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Trump Deferring to Agency Chiefs on Musk's Email Demands; Source: 21 Workers at Fed. Agency that Became DOGE Resign in Protest; House Takes Key Step to Tee Up Vote on Budget Plan Tonight; House GOP Leaders Scramble for Votes to Advance Budget Plan; Rep. Addison McDowell (R-NC) Discusses About the Votes to Advance Budget Plan; Southwest Jet Narrowly Avoids Hitting Private Plane in Chicago. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired February 25, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:01:57]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: He was not elected, he was not approved by the Senate, and yet Elon Musk is set to attend his first cabinet meeting with President Trump. This, as we learn, of mass resignations sparked by Musk's efforts to overhaul the government.

Plus, spending scramble. President Trump is set to meet soon with GOP lawmakers, with Republicans clawing for every last vote as they work to fund the government, pay for the President's agenda, and cut trillions in federal spending.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And a near collision. Some really scary new video showing the close call between a Southwest Airlines jet and a private plane. It left one air traffic controller asking: "How'd that happen?"

We are following these developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

JIMENEZ: So, more than 20 federal employees who had been working for Elon Musk's DOGE just announced they are resigning in protest. These are people who worked for the U.S. Digital Service before the agency became DOGE. And now they're saying they can no longer uphold their oath to the Constitution while working for Musk's group.

Meanwhile, the White House says that 1 million federal workers have responded to Elon Musk's email requesting an accounting of their work last week. The administration is also attempting to clarify whether people will be fired if they don't reply. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The agency heads will determine the best practices for their employees at their specific agencies. Again, this was an idea that Elon come up with. DOGE worked with OPM to actually implement the idea, and the secretaries are responsible for their specific workforce. (END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: More on that in a moment. Let's start with CNN's Sunlen Serfaty on these new resignations by federal employees.

What more are you learning on that front?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Omar, these are highly skilled technology staffers, and they did resign in mass this morning, 21 staffers, as you said, with the USDS, United States Digital Services. And these are staffers that are in some of the most critical government projects. We're talking about engineers, designers, data scientists, product managers, people who have their hands in very critical work across the U.S. government.

They were part of USDS. Now it morphed into DOGE. And it was very clear that they wanted to make a stand in this mass resignation. And in their letter, which was notably addressed to White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, they say, quote, "As civil servants, we remained committed throughout the Presidential Transition to delivering better government services through technology and stood ready to partner with incoming officials. Each of us left senior private sector technology positions to pursue nonpartisan public service. We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations.

[15:05:04]

However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments at the United States DOGE Service."

And notably in this letter, they go on to talk about how, in essence, they gave it a beat, started to observe what DOGE was doing within their department. And they noted that they said they fired technical experts, mishandled sensitive data, in their opinion, and were breaking critical systems. So, very strong words coming from these staffers.

And I talked to a source with knowledge of these resignations. And they told me that last week, it was last Tuesday, a week from today, where for the first time, their team's weekly meeting was led by someone within DOGE. And the message from this employee was, we've got to turn the page here, acknowledging it was a tough few days with many layoffs and firings, but wanting to move forward. And that did not sit well with this group of people who then started to work towards in the past week, how can we resign? How can we do so in a way that really makes it stand? So, certainly a significant letter coming from this group of 21 technology staffers within the federal government. Omar?

JIMENEZ: Definitely significant. Sunlen Serfaty, really appreciate the reporting.

Rene Marsh is also with me now on this shifting guidance given to federal workers.

What do we know at this point? What are they being told? RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, we're three days into this and there is still like high levels of confusion. But also just, you know, employees are upset the union representing them continues to say that this is illegal, that forcing employees to comply with this email is not within - there's no regulation that says that they must reply to an email demand from anyone who's outside of their chain of command.

But just to recap of how we got here, I mean, the White House today is trying to give further clarification to kind of clean all this up for federal workers. But remember, this all started on Saturday, where they were told that if they do not comply with responding to what they accomplished last week, they would be terminated. Then came Monday at around 6 PM They received word that this was actually voluntary for them to comply. And then later that evening, they were then told that it's up to the agencies to essentially determine the responses and receive the responses from the federal workers and then determine how to proceed, whether these individuals will be terminated or not.

So, they're attempting to clean this up, but still a lot of confusion here for these federal employees. And, again, the union taking the posture that this is just an example of the chaos and callousness at which - with which these federal employees are being handled. I mean, many of them are, as they described to me, at their end's wit because this is coming within the context of thousands of people have already been fired from their jobs.

