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Leaders of Federal Government Agencies Telling Employees to Ignore Email from Elon Musk Asking Them to List Five Things They Did Previously Week or Face Termination; Podcaster Dan Bongino to Join Leadership of FBI; Donald Trump Dismisses General C.Q. Brown as Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff; Ukraine Marks Three Years Since Russian Invasion; Interview with Rep. Eugene Vindman (D-VA); Activists Push Back on ICE Raids in Los Angeles Neighborhoods. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired February 24, 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]

LISA RESPERS FRANCE, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: 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. So it was such a great moment for her.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: 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.

FRANCE: Yes, we will. Thank you. You, too. Take care.

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

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So Elon Musk tells federal workers just this morning he is not joking about his email telling workers to justify your job in five bullet points or else. But some agency heads are telling employees to ignore that ultimatum. So what is a worker to do now? And where is Donald Trump? Where is the president on this one?

And today marks three years of war on Ukraine. Ukraine remembering the lives lost and talking about a future of lasting peace just as President Trump's pivot towards Russia leaves Ukraine's future in doubt.

And activists in Los Angeles using megaphones to help undocumented immigrants in their communities as ICE carries out operations.

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

SIDNER: Happening now, a brand new threat from Elon Musk as a deadline for an ultimatum he made for millions of federal workers fast approaches. Musk now over the weekend demanding each employee email five bullets of things they did last week or risk getting fired by midnight tonight if they don't. And this morning, there is a new message from Musk. Here it is. "Those who do not take this email seriously will soon be furthering their career elsewhere." Plot twist -- some of President Trump's, for instance, own leaders

like the Pentagon, the FBI, DHS, the State Department, and more told employees yesterday not to reply to Musk. CNN's senior political analyst Mark Preston joining us now. This deadline is fast approaching, expires midnight tonight. Is it any clearer what the workers should or will do?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: No, not at this moment now. We're talking 16 hours before they could lose their job. And what we've seen over the past couple of weeks is that this very much could be a reality. This comes now as the USAID operation is basically put to rest today. We've seen that over the weekend. There's only just a handful left of USAID workers.

But overall, when we look at the federal workforce, we're looking at 2 million people. A lot of people think that here, most of them work here, where I am in Washington, D.C. Not the case, Sara. That is just a small fraction. There's only 150,000 federal workers that work in the D.C. area. Right now, they don't know what to do because of this miscommunication, this edict from Elon Musk. But at the same time, these folks who are running these agencies that were put in place by Donald Trump are being are telling their folks not to comply. We should see this play out over the next couple of hours.

SIDNER: Yes, everybody will be watching this, most importantly, those whose lives could be changed by whatever decision there made.

Let me ask you about this. Donald Trump is not done with the shock and awe of all this stuff. We just got word that Dan Bongino, who is known as a rightwing podcaster, he is a former law enforcement officer, but he has never worked at the FBI, has been tapped to be in leadership at the FBI, which is actually something that goes against the FBI director, Trump's own pick. What is happening here?

PRESTON: Yes. So it's our understanding right now -- first of all, we shouldn't be surprised that Dan Bongino is in the Trump administration, an incredibly vocal supporter of President Trump. One of the biggest podcasters right now in the nation. President Trump even acknowledges how much Bongino was willing to give up his podcast to go work for the government.

But how did he get there? Well, we are told now by the FBI Agents Association that they were told by Kash Patel, the new FBI director, that this position, this number two position in the FBI, would remain with a career FBI agent, not a political appointee, not one of Donald Trump's agents that are put in from the outside, but it would be somebody who had a long career there.

Apparently, over the weekend, there was a dustup about giving information about FBI agents and other DOJ officials who participated in the investigation of Donald Trump in January 6th. They were not given this information by these career FBI agents, and guess what? They don't have the position. Dan Bongino will take the role. And it is not a Senate confirmed position. So Dan Bongino can start today.

[08:05:00] SIDNER: All right, let's talk a little bit about what we've been seeing around the country. There appears to be a bit of dissent inside the Trump team, as you just spoke to. But it is voters who are making some things clear. They're beginning to lash out at their Republican representatives for what the Trump administration is doing in some cases, whether it is taking more power than they think he should have, or when it comes to these cuts, because, as you said, these jobs are all over the United States, and they're starting to see some of their neighbors, perhaps their friends, perhaps they themselves are experiencing this worry or job loss. What does this spell out for you, especially as 2026 comes around the corner?

