before olivia benson retires. i would like to be a meaningful extra on law and order svu with a role that is an extra meaningful. like i don't want just one line. i want to be a meaningful part of the story in a good way. >> all right. >> well, i'm in a similar boat. it's been my dream for a long time to appear in a movie. so i'm going to shoot my shot with our overlords at warner brothers. i understand you make some movies and have for some years. i just want to be in a movie. i. i will do a nude scene. tasteful. >> wait a second. >> or and tasteful. but i just want a chance. i promise you i will not. i will not disappoint you. you give me a chance, warner brothers. i've seen some of your movies. you could use new actors. i will literally kill it for you in a movie. just give me 30s on the big screen. i will do it. i will do. >> it would. >> be better. >> i will do it. >> okay. scott. all right. it's been it's been relayed to the to the people above us. >> hbo

>> all right. so here's a new one. doge isn't just trying to find ways to looking for dead people. plus, the other billionaire facing backlash, jeff bezos overhauls a major part of the washington post. now, staffers are asking, is he bending to trump? and later suing for reverse discrimination? it's exactly what you think it is. the supreme court may be about to give it nine thumbs up. tonight on laura coates live. so we all know that donald trump is no stranger to perhaps unconventional cabinet meetings. but the first one of his second term, it might just take the cake. elon musk got the number two billing after, of course, president trump himself, even though the doge overseer is not

a cabinet member. he got the triple speaking time, the triple, the amount that anyone else in the entire room. and he was the first person the president went to. after a quick prayer. >> i would like to have elon musk please say a few words. thank you. >> thank you, mr. president. well, i actually just call myself a humble tech support here because this is actually. as crazy as it sounds that that is almost a literal description of the work that the doge team is doing. >> almost literal. let's get practical, because elon musk and doge are not just humble tech support. they're not doing. they're doing a lot more than perhaps restarting computers, doing software updates. they're leading the charge for upcoming large scale federal layoffs. they claim they have canceled thousands of government contracts, although some of what they've claimed is not actually accurate. they've accessed or at least tried to access critical federal systems. and as a result, they have triggered a

whole wave of lawsuits. musk's push to reshape the government so vast even some cabinet secretaries are a bit miffed. but trump tried to put on a united front today, sort of. with the cameras rolling on his cabinet. >> he let the cabinet speak just for a second. >> yeah, exactly. >> we're either unhappy to say it. >> you know. >> if you are, will throw them out. >> of here. is anybody unhappy? they are. >> they have a lot of respect for elon and that he's doing this. and some disagree a little bit. but i will tell you, for the most part, i think everyone is not only happy, they're thrilled. >> speak now or forever hold your peace. at a shotgun wedding. now, most of that little bit of disagreement is over the what did you do last week? email maye musk says another one is coming after the

downright confusion and mixed messages over whether federal workers should even respond. now, he claims about a million people have replied so far and tried to explain just what it's all about. >> i think that email perhaps was best interpreted as a performance review, but actually it was a pulse check review. do you have a pulse? do you have a pulse and two neurons? um, so if you have a pulse on two neurons, you can reply to an email. we think there are a number of people on the government payroll who are dead, which is probably why they can't respond. um, and, and some people who are not real people, like, they literally fictional individuals. >> dead people. where have i heard this before? >> i see dead people. >> just to be clear, if the goal is to find dead people, there are better ways than mass

emailing millions of federal workers. you might say more efficient ways, right? and this seems to give away that it was just more than a pulse check. i mean, messages musk posted or reposted on his platform indicating it is some kind of performance review. he talks about people with good responses, getting promotions. then you've got the president himself who interrupted the cabinet meeting to say this. >> i'd like to add that those million people that haven't responded though, elon, they are on the bubble. you know, i wouldn't say that we're thrilled about it. you know, they haven't responded. now, maybe they don't exist. maybe they're going to be gone. maybe they're not around. maybe they have other jobs. maybe they moved and they're not where they're supposed to be. a lot of things could have happened. >> it's a lot of maybes, incredibly vague, and maybe that's the point, because it keeps the door open for trump to decide what he wants to do.

