>> all right. derek van dam for us. thank you very much. everyone. take care of your pipes. a new hour of cnn news central starts right now. >> are taking the temperature of the american people. there is brand new cnn polling out just this morning. president trump's approval rating is slipping. why? maybe look no further than the economy. what? he has not yet done. and a critical meeting today in kyiv between ukrainian president zelenskyy and donald trump's ukraine envoy made all the more important after trump parrots russian propaganda and measles cases still on the rise in the u.s. what you need to know now to protect your family from one of the most contagious diseases in the world. i'm kate bolduan with john berman and sara sidner. this is cnn news central.

>> all right. this morning we are poring through brand new cnn polling on president trump's second term scorecard so far. if you will, exactly a month. that's where we are today. and to his administration. his approval rating is now at 47%. there are signs americans are growing dissatisfied with his handling of the biggest issue on their minds high prices, but also concern about his push for more presidential power. let's get right into it. with all of the numbers and all of the analysis. cnn, washington bureau chief and political director david chalian. a man with many titles, a man with a big brain, david, 47%. good morning. this tells you something about where people are. give us some sense of what you saw in these numbers. >> yeah. >> you know, when you're looking. >> at donald trump's approval ratings. >> it's always. >> needing to be compared to donald trump because 47% is

actually a numeric high in cnn polling for trump. ever. across the four years of his first administration, we never saw him at 47% approval in cnn polling. now, just want to point out, though, we also have never seen anybody but donald trump this low at the start of a new term. right. so for trump, he's doing well compared to all of his predecessors. this is below where all of them were at this point beginning their presidencies. you also can look at that 47% approval by party. and i think this is instructive. obviously, you don't expect many democrats to approve of the way trump is handling his job. that's only at 11%. but look at that middle column, sara independence. he's only at 43% approval, 56% disapproval among that critical swath of the middle of the electorate. and then, of course, republicans are largely with him. 88% approval there, sara. >> yeah. and as you dig further into these numbers, and i know you've you've gone over these probably a thousand times as they have come out. what are people feeling about his

policies on some of these key issues? >> you mentioned the big one. i think this is one of the biggest warning signs for the president on prices being lowered. 62%, 62% say that he has not gone far enough to reduce the price of everyday goods. this is what he promised to do. and we've heard him in the last several weeks. try to temper expectations when he speaks publicly that getting prices down may be tough, but this was issue number one for america in the election, and you can see such a large swath of americans, and that includes a bunch of republicans who don't think he has gone far enough yet to reduce prices. where has he gone? too far? i think these numbers are interesting to look at. you see, slim majorities, 52% say he's gone too far using presidential power. another slim majority, 51% saying he's gone too far in cutting federal programs. things like changing how government works or

deporting undocumented immigrants. he has a little more popular support there. those are more evenly divided between folks who think he hasn't gone far enough and thinks he's gone too far, but that use of presidential power, a majority say donald trump has gone too far. >> yeah, it's interesting because the top two issues for getting him into office were the economy prices as well, and immigration. all right. what about how people are feeling about elon musk? we just saw the president and elon musk sit down for this big interview with sean hannity. and who wasn't there? the vice president of the united states. so clearly that relationship looks pretty good. but how do americans feel about musk? >> well, we show that a majority, 54%, say that the role that trump has given elon musk is a bad thing, compared to only 28% who say it's a good thing. 18% of poll respondents say it is neither a bad or a good thing, but clearly they have more work to do. the trump administration, if they're going to try to bring elon musk's

sort of popularity with the american people and what he's doing and his mission into better standing at the moment, they're starting on their back foot with how the american people are perceiving what donald trump has handed over to elon musk to do in this administration. >> fascinating numbers. i know there are many more, and we look forward to hearing about them from you. david chalian, thank you so much. really appreciate it this morning. thank you. john. >> all right. with us now is senator jeff merkley, a democrat from oregon, who sits on the senate foreign relations committee. senator, thanks so much for being with us. i think you just heard the new cnn poll numbers. donald trump now underwater, dipping a little bit in the first month. and on the economy, that number that david just told us about on reducing the price of everyday goods, 62% of americans think that donald trump has not gone far enough. there you go. the graphics up there. 62% of americans think that he has not gone far enough. where do you think donald trump's focus has been and where do you think it should be? >> well, certainly, john, i

