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Erin Burnett Outfront
Source: Trump Admin To Tell Agencies To Prep For Mass Firings; Trump Says Agreed Ukraine Deal "Very Big," Zelenskyy Heading To D.C.; Drama On House Floor As Speaker Revives Budget Vote; Southwest Airlines Jet Aborts Landing To Avoid Colliding With Jet. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired February 25, 2025 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:34]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
The breaking news, prepare for mass firings. The White House putting federal agencies on notice this hour as the administration finally reveals who they say is technically in charge at DOGE. It's not who you think.
Plus, he's a 20-year disabled vet who completed four tours of duty -- now fired, out of a job because of Trump and Musk. He's speaking out tonight.
And seconds from disaster, terrifying video as that plane is forced to abort a landing. Just as another plane suddenly enters the runway.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
And OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news. Prepare for large scale firings. That is the order tonight from President Trump and Elon Musk. We are learning that the White House is now preparing a memo directing agencies to prepare for mass layoffs.
And this memo also orders agencies to submit their, quote, reorganization plans within two weeks. This, as the White House confirms, that Musk will be attending Trump's first cabinet meeting. Just to state the obvious, of course, the cabinet members, you know, who have been picked and selected and then vetted by Congress and approved by Congress and confirmed. That's who goes to cabinet meetings, but not in this case.
Obviously, Musk was not elected, not confirmed by the Senate, and does not have a job description. He did, though obviously he is running DOGE. He spent about a quarter of $1 billion on the election, and now he will be in that room with Trump's entire cabinet.
His agency, DOGE, is charged with dismantling and transforming the federal government, shuttering agencies, laying off tens of thousands of workers. And despite the administration's claim that they are being completely transparent here, you know, for the last 36 days, the reality is that Americans have not had an idea, any clear idea of -- of the full scope of what's happening, but also even who's technically been administrating it, the administrator of the agency in charge of the day to day.
This is how the White House press secretary answered those questions at first today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Who is the DOGE administrator?
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: So the president tasked Elon Musk to oversee the DOGE effort. There are career officials, and there are political appointees who are helping run DOGE on a day to day basis.
REPORTER: Can you tell us who the administrator of DOGE is?
LEAVITT: Again, I've been asked to answer this question. Elon Musk is overseeing DOGE. There are career. There are -- no, Elon Musk is a special government employee.
There are career officials at DOGE. There are political appointees at DOGE. I'm not going to reveal the name of that individual from this podium.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, two hours later, the White House did reveal the name of that individual. Her name is Amy Gleason.
Now she is a career government employee. That's basically all we know about her. I mean, whatever her role is as a day to day administrator, you heard what the press secretary just said about who's in charge, because it is very clear who is really in charge here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will create the new Department of Government Efficiency, headed by a gentleman named Elon Musk. I signed an order creating the Department of Government Efficiency and put a man named Elon Musk in charge.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: All right. So it is what it is when it comes to Musk. That's why he's going to be attending a cabinet meeting tomorrow.
Confusion has been consuming DOGE, though, since its inception. Just today, CNN uncovered that the group's website suddenly removed certain claims that it had saved billions of dollars by canceling a handful of federal contracts. Some of those numbers remember, they had put a B for billion after one instead of an M for million, which completely transformed the number, obviously.
And there are a lot of questions about Musk's email asking federal employees to respond to an email by tonight asking what they accomplished last week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Can you clarify, hopefully, once and for all, what your expectations are with this email to federal employees? What are you going to use that information for? And do you see it as voluntary, like OPM has said, or mandatory?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, it's somewhat voluntary, but it's also -- if you don't answer, I guess you get fired.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: No, that would be mandatory. Instead of getting fired or going along with DOGE though, 21 career government employees tasked with assisting DOGE resigned today. They were basically, you know, engineers, designers, data scientists, and they -- they worked for, you know, what has now become DOGE. They abruptly quit, in part, they say, because we will not use our skills as technologists to compromise core government systems, jeopardize American sensitive data, or dismantle critical public services.
[19:05:02]
Now, while they walked out the door sounding the alarm, there are plenty on the far right who are celebrating every single detail of what Musk is doing to federal workers. Here's Marjorie Taylor Greene today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Those are not real jobs producing federal revenue. Federal employees do not deserve their jobs. Federal employees not -- do not deserve their paychecks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I mean, of course, without federal employees getting paychecks, you wouldn't have Social Security in any form or Medicaid or Medicare or -- whatever. You get the point. You heard what she said. They don't deserve a paycheck.
