>> presidents in other countries and prime ministers also have their own domestic politics to deal with. mexico's next steps could be tremendously important here. because here's the other thing. if you crush economies in in mexico in particular, you could get more pressure for more immigration to your border, which is exactly what you're trying to prevent. all of the stuff is intertwined. the president and his team know that, but they're going to have to deal with the ramifications of it and the strategic moves, how one of their policies impacts another policy in real time. >> margaret talev, nia-malika henderson, stephen collinson, who i love to read online, columnist at cnn. i want to thank you guys for being here, having a group chat with me. i also want to thank you for waking up with us. i'm audie cornish and cnn news central begins right now.

>> all right. we do have breaking news. president trump is expected to issue an executive order as soon as today that would dismantle the entire department of education. >> and happening now, european leaders gathered at a crucial summit with ukrainian president zelenskyy. can eu leaders fill in the gap left by president trump after his decision to pull u.s. aid from ukraine? >> also new this morning, there's new dna evidence discovered on one of the victims in the idaho quadruple murder case. i'm kate bolduan with john berman and sara sidner. this is cnn news central all right. >> breaking this morning was one hell of a headline in the politico playbook. look at that.

school's out forever. well, there it went. moments ago, sources confirmed to cnn that president trump is preparing to sign an order to eliminate the education department as soon as today. the washington post and wall street journal, who first reported this and saw a draft of the order, say it will direct his new education secretary, linda mcmahon, to take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the education department. the report says the draft order states, quote, the experiment of controlling american education through federal programs and dollars in the unaccountable bureaucrats. those programs and dollar support has failed our children, our teachers, and our families. now, it is unclear how far this could go. would need senate approval to completely shut down the department. democrats would almost certainly block that. let's get right to kevin liptak at the white house for your new reporting on this. kevin, what have you learned? >> yeah, this is a step that the white house has been preparing for for quite some time. certainly, president trump has been signaling since he was a

candidate his intent to close down the department of education. but now we're learning he could put his signature on this executive order as early as today. and what it would do, as you said, essentially direct linda mcmahon, who was just confirmed as the secretary of education earlier this week to begin steps to close that agency. but it does, you know, make clear that she must do this to the extent that it is permitted by law. and i think that is the acknowledgment by the white house and by the trump administration that fully closing a department within the federal government will require congress. it will require 60 votes in congress to overcome a filibuster, which is certainly not the case right now. there are 53 republicans. and so i think there's an acknowledgment that they will have to do this sort of bit by bit. and what we have heard is that this will essentially involve moving elements of the department of education to other agencies. and of course, this is a department that has wide purview. they

administer billions of dollars in grants for poverty stricken schools. they administer the 1.2 trillion, $1.6 trillion student loan program. so there's a lot of money at stake here. but what we heard from linda mcmahon when she was confirmed this week is that she is fully on board. she says that she is fully aligned with the president's vision to eliminate what she calls bureaucratic bloat. inside the education department, and she calls this one final, unforgettable public service to the people at that agency. and it was interesting to hear president trump soon after he was sworn in, talk about the task that he was assigning mcmahon. listen to what he said. >> he told linda. linda, i hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job. i want her to put herself out of a job. i want the states to run schools, and i want linda to put herself out of a job. >> now, already, scores of

department of education employees have been laid off as part of this wider effort to reduce the size of the federal government, many more have been put on notice that they could be at risk for further layoffs. they call them reductions in force inside the federal government. obviously, all of this is part of the plan here at the white house executed by elon musk to seriously reshape the size and scope of the federal bureaucracy that has already generated some concerns among democrats, certainly, but also among republicans. that was one of the reasons why musk went up to capitol hill to meet house and senate republicans. they want better communication. he gave them their cell phone number. he's setting up a hotline in order to hear their questions and concerns going forward. >> they did note the constitution gives them the power to spend, and they may need to vote on this. all of it eventually. kevin liptak at the white house. great new reporting. thanks for sharing it with us, sarah. >> all right. happening now. ukrainian president zelenskyy is meeting with and thanking european leaders at a special

