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Powerful Storm to Put Downsized Weather Service to Test; Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) Says Halt to Offensive Cyber Ops Against Russia a Major Blow; SpaceX Set to Launch Its Starship Rocket Six Weeks After Explosion. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired March 03, 2025 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Right now there's a powerful winter storm that is sweeping across the country. It's threatening a wide-ranging mix of extreme weather from blizzards to fires, to strong tornadoes, and don't forget the dust storms. This is actually video from CNN affiliate KFOX in El Paso, Texas.

It's a fast-moving dust storm just tearing across the southwest today. Dangerous conditions prompting an emergency alert for drivers to shelter in place as officials were working to get cars off the interstate.

This powerful storm system is crisscrossing the U.S. as scores of employees at the National Weather Service are being laid off as part of President Trump and Elon Musk's doge-related cuts to the federal workforce. With us now to discuss is Rick Spinrad. He's the former administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which you probably know as NOAA. It's the parent agency of the National Weather Service.

Thank you so much for being with us. If you could just talk to us a little bit about what you're seeing, because there's more than 800 NOAA employees that were fired last week. You say more than a hundred of those were National Weather Service employees.

So as we're looking at this kind of severe weather, do you have a sense about the roles that those fired employees would play in a scenario like this?

RICK SPINRAD, FORMER NOAA ADMINISTRATOR: Yes, thanks for having me, Brianna. And I'd start by saying there's never a good time to terminate people within the Weather Service or NOAA writ large. You called out the dust storms, but I'd also point out tornado season is right behind, followed by hurricane season.

Then we're going to have the summer with heat, flood, droughts. The fact that over a hundred people were fired from the weather services means the American public and industries and communities will get diminished services with respect to weather.

KEILAR: So often we hear and this is what we're hearing about every agency. Oh, these aren't frontline people. But can you speak to what happens when support staff at NOAA or the National Weather Service are canned? What the trickle down effect is to people who fill critical roles?

SPINRAD: Yes, well, first, I would say NOAA has always been operating at an understaffed level, especially in the Weather Service. And while I was administrator, I regularly made the argument that we needed to see more people brought in.

[15:35:03]

And it is forecasters. It's information technology specialists. It's electronics specialists.

These these firings are indiscriminate, misguided. And what it means is that the kind of products and services that we expect that we pay one penny per day for every American are going to be less frequent. They may end up being less accurate and we won't see as many of them.

So while you may think of the weather as the information you get to decide to go on a picnic, don't forget that it is critical for all aspects of the economy, agriculture, transportation, electricity. And so these cuts, which are beyond cuts to the bone, will result in a reduction of services that Americans are paying for right now.

KEILAR: Axios is reporting that meteorologists in charge at about a dozen forecast offices in the National Weather Service's central region retired. Five left in the eastern region. What do those meteorologists in charge do?

Tell us why they're important.

SPINRAD: Well, basically, the meteorologists in charge are the chief operating officers at each of the one hundred and twenty two weather forecast offices around the country. So every one of your audience within probably 50 or 75 miles has a WFO, weather forecast office. The M.I.C. is the one who's in charge.

The M.I.C. makes the decision about how much effort to put into what services, what warnings, what watches. The M.I.C. is the critical person who makes the decision about what supporting information people will get from the WFOs. And if we lose the M.I.C.s, if we lose the warning coordination meteorologists, if we lose the emergency meteorologists who basically surge to areas where we're getting big storms, we will see loss of life. We will see more damage of property and we will see economic loss.

KEILAR: Yes, I mean, it's an alarm that you're sounding there, Rick. Rick Spinrad, thank you so much for your insights. We appreciate it.

SPINRAD: Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: Still ahead, a major reversal. The Trump administration suspends operations and planning for offensive cyber operations against Russia. How some fear this could leave the U.S. open to major attacks.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A senior U.S. official confirms to CNN that the Trump administration has halted offensive cyber operations against Russia, including planning efforts. The official says the suspension is a major blow, especially since planning for such operations takes time and research to carry out. The order to U.S. Cyber Command, which is the military's offensive and defensive cyber unit, comes as President Trump moves to ease strained relations with Russia three years into its invasion against Ukraine.

