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CNN This Morning
American Teacher Released From Russia, Meets With Trump; Trump: We're Going To Take Gaza, "We're Going To Cherish It"; Multiple Storms In U.S. Bring Rain, Snow, Ice; NYC's Mayor Thanks DOJ For Directing Charges To Be Dropped. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired February 12, 2025 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:34]
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: It's Wednesday, February 12th.
Right now on CNN THIS MORNING:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARC FOGEL, AMERICAN TEACHER: I feel like the luckiest man on earth right now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Back on American soil. Marc Fogel, a man held prisoner in Russia, released. One of his first stops, the White House, to meet with the president.
Plus, this --
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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I always abide by the courts, always abide by them, and we'll appeal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Complying with the courts. President Trump promising there to abide by the judges rulings, but vowing to appeal any that don't go his way. That's how the Constitution works.
And later --
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AYMAN SAFADI, JORDANIAN GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL: If you get Gazans out of Gaza and what's next? What about the West Bank?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Proposal pushback. The Jordanians clearly not on board with president Trumps plan to displace millions of Gazans from their homes. The president, though, remains insistent it will happen. (MUSIC)
SCIUTTO: Five a.m. here on the East Coast. Here's a live look at Capitol Hill on this cold and snowy morning in Washington.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Jim Sciutto, in for Kasie Hunt. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.
A U.S. teacher wrongfully detained in Russia for more than three years is now safely back home on American soil this morning, and another American could be released later today President Trump is not saying from which country however.
Last night, Marc Fogel, appearing at the White House draped you'll see there in an American flag greeted by the president and expressing an outpouring of gratitude to those who helped get him home.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FOGEL: I feel like the luckiest. I am not a hero in this at all. And President Trump is a hero. These men that came from the diplomatic service are heroes. Thank you all and I love our country and I'm so happy to be back here. And I wish I could articulate it better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Fogel's release was negotiated by the president, his special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and other presidential advisers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: He's got a great mother. And when I saw the mother at a rally, she said, would you, if you win, will you get my son out? And I promise -- she's 95 years old. And I said, well get him out. And we got him out pretty quickly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: The White House says Fogel's release as part of a, quote, exchange. It did not give any details about what the U.S. gave in return. Instead, President Trump said the move could, in his view, help end the war in Ukraine.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think there's goodwill in terms of the war. It could be a big, important part of getting the war over with Ukraine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Joining me now is senior White House reporter for Bloomberg, Josh Wingrove.
And, Josh, do we know what the U.S. gave in return here, says it's an exchange often that has been the requirement from Russia's perspective that the U.S. release a Russian when Americans are released from Russia.
JOSH WINGROVE, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, BLOOMBERG: Yeah, that was certainly the requirement, Jim, when we had exchanges or negotiations towards exchanges in the previous administration and that administration, and this one, I should note, both have been sometimes less than clear, you know, for security reasons or operational reasons as to why they don't detail these things. But we have no information on this one, at least as of, you know, this morning as we sit here. So it's TBD right now.
Of course, they also had some announcements yesterday about sending Secretary Bessent to Ukraine to perhaps negotiate some sort of an end to the hostilities. Trump has made clear that he would, you know, favor any kind of deal that codified Russian land gains. That will, of course, fuel speculation of a potential link between those two sort of buckets.
But right now, we just simply don't know what the exchange was for, other than Mr. Fogel is back and Trump and the country sort of welcoming him back warmly, it seems he's in good condition.
SCIUTTO: Do we know, Josh, anything more about a second person who might be released today?
WINGROVE: It's a big open question right now. And we just the short answer is we don't. But that's just kind of how things have been operating so far in the administration.
[05:05:01]
For instance, we heard on the weekend that Trump was going to announce a massive reciprocal tariff plan yesterday or today. As I sit here this morning on that, we don't know that either.
So right now, we're just sort of like waiting on the balls of our feet to try to figure out what comes next. But the short answer is no. We don't know who the other one is.
Trump and Biden do have a lot of overlap on this question of sort of bringing Americans home. Experts in this field, of course, you know, what you give up is an important question, because the issue hanging over this is the potential for retaliation, people nabbing Americans as bargaining chips.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. Hostage diplomacy. When President Biden managed to get prisoner exchanges to free Americans, Trump was always highly critical. He complained that Biden paid a kings ransom, in his words, to get "The Wall Street Journal" reporter Evan Gershkovich home.
