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CNN This Morning

Hamas Releases Israeli Hostages, Returns Remains Of Shiri Bibas; Pentagon Announces It Plans To Fire 5-8 Percent Of Civilian Workforce; U.S. Proposes Draft U.N. Resolution On War In Ukraine; Federal Judge Gives Go-Ahead For Trump To Gut USAID. U.S. Federal Judge Clears the Way for Dismantling of USAID; Associated Press Sues Trump Administration After Being Blocked from White House Briefings; Pentagon Announces Plans to Fire 5-8 Percent of Civilian Workforce. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired February 22, 2025 - 06:00   ET

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

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[06:00:28]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to CNN This Morning. It is Saturday, February 22nd. I'm Victor Blackwell. New this morning, Hamas is releasing the final six living hostages scheduled in the first phase of the cease fire deal. We're live in Tel Aviv with the latest, including what we're learning about the second phase of this deal.

Plus, an unprecedented purge of senior military leadership. The country's top general, the chief of the navy, the vice chief of the air force, all fired by the Trump administration. Why? The president says they were let go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's represented by you. If you don't have a voice in Congress.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We lost 10 percent of our workforce.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shut up and let him talk.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will not, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can do it in a way that's humane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Republican lawmakers get an earful from constituents over the mass firings of federal workers. What this could mean for Republican support for DOGE.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm here to get these eggs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Get those eggs then. Dozens of people in line for free eggs. Question, could Turkey's eggs offer some relief? CNN This Morning starts right now.

We're beginning this morning with breaking news out of the Middle East. Five of six Israeli hostages have been released from Gaza this morning and we're standing by for the final hostage to be released at another location soon.

They're the final living captives that both Israel and Hamas agreed would be released in phase one of the ceasefire. Four of the six hostages were kidnapped during the October 7 attacks. The other two walked into Gaza more than a decade ago.

And the remains of another hostage, Shiri Bibas , arrived in Tel Aviv Friday night. Her remains were supposed to have been released on Thursday with the remains of her sons, but forensic tests showed the body was not hers. Israeli officials were outraged. They promised revenge. But now, as phase one of the ceasefire comes to an end, Hamas has signaled that they are ready to release all remaining hostages in exchange for Israel's full withdrawal from Gaza.

CNN's Nic Robertson is live in Tel Aviv. Nic, is this the scheduling that's expected? You know, usually by the time we come on at 6am Eastern on Saturday, the hostage release is complete. Any explanations for the delays this morning?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, no real explanations today. It has been slower than expected it has been later than the times that Hamas had originally indicated. And perhaps you might understand one reason for that could be and they've been protracted events is that Hamas knows that as long as they've got the hostages, the cameras are on them. Israelis can see Hamas control their strength of these different location places inside of Gaza. That's important to Hamas because this is the last agreed scheduled release of living hostages.

So Hamas is maximizing their exposure to the Israeli audience who frankly don't get to see much of what's going on in Gaza. On CNN, on other networks, we get to see the images of Gaza. The Israeli population tends not to get that. Hamas knows that it milks in it propagandize these releases. So maybe that's what we're witnessing today.

There have been amazing moments through today standing here in Hostages Square. It's the fullest I've seen it really rammed with people who'd come to see witness what was happening, Tal Shoham released, one of the first to be released. 505 days of captivity along with Avera Mengistu. He'd been held for 11 years. Both of them looked frail, both of them taken up on stage.

And then the release of three more hostages that we just witnessed. Eliya Cohen, Omar Shem and Omer Wenkert also released. They're also taken up on stage, also looking way, way thinner than when they were taken into captivity.

But what the crowd here really loves and gets uplifted by is when the cameras on the big screen cut to the families who are celebrating. And we've seen that today, so much celebration. We've seen tears, we've seen singing, we've seen jumping for joy, all the gamut of emotions. And some of those reunions for those first two release already happening and the others soon to be in the arms again of their loved ones.

