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Gene Hackman And His Wife Found Dead At Their Home; British PM Starmer To Meet Trump At White House; U.S. Supreme Court Pauses Federal Judge's Order On Trump Administration Foreign Aid Funding; Thousands Of USAID Employees Given Just 15 Minutes To Vacate Workstations. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 27, 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]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning. Police are investigating now after Oscar winning actor Gene Hackman and his wife both found dead in their home. The latest from police as Hollywood remembers this legendary star.

And a critical face to face. The British prime minister set to meet with President Trump at the White House, the second world leader to race in just this week to try and pull Trump away from his pro Russia stance on Ukraine.

And also happening right now, fired USAID workers in Washington are heading back to the office given just 15 minutes to pack up and get back out just as Supreme Court just handed Trump, the Trump administration a temporary victory on its cost cutting and fund freezing moves. John is out today. I'm Kate Bolduan with Sara Sidner. This is CNN News Central.

So this morning an investigation is underway after the tragic news came in overnight that legendary actor Gene Hackman is dead. According to the Santa Fe Sheriff's Department, he was found dead in his New Mexico home along with his wife and their dog. Sheriff's deputies say they do not submit suspect any foul play was involved.

Hackman was 95 years old. His acting career, it spanned some 40 years. Nominated for five Oscars, he won the award for best actor two times, first with his breakout role in the 1971 film "The French Connection" and again 20 years later for "Unforgiven." Here's a look at some of his many roles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GENE HACKMAN, ACTOR: We're going to have ourselves a time, boy.

I need you to suit up.

It's a good plan. How'd you figure it out?

Go, go. I tried to imagine a fellow smarter than myself and then I tried to think, what would he do?

You got to have heart.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you elaborate on that?

HACKMAN: Miles and miles a heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister joins us now with much more. What is the latest you're hearing about the investigation?

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Kate, this is a tragic and truly bizarre story. As you said, Gene Hackman and his wife found dead in their home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Their dog also found dead with them. Now police telling us at CNN that there is no foul play expected but no cause of death has been given yet. So obviously at this time, many more questions than answers.

Again, such a strange ending to a illustrious career and a great life. Gene Hackman turned 95 just last month and truly one of the greats in Hollywood.

Now it dawned on me that the Oscars are just two, three days away. Kate and I will be there. And I am certain that there is going to be a great tribute to Gene Hackman. During that In Memoriam, he won two Oscars. He was nominated for five.

I mean, when you say one of the greats, this really is one of the greats. A Hollywood legend is not used lightly. But once Hollywood wakes up, it is early here on the West Coast, Kate, I anticipate we will see an outpouring of love to honor Gene Hackman and his career.

But one of those early tributes that has come in is from Francis Ford Coppola. I want to read you what he had to say, Kate. He wrote, quote, the loss of a great artist always cause for both mourning and celebration. Gene Hackman, a great actor, inspiring and magnificent in his work and complexity. I mourn his loss and celebrate his existence and contribution. Now, Francis Ford Coppola directed the film the conversation in 1974 with Gene Hackman.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much, Elizabeth. So much more to discuss, reminisce and remember as well as learn more about this investigation that's underway. Thank you. Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. And we're going to do just that. One little known fact about Gene Hackman is that he and Dustin Hoffman were roommates in New York back in the 1960s. Decades later, they co- starred in the film "Runaway Jury."

But they first met while taking acting lessons at the Pasadena Playhouse. And we dug up an old interview with CNN where he talked about they're so illustrious start in the movie business.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gene Hackman was voted at the Pasadena Playhouse the least likely to succeed, right along with Dustin Hoffman.

HACKMAN: Along with Dustin Hoffman. And we had a tough time at the Pasadena Playhouse. But I think we've overcome it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would say so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: All right. Joining us now, Sandro Monetti. He's a writer, director and editor in chief of Hollywood International Film Magazine. Thank you so much for being here. We're all reminiscing about there's so many amazing movies that you even forget how many movies that Gene Hackman was in because he was such a pivotal played such pivotal roles in so many.

[09:05:02]

What were some of your favorites?