PRESTON: Well, so a couple of things right now, Donald Trump couldn't be in a better position having Elon Musk carry out basically all the dirty work. He is the bull in a China shop. Elon Musk is in there. He is destroying everything in his path. But the end of the story of the bull in the China shop is, is that the bull in the China shop usually takes the sword and dies in its own blood. If that were to happen and Elon Musk were to be alienated now from Donald Trump, Donald Trump is going to walk away very clean from this. So in many ways, Elon Musk is is doing the dirty work for Donald Trump.

But we are hearing from constituents all across the country. We've seen it in Georgia over this past weekend. We're starting to see it elsewhere in the country. People are realizing that these cuts are starting to really cut to the bone and cut to the bone in their community. That's when Donald Trump will run out of runway in order to get his agenda through. Right now, he still has runway. But the criticism is starting to mount.

SIDNER: Yes, you talked about the fact that Elon Musk could be sort of the scapegoat for all this, for Trump to say, hey, you know, it was him. I decided this didn't work. But recently in their latest interview together, they couldn't have been bigger buddies. So we will see how this all plays out.

PRESTON: Until they're not.

SIDNER: Until they're not, you are right.

PRESTON: Until they're not Sara.

SIDNER: You're right. Thats the way politics runs. All right, Mark Preston, thank you so much. I appreciate it. John?

BERMAN: All right, developing this morning, Pentagon employees starting their first full week on the job without top general C.Q. Brown leading the Joint Chiefs. He was removed as chair by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the president, along with other top commanders, and replaced with people in some cases with not nearly the same experience.

National security reporter for "The Washington Post," Dan Lamothe, is with us now. What's the reaction been that you have heard over the last few days? It's a -- everyone knows the president has the power to do this. But beyond that, what are you hearing? DAN LAMOTHE, NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Its

very polarized. You basically hear two camps. You hear those who say Trump can do what he wants. What's the big deal? And then you hear others who say, hey, we have fired basically all of the senior lawyers in uniform, two service chiefs, a vice service chief, and we're not sure if they're done yet. What's the purpose of this? So there's definitely some alarm, both in uniform, and more broadly in Washington.

BERMAN: You just asked the key question. What's the purpose of this? Is anyone able to articulate that?

LAMOTHE: As best we have right now, it seems to be that they want to set a tone, that things that happened over the last several years were unacceptable, decisions made under the previous administration were not acceptable. But there's an important piece to this, which is that typically these nonpartisan officers are carrying out orders that the administration in charge provides. They provide advice. They do provide some direction, but it's the administration that sets the tone. So one of the key pieces of alarm here is really that it appears they are being fired for carrying out the orders that the previous president and his administration had. Thats the way it's supposed to work.

BERMAN: Let's just talk about the experience required to be chair of the Joint Chiefs. And I shouldn't say required. The experience that is normally there. Just talk about C.Q. Brown for a second, the experience that he had before taking the job.

LAMOTHE: Yes, he had a rather well-rounded resume that you would expect in this job. He had been a service chief. He previously ran the Air Force. He had held major command positions in the Pacific and in Europe and in the Middle East. It was sort of the typical, well- rounded, deeply grounded resume that you have for this job, all of the boxes checked. That is what you expect with this job.

U.S. law sort of sort of comes with two pieces here. One, it lays out all of the positions you typically have to hold, which is to say you're either a service chief, a vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs already, or you're one of the major four star generals in charge of a regional combatant command. Obviously, the selection we have doesn't have that resume. But there's a second piece here, which is that if the president decides that this is in the national interest, they can do it anyway. And that's where we are right now.

[08:10:02]

BERMAN: So talk to us about, I guess, retired Three-Star General Dan Caine. And I don't know this, it may have happened before, but to have a retired general come in and lead the Joint Chiefs seems unusual.

LAMOTHE: It's unusual. There are a handful of instances over U.S. history where you have seen a retired general come back to active duty to take a major job of prominence. In one case, President Kennedy actually brought a general back to run an investigation of the Bay of Pigs, and then very shortly thereafter put that general in charge of very prominent pieces of the U.S. military. So it can happen, but it's very rare. And it typically occurs when that president is looking for somebody that he has a comfort with.