Trump and his allies, though, if for no other reason than one basic one, should care about the federal workforce. And that is because it is comprised of a large number of veterans. 1 in 3 federal workers is a veteran, 1 in 3, a group who overwhelmingly supported Trump in the last election.
In a moment, I'm going to speak to a 20-year Army veteran who served four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan who was just fired. But first, Jeff Zeleny begins our coverage OUTFRONT, live outside the White House.
And, you know, Jeff, you know, amidst all of this, you know, technically, what administrator is administrating DOGE it is Elon Musk who has been charged with running it. Who is running it? And he is going to be at that cabinet meeting tomorrow. What more are you learning about that?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, its certainly not unusual to have an adviser at cabinet meetings. What I'm curious about seeing is where Elon Musk sits. Is he at the table? Because he certainly has been throughout this entire first month of this administration, driving this train.
I've been in many cabinet meetings at the very beginning when they allow reporters to come in and aides sit on the side, cabinet members sit at the table in the cabinet room of the West Wing of the White House. So we shall see where Elon Musk sits. That may say a lot, but look, the bigger picture here is that Elon Musk is driving this train. There's no doubt about it. You heard the president in the Oval Office just a short time ago saying its somewhat voluntary, but you could get fired, saying they're trying to account for all the employees.
But there are many cabinet secretaries who will be in that room tomorrow. Many department officials, agency heads who have been -- spending a lot of their time since Saturday explaining that six word email. What did you do last week? So we shall see if any cabinet secretaries speak up. My guess is they probably will not. Thinking back to the Trump cabinet meetings from the first time in office, it was generally go around the room and say what you like about the president. So we shall see.
But all of this is coming together as a piece, as we're also reporting the reductions in force. That memorandum coming out instructing agencies to have a firing plan, basically a rescaling government plan in place by March 13th. This is all part of a piece of that, I'm told by advisers who are watching this to sort of view these things together.
So the email that goes out to employees, this is all kind of to, you know, it's not happening in a vacuum, we shall say. But this -- this cabinet meeting tomorrow, certainly so important to see what Elon Musk actually says. The president is not backing away from him at all. There is no doubt he is his most important adviser. We'll see if he has a seat at that table tomorrow.
BURNETT: Yeah. And where? Where he sits.
All right. Thank you very much, Jeff Zeleny.
All right. Jamal Simmons is here, former communications director for Vice President Harris; Katie Drummond, of course, from "Wired"; and Erick Erickson of "The Erick Erickson Show".
Okay. Katie, let me start with you. You know, there's been weeks of confusion about -- I mean, you know, there was Elon Musk and there were 20 interns that came from a variety of silicon valley. You know, of his friends in Silicon Valley.
KATIE DRUMMOND, GLOBAL EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, WIRED: Right.
BURNETT: But -- but then there were others involved, some of whom are career government employees who were tasked with maybe some of the basic HR functions of -- of all this firing. So we're finding out that the acting administrator is Amy Gleason. Her background is in health care. I mean, what do you know about the role Gleason has been playing?
DRUMMOND: Well, from everything we can tell, you know, at this juncture, as you alluded to earlier, you know, this appears to be administrator in title only, right? I think we all really know who's in charge here. What we know about Gleason is that this is not her first time working in government. She was working at the U.S. digital service, which DOGE has essentially subsumed during the first Trump administration.
And, you know, according to "Wired's" reporting, she was already seen as some inside that agency, some legacy employees in the last few weeks as a potential administrator, right? She was facilitating contact between legacy workers, new DOGE operatives and other agencies. So she was certainly in the mix as a candidate for this mysterious, you know, role of -- of acting administrator.
BURNETT: And it's unclear what you know, what this even means, Jamal? I mean, "The New York Times" is reporting that Gleason is based in Nashville, so she's not even in Washington, and that she was scheduled to be on vacation in Mexico right now. So she's told associates that she was not even aware that the White House was going to come out and go, oh, hey, Amy Gleason is doing this job. She was not even aware this was going to happen today.
JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Oh, it's all totally believable. I mean, this is so ridiculous.
[19:10:03]
It is once again clear that the president of United States just seems to be making this up as he goes along, certainly not Elon Musk is going along with him. I was struck by Jeff's report a second ago asking, where was it that Elon Musk was going to sit? You know, the last time we saw Elon Musk in the same room with the president, he wasn't sitting at all. He was standing over the president's shoulder.
