a difference all across our nation, and it cannot afford a cut of that magnitude, especially not to pay. for another big tax cut for billionaires. >> can democrats do anything to prevent this? to try to protect medicaid? since you don't have control of the house or the senate? >> you're right about that, sarah. but in the affordable care act fight of the first trump administration, when trump was trying to kill the affordable care act, we ultimately got americans to focus on what was at stake. trump is again trying to pass a huge tax cut paid for by cuts to your benefits. and if enough americans get upset and engaged on this and push back on the republicans in the house, they have a very thin margin. they can only afford one no vote. if there were two no votes or three, it would repeat that memorable moment when john mccain ended the effort to kill the affordable care act, taking

things away from americans that they value is not a winning strategy. and right now, consumer confidence is plummeting. two thirds of americans think trump isn't doing enough to constrain costs, and he's threatening tariffs again on canada and mexico, which will increase our costs across these issues. sarah. raising our costs through tariffs, cutting benefits through cuts to medicaid. donald trump is already the least popular president in modern times. after just one month in office. >> senator chris i know you have plenty of work to do there on the hill. thank you so much for taking some time with us in the morning. >> thank you. >> a new hour of cnn news central starts right now. >> 15 minutes to get your things and get back out. that is the new directive from fired usaid staffers today, just as the supreme court steps in for the first time on the doge efforts, giving a temporary

legal win to the trump administration. also today, president trump is going to be meeting face to face with the british prime minister, the second european leader this week to race to washington to try and turn the president away from his pro-russia stance on the ukraine war and remembering oscar winning actor gene hackman, one of the one of hollywood's greats found dead alongside his wife inside their home, an investigation now underway. john is out today. i'm kate bolduan with sara sidner. this is cnn news central. >> so the. nation's highest. >> court handing down a legal win for president trump. the supreme court has granted an emergency request to pause a judge's order requiring the government to pay out the foreign aid to contractors and others that president trump had froze. chief justice john roberts issued what's called an

administrative stay, essentially a legal way to hit the pause button for the justices to have more time to consider the case, because there was a midnight deadline. roberts saying that he wants response. then by friday from the challengers who believe all of those funds have been illegally frozen. and this marks the first time the supreme court has intervened on the doge moves and comes at an interesting time. the ruling came the same day the administration said it was terminating almost 10,000 contracts and grants for usaid and the state department, and also happening as part of the administration's purge. usaid staffers have been given a one hour window where they will have 15 minutes to enter the headquarters, retrieve their belongings, and then get back out. cnn's arlette saenz is live in washington outside of usaid headquarters for us this morning. arlette, what are you hearing from people? >> yeah, it's very. >> well, kate. any minute now, we anticipate that fired usaid staffers will be arriving here

at the headquarters to collect their belongings. these fired staffers have been giving 15 minute windows where they can come in and pack up their desks and other items as they are preparing to leave the agency. as you can see, right behind me, there are a little over a dozen people here who have showed up. they say this is not a protest, but this is meant to show support for those usaid staffers who are coming here to collect their belongings today. on sunday, about 2000 usaid staffers began to learn that they were being laid off and thousands more were put on administrative leave. usaid is facing some of the most drastic cuts since president trump came into office in the second term. and i had a chance to speak with a union representative with the american foreign service association about how they feel the administration has handled these cuts. take a listen to that moment. >> it's been quite tragic. i think there's been a lot of a lack of communication in general about what's happening to usaid. staff don't know, day in and

day out what they're supposed to do. we've had our emails. most people have had their email accounts shut off. so they're getting notices. third third party from facebook groups and from chat groups. so it's really a haphazard way to tell people what to do and how to do it. >> what? >> so a lot of uncertainty that has been facing thousands of workers who are either direct hire employees with usaid or federal contractors. i was up on capitol hill a bit earlier in the week with some people who had recently been laid off. one woman telling me that she had received a notice on sunday saying she had been placed on administrative leave, and just one day later received another notification that she had been terminated. so here we are expecting to see staffers beginning to come pick up some of their belongings a slice, a window into the human impact of some of these cuts that have been made by the trump administration. and the start of

