a well-deserved recognition of wolf's remarkable career and the great work he continues to do every day here in the situation room. accepting the award, wolf spoke about the example that walter cronkite set for journalists lessons that are as important as ever amid the rapid changes in the political environment and the way americans get their news. >> the method. >> of communication will change. >> but the principles. >> of journalism should not. >> walter cronkite. told told it like it was. he was. >> once heralded as the most trusted. >> man in america. >> we know. >> public trust in our institutions. >> is not what. >> it used to be. >> but walter. >> cronkite's legacy. remains alive. >> and strong. and i accept this award. and walter cronkite's honor. >> wolf, your cnn family is deeply proud. our congratulations to you. i'm jim sciutto in the situation room.

erin burnett outfront starts right now. >> outfront next. >> the breaking. >> news, democratic. >> lawmakers forcing. themselves into the speaker's. office today. they were demanding answers about elon musk. as musk is taking a sledgehammer. >> to. >> the federal government. one of the democrats who was in the speaker's office is out front tonight. plus, more breaking news. less than 24 hours after trump declared that the united states would take over gaza, his team is walking that back. my guest tonight is an american surgeon who is there in gaza right now, and it's pam bondi first day on the job at the doj. she is looking at the prosecutors who defeated trump in court. we have a report on what's happening inside the doj. let's go out front and good evening. i'm erin burnett. outfront tonight, the breaking news, democrats tonight demanding answers on what exactly elon musk is doing after

he and his all male team of teens and recent college graduates gained access to just about every government agency, including treasury, education, the fbi, the list does go on and on, but two democratic congresswomen basically forced their way into house speaker mike johnson's office as he was meeting with trump's treasury secretary. they wanted answers. they said it had gotten to this point, that this was the only way to try to get them. congresswoman gwen moore is one of them. she is my guest in just a moment. and the other is congresswoman judy chu, who posted this video showing the speaker's team trying to keep them at bay. >> i thank you all. the white house. >> the white house. >> that did not stop the congresswoman. they did eventually come face to face with johnson, and they pressed him as to what exactly musk's team is doing now that they have access to, well, a lot of things, including the $5 trillion u.s. payment system at the treasury department. they describe it as musk stealing americans private information. of course, the problem is right

now that that there's no transparency on any of this. you can describe it any way you want. nobody knows what you're saying. and that's why it's so scary. transparency would be good here. musk's team does now also have its hands on medicare and medicaid payments, according to the wall street journal. well, tonight we're learning that musk may also have his focus set on the cia. the new york times is reporting this hour that the white house sent an unclassified email in which it detailed all the employees hired over the past two years. imagine that. just a just a regular old email get hired by the cia. i mean, i'm laughing, not because it's funny, because it really happened. apparently. the reason is that they say it's easier to fire young analysts and operatives and one former cia officer, though cut to the chase, telling the times that the decision to reveal these names in an unclassified email was a, quote, counterintelligence disaster. and as we come onto the air tonight, we are now just hours from the deadline for federal employees to resign and accept what's being called a buyout. if they do not accept trump and musk. we understand this has been made very clear. they are planning massive layoffs, and

those layoffs would specifically target people who don't take the deal. so the world is now, of course, taking notice of what's happening in washington. it's impossible not to some of those that you wouldn't want to be singing the praises of this are when it comes to u.s. aid and ordering, you know, people to to who were working partly from home and sending people from usaid home on planes. that's it. you're done. former russian president dmitry medvedev called it a smart move by elon musk. viktor orban from hungary saying the world owes a debt of gratitude to trump. and now there are republicans who say that the power of elon musk is unaccountable as it is, is a growing concern. >> there have to be guardrails, obviously, on on what information he he accesses, but more importantly, what he does with it. >> and more importantly, what he does with it. that's the question. none of these none of these questions are being answered. jeff zeleny is

outfront live outside the white house tonight. so, jeff, what is the thinking on musk right now inside the white house? >> well. >> erin, the thinking quite simply, is that elon musk is carrying out the president's broader wishes to rein in the size of the government. but the details they often are learning here at the white house, somewhat after the fact, there certainly are not asking permission to go into every single agency. the president told us earlier this week that he has given mr. musk and his group the authority to do this, but specifically a question hanging over all of this is, what about those conflicts of interest that elon musk, of course, says billions of dollars worth of contracts with the federal government. the press secretary today at the briefing was asked this question directly. listen to what she said. >> the president was already asked and answered this question this week. and he said, if elon musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that doge is

