comcast business 5-year price lock guarantee. powering five years of savings. powering possibilities. comcast business. every month. it's awesome. >> don't let this. >> happen to you. download rocket money today. >> this is. >> cnn. >> the world's news network. >> it's friday. we made it february 7th. right now on cnn this morning. >> we encourage federal workers in this city to accept the very generous offer. >> buyout roadblock. a judge gives federal workers more time to decide if they want to take president trump's deal. and this. >> we're working on a one. >> bill strategy. >> will it be one big, beautiful bill? republicans in the house and senate at odds over the best way to get president trump's agenda through

transgender athletes from women's sports, and later., you are the greatest friend israel has ever had in the white house. an unusual gift. why israel's prime minister gave president trump a gold plated pager. all right. 6 a.m. here on the east coast. this is a live look at the superdome in new orleans. let's be real. this is all anyone is really focused on this weekend. kansas city chiefs going to take on my birds. i'm not nervous or anything. i swear. anyway, good morning everyone. i'm kasie hunt. it's wonderful to have you with us. two men, president trump and elon musk, moving incredibly fast and breaking things across the u.s. government as the third branch of said government is lumbering into action and quite frankly, struggling to keep up

the judicial system, federal judges across the country halting some pieces of the trump musk agenda for now following a ruling by a federal judge in boston. the government's roughly 2 million civilian employees will now have until at least monday to weigh that so-called buyout offer and the dismantling of usaid, now facing a federal lawsuit on behalf of some of the agency's employees. the president has claimed the foreign aid agency is corrupt and run by the, quote, radical left. the head of doge, elon, calling it, quote, evil. >> we're catching them left and right. we're catching them. we're catching them to a point where they don't know what the heck is going on. they can't believe they're getting caught. and i have great respect for the people that are doing it. elon musk is helping us on it, and he's pretty good. he's pretty good. >> today, the trump administration expected to drastically reduce the workforce at usaid. multiple sources telling cnn that the agency,

which employs around 10,000 workers around the world, will be reduced to fewer than 300 employees. president trump's effort to end birthright citizenship has also been halted by federal judges, one of whom said the president was treating the rule of law as, quote, something to navigate around or simply ignore, whether that be for political or personal gain. some, if not all, of these cases beginning a lengthy journey. what's likely to be a lengthy journey to the supreme court? that possibility, encouraging to some democrats here was massachusetts senator ed markey. >> the courts, if they interpret the constitution correctly, are going to stop. musk, are going to stop trump. i mean, article one is the congress. article two is the president. article three is the judiciary. there's not an article 3.5 where elon musk gets to do whatever he wants to do. >> so just how will the conservative majority supreme court, three members, of course, appointed by trump himself in

his previous term rule on challenges to the president's attempts to redefine presidential power? here's what cnn's stephen collinson writes this morning, quote, the growing storm of lawsuits means some of this young administration's most extraordinary applications of unilateral presidential power could be reined in. but the litigation also conjures a scenario that no one wants to think about. what would happen if the administration refused to recognize court rulings, even one handed down by the supreme court. all right. joining us this morning, andy lynskey. she's white house reporter for the wall street journal. elliot williams, cnn legal analyst, former federal prosecutor kate bedingfield, cnn political commentator, former communications director in the biden white house. and brad todd, cnn political commentator, also a republican strategist. welcome to all of you. i feel like eliot, this one's for you this morning because, look, i mean, let's take usaid as an example. and i understand we can have a political conversation about foreign aid and where american voters are on that. but

if you think about literally what is happening and how our system is supposed to work, they want to. they came in, they want to break usaid. we've heard what they think about it. they want to take it from 10,000 to 300 employees. there are going to be lawsuits. we don't know if it's legal, but they're about to start getting 10,000 people, approximately on planes, pulling them out of countries around the world. that's not something that like a court can a court can't put that back in the bottle, right? like the system can't really keep up with what's going on here. >> the court can't put it back in the bottle. a court can stop it from happening prior to its happening. assuming that it's unlawful. um, but, you know, there's the bigger question you touched right on it, casey. which is that what we're talking about here is separation of powers. can the president unilaterally decide how to direct spending in the federal government? congress dictates which agencies exist, how much they're funded for, how that money is spent, and over what period of time. that money, that money ought to be allocated for

