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Judge Pauses Deadline For Fed Workers To Accept Trump's "Buyout" Plan; Dem Lawmakers Confront Speaker Johnson Over Musk's Government Access; FBI Gives DOJ Names Of Employees Who Worked Jan.6 Cases; Residents Trying To Recover, Rebuild After Deadly CA Wildfires; CA Utility Company Says Its Equipment May Have Sparked Hurst Fire; U.S. Economy Added 143, 000 Jobs, Fewer Than Expected To Start 2025. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 07, 2025 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[09:00:00]

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER (on-camera): In 2023, 47 percent last time around, and the majority, including myself, this time around it's no wonder that Super Bowl prices are plummeting. We just don't care, to quote Stephen A. Smith.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: You're just still mad about the bills. Let's be clear about that.

ENTEN (on-camera): Hey, yes, but Mike, I did win MVP last night.

SIDNER: There you go. You got a little something.

ENTEN (on-camera): I got a little something.

SIDNER: No trophy, though. Harry Enten, thank you so much.

ENTEN (on-camera): Thank you.

SIDNER: A new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Millions of federal workers remain in limbo this morning after a federal judge pushed off President Trump's ultimatum deadline to accept his resignation offer.

So, what is next in that fight? We've got details.

And the FBI just turned over the names of thousands of FBI employees. What it means for all of those who worked on January 6th related cases.

And if you didn't notice, Super Bowl weekend is upon us.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: What?

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: No. BOLDUAN: Yes. Kansas City Chiefs, the Philadelphia Eagles. That's who's playing. And we are live in New Orleans. That's where they're playing for you this morning.

That's the beginning and end of my knowledge. I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman and Sara Sidner.

This is "CNN News Central."

BERMAN: All right. This morning, the deadline is now Monday. A federal judge paused President Trump and Elon Musk's so-called buyout plan for federal workers over a fight on whether it's legal.

So far, 65,000 federal workers have accepted the offer. We should note that is fewer, fewer workers than normally leave every year. There's also an effort to force workers out. Sources within USAID tell us fewer than 300 staffers would be able to keep their jobs. The organization has some 10,000 personnel around the world.

And one more update on the people pushing these staffing decisions. One person on Elon Musk's team resigned after he was tied to racist social media posts.

Let's get to CNN's Kevin Liptak at the White House for the latest on this. And the latest seems to be this pause, Kevin.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER (on-camera): Yes. And federal workers now have three more days to decide whether they're going to take up the White House's offer to put themselves on paid administrative leave until September or risk these layoffs that the White House says are coming as they work to dramatically reduce the size of the federal government.

Now, as of last night, about 65,000 federal workers had taken the White House up on this offer. That's well short of their goal of between 5 and 10 percent of the federal workforce or about 100,000 federal workers. And as you mentioned, it's also well short of just normal annual attrition statistics in the government. About 100,000 people retire on average from the federal government every year. It's an aging workforce.

And so, they're still well short of those numbers as well. And I think it just goes to show the degree of suspicion that a lot of federal workers are regarding this offer with. And that is really the crux of the lawsuit from these three federal labor unions who said that the White House didn't have the authority to pay the severances that they were promising because Congress had not appropriated the funds. And that certainly is now trickling down through the federal workforce who are regarding this offer with an enormous amount of skepticism.

When you talk to federal workers and, you know, their neighbors, their friends, there really is not a huge degree of optimism that this offer will come through, despite what the White House and the Office of Personnel Management have been saying and have been urging over the last week as they try and convince these federal workers to take them up on the offer. And so, the federal judge will have a hearing on Monday to renew this offer to try and sort of gain a legal standing. At the end of the day, this is just one of so many legal challenges to the President's executive orders that he's tried to put in place since coming into office.

In part, that was the strategy to flood the system, to flood the courts, as they really work to reshape the federal government.

BERMAN: All right. Kevin Liptak at the White House this morning. Thank you for your reporting on all this.

Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Has President Trump and special government employee, as he's called Elon Musk, swing the axe at U.S. aide's global workforce? Some lawmakers fighting back.

This week, two Democratic representatives confronted House Speaker Mike Johnson in his office as he was meeting with the Treasury Secretary, and you're seeing the video there, over the Trump administration, granting Musk access to extremely sensitive payment systems and information.