overseeing, then elon will excuse himself from those contracts and he has again abided by all applicable laws. >> so again, just breaking that down, if elon musk comes across a conflict, elon will excuse himself. that underscores right there that the the guardrails that the senator was talking about simply do not exist. so he is now essentially on his own. he's a special government employee. he literally is in a category of his own on this front. so yes, there is some concern. but aaron, there's not much of it here at the white house. but there are many questions tonight. and of course, as that deadline tomorrow arrives for a federal workers to either accept this or not, those questions were almost certainly continue. >> all right. jeff zeleny, thank you very much. at the white house tonight. i want to go as promised now to the democratic congresswoman gwen moore. she's from wisconsin. she just confronted the speaker about elon musk as he was meeting with the new treasury secretary. so i appreciate your time, congresswoman moore, we have this photo that you shared of

you walking into the speaker's office. obviously, we're in a situation of a black box here, right? all that. the only reason we know anything is happening is from various reporting from ours and other outlets. right. there's been no disclosures. what made you go to this? this point to actually basically force yourself into the speaker's office? >> thanks for having me, aaron. and i appreciate that. >> a lot of. >> the background information that you've given people already, but the reality is, is that my phones are blowing up here in washington, dc and in my district office, and all i've been able to say to people is that i don't know when they ask, not, you know, something that you didn't necessarily mention. why do these people have access to my social security number, to my bank account? uh, in addition to all of the things that you brought forth before? um, because i'm on the ways and means committee and under section 6103 of the

internal revenue code, it is criminal to access someone's social security information without authorization. and what we saw was elon musk marching in with his group of young people, pushing away the federal employees, demanding that they leave, putting them on leave, and having these young people stick their thumb drives in the computer. people with skills as engineers to be able to create backdoors to the $6 trillion budget. and of course, as you pointed out, that's the cia, the the fbi, the social security, that's head start, that's medicaid. and what authority did they have to do it? and so i marched into the speaker's office because i had learned that the secretary was going to meet with our speaker of the house. and even though i didn't vote for him for 16

times, he is the speaker of the house. and he was visiting our house, and i wanted to do more than just a meet and greet. i wanted to ask him, who are these people? what were their security clearances? uh, what information did they take? how is it going to be used so that i could give some answers to my constituents? >> did he answer any of those questions? i mean, what was your interaction with speaker johnson? >> well, you know, i thought it was very i told him there was some consolation that he felt concerned about these things, too. he said i said because i hadn't seen a single republican demonstrating any concern about it. and to hear him say that he himself was concerned about it, i thought was important. but he too had no idea what doge employees, what authority they had, you know, and as i pointed out to him, if you want to sell pretzels at the airport, you

have to get a background check to get into the inner sanctum sanctum of the airport. and here we had these young people just pushing folks out of the way. um, and we don't know what authority they had and what they're doing with this very sensitive information. you know, we pointed out that when donald trump, when someone accessed someone in the media, accessed his his tax returns. that's right. that there was there was a fit and there, there, there, you know, there was a reason for people to have a fit about that because that's a criminal activity. but here we don't have one person's tax taxes access. we have tens of millions of people's information being accessed. and people are worried about that. >> all right. well, congresswoman, i very much appreciate your time. and it is interesting, as you say, that the speaker also expressed that he had concern and didn't know

the answers to these questions. obviously, it doesn't make people feel better in terms of not having answers, but at least we're we're figuring out what people know and don't know. and i guess that's a place to start. so i appreciate your time. thank you. i want to bring in katie drummond now, the global editorial director at wired. and katie, you know, you're reporting on this has obviously been so incredible as we've been talking every day. thank you. so, um, what are you i mean, musk has amassed this incredible power. it is obviously unchecked. you heard jeff zeleny saying, the way it works when there's a conflict of interest is elon says there's a conflict of interest and would recuse himself. essentially, yes. so what are you learning? i mean, is this received with open arms by all of those around trump? >> not from what we know. >> so far. >> so wired. >> has spoken to half a dozen trump. loyalists and advisers. these are people very close to the president, inside and around the administration, and they are frustrated. so what they have told our journalists is they are unhappy with the amount of control that musk is wielding

