collins: could i respond?i think it goes back to the uniqueness of my qualifications for this job, being where i have been -- where you have been. i was privileged enough to have 19 red lines pass into law, some big stuff. i have some of my former staff that were here with me and i stand on their shoulders but now hopefully with the confirmation of this body i will be able to step into a role that i get to see the other end and those words on paper actually matter to me. i believe carrying them out as one of my highest calls. working for this president who has had the trust in me, i look forward to this opportunity. chair moran: you mentioned the staff behind us. you complement and highlight the value and importance of their work. we have staff inquiries to the department of veterans affairs they go back six months with no response and we have worked with the previous staff at the v.a. and previous secretary and there was a great intend to see that the answers come. it has to be prioritized, so you have indica

emily in paris star lily collins, among those facing it firsthand.nie ramos. >> lily to the right. >> lily collins is used to the glare of the spotlight. she's a staple on red carpets promoting movies or her hit show, emily in paris. >> in paris. >> the actress and daughter of musician phil collins was basically born into fame. but her latest headlines likely came as a bit of a shock. now, the actress sits at the center of the newest surrogacy controversy as she and her husband push back against online critics as the public weighs in about when, if ever, surrogacy is an accepted way to expand families. >> i just kind of wanted to hug her and say, i got you, girl. like i got you. but the more that we tell our stories, the more we will be able to maybe not change minds that can never be changed, but open minds that don't quite understand. >> the emily in paris star and her husband, charlie mcdowell made their announcement on instagram, introducing their baby girl named tove, saying, quote, words will never express our endless gratitude for our incredib

congressman collins is that person. through his own service, which continues in the air force reserve, congressman collins knows firsthand service in the uniform and he knows the benefits and challenges that veterans face and the challenges their families face. in his testimony before the senate committee on veterans affairs, he demonstrated a significant understanding of the policies he will be expected to administer at the department of veterans affairs, and proved to me and to others that he is prepared to lead the v.a. into the future. he is committed to working closely with members of congress, and certainly the senate committee on veterans affairs, and to make sure that our input is understood, taken into account, and hopefully implemented. his nomination was reported out of the committee in an overwhelmingly bipartisan manner, on a roll call vote, the vote was 18-1. i'm thankful for congressman collins' interest in serving in this capacity. i ask my colleagues to support his nomination. and i look forward to work

president collins. >> present. >> vice president shiota. >> present. >> commissioner beltran >> present. >> commissioner benadides. >> present. >> commissioner carney. >> present. >> commissioner ferras. >> here >> commissioner hakimi. >> aye >> commissioner lu. >> present. >> commissioner rothschild. >> present. >> commissioner schnair. >> here >> commissioner shelby. >> heir >> commissioner walker. >> here. >> we have quorum. also for the record director of cultural affairs raffle remington, finance and administration sarah holenback are in attendance. president collins. do we have agenda changes in >> no changes. now for public meeting instructions. welcome all interested to attends in person at city all room 416. this meeting is arias live on sfgovtv 2 and at&t u verse 99. i want to reminds us of the policies and procedures for public meetings. at this meeting, we're bounds to follow the structure of our agenda and to adhere to the best practice set out in the good government guide. every public mee

with collins there might have been interesting phone calls between collins and the white house over the last 24 hours. i know the man you see there right now, senator thom tillis of north carolina was thinking of maybe voting a no on hegseth and insiders told me there was some spirited conversation between the white house and tillis, which maybe led him to change his vote or his say in this. >> dana: a long piece in the "wall street journal" today about that 24 hours to get him to be a yes on hegseth. chad pergram, you are standing by to give us your analysis and update. hello. >> just before the vote started we got a statement from bill cassidy, the republican senator from louisiana who chairs the senate health committee. not the committee with the main jurisdiction over this nomination. this was the senate finance committee that had to vote to get the nomination out and send it to the floor. that vote was a party line vote. this is what he said. he indicated yesterday that he was kind of working through this nomination. he indicated that the hearing before his committee late last week

