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>> if you or a. >> loved one have mesothelioma, we'll send you a free book to answer questions you may have. call now and we'll come to you. >> 821 4000. >> slashing the federal workforce. president trump's push to. >> streamline the. >> government takes a dramatic. >> and controversial step. >> forward, as thousands. >> of employees. >> are suddenly fired and the show won't go on as president trump takes control of the kennedy center, the cultural hub. >> cancels the. children's musical. finn. >> now, the creators of that show, are pushing back, saying they won't be silenced. we'll speak to them about this controversial cancellation. >> and pope francis hospitalized. >> he's been seen. >> in a wheelchair. recently and has had a long history with lung issues. >> we're actually going to speak to a cnn. >> reporter that met with. the pontiff hours before he was hospitalized to get the latest on the 88 year old's condition and what this could mean for the future of the catholic church.

we're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here. the cnn news center. >> thousands of federal. employees are out of a job. widespread layoffs are now underway as the trump administration expands its purge of government agencies. probationary workers, who have been employed for less than a year or two, are taking the brunt of the hit in these new waves of terminations that we're seeing, including more than a thousand employees at the cdc. that is about a 10th of the workforce there. in the meantime, we're learning that at least one member of elon musk's department of government efficiency visited irs offices in washington thursday, leaving i.t. staffers on edge. cnn's rene marsh is here with more on these developments. what are you learning about the impacts, renee? >> so, brianna, i've been speaking a lot with the labor unions, and they're still trying to get their arms around the full scale and scope of

these government wide firings. but here's what we know so far at the department of veterans affairs, more than a thousand have been fired. uh, trump va secretary doug collins said that it would save the agency some $98 million a year at the department of energy. 2000 were fired at the cdc. nearly 1300, and at the u.s. forest service. that number is now 3400. and sticking with the u.s. forest service, you know, that is an agency that manages the nation's public forests and grasslands. and trump has talked about this agency quite a bit, saying that, you know, we need better forest management to prevent wildfires. and i spoke with a forest service source today about the impact of these 3400 people being let go and and what that impact would be in real life terms. many of the people let go were not a part of the actual firefighting unit, but they are staff that the agency would have tapped into as

reserve crews during the peak moments of the summer, when we're really seeing a lot more of these intense wildfires. and now, he says, they won't have that reserve bench to tap into. so what they will likely have to do is tap in private contractors, and that comes at a higher cost. also, hearing some just real life impacts about the number of people who are let go at the va. one woman, one employee fired worked at a vet center. it's basically a community based clinic, and it helps vets seeking mental health services and other services. so she was that conduit to helping vets try to find that help that they needed. um, also and the union actually sent it to me. her her performance review was perfect. so she to one of those wrapped up in those who are were fired this week across the government. but just giving you a sense of these are the kind of

jobs and employees who are no longer federal employees, brianna. >> i mean, those are critical jobs. as the veteran suicide crisis continues. rene marsh, thanks for following this for us. >> new today, a seventh federal prosecutor assigned to new york city mayor eric adams corruption case just resigned, accusing doj leadership of searching for a fool or someone cowardly enough to dismiss the criminal charges. this comes after manhattan's top federal prosecutor, along with five senior justice department officials, resigned in protest over the effort. cnn's kara scannell joins us now live. kara, what are you hearing about this resignation? >> yeah, boris, as you say, this is the seventh prosecutor to resign this prosecutor. his name is hagen scott, and he was one of the line assistants working on this case. and he submitted a letter of resignation to the justice department today, in which he points out that he agrees with the decision not to bring the case, and also says that what they were suggesting that they wanted the prosecutors to do was to essentially dangle a carrot over new york mayor

eric adams to get him to get him to do what the administration wanted. and then in exchange, potentially, if he didn't have the stick of potentially indicting him down the road. so in this letter, which you say, which is scathing, hagen writes, any assistant u.s. attorney would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials, in this way, if no lawyer within earshot of the president is willing to give him that advice, then i expect he will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool or enough of a coward to file your motion, but it was never going to be me. now, boris, it's important to point out some of the allegations here by the justice department is that this was a politicized prosecution. but scott and the acting u.s. attorney in manhattan, danielle sassoon, who resigned yesterday, they both have conservative credentials. sassoon is a member of the federalist society. she clerked for supreme court justice

