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Termination Letters Sent Overnight to Employees at Department of Education and the Small Business Administration; Senate Expected to Vote on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Nomination as Health and Human Services Secretary; Senator Mitch McConnell Votes against Tulsi Gabbard's Nomination as Director of National Intelligence. Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired February 13, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Here and of Israel sticking to the terms of the ceasefire as long as Hamas releases those three Israeli hostages.

Keep in mind that even as the Israeli Prime Minister made that ultimatum, he did not go as far as Trump in terms of saying all hostages must be released this Saturday for this ceasefire agreement to continue. He kept that vague, just talking about our hostages. An Israeli source had previously told us that Israel was seeking nine hostages to be released by Saturday, but it does seem at this point that Israel is likely to accept the release of just three hostages, as previously ordained and scheduled according to this ceasefire, and that the ceasefire will go on as long as Hamas upholds that commitment. Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: It was the deal that was made. We will see what happens. Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much for your reporting.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A new phase in Elon Musk's war on government workers, moving beyond paid leave. This morning, employees waking up to the news they have been fired.

And a crisis for craft beer. Newly imposed tariffs on steel and aluminum are set to wreak havoc on brewers. What the spike in prices could mean for your favorite IPA. And amazing video captures the moment a train strikes an SUV at high speed. Sheesh. What happened to the driver just seconds before the crash.

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: A new wave of federal workers this morning out of work. But how many were actually fired? That is one of the big questions this morning after termination letters flooded employee inboxes at both the Department of Education and the Small Business Administration overnight. And the president also just got a big legal win on that front as well, with his DOGE efforts to shrink the federal workforce. A federal judge denied the request to halt what the administration had deemed the deferred resignation program. Elon Musk saying this about that buyout just this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSK, CEO OF TESLA AND SpaceX, OWNER OF X: If people retire, they get paid all the way through September. They can go on vacation, they can get a second job, they can do whatever they want.

There'll be some disruption. But at the end of the day, we'll have people move from, like I said, from low to negative productivity roles to, in the government sector, to higher productivity roles in the private sector.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN's Rene Marsh tracking all of this. And with every day, there becomes more and more to track Rene. What's the latest?

RENE MARSH, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the latest is that these new wave -- this new wave of firings that we're talking about here. This is certainly a new phase for the Trump administration as both Donald Trump and Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency aim to dramatically shrink the federal workforce.

Until now, as you point out, federal employees across the government have only been placed on paid administrative leave. But CNN obtained a form letter sent to dozens of employees at the Department of Education. And it states, and I'm quoting, "The agency finds, based on your performance, that you have not demonstrated that your future employment at the agency would be in the public interest."

Now, letters similar to the Department of Education's notice of termination were sent to employees at the Small Business Administration on Tuesday. We should note that the full scale of these firings at both agencies really unclear at the moment. But I also want to point out the situation at the Small Business Administration. They had received an unsigned draft letter of a termination on both Friday and Monday. And then later on Monday, the agency sent another email advising employees that that draft notice was sent in error. But then just the next day, according to a union representing the employees, the actual termination emails did go out.

And Kate, it's worth noting that all of this is coming after that judge made that ruling. We should -- and that was just yesterday. And we should note that some 75,000 employees have already accepted the Trump administration's buyout offer. So a lot going on as we talk about the workforce and how the new administration is really trying to dramatically shrink it, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, full steam ahead, it seems, on that. Thank you so much, Rene. John?

BERMAN: All right, we are standing by for a key committee vote on Kash Patel, President Trump's nominee to lead the FBI. Also today, the full Senate is expected to vote on Robert F. Kennedy's nomination as Health and Human Services secretary. And there will be a hearing, a confirmation hearing for the president's pick to lead the Department of Education, which he basically wants to dismantle, Linda McMahon.

Let's get right to CNN's Lauren Fox. I mean, I think the big picture that everyone needs to keep in mind here is President Trump is getting pretty much everyone he wants.

[08:05:01]

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, John. I mean, when we started this process, there were a lot of questions that Republican senators had about whether or not someone like RFK Jr. was going to be qualified to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. I mean, it was just a short time ago we were watching with bated breath over whether or not Senator Cassidy was going to advance him in the Senate Finance Committee. It was really unclear going into that markup just a couple of days ago.