gabbard: thank you for the question senator collins.f confirmed as the director of national intelligence my responsibility would be to ensure the security of our nation's secrets it would not take actions to advocate for any actions related to snowden. sen. collins: so the answer is no? ms. gabbard: correct. sen. collins: in 2020 you introduced the protective rape whistleblowers act which would amend the espionage act to make it more difficult to prosecute individuals who reveal classified information. in particular the bill would allow individuals to disclose top-secret information as long as it is not done with the specific intent to injure the united states or advantage any foreign nation. your bill would have created an affirmative defense for public disclosure of classified information were made for several reasons, one of which'twas to expose gross waste of funds. i strongly opposed this legislation which would hamper our ability to prosecute people who give our adversaries classified information. let me ask you this. do you still

favor of collins, 23 voted nay. at his confirmation hearing, collins said he wanted to do more to reach vulnerable veterans during president trump's first term. collins was among the president's most vocal defenders in the house judiciary committee. blue origin is known for taking space tourists into orbit, but today's mission had a different purpose. blue origin's shepard rocket took off from a launch site one that's what it's called in texas around 8 a.m. once it reached space, blue origin was able to recreate the moon's gravity in the crew capsule that allowed the crew to test new lunar technologies. as scientists eye a return to the moon. the mission also carried postcards from blue origin's nonprofit called club for the future. each of those postcards will be returned to their creators with the stamp that says flown to space. kate, the princess of wales, went to school today. she joined students on a field trip. the princess stepped off a bus with a class of four and five year old kids for a visit to the nation

sarah holbeck to present the item. >> good afternoon president collins. vice president shiota and commissioners. thank you very much for your time and attention this afternoon to this important matter. i'm sarah deputy director of administration. i would not be remiss not to acknowledge the work of kevin kwon and the, counting staff. preparing these materials. thank you very much. we will try to get to the right -- wrong way. >> presentation summary. first we start with a discussion of the budget process and time line. and we will talk about the budget climate and the instructions this we received from the mayor. in preparing this budget subnigz mission and touch on revenues, speak a bit to the matter of hotel tax performance. as you know is important. to our budget. and then we'll talk about expenditure and it is capitol budget of so, we will proceed. so, as you know we are currently in the department phase of the budget process. we are required to conduct two public meetings a part of this process. this is the second of those two. we will submit or budg

senators collins. um, uh, senator collins came around on the senate intelligence committee because she because gabbard ended up agreeing to saying that she would streamline the office of the director of national intelligence. todd young was another holdout, and he was essentially comforted by what gabbard had said about, uh, proceeding with what's called section 702. >> alex. no, alex, i want to ask you about this, because those are all, uh, lot of concerns that that people had on both sides of the aisle, including republicans. i got a text from a senate republican who said, well, yeah, i have reservations, but i'm going to vote yes anyway, because the dni, even though it has a a big fancy name, doesn't really have that much power. can you just talk about that? you covered this agency and all the agencies underneath it. is that true? >> and this was the major concern about her total lack of experience in intelligence. i mean, she served in the military, but not in intelligence. and now she's going to b

the source with kaitlan collins begins.

commissioner collins. commissioner corso chief the department can call for a newer fire marshal so i guess we're going to go to this one by one as just a quick overview what administrative bulletins are we did this back when we did the last code cycle change essentially it's it's taking the code and put it in simple terms to help the public understand what's intended because sometimes it's through the building department fire code building code and how they kind of intertwine with each other. so we just try to put it simpler, more simple language for them and so start with bullet 2.01 which is titled fire alarm and signaling system submissions pots are plain old telephone service is what they call the copper lines or as we know we're kind of dying down as views and so this was just an update that was put in the code that we needed to add for clarification. and if you look at this bolt, it's very thick, it's very detailed about what people need to do to turn in a fire alarm plan. and we just wanted to clari

i want to thank my guests pete davidson and kaitlan collins.

