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911 Audio Released in Gene Hackman's Death: "They're not Moving"; Soon: Trump, British PM Hold News Conference at White House; Supreme Court Pauses Order for Trump Admin. to Pay $2B in Foreign Aid; FDA Meeting on Next Flu Vaccine Canceled Without Explanation; Inside Kash Patel's First Week at the FBI. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired February 27, 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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[15:01:05]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A critical meeting on Ukraine at the White House, President Trump meeting face-to-face with Keir Starmer, the British Prime Minister. His mission? To get security guarantees for Ukraine.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And travel ban lifted. Andrew Tate, the right-wing influencer and self-described misogynist facing rape charges in Romania, is back in the U.S. Were officials pressured into letting him leave?

Plus, a key meeting at the FDA canceled, flu vaccine expert scheduled to meet to choose next year's flu shot.

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

SANCHEZ: We are following a ton of breaking news this afternoon. Thank you so much for us. I'm Boris Sanchez alongside Brianna Keilar in Washington, D.C.

And just moments ago, CNN obtained a 911 call from the moment the bodies of actor Gene Hackman and his wife were discovered inside their New Mexico home. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) 911. Santa Fe 911, what is the emergency?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello, my name is (INAUDIBLE) I'm the caretaker for Santa Fe Summit up here (INAUDIBLE) Ten Thousands Waves. I think we just found two or one deceased person inside the house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's that address, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no address. I'm going to wait for you at the gate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are they moving at all?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, dude. They're not moving. Just send somebody out here really quick.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay, my units are on their way, okay?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Investigators say the circumstances surrounding their deaths are, quote, "suspicious enough in nature" to require a thorough search and investigation. Let's go straight to CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister.

Elizabeth, talk to us a little bit about this call.

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: So, this call, you hear a individual who says that he is a caretaker for the residence where Gene Hackman and his wife lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, clearly sounding very panicked and wanting to get someone over to that home immediately. They said later in the call that they could see inside the house, but from the outside through a window, what appeared to be two bodies that were not moving.

Now, our team has also obtained a search warrant, and in that search warrant authorities had said that it was maintenance workers who first found the bodies. So again, these details coming into clearer picture here, but still so many questions with this very mysterious situation. In fact, per this search warrant, authorities have said that the circumstances surrounding the death of Gene Hackman and his wife are so suspicious that it requires a thorough investigation.

So this investigation still is ongoing, but some new details that we are learning, a gas company was assisting in the investigation, but now authorities saying there were no visible signs of a carbon monoxide leak or poisoning. Gene Hackman's wife was found in the bathroom and there was a bottle of prescription pills nearby. And, of course, their dog was also found deceased. So really disturbing details and a tragic death for one of Hollywood's biggest legends, although he did turn 95 last month, so an incredible life and illustrious career.

But I want to show you a clip of Gene Hackman talking to CNN's Larry King years ago. And he said that he actually never considered himself to be a big star.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING: Are you a star?

You've won supporting and main actor roles. You're as well-known as any film actor. Your name goes above the title, but are you a star?

GENE HACKMAN, FORMER ACTOR: No. You know, Warren Beatty's a star. You know, Robert Redford is a star. Brad Pitt.

[15:05:03]

I never think of myself that way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGMEISTER: Now, he also said that he does not like to watch himself on screen. But I think that Brad Pitt and all those other names would say that he is a huge star.

SANCHEZ: Yes, certainly millions enjoyed watching him on screen. And he was a recipient of two Oscars. Elizabeth, with the Oscars coming this weekend, he's likely going to be honored, no?

WAGMEISTER: He is. And I have some brand-new reporting, I just heard from a source very close to the planning of this weekend's Oscars ceremony that he will, in fact, be honored. Nothing is locked yet. The plans are still underway. But one scenario is that the in-memoriam montage will be edited to include Gene Hackman. Another scenario is that he is mentioned on stage, whether that's by host Conan O'Brien or another presenter or entertainer who takes the stage.

