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CNN This Morning

Zelenskyy To Meet With European Leaders In London; U.K. PM Starmer Tells Zelenskyy He Has "Full Backing" Of The U.K.; GOP Lawmakers Support Trump's Handling Of Zelenskyy Meeting; GOP Lawmakers Face Backlash At Town Halls; Ohio Woman Suing For Reverse Discrimination After Gay Boss Passed Her Up For Promotion; New Study Finds Deep Divides Over Religion's Role in U.S. Life; 97th Academy Awards. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired March 02, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:01:47]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Welcome to CNN This Morning. It is Sunday, March 2nd. I'm Victor Blackwell.

Here's what's happening this morning. Up first, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is meeting with European leaders at a critical summit today. He's working to shore up support for a peace deal after that public Oval Office argument. We'll share what we're hearing from those leaders coming up in a live report.

Plus, an Ohio woman says that she was discriminated against at work because she's straight. The fate of her lawsuit now rests with the Supreme Court. Here what the justices are weighing as they are making their decision.

Plus, shifting religious views. A major new study says that fewer Americans view religion as a major part of their lives.

Here what researchers are pointing to as the reason for that decline.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL KRAMER, ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES' CEO: There are going to be incredible surprises on the show this year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Hollywood's biggest night, the Oscars, will happen with a few notable changes and some big performances. We'll tell you what to expect. That's coming up.

Ukraine's President Zelenskyy is expected to receive a major show of support in London today. He's meeting with European leaders for a vital summit on Ukraine's future. Western allies are hoping the summit will revive the momentum towards a peace deal that was slowly building last week before it came crashing down during this, that Oval Office melee. Zelenskyy met with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer yesterday at 10 Downing Street, received a much warmer welcome than he got at the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: You have full backing across the United Kingdom. And we stand with you, with Ukraine, for as long as it may take --

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: Thank you.

STARMER: -- to achieve what we both want to achieve, which is a lasting peace, a lasting peace for Ukraine based on sovereignty and security for Ukraine. So important for Ukraine, so important for Europe and so important for the United Kingdom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And while European leaders are rallying behind Zelenskyy and Ukraine, U.S. lawmakers are retreating to their respective parties. Most Republicans are siding with Trump, even praising him. Democrats have slammed Trump's actions and are taking the opportunity to fundraise off that fiasco.

Of course, we're covering all this from all angles, seeing as Nic Robertson is in London and Nick Paton Walsh is in Kyiv. Nic Robertson, let's start with you and the latest on the meeting.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah, we're going to be expecting European leaders to be arriving here for this very important summit within the next hour or so. And it's important not just for Ukraine, but I think what emerges from here will set the tone of how Europe can have a productive working relationship with President Trump's White House. It's what they want. It's what both sides want. But it's not in its best place right now.

So while the discussion will be about Ukraine, there is so much more at stake. The British Prime Minister has talked about what he wants to achieve here is find a sort of a coalition of the willing, countries that are ready to be more forward-leaning on giving security guarantees for Ukraine and going forward. And that seems to imply that a lowering of expectation of United States involvement in security guarantees.

[07:05:11]

Remembering just a few days ago now, the Europeans were looking to the U.S. to provide security guarantees for a potential boots on the ground peacekeeping type mission for as many as 30,000 European troops. How that may look going forward is different. Keir Starmer explained a little earlier today what he wants to achieve here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STARMER: We've now agreed that the United Kingdom, along with France and possibly one or two others, will work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting. And then we'll discuss that plan with the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: And one of the things that Keir Starmer is also saying, this is not just about the security of Ukraine, this state, but the security of Europe and the relationship with the United States. And one of the meetings Keir Starmer has had already this morning is with Giorgia Meloni, the Prime Minister of Italy, who said after that fractious meeting that Zelenskyy had at the White House barely 48 hours less than ago, she said it was important for the Europe and the United States to have a very quick summit to see where they stand. This meeting here could be a precursor for that. It's certainly going to help shape that very important relationship. Victor?

BLACKWELL: Nic Robertson for us there. Thank you, Nic.