summit in brussels. the urgent meeting coming after president trump paused u.s. aid to ukraine. france's defense minister this morning announced that it would speed up the delivery of certain types of aid to ukraine to make up for the u.s. pause. it comes just a day after french president emmanuel macron said europe was entering a new era where it needed to prepare for the possibility of the u.s. not to remain by our side. and that's a quote. cnn's nic robertson is in brussels this morning. president zelenskyy spoke just moments ago. what did you hear from him? >> yeah. look, i've been in brussels now for the past almost 24 hours. over 24 hours. i've been meeting with diplomats, talking with them, listening to them. there is a sense of abandonment here by the united states of the security that europe feels and the protection it has in partnership with the united states, triggered by what is happening in ukraine now. president zelenskyy, when he came here, he had a huddle, ten minute huddle with the european

union president and council and commission chiefs that i think gives a real sense of the way europe and its leaders are trying to accelerate to prepare for their own defense. zelenskyy, for his part, thanking the europeans for standing with him at this moment. >> during all this period and last week, you stay with us. and of course, from all the ukrainians, from all our nation's big appreciation. we are very thankful that we are not alone. and these are not just words. we feel it. >> but the hard reality here at the european union is that decisions that are made at high speed in the white house to cut back security support for ukraine cannot be matched by the europeans to fill those spaces at the same speed. and this meeting is all about agreeing how to get the funding. $861 billion worth of additional

defense funding funding. they're talking about how they will raise that money from the banks. they haven't yet started talking about how they will spend it. this is the difficulty of the european union. there are meetings after meetings, after meetings for leaders, even when they're working at speed and they are working at speed right now, they just cannot match the changes that are coming out of the white house. so the consternation i was talking about there, writ large through the diplomatic community, it's sort of europe's capital, if you will, is real. there is a real concern. this meeting today will take another very important step forward. that's the anticipation. but it doesn't even get to where the money will be spent, what weapons they will buy, how quickly those weapons can arrive in ukraine. so this isn't now not it's not just about ukraine and ukraine security. as ursula von der leyen, the european commission president, said. europe faces a clear and present danger, right?

that means something. that's what's going around here right now. >> yeah, it is remarkable to to sort of you talking to these diplomats, worrying about the u.s. not being by their side the longest, one of their longest allies. nic robertson, thank you so much for your great reporting there in brussels. kate. >> president trump backing off some of his tariffs, at least for a moment, on canada and mexico. so what does a one month exemption for automakers mean for. well, automakers and for consumers. we've got more on that and breaking overnight. 15 people are injured when south korean fighter jets accidentally bombed civilian homes during a live fire drill. and american farmers left in the lurch after president trump dismantled dismantles usaid they want you to show them on paper how you're good for that operating loan and how you're going to pay it back. >> i can't pay it back with $8 beans and $6 beans and $3 corn.

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very clearly of how painful this tax would be. all of the other across the board, 25% tariffs on mexico and canada still in effect. stocks rallied yesterday on the news. looking at futures. well they're down right now. so what is this whiplash meaning for businesses across industries now. cnn's matt egan has some new reporting on this and he is here with us. what are you learning? >> well. >> kate, look, we knew. that tariff man, as the president has called himself, was back. but it turns out that the original is even more chaotic and confusing than the original. rather, the sequel is more confusing than the original. you know what i mean? i mean, i do every single week. there's new tariffs that are threatened. some of them kick in, others are pulled back at the last moment. others, like the reciprocal tariffs and copper and steel and aluminum, they still loom. it's almost impossible to keep track of. you kind of need like a baseball box score just to decipher it all. and this is really frustrating for business owners and ceos who famously hate uncertainty.

right. they're trying to figure out how much the cost of their goods is going to be, but they can't because tariffs loom, right. and they're trying to figure out whether or not they need to hire workers or fire them. do they need to raise prices or. >> cut them? they be making many major investments. should they? you know. >> it's impossible. there's actually an index that tracks trade policy uncertainty. and you can see it's basically through the roof. it's the highest since going back. this is since the 1990s. >> that is wild. >> it is. but this actually goes all the way back to 1960s. we couldn't fit it all on this chart. and it's higher than at any point since then, higher than trump's first term, which makes sense, because what he's doing is just so much bigger in size and scope than his first term. right? he's already put tariffs on triple the amount of imports than he did during his entire first four years in the administration. we're not even two months in. and i talked to a pet supply store owner in california. and he told me that, look, he's not a fan of tariffs, but it's actually the uncertainty that's almost worse here, he said. it's frustrating and stressful. he's trying to keep track of all the drama, but