So the question I want to know is, is he seated at the table? Is he standing near the president while the president speaks to sort of his enforcer, or is he sort of where the staff sits, which is kind of along the walls, you know, behind the table. And so we will see the Kremlinology, which is appropriate these days. But the Kremlinology of what happens in that room will tell us a lot about Elon Musk.
BURNETT: So when -- when J.D. Vance, the vice president, was in Munich, you had Trump and Musk side by side giving an interview to Sean Hannity.
So, Erick, just, you know, in the context of all of this, I want to play again what Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said today. You know, even in an environment where, you know, you want efficiencies and you want reform and all the things that many people believe in and want to come out of this. Okay. What she said, she said with such derision about federal workers being fired. Let me play it again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREENE: Those are not real jobs producing federal revenue, by the way. They're consuming taxpayer dollars. Those jobs are paid for by the American taxpayer people who work real jobs earn real income, pay federal taxes, and then pay these federal employees. Federal employees do not deserve their jobs. Federal employees not -- do not deserve their paychecks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Erick, is -- is that how Republicans should be talking?
ERICK ERICKSON, CONSERVATIVE RADIO HOST: No, it's not how they should be talking. I do think they're raising valid concerns, though. I mean, Joann Fabrics laying off people in 900 stores this week in the private sector when Barack Obama was president, he laid off 40,000 active duty combat soldiers, and no one in the media did a profile of any of them, but the media wants to highlight the federal employees who are losing their jobs.
They're not more dispensable than people in the private sector, but they're not less dispensable either. And I think we should treat them all the same way.
But also, I would just point out where are the profiles of the people in the 900 Joann Fabrics stores that lost their jobs today? If were going to do it, federal employees to the private sector?
BURNETT: Yeah. Well, you know, that's a good point, Erick. I'm glad you raised it. And it does -- it actually is perhaps part of the reason why were seeing some of the softening, Jamal and some of the numbers about peoples confidence in the economy, right, because this is all you do have economic weakness. That's Joann Stores, fair that Erick raised, that you have these layoffs as well.
You know, the context here, though, is this perception that there has been this metastasizing growth of federal government employees being hired and leeching off the system, right? Bank of America actually did a report all the way back to 1945 showing that federal government workers as a -- as a total -- as a percentage of workers in America, it's 1-1/2 percent, peaked at 6-1/2 percent back in 1945. It's 1-1/2 percent.
So in a sense, Erick, I'm making your point. It's not a large group of people, but they have been turned into a boogeyman.
SIMMONS: They have been. Here's the thing. I worked side by side with federal employees every day for a lot of my career in different jobs. And I will tell you, a lot of these people are working really hard. They're trying to make the government work.
Right now, we just watched video, you're going to do a story later about airplanes that are missing each other on the runway. Those are FAA employees. Those are air traffic controllers. They work for the federal government.
I want them on the job. I want them incentivized to do a good job. So when we think about what's happening in the government, these aren't --
BURNETT: I want more of them. I don't want them working ten hours, six, exactly six day weeks, like we found out they're working when the Washington, you know, that horrific plane crash.
SIMMONS: Exactly. And we want them, you know, we want them at the national parks this summer when we go take our kids to the vacation. We want them in all the places they're supposed to be. And in many of these communities, these are friends and family members.
Here's the thing I think is happening right now. They are boiling this frog too fast. It is -- it is clear to me that what is happening is all over the country. People who were not paying attention are now starting to pay attention.
I had a plumber come to my house yesterday. He was walking. He's been in my house several times. He knows I do politics. We've never discussed politics.
He was walking out of the house. He looked and saw Donald Trump on the television, looked at me and said, this guy and then walked out. Why is it that now he's paying attention and wants to engage me about politics?
I think there's something about what's happening that's penetrating beyond just the Washington and New York elite circles.
BURNETT: Erick?
ERICKSON: You know, yeah, I do think that they might need to slow down in cases. They might be moving too fast. But also, I actually think a lot of Americans look at the federal bureaucracy. You're right. They are a boogeyman, but it's internalized by Americans who think, you know, the private sector can be laid off.
You've got Jamie Dimon, the head of Chase, also saying, we've got to look at the efficiencies in the federal government. We don't necessarily need as many people as we do, even with the layoffs.
So I think the actions are good. But I mean, the break move, fast break things ethos of the private sector probably doesn't translate as well in the public.
SIMMONS: Erin, I was going to say, there's a way to do this super quickly. There's a way to do this. You have these people report to their -- to their managers.