his term. >> arlette, thank you so much for your reporting. sarah. >> all right. with me now to discuss. senior political analyst mark preston. mark, we're seeing some of the immediate impacts of the ruling. and and john roberts kind of putting a stay on this. what is the ultimate impact of all this? besides with donald trump? >> well, i think. >> well. >> first of. >> all, one usaid. >> i think. >> is gone. >> is far. >> as we've ever known it. democrats have pretty much given up on trying to. >> fight to get. >> it back. it will. >> end. >> up in the courts and it is in the courts. and we've seen even this emergency stay right now. chief justice john roberts allowed the trump folks more time based upon having to give out these contracts to usaid. i think this spells trouble, because this is going to be the first step in really donald trump successfully dismantling the government. now, everything that he does try to do, sarah, is not going to be successful. but in this first step, he appears to be successful. >> yeah. this is another thing that we were all watching donald trump giving a really strong

endorsement to elon musk, who was at the first cabinet meeting, not a cabinet member, but he was at the meeting, and i thought it was interesting that he was like, is anybody unhappy to the room, to his cabinet? and they all clapped. i think everyone is not only happy, they're ecstatic. they're thrilled. donald trump said to his cabinet, what do you make of all of this? >> well, you know what? let's have the president himself. let's hear what he had to say, because it is so interesting about it, says so much in such a little bit of period of time about what we're going to see over the next few weeks, next few months. let's hear what he had to say. >> let the cabinet speak just for a second. >> yeah. >> exactly. >> if you're unhappy with. >> it. >> you know. >> if you are, well, throw them out of. >> here. is anybody. >> unhappy? >> look at them all. just clapping and smiling and thinking to themselves. sarah, we better get on board. you know, it's very interesting.

donald trump not only issues directions through social media, he also issues his threats to his own people in public. and that's clearly what we saw yesterday. >> it clearly is. and it did feel a tiny bit awkward or a lot awkward when he made some of those statements and sort of they had to respond to it. meantime, we're seeing these town halls where people are really unhappy with some of what elon musk has done. all right. mark preston, it is always a pleasure to have you on. thank you so much. appreciate it. kate. >> and bouncing just right off of that, republican members of congress are increasingly facing backlash over elon musk and the doge cuts. in virginia, voters protested at some mobile office hours for republican congressman rob whitman. a staffer usually leads these sessions, but constituents, they showed up. they wanted to hear from the congressman himself. instead, they heard from a government worker, a former government employee, who also wanted some answers from the congressman. >> this mass terminations,

without any assessment of the american people's needs, will end up costing taxpayers more money. >> yes, yes. waste. waste. >> disruption to services. you want to know why no one at the social security office? they're firing people. >> here we go. >> people there accused a republican congressman of hiding from his constituents. here's what the. here is, then what the republican house speaker mike johnson, had to say last night about all of this blowback. >> is the videos you saw of the town halls were for paid protesters in many of those places. these are democrats who went to the events early and filled up the seats. if you if the videos had panned out outside the building. >> protesters. >> though. >> mr.. >> speaker. >> many of your republican. >> acknowledged they were his constituents. >> uh, one republican acknowledged they were constituents. that's fantastic. okay. but they had democrats come and fill the seats early. >> joining us right now is

democratic congressman jason crow from colorado. congressman, it's good to see you. the house speaker he really there seeming to dismiss this blowback. um, we've seen no evidence that one people were paid and two democrats can be republican members of congress constituents as well. you have republicans in your district. i have seen examples of people attending these events saying that they are lifelong republicans and live in those districts. what is your reaction to what seems to be johnson's shoulder shrug response to this? >> well, let's. >> first of all compare the images here. you just showed a video of the first cabinet meeting, and they were laughing and patting each other on the back and clapping, you know, as if everything is fine. you know, they're taking their victory lap. at the same time, if you actually get outside of the d.c. bubble, you get outside of the swamp. and make no mistake, all these people in the cabinet meeting, these are creatures of the swamp, right? these are billionaires. these are elite executives. these are oil and gas executives. these are lifetime politicians. if you get

outside of that room and you go around america, people are hurting. they're afraid. they are feeling the real cuts of what's happening, the real human impact, what's happening. and they're and they should be and they're starting to stand up and to be heard. and my republican colleagues can certainly ignore them, but they are not going away. >> i mean, you wrote about this yesterday. i grabbed my attention. you said the lesson from from tough town halls isn't to run away. you said, i'm hosting a town hall tomorrow meeting today because my constituents have a right to know where i stand and what i'm doing to advocate for them. i mean, what are you hearing from your constituents? what do you expect to hear from them today? >> yeah. that's right. i mean, showing up and listening is fundamental to the job. it is the most basic element of the job. the people you represent have a right to know what you're doing, where you stand, the votes you're taking, and for you to stand in front of them and to be accountable for that. and they may not always agree with you, but they have a right to know that. you know, if i do a town hall and i have a, you know, a very mixed district, i

