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Erin Burnett Outfront
Democratic Representatives Barge Into Speaker's Office To Discuss Musk's Government Reach; White House On Gaza: Trump Sees "Temporary" Move, Trump: "Permanently"; Attorney General To Warn DOJ Officials To Get Behind Trump. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired February 05, 2025 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:36]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
The breaking news, Democratic lawmakers forcing themselves into the speaker's office today. They were demanding answers about Elon Musk as Musk is taking a sledgehammer to the federal government.
One of the Democrats who is in the speakers office is OUTFRONT tonight.
Plus, more breaking news. Less than 24 hours after Trump declared that the United States would take over Gaza, his team is walking that back.
My guest tonight is an American surgeon who is there in Gaza right now.
And it's Pam Bondi's first day on the job at the DOJ. She is looking at the prosecutors who defeated Trump in court. We have a report on what's happening inside the DOJ.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news, Democrats tonight demanding answers on what exactly Elon Musk is doing after he and his all male team of teens and recent college graduates gained access to just about every government agency, including Treasury, Education, the FBI. The list does go on and on, but two Democratic congresswomen basically forced their way into House Speaker Mike Johnson's office as he was meeting with Trump's treasury secretary.
They wanted answers. They said it had gotten to this point, that this was the only way to try to get them. Congresswoman Gwen Moore is one of them. She is my guest in just a moment.
And the other is Congresswoman Judy Chu, who posted this video showing the speaker's team trying to keep them at bay.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can -- if I can give you OLA contact information at the White House -- if you want to reach out to the White House?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: That did not stop the congresswoman. They did eventually come face to face with Johnson, and they pressed him as to what exactly Musk's team is doing now that they have access to. Well, a lot of things, including the $5 trillion U.S. payment system at the Treasury Department.
They describe it as Musk stealing Americans private information. Of course, the problem is right now that that there's no transparency on any of this. You can describe it any way you want. Nobody knows what you're saying. And that's why it's so scary. Transparency would be good here.
Musk's team does now also have its hands on Medicare and Medicaid payments, according to "The Wall Street Journal".
Well, tonight, we're learning that Musk may also have his focus set on the CIA. "The New York Times" is reporting this hour that the White House sent an unclassified email in which it detailed all the employees hired over the past two years. Imagine that. Just a just a regular old email get hired by the CIA.
I mean, I'm laughing, not because it's funny, because it really happened. Apparently, the reason is that they say it's easier to fire young analysts and operatives and one former CIA officer, though cut to the chase, telling the times that the decision to reveal these names in an unclassified email was a, quote, counterintelligence disaster.
And as we come onto the air tonight, we are now just hours from the deadline for federal employees to resign and accept what's being called a buyout. If they do not accept, Trump and Musk, we understand, this has been made very clear, they are planning massive layoffs. And those layoffs would specifically target people who don't take the deal.
So the world is now, of course, taking notice of what's happening in Washington. It's impossible not to some of those that you wouldn't want to be singing the praises of this are when it comes to U.S. aid and ordering, you know, people to -- to -- who were working partly from home and sending people from USAID home on planes. That's it. You're done.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called it a smart move by Elon Musk. Viktor Orban from Hungary saying the world owes a debt of gratitude to Trump.
And now there are Republicans who say that the power of Elon Musk, unaccountable as it is, is a growing concern.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KEVIN CRAMER (R-ND): There have to be guardrails, obviously, on what information he accesses, but more importantly, what he does with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: And more importantly, what he does with it. That's the question. None of these -- none of these questions are being answered.
Jeff Zeleny is OUTFRONT live outside the White House tonight.
So, Jeff, what is the thinking on Musk right now inside the White House?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, the thinking quite simply, is that Elon Musk is carrying out the president's broader wishes to rein in the size of the government.
But the details they often are learning here at the White House, somewhat after the fact. They certainly are not asking permission to go into every single agency. The president told us earlier this week that, he has given Mr. Musk and his group the authority to do this.
[19:05:02]
But specifically a question hanging over all of this is what about those conflicts of interest that Elon Musk, of course, had says billions of dollars worth of contracts with the federal government. The press secretary today at the briefing was asked this question directly. Listen to what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president was already asked and answered this question this week. And he said, if Elon Musk comes across a conflict of interest with the contracts and the funding that DOGE is overseeing, then Elon will excuse himself from those contracts. And he has again abided by all applicable laws.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: So again, just breaking that down, if Elon Musk comes across a conflict, Elon will excuse himself.