joining me now, cnn analyst zolan kanno-youngs, democratic strategist chuck rocha, also cnn political commentator and republican strategist shermichael singleton. um, maybe i'll ask all of you questions on this may be sort of night. let me ask you this because musk, he held court three times as long as the president of united states or any other cabinet member today, and they listened on intently, they were obviously tied to what he was saying. what did that suggest to you in terms of either one, their interest or also the power dynamic in that room. >> that any, uh, leadership in the cabinet agencies that might have been frustrated by musk's messaging this past weekend will need to show deference to elon musk. you had this striking image of the world's richest man in this room standing, you know, not with a seat at the table, but standing over the cabinet. and you had that moment where at one point, president trump asked, the table, does does anyone have a problem with elon

musk here? i saw that in a way, as almost a little mini loyalty test. we know that this president has conducted loyalty tests for people coming in, um, that he wants people aligned with his agenda. and this moment here was almost him saying, you know, i'm happy with musk fall in line as well. um, the cabinet meeting in general will only add to the confusion that many federal workers are expressing right now. um, you know, the changing of explanations, saying that it's a pulse check. but to your point, you said in your introduction it did seem like a performance review. you add on to that the fact that some agencies over the weekend were actually saying, don't respond to this because you're working on sensitive matters. all of that. this adds to a moment of confusion right now. and for some federal employees, real panic about what's next. and we also know from this meeting what might be next. he said at one point that lee zeldin should also cut 65% of those who are working on environmental policies, and we know more

layoffs and firings are coming. >> so it's confusion. the point, michael. >> no, i mean, look, elon musk wasn't at the table. i get the palace intrigue. clearly, the administration the president wanted to showcase to the viewing public and to the media that they recognize his appointment and his importance. yet he is not a senate confirmed member of the president's cabinet. the president also answered a question from a reporter about some of his cabinet secretaries having their own autonomy to explore the process of making cuts on their own. kash patel pete hegseth i believe one other cabinet secretary. and so i think while musk's role is is important in terms of helping the president meet his agenda of trying to shrink the size of government and looking for waste and potential fraud and abuse, i think it's very clear that the president wants the american public to understand that it will be his cabinet secretaries with his designation and final say so, who will make the ultimate decisions here on what

happens within their individual agencies, not elon musk. and musk was even clear about. >> you could see to his own point the idea of if my if my administrator, if my boss in my actual agency is telling me not to respond, but then i've got him sitting before the president, united states, the president, saying everyone, everyone thinks is doing great work. you can imagine a federal employee who's like, i can't really serve two masters. i'm going to go with the person who's next to the president more than the person who's in my office. that could cause some confusion. >> i mean, i guess i. >> get that point, but i would also say, laura, that again, i don't think some of those appointees would make the decision to musk and to the general public that they're going to ultimately be the final arbiter in terms of what cuts are made, if any cuts whatsoever, without donald trump being aware. >> we've seen that. if not, then. >> we've seen that coming out for, what, 2 or 3 days now. and again, trump signaled that he will allow them to be the final decision makers on that point and not elon musk. and i just don't want that to get lost

upon the public. yes, musk is playing a critical role. richest man in the world. i get again that palace intrigue, but he's not a senate confirmed appointee. then the individuals who are will make the decision. he's not. >> might not be senate confirmed, but there was no doubt, laura. and nobody who's got half a brain looking at this meeting could tell he was most important person in that room. >> the phrase is a pulse and two neurons. now that's the thing. no longer half a brain. elon musk has dictated it. >> all of those things i don't understand. none of them do wrong things. but i will say that he got all the speaking time. and to a poor old boy from texas, that means you're the most important person in the room. it also proven to me that none of these other cabinet secretaries, many of those which are also very rich men, are not going to say anything either. this was a thing to show donald trump to say, this is my boy. he's the richest man in the world, and he's going to be in charge of this. and the american people are going to be with us lock, stock and barrel, whether you like it or not. and we're going to do all of these things, whether you like it or not. >> by the way, listen to what musk had to say about the pressure building up about the forthcoming actions. listen.

