elie honig, great to see you this morning. congratulations on your big win. i know you played hard. >> thank you. the eagles you can't hate him because ellie is an eagle. anyway, think of it as a big real estate site. that's what president trump is now saying about gaza as he doubles down on america taking it over, eyes in the sky. cnn has learned the u.s. has stepped up the use of spy planes at the southern border. what it is they are after there, and winter alerts for 29 people, 29 million people across the country as storms after storm after storm hits over the next several days. what to expect ahead. >> i've got good news and i've got bad news. what do you want? first the bad, the news is newsy even more than ever. >> what's the good news? >> we're doing another season of have i got news for you. >> have i got news for you returns saturday at 9:00 on cnn. >> so i got you a little something. >> warming for him, tingling for her. >> should we. >> experience the thrill of bringing them together? say more than i love you. say i want you with me, yours and min

elie honig thank you for that and for everything.and speaking of elie honig, is a little biased for this next segment, so we'll leave them out. but we are on the cusp of super bowl lix. president trump is going taylor swift's boyfriend, who happens to be the chiefs star. travis kelce has some thoughts on that. we'll tell you what he had to say right after this. >> welcome back. >> have i got news for you returns february 15th on cnn. >> what's up karl nation. it's your number one. >> broker with the best full service wealth management. >> skills in the biz. >> actually. >> i'm seeing something from schwab. >> uh oh. yeah. >> schwab lets you invest and trade on your own. >> and if you want, they can even manage. >> it for you. >> not to mention, schwab has a team of specialists for taxes, insurance and estate planning, all with low fees. >> we're experiencing. >> technical difficulties. >> uh, karl. schwab. >> schwab a modern approach to wealth management. >> the future. the way you see it is said to depend on where you sit. at x-chai

elie honig thank you for that and for everything.and speaking of elie honig, is a little biased for this next segment, so we'll leave them out. but we are on the cusp of super bowl 59. president trump is going taylor swift's boyfriend, who happens to be the chiefs star. travis kelce has some thoughts on that. we'll tell you what he had to say right after this. >> the boeing 747 has crashed in the lockerbie area. >> it was the largest act of terrorism on the united states before 9/11. >> there are a number of anomalies. >> trying to find out the why of it became everything. >> you could look at the iranians, the libyans. >> the cia, hezbollah. >> nothing is what it seems. >> in the lockerbie story. >> lockerbie. >> the bombing of pan am flight 103, february 16th on cnn. >> what's up, carl nation? it's your number one broker with the best full service wealth management skills in the biz. >> actually, i'm seeing something from schwab. >> uh oh. yeah. >> schwab lets you invest and trade on your own. >> and if you want, they can even mana

herndon, who is a national politics reporter for the new york times and cnn's senior legal analyst, elie honig, elie sky made a really important point there, which i think was how judges are reacting to what trump is doing because he's essentially been in this position where this is the resistance that he's facing. it's not from democrats, it's not from anything like that. it's from the courts. really. >> this is the. >> only resistance that donald trump is facing. >> and thus far. >> he's zero for all of these lawsuits. i mean, thus far, every judge to have considered one of these lawsuits. >> has at least. >> put donald trump's actions on hold. and if i could sort of to digest what we just heard in that very interesting interview, the. >> position of the. >> workers here is essentially, yes, of course, the president runs the executive branch. >> however. >> that does not mean he gets to. do everything and anything he wants within the executive branch. and what we just heard miss perryman say is there are limits put on that by congress that have to ultimately prevail. now, the counterargument

elie honig is here. ellie, what do you make of where these lawsuits stand and whether or not these agents will be successful? >> well, i think the fbi is going to prevail on these lawsuits. first of all, most fundamentally, big picture, if any of these actions result in firings, the problem is nobody did anything wrong. that's not even the allegation here. the only allegation is simply you worked on the january 6th case. those are now politically disfavored in the new administration. therefore, if we look at what happened in the january 6th, agents, you will be fired. and i do not think that will stand up in court. now to the specific issue. that's before the court tomorrow. the instrufreadersp to the fbi was provide a list of names, and that's likely thousands of names. what the fbi gave them instead was the employee numbers, which is the ordinary way you would do this to preserve and protect agent confidentiality. and i thought the last thing that special agent barrett said there, caitlin, was especial

elie honig thank you so much. thanks, i appreciate it. all right, kate. >> in the wake of president trump's pause on slapping the 25% tariff on all goods coming from canada and mexico, the canadian prime minister has announced what he is calling a landmark event. tomorrow, canada will be hosting a canada-u.s. economic summit focusing on business relationships between the two countries. the subtext here the clock is ticking on that 30 day reprieve, and the threat those tariffs will come roaring back from president trump very much still out there. the canadian prime minister has threatened to retaliate against tariffs if it happens. the premier of ontario has also promised to counter punch the premier, doug ford, saying this now we have temporarily averted tariffs that would have severely damaged our economy, giving time for more negotiation and time for cooler heads to prevail. with the u.s. pausing tariffs, ontario will also pause our retaliatory measures. joining us right now is the premier of ontario, doug ford. thank you so much for be

