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on for a while. it's difficult. it's complicated. it's been bloody. >> peace talks. u.s. secretary of state landing in saudi arabia to begin negotiations with russia. but notably absent ukraine. plus will appeal. >> but appeals take a long time. >> appealing to the highest court. president trump, taking his first case of his second term to the supreme court, asking them to let him fire a top government watchdog. and this. >> this is really an infection that is spreading amongst poultry, wild birds and cattle. >> fighting bird flu. as another human case pops up, a vaccine receives conditional approval. and then later an eyebrow raising assertion. president trump alluding that laws don't apply to him if he, quote, saves his country. 6 a.m. here on the

east coast. and here's a live look at paris, where today european leaders are gathering for an emergency summit on ukraine as the u.s. prepares for talks with russia. morning, everyone. i'm manu raju in for kasie hunt is wonderful to have you with us. we begin with the trump administration, which is moving quickly to bring an end to russia's war on ukraine. secretary of state marco rubio special envoy steve witkoff and national security adviser mike wallace touching down overnight in riyadh. talks between u.s. and russia are set to begin tuesday, with no place at the table for ukraine, at least not yet. still, president trump seems confident russian president vladimir putin is ready to cut a deal. >> i think he wants to stop fighting. i see that we spoke long and hard. steve witkoff was with him for a very extended period, like about three hours. i think he wants to stop fighting now. >> according to the kremlin,

russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov, will also travel to riyadh for talks with u.s. officials about, quote, restoring the entire complex of russia. u.s. relations. now, the trump administration says a dual track of negotiations will be held in ukraine this week. president volodymyr zelenskyy insisting he won't allow an agreement to be imposed on his country. >> so i will never accept any decisions between the united states and russia about ukraine. never. and our people? never. >> joining this morning to discuss. cnn politics senior reporter stephen collinson, megan hays, former biden white house director for planning. and matt gorman, former senior adviser to gop senator tim scott. presidential campaign. good morning to you all. >> good morning. >> happy president's day. matt, first to you. what do you think the rationale is of not including ukraine in these talks with russia when ukraine is saying, you know, we're not going to agree to anything, that we're not a part.

>> at the first meeting, by the way, i took it more than anything else. is the u.s. really asserting authority in this whole process, right, of getting everybody in a room and letting it be a little bit chaotic? there really, honestly, almost what cops do when they have a thing between two parties, they separate them, talk to them individually. i think they're getting the baseline negotiations before they enter into if there is to be something where they all come together. i feel like there, first of all, they're trying to assert authority, separate them and then go into further talks. >> do you see it that way? >> no. i mean, this could all end. putin invaded a sovereign country. so this could all end if putin just came back into his own country and stopped the war. i mean, he started this, so i don't see it that way. i also don't know why the u.s. would not involve ukraine or europe. there are a lot of countries here at play. there is, you know, over 50 allies that have been supporting ukraine through this whole process. so i don't see it that way. i mean, hopefully this works and hopefully this is his strategy. but i do think it is a little bit naive and a little bit arrogant to not include ukraine. >> and it's causing some real alarm among european officials. this is why they're having this emergency meeting. they were at

this munich security conference over the weekend. i want to just read from your excellent piece on cnn.com about the concessions that trump has made. so you write, vladimir putin is riding high ahead of critical u.s. russia talks tuesday in saudi arabia and ending the ukraine war. trump's administration has ended the russian president's international isolation shattered western unity on the conflict and cast doubt on how far the u.s. would go to defend europe, signaling a stunning shift toward putin and away from america's traditional allies. >> i think what's causing so much concern, not just in europe, but among quite a few people on the hill, on both, in both parties, is the idea that the u.s. is starting this by seeking to find out what's acceptable to the invader, rather than what is acceptable in terms of terms of a final peace deal to the country that was invaded. so the emphasis seems a little off here. now, if

the president, by offering these concessions to russia, bringing them back into the international fold, is able to unlock this and move towards a durable peace, uh, which ends the war and means it doesn't start up again in five years, then that will be a worthwhile investment of capital. the problem is, last week in europe, all u.s. officials were saying opposite and often contradictory things. there isn't really a plan. it seems to be. the plan is for the president to sit down with putin and try and work something out between them, and if that's the case, it's not going to be a durable peace. the problem the europeans have is that they haven't spent enough money on their defense for decades. so they've put themselves in this slightly weaker position. they didn't really prepare for the return of a more isolationist u.s. presence. so you've got two different dynamics going on at the same time. >> how do you explain is the republican here about the evolution of the gop's handling of russia and really nato, too, to some extent. and are you