>> corny collins. >> who? >> corny collins. >> corny collins!esponse show. [ laughter ] >> it is now. >> seth: yeah. >> it is now. >> seth: i'm kind of like, "what'd we do wrong?" >> stand up and wave, please. stand up and wave, please. yeah, there we go. >> seth: no, stop it. don't encourage it. [ cheers and applause ] >> there we go. beautiful. >> seth: let me -- >> "seth meyers call and response show." >> seth: it'd be so weird if you went to the secret service as a president and they're like, "what do you want your call sign to be?" and you're like, "corny collins." >> corny collins. [ laughter ] nicest kid in town. >> seth: all right, hey, i want to ask you about this show real quick. you are on really, truly one of the most inventive shows in recent years, "jury duty." which is absolutely fantastic. [ cheers and applause ] >> thank you. thank you. >> seth: one of those shows that people explain the premise to you and you thought, "oh, that's great." and then, the way you all executed on it. i know it's a team effort, but it was really spec

. >> president collins present vice president shio to present commissioner beltran present. commissioner cher is absent. commissioner shelby is absent. we have corm for today's meeting also for the record. director of cultural affairs ralph remington. deputy director of programs evan glenn. deputy director of finance and administration sara hallenbeck. and chief of staff alissa ventry are all in attendance. >> do we have any agenda changes? no agenda changes. but i would like to say is that i want to express our appreciation at the very top of the meeting for the amount of work that has gone into what we are going to be looking at today. i know that time frames are essential. understanding all the interplays of the budget and how this goes forward and also the timing of it is important. you know given the sequence of legislative requirements with respect to the motions that we will hopefully make today and pass and the action by the commission. so i just want to thank you. staff thank you director, for for pulling this together in a week that was very busy for everybody. so

so collins and tillis, what? yeah, that's what tim scott said in a recent thing. yes. two. two. those are going to be the two biggest senate races, 2026. so, you know, collins and tillis can't go so far afield from the party that they feel like it might hurt. you know, if they're going after trump, it could hurt their ability to get support, you know, financially for their for their midterm. who knows. like they have a lot of different calculations i guess is my point. so tillis is somebody that that there was a lot of expectation that he might have bucked the party in various times. we haven't seen that so far. he's been down the line and almost kind of unabashedly down the line on all of trump's nominees. so, you know, who knows what will actually move them. i do think in this instance, the nih funding this gets right into these communities, it gets into red communities. it gets, you know, and the ripple effect, i think is bigger than elon musk and his doge. you know, teens like realize. right. and so i do think once this really hits communities and once we're throug

doug collins the va secretary to be.have to deal with that and get a procedural vote and overcome with that? now if final confirmation votes and finally occurred for rubio, ratcliffe, ratcliff had to get to the process the filibuster process. hegseth they tried to knock out, kristi noem, scott bissett had to go to the same process. sean duffy, he had to go to the same process. lee zeldin didn't he had to go to this same process. and doug burgum had to go through all this in order to get confirmed. this is what the democrat party is doing. so, all these departments of government they say don't cut them, don't change the rules, every person there is essential. no, no, no. but, when it comes to choosing a cabinet secretary they are apparently don't want any. they set will pick them if they are rational and reasonable in other words rational and reasonable people to judge i can go to the whole list the whole conga line of reprobates these democrats have appointed one cabinet position or a net that republicans do this. they a

collins:. sen. collins: edward snowden does stand out as having done particularly grave harm to our national security by revealing top-secret information, including sensitive sources and methods that is jeopardizing agents in the field. let me ask you a question. if confirmed, would you support or recommend a pardon or any kind of clemency for edward snowden? ms. gabbard: thank you for the question senator collins. if confirmed as the director of national intelligence my responsibility would be to ensure the security of our nation's secrets it would not take actions to advocate for any actions related to snowden. sen. collins: so the answer is no? ms. gabbard: correct. sen. collins: in 2020 you introduced the protective rape whistleblowers act which would amend the espionage act to make it more difficult to prosecute individuals who reveal classified information. in particular the bill would allow individuals to disclose top-secret information as long as it is not done with the specific intent to in

people like susan collins.an collins is going to be carrying tulsi gabbard around on her shoulder. if she gets through a primary in maine and then runs in the general election, she's going to have to justify that vote. she's going to have to justify a lot of other votes. the same with thom tillis, who's going to have to justify a vote for pete hegseth and katty kay? the question is, we talked about the doctor, bill cassidy, down in louisiana, but every republican is going to have to justify a vote for rfk jr. who again, has has has been what appears to be anti-science and just on the just on the working knowledge appears not to know the difference between medicare and medicaid. he couldn't even answer that question when asked about the difference between medicare and medicaid. >> yeah. and remember, tulsi gabbard and kennedy are both democrats. you'd think that they might be easier for senators to vote against with their own constituents saying that, you know, we disagree on principle or ideology. the wall stre