now, if we want to start shrinking the sizes of agencies and reducing the size of government, fine. have at it. work it out with congress. there's been, frankly, centuries of precedent in the united states of doing that. but we are stepping up to serious questions of, uh, pushing the bounds of presidential power that i do think the courts are probably going to step in at some point. >> so let's touch on kind of the politics, the politics piece of this. because as much as, you know, the legality is in question, democrats are apoplectic about this. there is kind of a broader sense in the country that doesn't oppose shrinking government, right, that thinks that it's gone too far. here was joe rogan talking about what the president and elon musk have been doing over the last couple of weeks. watch what's fascinating right now is we're getting a chance to see what happens when you take a business approach to the government in the white house. >> you're seeing a politician, a president who's coming in,

who can't get reelected. so he's just going ham, and he's just cleaning out everything, and people are freaking out. the same people that say, we need radical change, right? we need radical change. we've got corruption. we need radical change. okay, well, here's your radical change. we don't need this. but you do. the government does. they need oversight. and they haven't had that. >> brad todd. >> you know, in october i was working on a senate race in pennsylvania, and i had got to see a lot of research focus groups and polling. we try to decide at the end what should we talk about? should we talk about immigration? should we talk about the economy? no, the voters said talk about change. they wanted serious change, period. stop. full story. they were skeptical that they would get it. by the way, they didn't know that. they didn't know if it was possible. i think a lot of american voters have begun to think washington is this thing that never can be reshaped. they're going to give donald trump a pretty wide latitude to make a few mistakes in how he reshapes it and how he pulls it back. >> but here's the thing, okay, 80% a little more than 80% of jobs in the federal government

are not in washington, dc. i mean, this is not it is very easy for joe rogan to sit on a podcast and say people want to slash and burn the u.s. government. that sounds appealing, i don't disagree. there was obviously a mandate for change. people are hungry for a sense that washington function differently, broadly speaking, than it does right now. don't disagree with that at all. i do think there will be real, tangible political consequences as this starts to impact people's lives. i also think the other thing people said they wanted was lower costs. they wanted prices to come down. prices are not coming down for any number of reasons, and. >> that's part of change. >> and absolutely. and trump and there's the perception that trump is not at all focused on that. so that to me that is a place, first of all, that democrats. that's a message democrats should coalesce behind. he's not doing the thing he said he was going to do. but i do think that there will be some some real meaningful political blowback here, because this impacts people's lives in a way that i think it doesn't. it doesn't necessarily come through when you're kind of like gun

slinging on a podcast. >> about it. more of the point. um, it's almost not worth it to get into the debate over affecting people's lives, because i think people don't have their heads around what usaid does, other than the fact that they don't like it. right? it's just something that doesn't stick well with people lost in this whole debate is the fact that foreign aid directly ties into america's strategic national security and foreign policy interests. if you like that. >> liz cheney was out reminding us of that. she said, hey, elon, you might have forgotten you weren't a u.s. citizen in the cold war, so you might have missed it. >> but even more to the point that cobalt in your tesla battery came from the democratic republic of the congo, probably. and odds are, if the united states isn't providing foreign aid there, china is. that is not good. >> marco rubio said that we're going to continue the programs that advance our foreign policy, though. that's that's that's that's the thing that comes after the. >> comma, not one, one employee per mission in the field around the world. marco rubio also said in 2017, foreign aid is not is

not charity. humanitarian aid is not charity. and that's that is it is it's not. it is leverage around the world against our adversaries. it's helping prevent diseases from coming to our shores. >> to these people. that have to be the ones doing it. people who are not aligned with foreign policy. i think the answer to that question is no, they don't have to. >> you've got 25. >> year olds who work for elon musk get to determine what is, is and is not good foreign policy. >> i do want to talk about those people for a second, because this is of course, the other the other question, and i'm interested to see how elon is going to continue to be perceived. but like kara swisher was on our air talking about, um, what this actually is. and she says that the way that elon is going about this annie, is a feature, not a bug. let's watch you know, there's an expression in in technology. >> it's not it's it's a feature, not a bug. this this is what they do. they are careless. i don't believe any bit of them when they say they vetted these people and they just there are people that will listen to whatever elon says and do

whatever he wants and thinks. it's a ball to do this. and very funny. and so they're willing to do things, say adults wouldn't be willing to do or cross lines that they wouldn't be. he wants these malleable, malleable young men in particular, in order to do this. and they think it's fun, and it probably is for them, you know, being able to hang out with elon musk and, you know, take down government agencies for them. and the arrogance is massive and the ignorance is even bigger. >> yeah. i mean, i'm glad you played that from kara. i think right now in washington, d.c., if you want to understand elon musk, the bible that people are reading is walter isaacson's book about elon. it's 600 pages, so it's a long, long slog to get through. but it's well written and, um, he what he's doing is sort of almost exactly what he did at twitter. and the chapters about twitter apply directly to his approach to usaid, which is to go in and fire an enormous amount of people. it remains to be seen, of course, whether those firings will hold up, hold up to legal