Let's go now to Nick Paton Walsh live in Kyiv. That's the view from London, the view from Ukraine this morning.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean, I think the scenes we've seen in London will give some heart to Ukrainians who may, well, certainly were in absolute consternation, disbelief at what they saw on Friday. This is a moment of rehabilitation, certainly a reminder to Moscow that Ukraine is not on its own, which may well have been the feeling you got after the Oval Office meeting. Europe clearly rallying around Zelenskyy, an extraordinary warm welcome from Starmer, who is sort of acting in the position you would have expected Joe Biden to have taken months ago, the sort of central crux of support for Ukraine.

What can they actually practically do, though, is the question many Ukrainians want to know the answer to. It's clear they want to move forward with formulating some kind of peace plan that they would then present to the United States. Remember, that would be a third track, as it were, because there's the U.S.-Russia track being pursued by the Trump administration, the U.S.-Ukraine track, which, frankly, let's face it, is pretty much stalled at this point.

And now it seems that the Europeans want to try and come up with an idea that they could potentially move forwards with. But the practical element of that requires United States aid, certainly to continue to Ukraine so it can continue its fighting on the front lines, but also security backstops for that European mission. It's a far distant prospect, European boots on the ground here.

We would need a sustained peace, frankly, for that to even hove into view. But the ultimate real scramble here is can Ukraine continue to fight off Russian aggression if indeed the Trump administration wants little or nothing to do with that, if U.S. aid dries up. It's intelligence cooperation, it's key air defense missile interceptors that are the most problematic parts of U.S. assistance that can't immediately be replaced.

But there's a sense of urgency here. You have to remember, while all of this drama is happening in foreign capitals, this extraordinary whiplash we've had of two weeks of Trump calling Zelenskyy a dictator, Macron, it seems, healing that initially, Starmer going further too, and then that horrific Oval Office meeting. It's been head-spinning for ordinary Ukrainians.

During all of that, the drones still keep coming nightly from Russia, hitting Ukrainian targets. People keep dying on the front lines in horrific trench warfare. And that is something which continually burns through Ukraine's manpower, its resources, and leaves them in a perilous place where foreign aid is yet more vital.

All of this, though, clearly reversing back now in the last 72 hours in a way where the Kremlin can take comfort in it. So I think this European summit urgently needed for Ukrainians to feel that they are not really going to have to radically rethink their future.

BLACKWELL: Nick Paton Walsh for us in Kyiv. Thanks so much. Joining us now, Politics Director for the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, Alex Sanz.

Alex, thanks for coming in.

ALEX SANZ, POLITICS DIRECTOR, ATLANTA-JOURNAL CONSTITUTION: Good to see you.

BLACKWELL: OK, so that is the case that's being built in London, right? Who in Washington, if anyone, is giving them an assist? Is there someone in the president's circle or in his party that could have his ear that says, Mr. President, we need to back Ukraine or stay with them and offer these security guarantees?

SANZ: Potentially. I think right now it's too soon to say or for many of us to actually know who has the president's ear and may carry the most weight. There is history. There is generations of American foreign policy that would support a continuation of this relationship with Ukraine and Europe writ large.

[07:10:08]

But the question is, when you look at what happened Friday in the Oval Office, Europe's response within hours, Europe's response yesterday and then the meeting that will have the summit in just a few hours, what comes out of that and does that apply a different kind of pressure now to Washington to say, look, we are where we are, but this is what's in the world's interest. Let's work together to make sure that Ukraine is secure, everyone is safe in Europe and America and have that unified front against Russia.

BLACKWELL: And it's interesting that some in the president's circle, his now National Security Advisor, is of course backing him, but previously he compared Zelenskyy to Churchill. So there's been a 180 from several people inside the president's inner circle. We'll have to see how much of the president's address on Tuesday to a joint session of Congress and of course the American people is about this. But overall, what are we expecting from the president Tuesday?

SANZ: So it's been about 40 days since Inauguration Day. A lot has happened over the past month.

BLACKWELL: Indeed.

SANZ: So look for the highlights, right? We will hear about the broader change in foreign policy in this country. We will hear about just this remaking of the federal workforce that is affecting every state across the country.

But also look for hearing more about the actual changes happening on the ground when it comes to the everyday issues that we heard about throughout the campaign, whether it's what's happening at the border, the southwest border with Mexico, to the dismantling of diversity programs across the federal government.

