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New York Based Law Firm Agrees to Dedicate Equivalent of $40 Million in Pro Bono Legal Services to Support Trump Administration Initiatives; Columbia University Announces Policy Changes after Trump Administration Threatens to Revoke Nearly $400 Million in Federal Funding; Pope Francis Set to be Discharged After Five Weeks in Hospital; Operations at London's Heathrow Airport Back to Normal after Major Fire Led to Power Outage; Attorney Says ICE Deported Venezuelan Immigrant Seeking Asylum in U.S. Because of His Tattoos; Firefighter Launches Initiative to Provide Physical and Mental Nourishment to First Responders; Former Intelligence Officer Claims U.S. Government Secretly in Possession of Non-Human UFO Craft and Biological Samples. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired March 22, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: -- but then you save on the insurance. You maybe get insurance in places where you can't get it if you don't build smarter, so more climate aware construction right now. So it's a huge question. And then the Trump administration is clawing back a lot of incentives to build more sustainable communities around the country right now. So we talked to Bill Gates about that in this special tomorrow night, Tom Steyer, other major climate investors from London to Silicon Vallen. There's a lot of helpers out there look to beat the big, bad climate wolf. But we lack the leadership these days around the world, really.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. And it looks like people are really enthusiastic about responding to these natural disasters and then trying to get ahead of, because we know ultimately there are more coming. That's just the way the pattern has been. Bill Weir, we look forward to watching. Thank you so much.

An all-new episode of "The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper", one hour, one whole story, airs tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. eastern and pacific right here on CNN.

Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And we begin this hour with a powerful law firm and a major university caving to growing pressure from the Trump administration. This week, President Trump rescinded an executive order that suspended security clearances for lawyers at the law firm Paul Weiss, a firm that in recent years had often been aligned with liberal leaning legal pursuits. The president's reversal came after the New York based firm agreed to dedicate the equivalent of $40 million in pro bono legal services over the course of Trump's term to, quote, support the administration's initiatives. And on Friday, Columbia University announced a series of sweeping

policy changes after the Trump administration threatened to revoke nearly $400 million in federal funding to the school over last year's campus protests.

We've got team coverage of these developments. Gloria Pazmino will be joining -- or there she is. She's joining us right now about the changes at Columbia University. Alayna Treene is also with us, who is near the president's New Jersey resort.

So, Alayna, let's begin with you. What more can you tell us about Trump's crackdown on law firms and the way at least this one is reacting?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. Look, Fred, the Trump administration has really moved over the past couple of weeks now to crack down on law firms that have clashed with both him and his administration in the past. He vowed to sign an executive order essentially suspending the security clearances for some of these top firms and their staff, as well as ending their federal contracts.

However, as you mentioned, one of these top law firms that has really gone head-to-head with the president ultimately caved to White House pressure. Now, the chairman of this New York firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, the chairman's name is Brad Karp, he met with the president on Friday. We're told he sought that meeting to try and find a way around this executive order.

And he ultimately struck a deal with President Donald Trump that, as you mentioned, agreeing to dedicate the equivalent of $40 million in pro bono legal services over the course of the Trump administration's term to, quote, support the administration's initiatives. The firm also agreed to audit its employment practices and also agreed to, quote, not adopt, use, or pursue diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.

Now, during this meeting, were told that Karp, again, the chairman of Paul Weiss, essentially acknowledged the wrongdoing one of its firm's top prosecutors. His name is Mark Pomerantz. Now, if you remember that name, Pomerantz was actually one of the lawyers who previously worked in the Manhattan district attorney's office to investigate Donald Trump's use of hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Pomerantz was really at the center of Trump's legal ire with that case.

Now, as a result of this meeting yesterday and this deal they struck, we saw the president ultimately rescind that order for this firm of revoking those security clearances. But overall, just to take a step back, we've really seen with the way that the Trump administration has been targeting all of these different law firms, it's been met by widespread criticism and really condemnation from people all over the country. We even saw one judge try to block one of those efforts.