concerned about a potential shattering of the nato alliance? >> the latter, no. but look, you've had nato has been urged by by presidents of both parties going back 30 years to bush, obama, biden hedged a little bit. i think that stevens point, they need to do more to secure their own defense in europe. i mean, that's absolutely. but, you know, you talk about kind of that evolution republican party. this isn't a recent thing, right? it's a little bit historical. you saw the murmurs of this with pat buchanan and george bush in 92, in the gop primary. that obviously went to 2000 when his son ran, talked about not wanting to nation build. you had a reprieve for about ten years. you had 911 really gave. i think, the gop license to want to expand a little bit on that. but in 2013, we all remember very well you were covering two when rand paul became the hot new commodity in republican party, and that started shrinking. and so, in a way, you see the republican party kind of returning to what you saw back in 1992, in some respects, where they always kind of were itching to go. and stephen makes a great point, right. europe cannot be spending on demilitarization,

deindustrialization and expand the welfare state and expect enough money to actually protect itself. they have been subservient in this role because they've allowed themselves to be and reliant far too much. on expecting the u.s. to always be there, right? >> i just i don't want to lose the plot here that we are talking about the united states negotiating with russia. and i agree with you that this is about donald trump wanting to sit down with with putin, and that is it. that is, if he cared about figuring this out, he would sit down with both of them and i the conversation, i think, is a good one and a smart one to have. i just think it is separate of these negotiations. >> all right. there's a lot that's unfold. my panel, of course, will be back and coming up on cnn this morning, a cryptic tweet. president trump implies that any action he saves to quote, save the country won't violate the law. plus, the doubling in size of measles, an outbreak spreading in texas and part reunion, part reflection. saturday night live looks back at 50 years live from new york. >> i thought we were hosting together. oh, uh, do you have

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napoleon bonaparte. and now president donald trump. well, he kind of seems to be echoing that line pinned to the top of the top of trump's account. is this cryptic post he who saves his country does not violate any law. now it comes as he spent the first few weeks of his second term seemingly attempting to reshape the inner workings of the federal government and testing the scope of executive authority. his efforts have not gone without some pushback. his agenda facing a number of legal challenges. but as cnn chief supreme court analyst joan biskupic writes, vice president jd vance elon musk and others in the trump administration are openly challenging the centuries old power of the nation's judiciary, foreshadowing a possible constitutional breakdown of american government. and over the weekend, minnesota democratic senator amy klobuchar was asked about this. >> are we in a constitutional crisis? we're not quite there yet, because ultimately, when

the final court order is made, the trump administration is going to have to decide. and this isn't just at the top. these are lower level people as well. are they going to face contempt charges in the past in the last administration? they did follow the court orders. if they don't, the court has inherent powers to find them in contempt, which of course could mean going to jail. >> all right. my excellent panel is back. so what is your reaction? look, you could you could dismiss it as just a thing that trump says. but then they posted it to the pinned it to the top of his truth social account. his account. the white house reposted this. this is the message that he wants to send. >> right. uh, i guess it was movie night at mar-a-lago. mar-a-lago this weekend. uh, but it does seem strange just coming out of nowhere, but i think it does reflect what the president has told us about his view that presidential power is almost absolute. he said that right back in his first term, when he started talking about how he has an article to that supreme court

ruling granting him substantial immunity that arose out of one of his legal cases. i think. reinforced this view. what the white house seems to be trying to do is bypass the lower courts to try and go straight to the supreme court, because so much of their agenda now is caught up in local court challenges. that will take time. and they're pretty frustrated. and i think the president is frustrated about what's happening. so they're going to try it on and see what the supreme court does. >> why do you think trump posted this? >> for two things. we're a nation of laws, not men. and so i think he did this to kind of get the media buzzing and throw it out there and get chum in the water a little bit. and look, i think due respect to john, openly challenged in court cases is perfectly fine. whether elon musk or matt gorman or megan hayes, that's what this country was founded on. and i think a lot of respect to the democrats, like they need a new line constitutional crisis they've been doing for the last five years. it's the boy who cried wolf. no one buys this stuff anymore. so if they want to go down a constitutional crisis road, god bless them. people aren't going to buy it. but that was a lot kind of in that