The one thing that people will likely want to hear is these are the accomplishments in the first 30 or so days, but what happens from here?

BLACKWELL: Especially on the economy.

SANZ: On the economy especially. Inflation is still a concern. The prices have not gone down the way many people had hoped they would have gone down. So will there be reassurances? Will people watching across the country walk away from Tuesday thinking, OK, we've had this focus on all these other things in January, but OK, now we're reassured. We know that those prices that have been so high, whether it's at the grocery store, the gas station, just buying a car, all that now begins to come down.

BLACKWELL: And the polls show that most Americans believe that the president has not done enough to bring those prices down. The Democratic response to this is going to be delivered by freshman Senator Elissa Slotkin, who is a moderate.

The last time the President addressed a joint session of Congress, this was back in 2020, it was from progressive Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, and people will remember that then-speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up the State of the Union, the copy that she had.

Obviously a shift here in response from the Democrats in their selection about the messaging after the president.

SANZ: It is a shifted response, but also when you look at what has happened since Election Day, there are more questions that have to be answered. We know where the administration is taking the country. Democrats in particular want to know where is the party taking them?

What is their answer to the changes they've seen and the changes that are yet to come? We've talked to many people in Washington over the past few weeks, and there is division. People aren't quite sure what that path forward should be, how strong should Democrats push back?

As James Carville said, do the Democrats just kind of sit back and watch and let things fall apart? There is a fine line that many in the party are trying to thread, and Tuesday will give us a glimpse into potentially one of the paths forward for the party. BLACKWELL: Right. There's been pushback from the voters and constituents we've seen at these town halls. One of the early ones was here in Roswell, not far from where we're sitting right now. And are we seeing that continue? We've got video here. This is Kansas Senator Roger Marshall at a town hall. I think we have time to play this.

Let's watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't remember you got elected from the whole state.

SEN. ROGER MARSHALL (R-KS): I'm going to say this one time. If you all keep cutting me off, if you're rude, which you're being, I'm going to leave. And I know you're been so much misinformation. I despise Vladimir Putin. He's a bloodthirsty war cry.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What the government is doing right now, as far as cutting out those jobs, a huge percent of those people -- and I know that you care about the veterans -- are veterans. And that is a damn shame. That is a damn shame.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not a democrat, but I'm worried about the veterans.

MARSHALL: Well, I yielded to one my elders, and I appreciate his comments. I think it's a great -- I'm not going to -- we don't have time for everyone to stand up. I do got two more commitments today. I appreciate everybody making the drive out, and God bless America. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:15:08:]

BLACKWELL: So he lifted that. Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock at the end of the week announced that five Social Security Administration offices in Georgia would be closing. Four of those are in districts represented by Republicans. Is the pushback continuing here in Georgia?

SANZ: So, offices in Georgia, more than 40 across the country. It's one thing, I think, for people to have an idea of what the federal government is, this massive institution anchored in Washington. It's very different when those cuts turn into something that people can see and feel, and feel the impact of it themselves.

So will people have to wait longer for services? When you look at the other cuts that are happening across the landscape, you think about the cuts at the National Weather Service. There's a potential severe weather outbreak in a few days.

NOAA's data feeds the apps on our phone, the weather information that tells us there's a tornado coming or there are things we have to prepare for.

BLACKWELL: Yeah.

SANZ: There are questions around that, but you can go down the list, whether it's with Social Security, whether it's with the weather, whether it's with the CDC. The list is long, and I think we're in this place where the change is happening, but the impact that people will feel, we're still a bit -- we're a ways from seeing the actual impacts, I think, for many people.

BLACKWELL: We have to remember that more than 80% of federal workers work outside of Washington. They work here in the country. They're not overseas. They're here in the country, but outside of the district. Alex Sanz, thanks so much for being with us.

SANZ: Good seeing you.

BLACKWELL: All right, likewise.

Now, during this upheaval and the sweeping changes, President Trump heads to Capitol Hill, as we said, to share what's next. Follow CNN for complete coverage and in-depth analysis. The presidential address to Congress begins Tuesday at 8 p.m. on CNN.