he can't keep up with it. of course, i would just note that some of this is probably a feature, not a bug of the trump strategy, right? because he views tariffs as a way to leverage other countries right to pressure them. and by keeping everyone guessing, that's a way to sort of maximize that leverage. but look, it's starting to show up in the economic data. it's starting to show up in markets. right. we saw that private sector hiring slowed sharply last month. mark zandi, he told you just the other day that it feels like the economy is gagging on the uncertainty. and he said that the longer that this uncertainty hangs around, the more likely the economy is going to start choking on it all. >> yeah. i mean, let us see what today brings. let us see together futures down right now, and we'll see what happens when the bell opens, when the when the markets open. great to see you, matt. thanks, kate. john. >> all right. march madness early this year. major upset overnight. that's having a big impact on bracket predictions this morning and this morning. brand new dna evidence in the

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what? you can cancel the ones you don't want right through the app, and it can even help you try and get a refund. >> united states of scandal with jake tapper returns sunday at nine on cnn. >> the cleveland cavaliers headed to the playoffs. the cavs pulled out a win over the miami heat last night, which means they are the first team in the league to clinch a playoff spot. cnn sports anchor andy scholes. how did it go down, buddy? >> well, you know, sarah, we all remember those great lebron cavs teams right. but this year's team is actually on pace to have the best record in cavs franchise history right now. they lead the entire nba with a record of 52 and ten on pace to win 69. but they needed a fourth quarter comeback to beat the

heat last night. cavs were down seven with six to go, but they then closed the game on a 19 to 7 run, and evan mobley's alley-oop slam put the cavs up for good right here as they go on to win 112 to 107 cavs. they keep their third double digit winning streak of the season going. they've now won 12 in a row. donovan mitchell led the way with 26. and here he was after him being the first team in the league to clinch a playoff spot. >> it's an honor. you know it's it's a sign of our hard work as a group. but at the end of the day you don't really mean much. you know what i'm saying? like this is it's great to be in the playoffs. but you know, when we, you know, when we started this and when i, when i came here and when we signed like this wasn't the playoffs wasn't the goal. you know, it's just another step another another step on our on our journey. you know what i mean. and i'm definitely happy to do it in front of the home crowd. but you know, we got a lot more to accomplish. >> all right. hockey. meanwhile, alex ovechkin inching closer to the great one's all time goal record. the capitals legend scoring here in the third on the power play to tie the game.

ovechkin now has 885 goals in his career. he now needs ten goals in 18 games to break gretzky's record this season. the capitals they went on to beat the rangers, three two, in overtime. finally, a great one in the sec last night. ole miss's jamon brakefield is going to get the put back to go here to put the rebels up two with seven seconds left. tennessee then trying to tie it, but igor milicic misses at the buzzer. ole miss pulls off the huge upset, beating fourth ranked tennessee 7876. now the pa announcer was imploring the fans to not rush the court, but some students still did before. more eventually joined. now he was trying to get them not to rush because it is a. huge fine in the sec for rushing the court or field. and ole miss already was fined $350,000 for storming the field after they beat georgia back in november. sarah, if this is deemed to be a third offense, it could cost the school a half

million dollars and all of that money would go to tennessee. so, you know the volunteers, they might not get the one seed because of this loss, but they could get a half if they win. not a bad consolation, right? >> they actually end up winning in the end. um, back to the cavs. quickly i love an alley oop. in my dreams, i can do it. i think about it. i dream about it. i know it's never going to happen, but that's my favorite play in basketball. so i just. >> i do wonder what that feels like right? >> i think it feels good, but does it feel good as a what, half $1 million fine? yikes. andy scholes. >> we'll see. >> we'll see. tennessee's richard. ole miss wins the game. thank you doll. kate the the policy is flawed. >> you tell a bunch of college students who may or may not have been having beverages that like, please. don't do something. you rush the field. if you rush the court, it's going to cost us. they're like, game on. challenge accepted. yes, exactly. >> that is not going to cost them, although it might in their tuition.