little scenario. >> i agree with you. i think that until there is an actual constitutional crisis and. >> they're wishing for one. >> it seems. >> like please. >> and it seems like, you know, this is the way it goes. you appeal things to the supreme court and then if he doesn't, if they lose and he then violates it, then we have a constitutional crisis, then we can start talking about that. but i think that the wishing and the hoping. >> really are. >> it's very interesting. >> so the democrats ignore this. >> i don't think we should ignore it. i think that democrats should do what they are doing, and that is challenging these things in court and letting this play out. that is why we have three co-equal branches of government. this is how you are supposed to legislate. he is trying to do things. that is his agenda. the democrats don't like it. they can challenge it in court. a lot of things are illegal that he is doing, but the courts need to rule. >> all right. yes, indeed. well, more to digest and more to come on cnn this morning, including america's top diplomat has landed in saudi arabia as he prepares for peace talks with russia. so far without ukraine. plus, president trump turning to the supreme court to help him fire a government watchdog protected by congress.

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>> i'm hanako montgomery in tokyo and this is cnn. >> closed captioning brought to you by guilt. visit gilt.com today for up to 70% off designer brands. >> guilt has a designers that get your heart racing at insider prices new every day. hurry. they'll be gone in a flash. designer sales at up to 70% off. shop gilt.com today. >> secretary of state marco rubio arriving in saudi arabia overnight for the first round of talks between the u.s. and russia to end the fighting in ukraine. now, no representatives from ukraine or the european union are expected to travel to saudi arabia for the talks. even as secretary rubio acknowledges the high stakes for both parties in an eventual peace deal. >> it will not be easy to end the conflict. there are other parties at stake that have opinions on this as well. the european union has sanctions as well. the ukrainians are obviously fighting this war. it's their country and they're on the front lines. so one meeting isn't going to solve it. but i want to reiterate, the president made clear he wants to

end this war. and if opportunities present themselves to further that, we're going to take them. >> all right. cnn's fred pleitgen joins us live from moscow. so, fred, what do we know about how the kremlin is approaching these talks in saudi arabia and what they're hoping to get from the u.s. at the negotiating table? >> hi, there. well, it's actually quite interesting to hear what the russians have been saying, because they seem to have a very different or at least a somewhat different take on things than what we heard there from the secretary of state. what we've heard from president trump as well. the u.s., of course, is first and foremost talking about ending the war in ukraine. but when you look at the russian readouts of some of the phone calls that have happened between russian and u.s. officials, but also what the russians, for instance, said today in the form of the kremlin spokesman, it seems as though they are after a much wider reset of relations between russia and the united states. if you read any of their press releases, ending the war in ukraine will be one issue. but for instance, sanctions relief will be something that's very high up on the agenda as well,

as well as increased economic relations also. so those are the things that the kremlin is looking for, and it's certainly something where they believe that it's something that they might be able to achieve in the not too distant future. so right now, as the kremlin delegation this evening, they say, is going to make its way to riyadh for those talks. they say that they really want to achieve more than that. i think the first thing on the agenda for the kremlin, though, is trying to get a face to face meeting between president trump and russian president vladimir putin, going as fast as possible. they believe that they can achieve that very quickly. the kremlin in the past had been speaking about several weeks making that possible. but for them, they believe that this could be the beginning of a very different set of relations between the u.s. and russia, and especially sanctions relief. of course, john do is something that the russians definitely are after. >> and fred, president trump has already commented several times about the fighting in ukraine since his phone call with president putin last week. he repeatedly blamed the conflict on former president biden and