Just to give you an example as well, just showing how it's not just Paul Weiss that has been targeted. Another firm that was, had ties to and working with former Special Counsel Jack Smith, who of course, was investigating the president over the last four years, they have also been at the center of some of this targeting. And so really, we're seeing this one firm kind of cave to this pressure, but other firms are still very much in the line of fire with the Trump administration. We'll see how this all plays out. But again, something that has drawn a lot of criticism from people across the country who are questioning whether the president should really be doing this in seeking retribution on people and firms that they deem as political enemies.

[14:05:11]

WHITFIELD: All right, Alayna, thank you so much.

Let's bring in Gloria Pazmino. And so now, something very similar, a similar dynamic, meaning the Trump administration threatening Columbia University. And now we're seeing Columbia University is responding. Perhaps they're hoping that this is going to be well received at the White House?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fred, it's, frankly, it's a remarkable concession by Columbia University. Here you have one of the most elite educational institutions in the country, and perhaps in the world, essentially conforming to some of the Trump administration demands over this threat that the administration made to cut $400 million in grants if the administration did not do something to respond to what the Trump administration has called antisemitic violence and harassment, and to protect faculty and students from that.

So what's happening here is that the school is issuing a new set of policies, many of them directly in response to the administration's demands. They include several changes, including bringing in campus police officers that are going to have powers to arrest protesters. University I.D. will be required in order to demonstrate. No face coverings are going to be allowed. No protests will be allowed in or around academic buildings.

And one of the most controversial changes, Fred, is that they are going to appoint a senior vice provost to oversee the Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies Department.

So the question here now, Fred, is how the student body and the faculty is going to react to all of this. So far, we're getting some public indication that there is some unity at the university. The board of trustees issued a letter this week to the academic community essentially endorsing many of the changes. So this is the first sort of public support that we are seeing from the university's governing body, saying that they are in agreement with this.

Here's part of what the letter said. It said, quote, "We have and continue to support Interim President Armstrong's approach." They also said, quote, "We are grateful for her principled and courageous leadership during this unprecedented time and for the steps she has taken and is taking to strengthen our institution."

The question now, Fred, is whether or not this is going to be enough for the Trump administration and whether or not it's going to revoke this, this $40 million grant that the university is expected to get. In the balance here, it's not just the university, but research. Many of the projects that the university is a leader on, and of course, we'll wait to see what the reaction is. Right now the students are on spring break, so we'll see if there's any sort of demonstration and how students are going to respond to being told that they can only protest in this very specific way. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, Gloria Pazmino and Alayna Treene, thanks to both of you ladies. Appreciate it.

All right, let's talk more about all of this. Joining me to talk about this is Larry Sabato. He's the director for the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. Also, John Dean, former White House counsel for President Nixon and a CNN contributor. Great to see both of you.

All right, so, John, I wonder if I can go to you first because I'm wondering, in your view, what's worse, that the White House threatened the law firm, if we want to talk about the Paul Weiss law firm, or that the Paul Weiss law firm caved to pressure and is now promising pro bono work?

JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Fred, of course, the context of all this is that Trump and the Republican Party appear to want to employ autocratic techniques and have a very strong presidency far exceeding traditional powers. This is a ploy that strongmen use. It's a form of extortion where you hold over both these institutions, In this instance, a threat of financial loss if they don't comply with what the government wants.

I was not surprised that Columbia reached the conclusion they reached on the $400 million threat against them. I was -- I was shocked at Paul Weiss. Other law firms have been threatened and they've litigated it. And preliminarily the courts have said this is highly unconstitutional. So Paul Weiss had a strong argument to make. This is all about money, about their partners wanting to collect their biggest checks. So they caved. And I think it's kind of shameful.

[14:10:00]

WHITFIELD: And when you talk about money and what Paul Weiss firm is known for, I mean, one of its top lawyers with that firm helped prepare Kamala Harris for her debate against Trump. So they've done some work that is, you know, Democrat leaning. That's one example. They also did some work for Biden. But the firm made something like $2.6 billion last year in its revenue representing the likes of ExxonMobil and the Apollo Global Management. So in your view, John, they wanted to make sure, this Paul Weiss firm, makes sure that it's able to continue to pay out it's attorneys, it's partners, for, I mean, you know, very lucrative business. And by making this deal, they're able to still promise and collect on this kind of money?

