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.

>> fighting back the union for federal. >> workers sues. >> over trump's attempted. >> dismantling of usaid. with tonight's. midnight deadline. deadline looming. >> a plane carrying ten people. >> disappears off. >> the map. >> the weather. >> making the search. >> almost impossible. we've got the latest update this morning. >> super bowl. weekend is upon us. >> what? >> all the. >> predictors are. >> predicting when the. >> chiefs and. >> eagles face. >> off, and what the nfl. >> security chief is saying about keeping. >> new orleans and. >> everyone in it safe. >> just one month. >> after that. >> deadly terror attack. >> i'm kate. >> baldwin with john berman and sara sidner. this is cnn news central. >> all right. today plans to slash u.s.

>> aid staff. worldwide goes into effect. a workforce of more than. >> 10,000 is expected to be cut to just under 300 direct personnel. the rest of the agencies direct hires being placed on leave. tonight at midnight. this is all part of the trump administration's widespread efforts to dismantle the humanitarian agency. in response, two labor groups representing workers are suing. now, the administration whether a court will intervene on emergency grounds remains to be seen. all of this unfolding as a judge presses pause on the deadline for federal workers to accept president trump's buyout offer. now, more than 2 million federal workers have until monday to decide whether to take the offer and resign or risk being fired, as the trump administration looks to shrink the federal workforce. cnn's chief national security correspondent, alex marquardt, joining us now with the latest. let's begin with with usaid. just a few hours from now, we are expecting almost all of usaid workforce will be put on

leave. but now there's this legal effort to fight back. what do you know about that? >> yes, sarah, a new lawsuit filed in federal court here in. >> washington. >> d.c. >> by two groups. >> representing usaid staffers attempting to stop and reverse what they call essentially the illegal moves that have been undertaken by the trump administration to dismantle usaid. they accused the president, the secretary of state, the secretary of treasury, and their departments, who are named as plaintiffs in this lawsuit, of going beyond their executive authority, essentially saying what they are doing is illegal. this is something that has been also said by democratic lawmakers that usaid was created by congress. only an act of congress can change their status. so they are trying to put a halt to this dismantling of usaid. and this does come as what we believe, as we believe the vast majority of usaid staffers are going to be put on leave if not terminated altogether. the direct hires. so the u.s. government employees,

almost all of them, are being put on leave as of midnight tonight, only just under 300. 294. we believe, are being kept on as essential staff. and then you have the thousands of contractors both in washington and around the world, who are also being either furloughed or terminated. so a dramatic reduction in usaid staff globally, according to this lawsuit, they say that this has thrown the lives of these public servants into chaos and uncertainty, they say, and that it has created a humanitarian crisis. i want to read a little bit of what this lawsuit says. it accuses the trump administration of halting usaid work that has shut down efforts to prevent children from dying of malaria, stopped pharmaceutical clinical trials, and threatened a global resurgence in hiv deaths are inevitable, it says. already, 300 babies that would not have had hiv now do. thousands of girls and women will die from

pregnancy and childbirth without judicial intervention. it will only get worse. and sara, president joe biden's administrator of usaid, samantha power, she spoke with cnn just last night. she had this to say. take a listen. >> if we did this to. military families, just summarily told them to pack their bags and leave a place that. >> they had been. >> deployed, there would be broad bipartisan outrage. >> and that is what. >> we are doing to public servants. >> who have also. given their lives serving alongside our. military in really hazardous places. this is no way to treat public servants, and it is no way to advance america's interests. >> and, sara, so now usaid is falling under the secretary of state, marco rubio, who said that he had no choice but to take it over because of what he called rank subordination. but cnn has uncovered many examples in the past of then-senator rubio, praising not just usaid, but foreign aid in general as critical to american national