ukraine's ambitions to join nato. some have said these comments amount to concessions that trump is making to putin before those talks formally begin. but could those comments have a real impact on the peace talks set to begin this week? >> well, they certainly could. i mean, one of the things that we are hearing from the russians is that they definitely believe that they are in a good place to get a favorable resolution, if you will, of the ukraine war and to get to some sort of agreement on terms favorable for themselves. i just came out of a press conference, actually, with the russian foreign minister, and i asked him what concessions the russians would be willing to make as far as territory is concerned. and he at at length told me about all the issues that the russians have had with what the west has been doing vis a vis ukraine in the past. some of the things where they say that the ukrainians, the russians believe, didn't hold up their end of the bargain, but the crux of everything appeared to have been that the russians right now are not thinking of making much in the way of territorial compromises

themselves. so that is certainly something that could be a big issue in negotiations, especially as the trump administration, the russians certainly feel have essentially rolled out the red carpet for the russians. it's very difficult to describe the amount of optimism right now here on the ground in moscow. they believe that they are going to be back on the international scene in the not too distant future. and they certainly believe that in the trump administration, they have an administration that is very much open to restoring russian relations with the united states. >> fred pleitgen, live on the ground from moscow with fresh reaction from top russian officials. thank you so much for that report. and coming up for us, a measles outbreak in rural texas reaches nearly 50 cases. what health officials there are now warning about. plus, donald trump making the first appeal to this presidency to the highest court in the land. >> we will go to the united states supreme court and get clarification and get a ruling, because we have outrageous, overzealous, unconstitutional judges trying to control federal

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patients are either unvaccinated or their vaccine status is not known. also, three adult cases have been diagnosed in new mexico. meantime, a new cdc study shows three veterinarians have 150 who agreed to be tested, had antibodies against the bird flu, meaning they had the disease but no symptoms. we also learned a poultry worker in ohio became the first human case in that state. joining me now is cnn medical analyst, a professor of medicine and surgery at george washington university. doctor jonathan reiner. doctor ryan, good morning to you. thank you so much for joining me. as you know, the first measles case in texas was detected in late january. now the number is up to 48 of those cases. those numbers really telling a story. how much does it have to do, do you think with increased anti-vaccine sentiment, and how concerned are you about the rise? >> oh, it's going to go much higher, manu. it's completely related to anti-vaccine sentiment. that part of texas

has a actually, texas as a whole has a very liberal opt out policy for vaccinating kids, uh, before school. and in texas, about in that county in texas, 18% of kindergartners, their parents opted them out of of vaccination. so there is a huge, uh, opportunity for a very opportunistic virus like measles, uh, to infect kids. if it gets into the population. and that virus, as i said, is incredibly efficient at infecting people. if you bring a infected person into a room with ten unvaccinated people, nine of those people will come down with the virus. the virus can linger in the air for a couple of hours after a person has an infected person has left. so it's a very efficient pathogen. and what's sad about this is that this is

completely preventable. the vaccine is is really spectacularly effective at preventing infection. it's about 98% effective at preventing infection. so every single person who's coming down now with measles in texas, uh, is basically acquiring this disease because they have not been vaccinated. >> and doctor reiner on bird flu, there have been several cases of bird flu detected in humans, the latest in ohio this weekend. how concerned are you about this spreading and and what do you make of the fact that there's now the conditional approval of this bird flu vaccine in the united states? >> right. so over the last few days, uh, the usda approved a vaccine for poultry, uh, for bird flu. we actually had one approved in 2016. it was added to the u.s. national strategic stockpile but was never used. uh, there are some countries that are now vaccinating poultry

for bird flu, uh, including china and mexico. the u.s. in the past has used a strategy of culling flocks rather than trying to vaccinate, uh, poultry stocks, uh, to prevent, uh, spread of this virus. but this virus but this, uh, outbreak has gone on now for about two years. and it's very possible that bird flu is just now endemic in the flyways in the united states. and this is going to set up a very interesting dilemma for, uh, this administration in its early weeks. although the usda has approved has has approved the vaccine, it has not yet approved its its use. and although the usda is responsible for approving the vaccine, it's hard to imagine that, uh, the new secretary of hhs, who has a very vocal history of opposition to just about any vaccine and also has entered this