Wisconsin Congressman Gwen Moore says she left the meeting concerned that, quote, the Speaker had no idea what they'd been doing.

With us now is Congresswoman, who ended up joining her, California Democrat Judy Chu, who is also a member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

Good morning to you.

This week, you --

[09:05:00]

REP. JUDY CHU (D-CA): Good morning.

SIDNER: -- went in there with Gwen Moore of Wisconsin to speak with Mike Johnson, with the Speaker of the House. What was, to you, so urgent? What did you learn in that meeting, if anything, that either makes you concerned or that assuages some of your concerns?

CHU: What we learned just moments before was that Elon Musk, an unelected billionaire, had been given unfettered access to the most precious private details of hundreds of millions of Americans. This has to do with tax information. This has to do with Social Security and Medicare. The Department of Treasury has access to all of that. And he was given unfettered access to not only look at that information, but also do something about it, such as stop payments.

We were so alarmed. We heard that Speaker Johnson was going to be meeting with the Secretary of the Treasury, Bessent. And so, we marched down there to ask why he was doing that when the law says that this is completely confidential information that should not be touched by unelected billionaires.

SIDNER: Does Elon Musk, at this moment in time, have more power than Congress right now?

CHU: It would seem so. And it would seem that the President has given him that enormous power to just go into agencies and mine the data and then just fire people. But actually, he does not have that ability.

Everything that he's done has been illegal. He does not have the ability to just cut a program or to tell employees that they can be on administrative leave and promise a buyout. He doesn't have the authority because it is Congress that appropriates the funds for those kinds of actions.

So that is why, one by one, these actions have been stopped by the courts. And in fact, his unfettered access to actually manipulating payments out to the American people was stopped by the judge yesterday, though he still has the ability to read all those records of hundreds of millions of Americans.

SIDNER: Congresswoman Chu, what are you going to do about this? And what are Democrats, your fellow Democrats, going to do? They do not have control of the House. They do not have control of the Senate.

CHU: We just introduced the Taxpayer Data Privacy Act. And we have all Democrats that have signed on. It protects taxpayers' confidential private tax information. And you know what, the margins between Republicans and Democrats in the House is so small that we only need three Republicans to sign on and we can pass this bill out of the House.

SIDNER: At this point in time, do you have any indication that any of the Republicans would sign on to something like that?

CHU: What we do know is that Republicans have similar concerns about the confidential nature of taxpayer information. And in fact, when we talked to Speaker Johnson in that meeting, he said he has questions, too. And he wanted to ask them.

So, I do think there is a very uneasy feeling amongst Republicans. And I hope that they do what's best for their constituents by joining us on this very, very important bill.

SIDNER: All right. I want to ask you about USAID, because they are under the gun right now. Elon Musk has called USAID a ball of worms. Trump has called the leaders of USAID, USAID, radical left lunatics. The new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, one of your colleagues, also trashing the agency. A far cry from what he has said about foreign aid and foreign agencies when he was a senator. This is what our KFILE dug up. And I just want you to listen and respond to what you're hearing from Rubio then and what you've been hearing from him now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): We don't have to give foreign aid. We do so because it furthers our national interest. That's why we give foreign aid.

Now, obviously, there's a component to foreign aid that's humanitarian in scope, and that's important, too.

I promise you it's going to be a lot harder to recruit someone to anti-Americanism, anti-American terrorism if the United States of America was the reason why they're even alive today.

Anybody who tells you that we can slash foreign aid and that will bring us to balance is lying to you. Foreign aid is less than 1 percent of our budget. It's just not true.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:10:01]

SIDNER: You heard his comments there. So, what has changed since Rubio was a senator about five minutes ago?

CHU: Well, he went against even his own thinking early on. And of course, it's President Trump that has influenced that change.

Nonetheless, for decades, U.S. aid, A-I-D, has been helping people in countries all around the world. And we're not just doing this because it's so important, even though it is important, because, for instance, it saved lives through a George Bush-initiated program called PEPFAR, which has helped people with AIDS to be able to live around the world. But it's also created a relationship with those countries that is very, very important for global stability.

