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Southwest Flight Avoids Collision While Landing In Chicago; Johnson And Trump Pull Off Budget Win To Advance GOP Agenda; Source: Ukraine, U.S. Agree On Natural Resources Deal. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired February 26, 2025 - 05:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:30:35]

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN ANCHOR: Five thirty a.m. here on the East Coast. You are looking at the Space Needle and the skyline of Seattle, Washington where it is 2:30 a.m. Pacific time. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kayla Tausche in for Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

New this morning multiple safety incidents at America's airports on Tuesday including one near-collision. At Chicago's Midway Airport another passenger jet disaster just narrowly avoided. A Southwest flight landing on Tuesday was forced to quickly pull up when a smaller jet crossed the runway. The Southwest pilot demanding answers from air traffic control just moments later.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SOUTHWEST PILOT: Southwest 2504, going around.

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Southwest 2504, roger that. Climb and maintain 3,000.

SOUTHWEST PILOT: And tower, Southwest 2504, how'd that happen?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAUSCHE: The FAA and NTSB also want to know how that happened and have opened an investigation.

The New York Times also reporting a second airliner at Reagan National Airport in Washington aborted its landing yesterday to avoid colliding with another plane ready to take off from the same runway.

The FAA saying, "The airplane's pilots were told to scrap the landing by an air traffic controller to 'ensure separation was maintained between this aircraft and a preceding departure from the same runway.'"

In a statement to CNN, an American Airlines spokesperson characterized the canceled landing as "A standard go around, nothing out of the usual." The House of Representatives voting to pass a budget blueprint that moves President Donald Trump's agenda forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we are going to deliver the America First agenda. We're going to deliver all of it not just parts of it, and this is the first step in that process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAUSCHE: The budget passage was also a major win for House Speaker Mike Johnson who, along with his leadership team, spent hours convincing several skeptical Republicans to vote in favor of the plan. Even President Trump spent part of Tuesday helping make calls to, well, whip votes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: So tell us why you changed your vote, Congressman.

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): Because they are legitimate cuts and it's the right direction to go. It's not everything I wanted but in this game you're either at the table or on the menu, and it's time to get at the table.

REPORTER: Did they promise you anything?

BURCHETT: There's no quid pro quo but the president assured me that he would work towards cuts. And he's never lied to me. He's always been honest about it. And the speaker backed him up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAUSCHE: Johnson only lost one Republican vote in the end, Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky.

But Tuesday night's win was just the first step. Republican leaders in the House and Senate will not have to come to an agreement on how to move forward with a package as the two chambers adopted vastly different plans.

The drama leading up to the vote shed a light on some of the stark divisions within the Republican Party, which could make the next hurdle even more difficult.

Joining me now is Shelby Talcott, White House correspondent for Semafor. Shelby, it was a surprise even to Republicans on the Hill that this ended up passing when it did. What comes next?

SHELBY TALCOTT, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, SEMAFOR (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah, that's the big question. And it was certainly a surprise. Remember, the vote was actually briefly scrapped, and I really do mean briefly, before all the lawmakers were called back in. So now, of course, the Senate has to adopt this and the issue with

that is the Senate, this entire time, has been making their own bill -- their own separate bill different than this much bigger bill that the president is -- prefers. And so that is the next step. And there's going to be some issues with that because Senate Republicans have already voiced some opposition to some of the things that are in this House bill and so they're going to have to figure out how to work together.

And one of the really notable things throughout all of this is the president has sort of taken a step back when it comes to these negotiations to the point where some lawmakers have said we wish he would be a little bit more vocal on what he wants and which bill he prefers so that we can move forward perhaps more easily with all of this.

TAUSCHE: So in lieu of the president's involvement on some of the details -- which I should note is the same as the way he operated during his first term where he didn't really traffic in the fine print of the health care proposals that Republicans put forward or even a tax bill to a certain extent -- but has the president expressed a personal desire for any specifics in this bill? And if not, who is really driving the conversation on the substance here?

[05:35:00]

TALCOTT: Well, the president has expressed that he prefers what he calls a "one, big, beautiful bill" which is what House Republicans have preferred. He likes that the taxes are in there. He likes that there is new spending on immigration enforcement.

But beyond that the discussions have really been up to lawmakers. And, of course, there have been people on President Donald Trump's team who are involved. But you're right, the president doesn't typically go in there and discuss the fine print of this.

