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Erin Burnett Outfront
White House Mass Firings Could Start As Early As Tomorrow; Trump, Budget Chief Meet To Discuss "Democrat Agencies" To Cut; CNN Aboard NATO Spy Plane On Mission To Deter Russian Incursions; 2 Delta Jets Collide At LaGuardia, Wing Slams Into Cockpit Window. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired October 02, 2025 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:30]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
The breaking news, the White House has a list already of who's getting fired. Layoffs expected as early as tomorrow morning as Trump breaks his silence on the shutdown.
Plus, on board a NATO spy plane. A special report that you will see first here OUTFRONT tonight, as Putin threatens war with NATO and talks up MAGA.
And one CEO who didn't budge when Trump pressured companies to roll back DEI, tonight, he says he has proof that his company is doing better because of it. He will be OUTFRONT.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
(MUSIC)
BURNETT: And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, attacking his enemy. President Trump, for the first time on camera, addressing the government shutdown, which is about to enter its third day Trump making it clear that he is targeting Democrats with cuts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There could be firings and that's their fault. And it could also be other things. I mean, we could cut projects that they wanted, favorite projects, and they'd be permanently cut.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So the things they want, they being Democrats, and in case anyone is still trying to say that Project 2025 isn't a thing, Trump also posted this and I quote, "I have a meeting today with Russ Vought. He of Project 2025 fame, to determine which of the many Democrat agencies, most of which are a political scam, he recommends to be cut. I can't believe the radical left Democrats gave me this unprecedented opportunity."
So just to be clear, he capitalized Project 2025. So, what does Project 2025 say about cutting agencies? Well, specifically, it does recommend cutting or dramatically downsizing or gutting DHS, DOE, FEMA, EPA, CDC, HUD, the list goes on and on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We're going to look at agencies that don't align with -- align with the administrations values that we feel are a waste of taxpayer dollar.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, there's all the agencies, right, and Project 2025 has a lot on that. It also -- Project 2025 recommends mass firings, which a federal employee union says could result in up to a million workers losing their jobs. Now they're already saying thousands coming tomorrow.
Our Alayna Treene has new reporting that the firings could start now, or she's going to be with us in just a moment to tell you what she's learning about that, because this is moving incredibly fast. It's not a whole lot of threats. There's actually action coming.
And if you are not sold on whether Project 2025 is a blueprint for reality, recall that it also laid out how Trump could have more control over the Justice Department, saying the DOJ decision should always be consistent with the president's policy agenda. And so, when it comes to justice and the law, according to "The Washington Post", officials are telling agencies avoid these mass layoffs during the shutdown because they may be against the law, right?
So, you got to be worried about the law. But of course, this administration doesn't seem to be worried about the law, as we've seen over the past nine months, fear of the law has done very little to stop Trump. We'll see if it does now.
And this shutdown is a huge opportunity for him. I mean, for example, you know, he talked about targeting things they like. Well, the Trump administration has now frozen about $18 billion in infrastructure funding for New York City. Of course, a Democratic city.
Well, the reason, Russell Vought posting to ensure that the funding is not flowing based on unconstitutional DEI principles, right? DEI has been their thing they want to eviscerate and they are using this opportunity to do so. Vought also canceling nearly $8 billion in funding for energy programs.
And when it comes to this this is just straight up targeting of Democrats. The cuts, look at your map, affect 16 states every single one of which voted for former president -- Vice President Kamala Harris. You don't see any red states on there.
Alayna Treene is OUTFRONT live outside the White House. And, Alayna, what are you hearing about these firings? I know you have
new reporting about how quickly this is going to move, how big, how soon?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, those are the key questions today. I sat down with some White House officials, Erin, and they essentially told me that they have a list already of the agencies where they were planning to target some of these firings. And that's in addition to the agencies that they really want to see some major cuts to as well. There's two things that they're looking at.
And I say firings because they are talking about firing thousands of workers throughout the federal workforce. But it's also, you know, more permanent firings. And I think that's a key distinction, because, of course, in a government shutdown, we know people get furloughed, essentially laid off temporarily because there's no way to pay them while the government is shut down.
[19:05:05]
This is different. These are firing people and not having them come back. And this is unprecedented.
There's no other White House. We looked into the data, into all of the past shutdowns in the government. Previously, under other administrations. This has not been done before.
And again, the White House is framing this, or at least the president directly as an unprecedented opportunity that Democrats are giving him.
