800) 584-1923 live better debt free. >> welcome back. >> have i got news for you returns february 15th on cnn. closed captioning is brought to you by sokolove law. >> mesothelioma victims call now $30 million in trust. money has been set aside. you may be entitled to a portion of that money. call one 800 859 2400. that's one 800 859 2400. >> fulfilling a polarizing campaign promise minutes from now, president trump is set to sign a new executive order that bans transgender women from competing in women's sports. we'll bring that to you live and new fallout from president trump's explosive comments on gaza this hour. israel's prime minister visits the pentagon. >> and full steam ahead. attorney general pam bondi

asserting control over donald trump's justice department. we have details on what that could look like. we're following these major, major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to cnn news central. >> and we are watching as israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu heads to the pentagon. these are live pictures that you see here. he will soon be meeting with the new defense secretary, pete, this is netanyahu's third day in washington. and his visit comes as the world really gasps in disbelief after president trump proposed taking over gaza, relocating 2 million palestinians. so the u.s. can develop the area into the, quote, riviera of the middle east. >> the u.s. will take over the gaza strip, and we will do a job with it, too. we'll own it. i

envision a world, people living there, the world's people. i think you'll make that into an international. unbelievable place. >> this is an out of the box idea. that's who president trump is. that's why the american people elected him. >> trump's plan would upend decades of u.s. policy in the middle east and further complicate israel's delicate ceasefire deal with hamas, and has some people wondering, quite frankly, if it's just all a big distraction. cnn's oren liebermann is live for us now at the pentagon. so, oren, we're waiting for netanyahu to arrive. we just saw live pictures of that. what are you hearing about this? >> well, until there are orders to invade, occupy, take over, rebuild gaza. this is all right. now, president donald trump's out of the box as you heard it. their idea or musing or whatever you want to call it, it has certainly gotten its fair share of both attention and criticism. it's worth noting that prime minister benjamin netanyahu, who

was standing right next to netanyahu when he made those remarks, appeared to be a little cautious. when he responded, he said it's an out of the box idea and an idea that's worth pursuing. he did not give it the sort of full throated endorsement that you heard from some on israel's far right. israel's foreign minister, who threw their weight behind this, netanyahu a bit more, a bit more cautious in his sort of backing of trump's out of the box thinking and his different ideas on how to approach the region. of course, the pentagon here is watching to see if there are orders that back that up, but nothing of that sort at the moment. netanyahu sort of making his rounds here with the top levels of the trump administration obviously meeting trump earlier today, he met the national security adviser, mike waltz, as well as the secretary of state, marco rubio, i believe, and vice president jd vance. i'm sorry, not rubio. so he's making his rounds here now. he'll meet the new defense secretary, pete hegseth, as he effectively makes sure he is close to those in netanyahu's orbit. >> and what's netanyahu looking for in this meeting?

>> part of it might be a little more direction on what was meant by those comments about gaza. but realistically, the focus will be on iran, as it has been for netanyahu for so long testing the waters on what hegseth thinks should be done about iran. is it the diplomacy approach that that trump has floated a new iran nuclear deal, or is trump willing to entertain the idea of an israeli attack on iran? what kind of support would the u.s. give? all of these are topics that netanyahu will look to get a little more clarity on, a little more ideas on how the administration is thinking through how to handle iran. and then, of course, where is it possible to expand the support and the cooperation we have already seen between the israeli and the u.s. military for years? and does that expand, of course, to include other countries in the region? >> oren liebermann, our pentagon correspondent, our former jerusalem correspondent, your worlds colliding today over there at the pentagon. boris. >> let's get the latest

reaction from capitol hill with democratic congressman jake auchincloss of massachusetts. congressman, thanks so much for being with us. just your reaction to start to president trump proposing the u.s. could take over the gaza strip, saying we'll own it. >> good afternoon. >> thanks for. >> having me on. two decades ago, george w bush made promises about nation building in two countries that had harbored terrorists, and it led to 20 years of forever wars that cost $2 trillion and thousands of american lives. now, donald trump is proposing the same irresponsible concepts where he wants to send u.s. troops on a nation building exercise to the gaza strip. it's irresponsible. congress is not going to approve it, and it distracts from the issue that is truly at hand, which is who is going to govern gaza after hamas, because it's not going to be hamas. and how do the arab states support the

