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Scores of New Firings at Federal Agencies as Trump, Musk Reshape Government; Defense Secretary Says No Betrayal in U.S. Position on Russia and Ukraine; U.S. Officials Scramble to Expand Guantanamo Bay for Migrants. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired February 13, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, first paid leave, then buyouts, now firings. A new strike from Elon Musk, we will tell you who went to sleep with a job and woke up unemployed.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Nobody really knows what's going on. U.S. officials are scrambling to expand Guantanamo Bay to house thousands of migrants. Multiple federal agencies, however, are fighting for control.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And a massive explosion rocks a shopping mall. Four people are dead. Dozens are injured after the last -- after the blast on the 12th floor.

I'm Kate Bolduan with Sara Sidner and John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: All right, happening now, the firings have begun. Many people who worked at the Department of Education and Small Business Administration last night, they are now waking up unemployed. The scope of this is unclear, but it is a shift. For the most part, up until this point, billionaire Elon Musk's team has directed federal employees be placed on paid leave just as getting fired moments ago.

Musk commented on the buyouts, a separate thing, which have now been cleared by a federal judge. He says those who accepted, it can, quote, take a vacation, get a second job, do whatever they want, save for the job that they were just moved out of.

Let's get right to CNN's Alayna Treene live at the White House for the very latest on this attrition, forced and otherwise.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Exactly. Look, as you put it, John, the widespread layoffs have begun. Scores of federal employees who had been placed on probationary status recently at the Department of Education, as well as the Small Business Administration, were notified overnight that they are being fired essentially.

Now, this is, as you mentioned, the first time really that we are seeing kind of these widespread layoffs these firings since Trump has been in office and since DOGE has really gotten to work on trying to reduce the size of the federal workforce. Before they had been placing employees on paid administrative leave, they were also offering the buyout program, but they had always warned that even if you don't accept this, you could still -- or if you accept this, you could still be fired. And that's what we're beginning to see now.

Now, we did break the news actually last week that these layoffs were coming, that they were going to be sweeping, that they were going to be widespread. But we were told that they were initially slated to begin very immediately after that initial deadline on February 6th, that federal employees were given for that buyout program that would allow them to work until -- or, excuse me, put them self on paid administrative leave, but get paid through the end of September. That got delayed, got caught up in the courts. But then yesterday, we did see a judge ruled that it can move forward. And that's when we really began to see these layoffs begin.

I want to read for you just one of the emails that CNN has obtained alerting employees at the Department of Education that they were being fired. This is what it said. It said, quote, the agency finds based on your performance that you have not demonstrated that your further employment at the agency would be in public interest.

Now, I want to be clear as well that we have heard from sources both at the Department of Education but also the Small Business Administration that dozens of employees have been fired in part of these probationary layoffs. But the complete scope of actually the number of firings is still unclear. I'm told that we should expect to see some of these layoffs also happening at other agencies.

Now, this does come as well as we heard from Elon Musk talking about how he wants to delete agencies al; together. I want you to take a listen to how he put it, John.

I'm wondering if we don't have that stop. But, essentially, this -- what --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSK, TESLA AND SPACEX CEO, X OWNER: We do need to delete entire agencies as opposed to leave part of them behind, because if you leave part of them behind, it's easy. It's kind of like if leaving a weed, if you don't get, remove the roots of the weed, then it's easy for the weed to grow back. But if you remove the roots of the weed, it doesn't stop weeds from ever growing back but it makes it harder. So, we have to really delete entire agencies, many of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:05:00]

TREENE: So, there you have Musk saying delete entire agencies. You can't leave any part of these agencies behind or they grow back like a weed. I mean, he's essentially saying there are full government entities, institutions that they want to wipe off the board.

Of course, it comes as we've really seen him be at the head of this effort to reshape the federal workforce in Donald Trump's eyes, lessen the size of the amount of workers they have and try to root out what he is calling fraud and abuse. John?

BERMAN: It almost seems to be an encyclopedia of botanical metaphors.

Alayna Treene at the White House, thank you very much for that. Sara?