antonin scalia. hagen scott, and he clerked for brett kavanaugh when he was an appellate judge, and also for the chief justice, john roberts. so they both have conservative backgrounds, conservative ideals, but they are not willing to go along with the directive to dismiss the corruption charges against the new york city mayor because they don't feel that it's being done for the right reasons, which would be based on the evidence, but instead for the wrong reasons, which is politics. boris. >> yeah, they're accusing doj of a direct quid pro quo. kara eric adams is now responding to some of these accusations. what is he saying? >> yeah. eric adams was on fox news this morning. you know, following all these resignations. and, you know, this case still has not been dismissed. some justice department attorney would need to step forward, file that motion, and a judge would have to accept it. but he was on fox. and this is how he reacted to everything that has happened over the past 24 hours. >> think about that. think about that. >> think about my attorney. >> alex spiro.

>> one of the one of the top, uh, trial attorneys in the country. imagine him going inside saying that the only way mayor adams is going to assist in immigration, which i was calling for since 2022, is if you drop the charges, that's quid pro quo. that's a crime that took us three. she took it took her three weeks to report in front of her a criminal action. come on. this is silly. >> so there you hear? that's the the mayor reacting to. we also did obtain a lawyer, a letter that his lawyer sent to the justice department, in which he outlines all the things that adams could do that could be beneficial in immigration enforcement. but saying that he can't do it because he was facing this indictment. >> boris grenell, thank you so much for getting us that update. let's discuss further with former u.s. attorney michael moore and former new york city mayor bill de blasio. thank you both for being with us. michael, first to you in danielle sassoon resignation letter to attorney general bondi, she said that

eric adams attorneys repeatedly urged what amounted to a quid pro quo to help trump on immigration if the case was dropped. what do you make of that accusation? >> you know. >> i'm glad to be with all of you. >> i think this is a quid pro quo by any definition. i don't care if you use the webster's dictionary or the elon musk dictionary or whatever, but this is a quid pro quo. and essentially what they've done is they've made a charging decision and a prosecution decision based on whether or not adams will be in compliance and in agreement with and effectuate, if you will, the administration's policies. and that is absolutely contrary to everything the department of justice stands for. if a lawyer had done that under my charge, they would have been terminated immediately. um, so, you know, i think that this ultimately is going to be a question for a judge. and if i was a federal judge, i would invite mr. bové down to a hearing and allow him to stay in his place in front of me. why this case should be, uh, dismissed at this point and how, in fact, the. representations of

the of the department made by the department are not a quid pro quo. and i would do it both to protect the system and also to say, look, i'm not going to let you do this to a potential defendant to hang the threat of an indictment over the head just because, you know, may or may not choose later on to wear a maga hat or so we're just not going to do that. so i think there are real issues to be addressed by the court, but whether or not this motion moves forward. >> uh, mayor, how do you see it? being a former mayor, this. directive, the mayor and how he has certainly, uh, curried some favor with the trump administration, with some of his immigration policies and, and these resignations that have come in the wake of this directive. >> you know. >> brianna, i think there's more. than one thing going on. and i fear they're all kind of being blended. >> together in. >> a. >> way that's just. >> not fair and not accurate. >> what is happening. >> in washington, the justice department in general is.

>> to me, a travesty. >> i'm talking about everything we're seeing, the. overt politicization. >> of the justice department. obviously. >> attorney general bondi has an enemies list. whether she acknowledged it in her confirmation hearings or not. there's a lot that's going on that's extremely problematic. that is a different question than what's happening with mayor adams. the notion that mayor adams has. >> a. >> position on immigration that might be different than some other democrats. all you have to do is pay attention to what he's been saying for years to see that difference. i don't happen to agree with him on a number of things he says or does, but i don't think it's fair to say because he has that view that therefore there's a quid pro quo. i don't see evidence of a quid pro quo. i also think, and i've said it for a while, that the original charges brought against him appeared to me to be very flimsy. the mistake here, i think, is the justice department could have and should have said these charges are just not strong enough to continue to pursue, apparently, in some of what they put out today, they actually do say that, but that's the way they should have handled it. they shouldn't have kept it an open prosecution. they should have said there's nothing there's not enough here to continue with. so we're