Many have also been put on paid administrative leave. The people who do still have jobs don't know how long that that will be the case. And now you have this situation where they feel as if they don't comply or they don't make the right decision here, they too could be in danger of losing their jobs. They're also unclear if they do comply, whether this information would be weaponized against them to maybe put a target on their back where they have now detailed the kind of work that they're doing. And if it doesn't align with the administration and with the work that they want done, they feel like this could be used against them. So, a lot that they are grappling with at this point, Omar.

JIMENEZ: A lot of questions.

MARSH: Yes.

JIMENEZ: These are employees that are located throughout the country, too, not just here in Washington.

MARSH: Yes.

JIMENEZ: Rene Marsh, really appreciate it. Brianna?

KEILAR: Right now on Capitol Hill, the House has taken a key step toward teeing up a vote tonight on their massive budget blueprint to kickstart President Trump's agenda. But there are still big questions about whether or not Speaker Mike Johnson has convinced enough of his GOP colleagues to get onboard. Republicans have a razor thin majority, and Johnson can only afford to lose one of their votes. CNN's Lauren Fox is live for us now with more.

Lauren, what are you hearing?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Speaker Johnson is still trying to rally those votes behind closed doors, having many conversations with lawmakers on both sides of his conference. On the far end, he has some conservatives who believe that these spending cuts don't go far enough. That's the case with someone like Rep. Thomas Massie.

On the other side of the equation, he has some swing district Republicans who are still asking a series of questions about what these potential cuts could mean for programs like Medicaid. One of those lawmakers I talked to earlier today, here's what they said about the way they're thinking about this decision.

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REP. JUAN CISCOMANI (R-AZ): Well, I'm still making my point all the way to the end about the need to protect the services that are important to my district.

[15:10:03]

I've been clear, especially in my letter from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus conference about protecting Medicaid, of course, now Pell Grants. Those are the things that we need to continue to fight for and that's been my message to leadership this whole time.

Well, some of those discussions are already happening. The decisions on those will be made in the next process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: Now, a short time ago, House Republicans were able to approve a first step. They were able to move forward with what is known as a rule that really does set them up for this potential vote tonight on the budget proposal. But you know, we talked a couple of hours ago about one lawmaker, Rep. Van Drew of New Jersey. He said he spoke to Donald Trump again this morning about his concerns.

And Brianna, he said once again, Trump reiterated he also doesn't want to see steep cuts to Medicaid. We should just point out that this budget proposal does not say explicitly there would be cuts to Medicaid, but it does direct the committee that has jurisdiction over that program that a lot of these lawmakers' constituents rely on to cut more than $800 billion. If you aren't cutting Medicaid, where are you getting that level of cuts? That is where some of the skepticism is coming from when it comes to these swing district Republicans. Brianna?

KEILAR: Lauren Fox on the Hill. Thank you. Omar?

JIMENEZ: Let's bring in a member of the House Budget Committee, Congressman Addison McDowell is a Republican representing North Carolina. Congressman, really appreciate you being here.

So, let's start with what's going on today, what may or may not happen tonight. From where I sit, there are still some holdouts for this step to get to reconciliation. I mean, what do you know about a potential vote tonight? Are you confident your side will have the votes?

REP. ADDISON MCDOWELL (R-NC): Yes, absolutely. I think we are going to have the vote tonight and we've got the votes. This bill does exactly what we promised the American people we were going to do. And it enacts President Donald Trump's agenda that we got a mandate to enforce. It secures the border, and it rebuilds our economy, and it looks for fraud, waste and abuse. And I think the majority of Americans support that.

JIMENEZ: Well, and we did hear, though, of some potential holdouts. You're basically saying that you're confident some of the Republicans who are not fully committed right now to this point will come over to your side. I know you're supportive of the bill or of the (INAUDIBLE) ...

MCDOWELL: Well, I mean, I think that this - yes, this bill, it enacts President Trump's agenda. That's what we want to do. And I think that we've got the votes to get it done. And if it comes to the floor, I'm going to be happy to vote for it.

JIMENEZ: So, and I guess my question, too, is why - what your sense is - why not do what the Senate did? Get an early Republican win with boosting immigration enforcement, as you mentioned, National Security, energy production and then come back to address, for example, tax policy, which was not included on the Senate side. And maybe there wouldn't be some of these potential old holdouts. What is your impression of what the Senate did and why are you more supportive of this route that you all have taken so far?

MCDOWELL: Well, I've always supported the one bill strategy, and I think that that's important because we've got to get this done. We need to get it done now. The American people elected us to do a job, and they want to see it signed into law. And that's what the House Republicans are trying to do here. I think that securing our border is personal to me, and it's something that I want to get done immediately, rebuilding our economy.