SIDNER: New this morning, NATO's Secretary General says European nations are stepping up to support Ukraine, as President Trump says he's meeting with Russian President Putin to end the war in Ukraine. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also meeting with his European counterparts in Brussels this morning after denying suggestions that the U.S. had betrayed Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: There is no betrayal there. There is a recognition that the whole world and the United States is invested and interested in peace, a negotiated peace, as President Trump has said, stopping the killing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: CNN's Natasha Bertrand is in Brussels for us this morning. Give us some sense of what the big takeaways were from this meeting. And it seems that the relationship between the United States and the European Union and Europe as a whole is forever changed.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's definitely the sense that we're getting here when we hear from these NATO defense ministers who have been responding pretty much all morning to the comments that Secretary Hegseth made yesterday about the fact that the U.S. does not believe that Ukraine should be in NATO, that the U.S. is stepping back from being a leader on helping Europe secure itself as well as providing this military aid to Ukraine. And we also heard Secretary Hegseth this morning say that he believes that President Trump is the only person in the world who can convene these parties, Ukraine and Russia, to find a durable and lasting peace.

Now, members of NATO allies here, particularly those eastern flank NATO allies, including Lithuania and Estonia, they are extremely skeptical of that, to say the least, and they are very concerned that by Trump having these conversations with Putin directly, it leaves Ukraine and Europe out of the picture when it comes to finding some kind of negotiated settlement here.

Here's a little bit of what the U.K. defense secretary said about this earlier today, again, kind of pushing back on this notion that Ukraine cannot be directly involved in these conversations.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN HEALEY, BRITISH SECRETARY OF STATE FOR DEFENSE: There can be no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine and Ukraine's voice must be at the heart of any talks. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BERTRAND: Now, we also heard some pretty stark comments from Germany's defense minister responding to Hegseth's comments that the U.S. does not believe that Ukraine's ultimate membership in NATO is a realistic solution. Boris Pistorius, who is Germany's defense secretary, said that that should not have been taken off the table before these kinds of peace negotiations even begin. He said that the concessions to Putin on NATO that Hegseth made are, quote, regrettable. And he said that it's better to not take this kind of thing off the table before these talks even begin.

SIDNER: All right. Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much for your reporting there from Brussels. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Here's a quote for you, nobody really knows what's going on. Tens of thousands of migrants are expected to be sent to Guantanamo Bay as part of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. But sources are saying the plans -- familiar with the plans, say there's more confusion than clarity right now.

Plus, a new disaster may be brewing off over in the West Coast. Evacuation warnings have been issued in Southern California, where mudslides could be hitting in the same areas devastated by those wildfires already.

And Travis Kelce, he's speaking out about future plans after his Super Bowl loss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

BOLDUAN: There's more confusion than clarity right now, it seems, as the Trump administration's plans to move migrants to Guantanamo Bay is running full speed ahead. Officials there are racing to prepare the Cuba detention camp for tens of thousands of migrants. But there're still real questions about the reality of what will happen when they arrive and who's even in charge of the entire operation.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has this new reporting and she's joining us now. Priscilla, what are you learning?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the unprecedented nature of all of this is raising questions. It began with legal questions about whether they could take people on U.S. soil to Guantanamo Bay. And now there are so many questions circulating around the logistics of all of this. The reason, Kate, is because there are multiple federal agencies involved, each with their own set of expertise and experience when it comes to housing migrants.

And a lot of this kicked off as soon as President Donald Trump announced at the White House that he was going to use Guantanamo Bay to house 30,000 migrants. As one source put it, the execution was called for before the planning had really even begun. And so now they're backing into that planning. This is how another source described it. They said, quote, nobody really knows what's going on between DOD, ICE and CBP.

[07:15:01]

We've got everyone pointing fingers, saying they're in charge, they're paying for this, they're providing security. No one actually knows.

Here's what we do know. There are currently 700 military personnel supporting the efforts there. There is an emerging tent facility that is coming up near where there was the migrant operations center. Remember, there have been migrants sent to Guantanamo Bay, but they were interdicted at sea and were kept there for a very short amount of time. Now, there's a tent facility that is going up. It's about multiple tents lined up. About a hundred people could fit in each of those.

Now, there are also daily flights on military aircraft that are being sent from the United States to Guantanamo Bay. I am told that there are at least seven flights that have gone out and there are just under a hundred migrants who have currently been transferred.

Now, all of this has raised questions too about who is being sent. We know it's been men, all Venezuelan, and that their criminality ranges. What does that mean? Well, some of them are members of the notorious gang, Tren de Agua, while others violated immigration law by crossing into the United States illegally.

Here's how a senior Homeland Security official put it, quote, every single alien at Guantanamo Bay has a final deportation order. That means they can be removed. All these individuals committed a crime by entering the United States illegally.

