800) 845-4316. cookbooks. corporate fat cats swindling. >> socialites, doped up cyclists and yes, more crooked politicians. i have a feeling we won't be running out of those anytime soon. >> a new season of united states of scandal with jake tapper, march 9th on cnn. >> it's monday, february 24th right now on cnn this morning. >> these are real people. these are real lives. these are mortgages. >> can you answer the question? what did you do at work last week? federal workers have just hours left to justify their jobs to elon musk or lose them. plus, this. >> he's getting rid of the die. >> by. >> republican lawmakers facing angry voters back home, expressing their frustration with the trump administration is the republican honeymoon over? then this.

europe has now been thrown into question. and later. >> he never has given up. he keeps the grit and determination, the resilience. >> pope francis showing signs of mild kidney failure. how the pontiff is doing this morning after being hospitalized for now, over a week. it is 6 a.m. here on the east coast. here's a live look at the washington monument in downtown d.c. good morning everyone. i'm kayla tausche in for kasie hunt. it's wonderful to have you with us today. the clock is ticking for tens of thousands of federal workers to respond to a new ultimatum from elon, musk, replied to an email,

or lose your job. over the weekend, the world's richest man firing off a post saying all federal employees must respond to an email detailing what they got done last week. failing to respond by midnight tonight will be taken as a resignation. the deadline comes as 2000 usaid workers were laid off sunday night, and the vast majority of remaining full time staffers at the agency were told they're now being placed on administrative leave. the moves getting the full support of president trump, who hailed the actions against usaid at a gathering of his supporters over the weekend. >> we've also effectively ended the left wing scam known as usaid. the agency's name. has been removed from its former building, and that space will now house agents from customs and border patrol. >> the president, also seemingly mocking federal workers being threatened with a deadline by elon musk. president trump sent

out this meme starring spongebob squarepants, implying the responses from workers justifying their jobs might include things like crying about trump or reading some emails. but now some senators in his own party seem to be pushing back against the moves from musk. alaska senator lisa murkowski calling out musk on social media, saying he should learn about the jobs he's trying to cut, adding, quote, our public workforce deserves to be treated with dignity and respect for the jobs they perform. the absurd weekend email to justify their existence, wasn't it? republican senator john curtis of utah echoed those thoughts. >> if i could say one thing to elon musk, it's like, please put a dose of compassion in this. these are real people. these are real lives. these are mortgages. we it's a false narrative to say we have to cut, and you have to be cruel to do it as well. we can do both. >> joining me now to talk about all of this, alex thompson, cnn political analyst and national political reporter for axios.

megan hayes, former biden white house director of message planning. and matt gorman, republican strategist and former senior adviser to tim scott's presidential campaign. matt, i'll start with you, because we were just talking about some of the republican pushback here. it's bubbling up. it's starting to grow. but do you think it's reached a fever pitch where some of this advice would actually flow through to the way that doge is approaching its work? >> no, i don't. i mean, i don't think murkowski and curtis are indicative of where the median of the party is at. but look, i think in principle it's not it's pretty common sense should be accountable for what you do and ready to talk about it. i think where it gets headlong into specifically some of this with the cabinet secretaries and agencies is that it's going through opm, right? which is essentially the hr of the federal government and not through the respective agencies. that's where i think you saw a military. intel, whether it's dod, dni with tulsi gabbard people who, again, not necessarily squishy by any stretch of the imagination in the trump administration. kash patel at the fbi saying, hey, hold off on responding for a

little bit, or maybe we will handle that in house, because otherwise, if you put the wrong thing in the email, it might be just a little light reading for the chinese government. so i think that is kind of where you're seeing some of this kind of run a little bit. i think if you're if you were to ask a lot of these cabinet secretaries, they'd rather be the ones handling this review or this justification rather than opm as a whole. >> and, megan, that's why we've seen such a disparity in the way that some of these agencies have responded already. the department of homeland security, the state department, fbi, nih, ntsb, the list goes on of some of these agencies who are actually saying, wait, hold off. we're trying to figure out a whether you should respond to this, and b, what you actually can put in this email. so what does that tell you about if you're a federal worker? are you just paralyzed by what's going on? >> i think there's a lot of chaos. i think a lot of people are feeling very chaotic. 95% of the federal government doesn't work in the dmv, so they are not living this every day. and the feelings here and inside the bubble. so they are getting their news from their local news and, and other sources, and they are not entrenched in it every