What did you do this week? You tell your manager. Your manager tells the cabinet secretary. The cabinet secretary writes up a report, goes to the president, maybe it goes to Elon Musk. And they make some changes. The government's -- there are ways for organizations to do this
orderly and to make sure they get the efficiency without taking out people --
BURNETT: Well, they're not laying off people who oversee nuclear weapons by accident, and they don't have their emails to get them back.
I mean, Katie, the 21 staffers who work for DOGE that resigned abruptly. Now, I just want to be clear so that there's no confusion to anyone watching. These aren't like the DOGE interns. These are people who work for the government already, who are wrapped into DOGE to help administrate, all right?
And they are data scientists, right, and they're saying that -- that -- that mishandling sensitive data, breaking critical systems contradict their stated mission of modernizing federal technology. So you have been reporting on what's happening within, you know, what was DOGE, formerly the digital agency.
DRUMMOND: U.S. Digital Service.
BURNETT: Okay. So is there going to be a lot more of this? I mean, are they do they have the heads? They need to even do what they want to do?
DRUMMOND: Well, I think the reality is, you know, there aren't that many legacy workers left within that agency. I believe that that today's exodus represents about a third of, you know, remaining workers within that group.
BURNETT: A third of remaining workers.
DRUMMOND: As far as we are aware, as of now. Yes. And, you know, it has been a miserable several weeks for these people. I mean, they've had their higher ups be terminated or resign often very publicly. They've had to justify their code to 20 year old engineers who refuse to identify themselves by name.
You know, they have had no clarity in terms of who is actually the administrator of their agency. So it is not particularly surprising to see them now raise their hands and say, we're out the door.
BURNETT: And then -- and then, of course, even to execute what they want to do, it's who's going to -- who's going to do that.
All right. Thank you all very much I appreciate it. Jamal, Katie, Erick, great to see you all.
And next breaking news, we're going live to Capitol Hill. Make or break vote for Speaker Mike Johnson is underway as I speak. It's going to be crucial as to whether he have the votes -- has the votes, you know, for the stability there.
Also breaking, Trump getting what he wants from Ukraine as Zelenskyy is on his way to Washington to sign off on a deal. This is, according to Trump, at least, and the White House now dictating which news organizations and who gets to cover the president.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:21:51]
BURNETT: All right. The breaking news right now, a make-or-break vote for Speaker Mike Johnson. There's a vote on the speaker's budget, which, of course is in line with President Trump's agenda. But it is now stalled at this moment.
We are expecting this vote to happen. It hasn't yet because the speaker is has been you know, it has been a major delay in this vote, frankly, because he's been behind the scenes trying to scramble enough votes to get it over the finish line. They have not been able to do so as of yet. That's why this major delay.
Manu Raju is OUTFRONT on Capitol Hill.
And you know, this was, they had hoped would have been in the rear view mirror here significantly, but not so what's going on?
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, they are struggling right now. The Republican leaders are to get the votes to pass this budget blueprint. And this is essential to unlocking and moving ahead with a larger Trump agenda. They must pass the budget blueprint out of the House, and then they actually have to pass the same budget blueprint out of the Senate.
But the first step is to get it out of the House in order to do everything that Donald Trump wants to get done, a sweeping overhaul of the tax code, billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars spent on immigration measures, on defense policy, on new energy issues, as well as about $1.5 trillion in cuts to federal spending and a two year hike of the national debt limit.
They want to roll this all into one package, but the first thing they need to do is pass this budget blueprint. But Speaker Mike Johnson has the narrowest of majorities in this razor thin, Republican-led House. He can only afford to lose two votes right now, according to our count, because he has to get a majority of those who are present and voting because of Democratic absences. He can afford to lose two votes.
Right now, we have now three Republican members who have voiced their opposition. There are several others who have concerns, but at least three have said no. So at the moment, right now, Mike Johnson and those members, along with the Republican leadership, are talking and are trying to negotiate. There's arm-twisting, there's pressure being leveled on those members to fall in line.
We know Trump himself has called some of these members over the course of the day and tried to get them to vote yes.
One of them, he seems to have been successful in Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee, who talked to him for about 15 minutes earlier today, signaled he could potentially get to yes, but can they flip another vote . So critical right now because if they don't, Erin, what is plan B? Can they get this agenda through or will it all collapse? All huge questions at this moment for the speaker and the president.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much. Obviously, these breaking developments here as that vote starts, we're going to go back to Manu. See what happens here. It is an absolutely pivotal vote for the speaker.
