russian aggression in ukraine. there is a range of opinions on how relevant the united nations is is on any given day, but how big of a turn or reversal do you think that move is. >> in terms of the u.s. moral leadership in the world? it's it's it's disastrous. it's frankly one of the most public facing changes in u.s. courts that we've seen. you have a continuity in foreign policy across administrations. you might have some some adjustments, but there's generally a continuity. we haven't had a reverse course where we went from declaring somebody an enemy, an adversary, a dictatorship to now embracing them. >> yeah. like sky is blue, sky is green is essentially what it kind of is. >> it is a disastrous about face from that standpoint. now, whether all this chaos could actually claw back some sort of gains, zelenskyy is going to be in town in two days. there might be some element of substance to this deal. it's always a good thing for the u.s. to be on side with with an ally for both

values or with democracies. we have shared common values, but also interests. if there is a deal to be had, a fair deal where minerals are coming from, ukraine, ukraine is getting the investment. it feeds our tech industry. rare earths are extremely important for our economy. if that could come, if that could be realized, that's a good thing. i've talked to my senior contacts in ukraine, one of the most senior former leaders there. he said it's a good deal in that it brings the u.s. in. it puts us kind of hooks the u.s. to be involved. but it has. the numbers have to make sense. it can't be this extortion that zelenskyy is rejecting for for aid granted under biden. and it has to have some sort of promise of continued support going forward. i think security assurances are a bridge too far, but continued u.s. support could be important. the question is, how do you reconcile that with what trump has been saying and with his embrace?

>> so how do you reconcile those those personalities, as you said, this, the leaders might not get along in private. and since the beginning of time, but how this animosity has been showing up in public seems like it's going to be, i don't know, tough to overcome or not, i don't know. >> i think the book is frankly pretty clear in that it points to the mistakes of both republicans and democrats engaging with russia, and most notably with putin for the past 25 years, and that there are lessons to be learned from these these mistakes that, you know, thinking that you could do more with russia or succumbing to fears actually puts you in greater risk long term. and the trump administration is cast all of that to the side and is starting from a blank slate, even though he had four years working with with putin, didn't manage to accomplish that much. i don't know how you could discount all that history. the prescription is actually to learn the lessons of the past. some of the things i suggest in the book figure out that our most important relationships are with our allies. they are the ones that drive our economic prosperity. they give us the strength to withstand attacks

from our enemies like they did in 9/11, after the 9/11 attacks. that's where we should be putting our efforts. that's why i advocate for this idea of neo idealism and think that realism has been a huge folly for us for the past six administrations. >> so interesting. it's great to see you and congrats on the book and thanks for the perspective. really appreciate it. thank you sir. oh, a new hour of cnn news starts now with sarah. >> this could prove to be awkward for the president, his cabinet members and elon musk. in just hours, they all gathered for the first cabinet meeting of trump's second term. the senate elected billionaire has a seat at the very important table, and a lot of republicans not so happy about it. all right, a late night win for the gop on capitol hill. multiple holdouts flipping and siding with speaker johnson to pass a budget blueprint, a crucial victory for trump's sweeping agenda. but now they have to reconcile it with the senate budget plan. and investigations are underway into

a pair of close calls at two of america's biggest airports. how a quick thinking southwest airlines pilot stopped what could have been a catastrophe on the runway. i'm sara sidner with john berman and kate bolduan. this is cnn news central. power influence. and very soon, his own seat at a very powerful, very influential table this morning. we're standing by for president trump to hold his first cabinet meeting in his new term, with elon musk in the room. this as cnn is now learning, some of president trump's senate confirmed cabinet members who will be there, too, are growing more frustrated over musk's email demand to millions of federal workers, a demand the president this morning says is still, and i'm quoting him, somewhat voluntary. but if you don't answer it, i guess you get fired. cnn's alayna treene has new reporting from the white house for us this morning.