administration with a portfolio including, uh, making our food, uh, safer, won't have something to say about it. but if you've been to if you've been to a supermarket in the last few weeks, you've noticed that not only are eggs increasingly expensive, they're also becoming harder and harder to find. so the u.s. has a decision to make whether to vaccinate the flocks in this country and deal with the political repercussions of that from the gop base, or deal with rising egg prices and maybe eggs coming in from mexico. >> all right. doctor jonathan reiner, thank you so much for sharing your expertise this morning. really appreciate it. and now turning to this, president donald trump's swift and sweeping executive actions during his first few weeks in office are facing several legal challenges. now, he's appealing the first one to the supreme court. he's asking the court to let him fire the head of a government ethics watchdog agency. now, trump attempted to fire hampton dellinger earlier this month. dellinger leads the

office of the special counsel, but there are protections put in place by congress that require an administration to show cause for firing someone from the role if it's before their five year term has ended. now, federal district court temporarily blocked trump's move while it considers the case. an appeals court declined to overrule that decision this weekend. and that prompted the justice department to take its appeal to the supreme court while arguing the law is unconstitutional. now, last week, trump was asked about the legal fights his administration is facing. here's what he said. >> we're being hindered by courts where they file in certain courts where it's very hard to win, and a judge will stop us and a judge will say that it doesn't make any difference what you find. you just keep paying the money. that's a hell of a way to be. and i follow the courts. i have to follow the law. all it means is that we appeal. but that gives people time to cover their tracks. and that's what they

do. >> my panel is back. well, stephen, what are the implications of this? if trump wins in the supreme court, you know, we have all these other cases that are testing his executive power. what is the implication down the line? >> i think the administration would interpret it as a sign that all of its expansive view of presidential power has been validated, and that would ripple through all the other cases. that said, i think there's an assumption that, well, the supreme court majority was built by trump and his first term, and it's necessarily going to go along with everything that he thinks about presidential power. i'm not sure that's necessarily the case, at least for a couple of the justices. chief justice john roberts among them. so it's going to be very interesting to see how he handles some of these questions. but it gets back to the fundamental issue we're having early on in this administration is this clash between the powers of the presidency and congress, and the fact that you have a rather, uh, you know, a

republican congress that is almost abrogating its powers to the presidency because it doesn't want to challenge republican presidents. so it's really about the functioning of the political system. >> why does trump want to fire all these government watchdogs? i mean, he got rid of these inspector generals right the outset. that's not normal. they typically don't come in and get rid of these guys who who investigate government agencies. why does he want to do all this? >> i think he views him as political appointees, just like they would any other agency. confirmed. >> some of them are not from, you know, biden. >> yeah. one of the things that interests that i found kind of funny is everything old is new again, because one of the rationales that trump administration's using for this case is our old friend sean spicer, who is the former white house press secretary. he was fired by joe biden from a navy advisory board, lost that case, and now it's making its way now as legal justification that the trump administration is using to try and use these sorts of things through presidential appointee power again. i mean, i think it's interesting to see i think stephen's point is well taken. i'm curious to see if the administration excuse me, the supreme court, even though it's a conservative bent, will

go along with this sort of thing. um, but yeah, i think they view them as all presidential appointees, not just differentiated. >> i also think, though, to your to your point about congress abdicating its power, i think that what is old is new. again, republicans really need to be careful because in two years they might not be in control of the house. they might have a little bit more opposition. and you they would be remiss if a democrat came in and did this. they would be losing their minds. so i just think that you have to be really careful with the precedent that you're setting here. and this is, again, why we have three co-equal branches of government to sort of regulate these things. this person's the predecessor to this person, was a republican that was appointed by trump and confirmed by trump. so i just these these people are not supposed to be political and they are not in these roles being political. so it'll be interesting to see again how congress and the supreme court. >> and some of this is a clear violation of the law, like trump is supposed to notify congress. he didn't do that. and they're doing this intentionally because they know this is going to be challenged in court, and they believe they can win this in court. that's essentially what pam bondi, the attorney general, said about what the strategy is that they're going to fight all these cases in court and take it to the supreme court if

necessary. >> we are prepared to defend all of these cases, and we will carry out president trump's agenda. these judges are lifetime appointments. but what we can do is appeal them. and that's that's what's actually happening today. in a case where appealing a case right now, it went up to the first circuit and the first circuit sent it back to the district court to clarify. and if they don't rule in our favor, we will go to the united states supreme court and get clarification and get a ruling. >> i mean, that's the whole ballgame. take it to the supreme court and win in this conservative court. and maybe that will happen in this first appeal. >> right. and say they get 45% of. uh, favorable returns to the supreme court. that's changing the nature of the presidency and the government. so even if they lose a lot of these more. uh, sort of some would say absurd challenges that they're making and claims of power. in the end,