have a lot of republicans. i'm the first democrat ever to hold my seat in congress. but, you know, i'll show up and i'll have republicans that say, you know what, i don't necessarily always agree with you, but at least i know where you stand. and i don't think you're lying to me and you're being transparent. i'll take that. right. because that's the start of a conversation. and we can actually develop trust and go somewhere with that. so obviously we need more than that. if the republicans are going to shut that out and refuse to listen, there will be consequences to that sooner, probably rather than later. they need to show up, and they need to need to hear the pain and suffering that their policies are going to inflict on their constituents. >> i want to ask you about that cabinet meeting that you were just mentioning, where elon musk played prominently. he said that the president what he has heard from the president is that the president wants him to push harder on those cuts. and broadly, you hear republicans elected and not and and others saying they like the idea of a smaller, more efficient government, that's for sure. but

elon musk admitted during this cabinet meeting that they have made mistakes along the way. let me play what he said. >> 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. >> it was just wild that that was the example of like, oops, ebola prevention. um. >> it's so. >> go ahead. >> listen, can i comment on that? that is so unbelievably tone deaf and disconnected with the plight of regular people around the country. right. you know, elon musk is somebody that is known for hostile takeovers, for coming in, slashing, cutting companies, changing companies, you know, and there are instances where you can do that in the private sector. but the government and actually running, helping run the government that impacts people's lives, life and death decisions doesn't work that way, right? if you

make mistakes and if there's 10 to 15%. quote unquote, inefficiency, that's actually someone's life, right? they might lose life saving medication. they might lose their house. you simply just can't unring that bell and change that. you are you are dealing with real people's lives in real time, and it just shows how drastically out of touch donald trump and his cabinet and elon musk are to that reality. >> really quickly, you're on extremely relevant, important committees of armed services and intel. you have the british prime minister coming to meet with president trump today. you have the president meeting with zelenskyy tomorrow. and he was he is really still playing coy and punting on the question of security guarantees, saying, i'm not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. um, how do you square this circle? how do you think, do you think that european leaders, no matter who they are and how fast they come to washington to try to turn trump away and convince him otherwise? do you think they are going to be able to?

>> well, i don't spend a lot of time, kate, trying to square circles in trump world, because you usually can't do that because it doesn't really make sense. there's really no policy. but listen, there are several things that can be true at the same time here, right? it can be true that some of our european partners need to step up and do more. it can be true that i actually think in principle, the idea of a mineral deal to help pay for some of our support is not necessarily a bad idea for the taxpayers. and to actually create more of an economic connection between the united states and ukraine, which i think in the long term is good for everybody. but it also can be true that refusing to say russia was responsible for the invasion and calling putin a dictator is an appalling thing that makes americans less safe and sends exactly the wrong message to both dictators and to our allies. so, you know, that's what's going on here, and that's why leadership matters. and that's why actually having somebody who can be consistent and send the right messages when they're sitting in the oval office to protect americans, matters a lot.

>> yeah. i'm very interested to hear what the conversation is coming out of this meeting with keir starmer today. i'm sure you are as well. congressman, thank you very much for your time, sarah. >> all right. new this morning, a major change in policy that could kick thousands of troops out of the u.s. military. plus, we're standing by for the newest jobs report to get a check on president trump's handling of the economy. and remembering a hollywood legend who could play everything from a coach to admiral to arch villain. >> it's kryptonite. superman. a little souvenir from the old hometown. i spared no expense to make you feel right at home. you were great in your day, superman. but it just stands to reason. when it came time to cash in your chips. it's all about. disease maniac would be your banker. >> 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 in-depth analysis. the presidential address to congress tuesday at eight on cnn. >> it takes dedication to leave your life's work. rock solid for generations. at ubs, we match your ambition with. tailored advice. >> to craft a unique outcome for you. advice is our craft. >> booking.com has all kinds of stays because a romantic hotel works for. >> some. but not others. >> find exactly what you're booking for. booking.com. booking.com. >> pain hits fast. so get relief fast. only tylenol rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast for fast pain relief. and now get max strength. topical pain relief precisely where you need it. with tylenol, precise.