scrutiny. but like, this is what he has done in other places. and he's been pretty successful doing it. i mean, there was a mandate for change and to shake things up. and even if, even if down the road, judges decide that this is not something you can do, i think almost every person in america will have learned that donald trump came to town. there's a new sheriff in town, and things are going to be much different. and that's that is the future. that's what he's trying to get across. and he's been successful. >> at it. i mean, my question is, do we want do we want this applied to, you know, a mistake at a social media company? the stakes are a lot lower than when you're working with the social security number and bank account numbers of every american that files taxes. >> i find it interesting, though, that some new people are now worried about unelected bureaucrats having too much power. as conservatives. we've been worried about that for a long time. so i welcome everybody else to the party. >> i don't know that these guys are constitute bureaucrats. i mean. >> he's a temporary employee. he's a federal government employee. >> okay. coming up here on cnn this morning, president trump wants transgender athletes out of women's sports. what that

might mean for the 2028 los angeles olympics. plus, passengers evacuated after a train burst into flames. that's one of the five things you have to see this morning. and one bill. two bill, red bill, blue bill. the gop still disagreeing about how to get their agenda passed. >> i think there's a lot of talk about two and a lot of talk about one, but it doesn't. >> matter. >> it's the news. welcome back. but it's also kind of not the news. >> wants all the information on this show. so terrible. >> have i got news for you returns february 15th on cnn. >> can support your brain health. >> mary. janet. hey. >> eddie. no! fraser. frank. frank. fred, how are you? fred? >> support up to seven brain health indicators, including memory. when you need to remember. remember. nariva. >> well, you're in the big leagues now. >> how was your vacation, sir? >> well, i needed one. >> with your 10% loyalty program discount. that's $225 for the

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feeling under the weather after the big game? you need a dose of comedy. or a feel-good movie. maybe some reality tv. at xfinity we know what we need for sick monday. extra-strength wifi built for streaming, so you can make the most of your “sick” monday. stream all day with xfinity streamsaver. get netflix, apple tv+, and peacock for just $15 a month. and learn how xfinity rewards members can get a food delivery gift card when they add streamsaver. bring on the good stuff. >> one( 800) 269-9522. that's one( 800) 269-9522. >> i like one big beautiful bill and i always have, i always will. but if if two is more certain, it does go a little bit quicker. whether it's one bill or two bill, it's going to get done one way or the other. i think there's a lot of talk about two, and there's a lot of talk about one, but it doesn't. >> matter. >> one bill, two bills doesn't matter to president trump. and i mean, let's be honest, he's probably channeling his voters

in the american people who also don't care. but he is trying to get republican majorities in the house and senate on the same page, because he does care about passing his legislative agenda. we should note, though, the details are incredibly important on the hill. house speaker mike johnson wants to do one bill where he puts everything together because he has got to get the slimmest of slim majorities to take one really difficult vote. the calculus is different in the senate, speaker johnson and other house leaders met at the white house for more than four hours on thursday to try to map out this path forward. >> our message to our friends and colleagues in the senate is allow the house to do its work. we are moving this as quickly and as expeditiously as possible. very positive developments today. we're really grateful to the president for leaning in. >> speaker johnson says that they hope to start what's called marking up a budget bill, writing it, editing it. next week, republican senators want two bills, and they're getting impatient. they want to move soon, majority leader john thune

told reporters. this, quote, we just need somebody to move. and we've been trying to get the house, give the house the space to do that. hopefully they can come up with some agreement today that would enable that to happen. complicating efforts in the house is that three seat majority for republicans. and look, the infighting already starting to spill out into the open as some feel that the process is leaving them in the dark. >> what is your level of frustration for not being a part of this meeting at the white house today? >> i'm incredibly frustrated. i'm frustrated. yes. am i surprised? heck no. >> are you? as a result, it could cost your vote. >> absolutely. i mean, not not for ego, just because they're not telling me what's in the dadgum bill. i'd kind of like to know about it if i'm if we're we have a three person majority and, you know, we have a bad case of flu running through the capitol and we're out of the majority. and i mean, literally that's, that's that's how close it is. >> uh, brad todd getting dadgummit in the banner is a little bit tricky. >> my native tongue also tennessee.

