked. And then everybody realized, Oh, my God, he's naked. And that's what happened with Enron, except it cost tens of billions of dollars
COLLINS: I mean, and you spoke to an employee. I mean, they also were so greatly affected by this. Someone who was a whistleblower, actually. What was that conversation like, to hear from them, over 20 years later?
TAPPER: Sherron Watkins, yes, she was celebrated on the cover of Time Magazine with a couple other whistleblowers at the time.
What was just so interesting about it is how she really brought us into the world of Enron, and why it was so challenging for people to raise questions, or ask about these very dodgy accounting practices that were going on.
Because it really, you weren't only challenging the CEO, and all of the executives, you were also challenging Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm that had a good reputation until the Enron scandal. So, it was a rather gutsy thing, even just internally, to ask any questions at all.
COLLINS: Can't wait to watch Jake's new series, "United States of Scandal with Jake Tapper," that airs this Sunday, 09:00 p.m. Eastern, right -- and Pacific, right here on CNN. Make sure you don't miss it.
Thank you all so much for joining us.
"CNN NEWSNIGHT WITH ABBY PHILLIP" is up next.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST, CNN NEWSNIGHT WITH ABBY PHILLIP: Tonight.
As markets fall deeper, so do the President's heels.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're not going to bend.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: If you think eggs are expensive, wait till your next toast.
[22:00:00]
Plus, not so fast.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You are fired.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: A judge orders Trump and his DOGE posse to bring back tens of thousands over sham firings--
