Amy & T.J.Morning Run: Schumer Flinches, Putin Responds, Trump Tacks on Tariffs and Australia Takes on an American Influencer
Robach and Holmes cover the latest news headlines and entertainment updates and give perspective on current events in their daily “Morning Run.”
Morning Run with Amy and TJ and iHeartRadio Podcast. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Morning Run. We made it to Friday, March fourteenth.
I'm Amy Robots and I'm TJ Holmes. Did you see the blood moon thing? Eclipse? Happened in the middle of the night. Wonder if many of you all caught it?
But did you eyeball no, because we have nothing but cloud cover here in New York City. It's a big wanh wanh. I was excited. I got up and I said, did you see the moon?
And you said, nah, it was But I was too busy watching Megan Markle's show anyway to take a moment to look out the window.
Wait, and he's not lying. Actually, I came in and that's exactly what was on television.
The current episode is elevating the every day as I see on screen right now.
Can't wait to see what you do with today after getting all of those useful tips from Megan.
Oh, welcome everybody. We will start the Morning Run with this. We got a lot to get to actually on this Friday, including the government shut down. It is a little less likely now after the leading Democrat flinches.
And Trump calls on the Supreme Court to allow him to enforce his executive order ending birthright citizenship despite multiple federal lawsuits blocking it.
Also on the run this morning, Trump might need to start practicing this phrase, you're re hired after federal judge orders the administration to reinstate thousands of fired federal workers.
This reciprocal tariff thing, it's getting a little out of hand. It's now escalated, and this is personal to two hundred percent tariff on European Union alcohol.
Also, Putin responds to a possible ceasefire with Ukraine with a long list of questions and demands. This is not happening anytime soon, folks.
And what a site at the Denver airport last night, passengers on the wing of their airplane after their engine catches fire.
Plus the White House withdraws a nominee moments before his confirmation hearings were set to begin.
And another Congressman has passed away, the second in just eight day.
Also on the run this morning, they came in red T shirts they left and flex cuffs. Protesters arrested at Trump's Manhattan residence. Also thanks for the pope date, But how's about a picture. Growing concern that the public hasn't seen an image of Pope France's at all for a month.
Plus blizzards, tornadoes, flooding, wildfires, you name it. That is all being forecast in what's expected to be the biggest severe weather outbreak of the year, and it starts today.
And why the Australian Prime Minister is suggesting an American influencer should try petting a crocodile, we'll explain.
This story has been a favorite of ours over the past couple of days, and well it escalated to a point now where it made it to the morning run. So looking forward to that. But we begin our run with a possible deal. Senate Democrat Leader Chuck Schumer flinched or changed his mind, or has seen the light, or has flip flopped, or well, however you want to put it in.
Yeah, bottom line here is that Schumer now says he will support the GOP back to bill to avoid a government shut down, just a day after he was adamant that he and other Senate Democrats would not support it. The government is set to shut down tonight at midnight without action from Congress.
The House passed the bill on Tuesday that would fund the government through the end of September, leaving it up to the Senate to take action. Democrats oppose the bill, but they do not want to get blamed for shutting down the government.
So in a quick change of heart, Tumor now says he will vote for the funding bill to minimize the harm to American people. His calculation, the bill is bad, but the consequences of not passing it would be much worse.
Even though he will support the bill, Schumer says other Democrats are making their own individual decisions about voting for it. However, his support sends a very strong signal that this might be the direction other Democrats will go as well.
Now, Democrats were insisting on a short term funding measure about a month or so. That would give them a chance to negotiate something longer and that would keep the government open. But Republicans like that idea. So here we are. This is not a done deal yet, but at least a positive sign. But yes, folks, as we are talking, if they don't do something by midnight tonight, the government is going to shut down.
Yeah, Republicans need seven Democrats to come over to their side of things to vote for the bill. So at least they've got one publicly saying that he will all right, next up on the run, President Trump has asked the Supreme Court to back him up. The Trump administration has submitted an emergency request to the Supreme Court. What they're doing is they're asking the justices to allow some of his restrictions on birthright citizenship to take effect. Yeah.