That underscores right there that the guardrails that the senator was talking about simply do not exist. So he is, you know, essentially on his own. He's a special government employee. He literally is in a category of his own on this front. So yes, there is some concern. But, Erin, there's not much of it here at the White House. But there are many questions tonight. And of course, as that deadline tomorrow arrives for a federal workers to either accept this or not, those questions were almost certainly continue.
BURNETT: All right. Jeff Zeleny, thank you very much, at the White House tonight.
I want to go as promised, now to the Democratic Congresswoman Gwen Moore. She's from Wisconsin. She just confronted the speaker about Elon Musk as he was meeting with the new treasury secretary. So I appreciate your time, Congresswoman Moore.
We have this photo that you shared of you walking into the speaker's office. Obviously, we're in a situation of a black box here, right? All that -- the only reason we know anything is happening is from various reporting from ours and other outlets, right? There's been no disclosures.
What made you go to this, this point to actually basically force yourself into the speaker's office?
REP. GWEN MOORE (D-WI): Thanks for having me, Erin.
And I appreciated a lot of the background information that you've given people already. But the reality is, is that my phones are blowing up here in Washington, D.C. and in my district office, and all I've been able to say to people is that I don't know when they ask -- I'm not, you know, something that you didn't necessarily mention.
Why do these people have access to my Social Security number, to my bank account? In addition to all of the things that you brought forth before? Because I'm on the Ways and Means Committee and under section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, it is criminal to access someone's Social Security information without authorization.
And what we saw was Elon Musk marching in with his group of young people, pushing away the federal employees, demanding that they leave, putting them on leave and having these young people stick their thumb drives in the computer. People with skills as engineers to be able to create backdoors to the $6 trillion budget.
And, of course, as you pointed out, that's a CIA, that's the FBI, the Social Security, that's Head Start, that's Medicaid. And what authority did they have to do it? And so I marched into the speaker's office because I had learned that the secretary was going to meet with our speaker of the house.
And even though I didn't vote for him for 16 times, he is the speaker of the House. And he was visiting our house. And I wanted to do more than just a meet and greet.
I wanted to ask him, who are these people? What were their security clearances? What information did they take? How is it going to be used so that I could give some answers to my constituents?
BURNETT: Did he answer any of those questions? I mean, what was your interaction with Speaker Johnson?
MOORE: Well, you know, I thought it was very -- I told him there was some consolation that he felt concerned about these things, too, he said. I said because I hadn't seen a single Republican demonstrating any concern about it. And to hear him say that he himself was concerned about it, I thought was important. But he too had no idea what DOGE employees, what authority they had. You know, and as I pointed out to him, if you want to sell pretzels at the airport, you have to get a background check to get into the inner sanctum of the airport.
And here we have these young people just pushing folks out of the way, and we don't know what authority they had and what they're doing with this very sensitive information.
You know, we pointed out that when Donald Trump, when someone accessed -- someone in the media accessed his tax returns, that's right. That there was -- there was a fit and there, there, there, you know, there was a reason for people to have a fit about that because that's a criminal activity.
[19:10:05]
But here, we don't have one person's tax -- taxes access. We have tens of millions of people's information being accessed. And people are worried about that.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Congresswoman, I very much appreciate your time. And it is interesting, as you say, that the speaker also expressed that he had concern and didn't know the answers to these questions. Obviously, it doesn't make people feel better in terms of not having answers, but at least we're -- we're figuring out what people know and don't know. And I guess that's a place to start.
So I appreciate your time. Thank you.
MOORE: Thank you.
BURNETT: I want to bring in Katie Drummond now, the global editorial director at "Wired".
And, Katie, you know, you're reporting on this has obviously been so incredible as we've been talking every day.
KATIE DRUMMOND, GLOBAL EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, "WIRED": Thank you.
BURNETT: So, what are you -- I mean, Musk has amassed this incredible power. It is obviously unchecked. You heard Jeff Zeleny saying, the way it works when there's a conflict of interest is Elon says there's a conflict of interest and would recuse himself, essentially.
DRUMMOND: Yes.
BURNETT: So what are you learning? I mean, is this received with open arms by all of those around Trump?
DRUMMOND: Not from what we know so far. So "Wired" has spoken to half a dozen Trump loyalists and advisers. These are people very close to the president, inside and around the administration, and they are frustrated.
So what they have told our journalists is they are unhappy with the amount of control that Musk is wielding inside of these federal agencies. They are unhappy about the headaches that he's creating for the administration, and they are unhappy about how messy all of this has been. According to them, particularly how disorganized they say
communication has been between DOGE and the White House, and that within the administration, they are struggling to keep up with what Musk and DOGE are even doing on a daily basis.