Still to come, the Supreme Court is hearing a case that could make it easier for white people, straight people, to file and win so-called reverse discrimination cases. We dive into the legal arguments.

Plus, the glamour of Hollywood's biggest night comes with a little controversy this year. A preview of the Oscar ceremonies is ahead. And the work week will start with severe weather for millions, as Alex mentioned, coming up, where we could see the worst storms.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:22:08]

BLACKWELL: The Supreme Court appears to be on the verge of making it easier for some white people, straight people, to file what are called reverse discrimination suits. Oral arguments this past week signaled the justices were poised to side with Marlean Ames. She's a woman in Ohio who lost her suit. She claimed that her gay boss discriminated against her when she passed her up for a promotion.

Joining me now to discuss this case is Fred Smith. He's a constitutional law professor at Emory University. Thank you for coming in studio.

FRED SMITH, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: So what's the central question here? I understand it revolves around this extra requirement.

SMITH: That's exactly right. So in this particular situation, Marlean Ames had been an employee for the Ohio Youth Department. And she was demoted and she also was passed over for a job. And the demotion ended up going to a gay man, the position that she held. And the position that she applied for in terms of promotion went to a gay woman. And so she's arguing that she was discriminated against because she was straight.

In some federal courts, including the federal court that governs Ohio, where she lives, she has to show background facts that make it particularly persuasive to the court that she was discriminated against. And that's because she's not a member of a historically discriminated against group. So when it comes to straight individuals or white individuals who are arguing discrimination on the basis of race, if it is a -- I mean, those are really kind of the big two.

BLACKWELL: So a black person who made the same claim wouldn't have to offer those background variables.

SMITH: That's exactly right.

BLACKWELL: OK.

SMITH: If they were arguing discrimination on the basis of race.

BLACKWELL: And so, typically, when we listen to oral arguments, the guidance is don't read too much into them, don't be misled. But when Justice Gorsuch says, quote, "we're in radical agreement today, is it clear the direction that this is going in?

SMITH: Yes. I think it would be shocking if they came to any other conclusion than that the lower courts that have imposed this extra requirement, that they have gotten it wrong, or at least that it's time to abandon it.

BLACKWELL: So this is a time when the administration is trying to purge the government and public life of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. So this was ripe for politicization. I wonder, did any of that come into the courtroom?

SMITH: Not really, right? So it's tempting to kind of think about this case in DEI terms.

BLACKWELL: Yeah.

SMITH: In some respects, it is. This background facts requirement goes back to a case from the early 1980s in the D.C. Circuit. And it was a case that actually was about affirmative action. So in that case, it kind of is about DEI.

[07:25:05]

But more broadly, in this particular case, she's not really challenging any sort of affirmative action program. In fact, she's relying on a lawsuit from 2019 called Bostock. This is a lawsuit where a gay man who was right here in Georgia was fired because he was gay. He joined a recreational football league and he was fired from his job at a funeral home. And he argued that that was discrimination on the basis of sex, the

discriminating against him because he was gay was discrimination on the basis of sex. That is, he was attracted to men. If he was a woman who was attracted to men, then that wouldn't be discrimination or that he wouldn't have been fired, right? And so Lambda Legal prevailed in that particular claim.

She's relying on that exact argument, right? She's saying that discrimination on the basis of the fact that she's straight is discrimination on the basis of sex. So really one of kind of the biggest victories for DEI in the last two decades is the case she's relying on.

BLACKWELL: OK, that's an interesting tie in. How does this, the result of it, whatever the ruling is from the court or whether they send it back to the lower courts to reinterpret or apply their standard to their rulings, how does that change the workplace in the country?

SMITH: You know, probably not much.

BLACKWELL: OK.

SMITH: And that's in part because this rule didn't even apply nationwide in the first place. This rule, it applied in D.C. It applied to some states in the Midwest, Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota. But in the vast majority of the country, this wasn't the rule. This isn't the rule in California. This isn't the rule in Georgia. This isn't the rule in most of America. And so moving forward, it probably won't make that big of a difference.

BLACKWELL: Professor Smith, thanks for coming in.

SMITH: Absolutely. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right, President Trump may be adding another name to his long list of pardons.

Coming up, why Trump says he's pushing to get the late Pete Rose into the Hall of Fame despite Rose being banned from baseball for gambling.