Trump is trying to go around multiple separate legal cases across the US where judges have blocked his executive order ending birthright citizenship. The Justice Department is asking the court to only allow a pause on Trump's order to those specific plaintiffs who have legally challenged it. Did you get all that?
It's very confusing, but yeah, he's saying, this shouldn't be a blanket pause for everybody. I should still be able to enact birthright citay citizenship, the ending of it, at least my executive order for everyone else other than the people specifically addressed in the lawsuit. All right. Several federal judges and immigration advocates have insisted the Fourteenth Amendments citizenship Clause guarantees that children born in the US have an absolute right to automatic citizenship, regardless of their parents' immigration status. Trump is saying the amendment was intended to help formally enslaved people and does not cover children of people who entered the country illegally. The Supreme Court, perhaps it's the only place that can finally decide this one.
They've every court has upheld this. It has been challenged in challenge and challenge and challenged. We'll continue our run here and another just head spinning development here at judge has ordered that tens of thousands of federal employees fired last month must now be re hired.
The judge said probationary employees who were laid off from the Departments of Veteran Affairs, Defense, Energy, the Interior, Agriculture, and Treasury must all be offered their jobs back. The judge said there is nothing wrong with reducing the workforce, but accuse the government and the departments of lying by telling employees they were being let go based on their performance, when the judge said that absolutely was not the case.
So the administration said it would immediately fight back against and I'm quoting here this absurd and unconstitutional order. They went on to say, if a federal district court judge would like executive powers, they can try and run for president themselves.
Okay, that's where we are.
None of this is funny until that last line. Yeah, thank you for a little.
Levity now, yes, indeed, all right, next up on the run, Cheers may be the most expensive thing you can say starting next month. That is, if you prefer your bubbles from France or you're whiskey from Ireland, you will get this.
The President has now doubled down on his threat to charge two hundred sent tariffs on champagne and other alcohol products from the European Union. And I say he doubled down because when he said it the first time, like, ah, maybe he's just messing around. Oh no, no, no, he came back. He told reporters he would not bend at all on this new round of tariff's set to go into effect on April second.
The proposed and might I add astronomical EU alcohol tariffs are in response to the EUS newly announced fifty percent tariff on US whiskey. That tariff was in retaliation for Trump's twenty five percent tariff on steel and aluminum. This is exhausting.
You know, we probably should, I mean, we should consider don't report anything on tariffs until it's done. When you all are done with the trade war, we'll say this was the result. But the back and forth is just unnecessary, and it's confusing, and it's costing people money right now, it's true.
And you know what, just for instance, the strategic maneuvering behind all of this, The EU whiskey tariff is set to take effect on April first. Okay. Trump's champagne and alcohol tariff is set to take place on April second, So they leave a little wiggle room you see there for some negotiations.
Yeah, okay. And you know what's happening on the stock market. Yes, people are losing money. The market's tumbled once again. Shares of European wine makers, of course, fell after Trump made the announcement. Trump said the EU was one of the most hostile and abuse of taxing and tariffing authorities in the world. The US is the world's largest importer of wine and champagne, importing nearly four point nine billion dollars worth of wine each year. I didn't think about this until earlier this morning, looking at this story, we might and I guess a lot of other people might go stock up.
I mean, why wouldn't you write it's I mean, I love a friend champagne and I love my European wine. So this is actually this is huge in so many companies here in the United States curate those wines and then distribute it to people in the United States. So it affects American companies as well. This is significant, and let's hope they can work something out.
But you know, look on the bright side, maybe it gives an opportunity some more American winemakers.
That's true. I actually think a California and Kentucky might actually do a lot better because of all of this, right all right, Next up on the run, the ball was in Putin's court, and well he kind of still has it. Putin said, while he supported the US proposal for a ceasefire with Ukraine in principle, he said there were many crucial details that needed to be sorted out first.
Yes, so many conditions, clarifications, questions and details that need to be sorted out that it looks like the ceasefire deal is not going to be happening anytime soon. However, Putin's comments didn't close the door, left it open, at least cracked a little bit for further talks with the US and that yes, is a step in the right direction.