And now here we are where you had Republicans unified in advancing his nomination yesterday to this final vote today. Now, there's still a question of how Senator Mitch McConnell, the former Republican Senate leader, is going to vote on this nomination. That is the only vote that we are really watching very closely at this moment on the Republican side, in part because of RFK Jr.'s past comments on vaccine hesitancy. And obviously, we know about McConnell's past. He is a polio survivor. He has been outspoken in his belief that the polio vaccine in particular saves lives. But he was also a stringent advocate for the COVID-19 vaccine when he was the Republican leader, making sure that Americans across the country felt safe getting that vaccine.

Meanwhile, today we also expect to have a vote in the committee of the Senate Judiciary Committee to advance Kash Patel's nomination. We expect yet another party line vote in the Judiciary Committee. And this comes as Senator Thom Tillis, one of the Republicans who serves on that committee, has been working really hard behind the scenes to get Republican colleagues comfortable with Patel. It was just a couple of weeks ago that Tillis actually brought Patel to the Republican Senate lunch. A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes to shore up support for some of these nominees that, on their face a month or two ago, looked really controversial. It looked like they were headed for a really steep climb in the United States Senate.

I do want to mention Linda McMahon is going to get a confirmation hearing today. I think this is going to be a really big opportunity for Democrats to question her on what Trump's plans are when it comes to the Department of Education. I think that that is how Democrats are going to be using their time today. Again, we do expect that Republicans are probably going to advance this nomination on a party line vote.

BERMAN: All right, Lauren Fox on Capitol Hill, thank you very much. Sara.

SIDNER: All right, to discuss more on this, joining me now is CNN Washington bureau chief and political director David Chalian. David, Trump is batting 1,000, basically, with his new appointees. So can we just expect more of the same for the Republicans to capitulate on everything when it comes to, for example, Patel and Kennedy today?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, Certainly, I think that You can expect Republican senators to continue to support the president building his own Team and his Own cabinet. Where there have been some questions with some Republican senators, clearly those concerns seem to have been assuaged, by the way, Sara, with a pretty aggressive, targeted political strategy coming out of the White House. Either a personal touch from President Trump, J.D. Vance's involvement, finding the right people to come and sort of advocate on behalf of the president's nominees, even the more controversial ones, with the right wavering senators.

So you are right to say batting 1,000. It's hard to see here a nominee at this point that isn't going to get confirmed by the Senate. And that is typically the norm, we should note. Once, once a nominee sort of gets to a hearing and gets to a vote, it's far more likely they get confirmed than they don't, especially at the start of a president's term.

SIDNER: Yes, that is a fair point. Let's talk about, though, the one person who is pushing back heavily. It's not really a big surprise that Senator Mitch McConnell would vote against RFK when it comes to his stance on vaccines, but a no against Tulsi Gabbard, was that expected?

CHALIAN: You know, watching Mitch McConnell right now on the Senate floor and how he votes is one of the most fascinating things to watch, because he clearly sees a different role for himself now that he is not the leader of the Republicans in the Senate. Now that he is one of the many, he seems freed up a bit more to vote his conscience rather than lead his conference to a particular vote. And it just is really fascinating. You saw him vote against Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, against Tulsi Gabbard.

I will be very intrigued to see this polio survivor who has real belief and advocacy for vaccines, I will be very curious to see how he's going to cast this ultimate ballot for HHS Secretary nominee Robert Kennedy Jr. It could be that he votes against here, too.

It does make you wonder, Sara, if Mitch McConnell wasn't the leader of Republicans back in 2021, might have his vote on impeachment relating to Donald Trump in the aftermath of January 6th been different given his scathing floor remarks at the time.

[08:10:09]

It just seems that Mitch McConnell has been unleashed here a little bit to vote in a way that is very different than how he was voting when he was the leader.

SIDNER: Yes, unleashed, partly because he has nothing to lose. He's not going to run for reelection. So that we should point out.

Trump is meeting with the Indian prime minister today, Narendra Modi. Modi is promising concessions on tariffs, like a little gift before the two meet. The president's foreign policy is seeming to come into sharp relief and basically using the promise or the threat, at least, of economic punishment, to get his way. Is it working?

