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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip

DOJ Moves To Dismiss Mayor Eric Adams (D-New York City, NY) Case Amid Protest Resignations; Trump White House Didn't Realize Firings Included Nuke Stockpile Staff; Vice President Vance Railed On European Leaders In Munich; J.D. Vance Meets With Far-Right Party Leader Of Germany; Associated Press Barred From Oval Office And Travelling With President Trump. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired February 14, 2025 - 22:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[22:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST (voice over): Tonight, saying the quiet part not just out loud but on national TV.

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: If he doesn't come through, I'll be in his office up his butt saying, where the hell is the agreement we came to?

SIDNER: The Trump administration bragging about a deal, as another prosecutor says, find a different fool to do their bidding.

Plus, the sum of all firings, the Trump layoffs come for the men and women tasked with managing the nation's nukes.

Also, who's really speaking for the president? The vice president says one thing about Ukraine, while his Pentagon chief says quite another.

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: My job today was to introduce realism to the conversation.

SIDNER: And a briefing room ban, the White House shuts out The Associated Press. Is this a preview of how the president will treat the media and the First Amendment for the next four years?

Live at the table, Adrienne Elrod, Melik Abdul, Pete Seat, Ameshia Cross, and Larry Wilmore.

Americans with different perspectives aren't talking much to each other, but here, they do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER (on camera): Good evening to you. I'm Sara Sidner in New York.

Let's get right to what America is talking about. The breaking news tonight, outrage and mass resignations after the Justice Department officially moved to dismiss federal corruption charges against the New York City's mayor, Eric Adams. The move makes formal what many suspected might happen, but it is anything but normal. Prosecutors in Manhattan stage a revolt against the order from Washington, more than a half dozen, with some with very deep conservative ties quitting en masse and making sure America knows why, writing there was some kind of deal, dropping the charges against Adams is not justice, and that the Justice Department is bending to Trump's will.

The seventh federal prosecutor to quit just this afternoon, Hagen Scotten, told main justice to locate another lemming to sign off on letting the New York mayor off, quote, I expect you will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool or enough of a coward to file your motion, but it was never going to be me.

Donald Trump and Eric Adams deny anything that happened here is sketchy. Trump going further saying he didn't know anything about the DOJ ordering the case dropped. And the plan it seems was for Adams to do the same on national television from the friendly confines of the Fox and Friends couch.

But something unexpected happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D-NEW YORK CITY, NY): Think about my attorney, Alex Spiro, 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And then there's this, pay attention to the timing. Adam said that about 7:52, actually exactly here on the East coast, no quid pro quo, no crime, would never think of doing that matter settled, right? But eight minutes later at 8:00 AM on the same couch, Trump immigrations are Tom Homan said, actually there was some kind of deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOMAN: If he doesn't come through it, I'll be back in New York City, and we won't be sitting on the couch. I'll be in his office up his butt saying, where the hell is the agreement we came to? So, I want ICE to do it, and we're going to deliver for the safety of the people of this city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Joining us in our fifth seat at the table is CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig. We're keeping you up late because this is a huge story, former federal prosecutor at SDNY. You know these folks. You've been in the office. What in your mind makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand out?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So, let me tell everyone what's different about this from what we've seen before. We have seen before where the Justice Department has rallied to the aid to bail out politically connected people. Examples that might come to mind from Donald Trump's first tenure in office, right, DOJ undermined their own prosecutors, asked for a lower sentence for Roger Stone. They tried to throw out the Michael Flynn conviction.

But what was different there is DOJ couched their requests in terms of the strength of the evidence. They said, we don't think there's enough evidence to support these charges. We don't think this sentence is fair, given the actual nature of the case. Here, I don't know, maybe it's a credit to DOJ in some weird way, there's no pretense, there's no pretext.

[22:05:03]

They say straight up in their memo, the reason we're doing this is because Eric Adams will support our very important immigration agenda here in New York City.

Now, whether one agrees or disagrees with the immigration agenda itself, perfectly fair debate to be had both ways there. When you make a prosecutorial decision to dismiss a very serious indictment that would land him behind bars if he's convicted for several years, because he's supporting your policy agenda, that is inherently political. That's why the pushback from DOJ has been so severe.

SIDNER: And there is one more thing that I noticed that was being said, and this is to you, Pete. So, you heard, you know, sort of the line is Eric Adams is too busy to be dealing with this big case, we should get rid of it. We're not even going to look at the case. He's too busy. He cannot concentrate on immigration and some of the other things. Eric Adams himself had a press conference telling everyone how much work he's been able to do. So which is it here? When you look at this, this doesn't look good.

