remember that asteroid actually hit earth? hopefully that won't happen here. hopefully this asteroid goes far, far away. but the bottom line is, if we're going to make references to asteroid films, let's at least get the science right. deep impact gives the thumbs up versus armageddon. thumbs down. despite the fact that i love steven tyler. >> ah, that's a good song. remember that? that's a good one. do you have morgan freeman on one hand? aerosmith on the other? it's tough. it's tough. it's a tough one. let's just hope neither happens. thank you so much. my friend. thanks my part. it's a moment i. treasure. okay. i won't sing. go. >> harry. >> listen, i don't want to close my eyes, but it's time to go. so thank you all for watching. anderson cooper 360 is next. >> cause

>> we're keeping them honest. also tonight, the disturbing measles outbreak in texas, the worst in decades. dozens are infected and 13 people, mostly unvaccinated kids, have been hospitalized. and new details about a string of high profile robberies of star athletes, including kansas city chiefs quarterback patrick mahomes. authorities reveal who they say was involved. thanks for joining us tonight. we begin with the president of the united states for a second time today, calling the democratically elected leader of ukraine, volodymyr zelenskyy, a dictator. words that are music to the ears of the actual dictator, vladimir putin, who sent his army and missiles into ukraine. >> a dictator without elections. zelenskyy, better move fast or he's not going to have a country left. i love ukraine, but zelenskyy has done a terrible job. his country has shattered. >> that's the president again for the second time today, calling zelenskyy a dictator. nearly three years into russia's invasion, which, just as a reminder, looked like this., right?

>> here. >> focus. can we run that way? and we are here at the antonov airport, which is about 25km, 15 miles or so out of the center. these troops you can see over here. stand up. louis. these troops, you can see over here. they are russian airborne forces. they have taken this airport not speaking to officials earlier, ukrainian officials. and they're saying that the plan isn't just to surround the ukrainian capital. they fear now that the plan is to take the capital to decapitate the leadership of ukraine and to replace that leadership with a pro-russian government. that's what ukrainian officials are telling us now, they think is the russian plan. >> as matthew chance reporting the coverage from the 24th of february 2022 as russian troops on orders from vladimir putin rolled into ukraine, a dictator launching a war of aggression that would become the biggest in europe since another dictator invaded poland in 1939. touching off the second world war. now,

back then, the same as now. this country was divided over getting involved in european affairs. and in his fireside chat to the nation, president roosevelt did not commit to defending europe. what he did do, however, unlike today, was tell the simple truth about the war and who started it. >> until 430 o'clock this morning. i had hoped against hope that some miracle would prevent a devastating war in europe and bring to an end the invasion of poland by germany. >> plain speaking from an american president nearly 86 years later, here's what the current president is doing, most recently tonight and earlier today, in his equivalent of a fireside chat, social media quoting from president trump. now, think of it a modestly successful comedian. volodymyr zelenskyy talked talked the united states of america into spending $350 billion to go into a war that couldn't be won, that never had to start, but a war that he without the u.s. and

trump will never be able to settle. and just yesterday he flat out said zelenskyy started the war. he said it in response to complaints from kyiv about being frozen out of peace talks over its future. >> i think i have the power to end this war and i think it's going very well. but today i heard, oh well, we weren't invited. well, you've been there for three years. you should have ended it three years. you should have never started it. you could have made a deal. >> should never have started it. he said. neither ukraine nor its president did start the war. russia and vladimir putin did. the president continued today, writing, zelenskyy admits that half of the money we sent him is missing. he refuses to have elections. it's very low in ukrainian polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing biden like a fiddle. the president then calls him a, quote, dictator without elections, and warns that zelenskyy, quote, better move fast or he is not going to have a country left. he did the same as you just heard tonight, that, thinly veiled threats aside, none of what he said about zelenskyy, his polling or the money is accurate. as for the

polling which the president was has said was quote, separately said, by the way, was down at 4% approval. that's the president's words. that's just not true. according to a recent survey in ukraine, 57% of ukrainians trust zelenskyy, 37, do not. his support is actually fluctuated in the 60s and 50s for about a year or so. the numbers already dropped from the 90% approval he got in the months following russia's invasion back in 2022. as for the $350 billion figure, the inspector general overseeing it puts the number at 130.1 billion obligated, of which 86.7 billion has actually been disbursed. and that includes ukraine related funding sent to countries other than ukraine. now, the allegation that president zelenskyy admits that half the money is missing, that's just not true either. what he actually said to the associated press earlier this month was that although people talk about ukraine getting as much as $200 billion in u.s. aid, ukraine had only received about 76 billion. he then said, according to the translation by ukrainian news

