Morning Run with Amy and TJ and iHeartRadio podcast. Good morning everyone. It's Wednesday, March twelfth, and welcome to Morning Run now guaranteed available by six thirty am Eastern Time every single day, Monday through Friday. I'm Amy Robot.
And I'm TJ Holmes. And on this Wednesday Morning Run, Good Chat. US and Ukraine emerged from marathon talks with a ceasefire proposal on the table and US military aid once again flowing to Ukraine.
New US tariffs start today and Europe immediately announced what it calls countermeasures. Yeah, and the markets aren't too happy about it.
Also, half the US Department of Education just got let go and the offices are closed. Do we even still have an Apartment of Education?
And time is running out for Congress to get Trump's spending bill passed. Yesterday it cleared the House, but what will Senate Democrats do? And President Trump took a break from leading the free world to yes go car shopping at the White House. He even had his own personal car salesman, Elon Musk, on hand to seal the deal.
And it was a sad display of bad behavior in a House committee meeting yesterday targeting the first openly transgender member of Congress, while the sky's also just got a lot clearer and the hope is safer following a new and until further notice ban on helicopters near Reagan National Airport, and an airline known for its no frills discount seating is now making a big change that will have you packing lighter to keep your wallet fuller. And the measles
outbreak just spread to a third state. The numbers keep growing, with more and more cases reported now in Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma.
Also on the run. This morning, the Eagles are going to the White House, Tiger suffers a devastating setback that is probably going to keep him out of golf the entire season, and two astronauts could finally be coming home nine months behind schedule.
I guess that's the case where it's better late than never. We begin our run with the word that just keeps making headlines these days, tariffs. Today is day one of President Trump's twenty five percent tariff on all steel and aluminum coming into the United States, and.
The European Union has already responded, announcing what it called countermeasures. The U said it will put tariffs on twenty eight billion dollars worth of American goods in retaliation, things like steel, aluminum, yes, but also home appliances, agricultural goods and more. Now those are expected to go into effect April first.
Also on the tariff front, yesterday, the President threatened to impose a fifty percent tax on all steel and aluminum coming from Canada, fifty percent. He made that threat after Ontario said it would tax electricity it sends to the United States.
Well, at the end, the Ontario governor backed off, saying, and this might have been the best quote in all of this melee quote let cooler heads prevail. That was his quote. So both sides took back their threats to but the country's tariff policy that's giving everybody whipland markets
are hating it right now. With the President said he is doing a lot of this trying to make it so expensive for companies to send their goods here that they'll eventually just want to produce the goods here, so eventually creating American jobs.
That's a lofty goal, But the markets weren't exactly happy about the process. Yesterday was another up and down day for the markets, which ultimately ended down once again. The Dow dropped about four hundred and fifty points.
S and p NASDAG both down as well. Yesterday's drop off wasn't as extreme as the day before, when the markets reacted to what President Trump didn't say in an interview when asked whether the US was headed for recession.
Yeah, he didn't explicitly say no, which then sent investors into a tailspin. The President did try to calm things down yesterday when he was asked again about a recession. This time he said, I don't see it at all. I think this country's going to boom.
All right. We'll continue our run here in Washington, and we wait to see what Senate Democrats are going to do. They could get blamed for a government shut down, or they could get blamed for not opposing the president's plans to continue bulldozing the federal government. That's where we are right now. After the House passed a bill, a spending bill very much that Trump is in favor of. That government is going to avoid a government shutdown that's coming
later this week. But the vote was two hundred and seventeen to two thirteen. All Republicans but one voted for it. All Democrats but one voted against it. So now the fate is uncertain in the Senate. Are they going to be able to withstand a filibuster threat. They're going to need at least eight Democrats to get on board to do this. And this is a major victory right now, at least getting it through the House for Trump and
the Republicans. This government funding is going to run out by the end of the week, I believe midnight on Friday. So the Republicans in the House have done their job. Senate Democrats, now it was really up to Ropes to see what they are going to do. They don't have really good options. You pick one, you're going to get criticized. You pick the other, you're going to get criticized. They don't have a good way forward. So we will see what happens now. But the House Republicans the House, they
actually went home. This is part of their strategy. They sent all their people homes say hey, Senate Democrats, y'all stay there, y'all figure it out. We ain't around no more to even do anything. So we shall see. But once again, Robes, we have this story a very single well every few months, right government shutdown is coming. Almost didn't want to put the story in this morning.