So as we monitor to that monitor that also now a Republican congresswoman is speaking out tonight specifically about the way Elon Musk is going about cutting the federal government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. NICOLE MALLIOTAKIS (R-NY): This idea that they're going to just fire people via Twitter, Elon Musk, that, to me, seems rash. It seems not appropriate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: It comes as several Republican members of Congress are facing voters in town halls, voters who are angry about Musk.
Tom Foreman is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you okay with the chaos being created?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you okay?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Government employees are going to be let go. And that's just the reality of it.
[19:25:01]
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Shouted down at town halls.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, hey, let's restore some order.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So yelling -- yelling at me is not going to get any answer. Okay?
FOREMAN: Protested on their way to work.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We lost 10 percent of our workforce.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shut up and let him talk.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I will not, sir!
FOREMAN: Republican lawmakers are being hammered by voters, including their own.
(BOOS) FOREMAN: Over the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, which is chainsawing federal jobs in blue and red states alike.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, I think we should just be using a scalpel.
FOREMAN: And some elected leaders are now pushing back on DOGE's unelected cutter in chief.
SEN. JOHN CURTIS (R-UT): If I could say one thing to Elon Musk, it's like, please put a dose of compassion in this. These are real people.
REP. RICH MCCORMICK (R-GA): When you have a president who can affect somebody's business or somebody's livelihood, it just needs to be done with -- with deliberation.
FOREMAN: For weeks, the parade of departing workers has been growing from the FAA to the IRS, from health agencies to the Small Business Administration, from Veterans Affairs to the national parks and more. And when Elon Musk demanded this past weekend that all remaining workers justify their employment in an email or be fired, President Trump initially was all for it.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I thought it was great because we have people that don't show up to work, and nobody even knows if they work for the government.
FOREMAN: But around a dozen departments in Trump's own administration effectively told their workers to ignore Musk.
Trump appeared to back down, leaving party bosses to put the best face on a bad situation.
REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I think the vast majority of the American people understand and applaud and appreciate the DOGE effort.
FOREMAN: Polls indeed show voters want less government waste, but a slim majority now think DOGE has gone too far. And by the hour, it seems more GOP Congress members are subtly backing the resistance.
SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): If I were a Senate confirmed head of a department and I had somebody from the outside undermining my ability to manage and demonstrate, there's one leader in every department, I'd have a problem with it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN: Now, bear in mind, every person you heard from there is a Republican lawmaker, and they are in a weird space. They do not want to directly oppose Donald Trump, but that's always been their safe space. Now they're getting heat from people saying, you need to oppose him a little bit, at least on this issue -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right, Tom, thank you very much. And I'm here OUTFRONT now with Luke Graziani. He's a 20-year Army
veteran, served four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was abruptly fired from his job at the Bronx Veterans Affairs hospital by the Trump administration 12 days ago.
And I really appreciate, Luke, you coming here.
SGT. LUKE GRAZIANI (RET.), U.S. ARMY VETERAN FIRED FROM FEDERAL GOVERNMENT JOB: Thank you for having me.
FOREMAN: So, 12 days ago, 8:00 a.m. you show up to work. It's Valentines Day and you have the email from DOGE. And it says your services are no longer needed. The quote is you have not demonstrated your further employment at the agency would be in the public interest.
GRAZIANI: Right.
BURNETT: So what happened as you read this email?
GRAZIANI: I was just crushed, just devastated by the news. I never would have expected something like that in my -- my email. I thought it was just going to be just a regular work day. I show up, log into my email, and there it is, just sitting there.
I printed it out, sent it to myself, so I had it for future use. I had a one on one with my director around 10:00 a.m. By noon, my account was disabled, and then by 3:00 p.m. that day, I was walking out the door with my stuff.
BURNETT: I mean, so you were a what we call a probationary employee, meaning you were a new employee, right? You had, you were five weeks away, actually, from not being a probationary employee.
GRAZIANI: Yeah, really close.
BURNETT: And the way that this -- the capricious nature of this, right, was anybody who's a probationary employee that that was the cutoff, right? So it had nothing to do with you, right? You're just a name. Your name on a spreadsheet.
GRAZIANI: That's right.
BURNETT: But you're a human being, and you've got four kids. And I mean, what are the emotions of this for you? As you, as you -- you look at five weeks and this wouldn't have happened to you.
GRAZIANI: It's surreal to think that had this come five weeks later, I would have had no issues whatsoever. I just would have went to work like normal and did my daily tasks with -- with no problem.
