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Trump Admin Laying Off Nearly All USAID Workers Tonight; FBI Gives DOJ Names of Employees Who Worked Jan. 6 Cases; Chiefs Aiming for Super Bowl Three-Peat Against Eagles. Aired 7-7:30a ET
Aired February 07, 2025 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Fighting back, the Union for Federal Workers sues over Trump's attempted dismantling of USAID with tonight's midnight deadline looming.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A plane carrying ten people disappears off the map, the weather making the search almost impossible. We've got the latest update this morning.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Super Bowl weekend is upon us. What all the predictors are predicting when the Chiefs and Eagles face off and what the NFL security chief is saying about keeping New Orleans and everyone in it safe just one month after that deadly terror attack.
I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN New Central.
SIDNER: All right. Today, plans to slash USAID staff worldwide goes into effect. A workforce of more than 10,000 expected to be cut to just under 300 direct personnel, the rest of the agency's direct hires being placed on leave tonight at midnight. This is all part of the Trump administration's widespread efforts to dismantle the humanitarian agency.
In response to labor groups, representing workers are suing now the administration whether a court will intervene on emergency grounds remains to be seen. All of this unfolding as a judge presses pause on the deadline for federal workers to accept President Trump's buyout offer. Now, more than 2 million federal workers have until Monday to decide whether to take the offer and resign or risk being fired as the Trump administration looks to shrink the federal workforce.
CNN Chief National Security Correspondent Alex Marquardt joining us now with the latest. Let's begin with USAID. Just a few hours from now, we are expecting almost all of USAID's workforce will be put on leave. But now there's this legal effort to fight back. What do you know about that?
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, a new lawsuit filed in federal court here in Washington, D.C., by two groups representing USAID staffers attempting to stop and reverse what they call essentially the illegal moves that have been undertaken by the Trump administration to dismantle USAID. They accused the president, the secretary of state, secretary of treasury, and their departments were named as plaintiffs in this lawsuit of going beyond their executive authority, essentially saying what they're doing is illegal. This is something that has been also said by Democratic lawmakers that USAID was created by Congress. Only an act of Congress can change their status.
So, they are trying to put a halt to this dismantling of USAID. And this does come as what we believe, as we believe, the vast majority of USAID's Staffers are going to be put on leave, if not terminated all together. The direct hires, so the U.S. government employees, almost all of them are being put on leave as of midnight tonight. Only just under 300, 294, we believe, are being kept on as essential staff. And then you have the thousands of contractors, both in Washington and around the world, who are also being either furloughed or terminated. So a dramatic reduction in USAID staff globally.
According to this lawsuit, they say that this has thrown the lives of these public servants into chaos and uncertainty, they say, and that it has created a humanitarian crisis. I want to read a little bit of what this lawsuit says. It accuses the Trump administration of halting USAID work that has shut down efforts to prevent children from dying of malaria, stop pharmaceutical clinical trials, and threatened a global resurgence in HIV. Deaths are inevitable, it says. Already 300 babies that would not have had HIV now do. Thousands of girls and women will die from pregnancy and childbirth without judicial intervention. It will only get worse.
And, Sara, President Joe Biden's administrator of USAID, Samantha Power, she spoke with CNN just last night. She had this to say. Take a listen.
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SAMANTHA POWER, FORMER USAID ADMINISTRATOR: If we did this to military families, just summarily told them to pack their bags and leave a place that they had been deployed, there would be broad bipartisan outrage. And that is what we are doing to public servants who have also given their lives serving alongside our military in really hazardous places.
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This is no way to treat public servants, and it is no way to advance America's interests.
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MARQUARDT: And, Sara, so now USAID is falling under the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who said that he had no choice but to take it over because of what he called rank subordination. But CNN has uncovered many examples in the past of then-Senator Rubio praising not just USAID, but foreign aid in general as critical to American national security. Sarah?
SIDNER: Yes. We have seen that and we're going to talk a little bit more about that as well. Thank you so much, Alex Marquardt there from Washington, D.C. John?
BERMAN: All right. This morning, the overall purge of government workers is on hold. The federal judge pushed the deadline to Monday to determine whether it's legal. So far, at least 65,000 federal workers have accepted the so-called buyout offer. Though, one worker is out this morning, an operative of Elon Musk's, who was linked to controversial social media posts.
Let's get to CNN's Kevin Liptak at the White House. First, let's talk about the pause here on the purge, as it were.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. Federal workers now have three more days to decide whether to take this offer to essentially put themselves on paid administrative leave until September, or to take the risk of layoffs, which is something that the White House has signaled will be coming as they work to drastically reduce the size of the federal workforce.