outlet that he doesn't know where all the additional money has gone, and that perhaps these higher figures are correct. quote on paper, end quote, which is not the same as him saying the money is missing, let alone implying, as the president just did, that there's something shady going on. as for calling zelenskyy a dictator for not holding elections well, britain's winston churchill didn't hold elections during the second world war. and by the way, when the war was over and he was voted out of office, he did not try to overturn the outcome. as for vladimir putin, he's held elections, but they are a foregone conclusion. here's a headline after his last one. putin extends his rule after predetermined vote. indeed, what is incredible is that president trump, the president of the united states, is now echoing talking points that vladimir putin has pushed repeatedly. putin has called zelenskyy's presidency illegitimate and said he should hold elections. >> we're hearing that russia wants to force ukraine to hold new elections in order to sign any kind of a peace deal. is

that something that the u.s. would ever support? >> well, we have a situation where we haven't had elections in ukraine, where we have martial law, essentially martial law in ukraine. and yeah, i would say that, you know, when they want a seat at the table, you could say the people have to wouldn't the people of ukraine have to say like, you know, it's been a long time since we've had an election that's not a russia thing. >> well, keep in mind, it's not an exclusively russia thing would be more accurate. trump and putin are on the same page on this. in any case, president zelenskyy weighed in today about what president trump is saying about him. >> gaza. >> unfortunately, president trump, i have great respect for him as a leader of a nation that we have great respect for the american people will always support us, unfortunately, lives in this disinformation space. >> well, he said that against the backdrop of two newspaper interviews with vice president vance in which vance warned zelenskyy not to publicly

criticize the president, quoting him now in the daily mail, the idea that zelenskyy is going to change the president's mind by badmouthing him in public media, everyone who knows the president will tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration. meantime, even some republican lawmakers appear uneasy with at least some aspects of the president's ukraine position, though some, such as senator lisa murkowski, fell back on the variations of the gop mantra during the first trump administration of oh, i didn't see that tweet. >> i would like to see that in context because, uh, i would certainly never refer to president zelenskyy as a dictator. >> the president speaks for himself. um, what i want to see is a is a peaceful result, a peaceful outcome. >> make no mistake about it, that invasion was the responsibility of one human being on the face of this planet. it was vladimir putin. >> former vice president pence also weighed in, tweeting, quote, mr. president, ukraine did not start this war. russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion, claiming

hundreds of thousands of lives. the road to peace must be built on the truth. former national security advisor john bolton called what the president said, quote, some of the most shameful remarks ever made by a u.s. president. and again, as you saw just a short time ago tonight, the president repeated those remarks. joining us now is massachusetts democratic congressman and armed service committee member seth moulton. he visited ukraine during the war. he's also a marine combat veteran of the iraq war. congressman, um, i just what is your response to president trump's comments on ukraine's president zelenskyy calling him, among other things, a dictator? >> you said it very well. i mean, he is echoing putin's talking points. it's as if to go back to your history lesson about president roosevelt. president roosevelt had started giving hitler's talking points for invading poland. or if the president had blamed the united states for the attack on pearl harbor. this is truly unprecedented in a in american history. and it's dangerous. it's dangerous for our national security, because if trump goes

around supporting our adversaries, supporting dictators who invade sovereign countries, then at some point they're going to invade countries with security guarantees from the u.s., and american troops are going to be fighting and dying. >> there are those who support the president who argued this is some sort of three dimensional chess that he is just rebalancing the power in the world. and the rest of us just don't understand the genius of what what he's doing. what do you say to that? i mean, he does seem to be alienating our allies, all members of nato, who we have alliances with, um, in favor of vladimir putin. >> uh, what i say to people who say that is stop lying, because the mental gymnastics that you see, republicans undertaking to