>> um, look, speaker johnson probably has the hardest job in washington right now trying to get this together. but, you know, i think big picture the fact that they can't even get the same page on how to do this really illustrates just how hard this is going to be. >> well, senators love to deliberate and house members love to obfuscate. and that's what we're dealing with right now. and, you know, if you're mike johnson, is it easier to make one half court shot in basketball or two? obviously it's easier to make one. and that's what passing a bill through a three seat majority is like. i suspect the senators will get this out of their system. they'll pass something that will prod the house to move forward. we'll end up with probably one bill in the end. >> counterpoint. >> um. >> and we are we all know everybody here, having worked in and around congress at some point, that the bigger something is, the harder it gets to pass. every single member of congress starts getting their own interests in it. and i asked a republican source about this. i said, hey, you know, how are you guys going to get. you being a reporter? look at that, right? >> i'm so proud of you. >> babies for sourcing.

>> right? >> no. and how are you guys going to figure out a way to get to 218? and he said, well, do you want to be the one to sink donald trump's agenda? and it's like, now you're relying on vibes and and good feelings to sort of get this massive bill passed that's incredibly hard. >> so also enter the senate parliamentarian who will have a say because it's a reconciliation bill on what can and cannot be included. so the idea that they're going to be able to include as a as a veteran of this process in 2021, when we were trying to do build back better, the senate parliamentarian is going to say, no, you can't do this via a budget reconciliation bill and strip things that people want that are going to help get to that. that final 218 out. so it's it's they don't even get they don't even have full control here over what one. >> cliffsnotes on reconciliation for everybody at home. basically you can get around the senate filibuster by using something that's based on tax laws. so the parliamentarian will look at it and say, this is a policy thing. you cannot simply decide you are going to, you know, build a tower here because that

doesn't have anything to do with taxes. but if it does have something to do with taxes, then you only need 51 votes in the senate. >> so i wouldn't. >> 50 votes, i guess. >> in this case underestimate the power of vibes right now. i mean, right now, donald trump's political capital is as high as it's ever going to be. i mean, every day that passes, things will happen. you even saw this with gaza, where his sort of support began to break apart a little bit. there were some. >> republicans were like. >> opposition to put u.s. >> troops on the ground in gaza. what? >> so, i mean, this is, you know, he has momentum now, and people are afraid to stand up to him. now, this is a you know, this is where you want to push fast. and he's got the he's got the support of his caucus. >> and if the national debate is over, the senate parliamentarian donald trump wins that. >> i will say something. about the vibes that are going to happen is tim burchett cell phone vibrating in his pocket. it's going to be donald trump calling him and saying, you've got to go back in there and vote for that bill. that's the vibe that's going to happen. donald trump's going to wrangle the last 4 or 5 votes. just wait personally. >> he'll do it personally. personally, personally. >> you've got guys who are

conservative on the economy, hawks on foreign policy. pick your issue and you can only lose one of them out of 218 or 2. >> how could it be a soap opera? but donald trump will get the last two votes. >> in soap opera. that's what it is. we played a bit earlier where i think it was actually burchett who said, like, hey, like we got a bout of the flu going on here. like we're out of the majority. not wrong. all right. still ahead here on cnn this morning, president trump now downplaying the idea that u.s. troops would be involved in his plans for gaza. but details on turning gaza into the riviera of the middle east remain elusive. we're going to talk to michael smerconish because, of course, it's friday. plus, forget car chases. how about a horse chase? one of five things you have to see this morning. >> taxes was feeling so stuck. now, taxes is a turbotax expert doing everything while you do

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you happy all right. >> 27 minutes past the hour. five things you have to see this morning. a commuter train near philadelphia bursting into flames thursday night. there were 350 people on board. everyone evacuated. no word on the cause. thousands of people fleeing the greek island of santorini. intense earthquakes over the past week have forced officials to declare a state of emergency. millions of tourists visit santorini every year, but today it is almost empty. a new jersey officer rescued an 11 year old from an icy pond. the boy had plunged through the ice. the officer said he didn't even notice the cold because he was so focused on reaching the boy. also, this. >> get in there. that, batman. get that batman now! get him! get him now! hey! >> get off! it's a scene out of an old western. a police officer on a horse named nash chasing down a suspect in florida. they caught the guy. safe to say nash earned his paycheck. or, you

know, maybe his favorite snack. maybe. who knows? all right. a winter breeze bringing freezing rain and snow from chicago to new england. this video from massachusetts showing the dangerous driving conditions with the roads covered in snow. yikes. they actually do know how to drive in snow up there, so it shows you just how bad it is. and as the northeast recovers from that winter storm, the country bracing for more bad weather. here's a live look at lax in l.a. getting some much needed rain this morning. let's get straight to our meteorologist. our weatherman, derek van dam. derek. good morning. >> good morning. casey. >> beneficial rain for los angeles, but not. >> too. >> much to cause. >> some serious issues. so that's good news. the ice that you showed the snow and rain on the east coast. that's number one of a five winter blitz stretch. there's five consecutive storms that we're counting over the next two weeks. i'll show you which in just one moment. so that was number one. this is number two bringing the rainfall to southern california as we speak. and that storm is quickly going to move from the west coast to the east coast, followed by the jet stream that will separate the cold air to the north and