security. sara. >> yeah, we have seen that. and we're going to talk a little bit more about that as well. thank you so much, alex marquardt. alex marquardt there from washington, d.c., john. >> all right. this morning, the overall purge of government workers is on hold. a federal judge pushed the deadline to monday to determine whether it's legal. so far, at least 65,000 federal workers have accepted the so-called buyout offer, though one worker is out this morning, an operative of elon musks who was linked to controversial social media posts. let's get to cnn's kevin liptak at the white house. first, let's talk about the pause here on the purge, as it were. >> yeah. federal workers now have three more days to decide. whether to take this offer to essentially put themselves on paid administrative leave until september or to take the risk of layoffs, which is something that the white house has signaled will be coming as they work to drastically reduce the size of the federal workforce. now, as you said, as of last night,

about 65,000 federal workers had taken this offer. that's well below the administration's goal of about 5 to 10% of the federal workforce, or about 100,000 workers. i'd also just note it's well below just the average annual attrition rate of the federal government. about 100,000 people retire from the government every year, so they are still well below that. and i think that speaks to some of the uncertainty and skepticism that you hear among federal workers at how this plan will exactly work. they're not convinced that the money that they have been promised will actually show up. that was the crux of the lawsuit from the three federal unions who came together to challenge the legality of this plan. and really, when you talk to federal workers across washington, and really, this has been sort of the topic of conversation in this city for the last week. you really do hear an enormous amount of skepticism at what the white house is trying to do here, in part because of comments like this. listen to

the white house press secretary. >> we encourage federal workers. >> in this city to accept the. >> very. >> generous offer. if they don't. >> want to show up to the office, if they want to rip the american people off, then they're welcome to take this buyout and we'll find highly competent individuals who want to fill these roles. >> now, yesterday, after the judge put this program on hold, the white house said that it was grateful that the deadline had been extended. but at the end of the day, this is just one of the trump administration's programs that has been put on hold by judges, by courts. certainly, this will progress through the system, along with so many of the president's executive orders. >> you know, kevin, i'm glad you mentioned the normal annual attrition rate of 100,000. i did not know that. that puts this all in perspective. they're not even at the normal number of people saying they'll leave. but there is one person who is out this morning, a temporary worker, someone who was on sort of elon musk strike force. what happened here? >> yeah. and you know, these teams from doge, which is the

team that's run by musk to seek out government fraud, waste and abuse, has generated so much suspicion across this capital as they have entered these departments. and we are learning about one of these individuals, the wall street journal reporting that one member of this team who had been assigned to treasury, who had been granted access to some payment systems at treasury, has resigned after some old racist posts favoring eugenics surfaced. the white house said that after those posts had come to light, that he had resigned. and i think it does give you some insight into some of who these team members are that are conducting this effort on the part of elon musk and donald trump to go through the federal government and seek out some of these programs. they have been granted access to payment systems, to data systems, and not much is known about them. they have been operating under an enormous shroud of secrecy.

we also learned yesterday about one of these individuals that the department of energy, who has granted access to some i.t. systems over objections from that department's general counsel. and so i think it all just goes to show sort of how elon musk's team is inserting itself into the federal government, going very much under the radar as they work to transform the american government. >> john kevin liptak at the white house this morning. kevin, thank you for your reporting on this. kate. thank you, sir. >> coming up for us. >> the. >> fbi has. >> now. given donald. >> trump's justice department the. names of thousands of agents. >> and staff. who worked. >> on january 6th related cases. the acting. fbi director saying this morning that they still do not know what. >> the department plans to. >> do with it. and a train in pennsylvania catches fire with more than 300 people on board. we have new reporting on how everyone was able to make it out safely. and a priest is attacked during a church service and it was caught on camera. and that priest is speaking out this morning.

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xfinity internet customers, cut your mobile bill in half vs. t-mobile, verizon, and at&t for your first year. plus, ask how to get the new samsung galaxy s25+ on us. if sparks are right for you at roach sparks. >> the last thing you. >> think is someone's going to pass away. >> everybody watched him become this force. >> none of us is perfect. >> kobe lived. >> it in a way that the world watched. >> the finale of kobe the making of a legend tomorrow at nine on cnn. >> breaking overnight, the fbi has now handed over to the justice department the names of thousands of employees who worked on january 6th related cases. and this is after the cia was ordered to do something similar this week that we reported on a move that sparked fear of triggering a new and very real national security threat over there. cnn's zach cohen has much more on this one. now, we're talking about the fbi and the justice department. what