And if we decide that we're going to leave all those countries in the world, guess what? Other superpowers are going to step in, such as China or Russia, and we will be left out in the cold. So that is what is at danger by trying to decimate USAID, besides the fact that it indeed saves lives.

SIDNER: One of the epitomes of soft power. Now, though, the Trump administration is pulling that all back. And they say, look, the Americans voted for us, for America first, and this is what we're going to do.

Congressman Judy Chu, thank you so much for joining us this morning. I really do appreciate your time this morning.

Kate?

BOLDUAN: The Justice Department ordered the FBI to name names, and the FBI just relented and handed over thousands of names of agents and others involved in January 6th cases. So, what now?

And a California utility company just reported its equipment likely sparked one of the smaller fires that broke out in Southern California one month ago today.

What the utility says happened and why they're still investigating what caused those bigger, most destructive fires. And the first jobs report of the Trump administration is just out. The story that report is now telling about where the U.S. economy is headed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:16:30]

BOLDUAN: New overnight after a week-long standoff of sorts, the FBI has now handed over to the Justice Department the names of thousands of employees who worked on January 6th cases.

The move comes after the CIA was ordered to do something similar this week, which that sparked fears it would trigger a new national security threat.

CNN's Zach Cohen has much more on what all is happening now. And what now happens next?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER (on-camera): Yes. Kate, the concern now is that these names will eventually be released publicly and that's something FBI officials have been warning. We put the safety of these employees and their families at risk.

Now, the acting director of the FBI tried to offer employees some reassurance, at least as far as the Department of Justice's intentions go. When it comes to this list of names, writing in an e-mail yesterday, 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 now a DOJ lawyer also in court yesterday saying that there is no indication that the department has not sent this list out to anyone else outside of the department. At the same time, couldn't acknowledge that other government employees, government agencies could have obtained this list through unofficial channels, which obviously not offering much assurance to those FBI employees who are worried about their identities being exposed.

And look, this all is happening in a broader context, right? Not a vacuum. Donald Trump has been very public in airing his grievances, particularly as it relates to the FBI and the January 6th investigations, including the one into him. He's called it a witch hunt, and he's also promised to enact sweeping changes at the bureau. He's already fired several of the prosecutors at the Department of Justice that conducted those criminal cases against him and others in the January 6th context.

So look, FBI officials really concerned about this list, even if it was transferred in a classified channel.

BOLDUAN: And with all of this still swirling, you also have new reporting on somewhat of how some FBI employees are reacting to all of this. COHEN (on-camera): Yes, absolutely. Look, and this is a big concern about political retribution, right? FBI officials, even though Department of Justice top Department of Justice folks have insisted that these names will not be used to enact any sort of political retribution. The FBI rank and file are still concerned.

And look, Department of Justice memos have not really offered reassurances either. There was one with a subject line demanding these names. And the subject was termination.

So, these concerns are valid in a lot of ways, these FBI officials are also wondering when we're gone, if we're fired, who's going to do those jobs, you know, that are left unoccupied. And things including terrorism -- terrorism investigations, things including foreign interference.

So, a lot of questions at the FBI and across the federal agencies.

BOLDUAN: Zach Cohen. Thanks for the reporting, Zach.

John?

BERMAN: All right, this morning, residents in Southern California are now starting to rebuild their homes and communities a month after the deadly wildfires there.

With us now from Altadena is Julia Vargas Jones. Like, what's it like there? What do you see?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): Yes, John, it's actually a very emotional time here because yesterday, we attended this memorial for the victims of the fire with Reverend Al Sharpton. We also caught up with one of the family members who had spoken to CNN before speaking about losing his sister in the fire and basically telling us he doesn't even feel like this is all real.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[09:20:14]

JONES: Does it feel like it's been a month?

ZAIR CALVIN, SISTER KILLED IN EATON FIRE: It feels like it's been years. That's what's crazy. It feels like years of pain.

I'm literally just been waiting to wake up and tell everybody this crazy story about, you know, my life and what this crazy dream I had where Altadena burnt down. And it doesn't seem real. And that's literally how everybody feels. They're literally just waiting to wake up each day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES (on-camera): And John, on top of that, these residents are also filing lawsuits. They claim that Southern California Edison, the utility company here in Southern California, is responsible. for the beginning of the Eaton fire.

