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CNN This Morning
IRS Fires Thousands Of Workers During Tax Season; Elon Musk Celebrates Federal Job Cuts With A Chainsaw; Europe Considers Next Steps Amid U.S. & Russia Talks; Gov. Hochul Declines To Remove NYC Mayor Adams. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired February 21, 2025 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:34]
KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Friday, February 21st.
Right now on CNN THIS MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELON MUSK, TECH BILLIONAIRE: This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: DOGE's firing frenzy. Elon Musk celebrating with a chainsaw as the White House slashes its way through more federal jobs.
And --
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SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): The FBI has lost trust among the American people.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): Mr. Patel has made it clear that his only loyalty is to the president.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The confirmation is confirmed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: The new head of the bureau, Kash Patel, confirmed as the nation's next FBI director, marking another controversial Trump nominee crossing the finish line.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE WALTZ, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Some of the rhetoric coming out of Kyiv, frankly, and insults to President Trump were unacceptable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: A deepening divide. The White House ramps up pressure on Ukraine to end the war that Russia started, as Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with Trump's envoy in Kyiv.
(MUSIC)
HUNT: All right, 5:00 a.m. here on the East Coast, a live look at the Capitol Dome on this Friday morning. We made it to Friday. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.
We begin this morning with thousands of firings and job cuts tearing through the federal government. The latest agency to be hit the IRS, with 6,000 people let go on Thursday. For employees who spoke to CNN anonymously, are warning that the job cuts could delay tax refunds ahead of the fast approaching April filing deadline.
They add employees are crying, managers are crying. We are losing some really good employees. It's very gloomy. Everyone is very angry. But not everyone in Washington is feeling gloomy about the cuts.
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MUSK: This is the chainsaw for bureaucracy. Chainsaw.
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HUNT: That is Elon Musk. He is wielding a chainsaw. He's on stage here at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Committee. He's taking a victory lap as, of course, his doge team has been carving up the federal government. He claims that they have saved billions of dollars in taxpayer money.
A CNN analysis has found that those numbers have been inflated. But Musk says that his work will not stop as his team gets embedded into more government agencies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MUSK: People ask, how can you find ways to like in D.C.? I'm like, look, it's like being in a room, and there's the wall, the roofs and the floor are all targets. So it's like you're going to close your eyes and go shoot in any direction. So you can't miss.
It's money that's taken away from -- from things that are destructive to the country. That and from organizations that hate you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Joining us now to discuss is Nick Johnston. He is the publisher of "Axios".
Nick, good morning.
NICHOLAS JOHNSTON, PUBLISHER, AXIOS: Good morning.
HUNT: So, Elon Musk and, you know, the Silicon Valley sort of general motto, move fast and break things.
JOHNSTON: Yes. HUNT: His -- his latest target is the Internal Revenue Service.
Now, the way they've approached a lot of this has been to fire first, ask questions later. It's led them to have to reinstate, for example, people who make sure their nuclear weapons stockpile is kept safe.
But in this case, if they break the IRS, do they have time to fix it before people are going to get their checks in the mail?
JOHNSTON: This is the real interesting thing here. So we've spent a lot of time trying to figure where there's going to be some daylight between Republicans on the Hill and the president. We thought maybe a little bit from these confirmation hearings, as you just had at the top of the hour. They've all sailed through, not really there.
Now for these kinds of cuts, I like that quote right there of Elon Musk. We're going to shoot at everything. Appropriators on the Hill do not like talk about that. That is something that they guard very jealously, and I think were starting to see some of that pushback come again, right? Like you go into Twitter, you fire a bunch of people that go down a little bit, you fix it, okay, that's no problem.
Someone doesn't get a refund check. Someone doesn't get a Social Security check. A lot of phones on the Hill are going to start to ring, and there's going to be consequences, I think.
HUNT: Because that's the thing, right? Like there is this general sense and I think, you know, were starting to see some of it in polling. But, you know, Americans generally or a lot of them feel okay, maybe the government is too bloated. It makes sense to me. It's too big. We need to like make it more efficient.
And there are a lot of people who hate the IRS, right? I mean, nobody likes paying taxes. Let's be real.
JOHNSTON: People like getting refunds.
HUNT: People like getting refunds on time, right?
JOHNSTON: No, that's really interesting. So I spent a little bit of time on the road in the last week in Louisiana and Ohio.
[05:05:00]
Now these are not purple swing states. These are deep red states meeting with a lot of business leaders who are very default Trump supporters.
And they said those exact same things, like, we're sure there's a lot of waste in the federal government. There's definitely some.