elena, what are you learning? >> well, look, sara, i think it's very clear if people didn't recognize the massive amount of influence that elon musk has, it's going to be further solidified today when he joins that cabinet meeting. but look, to get to the some of the reporting of what we're hearing and what you're describing is i've talked to several white house and trump administration officials, and many of them acknowledge that, yes, these cabinet secretaries included, believe that there is maybe some bloat in the government. they believe that they doge should be looking at waste, fraud and abuse in areas where they can cut, but what they are growing frustrated with is the ways in which elon musk is carrying out that kind of chainsaw moves to slash the federal workforce. and part of it really stems to that email that you mentioned that. what did you do last week? email where musk sent this over the weekend and said that if people do not respond by a certain date, that they could be fired and then later doubled down on that, saying, people who do not respond could have their employment terminated. that's where some of this i'm hearing. the frustration really started

to grow because part of this is many of these cabinet secretaries had just been sworn into office. they are still assessing who is under them in their agencies, who, you know, the needs of their agencies. but also, you know, this question of who has the authority to make these firing decisions. i remind you that musk is a special government employee. he was not a senate confirmed member of donald trump's cabinet or even member of this administration. and so there are questions of whether he had the authority to do that. now, we did hear karoline leavitt, the press secretary yesterday, say that the president supports these different secretaries to make their own decisions and issue guidance to their employees on their own. but that's where a lot of this frustration and annoyance, i'm told, is really stemming from. but the important thing to keep in mind here is that the one person who is not getting on musk is not getting under his skin, is the president himself. he has repeatedly said that he supports what musk is doing. he and also offered a post of encouragement this morning, saying that he wanted to thank elon musk and telling

him to run elon run. so it's clear that he hasn't annoyed the person who of course matters the most here, and that is president donald trump. sarah. >> it's also clear that he is behind what musk is doing, even as republicans are facing some serious pushback in town halls across the country about his behavior. so we'll have to see what happens when it comes to musk at this cabinet meeting. it ought to be interesting. alayna treene, thank you so much. appreciate it. kate. >> so republican leaders in the house, they are breathing a sigh of relief this morning after facing an internal revolt over their budget blueprint that brought plans for a vote to a halt. they eventually eked it out with the help of president trump, making some last minute calls to republican holdouts. and if that wasn't hard enough, that's just the first step. this now sets republicans in the house and senate on a collision course to finally decide what they are going to do with president trump's agenda. cnn's lauren fox joining us now from washington, d.c., probably with a bit of whiplash this morning. lauren, where do things

go now? >> yeah, it was so interesting last night. we were. actually walking out. >> of the chamber. >> there was sort of this mass exodus from. >> republican members. >> democrats were. jovial because they thought that the house republicans did not have the votes to pass this. and then just as all these lawmakers were leaving, they got called back to the house floor for yet another vote, because leadership did believe that they had the votes to pass this budget blueprint. but as you noted, now things get a lot more difficult for speaker johnson. this was a huge victory for him. his leadership team really worked during the recess to try to shore up the support that they needed to assuage concerns from swing districts to republicans, that some of these cuts to programs like medicaid would come down the line, and that they would be very careful about what exactly they were cutting with these immense spending slashes. but one thing remains clear they have to find a way to come to some kind of consensus with the united states senate, because the senate has a totally different budget blueprint that doesn't include raising the debt ceiling. that

doesn't include outlining a plan for trump's tax bill, and instead just deals with spending some money on the border and on defense. last night, it became clear that republicans in the senate do want to make some of these changes to the house's bill. so that really leaves uncertain what the path is forward here. if it was so hard to get the votes on this blueprint with conservatives, can you water it down at all with the senate and still get the votes you need? >> and as you well know, just to remind all of our viewers how many votes you need to get for passage depends on how many people are in the chamber. and there's new reporting on. democrats were also scrambling to make sure they had uh, as much attendance as possible last night. even a member coming coming off maternity leave. >> yeah, absolutely. there were actually a couple of notable democratic democrats showing up for this vote because their leadership is arguing to them. it's essential you be here because every member on our side that's not here gives mike johnson some wiggle room to lose votes on his side. so you had last night brittany pettersen,