kaitlan collins, thanks very much. we'll see you at the top of the hour of the source. joining us now is massachusetts democratic congressman seth moulton, a marine corps veteran and member of the house armed services committee. he also traveled to ukraine during the war. so, congressman, president trump said that ukraine is unlikely to get all its land back and not going to be allowed membership in in nato. both of these are things that the kremlin would have wanted out of any negotiation. is it clear to you whether the u.s. or ukraine got anything from russia in return? >> it's pretty clear that they did not. i mean, trump and hegseth literally appeared to be negotiating on behalf of putin. they're trying to sell us on the things the kremlin wants, and it is everything wrong with running a good negotiation. i mean, it violates every principle of negotiation you can imagine. i mean, first of all, he's saying he's desperate for a deal. putin knows that trump is desperate for a deal. he promised the end of the war on day one, and he's already broken that promise. so now

you've also got susan collins in maine and others. cassidy in louisiana.> the politics. >> is almost the number one issue for a lot of them. and it's unfortunate that we've gotten to a point where being primaried is probably the toughest part of winning a reelection fight for a lot of these members. >> especially in maga. >> especially in maga. and a call from mike davis, steve bannon or elon musk is the most terrifying thing any of these senators can get. knowing that means a primary challenge is coming and they don't want to face that. so i think it is looming over them. no matter what they say, they have to look two years ahead and say, do i want to spend the next two years trying to raise $100 million and fend off a primary challenge, and then have to go head to head in a purple state against a well-funded, moderate candidate? after i've gone so far to the right, it's not easy. >> is there a limit to those threats, though? can you only threaten someone with a primary for so long? or does everyone actually just say the threat is too great? i'm just goin

susan collins and todd young, to vote for her. so she got out of committee. and so it does appear that she is on her way to a glide path for this nomination. um, it is it is not without its complications, and it is not without its reservations. but it does appear that because of the backing of trump, that she will get those republicans to to line up behind her. >> you're watching senator ron wyden, a democrat on the floor, speaking now, alayna treene, who's over for us at the white house. i want to talk to you because alex makes a good point about kind of what we saw publicly. and in that hearing where i don't think anybody on either side of the aisle thought gabbard came out of it looking particularly like she was on a glide path. but the behind the scenes, you've done a ton of reporting on this that they were able to kind of secure conversations that were critical to getting her to this point. walk people through that. >> right. i mean, i can't overstate how crucial some of the behind the scenes, you know, jockeying and back channeling really was, particula

our chief white house correspondent, kaitlan collins, and anchor of the source joins me now.o is there oversight of elon musk and his coterie? >> our sense is really that for elon musk himself, it's basically unchecked. i mean, yes, obviously there is president trump. and when it came to the faa thing, they said they had the authority granted to them to start working on the nation's aviation systems, granted by president trump himself. musk is obviously in charge of his team, which has grown in the more than two weeks now that trump has been in office. and clearly, you're seeing who he's adding to his team. and just, you know, which agencies they're going into. and now for the department of energy. it said that essentially that this that luke, this person that they had brought on had gotten basically basic i.t. access. the question i think that a lot of people have and the reason we're we're following this so closely is where that goes and how expansive that power becomes. because for elon musk, in these last few weeks, since trump regained power, it has been virtually unchec

this is highly important, but so is senator collins. everybody who has said they've had misgivings about someone along the way. as they fall into line, we get closer to the point where we have trump cabinet. we are still probably just a week away. i'm always anxious to know why can't they just get it together. there are a lot of things going on that they will see two senate votes in the full house in the next 24 hours. this is a big deal here speak up you had thom tillis, the questionable vote for mark pete hegseth. we watched real time if he was going to vote for mike pete hegseth for mike secretary of defense. he came around. then, you have bill cassidy coming around. he specifically said assurances from the white house on vaccines were part of that. now, you have todd young, coming around on tulsi gabbard. this speaks to the huge political tail wind behind the trump presidency. >> democrats need to take a breath and look at rfk jr. specifically. he has not said "i am a conservative." he said "the issue is so important to me, i'm will