>> i mean, well details, details. all right. coming up for us, we have breaking news this morning. president trump preparing to sign an executive order to officially dismantle the entire education department. so what now? we have new reporting coming in and arrests in new york as police remove pro-palestinian protesters staging a sit in at barnard college. >> cnn sports is brought to you by safelite, your auto glass experts. get a quote and schedule today at safelite. >> com safelite repair safelite replace. >> sadly windshield chips can turn into windshield cracks. but at least you can go to safelite. com and schedule a fix in minutes. sweet safelite can come to you for free. don't wait. go to safelite. com and schedule now. >> we always loved cooking and we found a restaurant that let us get in with no business background. then one customer

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newfound flexibility with stamps.com. start your risk free trial today. the arena with kasie hunt. today at 4 p.m. on cnn. >> all right. breaking this morning, an executive order obtained by the wall street journal and washington post shows president trump will tell newly confirmed education secretary linda mcmahon to, quote, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the education department based on the maximum extent appropriate

and permitted by law. with us now is congresswoman debbie dingell, a democrat from michigan. congresswoman, thank you so much. and our reporting is that executive order could come as soon as today. how do you feel about that? >> well. >> good morning, john. we've been actually hearing this for weeks. so it is not something that is unexpected. people have been preparing for it. and what i think people need to understand that there are very important functions inside of the department of education that are going to have to continue things from the idea program, which helps schools across the country with people that have disabilities or slow learning problems. there is support for schools across the country from a number of education programs. title nine. so they're not going to be able to eliminate programs that are within doe. i don't think it's a great decision, but we'll have to see what's in the executive order and will be making sure the programs that have to exist must exist for the young people of our country,

continue to exist. >> on the subject of cuts, yesterday we learned that the department of veterans affairs, the va could cut as many as 70,000 jobs from its workforce. i know you've been fighting for staffing levels at one particular va hospital, the john dingell va hospital in your district. what do you think of cuts that size at the va? >> i'm very, very worried about it, john. i am somebody that spends a great deal of time in two veterans hospitals, the one you just mentioned and the ann arbor, va and the john dingell va hospital. i went it had problems. people died. the director there was fired. to be perfectly frank, there was an inspector general study. it's been understaffed. they brought in a new director whose job is to try to staff it up to. we have a moral commitment to our veterans to take care of them. they've had too long a wait times. it took us too long. we have, i have, and no vietnam vets. mayor of my town who were exposed to agent orange and

died. we just passed the pact act. we have a moral obligation to our young men and women who now are maybe not so young, who fought in the vietnam war, iraq and afghanistan, were exposed to chemicals to burn pits. we can't back off in the pact act now. it's wrong. and i will fight tooth and nail to deliver to our veterans what they earned in protecting us. >> i feel like so much of the news right now is affecting the sixth district of michigan, your district, very directly right now. i want to ask you about these tariffs. the auto tariffs were where president trump is now pausing the tariffs insofar as they relate to automakers. for a month. the press secretary says the automakers should use that money to move production, all of it to the united states. can the automakers do that in one month? >> so, john, i'm actually somebody who probably is more on the trump side than many of my republican colleagues, in the sense that i do believe that tariffs are a tool in the toolbox and that we need to be

playing on a level playing field. i think the way that they have been implemented across the board is causing problems, and that the auto manufacturers do need time to adjust production schedules to to look at how they're going to manufacture these things. and, you know, the other thing they're going to be looking at is that they did cite plants under the usmca, which, by the way, i think needs to be amended quickly. i think we need trade policy. so we need to bring manufacturing home. we need to bring supply chains home. but we had to do it in a way that doesn't harm and the way that it was done could potentially damage the domestic auto industry. some say it's already happened, and i don't believe i hope that's not the intent of the policy of this administration. and i want to work with them. and i'm going to tell you something else that people don't understand. those union workers, the uaw workers in those union halls, are really

happy to see somebody fighting for them, trying to bring those jobs back home. we need to bring them home. and we not only need to bring car and steel production and supply chains home, how about bringing pharmaceutical manufacturing back, where 80 to 90% of our medicines are made offshore in china and india? that's not only an economic security issue, that's a national security issue. >> i want to quickly ask you what happened tuesday night. there are a lot of reports over the last two days that some democrats are unhappy with what other democrats did on the house floor during the president's speech. punchbowl is just one of the places reporting this morning. multiple house democrats complained to us that their leadership isn't providing sufficient guidance on key issues. this situation reared its head on tuesday, when moderate democrats were surprised and dismayed at the tone and scale of their colleagues protests. what did you think of what happened? >> so look, i'm not going to lie. i don't think anybody looked good on tuesday night. it's a very challenging situation. the, you know, the house of representatives is a

