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Right-Wing Commentator Named FBI Deputy Director; Pope In Critical Condition; Health Agencies Reel From Thousands Of Job Cuts While Critical Research Grants Remain On Hold. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired February 24, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:31:47]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. New overnight, President Trump named conservative media personality Dan Bongino as deputy director of the FBI. This is a job that almost always goes to someone within the ranks. And in fact, CNN just learned that newly confirmed FBI Director Kash Patel told agents the role should be filled from within the ranks.

That's not Bongino, who was a police officer and a Secret Service agent, but not in the FBI, mostly the last several years on conservative media. He was also named a misinformation super spreader by the New York Times in 2020 for serving as a mouthpiece for President Trump's attempt to overthrow the 2020 election saying, "there's nothing to concede because this race isn't over."

He also called the FBI, "irredeemably corrupt in a rotten orchard," claiming he has been, "abusing its power and eroding Americans trust for decades," loosely quoting here. He basically said the 2016 and 2020 election were rigged by the FBI.

This morning, POLITICO noted that former general counsel to Marco Rubio, Gregg Nunziata, who is a Republican, wrote, "Bongino is what you get when Republican senators fail to do their jobs and say no to Patel. The Trump administration is turning federal law enforcement over to unqualified, unprincipled partisan henchmen. It's unacceptable and conservatives need to say so.

With us now is the Executive Committee Chair for the New York State Democratic Committee, Christine Quinn, and a former Republican Strategist and Pollster, Lee Carter. Christine Quinn, does Dan Bongino make us safer?

CHRISTINE QUINN, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE CHAIR, NEW YORK STATE DEMOCRATIC COMMITTEE: It doesn't sound that way. I mean, that is a really hands on position. You want somebody who knows the ins and outs. And yes, he's had law enforcement experience and we thank him for his work, but we seem to just be stacking the halls of government with people who are press secretaries or communications directors and not, in fact, people who know the ins and the outs of the job.

And this is not a position where you want someone to learn on the job. This is a position where you want somebody who is going to be helping the director every single day, who's going to hit the ground running.

BERMAN: I mean, Lee, Christine said it's a job you want someone with experience. Clearly they don't. I mean, demonstrably, they do not want someone with experience there.

LEE CARTER, FORMER REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST & POLLSTER: I mean, that seems to be the case. The truth is he's a provocateur. He's somebody who wants to shake things up, and I think that's what the president has said that he wants to do across the board. And so, it's an interesting pick. I'm not sure it's one that a lot of people are going to be excited about, except it is sort of consistent with this idea that Donald Trump is out there not necessarily to make the popular picks, but the ones that demonstrate he's out there to make a whole lot of change.

BERMAN: Does it help the FBI do its job?

CARTER: That remains to be seen.

BERMAN: Well, that's a resounding non-answer, which is interesting. Look, I think that's the feeling that you're getting from people on both side of the aisle this morning but we'll see at this point. It does draw into question the priorities there. And I do want to talk about priorities because we just looked at Truth Social, what President Trump has been posting on his social media site the last 10.

He talked about Apple, which is investing in the country. He posted a compliment from Bill O'Reilly, stuff about Elon Musk saying that MSNBC is bad people. The German election where he said conservatives won, I'm not sure he knows the party that his people wanted didn't do as well as they thought, Michael Wolf's new book. Dan Bongino, he posted a couple times on Dan Bongino and the Joy Reid firing.

[07:35:07]

None of those are about inflation --

QUINN: Or eggs.

BERMAN: None of those about eggs or the economy. And I wonder, just as a question of how much he's focused on things if this is beginning to have an impact.

CARTER: It is beginning to have an impact. In fact, when you look at his polling on how he's doing on the economy, he's doing worse now than he ever did in the first term. Number one thing that he was popular for in his first term was the economy. Forty-nine percent of people said that he did a good job. Right now he's only at 44 percent approval on the economy, and that's going down because he hasn't focused as much as he would have on other things.