Now, as for some of the specifics, they will not get into that. As of now. I'm told that perhaps some smaller agencies will be targeted first as they look to, you know, expand more of this agenda. But this could come as soon as tomorrow, I'm told.
One of the officials I spoke with said that they are ready to move forward with this very quickly. They want to move forward with it very quickly. We could see these announced tomorrow or perhaps over the weekend, they said. So, stay tuned for that.
But they clearly want to move swiftly with this, particularly given, you know, it's still a question of how long the government is going to be shut down. And they want to, in Trump's words, take advantage of it.
BURNETT: I guess. And if it could open again soon, they want to get the firings done. They are going to do it quickly. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
All right. Alayna Treene, thank you very much. With that new reporting from the White House.
I want to go straight to the Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, and a lot to talk to you about tonight, Senator. But let me just start with Alayna's new reporting that the White House
wants to do this fast. They want to do something that they see as an unprecedented opportunity, but is unprecedented in and of itself, which is not to furlough, but to fire. So, do you think that -- I mean, once they do it, once those slips go out as you see it, are those firings irreversible?
SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D-OR): Well, actually, I don't see them, they are irreversible because there is nothing about a shutdown that gives new powers to the president. So, if it's illegal without a shutdown, it's illegal with a shutdown. There's details about how you do reductions in force. If you haven't gone through all those steps, a firing is illegal.
Remember when they first did their big display of firings early in the administration, many of them were illegal. They had to rehire. They had to bring people back. So when they say Democrats have had an opportunity -- no, there's nothing new in a shutdown. And by the way, Republicans are the ones who shut down the government because they don't want to basically reverse themselves on these massive cuts to Americans' health care.
So, it's a Republican shutdown. No new laws allow them to do anything they couldn't do right, well, without one.
BURNETT: Okay. So, you think that the firings will not hold even if they happen, right? I understand your view there.
What about the other cuts that are happening? I just put up a map. I put it up again. States Trump has targeted already with cuts. These are some of the energy ones. This is all being led by Russ Vought, who, as Trump said, was the architect of project 2025 and is also now in charge of budget.
So, the 16 states that we see here all went for Kamala Harris during the election. There is no attempt here to put a fig leaf on this, Senator, right? They're not. They're not ashamed of it. They're proud of it.
And they -- and the president said it, right? We're going to go after them, Democrats. So, is there anything that can be done to stop that?
MERKLEY: Well, it's a raw display of power, and I'm sure there will be plenty of court challenges. The question is, do they have a principle to hang it on? And if that principle is legitimate but it's not applied equally across the states, that also might make it illegitimate.
I do not know under what argument they're making this, is primarily well, we don't like your DEI program, so we're cutting these unless there are specific authorization of the law to do that. I'm not sure that these -- cutting these energy grants will hold up.
BURNETT: Yeah.
MERKLEY: But the bigger picture here is this is an authoritarian government flexing its powers in ways we've never seen in the history of the United States of America. This is a president who says, I'm not president of all Americans. I'm only president of people who share my priorities. And I'm going to just rub salt into that wound.
BURNETT: So, the White House just posted something on Instagram. As I said, the preside been very quiet until he did that brief interview today that aired today. I'm sorry, it was taped yesterday. Other than posts about Hakeem Jeffries and sombreros, which they have just posted on Instagram almost Friday with a sombrero. And obviously that does come on the heels of the A.I. videos of the house minority leader wearing a sombrero, which then they broadcast inside the White House in an empty press room yesterday through the evening.
Senator, what's your response to this?
MERKLEY: Oh, my goodness, this purely racist approach to governing our country. It's rude. It's an insult. It's bigoted. And it certainly doesn't embrace the fact that our country is incredibly diverse. People came from all over the world to come to this country, to pick out and try to say, imply there's an illegitimacy because people came with Spanish heritage or Central American heritage is really ugly.
[19:10:06]
And I think the American people are going to say, what is this that we have our president engaging in these type of, of rude, bigoted cartoons? I must say, Ted Cruz went and did this to every single Democratic senator. So there's -- people are piling on to this kind of racist theme.
But the way I look at this is I think Americans are going to go. This is not acceptable in our country. We believe in equal opportunity for all. Many of us come from so many places.
I mean, I have heritage from all over the world and it's -- so I don't think it's a winning political strategy for them, but it just puts on display a lot of the undercurrent of the president's racism.
BURNETT: Yeah. All right. Well, I appreciate your time, Senator. Thank you very much.
MERKLEY: Thank you, Erin.