PETE SEAT, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN, PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, he's not in a courtroom right now, which would certainly tie his hands, if it ever got to that point. But to the extent that the American people care, and for the New Yorkers here, shock, most people don't care about your mayor outside of this city. They don't care about the drama at city hall, and to the extent that people believe what's being called a quid pro quo.

If you talk to Trump supporters, people who voted for what he ran on and are cheering every time he checks something off that to-do list, they're going to shrug their shoulders and say, so what? We have a job to do and who cares about putting another corrupt big city mayor in jail when we have to tackle the immigration problem.

So, yes, it is political. I'm not a lawyer. I don't have a background in it. I'm not going to make that argument, but, politically. Trump voters are going to look at it and say, who cares? Let's get the job done.

ADRIENNE ELROD, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER AND SPOKESPERSON, HARRIS 2024 CAMPAIGN: I'm going to disagree with you on that for a couple of reasons. Number one, I firmly believe as somebody who is a senior advisor to Vice President Harris and to President Biden on their campaigns, this election was won because prices were too high. That is why Donald Trump won. When you actually poll Americans and you say, do you want justice to be subverted, because, you know, prices are too high or whatever it may be, that is not what people want. So, I do think this is going to backfire.

I do think, to Elie's point, like, we've never seen anything like this before, and we're, what, day 27 into this administration. This sets such a dangerous precedent. And there's also very little recourse. I mean, you're the attorney here, but the recourse is so limited. I mean, Congress can impeach. We'll see what the courts do. But like we are 27 days into this and we are already on a path to the type of authoritarianism that frankly Donald Trump has said all along, has said during the campaign that he wants to institute.

HONIG: Let me just pick up on that real quickly. I reject the idea that nobody cares or this doesn't matter, it's just a New York City thing. This is about the integrity of the Justice Department. Let me just -- I'll put the --

SEAT: If this was the mayor of Oklahoma City, no one would be paying attention.

HONIG: Let me pick up on that.

SIDNER: Quickly, let me pick on that. So, if this was the mayor of Oklahoma City or a Republican mayor and you had, I don't know, the former president, President Biden saying, you know what? I don't want you to be worried about all this, I'm going to go ahead and wipe this away in the DOJ, people, wouldn't they lose their minds?

SEAT: Well, the judge could still reject it, and you can explain that far better than I can, but it doesn't mean that this will be dismissed.

HONIG: No. But to Sara's, what if the example was, let's take mayor of Oklahoma City. If the Biden administration said, you're under indictment in our hypothetical here, mayor of Oklahoma City, but we have a very important anti-gun policy that we think is necessary to protect the good people of Oklahoma. If you're on board with helping us with that anti-gun initiative, we will dismiss this indictment. That would be just as big a deal and I think the American people would be just as concerned about it.

MELIK ABDUL, RADIO HOST AND GOP POLITICAL STRATEGIST: So, I do agree with that. I do agree. I do believe that, I'll say not even just Trump voters, I don't think most voters, most Americans care about this at all. But the problem is that Trump, they kind of stepped in it in this explanation of why it is that they're doing it.

So -- and I don't think I haven't seen anything right now to suggest this any sort of quid pro quo.

SIDNER: You just heard Tom Homan say it.

ABDUL: And the reason why is because I don't know what that actually means. Eric Adams, and if you consider his history, he was actually much more conservative in this approach, I will, when it comes to immigration and he was actually criticized by many Democrats because he wanted to do things around immigration that many Democrats, many progressives did not.

So, I don't know what Eric Adams as mayor would do differently when it comes to immigration. I think that even if he wasn't, you know, charged with anything, I think that he still would be much more willing to work with the Trump administration than probably most other Democrat mayors around the country.

LARRY WILMORE, COMEDIAN AND PODCAST HOST, BLACK ON THE AIR: I actually think Pete is right. I think MAGA people really don't care. I really do. I mean, here you are, the mayor of Vichy, New York, you know, doing a hostage video on Fox and Friends, basically.

[22:10:01]

I mean, Tom Homan, is that his name or something? He's basically saying he's going to go up his butt, he says this. I mean, he actually is using the power of the DOJ. He's saying that he's telling us the leverage that he has a national television. So, he's, you know, just really blatantly expressing that quid pro quo, I mean, to everyone, but they just don't care.

That's the real issue. Not that they're trying to hide it. They don't care about -- Trump's doing everything out in the open, and MAGA loves that it's out in the open.