DEAN: They are a very DEI firm just by nature of their partners. They have a wide variety of very high-profile partners. This is not going to be something that many of those partners, like Loretta Lynch or Jeh Johnson, are going to be very happy with. But maybe the bottom line is getting the check at the end. So we'll see how this all shakes out.

WHITFIELD: And Larry, a flipside to that when we talk about Columbia University, I mean, the Trump administration might be pressuring other universities to change policies. This is the latest example that we know of, some $400 million that would have gone to Columbia University the White House saying it was going to withhold. But our Gloria Pazmino was reporting earlier, Columbia has not necessarily heard from the White House as to whether they are satisfied with these suggestions on how they're going to move forward. What's the larger impact that you see here on college campuses, this one potentially acquiescing to the demands of the White House like this?

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, it's kind of ironic, I wonder if John agrees with me, that a Republican administration is now micromanaging universities and colleges. They supposedly don't believe in that kind of thing until they do. And just as with the law firm Paul Weiss and perhaps other law firms as well, this is about the almighty dollar. Even for a great university like Columbia, $400 million is a big piece of change.

The real impact of it is not to give an opening to the Trump administration to do the very same thing to every university. They won't have to because they'll be self-censorship. Lots of other universities are watching every single bit of this, and they're already taking action in the area of DEI, for example. My own university just abolished DEI. We have a Republican board appointed by a Republican governor who's become very Trumpy. I don't think that that's an accident. I think it was somewhat related.

And you're going to see that in a lot of other places. So it's self- censorship and it's intimidation. And this administration, well, FDR was the new deal. Donald Trump is the administration of revenge and retribution.

WHITFIELD: And then, John, potentially, as it pertains to law firms, there could be more, right. On Friday, President Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to review the conduct of lawyers and law firms the administration considers to have filed frivolous lawsuits against the Trump administration or attempted to block immigration initiatives. So what do you see potentially ahead?

DEAN: That order to the attorney general from the White House on making sure that everybody was complying with ethics, I hope they read it and follow it themselves. They are the ones that are violating many of the ethical standards of the court, not the people they're up against. So we'll see how that plays out, too. But that was a very ironic document to come out, and I just hope the Department of Justice adopts those standards.

WHITFIELD: Larry, we're seeing at a variety of town halls across the country, voters who are asking members of Congress to do something, and Democratic congressional leaders are vowing that they're going to fight harder. Do you see that it's not just about protecting government agencies and benefits, but now they're going to have to, I guess, widen that promise to now involve the judiciary, to involve the judicial branch of government and lawyers and law firms alike. SABATO: Well, one hopes they recognize it. What they can do about it

is another thing entirely. The rank and file are angry and they're screaming don't just stand there, do something. But the question is, what do you do when you don't control the House and the Senate and the presidency and the Supreme Court? What is it that you do?

[14:15:00]

Well, you focus certainly on the next election because they have a reasonable chance to win the House of Representatives, not the Senate, but the House of Representatives. That would give them a foothold to do something. And that's really, at this point, all they've got is rhetoric and energy and activism. And yes, they should utilize all that. The rank and file are correct. The Chuck Schumer approach is not the right approach. But I think people have to be realistic, too. What can you expect out of this? Until you regain power, not a whole heck of a lot.

WHITFIELD: All right, we'll leave it there for now. Larry Sabato, John Dean, great to see you both. Thank you so much.

DEAN: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right, still ahead, London's airport is back up and running after a fire shut it down. But some travelers will still be stuck for days waiting for a flight out of Heathrow.

And a man who told Congress that he ran a Pentagon program to track advanced aerospace threats is now telling CNN why he thinks Donald Trump will help reveal more about what the government knows about UFOs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:20:40]

WHITFIELD: All right, this breaking news into CNN. After five weeks in the hospital, Pope Francis is set to be discharged tomorrow. CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau joins us live now from Rome. Barbie, tell us more.