BURNETT: Jamal Simmons and Charlie Dent are OUTFRONT now.
Congresswoman, I just want to start with you on.
We've got this new reporting, right, that the firings are coming really at any point tomorrow morning from Alayna and that the White House has a list already of who they want to fire. They've got the agencies that they want to really, you know, hit hard. They've got all that. And we know that's out of Project 2025 according to the president.
So how fast can Trump complete this?
CHARLIE DENT, FORMER U.S. CONGRESSMAN: Well, that's a great question because I don't think we've ever seen a president use --
BURNETT: Or try, right?
DENT: Use a shutdown to engage in mass firings. So, this is a bit unprecedented. And I suspect that OMB Director Russ Vought is -- he relishes this. I -- they really want to do this. I think they're making a huge mistake because right now the Democrats are in a bit of a pickle themselves because they know some of them are going to have to vote to open the government, and they're probably not going to get much in this fight. They know that.
But -- and so there's some -- a certain amount of blame they might get for this. But as long as the president keeps doing the sombrero, those offensive sombrero spots or gifts or whatever he's doing, and as long and they start firing people in mass, this can really harm the president and Republicans. I would think congressional Republicans may want to push back because they're going to get calls, too.
And this really gets serious in about two weeks when the troops don't get paid. Okay? The 2018 shutdown was a partial shutdown. DOD was being paid. That was funded. Most of the government was funded.
This is going to be nasty. And so, but right now, Russ Vought is probably going to run wild and fire people.
BURNETT: And the president has Russ Vought's back right now. Right?
JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He does.
BURNETT; The Project 2025, right? He's putting it in there. He's putting it right. It's all out there. There is nothing that is sort of what do they really mean? They are saying what they mean.
SIMMONS: They are. Erin, Donald Trump is maybe the most powerful president of my lifetime, any of our lifetimes, because he's accumulated all this power. The courts have given him basic community. He can end this shutdown whatever he wants. He just got to call the Democrats and say, hey, come on in, let's work this out and get this deal done and let's get the government back open.
The reality is Donald Trump, who has -- the Republicans have the Senate, they have the house, they have the White House, and basically they have the Supreme Court. They have not cut the deal with the Democrats to get this done.
So instead, what you have is Democrats sort of standing up and saying, hey, there are these Obamacare subsidies that are going to be taken out if we can get a deal on these Obamacare subsidies that Americans are going to have to pay so much more money in the beginning of the year for their health care, if we can get a deal on that, we'll go ahead and open the government. But the president won't do it.
BURNETT: So, this healthcare, all right, Congressman Dent, Trump just did that new interview with OANN. And he falsely claimed again and again he did make the point that Democrats want to fund health care for illegal immigrants. That is not true. But he is saying it and OANN is his base, right? So, he wants to repeat it to his base. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They want illegal aliens to get taken care of with health care. So, they want the illegals. They want us to take care of illegals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Of course, that's factually not -- not in the bill. But it's interesting that the House speaker, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, came out taking down Trump's claim, which everybody has done many times. And on the "Midas Touch" podcast, he said this -- watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): And that Oval Office meeting, it was -- the meeting lasted for over an hour. And the amount of time that we spent literally in talking about the issue of health insurance for undocumented immigrants was less than 10 seconds. You know why? Because they know it's a lie. So, they didn't even bother to bring it up because the cameras weren't rolling.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: What does that say to you? That hour long meeting, 10 seconds, on the -- on the issue that Republicans have now tried to make the whole heart and soul of this thing, even though it's a false claim?
DENT: Well, everybody knows that that this whole illegal immigration issue is a red herring. We know that. But I think this is part of their messaging.
That said, you know, this shutdown, as Jamal pointed out, there's a very good chance that there will be some agreement on the premiums and the subsidies for the ACA credits and all that.
[19:15:05]
They're going to get that, but they're not going to get it during a shutdown. Whoever makes the policy demand during the shutdown usually loses that fight. We saw it in 2013 when Republicans wanted to repeal, to defund Obamacare. They got nothing. Schumer tried to do DACA. He got nothing. There was a shutdown for that. And now this.
SIMMONS: It all depends on how you define losing, right? The Democrats around the country really feel like the Democrats in Washington haven't been standing up to Trump. They haven't been fighting.
BURNETT: Right.
SIMMONS: I was with some Democrats just the other night, last night, in fact, who all they wanted was the Democrats to stand up. They knew it might not work out. They know that things people are going to have to exact some pain, but I think they felt comfortable that Democrats were standing up and fighting for something.