think people are starting to think about trump flation where so many of his actions are going to drive up the costs of basically everything, which is certainly not what he campaigned on doing. but we have seen such an extraordinary turn of events with the with the president first, depending on executive orders, basically viewing the presidency as ruling by, by fiat, like a dictator, while in foreign affairs, he has basically shaking the alliance to its roots with with europe and. certainly favoring russia over ukraine. and so that there is so much going on here at once. we refer to it as flooding the zone, but there's item after item of deep concern and authoritarian impulses at home and authoritarian impulses abroad are one common theme. >> i will get to russia in just a moment, but just in terms of what his actions have been and how americans feel about them, the bad news for democrats is

that voters in the polls don't seem much happier about you. this is from the quinnipiac poll. how democrats in congress are handling their job. just 21% approve, 68% disapprove. i mean, that is that's a chasm. senator, why do you think that's there? >> well, there's a lot of expectation that somehow among democrats that we can stop this trump train. certainly here in the senate, where it takes a supermajority to change a policy, and the democrats are in the minority. here, have limited tools so we can use our voice. uh, we're using our voice. we're using our every procedural tool. we have to slow down the trump train on some of these horrific nominations for the cabinet. but i know from my town halls back home that people are incredibly upset about the direction of our presidency right now, and they expect us to

have solutions that, quite frankly, we don't have the power to implement as a minority party in the senate and the house. >> now, i do want to talk about ukraine and russia. i woke up to this quote, this tweet from dmitry medvedev, who used to be the prime minister, but is basically, you know, the number 2 or 3 in all of russia, depending on how you look at it. and he wrote on twitter this morning, if you had told me three months ago that these were the words of the u.s. president, i would have laughed out loud. i would have laughed out loud. he's calling about talking about president trump, calling vladimir zelenskyy a dictator. he's talking about president trump saying that ukraine is responsible for the invasion. but to hear a russian official saying he would have laughed if he had been told that a president would say something like that. what do you think of that? >> well, we now have the president of the united states becoming a premier propagandist for russia. this is are the things that russia has been

promoting. but never in their wildest dreams did they think that they would be repeated by the president of the united states. i mean, we all understand, and the russian officials understand that they started the war. so they are like, oh, wow, how did this happen? our propaganda is so effective that the president of the united states is is spouting it, blaming zelenskyy for starting the war, saying zelenskyy is a is a dictator. i mean, the situation is very clear here in which we have a democracy where the people of ukraine have fought to defend their freedoms, lost upward of 100,000 individuals, hundreds more, thousands more who have been injured, a country decimated, but they have stopped this powerful neighbor, russia, from taking them over because they want to preserve their freedom of speech and their freedom of religion, their freedom of assembly and freedom of press. they want their freedoms and they're fighting for them. and meanwhile, we have a president, the united states, who seems to be working to get the best deal for russia instead

of the best deal for ukraine. and meanwhile, shattering our alliance with our european partners. >> what's the best deal for america? >> well, the best deal for america is to continue to be a leader for democracy and freedom in the world. think of all the dictators around the world who would love to see an america that no longer is engaged. i mean, i visited taiwan in december. folks in taiwan are terrified about how the united states behaves in ukraine might affect how china considers attacking taiwan. we need to be the champion for freedom. those are our american values. we need to be a partner with nations where people are striving to have, well, government by and for the people instead of through a dictator. that's our role in the world. those are our values. that's what we need to continue to fight for. and we

certainly are well served by our alliance with europe over the last 80 years. it would be a phenomenal mistake to shatter the alliance with europe. but this week, european leaders were meeting and asking themselves, is this a munich moment? is trump basically doing to ukraine what chamberlain did to czechoslovakia in 1938? the fact that european leaders are having this conversation tells you what a dangerous moment we are in. >> you gave away the sudetenland. chamberlain did it. ultimately, all of czechoslovakia. senator jeff merkley from oregon ducks, we appreciate you being with us this morning. thank you very much. >> okay. thank you very much, sean. >> president trump calling zelenskyy a dictator has, as we know and seen, drawn swift and understandable criticism from both sides of the political aisle. but from republicans, the pushback once again pretty muted, with one exception. so far, it seems his former vice president, mike pence, taking on donald trump directly on social

