welcome back to "face the nation." we return to our conversation with vermont independent senator bernie sanders. senator, thank you for sticking with us through the break. i want to ask you about some of the rather fiery hearings you were a part of this past week,

in particular with a potential health and human services secretary to be, rfk jr. you told cbs in december you think he's right about the food industry and obesity and what he says about high prices for prescription drugs. but during the hearing, you had some sharp exchanges. are you at this point decided on your vote? will you cross over and help republicans confirm him? >> margaret, i have up to now voted for some trump appointee, a few. i voted against most and i'll make my decisions next week. where kennedy is right is we are an unhealthy society. the point i have been making, many others have been making for a long time. one of the things that concerns me very much, and kennedy mentioned it, our life expectancy, how long our people live is five years less than other wealthy countries. if you're working class in this countries you live six or seven

years lower than rich. it's an issue and i think the kind of addictive and food that the industry is providing our kids is one of the factors not many. when you have kennedy come forward and say he believes, continues to believe, that autism is caused by vaccines, despite the fact that there have been a dozen studies over the years which disprove that, when he has other conspiracy theories, when he cannot acknowledge if you're going to make america healthy, guarantee health care to all people, he was not clear about the need to take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry and lower costs so i was not happy with his presentation. >> on the autism point there is no established cause of autism spectrum disorder, but one in 36 children have been identified with it, according to the cdc. there is concern in this space, including from your republican

colleague cassidy. he is a medical doctor. he said he's struggling with the nomination because he fears kennedy may undermine faith in vaccines. take a listen. >> i recognize, man, if you come out unequivocally vaccines are safe, it does not cause autism, that would have an incredible impact. that's your power. what's it going to be? will it be using the credibility to support or will it be using credibility to undermine? >> the senator seemed to be saying if you want my vote, answer the question. you said you haven't decided on rfk and how you're going to vote. is this a red line for you? >> look, margaret, what i'm saying is, i just don't go around making these announcements. i'll vote when i vote. but anybody who watched that hearing understands my deep

concerns about kennedy. the conspiracy theories that he is throwing out, is not unlike what we're hearing all over the trump administration. to me, what is most important in terms of what's been happening since trump has been president is not just him having the three wealthiest people in the country stand behind him -- by the way, anybody, any working person in this country, should understand what that means. it means you're going to have a government working for the very rich, not for the working class of this country. but the move to put author tare rich -- >> i want to ask you about that, but to push you on this point it's not just a matter of a vote, what you are saying is that someone at the top of the health department who is rejecting science or rejecting data that says there's no linkage here, no proven linkage here, by not being clear and saying that's a red line, doesn't that lend itself to

misinterpretation? why wouldn't you say that's disqualifying for him? >> because i have not said -- i have not said to anybody how i will vote. it doesn't matter. i will vote when i vote. let me just -- >> republicans were hoping you would help them. that's why i'm asking you. >> i know they hope for a lot of things. it may not happen. but i think -- all right. >> go ahead. >> i'm sorry. >> look, the bottom line is, we have a health care crisis in america. we're the only major country not to guarantee health care to all people. we pay the highest prices for prescription drugs, life expectancy is shorter than other countries. we have to deal with it in a direct and forceful manner. you have to take on the insurance companies. you have to move medicare for all. lower the cost for prescription drugs. we have to understand why our life expectancy is lower. it's not just health care. it's the fact that so many of our working people are stressed

out by inadequate incomes that's having an impact not only on their life spans but well being. those are issues we have to address. >> during the campaign, then candidate trump and vance they were very much championing working class people as you have through the years. they said they support unions, don't want to tax tips, want child care tax credits, pro worker. do you see any opportunities to work with them on specific policies and if so where? >> well, if they were telling the truth and they will go forward in trying to stand up for the working class i will work with them. last week, what trump did is essentially neuter the national labor relations board. something bezos wanted, something elon musk wanted. if you are a worker right now -- there are millions, who want to join a union because they know unions will give you better wages and working conditions, better benefits, what they have done is neutered that so right

now union busting corporations like amazon and others can do what they do against workers with impunity. that is not standing with workers. we need to raise the minimum wage which is 7.25 to a living wage. i have not heard one word from the trump administration about that. >> they want to leave that up to states and corporations as well to make a decision. >> yeah. that's -- that ain't going to do it. >> vice president vance told us last sunday, despite the big tech ceos giving money to the inauguration for donald trump, he still believing they have too much power in big tech and that he says, you know, they're still on notice in regard to his past warnings they could be broken up. is that a place you are also concerned and could work with him on? >> well, i think the former head of the ftc did a great job and if vance wants to work with us, he's right. you have right now not only more

income and wealth inequality in this country than ever before, more concentration of ownership in the tech industry and in other industries. do i think we should start breaking up some of these large corporations? absolutely i do. we'll be happy to work with them if they're serious about that. >> senator bernie sanders, independent from vermont, thank you for joining us. we'll be right back. [ car engine revving ] can neuriva support your brain health? mary. janet. hey! eddie. no! fraser. frank. frank. fred. how are you?