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helps. >> you. >> navigate any. surface so. >> it truly stands alone. >> move forward with. >> confidence@hurricane.com cookbooks. >> corporate fat cats swindling socialites, doped up cyclists then yes, more crooked politicians. i have a feeling we won't be running out of those anytime soon. >> a new season of united states of scandal with jake tapper. march 9th on cnn. >> what do you think i mean? >> well, i don't know. you're the risk taker. >> you think i'm talking about breaking. >> the law? >> no, i'm just trying to figure out how far you want it bent. >> as far as you can without breaking it. >> in other words, don't risk an irs audit. >> i don't give a about an audit. they just better not win. >> that was iconic. gene hackman alongside tom cruise in the 23 film the firm. it's so good. if you haven't seen it. all right. we're all following this breaking news this morning that sheriff's deputies found hackman, his wife, and their dog dead in their new mexico home.

the 95 year old had long since retired from his storied career, which earned him two academy awards and four golden globes. cnn's elizabeth wagmeister is joining us now. now, authorities, you told us earlier don't suspect foul play. is there any reason being given for their deaths yet this morning? >> there is. >> not sara. and this, of course, aside from being such a sad story, the passing of an absolute hollywood legend, it's a really bizarre story. gene hackman and his wife, along with their dog, all found dead in their home in santa fe, new mexico. now, as you said, police have said that no foul play is suspected, but they have not given a cause of death. this investigation is ongoing. gene hackman and his wife, they were found yesterday in their home in new mexico. now, gene hackman had really stepped out of the limelight for decades. he

retired from hollywood in 2004, and he and his wife had lived a quiet, relatively private life in new mexico since they had moved there. now, of course, one of the greatest hollywood screen actors of our time, and we have seen a few tributes. francis ford coppola, george takei. but of course, it is very early here on the west coast. so as people are going to be waking up in los angeles to this sad news, i anticipate we will see many more hollywood tributes come. there you see the five oscars that gene hackman was nominated for, winning two of them. this is a even more meaningful coming. just days before the oscars are this weekend. i anticipate that we will get a huge tribute to him at the in memoriam. but you know, sara, back in 2011, when gene hackman was 81 years old, he was asked by gq in a magazine profile how he wants to be remembered. i want to read to you what he had to say. he said, quote, i want to be remembered,

quote, as a decent actor, as someone who tried to portray what was given to them in an honest fashion. then he said with the laugh, i don't know. beyond that, i don't think about that often, to be honest. and i'm at an age where i should think about it. now, back in the 80s, gene hackman sat down with cnn for an interview, and despite how great he was on screen, he actually said that he doesn't like to watch himself. >> unless you were looking at some other monitor. you weren't looking at it. >> i don't like to watch. >> you don't like to watch yourself? do you go to your own films? no. >> i oh. once in a while. >> i'll see one. >> but i prefer to think of myself the way. >> i feel, which is. >> 23. and then i. >> vanity this old man. vanity. i see, i see. i see. >> now, of course, 95 years is a great long life. and he had an illustrious career. but ending in this way in such bizarre fashion is certainly going to strike a lot of people. so

again, sara, this investigation will continue and hopefully we will have more answers very soon. >> yeah. i thought it was really cool that you found that old clip of him on cnn and saying he doesn't like to watch himself. elizabeth, do you like to watch yourself? i certainly don't, and i'm no actor. >> i hate it, and i hate listening to myself. so we are in the wrong business, sara. but i have to tell you, we have to give a shout out to our team because it is our producers who found that clip. i cannot take credit for that, but it is so great to see gene hackman really seeming very much like a normal person, even though he was one of the most famous hollywood stars. >> that may have been diana hill. if i don't have that right, you guys can scream at me in my ear later. thank you so much. elizabeth wagmeister appreciate it. all right. ahead. a child is dead from the measles outbreak in west texas. more than 100 children are infected with measles. one thing they all have in common. none were vaccinated. and the fight to free the menendez brothers may be in jeopardy. as the governor asks if they will be a danger to