BURNETT: So what do you do now? I mean, as we were coming to air, I was asking you. Okay, well, if they said they're going to be paying you through the end of the summer, you don't even know about any of that.
GRAZIANI: No, it's not like the recent, like, buyout or resignation or whatever that was. This was very abrupt. As far as I know right now, I -- I was terminated, and I'm just waiting to see if the exemption that was put in for me will be approved so I can go back to work.
BURNETT: So you went -- okay, so your -- your supervisor would have put in an exemption to try to get you to go back.
[19:30:05]
GRAZIANI: Yeah.
BURNETT: I mean, look, you've -- you've -- you've served your country for 20 years. Twenty years, you've served this country in Iraq and Afghanistan. And now here you are. I mean, 1 in 3 federal workers or veterans like yourself, right? You're not -- you're not the only one that is -- is going through this.
Do you feel in some way, I mean, given what you have given to this country a betrayal.
GRAZIANI: For sure. There's a certain amount of that for sure. Um, but at the end of the day, I think I was just caught in a in a really strange list of names that just happened to be probationary employees.
BURNETT: So, you know, Missouri Republican Congressman Mark Alford, we just played a lot of Republicans there who are concerned, right? And they want the way this is being done, at least to change, even if they support some of what is being done. Mark Alford from Missouri had a message to thousands of people losing their jobs in his district, which includes veterans like yourself. You're not in that district, but they are. And I wanted just to play for you what he said.
GRAZIANI: Okay.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARK ALFORD (R-MO): Just because you have a government job doesn't mean it's a lifetime appointment like the Supreme Court.
There are jobs available. God has a plan and purpose for your life.
(BOOS)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: He's -- he's booed there when you know. And, you know, plan and purpose for your life. I mean, how -- how -- how do you respond to that?
GRAZIANI: There's no real easy answer to respond to something like that. Obviously, you know, I'm -- I'm very privileged to have the job that I have or had.
BURNETT: Yeah.
GRAZIANI: I'd very much like to get back to it. I think no one, no one deserves a job. But if they're willing to, you know, raise their right hand and swear the oath and become a federal service employee, I think that they have every right.
BURNETT: You wrote a letter to the Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins, asking for your job back. And -- and in part, you said this cant be how my service to my country ends. Have you received a response from them yet?
GRAZIANI: I haven't received a response from the secretary himself, but a representative from the HR did send me back an email saying that, you know, they have eyes on it and they'd be looking into it and make sure that the termination wasn't put in, wrong, like a wrong termination for me.
BURNETT: All right. Well, I hope that you'll -- you'll get good news, but of course, you know, there are just so many who are going through what you're going through and the loss and uncertainty, the insecurity. So thank you very much for talking about it and sharing it.
GRAZIANI: Thanks for having me.
BURNETT: All right. Next we have breaking news with Trump making a deal with Ukraine. Apparently Vladimir Zelenskyy is making plans to head to Washington in these next hours. Ukraine's former foreign affairs minister is next.
Plus, the White House declaring victory over its decision to block the "Associated Press" because it will not use the name Gulf of America to refer to the Gulf of Mexico. But is it too soon for them to celebrate?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: All right. Breaking news tonight on that vote. Major development, huge embarrassment for Speaker Mike Johnson just unfolding here, as we're speaking. He is pulling the vote on the budget blueprint, pulling that vote.
That was the budget to advance Trump's agenda. He thought they had the votes. They were expecting to have this done hours ago. Here we are pulling the vote.
Manu Raju is back.
So, Manu, this is just unfolded in these past few minutes. What has happened?
RAJU: Yeah, a major setback for both House Republican leaders and President Trump as they try to advance the larger Trump agenda. Remember, this budget blueprint must pass the House in order to pass the larger agenda to pass the senate, too. But the first step is passing it out of the house.
But this razor thin Republican majority has been giving Speaker Johnson fits. He's been trying for the last several days, moving behind the scenes to lock down support. But he has faced opposition, particularly among the right flank of his conference, at this moment, who want deeper cuts than is being proposed in this proposal. This proposal is sweeping in nature, would call for about $1.5
trillion in spending cuts. Some of these members want deeper spending cuts, but it also has hundreds of billions of dollars in new spending on border security measures, on defense programs, as well as well as a $4.5 trillion overhaul of the United States tax code and a two year increase of the national debt limit.
But they need to pass this blueprint first here, Erin. But the speaker decided not to move forward with this vote, pulled it from the House floor, and now they have to regroup, decide what's next to see if they can win over some of these holdouts, or decide if they should put the Senate plan, which is much different, opposed by a lot of these members. Try to get that through this chamber as they're forced to regroup and decide what can pass to move ahead with Trump's agenda -- Erin.