happens now? >> yeah, kate, fbi. >> officials are worried. >> that this. >> means these names, this list. >> of names will eventually be released publicly, even if it's not the justice department who does so. and look, that's a message that fbi leadership has repeatedly pushed during this week long standoff with the justice department in trying to protect the identities of these fbi employees. and it's something that leadership and the acting director reiterated and tried to reassure the workforce about. yesterday, in an email after this, this list of names was given to the justice department, the acting director wrote to his workforce. quote, i want to be clear that as of now, we do not have information indicating the department of justice intends to disseminate these lists publicly, and they are fully aware of the risks we believe are inherent in doing so. and those risks include putting the safety of these individuals and their families at risk. and again, this is not happening in a vacuum, right? we know that this is coinciding with concerns within the fbi and across the

interagency about efforts to purge career employees and at the fbi, specifically, efforts to retaliate against those that were involved in these justice or in these january 6th investigations. now, justice department lawyers said that they have not disseminated these names outside of the department as of now, but could not say for sure that other government officials may have obtained it through unofficial means. >> and, zach, yes, people can. people can assume that retribution is the reason behind seeking these names. but has the justice department said what they want to do with these names? and how are fbi employees reacting to this? >> yeah, the justice department says that really the only people that have to be worried are, quote, the ones who acted with corrupt or partisan intent, who blatantly defied orders from department leadership. look, we know that there are major changes coming at the fbi. but as you said, career officials do believe that retribution could be coming. and one anonymous special agent actually penned an open letter to that's been

circulating around the bureau and kind of defending the workforce and defending their efforts as part of these january 6th investigations, saying that he did his job without bias and he did his job, upheld his oath to this country. he paints a scene as really making clear that it wasn't just his work. on this january 6th or these january 6th investigations, but also things like conducting investigations into terrorist groups. he actually took a bullet in the line of duty, and he writes, quote, i'm now sitting in my home listening to my children play and laugh in the backyard, oblivious to the prospect that their father may be fired in a few days, fired for conducting a legally authorized investigation, fired for doing the job that he was hired to do. i have to wonder when i'm gone, who will do the quiet work that is behind the facade of your average neighbor? and i think that really does speak to the concerns we've heard from other fbi officials as well. it's, you know, if they are gone, if they are fired, who's going to do that work that nobody really talks about? >> zach, thank you so much for

the reporting today, sara. >> all right. just ahead, what one man found hiding under a pile of mulch that could kill him. and dozens of his neighbors. also, who needs the super bowl game when you have this? a football dance off? >> because i have the time of my life. no one ever felt this way before. >> the situation. >> room with wolf blitzer. >> tonight at. 6:00 on. >> cnn. >> scott fischer mangione. >> to all. those who never give a second thought to being the first ones in, thank you, servpro, proud supporter of our nation's first responders.

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from nuts.com. snack your heart out and get 20% off plus free shipping. >> animal planet's puppy. >> bowl a simulcast. >> event sunday. >> at two eastern. >> well, that'll wake you up this weekend. the kansas city chiefs will try to win history's first super bowl three peat over the birds. i mean, the philadelphia eagles super bowl 59 pits the chiefs

quarterback patrick mahomes against philly's jalen hurts. coy wire new orleans you know, still reeling from the january 1st terror attack there. and now they're about to host i would call it the biggest game on earth. i don't know. folks in europe might have a problem with that. but this is an incredible turnaround for this city. what is the mood there today? and i see people are up and at them already. yeah. >> and this place. >> hasn't even opened yet. good morning to you sarah. this is nfl experience where fans from all across the country, around the world will come here and try their hand at all sorts of fun challenges. it's incredible place. and and this super bowl game this week has really lifted the spirits of this city. and we're going to have a phenomenal match up, as you mentioned, between those chiefs going for a first ever three peat facing the eagles and the chiefs. they're loaded with stars. and one of them is travis kelce. he is arguably based off of his statistics and the way he plays the game. one of the greatest tight ends to ever play the game. and he said that was his goal at first. but now he

