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Judge Allows Mass Firings; Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) is Interviewed about Government Layoffs; Senate Passes Budget Blueprint; Luigi Mangione Appears in Court. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 21, 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]

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: YURKEVICH: There's been talk of vaccines. That's very controversial because once you start to vaccinate birds here in the U.S., that virus is labeled endemic, and then other countries are hesitant to want to trade with us and buy those birds and those eggs potentially.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, yes, ripple effects are enormous.

YURKEVICH: It is - it is enormous. But right now we're looking to other countries to help support the egg shortage here in the U.S. until we can catch up or get a plan in place from the administration.

BOLDUAN: And add this one into also everything comes full circle because then you have the mass firings that the Trump administration is doing. And this is exactly one of the backtracks that they've had to do.

YURKEVICH: At the USDA.

BOLDUAN: Exactly.

YURKEVICH: Working on this exact virus. Yes.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you. Thank you so much, Vanessa, for tracking this one for us.

YURKEVICH: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Loud boos for a Republican congressman in a deep red Georgia district while he defends Trump's power grab and huge federal cuts. Meantime, DOJ's leader is wielding a chainsaw to show how proud he is of cutting federal jobs, and more are to come after the administration won another legal battle.

Plus, Luigi Mangione, the man facing murder and terror charges in the brazen killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson back in court this morning.

And amazing animal rescues caught on camera as temperatures drop to dangerous lows in Ohio.

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

BOLDUAN: The mass firings heard round the world. And now the echoing sound of boos reverberating back. This morning, President Trump and Elon Musk's effort to dramatically slash the size of the federal government and shrink the size of the federal workforce is facing a new type of pushback, this time at town halls in places like deep red Georgia.

Watch what Republican - one Republican congressman faced yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tyranny is rising in the White House, and a man has declared himself our king. So, I would like to know - rather the people would like to know what you, Congressman, and your fellow congressman, are going to do to rein in the megalomaniac in the White House.

REP. RICH MCCORMICK (R-GA): I'm not going to give you my best Foghorn Leghorn response to that. But what I - you can go ahead and sit down. Thank you.

The - when you talk about tyranny, when you talk about presidential power, I remember having the same discussion with Republicans when Biden was elected.

The funny thing is - the funny thing is - the funny thing is, you're sitting here and - a lot of you would probably say those January sixes, who were yelling just as loud as you, who were upset just like you.

I don't think executive privilege -

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: That was Congressman Rich McCormick facing boos and catcalls for his support of President Trump's moves in this first month in office.

This comes just as a federal judge declined to block efforts to stop those firings and moves for now, meaning that DOGE has a green light to continue with mass firings and Elon Musk offering really the embodiment of their goal with his chainsaw performance at the annual CPAC conference, the annual conservative gathering, yesterday.

CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House. She's got much more for us.

Where do things go today, Alayna? I guess that's the question.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, look, the mass firings, the layoffs that we've seen really impact several different agencies throughout the government are going to continue to be rolled out today after a federal judge ruled that they can continue. He essentially said that he doesn't have the jurisdiction - his court did not have the jurisdiction to move forward with this.

His name was Christopher Cooper, and he essentially rejected the labor unions' bid to try and halt these mass firings. Again, he did not necessarily say whether or not he didn't think that this could be up for the courts. He essentially said instead that the claims need to go to the Federal Labor Relations Authority.

So, this could be another battle that continues to brew. But for now, these sweeping layoffs are allowed to go forward.

And look, I mean, we've seen now several of Donald Trump's actions, whether they be executive orders, whether they be other things that he's directed people throughout the administration to do on his behalf, many of them have been tied up in the courts.

[09:05:08]

Some of them, of course, we've seen, like this one, where essentially the Trump administration wins and they can move forward with their policies. Others where they are still tied up in the courts and really causing questions of whether or not the White House or the Trump administration might try to defy those orders.

I actually asked one of Donald Trump's attorneys, a White House Council member, Alina Habba, about this yesterday. She said, no, I mean, looking forward, we are not going to defy orders. We believe that the White House is correct on these, and we will fight them in the legal way in court. So just to keep that in mind.

But coming back to these sweeping layoffs. A lot of them are about these, what they called probationary employees. Some of them put on probation by the White House. People who have been in the government and working in these agencies for two years or less. Many, many scores of them have been - dozens, really, throughout the entire federal government have been giving these notices that they have to be fired. It was unclear if they were actually going to be halted because of this pending court order. Now we know they are able to continue to move forward.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Alayna Treene starting us off.

Thank you, Alayna.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I just want to play a little bit more of that town hall that Kate just showed. This is Republican Rich McCormick of Georgia. He won his district by more than 30 points. So, theoretically, this is a pretty Republican leaning place.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why is a supposedly conservative party taking such a radical and extremist and sloppy approach to this?

