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CNN This Morning

NCAA Changes Transgender Policy After Trump Order; Trump's Gaza Proposal Prompts Confusion, Condemnation; Israel's Netanyahu Gifts Trump a Golden Pager. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired February 07, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Question mark, but definitely an impactful storm heading for the weekend. And then ice to the south of that, this is just the blitz of winter storms we have ahead of us. Number three, number four, and then number five.

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: So -- I'm sorry, Derek, can I take a point of personal privilege, are my kids going to have snow days in Washington next week? Because I don't really think I can handle that.

DAM: Yeah, are you prepared? Just you got to get those babysitters ahead of time, you can hear it from me.

HUNT: Yeah, and do I need one next week for the storm in D.C.?

DAM: I think Monday morning is a real possibility.

HUNT: OK. Thank you for the heads up.

DAM: Noted.

HUNT: We appreciate it.

DAM: And then Tuesday and then Friday.

HUNT: Oh cool, OK, sweet. All the parents at this table are looking at that and dreading their lives.

OK, coming up next week on CNN This Morning, the new NCAA policy on transgender athletes, right in line with President Trump's order to ban those athletes from women's sports.

Plus, building diplomacy one gift at a time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, FORMER UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: So we brought him some of the biggest potatoes from Idaho, here they are.

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: It's impressive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:27]

HUNT: All right. The NCAA changing its participation policy for transgender athletes just one day after President Trump signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from women's sports.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENT: With this executive order, the war on women's sports is over. We're putting every school receiving taxpayer dollars on notice that if you let men take over women's sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of Title IX and risk your federal funding. There will be no federal funding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The NCAA saying in a statement that, quote, "President Trump's order provides a clear national standard." Under its revised rules, only athletes assigned female at birth will be able to compete at the collegiate level. And with the NCAA now in compliance with his order, President Trump has his next target, the Olympics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Marco is going to make clear to the international Olympic committees there, and he's going to make it as clear as anybody can make it that America categorically rejects transgender lunacy. We want them to change everything having to do with the Olympics and having to do with this absolutely ridiculous subject.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Joining us now, CNN Sports Analyst Christine Brennan with more on this.

Christine, good morning. It's always wonderful to see you. Can you help us understand how -- what it was before, how it's changed and how many people this actually impacts?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Yes, Kasie. Good morning. You know, it's Charlie Baker is the President of the NCAA. And he was before a congressional committee about six weeks ago and was asked that exact question about how many athletes are involved.

And there are over a half million NCAA athletes, Baker said, and then asked about how many transgender athletes there are in the NCAA. He said less than 10. So that's the number we're talking about. Less than 10 out of more than half a million.

But as you know, this has become an issue that is political, that is fought with -- with emotions and -- and has become a part of our culture and was a part, of course, of the presidential election. And I said against that backdrop, this is this conversation. So the reality is now the president has said, if you've gone through male puberty, you cannot compete in women's sports. And you had mentioned the Olympics. And it's very interesting, of course, it's fitting because the next Summer Olympic Games are in Los Angeles in the summer of 2028. And this is a question and obviously an issue that will come up.

But the International Olympic Committee doesn't actually make those decisions. It's the International Federations for every sport. And the president will like what he's seeing, because over the last couple of years, both the Federation for Swimming called World Aquatics and the Federation Governing Track and Field called World Athletics, both have implemented the same exact policy that President Trump has now put into effect with his executive order.

So already two of the biggest Olympic sports are doing exactly what Trump wants them to do. And they did it a couple of years ago.

HUNT: Really interesting. Christine, can I ask you about this lawsuit that was filed by some swimmers? Three women swimmers at the University of Pennsylvania because there was a transgender swimmer on their team, Lia Thomas. What does the lawsuit say and what's the probability of its -- what a success look like for them? What are we going to see next in that?