representative body. both caucuses have many people with different feelings. i do think that leadership tried to tell people that there should not be props. i think we all have to again, take a look and talk to each other about what is the most effective way to be fighting back. people out there are people throughout this country. i have people of all kinds in my district who are very angry, want to see democrats fighting back. they're trying to show we have democratic members that are really we all are about what is happening and who's being hurt. as i just talked about on the veterans and what's the most effective way to fight back? i don't think tuesday night was our best moment. we've got to continue to get together. our leadership needs to be talking to people. but i got a message for everybody. circular firing squads don't help anybody either. >> congresswoman debbie dingell from michigan. nice to see you this morning. thanks for your time, kate. >> good to see you. thank you. >> so. a new legal roadblock for president trump's efforts to slash and purge the government.

a federal judge ruling the cuts to federal funding for public health research is likely illegal, citing as a key reason the potential loss of life that could come if cuts were put into place and medical trials were to end today. president trump's pick to lead the fda is on the hill one day after his pick to lead nih was grilled by lawmakers. cnn's meg tirrell tracking all of this for us and joins us now. meg, let's start with nih. what stood out from the nih testimony? >> yeah. >> so. >> of course, nih. >> is a. >> $48 billion agency. it's the largest public funder of biomedical research in the world. president trump's nominee is doctor jay bhattacharya, who's a stanford professor and really came to prominence during covid for being sort of a contrarian. he coauthored this thing called the great barrington declaration, which got a lot of attention. this came out before vaccines were available and recommended protecting the vulnerable, but really letting everybody else just kind of live their lives and achieve herd immunity

through natural infection, essentially. and so there were a lot of lines about covid in this hearing yesterday. he laid out his goals. and number one, he said, was fighting chronic diseases with nih resources, which of course is president trump and robert f. kennedy jr.. s stated, make america wealthy again goal. there was a lot of talk about vaccines, of course, with what's going on with measles. and texas senator cassidy out of the gate grilling him on whether he planned to spend nih resources looking into the debunked link between the mmr, measles, mumps, rubella vaccine and autism. and he wouldn't commit to not spending more money, which really disappointed cassidy, who said that is a lost opportunity to invest in things we really need answers to. but then, of course, there was also a lot of focus on these cuts we've seen across the federal government and health agencies in particular, and cuts to funding. he was grilled on that too. take a look. >> do you support the recent researcher. >> firings and grant freezes. >> that have been implemented by trump.

>> and doge? >> senator. >> i was not involved in. those decisions. i might, if i'm confirmed as nih director, i fully commit to making sure that all the scientists at the nih and the scientists that the nih supports have the resources they need to meet the mission of the nih, which is to make america do research to make america healthy up to date, we've got fda nominee doctor marty makary, who is a surgeon from johns hopkins, another sort of covid contrarian voice. >> we're going to be listening closely to his answers about vaccines as well, particularly as we saw that a key vaccine advisory committee to the fda meeting was canceled for march that was designed to pick flu strains. so that will be a key thing. but also, guys, we'll be listening for anything he says about medication abortion, because that's under the purview of fda. and of course, there's been a huge issue that we've heard a lot less about lately. guys. >> meg, thank you so much for tracking that. interested to hear what comes of the hearing today? for sure, sarah. >> all right. thank you kate. this morning, the consequences of president trump and elon musk's decision to gut u.s. aid

is hitting home. u.s. farmers say they are suffering of the consequences of those freezes of money. the supreme court yesterday rejected the funding freeze. but when the money flows again, no one knows. cnn's shimon prokupecz went to the heartland to talk with farmers. >> you asked me why i do it. what we feed people and that's a good feeling with our produce. here i stand behind my crop. i don't produce anything on my farm that i wouldn't eat. matter of fact, i'll show you. i choose some soybeans for and it tastes good. i'm going right here on my farm. >> where does it taste. >> like it tastes like a mcdonald's hamburger. >> no. >> yeah, that's what's in them. >> john boyd junior is a fourth generation farmer. >> he grows. >> wheat. >> corn and. soybeans here on his thousand acre farm in. southern virginia. he also founded the national black