Now, the one thing I will also point out is this is a really big bill and there's going to be questions about how this bill jives with the efforts from the federal government and from Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency to actually cut spending and reduce all of that.

TAUSCHE: Some of the numbers floating around about the pledges to cut spending in this bill were about $2 trillion. Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer suggests that the Republican bill could cut $880 billion in Medicaid alone.

How are those two efforts jiving? And what is the view today -- on this specific day -- by Republicans of what Elon Musk is doing? Is there discontent stirring?

TALCOTT: Well, one of the big things when you talk about Medicaid cuts -- that was some of the -- that was one of the topics that some of the skeptical Republicans who ultimately ended up voting for this bill were worried about. They were concerned that there were too many cuts. There were too many potential cuts to Medicaid and that's certainly going to be an issue that's brought up in the Senate as well.

Now, as far for -- as far as these DOGE cuts, lawmakers are by and large letting Donald Trump just sort of go with it. And there have been concerns raised by some Republican lawmakers who are hearing from their constituents about how these cuts are affecting people back home.

But by and large there hasn't been a concerted overwhelming push from the Republican Party when it comes to these DOGE cuts. A lot of Republicans that we speak with say Donald Trump won this election. Let's let him see -- let's let him do what he says he wants to do and see what happens.

TAUSCHE: You know, we talk a lot about DOGE and some of these long- term goals of the administration and what's coming down the pike several months from now, but we only have about 20 days left of government funding and then there's the potential of a major economic default later this spring.

Are Republicans or the White House talking at all about fixing those issues in the interim?

TALCOTT: Well listen, they're plowing ahead and there are quiet conversations I am sure behind closed doors. But by and large they are putting on a brave face and their argument is we're going to get this done. We're going to figure it out.

Now, I will note 20 days is not a lot of time and we have seen this happen before. And the big question is can they get this all done in such a short period of time when really, Senate Republicans and House Republicans are in vastly different positions when it comes to this spending bill? And that's going to be the big question.

Now, I will note the president does not want this to happen in 20 days, and so there -- I anticipate that there is going to be a real push from the White House to figure out a way to get this done.

TAUSCHE: The countdown begins, Shelby Talcott, White House correspondent at Semafor. Our thanks to you this morning. Thank you.

We were just talking about those town halls. The anger is real. Several Republican lawmakers facing frustrated voters in their home districts who are furious about Elon Musk's efforts to slash the federal workforce.

CNN's Tom Foreman has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you OK with the chaos being created?

REP. MARK ALFORD (R-MO): Are you OK? Government employees are going to be let go, but that's just the reality of it.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Shouted down at town halls -- REP. RICH MCCORMICK (R-GA): Hey, hey -- let's restore some order. So yelling at me is not going to get any answer, OK?

FOREMAN (voiceover): Protested on their way to work.

CHERYL SAUCIER-WILSON: We've lost 10 percent of our workforce.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shut up and let him talk.

SAUCIER-WILSON: I will not, sir.

FOREMAN (voiceover): Republican lawmakers are being hammered by voters, including their own over the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which is chainsawing federal jobs in blue and red states alike.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, I think we should just be using a scalpel.

FOREMAN (voiceover): And some elected leaders are now pushing back on DOGE's unelected cutter-in-chief.

SEN. JOHN CURTIS (R-UT): If I could say one thing to Elon Musk it's, like, please put a dose of compassion in this. These are real people.

MCCORMICK: When you have a president who can affect somebody's business or somebody's livelihood it just needs to be done with deliberation.

FOREMAN (voiceover): For weeks the parade of departing workers has been growing from the FAA to the IRS, from health agencies to the Small Business Administration, from Veterans Affairs to the National Parks, and more.

And when Elon Musk demanded this past weekend that all remaining workers justify their employment in an email or be fired, President Trump initially was all for it.

[05:40:05]

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I thought it was great because we have people that don't show up to work and nobody even knows if they work for the government.

FOREMAN (voiceover): But around a dozen departments in Trump's own administration effectively told their workers to ignore Musk. Trump appeared to back down leaving party bosses to put the best face on a bad situation.

JOHNSON: I think the vast majority of the American people understand, and applaud, and appreciate the DOGE effort.