with us now is elie honig, cnn senior legal analyst, former assistant u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york and a former federal prosecutor. i mean, we're just seeing the pictures here. the speed with which this is being dismantled, you can just see it. what is the recourse here that the challengers have in this legal case? really, if they're federal employees, can the president just fire them? >> so, brianna, that cherry picker image that you just showed actually could become relevant to the legal dispute. and let me explain why. the argument that the challengers are going to make here is that, of course, the president is the head of the executive branch, but he does not have the power to establish or to get rid of an agency unless congress authorizes it. now, what it looked like the trump administration would say in defense is, well, we're not getting rid of usaid altogether. we're just going from 10,000 employees down to 290 or so employees. and if they're taking down the sign, though, i think that's kind of consistent with the idea of they

and for more, we're joined by that cnn legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, elie honig. ellie, it's always good to see you on a saturday night. there is a big difference between reforming an agency, which a lot of people say is not a problem. go ahead reform versus a full on purge and targeting just agents across the entire agency. what's your take on all of this? >> yeah, jessica. >> so here's what donald trump has done in his first two weeks. that is wholly different from anything we've seen from any president over the last half century or more. and i include republicans in that. i include democrats in that. i even include donald trump's first term as president, in that it is normal. you will always see a new administration replace. >> the. >> political appointees, the attorney general, the solicitor general, the deputy attorney general. that's how it's supposed to be. nothing wrong or irregular with that. but what's happened this last two weeks is that donald trump's new administration has reached in and fired career employees, nonpolitical people, career fbi agents,

elie honig.ays, thank you for for your insights. >> thanks, kate. >> all right. >> up next, we're going to take a look at the fallout and the scramble to contain the fallout from president trump's stunning announcement about the u.s. taking over gaza, including this reaction from a republican senator. senator, a moment. what are your thoughts on on the president not ruling out sending u.s. forces to gaza? would you be okay with that? >> the last thing you think is someone's going to pass away. >> everybody watched him become this force. >> none of us is perfect. kobe lived it in a way that the world watched. >> the finale of kobe the making of a legend saturday at nine on cnn. >> sheldon, we're definitely not making flavors of no shells. pistachios. >> then why are you dressed like that? >> you got us. we are making honey and chili flavors. are we? yeah. wait, then why are you dressed like that? my wife likes it spicy. four alarm fire in the boudoir. >> kate made progress with her mental health,

elie honig. ultimately, what legal basis do the plaintiffs have here to challenge the trump administration's plan? why would it be illegal for the executive branch to offer buyouts to its employees? >> yeah. >> jake, i can see. >> people wondering exactly that because in private industry, this kind of thing happens all the time. companies offer early buyouts, they offer early retirement plans, and that can actually be a good thing for the people who choose to take them. however, we have to think differently when we're thinking about federal spending. federal spending has to be allocated by congress in advance to the executive branch, and they have to allocate both how much can be spent and when it can be spent. and so, for example, if the 50,000 or so people who've accepted this early package are to suddenly be paid out for seven months worth of benefits, you're talking about tens or hundreds of millions of dollars that congress has not allocated to be spent right at this moment. and on top of th

joining us in our fifth seat is cnn's senior legal analyst, elie honig. he's a former state and federal prosecutor. also our legal guru here at cnn. so i quoted marbury versus madison. you tell me. yeah, you tell me what you make of this idea that the the trump administration is saying the courts don't have a role here. >> well, they're wrong for sure. i mean. let me get sort of two areas here that are out of bounds. it is not a constitutional crisis for a new president to come in and issue a spate of executive orders, even if liberals hate those executive orders, that's not a constitutional crisis. also, not a constitutional crisis for scores of federal judges to block some or all of those. again, that's the way our system is supposed to work. i try to keep this phrase constitutional crisis behind heavy glass, and i only use it when the question, what happens next? we don't have an answer to that. we are not at that point yet. donald trump is, and his administration have gotten a whole slew of really bad rulings that they really hate, and they're making

. >> i don't know what the booger eating part of that, but but let me bring in elie honig again with the alliteration. alliteration is going to get you in trouble, sir. ellie, fbi agents are suing the doj right now to block any public identification of any fbi employee who worked on january 6th. investigations. is it legal to fire fbi agents for doing the job they're assigned? >> no. >> it's not. >> legal, jake. >> and what's. >> remarkable here. >> is it. >> does happen from. >> time to time that an fbi agent or a doj prosecutor gets fired, but that's because they've. engaged in misconduct. >> that's because they've done something wrong. >> but if you look at these firings that have already happened and the potential firings that surely lie ahead, the only justification, there is no pretext or pretense here. it's just you worked on the january 6th cases. we don't like that that offended donald trump. therefore you're out. and the other thing, jake, is all these employees do have their administrative rights. they're entitled to a hearing to notice, to an appeal. and so i do think the