BURNETT: It is really incredible to see all of this unfold. Manu, thank you.
RAJU: Thank you.
BURNETT: Breaking news, major deal. Trump gets what he wants from Ukraine as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy heads to Washington for an unexpected meeting. Trump says it's because of the deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I hear that he's coming on Friday. Certainly it's okay with me if he'd like to, and he would like to sign it together with me. It's -- it's a very big deal. It could be $1 trillion deal. It could be whatever, but it's rare earths and other things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Well, that's a lot. He threw numbers around a trillion. Who knows what it how big it is. Rare earths, other things.
Well, under the deal, as we understand it from the broad strokes here, Zelenskyy will hand over revenue from Ukraine's vast mineral resources, those rare earths so essential to building modern technology like cell phones to the U.S., a deal that CNN reports that the U.S. resisted putting security guarantees in.
Zelenskyy now heads to the White House on Friday to make the deal official. We understand here, from our reporting.
OUTFRONT now, Dmytro Kuleba, former Ukrainian foreign minister, now a senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center.
[19:40:03]
And, Dmytro, you know, been with you in Kyiv. And now here we are having this conversation, not one that that expected to have, but I guess we start here where the news is this deal that Trump says could be up to $1 trillion of minerals, rare earths and other things that the United States would get from Ukraine. Is this a good deal for Ukraine?
DMYTRO KULEBA, FORMER MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF UKRAINE: Well, if it buys the understanding and the support of President Trump under these circumstances of the war with Russia and the alignment of Washington and Moscow, then it is a good deal. We don't know all the details, but President Zelenskyy is certainly not going to do something that would critically undermine or undermine his country.
Details remain to be seen, but in principle, from the very beginning, there was zero chance that this deal would not be signed. It was just a matter of the final edit, a final draft of it.
BURNETT: I am curious, though, Dmytro, how you see this, because. Yesterday there were two resolutions that passed in the United Nations, one with U.S. support and one without, and the one without the United States sided with Russia, North Korea and Sudan and a few other countries. But that alliance, which is an incredible thing to see, and they sided with them because that resolution condemned Russia for starting the war in Ukraine. The basic fact right condemned Russia for starting the war.
The United States would not sign on to that resolution. Trump defended that vote. He has come out personally defended it. He said that it was, quote, sort of self-evident. So in that context, with this deal and Trump's what he's clearly saying about Russia here, how do you feel?
KULEBA: Well, it doesn't really matter how I feel, but what I see is that re -- is the alignment between Moscow and Washington. Unfortunately, U.S. officials begin really started talking, speaking Russian speaking points. Not only the United States voted against the resolution with Russia, North Korea, Belarus, Nicaragua, but China abstained. So even China, known for being -- being close to Russia, decided not to vote against it, not, but to abstain.
And the United States decided deliberately to align -- to manifest their alignment. So that was that was the kind of the hard evidence of what diplomats and other observers have already registered over the last weeks.
BURNETT: So, you know, in that context, Trump's announced he's starting a program that will offer residency and a path to citizenship for investors who commit at least $5 million to projects in the United States. So it's a lot of money, at least $5 million raises the question of who is that going to apply to? And he did not rule out Russian oligarchs.
Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Would a Russian oligarch be eligible for a gold card?
TRUMP: Yeah, possibly. Hey, I know some Russian oligarchs that are very nice people. It's possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Where do you see this headed?
KULEBA: Listen, President Trump can do whatever he wants. And I sincerely, being Ukrainian, I sincerely want him to succeed in ending the war in Ukraine. And if, providing gold cards to Russian oligarchs, courting Putin, doing business with him, leads to peace in Ukraine, I, as Ukrainian will accept that.
But the problem with everything that is happening is that while we see this new, kind of, affair between Putin and Trump, while we see the embracement of Russia by President Trump and his administration, Kyiv is being destroyed, is being destroyed by Russian missiles and drones. And so -- so it happens to with other Ukrainian cities and villages. Russia continues its offensives on the ground. Russia has not paused for a second since the beginning of the new relationship between Trump and Putin.
So, the conclusion, what -- whatever, if he does all of that for the purpose of peace of Ukraine, his strategy is failing. And if he does it for other purposes, then there is no reason to -- to support what he is doing.
BURNETT: Thank you very much. I very much appreciate your time. Dmytro -- Dmytro Kuleba, as I said, former foreign minister of Ukraine. Thank you so much.