>> the reason i'm here, um, and taking a lot of flak and getting a lot of death threats, by the way, i like to stack them up, you know, um, but if we don't do this, america will go bankrupt. >> so obviously, he's enduring quite a bit, um, as our federal employees for different reasons, obviously. but tell me about who might take the heat for all of this chaos. i mean, if he's saying if we don't do this bankruptcy results, people are angry at democrats for not doing enough to counter it. they're questioning republicans whether they are ceding authority. who holds the bag? >> i think that's going to depend on on a couple other factors here. when we talk about the ripple effect and the reaction, particularly on the american people. um, it depends on consumer prices and what people are feeling each day. it depends on the impact of these forthcoming tariffs as well. i do think one point that we need to stress just is that when we talk about these layoffs of federal employees, it's not just people in d.c., it's not just people in washington. you've

seen some of the frustration happening at town halls around the country right now. economic frustration as well. um, and a lot of these people that, you know, are facing the repercussions of these actions are people around the country. but in terms of the long standing reaction and economic frustration and whether or not that really impacts this administration or who will impact, i think that will depend on what happens with consumer prices and the economy in the weeks ahead. >> so why do you guys think the fixation on the search for the dead? i mean, it's. >> something we've talked about since we was little kids, about the golden toilets at the pentagon and dead people getting social security checks. like even me, a guy who grew up with world books without the internet, knew about those myths. so they're trying to bring it to life in a story for folks to believe and capture so that they can do what they want. what elon musk wants. >> we've seen this before. chuck, i mean, in terms of voting fraud, we've heard these accusations. we've heard about, you know, one one example. and what's the phrase, an anecdote. the plural of anecdote is not data, but it's effective for people to say, if there's one,

it must be more. >> exactly. right. so it creates. >> a narrative is my point here. and when it creates the narrative, you have people believing that because what elon musk is not wants is not assisting the government. he wants the biggest data supply in all the world so he can create a bigger a.i. model. and if he gets his hands on that data, he may say he's doing it to bring a.i. and update the government. if you can update the government, make everything run smoothly, or get my trash picked up on tuesdays quicker, i'm all in, but i don't think that's what it's about. >> i mean, look, we. >> all know that fraud and waste exists in the federal government. we can go all the way back to the early, to the everything. sure, but we can go back to the early 90s. and i keep bringing up this example of bill clinton. look, he had a different process, more methodical, and he eliminated a couple hundred thousand jobs. but the reality is people did lose their jobs, and that was ultimately part of the process to shrink government, to cut waste, to make it more efficient for the american people. musk is doing it at a bit more expeditiously. they're going to be some errors, some faults that occur because he's moving so quickly. >> in fact, if i cut you off, michael. i want, i want, i want

to cut you off. excuse me, but you raise a good point because musk actually identifies some mistakes he's made. i want you to respond to what he had to say. listen. >> we won't be perfect. but when we make mistake, we'll fix it very quickly. so, for example, with usaid, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was ebola. ebola prevention. i think we all want ebola prevention. so we restored the ebola prevention immediately. >> he is addressing. >> he's addressing that. and i think it's important because you see a lot of the media coverage and reporting on this particular example. i think it was a nuclear researchers or scientists who were fired accidentally, and they rescinded those layoffs. these things are going to occur. and i think recognizing that not notifying the american public that they understand the importance of being more surgical, like with the scalpel as they move forward, does maintain trust among the public who generally supports these efforts. >> smiling when you connect these two, when that starts affecting people's prices, then you're going to see repercussions. that's what it's going to really happen when a

larger group of the american public, outside of federal workers, who are definitely going to feel it when the rest of america starts feeling it, if something happens, if they break something big, then you're going to see a real difference in the midterms. >> let's hope. >> they make it better, though. chuck, can we. >> at least. >> agree on that? >> no. get my trash picked up on tuesday. >> i don't know if these things happen or k. sara. sara is what the american people want to hear in the end, but. thanks everyone. up next, before elon musk became the democrats top foe, he was the ev hero and made a ton of money doing it at tesla. so what about now? we'll harry enten has some pretty revealing numbers for us ahead. and later. alexa, why is the former top editor at the washington post so mad at jeff bezos tonight? don't worry if alexa won't answer that question. i will. >> united states of scandal with jake tapper returns sunday, march 9th on cnn. >> liberty. >> liberty mutual is all she talks about since we saved hundreds by bundling our home

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nine tablets for just $7. it's try friday.com once again. nine tablets for just $7 is try friday.com. >> or twitter. that's a great name jack. >> we were the most social people. >> we invented a whole new thing. >> it was the most emotional company and its founders were neurotic. >> twittering is all the rage. >> billions of dollars. boom. but it was running the public square. >> enragement equals engagement.