If that happens, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer may earn a little bit of respect from their caucus, from Democrats out there, and maybe even from the White House who's been rolling over them a little bit over the last 6 or 7 months. They might even get some respect from the White House the next time.
DENT: Remember, in 2013, Republicans wanted to fight on Obamacare. It was a fools errand. They got nothing. And they tanked in the polls. It didn't affect them in the next midterm. But Republicans lost badly, even though they had the fight. And the Democrats want the fight now, but they're not going to get much.
BURNETT: Jamal, quickly before we go, this issue of the sombrero, do you think that if there is something that Trump posts, which is mean spirited at best, racist at worst, do you think that in the moment, anyone's going to know if that's the thing that loses people that, you know, have never been lost before?
SIMMONS: I don't know if it loses people. Listen, the parent in me of elementary school aged kids wants this all to stop. But the reality is there's no referee. There's nobody's going to put anybody in the penalty box for doing these kinds of memes.
BURNETT: Yeah.
SIMMONS: And we're starting to see them now come from Gavin Newsom and come from other people in the political spectrum on the Democratic side. And I just think that's the field that were fighting on.
BURNETT: That -- Newsom is saying, if this is the field, I'm coming on the field.
SIMMONS: That's right.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you both.
And next, the breaking news, the Senate majority leader tonight warning Democrats if the government remains closed, they're, quote, handing the keys to Russ Vought, the man behind Project 2025. We just talked about him.
So, who really is he at this point? What does he ultimately want? How much power does he have? The answer is a lot. But we have a special report next.
And Putin weighing in on MAGA, suggesting MAGA has the same values as Putin.
And a terrifying moment for passengers of the two passenger jets colliding on a New York City runway. How did this happen?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:21:50]
BURNETT: Breaking news, Senate Majority Leader John Thune warning Democrats now that by shutting down the government, they are, quote, handing the keys to Russ Vought. And Thune then added that Republicans, quote, can't control what Vought does.
Now, that's a pretty stunning thing for the majority leader to just come out and say, why is he saying it? Well, perhaps because it's true. Russ Vought is the key person inside the White House on this shutdown, as you just heard from Trump himself.
And as Phil Mattingly reports, vote is using this moment to try to dismantle the federal government.
And Phil is OUTFRONT with this special report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RUSS VOUGHT, OMB DIRECTOR: It is something that can all be avoided.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's one of the most powerful men in Washington, D.C., and he's not a household name. Russ Vought, President Trump's director of the Office of Management and Budget, and by all accounts, the architect of his government shutdown strategy.
VOUGHT: We have to solve the woke and the weaponized bureaucracy and have the president take control of the executive branch.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): The man behind the curtain for Trump's boldest and most impactful steps towards dismantling the federal government as we know it.
VOUGHT: My goal and passion is to prepare the legal paradigms, the policy paradigms, and the manuals to be able to give an army of these kind of folks the plans to do it.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Vote spent years mapping out the policy, legal authorities, pacing and political strategy that's turbocharging Trump's power grab across the federal government, while at the same time deconstructing it piece by piece and agency by agency, all to remake it in his vision, which was developed over two decades as a conservative insurgent inside Washington and shaped by his role atop the White House budget office in Trump's first term.
That vision grew far more expansive during Trump's four years in political exile, when Vought's evangelical Christian faith and steadfast belief that Republicans needed to pick the cultural fights they'd avoided for decades.
VOUGHT: The issues that we've been focusing on and you all have as well, are those cultural flashpoints, the cultural war in which the American people, many of them informed by faith, are saying, get us off the river. Why? Why do we have a political class that gives us tax cuts and gay marriage? MATTINGLY (voice-over): It was Vought's unexpected memo to federal
agencies last week, as the nation headed toward a government shutdown that stunned government officials with orders to prepare detailed plans for mass layoffs in the event of a funding lapse.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Of all the extremists, President Trump could have picked for OMB, he picked the godfather of the ultra-right.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Vought's expansive views of Trump's unilateral powers have made him the White House official, most synonymous with project 2025. The conservative policy playbook that became a major political issue during the 2024 campaign.
KAMALA HARRIS, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Project 2025 is a plan to return America to a dark past, but we are not going back.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Generating enough blowback for Trump's political advisors to suggest, he say repeatedly, some version of this.