inside of these federal agencies. they are unhappy about the headaches that he's creating for the administration, and they are unhappy about how messy all of this has been. according to them, particularly how disorganized they say communication has been between doge and the white house, and that within the administration, they are struggling to keep up with what musk and doge are even doing on a. >> daily basis. another group of people that don't know which would be trump's inner circle doesn't know what elon is doing. so now it's the speaker of the house. it's okay that that obviously doesn't give a lot of calm. i'll just emphasizing that point. not feeling great about it. i guess it gets to the question, though, from the people that you've spoken to at wired. does trump himself share any of this consternation? >> that's where things start to get touchy, at least with our sources. so as far as they can tell, the president is very happy with musk and everything that he's been up to. one gop operative described the entire situation as, quote, too hot to touch, essentially meaning that some of these unhappy people around the president aren't sure how to navigate the situation or where even to take

their frustration with musk, because to take it to the president, at least now feels like a step too far. >> so he's not that's not receptive. okay. that's important. now you're also reporting that all this attention on musk. right. and it is overwhelming, right. it is overwhelming. it is coming at trump's expense with at least one group of people. and this is actually really crucial when you figure out how trump is going to continue to revere or respect this relationship, this could really matter. >> i mean, the battle of the egos. so we published a story earlier today looking at the online far right and extremist communities. so we looked at message boards, encrypted channels, social media platforms. what we found across the board was that musk and doge and what they are doing are now really being held up and valorized by those communities at trump's expense. right. so so trump very much being sort of an afterthought in a lot of these communities at this point, because they can't stop talking about how about elon? >> elon has and how hero. >> and how great he's doing. so, for example, something i

thought was particularly notable even on truth social, right? trump's own social media platform, hashtag elon musk trending ahead of hashtag trump all day today. >> all day today. >> all day today. >> well, these are things that can matter. i mean, these are data points. >> these are data points that given what we know about the president, that that would potentially make a dent. >> right. and also just the point here of these, these young people that are going in still at this point, no accountability of, you know, who they are. i mean, i know obviously you all have reported on, on, on who they are, but that trump has not yet met with them as far as, as far as we know. >> no, as far as we know, as far as the president has said, he has not met with them. he's heard that some of them are young, some of them are older. um, i think that's about sort of the extent of his comment on the matter. >> the true black box of of what's. >> a true black box? >> all right. well, we all continue to try to shine a light on it and appreciate. of course. thank you. for doing that with us, katie. thank you. and next, trump's plan to take over the gaza strip sounds strikingly similar to his own real estate

projects. plus, secretary of state marco rubio backing trump's plan to shut down america's humanitarian aid agency. but as our kfile uncovered, marco rubio once had a very different view of u.s. aid, repeatedly praising it and an outfront exclusive clarissa ward travels inside syria to the heart of the uprising against the brutal dictator bashar al-assad. and what she found right now will shock you. we'll show you it's the news. >> welcome back. >> but it's also. >> kind of not. the news. >> joe kent dana bash. >> do that. >> you know. >> there's three lesbians on this panel. >> am i one of them? >> if you drink tap water and your balls still work, please clap. >> no, michael. >> we don't fact check it. we don't care, man. >> why all the information on this show so terrible? >> have i got. >> news for you. >> returns february 15th. >> on cnn and stream next day on max onboarding. >> the benefits.

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the new samsung galaxy s25 ultra with xfinity mobile. to friends and family. >> saatva luxury. >> mattresses made. >> affordable. >> anderson cooper 360 tonight at eight on cnn. >> breaking news. trump's team tonight frantically trying to walk back the president's shocking plan to seize and occupy the gaza strip with american troops sending more than 2 million palestinians away from gaza today. his own press

secretary and his mideast envoy, i'm sorry, are backtracking on his words. >> i can confirm that the president is committed to temporarily relocating those who are there temporarily, temporarily, temporarily. >> she used that word temporarily four times on purpose. it seems to try and counteract what trump really said. >> the u.s. will take over the gaza strip, will own it. i do see a long term ownership position. i don't think people should be going back to gaza. it would be my hope that we could do something really nice, really good, where they wouldn't want to return. why would they want to return? >> that is not temporarily, obviously. okay. and then there's trump's special envoy to the middle east, steve witkoff at a closed door lunch with republican senators today. he said trump doesn't want to put american troops on the ground in gaza. i mean, that's a stunning thing. you would i mean, my gosh, even a month ago, nobody would think you'd actually have