trump is going to expand his authority. >> yeah. no question about it. all right. we'll see. this is going to take some time to play out. but that first case it could be a ruling here maybe as soon as this week. we'll see. all right. up next on cnn this morning, president trump's concessions to russia before peace talks begin. mark mckinnon joins us live to discuss. plus, saturday night live celebrates a major milestone 50 years with returning cast members and recreating famous sketches of the past. >> i'm janice. >> janice. >> hillary. >> i'm holly. >> like the bush. >> hi, margaret. >> you sure are great. and i'm janice. >> gaetz. the news. >> welcome back. >> but it's also. >> kind of not the news. >> all the information on this show. so terrible. >> if i got. >> news for you. news saturday on cnn. >> this is my coffee shop. >> we just moved into a bigger space, brought on another employee and ordered new branded gear for the team. it was so

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with nobody because you could get in trouble, and i've been through a lot. anxiety, depression, sexual assault. when i decided to get help, my life changed. and the mental health box, that was one of the big tools. accepting help means that we are allowing somebody to bless our life. it's freeing. we got stronger together. love, your mind. free shipping on your first order@nuts.com. yes, we have more than nuts, but still the website is just nuts. .com. >> closed captioning brought to you by. .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. >> 882 one 4000. >> my message to european leaders is if we want to win, if

we want a better outcome for ukraine at the end of these peace talks, you need to be uncomfortably aggressive. you need to not just bolster your own defense spending, because that's a long term issue. that's a long term investment. you need to be talking about where you're going to be putting actual troops on the ground. stop following our lead and actually take the lead. >> republican dan crenshaw of texas calling on europe to shoulder a bigger load in the defense of ukraine. overnight, secretary of state marco rubio, touching down in saudi arabia ahead of tuesday's negotiations with russia to end the war in ukraine. the ukrainians have not been offered a seat at the table at that table. but rubio, tamping down expectations for the talks. >> president trump spoke to vladimir putin last week, and in it, vladimir putin expressed his interest in peace, and the president expressed his desire to see an end to this conflict in a way that was enduring and that protected ukrainian

sovereignty, and that was an enduring peace. not that we're going to have another invasion in 3 or 4 years. that's a good call. now, obviously, it has to be followed up by action. so the next few weeks and days will determine whether it's serious or not. >> white house says dual track negotiations will be held in ukraine this week. and president trump insisting he is not squeezing ukraine out of the process. >> do you expect zelenskyy to be involved. >> in these conversations? what will his role be? i do. >> he will be involved. yes. >> he said today that russia. >> is going to wage war on nato. do you do you agree with that? do you have any concerns about. >> i don't agree. >> not even not even a little bit. >> all right. mark mckinnon is with us this morning. he's a former adviser to president george w. bush and former senator, the late senator john mccain. good morning, mark. thanks for joining me. of course, as i mentioned, you work for bush and mccain. i want you to give me your big picture sense of how the gop has evolved

on the issue of russia from the time of bush and mccain to how trump is dealing with putin now. >> good morning. >> yeah, that's. >> a great. >> question because. >> i've been thinking a lot. >> about that. >> you know. >> we're pretty focused on what's happening domestically and how trump is really taking a wrecking ball to a lot of tradition, expanding executive authority. but in the long term, history may record that the greatest impact he is having or will have is on foreign policy, because he is really. >> completely reshaping 80 years. >> of a consistent policy of supporting nato and our european allies and. >> and fighting russia. i mean, for the longest time that i can remember the sort of fundamental. >> tenet of. the republican party with mccain and bush was. >> that you stand. up to russia, you don't. stand with them. and i guarantee. >> you, john mccain's rolling over. >> in his grave, and george bush is rolling his. eyes in.