But he has been focusing on some things that are getting a lot of attention. A lot of people are giving him credit for his role on immigration and what's happening there. A lot of people are saying this role on government efficiency is something that is a good thing. Not everybody we can talk about that, too. But there's a lot that he has been doing that is popular. And I'm sure that people are going to start demanding pretty soon that he focuses on it.

BERMAN: Even the things that may be popular, it's a choice, though, not to talk about the economy as much or inflation at all. And when he does talk about the economy, it's tariffs, which are arguably inflationary.

QUINN: Absolutely. And he -- look, as a Democrat, I can say that President Trump won because he focused on the economy in a far clearer, more tangible way than we Democrats did. And you've kind of, in doing that, made a promise to the American people that you're going to deliver on inflation, you're going to take the price of eggs down, you're going to make a work for a day bring more home in your paycheck.

But what we've seen is, no real focus on tangible things like that. And with all of these firings, a lot of hardworking Americans who probably voted for him at real risk of losing their jobs that delivered for other Americans. It's not the kind of economic focus that people thought they were going to get.

BERMAN: It is interesting. And again, it's a choice because whether not people support what Elon Musk is doing, whether or not people support the DEI stuff, does it relate to you and what problems you have at home, and the egg prices have become almost a cliche. But egg prices, does it relate to those things? Does Donald Trump need to try to connect what Elon Musk is doing more to people's everyday problems?

CARTER: I think he does. The one thing that he has done, he promised to do when he talked about the economy every single time, he said, I'm going to, you know, get the economy back and running. The first thing I'm going to do is open up energy. And 6 in 10 Americans right now are excited about what Donald Trump is doing about energy. And I think they think that's going to translate to prices down the road.

So I think he has a little bit of a window here that people are going to give him the benefit of doubt. He's earned some stripes. I mean, people say, you know, he's known for his role in the economy. And so, I think he's got some runway, not a lot, but he's got some Runway right now.

And I think he can point to that. And people are going to say, I'll give you a little bit of it.

BERMAN: So how do Democrats talk about it?

QUINN: We should be talking about it very directly. We should stop saying constitutional crisis because nobody knows what that means. We should point out that the economy has not gotten better since Trump took office.

And we should remind Americans that their neighbors are showing up in force at townhall meetings in a way we really haven't seen since the Tea Party Revolution, making it clear to their elected officials they are not happy with how things are going. I agree presidents usually have a runway, but these big turnouts of very angry Americans are going to make that runway a lot shorter for this administration.

BERMAN: All right. Christine Quinn, Lee Carter, great to see you both. Thanks so much.

QUINN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. This morning, Pope Francis remains in critical condition at a Rome hospital where he is sleeping and resting, according to the Vatican. The Vatican says blood tests show the Pope has signs of mild kidney failure but is, "currently under control" right now. CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau joins us now from Rome. What is the latest on the Pope's condition? A lot of people concerned at what they're hear.

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, we've heard every day just sort of a decline in his condition here. He came into this hospital behind me on February 14th with a respiratory infection. By Wednesday of last week, he had diagnosed with pneumonia in both lungs. One of those lungs he's missing half of due to a previous surgery he had when he was a young man.

Then Saturday morning, he has a critical respiratory crisis is how it was described. Yesterday, we find out he had blood transfusions and this slight kidney failure which they say is under control. But, of course, all of this is terribly worrying. He's 88 years old, he has mobility problems and he has a history of health issues in the last couple of years.

Now tonight in Saint Peter's Square at 9:00pm local time, they'll be holding a very solemn rosary service with the cardinals and clerics who are here in Rome to pray for him, hoping that he gets better. You know, we are told at the same time as his clinical picture looks very complicated, that he's alert, that he's still taking care of the business of the church, that he's moving forward and working with his collaborators.

But all the eyes right now are on these bulletins that come from the Vatican. We're expecting one in about four hours time and what news that will bring is really what everybody's thinking about, Sara.

[07:40:10]

SIDNER: Yes. And certainly because of his past issues with his lungs, as soon as people heard pneumonia, that there was great concern. And now you're seeing him in critical condition, but people are hoping he pulls out. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Barbie Nadeau there live for us in Rome.