ELROD: And you made a really good point, the MAGA people may not care, but the MAGA people, a lot of moderate Republicans and even some Democrats came together to form the coalition that elected Donald Trump this time around, largely because of prices. There are a lot of people who voted for Donald Trump who do care, and that's the important point that I think the Trump people need to really start thinking about.

I mean, I know Trump is not going to run. Well, he says he may run again, but he can't. But when they look at the midterms, I mean, this is something that the American people, especially the swing voters who will make up the difference in the midterms really will care about.

ABDUL: It's the economy, stupid.

WILMORE: No, but the other point is that --

ELROD: Yes, no, absolutely.

ABDUL: And that's what exactly people are going to vote on, because midterms are around the corner.

ELROD: It is, but I also think subverting justice is going to be a big thing too.

WILMORE: Trump is a lame duck. He doesn't care. He's not running again. He might be, you know, somehow bequeathed the office again in some kind of way that we can't even think of now. Trump doesn't care. He's not running again. I mean, you're right, that deep state that they warned us about, they're losing Republicans from that deep state that is supposed to be so full of blue, and now apparently there's a lot of red in there too. So, I just don't think he cares.

HONIG: We'll see if people care, but they should care.

WILMORE: They should. I agree.

HONIG: Let me make this clear.

WILMORE: I agree with you.

HONIG: This is a very big deal. This is the integrity of the Justice Department. The people who quit, these are conservatives. These are Danielle Sassoon, clerk for Antonin Scalia. She's a member of the Federalist Society. Hagen Scotten, who quit today, is a veteran. He also clerked for Chief Justice Roberts. These are not bleeding heart liberals who are quitting. This is if you care about the Justice Department playing it straight and being fair without fear or favor, we prosecutors, we love our slogans, but if you care about that, you should care.

So, I guess we'll see public polling whether people care. I know Trump will never be up for election again. It sure as heck seems to me like people care. I've heard an awful lot about this story from viewers, from readers and I think you may be right, Larry, that, you know, it may not resonate with the MAGA base, but everybody, I don't care what your political leaning is, you should care about this. This is a big deal.

WILMORE: Well, because the MAGA base also has contempt for conservatism. So, there you go.

SIDNER: And just to put a button on this, when you accuse one side of being political and then do something absolutely political that is obviously political, that's kind of hard to ignore.

WILMORE: They don't care about hypocrisy.

SIDNER: So, the hypocrisy is very large.

SIDNER: All right. Elie Honig, thank you for being here. I appreciate it.

Everyone else, you've got to stay in your seats because we've got a lot more breaking news tonight. The Trump administration didn't realize their firings include people who oversee the nation's nuclear stockpile. We will discuss how that all went down.

Plus, speaking of DOGE's firings, Trump and Elon Musk sit for an interview. Hear what Trump thinks of Musk's stealing a spotlight. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:15:00]

SIDNER: Chaos, confusion and nuclear weapons. Not the words you want to hear together, but tonight that's where we are. Trump administration officials fired more than 300 staffers on Thursday night at the nuclear, excuse me, National Nuclear Security Administration, the agency tasked with managing the nation's nuclear stockpile. Even members of Congress are now quote, freaking out about the new Trump cuts to a national security component in the name of government efficiency.

And tonight, a source telling CNN this happened by happenstance that the officials making government cuts were unaware that this agency oversees the nuclear stockpile.

Ameshia Cross is at the table joining us now. What the what? I mean, what?

AMESHIA CROSS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I mean, it tells us more and more about DOGE's task itself with government efficiency, but doesn't know the inner workings of government. These are people who are not government employees, have never served in any level of government before. These are individuals who are slashing and dashing in whatever way that they can. This particular story affects me on a personal level because my cousin received one of those letters. He works there.

SIDNER: And what did it say? How did they phrase it?

CROSS: Essentially the same way that they did the ones that we heard about two weeks ago. It didn't necessarily say exactly when these people would get paid or if they would get paid, it was today is basically your last day and to not report back. Extremely short, maybe three sentences, and for someone in my cousin's case, who's worked there for well over a decade, almost two decades, actually 16 years, at this point, it was a very tragic situation.

SIDNER: Okay, let me ask you this, because we just saw this rather extraordinary press briefing with Elon Musk standing the president sitting and he said, you know, I'm going to make mistakes. I might sometimes not say the true thing, but, you know, you guys will tell me that I'm making mistakes and blah, blah, blah. Is this just a big freaking honking mistake that is affecting potentially the nuclear stockpile and the lives of those who have been working there as experts?

ABDUL: I swear, you all just really go have these people, these conservatives screaming at me because they're going to say, that's a Republican who disagrees with something that the Trump administration did.

Now, when it comes to the -- my larger problem is the attacks on the federal government worker.