somehow justify the unjustifiable does somehow justify literally supporting our enemies, which is the definition of treason is amazing. i mean, i was at the munich security conference this past weekend, and after events like the vice president's shameful, embarrassing speech to our european allies, the most hypocritical speech i've ever heard an american official give in my entire life. the republican senators were doing these mental gymnastics to try to get out of criticizing the administration. why? anderson? because they're scared. they're just scared of trump. they're so scared of trump, they can't present the truth to the american people. >> yeah. i mean, it's interesting to see lisa murkowski saying, well, i need to see the context. i mean, you can look at the context all you want. it doesn't get any better. um. >> no, there's no context for that. >> john thune told cnn's manu raju that there's no question that russia is the aggressor here. later, he told fox that this is, quote, the back and forth that occurs in a situation

like this where the stakes are really high. um, what leverage, if any, do congressional supporters of ukraine republicans? i mean, i don't know if any republicans would, would speak up or democrats like, what can anybody in congress do? i mean, is. >> congress could do a lot if congress did its job. but congress is run by republicans right now who, again, are just scared of trump. and so behind the scenes, democrats like myself. committees like the armed services committee, we're trying to convince our republican allies to just have some courage to say in public what they're saying in private to say to the u.s. president what they said to our european allies over the weekend when they tried to reassure our allies, tried to strengthen nato in the face of the trump administration, repeatedly undermining it. >> well, the other thing that's

developing, i mean, according to a memo obtained by cnn, the defense secretary, pete hegseth, has now ordered the military to prepare plans to make massive budget cuts, 8% cuts per year for the next five years. um, i mean, everything i heard while they were running was about raising money for the military, about improving the military. i think hegseth had had spoken about that just a few days ago. you're obviously a veteran. what do you believe? does that make sense to, on the one hand, say we're going to be improving the military and, you know, getting it ready, you know, fighting ready. and yet we're going to have these cuts. >> well, look, i've been a critic of pentagon spending for a long time, and i think that the pentagon could spend its money more efficiently. i think we should be investing in the modern, cheaper, smaller, nimble systems like drones and autonomous underwater vehicles, as opposed to the big, heavy old things like tanks and aircraft carriers that cost a lot of

money to build and take a lot of expensive people to operate. so i'll be the first to say that the pentagon could modernize, could better meet today's threats, and probably save some money in the process. but let's be clear, that's not what's going on with this administration. this administration can't get out of its own way. trump himself said that he wants to raise the pentagon's budget by about 100 and or $150 billion. and the very next day said he wants to cut the budget in half. the defense secretary says a different thing every day of the week. so they can't get out of their own way. they're contradicting themselves and therefore they clearly, anderson, they clearly have no plan to keep the country safe. >> um, it's a terrifying thought to end on, but we're going to leave it there. congressman moulton, i appreciate your time tonight. thank you. joining us now is cnn senior political commentator david axelrod, also cnn national security analyst and former deputy director of national intelligence, beth sanner. um, david, what do you think the

impact of this is? if president trump is seen as agreeing with or repeating arguments that vladimir putin or just abandoning ukraine, basically. >> well, let's be clear. he 81% of americans in a poll that was released today say they don't trust vladimir putin in these negotiations. 9% say they do. the president is among those 9%. 12% of americans have a favorable view of vladimir putin. most americans recognize that vladimir putin is a murderous, uh. autocrat, dictator, war criminal who instigated this war. and the president's trying to rewrite history in a way that completely conflicts with people's views. 64% of americans view ukraine as a friend or ally. uh, only 11% feel that about russia. so, you know, it really is hard to see. it may not be an issue that tips

voters because it doesn't touch them. and, uh, you know, personally. but this goes to some core core beliefs that americans have shared. republicans and democrats for a long time. and, you know, i think this president believes that he can rewrite any history or re, uh, you know, recalibrate any story. this 1st may be a little, uh, a little rough. the last thing i'd say is it's kind of laughable to say, he says, that zelenskyy played, uh, biden like a fiddle and zelenskyy is a dictator. a lot of people would say right now it looks like he is being played like a fiddle by vladimir putin. >> beth, do you i mean, why do you think president trump continues to say that ukraine started this war? i mean, do you think he actually believes that is i mean, can he not conceive of a country not wanting to be invaded and not just wanting to