But speaking of those two Oscars that he did win, one of his Oscars came from Clint Eastwood. And we got a statement from him. I know we are out of time, but he said, "There was no finer actor than Gene." And he said, "He was also a dear friend whom I will miss very much."

SANCHEZ: Elizabeth Wagmeister, thank you so much for the reporting.

We're still standing by for breaking news, too, out of the White House.

KEILAR: That's right. President Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will be holding a joint press conference soon there. The U.K. leader, here for crucial talks on Ukraine, is hoping to get a clear American commitment to Ukrainian security as part of any peace deal with Russia.

SANCHEZ: Today's Oval Office sit-down could set the stage for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who will hold his own talks at the White House with Donald Trump tomorrow, potentially signing off on a deal that would give the U.S. access to his country's valuable natural resources, some rare earth minerals, though some key questions remain. CNN's Jeff Zeleny is live for us at the White House.

Jeff, what are we anticipating from this press conference between Starmer and Trump?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, there are many more questions that actually came out of the discussion just a couple hours ago in the Oval Office between the American president and the British Prime Minister. First and foremost, Donald Trump saying he trusts Vladimir Putin to do a Ukraine peace deal, using the word trust and sort of a dose of credulity as well, that he believes that Vladimir Putin would not violate any security deal. That simply defies history and perhaps some would even say logic.

But there certainly are many questions on that front about this security arrangement. The European allies, starting on Monday with the French president and now the British prime minister, trying to get the American president to back them up, if you will, and offer some type of security reassurance. So, the exchange that we're seeing there on the right-hand side of the screen, that was followed by a meeting and then a lunch, which they are still in, I'm told.

But the questions here surrounding all of this are about what the U.S. will do in terms of, A, holding Vladimir Putin's feet to the fire, like getting any type of concessions from him or what that deal will look like tomorrow. So, certainly many, many questions here on the table once they start taking them.

But at the end of all of this, this special relationship between the U.K. and the U.S. still holds, but it's shaky on the grounds of Ukraine. There's no question.

KEILAR: Yeah. Jeff Zeleny live for us at the White House. Thank you.

The Trump administration is taking another big step in its plans to conduct mass layoffs of federal workers, circulating a memo to agency leaders telling them to prepare for a quote significant reduction in the federal workforce over the next couple of months.

SANCHEZ: It comes as Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts temporarily paused the district court's order that would have forced the Trump administration to release two billion dollars in frozen foreign aid. We're joined now by CNN's Rene Marsh.

Rene, let's start with Trump's plan to shrink the federal workforce even further. How deep do we think these cuts are going to go?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the second wave of these mass firings, and we are expecting deep cuts at agencies, wiping out entire divisions of the workforce not considered essential. So, this will very much feel like an escalation from the cuts that we have already seen. A source describing the cuts at his agency to me as pretty brutal.

Yesterday, OPM instructed agencies to submit lists of divisions and employees who are not considered essential during government shutdowns. And for the divisions that are considered essential, agencies have been told to come up with a plan to reduce their staff, all in preparation for these large-scale terminations of federal workers.

[15:10:05]

And that memo says, and I'm quoting, "Agencies should focus on the maximum elimination of functions that are not statutorily mandated." And in a nod to just like how dramatic these cuts will be, OPM has also asked agencies to come up with talking points and strong arguments to convince Congress to agree with this major restructuring effort that they're proposing. Because, keep in mind, these are federal employees who are doing work that Congress has approved funding for.

Now, the deadline for the agencies to submit these plans for phase one of these large, wide-scale layoffs is just roughly just under two weeks from now.

KEILAR: And, Rene, now that the Supreme Court has temporarily paused an order for the Trump administration to pay $2 billion in foreign aid by midnight last night, what does that mean for repayment for humanitarian work that's already been done?

