just stop by granger for the ones who get it done. >> we saw elon. >> musk take kind of a powerful role. did anything. about how he wielded. >> his power surprise you? >> do you not need a katrina. >> level type. >> of response. >> that. >> is rebuilding to. make sure. >> it won't happen again? >> you've obviously made a decision. >> to resign. >> are there. >> any lessons that. >> can be learned. >> as you're talking. >> to. >> members of your congregation, what do you tell them about how. >> to stand up for. >> their own moral. >> beliefs. >> but. >> still. >> find. >> grace. >> in this moment?

>> right now? >> on anna. >> cabrera reports a. >> stunning resignation. the top federal prosecutor in new york out alleging a quid pro quo involving. >> the trump. >> administration and new york city's mayor. what the mayor just. said this morning. plus, trump foreign policy on the global stage. the vp, speaking at a major security conference in front of leaders from nato and ukraine. but could mixed messages be complicating future peace efforts? and later. >> you're fired. >> thousands laid. off as president trump and the richest man in the world hack and slash at the government, with courts pushing back. hello? it's ten eastern, 7 a.m. pacific. thanks for joining us on this friday. i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york. let's begin. >> with the. >> wave of resignations roiling. >> the justice department. >> and it's all connected to one case. the top federal prosecutor

on the mayor adams corruption case among six senior doj officials resigning in protest. rather than follow the trump administration's order to drop it, the now former. >> acting u.s. >> attorney for the southern district of new york accuses mayor eric adams of trying to secure a quid pro quo with the doj. danielle sassoon writes in her resignation letter, adams attorneys repeatedly urged. >> what amounted. >> to a quid pro quo. indicating that adams would be in a position to assist with the department's enforcement priorities only if the indictment were dismissed before the. doj shelved the case. sassoon was readying more charges against the new york mayor. adams denies all charges, and this morning he responded on fox news. >> my attorney, alex speier, one of the one of the top trial attorneys in the country. imagine him going inside saying that the only way mayor adams is going to assist in immigration,

which i was calling for since. >> 2022. >> is if you drop the charges, that's quid pro quo. that's a crime. it took us three. >> she took. >> it took her three weeks to report in front of her a criminal action. come on, this is silly. >> we are joined. >> now by. >> nbc news white. >> house. >> correspondent erin gilchrist in washington. and here. >> in. >> new. >> york, our national law enforcement correspondent. >> tom winter. >> msnbc legal correspondent. lisa rubin, former federal prosecutor at the southern district, berit berger, and also with us presidential historian douglas brinkley. okay, tom, let's back up for a moment. take us through how all this went down. >> sure. and we'll back up to what the mayor just said about how he's been calling for immigration action in new york city since 2022. to be clear, yesterday, he did have an executive action. that's why he was on fox news this morning. and that action he could have taken at any point since 2022. so it's not as if he needed to wait for the trump administration for that. i just want to fact check the mayor in real time with respect to yesterday and what occurred. what we saw was a process that

took over several days. and we saw, because we have copies of the memos that were sent initially from the justice department and the acting deputy attorney general to the southern district of new york, and to the person who was running that office. by the way, danielle sassoon was appointed by the trump administration to hold that title on an interim basis until there ultimately, they could get confirmed. jay clayton, who will assume that role as the u.s. attorney. the memo to her, her response in the form of a letter to the attorney general, pam bondi, saying, look, you haven't met me before, but i want to introduce myself and i've got some concerns about what i think you're about to do or want me to do. with respect to the mayor adams case. and then at 150 yesterday, she tendered her resignation. and then we saw the response back from the acting deputy attorney general, emil bove, directly addressing her concerns. and so this was a fairly direct and contentious back and forth between the two sides. it's communications that we almost never see unless it's docketed

in court. and since their internal deliberations with inside the justice department, we almost never see those at all. so this has been quite a 24 hours here of back and forth between the principal people involved. and what you're seeing is somebody who has clear concerns about their ability to faithfully represent in court. danielle sassoon and her team, what the trump justice department wants them to do. you mentioned something before about the roiling inside of the justice department. certainly, we're all talking about it. this is a big topic here this morning. and what could be going on there? my analysis of the situation, based on my reporting and the people that i've talked to, is they don't care. nobody lost sleep last night at the justice department that danielle sassoon resigned or anybody else. >> the only. >> person who resigned. >> i mean, there were. >> six people altogether who resigned. >> it does not. we have to recalculate our thinking on this justice department. they have mandates. they have focuses. they have things that they want