SANDRO MONETTI, EDITOR IN CHIEF, HOLLYWOOD INTERNATIONAL FILM MAGAZINE: Well, it wasn't just the number of movies, it was the quality. We've all got enough favorites, I think, to program a Gene Hackman Film Festival. I'll just rattle them off, "No Way Out," "Mississippi Burning," "The Birdcage." The list goes on and on.

The fact was that Gene Hackman's name on a poster was a hallmark of quality. And it wasn't just that, you know, he was good at picking material. He was making these movies good. He was just incapable of giving a bad performance. You know, it was always excellent. What a professional.

SIDNER: Incredible, actually. When you mentioned "Mississippi Burning" and in the same sentence, "The Birdcage," it just shows you his range. It was remarkable. Let me read you what actor George Takei said. And as people are waking up, as we've been hearing from Elizabeth Wagmeister in Hollywood, tributes are starting to pour in. This is what Takei said. Gene Hackman could play anyone, and you could feel a whole life behind it. He could be everyone and no one. A towering presence or an everyday Joe. That's how powerful an actor he was.

So we have all. We all know Gene Hackman from the screen, right? We don't know him in person. What was his reputation with his colleagues in Hollywood?

MONETTI: Oh, so respected an actor's actor, as the tribute from George Takei alluded to there. You know, he could play hero or villain, authority figure or idiot. You know, nothing was too much of a challenge for this guy. And it's because he'd been through, I think, so many challenges in his own life. He was determined to make it a success, as we saw in the package there. Voted least likely to succeed.

Well, he certainly made up for that because he actually received five Oscar nominations. That's a very short list of actors who've got that kind of number. Just look it up. You'll see they're all greats. And that's a testament to Gene's talent. He definitely belongs on that list of greats.

And, yes, he was, you know, when most people are sort of starting their careers in acting, he came quite late to it. It wasn't an overnight success here, but he was very determined to prove wrong all the people who had doubted him. You know, there is a whole tradition, I think, in Hollywood of the acting greats who had problems with their fathers or abandoned by their fathers.

You know, his dad literally waved as he walked out of the door. You know, his -- even his, you know, former bosses in the Marines sort of doubted him. But he was determined to prove people wrong and boy, did he ever. And he didn't, at the height of his success, stopped start phoning it in or coast? No, right up to the end of his acting career, which he left on his own terms. He was giving great performances, couldn't do anything else.

SIDNER: Yes, it was in him, as you say. And he was obviously a fighter and wanted to show people his worth, even though he didn't need to. Let me ask you about this. He was out of the public eye for a very long time. It's been about 20 years enjoying his life in Santa Fe.

You don't hear that all the time from very famous Hollywood actors. They're often, you know, drawn to the camera, if you will. But he got real quiet for some time then. Yes. Do you know what he had been doing in those 20 plus years that he's been sort off camera, if you will?

MONETTI: Yes, he'd been writing historical novels and he had been living the quiet life. Not for him, the choice to go on social media and draw attention to himself and sort of post it every day. No, he retired from Hollywood and he stayed retired, you know, moving out of Los Angeles where he was born and raised, going to New Mexico and living the quiet life, you know, with his second wife to whom he'd been married for three decades now.

So, yes, he actually was one of those who was almost something of a recluse, actually. You know, it was interesting to watch his TV interviews and realize how long ago they were because he wasn't someone who was frequently in the spotlight. But you could just turn on TV anywhere in the world and see one of his films because his legacy is some great movies.

Yes, he made close to 100 films, but on that list, it's hard to find a bad one.

SIDNER: Right. It is very true. We were just showing the list of the five times he was nominated for an Oscar and the two times that he won. And I've seen every single one of those films, which makes me 370 years old, but all of them are very different and all of them are very good.

So I am assuming that right now some producer somewhere that is preparing for the Oscars, that is coming up in just a couple of days is scrambling to try and put a tribute together.

[09:10:00] MONETTI: It's so interesting you say that because when we watch the In Memoriam section of the Oscars, you see clips from sort of one or two films. The hardest challenge here is what clips do you use for Gene Hackman? Because you could fill a 20 minute tribute, really, because, you know, most actors are lucky enough and they've said to me, oh, if I could just make one great film, that would be remembered.