reconstruction of gaza so that the u.s. taxpayer is not funding that redevelopment? >> i have a number of things to ask you. as you might imagine, you served in afghanistan as a marine. and as you noted, trump hasn't ruled out sending u.s. troops to gaza. the white house is framing it as though trump has not explicitly said that he wants u.s. troops in gaza. they've also said they do not want u.s. taxpayer funds to pay for this reconstruction. they say that they want trump to cut a deal with regional allies. what do you imagine that might look like? >> it hinges on the completion of phase one, which is the return of some of the hostages under already agreed upon terms where israeli forces have moved to the perimeter of gaza, but then also the execution of phase two and phase two was always going to be the toughest part of this deal, because phase two is where there needs to be agreement between israel, between the arab states, between the united states on the transitional governance

structure for gaza. it cannot be hamas. it cannot be people who terrorize israelis and jews globally. but it does need to be palestinian led and arab financed. i do agree with trump that the american taxpayer should not be funding redevelopment in gaza. it should be the arab states that have for 70 years neglected the palestinian people and have helped hamas access the world's finances. they should be the ones paying for this. >> for hold on for a moment, congressman. i just want to let our viewers know that these are live images of israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu now arriving at the pentagon, where he is set to meet with a number of trump administration officials, including the secretary of defense, pete hegseth, who you see there set to receive netanyahu. congressman, i do want to get your perspective on trump's outlook that the past few decades of u.s. policy in the middle east have not worked. it is pretty clear from his insistence on the u.s. taking over gaza that he does not see a

two state solution as viable. do you think there is some merit to the idea that the u.s. has to explore something beyond that policy? >> the blanket statement that it hasn't worked, i don't think is instructive. what i would say is the united states support for israel has been a pillar of our middle eastern policy, and that should continue, and it should have bipartisan support in congress as well. i agree with the president that our orientation towards iran has not worked. it's whipsawed between different administrations. first, bush invaded iraq. it created a regional power vacuum that iran filled. and then we had the jcpoa. then we didn't have the jcpoa, and then we had a bit of a of a middle way. under biden, we need a bipartisan consensus on how we approach iran. and at this moment, what that means is maximum pressure. they cannot be allowed to develop nuclear weapons, and we should be supporting israel in strikes that would disable their oil

export terminals and their nuclear facilities. if iran will not back down. >> sure. right now we're watching secretary hegseth alongside prime minister netanyahu, standing outside the entrance to the dod. and as we're watching netanyahu, congressman, i do wonder what you make of the position that he's in. as you noted a moment ago, there are these negotiations looming over phase two of the cease fire deal. if that goes forward and it's completed, there is a chance that netanyahu would lose his governing coalition and further, that what happened on october 7th would be further investigated, that he would be potentially in trouble for some of the corruption charges that essentially were put on hold after the war began. do you think that he has the incentive to move forward with actually putting peace, long term peace,

into effect? >> the prime minister's domestic political problems are his problems. my concern? i think the concern from congress needs to be on one completion of hostage release. so phase one and then phase two. and yes, to your point, that does require us pressure to, i think, ensure that phase two is completed because it's going to require some tough negotiations. and then secondly, how do we bring in saudi arabia into the abraham accords, get saudi arabia to be a productive partner in gaza reconstruction and continue to marginalize the ayatollah and the irgc hardliners in iran by cutting off their oil export capabilities and by strengthening the persian middle class, which wants to look beyond the nihilistic agenda of the ayatollah. these are all areas that we can agree with on with the prime minister, but it's going to require continued close collaboration between the united states and israel, and it needs to be bipartisan. >> to that point about close collaboration with israel and