has a different goal in mind. listen. i used to want to be known as the greatest tight end ever, but i think it's just more so enjoying these moments that i have with my teammates and trying to get these wins and create these memories, these, this, this entire year has been such a, you know, it's been such a battle for every single person that comes into that building every week, putting their body on the line, putting the their lives aside. outside of football, just for one common goal. and i think i want to be known as just one of the best teammates these guys have ever had. best teammate ever. all right. last night, awards handed out at nfl honors and this year's nfl mvp is josh allen. let's go buffalo. the quarterback for the buffalo bills from zero star recruit in high school. meaning nobody wanted him to nfl mvp. 27 first place votes lamar jackson of the ravens had 23 closest votes in

nearly a decade. allen, making mom and dad proud, couldn't hold back those tears as he talked about all the sacrifices, time and money they made for him as he pursued his dreams. all right, stop what you're doing and watch this. during nfl honors, we had a dance off break out in the middle of the awards ceremony. we had a couple of defensive backs up there doing their thing. the old school kid play. i know you know that one. sarah. i do bring up kate bolduan. we need to see a reenactment of that. and then not only that, we had more big dogs coming up to the stage showing off that smooth, silky talent. look at 300 pound offensive lineman dion dawkins as they break out in dirty dancing. i mean, he's there in the gray jacket. is this not phenomenal or what? crowd going crazy. absolutely loving it. but sarah yeah what a fun moment for the nfl honors last night. and congrats to josh allen on being the league mvp. >> i love this so much. and yes, of course i know that kid in play. come on kawhi. we would do it together if we were together. but unfortunately we're too far away. i do i do want to leave

you with with a little bit of sports history here, because i could not help myself when i found that i was getting to talk to you today. my former coach, mary wise at the university of florida, she was one of the winningest ncaa coaches for volleyball in history, has decided to retire. she announced her retirement and i could not be more proud of having been one of her student athletes, so i just wanted to put that out there. congratulations to you, mary wise, and congratulations to you, coy wire for just being fabulous. i really appreciate all of your reporting from there in new orleans. >> yeah, you're the best. thanks, sarah. >> all right. >> john berman taught you how to spike on us all day long. >> that's right. >> all right. this morning, an urgent search underway for a missing plane with ten people on board. why did it vanish from flight radar? and it was torture for us. new details from a u.s. deportation flight where immigrants were shackled at the wrists and ankles for more than 40 hours straight.

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shipstation.com to start your free trial. >> cookbooks. corporate fat cats. >> swindling socialites, doped up cyclists. >> and yes, more. >> crooked politicians. >> i have a feeling. >> we won't be running out of those anytime soon. >> a new season of united states of scandal with jake tapper. march 9th on cnn. >> this morning, a search is underway for a small plane with ten people on board. it vanished mid-flight near alaska. we're going to show you a map with the radar data of the plane's flight path across alaska's norton sound yesterday afternoon, and then you can see the moment it stops transmitting over the water. joining us right now, cnn aviation analyst miles o'brien. and a massive search is underway right now. what we know here, miles, is this is a cessna plane operated by bering air and alaskan state police. they were notified at about 4 p.m.

yesterday that of an overdue aircraft that had gone missing with these ten people on board, what are your questions as they continue with this search? now? >> well. >> checking through the box, it's a very safe aircraft. generally, the cessna 206, the caravan, ten passengers and pilot, single engine turbine. it's a workhorse for the back country so that it has a really good safety record. the airline itself been going since about 1979, never had an accident. so you have a safe airline and a safe aircraft, horrible weather conditions. it is alaska in the winter after all. uh, we're told that the aircraft, uh, arrived near nome and was told to wait while they cleared the runway because of this bad weather. and you can see those pictures there. that kind of gives you an idea of what we're talking about. of course, it's dark at this time of year at that time, and in the course of this holding pattern, waiting for them to clear off the runway