Now, as you said, as of last night, about 65,000 federal workers had taken this offer. That's well below the administration's goal of about 5 to 10 percent of the federal workforce or about 100,000 workers. I'd also just know it's well below just the average annual attrition rate of the federal government. About 100,000 people retire from the government every year, so they're still well below that. And I think that speaks to some of the uncertainty and skepticism that you hear among federal workers at how this plan will exactly work. They're not convinced that the money that they have been promised will actually show up. That was the crux of the lawsuit from the three federal unions who came together to challenge the legality of this plan.
And, really, when you talk to federal workers across Washington, and, really, this has been sort of the topic of conversation in this city for the last week, you really do hear an enormous amount of skepticism at what the White House is trying to do here in part because of comments like this. Listen to the White House press secretary.
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KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We encourage federal workers in this city to accept the very generous offer. If they don't want to show up to the office, if they want to rip the American people off, then they're welcome to take this buyout and we'll find highly competent individuals who want to fill these roles.
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LIPTAK: Now, yesterday, after the judge put this program on hold, the White House said that it was grateful that the deadline had been extended. But at the end of the day, this is just one of the Trump administration programs that has put, been put on hold by judges, by courts. Certainly, this will progress through the system along with so many of the president's executive orders.
BERMAN: You know, Kevin, I'm glad you mentioned the normal annual attrition rate of 100, 000. I did not know that. That puts this all in perspective. They're not even at the normal number of people saying they'll leave.
But there is one person who's out this morning, a temporary worker, someone who was on sort of Elon Musk's strike force. What happened here?
LIPTAK: Yes. And, you know, these teams from DOGE, which is the team that's run by Musk to seek out government fraud, waste and abuse, has generated so much suspicion across this capital as they have entered these departments. And we are learning about one of these individuals, The Wall Street Journal reporting that one member of this team who had been assigned to Treasury, who had been granted access to some payment systems at Treasury has resigned after some old racist posts favoring eugenics surfaced. The White House said that after those posts had come to light that he had resigned.
And I think it does give you some insight into some of who these team members are that are conducting this effort on the part of Elon Musk and Donald Trump to go through the federal government and seek out some of these programs. They have been granted access to payment systems, to data systems, and not much is known about them. They have been operating under an enormous shroud of secrecy. We also learned yesterday about one of these individuals at the Department of Energy, who is granted access to some I.T. systems over objections from that department's general counsel.
And so I think it all just goes to show sort of how Elon Musk Team is inserting itself into the federal government going very much under the radar as they work to transform the American government.
BERMAN: All right. Kevin Liptak at the White House this morning, Kevin, thank you for your reporting on this, Kate.
BOLDUAN: Thank you sir. Coming up for us, the FBI has now given Donald Trump's Justice Department, the names of thousands of agents and staff who worked on January 6th related cases.
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The acting FBI director saying this morning that they still do not know what the department plans to do with it.
And a train in Pennsylvania catches fire with more than 300 people on board. We have new reporting on how everyone was able to make it out safely.
And a priest is attacked during a church service and it was caught on camera, and that priest is speaking out this morning.
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BOLDUAN: Breaking overnight, the FBI has now handed over to the Justice Department the names of thousands of employees who worked on January 6th related cases, and this is after the CIA was ordered to do something similar this week that we reported on, a move that sparked fear of triggering a new and very real national security threat over there.
CNN's Zach Cohen has much more on this one. Now, we're talking about the FBI and the Justice Department. What happens now?
ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Kate. FBI officials are worried that this means these names, this list of names, will eventually be released publicly even if it's not the Justice Department who does so. And, look, that's a message that FBI leadership has repeatedly pushed during this week long standoff with the Justice Department in trying to protect the identities of these FBI employees. And it's something that leadership and the acting director reiterated and tried to reassure the workforce about yesterday in an email after this list of names was given to the Justice Department.
The acting director wrote to his workforce, quote, I want to be clear that as of now we do not have information indicating the Department of Justice intends to disseminate these lists publicly and they are fully aware of the risks we believe are inherent in doing so. And those risks include putting the safety of these individuals and their families at risk.
And, again, this is not happening in a vacuum, right? We know that this is coinciding with concerns within the FBI and across the interagency about efforts to purge career employees and at the FBI specifically efforts to retaliate against those that were involved in these January 6th investigations.
Now, just department lawyer said that they have not disseminated these names outside of the department as of now, but it could not say for sure that other government officials may have obtained it through unofficial means.
BOLDUAN: And, Zach, yes, people can assume that retribution is the reason behind seeking these names. But has the Justice Department said what they want to do with these names? And how are FBI employees reacting to this?
COHEN: Yes. The Justice Department says that really the only people that have to be worried are, quote, the ones who acted with corrupt or partisan intent, who blatantly defied orders from department leadership. Look, we know that there are major changes coming at the FBI, but as you said career officials do believe that retribution could be coming.