[06:05:02]

BLACKWELL: All right. Nick Robertson reporting from Hostages Square there as the last living hostages handed over in phase one. Thanks so much. So new this morning, the government purge continues. This time it's at the Pentagon.

Officials announced Friday the Pentagon will ultimately fire 5 to 8 percent of the civilian workforce, starting with about 5,400 probationary workers next week. And two of the country's top military leaders, they're already gone. CNN's Oren Liebermann explains it for us. Oren.

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OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: This is an unprecedented purge at the top of the military, one that's been rumored and speculated about for weeks now. It started with President Donald Trump announcing on social media that he was firing the top U.S. General, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General C.Q. Brown. Trump said Brown was a, quote, fine gentleman. Brown had been a frequent target of right- wing criticism and there had long been speculation that he was going to be fired quickly. We just didn't know quite how quickly. Now we have that answer one month into the Trump administration.

Now just days before he was picked to run the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Brown should be fired along with the other quote, woke generals and admirals, but at least for the time the two had worked together, having daily or near daily meetings. In fact, Brown was visiting the southern border just hours before he was fired. Trump immediately announced his pick to replace Brown, recently retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan Razin Kaine.

Trump has long had a fascination with Kaine, bringing him up in several speeches over the last four or five years. He says Kaine was instrumental in the defeat of ISIS. Trump hinted at more firings to come and it was only a few minutes later that Hegseth announced the chief of the Navy, Admiral Lisa Franchetti, was also being terminated.

Hegseth called her a DEI hire in his book that came out last year. In a Friday night statement, Hegseth also indicated that the top judge advocates general in the Army, Navy and Air Force will also be replaced. That too is an extraordinary move. The Jags, according to a former judge advocate general, are the conscience of the military, the guides on what's right and what's wrong, what's ethical and moral. Hegseth called them jagoffs and in his book and question their value. Taken together, these firings are an unprecedented reshaping of the top of the military. Oren Liebermann, CNN in Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: A chance to connect with voters during these first 100 days of President Trump's second term did not go smoothly for some Republican congressmen. Coast to coast lawmakers answered questions from some frustrated and sometimes angry voters. Watch this.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tyranny is rising in the White House and a man has declared himself our king. So I would like to know, rather the people would like to know what you congressman and your fellow congressmen are going to do to rein in the megalomaniac in the White House.

REP. RICH MCCORMICK (R-GA): When you talk about tyranny, when you talk about presidential power, I remember having the same discussion with Republicans when Biden was elected.

UNDIENTIFIED FEMALE: So you tell those 10,000 people, it's okay?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've lost 10 percent of our workforce.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shut up and let him talk.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will not, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you ask us to show up, Congressman Tomko, we will show up. We have to take the gloves off. We can't wait for protocol. They're not playing by the rules.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The end result of the fraud and abuse that has been discovered already.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Did you see his rocket yesterday? It was captured --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWLEL: This week, some other Republican members of Congress have expressed their own reservations about the president's actions since taking office, despite the parties, the base at least largely supporting Trump. Joining me now is Axios congressional reporter Steven Newcomb.

Steven, good morning to you. Let me start at the Pentagon. And this plan to cut the civilian workforce from 5 to 8 percent. On the high end, that's about 76,000 civilian workers cut. What's the response? You're the congressional reporter from the Republican conference that is branding itself as -- all right, we just lost Steven. We'll try to get Steven back and continue this conversation.

But we are monitoring developments out of the Middle East. Hamas releases more Israeli hostages. Coming up, what they want in exchange for the release of all the remaining hostages. Plus the number of measles cases in West Texas. That number is rising with the latest out of the West Texas. That's coming up on the outbreak and the scramble to reverse America's egg crisis.

Could turkeys the country, not the bird. Could turkey hold the answer?

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[06:14:39]

BLACKWELL: Ahead of Monday, marking three years since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. is proposing a draft of a U.N. resolution to end the war. The details have not been revealed, but this happened as U.S. official told CNN, the rare earth mineral deal the U.S. proposed to Ukraine is almost complete.