BRENNAN: As everyone remembers, I think the Lia Thomas story and your heart goes out to her as she was transitioning. But then, of course, she was swimming and it became a huge issue, especially those videos, right? Of seeing her so far ahead of the other swimmers in Ivy League meets. And in the NCAA, she won an NCAA title. And this really brought it to a head back then in 2022.

So now no surprise that now we would see lawsuits based on what President Trump has done. I would wonder about going backwards and being able to look at something was the policy of the Ivy League and the NCAA at the time. They were following their rules. But now those rules have changed.

And because this is such an emotional issue, it's a political issue. Clearly, we could see a scenario where it goes to a judge or where they move forward with it. And there is certainly, you know, sentiment to have those kind of issues out there now and being discussed.

I wouldn't be surprised, Kasie, if this is the -- if this is just the beginning of some of these lawsuits. But again, we're talking about so few athletes, even though they got the headlines, right? Lia Thomas was in the headlines.

[06:40:08]

So it became bigger when you hear less than 10 athletes. Well, Lia Thomas was one of those a few years ago. And so that's why this issue is so confounding to so many. Obviously, the hate and the fear is something we hate to see. We'd rather see the science and the conversation be rational on all sides. And I have a feeling that this is something we will be discussing not just for years, but for decades.

HUNT: All right. Christine Brennan for us this morning. Always grateful to have you on the show. Thank you so much for being here.

BRENNAN: Thank you, Kasie.

HUNT: All right. Coming up next here on CNN This Morning. The big winner just announced in the quarterback battle for the NFL's most valuable player.

Plus, international shockwaves over President Trump's Gaza plan. Michael Smerconish joins us next to discuss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SETH MEYERS, NBC "LATE NIGHT" HOST: President Trump claimed that Palestinians would be, quote, "thrilled to have an option to move out of Gaza" and said, quote, "The Gaza thing never worked out," never worked out. Trump talks about Gaza like it's Ben Affleck and J.Lo. You know, it never worked out, but there's other territories in the sea.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:16]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DAN CRENSHAW (R-TX): But this is -- this is pretty typical, unorthodox, Trump policy being thrown out there. I'm trying to keep track of the White House statements just like you are. And from what I understand, they've walked that back pretty significantly. There's not going to be anybody forced to leave. There's not going to be any U.S. troops on the ground.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HUNT: Very relatable, Dan Crenshaw. Donald Trump's congressional allies still seeking clarity on the proposal that Donald Trump has made to take over the Gaza Strip. The abrupt announcement on Tuesday of the plan to temporarily take over and redevelop the territory prompted confusion and condemnation among global leaders who are still readjusting to Donald Trump's return to the world stage. Them and all of us.

Tuesday's events also conjuring memories of what it all looked like last time around.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I have great confidence in my intelligence people. But I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.

Well, he's too fast. Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself.

As far as wiretapping, I guess, by, you know, this past administration, at least we have something in common, perhaps.

We do have a very special relationship. In fact, I'll get that little piece of dandruff off, little piece. We have to make him perfect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Oh, the shove. It's Friday. It means Michael Smerconish is here to discuss. He's CNN Political Commentator and, of course, the host of CNN Smerconish.

Michael, good morning.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, "SMERCONISH": Good morning.

HUNT: So that was a little walk down memory lane of what Donald Trump was like on the world stage last time around. This time, of course, it's honestly torqued. It's a more aggressive version even of that based on, you know, that that head spinning press conference that we saw around Gaza.

It seems like pretty quickly they've had to walk back, though, specifically the idea that U.S. troops might be involved, which Trump refused to rule out during that press conference, despite having run during the campaign as someone who was going to get American troops out of the Middle East. What's your take on all of it?

SMERCONISH: I'm so glad that they walked it back. I heard a lot of conversation this week about the human rights issues of the Palestinians and the displacement of the Palestinians. Valid concerns.