CHALIAN: I mean, this is the heart of Donald Trump's so-called America first strategy and the intersection, as you note, Sara, of the economic and the foreign policy positions here.

Donald Trump made clear he believes in tariffs as a successful way to put forth Americas role on the world stage. What you see here and what our business team is reporting, if you look back at 2022 using India as the example, you see that indeed tariffs paid from Indian in imports far outweighed the tariffs that were being paid from U.S. imports to India. And this is the kind of thing that Donald Trump says we're getting screwed here, and he is looking to even the playing field.

What we've seen so far is that the rhetoric doesn't always match up to the reality. Sometimes he sees the backlash from the markets and we see him pull back and point to a different kind of victory. That is what happened in the case of Canada and Mexico. We will see, he says. This is the big one today, these reciprocal tariffs, if a country puts a tariff on the United States's product, then the United States is going to respond exactly in kind. We'll see how Donald Trump responds to how the market responds to that, and if he keeps his word with these tariffs this time around.

SIDNER: We shall see. David Chalian, it's always great to see you. Thank you so much. Appreciate it, Kate?

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, the Justice Department is now going after New York, taking legal action over immigration enforcement. The new attorney general of the United States declaring this is a new DOJ. New York, you're next.

President Trump campaigned and won the election on a promise to beat inflation and bring prices down on day one, he even said. What he's now saying that inflation numbers show it hasn't yet happened.

Plus, as the country celebrates the return of Marc Fogel wrongfully detained for years in Russia, another family is now begging President Trump to do the same for their son. The fight to bring home Travis Leake ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:15:36]

SIDNER: New York's governor and attorney general caught in the crosshairs of an incoming lawsuit from the Justice Department. Attorney General Pam Bondi says, the days of New York's sanctuary city policies are over.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAM BONDI, US ATTORNEY GENERAL: If you don't comply with federal law, we will hold you accountable. We did it to Illinois, strike one. Strike two is New York, and if you are a state not complying with federal law, you're next. Get ready.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: But state AG Letitia James says she is ready to battle this out.

CNN's Gloria Pazmino joining us now. How could this play out in courts? Because we have seen this happening.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We have seen this happen in the past. In fact, there's been several challenges to this law here in New York and let's just kind of focus about what the lawsuit from the DOJ is based on.

She is talking -- the attorney general is talking about sanctuary city policies, but what she's really talking about is New York's Green Light Law.

That's a law that exists here in New York. It was passed in 2019, and it allows undocumented people to apply for driver's licenses. That is what she says is impeding federal enforcement agencies from enforcing immigration law.

The reason she is saying that is because there is a portion of the law that says that the Department of Motor Vehicles will not share information with federal enforcement agencies unless they have a warrant.

Pam Bondi is saying that this is basically a violation of the Constitution, the 10th Amendment separation between federal law and the state's law, which she believes in this case supersedes state law. So, that's what they're going to court over.

But as you said, both the governor and the attorney general say that they are prepared to take this to court. Here's a statement that we got from the governor last night. She said that this law is a commonsense approach that most New Yorkers support, but there is no way I am letting federal agents or Elon Musk's shadowy DOGE operation to have unfettered access to the personal data of any New Yorker in the DMV system, like 16-year-old kids learning to drive and other vulnerable people.

Hochul noted that if a federal agency needs access to the database, they have to get a judicial warrant and they can access the information. But Pam Bondi is saying that when federal officers pull someone over and they're unable to check who they are, that that's putting them in danger.

The governor also called this a publicity driven lawsuit, and she said that she expects it to fail. So, it's going to play out in the courts now. But as we mentioned, it's been tried three times before and New York has won.

[08:20:10] SIDNER: All right, we will see what happens on the fourth time. Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much, appreciate it -- John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning a mass exodus of big names from the board of the Kennedy Center after President Trump takes over as chairman.

And new video shows the moment a driver narrowly avoided a fatal accident, just seconds before a train crashed into his car. That is just amazing to see.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:24:28]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The latest now on the Trump administration's effort to secure the release of Americans detained abroad.

After American, Marc Fogel was brought home from Russia Tuesday. Another American deemed a political prisoner was released from prison in Belarus just yesterday. That American citizen has yet to be identified.