disbelief at what's happening, because this is really a fundamental thing. and listen, i agree. >> with dan. >> crenshaw that there needs to be reform in nato. but this isn't really about that. this is about our relationship with an authoritarian government. and think about the things that trump has said. i mean, first of all, he says, of course, he says russia wants to stop the fighting. well, of course they do. they want to stop it right now and keep what they've taken. they've they've taken 20% of a sovereign territory. number two, they're saying that trump says that ukrainians may be russians someday. number three, he says russian russia fought for that land and lost a lot of soldiers. as if that's a rationale for them keeping what they took. i mean, that's just that's an astonishing thing to say. so. so, yes, you're right. for republicans like me who crossed the bridge with george w. bush and and work with john mccain, what's happening right now in terms of our relationship with russia is really quite shocking. >> but i guess to play devil's advocate here, i mean, look, the war in ukraine has been going on for now, what, three years now?

things don't seem to be getting better. and this could be a way to end this brutal war. so working, talking nicely with putin, working with him, why can't that be an effective strategy? >> well, sure, it could be if you didn't say the things that that trump has said about russia and made it making it clear that that he i mean, pete hegseth has already taken off the table the notion that they could be a member of nato. so, yeah, it's of course it's a good thing, and it should be the united states. uh, obligation to try and play a role in this as we have historically. but it's not to take sides, as trump clearly has with putin. >> and i want you to listen to what president zelenskyy had to say about the way these talks have been going. >> so i will never accept any decisions between the united states and russia about ukraine. never. and our our people never.

>> you know, it seems, mark, that zelenskyy's comments here are suggesting that they're going to have to rely more on europe than the united states going forward. i wonder, what do you think the implications are for the u.s. and its relationship with its allies in europe? >> well, i mean, as you've read the reports from europe after the visits last week from united states officials, including jd vance and pete hegseth, they are in a state of shock. i mean, we are just completely disabling an 80 year. relationship. so it's it's, you know, in cars, they call it 52 card pickup. they're just they're just kind of starting all over again. or at least that's the way trump would like it in terms of our relationship with europe and nato. you know, it just makes me think about we're we're we're attacking our allies and people who've been friends of ours. uh, through, you know, an 80 year alliance and people and, you know, countries like canada.

and we're we're embracing countries like russia, uh, that have these authoritarian regimes, which trump seems to be very attracted to. and, you know, it gets down to a fundamental question of what are our values and what you know, what what are the principles of the united states foreign policy? >> all right, mark mckinnon, we appreciate your perspective. obviously, a lot to digest. we'll see if they are successful in these talks. trump is saying that they're going to include ukraine in a separate negotiation. we'll see if they eventually merge. and there's a peace deal that could be worked out. mark mckinnon, thank you so much for your perspective. really appreciate it. and 52 minutes past the hour. so here is your morning roundup. the trump administration is firing hundreds of federal aviation administration probationary employees. the move comes less than three weeks after the deadly midair collision over washington, d.c., that killed 67 people. the faa system that provides critical safety alerts failed days after the crash. now, transportation secretary sean duffy posted on x that the

doge team would help upgrade the aviation system. pope francis is in stable condition as he continues to receive treatment for bronchitis. the the pope was admitted to the hospital on friday and was unable to leave sunday's prayer. the pope thanked the health care workers for their efforts. >> mr. president, thank you for joining us at this year's great american race at daytona 500. >> and president trump attended the attended the daytona 500 nascar premier race in florida on sunday before the race. the presidential limousine, of course, known as the beast, did ceremonial laps around the track before the race. mr. trump's appearance at daytona comes shortly after he made history as the first sitting president to attend the super bowl. and a powerful and deadly winter storm, killing at least ten people in the southeast. in kentucky, particularly being the hardest hit state. and it's not over yet. >> our first responders. >> our national guard, our

kentucky state police have now. >> rescued more than a thousand people. >> we have shelters set up, and then we're out there trying to reopen our roads. >> parts of the south, central and northeast u.s. now prepping for another arctic blast. and that could bring another round of brutal temperatures. now over the weekend, nbc hosting a series of events honoring the golden anniversary of saturday night live. former cast members, musical guests, and celebrity hosts gathered to honor 50 years of comedy. it culminated in a three hour long special sunday night that honored iconic snl sketches, new and old. >> nada bashir. >> have you seen the latest study on alcohol? even one drink can significantly slash life. >> expectancy. welcome to black jeopardy! the only jeopardy! where every single viewer fully understood kendrick's halftime performance.