media, writing this. 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 truth. joining us right now is marc short, a longtime adviser to pence. he was pence's chief of staff when he was vp, and marc is now board chair of advancing american freedom. it's good to see you again, marc. what? that is what stood out to me when i was kind of watching the reaction play out yesterday, is that mike pence is really the only one so far that i've seen to directly address donald trump in his criticism of his remarks. you know pence better than most. why don't you? why do you think he decided to come out stronger than really any other republican so far? >> well. >> i think there's. >> a few reasons. i think we're still in the first 100 days of the trump administration, and i think that there's a lot of things that president trump is doing well that i think encourages republicans on the spending side and on the border. and so i think there's there's a

concern about wanting to be critical at this moment. but i think for the former vice president, i think that the policy that he seems to be pursuing right now, president trump is, is not just a departure from the biden administration, but frankly, it's a huge departure from the first trump administration policy. the president has spoken about how actually, during his administration, was the only time in this century that that putin did not take land grabs across eastern europe. um, and i think that the policy that we had in place, i think, deterred russia, uh, president would speak about the fact that, you know, when putin took crimea during the obama administration, obama sent blankets, but president trump sent javelin missiles. the president took sanctions against russian officials. he stopped nord stream two. all that very aggressive posture to adopt the talking points of the kremlin seems a great departure from that. i think that's a big concern. but i think also for the vice president is a concern that, you know, right now, nobody's talking about sending american troops over to europe.

we're actually just supporting ukraine in their self-defense. but if russia gets emboldened, takes additional nato territory, it does require americans to actually be sent. and i think his concern is you're basically encouraging putin to continue land grabs across other parts of eastern europe. >> and and add to that, how is that advancing american interests at all? a former official from trump's first term told the washington post this anonymously on why trump is doing this. here's the quote ukraine is like afghanistan, iraq, syria. some other idiot's war, not his. and he wants it out of the way so he can get the deal with putin he has always fantasized about. it's sad, but very simple. and now zelenskyy's criticized him. he will try to get rid of him. you also worked around donald trump for years in the first white house. do you think this has could have a real impact on the course and contours of the negotiations? now. >> i think it does. kate. i think that the reality is that the president does want to

focus, i think, on issues with russia and with china and feels in some ways that these these smaller in his mind, smaller issues, i think are deterrent from solving some of the world's bigger problems. but having said that, kate, i think that as your previous guest said, the concern is that if you're trying to look at how we address china, the reality is look who's aligned with putin right now in this effort against ukraine. it's been china, north korea, iran have been sending weapons and troops. and for china, the incentive to say, well, this is a lesson learned on how we should negotiate on taiwan. and so i think if you're actually saying we want to have, you know, stronger negotiations with china and want this problem out of the way, in many ways, the message you're sending to china, i think, is counterintuitive to what you want to actually accomplish as far as showing a strong force against china's aggressive approach across the pacific. >> i want to ask you just real quick about this new polling out from cnn this morning showing that trump's approval is tilting negative, still higher

than at any point from his first term. and in it, you've got a broad majority that says and feels the president is not doing enough to address the high prices, deal with inflation. also, 52% saying that he's gone too far in using presidential power. you see that? and you think, what? at this point, mark? >> well, i think that the president is always going to have a really, really high floor and a pretty low ceiling. and i think that that that's just the nature of who who donald trump is. and so, um, i do think, though, that there's been a lot of focus on the border that americans wanted, but it's hard to say what you could do in 30 days. but you could also say, here's what we're going to be doing. our plan is to lower prices instead. i think what people are hearing is all the tariffs that are anticipated to be coming, and those are only going to drive up costs. and so for a lot of americans, i think, wanted a dramatic change from the biden administration big spending, high inflation. they want to see action taken to actually lower prices, too. and they're not hearing that yet from the administration.