[19:25:06]
TRUMP: Like some on the right, severe right, came up with this Project 25. But I don't know anything about it. I don't want to know anything about it.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): But Thursday morning, Trump boasted that Vought was part of Project 2025, and at the same time used his status as what one Democrat called the GOP's Darth Vader to escalate shutdown pressure on Democrats, a strategy that made a lot of sense after Vought's nine months of methodically bulldozing, five decades of bureaucratic guardrails, all in pursuit of Trump's agenda, successfully canceling more than $10 billion in congressionally appropriated funds, something that hasn't been done in decades, all as he circumvented Democrats to secure Republican votes for Trump's signature legislative package earlier this year, which he helped draft.
DEMONSTRATORS: Stand up, fight back!
MATTINGLY (voice-over): And driving the massive federal layoffs that have resulted in more than 200,000 employees vacating their jobs.
Taken together, they represent an unprecedented scale of executive action, and they paint a very clear picture -- Russ Vought is succeeding, and there doesn't seem to be much that Democrats or anyone else for that matter, can do to stop him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: I mean, Phil, I think this is the big question when we talk about, you know, Project 2025, right? And its goals for the Justice Department and what we're seeing Trump doing, I guess that context is so crucial because you look at this, you say, look, the Constitution says Congress has authority over government spending. That's what it is, right? The power of appropriations. And yet, here we are. This is happening. Is there a reason lawmakers
can't stop him?
MATTINGLY: Yeah, I would quibble a little bit with the sound you played from the Senate majority leader who said, this one's out of our hands? No. Technically, one of the ways to do something to stop Russ Vought, which Russ Vought himself has told lawmakers who have raised concerns about his actions is, look, you can write legislation to address this, in fact, that was a key piece of the Democratic alternative spending bill that Republicans voted down just a couple of weeks ago as the shutdown really kind of kicked into high gear.
There were a number of restrictions that Democrats were looking to place on Vought's authority, on his ability to really kind of reign in the control of spending authority. That's something I think there's actually some bipartisan interest in. But there's a significant amount of fear inside the Republican conference about getting crosswise with the president.
And also recognition that Russ Vought's not acting unilaterally here. This is something that the president wants. The president has directed him to go through with, and that the president has made clear he is deeply supportive, not just at this stage, but in many phases going forward that Vought has planned out.
BURNETT: Yeah. I mean, the president obviously mentioning him specifically tonight, Russ Vought you know, Project 2025.
All right. Phil Mattingly, thank you so much. Important for everyone to understand, for all of us to understand who he is and what he wants.
And next, we're going to take you on board a NATO spy plane. This plane specifically is part of a show of force that is directed at Putin. It's a story you'll see first OUTFRONT. And also, what Putin is now saying.
And then the head of DEI for mega luxury brand Burberry is out. So, another one bites the dust. But there is one company in the United States that is adamantly, steadfastly not cowering to the pressure. And he says, DEI is working, and he'll tell you why.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:33:09]
BURNETT: Breaking news, Putin taunting Trump tonight. Vladimir Putin dismissing Trump's for calling Russia a, quote, paper tiger and Putin taking a swipe at Trump's words, saying specifically that Russia is winning against Ukraine and NATO. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We've been advancing steadily and resolutely. Are we a paper tiger? Then what is NATO in this case? What is NATO like if we're a paper tiger? (END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Putin using his words, threatening NATO, saying don't provoke Russia. And he said there, if anyone still has a desire to compete with us in the military sphere, as we say, feel free. to let them try. Russia's countermeasures will not be long and coming.
Fred Pleitgen is OUTFRONT.
He is on board a NATO spy plane that is on the front lines right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): A quick takeoff from an air base in Western Germany. We're on a NATO E-3 sentry surveillance plane on a mission deterring Russian incursions into NATO airspace.
The reason why these flights are so important is that this plane has a massive radar on top, and it can see really far in all directions, about 650 kilometer for higher flying objects, a little less for lower flying objects.
But that means that means that it can see planes and other aircraft coming towards NATO airspace long before they get there.
(voice-over): While Moscow is praising what they say are improved relations between Russian Leader Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, it's also been testing NATO's readiness.
NATO jets recently, scrambling to shoot down several Russian combat drones that crossed into member state Poland's airspace.
And in late September, NATO says Russian MiG-31 fighters flew over Estonia's airspace for 12 minutes, while alliance interceptors were rushed to escort them back out.
[119:35:08]
Even though Russia denied its planes ever crossed into NATO territory.
This is part of the U.S. and its allies answer, more surveillance flights. The operation, named Eastern Sentry.
Captain Jacob Anderson, says if Russian jets come close, they'll see them.