to achieve. and as the president's executive order said, you're either going to faithfully execute what we lay out for you and represent this administration in court or you're out. and that's their thought process. i'm not making a judgment on it. i'm just telling you that's the thought process and that's the world that they live in. so in a normal times, you would see all these resignations. there would be a pause. wait a minute. has somebody made a mistake or people make analogies to the saturday night massacre, which of course occurred with archibald cox? >> we're going to talk. >> to doug brinkley about in a second. >> sure. in the nixon administration, it is not that is not something that is entering into the realm for this justice department leadership. they look at it in the language, in the email. they call danielle sassoon insubordinate. and so they look at it and say, you're just in our way. and now that you're out of our way, we can continue to do what we want. it's a big sea change from the way that we're all used to thinking about this. >> let's get more from the white house and their thinking. aaron, what's the reaction there? and how is the president handling

all of this? >> well, i think as you zoom in on this particular case, there hasn't been a ton of reaction from the white house. a lot of what tom just walked through is the reaction that we're seeing from d.o.j. to his point, which is odd, to see this level of sort of public discourse about this case. at the same time, i can tell you that president trump was asked directly about the degree to which he or the white house played a role in the eric adams case. and i want you to hear how president trump answered that question. >> if i could ask you about a development in your hometown today, the. >> u.s. attorney has resigned over. >> the doj's request to drop the case into eric adams. did you personally request the justice department to drop. that case? >> no, i didn't know nothing about it, i did not. to your other question, that u.s. attorney was actually fired. i don't know if he or she resigned, but that u.s. attorney was fired. >> now, as you widen out in these last first couple of weeks of the trump administration, you know that this has been a white

house that has said it is working to stop the weaponization of government, is working to stop the weaponization of the justice department. and there have been efforts to really make corruption cases and corruption law not a priority for this administration in the way that we maybe have seen it for several years. we know that there have been inspectors general who have been fired in different agencies. executive orders have targeted foreign actor laws that that would address how foreign agents are interact with businesses in this country and around the world. and so this what we're seeing in new york potentially could be another wave in that effort to do what the administration says stop weaponization of government. >> aaron. thanks, barrett. this is not normal. this is remarkable, really. if you look at some. of the language. in sassoon's resignation letter, she writes that a memo that was directing her to dismiss this adams case, quote, raises serious concerns that render the contemplated dismissal inconsistent with my ability and

duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor, and to advance good faith arguments before the courts. this is your old office. what's your reaction? >> look, i think the most troubling part of all of this to me is that every office that i worked for, the eastern district, the southern district, the ethos of those offices was always one of open debate, both within our office and with main justice. and i'll tell you, there were numbers of times that we had disagreements with main justice. either cases we wanted to bring, charges we wanted to bring, and there were plenty of times that main justice disagreed with us. they said, you can't take that action, you have to do this. but never once was there any sort of retaliation or fear that we were going to be punished for our advocacy. in fact, it was one of let's discuss, let's get all of these out there because we're going to be in open court. we're going to have to make these arguments. let's have these, you know, really voracious arguments internally first. never once was there the threat of you're going to be fired or you're going to

be put on administrative leave or put in a different unit because you had the gall to disagree with something your supervisor said. that is a sea change. you know, tom said that people at main justice aren't losing sleep over this. the people that are losing sleep over this right now are the line prosecutors. and i've talked to a lot of people that are still in the department right now, and they are gutted. they feel like are my two choices now going to be to either resign or have to do something that goes against my oath? i think they are losing sleep. i think they're losing faith in this department of justice that they signed up to do this really important job for, and it's a really sad day. >> but we did see now a number of people take a stand. it wasn't one resignation. as we mentioned. >> there were. >> six total. it included prosecutors in the public integrity unit as well as the criminal division in washington, not here in new york. >> i just. >> i just wonder, you know, they're saying no to emil bove, to this one person who. was the acting deputy attorney general, former member of trump's