BURNETT: Another group of people that don't know which would be Trump's inner circle doesn't know what Elon is doing. So now it's the speaker of the House. It's -- okay, that -- that obviously doesn't give a lot of calm. I'm just emphasizing that point.
DRUMMOND: Not feeling great about it.
BURNETT: I guess it gets to the question, though, from the people that you've spoken to at "Wired". Does Trump himself share any of this consternation?
DRUMMOND: That's where things start to get touchy, at least with our sources. So as far as they can tell, the president is very happy with Musk and everything that he's been up to. One GOP operative described the entire situation as, quote, too hot to touch, essentially meaning that some of these unhappy people around the president aren't sure how to navigate the situation or where even to take their frustration with Musk, because to take it to the president, at least now feels like a step too far.
BURNETT: So he's not that -- not receptive. Okay. That's important.
Now, you're also reporting that all this attention on Musk, right. And it is overwhelming, right. It is overwhelming. It is coming at Trump's expense with at least one group of people, and this is actually really crucial when you figure out how Trump is going to continue to revere or respect this relationship, this could really matter.
DRUMMOND: I mean, the battle of the egos. So we published a story earlier today looking at the online far right and extremist communities. So we looked at message boards, encrypted channels, social media platforms. What we found across the board was that Musk and DOGE and what they are doing are now really being held up and valorized by those communities at Trump's expense, right?
So, so, Trump very much being sort of an afterthought in a lot of these communities at this point, because they can't stop talking about how -- about Elon and how --
BURNETT: Elon as their hero.
DRUMMOND: -- and how great he's doing. So, for example, something I thought was particularly notable even on Truth Social, right? Trump's own social media platform, hashtag Elon Musk, trending ahead of hashtag Trump all day today.
BURNETT: All day today.
DRUMMOND: All day today.
BURNETT: Well, these are things that can matter. I mean, these are data points.
DRUMMOND: These are data points that given what we know about the president, that that would potentially make a dent.
BURNETT: Right. And also just the point here of these, these young people that are going in still at this point, no accountability of, you know, who they are. I mean, I know obviously you all have reported on -- on who they are, but that Trump has not yet met with them as far as, as far as we know.
DRUMMOND: No, as far as we know, as far as the president has said, he has not met with them. He's heard that some of them are young, some of them are older. I think that's about sort of the extent of his comment on the matter.
BURNETT: The true black box of what's going on.
DRUMMOND: A true black box.
BURNETT: All right. Well, we all continue to try to shine a light on it and appreciate. Of course.
DRUMMOND: Thank you for having me.
BURNETT: You're doing that with us. Katie, thank you.
And next, Trump's plan to take over the Gaza strip sounds strikingly similar to his own real estate projects.
Plus, Secretary of State Marco Rubio backing Trump's plan to shut down America's humanitarian aid agency. But as our KFILE uncovered, Marco Rubio once had a very different view of U.S. aid, repeatedly praising it.
And an OUTFRONT exclusive. Clarissa Ward travels inside Syria to the heart of the uprising against the brutal dictator Bashar al-Assad. And what she found right now will shock you. We'll show you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:19:16]
BURNETT: Breaking news: Trump's team tonight frantically trying to walk back the president's shocking plan to seize and occupy the Gaza strip with American troops sending more than 2 million Palestinians away from Gaza today. His own press secretary and his Mideast envoy, I'm sorry, are backtracking on his words.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEAVITT: I can confirm that the president is committed to temporarily relocating those who are there temporarily -- temporarily -- temporarily.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: She used that word temporarily four times on purpose. It seems to try and counteract what Trump really said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The U.S. will take over the Gaza strip. We'll own it. I do see a long term ownership position.
[19:20:02]
I don't think people should be going back to Gaza. It would be my hope that we could do something really nice, really good, where they wouldn't want to return. Why would they want to return?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: That is not temporarily, obviously.
Okay. And then there's Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff. At a closed door lunch with Republican senators today, he said Trump doesn't want to put American troops on the ground in Gaza. I mean, that's a stunning thing. You would -- I mean, my gosh.