>> no one could possibly have understood where it was going. >> twitter. breaking the bird premieres march 9th on cnn. >> president trump praising the work ethic of elon musk. today it is first cabinet meeting. >> he's really working so hard and he's got businesses to run. and in many ways they say, how do you do this? and you know, it's he's sacrificing a lot. and getting a lot of praise. i'll tell you. but he's also getting hit. >> well musk has spent has been spending so much time at the white house, it's easy to forget. perhaps he also runs one of the most influential companies in the entire world. i'm talking about tesla, but lately, tesla has been the target of protests from coast to coast as people angry with musk and also doge are taking it out on tesla. police in suburban denver are accusing a woman of vandalizing tesla vehicles, marking some with the red x and

tagging others with the word nazi. and some tesla owners, like singer sheryl crow, are going a step further, ditching their teslas and breaking up with the brand. so does musk have anything to worry about in terms of that business? let's bring in cnn chief data analyst harry enten, who is crunching the numbers for us. harry, tell me, what has been the impact of tesla's bottom line? ever since musk took on the role of what he called a special government employee. >> yeah. the stats here are pretty ugly for tesla. take a look at the stock. i mean, my goodness gracious. you know, you go back to december 17th. its peak. it's down 39%. holy toledo. it closed that day at about 480 bucks. it's now down to about 291 bucks per stock. and get this, get this. that cost elon musk. this total is astronomical. about $78 billion billion with a b. i can only dream of having so much money in my lifetime. lauren. he's just lost it. he's still the richest

man alive by a ton. now the question is, why is the stock going down? well, one of the reasons the stock is going down is take a look here. yearly tesla car deliveries with increased competition from other carmakers making electric vehicles. look at this. in 2022, the yearly deliveries was up 40%. in 2023, it was up 38%. look at 2024. it was down 1%. it usually grows tremendously. but last year tesla sales were down. and i'll note laura coates sales were down in january as well. so turns out tesla ain't selling as many cars as it used to. >> i'm sorry i stopped hearing you when you said someone lost $70 billion and still was the richest man in the world. >> i know. >> i know, i'm trying to process that. i don't even know what that looks like. but let me ask you, harry. republicans in washington, according to trump, they love him. but how do democrats do the job that musk is doing? >> yeah, republicans do love elon musk. but democrats, this was one of the most shocking stats i have seen. this is the

net favorable rating among democrats in percentage points. i almost couldn't believe it. i had to check my numbers 2 or 3 times to make sure back in august of 2017, they really loved elon musk. his net favorable rating was plus 35 points. look at where it was in february of 2025, -91 points. do some quick math with me. that's a change of more than 120 points in the negative direction. democrats used to love elon musk have completely turned against him. they hate him now. and why is that so important? why is that so important? because who? the people who own electric cars. well, they ain't necessarily republicans. just 20% of those who own electric cars are republicans. the vast majority are on the left side of the spectrum. they're either independents or democrats. so now that democrats are hating elon musk, that's perhaps one reason why tesla is struggling. we can't say for sure. we'll have to wait and see, but it certainly ain't necessarily good news for tesla when one of their core bases is hating the owner

of the company that makes the cars. >> that's a huge shift. harry enten, thank you so much for crunching those numbers for us. >> thank you. >> well, another billionaire is facing backlash tonight. jeff bezos, the amazon founder and owner of the washington post, taking the op ed pages into a, well, shall we say, a new direction, saying it will defend two principles personal liberties and free markets. bezos says the op ed pages will cover other topics, too, but quote viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others. and when bezos purchased the paper, he said he'll never intervene in day to day operations. now, some critics argue the paper is lurching to the right. the writing may have been on the wall for months. the post itself reported that bezos pulled the plug on presidential endorsements just last year, expected to endorse the vice president at that time, kamala harris. now with me now. and journalist and historian owen

higgins. he's also the author of the new book, owned how tech billionaires on the right bought the loudest voices on the left. own. good to have you here. i mean, bezos initially initially vowed not to get involved in day to day decisions. so what changed? >> well, that was what he said in the beginning. yeah. thank you for having me. um, but as as time went on, i think that bezos began to make a calculation, especially over the last year, where he figured that if trump would win, uh, and the washington post, his paper, the paper that's, you know, aligned with bezos, that's publicly tied to him. if that paper endorsed harris, that trump might be the type of person who might, you know, uh, take that out on on bezos and he might, you know, cut some of the, the contracts that amazon has, aws, amazon web services with the government. and and so i think that bezos made the calculation