[22:20:03]

As if, for one, they don't pay taxes and that they're not voters. Like there's this characterization of federal government workers as lazy say all of this is kind of built into that. And so this very indiscriminate number, these people existed these agencies for a reason.

What I would like for the Trump administration to do even in explaining, you know, this whole transparency argument is to do an assessment of what it is that you need. I am very skeptical that they've been doing -- they've been able to do an assessment to see what they need at these agencies before just as we get 300 here, there's another 400 here, because there is an impact to that.

And so what I want to hear from the Trump administration is we've covered all our bases, and it seems here, at least with this particular story, that they didn't. Oh, yes, I'll just make this --

SEAT: Well, as the other Republican, I'll do you a solid and stay with you on this one, okay? But it is the risk of the burn it all down approach. And it's the risk of using ignorance as a tool to burn it all down. There's certainly pressure from those who voted for this who want things to happen fast. And so DOGE, the Trump administration is moving quickly, but it comes at the expense of making mistakes.

I will say this, though, we also saw that this is kind of like, you know, zero based budgeting in a way, right, where you have to justify some of these agencies and their responsibilities, members of Congress, nothing is a sacred cow, members of Congress made calls, they complained, they made the case, it was fixed and they reversed it. Maybe we'll see that happen with some other agencies. Maybe we won't. Thankfully, it happened for this one.

CROSS: But this particular one's tool and utensil is -- utility is actually in the name. So, it doesn't even take that much for them to kind of figure out what they do. I think that in the whole burn it all down approach, it is -- they're recognizing that people on the ground have a lot of distrust and disinterest in government and, quite frankly, are upset with systems, in general.

So, they're using that to fuel the fire, to eradicate things that put America at risk. And when we talk about things like this, we're talking America's national security for the Republican Party, which is run on the safety and protection of the United States and being a leader of the world when it comes to our military, to ensure that they are hurting people in this process where we know what our adversaries are doing. We know that they want to attack America's greatest weakness, and many of them cheered it on when President Trump got elected because they recognize his folks don't know what the hell they're doing.

ELROD: Well, I was going to say, I think you're exactly right. And, look, Democrats -- there are a lot of Democrats in Congress who are willing to give the Trump administration a chance when they said, we want to go in, we want to create more government efficiency, we want to do a complete audit, but you don't do that within the first three weeks of the administration, when you don't -- first of all, you have people who have never worked in government, who have no fundamental understanding of how the process works, number one. And, number two, these are the stories that we have to tell. If we are going out to talking to Americans, talking to voters and saying, this is why you have to do it the right way. We have to tell the stories about how this is going to hurt the safety of Americans, how this could impact, you know, farmers with some of the USAID cuts. We actually have to put these in layman's terms so that people can actually understand that, yes, sure, everyone wants government to work more efficiently. Everyone wants their taxpayer dollars to be stretched to the furthest. But when it starts to hurt you and your neighbors and your families, those are the stories that we have to tell.

WILMORE: Everybody's right.

SIDNER: Oh, there's a hot take.

WILMORE: I'll tell you, there's another thing here that really bothers me, Sara, and this is a type of hypocrisy that I've seen for a while now. There's always been, you know, this kind of hyperventilating, rightly so, I should add, over protecting middle class workers and the working class and that sort of thing, unless they work for the government, then they don't count. Then they're not real Americans all of a sudden. Then their jobs are disposable, you can cut them off immediately.

That kind of -- that is a different type of elitism that has now crept into, you know, the right, where there's an elitism against working class people who have civil service jobs. What I'm describing now, for black people of color, civil service jobs is one of your only ways to get into the middle class. My father was told to be a janitor when he was in school, and he was brilliant. He actually went back to school, became a doctor. But he was a probation officer for years. And that wasn't necessarily your ceiling. But, man, was it a way for people to, you know, have middle class lives, send their kids to school, All these types of things.

CROSS: (INAUDIBLE) for my generation.

WILMORE: Yes. But those jobs are important. They're jobs. And also people feel good about working civil service jobs many of the times. Many times, they get really good benefits from doing those jobs that you can't get in the private sector. To have it wiped away in their -- and it's, to me, it seems like they're just laughing about it the way that I think Musk is too flippant about the way that he does it.

[22:25:00]

Thoughtful consideration about cutting these things, nobody can complain with. Of course, there's fraud and waste in government, we all want that to go away, but you have to be more thoughtful about it because these are people's lives.

SIDNER: Also because he's the richest man in the world and saying some of these things to people who make much less money just enough for them to kind of live.

WILMORE: The struggle, yes.