Look, there definitely should be a hard look at some of these cuts, but there was always a comma and a but -- but I'm a little worried that he's cutting a little too fast, a little too much. And then were really worried about what some of these impacts might have in our district. If some of this funding comes back to the government programs in our community, into the local hospitals from the NIH cuts and, of course, government checks going out the door, if one of those goes late, there's going to be real trouble.
HUNT: You know, it's interesting because there also can be and people who conceive of government employees who feel perhaps that, you know, they -- they're not needed, in this area in D.C., the scale of what's going on is really, I think, impacting communities across the country. As you note, stories about people who work. I heard one the other day from a woman I was interacting with here, but whose daughter lives in Kansas City, and its a small nonprofit, and they're not sure if they're going to have to fire all, you know, five of their employees because of this.
Jesse Watters, actually, on Fox News, primetime host, had had some not so nice things to say about people who he used. The phrase got DOGE, right, were cut. But then he got a call from someone he knows who is a military veteran who lost his job.
I want to play what Jesse Watters said. Let's watch.
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JESSE WATTERS, FOX ANCHOR: He just found out he's probably going to get laid off. He's going to get DOGE. And he texted me and he said, Jesse, you know, this isn't good. I'm upset. This is really sad.
And this guy is not a DEI consultant. This guy is not a climate consultant. You know, this guy is a veteran. We just need to be a little bit less callous with the way, Harold, we talk about DOGE-ing people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNSTON: If you really, Jesse Watters, well, then you may have a political problem. And I think that speaks exactly to the point here. When you're talking in the abstract, we're making these big cuts, we're cutting millions, we're cutting billions, we're closing department. That's great.
But when it trickles down to the individual people and the services, right, people dump on the government. They hate the congress, but they love what the government does for them. They like their congressman. I think when these impacts get to the community, that's where the backlash begins.
HUNT: And it's also, I mean, you're just waking up and realizing that these are human beings with lives and families who've invested a lot in where they are. I mean, anyway, Nick Johnson, thank you for starting us off this morning. Happy Friday.
All right. Ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, altering the alliance, how Europe preparing to deal with a U.S. president who's repeating Russian talking points.
Plus, why New York's governor decided not to use her power to fire the embattled mayor of New York City. And Vice President Vance, dashing Americans hopes for a quick inflation fix that his boss promised on the campaign trail.
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J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is easy, unfortunately, to burn the house down. It takes a little bit of time to build it back up.
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[05:12:20]
HUNT: All right. Welcome back.
This morning, the rift between the U.S. and our European allies is widening over Russia's war on Ukraine. The Trump administration now opposes calling Putin's invasion a, quote, Russian aggression at the upcoming virtual G7 summit. President Trump's special envoy, Keith Kellogg, holding face to face meetings with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in Kyiv. The talks coming one day after President Trump and President Zelenskyy traded jabs. Trump calling Zelenskyy a dictator and repeating false claims that Ukraine started the war.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We spoke with General Kellogg about the front line. They need to free all of our prisoners of war who are held in Russia, and also the necessity of reliable and well-defined system of security guarantees so the war doesn't return, and Russians are no longer able to maim life. We all need peace, Ukraine, Europe, America, everyone in the world.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: European leaders are assessing next steps. Both UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the French President Emmanuel Macron, are set to visit the White House next week. Macron warning Trump about showing weakness with Putin.
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EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT: What I'm going to do is I'm going to tell him basically you cannot be weak in the face of President Putin.
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HUNT: All right. CNN's Max Foster is here with more on this.
Max, good morning to you. I want to show you the cover of "The New York Post" here in the U.S. today. This, of course, a Rupert Murdoch owned newspaper. The page says: President Trump, this is a dictator. The picture, of
course, is not, Max, Zelenskyy of Ukraine, but rather Putin of Russia. It's just a remarkable situation.
I think its worth remembering that Putin was actually kicked out of what was the G8 back after he took Crimea, right, which was back in 2014. And now here we are. And apparently the American delegation is saying they don't want to pull. They don't want to call the war in Ukraine Russian aggression.
What more do we know? And what's the reaction on your side of the pond?
MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, it's really thrown everyone in Europe because this whole war was about democracy, defending democracy. Ukraine is a sovereign country. President Zelenskyy was an elected leader representing European values. There was an invasion into that country and Europe stood up to it, made Putin an international pariah, stopped talking to him effectively and having diplomatic relations because this was about defending democracy.
