Hello from CNN, I'm Joe Beck, with the five things you need to know for Tuesday, February 4th. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard are facing two key Senate committee votes today as they try to sure up their places in the Trump administration.
RFK Jr. is President Donald Trump's pick for Health and Human Services Secretary, while Gabbard is hoping to become the Director of National Intelligence. CNN's Oren Fox has more on what to expect from this morning's vote on RFK Jr.'s nomination. All eyes are on Senator Bill Cassidy, a Republican from the state of Louisiana, who is also a physician.
He has had concerns about some of the past positions that RFK Jr. has taken on vaccines, some of the questions that he has raised about the vaccine schedule for children across the country. He spoke with Kennedy over the weekend, according to our colleague Monoraggio. But on Monday night, he still was dodging reporters' questions, not making clear what he is going to do, because this is a narrowly divided committee.
It's possible that if Cassidy voted against this nomination, it could stall out in the Senate Finance Committee. New analysis has found that Trump's tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China would cost the typical household about $1,200 a year. Tariffs on Mexico and Canada have been delayed for a month, while China's went ahead this morning, and Beijing immediately retaliated with their own tariffs on U.S. energy and metals.
And researchers at the Peterson Institute for International Economics warn lower-income Americans are likely to feel the brunt. To pause the incoming tariffs, the leaders of Canada and Mexico both made promises to Trump about undocumented migrants and fentanyl coming across the borders. But CNN contributor Catherine Rampell says their leaders haven't made any real concessions. For example, the president of Mexico said that she would commit to having 10,000 troops at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Guess what? There are already 15,000 there and have been there for years. Prime Minister Trudeau said, aha, we're going to spend $1.3 billion on investing in border security. Guess what?
They announced that last year. Trump says that TikTok could be bought by a newly proposed U.S. sovereign wealth fund. With the details, here's the host of CNN's Terms of Service podcast, Claire Duffy.
That's right, though. Now, technically, this could be possible under the law that requires TikTok to be sold off from its China-based owner or banned in the United States. But there are a lot of big questions about whether and how this would work, including whether the U.S. government could stand out such a fund and ensure it has the tens of billions of dollars likely needed to buy TikTok in time to meet that April deadline.
A legal expert also told me that this could make content moderation on TikTok really complicated because if the government owns the app, cracking down on content or even just deciding what to promote and demote via the algorithm could quickly run into First Amendment challenges. Roughly 2.2 billion gallons of water have flowed out of California's reservoirs. Trump ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to open two dams in the center of the state on Friday to send water to the fire-ravaged south.
But water experts say there are two major problems with that. Firstly, the water won't actually flow to L.A., the area hit by the wildfires. And secondly, it's being wasted because it's been released during the wet winter season. And that water was being held in the reservoirs to prepare for a dry summer, with one expert saying this move could put farmers at risk of running low in the coming months.
Coming up, the price of Super Bowl tickets is plummeting. This Sunday, the Kansas City Chiefs could make history and become the first team to ever win three Super Bowls back-to-back. But ticket prices aren't really reflecting that. Reseller TickPick says the cheapest offer for the game against the Philadelphia Eagles in New Orleans has fallen below $4,000 on the secondary market.
That's a 30% drop over the past week and is less than half the price of tickets to last year's game. Experts say one reason could be the location, as last year's Super Bowl in Las Vegas could have held more appeal, while another factor could be a case of Chiefs fatigue, as football fans might be bored by their third straight appearance. That's all for now. Our next episode drops at noon Eastern.