>> and and let's be honest, they're hearing a lot from donald trump on a daily basis. sure. and that's the one thing that they're really not hearing about. right. it's not like he's hiding away. he's speaking and he's not talking about inflation is nearly like he was during the campaign. it's it's good to see you, mark. thank you. >> so i think i think some of that's good. kate i hear you i think some of that's good because it's a contrast to the previous biden years. >> as a member of the press. more access is always appreciated to the to those in power. it's good to see you. thank you. sarah. >> all right. ahead, indiscriminate madness and effing chaos. what documents and employees are saying about how the trump administration's federal firings are actually going? and the apparent leader of a cult like group tied to multiple killings across the united states, now behind bars. what we're learning about the zizians who led officials on a cross-country manhunt. and would you accept $30,000 after surviving that? how much delta

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just you. two minutes on finance. com and your best deal. see if you're overpaying for car insurance, go to finance.com. now. >> all right. breaking news. we're learning the irs is expected to fire about 6000 workers today right in the middle of tax season. this as the trump administration insists they're only firing recent hires or low performers in the federal workforce. but interviews and documents obtained by cnn show the opposite in many cases. cnn's rene marsh is here with the latest on this. good morning. what have you learned? >> well. >> john. >> cnn spoke. >> with more. than a dozen federal. >> workers recently. >> terminated and found not only did many of them have positive performance reviews, but several held mission critical roles involving safety, security, which doge has said is off limits across numerous agencies employees, including some with highly specialized roles in

cybersecurity, overseeing u.s. nuclear weapons, and maintaining the country's critical infrastructure, received termination letters stating, quote, based on your performance. their employment was no longer in the public interest, but those employees actually had perfect performance reviews, and cnn got ahold of those documents to to essentially verify that. a department of homeland security cyber official, for example, working to fend off chinese hackers. they were fired despite receiving a, quote, achieved excellence in their performance review. just last summer, an employee at veterans affairs who helped veterans seeking mental health care terminated despite a june 2024 performance review, noting their exceptional performance. a department of energy employee fired, then rehired, once the agency realized the critical nature of their work on the power grid in the pacific northwest. but upon that employee's return to the office, they discovered their

online personnel file listed unsatisfactory performance as the reason for their termination. that employee actually telling cnn this is blank chaos, indiscriminate madness by a bunch of teenagers being given the keys to the castle from far above chris wright's pay grade, chris wright being the energy secretary at the department of energy. now, these indiscriminate firings of federal workers really undercuts doge and the white house's claims that they are targeting these low performers in recent hires. it also raises questions about who is making the decision and whether the officials doing the firing fully understand what these employees do and the impact of firing them. it is worth noting, john, we reached out to all of the agencies listed in our story and did not receive a response. >> interesting. all right. maybe the people who are supposed to respond have been laid off also. rene marsh, thank you for being with us. appreciate it. kate.

>> investigations are underway in texas after the mother of an 11 year old girl says that bullies at school threatening to call i.c.e. to have her parents taken away led to that little girl dying by suicide. the mother saying the school knew of the bullying and never told the family. two. two small planes collided mid-air in arizona. what we are learning now about this latest deadly aviation crash. >> in this. >> part changed. >> my life. >> superman is now the winner of the bafta award for best documentary. >> chris wanted to change. >> the world. >> people are literally. >> walking because. >> of him. >> superman the christopher reeve story saturday at ten on cnn. >> something about the way we're working just isn't working. when you're caught up in complex. pay requirements or distracted by scheduling staff in multiple time zones, or thinking about the complexity of working in

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seekers. at capitas we finance small businesses. >> march madness. >> it gives you all the feels. >> the feeling. >> crowd going crazy. can you believe this? ice in the veins. emotions on full display. this is what march feels like. i've got. >> that feeling. >> baby. >> a devastating story out of texas to tell you about an 11 year old girl's death now ruled a suicide is under further investigation. that is because her mother says her daughter was bullied at school over the family's immigration status, and says the school knew about

the bullying against little jocelynn rojo carranza, but never told the family. cnn's ed lavandera spoke to the family and is here with us now. ed, this is just tragic. upon tragic. >> heartbreaking story, to. >> say the least. >> we spent significant. >> time speaking with joselyn. carranza's mother. >> yesterday. >> just hours after. >> the family. >> had laid. >> the young girl. >> to rest and. >> had funeral services. >> yesterday in. >> the city of gainesville. >> texas, north of. >> the dallas fort worth area. and the mother told us. >> that her daughter had tried. >> taking her life on february 3rd, but didn't die until five days later, february 8th. and it wasn't until after that that she was told by an investigator with the gainesville school district that her daughter had been a victim of bullying. and this is according to what the investigator told the family, and that the young girl had been told that because of her family's immigration status, that she was going to be deported, that her family was going to be deported, and that