But, you know, there's plenty more than that for him. You can just rattle them off. Not just the five listed there, but so many others. Let's not forget Superman. That's the first time I ever saw him. And I think many people in the world, you know, with that being a kind of enduring franchise that people come back to, a generation after generation, will have seen his performance as Lex Luthor.

And that was something much more sort of comedic and light, you know, very different from a lot of his other work. But as you know, we've said in this tribute, whatever the challenge you lay down, Gene Hackman could rise to it. Very impressive stuff. What a life, what a legacy.

SIDNER: Truly. Sandro Monetti, thank you so much. I really appreciate you this morning.

All right ahead, a critical meeting soon at the White House between President Trump and the British prime minister. Can he get the president to agree to security guarantees for Ukraine?

And breaking overnight, the Supreme Court granting Trump's request to freeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid payments as we learn new details about the scale of the administration's planned cuts to U.S. aid.

And an apology from Meta this morning after traffic and violent videos showed up on users Instagram reels, unwanted.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:16:11]

SIDNER: Just a short time from now, President Trump will be hosting another key U.S. ally against the backdrop of tremendous global stakes. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will be meeting with Trump with hopes of getting a U.S. security deal for Ukraine, something the two leaders are at odds over.

Senior chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt is joining us now. Alex, just how critical are today's talks? You know, we know that he met with the French president and now he is sitting with what usually is a very strong U.S. ally.

ALEX MARQUARDT, SENIOR CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, Prime Minister Starmer has a huge challenge ahead of him today. He is now part two, essentially in his three-part series of European leaders coming here to Washington this week, Macron earlier this week from France, Starmer today, President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, tomorrow, all coming here to urge President Trump to cajole, to essentially plead with him to not abandon Ukraine, to continue to support Ukraine, to not give in to President Putin and to give him more concessions.

We will hear a lot today about the special relationship between the U.S. and the UK. Starmer will talk about how the U.K. is the number one U.S. ally. We'll also hear him talk about how Europe needs to step up and spend more on defense, which is Prime Minister Starmer announced earlier this week that Great Britain would be spending more on defense.

But what we're really watching for here, Sara, is what progress, if any, Starmer can make in terms of convincing the American president that the U.S. needs to continue to provide not just security aid, but security guarantees in the long run to prevent President Putin from invading Ukraine ever again.

Prime Minister Starmer has talked about the need for an American backstop as part of this deterrent set of guarantees. And we heard from the prime minister speaking with reporters on his plane coming here to Washington last night. I want to read part of what he said. He says, my concern is if there is a cease fire without a backstop, it will simply give Putin the opportunity to wait and to come again because his ambition is in relation to Ukraine is pretty obvious, I think for all to see.

But we have not seen, Sara, President Trump warming to this idea of any kind of American role in this backstop. This is what the president said just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. We're going to have Europe do that because it's in, you know, we're talking about Europe is their next door neighbor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: So Prime Minister Starmer and the French have talked about having their own troops on the ground as peacekeepers. They've talked about a force of some 30,000 European troops, but that has been ruled out by the US. They have said President Trump and others have said that American troops will not be in harm's way in Ukraine. So is there anything else that the U.S. can do? Can they offer long range firing capabilities, intelligence, heavy aircraft to carry things around? Perhaps it could be positioned outside of Ukraine.

These are all kinds of the kinds of specifics that the prime minister wants to talk about today. And then those arguments will be reinforced by President Zelenskyy coming here tomorrow to sign that minerals deal. But very notably, despite the fact that this is a huge deal, the U.S. is not offering those critical security guarantees as part of this deal. So this is very much an ongoing campaign by the Europeans to get more assurances from the United States. Sara.

SIDNER: We will see how it goes. It doesn't look great when it comes to what Ukraine is expecting, but we will see. Alex Marquardt, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Kate. BOLDUAN: Joining us now to talk about this as a member of Ukraine's Parliament, Kira Rudyk. It's good to see you again. Thank you for being here.