CNN's chief international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is with me now.

[06:15:00]

It's been a week with this increasingly strained relationship between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. And a lot of it is just based on things that the president of the U.S. is saying that just simply is not true. Where does it stand as we close out the week?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, look, late last night, we got indication from a U.S. official familiar with the talks that they believe the deal was nearly done, emphasizing in their grasp how the visits of Trump's envoy here, General Keith Kellogg, had tried to essentially nearly brought this through for the President of the United States sealing the deal was the phrase.

Now, that is obviously something which we need to hear a Ukrainian assessment of. And we don't yet have a document signed at this point. And there have been, you know, in the past, some significant concerns on behalf of the Ukrainians in terms of taking what we believe to have been the original document, which was a draft, which principally asked Ukraine to hand over 50 percent of its rare earth minerals, some other natural resources, to a legal document, two or three pages with an appendix of about 13 pages of specific assets.

Now, to go from that to something which the Ukrainians are more comfortable with, I understand negotiations yesterday had a Ukrainian source telling me that they wanted to insert security elements into that. That's not quite the same as the security guarantees which President Zelenskyy has been talking about wanting to see in the document. But it suggests, certainly they want some hard language in there that provides them possibly munitions aid, something the original draft was all about the past paying back aid given under the Biden administration.

But there's definitely a sense of urgency, no doubt, from the American and Ukrainian officials I've been speaking to, that they know they need to get this done as quickly as possible, whether it is a matter of days or even hours away, as some people are speculating on social media, unclear. We just simply have to wait for the document to be signed by the appropriate parties.

But it's become the only talking point, frankly, at this stage in a U.S.-Ukraine relationship that has been in freefall for about five days. The very damaging spat between President Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump.

I think more really Trump spread, speaking on his behalf to try and undermine the position of his Ukrainian counterpart, calling him a dictator, suggesting he was asleep when he should be talking to the U.S. treasury secretary about this particular deal, saying that half or a significant amount of the money that Ukraine has received has gone missing, and even saying it wasn't necessary to have Zelenskyy at the table during the talks, suggesting that Trump was sick of the fact that Zelenskyy had no cards to deal with.

All undermining Zelenskyy here. And Zelenskyy on his part, having to counter the suggestion from Donald Trump that Ukraine had started the war by saying that he believed Trump lived in a disinformation circle, though he had respect.

So a very damaging week in relations and this rare earth deal really at the forefront of whether or not there's anything to salvage to go forward. Victor.

BLACKWELL: Nick Paton Walsh for us there in Kyiv. Thanks so much. With me now is Allen Fromherz. He's a professor of Middle East, Gulf and Mediterranean history at Georgia State University. He's also the author of "The Center of the World." Professor, thanks for being with me.

So during this week, I mean, and Nick laid it out there pretty well, this rare earth minerals deal has been essentially the prerequisite to get to any conversation, really, including Ukraine, about ending this war. Your reaction to now it being almost done, and how does that set up the next chapter?

ALLEN FROMHERZ, PROFESSOR OF MIDDLE EAST, GULF AND MEDITERRANEAN HISTORY, GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY: I think this is fascinating because I think you get some insight into the way that Trump is dealing with his international partners.

And one of these is to basically engage in what he thinks is a type of card game, as he even referenced the use of cars and showing your cards. And Trump is a consummate bluffer. And this is what he is trying to say, is that we need you to go to a certain extreme in order to bring about some sort of resolution.

I think what it says is that Ukraine has gotten the message, that they are presenting some cards. They are trying to get on the same team as Trump. And this is a very complex game that he's playing because you're not just have -- you don't just have your own cards. Trump wants you to join and give your cards over to him. And that's basically what's happening with Zelenskyy. I think the Europeans have an opportunity perhaps to say, look, Trump,

we want to be part of this arsenal democracy. We want to support. We want your support and we want to pay for even more arms that could go eventually to Ukraine or to securing Europe. And I think a gesture like that to Trump saying, we're going to give you something concrete --

BLACKWELL: Yes.