to say you didn't mean saying that because you wouldn't even ever say it. but trump did say that he planned to do exactly that. when he was asked specifically whether he was going to send u.s. troops. he said yes. >> as far as gaza is concerned, we'll do what is necessary. if it's necessary, we'll do that. we're going to take over that piece. >> that piece of land. this massive cleanup effort is underway, in part because now there is a lot of republican pressure with trump on the gaza issue i'm not supportive of having. >> the american people pay to rebuild gaza. >> i don't think that's our responsibility. >> so sending in. >> u.s. troops. >> doesn't make it doesn't make. >> sense, may not work out. >> the way. >> he envisioned. >> it. >> i mean, of course, you know, could be israeli troops, israeli money, but that's not what trump said. lindsey graham, one of trump's most ardent supporters, calling it, quote, problematic.

problematic, may be a big understatement, though. i mean, more than 2 million people call gaza home. trump, though, sees gaza through the lens of this prime real estate. >> we'll make sure that it's done world class. we have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal, something that will be magnificent. i think you'll make that into an international, unbelievable place. i think the potential in the gaza strip is unbelievable. >> so you heard some of those superlatives. if they sound familiar, they are, because you've heard them before from trump. in the other cases, though, it wasn't about displacing 2 million impoverished people. it was about trump's golf courses and towers. >> the assets are world class assets. there's some tremendous opportunities. that's going to be a phenomenal project, is going to be truly magnificent. the course is going to be unbelievable. >> unbelievable, magnificent, phenomenal, world class. every

one of those superlative words over so many years and projects is an echo of what we hear now with gaza, of course. and those other projects, though trump wasn't talking about land under dispute for thousands of years, a place that is home for millions of people who want to return and rebuild. out front now, doctor adam hamawi, he is in gaza tonight working at a hospital. he's a retired u.s. army combat surgeon who has been credited by senator tammy duckworth for saving her life when her helicopter was shot down over iraq. doctor hamawi, i appreciate your time tonight. you're there working in a hospital. an incredibly difficult conditions, and i don't even know if you happen to be able to get a little bit of rest last night or whether you heard it when it happened, but but then you would have woken up and heard everything trump said. what was your reaction to his comments? >> i mean, it was absolutely. >> outrageous. >> it's it's coming. it's falling on, on ears that. >> have been. really hearing all

these, um, you know, hopes. >> for a ceasefire. >> and for rebuilding and for this to come. after a year and a half of bombing. >> and basically. >> genocide. uh, it's nothing more than a continuation of this ethnic cleansing. and it's not what they wanted to hear. so it's not. >> what i wanted to hear. >> and then you're talking to people, obviously, who live there who either were never able to leave, who have chosen to come back, whatever the individual situation may be. what are they saying? do they do they take this seriously i mean, it's kind of funny. >> i mean, people. >> are joking. um, many people say, look, you know, if trump wants to come and build hotels here, that sounds like a great idea, and you're not going to find a more welcoming and hospitable people than the palestinians. but they say that. but include us in this plan. i mean, we're happy to to build and rebuild and make this a place where people come and visit. but why do we have to

leave? i mean, this is our land. this is what we fought to, um, to be able to preserve. and this is where we want to stay. um, and if people want to leave, you know, that should be their own choice. it shouldn't be because they're being forced to leave. um, and just being here and living with them, many more want to stay than to actually go. >> so, doctor, to what you say about people's choice and that this is this is home. and no matter how destroyed it may be, it is home for for so many people. i want to play the specific thing that trump said that just it speaks exactly to that. here it is. >> i mean, they're there because they have no alternative. what do they have? it is a big pile of of rubble right now. why would they want to return? the place has been hell. >> so can you answer that question to him? he asks, you spent time there with people who live there. why would they want to return? the place has been

hell. >> because it's home. this is their home. um, this is their ancestors home. it's where you know, they're part of. they're part of the land. and we all saw these images. you know, some of us experienced it of of of this. as soon as the north opened up of hundreds of thousands of people walking back, despite knowing that they're going to basically see nothing except rubble. but that was home for them. and, um, and, you know, many of us would do the same thing. i mean, this is this is what we we talk about freedom. we talk about, you know, this is what we fight for and this is what we want. and we talk about hatred and people hating. they don't hate freedom. they just want freedom. just like us. and and that's what they want. they just want a place that they call home. and this is home for them. >> well, doctor hamawi, we appreciate your time so much. thank you. i know it's late there. i know the conditions are difficult, but i appreciate it