farmers association, and he's no fan of president donald trump. >> the president cast a net of uncertainty every time he makes one of these wild announcements that he people are saying, yeah. tariffs and china tariffs to mexico, tariffs to canada, usaid. it's over. it's done. every time he makes those type of drastic announcements. he affects america's farmers. >> within days of taking office president trump dismantled usaid, a humanitarian program that's been a lifeline for the most vulnerable around the world and a critical source of income for u.s. farmers, paying them hundreds of millions of dollars a year for their crops. he also froze some funding for farmers and rattled trade markets. >> we take it totally, totally for granted, and what we're doing in this country right now, we're gambling with all that. >> gambling with farmers. >> gambling with farmers lives, the gambling with my life, the

gambling with my livelihood. man. >> farmers like boyd rely on loans to plant for the upcoming season, with the hope that the harvest will pay it off and bring home some profit. in fact, about a million american farmers rely on the usda for financial assistance every year. but just days before planting season starts, boyd says he hasn't been able to get a loan yet, and he says he's not the only one. >> they want to hear. they want you to show them on paper how you're good for that operating loan and how you're going to pay it back. i can't pay it back with $8 beans and $6 beans and $3 corn. >> the majority of grain exported from the united states is stored in grain elevators in kansas alone, one grain elevator can export millions of dollars of goods. this is in pawnee county in kansas. this is a grain elevator site. this is where farmers will bring their grain stuff that they've harvested, like milo and wheat

and soybean and corn. it is stored in these bins. these large concrete bins, and then sold to exporters, companies who are willing to buy that. and right now it is very difficult to move some of this stuff. >> they could come in and sell wheat for $5.58. it was down $0.14 today. >> kim barnes has been buying and selling each year's harvest for kansas farmers for over 50 years. >> all these bins are full and they're full of milo. >> that's $5 million worth of grain, barnes says. grain that countries like ethiopia and others depend on for food aid. and so what's going on with the milo? why do you have so much of that right now? what are you seeing in the market? >> just we just. >> don't have any market for it. >> there's nobody. >> wanting to buy it. >> five months ago, barnes says usaid bought over 200 million metric tons of milo from american farmers. today, with no market for that grain, he's desperate. one potential

lifeline a proposal in washington for the usda to continue usaid food distribution program. you're optimistic that the usaid stuff will get moved into usda, and the program will get. >> and will go. >> on. >> but john boyd doesn't share that optimism. he's not just worried about the future of farming, but for the future of his own farm. >> yeah, for children. and i know that my kids have watched me scuffle, you know, throughout my career, and they're not going to want to do this if this administration continues to make it more difficult than it already is our thanks to sherman for that. >> all right. new this morning, new dna evidence. the idaho quadruple murder case. a court filing reveals investigators found a mixture of unknown dna from three people under one of the victims fingernails. and this morning, attorneys for the man facing four counts of first degree murder in the case. bryan kohberger want this new evidence

thrown out. cnn's jean casarez is here. why? why do they want it out? >> they don't want. >> this to come before the jury. >> because they feel. >> it will be confusing to the jury. and this this motion right. >> here. >> there's a bit. >> redacted, but. >> there are inconsistencies in this. now, first i want to tell you that it. >> is not. >> uncommon at all. >> that when a crime. >> victim autopsy. >> takes place, that they do cut the nails of the victim, the clippings, because john nguyen and i'm not. talking about this. >> case, but. >> in general, when a crime victim. >> is attacked. >> they can reach out with their hands and their nails and some of the perpetrators. dna can be under nails. now with. >> this. >> there was a mixture of three people. so i think we have a shot of what the testing they did. they did a working. scientific hypothesis in this case. and first of all, they determined that madison mogen, because that is. the victim who had that mixture. >> of dna under. >> her left hand, nail

clippings. they determined that. her dna would be there. it's her nail bed, right? of course. and so then they went on to say, k.g., well. >> who's k.g. kaylee goncalves. >> is who? her body was found next to on a bed that morning after. >> when. >> authorities arrived there, and then an unknown dna. then they did another working hypothesis of madison mogen and two unidentified. >> dnas. >> now, it does have statistics for bryan kohberger, but they're redacted. it hints that it was inconclusive for him, but. >> it does not come. >> out and say it. the defense is saying it. was inconclusive to him. they are. >> saying. >> they did their own independent testing of the dna under the nails, and it excluded bryan kohberger. so here we have alleged inconsistency from the forensics lab in idaho. >> meaning you. >> can't rule it in you can't rule it out versus the defense saying he was ruled out. so they want this out. but here's what's interesting. the