personal defense. >> team. >> representing him in his criminal cases before he was elected as president. so that stand what does it tell you? not just about this one case, but perhaps the broader message they're. sending here? >> well, i think it sends the message, first of all, what emil beauvais did yesterday in his memo to danielle sassoon. in addition to placing people on administrative leave and starting investigations, he yanked the case away from the southern district. and on if i can, i want to read from the letter, he says. under your leadership, the office has demonstrated itself to be incapable or incapable of fairly and impartially reviewing the circumstances of this prosecution. he's essentially saying the entire office is untrustworthy, and therefore i'm taking this case and i'm giving it to the public integrity unit at main justice. that in and of itself is remarkable. so when we see that protest from the five resignations, one person in the criminal division, which oversees the public integrity unit. four other senior prosecutors in the public integrity unit itself saying no part of that is also a reaction

to this was a case brought by the southern district, investigated by the southern district. your lack of confidence in an office full of 200 plus prosecutors is really unbecoming of the traditions of this office. but it also signals, as you said, some greater pushback by justice, the memo to dismiss or the motion to dismiss. the prosecution still has not been filed on the adams docket. and that's because, as our ryan riley reported yesterday, public integrity has about 25 to 30 people in it total. they may still be searching for the person who will sign that rule. 48 motion to dismiss this prosecution. it's not clear to me who's going to do it now. and the fact that he says that the southern district as a whole is not to be trusted goes to barrett's point about the line prosecutors in the southern district and in other units of justice saying to themselves, wait a second, my ability to prosecute cases without fear or favor is being called into question all around the horn here. do i really want

to be in for this? >> doug, i got. >> to get. you in. >> here because i'm wondering. >> how. >> you see. >> this as. >> you have been a student of so many administrations. >> this has brought up the. >> saturday night. >> massacre during the. >> nixon administration. your thoughts? >> well. >> danielle sassoon is. >> is a. >> archibald cox kind of profile in courage. >> cox was the special. >> prosecutor who. >> finally said no. >> to the nixon white house. that about. >> the tapes. >> the famous. >> watergate tapes. >> and so, you. >> know, he led eventually to the impeachment proceedings. >> cox of nixon. >> here we're seeing a. similar person, somebody. >> who loves the law, wants to do right. says caring about ethics. she went through the. >> federalist society. she's a conservative person at heart. >> she's a. >> you know, clark. and the.

>> the fact that she. >> has. >> the temerity, the tenacity. >> to. >> say, i'm. >> not. doing it. that's not right. >> i went. >> to. >> law school. >> i've studied law with the best. >> this is. >> a rogue action. >> that's being. >> placed upon me. >> by. >> the justice. >> department is really quite serious. >> and you. >> saw it's not just her. it's a. trail of. of. >> people saying. >> i'm not blowing my career in life and scar. >> myself for. >> being, you. >> know. >> kind. of thugged around because mayor eric adams. >> suddenly has this magic. >> wand and everything disappears for him. >> because he's a toady. to president trump. but the main. >> problem that new. york has. >> now is eric. >> adams is. >> going to start acting. above the law. he has. >> been now, you know. >> the one. >> of donald. >> trump has. >> touched him, and he. >> feels he can. >> do whatever he wants in the sense of undocumented workers or. trying to attack crime from various ways. so it's going to be a lot of tension in in new

york. whether adams stays or goes and what who will be the next mayor? and meanwhile, i worry that. >> we're going. >> to be losing some of our best lawyers, particularly in new york. and overall, this. >> i want. >> to remind people a little bit about sassoon's conservative background. perhaps best known for successfully prosecuting crypto whiz kid turned fraudster sam bankman-fried, she was a member of the federalist society. she clerked for the late justice antonin scalia, one of the supreme court's most influential conservatives. so now you have bovay saying that the department won't tolerate her office's insubordination. he's put out, you know, this notice that others on her team are now on leave. they will be internally investigated, could result ultimately in their firing. barrett, do you think this will now create a chilling effect or does this situation and seeing sassoon and others take this action, empower other federal prosecutors to move

forward independently with each of their cases? >> look, my hope is this does not lead to huge mass resignations, if only for the fact that you still need grownups in the room, right? you still need people in career prosecutors that have the experience, have the longevity in the department of justice to do the sort of day to day cases and to make the important decisions that we need them to make. however, it really is putting them in a very scary position where they're thinking to themselves, you know, what type of arguments are we going to be asked to make in court? and if you think about this case right now, again, the dismissal motion hasn't been filed yet, but the judge in this case is more than likely going to want to have a hearing flushing out all of these issues that have been raised in these memos. now, some lawyers are going to have to get up there, speak in open court under oath about why they are taking this action. that's a hard decision for a lawyer to make, right? it's not just their integrity. it's not just their, you know, legal career. it's really their ethics at this