I, however, look at this from a national security perspective of the United States. And I want to remind everybody we were sold a bill of goods post-September 11. We were told they hate us for our jeans. They hate us for our lattes. They hate us for our lap dances. None of that ended up being true.

They hate us for their perception of our interventionalist foreign policy. And that was a lesson that candidate Donald Trump seemed to grasp. And campaigning on keeping us out of forever wars made sense to me as a result.

But even raising the prospect that we will play some direct role in Gaza sounds reminiscent of Iraq and Afghanistan and all the mistakes of the last 20 years. So I thought it was just a terrible error in judgment. I don't know where it came from. I'm glad that he's walking it back.

HUNT: Michael, let's talk about some of the other things that we have seen unfolding rapid fire across the government. Today, for example, we're reporting that the Trump administration is going to fire basically 10,000 people from USAID and tell them that they need to come home from the stations where they are across the world, leaving about 300 people left at the agency. That's just one example of many.

And, of course, Democrats are trying to figure out how do we push back against things that we are opposed to in this way when it is all happening so fast. What do you think the opposition party should be focusing on right now if they want to be successful?

SMERCONISH: I think USAID is a losing issue for Democrats. I get the argument for the exertion of soft power internationally. I think it makes sense for the United States, for all the reasons I was just referring to relative to Gaza, to make friends but not do so with boots on the ground.

But there's always going to be an instance, an example where someone can point to an expenditure and to the American people it's going to be like, my God, why are we spending, you know, fill in the blank. And I won't even use condoms. I'll say 20 million on Sesame Street in Iraq.

And, Kasie, a little bit before your time and a wee bit before my time, but William Proxmire. William Proxmire was the senator from Wisconsin. I think he was the longest serving senator from Wisconsin. His career was largely predicated on the announcement of the Golden Fleece Award, which was always some ridiculous expenditure of federal funds that would be head scratching and people would say, well, thank goodness Senator Proxmire is out there exposing all of this waste, fraud and abuse. It's a winning issue for Republicans, I say.

[06:50:19]

HUNT: Michael, what do you make of the argument, and this is -- this is something, you know, I actually focused on a lot as I was in school during the Iraq war that was kind of unfolding as, you know, my political consciousness was being formed. The idea that the way that we communicate with people overseas, America's image abroad, it's kind of the idea, being able to try to talk to people about the idea of America being something to aspire to and that being an important piece of, I mean, the USAID is a piece of Cold War infrastructure. It's not necessarily, it is not neutral in terms of our national security, and you have the Chinese focused on this Belt and Road Initiative where they are spending millions putting all these countries across the world in their debt and being a partner to them across -- across the world. Do you think that there's a national security argument that Democrats who are defending USAID could make or not?

SMERCONISH: I think that there is. I think that we've been our own worst enemies. I'm going to sound like Ron Paul now. But our response so often has been that wherever there's a hot spot, you know, we open a base.

I remember that I was a guest of the Pentagon in the Rumsfeld era to travel to the Middle East 15,000 miles in the span of less than 10 days. And one of the stops on the road was Djibouti in the Horn of Africa. And I'm like, why are you taking me to Djibouti? Why do we have a base in Djibouti?

HUNT: The Al-Qaeda. SMERCONISH: And the answer was, well, because Al-Qaeda is now --

HUNT: Yeah.

SMERCONISH: -- is now in Djibouti, right? Like, everywhere we thought they were, we would go. We didn't make friends in that process.

And by the way, Kasie, I -- you know, I had skin in this game. I was one of those behind a microphone like this parroting the line, we need to fight them over there. I think it was Zell Miller. We need to fight them over there or we'll be fighting them here.

No, every time we went over there, we raised the odds that they were going to hate us more. That was the lesson I took away. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I've been reflecting on the last 30 years. And that's what I think.

HUNT: Yeah. Fascinating. All right. Michael Smerconish, always enjoy having your perspective on the show, sir. Thank you so much for being here.

SMERCONISH: You too.