day. but i will say i've been i've worked at two fortune 100 companies and been part of restructuring where we did mass layoffs. it took months to plan it. there was a lot of planning that went into it. there was a lot of thought that went into how this was going to be done and the programs that were going to be cut and the offices that we were going to move into different places in the company, there is none of that being done here. so we don't i think that what these agency heads are starting to realize, they don't know what they're actually cutting. they are just got confirmed within the past couple of weeks. they don't know what they're actually cutting. they have no idea what they need and don't need. and to have elon musk out there, just like slashing things, is really irresponsible for how our government works. >> there's also an element of trolling here, alex, because elon musk posted on social media after some of the blowback to this email saying, hey, i was just thinking that maybe some of these employees weren't actually checking their email on on a weekend to boot. and i have the post up here right now. the reason this matters is that a significant number of people who are supposed to be working are doing so little work, they're not checking their email at all, but certainly there's been a heavy dose of trolling on the

other side, too. now that this email address was made public with people generally who don't even work for the federal government giving elon musk a piece of their mind. >> sure. i mean, if there was any doubt about the trolling, i think the chainsaw for the bureaucracy on saturday night was was indicative of it. but i can tell you, the trump team, completely unapologetic about any of this backlash, they they do not care. in fact, they think they see the backlash as sort of evidence that they're doing the right thing. now, the question is, does that eventually, because i think democrats are counting that, you know, voters want to cut government, but they don't like chaos. that's what democrats are sort of betting on that eventually, if you are going to take a chainsaw versus a scalpel, will that eventually create a political backlash that will end up hurting congressional republicans? >> and senator curtis alluded to this a little bit, matt. but then there's also the financial element of this. these are real people. these are real mortgages. these are livelihoods. at what point do you think that cutting hundreds of thousands of workers has an impact on the economy, and does

that resonate with president trump? >> you know, it may, but i think, again, the way you talk about this, if you're a republican, is that the government is not immune to the same factors that the private sector feels. as megan talked about in her answer. right. these government jobs are not lifetime contracts. people understand layoffs. they understand buyouts. and i take your point a little bit on kind of the planning that's needed to happen. i think that's where you get elon is the good and the bad, right? someone who's bold enough to go deep as it needs to. but then you also get, you know, as even jim jordan kind of admitted, there were some mistakes made and i think that's how you correct them. but again, the fact that amazon, google, stripe, microsoft, just in the last 60 days have laid off people. and people understand that in the private sector, they do. >> they give a lot of notice before their layoffs and they were planned. i mean, when meta laid off people last year, they they they announced layoffs months beforehand. and it was a plan they. >> announced they're having them. not that they actually. >> were right, but i'm saying people could plan, their departments could plan. people understood that they might be on the chopping block to get laid off. they understood what their severance was. they understood

they weren't having to send emails about justifying their jobs. and i understand that these are not lifetime contracts, and no one is saying that. i just think donald trump doesn't care because he won't have to pay the repercussions. these congressional members are going to have to pay the repercussions, as you're seeing in. >> some of these town halls. i think. >> that would be very different, though, because again, i went through this in 2018. i know we we might talk about this later. >> and we'll have this be the last word here. >> yeah. well. >> i think what you're seeing in 2016, there was a reawakening. people were kind of asleep in the 2016 election. they came back and acted through the the resistance movement and those town halls related to health care. this is a little different when you see signs of fascism. that's not the median voter. >> we're going to be talking about those town halls and some of the feedback that some of these lawmakers are getting from voters a little bit later on this hour. much more to come. so stay put. everybody coming up on cnn this morning. russia marks three years of war on ukraine with an overnight barrage. why? ukraine's president says he is ready to step aside if it means peace for his country. plus, the pope in critical condition. how the pontiff is doing this morning. and republican