Yeah, I mean, and the truth is that they need those a Democratics votes, and those if they exist, those eight democratic votes will be kind of a damned if they do, damned if they don't position. So we will see what happens come Friday at midnight.
So let's head over to Saudi Arabia now, and just like that, we are friends again. The US has restarted military a to Ukraine after the two sides met face to face for the first time since that disastrous Oval awful meeting Oval Office meeting last month.
I think that was an appropriate slip of the tongue there, all right. After more than eight hours of negotiations, Secretary of State Mark Rubio and his delegation said Ukraine has in fact accepted a thirty day ceasefire with Russia. Their official announcement said the US will immediately lift the pause on intelligent sharing and resume security assistance to Ukraine.
That assistance enclosed around about a billion dollars in equipment, potentially another three point eight billion in a The question now is whether you at the Russia as actually going to get on board with this ceasefire. Ribio says, we'll take this offer to the Russians and we hope that they'll say yes, that they'll say yes to peace. So the ball is now in Russia's court. As everybody immediately began saying after this deal was announced.
All right, next up on the run. We all heard candidate Trump saying he wanted to eliminate the Department of Education on the campaign trail. Well, now President Trump's administration is working towards that goal, announcing it is cutting fifty percent of the department's workforce.
And the first pink slips went out last night. The department told employees that the offices would be closed starting at six pm last night and all day today because of security reasons. The White House did say that they are preparing an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to start the process of dismantling the department altogether. Yeah.
McMahon has said that President Trump's goal is to make sure education is back at the state level where it belongs. But of course, any move like that would require congressional approval, and it's unlikely at this point that the administration could get the sixty Senate votes, it would need to yes, in fact, eliminate the Department of Education.
I'm going to continue now our run here in d C with a story from Capitol Hill that fills wrong, mean, unnecessary, and it was just sad and it was uncomfortable. This exchange that took place among yes elected representatives and a House committee meeting yesterday.
Texas Republican Keith self was recognizing fellow committee member and Congress's first openly transgender Congresswoman Sarah mcride from Delaware. Self said, I now recognized the representative from Dellah, Aware, mister McBride. Well, McBride quipped back pretty quickly, thanking him and referring to self as Madam chair.
Okay, So that is when Massachusetts Democrat Congressman Bill Keating stepped in and asked self to repeat what he just said and asked him essentially to introduce the congresswoman again. So self called McBride, mister McBride once again and added, we have set the standard on the House floor. Keating then replied by telling selfie was out of order, saying, mister chairman, have you no decency? I mean, I have come to know you a little bit, but this is.
Not decent, and when Self tried to continue the hearing, Keating interrupted again and said the meeting would not continue until the chairman introduced McBride. He said the right way, and that is when Chairman Self abruptly adjourned the meeting. And after a video clip of that exchange ended up on x surprising right, Congressman Self wrote this, it is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female.
So McBride released a statement last night saying I was disappointed that the chair decided to end the committee hearing early. I was prepared to move forward with my questions for the subcommittee on Nuclear non proliferation and US support for democratic allies in Europe. This isn't, of course, the first time McBride has faced challenges, if you will, on Capitol Hill.
Yeah, last month another Republican congress woman referred to her as the gentleman from Delaware, and before that, before she was even sworn in, we all remember Congresswoman Nancy Mace introducing that resolution to ban transgender women from using female bathrooms in the Capitol. That was a policy that House Speaker Mike Johnson enacted in November and renewed at the start of this Congress in January. So yeah, I mean, it just unnecessary and means spirited.