efforts to normalize relations between israel and saudi arabia. after the news of trump's aspirations for gaza came out yesterday, we saw this statement come out from saudi officials essentially saying that there is no path to normalization without a two state solution. so how do you square that circle that that trump seems to reject that idea altogether, and yet he's trying to persuade the saudis to make this peace deal. >> the irresponsible rhetoric from trump, both on forcible displacement of the palestinian population from gaza and about the united states taking over the gaza strip. one, they make it harder to get the hostages home because hamas now is going to consider that they need the hostages for continued leverage. and two, to your to your point, they derail potentially saudi arabia's involvement in the abraham accords. now, to be clear, saudi arabia is not demanding an immediate two state solution before whatever, normalized with israel. but if

you close off that possibility in perpetuity, yeah, it's going to make it a lot harder for riyadh to be behind that. the ultimate winner there is iran. what iran really does not want to see is saudi arabia deeply, more deeply vested with israel and the united states in the region, particularly with air defense systems and with economic engagement? >> congressman jake auchincloss, we have to leave the conversation there. appreciate you sharing your perspective with us good afternoon. brianna. >> the clock is ticking for staff at the u.s. agency for international development. employees around the world will be placed on administrative leave friday in order to return to the u.s. the directive comes as the trump administration has begun dismantling the agency and has frozen almost all foreign aid. secretary of state marco rubio says he is acting administrator of the agency, confirming the day facto takeover by the state department. when asked about the future of the agency. here's what president trump said from the oval office. >> it sounds like you're. >> going. >> to wind.

>> down. >> usaid. >> which sounds like it. >> now, if usaid is winding down, that would end a decades long mission for the agency, which was created by president john f kennedy at the height of the cold war, kennedy wanted to use foreign assistance as a way to counter soviet influence. ironically, the agency would eventually outlive the soviet union. fast forward to today, with the u.s. spending roughly $40 billion in foreign aid annually. sounds like a lot actually accounts for less than 1% of the u.s. budget. the agency has its critics, chief among them elon musk, who controversially claims that usaid funding has allegedly been used to launch deadly programs and has called it a criminal organization. criticisms aside, there are many regions around the world that are already feeling the very real impacts. for example, a project involving access to clean water in places like kenya has been disrupted. in sudan, food kitchens funded by usaid are shutting down projects to control and eliminate malaria in 24 of the

hardest hit african nations are now halted. a source tells cnn that life saving programs for 145,000 vulnerable women in afghanistan are now frozen. funding has been disrupted for schools and heating systems in ukraine. in latin america, non-governmental aid workers say projects to counter immigration and combat the influence of cartels in colombia, el salvador, guatemala and honduras have been halted. all of this turmoil and uncertainty leading back to the mission of usaid. it was to counter the influence of a global adversary. so adversary, i should say. so what will china and russia do now if the trump administration does, in fact, wind down usaid? we will see. still to come. promising to make america safe again. pam bondi sworn in as trump's attorney general. how she's expected quickly to move to assert control of the justice department. plus more buyout offers for federal employees.

the cia becoming the first national security agency to send its entire workforce offers to quit their jobs and receive about eight months of pay. and later, new clues into what went wrong when a passenger jet collided mid-air with an army helicopter near washington, dc. we'll have that and much more coming up on cnn news central. >> cnn news central, brought to you by viking. exploring the world in comfort. >> explore the world. >> the viking. >> way from. >> the quiet comfort of elegant small ships with no children and no casinos. we actually have reinvented ocean voyages, designing all inclusive experiences for the thinking person. viking voted world's best by both travel and leisure, and condé nast traveler. learn

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wasting no time getting to work with a list of expected actions and rollbacks of policies installed by the biden administration. joining us now is cnn chief legal affairs correspondent paula reid. and paula bondi is getting ready to take serious action regarding cases brought against president trump. what can you tell us? >> well, look. she's walking into this agency that is in crisis. you just mentioned the firings of agents and prosecutors who worked on cases related to trump and the riot on january 6th. so she has an opportunity here to maybe change the tone. but she has laid out in a series of memos, efforts that she wants to undertake, to quote, curb the weaponization of the justice department. these include reviews of the cases trump has faced, including the two federal criminal cases, one into the alleged mishandling of classified documents, the other into election subversion. the manhattan district attorney's criminal case, the so-called hush money case where he was convicted, as well as a civil case against trump brought by the new york attorney general that resulted in a $450 million