In exchange, the Trump administration released Russian Alexander Vinnik, a man who's been behind bars in the United States for years for money laundering.

All of this, leaving many more American families today wondering what is next for their loved ones being held abroad. There are several more Americans still being held in Russia alone, including US military veteran and musician Travis Leake. He was detained on drug charges and sentenced to 13 years in a Russian penal colony in July.

Joining me right now is his mother, Glenda Garcia, and Jonathan Franks, a spokesman for the "Bring Our Families Home" campaign. Thank you, guys so much for being here.

Glenda, seeing the great news of Marc Fogel being reunited with his family, does that bring you hope?

[08:25:35]

GLENDA GARCIA, MOTHER OR MICHAEL TRAVIS LEAKE, AMERICAN DETAINED IN RUSSIA: It's bittersweet. I'm so thrilled that Marc got to come home. And it gives me hope that Trump is working to bring all Americans back home.

BOLDUAN: Glenda, tell me about Travis. You know, many people may say they haven't heard of Travis Leake, tell me about your son.

GARCIA: (AUDIO GAP) -- should people -- he was going to college in Sacramento, California, studying English. And while doing so, he was writing lyrics and going on YouTube and changing Russian songs to American lyrics and keeping the beat and everything and he was contacted by a Russian band over there that wanted him to come and write their first English CD. So, once he got his degree, he travelled over there and managed the band and taught English at a facility there -- excuse me, that teaches English, goes to different big companies, you know, like Johnson & Johnson, et cetera and teaches their employees English.

He came home, a few years later. He did his masters studies in Los Angeles and for whatever reason, he wanted to go back to Russia, and that was January of 2017 and that's the last time I've seen him in person. Wood struck when he was planning a trip home so he didn't make it, so --

BOLDUAN: And Jonathan, Travis has not been designated wrongfully detained by the US government, which would give him access to additional support and much needed resources from the US government. Is the government actively working to secure his release?

JONATHAN FRANKS, SPOKESMAN, BRING OUR FAMILIES HOME CAMPAIGN: We're not sure and thanks again for having me.

I mean, Secretary Rubio's statement the other day was extremely refreshing, in which he said the president is committed to seeking the release of all Americans that remain detained in Russia. I thought that was a really positive sign.

So we've asked the government whether that now means that it is seeking Travis' release, and we're awaiting a response. We certainly hope so.

BOLDUAN: Jonathan, you've been involved in other high profile Americans in getting -- in securing their release. One of them that comes to mind is Trevor Reed back in 2022. We've talked so much to you about him. How is Travis' case the same or how is Travis' case unique and different? Why is he still there?

FRANKS: You know, what's so interesting about Travis' case? Well, it's completely different than Trevor's. There's a similar theme in which local police officers encountered an American and decided that turning that American into the FSB intelligence officers would be good for their careers and then charges were concocted, a trial, a sham trial was had and here we are. Different facts, different scenarios, but a similar pattern in both cases.

And one of the more interesting parts of Travis' case is right after he got arrested, the Russian government tried to develop a mythology around him.

They put him on state TV. They massively embellished his military history, all to make him seem like he was some sort of Special Forces, you know, the word they use, paratrooper, when in fact he worked on air conditioning --

GARCIA: They called him as paratrooper --

FRANKS: And he is part of an engineering unit in Arizona.

BOLDUAN: Glenda, on this one, You want your son home? It has been so long since you have seen him in person, and now he has been sent to a penal colony for, I mean, they said 13 years. What is your message to President Trump if he would be listening right now?

GARCIA: I would like to get him home before he is actually sent to that penal colony. He still is in the pre-trial detention facility, which is still a horrible prison.

But I can communicate with him there. You know, I'm not sure how things will be if, if and when they do get him to the to the labor camp or the penal colony. I'm hoping that President Trump can get him out of Russia before that happens.

BOLDUAN: How is he doing? Can you tell us what that communication is like with him?

GARCIA: Kind of a roller coaster. He has -- there's times where he's high in spirits because he thought the trial was going good, because facts came out that, you know, the person that said he did these things retracted most of her statements and everything sounded like everything was going his way, of course, he was forgiving. It was still a Russian judge ruling and it was still Russia, you know. So, he has --

[08:30:29]