so much. >> thank you. thank you for having me outfront now, jack o'donnell, the former president and chief operating officer of trump plaza hotel and casino, the author of trump the inside story of the real donald trump. >> jack, you know donald trump well, and you hear the word echo of projects in miami and elsewhere with gaza. his own team is walking that back. of course, is the israelis know much of the money that they had given, um, you know, sent into gaza, had had had gone to hamas in the past. and, um, look, the u.s. intelligence has said reuters has reported there's up to 15,000 more hamas fighters now than there were prior to october 7th. and that is, of course, after killing as many as they could over the past year. so i'm just making the point here, that of what the situation is, does trump, in your view, though, jack, with all of that reality, sounds serious to you? >> well, erin, we know that he is a ready, shoot. >> aim kind of. >> guy, okay.

>> he doesn't think things. >> through. >> and so, you know, it's this is a clear example. >> i mean, it's. >> very similar actually to the. >> to. >> the tariffs. >> he says. >> one thing and then he has. >> to back off. >> he's having. >> to do this. >> because the plan makes no sense. >> the human. >> tragedy is enormous. >> as as. >> you and. >> your last guest. >> have been, you know, talking about. >> but there's also an economic reality. >> to this thing. and he has a developer. >> should know this. i did some research today. >> to build. >> what. >> he is. >> talking about. would cost upwards of $100 billion. >> okay. >> the economics. >> of what he's trying to do will not work. >> i mean, the number the number is stunning. i'm just checking something while i'm. while while i'm asking you this next question, which is real estate always location, location, location. okay. he looks at the location here. and you know, we've all what? beirut. paris of the middle east, you know, the water location here is so,

you know, central perhaps in his mind because he's talked about certain places, you know, which which have that in common, right. and of course, gaza is in one of the most beautiful places in the world. here's just a few examples. >> it's 100 acres of land along the hudson river behind lincoln center. tremendous parkland and waterfront property. i own close to 2000 acres in scotland. in aberdeen, it's four miles on the ocean. beautiful. the waves crashing in. i mean, there's no sight like it. los angeles is, you know, one of my all time favorites because it's on the pacific ocean. >> i mean, is it something that simple? it's in this case, a mediterranean. >> yeah. well. >> in his mind, it is aaron. i mean, any waterfront property is more valuable. and i think that's his simplistic view of it. i mean. >> what's amazing. >> about this situation is that he's looking at a commercial opportunity. when you have

talked about this in the past, there's children dying of starvation in gaza, and that is his focus. it's a commercial opportunity. >> jack, i also want to say the number i was looking up was the gdp of israel. so at the price you're talking about $100 billion, that would be 20% of the entire gdp of the entire country of israel to rebuild gaza. money that you heard republicans say that forget the fact that no one's going to do that. actually, if it costs that, but they don't think it should come from u.s. taxpayers. all right. well, jack, i appreciate your time and thanks so much. always great to talk to you. >> thank you. aaron. >> all right. and next, breaking news. trump's new attorney general on her first day vowing to go after the prosecutors who went after him in court. plus, trump promised to bring down the price of eggs. all right. now it's a only so much anyone can do about that, right? but they are up 14% since election day. >> i thought you were just going to lower the price of. >> eggs.

>> what is all this other the boeing 747. >> has crashed in. >> the lockerbie area. >> it was the largest act of terrorism on the united states before nine over 11. >> there are a number of anomalies. >> trying to. >> find out the why. >> of it became everything. >> you could look. >> at the iranians, the libyans. >> the cia. >> hezbollah. >> nothing is what it seems in the lockerbie. >> story. lockerbie, the bombing of pan am flight 103, february 16th on cnn. >> louis muhammad. >> action louis louis got. >> mud on her face. >> louis. >> okay. >> everybody, that's. >> lunch. >> but musk.