point and their professional responsibility to not say anything misleading to the court. so they really have to be bought in to this idea if they're going to take any of these actions, because. >> there's so much more we could discuss. got to leave it there for now. thank you so much, tom wynter, lisa rubin, barrett. >> burger and douglas brinkley. >> appreciate you all. up next. allies on edge vice president. jd vance delivering remarks overseas. >> at a. >> major security gathering with the future of ukraine, nato and global security in the balance. what a former german defense minister says about how the world is watching. plus, full steam ahead, more layoffs at critical agencies, the latest moves from president trump and the richest man in the world. and later california under pressure, intense. >> rain. >> bringing mudslides and forcing evacuations near areas devastated by wildfires. we're devastated by wildfires. we're back in 90s. with fatigue and light-headedness, i knew something was wrong. then i saw my doctor and found out i have afib, and that means there's about a 5 times greater

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together. >> that the europeans. >> step up. >> while america. focuses on areas. >> of the world that are in great danger. >> the conference comes fresh off the heels of president trump's phone calls with both russian president putin and ukraine's president zelensky about. ending the war. >> nbc news. >> international correspondent molly hunter joins us now. molly, last night, president trump wasn't able to say what russia should give up in talks to end the war. vice president vance is expected to meet with ukraine's president zelensky. what do we expect? >> ana? >> that's right. and i actually just i listened to us. >> vice. >> president vance's full speech earlier today. it just ended about an hour ago. and importantly, i thought in that speech, he really. >> didn't. >> speak that much about ukraine. we know this meeting has happened with ukraine, happening with ukrainian president zelenskyy. sometime today we do not have a time for that. but he actually spoke so much more about europe. ana. he spoke about free speech. he talked about how european leaders are running in fear of their own voters. on what he described was europe's threats from within. and interestingly, he said top of mind. and he

really kind of switched the conversation to mass migration, he said, was kind of his biggest fear, really not talking about ukraine now in the last couple of days. and you mentioned president trump's phone call with putin. trump administration officials have not been able to say what was or maybe not taken off the table with president putin. but president zelenskyy spoke just about an hour ago on the sidelines of this conference, with some reporters foreshadowing negotiations and his conversations with the us. take a quick listen. >> i don't want. >> to meet just with russia. just to meet for what? no. we see the order of meetings. as i said, the order is united states, europe, then russia. i think to my mind that he's preparing the war against nato countries next year. >> god bless. >> we will stop this crazy guy and we will not have war, any war in the world, in europe. but you will not stop him just to say yes. he said that we will stop. >> of course, president zelenskyy talking about

president russian president putin right there. but european leaders on us say they are united in supporting a sovereign ukraine, but they also have to be at the table that both european leaders and ukraine has to be at any negotiating table. and right now they feel excluded from the process that the trump administration has kickstarted. now president zelensky is actually speaking on a panel right now. i'm watching out of the other side of my eye, ana, and he says, i don't want to be the person who helped putin occupy my country. he says he needs the u.s. to support ukraine, not to mediate between ukraine and russia. so we'll wait for that big ticket meeting later today. ana. >> okay. molly hunter, thanks for laying it out, bringing us. >> the. >> very latest. and joining us now, former german. defense minister karl theodor zu guttenberg, who served. from 2009 to 2011 under former chancellor angela merkel. thank you so much for making time for us, minister. i want to start with the potential negotiations to end the war in ukraine and the mixed messaging coming from the us side, vice president vance telling the wall street journal in an article published

today that sending u.s. troops to. ukraine is not off the table. but listen to secretary of defense pete hegseth and president trump on this issue. >> the united states. does not. believe that nato membership for ukraine is. >> a realistic. >> outcome of a negotiated settlement. to be clear, as part of any security guarantee, there will not be u.s. troops. deployed to ukraine. >> maybe russia will give up a lot. maybe they won't. and it's all dependent on what is going to happen. the negotiation really hasn't started. >> minister, what are allies taking. >> away from this kind of messaging? >> we are all puzzled. >> ana, it's. >> a messaging that. >> changes almost on an. >> hourly. >> basis. >> over the last. >> few days. >> we have. >> first, we were. >> all quite surprised by. >> by the call. >> that the president. >> had. with vladimir putin and then especially by the fact.