Also, fewer Americans say they feel a connection to organized religion. What a new survey says about faith and its role in American life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:31:47]

BLACKWELL: Sunday morning in America. It used to mean that much more of the country was getting ready to go to church, but church attendance has been falling for years. And now, a new study shows the role of religion in American life is changing. Less than half of all adults now say that religion is very important in their lives, down from majorities who felt that way in the earlier studies.

With me now is Greg Smith, senior associate director of research at the Pew Research Center. Greg, good morning to you. There has been, as I said, this decline as it relates to Christianity for several years, for more than a decade. But it seems to be in some categories, slowing that decline, steadying out. Tell me about it.

GREG SMITH, SENIOR ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH, PEW RESEARCH CENTER: That's exactly right. If you look at trends in American religion over the long-term, the picture is really one of decline. The share of Americans who identify with the religion, including Christianity, is coming down. The share of Americans who say they pray regularly or believe in God also coming down.

The short-term picture, by contrast, looks very different over the last four or five years or so. What's striking to us in this new study is what we see is really a picture of stability. After declining for a very long time, the share of Americans who are Christian seems to have stabilized. And after growing for a really long time, the share of Americans who have no religion, who describe themselves as atheist or agnostic, or just nothing in particular religiously, the size of that group has plateaued. So long-term decline, but shorter-term stability in American religion.

BLACKWELL: I spent a lot of time with this study this week because I find it fascinating when we get from Pew these pictures of American life. And one that -- a term that I'd not heard of before is just the religious switching. And the numbers that I saw of people who were switching from Christianity overall and Catholicism specifically, I think they were most striking to me.

SMITH: Yes, there is a lot of religious switching in the United States. Overall, 35 percent of U.S. adults have switched religions. That is to say, they identify religiously as adults in a way that's different than they were raised.

Christianity loses far more people through religious switching than it gains. There's something like six former Christians in the United States, six people who say they were raised Christian and no longer identify as such for every one convert to Christianity. And for Catholics, the numbers are more like eight to one.

By contrast, the share of people who say they have no religion, that group, that group is going -- is growing through religious switching. There's like six people who know say they have no religion after having been raised in a faith for every one person who's left that group.

BLACKWELL: I started this by talking about church attendance and I have some friends who will tell you they never miss church. They go to church every Sunday. But they haven't been inside a sanctuary since before the pandemic. They call themselves bedside Baptists.

And so, as Pew found for people who attend online services or watch religious services on television, where's the trend?

[07:35:00]

SMITH: Yes, it's really interesting. Today, about a quarter of people tell us that they regularly watch religious services online or on TV at least once a month, that number was higher in the early days of the pandemic, and it has since come down as people have returned to attending religious services in person.

One thing that's really interesting is that over the course of the pandemic, the share of people who said they'd done one or the other in the past month, either gone to religious services in person or watch them online or on TV, that number was rocks, 4 and 10, 40 percent over the course of the pandemic, and that's still what we see today.

BRUNHUBER: Collectively, what do your findings tell us about the religious picture of our country?

SMITH: You know, one question these findings raise is well, is the recent stability we've seen in American religion, is that going to last? Is that going to be a permanent feature of American religion? And it's hard to predict the future, but there are some things we do know. We know for sure that older people in the U.S., by and large, are quite religious. We also know they're declining as a share of the population as their members pass away, and the people coming up behind them are much less religious.

So, if this recent stability is going to prove lasting, something's going to have to change. Either today's young adults are going to have to become more religious as they get older or new generations of more religious young adults are going to have to come along. In the absence of one of those changes, the data suggests that the longer-term trends we've seen -- the longer-term declines we've seen in American religion could continue.

BLACKWELL: Greg, fascinating findings from this study. As I've said, I spent some time with it. I go to the website and just look up all kinds of stuff that that you guys at Pew provide through your work. Thanks so much for what you do. And thanks for your time this morning.

Tonight's Academy Awards is going to be a ceremony to remember from the "Emilia Perez" controversy to the recent wildfires that devastated so much of Los Angeles. We have a preview of tonight's show.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:40:00]

BLACKWELL: Red carpet ready. Statues are polished tonight. The 97th Academy Awards will be handed out in Los Angeles. The Oscars typically feature all the glamor that we expect and the surprise moments that come with live TV.

CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister spoke one-on-one with the head of the Academy for a look at what to expect tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the Will Smith slap --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a mistake. Moonlight, you guys won best picture.

WAGMEISTER: -- to the envelope mix up, the Oscars are no stranger to unexpected drama.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To the only love that man will ever get in his life is by stripping off and showing his shortcomings.

WAGMEISTER: We've had some wild and crazy moments, especially in recent years.

BILL KRAMER, CEO ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES: We have. That's right.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): It's safe to say Academy CEO Bill Kramer hopes the drama comes from the Oscar races themselves.

KRAMER: There are going to be incredible surprises on the show this year. As always, an amazing celebration of cinema.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm the king of the world.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): We caught up with Kramer as he helped plan this year's show on the heels of Los Angeles' devastating wildfires.

KRAMER: We'll be celebrating our community, not just our community of filmmakers, but the community of Los Angeles.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Moments before our interview, a source told CNN that Best Actress nominee, Karla Sofia Gascon, would attend the ceremony amidst a scandal that saw the "Emilia Perez" star apologizing for offensive tweets, overshadowing her historic moment as the first out transgender person nominated for acting at the Oscars.

WAGMEISTER: Was there ever a discussion of rescinding that nomination?

KRAMER: All of our nominees are invited to attend the Oscars. I think what's so important this year, we have over 200 nominees, we need to celebrate all of our nominees.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Kramer also insists the Oscars shouldn't get political.

WAGMEISTER: Is that something that throughout the night you want to steer clear of?

KRAMER: Absolutely. We do talk to them about keeping things focused on the work, but this is really a moment for the artist to have for themselves.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): The day of our interview, Kramer made a wickedly big announcement.

KRAMER: We have incredible performances lined up. Doja Cat, Lisa, Raye, Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Queen Latifah, Oscar nominee.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Those superstars will replace the tradition of best original songs performed on stage. Those nominees will be celebrated in a pre-produced segment.

WAGMEISTER: There's so many categories that are televised. Is that something that needs to be addressed?

KRAMER: Last year, we had all of the awards on the show, and we came in under time. We were under three hours and 30 minutes. It's possible to do this in a way that's entertaining.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Speaking of entertaining --

CONAN O'BRIEN, COMEDIAN: Other award statutes think I'm funny.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): -- Conan O'Brien is hosting the Oscars for the first time.

KRAMER: He's a lovely person, number one. He's a humanist. He's apolitical. He invites everybody in to enjoy.

O'BRIEN: Strolling the door naked at 2:00 a.m. It was our anniversary.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Elizabeth Wagmeister CNN Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: A New CNN original series follows the creation of one of the most well-known social media platforms of all time, Twitter.

[07:45:00]

In 2006, a group of tech visionaries came together to create the app, and in just a few short years, it transformed the way people of all ages around the globe communicate. The series details how behind the scenes, this led to the creation of this massive platform.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON GOLDMAN, VP OF PRODUCT, TWITTER 2007-2010: We were a real mix of actual anarchists and people who were dreamers, like people who believed in a world that could be created through the internet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More than half of the team knew how to juggle.

GOLDMAN: Yes, we had a lot of jugglers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that this speaks to their counterculture kind of, backgrounds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you do a startup, the play is the work and the work is the play. These are the people I'm laughing with all day long. I'm working through problems and it's really fun and challenging to solve the problems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This chaotic descriptive culture of people who stayed until 3:00 in the morning at the office and wrote fantastic code. We were the most social people in the startup world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was lively. There were a lot of characters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to run actually.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think I was maybe the boring one. We were writing ideas on whiteboards. Kind of typical small startup where you show up every day and you try to invent the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: "Twitter: Breaking the Bird," premieres next Sunday, March 9th at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on CNN.

Still ahead, we're tracking what could be an outbreak of severe storms in the week ahead. Your forecast, after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:50:00]

BLACKWELL: More than 50 million people are facing the threat of severe weather this week. CNN Meteorologist Tyler Mauldin joins me now with details on what to expect. Who's going to face the worst potentially?