Now, Kate, of course, there are still so many more people that they are hoping to take to Guantanamo, even as there's so much confusing confusion about the logistics. And the administration is already contending with two lawsuits, one of which a federal judge blocked three men from being transferred to Guantanamo Bay. They weren't set to go, but they fit the profile, according to the attorneys that are representing them. And then another lawsuit filed just yesterday about lack of access, legal access to these detainees. So, ACLU and other immigrant rights groups requesting that they have access to those who have already been transferred, all of these still ongoing.

BOLDUAN: All right. Priscilla, thank you so much for your reporting. Sarah?

SIDNER: All right. Breaking overnight, a car plows into a crowd of demonstrators in Munich, injuring at least 20. This is just hours before Vice President Vance arrives in that city for a security conference.

And another potential benefit to one of the popular drugs used for weight loss. Could it also cut down cravings for alcohol? That story, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

SIDNER: I'm giving my floor director man to the side. I right now. I just want to let you know it's not about the game. Will he stay or will he go? Fresh off a painful defeat in the Super Bowl is Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce thinking about the R word, retiring.

CNN Sports Anchor Coy Wire has more on this. I mean, he could just settle down and have a little family with this girl. I don't know if you know her. Her name's Taylor.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, this is Taylor Swift's boyfriend we're talking about here. But could the Chiefs team dynasty be losing one of its centerpieces? That's what folks want to know. Kelce spent 12 seasons in the NFL, all with the Chiefs, and yesterday he did not rule out retirement.

Now, Kelce did break Jerry Rice's record for most career Super Bowl receptions on Sunday, but he was a nonfactor against Philly, finishing with just four catches, 39 yards and on his new heights podcast with his brother, Jason. The ten-time pro bowler admitted that hanging up the cleats is a possibility. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRAVIS KELCE, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS TIGHT END: I know everybody wants to know whether or not I'm playing next year. And right now I'm just kicking everything down the road. I'm kicking every can I can down the road and I'm not making any crazy decisions.

I think I'm going to take some time to figure it out. And I think I owe it to my teammates that if I do come back that it's going to be something that -- it's a wholehearted decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right. To the NBA, for the second game of the Lakers Luka- LeBron era, Luca showing some razzle-dazzle against the Jazzle. Look at his pass to Rui Hachimura. That's sorcery. Rui led the Lakers with 19. How about this dish? Luka driving to the rack behind the back to Austin Reeves, who hits the three. 16 points for Luka in just 23 minutes. LeBron had 18, but it was not in enough. Utah steamrolling L.A. 131-119, snapping L.A.'s six-game win streak. The Jazz is marking it, led the way with the game high 32.

And big payday for all star infielder Alex Bregman. According to multiple reports, the free agent agreed to join John Berman's Boston Red Sox on a three-year, $120 million deal. The 30-year-old spent his entire nine-year career with the Astros, helping them win two World Series. Bregman expected to move to second base with the Sox. If Berman's in the building, I would love to hear him extol our boy Bregman without losing himself and try to contain himself with his excitement. Look at him.

SIDNER: Why did you do it, Coy? I mean, I was just going to compliment you on how sharp you look and like you look rested after, you know, your nights out in New Orleans, and then you had to jazz him on, bring him on.

WIRE: Oh, no, the people don't want to hear from me. They want to hear from Berman and his Boston Red Sox. Oh, yes, every time. It's great.

SIDNER: Go ahead, Berman. Say what you got to say.

BERMAN: Do you know how hard it is to do like a morning news show when you wake up to the news of a giant deal like this? I got to talk to Jim Clyburn in an hour. But all I want to do is read about Alex Bregman and process the deal.

Coy, thank you for that report, helping bring me up to speed on it all.

[07:25:01]

SIDNER: Yes, Coy, thank you. John, your turn.

BERMAN: All right, quote, Does President Trump understand money? The answer would appear to be no. That quote is from The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board. And it claims the president might not be clear on how inflation and interest rates actually work.

And this morning, at least five people are dead, many more injured after a deadly gas explosion at a shopping mall.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: So, new this morning, weren't it efforts to build cases against institutions accused of scamming Americans that those efforts are being kneecapped, but the Trump administration moves to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Let's get right to CNN's Matt Egan for the latest on this.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, John, look, this is what it looks like when a federal regulator gets paralyzed.

[07:30:02]

We're learning that multiple expert witnesses that had been hired by the Consumer Financial.