Even a month ago, nobody would think you'd actually have to say you didn't mean saying that because you wouldn't even ever say it. But Trump did say that he planned to do exactly that when he was asked specifically whether he was going to send U.S. troops. He said yes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: As far as Gaza is concerned, well do what is necessary. If it's necessary, we'll do that. We're going to take over that piece.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: That piece of land. This massive cleanup effort is underway, in part because now there is a lot of Republican pressure with Trump on the Gaza issue.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): I'm not supportive of having the American people paying to rebuild Gaza. I don't think that's our responsibility.
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So sending in U.S. troops.
SEN. KEVIN CRAMER (R-ND): Doesn't make -- it doesn't make sense.
SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): It may not work out the way he envisioned it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I mean, of course, you know, could be Israeli troops, Israeli money, but that's not what Trump said.
Lindsey Graham, one of Trump's most ardent supporters, calling it, quote, problematic. Problematic may be a big understatement, though. I mean, more than 2 million people call Gaza home. Trump, though, sees Gaza through the lens of this -- prime real estate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We'll make sure that it's done world class. We have an opportunity to do something that could be phenomenal.
Something that will be magnificent.
I think you'll make that into an international, unbelievable place. I think the potential in the Gaza strip is unbelievable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So you heard some of those superlatives. If they sound familiar, they are, because you've heard them before from Trump. In the other cases, though, it wasn't about displacing 2 million impoverished people, it was about Trump's golf courses and towers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The assets are world class assets.
There's some tremendous opportunities.
That's going to be a phenomenal project.
There's going to be truly magnificent.
The course is going to be unbelievable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Unbelievable, magnificent, phenomenal, world class -- every one of those superlative words over so many years and projects is an echo of what we hear now with Gaza.
Of course, and those other projects, though Trump wasn't talking about land under dispute for thousands of years, a place that is home for millions of people who want to return and rebuild.
OUTFRONT now, Dr. Adam Hamawy. He is in Gaza tonight working at a hospital. He's a retired U.S. Army combat surgeon who has been credited by Senator Tammy Duckworth for saving her life when her helicopter was shot down over Iraq.
Dr. Hamawy, I appreciate your time tonight.
You're there working in a hospital, an incredibly difficult conditions. And I don't even know if you happen to be able to get a little bit of rest last night or whether you heard it when it happened, but then you would have woken up and heard everything Trump said.
What was your reaction to his comments? DR. ADAM HAMAWY, SURGEON TREATING PATIENTS IN GAZA: I mean, it was
absolutely outrageous. It's -- it's coming. It's falling on, on ears that have been really hearing all these, you know, hopes for a cease and for rebuilding and for this to come after a year and a half of bombing and basically genocide, it's nothing more than a continuation of this ethnic cleansing. And it's not what they wanted to hear.
BURNETT: So --
HAMAWY: It's not what I wanted to hear.
BURNETT: And then you're talking to people, obviously, who live there who either were never able to leave, who have chosen to come back, whatever the individual situation may be. What are they saying? Do they -- do they take this seriously?
HAMAWY: I mean, it's kind of funny. I mean, people are joking -- many people say, look, you know, if Trump wants to come and build hotels here, that sounds like a great idea, and you're not going to find a more welcoming and hospitable people than the Palestinians. But they say that. But include us in this plan.
I mean, we're happy to build and rebuild and make this a place where people come and visit. But why do we have to leave? I mean, this is our land. This is what we fought to be able to preserve. And this is where we want to stay.
And if people want to leave, you know, that should be their own choice. It shouldn't be because they're being forced to leave, and just being here and living with them. Many more want to stay than to actually go.
BURNETT: So, doctor, to what you say about peoples choice and that this is this is home. And no matter how destroyed it may be, it is home for -- for so many people. I want to play the specific thing that Trump said that just it speaks exactly to that.
[19:25:03]
Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I mean, they're there because they have no alternative. What do they have? It is a big pile of -- of rubble right now.
Why would they want to return? The place has been hell.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So can you answer that question to him? He asks, you spent time there with people who live there. Why would they want to return? The place has been hell.
HAMAWY: Because it's home. This is their home. This is their ancestors' home. It's where, you know, they're part of -- they're part of the land. And we all saw these images. You know, some of us experienced it of this -- as soon as the north opened up of hundreds of thousands of people walking back, despite knowing that they're going to basically see nothing except rubble.
But that was home for them. And -- and, you know, many of us would do the same thing. I mean, this is this is what we -- we talk about freedom. We talk about, you know, this is what we fight for, and this is what we want. And we talk about hatred and people hating. They don't hate freedom. They just want freedom just like us. And -- and that's what they want. They just want a place that they call home. And this is home for them.