quickly make a deal? he keeps talking about them. they should have made a deal. >> he believes there are a lot of talking points that are around that. the idea that biden wanted ukraine to be in nato, which is not true, actually. it was kind of the opposite, which was a bit of a problem. um, so it's like a lot of talking points, but you can really trace this back to the russia hoax. um, that call that that meeting in the oval office with zelenskyy and the call where the president was demanding information from zelenskyy on the bidens and hunter biden in exchange. so all of this traces back, and there's a very emotional thing that's that, that, that zelenskyy inadvertently triggered today by saying, you know, he's in this space of disinformation and that, to trump's ears is saying, you're saying i'm a tool of russia. this is russia hoax all over again. right. and

so he really hit the one button and hit it hard. and which is why you're seeing all these people around trump reacting this way. i'm not defending it. i'm just saying this is how it is. >> david, i mean, it's an interesting point that this goes back to to that quid pro quo that trump was suggesting. you know, we'll get you the weapons you need if you, you know, at least say you're going to launch an investigation. >> yeah. no he wanted he wanted zelenskyy to be an accomplice in dirtying up joe biden, who he feared, uh, as an opponent. and look, all things are filtered through donald trump's personal politics. i mean, i think that's, uh, that's pretty clear. the question is, anderson, to me, uh, we've seen some republicans speak out. senator wicker and some others have been pretty outspoken. many others have been muted. it's kind of extraordinary to watch, uh, marco rubio, who was a vehement opponent of putin, vehement anti-communist, strong

supporter of human rights around the world when he was in the u.s. senate, now trying to justify, uh, this, uh, position, which is a complete sell out, uh, to putin. um, you know, and i wonder at what point some republicans are going to say this is a bridge, uh, too far. and i guess it's when public opinion is such that they feel safe to do that. but this is really, really an abrogation of fundamental principles that many of them have espoused for a very long time. >> beth, you know, congressman moulton was talking about the, uh, this this memo cnn has seen about hegseth going to be asking for a plan for 8% cuts to the pentagon's budget every year for the next five years. um, i mean, people's eyes glaze over at percentages. can you just explain? i mean, is that a big deal? what impact would that have? and can you cut fraud and waste and at the same time build up your military capacity and

modernize it? >> right. so if you just took that 8% cut over the next five years as planned, we're at like 3.4% of gdp for our defense spending. and president trump says that europe, that's at 2% or so. they need to be at 5%. okay, i'm throwing out a lot of numbers. but if you took us out now five years, would that cut? every year? we would be at 2%. so you can see how like, none of this kind of makes sense unless and this is what some people are saying, that they're going to take all those cuts and move them into different programs. now that's possible. but you know what? a memo that's written on tuesday with the due date on monday is not going to come up with a great plan for the most complex organization. i would argue, in the entire world. right. $850 billion in spending. uh, you know, bases in 80 countries. all of this

interconnectivity. it's just ridiculous. and so our national security actually could be at risk because people don't understand. if you cut one thing here, what is the effect there? you have to actually plan and think this out. and i know that that's painful, but you actually have to plan and think. >> but that seems so old fashioned and boring. >> i know i and i, maybe i am anderson. >> i mean, can i just say one thing about this, anderson? >> uh, i think, uh, we ought to put this in the context of what's going on on the domestic side, because right now they are trying, desperately trying to figure out a way to cut the budget enough to be able to pass through this reconciliation process. uh, a huge tax cut. and the the freedom caucus in the house is demanding $1.5 trillion in cuts. uh, and it's very hard to cut the budget unless you cut deeply into the pentagon to cut it at that level. uh, so i suspect that that may be

animating some of what's going on here. >> absolutely. >> david axelrod. bessent. i really appreciate it. thank you. great conversation. thank you. coming up next, the source is kaitlan collins with new reporting on the president's thoughts and mindset surrounding ukraine, what her sources are telling her. and later, new york's mayor in federal court. the question is, will a judge accept the justice department's request to drop the mayor's corruption case? >> welcome back. >> have i got news for you? new saturday on cnn. >> hourly amazon employees earn an average of over $22 per hour in communities across america. >> hey. >> we're going big tonight. >> let's go. >> amazon offers hourly employees health care on day one for the whole family. >> safety. >> oh, oh, should i call mom? >> no, don't. don't tell your mother anything.