SIDNER: It is rough for a lot of people.

All right, don't go anywhere. We've got agreement for once at this table. I don't know, is it me? Like it's Valentine's. It's love. That's what it is, Valentine's.

All right, coming up next, J.D. Vance lecturing, almost scolding, America's European allies. Trump calling the speech brilliant, leaving Europe seething in Putin. He might be smiling after this one.

Plus, a Republican senator says he is disturbed by the, quote, working mistake Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just made on the global stage. These stories ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:30:22]

SIDNER: In his first international speech, Vice President J.D. Vance scolded U.S. allies in Europe, lecturing them on who they should fear, freedom of speech, and telling them what they should be focusing on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it's not China, it's not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within. The retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values. And of all the pressing challenges that the nations represented here face, I believe there is nothing more urgent than mass migration.

If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Following his lecture, Vance spent a half-hour meeting with the leader of Germany's Far-Right Alternative for Germany Party, or AFD as it's known. A regional leader from that group has been convicted of spouting Nazi rhetoric. The group has threatened to kick out German citizens who are not of German descent. In its 2017 election manifesto, AFD asserted Islam does not belong in Germany, saying the mere presence of Muslims in Germany is a danger to the country. All right, panel, let's get into this.

I guess the first question is to you, Melik. Should the United States Vice President be lecturing U.S. allies? Is this a good way to further diplomacy?

ABDUL: Maybe not as diplomatic as he could have been, but this sounds --

SIDNER: A very diplomatic answer. ABDUL: -- this sounds like, to be honest, it sounds like Donald Trump. Donald Trump in his first term when he came to our allies, really challenging them on paying more, because this thing has always been about Americans paying a larger share, bearing a larger burden. Doug, it sounds like J.D. Vance is doing a rip off of that.

Whether or not it's effective, I don't know. And whether or not the message itself, because I think that when it comes to what the administration expects from Europe, that solely will come from Donald Trump. I don't think that there's probably a better messenger on that. But J.D. Vance probably will have to answer some questions there, but I don't think that it is. I'm pretty sure that our allies in Europe surely did not like what he said, whether or not he should have said it.

SEAT: But they also, I've been to a lot of these summits, never the Munich Security Conference, but a lot of other summits in Europe and elsewhere. And they may feign outrage, but they also love that America is willing to say what they cannot say to one another. And that was especially true during the first Trump administration.

Mike Pence went there a couple of weeks after he became vice president and delivered a very similar message talking about how our allies needed to step up and they needed to contribute more to NATO. Look, I believe that isolationism is for losers. A strong America is an engaged America and vice versa.

But I also reject the notion that diplomacy is just holding hands and singing kumbaya. If we're truly allies, we're truly partners, we need to be able to have difficult conversations. And sometimes you're not going to like the content of that conversation, but we still have to have them.

CROSS: I don't think that this conversation should have raised more eyebrows than Trump did when he was speaking on Davos earlier this year, just because it's a continuation of that conversation. There is not a new page that was drawn from what we just heard from the vice president.

We know that President Trump wants to take an isolationist posture. We know that he does not believe in a lot of the allyships that America has long had with Europe, specifically with our NATO allies. With that being said, he is someone who is quid pro quo for everything. This is a guy who believes that if we stand up for you in any way, that means any European country that is facing or any NATO ally who is facing anything, they should have to pay heavily, not only into NATO, but also into being there for United States, even when the United States is making horrific decisions.

Now I will say this. Most of those countries already have very strong pushback against migration, and those policies have been largely what has unseated several leaders over the past few years. If we look at the U.K. in and of itself, it also drove Brexit. This isn't something that is new to the Trump administration. They're experiencing large migrant issues as well. This is a global issue at this point, and Europe is making certain

decisions that I don't necessarily agree with, because I do think there are some issues related to how they are implementing their strategies. But this is in large part not something that is just driven by this administration.

SIDNER: Adrienne, I'm curious about something because we're seeing Vance meeting with this party that much of the German political establishment and other German parties are refusing to work with.

ELROD: Correct.

[022:35:01]

SIDNER: Elon Musk stood up weeks ago and supported them full support on X. He went out.

ELROD: That was I think during the transition period.

SIDNER: It was during the transition period. So you've got now the vice president meeting with them for 30 minutes, meeting with the leader of the party for 30 minutes. I mean, is this sort of the U.S. bold face just kind of meddling in other elections? An election is coming up in the next couple of months there in Germany.

ELROD: Yeah, look, I think it goes back to what I said in the A block, that I think this is a slow, maybe not even slow, but it is a way that the Trump administration is slowly but surely, or not even slowly but surely, trying to create a more authoritarianism type of regime, not only here in the United States. But they want to support these hard- right leaders.