BURNETT: Well, Dr. Hamawy, we appreciate your time so much. Thank you. I know it's late there. I know the conditions are difficult, but I appreciate it so much.
HAMAWY: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
BURNETT: OUTFRONT now, Jack O'Donnell, the former president and chief operating officer of Trump plaza hotel and casino, the author of Trump the inside story of the real Donald Trump.
Jack, you know Donald Trump well, and you hear the word echo of projects in Miami, Ireland, elsewhere with Gaza, his own team is walking that back. Of course, is the Israelis know much of the money that they had given, you know, sent into Gaza, had had gone to Hamas in the past and, look, the U.S. intelligence has said Reuters has reported there's up to 15,000 more Hamas fighters now than there were prior to October 7th. And that is, of course, after killing as many as they could over the past year.
So I'm just making the point here, that of what the situation is, does Trump, in your view, though, Jack, with all of that reality, sounds serious to you?
JACK O'DONNELL, FORMER PRESIDENT AND CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER OF TRUMP PLAZA HOTEL & CASINO: Well, Erin, we know that he is a ready, shoot, aim kind of guy. Okay. He doesn't think things through.
And so, you know, it's -- this is a clear example. I mean, it's very similar actually to the -- to the tariffs. He says one thing and then he has to back off. He's having to do this because the plan makes no sense.
The human tragedy is enormous as -- as you and your last guest have been, you know, talking about. But there's also an economic reality to this thing. And he, as a developer, should know this. I did some research today to build what he is talking about would cost upwards of $100 billion. Okay.
BURNETT: Yeah.
O'DONNELL: The economics of what he's trying to do will not work.
BURNETT: I mean, the number -- the number is stunning. I'm just checking something while I'm -- while -- while I'm asking you this next question, which is real estate always location, location, location. Okay.
He looks at the location here, and, you know, we've all. What? Beirut. Paris of the Middle East, you know, the water location here is so, you know, central perhaps in his mind because he's talked about certain places, you know, which -- which have that in common, right. And of course, Gaza isn't one of the most beautiful places in the world. Here's just a few examples.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: It's 100 acres of land along the Hudson River behind Lincoln Center. Tremendous parkland and waterfront property.
I own close to 2,000 acres in Scotland, in Aberdeen. It's four miles on the ocean. Beautiful. The waves crashing in. I mean, there's no sight like it.
Los Angeles is, you know, one of my all time favorites because it's on the Pacific Ocean.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I mean, is it something that simple? It's -- in this case, a Mediterranean.
O'DONNELL: Yeah. Well, in his mind, it is, Erin. I mean, any waterfront property is more valuable. And I think that's his simplistic view of it. I mean, what's amazing about this situation is that he's looking at a commercial opportunity. When you have talked about this in the past, there's children dying of starvation in Gaza, and that is his focus. It's a commercial opportunity.
BURNETT: Jack, I also want to say, the number I was looking up was the GDP of Israel. So at the price you're talking about $100 billion, that would be 20 percent of the entire GDP of the entire country of Israel to rebuild Gaza. Money that you heard Republicans say that forget the fact that no ones going to do that. Actually, if it costs that, but that they don't think should come from U.S. taxpayers.
All right. Well, Jack, I appreciate your time. And thanks so much.
[19:30:01]
Always great to talk to you.
O'DONNELL: Thank you, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. And next, breaking news, Trump's new attorney general on her first day vowing to go after the prosecutors who went after him in court.
Plus, Trump promised to bring down the price of eggs. All right? Now, that's a -- only so much anyone can do about that, right? But they are up 14 percent since Election Day.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SETH MEYERS, COMEDIAN: I thought you were just going to lower the price of eggs. What is all this other --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Breaking news, thousands of USAID employees about to lose their jobs and imminently. This as Democratic and Republican officials tonight joined forces aggressively defending USAID.
[19:35:06]
Five former USAID leaders speaking out against President Trump's plans to dismantle the agency, moments ago, calling on Congress to, quote, swiftly protect the agency. Collectively saying -- saying in a statement first obtained here on CNN that to weaken and even destroy the agency is the benefit of neither political party and the detriment of all Americans. While we don't agree on all issues, we wholeheartedly agree that USAID and Americas foreign assistance programs are vital to our interests, which is important. This obviously a bipartisan in that group.
Trump vowing to gut the agency, though since taking office, the first thing they really took aim at. He has called its leaders radical left lunatics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They went totally crazy. What they were doing and the money they were giving to people that shouldn't be getting it. And agencies and others that shouldn't be getting it was a shame.