All right. Over to you, Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you. So for the first time in this new Trump administration, pieces of his administration are really pushing back. Elon Musk demand that all federal employees justify their jobs in five bullet points or else, is facing pushback from within. Some of Trump's own agency heads are telling their employees to not respond, including leaders at HHS, an agency that's already been hit very hard by mass layoffs.

More than 700 people at the CDC fired, more than 700 people at the FDA fired, more than 1,100 people at NIH also fired, all at the hands of the Trump administration. And facing a brutal seasonal flu season, serious measles outbreaks, and the ongoing bird flu outbreak, the USDA has actually been left to scrambling itself to rescind some of the firings, now trying to get back on the job at experts central to the nation's efforts to contain the bird flu crisis.

Joining us right now is the man who most recently was leading the FDA, former FDA commissioner, Dr. Robert Califf. Doctor, it's good to see you. Thank you so much for coming in.

One public health expert warned that these staff cuts that I just laid out in kind of broad strokes could have deadly consequences. So far at the FDA, as I mentioned, it's north of 700. What does that look like at the FDA You just departed?

ROBERT CALIFF, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: Well, Kate, it's good to be with you, but this is a really serious issue that we're dealing with. The FDA regulates 20 percent of the economy, including the vital drugs, devices, safety of food. And this is a fast moving set of industries that we're regulating with a lot of new science. So this across the board cut of employees that had just been there for less than two years or had been promoted within the last two years is really not a very good way to do this, because you're getting rid of the people who were just hired to take care of our most vital areas of risk.

I'll just give an example that's concerning me today. Last night, I got an email from a parent of a child with rare disease -- was supposed to be Thursday and Friday, a joint meeting. This is an area where, because of gene editing, these children who had no hope of surviving now have hope, but it's very dependent on the FDA, the NIH and the industries working together to solve the problems because this is not child's play.

When you edit the genome of a human being, most of the time it doesn't work and things go wrong. So you have to have a system in place to take care of it. So here these parents are asking me to come speak to them even though I'm no longer in the job because no one from FDA or NIH can be there. Just one example.

BOLDUAN: Wow. I mean, but one example is a family story, and that just shows that is just a small piece of what so, so, so many more people could be facing. I mean, do you think there are 700 positions that can be cut from FDA and not have a negative impact?

CALIFF: Well, I'm certainly willing to engage in the discussion with anyone. But my experience, you know, I've worked in biotech, big tech, I worked at Alphabet for a while, academic medical centers, health care systems. The FDA has stretched to the limit. Every segment of FDA is authorized by Congress to deal with an issue which is of public health importance to the American people.

So I don't see 700 across the board as being in any way a reasonable approach to this problem. It reminds me of startups in Silicon Valley where I worked, that's a whole different situation though. When things go through the lapse here, people can be killed or hurt very seriously. So no, I don't see 700 jobs.

But, you know, let's -- before doing things, let's have a plan and have the arguments and discussions, and involve the Congress which after all put the FDA budget in place. I'd also point out that half the FDA budget is user fees from the regulated industries who have agreed to pay for this because they need competent reviewers to make sure that the products that they're producing are safe and effective. And that the inspections that are going on all over the world in global supply chains are good inspections by people who know what they're doing.

[07:45:00]

Just think about the things that you use every day, or if you have a relative who's on a medication. Imagine they were not able to get the inspections done all around the world in a reasonable period of time. This is serious stuff.

BOLDUAN: Broadly speaking as there are becoming examples of the Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who's now the head of HHS, him taking actions like postponing indefinitely ACIP meetings that were supposed to happen today, talking about wanting to tackle as a priority, investigating the childhood vaccine schedule. Things are happening. The rhetoric is being put into action.

Broadly speaking, though, for the Elon Musks, the RFK Jrs, the people who think that the federal government is bloated and rife with waste, what do you want them to understand about just the FDA, the agency that you ran when it comes to this?