He blasted the deal that brought home the WNBA star Brittney Griner.
Any evidence that there's a deliberate effort by this White House to just simply not reveal what they gave up to Russia?
WINGROVE: I mean, as of now, there deliberately have not revealed I mean, what their motivation for that is, but all I can do is speak to the facts that we just don't know. And as I say, that it will, I think will fuel speculation or questions about a connection, you know, is, Trump engaging and pushing for an end to the hostilities in Ukraine in a way that Russia is good with?
And if so, are they willing to play ball in hostage diplomacy? If so, some in Trumps orbit might be perfectly happy with that deal, but they have not made that link. No one has proven that link. I think they'll just be questions about the concurrent timing.
SCIUTTO: And, of course, the big question is to end the war in Ukraine. What is this president willing to give up? What would Russia demand? What would Ukraine be willing to give up?
I want to turn now to -- to this moment in the Oval Office. Elon Musk, appearing with president Trump there yesterday. And listen to this exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: The White House says that you will identify and excuse yourself from any conflicts of interest that you may have. Does that mean that you are, in effect, policing yourself?
ELON MUSK, TECH BILLIONAIRE: Well, we actually are trying to be as transparent as possible. Well, all of our actions are -- are fully public. Transparency is what builds trust, not simply somebody asserting trust.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: I mean, listen, this country has a whole host of regulations and laws to avoid conflicts of interest. He's basically saying there he's going to be transparent, and that should be enough to build trust.
Is there any other evidence that this White House has imposed any guardrails to avoid those conflicts of interest?
WINGROVE: It's very little. And, you know, Mr. Musk and the president held court last night, but that was in many ways the most information wed had since inauguration about this effort. Mr. Musk pointed to the Twitter account of DOGE, for instance.
But what they're doing is just simply not fully public. They're not briefing the press. And, of course, Mr. Musk is an avowed critic of the legacy media, mainstream media. They're not, you know, detailing some of these things. They're instead cherry picking, saying, we found this contract or, you know, this other thing, uh, things typically that are, in fairness, Democrats aren't pushing back against they are finding things that seem, you know, to be on solid footing for cuts, at least in, in conjunction with Trumps mandate.
One other thing that's important here, I think, on this one, is that there were critics that said, well, Musk himself is an unelected bureaucrat who is sort of marauding through the government. And he alluded to this yesterday, saying that the bureaucracy is sort of this, you know, fourth branch of government that shouldn't be there. It should respond to the will of the people. No one would disagree with that.
But Democrats are saying they can't get information on what is happening. And therefore the DOGE effort itself, in their mind, is not responding to the Congress at least, and being transparent through Congress to the American people.
SCIUTTO: Yeah, the unelected bureaucrat criticism is one you hear from Republicans often. They do not refer to the fact that Elon Musk, of course, unelected.
Josh Wingrove, thanks so much.
Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, standing steadfast. Jordan publicly rebuffing President Trump's proposal to simply take over Gaza and expel the 2 million Palestinians who call it their home.
Plus, a plane crash caught on video. The pilot walked away, however completely unscathed.
And why one Democratic senator believes Kash Patel is playing a role in firings at the FBI before he's even been confirmed as director.
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SEN. DICK DURBIN (D-IL): This is the most well-established law enforcement agency, investigative agency in the world. And to think that they would hand it over to Kash Patel is just incredible.
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[05:14:03]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: There is nothing to buy. It's Gaza. It's -- it's a war torn area. We're going to take it. We're going to hold it. We're going to cherish it.
REPORTER: Mr. President, take it under what authority? It is sovereign territory.
TRUMP: Under the U.S. authority.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Not clear that international law recognizes any U.S. authority over Gaza. President Trump, however, forging ahead with his vision to turn it into, quote, the Riviera of the Middle East, though without the 2 million people who currently live there.
With Jordan's King Abdullah at his side, the president repeated his view that those Palestinians should be moved out of Gaza to, quote, parcels of land in countries, including Jordan.
The king appeared deeply uncomfortable with the plan. He did not publicly object in that moment. Later, however, his foreign minister made Jordan's position quite clear.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AYMAN SAFADI, JORDANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: We can rebuild Gaza in relatively a short period, three years or so, and that can be done without Gazans leaving.