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, you know, we really weren't expecting this. There was a press briefing yesterday in which a source at the Vatican said that we wouldn't even be getting a medical bulletin before Monday evening. And so all of a sudden they called a press conference with the Pope's doctors after they had announced he would be making an appearance from the balcony at Gemelli Hospital tomorrow during his angelus to bless the crowds below. And his doctors said that he'd be released tomorrow. Let's listen to what his head doctor had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SERGIO ALFIERI, DOCTOR TREATING POPE FRANCIS: The Holy Father will be discharged tomorrow, as we said before, in a stable clinical condition with a prescription to partially continue drug therapy and convalescence and rest period at least two months. (END VIDEO CLIP)

NADEAU: And that's going to be the most difficult thing for Pope Francis, will be to rest for two months while he's at his home in Santa Marta inside Vatican City. He has been working throughout this entire hospitalization stay, but once he's back inside the Vatican, it'll be interesting to see when he'll be making appearances from then again.

But the good news is, and this is something that I think a lot of people weren't expecting, that Pope Francis at 88 with his mobility problems and his history of health issues, is going home tomorrow.

WHITFIELD: He's pretty amazing. All right, Barbie Latza Nadeau, thanks so much.

All right, operations at London's Heathrow Airport are back to normal after a major fire at an electrical substation led to a power outage at Europe's busiest airport on Friday. The ripple effect of the 18- hour shutdown could affect an estimated 150,000 passengers and 1,300 flights in the coming days. One American woman who is getting married in the U.K. describes waiting for her wedding guests to arrive from the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMBER RODEN, U.S. CITIZEN GETTING MARRIED IN ENGLAND: Two of them actually took off the other day and were turned around. They were like halfway here and had to turn around and go back to Atlanta because of the shutdown, which is insane. And then two of my cousins, they got canceled just because their plane was still here and not over there yet. And so they've had to rebook and come in on Monday, which is the day we're meant to be at the venue. So it's absolutely been insane. And my other friend doesn't even know if she can make it now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Oh, very stressful for so many.

CNN's Anna Stewart is joining us now live from Heathrow Airport. So, Anna, how much progress have folks made with the flight backlog?

ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know what the lights are on, flights are taking off and landing. It's getting nice and noisy here. Heathrow Airport is essentially back to normal for airlines. It will take a little bit longer to get back to normal, really. British Airways, the U.K.'s flag carrier, says they're planning or hoping to run at 85 percent capacity today. And that's because so many aircraft started this weekend in entirely the wrong place, some in the wrong countries. And that's actually meant that for thousands of passengers, they're having to crisscross Europe to try and get home. Take a listen to one lady I met just an hour ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANNINE HUBER, FRENCH PASSENGER RETURNING TO NICE: We had to take a plane from Hanoi to Heathrow and then to Heathrow to Nice. But during our flight up in the sky to Heathrow, we look at the small TV, and we see the plane only through Munich.

STEWART: Munich.

HUBER: What happened?

STEWART: So you should have got to Nice on Friday, but you're not going to get home till Sunday?

HUBER: Correct. Three days.

STEWART: Three days?

HUBER: Three days, yes. But I feel good because I love, I love, I love London. So I'm very happy to be here. And perhaps tomorrow morning we go to make a tour in the town.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STEWART: Actually, a pretty happy passenger there. Of course, there are plenty who are much less happy and have not had such a good experience.

[14:25:00]

But of course, investigations are ongoing as to what caused the fire at the electrical substation, and there will be investigations as to whether there needs to be better resilience for such critical infrastructure like Heathrow Airport.

WHITFIELD: Yes, that is hard to prepare for. Anna Stewart at Heathrow Airport, thank you so much.

All right, coming up next, the families of some migrants deported from the U.S. and sent to a prison in El Salvador are desperately searching for answers as they scramble to prove that their loved ones are innocent.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A federal judge is slamming President Trump's deportation of Venezuelan immigrants as problematic and concerning after Trump invoked an 18th century law for the actions.

[14:30:06]

It's called the Alien Enemies Act, and it's only been used three other times in U.S. history. It can only be invoked if the U.S. is at war with another country, if another country has invaded or threatened to invade the U.S., and if the president makes a public proclamation of the event.

But yesterday, President Trump actually downplayed his involvement, saying he did not sign the proclamation, but stands by his administration's actions. However, you can see the signature on the proclamation. President Donald Trump did sign it.

Lindsay Toczylowski is CEO of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. One of your clients was deported as part of the group. Glad you could be with us. What do you know about his case, the circumstances that he was rounded up and deported? And have you or anybody been able to speak with him?