TYLER MAULDIN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Victor, we're going to see a severe weather threat get progressively worse for the southeast as we go through Tuesday. A level 2 out of 5 threat for today and Monday, and then it culminates with a level 3 out of 5 threat on Tuesday, and it could get higher than that as we get closer to Tuesday.

We're watching two other systems. First one here, the lead system is right over the planes. Second one beginning to impact the Pacific Northwest at this time.

Here's how all of this works out. Right now, not much to see on the radar, but as we get later into the afternoon, that first weather system is really going to get us act together and you'll see it begin to produce those severe thunderstorms later today. Probably strong winds, some large hail.

Then that Pacific Northwest system makes a beeline right for the planes, that leads to the chance for some stronger thunderstorms on Monday. Main event, though, Tuesday afternoon, right here across the deep south, the folks that will be feeling the brunt of that activity right here in Louisiana, and then it progresses into portions of Alabama and Georgia early on Wednesday.

Tornado threat very high for us on Tuesday with that weather system getting its act together. We could be seeing strong long track tornadoes with this weather system. So, it's something that we certainly have to keep a very close eye on in the days to come.

Now, Victor, we are starting to get into that severe weather season going from March all the way to May, where we see a -- the tornado threat peak. You're going to see a considerable increase and these conversations like you and I are having right now. BLACKWELL: All right. Tyler. Thank you. The great eight. Alexander Ovechkin. Yes. Got it. Yes. He scores his 31st goal of the season 884th of his career because the secret is that I don't follow sports and you guys make sure I pronounce the names right. 11 goals shy from the most goals in NFL history.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Incredible. Yes, close. NHL. We'll get him folks. We'll get him.

BLACKWELL: I got all the way to NFL -- NHL.

WIRE: Yes. Just read the -- we are talking about one of the most impressive records in all the sports history books. NFL, NHL, you name it. This record, this all-time NHL goal record was set by Wayne Gretzky way back in 1999. And now, capitals legend Alex Ovechkin is just 11 goals away from breaking it. He's got 22 games to do it in the regular season. His Caps lost 3 to 1 to Tampa Bay Lightning, but the 39-year-old still inches ever closer to that record, despite Ove missing 16 games this season due to a broken leg. Beast.

President Donald Trump posting on Truth Social that he will be issuing a complete pardon of Pete Rose, the late baseball legend for betting on his own team, which ended his budding managerial career when he was banned from the sport in 1989, making him ineligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Rose denied the gambling allegations for years until 2004 when he wrote in his autobiography that he turned to betting as a way to recapture the high that he got from winning batting titles in World Series. Rose became one of the greatest players ever over a 24- season career. He died last September at the age of '83.

Are you ready for March Madness? Madison Square Garden last night. New York St. John's winning the Big East title outright for the first time since 1985. They beat Seton Hall. It was deemed a white out game for St. John's fans and check out their coach, Rick Pitino, one of the best to ever to do it rocking the white suit, clean. Nobody wants to see this coach and this team in the tourney. Coach said afterwards, we're just getting started.

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How about this? Number five Tennessee tied with number six Bama with four seconds left. Jahmai Mashack bang him. He was almost on the logo on that way. He leads his balls to a 79-76 buzzer-beater win. Mayhem. A May Shack miracle. March Madness is just around the corner.

Finally, to one of the weirdest job interview processes on the planet. The NFL Combine, where college football's best show up in Indy and try to show out. Well, two of University of Texas speedsters talked a lot of trash before running their 40-yard dash. Isaiah Bond said he was going to break former Texas speedster Xavier Worthy's all time Combine 40 record of 4.21 seconds. He didn't. He ran a 4.39. He said he was going to run a 4.1.

How about Jaydon Blue? He was feeling himself too. No, he ran a 4.38 after saying he was going to break the record. Xavier Worthy clapped back on Instagram afterwards saying, respect those who come before you. Incredible stuff. The meat market, I call it. It is the weirdest, wildest job interview ever that I've ever done.

BLACKWELL: For the NFL.

WIRE: The NFL.

BLACKWELL: There you go. There you go.

WIRE: Nailed it.

BLACKWELL: All right. Coy, thanks so much. Thank you for joining us this morning. Inside Politics Sunday with Manu Raju starts after a break.

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