HUNT: See you next week.

SMERCONISH: Thank you.

HUNT: Do tune in to "Smerconish," it's tomorrow morning, 9 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

All right. It's 52 minutes past the hour. Here is your morning roundup. A Bering Air flight with 10 people on board is now missing in western Alaska. The plane was last seen on the radar flying over the Norton Sound on Thursday evening. The Coast Guard and the Air Force now assisting in the search. The flight was heading to Nome, Alaska.

Here are pictures of the conditions at the airport as the plane went missing. Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan put out a statement that says, quote, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the passengers, their families, and the rescue crew."

President Trump has now removed Federal Election Commission Chair Ellen Weintraub from her position. Weintraub writing a statement on "X" that says this, in part, quote, "There's a legal way to replace FEC Commissioners. This isn't it," end quote.

Weintraub was first appointed to serve on the commission by President George W. Bush in 2002. And this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH ALLEN, BUFFALO BILLS QUARTERBACK: I know this is an individual award, and it says most valuable player on it, but I think it's derived from team success, and I love my team. We've got such a great locker room in Buffalo, and it takes everybody.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen, with all the class, winning NFL's MVP award last night, was a major upset over Lamar Jackson of the Baltimore Ravens. Allen was just one win shy of bringing his team to the Super Bowl this year, but, of course, they fell to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship game. And this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEYERS: Rapper Kendrick Lamar is set to perform this Sunday at the Super Bowl halftime show. Damn, that is going to -- that is going to be Drake's worst Sunday since, well, I guess last Sunday, so yeah.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Kendrick Lamar gearing up for the biggest performance of his career this coming Sunday. The Grammy award-winning rapper telling fans to anticipate storytelling during his halftime show.

Kendrick Lamar won two Grammys for his hit song, "Not Like Us," that, of course, definitely poured some fuel on that fire for his viral feud with Drake.

All right, let's turn now to this story. It is not unusual for foreign leaders to exchange gifts when they meet each other. But the gift given to President Trump by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week, well, let's just -- let's just show it to you. It's a golden pager. It is inscribed with the words, press with both hands.

Now, this is a reference to Israel's deadly pager bombers -- bombings that targeted Hezbollah last year. You may remember that members of the terror group reportedly had to press two buttons to simultaneously receive coded messages. Now, when they did that, you saw this happen across the country.

[06:55:08]

This golden gift that Netanyahu gave to Trump, it's just the latest token exchanged between world leaders. Take a little walk down memory lane. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gifted a reset button to the Russian Foreign Minister back in 2009.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We want to reset our relationship.

LAVROV: Let's do it together.

CLINTON: So we will do it together. We worked hard to get the right Russian word. Do you think we got it?

LAVROV: You got it wrong.

CLINTON: I got it wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Then there was the time that Secretary of State John Kerry handed -- gave the Russians a couple of spuds.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KERRY: He was talking to me about famous Idaho potatoes. So we brought him some of the biggest potatoes from Idaho. There they are.

LAVROV: It's impressive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: And who can forget Russian President Vladimir Putin giving President Trump a soccer ball in Helsinki. The soccer ball might have had a transmitter chip in it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It will go to my son, Barron. We have no question. In fact, Melania, here you go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, our panel is back. Brad Todd, there's a lot of symbolism in this pager gift. I find it slightly head-scratching.

BRAD TODD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I wouldn't press both buttons if Bibi gave me a pager that said that. I don't think so. But I think Donald Trump will appreciate it.

HUNT: Kate?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: These moments are usually intended to just convey a message. This obviously sends a very strong one, I guess, that -- I guess Netanyahu is trying to underscore strength and thinks Trump will respond to that kind of strength and --

HUNT: Yeah, there's the implication not that it's going to blow up, though, like that's what I don't understand.