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hurricane.com. also available at walmart and walmart.com. >> see. to show you save. your. >> new. this morning the pentagon planning to kick out transgender service members who do not meet specific requirements under its new policy, recognizing only two sexes, male and female. this is all coming from a new court filing in an ongoing lawsuit. let's get over to cnn's natasha bertrand. she's got much more on this for us. natasha, what is the latest on this? what are you learning here? >> well. >> kate, the pentagon laid out its policy regarding transgender service members in this court filing on wednesday night. and while it is pretty sweeping, it does have a few exceptions, including if there is, quote, a compelling government interest that directly supports war fighting capabilities, and if the individual is willing to

adhere to all standards associated with the applicant's sex. now, a service member will also be able to be retained if they demonstrate, quote, 36 consecutive months of stability in their sex with no, quote, clinically significant distress or impairment. and if they can prove that they have, quote, never attempted to transition to any sex other than their own, and if they are willing to adhere to, quote, all applicable standards relating to their sex. but even with those exceptions, this policy is far stricter than the transgender ban that was implemented during trump's first term. under that ban, troops who had joined before the policy took effect could be grandfathered in, basically and continue serving. but the policy made public on wednesday directed that service members being separated under this new policy will be considered non-deployable until they are removed from service, and the policy adds that, quote, the department only recognizes two sexes, male and female. an individual's sex is immutable,

unchanging during a person's life, all service members will only serve in accordance with their sex. now, to give you a sense of how many people this could impact, as of 2018, there were roughly 14,000 transgender troops serving and one service member, air force master sergeant logan ireland, who has served openly as trans for about a decade, said on wednesday that removing trans troops would, quote, create significant operational gaps that could take over a decade to fill, undermining the readiness and effectiveness of the armed forces. kate. >> all right, natasha, thank you so much for the update. sarah. >> all right. thank you. major questions this morning on the future of ukraine, as well as the u.s. relationship with europe. as british prime minister keir starmer comes to the white house in just a few hours, starmer expected to meet with trump, hoping to win trump over when it comes to security guarantees for ukraine. with me now is max bergman, director of the europe, russia and eurasia program at the center for strategic and international studies. thank you so much for

joining us. i just want to sort of look at the big picture here. judging from the past u.s. policy with russia, can you fathom that a u.s. ally has to push a u.s. president away from a friendly relationship with former kgb operative turned president vladimir putin? >> well. >> it's it's. >> quite a stunning reversal. you know, the the russians, the soviet union has been probably our main adversary over the last hundred years. >> there's been a brief gaps. >> in that. during world war ii and during the 1990s. but russia has been america's major adversary. and i think what the uk is trying to do is, in some ways, to be the bridge between the u.s. and ukraine, also the u.s. and europe. yesterday, donald trump said that the european union, something that we really helped create after world war two, uh, was our adversary. so i think this is going to be a very tricky meeting for keir starmer. >> let me ask you what you think of this mineral deal that trump keeps touting with ukraine.

although ukraine's president says they just have a framework. trump says the deal is all in. all done. um, what does this mean? >> uh, frankly, i don't think it means very much. uh, i think in some ways it's more of a symbolic deal. uh, it's it's essentially a deal on paper. uh, right now, the the minerals that this deal would, would, would capture, uh, aren't out of the ground. ukraine would have to the mines would have to be built in ukraine. that can take more than a decade. and you're not going to start building those mines, uh, until the fighting stops. uh, i think ukraine initially offered this, this deal to the trump administration, hoping it would entice the trump administration to keep providing military support to ukraine. that didn't work. and i think the ukrainians, once the trump administration, really turned the screws on them, decided this, there wasn't enough there to really fight, fight about and to push back on the united states. >> we're just now hearing this from putin, putin saying that russia is going to keep the land

they have that they've taken from ukraine, and that they're not going to negotiate that, that that is a non-negotiable. trump has dismissed the idea of u.s. security guarantees for ukraine. so what is there left for trump to push putin to do? >> well, i think one of the bizarre aspects of this negotiation is that the united states has given away a lot of the things that it could offer russia, such as diplomatic, uh, acknowledgment and recognition. we've already sat down with the russians and saudi arabia, and the united states has indicated that it's not going to support ukraine militarily going forward. uh, i think the only way to really bring to the table is by force. uh, and i would have recommended that the u.s. keep providing military aid to ukraine, uh, demonstrate to putin that he cannot win this war on the battlefield. and unfortunately, now i think he thinks he either can win it on the battlefield or get a ceasefire that essentially weakens ukraine, prevents