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invasion. since then, ukraine now finds itself in a fight for survival against russia amid a steady stream of air raids and brutal battles for control of the country. attacks which continue even overnight, with ukraine's air force saying russia launched 185 drone attacks on today's anniversary. this morning, leaders from across europe and canada arriving in kyiv in a show of support for ukraine in their fight against russia. but overshadowing everything the breakdown between president trump and ukrainian leader volodymyr zelenskyy, which puts future u.s. aid to the country in jeopardy. >> do you think you can mend your relationship with president trump? and secondly, have the american side spelt out to you what happens if you don't come to an agreement over this rare earth minerals deal in terms of what it means for u.s. aid? >> as i said, we want a successful agreement. and if we will understand each other with partners, i hope that it will be. we will sign this first

agreement. my relationship with president trump. it's never was in such. best way. >> joining me now for more on this cnn chief international security correspondent, nick paton walsh. nick, we just saw a little bit of your interaction with zelenskyy over the weekend. um, you know, he had his trademark good humor. but clearly, this is quite a high stakes moment for him and for kyiv and and the west more broadly. >> yeah. as we enter into the fourth year of the war here, a show of support, certainly for predominantly european leaders and canadian, uh, justin trudeau here, many of them have taken the multiple day train trip required to get in and physically show their support alongside zelenskyy, and they were joined by many others, uh,

virtually as well. zelenskyy's key message to thank those who lost their lives defending the country and again request nato membership, something he said that if ukraine got, he might even leave his post yesterday during that same press conference, and also say that he'd hand it to trump's envoy, general keith kellogg, during his visit. a list of previous ceasefires and peace deals that russia had agreed to and then broken. look, the key to all of moving forwards now is this rare earth minerals deal. and it is remarkable that so much focus is put on ukraine's resources at a time when i think ukraine urgently wants to know what sort of assistance it can still count on from the trump administration, militarily and financially, wants to know what kind of peace deal potentially is on the table in the discussions that moscow and washington have been having. without them, we've just heard from one of zelenskyy's top officials the idea that that deal is very close, that it's down to the final details, and i hope that it might get signed,

uh, potentially even in washington at some point down the future. this brinkmanship back and forth. but zelenskyy clear yesterday that there were so many terms in earlier drafts that he simply couldn't agree to the half trillion dollar figure suggested as to how much ukraine would eventually need to pay back to the united states, and rejecting the characterization of trump officials that this was debt paid for by the biden administration grants, he said it was, look, this was things that congress agreed to that were never really intended to get paid back. and so this the key of what future aid we may potentially see from the trump administration and also to, as we saw in that exchange, the nervous laughter, really, between zelenskyy and trump itself hanging over as we head into the fourth year of the war here, air raid sirens again on in kyiv just when this large collection of international leaders was here to support zelenskyy. we'll hear more from them during the day, but it is remarkable to see such high profile western delegations here moving around, with the air

sirens in the background. a startling moment, and this war continually tearing up norms, expectations, russia being held back. initially a failed counteroffensive, an uprising that putin put down himself around his kremlin inner circle. and now the moment in which the united states, the key backer of ukraine since the beginning, the reason ukraine, frankly, hasn't folded and found most of its territory occupied by the russians, now very much in doubt in terms of its support and to some degree seemingly more in favor of russian positions than ukraine at the moment, in public, as far as we know. >> and president trump trying to get a meeting on the books with russian president vladimir putin to try to broker such a deal himself. we will see whether there are any advancements toward that in the coming weeks. for now, nick paton walsh in kyiv. nick, thank you. ahead on cnn this morning, growing concerns about the health of the pope. the new diagnosis that could make the pontiff's recovery even more complicated. plus, how the trump