that it was better to try to keep trump happy and kind of knew, i think that if simply not endorsing harris wasn't going to lead to any kind of political, uh, you know, kickback from the democrats. and so i think that that's the main reason why he started this shift. and then once we got to the point of the inauguration with him on the on the dais there, and now, i think he's kind of embraced the kind of more conservative leaning of washington at the moment. >> so why do you think this is happening now, if the idea is that maybe an economic strategy, trying to head off retaliation, not maybe his politics, why now? what's influencing these decisions today? >> i mean, that's a good question. i think that bezos wants to get closer to trump. i think that he wants to align himself more tightly with the current government. remember, the republicans not only have the presidency, they both houses of congress. so when you have the amount of political and financial, uh, interplay between

washington and a company like amazon, i think that you probably want to kind of tilt more to the right, especially if the right is in power. let's also remember when he's talking about open markets here and personal liberty. he's not talking about the free market approach that might lead to amazon facing more competition. he's not talking about the kind of personal liberty that's allowing people at his op ed page to write whatever they want. this is a very specific coded language that he's using. that basically means that he wants a more right wing opinion page. and that's what the new york times reported today. they reported that he wanted a more i think he referred to it as a more wall street journal opinion page. that's the murdoch owned paper. so i think that if you kind of look at bezos moves in that in that context, you can kind of see an ideological. conservative lean. >> you know, i'm picking i'm paraphrasing here, but he almost suggested that, you know, viewpoints that are more diverse

ideologically that were once maybe found in these opinion pages can now be found on the internet. so fear not whether you think that's acceptable or not. but your new book, own it, examines how bezos, how musk, how other tech billionaires they are actually reshaping. you believe the media. i mean billionaires have always influenced the landscape. but what is different about this particular moment that they have perhaps this entree in. >> well, at this moment, i think the internet is a good point, right, that bezos is making here, that you can find all of these viewpoints on online. you can. and that has led to a kind of democratization and a decentralization of the media, you know, power kind of moving away from the mainstream, from institutional media. these are these are good things, i think. but what these tech billionaires have done is they have taken that good thing as a base, and they have turned it to their own, to their own means. now, a lot of these guys do not like the way that they have been treated over the last decade, 15 years or so by the media.

there's been a lot more critical media coverage, and their response to this has been to flood the zone, as it were, with all of their money investing in all of these different media platforms, media companies, you know, whether it be substack, rumble, colin, which which i use for a while, uh, there are multiple different platforms. they throw money at all of this stuff. and the, the, the end goal here is to decentralize and to kind of weaken institutional media and critical independent media kind of just puts so much stuff out there that there is, uh. a lot to, to pay attention to and kind of can, can lead to an almost like an overwhelming media landscape. that's kind of the position that we find ourselves in now, where they have given a lot of money to a lot of people whose ideology may be a little more left leaning, but, you know, have have come across with some more right wing stuff now, as the money has kind of pushed them forward. this is all part of a larger kind of infrastructure that they have

with conferences, speaking fees, et cetera.. >> be careful what you wish for. decentralizing doesn't necessarily mean translate to credible, credible, credible or trustworthy sourcing. owen higgins, thank you so much. still ahead, a new battle emerges over the fate of medicaid. democrats say it's at risk. republicans say that's all a lie. so who's telling you the truth? plus, have you seen this? a democratic congresswoman goes viral after flying in from colorado with her newborn. why? to vote against the republicans budget tonight. she has a message for the president. that congresswoman joins me next. >> here it is. >> what's this? you keep dog food in the fridge. >> it's not dog food. it's fresh pet real meat. real veggies from my boy junior. >> what are we doing here? >> anybody asks? we were at grandma's.

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needs. we got you. connect with the provider at. ro khanna. >> i'm natasha bertrand at the pentagon, and this is cnn. >> the spending bill. >> that passed last night aims to cut $2 trillion. can you guarantee that medicare, medicaid, social security will not be touched? >> yeah. i mean, i have said it

so many times. you shouldn't be asking me that question. uh, we're not going to touch it. >> president trump adamant today that republicans will not touch medicare, medicaid and social security. that coming after house speaker mike johnson muscled through a budget plan just last night with cuts that even some of his own side of the aisle feared could impact working families. one democratic congresswoman, emphasizing that point in dramatic fashion by having to fly to washington with a four week old baby in tow, making it just in time for the vote. >> thank you, mr. speaker. >> i rise today with my newborn sam, who's just four weeks old. unfortunately, i wasn't given the opportunity to vote remotely after giving birth, but i wasn't going to let that stop me from being here to represent my constituents and vote no on this disastrous republican budget proposal. this is going to have a huge burden on our hospitals and unfortunately, we'll have skyrocketing costs.