Putin also publicly thanked President Trump, which went a long way. Trump quickly responded to Putin's statement, saying he was willing to talk to Putin by phone, and he called Putin's remarks very promising and that he hoped Moscow would do the right thing.
Yeah, President Zelenski. Meanwhile, of Ukraine, he jumped in. He said he ain't buying it, and he said that Putin was preparing to reject the seafire proposal, but he was afraid to tell Trump. Since Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago, hundreds of thousands of people have died, been injured, millions have been left without homes. The sooner this it.
Just Zelensky's comments probably didn't go too well. Didn't go over so well in Russia, though, saying that Putin was afraid of Trump. That's not probably a good start to a negotiating table.
With guys with egos like the who has shown I'm not getting on that they have displayed egos.
All of them recently, all of them all right. Next up on our run confirmation hearings for President Trump's new CDC director were abruptly canceled within minutes before they were set to begin. This all happened after the White House withdrew the nomination of Dave Weldon.
Yeah, the former congressman was scheduled to testify before a Senate committee yesterday morning. When word came that the administration was no longer putting him forward as the nominee. It had become clear. You see that the former Florida congressman did not have the votes to advance his nomination even out of committees A why bottom.
Yeah. The committee is made up of twelve Republicans and eleven Democrats, so he couldn't afford to even lose one Republican vote, and it appeared that was going to be the case. Members had expressed concerns about his numerous previous statements questioning the efficacy and safety of vaccines. He also suggested a link between vaccines and autism. For his part, Weldon said this about his nomination being pulled. The President is a very busy man doing good work for our nation, and the last thing he needs is a controversy about the CDC. So I guess he took it in stride.
Yeah, but he came as a surprise to him. This was not his choice. But if you don't have a vote, why even go through the exercise if you know you're not going to get the votes. We will continue here on the run on this Friday morning with hundreds of protesters who showed up uninvited to Trump's Manhattan crib and they were eventually forcibly removed. This happened at Trump Tower in Midtown Manhattan, the top floors of which serve, of course, as Trump's New York residents.
Just before lunchtime, protesters in red shirts with various slogans written on them filled the lobby of Trump Tower demanding the release of Makmu Khalil. The activists arrested last weekend by federal agents. Khalil is a graduate student at Columbia University. He organized protests on campus. Trump has accused him of supporting Commas, and agents initiated a process to have him removed. He's currently at a detention center in Louisiana and a judge has blocked his deportation for now.
Yeah, but these protesters were there in support of him. That was organized by a group called Jewish Voice for Peace, which live streamed the protest police gave the protesters several verbal warnings to disperse before they started putting people in flexcussus.
Ninety eight arrests were made, from trespassing to resisting arrest. FEDS justified the arrest based on Trump's executive orders targeting anti Semitism. Khalil is accused of leading protests aligned with Hamas. But this is a very very controversial story here in New York and even around the world.
Yeah, we talk about this one protest, but there have been several, even down downtown here where we are, and around the city, around the country for this young man. But that story is not going anywhere anytime soon. We will continue here on this Friday morning. But when we come back some sad news. Another member of Congress has died, the second in just eight days. Also, they keep telling us the Pope is doing okay, but yeah, we'd like to see him. Also, why are passengers on the wing of their plane. A huge storm is coming and the wombacked story out of Australia. Now even the Prime Minister down there is getting involved. We continue here on this Friday morning run and an another member of Congress has died. Arizona Democrat Raoul Griholva passed away after what his office called a long and brave battle with cancer.
Grihova revealed last year he'd been diagnosed with cancer. He served in Congress since two thousand and three, but he had not registered a single vote this year because he hasn't been in DC and in the halls of Congress because he was dealing with his cancer treatment.
Neigh Griholva was seventy seven years old. His death comes just eight days after Texas Congressman Sylvester Turner died. Turner experienced a medical emergency after attending the President's speech to a joint session of Congress last week. Turner, you remember heaths first session. He had just been elected, only been in office six or so weeks when he passed. So again we see the back and forth with Congressman all the time and members of Congress and the fights Democrats and Republicans. But they have lost two of their members. That's tough on that house.