ukraine from getting military aid, prevents, uh, european forces from being in ukraine. and all the while, russia just builds up its forces as it prepares for what would be, uh, round three of this war. this is round two. uh, and putin, in a few years would go again. and ukrainians know that. and that's why they're simply not going to agree to a bad deal for them. >> all right. so ultimately, do you think a peace agreement can even happen without the united states? >> uh, actually, i think it can. i think in some ways we're making ourselves fairly irrelevant in the entire conflict, because once you stop providing military aid, uh, with the destruction of usaid, we've already stopped providing economic and development assistance to ukraine. ukraine was the largest recipient of our development aid. uh, so, you know, we don't have that much leverage now over the ukrainians. and, uh, and as for russia. russia in the u.s. could strike a deal. but there is this thing called europe. they have resources. we've been wanting them to step up and do more. and they have, uh, in response to

this war. and they have the resources to ensure that ukraine doesn't lose the war, uh, and can continue fighting. and i think that's what they're going to do. so actually, i think way the way i see this progressing is united states sort of sidelines itself, alienates us from europe and ukraine and the europeans, um, and ukrainians eventually have to sit down with the russians to negotiate something. but that's not going to be, i think, for a very long while. >> that is quite a thing to say, that the united states is making itself smaller on the world stage. but that is what you say is happening. max bergmann, thank you so much. i really appreciate you this morning. all right. fired federal workers are speaking out about how these mass layoffs are impacting the work they used to do, and the real impact on their lives. >> cookbooks, corporate fat cats, swindling socialites, doped up cyclists, then, yes, more crooked politicians. i have a feeling we won't be running out of those anytime soon.

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>> and in-depth analysis. the presidential address to congress. >> tuesday at eight on cnn. >> can. >> the. >> support your. >> brain health? >> mary janet. hey. >> eddie. no. razor. frank. frank. >> fred, how are you? fred? >> support up to seven brain health indicators, including memory. >> when you need to remember. remember. nariva. >> cnn health central, brought to you by brain health supplements. when you need to remember. remember. maria avdeeva. >> this morning, a tragic milestone in the ongoing measles outbreak. the first u.s. death from measles since 2015 has now been reported, according to a lubbock, texas spokesperson. this death was a school aged child who had been hospitalized with measles and was not vaccinated. this outbreak is also still growing. the case count in texas has now risen to 124 confirmed measles cases, up 34 from just last week. joining

me right now is doctor peter hotez, co-director of the center for vaccine development at texas children's hospital. it's good to see you again, doctor. here is what the limited amount of information that we know about the patient who died. school age child was already in the hospital for measles and was unvaccinated. knowing that and knowing little more, what are the questions that you have right now? and what does this moment signify? >> well, you know, the first reaction. >> of. >> course, is what a horrible tragedy. i mean, this is a school age kid. this this child did. >> not have to die. >> this, this. >> the. >> measles vaccine, the mmr vaccine, a single dose, 90% protective against measles. >> two doses. >> 97%. um. >> measles is one of the big killers globally. um, and the the only way to really prevent this is to ensure wide scale vaccination. unfortunately, here in texas, we have a very aggressive anti-vaccine lobby that actually receives pac

money, political action committee money, um, to, uh, for, for some of their work. and, and the consequences predicted and predictable. we've had very low vaccination rates in many parts of the state, particularly in west texas. so this started in a mennonite community. there's no religious prohibition or prohibitions against vaccination. they just, you know, an anti-vaccine activist groups got got to them. and so it started there. and now it's spreading in other parts of west texas, where vaccination rates are also low. and now across the border into new mexico, it may move up into oklahoma. and this thing still has a lot of momentum behind it. i think we're still in the early stages. and the number, the official numbers over 100 are probably a fraction of what's really going on. you know, some of my colleagues are saying, you know, on the ground, they're saying maybe a couple of a couple of hundred cases or more. and this is continuing to accelerate. >> yeah. i mean, the sad, very definition of tip, of the

iceberg of what we could be looking at if they don't get a handle on this. and in the midst of this, the health and human services secretary, rfk jr., he was asked about the outbreak and this death just yesterday. he says they're following the outbreak. and then he said this. let me play it. >> incidentally. there have been four measles outbreaks this year in this country. last year there were 16. so it's not unusual if measles outbreaks every year. we're watching it. and there are about 20 people hospitalized, mainly for quarantine. >> so we'll get to the quarantine bit in a second because that is that is inaccurate. but when he dismissed this as not unusual, what's your reaction to that, doctor? >> well, the answer is we eliminated measles in the year 2000. but in the last few years, we've seen the spillover of anti-vaccine, uh, activism from covid 19 vaccines, where my