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>> cnn's barbie nadeau joins us live from rome. barbie, how is the pope doing? >> yeah. you know, we got an update a few hours ago, the one we get every morning about how he was overnight. and they said that he had a restful night and was still resting. we understood as well that he is, you know, receiving treatment as usual. but you've got to look at like the progression of events here. on on february 14th, he was admitted to the hospital with a respiratory infection. on wednesday, diagnosis for double pneumonia. one of his lungs of course is compromised. it was removed when he was 19 years old. saturday a major respiratory crisis. and then yesterday, we hear that he had this mild kidney failure. all of this doesn't bode well for a man who's 88 years old with mobility issues. we do understand, though, that tonight that the vatican has organized a prayer service, a rosary service, at 9:00 local time in saint peter's square, which will be, you know, a lot of people who are in rome to help celebrate lent, which begins wednesday with ash wednesday.

we'll undoubtedly be there to offer up their prayers of support, just as he's been receiving all around the world. but people are extremely concerned about the fragility and the complicated clinical case that he presents and his doctors, of course, doing everything they can to try to help him pull through. and they say he's responding to the treatment so far. but we've had a series of twists and turns here in terms of of the complications. kayla. >> barbie nadeau in rome. barbie. thank you. coming up on cnn this morning, growing anger with elon musk's approach to cutting government spending. a closer look at how they're voicing those concerns. plus, the far right in germany making substantial gains. >> we're very, very thankful for everything jd vance did and said. and for elon musk as well. >> guys do crazy things with the puck. the best way to score is a

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trump agenda. >> i came here to have a discussion. >> you i. >> think a lot of you didn't come here in good faith to have a discussion. you came here to yell at me. and to boo me. >> i want to say, for from a conservative perspective. >> this constituent igniting a fiery exchange over massive federal layoffs led by the administration's newly created department of government efficiency. just 20 miles away in atlanta, around 1000 workers fired at the centers for disease control and prevention headquarters. >> why is this supposedly conservative party taking such a radical and extremist and sloppy approach to this? >> i'm in close contact with the cdc, those probationary people, which is about 10% of their employee base, which is about 1300 people, which you're referring to. um, a lot of the work they do is duplicitous with i. >> i've read a lot of the comments on x saying that this was a room full of liberals. >> no, it was not a room full of liberals. it was a room full of

average, normal. every day, americans who are afraid of what is happening with our country. >> jenny lim, a democrat from mccormick's district, tells me this white house post is what compelled her to attend the town hall. >> tyranny is rising in the white house, and a man has declared himself our king. so i would like to know whether the people would like to know what you, congressman, and your fellow congressmen are going to do to rein in the megalomaniac in the white house. >> when you talk about tyranny, when you talk about presidential power. i remember having the same discussion with republicans when biden was elected. >> sturgill tells me he proudly voted for trump three times. but when trump called ukraine's president a dictator. >> this is an embarrassment on the world stage. what was said by our president and i voted for trump. you can't you can't do that. >> and on doge.

>> i think it's a mistake to do it too rapidly. >> maggie goldman, a democrat, hopes the turnout is emblematic of a larger movement. >> hopefully. >> it's an opportunity to show other states that they can also get out and go to these town halls with their representatives. >> isabel rosales. isabel. thank you. i want to bring in the panel here who is still with us. matt, i'll start with you because we have seen not only some of the the uprising from those town halls across the country, but also the nascent frustration with some republican lawmakers. but this is hardly the cavalry that would require donald trump to change course at this point. >> no. i mean, as i was saying before, i was here doing house republican work in 2018 when the health care was really bubbling up. and it was it was very different. when these things succeed, tea party. health care, probably two best examples. it's bottom up where almost party leaders just all of a sudden see this message on the ground and kind of adopt it as themselves. it's not top down. and what was telling for me was obviously the cdc connection, right where it's 20 miles