she would be left alone here in the united states. her mother tells us that she believes it was that fear of being left alone that might have played a role in her daughter's suicide. we also spoke with one of jocelyn's friend, a young girl who also goes to the same school, and with permission of her mother, she told us that in recent weeks there had been a great deal of chatter in the school about i.c.e. and deportation and immigration. a lot of words that these young kids had never really heard before and knew much about, but that it was definitely being talked about. this is what that young girl told us yesterday. >> she was very nice and pretty. i loved her. basically, when i heard that she was gone, i, i don't know, it just shattered my heart. it hurt me really bad. >> did you hear kids talking about immigration and i.c.e. and all these. >> words that you guys. probably don't know what it means? yeah, but not to her. i've only heard it about people that are saying

that i.c.e. was coming and stuff, but that's all i heard. >> did you know that people had been bothering her and being mean to. >> her? i didn't know that. all right. if i knew, i would have told them to stop. i promise you, but. >> we have reached out to the school district there in gainesville, and we have not heard a specific response about these specific bullying allegations against joselyn. the school district did release a statement earlier saying that they take allegations of bullying seriously, but it does raise a lot of questions as to about why. and this is one of the questions that the mother has. is that why wasn't she told that all of this was going on before her daughter's death? kate. >> yeah, for sure. ed, thank you very much. sarah. >> all right. ahead, the measles outbreak in west texas exploding in size. dozens of cases now reported, many unvaccinated. but

now some who were vaccinated getting the virus. dr. sanjay gupta is here to answer your questions. and president donald trump's first month in office has been chock full of action. and also lies. a cnn fact check on the biggest ones next. >> cookbooks. 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 the united states of scandal with jake tapper, march 9th on cnn. >> got one more antoine. >> with usps ground advantage. >> just like you're. >> with us every. >> step of the way. >> cool. >> right on time. >> stay in the know from your

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ukraine, russia, this is not all the president has been saying. that's not true. cnn's fact checker, daniel dale, is with us. and daniel, on cnn.com, you list what you call the 13 biggest lies of the first month. we can't do all 13. but what are some of the ones that jump out at you, john. >> there were so many lies from the. president of the united states. >> in. >> his first. >> month, that i had a hard. >> time making that list of. >> 13, which i think is bananas, if you take. >> a second to think about it. >> i did make a list, though, and i had it done. it was edited. and then the president dropped. >> in. >> probably the biggest lie of the whole month. you've been talking about it on your. show this morning. listen to what he said about the war in. >> ukraine. >> 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. >> russia started. >> the war in ukraine. >> this is obvious. it barely needs a fact check. i think the. brazenness of this claim, john. >> is an example of the president's.

>> willingness to. >> lie about even obvious stuff. some of the lies on. >> my list are about complicated policy subjects like tariffs. but he's also. lying about things we witnessed with. >> our own eyes. >> i'll give you another representative example. it's an example of the president's years old. >> habit. >> something i. >> call trump flation. >> and that is making his inaccurate. stories more and. >> more inaccurate over time. >> so listen to how the saga of the imaginary. >> gaza condoms. >> evolved over the course of about. >> a week. >> doge and omb. >> also found. >> that there was. >> about to be 50 million. >> taxpayer dollars that went. >> out the door. >> to fund. condoms in gaza. >> they identified and stopped $50 million being sent to gaza to buy condoms for hamas 50 million. and you know what's happened to them? they've used them as a method of making bombs. $50 million plus another $50 million for condoms for hamas. do you know about that? $100 million for condoms?