That's the way.
That's just the best way for me to describe it.
That was just mean. That just feels mean. And I give Congress Holman McBride credit for not necessarily taking it on or getting upset or saying, hey, refer to me the right way, which is not the first time she's experienced this, but just said thank you, Madam chair. I mean, that was actually the perfect way. And then her statement afterwards, what is she talking about, Hey, I want to talk about nuclear non proliferation. She hasn't taken the bait. I
give her credit. She's trying to do a job up there. Good God. That was just that's so mean. I feel to do it. I hated that story this morning to see it, and the video was out there, so you will check it out. If this is not a matter of transgender and what you feel about an issue, when we're another robes, it's just like, this is a human being in front of you.
It's about treating people with respect. You can disagree with them. You don't even have to like what they stand for or what they represent. But you can still, at least especially in the halls of Congress, with the world watching and our children watching, treat one another with respect.
That's it, all right, folks. We're going to continue here on the Wednesday morning run. When we come back, Trump goes car shopping, but the dealership comes to him also. After all that turns out the Eagles actually are going to be coming to the White House and a couple of astronauts are finally coming home. It was only supposed to be a three hour tour. We continue here on this Wednesday morning at the White House, where the driveway looked like a Tesla dealership yesterday, complete with a car
salesman and the potential car buyer. The salesman was Elon.
Musk, the shopper was President Trump, and would you believe Elon closed the deal. Several Tesla models were lined up outside the White House. Trump and Musk walked around the cars and even got into one.
So what as was was a very public and very showy endorsement by President Trump of Musk's company, which has lost nearly half of its market values since Trump was elected. In fact, just Monday, Tesla stocked fifteen percent that's about eight hundred billion dollars in value. It's largest drop in five years. And it wasn't just for show here out here with Trump. He actually did buy a car yesterday.
Yeah, it was a red model s It retails for about eighty grand President Trump said he would write a personal check for the car. But yeah, he's not going to be hitting the corners in Georgetown on the weekends. Presidents generally are not allowed to drive, or at least it's highly discouraged. So he says he's going to leave it for his staff to drive.
What's kind of coolp would love What story is going to come out of that some staffer to take the president's car for a spin? But this blurs the lines. This was an incredible show to see our public or someone from the public office gives such an endorsement of a private company in such a way. It just blurs the lines. And then Elon Musk works for the government. Now he's out there at the White House selling a product from his personal private company.
This is it's urd lines. Is a very kind and soft way to put it. Okay, some would call it inappropriate.
I'm just unseen before let's go with that. For now in this morning run, which will continue you now with some big changes coming to Washington, DC, at least in the skies, the National Transportation Safety Board has called for a permanent ban on certain helicopter flights near Reagan National Airport.
That's right. The NTSP says the current helicopter routes quote
pose an intolerable risk to aviation safety. This all comes after January's deadly mid air collision between the American Airlines plane and that US Army Black Hall helicopter that killed all sixty seven people on board both aircrafts, and within ninety minutes of releasing its recommendations, while the Department of Transportation responded announcing it would make those temporary helicopter restrictions that were put in place after the crash permanent.
Yeah, they were supposed to expire at the end of this month. Of families of the victims of January crash it applaud the move, releasing a statement saying this was not an isolated incident, but a symptom of broader failures in our aviation safety system. If the necessary reforms had been implemented sooner, Flight five three four to two likely would have landed safely and our family members would be home with us.
That's so sad to think about. Some of the family members were saying that they thought this was just a tragic accident, but now they're feeling like it's even worse because this was something that was known and could have been avoided, and that's just got to be so heartbreaking.
The NTSB released a twenty page report detailing eighty five close calls just between October of twenty twenty one and December of twenty twenty four where helicopters and planes came within two hundred feet of each other vertically, that is remarkable, and then just fifteen hundred feet of one another latterally, so some close calls that they were pointing out. In fact, there was something between twenty eleven. There was at least one incident where there was a report that a helicopter
and a plane we're too close to each other. That's scary.