Now, Southern California Edison says that that is still up to investigators to determine. They filed yesterday two separate letters where they did acknowledge the existence of some videos that show what could potentially be the beginning of the Eaton fire.

But they did say that their utility apparel could have cause the beginning of the Hurst Fire. One of those smaller fires that started on the same day as the Eaton and the Palisades fire here in the Los Angeles area. But that rebuilding is going to take a long time, not only for these families to get closure and to feel like someone is taking accountability for these fires, but just the process itself.

The building and the cleaning up of Altadena just began last week. The EPA was here removing the toxic debris. Only now, after they are done with this process, will contractors be able to come in and start cleaning up and start the actual rebuilding of these homes and these communities. John.

BERMAN: So much work to do. Julia Vargas Jones, thank you very much for being there.

Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Data just in. Job growth, not so good to start the year. But are there any highlights there.

We will discuss ahead.

And a major re brown for the Boy Scouts of America, why they're taking boy out of the name.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:26:49]

SIDNER: All right, breaking this morning, the labor market started 2025 with a whimper. Adding just 143,000 jobs last month. That's fewer than economists had hoped would kick off the year.

CNN's Matt Egan is joining us now.

This is not great, however. The jobless rate is still 4 percent. So, what do you -- what do you glean from this?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER (on-camera): Well, so there are a lot of mixed signals from this report overall. But look, the big number, 143,000 jobs added in January.

Now, that's not a terrible number, but it was worse than expected. And this was a significant slowdown from the gangbusters job group that we saw at the end of last year Jan -- December was revised up to 307,000.

SIDNER: Wow.

EGAN (on-camera): So, this is less than half that pace. And yet, the good news is that the unemployment rate went down to 4 percent. That is historically low.

So, I think when you put those two things together and we look at this trend, it paints the picture of a jobs market where bosses are not really hiring that many people right now, but they're also not really letting them go.

SIDNER: Right.

EGAN (on-camera): Now, as far as why we saw this slowdown, there had been some thinking coming into today that perhaps the L.A. wildfires and the extreme cold would drive down the pace of hiring. But the BLS put a special note in here where they said that there was no discernible effect on payrolls from the wildfires or from the cold weather.

Now, I think another important thing to look at is what's going on with wages, because when we think about the economy, it's the cost of living.

SIDNER: Right.

EGAN (on-camera): And I think there's some good news for workers here, because look at this, wages were up by 4.1 percent year over year. That is an acceleration. That is solid growth. More importantly, it is well ahead of the rate of inflation at 2.7 percent.

So, we've seen this trend happen for a number of months in a row. The longer it happens, the better people are going to feel about prices. The level of prices, the better they're going to be able to catch up to prices as well.

So hopefully we see that play out more. We look at the market reaction, stock futures, they're set to open stocks open slightly higher, not a massive --

SIDNER: Right.

EGAN (on-camera): -- reaction from Wall Street, which I think makes sense because the thinking before today was that the Fed was on hold, right?

No rush to cut interest rates anytime soon. And there's really nothing about these numbers that is going to change that at any -- right now that's what the market is saying. We're going to see more numbers on data on jobs, more numbers on inflation before --

SIDNER: Yes.

EGAN (on-camera): -- we know what the Fed's going to do next.

One thing I just want to leave you with, is these historic jobs streak as of the numbers that just came out today, 49 consecutive months of job growth. That is the second longest streak on record, and it shows that President Trump inherited a historically strong jobs market.

SIDNER: Yes, inherited is the word to use because all of this is from the past administration that's happening now, and we will see what some of the policies that Donald Trump puts in will do to the economy, whether it will make it better or make it worse.

EGAN (on-camera): We will find out.

SIDNER: Wait and find out. Matt Egan, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Kate?

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now is the White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett.

It's good to see you again, Kevin.

What story do you think this jobs report is telling?

KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: You know, I have like quite a different read of the data from what we just heard from your excellent team. I think they kind of had rosy scenario glasses on.

[09:30:06]

When I look at these numbers, the thing that jumps out to me Kate.