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800) 217-1487 now or visit us at. gofundme.com. >> march madness. it gives you all the feels. you got the feeling they are feeling it. you ready to dance? you don't know. wow. can you believe this? what did you just make me? ice in the veins. a prayer at the buzzer. let's go. they're going crazy. the. sometimes i'm down under heartbreak. the emotions are on full display. this is what march feels like. i've got the feeling. baby. >> we're talking tonight about the president, who, for a second time today verbally attacked volodymyr zelenskyy, the leader of an ally ukraine, and echoed vladimir putin's view of zelenskyy and the war. attacks which we should underscore were factually untrue. more now on

the president's motivations in making them. for that, we're joined by the source's kaitlan collins. so what is your sense of the president's mindset as he seems to be ratcheting up these rhetorical attacks on on ukraine and zelenskyy? >> it's not really a surprise, anderson, to the people around president trump. he's been saying a version of this for months now, even before he was elected. he was casting blame for this war on president zelenskyy. he's always been very distant from from ukraine, never really has felt a lot of love from them, obviously, ever since his his first impeachment and his first term in office. and so to hear him say this now, though, the reason it's different is because he's now the president of the united states and is leading these negotiations, including with his senior aides, that are happening between the united states and russia. so far, not ukraine being included in that that picture, despite what trump told me just a few days ago in the oval office, that ukraine will have a seat at the table. and what's different also here from trump's first term, where, you know, after that summit in helsinki with president putin, where trump sided with putin

over u.s. intelligence, we saw the fallout from senate republicans, from trump's own advisers on that, convincing him that he had to say something afterwards. that is not what's happening here. instead, we are seeing people like the vice president, jd vance, amplify trump calling zelenskyy a dictator. among his other claims that he made earlier in that post. and so the same with the white house, really just, you know, elevating this and saying this is the official white house line. this is not some one off. this is truly the position of this administration. and that's what's notable going into this period, as we're expecting president trump and president putin to meet in the foreseeable future. >> i mean, there's very little, very few republicans criticizing president trump. does the white house even care about any congressional reaction at this stage? >> i think it depends on what it looks like in terms of senate republicans. we're seeing a lot of them say they don't agree with trump, that zelenskyy is a dictator. they're not criticizing trump necessarily for calling him a dictator in this situation. among the other

claims he makes inflating how much aid the u.s. has sent to to ukraine compared to europe, and other claims that he was making there. and instead, they're just simply pointing to the fact that they believe this war has to end, that trump has promised to end it since he was on the campaign trail. the question, though, is how this war ends and what this looks like. and of course, zelenskyy himself lashed out at trump overnight after trump had repeated what we hear from the kremlin a lot, which is that ukraine started this war casting doubt on on zelenskyy as a legitimate leader, saying that he was disliked by his own people. and he was saying that trump is surrounded by disinformation coming after that phone call with putin, where trump started bringing up the ukrainian election, started bringing up zelenskyy's poll number. and so he was essentially arguing that it was really waking up to that headline this morning. that is what led trump to to outright call zelenskyy a dictator now. and the question is how this shifts the negotiations going forward, as trump may not envoy keith kellogg is in ukraine and arrived shortly after all of this happened.

>> kaitlan collins, thanks very much. we'll see you at the top of the hour for the source. your guess is republican senator eric schmitt of missouri. more now on how all this is being received inside russia for that. here's cnn's fred pleitgen. >> breaking news on kremlin controlled tv. even the anchor can hardly believe her eyes. u.s. president donald trump calling ukraine's president volodymyr zelenskyy, quote, a dictator in a social media post. chris wright attention. this is incredible, the host says. trump is obviously angry, having had modest success as a comedian, zelenskyy writes, the u.s. president couldn't have won in the ukraine conflict, and the u.s. was giving him money in vain. zelenskyy is doing his job poorly. donald trump now calls zelenskyy a dictator. this is what he wrote. many russians now hoping that trump induced thaw in u.s. russian relations could bring fast sanctions relief at

the souvenir shop in moscow, boss alexander is rearranging the matryoshka dolls, according to what many here hope could be the new world order. >> our president and american president. and also we have the mohammed bin salman al saud, also. so all friends of russia. >> on the street. much praise for president trump sometimes may be a bit too much. what do you think about donald trump? >> i think maybe. small stalin. >> do you think small stalin? why? >> why? but character. >> donald trump. >> of course i like donald trump. this man says he's a positive president. he will change america and make it great again. moscow's leaders optimistic, saying they believe the trump administration understands their view of the ukraine war. where russian