vanished. now, one of the top things you have to look at in a scenario like that, kate, is the possibility of icing. if that bad weather coated the wings with ice, the aerodynamic surfaces, the the air intake for the engine, the performance of the aircraft would degrade and it could stall and crash. um, the one thing about the search to consider here is norton sound. there has a fairly significant amount of ice cover that aircraft with fuel and passengers probably weighs about 8,000 pounds. but there are places where the ice is actually thick enough to support the craft. so that should give searchers some bit of hope. >> that is very interesting. um, miles. so that search continues. is it riskier? i mean, you called this this plane a workhorse. is it riskier? any riskier flying in that area than anywhere else in the united states? i mean, yes, it is alaska. and you know that they have more brutal winters than anywhere else. >> yeah, alaska has disproportionately much higher

accident rate. it's a combination of weather. we were just talking about tough terrain, lots of small aircraft, lots of landings on dirt and gravel, landings off runway. types of situations. and, you know, as a per capita. there is a lot of small airplane usage up there because the lack of roads is the way to get around. and as a result, the accident rate there is very high. >> i want to ask you about something. the latest we heard about the investigation into the deadly midair mid-air collision in washington. president trump is on the hill yesterday, and in speaking at the national prayer breakfast, he blamed the crash on what he's called the obsolete computer system used by air traffic control. the way he put it is that the united states has spent billions of dollars to renovate an old system instead of investing in a new one. let me play this for you. >> we should have had the proper control. we should have had better equipment. we don't. we have obsolete equipment. they were understaffed. for whatever

reason. i guess the helicopter was high and we'll find out exactly what happened. because we're all going to sit down and do a great, uh, computerized system for our control towers. brand new, not pieced together, obsolete, like it is land based. trying to hook up a land based system. >> what do you think? what do you think of that? >> well. >> he he has a point there about the system, but i would caution everyone not to pin blame this early. the accident investigation is still underway. uh, there are a lot of factors that go into these crashes and whether the computer system, which runs the faa control system, the radar system, the satellite system, all kind of patched together, whether that has anything to do with this remains to be seen. but it is true that the faa has had difficulty modernizing its system, and that difficulty stems from the fact that

congress has not appropriated the money to really do a wholesale change from a ground based radar system, which goes back to the 50s, to something built on satellites, which is where the future is. of course. kate. >> so you can hear the beginnings of that being a new a new push from the president right there, from from that sound bite from him. it's good to see you, myles. thank you so much for getting up, there. >> all right. happening today homeland security secretary kristi will visit guantanamo bay. the u.s. navy base, which president trump says will also house a massive detention center as part of his administration's immigration crackdown. also this morning, we are seeing new video of what the border patrol chief is calling, quote, the farthest deportation flight yet using military planes. it shows 100 deportees from india in shackles, boarding a plane for a 40 hour flight. one deportee says they were treated like criminals. joining me now, cnn

international correspondent mark stewart and cnn havana bureau chief patrick oppmann. first to you, patrick, what is happening there at guantanamo bay at this hour? >> well. >> this is the highest level visit that guantanamo navy. >> base has seen. >> in years. and we have observed. the last few days that a lot of work is taking place at this very isolated u.s. military base here in cuba, re-editing the base for potentially thousands and thousands, up to 30,000 migrants. and, you know, already there have been about 23 or so that have been brought in the last several days. we've seen a video of them being removed from military aircraft. and that's what kristi noem is going to see how these preparations are going, because there's a lot of work to be done to essentially make tent camps where migrants are supposedly the worst of the worst will be brought. kristi

noem has said that these migrants will be afforded all legal privileges, but of course, how long they will be there? no one can say. >> all right. thank you, patrick, for your insight there from cuba. mark, there has been quite a response. we are looking at the video now where these men are shackled, their hands and feet shackled together. and they were on this flight for a very, very long time. what can you tell us about the international response or reaction to what we are seeing here? >> right, sarah? >> and as you know, having spent time as a correspondent yourself in india, this is very much becoming a global story. these various movements, the world is reacting in india on thursday, we saw very intense protest. at one point, people were burning a statue that resembled donald trump in response to the movement of these undocumented migrants, but also amid these claims of mistreatment. again,