So, the tremendous fraud, I love the concept of it. Yeah, sure. I love the concept, but they turn out to be radical left lunatics.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: But here's where it gets really interesting. And that is Marco Rubio, a very serious secretary of state, who is also criticizing USAID tonight and just took it over as part of this. They're trying to get rid of it. So they threw it in with the state department that he had previously, though, praised the organization repeatedly, not just once, but repeatedly, something he clearly believed in.
Our KFILE has the tape. So KFILE's Andrew Kaczynski joins me now.
So what did you find?
ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Yeah, that's right.
Now, Rubio spent years. Praising both foreign aid and USAID as a vital part of promoting American interests and American foreign policy. In fact, he was -- he's now basically echoing some of the attacks that he once dismissed. We found time and again across his 14-year Senate career that he was constantly praising and defending foreign aid.
Lets listen to just a few of what he said over the years.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THEN-SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): We don't have to give foreign aid. We do so because it furthers our national interest. That's why we give foreign aid.
Now, obviously, there's a component to foreign aid that's humanitarian in scope, and that's important, too.
I promise you, its going to be a lot harder to recruit someone to anti-Americanism, anti-American terrorism if the United States of America was the reason why they're even alive today.
Anybody who tells you that we can slash foreign aid and that will bring us to balance is lying to you. Foreign aid is less than 1 percent of our budget. It's just not true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KACZYNSKI: Now, those comments paint a pretty clear picture, right? He said foreign aid was critical to U.S. foreign policy. Now he's trying to dismantle the agency behind it.
But that's really not all that we found. We also found that in 2022, he sent a letter to Joe Biden in which he actually suggested they increase the USAID budget. He said that it was necessary to counter Chinese communist party influence. China has basically their own version of USAID.
And I want to read a little bit of what he wrote in that letter to Biden that we uncovered. He said, quote, we urge you to use your fiscal year 2023 budget request for the Defense Department, the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development to send a clear message that the United States has a comprehensive strategy to counter the Chinese Communist Party's expanding global influence and the increasing threat that it poses to U.S. security interests and those of our allies and partners.
BURNETT: Well, and he is a deeply serious secretary of state. I mean, belt and road initiative by China has been something that they've invested in to counter USAID.
KACZYNSKI: And we found USAID letters in which he or press releases on his website, where he specifically mentioned that and why we need USAID.
BURNETT: Right. So he makes all these point, he makes he makes all these -- these very important points. But he actually from your reporting, then it wasn't even just foreign aid overall and making the point, its 1 percent, less than 1 percent of the budget. And here's why it's important. It was individual programs. KACZYNSKI: Yeah. And look we went through his entire website or what
we could find on his website across his Senate career from 2011 to 2025. And what we found was time and again, him singling out various different programs from USAID as vital parts of basically promoting American foreign policy. We found dozens of these.
And I want people to look at just a few of them right here that include him praising programs combating tuberculosis in developing nations, supporting maternal and child health programs, election support in Burma, Mexico, Latin America, advancing women's global economic empowerment.
And this is just a few. We found dozens and dozens of examples of him doing this. Now, we reached out to secretary -- to the State Department. We asked, how are you going to square all of this with what he's saying today? And we didn't hear back from them.
BURNETT: Right. Well, I mean, its clear what he said in the past is what he's meant. You know, he was he was very forceful and passionate about delivering.
All right, Andrew, thank you very much, important reporting. Of course, now that Marco Rubio will, if all this goes the way they want it to go, actually be the one overseeing U.S. aid, even though it's -- it's gone.
Well, also breaking tonight, Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi, in her very first hours on the job, warning the Justice Department employees that they need to fall in line.
[19:40:04]
Now, this is from sources who are telling our reporters in Washington that Bondi is expected, said that and is expected to say in a series of memos that are being worked up that employees will be punished if they don't back the administration. On top of that, she's demanding a review of all criminal cases brought against the president, which includes his felony conviction in the New York hush money case.
So, Ryan Goodman is OUTFRONT with us now, "Just Security" coeditor in chief.
So, the review of criminal cases and -- I mean, in a sense, okay, obviously, they were going to do that. Is that is that as expected? Is there anything that can be done about that or that's just at this point, par for the course.
RYAN GOODMAN, JUST SECURITY CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: At this point, its par for the course of this course that we're on.
BURNETT: Yeah.
GOODMAN: If this were another reality, it wouldn't be. This is most unusual for an attorney general to set this as like their top priority to go after state and local prosecutors for cases that they've heard in the last four years. It's a kind of a personal grudge of the president because they went after him. That's really an unusual use of the resources of the Justice Department.