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at ameriprise financial, we know our clients are so much more than clients. they're go-getters and legacy-leavers, and what matters most to them matters most to us. it's no wonder we have a 4.9 out of 5 client satisfaction rating. ameriprise financial. the fbi is without a permanent director at this point, although mr. trump's nominee kash patel could get as a vote as early as this week. we turn to frank figluzi a former fbi for counterintelligence who joins us from houston and correspondent scott mcfarland. you cover justice and fbi. a lot happening in both departments and i want to bottom line with frank, if i could, digging into your experience if you can help us understand the

reporting from andy and pat, that the executive assistant directors, those in national security, cyber, criminal division, are being forced to resign, retire or face termination. what does it mean to have those positions forced out? >> yeah. whether you combine that essentially aer of leadership, executive assistant directors control multiple operational division, so at least a half a dozen of those reportedly are gone. then you get down to the level of at least two or three special agents in charge in the field, including miami, washington field office. you are starting to lose too much experience. if this plays out next week as reportedly it might, with regard to dismissing hundreds or thousands of special agents in the field who have touched january 6th cases or trump related cases, this makes america less safe.

this is not reduction. this is not efficiency. it makes america less safe when you lose that much expertise this quickly. >> okay. just to follow up there. scott mcfarland, what frank was referring to is a list that was requested. cbs obtained the memo from acting deputy attorney general emile bove who was the personal attorney for donald trump. he ordered the acting director of the fbi to compile everyone who was an employee who was assigned to the 1500 january 6th cases. there were also eight executives pushed out. is this a legal and lawful order? are fbi officials going to actually fire the people on these lists? >> the list is required, and must be produced by 12:00 p.m. eastern time tuesday according to our reporting. whether it is produced is a different question. but the bottom line here is that such a list, margaret, would

include fbi employees from every fbi field office across the country. not just a washington investigation. the january 6th cases went nationwide. a lot of the names that are going to be on this list according to my reporting are already public domain. they're in the court filings, in the docket, already out there. it's going to be difficult to mask anybody's name or anybody's identity. whether this is legally permissible is a different question. whether these firings are legally permissible is a different question. we know the acting fbi director in a memo sent to his employees, he emphasized that there are robust protections. his word is robust protections for fbi agents against employment actions. feels to me like there's an gal vanization of fbi employees to try to fight this to make some evident to push back. whether they do so is a different question. >> is it going to be firings or is this actually just going to

be you can't do what the president's team is pressing to do. brian fitzpatrick, from covering the hill, african pennsylvania, used to be an fbi agent, gave cbs a statement i want to read here. he says he wants to emphasize to the administration, line level street agents have little to no control over the office to which they're sent, the cases to which they're assigned and leads which they're asked to cover. like the military they go where they are told and perform the investigative duties their chain of command orders them to do. i know you know this, but that is a republican explaining the basic function of how law enforcement works. it sounds like there's going to be pushback on the potential of these firings. >> yes, indeed. it's been reported by multiple media outlets that the acting director pushed back very hard and loudly against the doj request and reportedly he may have been threatened with

termination himself. both the acting director and acting assistant director would be on that list. they both worked january 6 related cases or trump related cases. we have a potential standoff that's here, but yes, line agents did nothing outside of the law or attorney general guidelines. they simply worked criminal cases, many cases gained convictions and guilty pleas. if they were literally all to be pushed out the door we would be talking about thousands of fbi agents. there's only 14,000 agents in the field and we would be talking close to 6,000 of them who worked such cases. >> and, scott, we were just talking about kash patel, the boss, isn't in place. he was asked under oath before congress if he knew of some of these actions that were under way as he was testifying. he said he didn't know anything about the firings. is this going to -- is it credible and is it going to be a

problem? >> this might have been simultaneous. these questions from senator cory booker were happening, a lot of this communication was going back and forth over terminations, resignations, retirements. kash patel has been on a trajectory towards confirmation as the next fbi director from the jump. the one vote i've been watching, thom tillis, the north carolina republican up for re-election in 2026, introduced kash patel and validated him. seems nobody has jumped up this weekend to say i'm opposed. >> scott mcfarland, it's going to be another interesting week in washington. thank you for bottom lining it. we'll be right back.

the temporary cease-fire between israel and hamas is still holding and three more hostages were released yesterday including american israeli dual national keith siegel. his niece hannah is with us this morning. good morning. you've been waiting for this for over 400 days. how is your uncle doing? >> first, thank you for having me. i've been dreaming about being here today. he's doing okay.