(CROSSTALK)

BEDINGFIELD: The pagers killed people and he just gave one to Trump. I don't know, man. I don't know.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You know -- so now, that is officially the property of the United States, right? And there's a fun fact. Presidents can't typically keep gifts they get from foreign leaders. They become property of the National Archives. And you know every now and again presidents receive gifts of animals from foreign leaders.

The President of Indonesia -- this is a fun story. President of Indonesia, Suharto, gave George H.W. Bush a pet Komodo dragon. And they're running around, I swear to God, running around the White House. And they didn't know what to do with it. Because like I mean, it's a venomous animal. Like, you can -- like, eat it, keep it as a pet, I don't know. So they gave it to the Cincinnati Zoo and it just lived -- lived its life for decades, representing the government of Indonesia. Isn't America an amazing place?

ANNIE LINSKEY, REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: To your point, there is a museum of diplomatic history in Washington, D.C. So that pager, presumably, is going to end up in that museum.

HUNT: But I've never been to this museum.

LINSKEY: Yes, sadly it's closed until 2026. It's doing some rehab right now. That pager --

HUNT: It's a ping pong table that was given to Obama, by the way, seen here.

LINSKEY: That pager is going to be on display, I believe. And so everybody will get to see it.

WILLIAMS: 1,400-pound block of cheese given to Thomas Jefferson.

TODD: And the cherry blossoms here in Washington along the Tidal Basin were a gift from the Japanese government. So that's one that's lasted.

WILLIAMS: A pair of rollerblades given to George W. Bush. They literally, I think, the President of Holland, I know a lot about the National Archives, I'm sorry.

HUNT: I love it. That's why we invited you.

WILLIAMS: They gave him a set of rollerblades. Why?

LINSKEY: There's a bonsai tree that survived Hiroshima that was given to the President of the United States. And it's at the Botanical Garden right now.

HUNT: That's remarkable.

LINSKEY: It's amazing. The thing survived a nuclear bomb.

HUNT: That's insane. I had no idea. Kate, what was the most interesting gift that President Biden ever got when you were working for him?

BEDINGFIELD: Oh, good question. I'm trying to remember. I mean, it's very -- there's a lot of like, like a very fancy -- a very fancy watch, a very like, you know -- he would often get, and he may know better than me, he would often get liquor, which he doesn't drink. So that's, you know, I was constantly being given nice alcohol that he doesn't drink.

LINSKEY: He didn't drink, yes.

HUNT: So wait, if you can't accept gifts and somebody gives you a bottle of whiskey, can you drink it? BEDINGFIELD: No, it has to go to the gift office. There's a whole process, yeah.

HUNT: So does anybody drink it ever?

(CROSSTALK)

WILLIAMS: Wait until DOGE gets a hold of that.

BEDINGFIELD: You can purchase it. You can purchase it.

WILLIAMS: Yeah.

BEDINGFIELD: So you have to purchase it for market value, but it has to go through the gift office first and through a whole process. It has to be logged at the State Department.

WILLIAMS: The difference between foreign leaders and American citizens giving gifts, there's a totally different process for one or the other.

HUNT: Again, this is why we had you. All right. I do want to leave you with this. Very, very important. It's honestly the front-page headline for us here at CNN This Morning today. The best kind of news.

Our family has grown by one. Our beloved producer, Liz Brown-Kaiser, gave birth to her first child yesterday morning. A healthy 7-pound, 10-ounce bundle of joy. William Leo Kenworthy. We're told that baby Will has his dad's eyes. That's Cameron. And that he's talkative, like his mom. We can confirm that, at least that Liz is talkative. We're all extraordinarily excited to meet baby Will.

[07:00:05]

And Liz, we are sending you, all three of you, all of our love. I know you guys are going to be amazing parents. And welcome, Will. The world's a crazy place. We'll try to take care of it for you in the meantime.

Thanks to our panel for being here. Happy Friday. Have a great weekend. You at home, please have a great weekend as well. I'm Kasie Hunt.

Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.