troops continue to make modest gains. this russian defense ministry video purporting to show drone units hitting ukrainian positions in russia's kursk region. russian leader vladimir putin visiting a drone factory, also praising trump, saying a face to face meeting is in the works. >> no. >> we're not in a position where it's enough to meet each other, have tea or coffee and chat about the future, he says. we need to make our teams prepare issues that are crucial for both russia and the u.s., including the ukraine conflict. but not only it. and you know, anderson, the russians are very open about the fact that they want more than just an end to the war in ukraine on terms favorable for russia. they want a full diplomatic reset with the united states. and there are actually russian politicians out there who are saying they believe that the trump administration's views on the conflict in ukraine are actually

much closer to russia's than they are to america's own european allies. anderson. >> fred pleitgen, thanks very much. still ahead, the corruption case against new york's mayor, which the justice department wants to dismiss. what happened in court today when doj lawyers tried. also, the measles outbreak in texas, where nearly 60 people have contracted the disease. we'll be right back. >> cooked books, corporate. >> fat cats, swindling socialites, doped up cyclists, then? 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. >> i can't fight this. feeling anymore. >> whenever heartburn strikes, get fast relief with tums, it's time to love food back. also try tums gummy bites. >> with hotels and vacation rentals. booking.com has something for everyone. >> she says. >> you got anything more

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corruption, wire fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. but last week, bove ordered federal prosecutors to end adams's case, arguing it was tainted by publicity and hindered the mayor's ability to do his job and cooperate with the trump administration's immigration crackdown. so that prompted eight federal prosecutors to resign for new york city. deputy mayor's also resigned. with me now is cnn's kara scannell, who was in court today along with cnn chief law enforcement intelligence analyst john miller, who was deputy commissioner of the nypd and served under adams, and former federal prosecutor jessica roth as well. joining us. so, kara, talk about the hearing, what happened. >> so it was really symbolic in court today. you had emil bove the only prosecutor sitting at the table, todd blanche, who was going to be the deputy attorney general once confirmed by the senate, was there in the audience. but then in the back row, it was the head of the fbi's new york field office sitting there along with the case agents who worked the case, who no longer had a seat at the table because of how they had come in and taken it over. and adams, of course, was there with his lawyers, and the judge swore

adams in. so he stood, raised his hand, said under oath that he was not pressured or promised anything as part of this, and he was not threatened by anything. so they seized on that and said to the judge, you know, it's undisputable. there is no quid pro quo here. he told the judge that really the only role the judge had was to decide whether the prosecution was acting in bad faith. and he said, i came up here to look you in the eye to tell you that i'm not. and so he was laying out to the judge that he really thought he had a limited role, but the judge questioned him about just the scope of this, this argument about interference in the mayor's duties. and he said, well, if there was a police commissioner that you were investigating, which is happening in new york, a former police commissioner, he said, would that mean that you wouldn't bring that case because of this same rationale, public safety, enforcing trump's immigration agenda? he said absolutely. he said, well, what if it was a governor at a border state? and he said, absolutely, it's prosecutorial

discretion. and he was saying it was really important that the trump administration's policies be able to be enforced more so than going after crimes if it interfered with that. >> jessica, i mean, the judge indicated he doesn't think he had a lot of latitude here, does he? and what role would he have? >> it's true that under the law, the judge does not have a great deal of authority to deny a motion to dismiss brought by the department of justice. but what the court does have authority to do is require a statement of reasons and require accountability in the form of actually coming to court and stating before the court what the reasons are for the dismissal. >> the statement of reasons from from the the justice department. >> from the justice department and emil bove did provide those statements. the problem here is that they really do seem quite pretextual. i mean, the notion that eric adams can't carry out his law enforcement duties, essentially while he's under the threat of this indictment, first of all, has been denied by the mayor repeatedly up until now, but also, what it goes to what kara was saying and the judge's