REP. RICH MCCORMICK (R-GA): They have about, what, 13,000 employees? Thirteen thousand employees at the CDC. And the last couple years, those - those probationary people, which is about 10 percent of their employee base, which is about 1,300 people, which you're referring to, a lot of the work they do is duplicitous with AI. Once again, one of the problems we have -

I happen to be a doctor. I know a few things, OK. Just give me a break.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, we didn't hear it their, but was all over this town hall was a lot of booing, a lot of loud anger directed at the congressman and what the Trump administration has been doing.

With us now is Congresswoman Dina Titus, a Democrat from Nevada.

And, Congresswoman, what do you make of the reaction that Rich McCormick, who won his district by 30 points, had on the ground at that town hall? And what are you hearing that is or is not similar in your district?

REP. DINA TITUS, (D-NV): Well, I think he deserves all of the pushback that he's getting. And his argument that it's the same as Biden or that these people are the equivalent of the January 6th folks who invaded the Capitol is just not ringing true, even with people who may have voted for him to start with.

We're hearing it in Nevada, too. We're calling it the Valentine's Day Massacre. All these people who are being cut, who are just hardworking public servants doing their job, serving the public. If he gets rid of all these people, who does he think is going to put out your Social Security check? Who's going to deliver the mail? Who's going to do all those things that we take for granted? And I think it's going to come back on him from his own folks.

BERMAN: You know, when I saw this - this town hall, the video of it overnight, it made me think back to the Tea Party situation back in 2009, 2010. I don't know if this will be as sustained, this anger, but there were town halls back then with people yelling at their members of Congress.

If I remember correctly, you were in Congress, then out of Congress for a second right around that time. You probably heard a lot of heat like that. So, is this the type of thing that could develop into that type of emotional response?

TITUS: Well, I think it may be even greater than that. At the time, that was all about Obamacare. It was something new. People were worried about government controlling their health care. At the same time, they wanted to keep their Medicare, of course, but that's where that was focused.

Yes, I did Congress on the Corner events. People would pull up in pick-up trucks with bullhorns and try to get us, you know, just attack us generally. But that was one issue.

This is a lot of people losing jobs, a lot of services being cut that people rely on day to day. Look at what they're doing to Medicaid. You see what is proposed in those budgets to cut Medicaid? Nevada is a state that relies heavily on that. With the service industry, a lot of people don't have benefits. You cut that. You cut the subsidies to Obamacare. These people are going back to the emergency room.

So, it's going to be all across the board. And I think it will be sustained.

BERMAN: And we will see. We will have to keep our eye on that.

We have a little bit of breaking news that I want to get your reaction to. So, the U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, just met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Actually, they had the meetings yesterday. But he just put out a statement about the nature of their meetings. And it's pretty interesting how he words this. He says, "a long and intense day with the senior leadership of Ukraine." This is what he wrote on Twitter. "Extensive and positive discussions with Zelenskyy, the embattled and courageous leader of a nation at war and his talented national security team."

[09:10:03]

"The embattled and courageous leader." That's coming from Keith Kellogg, the envoy to Ukraine. That language is a whole lot different than calling him a dictator, which is what President Trump is doing.

Your reaction?

TITUS: Well, that's right. He - President Trump has personally insulted Zelenskyy, and then tried to extort him for a big percent of the rare minerals and resources that Ukraine has. They tried to walk it back a little, but then Ukraine - I mean President Trump walked it forward again.

You'll notice that Kellogg, in the past, has been pretty hawkish on Russia. But the interesting thing is, there was no press conference after the meeting, which is like kind of giving the finger in - in diplomacy. And also Kellogg was not invited to the beginning of the so-called peace talks that Trump is trying to put together with Putin in Saudi Arabia. So, that says something about what the priorities are and who's really in charge.

BERMAN: Congressman Michael Waltz - your former colleague Michael Waltz, who's now the national security advisor, I just want to play you some of the language that he used from the White House on Zelenskyy.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL WALTZ (R), NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Look, President Trump is obviously very frustrated right now with President Zelenskyy. The fact that - that he hasn't come to the table, that he hasn't been willing to take this opportunity that we have offered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Of course, former Congressman Waltz used to be very supportive of Zelenskyy and very supportive of the Ukrainian war effort against Russia. Sounding a little bit different now.

But given how people inside the White House are sounding, do you think the special envoy, Keith Kellogg, needs to worry that maybe he won't be special envoy for very long if he keeps calling Volodymyr Zelenskyy courageous?

TITUS: Well, he - Trump certainly has reigned in not only Waltz, but also Rubio, who used to be strong against Russia in Ukraine. So, Kellogg will either be pushed aside or be pushed out. I wouldn't be surprised.

Don't forget, all this is insulting and alienating our European allies too. And the - kind of the rejection of NATO and this cozying up to Putin with the phone call and saying he wants him back in the G-7, G-8 saying they're going to visit each other, that's - that is another sideline that's going on.