It's important to the voters in my district, and we want to get this done. We don't want it waiting around forever. We want to extend these tax cuts. We want to find savings in the government, find waste, fraud and abuse. And we want to get this on the President's desk and get it signed.

JIMENEZ: And I know you mentioned taxes, you know, there and we're showing just some numbers on the screen what the House budget resolution would do, $2 trillion in spending cuts, $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, $4 trillion debt limit increase. But I just want to pick up on what you said about taxes. I don't have to tell you, you've got a pretty thin majority right now in the House Republicans. Do - were you worried at all that - or are you worried at all that not addressing Trump's tax plan now would risk letting it expire later this year?

MCDOWELL: All I know is that we need to secure our border right now, and we need to rebuild our economy that Democrats and Joe Biden broke. That's what I'm focused on, and that's what this bill does. This bill finds savings. It looks for waste, fraud and abuse, but it's not a policy bill. We need to pass this bill tonight to get the game going and to get the bill into the committee so we can make these decisions, but I don't think that this bill is something that Democrats are trying to make it out to be.

The only people talking about cuts are the Democrats, not us. We are talking about securing the border, enacting the President's agenda. That's what this bill does, and we need to get it passed and get to work.

JIMENEZ: Well, one of the concerns of cuts on the Republican side is the $2 trillion cut. Some Congress people have concerns that it could ensnare Medicaid. Congressman Don Bacon, for example, saying he wants to advance Trump's agenda on National Security, energy, and taxes, but doesn't want to make significant cuts to Medicaid?

[15:15:03]

It's not explicitly laid out in this blueprint, but it could be affected. Are you confident that this blueprint wouldn't lead to any cuts to Medicaid?

MCDOWELL: I'm confident that there's waste, fraud and abuse in our government and every system that we have, and that's what we're looking to find.

JIMENEZ: Does that include Medicaid?

MCDOWELL: I think there's not a single - if there is waste, fraud and abuse in any program, we need to find it.

JIMENEZ: So, that includes - just to be clear, sorry, a little bit of a delay. To be clear, if there's waste, fraud and abuse, as you've described it, in Medicaid, that would be something you would be supportive of looking at.

MCDOWELL: Absolutely. If there's waste, fraud and abuse in anything, I can't imagine there's a single American that wouldn't want us to go and find that. We're trying to strengthen everything in this bill and fix what the Democrats broke. That's the simple point. And so, that's what we're trying to do, and I think it's interesting to me that the Democrats want to make this something that it's not, but that's not what we're trying to do. We're trying to do is enact the President's agenda.

JIMENEZ: I want to ask you, Congressman, about something some of your colleagues have faced, some concerns from their constituents over some of the DOGE efforts, for example. I just want to play a little - some of what we've heard from them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOHN CURTIS (R-UT): If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it's like, please put a dose of compassion in this. These are real people. These are real lives. These are mortgages. We - it's a false narrative to say we have to cut, and you have to be cruel to do it as well. We can do both.

REP. RICH MCCORMICK (R-GA): I want to have compassion. I think Elon Musk talked to us about that a long time - a couple years ago. He said, before he was politically involved, he said, look, the Republican Party could do better by coming across as more compassionate, and I think that's really important.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: But you think they've gone too fast here?

MCCORMICK: Well, I think it needs to be reviewed.

REP. MARK ALFORD (R-MO): I met a guy at the airport today who works for the FDIC, and he was flying up to New York City. He was quite upset. He was going to have to lay people off. And we talked to - he was very angry and I said, let's just talk about this. What can we do better? He says, we've got - you guys got to communicate better, because it's chaos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Now, you couldn't see them. Maybe you recognize their voices. But some of those congresspeople did face in-person concerns from their constituents at town halls. But have you heard any concerns from your constituents about what you believe they should focus on or what they believe DOGE should focus on and do you believe it has overstepped in any way, either in speed or scope?

MCDOWELL: My constituents believe that DOGE is on the right track. What Elon Musk and his team are doing is finding waste, fraud and abuse and putting it into the light. And I think what they're doing is great. Of course, I'm - you know, I feel bad for anyone that would lose their job. But if we find waste, fraud and abuse in our government, we have to cut it. And that's what they're doing and I don't have a problem with that.

JIMENEZ: And finally, I know you already said it, but I just got to ask you again, Rep. Addison McDowell, are you confident that your side of the GOP will win out tonight on this vote?

MCDOWELL: I am.