this was a flight that lasted about 40 hours, about 100 individuals were flown from the west coast, made a fuel stop in guam, and then proceeded to india again, according to the government, this is the longest such flight since these operations began. the indian government has actually weighed in on all of this and said that much of this is protocol. the way this was conducted, but people on board feel otherwise. let's listen to one man who was on that flight they had. >> handcuffed everyone, even women. >> they had. >> put chains. >> on. >> all 104 people. >> they would. >> not open it. no matter what anyone says. >> if anyone. >> had to go to the bathroom. >> they would. >> still not open it. they would just open the door and you had to go in. no matter how difficult it was. >> and we have reached out to

border patrol for response. we have not heard yet back from them. sarah, this issue of indians in indian citizens entering the united states illegally has been a big issue in recent years. it will likely come up when indian prime minister narendra modi meets with president trump in washington next week. >> yeah, one of the big issues that you are hearing there, as you said, you know, i worked in india for many years. people feel that they were treated like terrorist suspects, as opposed to people who had just come into the country illegally. so there is a lot of of really big feelings in india about how their citizens are treated, except for, as you mentioned, the indian government, who has been quite friendly with donald trump. marc stewart, thank you so much for your insight there. really appreciate it, john. >> all right. this morning a house lawmaker is leaving the so-called doge caucus because of elon musk. this was a bipartisan group of lawmakers. and the idea was they would get together and they would help with streamlining government. but democrat van hoyle, moderate

from oregon, said howell says, quote, fundamentally, i don't see how we can actually do this work when elon musk is blowing things up. it's like trying to replace your roof when someone's throwing dynamite through the window. with us now, republican strategist matt gorman and democratic strategist julie roginsky. and normally, look, the actions of one house member on one of these caucuses wouldn't be that attention grabbing. but i do wonder if it's something of a canary in the coal mine here, because this was democrats joined this doge caucus. they were into the idea of efficiency. but now it's becoming toxic. >> now it's becoming toxic to them. this wasn't completely apparent to them that an unelected unvetted billionaire who has extensive business interests in china, where the bulk of his wealth comes from because of the shanghai factory that he now has control over to some extent, because he has control over the federal government, might potentially not be working for the american people and is working for himself and his own interests.

you know, the fact that democrats would even agree to get behind elon musk on anything is shocking to me, considering who. elon musk is. this is not new information. this is something that could have been seen through the lens of everything elon musk has done, including the deal a couple weeks ago. that should have been apparent. >> to them. i guess what i'm asking, though, is if there was bipartisan support for streamlining initially, how has the politics moved in two and a half weeks? >> well, the politics moved because clearly elon musk is in charge. congress is not in charge. the people and this doge caucus are not in charge. the people who should be doing this work are not in charge because they've abdicated their responsibility to an unelected billionaire. and that's something that, again, should have been apparent to them. and so the politics may have shifted because people are waking up to this. but the fact that our own leaders in congress, we've entrusted with the power of the purse have abdicated that responsibility to elon musk is inexcusable. >> you know, matt, is elon musk helping or hurting the cause at

this point? >> look, he's going to do some of the things. >> i think that elected leaders don't want to do. right. i think what you're seeing is maybe a little bit of. >> good cop. >> bad cop routine with trump and. >> elon musk. >> look, i. >> worked in the house. i know what these caucuses are like. democrats, i'm. >> certain, put their. >> name to this sort of thing because it looks good when they run for reelection. >> we're cutting government. but when the actual work gets. >> to. >> actually happen, that's when they suddenly run. >> for the hills. and so i will say this. it does give a little bit of a good cop bad cop routine and a little bit of separation for donald trump as he does this, where trump can be the good cop and come in and save things like that, like this. like the spending freeze that they talked about, that they put the kibosh on a couple of weeks ago. but also, elon can be the proverbial undertaker going to these agencies and cutting things. >> i mean, you do say they signed their names to this because it's politically advantageous. then they take it off because they think it's politically advantageous. that's, i guess, what i'm getting at here. the politics does seem to have shifted a little bit. matt, you worked in