outside of atlanta. so you're getting a lot of those workers. but the median democratic voter, the median swing voter is not holding fascist signs talking about ukraine. and also not holding preprinted anti elon musk signs. look, i think what you're seeing is the 7.3 million folks who did not vote for hillary but voted for kamala, kind of re awakening a little bit with this maybe democratic enthusiasm. yes. but this is not a sudden swing voter deluge. >> megan i would say another difference between tea party 2010 is a lot of those protests were republicans protesting republicans and saying, you need to dig in. you need to resist. that has not happened yet to democrats right now. and also as someone that was covering sort of the resistance in 2017, you know, i remember going to a town hall in arkansas with tom cotton, and it was much bigger and much angrier than what we just saw right there. >> yeah. megan, i spoke with a senior biden official last week and asked about generally the approach of democrats. and this

person said, look, democrats need to let things be really bad. they need to let the cuts be deep. they need to not try to intervene and soften the blow. that's the only way that they this, in this person's view, that things were actually going to cause voters to vote for change. do you agree with that position? >> i mean, it's hard because it's our country and i don't want to watch it all fall apart. and i don't want to watch some of these really good things that we do have as a country fall apart. but i do think the democrats don't have a lot of power here. their power right now is in the negotiations. on the house side, they have a one. the republicans have a one seat majority, and that's where they hold a lot of power to really stop some of trump's agenda fighting, you know, outside of usaid and and making noise there about doge. is it going to be helpful to them at this moment? because there's nothing actually they can do. so i think that the congress needs to buckle down. they need to figure out what their priorities are, get on a cohesive message, and then fight the things that are really important to the people in their districts. but also what is important to the democratic party, because that is where the democrats have power. >> so that's going to come home to roost. when we're discussing the reconciliation package and

some of the actual agenda items on on the policy front. but even before you get there in 20 days, they're going to have to figure out how to fund the government. i mean, what's the risk that elon musk decides that they want to shut down the government and anyone who's deemed nonessential just doesn't come back? >> well, two things. i don't think. >> it's been elon musk's decision. i think, frankly, it will be democrats in large part. i think they're going to need democratic votes to do this. but i think what's unique about this and different than when it's on the other foot, when republican votes are needed to fund the government, is democrats are naturally more inclined to keep the government running. and i would also caution democrats. i would say, look, if you are nervous about elon musk affecting the government, shut it down and see, because that will that will make his job a lot easier. it's like shutting off a car at a stoplight. it's you have to turn right back on. it's a lot more gas to do that. >> yeah. there have been some recent poll numbers on this. cnn conducted a poll asking respondents whether they supported the role that he was taking, the outsized role that he's been taking in government, 54% said that president trump giving elon musk this prominent role in his administration is a

bad thing. so clearly, that's a. pretty decisive number there, alex. but the other thing that elon musk serving in this role gives president trump is plausible deniability. if elon musk makes some of these decisions, pulls some of these levers, and the outcome is bad, then trump can say, well, that was elon. that wasn't me. that wasn't my administration. he was the special employee. he was in this, you know, rarefied role relatively outside of government. >> i don't think trump minds elon being the bad cop in this situation. i also elon is not a candidate for office. so if people disapprove of him, i don't think it really matters. now the question is, does elon become toxic enough or does he rattle the federal government enough that something really bad happens as he's playing around in the gears, that then it affects trump's popularity? at the moment, we haven't seen evidence that it has yet. >> we will keep the panel here. we're going to discuss the national security implications of some of this in just a bit. but meanwhile, the conservative party coming out on top in germany's snap election,

defeating the social democrats who came in third, surging to second place. the alternative far right, the strongest finish for the party since world war two. issues at the forefront immigration, the economy and the united states. conservative leader friedrich merz is now on track to become chancellor and stressing a need for german independence from america. >> clara tauson. >> the. absolute priority is this. >> my absolute. >> priority will be. >> to strengthen europe. >> as quickly as possible., so that step by step., we can really achieve. >> independence from the united states. >> from donald trump is clear that. >> but at the very. >> least. >> donald trump's statements last week, it is clear that the americans, at least this part of the americans in this administration, are largely indifferent to the fate of europe. >> cnn's melissa bell joins us live now from berlin. melissa, you have said that that this incoming chancellor wants to put