judgment. now, look, it's unclear if she is beginning these steps to sort of appease the boss. we know he's very unhappy about the fact that he faced these investigations. or is this part of something more serious, potentially. is this an initial step in trying to potentially prosecute some of the folks who were involved, specifically in the federal investigations? you cannot underestimate the distrust and the bitterness that trump's criminal lawyers, many of whom now are going to work in the justice department, feel towards those who are involved, especially in those federal investigations. >> what are going to be some of her biggest challenges looking forward? >> i think one of the hardest things is defending some of trump's executive orders in court, because he tends to play at the edges of executive power. we saw this in the first term. now we were assured that this time around they were taking more care to tailor these executive orders in a way that would survive court challenges. but that is not so much. they

have lost pretty much every case so far. now, i will note that these cases are often brought in districts where the challengers expect that they will win, right? they they do form shop in that way. but even when it comes to birthright citizenship, one of trump's big campaign promises, most legal experts are pretty sure he is not going to prevail on that issue. but that falls to pam bondi. she oversees the team that will be responsible for defending that. so i think that's her biggest legal challenge. of course, her biggest other challenge is her boss, right? that is a perpetual challenge and has been for all of trump's attorneys general. >> indeed. paula reid, thank you so much, brianna. >> the cia's new director under president trump, john ratcliffe, is opting in to efforts to shrink the federal government. the agency is the latest to offer these so-called buyouts that tell federal employees they can quit their jobs and then receive roughly eight months of pay and benefits. cnn's katie michael ellis is here with us now. all right. katie, so the offers went out. the decision is

tomorrow. is it tomorrow for them? well. >> so there's still a lot we don't. >> know about other federal employees. >> i was going to say this offer is the offer that cia, the cia workforce has received is a little bit different. >> than the one. >> that the broader sort of civilian workforce of the federal government has received. it's not at all clear that the entire workforce at the cia is actually going to be eligible to take this buyout, even though they've all received the offer, according to our sources, there are likely to be a lot of restrictions or are expected to be a lot of restrictions on who is actually able to say like, yes, i'm going to take this and and wave sayonara to federal government work. and a lot of that we anticipate is going to depend on the career track that they're in, the area of expertise that they have. so there's very clearly a recognition here that there are some roles in the federal government that are simply too vital to national security to allow to resign. >> does it say that in the letter, or did they all just get this blanket letter? is there any fine print in there that says, you may not be able to

accept this? >> so what we know from our sources at this point is that the text of this letter that the cia, the cia workforce has received is different than the than the language that sort of the the rest of the civilian workforce, at least, that we know of at this point has received. so they're still sort of a lot of questions about kind of how the mechanics of this are going to work for agency employees. the office of the director of national intelligence, their workforce also received kind of similar guidance. that essentially was like, look, you might be eligible for this, but you might not be. we might not actually let you resign if you're doing something that we consider to be important enough. and i think, brianna, what's important to think about here is there's kind of two things going on when it comes to the cia and sort of the broader intelligence community and this buyout offer. right. like, there's both. okay. look, the president clearly wants to shrink the size of the federal government overall. and of course, particularly when it comes to the intelligence community, he and his allies have viewed it as a deep state that needs to be cleared. the

cia specifically, also, there are national security officials in the trump administration who believe that it has become too focused on analysis and not enough on covert action. this may be part of kind of the effort to sort of shift that balance towards, let's get the cia back into the business of doing covert action. >> don't they need analysis. >> to do covert action or. >> to. >> make make. >> conclusions about threats? they should stop. et cetera. >> well, it's always a balance, right? like in between, you have a finite budget, right? you're balancing how much you're spending on one priority versus another here. and i think the sense is within some national security officials in the trump administration that that balance has gotten out of whack. now, obviously, that's going to be a big debate. >> that's an interesting debate to have. how they're doing it is very interesting. all right, katie michael ellis, thank you so much. for us. >> the deadline for federal employees to accept the trump administration's resignation offer is tomorrow. two administration officials aim to put the pressure on, telling cnn