the question here is, are there two others, lisa murkowski and senator susan collins, who, of course,ll in voting no against pete hegseth for defense secretary. both of those women have indicated that they will vote yes on his on tulsi gabbard's nomination here. now, we should also take into account if there were to be two other republican no votes that would make this vote a tie. and as we saw with pete hegseth, vice president jd vance is able to be a tie breaking vote as technically the president of the senate. but he is currently overseas at this time. and republicans knew that this vote would come forward. it's still an outstanding question. and it's we're doubtful that there are two other republicans that will come forward as surprise no votes based on what we've heard over the last several days. but this vote here is still ongoing here in real time, of course. tulsi gabbard, one of the more controversial picks of his the next one up is going to be robert f kennedy jr, who we should note we are now learning the vote for his nomination will be around 7 a.m. tomorrow morning. and d

collins began law school. and within a few months of graduation head unit was called up to go to iraq. as a flightline chaplain at one of the largest u.s. bases in iraq, doug collins met and prayed with troops who were on the front lines of operation iraqi freedom. we spent time in a hospital visiting injured service members , praying with them and giving them companionship in their recovery. turning to public service mr. collins brought that same service heart to atlanta and washington represented his native north georgia. so when president trump asked him to serve as va secretary, it is no surprise that he once again answered the call to serve mr. president, there was a moment in the confirmation hearing that struck me. c he said, and i quote, the va does not exist in and of itself. it exists from the veteran. doug collins has comforted wounded soldiers, he has taken calls from service members contemplating suicide. he understands what it means to serve the veteran. i look forward to confirming him in this r

secretary of veteran affairs doug collins. secretary collins, it's great to see you again congratulations. we're happy for you. what do you make of all of this? so why are democrats planting a flag and protecting government corruption and waste when even al gore said cut a quarter million, 250,000 jobs during the clinton white house. trump is doing what al gore wanted, reinventing government. >> yeah, liz, it's good to be back with you and i'm glad to be in a position i'm in. it is amazing. i've been on the hill for eight years and congress and back in the administration and the trump administration has hit the ground running so hard. going after things that everybody talks about, liz. this is the funny part. it seems to be why are democrats now defending the very things that the americans just voted them out on? it just doesn't make sense. people in america do not understand why we're wasteful spending. why we're putting out money to do things that frankly, both sides will acknowledge. i know back stage so to speak. democrats

kaitlan collins, thanks so much. you don't want to miss caitlyn's show. the source, which airs tonight at 9 p.m. let's bring in the panel for their reactions. i want to start with president trump's relationship with elon musk. and again, like all czars, before unelected, unconfirmed. but he is also a substantial donor to president trump and hugely powerful. like i really this isn't meant as an insult, just meant as a fact. i can't recall a czar more powerful than this one. the washington post reports today. quote, trump views musk as doing the task he assigned him, and the president benefits from letting someone else take the heat for drastic and controversial measures. one adviser described musk as doing the, quote, dirty work, noting that his public approval ratings were dropping. that's according to people close to president trump talking to the washington post. and you just heard trump said that that musk only has access to letting people go if trump agrees with him. what's your reaction to all this, kate? and then shermichael. >> well, it is it is tr

but first, cnn's kaitlan collins. so, caitlin, do white house officials think they can spin their way out of this? because the president did say what he said. i mean, we heard it. >> for trump. it has always been his statements that are the ones that matter. anderson, we have seen this pattern before. when trump was in office the first time, when he was on the campaign trail. and obviously we're seeing it happen today where aides do try to walk back or clarify or soften the comments that he made. and certainly an explosive one last night where he came out and he was essentially suggesting that they would be permanently displaced from gaza, that they would not return there. he was said in part to me when i asked him who he envisioned living there after it was rebuilt, which he and his aides are predicting would take 10 to 15 years, he answered to me, the world's people. and he mentioned that palestinians could be part of that. but he made clear he didn't see it as their homeland essentially anymore. and that's really y

cnn's kaitlan collins joins us from washington. so what, if anything, is the president signaling tonight about how he'll respond to these federal court orders? >> it's not clear yet. of course, the legal option here is to appeal this, anderson, and to continue with the legal recourse here. but the question is, is he adopting this strategy of what you're hearing there, what we are hearing from two of his top advisers, the vice president and elon musk, about potentially defying these orders. now, there is some nuance in what each of them is saying. and this is something that i've been hearing from my sources and from people all day, which is the difference here. and jd vance's tweet that he posted saying about, you know, generals being fired or the attorney generals using her discretion to, to prosecute who the justice department believes should be prosecuted. what he said in that last sentence of that tweet where he said legitimate power there, the executive's legitimate power, that is the word that is, you know, underlined and emph