FOREMAN (voiceover): Polls, indeed, show voters want less government waste but a slim majority now think DOGE has gone too far, and by the hour it seems more GOP congress members are subtly backing the resistance. SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): If I were a Senate-confirmed head of a

department and I had somebody from the outside undermining my ability to manage and demonstrate there's one leader in every department, I'd have a problem with it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAUSCHE: Tom Foreman, thank you for that report.

Ahead on CNN THIS MORNING a done deal? Ukraine's president reportedly getting ready to travel to the U.S. to meet with President Trump.

Plus, a somber day in Israel. The remains of a mother and her two young children laid to rest.

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[05:45:45]

TAUSCHE: We are learning that Israel and Hamas have reached an agreement to exchange the bodies of four Israeli hostages for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners possibly as early as Wednesday evening. That's according to an Israeli source. And it indicates that the Gaza ceasefire deal remains intact, at least for now.

This comes as crowds in Israel gathered for the funeral Shiri, Ariel, and Kfir Bibas who were taken hostage by Hamas on October 7. The IDF says they were brutally murdered in Gaza in the first weeks of the war. Their bodies were returned to Israel late last week.

Paula Hancocks has the details on the latest agreement.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Israel was supposed to have released 620 Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails on Saturday, including 23 children within that in return for those six live hostages that we saw released from Gaza. However, Israel said that it was delaying that release because it did not appreciate the humiliating ceremonies, it says, that it saw with the hostage releases. Also saying Hamas had carried out repeated violations by making videos and public displays that demeaned the dignity of those hostages.

Now, what we did see on Saturday -- we saw some of those hostages being brought up onto a stage, which we had seen in previous weeks, and some of them being made to speak to the crowds -- the crowds of militants and also of bystanders.

There was also a propaganda video that Hamas released, which showed two of the as-yet unreleased Israeli hostages watching these proceedings from a vehicle.

So Israel said that because of these violations of the ceasefire deal they would not release the Palestinian prisoners. Hamas, in turn, said that was a violation and said there would be no discussions on phase two of this hostage ceasefire deal until they were released.

So it shows the fragility of this ceasefire deal. As of this point, we understand that there will be an exchange of these prisoners and the bodies of four Israeli hostages. That according to an Israeli source familiar with the matter.

But looking forward we still do not have details of any negotiations on phase two. Phase one is supposed to end this weekend, so the temporary ceasefire technically ends this weekend. There were supposed to have been indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel since early February. That has not happened.

We're also hearing from an Israeli source familiar with the matter that the Israeli government would like to extend the first phase as long as possible to try and get more hostages back. It is unclear and unlikely that Hamas would agree to that.

But it just shows how fragile this entire three-phase hostage deal is.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Abu Dhabi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAUSCHE: Our thanks to Paula Hancocks.

More now on Russia's war on Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expected to visit Washington on Friday to sign a deal granting the United States the rights to some of Ukraine's natural resources in exchange for aid and reconstruction.

More now from CNN's chief international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh in Kyiv.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Increasingly positive signs that a deal will be signed between the United States and Ukraine in the coming days. A Ukrainian official saying that in their perception the United States and Ukraine have agreed to terms for a deal over Ukraine's rare Earth minerals and natural resources being used to pay back what the Trump administration says is debt over aid from the United States to Ukraine to help it defend itself after Russia's invasion.

Now, the deal apparently may end up being signed later this week in Washington. The official is saying that the White House has proposed a meeting on Friday between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump. When asked about this Trump said that he'd heard Zelenskyy was coming to see him on Friday. He said he was OK with that and also suggested that Zelenskyy would like to sign the deal during that meeting.

[05:50:00]

That's not a full-throated embrace of the deal by Trump or an official announcement from the White House that indeed they've agreed to terms, but it's certainly significant progress after a week of intense acrimony between Trump and Zelenskyy in which Trump called Zelenskyy a dictator. Zelenskyy suggested that Trump was living in a disinformation circle. And their relationship really appeared to be in freefall.

In terms of the deal's content -- well, we understand from a Ukrainian official that some of the thornier items have been removed. Indeed, we were told on Monday that it wouldn't have security guarantees in it that the Ukrainians had sought and as the Americans had resisted. It appears, according to the Ukrainian official we spoke to today, that some language pertaining to Ukrainian security may have been put back in.