estimate is 200,000 americans needlessly died because they refused a covid vaccine. they were victims of anti-vaccine activism. now it's spilling over to childhood immunization. so we had a four fold rise in measles outbreaks from 2023 to 2024. he's right. we had 16 last year. we had four the year before that. and now we're already have four in just the first month or so of of this year. so um, this will continue to accelerate. and by the way, the number and when you look at the numbers of cases, they're rising steeply. you know, we're going to be looking at several hundred, uh, kids most likely infected with measles, multiple multiple hospitalizations. these kids are sick. remember, 20% of measles cases, if you're unvaccinated, require hospitalization, and they're not there for quarantine. they're there because this virus, when it gets into the blood, goes to the inthat's what causes the measles rash. and then around the same time, it can go to the lungs and cause measles pneumonia, which is often the, the. cause of serious illness,

which requires, uh, an icu admission, sometimes intubation. in the case of this child, this child perished. this child lost, lost his or her life. it also causes severe dehydration from measles, diarrhea, and the list goes on. neurologic involvement, hearing loss, um, sometimes visual loss. and this is an awful, awful infection. and the fact that we've allowed it to come roaring back like this in texas is just unconscionable. it never had to happen, never should have happened. >> and on that basic fact that he's completely misstating there, which we then learned that most of them were in the hospital for quarantine. doctor laura johnson, the chief medical officer at covenant children's hospital, where this child died. she disagreed with that, saying, quote, we don't hospitalized patients for quarantine purposes. so that is where we are today. doctor hotez, thank you very much. sarah. >> off breaking just moments ago, jobless claim numbers are in. it's not good. first time applicants for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week. cnn's matt egan is

joining me now. this does this show that we're having a little problem here in the the labor market? >> it might. >> be it might. >> be an early. sign of stress. >> that is. >> starting to bubble up. >> in the labor market. and we know there could be even more stress coming because the federal government is laying off tens or even hundreds of thousands of workers. so these new numbers just out show that the number of people filing for first time unemployment benefits rose significantly for the week ending february 22nd. it increased by 22,000 to 242,000. now, that is more than expected, and it's the highest level in 11 weeks. now, i do want to stress that these weekly numbers, they can be a little bit noisy. they can go up and down. so we do need to kind of wait to see how the next few weeks go to see if this is the beginning of a new concerning trend or not. it is a little bit difficult to parse out exactly why claims have moved higher. one thing to note is that the

district of columbia did say that jobless claims there increased, so that could be a sign of some of the beginnings of the layoffs that are taking place. as elon musk and doge try to cut costs there. it's hard to say for sure. we're going to have to wait to see how the next few weeks play out. there's also been the last two weeks, an increase in the number of federal civilian employees who are beginning to request unemployment claims. so again, that's another thing to watch for. interesting data point from linkedin has found that the number of people who are applying for jobs in the dc baltimore area have increased pretty significantly in the last few months, especially among government workers. again, some of that could be because there's a change in power. some of it could be because of all these federal layoffs. and i would just point out, look, this is not happening in a vacuum. investors, economists are getting a little bit more concerned about a possible slowdown in the economy. and i don't think today's numbers are going to help those concerns. >> not at all. but as you said,

to be a trend, it has to happen several times to see what is really going on. >> but we got to watch these numbers closely. >> i know you will be. thank you so much, matt egan. all right. straight ahead. the sudden uncertainty job future for many federal workers. as you just heard matt talking about. we will speak with one woman who just lost her job about how it has created so much turmoil in her life. and we'll have the latest on the breaking news this morning. the death of actor and oscar winning actor gene hackman, his wife and their dog. >> if you put your effort and concentration into playing to your potential to be the best that you can be, i don't care what the scoreboard says at the end of the game. in my book, we're going to be winners. >> ken. areva, support your brain health. >> mary. janet. hey. >> eddie. no! fraser. frank. frank! >> fred, how are you? fred. >> support up to seven brain health. >> indicators, including memory, when you need to remember.