dropping the case. >> i am curious to get michael's response, but first, mayor, could you tell us what actual power mayor eric adams has over new york city's immigration policy? doesn't that come from city commissioners? a city council. >> the law that governs the approach to immigration is actually passed during my administration with our city council. we said if you have committed a serious or violent crime, i think was 170 different categories of crime, if you're convicted, you're out of here. if you're if you happen to be undocumented, you should be deported immediately. but there has to be due process. mayor adams has some differences with that of how the procedure should work. that's his right. he he believes he can act by executive order. i think a lot of folks in the city council would say no. it requires an additional law change, but that's a legitimate discussion. the real issue here is how any city or state works with ice, or what boundaries we set as sovereign entities. certainly ice should not be in our schools, should not be in

our hospitals, should not be in our churches, and there needs to be due process, something that the trump administration obviously doesn't believe in a lot of the time. so that's where cities and states really do get to draw the line. our federal system gives them the power to set their own policies. thank god. >> and michael, the doj directive to the then acting attorney, it doesn't address the merits of the case against adams, and it suggests a dismissal of the case in a way that would actually allow for it to be brought up again, potentially in the future. how do you see the case against adams? are there teeth to it? >> you know, i think the case has been charged. and ultimately this is a question that will be decided by trial jury. but we never got that far. and you're right, the letter that was put out by the department is essentially the statement about quid pro quo. it is that we're not going to address the merits. but as long as he's effectuating the administration's policies and gets out there and helps us on immigration, that we don't think the case needs to be

prosecuted. this is completely a memo that was put out by the new attorney general. i think it was about on february the 5th or something, where she says, look, we're not going to let politics both weaponize. politics cannot make decisions for us about how we're going to charge. and you're you're prohibited, all of you line attorneys from doing that. you may as well take this and just flush it down the toilet because it flies in the face. both of her memo. it flies in the face of department regulation. and frankly, i think a judge is going to say, look, this is absolutely improper under our laws for you to tell a defendant in a case, we're going to stop prosecuting you as long as you continue to agree with us, that's that is the quid pro quo, and that's going to have to be fleshed out. i realize that the department may want to come back and try to clean up some things now, but the key here, and you notice that mr. beauvais is not signing the motion. and you've got to ask yourself, well, if the department leadership is so certain about this and that they have the authority to properly do this, why don't they just get one of

those people that sit in the building there and washington to sign this motion and appear in court? they could do it. and i think, again, a federal judge would be well within, you know, his his province to say, come on down and explain to me how this is proper and what we should do. it sets a terrible precedent. it's dangerous as we move forward. >> mayor adams obviously can put the lie to this whole allegation by deciding on any given situation to stand up to the trump administration. and that's certainly what i urge him to do if he happens to agree with them on a matter he believes it's good for new york city, that's great. but if he thinks they're doing something that's hurting new york city, hurting our people, he should stand up. he should show there is no quid pro quo, and he's going to call him like he sees him. that's something he can do literally in the in the coming days and weeks and make very clear that this allegation just isn't real. >> we'll see if he does that. former. sorry. real quick, michael. >> well, it's not necessarily what mr. adams does. it's the

department's effort to wield that hammer of justice over a defendant's head and to threaten them with criminal prosecution. um, if they don't agree with them. and so it's not this case. just this case we're worried about. it's the little guy. it's the other defendants. it's other people out there who may not be elected mayor to this large city, but who are out there in the community, uh, who may very well get this same treatment. and that's why this is a terrible precedent to go forward. >> it's really interesting point, michael. thank you so much. former mayor bill de blasio. we appreciate your time as well. thank you. and vice president vance meeting with ukrainian president zelenskyy after a series of mixed messages from the trump administration about how it's planning to approach russia's war on ukraine, we'll have more on that just ahead. >> still, fighting bronchitis. we'll take you live to rome to get the latest on his condition. and later, why the kennedy center canceled its planned tour of a children's musical, fear, featuring a young shark who felt like he didn't fit in with