LINDSAY TOCZYLOWSKI: Unfortunately -- he was essentially disappeared last week. He was supposed to show up in an immigration courtroom, and he was never brought to court by ICE. Over last weekend, he disappeared from the online detainee locator, and we have had no communication. We only know and have confirmation that he is in El Salvador because he's in ongoing asylum proceedings in the United States. And when we went to his scheduled court hearing on Monday, we were told by ICE that he had been removed from to El Salvador.

And I'll say we were told that he was removed because we don't think this was a removal. There is no removal order that has been signed by a judge. And to this moment, ICE has not given us any documentation of the circumstances under which our client was removed. And they have told us they will not facilitate communication with our client at this time.

WHITFIELD: So we were looking at some still pictures of him, your client, right. And it looks like he's holding up some makeup brushes. Is he a makeup artist? Because the administration is saying they rounded up people who are known gang members.

TOCZYLOWSKI: Well, that is what the administration is saying. And I can say definitively on behalf of our client, Andry, who we want everyone to know who he is. They did not have enough due process to be sure about who were on those planes and the people who are now sitting in a Salvadoran prison that is notorious for human rights abuses. Our client, Andry, is a gay, young professional makeup artist from Venezuela. He's close with his family. He is someone who was in the midst of seeking protection in the United States. He had, in fact, entered the United States through lawful means. He waited for a CBP one appointment, which was the way that our government had asked people to enter the United States to seek asylum. He did that last year. And the only reason that we believe, and that the government has indicated, that he is now sitting in a cell in El Salvador is because he is a Venezuelan man with tattoos.

WHITFIELD: You've worked as an immigrant immigration attorney for 15 years, I understand. You've never seen anything like this before, right? I mean, does that mean that this is also very difficult to navigate? How do you protect, how do you help your client when you're now in uncharted territory?

TOCZYLOWSKI: In my 15 years of immigration law practice, this is the single most shocking thing that I have ever seen happen to a client. And that comes from somebody who represented families that were ripped apart during zero tolerance, who represented people who were trapped in the remain in Mexico program. This is absolutely shocking. The degradation of his due process rights, the violation of his constitutional rights, and the violation of what asylum means in the United States, that this would happen to someone and that we would be given no notice, no opportunity to refute the baseless allegations against our client, and that he would be sent to a country where his custodial status right now, inside that mega prison in El Salvador, is unknown. And he's being held incommunicado. So for us to figure out the ways that we can fight back and get our client to safety, we are truly in unprecedented times. And we are looking at all options so that we can make sure that he is able to vindicate his right to seek asylum and that we get him out of that prison and into a safe location.

WHITFIELD: What are your biggest worries and concerns? Because we've just seen the pictures of how the suspects, prisoners, whatever we're calling all the people who are rounded up, and as they're getting off the plane.

[14:35:08]

Our David Culver has done stories on this El Salvador prison. I mean, it's hardcore. What are your concerns and worries about your client, especially as you just mentioned, he's incommunicado?

TOCZYLOWSKI: We're extremely concerned. The propaganda videos that are coming out showing people that are in custody in that prison, as well as even our own State Department reports which have reported on the human rights violations that take place in Salvadoran prisons. We're extremely concerned for his safety.

He is obviously, as a gay man, particularly vulnerable, and prior to coming to the United States to seek asylum, had never been in any kind of government custody whatsoever. When he was in ICE detention in the United States, that was the first time that he had ever even seen the inside of a prison or a jail cell. He has no criminal history. So certainly, you know, we're very, very concerned for his safety at this time, and particularly because we have no idea what the conditions of his confinement are because we are unable to communicate with our client. And the ICE attorneys and officers here have told us that they will not bring him to his next hearing in the United States and they will not facilitate communication with his attorneys.

WHITFIELD: Are you or the family prepared for the possibility that you may never have an opportunity to communicate with him?

TOCZYLOWSKI: So we are looking at all options. Certainly, when we have communicated with his family they are extremely concerned. But as you said earlier, we're in unchartered territory here. We're certainly watching the ongoing litigation related to these flights and the invocation of this act very carefully. And we're also looking at what other options might exist for us to get into contact with our client, potentially through collaboration with regional partners. However, at this time, we are not thinking that far ahead. We are taking this one day at a time. It's been a little over a week since he was forcibly removed from the United States, put on a U.S. government plane, and sent to a Salvadoran prison. So we are certainly in a situation we have never been in before, but we are steadfast in our determination to make sure that we bring our client back to safety.