BURNETT: And in this line of being punished, if you don't get in line, where does that fall in the normal DOJ, which an attorney general is appointed by a president, right, to -- you know, I remember back when Barack Obama referred to Eric Holder as a wingman, right? I mean, there is a sense of that. Attorney general is with the president, and then there's being punished if you don't get in line. So how far are we off the norm?
GOODMAN: I don't think that ones necessarily that far off the norm. If, in fact, the frame that she's putting forward is that the president has an agenda and you need to either stick with the agenda and if you don't, then there's, you know, punitive actions that could be taken against an employee. If she was saying you have to be loyal to him as a person, to Mr. Trump, that's a different issue. But she's just saying this is the president's agenda.
If the president's agenda is we're going to go after fentanyl and immigration, you need to either be with the agenda or not. You can't --
BURNETT: That would be more normal. Okay? I mean, because, look, everyone, were in uncharted territory. I think its important for people to understand what would be okay, that that might be more normal.
The mass layoffs that were talking about, though, USAID, which we were just talking about extensively, Department of Education, now they're trying to dismantle it, cuts at NOAA, National Weather Service, CIA, FBI. Elon Musk, currently the driving force behind that. And even Speaker Johnson, it appears, says he doesn't know what is happening.
Is it legal?
GOODMAN: So there are a couple of things that I think stand out to me as highly illegal. So one is actually also something going on in the Justice Department when you said firing people, the purging of the FBI career servants, public servants and DOJ public servants is a violation of the Civil Service servants statutes. I think they even know it.
And Pam Bondi coming in and saying, I'm going to effectuate the weaponization executive order, that's what its all about. So I think that's a very serious problem. And then eliminating some of these agencies, USAID, DOE, you cant do that as a president. That would mean we have like a king as a dictating -- Congress says, you have to come back to us if you want to reorganize this agency.
BURNETT: All right. Well, thank you very much, Ryan. So we'll see what all this -- this comes to.
And next, Trump claims his promise to bring down the price of eggs is why he is in the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They were double and triple the price over a short period of time. And I won an election based on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Tonight, though, the price is at a record high. And we are on the ground in Syria tonight in a town that was decimated during the uprising against Bashar al-Assad. So what is actually happening there? I mean, it's an incredible story. And Clarissa Ward is there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:47:55]
BURNETT: Tonight, the price of eggs skyrocketing, jumping 14 percent in just one month since Trump was elected. That's according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Now, it is important to note that there are reasons for this, right? The egg supply has been dramatically affected by bird flu. But it is also true that Trump ran very explicitly on lowering grocery prices and late night comedians are seizing on the moment.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SETH MEYERS, COMEDIAN: I thought you were just going to lower the price of eggs. What is all this other --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: The impact, though, of these higher prices is obviously not a laughing matter though.
And Nick Watt is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANK HILLIKER, OWNER, HILLIKER FARMS: And you can have two.
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Frank Hilliker is rationing his eggs. The line forms around 7:00 a.m.
How many eggs do you eat?
EMILIE SOUTHWARD, SHOOPER AT HILLIKER FARMS: Myself, probably, three -- three a day.
WATT: What?
SOUTHWARD: Yeah.
WATT: That's a lot. No?
SOUTHWARD: That's a normal amount.
HILLIKER: Two dozen.
WATT: The average American eats about 284 eggs a year. Well, they used to. You're consciously dialing back on the eggs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, for sure, yeah.
WATT: Because of the price?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.
WATT: President Donald Trump claims the high price of eggs helped him win the White House.
TRUMP: They were double and triple the price over a short period of time. And I won an election based on that.
WATT: He made wild promises.
TRUMP: We're going to bring prices way down, and we're going to get it done fast.
WATT: Then he got egged in the first White House briefing.
REPORTER: Egg prices have skyrocketed since President Trump took office.
WATT: Democratic lawmakers urged him in a letter to crack down on corporate profiteering.
HILLIKER: They put price controls on things, but now, all of a sudden, we're Cuba or Venezuela. You know who wants to be like that?
WATT: Waffle House just introduced a temporary 50 cent egg surcharge and Roberto's tacos round the corner from Franks Farm is charging customers an extra buck 50 for all eggy dishes.
[19:50:02]
Who are they blaming?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, they take it out on me.
WATT: Smells rather noticeable.
HILLIKER: What smell?
WATT: Do you eat a lot of them?
HILLIKER: No.