questions about, well, how far would you extend this argument? it really would suggest that any public official who had anything, any duties related to something touching on law enforcement would essentially be insulated from prosecution for even grievous corruption. >> why? why would anyone outside of new york care about this? i mean, does it have some impact on the law writ large? >> well, it has an impact in terms of whether public officials actually would not be susceptible to criminal prosecution, regardless of how they abuse their office. but it also, i mean, again, this is sort of the larger context here. the reason why beauvais is saying is that adams should not be prosecuted is in part because he is complying with the president's agenda. and what's implicit is that if the mayor were not complying with the president's immigration agenda, that the charges could go forward. and that's part of what's been so concerning to people who have worked in the department of justice, is there's an implicit threat that if adams is not compliant, that the charges would be reinstated. and so it's a way of coercing a public official to act in a way that comports with the

president's political agenda and prioritizing that over the even enforcement of the law. >> john, i mean, you've covered legal battles in new york for a long time. how does this stack up in terms of being odd? >> completely unprecedented. and and to pick up on your last question. i mean, the effect it has having to people outside new york city, meaning, uh, fbi agents, federal prosecutors across the country is the mantra was always, we investigate, we prosecute, and we do so without fear or favor, without fear of pushback or political influence, without favor to people that we like. um, and that has been reversed. what agents and prosecutors are thinking about now outside of new york city, inside of new york city is we now prosecute with fear if we are going after people who seem to have favor, whether that's at the trump administration, because the one place that was meant to protect us, to insulate

us, which was our management in the fbi, our director or the department of justice through the attorney general, they would be that pushback from political influence. and now the political influence seems to be coming directly through them. and you're. >> hearing that from people in the field, and that's really depressing. >> phones have been ringing off the hook. and not just, you know, in the last few days. this has been going on since since this really started with talk of mass firings based on what cases people investigated over the last four years and looking at resignations from people who would say, including this case with multiple prosecutors, i'm just not prepared to do what you're telling me to do. >> it's wrong. what's next? i mean, is there when will the judge rule? >> so the judge said that it served no one's purpose for this to drag out. so he was signaling that he is going to make a ruling on this soon. you know, there was this question. would he appoint someone to serve as an aide of the court who would take the other side and flesh out the legal arguments for him? he didn't

really show his hand, but his his inclination seemed to be that he was going to issue a decision on this pretty soon. he said multiple times that his that his responsibilities here were really narrow. i mean, it was kind of telling. by the end of the hearing, he was sighing. he sort of at the end was like, okay, i'm going to take this all into consideration when i read the transcript, and then i'll get back to you guys. >> all right. kara, john, jessica, thanks so much. appreciate it. why is there a measles outbreak in texas now? the worst in decades. and now also in new mexico, plus seven people charged in the high profile robberies of star pro athletes, who they are and how they were caught. just ahead. >> lockerbie sunday at nine on cnn. >> tap into. >> etsy for home and style finds, like custom shelving for less than $50 to make more space. or linen robes under 75 to get you cozy for affordable pieces to help you welcome big

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>> texas health officials fear the biggest outbreak of measles there in decades may only get worse. 58 people currently have measles after an outbreak that began just three weeks ago. 13 have been hospitalized, mostly children between the ages of five and 17, and most are unvaccinated. yesterday, new mexico announced five more cases, bringing the total there to eight. we're joined now by doctor peter hotez, co-director of the center for vaccine development at texas children's hospital. so, doctor hotez, what concerns you most about this current outbreak in texas? >> my big concern. >> anderson, is the size of this. right now, it's 58 cases. i understand that number is going to be revised in a day or two. maybe getting up closer to 80 cases. and that's still may be the tip of the iceberg, because i'm hearing there are a lot of kids in west texas right now that have the characteristic symptoms of of measles, meaning the characteristic rash and what we used to call the three cs when i was a pediatric house officer in boston, cough coryza,

meaning runny nose and other upper respiratory symptoms and conjunctivitis. so some are saying the numbers may get up to be a couple of hundred or more. and so and the reason you care about that is on average, when you have a big measles epidemic, around 20% of the kids get hospitalized. so you do the numbers. and it's a it's a big surge on our pediatric hospital system as well. >> you call measles a bad actor. what does that mean? and just how sick are kids getting? >> so measles is a bad actor because it's one of our most troubling, serious childhood illnesses. so on average, if a for during a measles epidemic, roughly 20% of kids are hospitalized. a significant percentage will get measles pneumonia, um, which often can require an intensive care unit admission, even intubation. uh, also encephalitis, measles