>> while you tried to live without domingo, baby. he. >> but. hold this. >> i did do this dance for work. all right. i'm sorry. where do you work? >> i'm the press secretary. >> at the white house. this is like if people. >> are so. >> angry about die, it's like, well, stop drinking and driving. >> election conspiracy is gonna rise up. >> all right, my panel is back. all right. matt, you saw it last night. what's your reaction? >> it was good. that's why i'm a little tired this morning. it ended pretty late. um, i wanted to. >> know. >> why i dozed off. >> yeah, exactly. no, i thought it was. i thought it was really great. it's. it's hard to make these moments that we've been waiting essentially years for, uh, actually hit the heights that we expect them to. it did. he had jack nicholson, who is, i think, above 90 or pushing 90 out there, hasn't been seen in a while. great sketches. will ferrell was hilarious. i thought it was really, really well done. >> so let's talk about some of our favorite moments from snl over the years. stephen

collinson has this one. >> you know, hillary and i don't agree on everything. >> i believe that diplomacy should be the cornerstone of any foreign policy. >> and i can see. >> russia from. >> my house. >> of course, that was hillary clinton and sarah palin really becoming an iconic moment, right? >> and i think that was almost cruelly accurate. that portrayal by tina fey of sarah palin, who was the vice presidential nominee for the republicans in the 2008 campaign. and in a way, that was a rare example, i think, of a satirical. presentation actually playing into what was happening in the campaign, because it played up some of the perceived inexperience of sarah palin, the alaska governor. and that became a big issue for mccain in that campaign.

>> yeah. no question. i mean, that's really the thing about these a lot of these political sketches, it reinforces a lot of the vulnerabilities that these candidates have. >> yeah. and during during the campaign season, watching saturday night live, everyone does it on each campaign. you talk about the next day, it's talked about in the news. it is a vulnerability that was a massive failure for them, for the mccain campaign, that i think that really played out on saturday night live. and, you know, these specials and these sketches really give a look into pop culture, but it really does sort of imitate what's going on in the country. >> uh, matt, you have another. we asked our panelists here about some of the different things that they've enjoyed over the years. this is what matt chose. >> governor bush. >> the next. >> question is. >> for you. >> two weeks ago. >> at a meeting of the. >> economic club of detroit, you said the. >> following, quote. >> more seldom than. >> not, the. >> movies gives us exquisite. >> sex and. >> wholesome violence. >> that underscores our values. >> every two child did. >> i will end quote.

>> what did you mean by that? >> pass? >> that's good. >> that was good. that was good. that whole sketch was just full of it. when i had al gore talking about the lockbox earlier, later in the sketch, you had jim lehrer, the guy who played jim lehrer, chris parnell, reading off a bunch of foreign leaders names, and bush getting really confused. it was really funny. and megan's point, right. there's so many defining eras we could talk about. >> the strategic was strategic. >> don't mess with texas. that was a that was chock full of them. and i mean, you had norm macdonald during the o.j. simpson trial during weekend update. so many of a kind of cultural moments you can measure by snl. it was it was fantastic. i was laughing about that this morning. >> i mean, for me, it's super fans. as a as a bears fan, the bears, you know, that's became an iconic moment as a bears fan. wayne's world i mean come on. >> there's so. >> so many good things from from childhood. i mean, that was i

mean, the heyday, in my opinion, of snl, was the chris farley, the phil hartman, dana carvey. >> phil hartman was very underrated and very appropriate. he was he was fantastic. absolutely. >> so many of our movies today that are that are chock full of comedy, but all a lot of things that people got their start on saturday night live. it's incredible to see their success now. i mean, you saw it last night with tina fey. it's just it's incredible to see that they got their start on saturday night live, had these moments in our time and then now are massive movie stars. >> you see them all crammed in the celebrities next to each other. it's not you know, it's really jerry seinfeld. it's julia louis-dreyfus next to conan o'brien. yeah. >> and it gave a nice break from politics last night. i agree. a whole three hour special. not talked about what we are donald trump every. >> minute the nba all-star. >> yeah, yeah. >> yes, indeed. all right. that was fun. thanks, guys. and thank you to our panel. thanks for joining us. manu raju cnn news central starts right now.