CAPT. JACOB ANDERSON, U.S. AIR FORCE: At that point. We -- we probably been watching it for a while. So we're pushing it over to the military tactical data links. So it's not just us that are aware of it. It's the whole theater is aware that this track is approaching the airspace.
PLEITGEN: If we go back and look at the map, you can see that were cruising around Eastern Europe right now. This is Kaliningrad, that part of Russia. You have Belarus down here. So, the plane is situated here but can still look very far into territory, even beyond the borders of NATO.
(voice-over): And the E3 needs to stay in this area for hours only possible thanks to U.S. Air Force tankers providing gas to extend the mission. Crew members come from various NATO member states, all of them with the same stake in the mission's success, Lieutenant Colonel Stephen Wahnon tells me.
LT. COL. STEPHEN WAHNON, U.S. AIR FORCE: It's not one nation. It's all of NATO that's represented on this -- on this aircraft right now. So, when we are patrolling these, these borders, they're our borders, right? So, it means a lot for us to be here to defend our borders.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): And NATO says surveillance, seeing possible threats before they get close is key to keeping those borders safe.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PLEITGEN (on camera): And, Erin, Russia's ambassador to France has warned that there would be a war between Russia and NATO, should NATO ever shoot down a Russian jet. However, the alliance says that it's ready for what it calls a robust response should there be any further aerial incursions -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Fred, thank you very much. Really fascinating to see that and so important. This is actually all happening right now. And real preparations being made, right? Things like that. Things like Finland having their troops on the border.
OUTFRONT, now retired Major General Randy Manner. He's back with us. He did serve as the deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army.
And, General, I appreciate your time and it's good to see you again.
So, Putin coming out to Trump on these comments about Trump says Russia's a paper tiger and Putin trying to mock that in some way. I guess the reality of it comes down to this, right? Those are words. But do you see Putin changing his plans because of anything Trump says or threatens or not?
MAJOR GENERAL RANDY MANNER, U.S. ARMY (RET.): No, I don't see any change in Putin's position. I regard this as just a continuing dialogue in terms of what I'll call a war of words. It's tit for tat. It's basically the president, our president will say something. Putin will respond, yes, of course there are these incursions that are ongoing. That is one technique that Putin will use to poke at NATO. It does not mean that they're moving in any way in a war footing.
And to the best of my knowledge, all of the operations in Europe and in Russia are relative to a potential situation with NATO are normal. There is nothing else that is going on other than these occasional intrusions.
BURNETT: So, does Putin fear Trump or, you know, think that maybe he doesn't like him, but he doesn't really know what hell actually do? I mean, I guess that's what -- that's what those who support Trump's handling of this would say. Well, because he switches what he's saying all the time. You don't know where he is. And they are worried about that.
Do you see that or not?
MANNER: No, I don't see that. I believe Putin is a very sophisticated and experienced politician and experienced dictator. He has been in power for a long, long time. And not only, of course, being the head of the KGB, he knows how to get things done and to control situation in Russia.
This is one of those situations where in my opinion, he wants, our president to be our president because he certainly understands him. And this idea of the, our president doing things to respond to his base. The same thing happens with Putin. He says things that the Russian people that he wants them to hear as well.
BURNETT: All right. So, Putin also spoke about Michael Goss. And Michael Goss is a 21-year-old American who was actually killed in 2024. And he was killed fighting for Russia. He got awarded a Russian medal.
So, Putin brings him up. I just want to bring up some important context, which is that Goss's mother is a senior CIA official.
So, Putin brings up this young man who was killed fighting for Russia they gave a medal to. And here's what Putin said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PUTIN: I believe that these people, they are the core of the MAGA organization who support the current Trump administration because they fight for the same values as him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:40:03]
BURNETT: Now, again, he's talking about an American who was killed fighting for Russia and was given a Russian medal. He's referring to that as these people are the core of MAGA who support the current Trump administration because they fight for the same values as Trump. Wow.
MANNER: It's a little bit frightening. This is all upside down in terms of the relationship between Russia and the United States. We've usually had a fairly good relationship, but it's one of mutual respect. And also, quite frankly, of watching each other very carefully verifying and validating any kind of treaties. Those things are all out the window.
I was actually in Russia on many occasions with dealing with the Open Skies treaty and so on, before Trump got rid of those treaties. It's unfortunate that we are in the situation that we are in. However, I believe that it, quite frankly, is -- we're going to call it imbalance right now. I don't think there's any concern of your viewers that anybody is going to war anytime soon. And I just hope that it stays that way. BURNETT: General, I appreciate your time. Thank you.