encephalitis is a known complication. deafness because of measles e.r. infection. together with the encephalitis and long term sequelae. then you have the problem that the measles virus has been shown relatively recently to infect, uh, a certain type of cells required for our immunological memory a, b, b and t cell memory cell. so all of that means this is one of our most one of our most feared childhood infections. and to have an outbreak this size is really troubling. >> and just to say the obvious, there is i mean, there is a there is a vaccine, a vaccine for this. yes. and it works, right? >> yeah. yeah, absolutely. it was developed in the early 1960s by john enders at boston children's hospital with sam katz and doctor peebles, and and that vaccine, anderson a single dose of vaccine usually given towards the towards the tail end of infancy around one year of

age is 93% protective. and then you give a second dose, it's 97% protective around school entry. it's one of the most effective and one of the safest vaccines. we have called the mmr vaccine. and this is why it's is so tragic. all of this is preventable. none of those kids had to be hospitalized. none of those kids will have to have would have to have measles complications. >> there are some reports that that some of the people have gotten sick, were vaccinated. >> yeah, very small number. i think of the 60 so far. um, almost all of them were either unvaccinated or unknown. uh, not vaccinated or unknown vaccination status. around four, um, were vaccinated. and that probably means they got a single dose of the vaccine, which is 93% protective, which is about what you'd expect. but overwhelmingly this these are unvaccinated kids. >> all right. doctor peter hotez, appreciate it. thank you. coming up, new details on the theft ring targeting high profile pro athletes.

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profile robberies of pro athletes, including star nfl quarterbacks patrick mahomes and joe burrow. pablo sandoval has the has the story. >> while milwaukee bucks forward bobby portis was on the nba court last november. >> authorities say a team of burglars was stealing nearly $1.5 million worth of property out of his home. the hit is detailed in a newly unsealed federal criminal complaint. in it, fbi agents share a selfie obtained through a search warrant showing alleged members of a so-called chilean south american theft group. they smile and show off their loot, including luxury watches, in a safe. notice one wearing a chief's top. investigators suspect some of these men also hit the kansas city homes of chiefs quarterback patrick mahomes and tight end travis kelce in october. prosecutors suspect seven chilean nationals of comprising a burglary ring targeting the homes of pro football, basketball and hockey players. according to court records, they traveled around the country to the homes of pro athletes using fake ids to rent cars and hotels. >> they conduct due diligence on

who the marks are. then they conduct surveillance. >> to see. >> what patterns of behavior are. they then go further and conduct a little bit more investigation into the building. plans to see points of access. is this an entire wi-fi system? how do i get into the house? does it have a backup generator? they put these things together. they select the mark and the time. and that's how they have a high probability of success. >> the property stolen during high profile burglaries tends to fuel a lucrative demand on the streets. in a separate investigation, federal agents arrested two men in new york city's diamond district this month. they're suspected of buying goods stolen from an nfl star, then reselling them in their store. >> polo sandoval joins us now. this is incredible. what is the fbi saying about it? >> so the fbi has not only been investigating anderson, but they've actually been raising alarms. they even issued a memo to the nfl last november, basically saying that they were looking into this and saying that you have this crime syndicate that's essentially exploiting the team's schedule. so if you think about it, they

know when the team is going to be away. so some of these individuals would scout out their homes and know when to break in, to steal some, some of these high dollar goods. and they're also warning about their tactics. they go from the very primitive like posing according to the feds, as joggers or lawn care workers to conduct surveillance on houses to the more advanced, like using drones. that's hard to believe, but also even using wi-fi signal jammers to try to mess with the wireless surveillance systems that some of these players may have in their home. >> so they were able to overcome burglary alarm systems. >> essentially, they were able to know exactly when to go in. and that's the key here. what one of the experts that you just heard from saying, it all boils down to what the player or the celebrity may actually be doing. not to advertise some of their high dollar, high priced goods on social media, because it's very easy for you and i to simply go onto their schedule, especially if it's a sporting team, certainly, and know when they're going to be playing out of town. it is. it is very advanced the way it was described by an expert today. they are highly intelligent, very sophisticated. and just because these guys have been charged, it's not the end of this. >> yeah. polo sandoval t