the warmer or milder air to the south. so we're going to focus our snow potential across the northern tier of our country. in fact, you can see how it picks up moisture, produces snowfall over the western u.s. great news for the ski resorts. but once it finally reaches the east coast by late saturday into early sunday morning, look what happens kind of blows up into a disruptive winter storm for some of the major east coast cities new york to boston. we have a good potential of accumulating. snow could reach over a half a foot in some locations, especially in the hudson valley, boston, new york. that's still a question mark, but definitely an impactful storm heading for the weekend. and then i.c.e. to the south of that. this is just the blitz of winter storms we have ahead of us. number three. >> number four. i'm sorry. derek five. can i take a point of personal privilege? are my kids going to have snow days in washington next week? because i don't really think i can handle that. >> are you prepared? just. you got to get those babysitters ahead of time. you can hear it from me. >> and do i need one next week for the storm. >> in d.c.? monday morning is a real possibility. okay. >> thank you for the heads up.

we appreciate it. >> then tuesday and then friday. >> oh, cool. okay, sweet. all the parents at this table are looking at that and dreading their lives. okay, coming up next week on cnn this morning, the new ncaa policy on transgender athletes, right in line with president trump's order to ban those athletes from women's sports. plus, building diplomacy, one gift at a time. >> so we brought him some of the biggest potatoes from idaho. and they are. it's impressive. >> so i got you a little something. >> warming for him, tingling. >> for her. >> should we. >> experience the thrill of bringing them together? say more than i love you. say i want you with coy wire. >> i'm still here. as one of the most acclaimed films of the year with three academy award

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its participation policy for transgender athletes. just one day after president trump signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from women's sports with this executive order, the war on women's sports is over. >> 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. >> the ncaa saying in a statement that, quote, president trump's order provides a clear national standard. under its revised rules, only athletes assigned female at birth will be able to compete at the collegiate level. and with the ncaa now in compliance with his order, president trump has his next target the olympics. >> marco is going to make clear to the international olympic committee is there, and he's going to make it as clear as anybody can make it, that america categorically rejects

transgender lunacy. we want them to change everything having to do with the olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject. >> joining us now, cnn sports analyst christine brennan with more on this. christine, good morning. it's always wonderful to see you. can you help us understand how what it was before and how it's changed and how many people this actually impacts? >> yes, casey. >> good morning. you know, it's charlie baker is the president of the ncaa. and he was before a congressional committee about six weeks ago and was asked that exact question about how many athletes are involved. and there are over a half million ncaa athletes, baker said. and then asked about how many transgender athletes there are in the ncaa. he said less than ten. so that's the number we're talking about less than ten out of more than half a million. but as you know, this has become an issue that is political, that is

fraught with with emotions and and has become a part of our culture and was a part, of course, of the presidential election. and it is set against that backdrop. this is this conversation. so the reality is now the president has said, if you have gone through male puberty, you cannot compete in women's sports. and you had mentioned the olympics, and it's very interesting. of course, it's fitting because the next summer olympic games are in los angeles in the summer of 2028. and this is a question, obviously, an issue that will come up. but the international olympic committee doesn't actually make those decisions. it's the international federations for every sport. and the president will like what he's seeing because over the last couple of years, both the federation for swimming called world aquatics and the federation governing track and field called world athletics, both have implemented the same

exact policy that the president trump has now put into effect with his executive order. so already, two of the biggest olympic sports are doing exactly what trump wants them to do. and they did it a couple of years ago. >> really interesting. christine, can i ask you about this lawsuit that was filed by some swimmers, three women swimmers at the university of pennsylvania, because there was a transgender swimmer on their team. lia thomas. what does the lawsuit say? and what's the probability of it? what does success look like for them? what are we going to see next in that? >> as everyone remembers, i think the lia thomas story and your heart goes out to her as she was transitioning. but then, of course, she was swimming and it became a huge issue, especially those videos, right, of seeing her so far ahead of the other swimmers in ivy league meets and in the ncaa. she won an ncaa title and this really brought it to a head back then in 2022. so now no surprise that now we would see lawsuits based on what president trump has