Joining us now to discuss is Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell of California, a member of the Homeland Security Committee. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. Let's start with your reaction to this decision.

REP. ERIC SWALWELL (D-CA), HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: It's insane. And you have to ask the question, who benefits from this? Because I can tell you, having served on the Intelligence Committee and the senior Democrat on the Cyber Security Committee, the people who conduct these operations, they're essentially the big dude who's armed, who sits outside a jewelry store that always gets hit up by the bad guys.

And we're taking away that guy, and we're telling the bad guys, come on in and take our crown jewels. And who's going to get hurt by this? Small businesses.

When I talk to my constituents, and I've got some of the biggest companies in the world in my district who get hit all the time, and there's many small businesses who are affected by them getting hit because of the services connected to them, small businesses tell me it's coming from Russia. It's state actors in Russia, and then Russia creates this environment there where terrorists, cyber criminals, are allowed to operate freely. The best chance we have is that we can punch these guys in the face all day long if they're trying to hit us and put them on our heels.

That's not going to be occurring anymore, according to this report, and that's going to hurt small businesses, financial institutions all across the U.S.

SANCHEZ: So you reject the argument that pausing these offensive operations is helpful or even necessary in expediting negotiations with the Kremlin over the future of Ukraine?

SWALWELL: Yes. To anyone who would say pausing this operation would be helpful as it relates to Ukraine, well, come to me tomorrow when a small business says that they were not hit by Russia. We see it happening every day in real time.

So if Russia were to tell its own people inside its government and the cyber actors outside its government who are harbored by the government don't hit America anymore, then I would say maybe that's a fair deal, but that would also mean trusting Russia, and that's never to me been an idea that's paid off in our favor.

SANCHEZ: Pivoting specifically to Ukraine, do you think a deal for peace would be more likely if President Volodymyr Zelenskyy were to step aside? The way that some in the administration have suggested.

SWALWELL: That's what Putin wants, so no, I don't agree with that at all. And frankly, as somebody who has been to Ukraine during this war, it's maddening to see that we as a country who always fought the axis of evil are now joining Russia in their demands on Ukraine. And Boris, let me lay this out for your viewers as to why should we be helping Ukraine.

[15:45:03]

If you look around the world, our biggest economic enemy is China. Our biggest geopolitical enemy is Russia. In a matter of three years without losing a single U.S. soldier, we have decimated their military and their economy. It's been the greatest return on investment for any military expenditure ever.

And as far as the return on investment for soldiers' lives, it's infinity because you can't divide zero. So just economically, this makes sense. And the money that's being spent, yes, it's a lot of money, but it's being spent inside the United States to create jobs here.

I talked to Ukrainian soldiers when I was over there and I'd stay in touch with them during this conflict. And one of them once told me, you know what gets us through this, is that we know in America you don't leave your friends in the fields.

And to walk away from that, people will -- it will take 100 years to unsee what happened in the Oval Office last week. As far as friends that we're going to need in the world for any conflict that may come our way.

SANCHEZ: Lastly, Congressman, before we go, Trump's joint address to Congress tomorrow. I wonder, are you attending and who you might be bringing as a guest?

SWALWELL: We're going to be announcing our guest very shortly and still thinking through, you know, whether this is something even worth sitting in the audience for. I went to the inauguration, Boris. I wanted to be witness and be a check on this guy.

I don't want to go to the White House. I want to do my role as representative.

SANCHEZ: Congressman Eric Swalwell, we'll leave the conversation there. Thanks so much for the time.

SWALWELL: My pleasure. Thanks.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, SpaceX is launching another mega rocket test flight in just a few hours. It's after another one exploded a few weeks ago. We have more on this mission in just moments. [15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: In just a few hours, SpaceX is set to test launch its Starship megarocket, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. Today's scheduled liftoff comes just six weeks after the Starship exploded during its seventh test flight in January. A very, very expensive but majestic fireworks show.