And one anonymous special agent actually penned an open letter that's been circulating around the Bureau and kind of defending the workforce and defending their efforts as part of these January 6th investigations saying that he did his job without bias and he did his job, upheld his oath to this country. He paints a scene as really making clear that it wasn't just his work on this January 6th and these January 6th investigations, but also things like conducting investigations into terrorist groups.
He actually took a bullet in the line of duty and he writes. Quote, I'm now sitting in my home, listening to my children play and laugh in the backyard oblivious to the prospect that their father may be fired in a few days, fired for conducting a legally authorized investigation, fired for doing the job that he was hired to do. I have to wonder when I'm gone, who will do the quiet work that is behind the facade of your average neighbor?
And I think that really does speak to the concerns we've heard from other FBI officials as well. You know, if they are gone, if they are fired, who's going to do that work that nobody really talks about.
BOLDUAN: Zach, thank you so much for the reporting today. Sara?
SIDNER: All right. Just ahead, what one man found hiding under a pile of mulch that could kill him and dozens of his neighbors.
Also who needs the Super Bowl game when you have this? A football dance off.
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SIDNER: Well, that'll wake you up. This weekend, the Kansas City Chiefs will try to win history's first Super Bowl three-peat over the birds. I mean, the Philadelphia Eagles. Super Bowl 59 pits the Chiefs Quarterback Patrick Mahomes against Philly's Jalen Hurts.
Coy Wire, New Orleans, you know, still reeling from the January 1st terror attack there, and now they're about to host, I would call it the biggest game on Earth. I don't know, folks in Europe might have a problem with that. But this is an incredible turnaround for the city. What is the mood there today? And I see people are up and at them already.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes. And this place hasn't even opened yet. Good morning to you, Sara. This is NFL experience where fans from all across the country around the world will come here and try their hand at all sorts of fun challenges. It's incredible place. And this Super Bowl game this week has really lifted the spirits of this city. And we're going to have a phenomenal matchup, as you mentioned, between those Chiefs going for a first ever three feet facing the Eagles.
And the Chiefs, they're loaded with stars. And one of them is Travis Kelce. He is arguably, based off of his statistics and the way he plays the game, one of the greatest tight ends to ever play the game. And he said that was his goal at first, but now he has a different goal in mind. Listen.
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TRAVIS KELCE, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS TIGHT END: I used to want to be known as the greatest tight end ever, but I think it's just more so enjoying these moments that I have with my teammates and trying to get these wins and create these memories. This entire year has been such a -- you know, it's been such a battle for every single person that comes into that building every week, putting their body on the line, putting the their lives aside outside of football just for one common goal.
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And I think I want to be known as just one of the best teammates these guys have ever had.
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WIRE: Best teammate ever.
All right, last night, awards handed out at NFL honors in this year's NFL MVP is Josh Allen. Let's go. Buffalo, the quarterback for the Buffalo Bills from zero star recruit in high school, meaning nobody wanted him, to NFL MVP 271st place votes. Lamar Jackson of the Ravens had 23 closest vote in nearly a decade. Allen making mom and dad proud, they can't hold back those tears. He talked about all the sacrifices, time and money they made for him as he pursued his dreams.
All right, stop what you're doing and watch this. During NFL honors, we had a dance off breakout in the middle of the awards ceremony. We had a couple of defensive backs up there doing their thing, the old school kid and play. I know you know that one, Sara. I'm going to bring up Kate Bolduan. We need to see a reenactment of that.
And then not only that, we had more big dogs coming up to this day showing off that smooth, silky talent. Look at 300-pound offensive lineman Dion Dawkins there as they break out in dirty dancing. I mean, he's there in the gray jacket. Is this not phenomenal or what?
Crowd going crazy, absolutely loving it, but, Sara, yes, what a fun moment for the NFL Honors last night. And congrats to Josh Allen on being league MVP.
SIDNER: I love this so much. And, yes, of course, I know that kid and play. Come on, Coy. We would do it together if we were together. But, unfortunately, we're too far away.
I do want to leave you with a little bit of sports history here because I could not help myself and I found that I was getting to talk to you today. My former coach, Mary Wise, at the University of Florida, she was one of the winningest NCAA coaches for volleyball in history, has decided to retire. She announced her retirement, and I could not be more proud of having been one of her student athletes.
So, I just wanted to put that out there. Congratulations to you, Mary Wise. And congratulations to you, Coy Wire, for just being fabulous, I really appreciate all of your reporting from there in New Orleans.
WIRE: Yes, you're the best. Thanks, Sara.
SIDNER: All right. John Berman?
BERMAN: All right. You had a spike on us all day long.
SIDNER: That's right. Watch it.
BERMAN: This morning, an urgent search underway for a missing plane with ten people on board. Why did it vanish from FlightRadar.
And, quote, it was torture for us, new details from the U. S deportation flight where immigrants were shackled the wrists and ankles for more than 40 hours straight.
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