And what we just heard from Alex Marquardt playing that from President Trump that we're not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. And it's not guarantees are not part of the minerals deal expected to be signed as Alex was talking about.

[09:20:00]

What do you think that means? What do you take from what you hear from President Trump on these security guarantees? What do you think it means for Ukraine?

KIRA RUDIK, MEMBER OF UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT: Hello, and thank you so much for having me. The main and the key idea of what we think Donald Trump is trying to do is to make Europe take more responsibility for European security. So it is very important that President Macron and Premier Starmer will be able to show their proposal and their agreement to take more responsibility before President Zelenskyy comes to the White House.

We absolutely sure that without the security guarantees, any kind of the deal doesn't make any sense because they are simple, non- executable. There has been talks by President Trump that he thinks that Putin wants to end the war.

However, here on the ground, we have not seen any fact or any action that would confirm this statement. What we have seen is that attacks on our peaceful cities didn't change. The situation at the frontline did not change.

This is why, and it will always be like that from our side. Security should come first, security should come forward. We are hopeful that agreeing to the rare minerals deal will warm up the new administrations toward Ukraine.

However, I need to tell you that it is only the framework of the deal and the details and the devil is always in the details will come later and that bigger deal will have to be ratified by Ukrainian parliament, by the Hovna Rada (ph). And we have not seen any details on that just yet. So we will have to see what will President Zelenskyy will bring. Of course, we wish him well and success because our future depends on it.

BOLDUAN: I was going to ask you if you have seen any of the details when it comes to it. You answered that. When it comes to the minerals deal and security guarantees, President Trump also made the case yesterday that Ukraine does not need security guarantees from the United States because a U.S. presence there working on mineral extraction would amount to, quote, unquote, automatic security. Let me play this for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: It's a great deal for Ukraine too, because they get us over there, we're going to be working over there, we'll be on the land. And you know, in that way it's this sort of automatic security because nobody's going to be messing around with our people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Do you agree with that?

RUDIK: With all due respect, I remember February of 2022 when U.S. embassy was evacuating its staff and its people from Kyiv when everybody was thinking that Russia would attack. So no, the U.S. presence on the ground here did not create safety net for us and didn't stop Russia from attacking.

And we do not believe that simply having U.S. citizens or U.S. companies here in Ukraine will stop Putin from something. It just didn't work in the past. And there is no fact that would prove that it will happen in the future.

BOLDUAN: Today the Kremlin, just today the Kremlin declared that. Let me read it. For the four Ukrainian regions that have been occupied and annexed by Russia are, quote, unquote, an integral part of Russia and non-negotiable. What is that going to mean for these talks?

RUDIK: Well, Russia's position was never different than right now. They wanted to take all of Ukraine. They added our territories to their constitution when we were fighting for them. And Russia never said that they really want to end the war or want to have any kind of the compromise.

This is why here in Ukrainian parliament and in Ukraine on the ground, we are so surprised that the new administration has this certain illusion that Putin wants to end the war and wants to negotiate. This is not what we see. This is not what we feel. And we hope that the realization of this will not come at a huge price because for us, it came with a very huge price and ultimate price that our people had to pay.

BOLDUAN: Really quick, when President Zelenskyy meets with Donald Trump tomorrow, where things are right now, do you think the future of Ukraine hinges on the outcome of that face to face at the White House?

RUDIK: That would be indeed a very important meeting. And even as an opposition party leader, I wish nothing to President Zelenskyy but success because our physical survival depends on that. We hope it will be the step in the right direction.

BOLDUAN: Kira Rudik, thank you very much for coming in.

RUDIK: Thank you.

[09:25:03]

BOLDUAN: Ahead for us Right now, fired USAID employees are being escorted back into the office, the now shuttered headquarters in D.C. and given just 15 minutes to pack up their belongings and get back out. And the Supreme Court also just weighed in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Happening right now in the nation's capital, people are showing support for fired USAID workers who are at the D.C. headquarters of the dismantled agency this morning. You can see the signs being held there. They were given 15 minutes within a designated one hour window to pack their things.

[09:30:00]