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emergency supports your immune system with so much more than vitamin c, be ready to fight back with emergency. and for on the go immune support. try emergency crystals. no water needed. >> it's nba all-star in the san francisco bay area featuring castro rising stars. >> oh my goodness. >> state farm. >> all. >> star saturday night. >> and the all star game presented. >> by kia with a new 14 tournament. nba all-star 2025 begins tonight at nine on tnt. >> happening right now. vice president jd vance is meeting with ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy at a high level security conference in munich, germany, and this critical face to face showdown comes as the trump administration pushes for a negotiated end to the three year war between russia and ukraine. listen to this. >> fundamentally, the goal is, as president trump outlined it, we want the war to come to a close. we want the killing to stop, but we want to achieve a durable, lasting peace, not the kind of peace that's going to

have eastern europe in conflict just a couple of years down the road. >> now, earlier today, during a speech at the conference, vance blasted america's european allies on immigration and free speech. and he compared current european leaders with autocrats who oversaw repressive regimes across the continent during the cold war. >> those stern words, coming one day after vance told the wall street journal that the u.s. could hit the kremlin with economic and military tools of leverage if putin doesn't negotiate a peace deal in good faith. overnight, ukraine accusing russia of launching a drone attack at chernobyl's nuclear site. zelenskyy says despite significant damage to the shelter, radiation levels have not increased. we're joined now by retired major general james spider marks, a cnn military analyst. we're also joined by jill dougherty, a former cnn moscow bureau chief. jill, your takeaways from the vance zelenskyy meeting. >> well, what he said at the meeting, i think was

predictable. um, especially talking about long term. that's good. but i think the speech before by the vice president was troubling because he talked not at all about what you do to resolve this war. it was really an attack on europe for its moral values. and i found it quite surprising because i'm not quite sure exactly what it had to do with the subject as you are, which is ending this war. um, maybe it scores some points back home. but it was it was really notable that he was, you know, he was attacking the europeans and nothing about russia, nothing about russia's repression of open discussion and freedom of expression, et cetera. >> general, something zelenskyy said i thought was interesting. he said that ukraine's army would have to double in size if the country isn't on the path to joining nato. he argues that

membership in the alliance is the best security guarantee for ukraine. what does that tell you about ukraine's current capacity, and what do you think about his assertion that without nato, ukraine would have to do something that doesn't seem likely? well, certainly. >> ukraine has. >> to increase the size of its military. it has learned immense lessons over the course of these last three years in terms of how to fight, how to be creative. i mean, they just set some incredible standards. so obviously that needs to increase in terms of capacity across the board, not just in terms of some very niche capabilities like increase the number of drones. let's get more active in terms of cyber, but having the capacity to conduct operational warfare, which really is going to dislodge the russian forces. that's going to take place whether he's a member of nato or not. um, but moving forward, if it's not membership in nato, that remains to be seen. at least there needs to be some

form of security guarantees, albeit they were in place before. that didn't work out very well until the united states and nato came to ukraine's assistance. but it needs to be codified very clearly, and then there needs to be very specific steps to increase military capacity of the ukrainian military across the board. >> and, general, the warning from zelenskyy is that russia is preparing to attack a nato country next year and is going to renew its offensive on ukraine if they don't receive sufficient security guarantees. what do you think of that? do you believe that to be true? >> absolutely not. russia has zero capacity to conduct a two front war. they have been bogged down in ukraine and have demonstrated a complete lack of capacity to accelerate operations, to achieve the objectives that they stated. so they are locked in what is very much an attrition warfare right now. they do not have the manpower, the capacity or the

leadership to conduct another operation and have two fronts simultaneously. it's not going to happen. now, that doesn't mean that they wouldn't try to do something very, very provocative and try to hold what they have, but they would have to shift considerable manpower and resources in order to achieve that. those indicators would be able to be read that could be interrupted by the application of force. if nato and the united states want to do it. >> jill, to go back to your thoughts about jd vance's speech earlier in the day before his meeting with zelenskyy, when he compared these european leaders to cold war tyrants. at the same time, the u.s. is trying to urge europe to do more to ensure ukraine's security. do you think his comments help advance that goal? >> no, i don't actually. i think the europeans were quite surprised by it and somewhat worried about it. if they put it

in the american context. maybe they can understand this is, you know, this debate, traditional values, et cetera. it's a big issue in the united states. so if they can understand, the europeans can understand that's what's going on. it's important there. and that's not to say that it's not an issue in europe either, but i don't think, you know, in terms of ukraine and a war that it's really salient. i can tell you, however, uh, definitely, vladimir putin is right on board with a lot of this. in fact, it's almost verbatim what putin says. you know, europe has lost its values. how dare they talk about freedom of expression, et cetera. but, i mean, all you have to do is look at russia. foreign agents, laws, arresting journalists, sentencing them to prison, et cetera. so this debate, i'm not quite sure why it came up other than, again, to score domestic points back here in the united states.