a number of capacities. you mentioned the house republican campaign committees and any of the jobs you've held. have you ever held a subscription to a newspaper or a magazine yes, i have. you subsidized with your money these liberal rags. look, i'm joking here, but there's this. the most ridiculous scandal of all time. the biggest non-troversy of all time is the idea that. that these subscriptions to politico and other news sources were somehow subsidizing news organizations, people in government and in politics get newspapers and magazines because they need to find out stuff. yes. >> i so i've been told. yes. yes, exactly. look. yes. um, we can talk about the price of it. we can talk about how these things are priced. some some of them are outrageous. i'm not necessarily talking about politico here. that's not the point of this. um, but, look, i guess that first point, everybody in theory, loves to say they want to cut government. they want to trim spending, waste, fraud and abuse. but like

anything, when the hard decisions need to happen, when you need to talk about bureaucrats that have been that think they have lifetime contracts or foreign aid, that's when the rubber meets the road and suddenly putting their name on a caucus isn't as easy as actually doing the hard work of cutting these things. >> julie. look, i get wanting to cut costs, and sometimes you do want to get rid of a few subscriptions. you know, sometimes those recipes, you don't need them anymore. but to suggest is anything other than just, you know, trimming some fat, that somehow subsidizing the media. it's ridiculous. >> i mean, give me a break. i worked in the senate. i worked as a senate communications director. i can tell you we had subscriptions to everything. you know who else has them? the white house or they did until yesterday. and now they're probably using somebody else's account to read the same stuff that they were getting paid for. i mean, this is a joke. politico provides a service that either is helpful or not helpful, depending on your perspective. nobody's subsidizing anything. either you're paying for the

service because you get benefit out of it, or you don't. but to say that the government is subsidizing the new york times or subsidizing breitbart, if they were to start charging, i don't know if they do, is absurd. the problem here is, of course, that they're going to continue to subsidize the media, that they want to subsidize and go after the media that won't exactly bend the knee. although most of the media is, but not in exactly the way that they want. >> all right, julie, matt, thank you both for being with us this morning. appreciate it. kate. >> all right. get ready for some major winter storms are on the way this weekend. severe thunderstorms slam the ohio valley yesterday. and in the midwest and northeast, beware of ice. >> oh poor guy. >> so that guy is okay. he actually sent that video into the cnn weather department as a good reminder to watch out and beware of ice. those storms have caused tens of thousands of power outages, and a slew of crashes have already happened because of it. this week, cnn's derek van dam has the very latest for us on the winter

weather that just won't quit. i know it's not yet over, but i can still complain about it. what are you watching? >> yeah. buckle up, kate, because if we count yesterday's storm that moved through the east coast, we have five winter storms to contend with across the u.s. over the course of the next two weeks. what an incredible round. i will call it a winter blitz. right? and right now it's actually raining in los angeles. and i want to show you the satellite loop, because this is the storm system that is going to race across the country, bringing a swath of snow and eventually ice to the east coast. i'll show you that in just a moment. but here's the look at the large area covered by winter weather alerts this morning. so basically, this jet stream that's running parallel with the country, west coast to east coast, dividing the cold air to the north and the milder air to the south. the storm system will traverse that jet stream, make it to the east coast by late saturday into early sunday, you'll wake up to a half a foot of snow on the ground. if you're in boston, perhaps even new york city into

the hudson valley, you could have double digits. certainly a possibility with this storm. but look at what's on the warmer side of this system. we get a mixture of rain, snow, and even ice in and around the nation's capital, baltimore, to d.c. something to consider. i talked about five storms. here's the weekend storm. look what happens on monday and tuesday. that's storm number three. then we've got storm number four wednesday and thursday. and then for the second half of next weekend, we have our fifth storm to contend with. so winter not over kate can't blame the messenger. >> i will, but that's okay. you call it. >> a winter. >> weather blitz. it almost sounds like quaint and cute, but blitz sounds short. and this is not. >> a super bowl weekend. >> all right. oh, i get it. now. i get the football term, okay. and i'm up to speed. thank you derek. john. >> he was talking about the sports game that's happening this weekend. >> what sports. >> quote 300 babies that would not have had hiv now due this morning. president trump is being sued over his move to