together a governing coalition by easter. how likely is that? >> looking increasingly likely? we understand that. he spoke with his potential coalition partners, the spd, last night. that's according to german media. and just picking up from what friedrich merz, the likely next chancellor of germany, was just saying there, kayla, there is this sense of urgency for europeans. remember that germany is a europe's largest economy. it is also a powerhouse of the european union politically. and as he pointed out last night at his victory speech, because of course, his party came first, even though that doesn't automatically make him make him the next chancellor. there are now discussions to form a coalition. it is because of the stance of the american administration that the world, he said, will not wait for us in german politics has this tradition of functioning relatively slowly. there is this inherent stability in the system. coalition talks can take some time. he announced that he believed a coalition could be

found by easter. and what we understand this morning, from looking again at the results, the fact that two parties have been excluded from the parliament because they did not meet that 5% bar of the vote, the reshuffling of the parliamentary seats means that it looks as though the city and the spd have the seats they need to form a two party coalition, which is likely to prove much more stable than the three party coalition that collapsed at the end of last year. >> melissa. the surge in popularity among the far right party is something that president trump has been celebrating, suggesting it's a global shift toward a more conservative ideology and even drawing some parallels between germany and the united states. is that how you see it across the atlantic? >> there is definitely something that's happened here in this political cycle in germany that is reflected in other european countries as well, and that is a surge in parties representing the far right that tend to be euroskeptic, that tend to want to end aid to ukraine. it is the case of the afd here in germany

that are much more aligned with the policies of the current current american administration, and they are making extraordinary headway. the afd doubled its score on the last elections, it believes, and elon musk has just congratulated it, tweeting in this sense as well, that the one to keep an eye on will be the next federal elections in four years time. the afd believes that they can continue building on that support they have, specifically in the form in the parts of the former east germany where there is a great deal of disaffection about the state of the economy and a great deal of concern about immigration policy. and i think one of the most interesting things you've seen in this campaign is the whole of the political spectrum here in germany moved to the right on those questions of immigration, not least the cdu, the christian democrats that are likely to be able to name the next chancellor in the shape of friedrich merz kyla., melissa bell in berlin. >> melissa. thank you. still ahead here on cnn this morning, assessing the damage, the cia examining whether trump administration efforts to cut payroll at the agency may have exposed undercover agents. plus,

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for standing up to russia's aggression. he spoke about potentially striking a peace deal with vladimir putin. >> putin this year should be the year of the beginning of a real, lasting peace. putin will not give us this peace. he will not give it to >> chip between president trump ends the lenski. the trump administration is signaling and end to usaid for ukraine and pushing for a deal for ukraine's natural resources as payback for previous aid. >> trump officials are also shying away from blaming russia for the invasion.

>> the war didn't need to happen. it was provoked. it doesn't necessarily mean it was provoked by the russians. there were all kinds of conversations back then about ukraine joining nato. the president has spoken about this. that didn't need to happen. >> but fair to say russia attacked unprovoked into ukraine three years ago tomorrow. fair to say it's a very. >> complicated situation. >> joining me now is david sanger, cnn political and national security analyst. david, we're seeing this show of support from western leaders in kyiv today, all while the trump administration continues to sidestep who is to blame for this war. i mean, is this being received as a step change overseas or simply a transactional president trying to gain a meeting with putin in saudi arabia in the coming weeks? >> well, kayla, i think it's a little bit of both, but it has certainly been a remarkable rewriting of history. you know, for anybody. i'm in berlin right now for anybody who was here in munich in the days leading up to the war, three years ago,

watching the negotiations underway or the threats of of sanctions underway with russia, there's no question what happened. the russians invaded ukraine. there was no serious prospect at that moment that the ukrainians were going to join nato anytime soon. nor is there today. um, so this is a rewriting of history and what it has done essentially is put the united states and russia and to some degree, china on the same side of history and maybe the same side of a un resolution, depending on how that plays out today and the rest of europe. indeed, much of the rest of the world sort of recognizing what actually happened. >> and in the rest of europe, as you mentioned, david, there is also a question about sustainability for aid to ukraine chancellor olaf schultz in germany, who is now the outgoing chancellor, was very vocal in his support for ukraine and then suffered a resounding