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so it truly stands alone. move forward with confidence@hurrican e.com. >> twitter. that's great man. >> no one understood where it was going. >> we invented a whole new thing. >> twitter. breaking the bird. >> premieres march. >> 9th on cnn. >> california's governor, gavin newsom, has directed the state's parole board to

investigate now whether eric and lyle menendez would pose a public risk if they were released from prison. the brothers have been behind bars for more than 30 years, serving a life sentence for the murders of their parents back in the 80s. newsom is currently considering a request for clemency. request for clemency based on new evidence that they say has surfaced recently. the l.a. county district attorney, though, says he opposes the brothers request for a new trial. he's saying that the claim of new evidence showing their father sexually abused them, quote, does not constitute self-defense. also this morning, right wing influencer andrew tate and his brother tristan. they're on a private plane headed back to the united states after prosecutors lifted a travel ban imposed on them. the brothers were arrested in romania in 2022 for human trafficking. they're also charged with forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women. andrew tate also faces an additional charge of rape. the decision to lift the ban reportedly came after the united

states put pressure on romanian authorities. former child actor. former child star. actress michelle trachtenberg has died. she was just 39 years old. police say the actress was found dead inside a manhattan apartment wednesday morning. a source with the nypd tells cnn that she had recently had a medical issue, and her death appeared to be related to natural causes. trachtenberg was known for films like harriet the spy and shows like buffy the vampire slayer and gossip girl. sarah. >> all right. president trump's ringing endorsement of elon musk at the first cabinet meeting made very clear. he is totally supportive of those mass firings. the fallout from doge and its mass terminations are very real. american families are being hit hard. caroline corrigan worked for the cdc until she got that notice that she was being terminated. she joins us now. thank you so much for joining us. what have you been forced to do because of your unexpected firing at the

cdc? >> well, i lost the only income that i have. um, so at this point, i applied for unemployment. um, and i've applied for social services like food stamps and medicaid. i have no income, and i am a single mom with two kids, and now i, you know, it's just devastating. >> you have a congresswoman, marjorie taylor greene. um, making real aspersions against federal workers, saying they shouldn't be getting a paycheck, um, that they are not doing any real work. what do you say to a congressperson who is making these claims? >> uh, well, number one, she's a federal worker herself. so if that's the case, then she shouldn't be getting paid. um, you know, federal employees were real people with real families. we work. if we didn't work, you wouldn't. the american public would see that because the government wouldn't be moving.

and, you know, we dedicate our lives, our career, our knowledge to serving the american people. i think that, you know, with the upcoming rifts and. uh, probably furlough, it's going to be felt by everyone. >> how did you find out that you were being fired.? >> kristie lu stout. >> um, i got an email on a saturday, which is my regular scheduled day off. um, and it just said, read this immediately. um, and the body of the email said, read the attachments. thank you for your service. and then in the actual letter of termination, you know, it said that i was letting i was excuse me, i was being let go because i had, um, poor performance. but i worked for the government for almost ten years. i've never had a negative appraisal, no corrective actions, never been on a performance plan, and i had 66 days left. >> do you. do you. >> think they.

>> were just lying? do you think that that was just a flat out lie to try and make it easy for them to fire you? >> yes, in my case, i do believe that was a lie. i have documentation, um, that shows that i wasn't in any way a poor performer. >> donald trump has given a ringing endorsement for elon musk, um, saying he wants to see more firings, even bigger mass firings. what would you like to say to the president and elon musk as they continue to try and wipe out a huge portion of the federal workforce, especially? >> um, i guess for me, i would just like to say that it goes against everything that they're saying or that they did say, um, you know, they don't want people in government handouts while you're forcing our hand. and with the uncertainty of that, with budget cuts to those programs, what happens to american people? i mean, it's not this is people from all

parties. so it affects everyone. >> carolyn corrigan, thank you so much. i know it's hard to talk about these things. um, it feels really, really, really devastating when anyone loses a job. but to lose it with something like a poor performance review, which you hadn't ever gotten, makes it that much harder. something that you say was just a complete lie. really appreciate you coming on and explaining your story to us. thank you. all right. a new hour of cnn news central starts right now. >> breaking news this morning. police are investigating now after oscar winning actor gene hackman and his wife both found dead in their home. the latest from police, as hollywood remembers, this legendary star and a critical face to face the british prime minister set to meet with president trump at the white house, the second world leader to race in just this week to try and pull trump away from