Heart's go out to them all, right. Next up on the Run, we're going to head to Rome where the Pope has officially been in the hospital as of today for one month, and for that entire month we have not seen one image of the Pope, not a photo, not a video, not a selfie, nothing.
And Italians ain't like in this. A lot of folks around the world, in fact, are speculating why that has fueled countless conspiracy theories. All the information the world receives is, of course, through the Vatican. They continue to tell us the Pope had a quiet, peaceful, tranquil night, that his condition is improving, but that his situation is complex. Blah blah, blah blah. We keep hearing the exact same statement. I guess repeat it in different ways. Maybe the comma is here this time, maybe it's fourteen words, maybe it's nine. But it's been the same thing.
Yes, and it's been very basic and not filled with a lot of details. Now we did get some information on how Pope France has celebrated his twelfth anniversary as Pope yesterday, apparently with cake and candles brought in by a hospital staff. That would have made such a nice.
Photo, perfect photo perfect.
Why wouldn't they have taken a photo just saying all right? He also received hundreds of drawings and letters from children and well wishers from around the world.
See you were doing great. Up until the just saying, I mean, you're adding to the conspiracy, the speculator, just saying. The Pope continues to receive oxygen therapy, alternating between non invasive mechanical ventilation at night and high flow oxygen during the day. Chest X ray earlier this week confirmed slight improvement from the double pneumonia that he's been battling. No word on when he might be released from the hospital.
All right, well this will way for the update.
But that makes it. You make a very good point now about the cake and candles. You say he's doing better. Just you don't have to be the greatest shot in the world, but I mean the world for one, but the faithful need to see their guys.
Yeah, and I was editorializing there, but I think a lot of people were probably thinking the same thing. And look the folks. You know, we talked yesterday about TikTokers storming into the hospital with cameras and toad trying to find the Pope because they are all acting on this conspiracy theory that he's already died. But the point being they even said themselves, we are faithful Catholics, we love the Pope. We want to make sure, he's okay. This isn't people just rolling their eyes and raising their eyebrows. They are actually deeply concerned. So perhaps maybe the Vatican will hear and consider.
They don't care. They don't they gonna bend to public pressure. Yeah, that's what the Vatican does, all right.
Moving on, next up on our run. Wow, this was a doozy. Some American Airline passengers ended up on the wing of their plane yesterday, forced to evacuate after an engine caught fire.
We should emphasize the plane was not flying at the time that they ended up on the wing, but check out what happened. This is American Airlines Flight one zero zero six. It was supposed to go from Colorado Springs to Dallas, but it was diverted to Denver International after the pilot reported engine vibrations. So no emergency necessarily just yet, but had an issue so wanted to land, so they landed in Denver. When they got to the ground, though, the engine catches on fire. You could see these flame shooting up and there was black smoke filling the air ooh.
As ground crews worked to put out the fire, the one hundred and seventy two passengers were evacuated, many of them having to seek refuge on the plane's wing. That is quite the site to see passengers standing on the wing of a plane. Thankfully, the fire was put out. A dozen people, though, were treated for minor injuries.
And again this wasn't or it was. The audio from this is incredible because you hear the positive the crew being very calm, saying, this is what we have going on. We have vibrations. They got to the ground, everything was back and forth and everything cool. Then all of a sudden you hear mayday, mayay, mayene engine fire, and so it just happened. It seemed like there wasn't an emergency until there was an emergency, and that was after they got on the ground.
The best place you could say may day, may day, may day engine fire is on the ground.
Wheels on ground.
Thankfully that happened in that order. All right. Next up on our run, just a heads up here a storm is coming, and in fact it's not just any storm. This is being described as the most significant, serious and severe weather outbreak of the year, and it starts today. One hundred million people will be impacting.
So this is the same storm system that brought all kinds of chaos to California, so snow, strong winds. This storm system is making its way across the country. So what's on tap. Possible blizzards in the planes, wildfires in Texas and Oklahoma, tornadoes in the South, flooding on the East coast. So everybody is going to get a little bit of something. It sounds like it starts today, it goes through the weekend, but all of that possible over.