>> all right. >> so we went. >> from $50 million. >> in condoms for gaza. >> to $50 million in condoms for hamas to make bombs to 100 million in condoms for hamas. none of this was true. >> the white house had no evidence. >> whatsoever of any condom purchases for. gaza or for hamas. so this was quite a tale. >> i'll give you a third example on my list. the president has been repeatedly deceptive. >> about the subject. >> of birthright. >> citizenship, the constitutional right he's trying to end, and he keeps saying that. >> the u.s. >> is the only country. >> in the world that. >> offers birthright citizenship. in fact, that's. >> not even. close to true. there are dozens. >> of countries that also grant automatic citizenship to people born on u.s. soil, and you don't have to look far. >> the list. >> includes canada and mexico. now, you might say. >> the president. >> might be confused about this. well, he's been making this same false claim, telling the same lie since at least 2018. we've been fact checking this for more than six years. >> repeating lies does not make them more true. daniel dale with the facts this morning. great to

see you. thank you very much for this hard work. people should go check out your full list on cnn.com. sarah. >> it is a long one. all right. in a matter of hours, the senate could vote to break a filibuster on kash patel's nomination to serve as director of the fbi. if that vote passes, the confirmation vote could happen as early as this afternoon. but some key gop swing votes are staying pretty quiet at this point. democratic senator from rhode island, senator sheldon whitehouse, is joining us now. thank you for being here this morning. appreciate your time. if patel is indeed confirmed as director of the fbi, what will that mean for america in your view? >> well, the first. >> thing. >> it will mean is that republican. >> senators who voted for. him will own it. >> because if he has as vindictive as his past shows. >> he will. >> be, if he has the foreign entanglements that his records show he has and that comes back. >> to haunt them, they will have.

>> known this. >> this will have been on the record. he is a very dangerous individual for the fbi, both because of his vindictive vindictiveness and the foreign entanglements, but also because of his intentions for the fbi to do damage, for instance, to the washington office where the counterintelligence and counter russia operations take place. i think what we're looking at, and you saw it in the last clip on your show about the trump russia coordination. i think patel will be an eager participant in the trump russia schemes. >> donald trump seems to be cozying up to russia. he is lashing out at ukraine and at europe. i mean, what do you think is happening here? is he is this just bluster, or do you think there is something really going on behind the scenes as well? >> well, you got to, you know, go back a ways, trump. russia has always been a thing. russia helped him get elected the first time the mueller report, the

bipartisan senate intelligence report, multiple court trials all showed the connections between russia and trump. and that has persisted. russia helped him get elected this second time, and he is now tightly entwined with putin, spouting putin talking points. what is the underlying rationale? what has putin got on him? what is the promise or the threat that is driving this behavior? that is what we don't know. but the behavior is obviously indisputable. >> the polling would suggest, though, it was the economy and immigration that got trump elected this time around. and i want to talk about the economy and about the government and what's happening there. the congress is really closing in on an important deadline. that is the potential of shutting down the government. a vote is scheduled on the senate gop's budget plan, which would divide trump's priorities into two plans, although he has asked for, as he put it, one big, beautiful plan. but trump came out today and endorsed the

house's plan. is there any of those plans that democrats can agree to? >> well, no. particularly in this reconciliation mode, when the republicans are using this mode in which they can jam whatever they want through the senate with the simple majority that they have, and of course, through the house with the majority that they have, it is on them. they control all the levers. there is nothing that democrats can do about reconciliation. so they have to figure out their way through this, and they own the consequences when they cannot. and if they completely fail, then they have to come to democrats. but if they do, then we get to have our own say, and they don't get to just roll us while they need democrat votes. >> trump declared that he saved new york after announcing the reversal of congestion pricing through the department of transportation, and he put something online saying, long live the king, and then put an image of himself with the

king's crown on his head. do you think he's just trolling americans, or is there truth in jest here? >> yeah, i trolled back and said, does this make him a royal pain in the wow. >> well, that is a way to respond to it. that is one way, sir. uh, let me ask you. let me try not to laugh here, okay? it was funny. um, let me ask you about democrats. are democrats lost in the sauce here? donald trump is sucking up, obviously, as the president, all of the attention he is making quick moves. he is, you know, letting doge do its deeds inside of many different departments. what are democrats doing? >> well, i would analogize this to a smash and grab robbery. um, all done for the benefit of providing tax breaks to billionaires at the end of the day. but in its tactics right now, essentially a smash and grab robbery and speed is to your advantage when you're the smash and grab robber and doing