prosecutor used this evidence before the grand jury when they were trying to get an indictment. interesting, right. defense says they were trying to help brian to have some some inculpatory evidence there, exculpatory to help him. but we'll see what the prosecution response is. and normally it comes in. >> i got to say, you did such a good job explaining this, seeing the investigation play out almost in parallel to the legal filings really shines a light on it. >> because the trial is getting close. it's in august and now they're going to determine what goes before the jury. what is does not come into the trial. >> thank you so much for helping us understand what we're seeing here. jean casarez, thank you kate. >> donald trump's takeover, takeover of the kennedy center in washington, coming with a new price. the broadway blockbuster hamilton now backing out of its upcoming run at the historic performing arts center and a training operation goes horribly wrong in south korea. fighter jets accidentally bombed civilian homes, injuring 15 people.

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>> for my copd, things. >> changed for me. >> breztri gave me better breathing, symptom improvement and reduced. flare ups. >> breztri won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. it is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. don't take breztri more than prescribed breztri may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia and osteoporosis. call your doctor if worsened. breathing, chest pain, mouth or tongue swelling problems, urinating, vision changes or eye pain occur. >> ask your doctor about breztri. >> maybe if he hadn't been such a he would have gotten away with it. i'm still not sure that you're. >> repentant. >> united states of scandal with jake tapper sunday at 9:00 on cnn. >> i'm pete muntean at reagan national airport. this is cnn. >> a new season of the cnn original series, united states of scandal with jake tapper kicks off this sunday. the premiere episode, taking you inside abscam. the elaborate fbi sting operation in the late 70s

that targeted some of the top members of the u.s. government at the time. here's a preview. >> you can't investigate and convict criminals with angels. >> so the fbi takes. >> a gamble. >> they'll let this con man. >> try to earn. >> his freedom by conducting stings on white. >> collar criminals. but they had no idea how far that would go. >> it started. >> in a very humble way. the object. >> was only. >> to recover stolen art and securities, and to everyone's amazement, who was involved in the investigation. three years later, it resulted in the conviction of six united states congressmen and the. united states senator. >> the one the only, jake tapper, is here. i mean, when you look at it, it's like corrupt politicians, real mobsters, a fake middle eastern sheik, oil art. i mean, what more could a scandal show desire? >> it's crazy. like, just think about the fact that they had, like, fbi agents, just white

guys pretending to be arab sheiks. they didn't. they didn't speak arabic. they had no credentials. and yet these seven. >> dumb politicians. >> are for volleyball. and yet these seven members of the house and senate went to, you know, got in trouble, went to jail. >> i mean, like, it's hard. i was thinking like, what's the wildest aspect of this operation? >> the white guys pretending to be arab sheiks. without question. like completely unbelievable. and, you know, i'm sure offensive also in a way, although i wasn't there, so i can't be offended, but. >> oh, really? >> yeah. >> you were there at the time. okay, so you've got all. >> well, i shouldn't say i wasn't there, but my congressman was one of them. of what? yeah. yeah. in philly, ozzie meyers, our illustrious congressman, democrat from pennsylvania, was one of the was one of the seven that got in trouble. and i remember it i remember abscam at the time we wanted to interview him for this show. he's still alive, but he was in prison for a different thing. >> wait.

>> true. true story for about for stuffing ballot boxes. it's true. >> illustrious doing a lot of work on that one. okay, so. >> welcome to philly. >> well, no. be nice. go birds. um, so this plays out in the late 70s wake in the wake of watergate and vietnam. you are one of the bigger political history buffs that i know. yeah. how do you how did all of that play into how this operation played out, do you think? >> well, i mean, i think the corruption of government, that was that so demoralized the united states in the 70s through watergate and through what happened, the tragedy of vietnam, with all those presidents lying to the american people as was as was shown in the pentagon papers. i think abscam was just on top of that. even more evidence for, you know, a very demoralized public that, oh, my god, these people are just completely corrupt. and i think we've never recovered as a society from the 70s. >> right. the idea of a corrupt politician is like always been part of it, part of.