>> jill dougherty, general james spider marks, thank you both. appreciate the perspective. >> you're welcome. >> weeks after the tragic mid-air collision between an american airlines flight and an army blackhawk helicopter, investigators are about to give us an update. stay with cnn news central. we're back in just moments. >> the boeing 747. >> has crashed. >> in the lockerbie area. >> trying to find out. >> the why. >> of it became everything. >> nothing is what it. >> seems in the lockerbie story. >> lockerbie, the bombing of pan am flight 103. sunday at 930. >> zyrtec allergy. >> relief works. >> fast and lasts a full 24 hours. >> so dave can be the. >> deliverer of. >> dance. >> okay. >> dave. >> let's be more. >> than our. >> allergies. >> seize the day. >> with zyrtec. >> the way that i approach work post fatherhood has really been trying to understand the generation that we're building devices for. you're in the

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over two weeks ago, an army blackhawk helicopter collided with american airlines flight 5342, killing all 67 people on the two aircraft. cnn aviation correspondent pete muntean is standing by at ntsb headquarters. pete, what are we expecting here from this update? >> brianna, this is. >> the. >> first ntsb briefing that's being held since the week of this crash. and this is. >> going to be pretty. significant because. >> not only will. >> we get new details. >> from the black box recorders on board. >> american airlines. >> flight 5342, but. also significant new details from the black box recorder of combined function onboard that u.s. army black hawk helicopter. those details from the helicopter have been delayed not only because the ntsb tells me they had to wait until pulling out the wreckage from the potomac river, but also they needed to manually line up the time stamps from that data recorder with the time stamps on the data recorder from american 5342. so we are going to get some headlines for the first time from the black box

flight data recorder. and that is key because we know from the early data that this collision occurred at 325ft plus or -25ft. that's from the data on board. american. 5342. that is significantly higher, a few hundred feet higher than the 200 foot altitude limitation on that corridor that goes through the airspace for helicopters, through reagan national airport airspace. there has been so much work that has also been taking place behind the scenes by the ntsb, not only here at their headquarters in washington, d.c., but also they've been doing interviews with the five air traffic controllers who were in the control tower at national airport at the time of this collision. they did those interviews away from the airport, and they did that actually at nearby dulles international airport. we also know that there have been interviews taking place with ntsb investigators and representatives from the united

states army and their aviation division. also, there have been aerial surveys using lidar of the bed of the potomac river to be able to find other significant parts that the main portions of wreckage that were pulled out during the salvage operation apparently missed. it seems like there were a few additional parts that were found in those aerial surveys. so much has been taking place here, brianna, behind the scenes by the national transportation safety board and representatives from the ntsb. tell me we'll get a very clear, very new narrative in this 30 to 40 minute briefing here, the first time we have had one since the week of that collision, about ten days ago. >> very interesting. pete muntean, thank you so much for that update. and when we come back, we just got a new update on pope francis, who is in the hospital right now. we'll have the latest from the vatican next. >> it's the news. >> welcome back. >> but it's also kind. >> of not. >> not the news. >> we don't fact check here. >> we don't care, man. >> why is all.

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one 800 712 3800. now for your free legal consultation. again, that's one 800 712 3800. >> the source with kaitlan collins tonight at nine on cnn. >> pope francis is back in the hospital, this time receiving treatment for an upper respiratory infection. this is only the latest in a string of ailments, raising concerns about his overall health. cnn vatican correspondent christopher lam is live for us in rome. and, christopher, the vatican just released an update. what did they say? well. >> chris. >> i'm in front of the hospital. the hospital in rome where pope francis has been admitted for treatment for bronchitis on the 10th floor and a special suite of rooms for him. and the vatican has recently updated us with his condition. they say that the tests that were carried out on the pope have revealed a respiratory tract infection that the pope is undergoing drug therapy for. that. infection,