It just sucks a tragedy. People had to die for you to make a change that you are already aware of. That is tough for the family to stomach. We will continue here on the run. We will continue with a story having to do with commercial air travel, but a much different one for you here, and you're probably not gonna like it. Your bags. It's gonna cost you, at least when you travel on Southwest Airlines a major departure now from its long standing tradition of giving customers two
free checked bags. Southwest Airlines will now only extend that courtesy to Rapid Rewards, a List, preferred members, and business class ticket holders. So that essentially means most ages.
Right, I've never even heard of rapid rewards, a list preferred members. But for those of you who are lucky, you a list members and select customers will also receive one free checked bag, but everyone else will have to pay for their first and second ones. The new changes take effect after Memorial Day weekend on May twenty eighth, and the new fees are part of a larger move to what they say will boost profitability and attract new customers.
Wow, how are you attracting new customers by saying we're going to charge you for your check bags? Now?
Well, they're going to give you more points if you're a business traveler, so you can rack up those frequent flyer miles. And they're also going to create more Uh, They're going to keep create cheaper seats. They're calling that for the budget conscious traveler and allow for a sign, sitting and extra leg room options if you want to pay a little more. So they're just giving people more options and they're trying to get some more money out of it all.
Generally speaking, checked bags or fifty twenty five bucks, what are they fifty?
It depends because when my children fly, they tend to be heavier than usual, so they end up costing even more. But yes, we shall see what those bag prices are. They did not detail that. Next up on our run. US outbreaks has now spread, unfortunately to a third state. Health officials in Oklahoma have confirmed two measles cases and they say it's probable that they're connected to the outbreak in West Texas.
Yeah, these two people are isolated and experiencing symptoms, health officials say. In West Texas, which has been the epicenter of the current outbreak, there are now two hundred and twenty three confirmed cases. There are also thirty three confirmed measles cases in New Mexico and that county there that's neighboring West Texas where the outbreak has been centered.
Yeah, the cases are mostly among unvaccinated children and teenagers. One school aged child died last month, marking the first measles death in the US in ten years, and an adult died last week in New Mexico. He also tested They also tested positive for measles, So this is something that a lot of health officials are keeping their eye on.
All right, we'll continue here on our run now with another major health setback for Tiger Woods, and this one is pretty much going to guarantee we are not going to see him playing this season. Tiger announced yesterday that he ruptured his achilles and has already undergone surgery to repair it.
Though he said the surgery went well and he's expected to make a full recovery. Recovery for an injury like that can take up to six months, and he said he suffered it at home while he was doing some training and some practice. He hasn't played an official tour event since last summer, but he's been playing in his newly launched golf simulator League. You might have seen some of those matches on ESPN.
Then he looked pretty good and he was smiling. He was happy, having a good time. So we were looking forward and then the Masters is next month, so we were looking forward to that, but we will not be seeing Tiger anytime soon out there. He is forty nine years old. Now. He has had some catastrophic injuries, but he has suffered really to stay healthy. The back issues, and then you remember the car accident in twenty twenty one.
His leg was damaged so bad he said they might have to amputate it, they thought, the doctors, but he made a recovery from that. Then he was supposed to play in the Genesis Invitational last month, but it wasn't a health issue of his but the death of his mother that happened previous just near the time of that tournament, and he thought he was gonna play, and he just finally think a day or two before, said you do, guys,
I'm just not mentally ready. So Tiger, we just love seeing him play, and he has done so much for golf, but over the years, he just hasn't the past several years, hasn't been able to stay out there and stay healthy.
Yeah, it's tough, but we hope these next six months will fly by all right. Next up on our run, guess who's coming to the White House? The Super Bowl winning Philadelphia Eagles.