>> the drain, the swamp. >> always and always. every campaign. what else can we be excited about this season? >> well, we're widening the aperture. that is the abscam episode is obviously politics, but we're widening the aperture a bit. we're doing other segments of our life. we have sports with lance armstrong, the lance armstrong scandal. we have society. >> where you're like, if he wasn't such a in the promo. >> yeah, that's a good one. the sports with anna delvey and. >> you interview her? >> i do interview anna delvey. enron. we do the enron scandal. we get into the thomas anita hill hearings. so there is a lot and it's just every time, it's just such a joy as somebody who is a political junkie and also who, look, we we have to admit it, when there's a scandal, it's interesting for us to cover and to dive into it with some perspective. getting to talk to the players. and, you know, after the scandal has played out, it's just it's a joy. >> yeah. the the perspective of time and distance is always it's like it adds a whole fun new layer when you're looking at any, any big moment in history, especially a scandal.

>> 100%, especially given where we are as a society, given hunter biden, given the presidencies of the last decade, it's a it's an interesting time. >> an interesting time. is this the first time we've had you in studio with us ever? >> no, no. right. but in a while. >> in a while. >> well, you don't invite me. >> so is over. >> is it? the the no book, no booking alert has been lifted. >> what happened? >> what? >> what was the. was it the eagles winning the super bowl again? >> we were uncomfortable with with it. >> was the eagles winning the super bowl again. >> we were like oh now. >> we can't ignore him. >> it's okay. scandal john. >> still what is the scandal. >> the scandal is he's never been on set here. >> that's that is true. that is true. i've been on the morning show set, but not this show. so. but that's. >> i'm sorry. was there a show. >> before this? >> i'm judging. >> that is you. that is not. what am i supposed to be, a party crasher? i don't come in. >> you. >> i do that. would you are. a force of nature. that's a separate issue. >> a welcome party crasher. and

if you noticed. >> you can. >> pull it off. >> we cannot have john berman in the same shot. >> no. >> stay over there. >> stay over there, johnny. >> that was part of the agreement. >> yeah, the restraining order. >> john, thank you so much for all those nice texts. after the eagles won the super bowl, i really, yes. it was really sweet. really, really appreciated your happiness for me and my son, who i took to the game was really very touching. just joking. he didn't reach out once. >> that didn't happen. >> i'm now going to do a promo, and then i'm going to hand it to you and be sure to tune in to a new season of united states of scandal with jake tapper. sunday, 9 p.m. eastern and pacific on cnn. john berman. >> scandal concerning jake tapper. all right. new reporting this morning that fighter jets in south korea accidentally bombed homes in a church, injuring at least 15 people. that's according to the military there. this happened during annual drills, including a live fire exercise with the u.s. military. south korea's defense ministry said initial findings indicate a pilot put in the wrong bombing coordinates. this morning, the show will not go on for fans of hamilton and

washington, d.c.. the musical's producers canceled upcoming performances at the kennedy center, citing president trump's purge of the center's board members and leader. hamilton creator lin-manuel miranda told the new york times, quote, we are not going to be part of it. while it is the trump kennedy center, ric grenell, the new trump installed head of the kennedy center, called the move a publicity stunt that will backfire. sarah. >> all right. thank you, john berman. i think we are going to head over to the wild and wacky weather today. more than 3 million people are facing wildfire risks as high winds hit parts of texas and other southeastern western states. and western texas is under the highest drought level issued by the u.s. drought monitor. that makes conditions ripe for wind driven wildfires. and we know how that ends. on the other end of the spectrum, extreme snowfall blanketed roads in wisconsin and minnesota with whiteout conditions. moving off to the northeast today. let's get to allison chinchar, who is watching all of this. these are wild pictures. i mean, wisconsin

is known for for getting some serious snow, but wowee, that's my mother. >> we're talking fire and ice. basically, for both of these areas. yes. so behind me you. >> can. >> see this video. now this. >> is from. >> two days ago. this was from near san antonio, texas. the fires that they had, it's going to feel like deja vu all over again for some of these areas in texas, because we have another threat coming back in for this same area just a few days later in portions of new mexico, portions of texas, and even the panhandle of oklahoma. now we're also seeing, finally, that system that you saw the snow with that is finally going to exit the region. the only thing we're really going to see kind of linger is going to be a lot of these gusty winds. you can see portions of the northeast stretching down through the southern appalachians. you're still looking at those wind gusts up around 60mph. also winds going to be very gusty. we're talking about the potential for fire. so new mexico, arizona, portions of texas and oklahoma same thing. some of these areas could see those winds up around 40 to 60mph. when you