and the vatican spokesman saying that the pope is serene, is in good humor and has been reading some newspapers. so those details. >> just. >> coming in from the vatican about the pope's health. now, the pope was admitted to the hospital earlier today. he did hold meetings in the vatican, and i was among some of those who met him. i was there with mark thompson, the chief executive of cnn, who saw the pope in a private audience. i met the pope briefly. francis seemed alert mentally, but clearly was having difficulty speaking for sustained periods because of the breathing difficulties caused by this bronchitis, which he's been suffering from for several days. yet, despite having this bronchitis, he's been keeping up a hectic schedule of meetings and events. now, francis is 88 years old. he's suffered from respiratory infections in the past. he's quite susceptible to

them. he's been hospitalized for bronchitis in recent years as well. but what we're seeing now is obviously a new bout of this infection that he does seem to be susceptible to. as a young man, he had part of his right lung removed due to pneumonia. so obviously we're monitoring this situation closely and obviously expecting more updates from the vatican in the coming days. the pope has canceled his meetings for the next three days as he undergoes the treatment in the hospital. boris. >> christian, how are senior officials at the vatican viewing these latest health issues? >> well, i think people in the vatican are actually quite relieved that the pope has gone into hospital. it's understood that he was encouraged to go in to get properly checked out and treated, because he was having such difficulty with his

breathing. he was asking aides to read his speeches. he wasn't able to speak for sustained periods of time. so i think in the vatican there's a feeling that it is right for him to be in hospital so that he can be properly treated for what is clearly quite a serious bout of bronchitis. boris. >> christopher lam live for us outside the hospital where the pope is staying. thank you so much. when we come back, just as president trump becomes chairman of the kennedy center for the performing arts, its commissioned tour of an acclaimed children's musical, finn gets canceled. we're going to speak to the show's creators about that next. >> cooked books, corporate fat. >> cats, swindling socialites. doped up cyclists, and yes, more crooked politicians. i have a feeling we won't be running out of those anytime soon. >> a new season of united states of scandal with jake tapper. march 9th on cnn. >> are great divers. >> you don't.

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>> close. captioning brought to you by mae sot. com. >> if you or. >> a loved one have mesothelioma. we'll send you a free. >> book to answer questions you may have. >> call now and we'll come to you. >> 821 4000. >> the creators of an acclaimed musical at the kennedy center for the performing arts say they won't be silenced after a planned tour of their play was canceled, just as president trump and his allies assert their control over the cultural institution. the musical is about a young shark who doesn't feel like he fits in with the other shark. >> where can find my spark? >> i will. >> make my. >> mark as a. >> full grown shark. the shark. on my way. >> in a social media post, the creators said, at its heart, it has a universal message of love and acceptance. the fact that that extends to sparkly boys seems to be controversial.

creators chris nee and michael kooman are with me now. um, full disclosure i took my six year old to see the show. i thought it was great. and i wonder, you know, chris, starting with you, um, why do you think this show was canceled? look, i think right now we have to do a lot of critical thinking when we hear news coming out of this administration. they have officially said that it was for financial reasons. we were told in a last minute phone call a few hours before donald trump took over as the chairman of the kennedy center. the show had been a commercial success. we had a long planned tour that was not only supposed to be one season there, normal length of time, but two seasons, and suddenly it wasn't financially viable. on the same day, we got a helen hayes award nomination for best new play. do decide. um, and michael. so we received a statement from the kennedy center. michael. it read in total quote, i can confirm that the cancellation of the finn

tour was purely a financial decision, and the authors were notified prior to the ambassador's appointment as interim president. ric grenell there. we should be clear that appointment was monday. it became clear from president trump last friday, sort of what he wanted to do with the kennedy center. when did you learn about the cancellation? >> we learned. >> i. >> believe, wednesday. >> i mean. >> the last 48 hours. >> of wednesday. >> not so things wednesday. >> um. >> and, you know. >> this. is a show about inclusivity. >> it's about acceptance. >> uh, and some. >> of its themes. might not work. >> with. >> the new. people in charge. >> and so. >> it's not hard to draw a line as to why the show was canceled. >> yeah. it's also there's to tell people i don't want to, you know, spoiler alert. but finn also has a best friend. you see her right there? she's a fish. she kind of thinks outside the box as far as other fish do.