that workers who don't accept will risk losing their jobs anyway and without a resignation package to fall back on. cnn's jeff zeleny is live for us at the white house. and, jeff, is this a signal of larger layoffs coming? and what do we know about the legality of these moves? >> of course, that really is one of. >> the central questions. >> hanging over all of this. certainly among many federal workers who have been offered this buyout, if you will. >> to be paid. >> until september, if they do. >> not want to comply to the return. >> to office. >> policies. but there are some questions about whether it is indeed legal and whether the payouts would happen. actually, one of the the largest unions of federal workers is warning its employees now, 24 hours before that deadline, in a very explicit message. let's take a look at that. this message says there is not yet any evidence the administration can or will uphold its end of the bargain, that congress will go along with this unilateral, massive

restructuring or that appropriated funds can be used this way, among other issues that have been raised. that's from the american federation of government employees. so a lot of chatter here. a lot of discussion. if this is legal, if the payment will come. of course, the government is only funded until march or so. so that's one of the issues. but on top of all of this, the trump administration is warning of the potential of larger layoffs for people who may not accept this deal. we've seen and we know the bottom line. they want to restructure, reshape, dismantle, resize whatever word you want to use. the federal government. the question is how many federal employees are protected by unions and other agreements here. so how much they can do that? that's the question. but boris, over all of this, is the government ready for a disaster, which we've seen, of course, in the last week and other things. how much will that affect that? so it's not just letting people go. there's more to it than that. boris. >> jeff zeleny live for us at the white house. thank you so much. we are watching the white house closely this afternoon

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law title nine, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities that receive funding from the federal government. and critics claim trans athletes hold an unfair advantage over their competitors. >> joining us now is chris mosier. he's an advocate, the first transgender athlete to represent the united states in international competition and the founder of trans athlete.com. chris, thanks so much for being with us. i wonder what your reaction is to trump signing this executive order. how do you weigh the impact that this would have on athletes? >> we knew that this was coming. this was. >> a campaign promise that the republicans. >> put a lot of money into in the lead up to the. >> presidential election. >> and has been. >> a pillar of. >> their party for the last several years. so it's not a surprise that. >> this is coming today. >> it's disappointing, though, that this is. >> happening on. >> national women and girls and sports day, and taking away from some of the actual real things that people can do to support women and girls in sports.

>> so when you hear people say, this is how it should be, trans athletes have a competitive advantage over non trans non trans athletes. what do you say to them? >> there's no evidence that trans athletes have an advantage over anyone else in sports. trans athletes play sports for the same reasons as anybody else. for our love of the game, to be a part of a team, to challenge ourselves, and most of all, for the youth level to have fun. and every young person deserves that opportunity to be their authentic self and to play the sports that they love without compromising any part of who they are. >> i'm curious about that, chris, because you say that there's no evidence that there's a competitive advantage, but we've heard from parents who've had a different experience. they've argued that there is irrefutable evidence, irrefutable differences in physiology between the sexes, that hormone therapies don't sufficiently level the playing field. do you get where they're coming from? >> we have to look at what we're

talking about here. and if we're talking about youth sports. youth sports is part of our educational system. and as part of our educational system, young people learn values such as discipline, hard work, leadership, teamwork, communication skills, and so much more from their participation in sports. we know that each body is different. every person is different, and that even amongst cisgender kids, that is, kids that are not transgender, there are differences in their strength, their speed, their ability, their natural ability, as well as differences in their access to good coaching to great equipment, to things like rest and recovery or proper nutrition. all of the things that go into making someone be a good athlete. and i think that people don't really consider those other factors. the the laser focus has been on hormone therapy or testosterone. and when we're talking about young kids, which is part of what this executive order will be applying