BERMAN: All right, Congressman Dina Titus, thank you for talking to us this morning about a wide range of issues. Have an excellent weekend.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, the former NFL player arrested for protesting at a city council meeting. And the MAGA public library plaque at the center of it all. That former NFL player is our guest.

It was a perfect storm of the worst kind. Nearly 100 people had to be helped from their homes after a water main breaks in Detroit, and it turned streets into a giant sheet of ice, freezing cars into place.

We'll be back.

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[09:17:31]

SIDNER: It took an overnight vote-a-rama to do it. Very early this morning, Senate Republicans voted to adopt a budget blueprint to advance President Trump's sweeping agenda. The final tally was 52 to 48, with one Republican joining Democrats in opposition. This set up a clash with the House GOP, who had their own competing plan endorsed by Donald Trump.

CNN's Lauren Fox joining us now.

All right, when you look at this, which version is likely to actually be able to pass?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's a huge question going into next week because House Republicans will return from their weeklong recess, and they have their own plan that includes a blueprint that would not only address border and defense spending, like the Senate bill does, it would also give the Congress room to increase the debt ceiling, as well as tackle a major tax proposal that would stave off the expiration of the 2017 tax cuts at the end of the year.

But here's the issue. Mike Johnson has such a narrow majority. And it's not clear that he has the votes on the House floor to actually move forward with that blueprint. So, in the meantime, Senate Republicans went ahead, and despite the fact that Donald Trump had made it clear his preference was the House plan, they decided it was not a bad idea to have a backup.

So, from 6:45 last night until almost 5:00 a.m. this morning, senators were engaged in what is known as a vote-a-rama. This is an opportunity for Democrats, really, to make Republicans take tough vote after tough political vote.

Now, we should note, at the end of this process, none of this is binding. This is just a budget blueprint. It just gives directions for the next step to right the president's agenda and get that bill through Congress. So, this is really an initial step.

But, obviously, it's a really painful first step because of that vote- a-rama aspect, and the fact that you have a lot of senators who are well into their 80s who are voting throughout the night to get this done.

There were a lot of tough votes that Democrats were making Republicans take when it came to raising taxes for lower income Americans. There were also tough votes for whether or not Republicans supported cutting programs, like Medicare and Medicaid. There were a couple instances where Republicans actually crossed the aisle and voted with Democrats on some of those, but none of the Democratic amendments actually were included in this package.

And just to make it clear, this is just the first step. So, senators have their package.

[09:20:00]

The House is going to try to move forward with their own version next week. We'll see where it goes from there.

Sara.

SIDNER: Lauren Fox, thank you so much for all that reporting. It was a long night for all of the folks there in Congress.

All right, John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, six New York prison guards have been charged with murder in connection with the death of an inmate who was beaten while handcuffed.

And we are standing by for accused CEO killer Luigi Mangione to make his first appearance in court today since his arraignment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:25:03]

BOLDUAN: Happening today, Luigi Mangione, the man accused of killing the UnitedHealthcare CEO, Brian Thompson, he will make his first court appearance since he was arraigned in December. Now, Mangione, he faces murder and terror charges for the shooting death of Thompson on, you'll remember, brazenly shot on a Manhattan sidewalk.

CNN's Kara Scannell is live outside the New York City courthouse with much more on this.

What do we expect? What are you expecting to happen today, Kara?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, as you said, Luigi Mangione will be back in court for the first time since December when he was arraigned on those 11 state charges for allegedly gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan.

Now, this will be his first appearance since he entered that plea of not guilty and since that dramatic arrival by helicopter back into the city to face the charges after he was arrested in Pennsylvania.

What we do expect to happen today, it's a status conference. It is expected to be a relatively short hearing. And during the hearing, the judge may set what is known as a motion schedule, figure out exactly what the path forward in this case would be, and potentially set a trial date.

But we also will likely get an update from prosecutors on the evidence that they have in this case, and that they are turning over to the defense team. At the last hearing, the prosecutor said that they had thousands of hours of surveillance video. Remember, we saw surveillance video of the alleged shooter leaving the crime scene on an e-bike, heading uptown in Manhattan to leave the city. So, some of the details about what other evidence they have, we may learn about today. It's - though it is expected to be a pretty brief hearing.

You know, at the last hearing, there were about 30 spectators in the courtroom outside of the press, and about 24 or 25 of them were young women. It's brutally cold out here right now, so we don't have any people lining up, and we don't have any of the pro-Luigi signs that we saw the last time. But this hearing is still a few hours away. So, we'll see if more people come here to - in to - in support of him, like we did see the last time.

But again, this is expected to be a pretty brief hearing. But the first time we will see him on camera walking down the hallway to the courtroom than we have in about two months.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Kara, thank you so much for being there. Let's see what happens today with this. Really appreciate it.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, one month in. Which of Donald Trump's actions are actually winning as most disliked? Who cares most about Elon Musk and DOGE? Our Harry Enten here to answer those questions.

And it turns out humans aren't so bad after all. Look at how they saved a whole bunch of pets. Oh! That story, ahead.

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