who is from colorado, flying with her one month old to make it to this vote. she has been really fighting hard for remote voting opportunities for people in congress who are on maternity or paternity leave, so that they don't have to be flying back and forth. but the speaker has repeatedly denied that effort, and therefore she was on a plane with her one month old coming to congress, making herself available for this vote. we also saw last night another democrat coming who was recovering from surgery and had to fly on the plane with an i.v. i think that representative mullen made the case that he also wanted to be present to vote against this budget resolution, but that just shows you the kinds of lengths that members have to go to. now, that remote voting is no longer an option after the pandemic. kate. >> i mean, i'm just one that is an adorable baby with that little head of hair, too. that's i mean, if it's a one month old, hasn't even had all

the baby shots yet. oh my god, i feel so bad that she had to do that. but i'm just going to stare at that. that is delicious. and further proof that women are magical unicorns. as my daughters like to say. there it is. case in point. good to see you, lauren. thank you john. >> that is a statement of fact. >> all right. >> back to the cabinet meeting. we are standing by for this first cabinet meeting of donald trump's new term. and i just want to remind people what cabinet meetings were like in donald trump's first term. now, i'm not sure if this was the exact first cabinet meeting, but it was a very memorable one. listen. >> thank you, mr. president. >> and just. the greatest privilege of my life. and it's. >> to serve as. >> as vice president to. >> a president who's. >> keeping his. >> word to. >> the. >> american people. >> mr. president. >> i am. privileged to be here, deeply honored. >> and i. >> want.

>> to thank. >> you for. >> keeping your. >> commitment to the. >> american workers. >> mr. president, what an incredible honor it is to to lead the department of health and human services at this pivotal time under your leadership. i can't thank you enough for the the privilege that you've given me and the leadership that you've shown. >> mr. president, thank you for the honor to serve the country. it's a great privilege you've given me. >> on behalf of. >> the entire. >> senior staff. >> around you, mr. president, we. >> thank you for the. >> opportunity and the. >> blessing that you've given. >> us to serve your agenda. >> and the american people. >> i want. to congratulate you. >> on the men and. >> women you've placed around this table. this is a team you've assembled that's working hand in glove with for the betterment of america. and i want to i want to thank you for that. these are great team members, and we're on your team. >> thank you, mr. president. it was a great honor traveling with you around the country for the last year and an even greater honor to be here serving in your cabinet. >> actually, i think we could have played an even longer clip of that. it went on and on and on with us. now, cnn political commentator karen finney, also republican strategist and former rnc communications director doug

heye, added to what will surely be a certain level of adulation today, you have the elon musk factor who will be in the room. i suppose i could ask, where is that adulation going to go? is going to go to president trump, or is it going to go to elon musk? >> i think. >> we'll hear a lot of what we what we heard in the clip that you just showed. but look, anytime you've been in any meeting where that one sort of interloper outsider shows up, you have members or people in that in that meeting who are saying to themselves, who is this guy? you know, and if there are phones on the table, they're texting each other. who is this person? who the hell is this guy? what is he saying? why is he in this room? that's what we used to do in house leadership. when sean spicer would come into our leadership communications meetings. this is obviously higher stakes, but there are tensions that have been built because a lot of these cabinet members, they didn't necessarily sign up for some of the moves that we've seen just over the past few weeks. >> you think they want him in there? karen? >> i do not. and i think, look, the images that we're going to see will essentially also mean they own it. they own him just as trump owns him. and i think i hope democrats really do that

because, you know, musk's increasing unpopularity and the increasing unpopularity of what doge is doing, each of those cabinet members is now going to own that as they own these agencies. and so and they're the ones who are getting the calls from members of congress. frankly, having worked in the federal government, you get calls from people just around the country who are, you know, have questions about, well, why did this get cut? or how come i haven't gotten my tax return? so point being, they're all going to own this wacky guy with that, you know, crazy buzzsaw and sunglasses as part of the administration. and, you know, i think we also should remember that within a lot of those agencies, he also has contracts that are going, you know, that are going through in some instances. we know there have been investigations. so i agree that a number of these cabinet secretaries are thinking, oh my god, how am i going to manage this? and we've heard trump's about to tell them, you got to