WATT: It's too expensive.
HILLIKER: It's gone from $2 to $3 a dozen to $9 a dozen.
WATT: That's massive.
HILLIKER: It is crazy.
WATT: And predicted by the USDA to climb even higher.
HILLIKER: Current egg shortages because of the bird flu.
WATT: It is, fully.
HILLIKER: Because of the bird flu.
WATT: The only way to stop the spread is to cull millions of infected birds, so slashing egg supply.
HILLIKER: These astronomical prices are all due on supply and demand. Economics 101. There's nothing Biden could have done to stop the bird flu. Look, there's nothing President Trump could have done to stop the bird flu. It's neither of their fault.
WATT: You literally have all your eggs in one basket.
HILLIKER: Yes I do. You got to be careful with that.
WATT: There are so many other bad egg wordplays that we could use, but --
HILLIKER: Exactly.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WATT (on camera): Now, Saturday night in Franklin County, Pennsylvania -- Erin, 100,000 eggs were stolen from a trailer. That's how bad this shortage has gotten.
Bottom line, eggs are a great source of protein. They were a great, cheap source of protein. Not anymore. And how long is this going to last?
Frank Hilliker, who knows his eggs, says, I don't know -- Erin.
BURNETT: Yeah, well, I mean, the bird flu, of course, that gets into the how quickly we get into every other topic, right, gets into the CDC, NIH and all the other issues.
Nick, thank you very much.
And next, an OUTFRONT exclusive, Clarissa Ward on the ground in Syria, what she found in a town at the heart of the uprising against Bashar al-Assad is shocking. And we'll share it with you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:56:03]
BURNETT: Tonight, violence breaking out in Syria as the new rebel government that ousted dictator Bashar al-Assad is trying to stay in power. An improvised IED discovered today in an area that has seen seven explosions in just the past couple of weeks, including this one. A deadly car bomb in which 20 people were killed, at least 20. Most of them were women, and it was the deadliest attack since the surprise coup in December.
Clarissa Ward went inside Syria for this piece that you will see first here tonight OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We're just about a 15-minute drive here from central Damascus and these suburbs of Damascus really were essentially the heart of the uprising against Bashar al-Assad.
And you can see how they've just been smashed to bits. They've been bombed. They were besieged. People were starved. They were forcibly displaced.
And now being here on the ground, you get a sense of the full scale of the devastation, the kind of rebuild and reconstruction that we're talking about. Estimates had been around 250 billion, which once seemed like a figure no one could get their head around. But when you're here on the ground and looking at it, it's clear that it is going to cost hundreds of billions to rebuild.
What's not clear is where those dollars will come from. Syria's economy has been hollowed out by years of war, corruption and crippling sanctions. In the suburb of Darayya, life has returned to the streets. But making a living is hard.
Emad Abu Kalam runs a shawarma shop. Like most here, he is optimistic about the future but realistic about the challenges.
(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WARD: So he's saying that it's going to take a lot of money and a lot of time to start to really rebuild Darayya.
Much harder to rebuild are the broken lives. Darayya is a town of widows and orphans. Schools are starting to reopen, but few are paying salaries.
Okay. Thank you. Thank you.
According to UNICEF, 2 million children are now not going to school inside Syria. These kids told us that they actually just got out of school and were heading now to a place that's been set up by a charity. Essentially, it's a safe space where kids can come and play.
It opened just weeks after the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad, and is run by INARA, a charity whose work I support that focuses on children affected by war. Child psychologist Rahaf al Bayad says that many of the kids here show signs of aggression and are lacking love and attention at home, a result, she says, of the grinding hardship of 12 years of war.
Most women of Darayya are widows, so the mother took the role of the mother and the father, she tells us. So she has to work, support and raise the children. This all affects her wellbeing. As the euphoria of liberation begins to subside, the hard work ahead
is becoming clear and communities like Darayya will need all the support they can get now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WARD (on camera): And, Erin we talked about those sanctions that were implemented to put pressure on the regime of Bashar al-Assad, which have had a devastating impact on the Syrian economy. Last month, the U.S. government announced that it would issue a limited six month license, which would effectively ease some of the restrictions to allow more humanitarian aid into Syria.
But so far, it is still keeping that broader raft of sanctions in place as it continues to watch very closely to see what steps Syria's new Islamist government will take in the coming weeks and months -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Clarissa, thank you so much for sharing that with all of us. Incredible reporting.
And thanks so much to all of you, as always, for being with us, for it.
"AC360" with Anderson starts right now.