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>> to see if you qualify to get clear captions. >> phone at. >> no cost to you. >> call one ( 800) 269-9522. that's one ( 800) 269-9522. >> i'm hanako montgomery in tokyo. >> and this. >> is cnn. >> breaking news. thousands of u.s. aid employees about to lose their jobs. and imminently this as democratic and republican officials tonight joined forces aggressively defending usaid. five former usaid leaders speaking out against president trump's plans to dismantle the agency. moments ago, calling on congress to, quote, swiftly protect the agency. collectively saying in a statement first obtained here on cnn that to weaken and even destroy the agency is the benefit of neither political party and the detriment of all americans. while we don't agree on all

issues, we wholeheartedly agree that usaid and america's foreign assistance programs are vital to our interests, which is important. that's obviously bipartisan in that group. trump vowing to gut the agency, though, since taking office, the first thing they really took aim at. he has called its leaders radical left lunatics. >> they went totally crazy. what they were doing and the money they were giving to people that shouldn't be getting it, into agencies and others that shouldn't be getting. it was a shame. so, uh, their tremendous fraud. i love the concept of it. yeah, sure. i love the concept, but they turn out to be radical left lunatics. >> but here's where it gets really interesting. and that is marco rubio, a very serious secretary of state who is also criticizing usaid tonight and just took it over as part of this. they're trying to get rid of it. so they threw it in with the state department that he had previously, though, praised the organization repeatedly, not just once, but repeatedly, something he clearly believed

in. our k file has the tape. so k files andrew kaczynski joins me now. so what did you find? >> yeah that's right. now rubio. >> spent years. >> praising both. >> foreign aid and usaid. >> as a vital part of promoting. >> american interests and. >> american foreign policy. in fact. >> he was, uh, he's. now basically echoing some of the attacks that he once dismissed. >> we found time. >> and again across. >> his 14. >> year senate career that. >> he was. >> constantly praising and defending. >> foreign aid. >> let's listen to. >> just. a few of what he said over the. >> years. >> we don't have. >> to give. >> foreign aid. >> we do so because. >> it furthers our national interest. >> that's why we. >> give foreign aid. >> now. >> obviously, there's a. >> component of foreign. >> aid that's. >> humanitarian in scope, and that's. >> important too. >> i promise you, it's going to be a lot. >> harder to. >> recruit someone to anti-americanism, anti-american terrorism. >> if the. >> united states of america was the reason why they're even alive today. >> anybody who.

>> tells you that we can slash. foreign aid and that will bring us to balance is lying to you. foreign aid is less than 1% of our budget. >> it's just not true now, those comments. >> paint a pretty clear picture, right? >> he said foreign aid. >> was critical. to u.s. foreign policy. >> now he's. >> trying to. >> dismantle the agency behind it. but that's really. >> not all. >> that we found. we also found that. >> in. >> 2022. >> he sent a. >> letter to. >> joe biden. >> in. which he actually suggested they. >> increase the. >> usaid budget. he said that it. >> was. necessary to counter chinese. >> communist party influence. china has basically their own version of. >> usaid. >> and i want to read a little. >> bit of what. >> he wrote in that letter to biden. >> that we uncovered. he said, quote. >> we urge you. >> to use your fiscal year. 2023 budget. >> request for the defense department. >> the department. >> of state and u.s. agency for international development to. >> send a clear message. >> that the united. >> states has a comprehensive strategy to counter the chinese. communist party's. >> expanding global. >> influence and the increasing.

threat that it poses to u.s. security interests and those of our allies. >> and partners. >> well, and he is a deeply serious secretary of state. i mean, belt and road initiative by china has been something that they've invested in and to counter. >> and we found. usaid letters in which. he or. >> press releases. >> on his website. >> where he. >> specifically mentioned. >> that and why we need usaid. >> right. so he makes all these points. he makes he makes all these these very important points. but he actually from your reporting, then it wasn't even just foreign aid overall and making the point, it's 1%, less than 1% of the budget. and here's why it's important. it was individual programs. >> yeah. >> and look we went through. >> his entire website. >> or. >> what. >> we could find. >> on his website across his senate career. >> from 2011. >> to 2025. and what we found was time and again. him singling out various different programs from usaid as vital parts of basically. promoting american foreign policy. we found dozens of these, and i want people to look at just a few of them right here that include him praising programs combating tuberculosis in developing nations, supporting maternal and child health programs, election support in burma, mexico, latin america, advancing women's global economic empowerment. and

this is just a few. we found dozens and dozens of examples of him doing this. now. we reached out to secretary to the state department. we asked, how are you going to square all of this with what he's saying today? and we didn't hear back from them. >> right. well, i mean, it's clear what he said in the past is what he's meant. you know, he was he was very forceful and passionate about delivering. all right, andrew, thank you very much. important reporting. of course, now that marco rubio will, if all this goes the way they want it to go, actually be the one overseeing u.s. aid, even though it's gone. also breaking tonight, trump's attorney general, pam bondi, in her very first hours on the job, warning the justice department employees that they need to fall in line. now, this is from sources who are telling our reporters in washington that bondi is expected, said that and is expected to say in a series of memos that are being worked up that employees will be punished if they don't back the administration. on top of that, she's demanding a review of all criminal cases brought against the president, which includes his felony conviction in the new york hush money case. ryan goodman is outfront with us now.