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dangerous than alcohol. security camera footage shows a man attacking a priest at a church in spokane, washington. reverend david gaines was able to block the punch, but the attack left the congregation shaken. >> i thought. >> it was kind of that situation where the guy was just running into the sanctuary, but clearly it was a potentially much more violent. and and in that sense, much more scary. it took me a while to, you know, to realize that this was pretty serious. >> the security guard restrained the suspect before police arrived. he is in custody and charged with assault. the church has now hired additional security in sydney, australia. a snake explosion in one man's backyard. >> my wife googled. why so many snakes? black snakes are together. and it turned out that they're pregnant. females. they congregate to give birth. >> yeah. they found a total of

102 102 snakes. and that number kept growing because the snakes were giving birth during the capture. so the red bellied black snakes, they are venomous, which is nice to know. they were all safely removed and now living out their days in a national park. so a happy ending. sara. >> no, we i think we can stop doing that story. that that was enough. i'm thoroughly freaked out. thank you, john berman. my pleasure. all right. just hours from now, the global u.s. aid workforce will be cut from 10,000 to just under 300 people. part of the trump administration's plan to dismantle the humanitarian agency. two labor groups, however, have filed a lawsuit against the trump administration trying to stop it from leveling this agency. the clock though quickly running out. joining us now to discuss is randy chester, usaid vice president for the american foreign service association. thank you so much,

randy, for joining us. at this time, when i know you and the other employees at usaid are beyond rattled, can can you first tell me what kind of information have you received about your future at usaid? >> absolutely nothing. the administration hasn't told us what to expect in the coming days, other than for the 1400 foreign service officers and their families overseas, to be expected to be recalled to the states in 30 days. the future of those of us who will be laid off at 11:59 p.m. tonight. we don't know what that means. are we on administrative leave indefinitely while they complete a reduction in force, or will we be summarily fired come monday morning, or by a tweet saturday or sunday night? >> you know, there has been a lot of talk about donald trump being a businessman about same thing with elon musk and sort of how he went about culling those at twitter. but businesses generally don't work like this. you usually have some sort of

idea of a plan when you are talking to some of your employees. what are they saying and how difficult will it be because many of your employees work outside the united states, they and their families live and work in some of the most difficult regions. how difficult will it be to figure out how to get them back home and repatriate them? >> yeah. so normally in the course of a year, you you find out about six months before you transfer where you're going. so you have six months to plan and prepare for it. and you have the support network of staff here in usaid, washington. and, and at your post, as well as the state department to do that. but now you don't know where you're going. so are you coming to dc? are you going to your hometown? we have no direction from from the administration of where people will be sent. and so it's really creating a sense of chaos and emotional distress. and it's not only affecting the foreign service officers, but their families and their children who will be ripped out

of school mid-year not knowing where they're going to go to school come march or april. >> let me ask you about some of the words that have been used against you and your colleagues. donald trump calling usaid leadership radical left wing lunatics. elon musk saying of the agency that it was a ball of worms. they're talking about you and your colleagues who work for the united states on behalf of the united states. what do you say to them? >> i would say, look, i'm a career foreign service officer. the american foreign service association represents 1980 foreign service officers and 485 career limited foreign service officers at usaid. we are patriots. we are american citizens. we joined usaid because we believe in public service, and we wanted to serve the people of the united states. that's what we do. we've been doing it our entire careers, and

we believe not only in usaid, but we believe in america. american values, and supporting the policies of any president, regardless of party or political affiliation. that is our jobs, whether it's a republican administration or a democratic administration, we implement their policy, and i have personally done so under george w. bush, barack obama, donald trump and joe biden. i do that willingly, and we do it every day. >> what will it mean with 10,000 employees, if indeed this happens the way the trump administration and and elon musk's doge group wants it to? 10,000 employees leaving, whether they are fired or pushed out or resigned with just 300 people, about left is the agency essentially closed? what will that do to the work of usaid? >> we will be effectively clos w