>> that his newly appointed secretary of. >> defense is obviously. >> taking negotiation. >> tokens off the table. so and all. >> of these. >> things without without. >> having the. >> european allies and partners somehow included. so there is confusion is probably the mildest. >> word i. >> can find for that. >> if the us doesn't continue to support ukraine as it has over the last few years. >> do you. >> have any concerns about europe filling the void to support ukraine on its own? >> i certainly do. >> we are definitely. not prepared to balance. >> the current or the existing american. >> security umbrella. >> for europe. it would take years. >> to. >> come to a level. >> where we could. >> feel. >> as secure as we need to be. >> and on the other hand, of. >> course. >> trump has a point. and as had already joe biden and others before that, that the europeans need to. >> ramp up their, their security measures. and. >> and, and we. >> need to do more. >> without a question, however,

in that situation. >> right now to questions to. >> question core elements of nato, of the alliance and of our shared. security is reckless. and therefore, i sat. >> in a room before. >> when the vice president held his speech and i just looked into the confused faces and he didn't talk about ukraine at all, as you said before. it was more or less lecturing europe about democracy. quite astonishing coming out of out of his mouth. >> take a listen to something else we heard from president trump related to this war and ukraine's desire to join nato. >> i don't see any way that a country in russia's position could allow them, just in their position, could allow them to join nato. i don't see that happening. and long before president putin, russia was very strong on the fact that i believe that's the reason the war started, because biden went out and said that they could join nato. >> what's your reaction to those comments? is that what allies expect to hear from the

president of the united states? >> not at all. >> and it's beyond any historical knowledge. it is. it's nonsense. and we all know that that the war started out of very, very. different reasons. and the problem we are facing right now with that phone call trump had with. >> vladimir putin. >> is that in our perception, it legitimizes aggression. and just consider what that. means for the next years to come. so that is what should be discussed right now at the. munich security conference. instead. >> we hear a. >> pro seminar about democracy. >> president trump has shown that he is willing to lean into a more aggressive, maybe. unconventional foreign policy strategy, starting with the tariffs that he's threatening to every global partner. and we heard from your country's president today that the new administration has no regard for established rules and grown trust. and they must accept that and deal with it. so i wonder how will we see europe shift

their approach. to this. >> new. >> trump administration? >> well, we. >> have to. >> accept the fact that he is president and. >> we need to. >> we need. >> to deal. >> with a dealmaker. >> however, i think we are. >> we are in a new world right now in that regard. europe is prepared. europe has potential counter-tariffs. but just imagine a world where we would slide. >> into a trade. >> war of that dimension. so this is nothing anyone would like to have. and the repercussions for the us might also be severe. so i think that's something the president has not has, has not taken into account so far. but if we are forced as europeans to react, we will react. but that's not the world i'd like to live in. >> former german defense minister karl-theodor zu guttenberg, thank you very much for taking the time. appreciate your perspective on all this. thank you. next here on ana cabrera reports, you win some, you lose some in the courts. how president trump and elon musk's government overhaul is faring as more federal workers are cut.

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enter $5 and get $50 instantly. run your game. >> the first 100 days, it's a critical time for our country. and rachel maddow is on five nights a week. >> now is the time. so we're going to do it. settle in. >> the rachel maddow show weeknights at nine on msnbc. >> donald trump is defending the mass firings of federal watchdogs. >> our federal. >> government now can discriminate against the citizens. >> of the country. >> we are all. >> watching and waiting. >> to see who is. >> going. to hold. >> the line. >> don't miss the weekends, saturday, and sunday mornings at 8:00. >> on msnbc. >> welcome back. right now, hundreds of thousands of government jobs are at stake as the trump administration swiftly begins laying off thousands of federal employees. one big move overnight cutting probationary

employees who civil servant protections haven't yet kicked in because they've only been with the government 1 or 2 years. it all comes as president trump and elon musk's government overhaul faces multiple court challenges. nbc's ryan nobles is following this whirlwind of cuts. ryan, take it away. >> hey. >> yeah. >> donald trump and. >> elon musk are. >> marching toward that. overhaul of the federal government. >> and. >> their unconventional moves. >> are facing several court challenges. >> threatening to slow their progress. >> leaving the. >> president frustrated. >> but unwilling. >> to. >> back down. overnight. >> massive cuts. >> at another critical. >> agency. >> the department of veteran affairs, announcing the dismissal of more than 1000 employees, a move it says will save the va. >> $98 million annually. >> it comes as the trump administration advised all federal agencies to fire probationary employees, workers. >> who've been on. >> the job for less than a year. the new battlefield for president trump and elon. musk's effort to reshape the government