Yeah, it was widely rumored and even widely reported by some that the team would not go to the White House with a traditional champions visit, But yesterday the White House confirmed that an invitation had been extended to the team and that they enthusiastically accepted.
The visit is scheduled for April twenty eighth. Hopefully the visit does happen, because the last time the Eagles were invited to the White House, they were quickly uninvited. Philly won the Super Bowl back in twenty eighteen, during Trump's first term.
But during that time, you might member, there was so much going on controversy around players kneeling during the national anthem at NFL game, so several Eagles players expressed hesitation about going to the White House at that point, and of course visiting President Trump, who was against players kneeling. So President Trump at that time rescinded their invitation, so they did not go a lot of questions if it was going to happen this time, and it appears it will. So that's awesome.
All right, that's fantastic. Some more good news, How about this for the final leg of our run, We're going to head to space, where two astronauts are finally getting their ride home, just about nine months later than anticipated. Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams have been stranded in space since last June, when they left for a mission that was supposed to last just about a week. Yeah.
Well, there were issues with Boeing's Starliner spacecraft which carried them to space. NASA was nervous about putting them back in that thing and flying them back to Earth in it, so they just brought the Starline or spacecraft back to Earth with no one in it. It made it back safely, so meaning the astronauts would have made it back safely, but it was too much of a risk at the time, so NASA made a decision at the time to just leave them up there until the next scheduled mission to
the space station. But Robe's problem with that is the next scheduled one wasn't for another nine months, which is today now.
Yeah, and you know what I think, if you're the astronaut, you're like, cool, I think I'll take the nine months versus risking my life. That is a safe bet. So tonight SpaceX is scheduled to launch its Dragon spacecraft it will drop off four astronauts to the space station and then pick up Wilmore and Williams and bring them all back to Earth. And if it all goes as planned, they actually could be back on Earth as early as Sunday. That's pretty remarkable.
It's remark just but to think you're going to be gone for a week and you end up for nine months, and how tough that is for your family to unexpectedly have to be without the member of your family for nine months. That this was probably wildly disruptive. It sounded like a fun and a cool story to a certain degree, but this had to be wildly disruptive.
Oh, that has real life implications in so many ways. I mean, I was just thinking, you know, on this so many selfish levels. How many times have you had to go somewhere for work and then it gets extended and you have to run around and buy things like from underware to socks to I was just thinking like that had to be quite a journey for them with one week of supplies. Maybe they brought a few extra pairs of this or that. I'm not really sure how
that works. How does laundry even work in space? I'm sure they've got it all figured out.
You know, they always say pack extra underwear. I never packed enough to last me another month anywhere I was ever going. And the other part of this story now is they need to get them out of there because they're using up supply. They plan on having an extra two bodies up there for nine months, so they're going through stuff that was meant for astronauts on later missions so we could see them. Although they launched tonight, seven twenty six is when it takes all from Kennedy's Space Center.
They will have live streams online if you'd like to check it out, But starting at seven twenty six is when that launch is supposed to happen.
To me, all right, that's amazing, and we are going to now leave you with our quote of the day on this Wednesday. It is only when we take chances that our lives improve. The initial and the most difficult risk we need to take is to become honest. I thought that was a really uh that was one that made you think a little. So, yes, we want to take chances, we want to improve our lives, but sometimes the hardest thing is to be honest with ourselves and
with others. It's something that we tell ourselves a lot of stories, but we have to be honest before we can start to make real changes.
There's you know, I'm glad you said there's something I've been meaning to tell y'all. As soon as we get off recording here, I'm going to be honest with you about something. So give them the quote one more time.
Yeah, here it is. Can't wait as my heart is pounding. It is only when we take chances that our lives improve. The initial and most difficult risk we need to take is to be come honest. And with that, everyone, we hope you have a wonderful Wednesday. Thank you for running with us.
I'm Amy Robach and I'm TJ. Holmes. Gonna head off and be honest with Roebock and we'll see if we're running together tomorrow or not. You'll have a go with season.
You're so dramatic.