MANNER: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, more companies are acquiescing to Trump's crackdown on DEI. One CEO, though, is standing firm and not doing so quietly and hoping to stay under the radar. He's out there. He's going to tell you exactly why. He's next.
Plus, two planes colliding at one of New York's busiest airports. How did this happen?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:46:14]
BURNETT: Tonight, Trump's obsession with dismantling DEI spreading, catching on in the U.K. Mega luxury brand Burberry says it is eliminating its head of diversity as part of a major overhaul. It comes after GSK, Britain's largest drug maker led by a woman, also hit pause on DEI, scrubbing the word "diversity" from its website, citing Trump's executive order, saying that it has to be aligned with U.S. policy because it sells drugs in the United States.
Well, here in the U.S., though, there is one company that is very clear wants to publicly talk about not caving to Trump tonight, its CEO says that he has proof that his diversity and inclusion policies are actually driving the company's financial success.
And OUTFRONT now is e.l.f. Beauty CEO Tarang Amin.
Tarang, I appreciate your time.
So, you know, I mean, you look at GSK, you look at what -- and they're saying, look, we got to do this because that word is a problem if we want to do business in the United States to comply with U.S. executive orders at this point.
But you at e.l.f. here in the U.S., you've kept DEI at the heart of your mission. You're not changing your words around, and you say you've got data to show that it actually is paying off when it comes to the bottom line, it's not in spite of the bottom line. It's actually driving it.
What are you seeing?
TARANG AMIN, E.L.F. BEAUTY CEO: Well, we've been in the business for 21 years of democratizing the best of beauty for every eye, lip and face. And we're big believers that one of the ways we've been able to do that is have a team that reflects the communities we serve. Were also one of only five public companies in the U.S. out of 4,000, with a board that's two thirds diverse, 44 percent, two thirds women, 44 percent diverse.
And so, we believe it's a big driver of our success. And we believe businesses have a role for societal good. So we've never had a DEI program or quotas or some of the things that
have been attacked. It's more fundamental than that for us. For us, it's really seeing it as a competitive advantage. And we've definitely seen that in our own results. We've had 26 consecutive quarters of net sales growth, over 20 percent. We're the only cosmetics company in the U.S. out of 1,000 that's been growing market share for 26 consecutive quarters.
So, we've certainly seen it as a driver of our business. And we've continued to partner with other companies, leading nonprofits to really make the case for greater inclusion on America's corporate boards.
BURNETT: Okay. And as you say, I mean, the words DEI leading into the election, right? That became -- those became bad letters to a lot of people for a variety of reasons. And Trump obviously had a whole executive order targeting it, right, that you got to get rid of him. And then when people tried to say, oh, internally, we'll just get rid of it, but well take the words away, but we'll keep doing it. When the administration found out about that, they said that was not acceptable.
Trump has not mince words about where he stands. Let me just play some examples.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: My administration has taken action to abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity and inclusion nonsense. And these are policies that were absolute nonsense throughout the government and the private sector.
We ended destructive DEI mandates.
DEI is would have ruined our country and now it's dead. I think DEI is dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Do you think it's dead? I mean, I know you're talking about your company, but when you look out there at everything else, when you look at Burberry and GSK, just tonight, when you look out there at your peers who are CEOs, do you think the president is right that DEI is dead?
AMIN: Well, I -- I don't believe it's dead. And I believe the concept of greater diversity, greater inclusion is very much favored by most of the CEOs I talked to. I've never met a CEO who didn't want the best possible workforce they could get, and we see lots of data. Theres a lot of rhetoric, but without the actual facts.
[19:50:01]
And so, we've partnered with N.C. A&T University. We published a not too white paper last year that showed the absolute correlation of diversity to better results. Today, we issued a press release where we cited some more of their research, where they studied gender diversity and its correlation to return on equity.
And what they found over an eight-year period from 2018 to 2024 is companies who had board of directors with greater than average gender diversity outperformed boards that had less than average gender diversity. And the outperformance every single year is staggering. On average, 256 percent better performance.
So, the facts will tell you a different story than a lot of the rhetoric.
BURNETT: So, do you worry, though, that by speaking out about this the way you are, given how the president feels, given what GSK just said, right, they're removing the word "diversity" from their website to comply with U.S. executive orders, you're on TV saying diversity is the key to financial success as you have seen it. Are you worried that doing that puts e.l.f. at risk? Basically, you know, puts you in -- right in front of the administration?