is. fast becoming a federal courtroom. >> i always abide by the courts, and then i'll have to appeal it. >> in the. wake of the aggressive push by the duo to cull the federal workforce, cut funding and eliminate departments, a flurry of. >> lawsuits have. >> been filed nationwide, and one by one judges are putting temporary hold. >> on the administration plans. late thursday. >> a federal judge ruled the trump administration could not suspend or cancel foreign assistance that was in place before he took office. it comes on the same day another judge extended the restraining order preventing usaid employees from being put on leave. 14 states. >> also filed. >> suits challenging the appointment and authority. >> of elon. >> musk, calling it unconstitutional. musk attacking. >> the courts overnight. >> writing. >> if any judge. >> anywhere can stop every. >> presidential action. >> everywhere, we do. not live in a democracy. meanwhile. >> as musk has also threatened to, quote, delete. entire

agencies, trump's choice to run the. >> department of. >> education, linda mcmahon on capitol hill did not rule out that. agency being completely eliminated. >> i will work with congress to reorient the department toward helping educators, not controlling them. >> meanwhile. >> elon musk. >> also taking a. >> meeting yesterday. >> with. >> india's prime minister narendra modi. modi was in washington for. meetings with. >> the. >> trump administration, but it was not clear. >> if. >> musk was meeting with the prime minister. >> in his capacity as. >> a government. >> official or private citizen. the billionaire has. >> business interests. >> in the country, raising more questions about the conflicts. >> of. >> interest that exist over musk's role in the trump administration. >> ryan nobles, thanks. joining us now, white house correspondent for politico and msnbc contributor. eugene daniels. good to see you. eugene, let's start where ryan left off. since elon musk has played a role in all of. >> this. >> it seems like lately ryan just told us about this meeting with india's prime minister. take a listen to what the

president had to say about that when asked in the oval office. >> i don't know, he they met and i assume he wants to do business in india, but india is a very hard place to do business in because of the tariffs. they they have the highest tariffs just about in the world. and it's a hard place to do business. no, i would imagine he met possibly because you know he's running a company. >> eugene the appearance of a potential conflict of interest is pretty extraordinary. what do you make of this? >> and i think it's pretty. >> obvious, right? >> i think. >> that there is. >> a lack. >> of clarity. in in how musk. >> is, is operating. >> right. i think. >> when you. >> one of. >> the most extraordinary. >> things i think. >> we may have. >> seen as. >> a country. >> was elon musk. >> standing there taking questions. >> from the press. >> corps while the. >> president of. >> united states was sitting there with him? you know, the. richest man in the world. >> doing that is not something that. >> we've seen. >> but he was there, as you know, the. >> representative from. >> doge as as. his special government employee.

>> but then him operating. >> his organization still his, his company still still. trying to. make deals, possibly as the president just said, there is possible that what he was doing with the indian. >> prime minister yesterday. >> obviously tesla and spacex x and x are still operating while he's doing. >> what he. >> says he's doing. and there's. >> also when you. >> when you look at some. >> of the organizations. >> that they've gone after immediately he has. butted heads with in the past. right. and so. >> the. >> president has said that he that that elon musk isn't basically. >> basically going to do. >> anything unless trump. >> tells him to do so. >> right. but that. >> that conflict. >> of. >> interest to everyone who's an expert on it seems, seems pretty clear, both on on the left and the right. and we also, you know, typically you have a conflict of interest. if there's a way, some kind of waiver. we don't know if the president has had signed one of those, but also just a document that says that you won't do conflicts of interest. and members of congress. have that many people that work in the federal