he's -- he's lost some weight. he's pale. but he's strong. he's doing okay. somehow. we're incredibly grateful. >> we've seen the video and images of him being reunited with family members. will your father, his brother, see him soon? >> yes. he's on his way. we've been staggering the family visits so as not to overwhelm him. we are all going to see him and actually his youngest daughter got engaged a month before october 7th, and so the wedding planning began and then abruptly came to a stop as both of her parents keith and my aunt aviva released in the november 2023 deal, were taken hostage. so what we've talked about is that, you know, some day we're all going to get together and throw an absolutely epic wedding and that's what we're looking forward to now. >> so you've been an advocate for the family here in

washington, both with the biden and the trump administrations. in your view, do you think this deal, this hostage release, would have happened without american pressure? >> no. definitely not. and i do want to say, so the biden team, jake sullivan, brett mcgurk, president biden, bill burns, they worked so tireless to get the deal done. the minute president trump was elected his team started working hand and glove with the biden administration, we felt no break in the commitment to get keith home. steve witcokoff and boller work hand in hand with the biden team. i don't know what other issue you can say that about with these administrations. the trump team really did push it over the finish line and we're incredibly grateful, incredibly grateful to all of them for the work that they did. i also just want to say the qatari negotiators, mediators, were part of the november 2023

deal, were also instrumental, and then what i've learned in this completely bizarre experience is there is a whole industry of people, ngos, who work on hostage negotiations on behalf of families. we worked with global reach. they're a nonprofit. we would not have gotten keith home without them. it was a tremendous group effort across the board, across political lines, and that's heartening. >> you told us back in april on this program that you were worried, quote, it's not arguably in prime minister netanyahu's political interest to close a deal, and you were worried he was going to sink it. he has announced phase two of the hostage framework begins getting negotiated tomorrow. monday. do you think he's incentivized to see this deal through? >> i think that the trump team has done a really tremendous job of putting serious pressure on

him and that that is making a difference. i think that he -- we're ecstatic keith is home but took almost 500 days and that is in part because of netanyahu. this deal was available for months. the biden team was working on it, and -- and he wouldn't come to the table often. there are -- this is such a complicated issue, but i am worried -- i think this is a fragile deal, as we all understand, and so, you know, i have a lot of faith in the trump team and in all of the people working on this to put serious pressure on him to see it through. i think what we've seen is that diplomacy and political agreement is the only way to get all of the hostages home and, you know, we're -- we're one of the lucky to one, but there remain five american citizens and dozens of other hostages who still need to come home. >> the remains of some of those americans wouldn't come through until phase three and phase two,

we know, edan ill der, a soldier who is a u.s. citizen, the deal would have to continue to work to bring him home, seg sagui chen. i emphasize that. when we talk about deals and diplomacy, these are lives at risk and if the deal doesn't continue to stay in place, they may be at risk. >> these are americans. these are americans who need to come home. >> hannah, thank you. >> thank you so much. >> congratulations. >> thank you. >> great news. >> thank you for having me. can your smartwatch do that? introducing kardiamobile 6l, the fda-cleared ekg that provides six-times more heart data than any smartwatch. and it detects three of the most common arrhythmias in just 30 seconds, including atrial fibrillation, bradycardia and tachycardia. kardiamobile 6l, the world's most advanced personal ekg. get yours today at kardia.com or amazon.

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before we go, cbs evening news co-anchor and presidential historian john dickerson has some thoughts on the tone of those oval office moments following tragedy. >> after the deadliest air crash in 20 years in america, president trump responded as presidents have before. >> i speak to you this morning in an hour of anguish, for our

nation. in moments like this, the differences between americans fade to nothing compared to the bonds of affection and loyalty that unite us all. >> differences fade because we are all reminded of the basic truth that we are all human and life is fragile. in such rare moments a president can transform private grief into public meaning. these presidential moments live in our collective memory. ronald reagan addressing the nation after the "challenger" disaster. >> we will never forget them nor the last time we saw them this morning as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and slipped earth to touch the face of god. >> george w. bush at ground zero. >> the nation sends its love and pum passion. >> barack obama singing at the

emmanuel church. ♪ amazing grace ♪ >> in speech, by bull horn, in song, and now, by executive memorandum. that's how donald trump used the oval office where reagan had eulogized the "challenger" astronauts. though the president had earlier declared an hour of anguish for our nation, for him, the hour only lasted a few minutes. he spent much of the remainder of this unique moment distributing blame. >> i put safety first. obama, biden, the democrats put policy first. and they put politics at a level that nobody's ever seen. >> reporter: the starkest claim, the one behind the oval office signing ceremony that diversity programs had caused the crash that killed 67. >> you have a presidential memorandum titled meade assessment of aviation safety. in light of the damage done to aviation safety by the biden

administration's dei and woke policies. >> when asked what proof he had that diversity was the culprit, the president said he had no proof but didn't need any. >> how you can come to the conclusion that diversity had something to do with this crash? >> because i have common sense, okay, and unfortunately a lot of people don't. >> the president's certainty about the crash, despite the lack of proof, suggested for many americans, that the common sense he was referring to means diversity means things go wrong when people of color are in charge. in one press conference he traveled the length of the emotional register from asserting the differences between americans fade to returning the focus to those differences. >> that's it for us today. thank you for watching. until next week, for "face the nation," i'm margaret brennan.

it's monday, february 3rd, 2025. this is "cbs news mornings." tariff time. president trump's threat becomes reality, launching a trade war and immediate retaliation. now he admits that it could hurt you, the consumer.