FROMHERZ: -- could go somewhere with him.

BLACKWELL: But do you think that's realistic, considering that the Europeans were not invited to the table in Riyadh? The Europeans held their own summit in reaction to what the president was doing.

[06:20:04]

Do you think that they will come to the table and essentially guarantee a deal that they're not at this point, part of?

FROMHERZ: I think the Europeans realize that they need to come to the table because they don't have the armed forces necessary to make a serious stand against Russia at this point. Russia has built up an extremely proficient arms manufacturing infrastructure. The European armies, the actual ability to deploy, maybe you could have 30,000 is what they propose. They couldn't go along the entire border between the occupied lands controlled by Russia and Ukraine.

And I think the Europeans need to come forward and say, yes, we do need to invest more in defense and this is specifically what we're going to do. There are Europeans who are doing that, like the Defense Minister of Lithuania who has said, yes, we need to stand up here and put more money and bring in America into this game.

BLACKWELL: Of course, has long been a concern of the Trump administration. Even Trump 45, when he was calling for not just the 2 percent floor of spending on defense for NATO, now they're calling for 5 percent for nations to spend.

Let's move to Israel and Hamas. Hamas this morning has said that they're prepared to hand over all of the hostages, alive and dead, for the withdrawal of Israeli troops. First, is that going anywhere?

FROMHERZ: I think it may. And the reason why I'm hopeful is this. There was a meeting just recently between all of the Arab, powerful Arab leaders in Riyadh.

BLACKWELL: Yeah.

FROMHERZ: There is a plan going forward, not for the Riviera of the Middle East, which Trump has actually stepped back from recently, but $20 billion is being proposed, perhaps, or even more to engage in a rebuilding, a long term rebuilding of Gaza in a way that will perhaps even at least temporarily exclude Hamas as a political force actually in control of Gaza. BLACKWELL: Because that is one of the requirements of Israel is that for them to withdraw for the war to end. Hamas has to not have any role in a government and be disabled and debilitated as a military force.

FROMHERZ: This is true. And I think that if we have these Arab leaders involved and we have a very valid and proposal moving forward, I think that's possible. I think it's certainly more tenable than moving out all the Palestinians from Gaza, not allowing them to return again. I think this was a bluff move by Trump to get the Arab leaders to do something.

BLACKWELL: All right, professor, thanks for being with me.

FROMHERZ: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Of course, we'll continue to watch as there's still one more hostage expected to be released today in this exchange.

Still to come, a judge has given Trump the go ahead to gut USAID. What this means for the thousands of workers in the U.S. and overseas and the chief who led the Los Angeles Fire Department through the Palisades wildfire now removed from office. Why she's no longer on the job.

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[06:27:44]

BLACKWELL: This morning, the number of measles cases in west Texas outbreak now stands at 90. That's up 32 cases in less than a week. Sixteen patients have been hospitalized and most of the cases are children, including a baby too young to be vaccinated. Almost all the infected were unvaccinated or their vaccination status is unknown. But five cases were in people who had been vaccinated.

There are also nine measles cases in a nearby county in New Mexico. But officials say they don't know of any connection right now to the West Texas outbreak.

A listeria outbreak linked to frozen supplemental shakes has made at least 38 people sick in 21 states, and 11 of those people have died. The FDA says those shakes were sold under the Cisco, Imperial and Lions Ready Care brands. The products were sent to hospitals and long term care facilities.

Some of the listeria cases date back as far as 2018, but 20 cases were reported in 2024 and this year. The symptoms can include a fever, muscle aches, fatigue. Anyone experiencing them should get medical care right away.