government have to do so. we don't know that elon musk has signed one. >> well, and you talk. about conflicts of interest. >> we have. reporting that. doge has been. nasa this week. >> of course, spacex and nasa have all these contracts. >> that. are combined. >> and then. >> you're. >> looking at. >> the cuts that we're seeing. >> that he's. >> been involved. >> in massive. >> amount of federal employees getting laid off. and i just. >> wanted to. >> kind of put. >> it out there. for our viewers because it's hard to keep track. and this week alone, we know of. >> agencies here. >> that are. >> targeted that. >> have been. >> making cuts, everything from veterans affairs to us forest service to the small. business administration to hud. eugene, do we know what they're targeting next? >> the president. >> has. >> said the education department and the pentagon. that's where he has told them to focus on next. but, i mean. >> i think. >> folks should expect that every single government agency is going to have some kind of look under the hood from the dod folks. and i think the thing

that's really interesting here, there's a lot of things really interesting. but one of the things that's really interesting is that you have the you could just say, we're looking for government waste. we're looking to shrink the size of the federal government. that's something that conservatives have said they wanted to do for a long time. but the framing from elon musk and the framing from president donald trump is always about corruption. we have not seen any of this evidence that they're talking about of the corruption. we know how much money folks spend. but he, elon musk has talked about, you know, people getting kickbacks from usaid. we have not seen any evidence of those kinds of things. and so this isn't just about shrinking the size of the federal government. it's about talking about the federal government as kind of this corrupt enterprise, which is not something that isn't in the public sphere, but is the way that they're operating here. >> and you can. >> tear things. >> down. >> but do you. >> have a plan to build. >> things back? that's my next question. got to leave that. >> one for. >> another day. >> eugene daniels, thank you so much. >> up next here on ana.

>> cabrera reports wild weather out west, turning streets. into rivers. and we're seeing lots of dramatic images like this. thousands evacuating fire ravaged los angeles. and later, the names of the hostages set to be released tomorrow just revealed by hamas. and they include an israeli american. we'll have details from the we'll have details from the middle -what've you got there, larry? -time machine. you gonna go back and see how the pyramids were built or something? nope. ellen and i want to go on vacation, so i'm going to go back to last week and buy a winning lottery ticket. -can i come? -only room for one. how am i getting home? sittin' on my lap like last time, ronald. fine, but i'm bringing this. [ whirring ] alright. or...you could try one of these savings options. the right money moves aren't as far-fetched as you think. there it is. see? told you it was going to all work out. thanks, future me. >> sleep lightly plays.

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by granger for the ones who get it done. >> torrential rains battering. >> wildfire ravaged southern california hard.

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>> us, which means. >> essentially the storm system is sort of pushed out of the area. the rain. has stopped, and. >> really. >> these mudslides. >> are at the. >> most dangerous. >> when. >> they settle on. >> top of a burn. >> scar, sort. >> of stripping. >> off that topsoil. >> which is already. >> gone from these fires that we've had. creating sort of a runway. >> of debris. >> that's what we. >> saw yesterday. but we really. >> avoided a. >> lot of the. >> major damage. >> that i think. >> officials were expecting. >> and a lot of that was because of mitigation. >> trying to save. >> a scene like this where you still have. >> homes that are intact. >> with hundreds and. >> thousands of. >> these sandbags, something like. 300,000 litter this area. >> about. >> 120 miles. >> of those big k-rail barriers to try to keep debris out of places where. >> it shouldn't be. we did get hit. >> of course. >> mudslides, landslides, rockslides. >> you name it. especially in. >> these burn zones. >> they litter. >> these areas. >> shutting down. >> certain streets like the. >> pacific coast highway, a. >> major. >> thoroughfare in this area. but again, we. >> didn't see that major infrastructure. >> damage, no. >> major injuries. >> so thankfully. >> we sort of dodged a. >> bullet in.

>> this area. >> but you're. >> right, the danger. >> still persists. >> the ground is still saturated. >> the hillsides here. >> are still. >> saturated. >> so the risk. >> it lessens. >> maybe every. >> hour that the sun. >> is out. >> we. >> move past. >> this. but it's still an ever. >> present threat. >> it's why. >> those warnings. >> still persist. >> in large part. >> ana. >> okay, fingers crossed all. stays drier. >> or dry enough. >> thank you. >> steve patterson. >> just moments ago, a moving site in florida. students in miramar. forming this heart to. honor the 17 lives lost during the 20 2018 mass shooting at marjory stoneman douglas high school in parkland. that was. >> seven years ago today. >> flags will fly at half staff in. >> honor of the. >> victims across the state. next on ana cabrera reports all eyes on gaza as hamas prepares to release the next round of hostages. the names we just got and the heartbreaking story. and the heartbreaking story. surrounding one israeli. ♪♪ well would you look at that?