[05:15:02]
Because if you get Gazans out of Gaza and what's next? What about the West Bank?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: CNN's Salma Abdelaziz joins us now from London.
I've spoken to diplomats in the Middle East who are extremely opposed to this idea. And you saw some of that come out, certainly from the Jordanian foreign minister, not from the king, as he was sitting there next to the president. Later, though, he did tweet, King Abdullah, that the -- that Jordan is resistant to this.
How are they managing expressing that while I imagine not trying to get on the wrong side of this president?
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean, what an awkward press conference that was to just see that play out, look behind closed doors. Jordan, of course, expressed that not only are they opposed to President Trump's plan, they see it as destabilizing the region. They also emphasized that Jordan already hosts some 35 percent of its population is refugees. Half of the population of Jordan is made up of Palestinian descendants.
So, essentially, the king saying, look, we're at breaking point from hosting the worlds refugees as it is, but I think the king of Jordan and the Arab world knows that President Trump won't simply take no for an answer. So they're working on a counter plan. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KING ABDULLAH, JORDAN: We have to keep in mind that there is a plan from Egypt and the Arab countries. I think let's wait until the Egyptians can come and present to the president and not get ahead of ourselves.
Again, this is something that we as Arabs will be coming to -- to the United States with something that we're going to talk about later.
(ED VIDEO CLIP)
ABDELAZIZ: Now, President Sisi of Egypt is also expected to arrive at the White House later this month. It is Egypt that is leading this proposal, this plan, but alongside, of course, other Arab countries. Unclear what they're considering at this time, and if President Trump would even accept it.
But all of this, of course, puts a huge question mark over the peace process as a whole. You have to remember phase one of that cease fire agreement expires on March 1st, and at this time, there is no sign of those negotiations continuing.
SCIUTTO: So the president's words about the ceasefire in Gaza were quite strong. He said that if Hamas does not stick to the next hostage release, in his words, all hell will break out there. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, seemed to echo that.
Have a listen. I want to get your thoughts on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): If Hamas does not return our hostages by Saturday noon, the ceasefire will end and the IDF will return to intense fighting until Hamas is completely defeated.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Is the feeling now that the ceasefire is going to fall apart, or that that they will find agreement before Saturday?
ABDELAZIZ: I think overwhelmingly there is the sense that the ceasefire will fall apart. It's just a question of when it will fall apart. So you have this micro inside this macro picture. Of course, the debate, the Trump proposal of moving all Gazans out of Gaza. You have this micro debate, this micro spat, where Hamas has said, we're not going to go ahead on Saturday with this exchange because we believe Israel is violating the ceasefire agreement.
Now, diplomats will tell you maybe this can be resolved, maybe this can be, you know, we can find a solution in terms of getting more aid to Gaza that would allow that to happen on Saturday. But you again, have that deadline on March 1st.
Is Prime Minister Netanyahu, this is the big question, is Prime Minister Netanyahu actually committed to that truce and ceasefire deal, or is he seeing the path forward through Washington, D.C., and not through the Arab capitals?
SCIUTTO: No question. You have to expect that the people currently in Gaza would dread the resumption of that war.
Salma Abdelaziz, thanks so much.
Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING: a messy day for a lot of people, snow and ice for some, heavy rain for others. Forecast coming up next.
Plus, Musk versus Altman. The very public feud between the billionaire tech rivals heating up over OpenAI.
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[05:23:33]
SCIUTTO: Multiple storms are bringing rain, snow and ice to millions of people in the U.S. New overnight drone footage shows houses and streets in Maryland covered in snow. This is north of D.C. I can tell you, D.C. itself, we got a lot of snow, too. And there's more to come.
Meteorologist Derek Van Dam walks us through the forecast.
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DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: This parade of winter storms is being driven by the upper level winds known as the jet stream. Notice how they enter the West Coast and then quickly traverse the country to the East Coast. So were lining up one storm after another after another. We're calling it a parade of storms.
And the initial storm, storm number one this week, just about to exit off the East Coast, but not before the damage has already been done. We've had some significant icing across western portions of Virginia, snowfall across the mid-Atlantic, and heavy rainfall to the south. We get a brief lull in the precipitation for, let's say, about a 6 to 8 hour period before precipitation reenters into the equation actually impacts some of the same locations as what we experienced overnight and into early this morning, icing potential maybe a rain snow mix across portions of Virginia.