as much destruction as you can quickly is to your advantage when you are the smash and grab robber. but over time, courts will look at this. evidence will mount. he will need things from congress and the situation will change. i think it's particularly important to watch the courts where he is losing case after case after case after case, for the very precise reason that what he is doing is illegal. >> he has won one though, letting doge get all that data from several different agencies where some people are resigning over it. senator sheldon whitehouse, thank you so much. >> kind of a data theft. thank you. >> thank you so much for coming on and expressing your very strong opinions this morning. we appreciate it. okay. >> so the measles. let me try that again. the measles outbreak in west texas has now grown to 58 cases. and many of those patients have been hospitalized, raising a lot of concern, understandably, about how far this outbreak could reach and

how high the numbers could go. cnn's dr. sanjay gupta joins us now from lubbock, texas, where several of these cases have been have been reported and treated. sanjay, what are you seeing there? what are you hearing there? >> well. >> people are. >> frustrated. >> as. you might imagine, kate. they're frightened. >> and. >> they're trying to. >> figure out what's next. i mean, you just mentioned the official. >> numbers. >> but i think everyone thinks those numbers. are probably a significant undercount. a lot of people have. >> not yet. >> come forward. >> um. >> so, you know. >> this number. >> could continue. >> to increase. >> and we're. >> already even based on the official numbers. >> the largest. >> measles outbreak in texas in 30 years. >> so that just gives you some of the context. i'm at. >> covenant. >> children's here, and many of the people that we're talking about are children, and we know that 11 have been hospitalized here. there are at least six more that are suspected cases that are in the hospital. they have to send these tests out to austin to get confirmation. they come back here. so it takes some

time. but as you know, measles is very characteristic. so there's a lot of people who they're seeing that are coming in with that characteristic rash that they're now caring for in hospitals like this. when i first arrived here, i got a chance to talk to the state health commissioner, someone who's been on the ground sort of coordinating the response and talked to her about how she's sort of approaching things. take a quick listen. have you ever seen measles before? >> no. >> and i'm an infectious. >> disease physician. >> i've never. >> diagnosed a case. >> that's incredible. >> it's because. >> you know. >> measles was declared eliminated. >> from the united states back in the year 2000. because of the effectiveness. >> of that vaccine. >> and it's only now with falling. >> immunization rates, not. >> just here in texas, but across the country and around the. >> world. >> that. >> we're starting. >> to see more. >> of these outbreaks. >> so as a result, a lot of hospitals are starting to prepare. obviously here in texas. but as you just heard from doctor shuford, in many places around the country where they suspect they're going to

see measles outbreaks, as i mentioned, i'm in covenant children's. this is a hospital that is designed to be able to take care of people with infectious diseases. so this is a negative pressure room. i don't know if you can tell, probably, but the air actually is always circulating outside the room. so you're not going to get air that's actually coming in to the room. and then if you open these doors over here, um, because it's lower pressure inside the room, you won't get air that's coming from inside a potentially infected room to the outside. there's always going to be circulating in here. it's a small sort of step, but it's important when you're trying to take care of so many patients as they are with these types of infectious diseases. >> and so important when you talk about how contagious this disease really is and how serious this virus is. >> you know, it's hard to convey that part of it. kate, i was trying to think about this. we were in a clinic yesterday. we were at a drive by vaccination area. if one person has measles, they are likely to

infect 90% of their close contacts. if they're not vaccinated. 90%. so basically, if you have it, if you're around people who are unvaccinated, they're likely to get it. i mean, that's it's one of the most infectious viruses out there. and i think that's what makes it so scary. even inside a hospital like this, why you have to have the negative pressure rooms, for example. and also, you know, i think it's worth conveying, again, you know, there's been 11 people already, mostly children hospitalized here, two pregnant women, incidentally, also hospitalized here. um, many more sort of suspected cases. that's out of the 58 people here in west texas that, you know, so about 20% of people who get measles will be hospitalized. so this is serious. about 10% will get ear infections, 5% get pneumonias, and a certain number will die. so it is very contagious. and again, among the unvaccinated population, very potentially serious as well. kate. >> yeah. and why it is so head scratching. it is almost

entirely preventable because of the effectiveness of the vaccine, as we were just talking about with the state health director. it's very good to see you, sanjay, and so important that you're there on the ground. thank you so much. now, if you have any questions about measles, and there are a lot of questions that people do have, ask them. scan the qr code on your screen. and sanjay is going to be back with us tomorrow to answer those questions. john. >> it is so great to have him there. so how did a group of highly educated computer scientists become a cult accused of brutal murders? new details inside the minds of the so-called zizians and the new financial offer for the people who survived the upside down plane crash in toronto. >> paging doctor is brought to you by vegard and vegard. >> if you have generalized myasthenia gravis, picture what life could look like. with a