to, i think we really missed the mark when we're focusing so heavily on biology and not on the lived experience of kids who are just trying to have the educational experience as their peers. >> the executive order specifically targets trans women who want to participate in women's sports. why do you think trans men are not included in this conversation? and what do you think about that? >> there has just been an obsession on trans people's bodies, and particularly on trans women's bodies, and that's really evident here. you know, i think part of the reason, from my own experience of being a trans man, participating in men's sports and the difference between myself and any trans woman who just wants to play, is that trans men don't fit this narrative, that the republicans are setting up. they don't fit the narrative that anyone assigned female at birth will be a worse athlete, that that people assigned male at birth are bigger, faster, stronger,

and better athletes. and we know that that's not true. not every person assigned male at birth is a good athlete. and when we do have trans men who are able to participate in the men's category, we're largely ignored. and so i think that the the issue here is really that laser focus. and it goes to a bigger picture of not just impacting sports, but really impacting and thinking about trying to legislate away the trans community. and sports has just been the entry point to other areas of discrimination against our community, including health care access, uh, safety in schools, removing things from school curriculum about transgender people, and so on. so we can see that this is a part of a larger picture. and the talking point of trying to ban trans women and girls from girls and women's sports has just been so incredibly divisive that it's been what they've latched on to to kick off this form of discrimination against our community.

>> you mentioned republicans framing this, and there's no doubt that this has become a pet issue on the right. i do wonder what you think about certain democrats like seth moulton, for example, who has voiced his discomfort as a parent with his young daughters competing against trans athletes. he's not the only democrat who has voiced those concerns. what's your response to them? >> it's incredibly it's incredibly upsetting and disappointing regardless of one's political party. when people make such drastic and, uh, uh. impactful decisions about our participation in sports without actually knowing or speaking to transgender people, i think what the real issue here is a lack of education, combined with the fact that both the media, social media and political rhetoric has really influenced the way that cisgender people think about, talk about, and treat the trans community. and we're seeing that play out not just in sports, but

in other areas of our lives as well. >> chris mosier, very much appreciate you coming on and sharing your point of view. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> still ahead, there's new radar data that could offer more clues on what caused that mid-air collision near reagan national airport. we have a live report with the latest details straight ahead. >> the boeing 747 has crashed in the lockerbie area., trying. >> to find out. >> the why of it became everything. >> nothing is what it seems in the lockerbie story. >> lockerbie. >> the bombing of pan am flight 103. >> february 16th on scene. >> dry eyes still feel pretty. rough or tired. >> with my bow. eyes can feel. >> my bow. >> my bow is the only. >> prescription dry eye drop that forms a protective layer for the number one cause of dry eye. >> too much tear evaporation. >> for relief. >> that's my bow. oh, yeah. >> remove contact lenses before using my bow.

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>> well, i'll be that bird. really? >> did it. >> only pay for what you need. >> liberty. >> liberty, liberty, liberty but before going further, i want to share some very exciting news from our military. >> after years of shrinking force numbers at levels that nobody has ever seen before. four years of this, we went through and missed recruiting targets every single month. it was just announced that in december, the u.s. army had its single best recruitment in more than 15 years. thank. every single day. nearly 350 new soldiers enlisted to defend our nation. and they're very, very happy to have done so. we've done lots of interviews and we asked why this was taking place now, and they just said, there's a spirit about our

country that they haven't seen in many, many years. and i happen to agree with that. but it really is clear proof that the spirit is sweeping our armed forces, and we have a great leader in pete, as you know, we all know pete so well. he's going to be fantastic. and so many of our great heroes and people are starting to understand what hero is all about. so that is something that is very important. we've gotten the woke lunacy out of our military. and now we're very importantly getting it out of women's sports that's taking place very strongly. so in recent years, the radical left has waged an all out campaign to erase the very concept of biological sex and replace it with a militant transgender ideology. you've heard a little

bit about this, haven't you? just a little bit. does anybody agree with them? >> no. >> it would be not a good thing to say yes right here. female athletes have been forced onto the front lines, and men claiming to be girls have stolen more than 3500 victories. that's a lot. and invaded more than 11,000 competitions designed for women. last year, a male cyclist posing as a woman competed in the 800 mile arizona trail race. a very big deal in cycling and obliterated the women's course record by nearly 5.5 hours. it sounds like a lot, doesn't it, huh? 5.5 hours. so. but you have to hear the weightlifting records. they. do you think that's bad? the weightlifting is worse. in 2023, a man and women's powerlifting broke two world records and out lifted his closest female