i agree, sam. >> joining me now is that colorado congresswoman brittany pettersen, thank you so much for being here. first of all, he's adorable. but let me tell you, i couldn't believe every time i hear about this, the fact that you're not able to even remotely vote, it meant that much to you to be there. you felt that strongly about this particular procedural resolution, right? >> yes, absolutely. i mean, we should bring common sense measures so that people who are, you know, new parents and have just given birth to their kids, that they're able to be home, recover, take care of their newborns, and aren't forced to go to washington. and it's quite complicated to travel with a newborn. i'm sure you can imagine i. but but this was a really important vote. um, this was the first step in the disastrous budget cuts that are coming our way and the things that are going to directly impact people, that actually help people with health care,

for the people who need it most for kids, and making sure that we're supporting student loans, social security, all of the things that are actually helping people. this is going to strip away that funding. >> you mentioned your constituents. that obviously as representative, your priority, and you really with your son in tow, were the visual embodiment of what people are thinking about. i wonder what kind of reaction you've been getting from your constituents and fellow members of congress for not only how you voted, but the way that you voted. >> people have reached out just to thank me for showing up for them to to show up with my newborn. i think a lot of moms feel seen, you know, this isn't something that other families aren't struggling with every day on how to take care of their kids while they're going to work, how to grapple with a newborn when so many places we pass paid family leave in colorado, but so many states don't have access to that, and they're given two weeks and expected to go right back to

work. um, so i think it's an outpouring of support, but i think it's also just because people want to know that they have somebody in congress that's going to fight for them, uh, that's going to show up no matter what. and also know some of the struggles that they're facing. >> it's so important. as a federal employee, i remember having to save up all my sick leave, borrow from vacation from other people. we had kind of a pooled resource because it just was not in the cards. and forget having back to back children, you had no leave left by the end and it's just unbelievable to think about that. still a factor on so many levels. but let me ask you about the content of this resolution. i mean, democrats have been hammering this budget resolution saying that there will be cuts to necessary programs like medicaid. republicans, though, including this evening, speaker johnson pushing back on this notion, in fact, talking about that's not the plan. listen to what he had to say. >> he doesn't want. >> to cut medicaid, medicaid benefits for anybody. and we

don't either. i don't either. we're not going to do that. that's not part of this plan. and the democrats have been lying about it. and so it's important for us to clarify that we're going to take care of those who are rightful beneficiaries of the programs. we're going to cut the fraud, waste and abuse out of medicaid. and that's where we're going to get part of the savings to accomplish this mission. >> he says. democrats are lying. can you reconcile what is the truth? >> well, laura, so, as you know, this is a little wonky, but the budget resolution that that just passed is giving a directive to the committees of reference on how much they're going to have to cut it is impossible with the billions of dollars that they directed to cut from the energy and commerce committee, that they are not going to be touching medicaid. it is it is absolutely mathematically impossible. so it's unfortunate that they continue to say that we know that there was a leaked memo that this was one of the things that they highlighted that would be cut. so, you know, i think this barely passed. we had the op, we had the opportunity to actually kill

this. i was hopeful that i would be part of making that happen. um, but when the details come out, it's going to be a whole different ball game. and republicans need to be held to what they've been saying to the public. and also the damage that this will do to their constituents if it's passed. >> well, is that part of the plan? politico has been reporting, congresswoman, that house democrats are planning to use this as but one vehicle to win back the majority health care being so important to the american voters. is that a smart strategy? is that the way to do so? and if it's not this particular venue or vehicle, what can the democrats do to reclaim some semblance of power being in the minority? >> you know, people have been struggling because of the economy, uh, after going through a global pandemic, we had the quickest, strongest recovery in the world. but people were still feeling the pain. so they were willing to put aside their

feelings about donald trump because they thought that their lives might get better, that that he might focus on the economy, which is what he ran on. they haven't done anything that would address rising costs and bring down the cost for families. and in fact, they're doing the opposite, uh, including this budget proposal that will drastically increase costs for working families. uh, you know, people are aren't going to it's easy when trump can come and be a, you know, bring his snake, sell his snake oil on the campaign trail. it's different when people are going to actually feel and see daily the impacts that he is going to make in a negative way to their life. >> well, congresswoman brittany pettersen, i know the work is certainly cut out for all of you. i want to thank you and mother to mother. i appreciated seeing your son on that floor. i appreciate it. >> thank you, i appreciate you. it's so good to be with you. >> up next, she says she was discriminated against because