house judiciary committee g chairman jim jordan, special katie britt and congressman mike collins. mike, you were fantastic from georgia. as well as a senate judiciary chairman chuck grassley. thank you very much. you look great. and, house judiciary committee chairman, jim jordan, who is a special guy, a special man. and house homeland security mark green. thank you very much. thank you, mark. we have many other congressmen and senators that i am not going to introduce because this is about your daughter. this is about something so important. thank you all. we have to say, bert jones is in the room. purchase your lieutenant governor. he was on this site. thank you very much. i see you sitting there. thank you very much. the state and local officials, law enforcement organizations, we have everybody. most of them represented in the room, incredible people and i have never seen them come together like they have. not for this kind, but different bills, different passages having to do with many different things from homeland security to taxes 250 different items. i have never seen suc

susan collins knows that. todd young knows that. bill cassidy knows that. all know it. and they wouldn't vote for her no matter what. if she was nominated for this by a democrat. and the reason she was a democrat is because a lot of her views of the world were really far left. so, i mean, these guys have lost their minds. they've just lost their minds. i don't know what else to say. >> david. >> in a bubble, you'd like to. >> think. >> mitch mcconnell. >> is. >> having a john mccain. >> moment, but mitch mcconnell always. >> seems to disappoint. and john mccain rarely did. >> i think we can't overlook the real. >> significant national security. geopolitical story that happened this morning. >> and for. >> much as we see. >> the. >> trump administration's chaos today was. >> clearly so. >> well coordinated. >> tulsi gabbard. >> is. >> confirmed, while pete hegseth is addressing. >> nato. >> saying ukraine. >> has. >> to give up their sovereign. territory to russia, while. >> donald trump is on the. phone with vladimir. putin engaging in a prisoner. >> swap.

attorney general and doug collins to be the next secretary of veterans affairs. caroline, your reaction. >> when it comes to rfk junior and tulsi g gabbard they were te fire crackers of the group of nominees. they're predicted to sail through. that ultimately is because of jd vance's mediating. he was the key player here behind closed doors, convincing the republican holdouts in the senate to go for them, especially susan collins, susan collins got the assurance she needed that the office of dni would be reduced from the size it is now and with rfk he said look, i'm not this rogue agent, i'm going to follow my boss' orders. just because i have a traditional conservative views about abortions and vaccines doesn't mean i'm not going to follow president trump because i serve at the pleasure of the executive. maria: i was happy to talk to jd vance the other day in that exclusive interview and i asked him what his plans are in four years. he's 40 years old. are you expecting to run for not three and-a-half years? he wasn't ready for it. he said first person to ask me

collins is also considered a key vote for robert f. kennedy jr. she revealed she does plan to support his nomination for secretary of health and human services. now, the senate is scheduled to invoke cloture today, to limit debate on kennedy's nomination. and that could get him closer to getting confirmed within the next few days. so this all comes as the judiciary committee is also preparing to send kash patel's nomination for fbi director to the senate floor. that is expected to happen tomorrow. meanwhile, linda mcmahon's confirmation hearing for secretary of education is also set for tomorrow. and democrats are already questioning her experience. guys? >> steve: we expected that all right. brooke, thank you very much. >> brian: pretty great for tulsi that she has won over collins and murkowski, it's pretty amazing. going to float through. they wanted to do it last night. the snow stopped it. this is going to be great. we need her yesterday, director of national intelligence. i love what lisa murkowski said a breath of fresh air, fresh eyes, dem

kaitlan collins, thank you so much. live for us from the east room. and we're here now with mark preston and alex marquardt in studio. mark, what stood out to you there? >> well, you know, i just think overall, let's take a step back and think about what's happening now. just in the past, what, two weeks now or three weeks it's been we're in the fog of war right now. there is so much happening right now that people are not necessarily able to digest it all and understand what's happening. and one side is really fighting the war in a way with no opposition, and that's donald trump. there is no opposition from the democratic party. i don't even know what they could do, to be perfectly honest with you. but we've seen nothing from them and we've seen nothing from republicans in, in the u.s. congress or the supreme court, for that matter at all. what i do think is going to happen, though, is that, you know, give it a couple of weeks, give it a couple of months. and i think some people are going to look back and say, wow, there was a lot of destruction. the