done. i would wonder about going backwards and being able to look at something. was the policy of the ivy league and the ncaa at the time they were following their rules, but now those rules have changed. and because this is such an emotional issue, it's a political issue. clearly, we could see a scenario where it goes to a judge or where they move forward with it. and there is certainly, you know, sentiment to have those kind of issues out there now and being discussed. i wouldn't be surprised, casey, if this is the if this is just the beginning of some of these lawsuits. but again, we're talking about so few athletes, even though they got the the headlines right. leah thomas was in the headlines. so it became bigger. when you hear less than ten athletes. well, leah as thomas was one of those a few years ago. and so that's why this issue is so confounding to so many. obviously the hate and the fear is something we hate to see. we'd rather see the science and the conversation be rational on all sides. and i have a feeling that this is something we will be discussing

not just for years, but for decades. >> all right. christine brennan, for us this morning. always grateful to have you on the show. thank you so much for being here. >> thank you. casey. >> all right. coming up next here on cnn this morning, the big winner just announced in the quarterback battle for the nfl's most valuable player. plus, international shockwaves over president trump's gaza plan. michael smerconish joins us next to discuss. >> president trump claimed that palestinians would be, quote, thrilled to have an option to move out of gaza and said, quote, the gaza thing never worked out, never worked out. trump talks about gaza like it's ben affleck and. >> j-lo. you know, it never worked out. but there's other territories in the sea. >> many remedies you take for chest congestion only mask the symptoms. >> hey. >> how are you doing? >> this mucus won't move out. >> you're gonna love this property. the guys. congestion remedy. harmless. >> try this. mucinex 12 hour

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>> gloriana jewelry. >> you'll love. >> find us in store. >> and online. >> closed captioning is brought to you by uqora. help maintain a healthy urinary tract with uqora. >> uqora offers uti relief and science backed supplements for proactive urinary health. >> life's too short. >> to be put on hold by utis. join us at uqora dot com. >> look, this is this is pretty typical. >> unorthodox. um, trump policy being thrown out there. i'm trying to keep track of the white house statements just like you are. and from what i understand, they've walked that back pretty significantly. there's not going to be anybody

forced to leave. there's not going to be any u.s. troops on the ground. >> very relatable. dan crenshaw, donald trump's congressional allies, still seeking clarity on the proposal that donald trump has made to take over the gaza strip. the abrupt announcement on tuesday of the plan to temporarily take over and redevelop the territory, prompting confusion and condemnation among global leaders who are still readjusting to donald trump's return to the world stage. them and all of us. tuesday's events also conjuring memories of what it all looked like last time around. >> i have great confidence in my intelligence people, but i will tell you that president putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today. well, he's two faced. rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself as far as, uh, wiretapping, i guess by, you know, this past administration, at least we have something in common. perhaps we do have a

very special relationship. in fact, i'll get that little piece of dandruff off. that little piece. we have to make them perfect. >> oh, the shove. >> it's friday means michael smerconish is here to discuss cnn political commentator and of course, the host of cnn's smerconish. michael, good morning. >> good morning. >> uh, so that was a little walk down memory lane of what donald trump was like on the world stage last time around. this time, of course, it's honestly talked. it's a more aggressive version even of that. based on that that head spinning press conference that we saw around gaza, it seems like pretty quickly they've had to walk back, though, specifically the idea that u.s. troops might be involved, which trump refused to rule out during that press conference despite having run during the campaign. as someone who was going to get american troops out of the middle east, what's your take on all of it? >> i'm so glad.

>> that. >> they walked. >> it back. i heard a lot of conversation this week about the human rights issues of the palestinians and the displacement of the palestinians. valid concerns. i, however, look at this from a national security perspective of the united states, and i want to remind everybody we were sold a bill of goods post-september 11. we were told they hate us for our genes. they hate us for our lattes. they hate us for our lap dances. none of that ended up being true. they hate us for their perception of our interventionist foreign policy. and that was a lesson that candidate donald trump seemed to grasp, and campaigning on keeping us out of forever wars made sense to me as a result, but even raising the prospect that we will play some direct role in gaza sounds reminiscent of iraq and afghanistan and all the mistakes of the last 20 years. so i thought it was just a terrible error in judgment. i don't know where it came from.