In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass fired Chief Kristin Crowley, calling her handling of last month's fires that killed 29 people unacceptable. Bass cited two specific reasons, that 1,000 firefighters who were off duty should have been called in and that Crowley did not cooperate with that part of the investigation. CNN reached out to Crowley for comment, but has not heard back, and

she'll stay with the fire department in a lower role. Bass also faced criticism for being in Ghana when the fire started. She's defending herself, saying that she stayed in contact and required rather returned as quickly as possible.

A federal judge has now cleared the way for the Trump administration to complete its dismantling of USA Aid -- USAID. In a ruling Friday, the judge determined the Trump team could continue placing thousands of foreign aid workers on leave. And he said that the unions representing the workers failed to demonstrate how the sweeping personnel changes would cause the agency irreparable harm.

With me now is Michael Moore, CNN legal analyst and partner at Moore Hall here in Atlanta. Good to have you in.

MICHAEL MOORE, CNN LEGAN ANALYST: Glad to be with you.

BLACKWELL: Is this a surprise?

[06:30:00]

MOORE: I don't really think it's a surprise that much, frankly. I mean, these cases, you see this sort of fast pace and they're getting in front of judges fairly quickly. And so these are injunctions and so, there are certain things that the parties have to show for an injunction.

You've got to show you're the right people to complain. You have to show that there's going to be some irreparable harm that can't be fixed. You're in danger of that, and also that you have a likelihood of success. And so, most of these judges are either getting hung up on the first two.

That is, this is the wrong group of people to come in, or you haven't shown me enough damage yet, you know, for us to stop everything now before we actually get into the merits and the trial of the case or the action here. And so, you know, you're seeing some judges say, stop everything. I think there's danger.

So, you know, another judge said let's wait. Often, these cases are going to the Supreme Court.

BLACKWELL: Yes --

MOORE: And so, this is just sort of a middle ground step or a beginning step even as we move through the litigation process. It's -- you're going to have judges differ.

BLACKWELL: Yes --

MOORE: I mean, they're not a homogenous body. And so, they may hear a very similar case about a different agency, and another judge may say, wait a minute, I think there's irreparable harm. But hear this, I think was a Trump appointed judge, and he simply said, look, I don't think I've had assurances now, I've heard enough assurances that we're going to let the USAID workers have their two-way radios or be able to get on airplanes. And that's -- that seemed to satisfy, at least for right now.

BLACKWELL: Another decision the judge has blocked the President's executive orders, terminating support for DEI-related programs. The judge determined that the -- I guess, classification of equity-related was too broad. And so, what does that mean? Is that just remedied by another executive order or does this also go to the Supreme Court?

MOORE: I mean, it's going to end -- it's going to wind its way to the Supreme Court, and that's because there's been so many executive actions targeted at DEI --

BLACKWELL: Yes --

MOORE: And what the Trump administration wants to do to curb that back. You know, but ultimately, whether or not they write a policy, whether or not they change it through some other action, I think what the administration is wanting to see is essentially the elimination of these things, and that's what's going to hopefully, I think, push the case on forward to the Supreme Court.

BLACKWELL: "Associated Press" is now suing the Trump administration. They have been banned from White House press events because they refused to exclusively use the Gulf of America, and they're using the Gulf of Mexico. Sounds trivial to some people --

MOORE: Right --

BLACKWELL: But what is the case here, outline that, and if anyone has got an edge here?

MOORE: Well, I mean, the claim is about free speech and access to the press. The "AP" is in a unique posture, and that's because they really are sort of an outlet for other news agencies. Their stories are put out all over the world, and they are -- they really are somebody who has maintained access to the White House for years.

Well, Trump is saying, now, look, you know, if you're not going to call, you know, this by the name that I've chosen to give it, regardless of the fact that the rest of the world might not call it that -- if you're not going to just --

BLACKWELL: Yes, some people looking like, no, what the hell is the Gulf of America?

MOORE: They don't. I mean, so, an "AP" story in Mexico now seems to be odd if we're calling it the Gulf of America or --

BLACKWELL: Or Romania.

MOORE: That's right or wherever else or Ukraine, wherever it is.