cnn's kaitlan collins starts us off again tonight. so what was the thinking behind the trump musk press conference? and is the white house happy with the extent to which musk was there, kind of looming by the president's side? >> i think a lot of it has to do with all the criticism that has been coming from from certain corners, especially like capitol hill, about elon musk and accountability and this unchecked power. and as you noted there, the fact that he is unelected and we're seeing just how much he's kind of bulldozing his way through the federal government with his team in tow. it's basically something that lawmakers get asked about every single day on capitol hill, if they're comfortable with the parameters of this and what this looks like, and even some people inside the white house have questions about that purview and what exactly doge is doing every single day. and so this was not a planned event at the white house today when reporters went in to to have this executive order signing, they knew that was going to to be what

more on all of this now, starting with cnn's kaitlan collins. so what is known about the people working with musk on all of this? i mean, who are these people that now have access to all this proprietary financial information? >> we don't totally have a full picture of that, anderson. we know there's a lot of young silicon valley engineers and people from that world of elon musk's that are here helping him carry out doge that are working on this project with them. it seemed to be about 12 people initially, two weeks ago when they first took office, and doge was getting underway and, and kind of getting a look at all these agencies. it's not totally clear to us if that picture has grown and what that looks like, because we did learn today that elon musk is classified as what's known as a special government employee, an so those we've seen in the biden administration, trump administration, round one, obviously, he's unique in this role because he's someone who has massive federal contracts. he already had a security clearance. i'm told it's a top

trade policy area at 11:00, confmaon votes for doug collins and pam bondi. on c-span3, the janet -- senate judiciary committee holds a hearing on classifying fentanyl as a schedule e ug. watch online at c-span.org. >> listening to programs on c-span radio is easy. tell your smart speaker to play c-span radio and listen. important public affairs events throughout the day. listen anytime. tell your smart speaker to play c-span radio. >> next update on the efforts involving a crash between a helicopter and passenger jet. >> all right. good afternoon. from the u.s. department of engineers district. following up on yesterday's update as far as our progress on the wreckage recovery at reagan national, we continue to be mindful of those impacted and those who lost their lives but also first responders and our local and state and federal partners, we're working diligently behind the scenes for the efforts. yesterday i was in close contact with unified command and our process is committed to the dignified process for recovery of the remains for personnel and passenge

confirming the pick to run the department of veterans affairs with broad support from democrats, doug collins, georgia republican, played a key role in defending president trump in his first impeachment. only democrats opposed the nominee who will now inherit an agency that historically struggled to provide quality health care to the millions of veterans it serves. this is kevin in indiana, a republican line. caller: i was just watching mr. harrigan speak and he gives me faith that this country will survive no matter what type of administration we put in there because as long as we have individuals like that who have common sense and articulate and have the thought for this country and that understand the values this country stands for and sees how the rest of the world is in reality and what this country is not based on that. that diet gives me hope. and i have a 24-year-old son who just got back from afghanistan as a combat marine and i can tell you be changed. from the time he left as a fine young man but came back a very seasoned and disciplined and mature individual. that is because of h

this is doug collins to be secretary of the v.a.. doug collins of georgia. >> very good man.k. >> thank you sir. next up. in light of numerous actions tack and buy a number of bodies at the united nations which exhibited deep anti-american bias, we have an executive order prepared for your attention that would withdraw the united states from the u.n. human rights council, would withdraw the united states from the u.n. rwa which is a refugee organization. it would also review american involvement in unesco which has exhibited anti-american bias. more generally, the executive order calls for american involvement in funding in the u.n. in light of the wild disparities in levels of funding among different countries. as you've expressed previously, it is deeply unfair to the united states. >> so i have always felt that the u.n. has tremendous potential. it's not living up to that potential right now. hasn't for a long time. there were great hopes for it. but it's not being well-run, to be honest. they are not doing the job. a lot of these conflicts we are working on should be sett