And these are not just center-right conservatives with a small C. I mean, these are terrifyingly dangerous people who have extreme policies that they want to enact. I mean, Germany has been one of our allies for as long as we can all remember here. And the fact that Trump is trying to use J.D. Vance as his proxy here and use Elon Musk as its proxy to try to create these regimes in countries that have long been democratic strongholds. It's just, you know, it's terrifying.

And I will say this, I do think J.D. Vance is trying to speak to an audience of one. I think it was a little awkward listening to him speak on foreign policy because he doesn't seem to be completely comfortable in that space. And you're exactly right. This is stuff that Donald Trump has been saying for a long time. We really haven't seen J.D. Vance say it.

You know, we'll see how much, you know, -- so, you know, as you know, these conferences, you oftentimes have backroom conversations that are far different from the public posture, but I'm not willing to give these guys the benefit of the doubt. This is not a place that America should be, and this should terrify all of us.

WILMORE: It seems a little different to me because Trump was talking about really transactions financially, that type of stuff. J.D. seemed to be making more of a cultural argument here, which is different, and it just made me think, man, how far leadership in America has come on the world stage, when you think about American liberalism in the general sense, the colloquial sense of liberalism. And JFK went to Germany, you know, right at the start of the, you know, right at the height of the Cold War. You could say the (inaudible) of it and said, I'm Berliner, which of course translates to I'm a jelly donut if you're going to be real specific about it.

But he was trying to show solidarity with Germany in a divided world at that time, you know, with the Soviet Union right on the brink there. Now, we go to Germany and say, what's up with all the Muslims? I mean, what ground are we seeding in terms of American leadership and true American liberalism in the world? That's not a leadership type of statement to make. I mean, it's fine if you want to help stoke, you know, kind of the nativism that's there, if that's your goal and you have that specific audience. But I don't understand that in terms of global leadership. Just doesn't make sense.

ABDUL: But you know what? To Ameshia's point, I'll actually piggyback off of that. What I'm talking about just this globally have everyone is responding to the immigration issue. It was Germany. We saw the protests in Belgium. We saw the protests in places like Paris, in the street. On the issue of immigration, where Germany even, that has been a little more liberal, they've actually pushed back trying to change some of those policies.

So, I wish that that could have been part of the larger conversation on immigration, you know, whether or not he was the most eloquent in that, you know, sense in doing that is a different story but there is a conversation to be had and elections have certainly been lost in part on this very immigration issue.

SEAT: Well, and I want to add on this as well, for years Europe was saying that they were welcoming of the migrants and come on and come all.

CROSS: So did we.

SEAT: I went to a migrant camp at the Turkish-Syrian border where migrants live in shipping containers. And every single Turk that we met with, oh, they're our brothers, we welcome them, please come, come. They were extracting financial concessions from the European Union. That's what it was all about. And they were saying, oh, we're playing the blockade, we're not going to allow them to get to the E.U. Also went to the island of Lesbos, the closest island in Greece to Turkey. It's a complete disaster.

There have been murders, killings, fires, you name it, because of what has happened as these migrants have made it into the E.U. So this problem has been going on for a long time and those who have said that they were welcoming weren't necessarily as welcoming. They were doing it for political purposes.

SIDNER: That may be the case. I was in Lesbos as well, and I saw a very different scene, which is children. and mothers being basically saved who are on these boats trying to figure out how they're going to further live their lives from Syria. So there's a lot to say about what's happening with migration and immigration and war, but we did used to be a country that sort of opened our doors to those who are in dire straits and in war.

[22:40:00]

And that's changing, clearly. It's changing. All right, we're gonna be right back. Hang tight. Next is Vance lectures Europe about free speech. Back here at home, his administration is pushing -- punishing the press and pushing them out while the White House just indefinitely banned an entire outlet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Tonight, a media outlet finds itself on the outside looking in for not going along to get along with a Trump administration demand, which is calling the body of water below the southern U.S. the Gulf of America instead of the Gulf of Mexico.

[23:45:00]

That outlet, the Associated Press. It's the wire service that gets called on first in virtually every foreign press conference, a show of deference to its stature and to its significance to American media.

If you open your local newspaper, you'll almost inevitably find a story from the AP. The Trump administration is impeding their ability to tell you the news that something conservatives claim to care about when it's conservatives who feel they're the ones in the crosshairs. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America. I will destroy the illegal censorship. regime and bring back free speech in America.

BEN SHAPIRO, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You're using the tacit threat of government action to compel private companies to throttle viewpoints you don't particularly like.

SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IOWA): I'll continue to do everything in my power to prevent the censorship of speech and ideas.

CANDACE OWENS, COMMENTATOR: Do you think the left wants me to have a platform to speak? They hatched a plan to silence me and all of us conservatives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Okay, so isn't this censorship, Larry?

WILMORE: Is it censorship? Of course it is. And it's so weird because these are the people that used to talk about this all the time and are taking that room monitor job that the left used to always have. But I'm like, you know, I don't expect anything less from the Trumpies. These are the people that would probably try to ban the word equator because it sounds too DEI. You know what I mean?

(LAUGHTER)

WILMORE: Isn't there equal in that name? You got to change that. Make it that circle that measures the Earth. Let's just call it that. Wait, the American Circle, how about that? That's a good name, American Circle.

SIDNER: You're a good comedian, sir.

SEAT: Don't give him ideas.

SIDNER: Do you think, Adrienne, that the sort of pettiness of all this is the point? Or is this a really bigger message here?

ELROD: No, I think this is a bigger message here. This is absolutely first and foremost censorship of me. Sarah, you've been a reporter for a long time. I mean, if they're banning the AP now, what's next? Are they gonna ban CNN? Are they gonna ban other outlets? I mean, what is next here? And to even make it, I know we're all laughing and you're very funny, but in all seriousness, though, this is an incredibly disturbing matter.

In fact, you know, I think that we should be giving this far more attention. There's just so much stuff going on out there, you know, than we should. And yes, if we -- can you imagine if the Biden administration had done this, if the Obama administration had done this? I mean, this would have been -- the Republicans would have been going crazy, maybe not over the AP, but another, you know, "Washington Times" or a more conservative leaning out outlet.

But this is, again, we got to take a step back. We are not even a month into this administration. And this is what we're seeing. I mean, it's truly terrifying.

CROSS: Just to scare media outlets into silence and submission.

ELROD: Absolutely.

CROSS: Totally, you know, flipping over what is the purpose of the Fourth Estate. And we saw that today. We saw it throughout his last administration, what he called the press, the enemy of the people. We've seen it when he's called out and put targets on the backs of journalists themselves, not only with his rhetoric coming straight from the right (ph) house, but also in the press briefings.

And at this point, we've also seen certain media outlets kind of recoil themselves and not want to report on certain things, just because they are afraid of the linchpin that comes from getting under Trump's skin. "Axios" today is now, you know, this is going to be the Gulf of America. They're not going to say anything else because they want to be allowed in those rooms. And they think that we're going to see more and more people fall in that same vein because, quite frankly, this is a presidency that is not willing to have light shed on truth. And if you try it, they are going to punish you.

SIDNER: Pete, you have argued that the American public doesn't really care about the Eric Adams thing here in New York. The mayor is not going to end up going to court because they're going to drop the case it looks like. Do you think the same thing is true with this? Do you think the American public cares that the AP, one of the longest and most historical journalism groups, companies that has been reporting on everything around the world has been kicked out?

SEAT: I think a lot of people assume the Associated Press is a lone outlet and don't realize, as you mentioned at the beginning of this segment, that over a thousand newspapers across the country utilize their content. And when you open up your local paper in a rural community, you're likely reading the AP.

SIDNER: Mostly.

SEAT: You just don't know it, right? And it may just say by Associated Press. It may have a byline of a journalist and individual whom you're just not familiar with, but it's coming from the AP. So I think the Trump White House is doing a disservice by depriving their voters of news and information about President Trump. I mean, Fox News uses AP content on their air and on their website. So if they're unable to cover the White House, it makes it that much more difficult for the news to get out.

[23:50:00]

I do want to point out, though, the still photographers are not part of this band. And I think part of that is because if you remember the iconic image that became the symbol of the 2024 campaign of Donald Trump pumping his fist after the attempted assassination was taken by an AP photographer.

SIDNER: And we will leave that conversation right there. Thank you so much, Pete. Everyone just stay put. Next the panel gives their night caps with what they want for Valentine's Day. Oh, we're doing something sweet. Sort of.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:55:00]

SIDNER: We're back and it's time for the Newsnight Cap. All right, Valentine's Day edition. All right, every day is of course a perfect day to tell the people you love how you feel for free, but we're in a capitalist society, you all. I mean, you have to buy something, right? And it's gonna cost you this year if you're going for chocolate.

Did you know that the cost of manufacturing chocolate has increased by 167 percent? So the prices are at a 50-year high for cacao, which is how chocolate is made. So we're gonna start with you, Pete. You have 30 seconds to tell your Valentine or Palantine or Galentine what you should get instead of chocolate.