WHITFIELD: Can I ask you quickly, do you believe it's his tattoos that got him rounded up or arrested?

TOCZYLOWSKI: We believe that it's solely based on the fact that he is a Venezuelan man with tattoos. Some of the evidence that was proffered in court by ICE attorneys indicated that they believed because of his tattoos, which you can see some of his tattoos in the photos there, are the same types of tattoos you might see on anybody in a coffee shop in the United States or Venezuela. They believed that those tattoos indicated he was part of Tren de Aragua. We believe that is the only reason that they have to believe that our, as I said, client who is a young professional in his 30s who worked as a makeup artist in Venezuela before coming with no criminal history, is a member of a gang. And that is why they had him on that plane.

WHITFIELD: OK. I should --

TOCZYLOWSKI: But of course, we haven't received any official notification from them about the circumstances of his removal from the United States.

WHITFIELD: OK. And I should point out that CNN did reach out to the Department of Homeland Security for a list of those moved to El Salvador. We're still awaiting a reply. Lindsay Toczylowski, CEO of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, thank you so much for your time.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:43:43]

WHITFIELD: The tragic collision near D.C.'s Reagan National Airport in January left first responders coping with devastating images from the event. One firefighter hopes to help others through these troubling memories by launching a new initiative to provide physical and mental nourishment.

CNN's Gabe Cohen takes a look beyond the call.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today we're just preparing the food that we're going to enjoy tomorrow, so we have salmon, green beans, going to do chicken.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In this bustling kitchen, Jonathan Tate is on a mission to serve more than meals.

JONATHAN TATE, FOUNDER, FOOD FOR THOUGHT: What does a first responder do when they can't respond?

COHEN: Because he's not just a cook. He's a firefighter in the nation's capital, and this is the ultimate comfort food that stirs up memories of what he and his colleagues have experienced.

TATE: Ongoing support is needed for those first responders just based on the fact that it wasn't business as usual that day. COHEN: Tate was among the hundreds of first responders called to the icy Potomac River in January when an Army helicopter collided with an American Airlines jet, killing all 67 people on board.

TATE: If I show up to a scene and a person is dead, that's called DOA, dead on arrival. This was a bit different. You still had to engage.

[14:45:02]

COHEN: They combed the crash site for days, recovering remains and wreckage. And throughout it, Tate brought in hot meals to keep the emergency crews fed on the front lines.

TATE: Just because it's not at the front page of the newspaper or at the headlines of the media doesn't mean those images go away for first responders. And not only that, we deal with traumatic experiences every day. I felt like it was the opportune time to start Food for Thought.

COHEN: Tate, who runs a nonprofit feeding healthy meals to firefighters, came up with another simple yet profound recipe -- bring together first responders every Thursday for a hot meal and a safe space to seek mental health services. He hopes this program will become available to first responders nationwide.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Recognizing that when we're unpacking memories, we need to process it in an expressive way.

TATE: Getting people moving, doing breathing exercises, but then also having them stop to think. I don't know that in between calls they get that opportunity.

COHEN: Some of them are battling PTSD, which by one estimate, about one in three first responders develop.

TATE: Prior to Food for Thought, they may not have had those resources.

COHEN: Tackling trauma with a secret ingredient, compassion for those who protect and serve.

TATE: This is what God has called me to do as a first responder. One, to serve my community, but also to serve those who serve us being first responders. And you can't put a price on someone risking their life for you. So let's make sure that those who are risking their lives for us, that we take good care of them.

COHEN: Gabe Cohen, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Coming up, a UFO whistleblower who used to work in the Pentagon tells CNN the government knows a lot more than what it has revealed. Will the Trump administration soon open more files on UFOs?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:51:44]

WHITFIELD: A former intelligence officer claims the U.S. government is in possession of non-human craft and, quote, biological samples. CNN's Nick Valencia spoke with this UFO whistleblower who hopes President Trump will release more information.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

LUIS ELIZONDO: My name is Luis Elizondo, and for nearly a quarter of a century, I worked with the United States government in the intelligence field. One of my jobs was to help run the advanced aerospace threat identification program for the Pentagon. It was there that I learned the reality that UFOs exist.