i'm glad that he's walking it back. >> michael, let's talk about some of the other things that we have seen unfolding rapid fire across the government today. for example, we're reporting that the trump administration is going to fire basically 10,000 people from usaid and tell them that they need to come home from the stations where they are across the world, leaving about 300 people left at the agency. that's just one example of many. and of course, democrats are trying to figure out how do we push back against things that we are opposed to in this way when it is all happening so fast? what do you think the opposition party should be focusing on right now? if they want to be successful? >> i think usaid is a losing issue for democrats. i get the argument for the exertion of soft power internationally. i think it makes sense for the united states for all the reasons i was just referring to, relative to gaza to to make friends, but not do so with boots on the ground. but

there's always going to be an instance, an example where someone can point to an expenditure and to the american people it's going to be like, my god, why are we spending, you know, fill in the blank and i won't even use condoms. i'll say 20 million on sesame street in iraq. and casey, a little bit before your time and a wee bit before my time. but william proxmire. william proxmire was the senator from wisconsin. i think he was the longest serving senator from wisconsin. his career was largely predicated on the announcement of the golden fleece award, which was always some ridiculous expenditure of federal funds that would be head scratching. and people would say, well, thank goodness senator proxmire is out there exposing all of this waste, fraud and abuse. it's a winning issue for republicans. i say. >> michael, what do you make of the argument? and this is this is something, you know, i actually focused on a lot as i was in school during the iraq war. that was kind of unfolding, as, you know, my political

consciousness was being formed. um, the idea that the way that we communicate with people overseas, america's image abroad, it's kind of the idea being able to to try to talk to people about the idea of america being something to aspire to, and that being an important piece of i mean, the usaid is a piece of cold war infrastructure. it's not necessarily it is not neutral in terms of our our national security. and you have the chinese focused on this belt and road initiative, where they are spending millions putting all these countries across the world in their debt and being a partner to them across across the world. do you think that there's a national security argument that democrats who are defending usaid could make or not? >> i think that there is i think that we've been our own worst enemies. i'm going to sound like like ron paul now, but our response so often has been that wherever there's a hotspot, you know, we open a base. i remember

that i was a guest of the pentagon in the rumsfeld era to travel to the middle east 15,000 miles in, in the span of less than ten days. and one of the stops on the road was djibouti in the horn of africa. and i'm like, well, why are you taking me to djibouti? why do we have a base in djibouti? and the answer was, well, because al qaeda is now is now in djibouti. and like everywhere we thought they were, we would go. we didn't make friends in that process. and by the way, casey, i, you know, i had skin in this game. i was one of those behind a microphone like this parroting the line, we need to fight them over there. i think it was zell miller. we need to fight him over there. or will we be fighting them here? no. every time we went over there, we raised the odds that they were going to hate us more. that was the lesson i took away. maybe i'm mistaken, but i've been reflecting on the last 30 years, and that's what i think. >> yeah. fascinating. all right. michael smerconish always enjoy having your perspective on the show, sir. thank you so much for being here. see you next week. thank you. do tune in to

smerconish. it's tomorrow morning, 9 a.m. eastern, right here on cnn. all right. it's 52 minutes past the hour. here is your morning roundup. a bering air flight with ten people on board is now missing in western alaska. the plane was last seen on the radar flying over the norton sound on thursday evening. the coast guard and the air force, now assisting in the search. the flight was heading to nome, alaska. here are pictures of the conditions at the airport as the plane went missing. alaska senator dan sullivan put out a statement that says, quote, our thoughts and prayers are with the passengers, their families, and the rescue crew. president trump has now removed federal election commission chair ellen weintraub from her position. weintraub, writing a statement on x that says this in part, quote, there's a legal way to replace fec commissioners. this isn't it. end quote. weintraub was first appointed to serve on the commission by president george w. bush in 2002, and this. >> i know this is an individual award, and it says most valuable player on it, but i think it's derived from team success. and i

love my team. we've got such a great locker room in buffalo. and it takes everybody. >> buffalo bills quarterback josh allen, with all the class winning nfl's mvp award last night, it was a major upset over lamar jackson of the baltimore ravens. allen was just one win shy of bringing his team to the super bowl this year, but of course, they fell to the chiefs in the afc championship game. and this. >> rapper kendrick lamar, is set to perform this sunday at the super bowl halftime show. damn, that is gonna that is going to be drake's worst sunday since. well, i guess last sunday. so yeah. >> kendrick lamar gearing up for the biggest performance of his career this coming sunday. the grammy award winning rapper telling fans to anticipate storytelling during his halftime show. kendrick lamar won two grammys for his hit song not like us. that, of course, definitely put some fuel on that fire for his viral feud with drake. all right, let's turn now to this story. it is not unusual for foreign leaders to exchange

gifts when they meet each other, but the gift given to president trump by israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu this week, well, um, let's just let's just show it to you. it's a golden pager. it is inscribed with the words press with both hands. now, this is a reference to israel's deadly pager bombers, bombings that targeted hezbollah last year. you may remember that members of the terror group reportedly had to press two buttons to simultaneously receive coded messages. now, when they did that, you saw this happen across the country. this golden gift that netanyahu gave to trump. it's just the latest token exchanged between world leaders. take a walk down memory lane. secretary of state hillary clinton gifted a reset button to the russian foreign minister back in 2009. >> do you want. >> to reset. >> our relationship. >> and let's do it together? >> so we will.