The next few days actually sounds like armageddon. I mean, especially with all the political news, world news, now the weather news. My I mean, I have never felt in thirty years in journalism if I ever felt like we've had this many stories at one time of such significance.
Do you agree, well, yes, But that's why we want to end on a happy note with this last story today, one that brings us all together.
It's just continuing the theme of divisiveness. And we'll go now for the final leg of our run. Yeah, everybody has worked up over a baby.
Wombat, which because of what again I.
Described it, it looks to me like a combination of a rat and a kangaroo with some hair on it. I don't know, it's not in these parts well, let's just say it's gotten to such a place that even the Australian Prime Minister has gotten involved.
Yeah, and mostly you probably familiar with this story. It went crazy online this week. Australia is really annoyed, outraged, really pissed, and an American influencer after a viral video in which she swipes a baby wombat from its mother, runs to show it off to a camera that she had nearby, but for then quickly putting it back down. The whole thing maybe took about a minute. Now people were calling for her to be arrested or at the very least kicked out of Australia for this.
The influencer, whose name is Sam Jones, describes herself as an outdoor enthusiast an environmental scientist, and she did try to calm some of the outrage by writing this on social media. She said, for everyone that's worried and unhappy, the baby was carefully held for one minute in total, and then released back to mum. They wandered back off into the bush together, completely unharmed. Well that was nowhere near good enough to calm the storm.
So Australian Prime minister got involved. He responded yesterday in front of cameras, and this was his quote, which we probably should have used as our quote of the day because it's just a doozy. This is what he said, and I quote, I suggest to this so called influencer, maybe she might try some other Australian animals, take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there.
And he said it with a completely straight face.
Oh he didn't deliver the line like I did, tongue in cheek. He was deadpan the whole time. So this influencer's accounts are now all private online. The video was taken down. Reportedly she's already left Australia, but she is getting a lot a lot of heat for this. And you look at what she does. Is it just looks unwise to do what she did, but it also seems a little cruel, certainly to the animal and the way she was holding it, and then the mother was right there. I wouldn't take any animal from its mother.
That's just me, absolutely not.
But she made a bad call in the moment, maybe even stupid, you could say, I don't know obviously this woman at all, but she's getting a lot of.
Heat yeah, and look, there are some there are some animals out there. If a mother smells a human on their baby, they will leave it, they will eject it. So there are real concerns for just their health. But my goodness, I don't know if this well. First of all, I was thinking to myself, well, thank goodness her name is Sam Jones, because that is such a basic name. I feel like you can't necessarily find her. You can hide with that, Yeah, you can, right, But also, will she still be able to be an influencer now if she had to set all of her accounts to private And I hope this settles down to find another line of work.
Yeah, I sympathize with her. Yes, I look at all agree and you look at it, it looks like it's just in human. The way she's treating the animal doesn't seem kind. Obviously. I just hated it for it seems disrespectful of the culture, like you're coming to our country and you're going to treat something we love, something beloved to us this way.
And her response was to defend herself, not to apologize, a big, a big thing for me, it was just defending her actions and saying everybody calmed down, nobody was hurt. Everybody's okay.
I'm making sure I didn't overlook somewhere. I don't think she's apologized, right, No, I don't think she is.
I don't think she thinks she did anything wrong, and so that might be the next step for her. We'll see what happens, all right, folks.
As you go about your Friday now on your weekend, something we'd like for you to consider it is our quote of the day.
I fell in love with this quote this morning, especially as we start the weekend. Don't look at your feet to see if you're doing it right. Just dance. I know you've never had to do that.
Oh wow, you know.
But I certainly have. So it resonated with me. Like you're trying to get it perfect, You're trying to get all the steps right. You don't want to make a mistake. But sometimes when you do that, you forget to have fun. Right.
That's a good way to put it.
And just enjoy the ride or the dance or whatever it is. So yes, please consider this as you begin your day today.
And it's don't look at your feet to see if you are doing it right. Just thence and with that folks, thank you as always for running with us. I'm TJ.
Holks and I'm Amy Roboch. We will see you on the run on Monday.