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justices at oral arguments today. virtually all the justices seemed skeptical that there should be a higher bar for, quote, unquote, reverse discrimination cases. >> it applies. >> same to. >> everybody. >> well, we agree that the court should say that at the very, very minimum, but we're in radical. >> agreement today on that. >> it seems. >> to me. >> joining me now to discuss this radical agreement, legal analyst and former federal prosecutor elliot williams. also, ian millhiser, senior correspondent at vox, focusing on the supreme court and the constitution. elliot, i'll begin with you. i mean, the idea of radical agreement. what is the likelihood these justices side with the plaintiff in this case? >> exceptionally high. now, that doesn't mean she wins the whole case. it would get sent back down for us for new findings in light of this new standard. now, again, what the supreme court or not, even the supreme court. five circuits around the country have law that essentially requires plaintiffs who are from

majority groups, white people or heterosexuals or whatever else to, in effect, make additional findings in order to move forward with discrimination suit that, you know, that just didn't sit well with the justices. even acknowledging this idea that, yes, people in minority groups may have suffered more, putting an additional burden on on white people or straight people or whatever else just doesn't seem to make sense. and you could hear it through all nine of the justices in their questioning today. >> ian, there was a phrase that was often used. it was background circumstances. this was a rule. explain what that is exactly. and how does that impact this case? >> yeah. so the rule. >> in some. >> parts of the country is if you are a member of the majority group, you're white, you're straight, whatever. and you sue alleging discrimination. you have to you you have to show i believe the phrase is background circumstances demonstrating that the employer that you're suing is the sort of employer that discriminates against the

majority. that's the heightened level of proof that that the straight woman had to show that if she had been gay, she would not have to show. and i mean, the problem with this rule is it's not in the statute. the supreme court has said since the 1970s that the law protects members of the majority in the same way that it protects members of the minority. so, i mean, of course, it is true that straight white people are not the biggest victims in america. you know, most employment discrimination do not involve straight people. but the statute doesn't make a distinction there. and the supreme court is supposed to be a court of law. and so it should follow the statute. >> so, elliot, on that point, i mean, they may be ready to get rid of the rule, but how would this decision perhaps impact other cases? the supreme court takes cases to address a particular issue, but they know the wide ranging consequences of what they say. >> right. the concern that has been raised is that it could open the floodgates to

discrimination suits from, you know, from from just a broader pool of people. now, who knows how that plays out. one thing that was interesting today was that the naacp legal defense and education fund had filed an amicus, a friend of the court brief saying that, in effect, we recognize the you know, that this is sort of a ham fisted standard, but we have to acknowledge the discrimination that people in minority and out groups face. you know, it wasn't it wasn't much of a punt. but but the problem is that there just isn't a great solution here. >> well. >> you know, interesting enough, ian, no one brought up trump's name or his anti-gay push, but that was kind of the elephant in the room that people were looking at as well. are there political implications if the judges rule in favor of the ability to pursue something like this? >> potentially. i mean, the thing that i was most worried about when the court took this case, wasn't this case like the actual issue in this case is a pretty small deal. it's that it's the first di case of trump's second term. and so i was worried that the justices might wild out a bit. there is a

republican majority on the supreme court. maybe they'd want to push trump's agenda based on the oral argument. that strikes me as unlikely. a lot of the justices, including people like justice neil gorsuch, who tend to prefer more maximalist opinions, said explicitly, we should decide this narrowly. we should just throw out this special rule that exists in a few circuits and not do much else. and so i am hopeful, at least, that we're going to get a narrow decision. now, you may remember several months ago i was on your show and i said, oh, there's no way the supreme court is going to say that trump is immune from the criminal law. so the supreme court can be unpredictable, but at least based on what happened in this oral argument, i think that we're probably going to get a narrow opinion. >> well, we shall see whether this continues or not, but it's sure to be talked about. i'm glad you both were here tonight. elliott williams, ian millhiser, thank you both. >> thanks. >> thank you. all right, everyone, it's your time to chime in. send me your questions. send me your thoughts at the laura coates on x or