defeat in the elections yesterday. i want to play with, the incoming chancellor said about his priorities for the country and for europe more broadly. >> my absolute priority will be to strengthen europe as quickly as possible so that step by step we can really achieve independence from the united states. >> from donald trump is clear. >> but at the very least, after donald trump's statements last week, it is clear that the americans, at least this part of the americans in this administration, are largely indifferent to the fate of europe. >> we've heard defense ministers and diplomats, david, saying something similar. but how striking is it to have germany, one of the day facto leaders of the european union, basically talk about not being able to count on the u.s. going forward. >> it's truly remarkable. and i was really struck last night when i heard the we assume incoming chancellor, mr. merz, make that statement about the united states being largely

indifferent to the fate of europe. i mean, think about that. since world war ii, the united states has had a pretty consistent policy across democratic and republican administrations for the defense of europe and merz and other european leaders are now coping. since last week with a new reality. and that reality is that they probably need to put together a european defense, perhaps including a european nuclear defense. that initially would depend on the british and french nuclear arsenals. that is independent from nato. so what we may be seeing here, and it's too early to know how it will play out, is actually the dissolution of nato, or at least its watering down, um, 75 years after it was created as merz and others think about other ways that they're going to have to defend their nations. >> that 75 year anniversary that was just hailed this past summer

in washington, d.c., when all of those leaders came here. but the british and the french leaders will be in washington this week, david, if they cannot convince president trump to reengage with european allies, transatlantic allies, what do you realistically expect they could achieve? >> kayla, there are really two questions. first is what do they get president trump to say? and i'm sure that while they're there, he will probably say some reassuring things. and then the second question is what can they trust he would do if, for example, uh, russia, after an interval of a few years, assuming we get a peace agreement with ukraine, as we all hope that we will, decides to go after ukraine again or decides to try to pick off a smaller nato ally, lithuania, estonia, latvia, something like that. and, uh, i think their confidence that president trump would step in and have the

united states step in, in a unified defense of nato, has got to be pretty low right now. and that's really why you're hearing the kind of statements that we've heard from, uh friedrich merz and others. >> one imagines that could be among the questions that president macron will get when he holds a press conference with president trump later today. we will wait and see what that brings. for now, david sanger, our thanks to you for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> 53 minutes past the hour. here's your morning roundup, an american airlines flight to india diverted to rome with an escort from a pair of italian fighter jets. officials say it was due to a security concern. the plane was inspected, then allowed to leave for new delhi for the first time in more than 20 years. israel's military sending tanks into the occupied west bank. the israelis say residents who were evacuated will be prevented from returning. palestinian authorities call it an escalation of aggression.

another shakeup to the fbi leadership. late last night. president trump naming dan bongino as deputy director of the bureau. bongino is a former secret service agent turned far-right media personality. and in a post celebrating bongino's hiring, president trump said the podcaster is, quote, willing and prepared to give up his popular podcast and radio show to take the new job. the panel is still here with me. matt, what do you make of the appointment of dan bongino? do you know much about his policy views and what he said about the fbi and what he would hope to do there? >> well, i took away from it more than anything else was they kept this very quiet and obviously didn't appoint him until well after kash patel was already confirmed. so this wouldn't be an issue in patel's confirmation. possibly. maybe sway some of the senators. and i will say he is a very, very, very influential voice on the right as podcast is extremely popular. um, so this will be very interesting to see how it goes in that role. and obviously also not senate confirmable. >> yes, that is true. new reporting this morning, a source