And I think a key piece here is one of the things that people have said is we had a number of other service chiefs that you could have selected for this job. You're sort of setting the tone that you don't trust those leaders either by bypassing them.

BERMAN: Dan Lamothe from "The Washington Post," love your reporting. Thanks so much for being with us this morning.

Kate?

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us today marks three years since Russia's full scale invasion of Ukraine. And President Zelenskyy is saying now is the time for real and lasting peace, even if that means that he must step aside.

Plus, Donald Trump's call to drill, baby, drill is not such a simple path to energy independence. A look at why not all oil is created equal.

And caught on camera, an alligator stops traffic to cross the road, and you get to come up with the punchline.

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[08:16:15]

BOLDUAN: So today marks the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and Ukraine's President Zelenskyy, he marked the somber day, telling his people this year should be the year of a real and lasting peace.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE: (through translator) This year should be the year of the beginning of a real, lasting peace. Putin will not give us this peace. He will not give it to us in exchange for something. We must gain peace with strength, wisdom and unity, through our cooperation, peace cannot simply be declared in one hour. It cannot be declared in one day, today, tomorrow, the day after tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: About today, though, European leaders are in Kyiv meeting with Zelenskyy after Zelenskyy signaled himself just yesterday that he would be willing to resign the presidency if it would bring peace or mean NATO membership for Ukraine. And another leader, the French President, is in Washington for some face time with President Trump on all of this.

Joining us right now is Democratic Congressman from Virginia, Eugene Vindman. Congressman is a Ukrainian-American and a retired U.S. Army Colonel. It's good to see you, Congressman. Thank you for coming. The third anniversary of this war. Zelenskyy is thinking, this year will be the year of a lasting peace. How confident are you that will be the case.

REP. EUGENE VINDMAN (D-VA): Kate, great to be here this morning.

Well, look, I'm not particularly confident right now. All of the pressure seems to be on the Ukrainian leadership -- the Ukrainian government. This administration has pretty much given away the farm, granting, it seems like at the outset, territorial concessions, stating that Ukraine will not be a member of NATO, putting all the pressure on Ukraine and taking all the pressure off of Russia.

And I will say it's shameful that on this third anniversary, going into the fourth year of this major invasion, 11 years of war, that we do not have a senior representative from the United States there showing solidarity and support.

I talk about a hard pivot towards autocracy and away from our own values. After, you know, years of weakness from the Biden administration. Now, we've done a hard pivot towards autocracy and it's shameful.

BOLDUAN: I want to ask you about that -- well, the kind of wild escalation of tension between Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and Donald Trump that we really saw play out in the last week. Just yesterday, Zelenskyy was asked about his relationship with Donald Trump by our Nick Paton Walsh. Let me play how what how he responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENSKYY: My relationship with President Trump -- it's never was in such best way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And a lot going on in that -- those silent moments. I mean things are not good there. And as someone who cares deeply about the future of Ukraine, how do you think Zelenskyy should be approaching his relationship with Donald Trump at this point?

VINDMAN: Well, look, I think, I approach this issue as deep concern about U.S. National Security as it relates to Ukraine. And I've been talking about this for years. It is squarely in U.S. National Security interest to support Ukraine, to have a strong transatlantic alliance and to stand up against autocrats. What we've seen since this invasion is a violation of a rules based order that the U.S. helped to establish, and that might does not make right, and that, you know, larger neighbors cant attack smaller neighbors.

And that's a lesson that's going to be very well received and in places like China, with the Chinese Communist Party and other autocrats. So this is a squarely a U.S. National Security issue.

As it relates to Zelenskyy, I mean, talk about an understatement, the relationship certainly was strained after the events of the first impeachment, where the President tried to extort Ukraine into investigating his political rival and it hasn't gotten any better.

I think that President Zelenskyy is exactly right. I mean, if he's willing to sacrifice his leadership in exchange for peace, and I have no doubt that he will do that if there is a path to it.