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you. see if sparks are right for you at. >> rafael romo at the georgia state capitol in atlanta. >> this is. >> cnn. >> closed captioning. >> is brought to you by skechers. slip in pants. >> looking for the most comfortable, stylish, easiest pants around. try new skechers slip in pants. just slip in and experience skechers innovative comfort technology fabric. skechers slip in pants. >> all right. time now for america asks where we take some of your questions. chuck and shermichael, they are back with me for this. we've got laurie from new york. she's got a question. laurie. what is trump's and the gop's endgame? what is really this. >> all. >> about? sure, michael. >> yeah, sure. >> exactly. sure. what she means. what? what she means by. what is this all about? >> was there any game? >> but presumably, if she's talking about doge or cutting

the federal government, whatever the case may be. i would simply say that republicans and the president recognizes that americans work hard every single day, and they expect the people who are the stewards of their tax dollars to use those dollars in an effective way to meet the needs and the struggles of every single american. and the reality is, for quite some time, we haven't always met those expectations. and so i would say the aim is to improve that so that we can meet those expectations. and i think that's a good thing. now we're going to have some folks. we're not going to get every single thing perfect. but i do think that this should be a unifying cause between democrats and republicans to improve the overall efficacy of government for every single american, and i think that's the objective. >> what do you think, jack was the end game? >> i think the end game is power and money. it's always power and money. that's always the endgame for chuck. >> then can you write me a check, chuck, please? >> i think the endgame. >> is i'll be. >> more concise than him. >> well, there you go. look, i'm gonna go to wayne from washington. wayne, what's your question?

>> why are the democrats taking so. >> long to attack. >> trump and musk. >> on the issues that they. >> are presenting to this country? >> well, chuck, it's. >> a great question. i've been getting that a lot at like, every democratic cocktail party i've been to in the last 30 days. look, i think that there's lots of different ways that you can go about this. and i think democrats have done almost all the ways to do it wrong, and that is to sit back and watch. i don't care if you love james carville or not. i don't think the new york times op ed was right. i think you have to do two things. if you want to win, you got to say why we should fire republicans and donald trump and then stay with me. give your vision for what you're going to do to make people's lives better. we're missing the second half of that. >> the democrats don't have a message. they don't have a leader of the party. that's why they a message in november. >> beautiful people in the studio. >> are weeping. and when you look at that most recent harvard poll that came out a couple of days ago, the american people actually like some of what they're seeing so far, chuck. so to oppose everything people don't want offer solutions to the problem. >> you got a donald trump poster in your house. you like what you're seeing? >> well. >> you guys have no solutions.

>> for that. joanna, from new jersey's question actually follows. the question she's asking is why are democrats against reducing the waste and redundancy in government? well, you were touching on that. >> that's $1 million question, because once upon a time, they used to care a lot about this. we're not seeing that today. they're either talking about the past or january 6th. and my thing has been this i'm okay with democrats providing an alternative critique to the way republicans are handling this. that's to be expected in a divided country. republicans, democrats. that's okay. but at a minimum, offer an alternative solution to the problem. figure out a way to meet republicans in the middle, and a bipartisan effort to collaboratively get this ship moving in the right direction. they have yet to do that because, again, they have no message. >> höcke do they do they actually mined the premise or they mined the vehicle? >> i think they mined how it's being done. i think everybody wants an efficient government, but they do not want folks that are looking over the bird flu to be fired from the bird flu. like musk said today, folks working on ebola, not working on ebola like there's plenty of fat out there. like i said earlier on this segment, get rid of the golden toilets at the pentagon.

>> i think you guys like entitlements. you don't want to cut government. i strongly believe that. >> let me go to tim from minnesota. tim, what's on your mind? >> why did. >> donald trump fire the inspectors general. >> well, look, the president has the discretion to let go whomever he wants under his purview, just as democratic presidents have in the past. that's the answer to that question. it's simple. >> is that good enough? >> now? they don't have a message. that's what the problem is. that's what the whole thing is. they don't have a message. listen to me. i'm the one with the message. republicans are slash and burn, get rich. >> well, you like being rich, don't you, chuck? >> i do like getting rich. if i can borrow some money, you should be a republican, a different category. >> we're welcoming you on our side. >> i had your money. i'd burn mine, man. >> what's going to happen behind the scenes? chuck rocha shermichael singleton. thank you all. and thank you all for asking questions as well. hey, thanks for watching. anderson cooper