AMIN: Well, we've been -- we are who we are. For 21 years, we've democratized access. And we're very clear. We believe it's a competitive advantage to have a team that reflects the communities we serve. Having a diverse board has been very important to us in our decision making.
So, we're standing for what we stand for. We have for 21 years. We're going to continue to.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Trang, thank you very much. And of course, a brand that people see everywhere ,Walmart, Sephora, Target, when you talk about e.l.f., so very omnipresent.
Thank you so much. I appreciate your time.
AMIN: Well, thank you for having me.
BURNETT: And next, two planes collide on a New York City runway.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
PILOT: We need trucks on Alpha.
GROUND CONTROLLER: The emergency trucks, sir?
PILOT: We have two CRJs on Mike that collided.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:56:13]
BURNETT: Tonight, investigators launching an urgent probe into the terrifying runway collision at LaGuardia Airport in New York, where two Delta jets collided. Photos from the scene showing one of the planes windshields completely shattered. The nose banged up. Big part of the jets wing torn off. Nearly 100 people were on those two flights.
And Jason Carroll is OUTFRONT tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PILOT: We need trucks on Alpha.
GROUND CONTROLLER: The emergency trucks, sir?
PILOT: We have two CRJs on Mike that collided.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was just before 10:00 p.m. at New York's LaGuardia Airport when two Delta regional jets collided. Endeavor Air flight 5047, flying for Delta connection, had just arrived from Charlotte, North Carolina. It was taxiing toward its gate when its wing hit another Delta connection plane, Endeavor Flight 5155, which was preparing to depart for Roanoke, Virginia.
GROUND CONTROLLER: You guys did clip, correct?
PILOT: Yeah, we did. Their right wing clipped our nose and the cockpit.
CARROLL (voice-over): Thirty-two people on one flight, another 62 on the other.
Nate Cicero was a passenger on Fight 5155.
NATE CICERO, PASSENGER: We got most of their landing off of that plane. I assumed that would have been a pretty big hit for them. And for our pilot, the window was shattered.
CARROLL (voice-over): The wing from Flight 5155 struck the nose of Flight 5047, shattering the windshield just inches from the pilots inside the cockpit. Still unclear what caused the collision.
The flight from Charlotte landed at 9:53 p.m.
PILOT: Clear to land, runway 4, Endeavor 5047.
CARROLL (voice-over): And was cleared to taxi to its gate.
At the same time, Flight 5155 was told to head to the runway, but yield to the other Endeavor plane.
GROUND CONTROLLER: At Mike, give way to company.
PILOT: At Mike, give way to the company, Endeavor 5155.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: That's ATC terminology for you stop and let this other guy go.
CARROLL (voice-over): But for some reason, the two planes crashed into each other. Miraculously, just one flight attendant injured her knee. No one else was hurt. O'BRIEN: Here you have, you know, one of the busiest little pieces of
aviation concrete in the world. On a good day with the best people, you've really got to bring your A game to LaGuardia.
CARROLL (voice-over): At this stage in the investigation, the low- speed collision does not appear to be the result of an air traffic control issue. It comes at a time when there are questions about how the government shutdown could impact aviation.
The FAA and NTSB are investigating the collision. Delta Airlines issued a statement saying, "Delta will work with all relevant authorities to review what occurred as safety of our customers and people comes before all else. We apologize to our customers for the experience."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Jason, I know you're at LaGuardia tonight. I mean, from what we know from the NTSB, when are we going to expect to find him? And you laid out the -- you know, they were told to taxi, but to yield. I mean, it's sort of seems we know what happened, but when are they going to give us a final answer as to what went wrong?
CARROLL: Well, yeah, that's the million dollar question. I can tell you this -- the NTSB, Erin, has dispatched ten of his team members to come out here to LaGuardia to conduct the investigation. We already know that they've already recovered the flight data recorders from both of the aircraft. So that's certainly going to help with the investigation as well.
But typically, in situations like this, it could take anywhere from about a month, 30 days for the NTSB, typically to come forward with some sort of preliminary findings. So that's what we're looking forward in this situation, about 30 days.
BURNETT: Wow. Well, I mean, look, you just look at that as you were laying out with that graphic, even just miraculous that the speeds were low. You think what it could have been if it had happened just a few seconds later.
All right, Jason, thank you very much. Appreciate that.
And thanks so much. Of course, as always, to all of you for being with us for our program.
"AC360" begins right now.