KEILAR: And certainly debris streaking across the sky there above Turks and Caicos. Which is also a beautiful place, adding to the wonderment of the scene. The investigation into that explosion is ongoing.

We have former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman with us now. All right, Garrett, full disclosure, you're a former senior advisor for SpaceX. Tell us, though, your thoughts on this eighth attempt to launch this megarocket.

GARRETT REISMAN, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Hi Boris. Hi Brianna. Good to be back with you on the program.

Anytime SpaceX launches this enormous rocket, it's a great show. So I'll be tuning in. It's always very exciting.

But what they're trying to do today is basically repeat what they wanted to do the last time on the seventh test. And the hallmark of a good test campaign for SpaceX, the way they go about doing this, is even if it ends up in a massive explosion, that they learn something important, they fix that thing, and then they move on. And the next time they test, they go further, move the ball downfield, and make more progress.

That didn't quite happen the last time. And the last time, they, you know, up until then, the first six tests, they went further each time and made new accomplishments every time. The last time, they got cut a little bit short.

It's like they didn't quite get the ball back to the line of scrimmage, if you will. And so I'll be watching very carefully this time to see if they manage to do better.

SANCHEZ: Yes, I wonder if it didn't result in them gleaning a ton from what happened. If they're still investigating the last explosion, how do they then go about fixing what went wrong?

REISMAN: Well, I'm sure they learned a ton, and they always do. They get a lot of data, and they learn every time. And to be fair, this was the first flight the last time, the seventh time.

It was the first flight of a new model of the Starship, the second stage. And so there's bound to be some growing pains. And I'm sure that they -- and I know that they did find out what went wrong.

It was a leak in the propulsion system that caused a fire in what we call the attic. And that's what brought down the Starship the last time around. And they've made some changes, and I'm very confident we'll fix that problem.

And hopefully this time we'll see them get all the way up into space and then entry and test out, really take this thing for a really good test drive to see if the improvements that they made help it get back through the atmosphere.

KEILAR: Fire in the attic is never good, right? We all know that. So tell us how the success of SpaceX's Starship influences other private space companies and the future of commercial spaceflight.

REISMAN: Well, really the future of this whole industry depends on Starship being successful. It's going to be enormously impactful, not only because of the massive size of the rocket, not only because you can refuel it on orbit if it works out great and you can take it to other places in the solar system like Mars, but also because the economic aspect of it. If it's fully reusable, we get back both the booster and the ship, then it'll drop the cost of getting a kilogram of payload up to orbit.

It's already come down from about $63,000 a kilogram to around $2,000 per kilogram for the Falcon rockets. This could drop another zero off that price tag. And if it does, there's all kinds of business opportunities that become profitable and realistic.

KEILAR: Fascinating stuff. All right, Garrett, thank you so much. We're hoping for a show, but not too much of a show this time.

[15:55:02]

Garrett Reisman, appreciate it.

REISMAN: Thank you.

KEILAR: Still ahead, best actor winner, Adrian Brody. In a sticky situation after tossing his used gum at his girlfriend. What the heck about that? We'll talk about it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: It's a question. Couples everywhere are chewing on today. Would you hold your partner's used gum?

Well, last night at the Oscars, Adrian Brody was about to step on stage to accept best actor for "The Brutalist", but he forgot he had something in his mouth. So he turns around, tosses his gum to his girlfriend Georgina Chapman. She runs to the front row to catch it.

SANCHEZ: Good catch. She actually did a great job of catching gum. Gum is not that easy to catch.

Some folks on social media say they were completely grossed out. This sparked an online debate about whether throwing your already chewed gum to your significant other is sweet or an experiment you should never try. [16:00:00]

Brianna, what do you think?

KEILAR: At the Oscars, I'm going with the latter. It's the Oscars. Don't throw gum at your girlfriend people. Come on.

SANCHEZ: There's no cocktail napkin. Are you going to put it at the bottom of Oscar?

KEILAR: In the cheek. You got it. Up next, "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt debuts right now.

SANCHEZ: Thanks so much for joining us.

END