make even more cuts, which is going to be unpopular with the american people. >> you know, karen touched on something right there. what should democrats do about this and how should they approach elon musk? and james carville has got an op ed in the new york times today where he says the democrats should should roll over and play dead. i wrote it down just so people could see the. >> words on the screen. >> i just want to make sure people can see it. i have a longer thing i can read here. i don't know if we have this with no clear leader to voice our opposition and no control in any branch of government, it's time for democrats to embark on the most daring political maneuver in the history of our party. roll over and play dead. allow the republicans to crumble beneath their own weight and make the american people miss us. so what do you think about that? is elon musk giving democrats, doug, the opportunity here that they need? >> he potentially is. and i think this could be a slow burn because as people are laid off from government, those are real jobs and real communities. and so i'm from north carolina. if i see, uh, you know, hhs and cdc

jobs, that affects certainly the research triangle park, that also affects community, small community health care centers. right. so you start talking about medical deserts. you won't feel that immediately, but you may feel that 3 or 6 months down the line and that and we can talk about va and whether a lot of veterans in north carolina, california certainly as well, these kind of slow burns can have a help. but i've never heard of a winning political strategy that just says, don't do anything. no i'm not. respect to james. roll over and play dead. not really viable in politics. >> what about that karen? >> yeah. uh, i disagree with james. that's not surprising. we disagree on a lot of things. i think the the i would say it slightly differently. stay out of the way of, you know, the dumpster fire and let them burn themselves out. just stay on the fire. metaphor that doug started because again, as we saw last week, the american people can see and feel with their own eyes that what they're being told is not true, as they see people losing jobs. and the way that that's also impacting other jobs within their community. and

one quick thing, you know, we talked a little bit about the budget just a moment ago, earlier, uh, the layered impact that some of these things are going to have. so you've got these doge cuts. trump wants more cuts. then when we see what actually ends up in the budget that they pass, the kind of layered impact that that's going to have in communities across the country is going to be the best civics lesson that people could have ever had about who really works in the federal government, what those jobs really do, and how it really impacts their lives very directly. >> doug, how important is it at this cabinet meeting? and it's not like donald trump, the president doesn't have a forum all day, every day to say things out loud. but this is a particular kind of form. let's talk about inflation to talk about the economy, to talk about the issues that got him elected, that voters say they want to hear more about, but they're not honestly hearing from him day in and day out right now. >> yeah. and i'd start with the border. you know trump has had a lot of success at the border. what we've seen in border crossings, it's massively reduced. and this is something he was elected on very broadly.

>> it was down to the end of biden's term. it's basically. >> but now it's but now the water has essentially been shut off. and in politics you claim credit for any good thing that happens. and i'm surprised that trump hasn't taken credit for this, but i'm not so much interested in what happens at the cabinet meeting. it will be political theater. we're used to that. i'm more interested in the conversations that happen when these cabinet members walk out of that cabinet meeting. what are they texting each other after the meeting? >> well, hopefully we'll get access to that. i hope it all leaks. doug heye, thank you very much for being here. karen finney, great to talk to you as well, sarah. >> all right. and ohio woman is claiming reverse discrimination after she said she was passed up for a promotion and demoted. she says it was because she is straight. moments from now, the supreme court is going to hear that case. plus, some federal workers are fighting to get their jobs back. details on the independent federal protection board that is challenging their terminations. we will talk with them live. >> on twitter. that's a great name. we invented a whole new thing.

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comes about a year and a half after they overturned race based admissions programs, so called affirmative action. so this is definitely one to watch. i will note that the ohio department of youth services argues that if you take. >> away this higher bar. >> this extra requirement for members of majority groups, that. that would basically allow almost all discrimination claims to go to court. so definitely one of the biggest cases of the term. and the arguments will get under way in. >> about an hour here. >> all right. so interesting. paula, thank you so much for laying it out for us. we'll see what what what it all comes out from those arguments today john. >> all right. this morning, three major legal setbacks for president trump in the span of 90 minutes. and new details on how one obscure agency could help thousands of fired federal workers get their jobs back. >> amid upheaval and sweeping changes. >> the president. >> of the united states. >> trump, heads to capitol hill to share what's next. follow cnn for complete coverage and