just security, coeditor in chief. so the review of criminal cases and i mean, in a sense, okay, obviously, they were going to do that. is that is that as expected? is there anything that can be done about that or that's just at this point, par for the course. >> at this point, it's par. for the course of this course that we're on. yeah. if this were another reality, it wouldn't be. this is most unusual for an attorney general to set this as like their top priority to go after state and local prosecutors for cases that they've heard in the last four years. it's a kind of a personal grudge of the president because they went after him. that's really an unusual use of the resources of the justice department. >> and in this line of being punished, if you don't get in line, where does that fall in the normal doj, which an attorney general is appointed by a president? right to you know, i remember back when barack obama referred to eric holder as a wingman, right? there's a sense of that. attorney general is with the president, and then there's being punished if you don't get in line. so how far are we off the norm?

>> i don't think that one is necessarily that far off the norm. if, in fact, the frame that she's putting forward is that the president has an agenda and you need to either stick with the agenda and if you don't, then there's, you know, punitive actions that could be taken against an employee. if she was saying you have to be loyal to him as a person, to mr. trump, that's a different issue. but she's just saying this is the president's agenda. if the president's agenda is we're going to go after fentanyl and immigration, you need to either be with the agenda or not. you can't. >> that would be more normal. okay? i mean, because, look, everyone, we're in uncharted territory. i think it's important for people to understand what would be okay, that that might be more normal. the mass layoffs that we're talking about, though, usaid, which we were just talking about extensively, department of education, now they're trying to dismantle it cuts at noaa, national weather service, cia, fbi. elon musk, currently the driving force behind that. and even speaker johnson, it appears, says he doesn't know what is happening. is it legal? >> so there are a couple of things that i think stand out to me as highly illegal. so one is actually also something going on in the justice department when you said firing people, the

purging of the fbi career servants, public servants and doj public servants is a violation of the civil service servants statutes. i think they even know it. and pam bondi coming in and saying, i'm going to effectuate the weaponization executive order. that's what it's all about. so i think that's a very serious problem. and then eliminating some of these agencies, usaid, doe, you can't do that as a president. that would mean we have like a king as a dictating congress says, you have to come back to us if you want to reorganize this agency. >> all right. well, thank you very much, ryan. so we'll see what all this this comes to next. trump claims his promise to bring down the price of eggs is why he is in the white house. >> they would double and triple the price over a short period of time. and i won an election based on that. >> tonight, though, the price is at a record high and we are on the ground in syria tonight in a town that was decimated during the uprising against bashar al-assad. so what is actually happening there? i mean, it's an

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these higher prices is obviously not a laughing matter, though. >> and nick watt is out front. >> and you can. have two. >> frank hilliker. is rationing his eggs. the line. forms around 7 a.m. how many eggs do you eat? >> um. myself, probably 3 to 3 a day. >> what? >> yeah. >> that's a lot. no. >> that's a normal amount. >> two dozen. >> the average american eats about 284 eggs a year. well, they used to. you're consciously dialing back on the eggs. >> oh. >> for sure. >> yeah, because of the price. >> right? >> president donald trump claims the high price of eggs helped him win the white house. >> they would double and triple the price over a short period of time. and i won an election based on that. >> he made wild promises. >> we're going to bring prices way down and we're going to get it done fast.