BLACKWEL: Yes, right.

MOORE: So, he's simply saying, if you don't agree with my definition and my terminology, I'm not going to let you in. And they're saying, wait a minute now, this is different, you know, than other cases that -- where you've not allowed reporters to come, be part of the pool or something, you've now limited access to, you know, plenty of people based on our refusal to say your words.

Interestingly enough, they actually do talk about the Gulf of America. They have noted that, in fact, Trump just changed it to the Gulf of America or used that terminology. So, it's not that they've denied the fact --

BLACKWELL: Yes --

MOORE: It's just that they've sort of said, look, we're going to continue also to talk about it as the Gulf of Mexico. And that's -- the case will wind its way up and we'll see if a judge lets them back in the press room.

BLACKWELL: So, let's talk about this case of a man most people have never probably heard of, Hampton Dellinger. Now, he was the head of the Office of the Special Counsel, which is a watchdog agency. The President wants to fire him. He stayed in his position, the Supreme Court decided not to decide.

MOORE: Right.

BLACKWELL: Essentially waiting for a lower court to rule. First, what is this case? The outlines of it. And is it similar enough to the firing of the head of the National Labor Relations Board, or removal of someone from the SEC board, that this could be an indication of where all of these firings go?

MOORE: Yes, by and large, the Inspectors General are watchdog agencies or watchdog individuals who come in and they should be apolitical. I meant, they're pointed, obviously, but their terms typically overlap administrations. And that's so that there's not some favoritism and they're seen as being neutral, so they make decisions about it.

And this is somebody who was -- his job was essentially to be the Inspector-General and the watchdog if there were allegations or whistleblower complaints inside the government. This is a little different than whistleblowers who were talking about government fraud and that type of thing.

[06:35:00]

And so, Trump says he wants him out. The Supreme Court took a pause on it. And that's unique to me and interesting because, you know, they were very quick to talk about criminal liability, and they heard the case about whether or not Trump could be criminally liable. Now, Trump saying, well, wait a minute, I want you to decide that I have authority to do anything I want to do --

BLACKWELL: Yes --

MOORE: And maybe that I have more power than the court. Well, the court essentially is sitting here as one of the three equal branches of government, and it's to me, unlikely that they're going to say, well, you know something? Our power is really not as great as yours. You go right ahead. So, this is a different argument that he made on liability. I think he may --

BLACKWELL: Yes --

MOORE: Have been emboldened by that decision. But to take a pause is not unusual. The Supreme Court, if they're known for anything, it's sort of the process, and they didn't necessarily put the cart ahead of the horse here, and they're going to let the case work its way through the court system before they make a decision on whether or not he had the power to do it. So, their refusal to take his emergency appeal, that is --

BLACKWELL: Yes --

MOORE: Trump's emergency appeal. I don't think it's necessarily a clear indicator of which way the case will go, but I do think they're going to have to wrestle with this decision about whether or not Trump is all powerful. While -- they may have decided that he has some immunity from criminal liability individually, are they going to terminate, he is in fact the unitary king --

BLACKWELL: All right --

MOORE: Of the United States, I think that's unlikely.

BLACKWELL: Probably not.

MOORE: Yes.

BLACKWELL: All right, Michael Moore, thank you --

MOORE: Glad to be with you --

BLACKWELL: Next hour, you're back. We're talking Luigi Mangione and all that happened in New York yesterday.

MOORE: See you then.

BLACKWELL: All right. Still to come, after signing dozens of executive actions, President Trump is now looking to Congress to take action on his agenda. We'll tell you what Republicans on Capitol Hill are doing.

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[06:40:00]

BLACKWELL: Pentagon has announced Friday that it plans to ultimately fire 5 percent to 8 percent of the military's civilian employees, 5,400 probationary workers who do not have mission critical roles expected to be terminated as early as next week. With me now is "Axios" congressional reporter Stephen Neukam. For the people who are just joining us, we tried this about 35 minutes

ago, we had a technical issue, hopefully we have fixed it, it's good to have you back. Stephen, let's start with that on the high end of 8 percent, it's about 76,000 job cuts. How does that go over with Republicans in Congress who are now in their budgets actually increasing spending for the Pentagon, and rhetorically always in support of a muscular Pentagon.