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skechers slip ins. >> now to breaking. >> developments this morning from the middle east. hamas announcing that they will release three more hostages, including one american israeli, tomorrow. this reversal comes just hours before israel had threatened to resume, quote, intense fighting after hamas had reversed a previous warning about suspending hostage releases over accusations that israel violated terms of their tenuous cease fire. among those expected to be released is american-israeli sagi declan. he will return home to his wife and three daughters. he has not yet met his youngest child, born just two months after. he was kidnaped. our colleague rafah sanchez met with his wife this past october and she talked about her wish. >> i can't. >> wait for. >> them to meet. >> really, it's. >> every day i'm. >> waiting for this. >> that's why my wish. >> nbc's hala gorani is joining

us now from tel aviv. hala, that's going to be such a wonderful reunion. >> what more. >> can you tell us about these three hostages expected to be freed tomorrow? >> well, there's another dual citizen. it's a russian israeli citizen. >> you mentioned. >> sagi cohen, who's. >> 36 years old. he was. >> taken from. kibbutz near. oz on october 7th, 2023. the other two. >> are sasha trufanov, a russian. israeli who is now 29 years old. the palestinian islamic jihad is. >> actually holding trufanov. >> not hamas, and it released. >> three videos. proof of. >> life videos over the last 14 plus months of him. and the last. one featuring trufanov mentioned very difficult conditions under which some of these hostages are being held. and that obviously is a huge. >> cause for concern. >> for his family. >> yair horn, 46 years old, also

taken from kibbutz nir oz, is due to be released tomorrow in exchange and we are still in phase one of a three phase ceasefire agreement. >> israel will release. >> 36 palestinians serving life sentences. some of them are expected to be deported and will not be allowed to stay in the west bank. and 333 palestinians that were arrested in gaza after october 7th are also due to be released. >> ana. okay. hala gorani, thank you for bringing us the latest from tel aviv. up next, the city of brotherly love, celebrating their big super bowl victory with a parade that's set to begin in just moments. we're live in philly. >> next. >> next. baby: liberty! mom: liberty mutual is all she talks about since we saved hundreds by bundling our home and auto insurance. baby: liberty! biberty: hey kid, it's pronounced "biberty." baby: liberty! biberty: biberty! baby: liberty! biberty: biberty! baby: liberty! biberty: bi-be-rty! baby: biberty! biberty: and now she's mocking me. very mature.

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>> flaxseed, carrots. >> estrellita. >> right now in philly, eagles fans are ready to fly, and that city is bracing itself for a big victory parade. just any moment, the super bowl champions will make their way through the city

of brotherly love, and that's where we find nbc's emily akita at the parade. so what's going on so far, emily? >> hey there. >> anna. well. >> the excitement. >> is fully underway, but you're looking. >> at. behind me. >> is the end. >> point of. >> this. >> super sized celebration. >> for the super. >> bowl champions. >> the players will be landing here at the philadelphia. museum of art, where we'll actually get to hear from some of them. the actual parade just kicking off as we speak. they'll be weaving through the streets of philadelphia from the lincoln. financial field to again here at the philadelphia. >> museum of art. >> along the way, they will come across 15 jumbotrons. you can see. >> one behind. >> me playing. >> both the final. game as well as a live stream. >> of the parade. >> i've been talking to fans. all morning, some showing. >> up, by the way. >> as early as yesterday afternoon. >> for. >> our front row seat. >> about the great. >> lengths they took to be here. take a listen. >> we've been here since 430. >> now i'm trying to pass my school. >> and. >> everything, so trying. >> to. >> study for. >> my exam. >> at the same time.

>> you know, enjoy the eagles. >> atmosphere here. we got the best team in the league. yes. >> the streets are closed. >> government offices. >> are closed. schools are closed. >> these fans are. >> ready to show some love. and the city of brotherly love ana. >> on this valentine's day. good for them, emily. >> thank you. >> and before we go, the video of the week, have you seen this? a young man, his father. they were kayaking off the chilean patagonia region when a humpback whale briefly swallows the young man. true story. here, the whale eventually releasing him just moments later. amazingly, he is uninjured and now he has quite literally a whale of a tale that does it for us this busy week. have a wonderful weekend. i'm ana cabrera, reporting from new york. jose diaz-balart picks up our coverage right now.