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your best deal. see if you're overpaying for car insurance. go to finance. com now. >> it's 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, new saturday on. >> cnn. >> the fbi says two teenage girls have been arrested in texas for allegedly plotting an attack on a houston high school. according to authorities, the girls plan to place pipe bombs around the school and then shoot panicking students. the sheriff's office said the investigation stemmed from online threats they uncovered, and that they arrested the girls within 30 minutes of learning of the plot. police say there is no longer a threat for the school or its students. all right. today, ntsb officials will be on the scene of a deadly mid-air collision that left two people dead in arizona. a cessna and a lancair collided yesterday morning near the mamaroneck regional airport outside of tucson. the planes slammed into each other just above one of the airport's two runways. the associated press reports the pilots on the cessna were not hurt. the airport temporarily closed and delta offering

passengers on the plane that crashed and flipped upside down in toronto on monday, $30,000 apiece. the company says the money it's offering has, quote, no strings attached and will not affect passengers rights. if all 76 passengers involved take the payout, it will add up to a little more than 2 million bucks. all 80 passengers and crew survived that fiery crash. amazingly, john. >> all right. this morning, the apparent leader of a cult like group known as the zizians is being held without bail in maryland, along with two other members of the group, jack lasota led the group of highly educated computer scientist vegans. the so-called zizians are tied to six killings, including a u.s. border patrol agent across three states. with us now is criminologist and attorney casey jordan. casey, thanks so much for being with us. so what makes this so-called cult unusual? is it even a cult? >> well. >> i think at this stage of the game, we are correct. >> to call it.

>> a cult like group. >> it has a lot of the traits of of a cult. >> but it still seems to. >> be. >> in its formative stages. i mean, the most important thing. especially about this arrest of jack lasota. >> who goes by ziz. >> and the group is called the zizians, is that they have. this charismatic. >> leader. >> and, you know, accused of of killings from california to pennsylvania. vermont. >> but cults always have a. charismatic leader who their. >> unquestioning loyalty from the followers. and at this point, we think they have about 30 followers. but other. traits like isolation from the outside world and mind control techniques, strict rules and regulations for if you want to be in this group, this is what you have to do. perhaps you have to commit a and us versus them. mentality. important because we already see them believing that it's us versus them, and that everyone in the outside world is the enemy. hopefully with these arrests, if they continue to follow through, we will be able to shut this cult like group

down. >> compare jack lasota to people like charles manson and jim jones, leaders of cults that are that are so well known in our history. >> yeah, jim jones, charles manson, marshall applewhite of heaven's gate, david koresh of waco, the branch davidian, not only do they have that charismatic leader, but they take that extremist us versus them mentality. whether it's based in a philosophy or a religion or an anti-government sentiment, uh, there's always excessive zeal. and we have definitely seen that with the zizians. the biggest thing with the zizians that is most cult like is their denial of reality. their online rants really go off on their their rationalistic enemies. uh, they have a denial of reality. they are going around in box trucks just trying to set up a camp and establish a base. so the arrest of the

zizians leader is incredibly important, because once you get rid of that charismatic leader and we have seen that if they're not put in check with people like charles manson and marshall applewhite and david koresh, it will snowball out of control until you have not only the deaths of innocent people. as la soto is accused of right here, but the deaths of the members themselves. very often these things end in a cult suicide. >> we've got about 20s left here. so very quickly, if you could get one question answered, either about lasota or this cult, what would it be? >> i think it is the war they have on rationalism. and keep in mind, this is a group of highly intelligent computer scientists, some of whom have been shunned by society. so this idea that there's two hemispheres in the brain and they're at war with each other, good versus evil, is the seduction for these members. we'd love to talk to these members and find out what the appeal is of this theory to them