MARSH: So, this is a temporary win for the Trump administration, which, by the way, said that it could not logistically make the payments by that deadline to USAID, the State Department contractors and nonprofits for the foreign aid work that they had already completed. At issue is billions of dollars in foreign aid payments that were frozen as the administration tried to review and also cut spending that the President doesn't agree with.

Now, a Biden-appointed district judge had ordered the administration to make good on the payments that they owe for humanitarian and foreign aid work that had already been completed. But the underlying legal issues for this case have not yet been sorted out. We should just look at this as a pause.

The administration does not need to make the payments right now, while the court reviews the arguments in the case, to determine if this deadline for repayment should be extended or lifted altogether. Of course, this is all happening as employees are showing up to the USAID headquarters today to essentially retrieve all of their belongings. And this is also happening, as the administration said in court filings, that it would be cutting some 90 percent of the agency's grants and contracts, so lots happening there. But again, just a temporary win for the administration with this SCOTUS ruling. Back to you guys.

KEILAR: All right. Rene, thank you for that.

And still to come, the FDA canceling, without explanation, a key meeting to choose next year's flu vaccine. The impact this move could have on next winter's flu shots.

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[15:17:04]

SANCHEZ: An upcoming meeting of a key FDA panel about this fall's flu vaccine has been canceled without any official explanation. The independent committee meets every year to decide on the makeup of the flu shots for the upcoming season. The meeting was set for March 13th until panel members got an email Monday telling them it was called off.

The committee has been criticized by the new Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

We want to discuss with Dr. Paul Offit. He's a member of the FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee. He's also a pediatrician and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

Dr. Offit, thanks so much for being with us. You were supposed to be part of this meeting. I want to understand its purpose and whether you got clarity on whether it was postponed or canceled altogether. Is that clear?

DR. PAUL OFFIT, MEMBER, FDA VACCINE ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Well, the purpose is that we meet every March to pick flu strains for the coming year. It's a six-month production cycle. And that then allows the companies to make vaccines by September, which is when they roll out.

When we meet, we get presentations from the Department of Defense, the CDC, the World Health Organization and we look at how these viruses are moving sort of across the world. Usually, countries whose winters precede ours predict what strains we are likely to see in our country.

But they canceled the meeting. The FDA has decided or I don't know who decided, that now the FDA will make its decision without its advisory committee. Now, the advisory committee is a committee of experts that are independent of the government, independent of the pharmaceutical companies.

And when we have these meetings, they are frank, open, lively discussions, which the public can watch. And it's good because then you can see sort of the thinking about how strong the science is behind a particular policy. But now, apparently, it's going to happen behind closed doors, which is ironic since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. talks endlessly about how he wants transparency. And now it seems like things are going behind a curtain.

SANCHEZ: Did they provide any details for their reasoning behind having this meeting behind closed doors?

OFFIT: Don't know who made the decision or why the decision was made. None of that information was transmitted to us.

SANCHEZ: What could be the impact here? How are the manufacturers that make these vaccines reacting?

OFFIT: You'd have to ask them, but I don't think there's going to be much of an impact. I think what will probably happen is that the FDA internally will look at the same data we usually look at as a group, and they will then pick strains that the manufacturers will pick up and make vaccines as they normally make it.

So, I think I don't think the public should worry that this means that in any way the influenza vaccines would be less effective or less safe.

SANCHEZ: But if that means that there's less transparency, then I wonder how you discern why they would elect to do this privately. Do you think that this is in any way tied to RFK Jr.'s previous statements about vaccines?

[15:20:02]

OFFIT: Well, you worry that there's been a gradual dissolution of key elements of the public health program. So, the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, which advised the CDC, also had a meeting that was canceled. This meeting was canceled.

And, you know, one of the things we do at this meeting that's important is we do sort of a postmortem on what happened last year, did we pick the right strains last year. Because this current epidemic of influenza has been pretty severe, more than 800,000 hospitalizations. There's been, obviously, millions of cases and at least 13,000 deaths, which is a pretty tough year. Did we pick the wrong strains? And if so, why? What data did we look at that perhaps caused us to pick the wrong strains? And that's all open to the public and I think that lack of transparency doesn't serve the public well.