SEAT: Well, when I was invited to come on tonight, I assumed it's because you guys thought I didn't have Valentine's Day plans.

SIDNER: Wow.

SEAT: And you were right. But since we're in New York, I'm gonna pick something that's even more expensive than chocolate. And that is two orchestra level seats to "Good Night and Good Luck" with George Clooney. Previews open March 12th if anyone wants to shell out some ticks.

SIDNER: Wow. Ameshia.

ABDUL: I thought you were going to say tag.

CROSS: So I have tickets to "Othello" because I had to see Denzel Washington. I was going to say an alternative to the Kennedy Center. As somebody who's been a long time member, loves the Kennedy Center, I am huge on theater, the arts in general. I'm going to need something that is alternative to it on top of some tickets to this man's next show.

SIDNER: Oh, that's so sweet. That is the sweetest thing.

WILMORE: I know. I know.

SIDNER: Larry?

WILMORE: Okay, so I was going to say a box of cigars, but I'm not changing that because I have a word of advice for guys, if your lady ever says, I don't care that much about Valentine's day, don't do anything, don't listen to her. Don't listen to her. Do the exact opposite, which is what I should have done. And so I want to say, love you very much, boo. I'll be back with you very soon.

SIDNER: You are clearly in the dog house. Okay, Adrienne.

ELROD: I'm sensing this trend on what I'm about to say here. Look, I'm a huge deadhead. The dead or Dead & Company, which is the new iteration of the band, are playing at the Sphere again. So if anybody out there has two premium tickets they want to offer on Valentine's Day, any day of the year, 365 days of the year, I'm here for it, sign me up.

SIDNER: Melik, it's all on you, man.

ABDUL: You know, I'm going to close it out here. I'd say that if I could get something for Valentine's Day, it would be an all-expense paid trip to the Seychelles island alone.

SIDNER: Okay, let me ask you, is this for the Valentine or is this for you?

ABDUL: For the Valentine to get me, to give me. And then I go by myself.

CROSS: But you don't want the Valentine with you.

ELROD: You just want the Valentine to get this solo trip for you.

ABDUL: That would be the perfect gift.

WILMORE: Do you understand the concept of Valentine's Day?

ABDUL: You get your love, you win a gift. And that's what I want.

SIDNER: You know what I like, is when I get a little note that says this is a coupon for a free hug. I know, that's not true.

(CROSSTALK)

ABDUL: I don't know about that one.

SIDNER: Anything that sparkles. Anything that sparkles is good.

WILMORE: CNN has stopped being the most trusted name is (inaudible).

ABDUL: This is breaking news. Sara Sidner lying to the American public.

SIDNER: I don't mind a free hug, but with a sparkly thing, then it's good.

ELROD: I think a card is nice, but I think when somebody writes on a little pink piece of paper with maybe a colored marker, it just doesn't --

ABDUL: A little more personal.

ELROD: Yeah, but even then, it's like, no, no, no, this is not -- the free hug thing does not work. A card is fine, not the free hug on a post-it.

WILMORE: All hugs come with a price.

ELROD: Exactly, they do. They do.

SIDNER: Everybody, thank you so much. Happy Valentine's to all of you. And before we go, the comedians at "Have I Got News for You" are back and they are ready to dive into the political scene again, including this special thematic look at "Very Close Couples."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROY WOOD, COMEDIAN: It's time for "Meet in the Middle" where we find common ground between two people who would never be caught hanging out together. Okay, let's do Creeper by the Cousin.

MICHAEL IAN BLACK, COMEDIAN: Giuliani.

WOOD: Would you like the description of the category?

BLACK: Don't need it. I heard creeper. Giuliani, that's right.

GEORGE CONWAY, ATTORNEY: That's right. He did marry his cousin. So that's totally right.

WOOD: Which two of these people kept it in the family by marrying their cousins?

BLACK: It's Giuliani and it's Paddington.

AMBER RUFFIN, COMEDIAN: It's fine if it's Paddington, he's a bear.

CONWAY: Right.

RUFFIN: That's normal in bear life.

CONWAY: Right.

RUFFIN: But now Giuliani should be ashamed.

WOOD: Okay.

RUFFIN: So I'm gonna say Giuliani, and it has to be Einstein, no?

WOOD: All right, so to answer, Rudy Giuliani and Albert Einstein both married their cousins. Rudy's first wife was his second cousin, and Einstein's second wife was his first cousin.

[23:02]

Yeah, Regina Peruggi for --

CONWAY: And that's how he came up with the theory of relativity.

(CROWD CHEERING)