This will be all heavy rain to the south and east. And then the major difference between storm number one and storm number two is the northward extent of the snowfall. So places like Detroit, Grand Rapids, Michigan into Chicago, Des Moines, Iowa, there will be a quick swath of snow that could total over six inches, depending on where you're located. With this secondary storm system before it exits off the East Coast by this time tomorrow morning.
[05:25:06]
So the storm total snowfall accumulation for both of these storms. There it is across the mid-Atlantic, 6 to 8 inches in some of those favored areas, especially the higher elevations, and then across the great lakes and into the plains and parts of the Midwest. There it is, 4 to 7in of snowfall from that secondary storm system. But the ice potential here is very significant. So it will be treacherous driving conditions in and around the Blue Ridge Mountains, for instance, the spine of the Appalachian Mountains into western Virginia near Roanoke.
This area is expecting a significant icing event out of both of these systems. Further south, where its warmer, it will be all heavy rainfall, but that leads to localized flash flood potential, Atlanta to Birmingham towards Shreveport as well. And speaking of a flash flood potential, the third storm enters the equation on Thursday into Friday. And then we've got our burn scars recently from the fires near Los Angeles. This could lead to debris flows and mudflows. So we're going to keep a close eye on this area as well.
Back to you.
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SCIUTTO: All right. We are 25 minutes past the hour.
Here's your "Morning Roundup".
Right now, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, meeting with his European countermarks -- counterparts to discuss, among other things, Russia's war in Ukraine. The new administration wants NATO and the E.U. to take more responsibility when it comes to security, not just in Ukraine, but also more broadly in Europe.
And this the Coast Guard released an audio recording of what is believed to be the final moments of the titan submersible that you'll remember imploded in the Atlantic in 2023.
Good Lord, what a moment there. The clip part of the investigation into the disaster that killed all five people on board.
And caught on camera. A pilot walks away unharmed after his small plane crashed into trees. Wow, look at that there, near an airfield in New Hampshire. Neighbor's camera on his garage caught that moment.
The pilot said he was practicing taking off and landing when he began to have control issues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PILOT: I was shooting for the end of the runway, and then I just obviously didn't make it. I walked out without a scratch, and I'm fine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: That's amazing. The FAA is now investigating.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I choose the giant schnauzer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, Monty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: There it is, best in show. Meet Monty, a giant schnauzer. The five year old pup won the prestigious title at the 2025 Westminster Kennel Club dog show. Monty is the first giant schnauzer to ever win the big prize. I was kind of rooting for the golden retriever.
It's still a nice looking dog.
President Trump and New York Mayor Eric Adams formed an unusual bond. Both men have faced scrutiny after federal charges against them. But now, the Justice Department has pushed U.S. prosecutors to drop the corruption case against Adams despite the evidence.
CNN's Brynn Gingras has more on what appears to be a growing alliance between the president and the mayor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump and Eric Adams an unlikely friendship that's now seemingly having major payoff for the embattled New York City mayor.
MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D), NEW YORK CITY: And this case will no longer continue.
GINGRAS: Quoting the Bible and not taking questions, Adams thanking the Justice Department for ordering New York prosecutors to drop federal charges against him.
ADAMS: I never broke the law and I never would.
GINGRAS: The signals that this would happen were there, ever since last fall when the five-count federal indictment accused Adams of accepting travel perks and campaign contributions in exchange for political favors.
ADAMS: I always knew that if I stood my ground for all of you, that I would be a target and a target I became.
GINGRAS: Adams took a page out of Trump's playbook, insinuating the charges against him were political persecution for publicly criticizing Biden's immigration policies, which Trump echoed.
TRUMP: It's a -- it's a shame. He did the right thing, but he got indicted and they play weaponization.
GINGRAS: Also, Adams, once a Republican, became reluctant to endorse Kamala Harris while also shying away from publicly criticizing Trump.
But the two men's relationship really seemed to flourish when Trump won the White House.
ADAMS: We have a new president coming in, and when that president comes in, he has a mayor in this city that is not going to be warring with him.
GINGRAS: Adams traveled to Florida, where he had lunch with Trump near Mar-a-Lago. He insists his criminal case wasn't a topic of conversation.
And then on Inauguration Day, Adams abruptly canceled his schedule and went to Washington. He publicly lauded members of Trump's inner circle, like Elon Musk.