SANCHEZ: To that point you're making, there are two major influenza strains circulating this year at roughly the same rate. There was some preliminary testing that suggested that the flu vaccine for this season may be better matched to one strain than the other. Can you talk about why that might be and ultimately what the impact is?

OFFIT: So, flu's hard. I mean, it's a moving target. And often what is true is that if you've been immunized or nationally affected the year before, that doesn't mean that you're going to be protected the following year, which is why we have a yearly flu vaccine. What's also true is that the flu virus can mutate even during the season away from that vaccine.

So, I actually trained in an influenza lab at the Wistar Institute many years ago. And the head of that lab once said something to me I'll never forget. He said, if you want a research career that lasts the rest of your life, study influenza.

SANCHEZ: I do want to switch gears and ask you about steps to mitigate the spread of avian flu, of bird flu. Agriculture Secretary Rollins outlined a new strategy to do that and also to lower the price of eggs. And it includes $500 million to enhance biosecurity measures to keep the virus off of farms. How could that money be used effectively?

OFFIT: Right. I think what Europe does is they offer a vaccine to people who work in high-risk industries, like the poultry industry or the dairy industry or the fur industry. I think that - what you don't want to have happen is you don't want this virus to become adapted to grow in the human upper respiratory tract, nose, throat, windpipe, because then it's going to be transmitted from person to person easily, which it's not now.

I mean, it is not yet a human pandemic and may never become a human pandemic. But what you want to do is limit human exposure as much as possible to limit the chance that that mutational event that would allow the virus to grow in the upper respiratory tract doesn't happen. And so I think anything that mitigates against that happening is obviously important.

SANCHEZ: Dr. Paul Offit, appreciate the expertise. Thanks for joining us.

OFFIT: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: When we come back, we're going to take a closer look at Kash Patel's first week as head of the FBI, as he plans to renovate the bureau and also apparently his carpet and the drapes. We'll be right back.

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[15:27:44]

KEILAR: And we are awaiting a press conference with President Trump and the U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, so we're keeping our eye on that. That should be starting soon and we'll bring it to you as soon as it does begin at this critical time, obviously, as the President is trying to broker a deal to end the war in Ukraine.

In the meantime, week one is done for FBI Director Kash Patel, a week marked by internal upheaval as he set out to overhaul the Bureau in ways that could drastically realign both the workforce and the scope of the FBI's mission. Another focus, redecorating what Patel called his dingy office.

SANCHEZ: CNN's Evan Perez is here with the details.

Evan, what are you hearing about his first days on the job?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, I mean, there's been a lot of upheaval. Part of the job that Patel wants to do here is to realign the FBI to send a lot more of its workforce from outside of the Washington, D.C. area, from headquarters, to send them out. His whole mantra has been, let them go out and be cops, right? And that's, of course, a lot more complicated.

One of the things that he outlined to - in meetings with senior leaders is that he wants as many as 1,500 employees to be sent out. And he asked for some of them to start getting moving by tomorrow. That was the deadline he gave. That's a little unworkable, according to some of the people in those meetings, and they told him that. But he wants to move very, very quickly.

And one of the things that happened in the last few days, aside from changing out the carpeting inside the office and new drapes, new window treatments, is he has worked with some of the people behind the scenes to try to get those people out of D.C.

SANCHEZ: Evan, so sorry to interrupt. Let's go straight to the White House and listen into this press conference between President Donald Trump and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's a great honor. Today it's my privilege to welcome the Prime Minister of a very special place, the United Kingdom, to the White House.

Prime Minister Starmer, you've been terrific in our discussions. You're a very tough negotiator, however. I'm not sure I like that, but that's okay - very, very special person. The Prime Minister and I have gotten off to an outstanding start.

[15:29:59] The U.S. and U.K. have a special relationship, very special, really like no other passed down through the centuries. And we're going to keep it that way.