>> do it together. >> we worked hard to. >> get the right russian word. >> do you think. >> we got it? you get it wrong. >> i got. >> it wrong. >> then there was the time that secretary of state john kerry handed gave the russians a couple of spuds. >> he was talking. >> to me about famous idaho potatoes. so we brought him some of the biggest potatoes from idaho. they are. it's impressive. >> and who can forget russian president vladimir putin giving president trump a soccer ball in helsinki? the soccer ball might have had a transmitter chip in it it will go to my son, barron. >> we have no question. in fact, melania, here you go. >> all right. our panel is back. brad. todd, there's a lot of symbolism in this major gift. i find it slightly head scratching. >> i wouldn't press both buttons if i. if he gave me a pager that

said that. i don't think so, but i think donald trump will appreciate it. >> kate. >> i mean, these moments are usually intended to just be a convey a message. this obviously sends a very strong one. i guess that i guess netanyahu is trying to underscore strength and thinks trump will respond to that kind of strength. and but the. >> implication, not that it's going. >> to blow up, but i. >> mean, that's what. >> killed the pagers, killed people. and he just gave one to trump. so i, i don't know, man. i don't know. >> you know, so so now that is officially the property of the united states. right. and there's a fun fact presidents can't typically keep gifts they get from foreign leaders. they become property of the national archives. and, you know, every now and again, presidents receive gifts of animals from foreign leaders. the president of indonesia, there's a fun story. president of indonesia, suharto gave george h.w. bush a pet komodo dragon. and they're running around, i swear to god. and they're running around the white house, and they didn't

know what to do with it because, like, i mean, it's a venomous animal. like, you can, like, eat it, keep it as a pet, i don't know. so they gave it to the cincinnati zoo and it just lived, lived its life for decades, representing the government of indonesia. is in america an amazing place. it just got. >> to your point. there is a museum of diplomatic, diplomatic history in the in washington, d.c. so that pager presumably is going to end up in that museum. >> been to this museum? >> yes. and sadly, it's closed until 2026. it's doing some rehab right now, but that. >> ping pong table that was given to obama, by the way, seen here, continue. >> that pager is going to be on display, i believe. and so everybody will get to see it. >> 1,400 pound block of cheese given to thomas jefferson. >> the cherry blossoms here in washington along the tidal basin were a gift from the japanese government. so that's one that's lasted. >> pair of rollerblades given to george w. bush. they literally, i think the president of holland. i know a lot about the national archives. i'm sorry, but. >> no, we love it. >> that's why we invited. they gave him a set of rules, like, why?

>> what are these? there's a bonsai tree that survived hiroshima that was given to the president of the united states. and it's at the the it's the botanical garden right now. >> remarkable. >> it's amazing. they survived a nuclear bomb. >> that is that is. that's insane. i had no idea what was the most interesting gift that president biden ever got when you were working for him? >> oh, good question. um, i'm trying to remember. i mean, it's very there's a lot of like, uh, like a fancy, very fancy watch, a very like, you know, he would often get. and he may know better than me. he would often get liquor, which he doesn't drink. so that's, you know, i was constantly being given nice alcohol that he. >> gave great gift. >> so if you can't. >> accept gifts. >> when somebody gives you a bottle of whiskey, can you drink it from foreign? >> it has to go to the gift office. there's a whole process. any any gift. >> does anybody drink it ever? it just sits in the. >> bottle. >> till doge gets. >> that's a waste. >> you can. >> purchase it. you can purchase it. so you have to purchase it for market value, but it has to go through the gift office first and through a whole process has to be logged at the state department. >> it's the difference between foreign leaders and american

citizens giving gifts. there's there's a totally different process for one or the other. yeah. >> again, this is why we have you. all right. i do want to leave you with this very, very important. it's honestly the the front page headline for us here at cnn this morning. today, the best kind of news our family has grown by. one, our beloved producer, liz brown kizer, gave birth to her first child yesterday morning, a healthy 7 pound, ten ounce bundle of joy. william leo kenworthy. we're told that baby will has his dad's his dad's eyes. that's cameron, and that he's talkative like his mom. we can confirm that at least that liz is talkative. we're all extraordinarily excited to meet baby will and liz. we are sending you, all three of you. all of our love. i know you guys are going to be amazing parents and welcome will. the world's a crazy place. uh, we'll try to take care of it for you. in the meantime, thanks to our panel for being here. happy friday. have a great weekend. you at home? please have a great weekend as well. i'm kasie hunt. don't go anywhere. cnn news central starts right now.