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freeze federal funding to nonprofit groups through a broad directive of the office of management and budget that could be potentially catastrophic to those nonprofit organizations, essentially fatal to them. so that can happen. and then a third judge said that foreign aid money going through usaid out to contractors and nonprofit groups doing work around the globe, get that money to them that is owed. that is judge amir ali saying that in court yesterday. and he gave the federal government a deadline of midnight tonight to turn the money back on to get those payments made to usaid contractors and nonprofits. but, john, the federal government then came back in court late last night in a filing and told the judge, it's not that easy. we shut off the money and it's going to take us weeks to get it out to those contractors and nonprofits working in foreign

aid. peter, morocco, the usaid top manager right now, wrote to the court, restarting funding related to terminated or suspended agreements is not as simple as turning on a switch or faucet. so they want more time. they're going to an appeals court this morning. this is a very live situation, a clash between potentially the courts, the foreign aid world and the trump administration over what to do with trump's attempt to shut down that entire agency's work at usaid. john. >> look, it has such consequences. i understand you've got some new information about fired federal workers maybe getting their jobs back for now. >> yeah. john, another live ball in court overnight. there's a board that reinstated six fired employees who were probationary workers in the federal government. so they weren't on probation. they were just new to their jobs. the trump administration is firing

thousands of people like this across many different agencies. this came these people came from a bunch of different agencies and said, this feels improper. and the board looked at their cases and said, yeah, we agree. reinstate them for 45 days to their jobs in federal agencies. and we're going to then take a closer look in court with more proceedings to come. one of those people who lost their jobs among these federal probationary workers who have been fired, john, it was a disabled veteran who on the same day he lost his job, was told by his supervisor that his work was going above and beyond. so that's why the board thinks that there may be a problem here, because you are not supposed to be able to fire federal workers without cause. john. >> interesting contradictions there. all right. katelyn polantz, great reporting. thank you very much, sara. >> all right. james eisenman is now joining us. he previously worked on that little known merit systems protection board that caitlin was just mentioning. he is with me to

talk through this. what? what power does this board have to reinstate employees? >> well. >> good morning. thanks for having me. the merit systems. >> protection board has the power. to hear. appeals from federal employees, federal whistleblowers who have been fired or retaliated against. and the board has the authority through either its. >> administrative judges. >> or the board itself. to reinstate federal employees who have been wrongly fired. >> how does the board work? >> so the board works through initially appeals to administrative judges. the board has regional and field offices throughout the country. there are about 65 administrative judges. someone a federal employee who is fired files an appeal in one of those regional offices. the administrative judge conducts a hearing much like a trial, except there's no jury calling of witnesses, bringing of evidence. the judge

issues a decision. that decision from the judge can be appealed to the three board members at headquarters of the mspb. >> i want to get your take on this. we just heard from an employee and her attorney who said that she was fired for what doge called poor performance, she says, though she has never had a poor performance review in her almost 20 years working for veterans affairs, and she had just changed her position and became a provisional employee. she says her supervisor wasn't even aware she was being fired. she just got an email saying that her job had been terminated for poor performance. how does doge have all this power and are you seeing something here that just doesn't make sense? something the board could look at. >> yeah, that's a great question. how doge has this authority? i'm not quite sure that they actually do have this authority. and these notices that have been going out to federal employees throughout the throughout the federal government about their

performance being subpar are really just cookie cutter. they're not. individualized evaluations of of employee's performance. um, which to me just shows what a what a sham. the entire process of firing these probationary employees is. >> what can employees do if they've lost their jobs? and i mean, do they have to hire an attorney? is that what they have to do, even though they're in this financial situation that, you know, many of them may not be able to afford one? >> right. there are a number of groups that are working to help federal employees in all these situations to, uh, address their or get redress for their, their rights. um, they don't have to hire attorneys. the process is an administrative process which is designed, hopefully for individuals to manage it themselves. however, this can be a complicated area, especially whether someone is a probationary employee or not.