opponent in one event by 440 pounds. and they continue to defend themselves. mr.. congressman, you know that, right? they continue to defend themselves. we hope they continue onward, because i don't think we can lose a race. this was one of the big reasons that we all won, and it's one of the big reasons that we had a record, a landslide like they haven't seen before. very often anyway. and who could forget last year's paris olympics, where a male boxer stole the woman's gold medal after brutalizing his female opponents so viciously that she had to forfeit just after 46 seconds. and she was a championship fighter. and actually they had two women or two people that transitioned, and both of them won gold medals, and they won them very convincingly. but all of that ends today because with this executive order, the war on women's sports is over.

>> thank you everybody. >> thank you thank you. >> thank you. okay. >> i should have been done long ago, actually. thank you. thank you very much. with my action this afternoon, we are putting every school receiving taxpayer dollars on notice that if you let men take over women's sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of title nine and risk your federal funding. there will be no federal funding. so

this will effectively end the attack on female athletes at public k-12 schools and virtually all u.s. colleges and universities. i don't think we've missed anything, but if we do, we'll make it up very quickly with a with an order, and i don't think we will at all. i want to before we go on, i want to thank so many people that have worked so hard in the political establishment and there before me largely. and i'm going to i think i'm going to miss a few. it always happens when you do this, but it's just one of those things. but we have many senators here, many governors here, many state attorneys general generals here. they're all over the place. actually, i see some of them went after me, but they failed

and they're really friends. and they're friends of women's sports that i can tell you. so, senator marsha blackburn, where's marsha? hi. senator katie britt, thank you. katie. mike lee, where's mike? mike i love his new haircut. i love that haircut. mike. he just said the hell with it right? huh? i think you look great, senator. cynthia lummis. cynthia, where are you? cynthia. hi, cynthia. doing a good job. and roger marshall. thank you. roger. great. markwayne mullin, oklahoma. i love oklahoma. i don't know what it is. oklahoma. i went seven. and 56,

right? yeah. and tommy tuberville, a great coach. you know, his quarterback was named mahomes. he was a great college coach. and i said how good was he? he said, you don't want to know how good. he made me into a great coach. he's a pretty good quarterback, right? yeah, he was very good. he's a good guy too. also governors. we have governor glenn youngkin virginia. thank you glenn. good job. bill lee of tennessee. bill, thank you jeff landry, louisiana. thank you jeff kim reynolds of iowa, thank you. we're trying to move. you know, education back to the states. you do know that we're making a big move and we're counting on linda mcmahon linda

mcmahon and sitting next to you is the new star is born. caroline. congratulations. you've done great. new star. star is born. patrick morrissey. patrick. congratulations. great race a great friend of mine. and he's really helped us at the border. done a great job of texas. greg abbott thank you. greg. jim pillen, where are you? jim? very good, very good. are you feeling good? he had a bad fall. you're doing all right, huh? good. you look great, brad. little brad. thank you. brad. good job good job. do you like education? going back to your state, you'll make it top right. you know, just so people

understand in the education world we're ranked very, very poorly. we're 38, 39 and 40 out of 40 countries. we're at the bottom of the pack almost always, or very close to it. that just came out where 40 out of 40. and if we move it back to the states, i will guarantee you that if you take idaho, you take iowa, you take almost any of the states that i'm looking at right now. they'll be as good as norway. you have norway, you have sweden, you have denmark. i must say, you have china that's very high in the pack, which is no longer we can say it has to be a small area. china is very big, but they do a very good job. but we'll have at least 35 of our states that will be as good or better than any of those countries. and we have to get it done. attorney general steve marshall steve, thank you very much, steve. wherever you may be. general tim griffin, thank you. thank you. uh oh. a person