>> then he got egged in the first white house briefing. >> egg prices have skyrocketed. >> since president. >> trump took office. >> democratic lawmakers urged him in a letter to crack down on corporate profiteering. >> they put. >> price controls on. >> things, but now. all of. >> a sudden. >> we're cuba or. >> venezuela. >> you. >> know who wants to be like that? >> waffle house just introduced a temporary 50 cent egg surcharge and roberto's tacos around the corner from frank's farm is charging customers an extra buck 50 for all eggy dishes. who are they blaming? >> well, they take it out on. >> me. >> smells rather noticeable. >> what smell. >> do you eat? a lot of them. >> no. >> it's too. >> expensive. >> it's gone from. >> 2 to $3 a dozen to $9 a. >> dozen. >> that's massive. >> it is. >> crazy. >> and predicted by the usda to

climb even higher. >> the current. >> egg. >> shortage is because of the bird flu. >> it is. >> fully because. >> of the bird. >> flu. >> the only way to stop the spread is to cull millions of infected birds. so slashing egg supply. >> these astronomical prices are all due on. supply and demand. economics 101. there's nothing biden could have done to stop the bird flu. >> look. >> there's nothing president trump could have done to stop the bird flu. it's neither of their faults. >> you literally have all your eggs in one basket. >> yes i do. >> you got to be careful with that. >> there are so many other bad egg wordplays that we could use, but. >> exactly. >> now, saturday night in franklin county, pennsylvania, erin, 100,000 eggs were stolen from a trailer. that's how bad this shortage has gotten. bottom line, eggs are a great source of protein. they were a great cheap source of protein. not anymore. and how long is this going to

last? frank hilliker, who knows his eggs, says, i don't know, erin. >> yeah, well, i mean, the bird flu, of course, gets into the how quickly we get into every other topic, right. gets into the cdc, nih and all the other issues. nick, thank you very much. and next, an outfront exclusive, clarissa ward on the ground in syria, what she found in a town at the heart of the uprising against bashar al-assad is shocking. and we'll share it with you. >> one a next level clean swish with the whoa of listerine. it kills 99.9%. >> of bad breath. >> germs for five times more cleaning power. >> than. >> brushing and flossing alone. get a next level clean with listerine. feel the whoa. >> so we really need to. >> see your ldl-c. >> come down. >> more to lower your risk of another heart attack. >> i was afraid. >> we had to do. >> more. >> like what. >> i already exercise. >> take my statin, eat kale. >> i can tell. >> you're trying.

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first here tonight out front. >> we're just about a 15 minute drive here from central damascus. and these suburbs of damascus really were essentially the heart of the uprising against bashar al-assad. and you can see how they've just been smashed to bits. they've been bombed. they were besieged. people were starved. they were forcibly displaced. and now being here on the ground, you get a sense of the full scale of the devastation, the kind of rebuild and reconstruction that we're talking about. estimates had been around 250 billion, which once seemed like a figure no one could get their head around. but when you're here on the ground and looking at it, it's clear that it is going to cost hundreds of billions to rebuild. what's not clear is where those dollars will come from. syria's economy has been

hollowed out by years of war, corruption and crippling sanctions. in the suburb of daraya, life has returned to the streets. but making a living is hard. emad abu kalam runs a shawarma shop. like most here, he is optimistic about the future but realistic about the challenges. >> and the. >> fear. >> the fareed zakaria. >> so he's saying that it's going to take a lot of money and a lot of time to start to really rebuild that. >> i mean much harder to rebuild are the broken lives. >> daraya is a town of widows and orphans. schools are starting to reopen, but few are paying. salaries are okay. >> thank you. >> ah. thank you. >> thank you. >> according to unicef, 2

million children are now not going to school inside syria. these kids told us that they actually just got out of school and were heading now to a place that's been set up by a charity. essentially, it's a safe space where kids can come and play. it opened just weeks after the fall of the regime of bashar al-assad, and is run by nra, a charity whose work i support that focuses on children affected by war, child psychologist rahaf al-balad says that many of the kids here show signs of aggression and are lacking love and attention at home, a result, she says, of the grinding hardship of 12 years of war. most women of daraya are widows, so the mother took the role of the mother and the father, she tells us. so she has to work, support and raise the children. this all affects her wellbeing as the euphoria of liberation begins to subside,

the hard work ahead is becoming clear and communities like daraya will need all the. support they can get now. and we talked about those sanctions that were implemented to put pressure on the regime of bashar al-assad, and which have had a devastating impact on the syrian economy. last month, the u.s. government announced that it would issue a limited six month license, which would effectively ease some of the restrictions to allow more humanitarian aid into syria. but so far, it is still keeping that broader raft of sanctions in place as it continues to watch very closely to see what steps syria's new islamist government will take in the coming weeks and months. erin. >> all right. clarissa, thank you so much for sharing that with all of us. incredible reporting, and thanks so much to all