but there are a number of groups out there that are trying to assist federal employees as they go through this, uh, very, very difficult and complicated time. but there are a lot of groups out there trying to help help them out. >> just lastly, what are your thoughts overall on what you're seeing doge do here, where there are mass firings and there are more expected to come here? >> overall, it's a it's a travesty. and to me it's just an assault on the rule of law. um, there is no real consideration for the impact of these firings on the agencies, on the mission of the agencies and on the individuals themselves. they are simply just slash and burn for just the sake of cutting without actually any thought to it. i think in the end, it will harm the federal workforce. the public, at some point. >> james aizenman, thank you so much for coming on this morning. really appreciate your time

there from washington, dc. okay. >> so ukraine's president zelenskyy is heading to washington to meet with president trump on friday as the two agree to minerals deal. but what is in this deal and how much do they agree? it seems it all comes down to this meeting on friday and two close calls for two planes from major airlines, one in chicago, the other in dc. what forced both of them to abort landings yesterday? >> have i got news for you is back. let's think of some new games to play. >> what do you got? yes, something like a. >> oh eight. >> keep playing the same games. >> yeah. >> let's. >> do the same games. >> have i got news for you? saturday at nine on cnn. >> sometimes it takes a different approach. >> great. let's go with that. >> one to see the possibilities all around you. at capella university, you'll learn in-demand business skills relevant to the career you want. >> buying a car is kind of a big

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>> any season. >> i'm natasha bertrand at the pentagon, and this is cnn. >> breaking news this morning. ukrainian president zelenskyy addressing the potential minerals deal with the united states ahead of his trip to the white house, expected friday. zelenskyy, now saying that the deal could be a big success, but making clear that it's not done yet. >> if we understand that the u.s. will be one of the countries or one of the leading countries who give security guarantees, then this could be a success or the first step towards a sustainable, fair peace. growth of the ukrainian economy. or if it's just some sort of beginning without a vision for the end, we will make conclusions. after my conversation with president trump. >> joining us right now, cnn's jim sciutto has been watching all all of this every time they speak. it's something, you know, you have to piece through and parse through their words. i mean, it feels like there could be a lot riding on this white house meeting also feels like there are a lot more of this.

negotiation is like playing out in public than really anyone has seen before. >> you know, from ukraine's perspective, at this point, it seems that ukraine's view is that if it doesn't signal willingness to give trump what he wants in terms of access to its minerals, that the possibility of a security arrangement is off the table at this point, it's not a straight up quid pro quo, because the u.s. and president trump has offered no such security guarantee yet. but given the dissolution of this relationship over the last couple of weeks, ukraine seems to feel, it's got to say i'm willing to go there to hold open the possibility of a security guarantee. and i don't think we should frame these as free and fair negotiations, right or equal negotiations, because ukraine is very much at the disadvantage here. right? because without u.s. military support, um, it's

an existential question for ukraine. they fear they lose their country. and my understanding from speaking to u.s. lawmakers in touch with ukrainian officials, is that ukraine fears it could lose even more than the promise of security guarantees. u.s. intelligence sharing, for instance, perhaps even access to the starlink network, which it needs, of course, controlled by elon musk. so ukraine is fearing it could lose it all if it doesn't at least keep open this path. >> and jim, i mean, everyone remembers that these two men have had a long and rocky road when it comes to a relationship of cutting any kind of deal. um, and i'm just kind of looking at the context of, you know, that's the backdrop of what i'm kind of looking at this one through. yeah. >> listen, this is not the first time that president trump has tied security assistance to ukraine or in this case, just

the possibility of security assistance or security guarantees to something he wants in return. remember, this was the substance of the first impeachment when president trump, according to folks inside his own administration at the time, withheld u.s. military assistance to ukraine to pressure ukraine to investigate joe biden, who was going to be his opponent in that election. so it's not the first time trump has made that connection, sort of made this a transactional relationship. uh, and i think sometimes commentators, observers will miss the consistency in trump's approach to ukraine, which going back to the first administration and seems to be the case right now based on his public comments, is trump does not see ukraine as central to america's security and therefore he doesn't feel that his hands are tied, that he could almost take it or leave it right. in terms of ukraine. ukrainian military support, he may still get there. he may offer some assurances.

but as it stands now, you know, this this minerals deal is just to keep open that possibility. it's not even to to guarantee that security guarantee. it's, it's a it's quite a shift in the relationship. >> yeah. it's going to be interesting to see what that relationship looks like when they sit down on friday for sure. it's good to see you, jim. thanks, sarah. >> all right. ahead, monica lewinsky says she was thrown under the bus when the scandal involving then president bill clinton made headlines around the world. she's now saying something she's never really publicly said before about clinton. her story ahead. >> united states of scandal with jake tapper returns sunday, march 9th, on cnn. >> tackling quarterbacks or tackling. >> subscriptions. >> if i had to. >> choose tackling quarterbacks because it's so easy to tackle subscriptions with experience. >> easy. >> i'll go tackle. >> those quarterbacks. >> even. >> though it's. >> hard. >> download the. >> app now.