Let me be clear, UAP are real.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On November 13th, 2024, Elizondo testified as part of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena, exposing the truth. It was the second congressional hearing on UAP to feature witness and whistleblower testimony. Late U.S. Senator Harry Reid vouched for Luis Elizondo's involvement and leadership role in investigating UAPs.

You have made claims that non-human intelligence aircraft exists, and that there have been federal employees that have been injured on these crashes.

ELIZONDO: Yes, that's correct.

VALENCIA: Have non-human bodies associated with UAP crash craft retrievals been recovered?

ELIZONDO: There have been recovered biological samples from crashes.

VALENCIA: That sounds crazy.

ELIZONDO: Well, it may sound crazy, but it doesn't mean it's not true. When you say bodies, people think an intact body, right? Two arms, two legs, and bilateral symmetry. I prefer to say biologics. I was not around for the recovery of that. It was before my time.

VALENCIA: Critics have questioned Elizondo's credibility and intentions. Some have even suggested he is still working with the government to control efforts to shape public discourse around UAP. Last year, Elizondo testified to Congress that he, quote, "managed a special access program on behalf of the White House and the National Security Council" in his most recent government position.

You've heard the criticism that some people think that you're deliberately misleading the public. Are you working on behalf of the government in a psyop program?

ELIZONDO: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. And I'll put myself on a polygraph tomorrow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a whole fleet of them. Look, on the ASA. My gosh.

VALENCIA: I think people want that smoking gun. They want a non- human, intelligent, life form shaking hands with the president. They want a photo of that. Are we ever going to get that?

ELIZONDO: And I think for some people, they're never going to have their form of disclosure until that occurs. But I would submit to you that that disclosure is not an event. It's not a single event. It's a process. And I think we're well down that road.

There were five performance observables instantaneous acceleration, hypersonic velocity, trans medium travel, right, low observability, anti-gravity.

VALENCIA: Over the last year, Elizondo has made multiple media appearances and written a book. He is currently traveling the U.S. on a speaking tour about his decade long career studying UAPs for the Pentagon.

ELIZONDO: And you paid for it, your tax dollars. And it frustrates me because you paid for something that you deserve the results of.

The U.S. government is in possession of exotic technology, technologies that are not consistent with current state of the art technology.

VALENCIA: Elizondo says the UAPs he's observed move in ways no other current state of the art technology can.

[14:55:05]

He says for 70 years the government has been lying about the existence of being in possession of the technology.

ELIZONDO: These things are coming into controlled U.S. airspace completely unchallenged, and are conducting what we consider is perhaps some sort of reconnaissance on our military equities, but more importantly, may even have the capability to interfere with our nuclear strike capabilities.

These phenomena are occurring in the vicinity of sensitive military and government installations. Thats not Lou Elizondo telling you. Thats your government telling you this.

VALENCIA: Elizondo says more whistleblowers who were also part of government programs studying UAPs will continue to come forward.

ELIZONDO: Now the government is finally coming forward, fortunately. So they're actually starting to back up a lot of what I've been saying the last seven years, thank God. I think some people are beginning to wise up.

VALENCIA: What do you think disclosure might look like during the second Trump administration?

ELIZONDO: This administration is very proactive on trying to get to the bottom of this. There are key members of the cabinet that are very interested and are very motivated to continue to learn more about this, this incredible mystery, this phenomenon that we've been dealing with for decades.

VALENCIA: Elizondo claims that part of the reason the U.S. government hasn't been more vocal about the existence of UFOs or UAPs is why present a problem to the American public for which there is no solution? He is, however, confident that this second Trump administration will make disclosure a priority, and that in 2025 more about UFOs will be revealed.

Nick Valencia, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, and a new CNN original series takes us inside the meteoric rise of Twitter and how it suddenly became a vital tool even for the U.S. government. Tune in to "Twitter, Breaking the Bird," Sunday night at 10:00 p.m. eastern and pacific right here on CNN.

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