[05:15:05]
But when you've got, you know, Europe's main ally, the U.S. saying that it's not democracy effectively because Zelenskyy is the dictator, not Putin, and that Russia didn't invade Ukraine effectively, and Ukraine. You know, this argument that Ukraine might have started. It undermines the whole premise of what Europe has been trying to do.
So I am fascinated to see what Macron and Starmer will do with Donald Trump. I'm not, you know, you know, you'll do better than me, Kasie, how these sorts of comments will be received. But what Macron said there, that suggestion that Trump was being weak in the face of Putin probably isn't the best strategy.
HUNT: Right. Well, I mean, I think you're seeing a little bit of what you're talking about playing out right now with Putin and Zelenskyy, and there are some kind of Republican administration officials who are suggesting that to Zelenskyy that coming head on in public criticizing Trump is not necessarily the way to get most effective way to get what you want.
Now, who knows if there's any way right to ultimately get what you want. But certainly there's some -- some needling there.
Max, what do you make of the fact that, I mean, the leaders that we've had through here in the first month of the Trump administration already, before we get have gotten to the French President Macron, the, you know, the leader of the UK, our supposedly most special relationship in terms of allies. I mean, the others that we've seen here, the king of Jordan, the prime minister of India, it has tended to be related to or including authoritarians, monarchs, people who are not as I mean, Modi is someone who has been criticized and has governed in some ways that are more Trumpian, for example, as opposed to leading with our European allies. FOSTER: Yeah, but there's also this idea, I think, often from
America, that Europe is this generic group. It's obviously not. It's -- a multiple countries with different leaders who have had a very fractured past. And when you consider Macron, who's very much a representative of the E.U., you've got Starmer, who representing the U.K., which left the E.U., and there's this idea that they're coming over to represent Europe.
They don't actually represent all of Europe. There have been multiple meetings and massive disagreements between everyone, most notably Keir Starmer, suggesting that he would send troops to Ukraine, which went down terribly in countries like Germany, for example.
You know, organizing the Europeans to, you know, make any sort of decisions together is like herding cats, but they have actually united over this issue. But you've got Macron and Starmer in the room with Trump effectively. You know, you know, Trump is already in a stronger position because he represents one view. So it's going to be fascinating to see how they try and handle it. But they've really dug their heels in here.
Starmer has made it very clear that he does view Zelenskyy as an elected leader. And just as in World War II, elections were delayed whilst there was a war. That's a legitimate thing for Zelenskyy to do. So when he presents that to Trump, that's something that Trump doesn't agree with. So I just don't know how they're going to get over these tensions.
But, you know, these are master politicians as well. Maybe they'll find a way.
HUNT: Maybe so. Max Foster, always great to see you, sir. Thank you so much. Have a great weekend.
FOSTER: Thank you.
HUNT: All right. Coming up, Israel's new warning to Hamas after the Israeli military discovered that one hostage's body was not returned, as had been promised.
Plus, what's next for the FBI now that Kash Patel is their new director?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:23:16]
HUNT: All right, 22 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning round up.
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GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D), NEW YORK: After careful consideration, I have determined that I will not commence removal proceedings at this time.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HUNT: At this time, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announcing she will not remove New York City Mayor Eric Adams from office, at least for now. She based her decision on, quote, the will of the voters and the sanctity of Democratic elections. Hochul is proposing strict limits on the mayor's independence.
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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We will operate determinedly to bring Shiri home, along with our hostages, and ensure that Hamas pays the full price for this cruel and vicious violation.
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HUNT: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sending a warning to Hamas after the Israeli military discovered that what they thought was the body of Shiri Bibas was actually not. She was not returned as promised. Hamas claims her remains were apparently mixed up with others after an Israeli airstrike, forecasts were turned over on Thursday, two of them containing the remains of Bibas' two young sons, Ariel and Kfir.
NASA has avoided mass layoffs that were scheduled for this week. The space agency striking a deal with the Trump administration to implement a downsizing plan that is performance based or voluntary, instead of the sweeping elimination of all probationary employees that other federal agencies are facing. I wonder how they were able to do that.
All right. Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, Kash Patel confirmed as director of the FBI. Will he make good on his promise to shut down the bureau's headquarters on day one and turn it into a deep state museum?
Plus, Ukraine's president trying to navigate a fractured relationship with President Trump.
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WALTZ: President Trump is obviously very frustrated right now with President Zelenskyy.
[05:25:05]
He hasn't been willing to take this opportunity that we have offered. I think he eventually will get to that point, and I hope so very quickly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HUNT: Five-twenty-nine a.m. here on the East Coast. The live look at Las Vegas probably still happening at 2:29 a.m. Pacific Time out there this morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you
with us on this Friday.