telling cnn that the cia is conducting a formal review to assess any potential damage from an email sent to the white house earlier this month. the email in question, an unclassified message that identified some newly hired employees by their first name and last initial, a move that could potentially expose the roles of people working undercover abroad. sources previously told cnn that the email was sent in an effort to comply with an executive order to downsize the federal workforce, but critics were quick to call it out as a risk to national security. >> these are people who, in many instances, will have spent years in training and arguably years in getting security clearances. so just, you know, an absolute unnecessary counterintelligence risk was assumed today. >> alex. cnn had reported in this piece that is up on our website, which i encourage everybody to go read that there are several people who have already been dismissed from their jobs at the cia because there was a worry they were in

the hiring process, but there was a worry because of their disclosure in this email that they could be compromised in the future. i mean, is this a one time oversight, or is this something that you think is is of of higher concern? >> well, this is the difference between going in and rebuilding twitter and the federal government and that there are bigger potential consequences when you are going in and trying to just, you know, fire people sort of willy nilly and then trying to rehire them. and that's why you've seen, you know, this is this is a part of many little mistakes that could have huge consequences this first month. you're talking about, you know, stuff dealing with nuclear reactors and the faa. and the hope is that there aren't, you know, dire consequences to some of these changes. but that is the risk. >> and the treasury payment system also, that has been in focus, this obscure sort of plumbing of the federal government has also been part of this, because cnn's reported that a senior treasury official sent a memo to treasury

secretary scott bessent saying, like, look, every single payment from the federal government, whether it's to an asset stationed overseas or a front company through which the government is doing business. all of that goes through this treasury payment system. and if you have a snapshot of what all of those, uh, and vendors are, then you could learn a lot that perhaps you don't really necessarily want to know about. >> i mean, to alex's point, these mistakes have real world implications. it has implications not only to people's safety, but to our national security, whether it's exposing them by name or whether it's exposing how they're getting paid. that's, you know, one thing about the federal government, there is a paper trail on everything. we don't walk around in cash and just hand out cash willy nilly, like a lot of countries might do with their assets abroad. so we do have end system payments, and that is a huge problem. and it's not just a problem that elon musk has access to it. no one knows who's working for elon musk. and all the reports say there's like a 19 year old kid running around who doesn't have any understanding or any foresight of what the government actually does and what these

things actually mean and the consequences. >> matt, the white house has said that elon is going to be his own cop on the beat, that he will disclose conflicts where needed and that they will be as transparent as they can. what grade would you give them on that mark so far? >> i think it remains to be seen, and i think one of the other things i would, i would consider is the fact that even if they have that standard, they're not going to tell broadly the american people, i think they want to keep it in house and keep that internally. i would i would assume that's where they're going with it. and one of things that also jumped out at me in, in cnn's reporting was the fact that the cia was concerned that some of these people that would be layoffs or buyouts within the cia, would be open to selling secrets to a foreign asset. and that jumped out at me. the fact that they would, you know, this would cause possibly honestly cause treasonous activity. um, on the part of some of these layoffs. i certainly hope that's not true. um, but it's something obviously guard against as well. >> alex. final word. >> uh. stay tuned. i think we're i can tell you the trump team is undeterred by any of this blowback. and we are and they are just getting started. >> and we know now about the the

thousands of layoffs coming to the pentagon, the fact that doge is now targeting nonessential workers beyond probationary employees. and so we'll see just exactly how far these cuts go before i let my panel go. what are you watching this week? >> i'm still watching doge because i think, you know, the fact that trump said ellen over the weekend, trump keep going or sorry, trump told ellen. keep going. ratchet it up. i think you're going to see it get even crazier. >> megan. >> i think i'm also watching doge in the military cuts and at dod and seeing how people react to that. people do not like to feel like our national security is at risk, and people like how much money we spend in the military. so i think they'll be really interesting to see. >> similar to that, if you keep plussing up defense spending, it's a lot harder for republicans make an argument on spending. if we keep it the same, it's a lot easier because it hits home for republicans as well. >> and then there is the fact that the remote work deadline is this week, so workers will have to come back into the office. we will see whether, in fact, they actually do that. we'll leave it there. thank you to my panel for joining us. thank you for joining us at home. i'm kayla