CALIFF: Well, I can speak, you know, obviously most concretely about the FDA, although the whole federal government, I know, has similar issues. I think, you know, imagine that RFK now encounters an outbreak of salmonella in lettuce. If there's not somebody there who actually knows how farms work and how the regulations work, and how to get the recalls done, this is going to be catastrophic with people either dead or disabled because of this problem.

H5N1 has a huge risk right now, the bird flu. And the center for Veterinary Medicine was gutted in this, which people don't think about often. That's part of FDA also. And it's interesting, Americans care a lot about their pets and the food that they eat. But, of course, with cattle and chickens, you've been talking about the price of eggs today.

That's not some happenstance. That's because birds are dying from bird flu, at the same time the people that work on this at the FDA are being downsized. This makes no sense. And of course, we're all concerned about the measles outbreak and the risk to children's -- children of not being vaccinated in this time. And I'm really worried that the promises made in the confirmation hearing are already not being kept. I would hope that we hold people accountable.

And finally, I'd say when you look at Mr. Musk and his team, the FDA deals with a lot of confidential information protecting individuals who are subjects in human clinical trials, really experiments done to evaluate drugs and devices, and the trade secrets of companies. We're really proud at FDA that we manage those trade secrets incredibly well under assault every day from China and others trying to get into our information systems.

It doesn't sound to me like the conflicts of interest are being handled at all across the board. So I'm really worried about the corruption of people who have vested interest in outcomes like Mr. Musk's companies invading the regulatory system and commandeering it. This is something that just shouldn't be allowed.

BERMAN: Dr. Robert Califf, former FDA commissioner, thank you for coming in. John?

BERMAN: All right. Apple just announced plans to invest half a trillion dollars expanding US facilities. How the move could create thousands of jobs and help the company avoid tariffs from China. And a half court shot worth $10,000, Alex Rodriguez nails the basket and helps one student pay his college tuition. We'll see if that gets A- Rod in the Hall of Fame.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:53:15]

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, lawyers for Sean Combs are asking a judge to dismiss all evidence taken during the searches of his homes and electronic devices. Combs was arrested in September, charged with racketeering, sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution. He's pleaded not guilty and is set to go on trial in May.

CNN's Kara Scannell is here. His lawyers have been very busy, right, filing a lot of things. What's the basis for this?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So the basis for this is that, they're saying that to get search warrants to search all these premises, including his iCloud accounts, multiple cell phones, Combs himself, when they approached him at an airport one day, his homes in Los Angeles and Miami, and the hotel room where he's arrested, they say to get those warrants that they did not reveal enough material to the judge. So they actually hid some information.

And they actually write in their filing, the government hid evidence undermining these witnesses credibility and presented misleading and selective accounts. We are not dealing here with omission of a few ancillary facts. This is a case of systematic deception. So when these affidavits were sworn out, they're saying they didn't provide some of the exculpatory material or what they think is exculpatory about, you know, related to these charges.

Combs is accused of drugging and coercing women, including a former longtime girlfriend, of engaging in sex with male prostitutes. Their defense so far has that has played out in all of these motions that you mentioned has been that this was a consensual relationship, a consensual sex act. So they're trying to say that the judge didn't have all that material, and so that's why all of this evidence should be suppressed.

It is a long shot. I mean, if they were successful, some of the evidence that they got here were dozens of recordings of these so- called freak offs. Also more than a thousand bottles of baby oil and lubricant, including firearms and drugs, all relating to the charges in the case.

[07:55:09]

But as you said, they have been filing motion after motion trying to suppress evidence, trying to get charges thrown out, certainly an aggressive legal defense by Combs' team. And we're getting now in the home stretch as we get closer to this trial date.

BERMAN: It's a good point. I think that's what we are seeing here, an aggressive legal defense. We'll see what's next. Kara Scannell, great reporting. Thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Some other headlines we're watching this morning. The Coast Guard is searching for a missing person still after a boat capsized off of Staten Island yesterday. At least three people have died, two others remain hospitalized from it and police said one of those hospitalized is in critical condition.