But this does seem to be a framework agreement -- talks about Ukrainian reconstruction -- but mainly some of the uglier details for further discussions.

But what's really going to be important is whether or not Trump does indeed meet Zelenskyy on Friday and how they get along. Because it's their personal acrimony that's hung over bids by European leaders to try and get Trump to embrace the idea of Ukraine's support more fully and in, indeed, to try and assist any European role in peacekeeping forces here.

It's been a breakneck fortnight of the United States getting closer to Russia in separate negotiations of acrimony between Ukraine and U.S. presidents and now it seems potentially this deal looking in better shape than it has for quite some time.

If the two presidents meet on Friday and do heal that relationship that will be an enormous relief for Ukrainians here who are desperately concerned that their main financial and military backer may be significantly less invested. And potentially a relief too for Europeans who have been in something of a scramble since the role in the United States not only in Ukraine's security but that of Europe as a whole has been in doubt over the last fortnight.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAUSCHE: The Supreme Court, meanwhile, ordering a new trial for Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip. Glossip was convicted in 1998 for arranging the murder of Barry Van Treese. The verdict called into question amid allegations that the state withheld evidence.

CNN's Brynn Gingras has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): For 28 years Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip maintained is innocence. Now he's getting another chance to prove it. The lifeline coming from the U.S. Supreme Court. A majority of justices ordering a new trial for the man who has eaten his last meal three times, writing, "We conclude that the prosecution violated its constitutional obligation to correct false testimony."

The evidence at the heart of the justices' decision are notes from Oklahoma prosecutors on the testimony of Justin Sneed. Sneed is the man who actually killed hotel owner Barry Van Treese in 1997, but he placed the blame on Glossip for orchestrating the murder as part of a plea deal to keep himself off death row.

The notes show prosecutors knew their star witness had been treated for a serious psychiatric condition, but Glossip's supporters say they never revealed that to the defense before trial. The highest court agreed. "Such a revelation would be significant in any case and was especially so here where Sneed was already nobody's idea of a strong witness."

Glossip's lawyer telling CNN Glossip is thrilled beyond words about the decision.

It's been a long road for Glossip full of reprieves and stays in many courts. Over the years CNN has interviewed Glossip several times and he had this to say when the Supreme Court decided to hear his appeal in May 2023.

RICHARD GLOSSIP, GRANTED NEW TRIAL BY SUPREME COURT: I have a long bucket list and I want to do everything on that bucket list. So I've got a lot of life to live and I'm going to fight so that I can live it.

GINGRAS (voiceover): In that fight, Glossip has gained support from unlikely places -- from a bipartisan group of Oklahoma lawmakers, many who are staunch defenders of the death penalty --

KEVIN MCDUGLE, (R) FORMER OKLAHOMA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: What's happened to Richard Glossip is not right.

GINGRAS (voiceover): -- to the state's Republican attorney general who told a parole board he couldn't stand by Glossip's conviction.

GENTNER DRUMMOND, (R) OKLAHOMA ATTORNEY GENERAL: In the name of justice I humbly ask that you support clemency.

GINGRAS (voiceover): Now freedom may be in his future -- a hope Glossip has held onto for decades.

GINGRAS: It seems you're maybe a bit closer to that bucket list.

GLOSSIP: I know. I can't wait for it. I'm happy and just ready to be there, to be with my wife and to finish out my life happy.

GINGRAS (voiceover): Brynn Gingras, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAUSCHE: Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING a near-disaster at a major U.S. airport. How a quick-thinking pilot averted a runway collision with only seconds to spare. Plus, President Trump eight years after he held his first-ever cabinet

meeting is set to hold the first of his second run in the White House today. Someone who wasn't there the first go-round, Elon Musk.

[05:55:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Never has there been a president, with few exceptions, who has passed more legislation and who's done more things than what we've done. And I think we've been about as active as you can possibly be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL)

TAUSCHE: It's Wednesday, February 26. Right now on CNN THIS MORNING --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president and Elon and his entire cabinet are working as one unified team.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAUSCHE: Who's in charge here? Today, Elon Musk, unelected and not confirmed, will be in attendance for President Trump's first cabinet meeting.

Plus this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNSON: We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we are going to deliver the America First agenda.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAUSCHE: After hours of back-and-forth, House Speaker Mike Johnson flips multiple Republican holdouts to pass is budget blueprint.