JIMENEZ: All right. You couldn't tell me anything else, honestly. Congressman, I really appreciate the time and perspective. Thanks for being here.

MCDOWELL: Yes.

JIMENEZ: All right. Still to come, terrifying video shows an airliner and a private jet coming within seconds of hitting one another on the Chicago runway. You can see the video right there. We're going to tell you what we know about the incident as Americans express fears over recent air travel accidents.

Plus, we're checking in with Trump voters in the blue state of Colorado about whether they would change their vote after his whirlwind first weeks in office.

And the clock is winding down on phase one of the Gaza ceasefire, with fighting set to potentially resume in a matter of days. And neither Israel or Hamas sounds confident about an extension or a phase two. That and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[15:23:20]

KEILAR: Another really scary moment for air travelers today. This time it was in Chicago, and it was all caught on tape. You can see this. This is a Southwest Airlines flight that was landing, attempting to land at Midway Airport, almost touching down there before the pilot quickly pulls up because it narrowly missed that smaller private plane you may have seen crossing the runway.

Thankfully, crisis averted here. The Southwest flight ultimately landing safely. The FAA now investigating in a statement official saying the crew of Southwest Airlines Flight 2504 initiated a go- around when a business jet entered the runway without authorization. Joining us now, CNN Aviation Analyst and former NTSB managing director Peter Goelz.

Peter, you see this all happening, and thank goodness this ended all right. What questions is this raising for you that investigators are going to take a look at?

PETER GOELZ, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, there's two things that were happening here. One is Midway is a very crowded airport on a very small plot of land. There's four intersecting runways, and the traffic controller gave the private jet his instructions, and there were multiple instructions in one order, cross a runway, cross a second runway, hold short before third. He didn't read it back correctly.

You're supposed to read back the instructions so the controller knows you've got it right. He clearly didn't get it. The controller immediately called him out on it.

[15:25:00]

But by that point, the Southwest 737 was already in landing, final landing mode, saw the jet on its path and pulled up.

KEILAR: Peter, I ...

GOELZ: Clearly, a scary event.

KEILAR: I think we have that audio. Let's listen to that. And just to be clear, you'll be hearing this, for our viewers, Flexjet 560, that is the name of the small private plane.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flexjet 560, hole your position there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold position, Flexjet 560.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flexjet 560, continue across the hold short, hold short of hotel.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cross the hotel - hold short of hotel, Flexjet 560.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flexjet 560, your instructions are to hold short of runway 31 Center.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flexjet 560, hold right there, sir. Don't move.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold position, 560.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flexjet 560, possible pilot deviation. I advise you contact Midway Tower at a number when you're ready to copy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Okay, that's all happening very quickly, too, Peter. And, I mean, I think the layperson has a hard time dissecting that. But you're saying that the passenger of the private jet, as this is all happening very quickly, isn't actually repeating what he's been told correctly.

GOELZ: Yes. And if you go back to a little earlier portion, you'll see that he just didn't get it quite right. And he's somewhat confused about where he's supposed to hold, where he's supposed to cross. My guess is this is a pilot that doesn't fly in and out of Midway fairly regularly. And it's, you know, at that time of day, there's a lot of traffic and you've got to be paying attention and ...

KEILAR: Okay. Well ...

GOELZ: ... there will be a voice recorder. They'll listen to it and see if they were distracted by other things going on.

KEILAR: Okay. Well, let me ask you something, because, I mean, it sounds like and the FAA is already being clear about this, that this was a - the private jet entering the runway without authorization. But from the standpoint of air traffic control, because as we know, aviation safety is about other factors, whether it's air traffic control or it's pilots. In this case, the Southwest pilot compensating for the mistake of someone else. It's really about compensating for the mistake of someone else. Is there something else air traffic control could have done as you listen to that?

GOELZ: I need to listen to it more carefully, but, you know, aviation is a business that has multiple layers of safety. Redundancy is key. If the taxiway pilot gets it wrong, the landing pilot gets it right. And there's an air traffic controller there. So, there's levels of redundancy. In this case, it worked. It was a close call, but it worked and people walked away safely.

The pilot will be questioned carefully, as will his co-pilot. And they'll listen to the tape. And my guess is that there'll be some action taken.

KEILAR: Beautiful response by the Southwest pilot, though. It's just unbelievable. Peter Goelz, thank you so much.

GOELZ: Yes.

KEILAR: Next, federal workers say DOGE is causing chaos. But what do Americans think across the country? CNN's John King putting that question to some Trump voters in Colorado.

Plus, at least one NFL team wants a controversial play banned from football. We'll tell you what it is and who wants it gone. Coming up.

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