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breaking the bird premieres march 9th on cnn. >> two different passenger planes, two different cities forced to abort landings yesterday. american airlines flight was preparing to land at reagan national airport outside d.c., of course, when it suddenly canceled its landing to avoid colliding with another plane that was preparing to take off from the same runway. passengers telling cnn that it was terrifying as they could see how close they were to the ground before the plane turned sharply upward. and then it. chicago, a southwest flight aborted its landing at midway when a private plane, you'll see entered the runway that that exact plane was intending to land on. the two planes got as close as some 2000ft of each other. passengers spoke about their experiences afterward. >> i just feel very thankful for who we had flying our plane. yes, and i was already kind of anxious going on the plane just because of what's been happening this year so far with

all the flights, you know, crashing and things happening. so i was already anxious. and then when that happened, i, i was extra thankful. very thankful for the pilot and everyone who was involved. >> so flexjet is the company that operates that private jet you saw on the runway, says that it has launched an investigation into this incident. to be sure, john. >> the video of that aborted landing is remarkable. >> i know. >> all right. new this morning monica lewinsky talking in ways she has not before about the events that led to the impeachment of bill clinton. this is on one of the most popular podcasts in the country. she says the then president should have handled it much differently. let's get right to cnn's elizabeth wagmeister for the latest on this. elizabeth. >> hey, john. so for the first time ever, monica lewinsky is. saying that. she believes. >> that former. >> president bill clinton should have resigned. >> amid their affair in the 90s. now, lewinsky says that if he didn't resign, that she wishes that he didn't lie about their

relationship. those are her words. let's take more of a look at what she had to say. >> when you look back. >> once the news. broke and how everything was handled by media and the. >> white house, how do you. >> think it should have been handled? >> have you thought. >> about that? oh my gosh. >> um. >> good question. i haven't been asked that before, so, uh, i think that the right way to handle a situation like that would have been to probably say it was, you know, nobody's business. and to resign, you know, or to find a way to find a way of staying in office that was not lying and not throwing a young person who was just starting out in the world under the bus. i think there was so much collateral damage for women of of my generation to watch a

young woman to be pilloried on the world stage, to be torn apart, you know, from my sexuality, for my mistakes, for my everything. >> now, you see. >> there, lewinsky sitting. >> with alex cooper, who is the number one. >> female podcaster. >> in the world. john, you may remember that last year, cooper sat down with kamala harris in the final stretch of the election in an effort to reach young women. and that is what lewinsky was doing by sitting down with alex cooper. she's reaching a new generation of female listeners, some of whom may actually have never heard of monica lewinsky story. that's hard to imagine. but for gen z listeners and viewers who weren't alive yet in the 90s, this may have been the first time that they actually heard her story, and monica went on to talk about her own podcast, which she just launched, which

is called reclaiming all about reclaiming her narrative and reclaiming her name after she says that it was smeared in the media for decades. >> all right, elizabeth wagmeister for us. thank you very much for that. i have to say, monica lewinsky, to hear her say, and she's answered so many questions over the years. and listening to her, i think, is actually really education. >> to say the. >> same thing. she's had such an important evolution when she says, i've never been asked that before. it's really interesting to hear her say that. well, why not? i mean, it's actually it was a great question. >> why not? it is also a good question, but i agree. i was going to say hearing her talk about and reflect on her experience with in present day and what she's learned is always fascinating, interesting and important. thank you all so much for joining us. this is cnn news central, cnn newsroom. up next. >> amid upheaval and sweeping changes. >> the president of the united states. >> trump heads to capitol hill to share what's next. follow cnn for complete coverage and

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