she's just a little more, uh, you know, she doesn't sort of paint inside the lines. i think is the best way. she wants to do a different kind of dance than the really sort of buttoned up way that her fish folk do. and that's part of the message to kids, chris, who who made this decision here? look, we don't. >> know exactly who. >> made the decision. we believe that the people that we've worked with in the within the kennedy center have been so supportive of this show. we had incredible reviews and incredible run while we were at the kennedy center. and suddenly things have changed. you know, the question that i would ask everyone to to sort of contemplate in these moments is, what does this have to do with the price of eggs? right. so what what what is the need in the first two weeks of coming into a presidency to be in a micro level of of controlling what the arts are saying. and,

chris, i mean, uh, they're saying this was a financial decision. what what financial issues did the show have? to be honest, we know that it was a success financially when it ran at the kennedy center and the tour was scheduled for in the future. so it's very hard to understand how in the three hours after it was after the ambassador had already taken over and before the president became the chairman, there was suddenly a financial issue. we we don't really understand it. you feel like you're getting some mixed messages here. and michael, do you, um, do you think do you think this. you you think this is clearly a result of the change in leadership? do you think this is a directive about this particular play coming from this administration, or do you think this is. um,

some self-editing that may be going on? well, how are you reading this? >> well. >> there's no doubt that this show is meant for for people who don't feel like they fit in with the people that are raising them. and again, it's about inclusivity. it's about acceptance. and a two year tour would mean the kennedy center would have to speak about that message. uh, during the entire entirety of the tour. um, and so i think suddenly a message like that might be scary to people who are involved with this kind of, uh, with this kind of production. this is a show that is, again, was very well acclaimed. uh, you could barely get a ticket towards the end of the run. um, we were nominated for a helen hayes. and so the news of this tour just came out of nowhere, and we're still sort of reeling from it all. >> and just really quickly, chris, will this continue to

tour with some other financing? what are you going to do? look, we, uh, we are determined that we're going to service the kids who really deserve to get a chance to see themselves on stage. and that's what this show is all about. uh. we are. we did not want to be a part of the resistance, but we're happy to step into that space. and we are talking to a lot of people right now to figure out ways to get this show out into the world. all right. well, we'll keep an eye on it. it was a fun show. you know, like i said, i saw it. thank you for bringing. >> your kids to the theater. >> yeah, i know right. it was fun to have a reason to do it. and it was short. little attention spans. uh, chris and michael, thank you so much to both of you. really appreciate it. >> thank you. >> boris. >> now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. parts of southern california are cleaning up after a storm brought heavy rain, mudslides and flooding to an area that's still reeling from the devastating wildfires last

month. while officials lifted flood warnings, concerns still linger over the potential for more mudslides and rockslides. these obviously can occur long after rainfall has ended. also, you can now download tick tock again from apple's app store and google play. the app had been unavailable for download as of january 18th, after the supreme court upheld that law banning the app in the united states over concerns regarding national security. bytedance, the chinese owner of tiktok, fought against the ban on free speech grounds. the app briefly shut down before president trump delayed enforcement of the ban for 75 days to allow for more negotiations for a sale to a u.s. buyer. and cnn's anderson cooper interviewed nasa astronaut suni williams and butch wilmore, who have been stuck on the international space station since june. as you may know, we here at cnn news central are so invested in this story, we couldn't resist playing their response to when anderson asked them what it's

like to sleep in space. >> so each of us. >> have a sleep station. so it's. >> you know. >> from the old. >> days, like sort. >> of like a phone booth size, a little bit bigger than a phone booth. >> a little larger than a coffin. >> a little, yeah, a little larger than a coffin. and it's interesting, though. like, it doesn't really matter once you close your eyes. if you're upside down or sideways. and so we have one sleep station on the, on the ceiling, one on the floor and two on either side. >> it doesn't seem very comfortable. how do you know when it's nighttime? right. the sun isn't going down anyway. coming up, thousands of federal workers are now out of a job as the mass layoffs begin. we're going to tell you where the cuts are coming from right now. stay with us. >> have i got news for. >> you is back for another season. >> roy wood jr, amber ruffin and michael ian. >> black are finding the. >> funny in the week's. >> biggest story. >> i'm going. >> to give you all four years of something. >> to. >> talk about. >> if we alive. >> have i got. >> news for you.

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