Officials say they received calls of a boat taking on water just after noon Sunday. An investigation is now underway for how this tragedy occurred.

And a listeria outbreak linked to frozen supplemental shell shakes has been linked to at least 11 deaths and dozens of illnesses across 21 states. This is just what were talking about, the fears with the former FDA commissioner. The FDA says that the shakes were sold under the Sysco Imperial and Lyons ReadyCare brand names. They were supplied from a facility in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The shakes were sent to hospitals and long term care facilities. Sysco Imperial says it has recalled the shakes, alerted customers and stopped buying other products from that same Indiana plant.

And former major league baseball star A-Rod, Alex Rodriguez, nailed a half court shot to win $10,000 for one very lucky Bucknell University student. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHEERING)

BOLDUAN: The contest sponsored by the school's mobile ticketing platform has been going on all season with no student winners yet. So this time around, A-Rod stepped in and took that unbelievable shot. ALEX RODRIGUEZ, FORMER PRO BASEBALL PLAYER: We converted him from a Phillies fan to a Yankees fan. We got him $10,000. He told me what he's going to do with it. Owen, what are going to do with the money?

OWEN, BUCKNELL UNIVERSITY STUDENT: I'm going to help my parents pay for my tuition.

RODRIGUEZ: That is a beautiful thing, tuition. Parents, you're welcome. You should be Yankees fans too.

OWEN: We might have to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: He's like, I'll say that at least until I get the check. Bucknell went on to win the game against Army. Sara?

SIDNER: Wait for the check, young man, very smart.

BOLDUAN: Is that a check player and then, you know, whatever it is, whatever it is, it's all for tuition.

SIDNER: (Inaudible) pay for college. Sweet, sweet, sweet. Love him.

BOLDUAN: And necessary considering how expensive college education is.

SIDNER: Correct. All right. Thank you, Kate. All right.

The Screen Actors Guild struck a serious tone with tributes to the LA firefighters and Jane Fonda not shying away from being political after she was honored with a Lifetime Achievement award.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANE FONDA, ACTRESS: Workers power is being attacked and community is being weakened. Make no mistake, empathy is not weak or woke. And by the way, woke just means you give a damn about other people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: CNN's Lisa Respers France joining us now. Jane Fonda is known for this, so that should have been no surprise. Give us some sense of who did actually take home some of the big prizes and the moments that stood out to you.

LISA RESPERS FRANCE, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Yes. You're right, there was no surprise with that. But there were some light moments also, you know. The host, Kristen Bell, she kicked off the show with a very fun take on her hit "Frozen." She took one of the songs, "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" and she turned it into "Do You Want to Be an Actor?" Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTEN BELL, ACTRESS: Do you wanna be an actor? You really wanna be an actor? So you wanna be an actor. It can be a bumpy ride. Sometimes you question your ability. There's no stability. Put aside your pride, but everybody started somewhere. As we hone our craft, we go through what we go through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RESPERS FRANCE: Yes, so incredibly charming. As you can see, the audience was loving it because they were showing some of their first time on screen, some of those stars. It really was a celebration of acting.

So some of the winners included "Conclave" for Best Ensemble. There was a lovely moment where Isabella Rossellini offered, you know, her best to the Pope because the movie is about selecting a pope and the Pope, as we know, is ill.

Demi Moore winning for Leading Female Actor. She's been killing the game, pun intended, with her horror, sci-fi, "The Substance." Timothee Chalamet won for Leading Male Actor for his role is Bob Dylan in a "Complete Unknown." People have been absolutely adoring him. He's been the darling of awards season.

And then on TV side, "Shogun" took home three awards, including Best Drama Ensemble. And to the shock and thrill of Selena Gomez, her show "Only Murders in the Building" won for Best Comedy Ensemble. She could not believe it.

[08:00:10]

So she was -- it was such a great moment for her.

SIDNER: I love that show. It's so much fun. Lisa Respers France, I wish I had more time to chat with you, but we'll chat offline as usual. Thank you so much. Appreciate you.

RESPERS FRANCE: Yes, we will. You too, take care.

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