STEPHEN NEUKAM, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, AXIOS: Yes, good morning, Victor. I think that, yes, look at the legislation, right? Look at the budget that they are passing in both chambers. Both chambers have hundreds of billions of dollars that they want to add to the defense budget. So, what the Trump administration is doing, what Secretary Hegseth is doing at the Pentagon isn't exactly in accordance with -- you know, what congressional Republicans want to do on the budget level.

But we haven't seen a ton of criticism yet, especially of the shuffling of some of the top names, obviously, the firing of the Joint Chiefs of Staff earlier this week. We haven't seen criticism from top Republicans yet, especially in the Senate. Folks like James Risch, Roger Wicker, who are Foreign Affairs, I mean, defense-minded folks. We just haven't seen that criticism come from that side of the Capitol yet.

BLACKWELL: Is there a different level of concern when it comes to FEMA? We know that the White House is planning some big cuts there. And of course, the recovery after Helene and the wildfires, and the President prioritizes those who voted for them. These have damaged some areas and hurt some people who were supportive of the President's re-election campaign. What are you seeing from Republicans there as it relates to that plan for FEMA?

NEUKAM: Yes, I actually think this is an area where you've seen some bipartisan movement, folks talk about the need to protect FEMA, obviously, Congress yesterday just got a letter from Governor Gavin Newsom requesting $40 billion in disaster aid to help rebuild from the fires. I think the important thing to remember here for folks the way that FEMA operates is that the money isn't appropriated state-by- state.

There isn't a California fund, a Florida fund, a Texas fund. It all gets thrown into one pot. And the administration sort of decides how that is divvied up. So, whatever changes are made to FEMA, don't just affect blue states if that's the concern from the White House and the Republican Party. It also affects, if there is, you know, flooding or any other disaster in any number of states across the country.

BLACKWELL: The President had an interview on "Fox News" radio. He talked about a lot, but he also talked about the plan forward for the legislation to get his agenda through Congress. And the President first said that he wanted one big, beautiful bill, and then it was fine with 1 or 2, then he went back to one.

And then in this interview, he said it could be 3 or 10 bills as long as it adds up to the same thing. More bills for the President's agenda. It really doesn't make it any more likely that it gets everything he wants, right?

NEUKAM: Well, that's right. And also, Republicans only have so many bites at the reconciliation apple. The reconciliation process, the budget reconciliation process is sort of what makes this possible, being able to do this with just Republican support, its filibuster proof in the Senate.

[06:45:00]

They only need the 53 senators that they have on their side of the aisle. So, anything that's done outside of that process of President Trump is eyeing something outside of the reconciliation process. At the end of the day, he's going to need the support of at least, seven Senate Democrats in the Senate. And knowing the dynamics of the House, probably going to need support of a pretty good chunk of House Democrats.

So, the realistic path to getting this agenda done is through the reconciliation process. They've got two bites at that apple. The difference between leaders right now is whether to do that between one bill, which House Speaker Mike Johnson wants, or two bills, which Senate Majority leader John Thune wants the Senate move this week to sort of get that process rolling.

The House has been delayed in that process. So, the realistic path to getting this done is through the reconciliation process and seeing that spread out against, you know, ten bills, I think just isn't realistic.

BLACKWELL: Yes, so, Michael Moore and I in the last block, talked about the judge's decision to allow the President's dismantling of USAID to move forward. Stephen, put that into perspective beyond what it means for that agency. Do you think that accelerates the DOGE initiative?

NEUKAM: Well, it's certainly a victory for the DOGE initiative. As the guest pointed out, though, the court system is sprawling and there's a lot of different sort of, requests for injunctions across a number of different agencies across -- in front of a lot of different courts. Obviously, a lot of these could end up in front of the Supreme Court, and it would have final say.