who is so wonderful. brenna bird, where are you? brennan. brennan. bird. thank you. she supported me before. people wanted to support me. right? brennan. oh, wow. thank you very much. i appreciated it. uh, andrew bailey, great job. where is andrew? great stand up. andrew, one of the great attorney generals. thank you very much. one of the greats. really. and jason myers. thanks, jason. and now we get back to our members of congress and we'll go quickly. but it's a great group of people. steve scalise is right in front here. what a brave guy. steve is. steve went through a lot and he proved one thing to me, only one

thing that his wife loved him. his wife loves him because i went to the hospital that night and he was not given even a shot. right. mike and i was with him and i was with his wife, and she was devastated. she was really devastated. and i've been to, you know, similar situations, not quite as bad, but the wives were not so devastated. and i can tell you i can tell you that great wife of yours loves you. so anyway. and what you've done is incredible. the way you've come back. it's you better. you look better now than you did before it happened. but. but nobody wants to go. nobody wants to go through that. yeah. it's amazing. tom emmer doing a fantastic job. thank you. tom. great job. >> we've been listening to president donald trump at the white house. they're signing an executive order banning trans athletes from women's sports. the president making a a number of remarks on other issues,

namely the department of education. and right now, he's going around the room shouting out fellow republicans who are there with him. but this is a significant moment. trump saying that he will not allow men to beat up, injure and cheat at women's sports. and he specifically cited a number of cases not closely based on fact. he specifically mentioned this olympic boxer that made headlines last year. she is. algerian, amin keefe. she was born female. to this point, there has been no medical evidence that she has elevated testosterone or that she has xy chromosomes. but she became a target of trump and other republicans because she competed in the olympics and beat, uh, other competitors decisively. and she became a target. >> yeah, she won olympic gold in 2024. she's a woman. but trump taking aim at her i think because it makes the point of

his first blanket statement. without her. i think as an example. and also there's another taiwanese athlete who has been questioned, by the way, by an organization that was russia linked and had been banned for corruption in past competitions. he said that men will not be allowed to beat up, injure and cheat women, something to that kind of effect. so i think that seemed to be what he came back to later. talking about the algerian boxer iman khalaf. um, but yeah, a lot to fact check there as he makes this executive order announcement. we'll be back after a quick break cooked books. >> corporate fat. >> cats, swindling socialites, doped up cyclists, and yes, more crooked politicians. i have a feeling we won't be running out of those any time soon. >> a new. >> season of united states of scandal. >> with jake. >> tapper coming in march on cnn.

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cnn. >> a top justice department official is accusing fbi leadership of insubordination after the fbi refused to identify a core team of bureau employees who worked on the january 6th investigations. >> cnn senior justice correspondent evan perez is joining us live on this. all right. tell us more about what happened here and what it means for the fbi. >> this is kind of a strident. >> memo from emil bove. he's the deputy acting deputy attorney general. and what he's reacting to is the reaction from inside the fbi that they thought thousands of them were at risk of losing their jobs. and what he's saying in this new memo today is simply that, you know, he said he tried to do it a different way and was rejected by the fbi leadership. and he says no fbi employee who simply followed orders is going to be fired. but he says only those who acted with corrupt or partisan intent. and he also says anybody who exercised discretion in weaponizing the fbi. now the question is, how are they going to define that? right. and so that's why there's still concern, even

though this memo was meant to try to clear the air and say, hey guys, not everybody is getting fired. but, you know, it does raise new questions about exactly how you define weaponization, given the fact that it's been loosely used term by the president and by people at the justice department. >> how is the doj going to determine that, whether folks acted with partisan intent? >> well, they say they're going to set up this process. that's going to review basically all the action by people who were working on these cases, these trump related cases. >> evan perez. >> does that. i mean, that's it's like an interesting answer. yeah. but it doesn't really tell you how they could not abuse that discretion. >> right. that's the big concern. >> evan perez, thanks so much for the reporting. and thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. we have about 15 more seconds to kill before we toss it over to the lead with jake tapper. a lot is going on. i'm sure he's going to have the latest headlines for you. >> that's right. and more on trump's executive order, which he is still in the