[08:20:40]

BOLDUAN: You talk about U.S. National Security. I want to ask you about that because you sent a letter to the president, you just did, protesting the firings of the military's senior leadership. You called it reckless, damaging to the nation's readiness and National Security. And also, you wrote that it could cost American lives.

The Defense Secretary said -- spoke out yesterday, though, and says there's nothing unusual here with this. Let me play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Nothing about this is unprecedented. The President deserves to pick his key National Security and military advisory team. There are lots of presidents who have changes from FDR to Eisenhower to H.W. Bush to Barack Obama, who fired or dismissed hundreds of militaries during his term.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Congressman, what is your reaction to that?

VINDMAN: Look, it is utter nonsense. My letter was not, you know, a plea for answers, it was a demand for answers.

We, in Congress have a role, an oversight role and I am asking pointed questions about why he's made the changes, what his criteria are for replacements. It is certainly unprecedented and unacceptable. Just because the President and the administration can do something doesn't mean they should do something.

You know, we had an expression in the JAG Corps, lawful but awful. Why is he changing several senior four-star generals and admirals, including the chairman? Why is he changing or eliminating, you know, three service judge advocates? Is it because he wants to install "yes men," folks that won't challenge his unlawful, potentially actions?

We need answers. The American people deserve answers. And we, in Congress are going to demand that we receive those answers.

BOLDUAN: We will continue to follow that. Congressman, thank you very much for your time -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, ahead, new this morning, some communities pushing back as ICE raids moved into neighborhoods in Los Angeles over the weekend. What they did to try and keep people from being picked up by ICE.

And, a shocking roadblock. Concrete crashes down inside a Boston tunnel. Check this out. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(Concrete crashes down inside a Boston tunnel.)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:27:18]

BERMAN: All right, this morning, new reaction in Los Angeles to a new round of immigration raids ordered by the White House. Community activists are pushing back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ICE is not welcome in this neighborhood or in any neighborhood. You guys are all terrorists that should be ashamed of yourself for doing this for a living. You should be ashamed of yourself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Local leaders are warning residents not to come out of their homes and to not engage with agents unless the agents have a warrant.

CNN's Julia Vargas Jones is live in Los Angeles with the latest. What are you learning this morning?

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, immigrant communities and activists, like the ones we heard from there were expecting a large scale immigration crackdown in Los Angeles, but we still haven't seen any pictures or gotten information from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the scale and the success of this operation.

You know, immigrant communities were expecting these sort of high visibility actions like we've seen in Chicago and New York. But there are some restrictions here in California that could be impacting the number of arrests in this surge. One of them is that federal agencies have no cooperation from local law enforcement.

And second, the tactics that are often used by ICE agents to question their targets inside their homes. They're known as "knock and talk." They were limited by a federal judge in California in 2024.

Still, one of those operations took place here in the Highland Park neighborhood, just East of Downtown Los Angeles, not far from where that video was taken.

This is a tightly-knit Hispanic community where one of those arrests took place. We spoke with a neighbor of the man who was arrested, a woman who runs a food stand just down the street from where this arrest happened around midday yesterday. She said she knew this man and that he was a single father of two children. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTINA RAMIREZ, HAS LIVED IN HIGHLAND PARK, CA FOR 37 YEARS: (Speaking in foreign language)

JONES: So, 14 and 12 years old. His mom and the mother of his children all are here in the neighborhood. You saw all the commotion, you saw the reaction from the community here. (Asking in foreign language). How do feel right now?

RAMIREZ: (Speaking in foreign language)

JONES: You're saying you feel like you don't have your freedom anymore. You feel just afraid to even go into the streets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And not just that fear, John, but the potential consequences here are huge.

Of the 11 million undocumented immigrant estimated to be in the United States, 1.8 live here in California -- about half of that number in Southern California. Of course, these are just estimates, but these communities are still on edge. You know, sources have told CNN previously that this was going to be a wave of enforcement action. So, more could still be to come -- John.

BERMAN: Yes, uncertainty, whether it has happened or will happen. Julia Vargas Jones, thank you so much for your reporting -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: President Trump promised to bring prices down on day one of this second term. Now, new polls show how voters are viewing his handling of the economy, one month in.

And Apple is announcing and responding to the threat of tariffs with a plan to create thousands of new jobs in the United States.

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[08:30:38]