So, while it's a victory on the USAID front, it doesn't necessarily mean just given the scattershot nature of the judicial system, that it's a green light across the board. But I've talked to a number of Democrats who -- this is going to be deeply troubling too, especially the -- specifically the USAID cuts, because they're worried about the vacuum that America is leaving on the world stage for countries like China and Russia to move into, to sort of wield that soft power, that the U.S. has been able to do through programs like USAID.

BLACKWELL: Yes, and a lot of Democratic voters are wondering what Democrats can do about it. They don't have the numbers to do anything --

NEUKAM: Yes -- BLACKWELL: Legislatively. But the fight that they could put up.

Stephen Neukam, we got it done. We got through the technical --

NEUKAM: We did --

BLACKWELL: Gremlins. Thanks so much for being with me this morning.

NEUKAM: Thanks, Victor. Yes, thanks.

BLACKWELL: How about Turkey eggs? Ever had one? I don't know if you can just fry up a Turkey egg -- but we're talking the country, not the bird. That could be the solution to America's egg crisis. Coming up, how that nation is helping the U.S. deal with the price spikes and shortages.

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[06:50:00]

BLACKWELL: The U.S. is bringing in about 420 million eggs from Turkey. It's to help ease a huge egg shortage caused by the bird flu outbreak. And that's disrupted production and sent prices soaring, you know it. In fact, prices are so high, eggs are so precious these days that hundreds of people lined up in New York yesterday in the cold for free eggs. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich has more on America's deal with Turkey to ease this egg shortage.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Victor. America's egg shortage has led U.S. businesses to turn to Turkey. Turkey, the country, will import 420 million eggs to the U.S. this year. That's the most ever. Last year, the U.S. imported 71 million eggs from Turkey, so, this year's imports will be six times that.

And that is because of the deadly avian flu, which has killed 140 million egg-laying birds since 2022. Businesses are clamoring for eggs to help with shortages and bring down prices for consumers. And the only country the U.S. imports eggs from is Turkey, which is the fifth largest egg exporter in the world.

The U.S. though, produces on average, 7.5 billion eggs every year. But that number will decline as the avian flu rages on. The United Egg Producers says it supports the temporary import of eggs from Turkey to help ease the strain on the U.S. egg supply, and the American Farm Bureau says the influx of eggs from Turkey is enough to offset some production losses, but it won't provide much support if the avian flu continues at its current pace.

Now, experts in the agriculture community have called for a federal response to the avian flu through more funding for research and surveillance of the virus. The White House says it's working on a plan, but earlier this week, the USDA had to revoke termination letters it sent to workers that were supporting the bird flu response. Victor?

BLACKWELL: All right, Vanessa, thank you. A farmer is harnessing A.I. and robotics to re-shape how food is grown. The fruits of her labor in today's "START SMALL, THINK BIG".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GILWOO LEE, FOUNDER & CEO, ZORDI: At Zordi, we're building the world's first A.I. robotic greenhouse solution to bring high quality, fresh produce to the world. One thing about Zordi is doing fundamentally differently from anybody else is the use of robots and A.I. in a holistic way to grow and take care of these plants.

[06:55:00]

The robots monitor the plants every single day, taking pictures and videos and analyzing them through machine learning, and having the A.I. make the best decisions on how to change the temperature, when to water the plants and when to harvest the fruits, and have another set of robots that are actually doing the hard work of harvesting and sorting and packing the fruits to be delivered the next day to the consumers.

Zordi is actually a combination of my intellectual passion in robotics and A.I., and my personal passion in being able to bring better food with bigger impact. What we are building here is an affordable way of climate resilient farming. We can reduce freshwater consumption by about 95 percent.

So, what I love about what we've been doing, even though I'm a robotics nerd, is the fact that our fruits taste amazing. What I want to see is Zordi becoming the frontier of modernized farming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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