[19:45:01]
Stark words there from the foreign minister.
Well, next, the White House upping its war with the press, now taking -- now dictating which reporters get to cover and question Trump.
Plus, a Southwest jet making a terrifying last minute move in order to avoid what would have been a catastrophic runway collision.
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BURNETT: Tonight, a victory lap. The White House touting a courtroom win to keep the "AP" out of the Oval Office. The press secretary today delivering her briefing in front of monitors declaring victory. You see them on both sides of her showing images of a map zoomed in on the Gulf of America, as Trump calls it.
Trump banning the "AP" from certain coverage after it said it would continue calling it the Gulf of Mexico. A judge held up that ruling in court. It comes as the White House has also announced it will now handpick members of the press pool, the small group of journalists who get direct access to the president and are able to ask him questions.
OUTFRONT now, Larry Tribe. He is a constitutional law professor at Harvard Law School.
And, Professor Tribe, I want to get your reaction here to this announcement today on this handpicking of reporters and start there. Do -- is there a precedent for the White House to handpick reporters
like this?
LAURENCE TRIBE, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR, HARVARD LAW SCHOOL: There is no precedent remotely like this in which basically, they're turning the press corps from a watchdog to a mouthpiece. It's extraordinary.
Of course, there is some flexibility, and the president can decide whom to call on. The idea that they handpick the whole press corps that's covering them is, is inconsistent with a free society and this business.
About the "Associated Press" is even more remarkable. It's way too early for the White House to be celebrating their victory. All that happened is that a very good Trump appointee, Judge Trevor McFadden, said he needed more details. He wasn't ready to issue a temporary restraining order. There was no emergency. But I predict that in the end, the First Amendment will prevail.
There is no right on the part of the "AP" or anybody else to have access to the White House or Air Force One. That's not the issue. It is just a privilege, as the White House says. But it is absolutely settled in the law that the government cannot withhold privileges on the basis that you are exercising a right.
That is, they cannot say this is a privilege, and we'll give it to you only if you sacrifice your right to call the Gulf of Mexico by the name that you think is appropriate. In fact, the Supreme Court in 2020, in an opinion by Chief Justice Roberts in a case that, as it happens, involved USAID against Open Society International. By a vote of 7-2, held that even though you may not have any right to money from USAID, if the money is conditioned on your giving up a free speech, right, the First Amendment prevails.
That's where this is going to go eventually, through the D.C. Circuit. Even if it reaches the Supreme Court, I don't think the White House is going to succeed in --
BURNETT: So you think the Supreme Court will -- will not take the side of the White House in the in the "AP" issue.
TRIBE: Well, I think the D.C. circuit will probably rule for the "Associated Press", and there will be no need for the Supreme Court to weigh in. But if it does, I don't expect it to rule for the White House.
Of course, nobody has a crystal ball and --
BURNETT: Right.
TRIBE: This Supreme Court has not always done what lawyers thought the clear answer should be. But I do think in this case, the First Amendment is likely to prevail. And certainly it should.
BURNETT: So, you know, I just to get your reaction to another part of this, which is a statement by the interim U.S. Attorney, Ed Martin. He put a statement reacting to the ruling, referring to the federal prosecutors as, quote, Donald Trump's lawyers. So that was how Ed Martin actually referred to them, Donald Trump's lawyers.
Obviously, I know that that strikes you the wrong way. Why is that so chilling?
TRIBE: Well, it's not just a matter of nomenclature. These people are lawyers for the government, the government of the United States. Donald Trump is fond of saying that he is the law. He is the government. I am the state.
That sounds very much like Napoleon. It sounds like Louis the 14th. It sounds like Caligula. That is not what we fought a revolution over. We don't have kings.
And when Ed Martin or whatever his name is says, I'm the lawyer for Donald J. Trump, he's drawing no line between the personal lawyer for the mob boss and the lawyer for the government. We are the government of the United States, all of us, the people. He's our lawyer, not Trump's.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Professor Tribe, I appreciate it. Always glad to talk to you. And thank you.
TRIBE: Nice to be with you, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. And we have breaking news here. Going back to Capitol Hill. So, Speaker Johnson, right, that the vote had failed. Well, he has now brought all members back to the floor for a vote. So does that mean that he has turned this around, that he's got the crucial votes to push this Trump agenda forward?
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[19:57:24]
BURNETT: All right, breaking news. The vote that House Republicans pulled moments ago is back on Speaker Johnson trying to shore up, as we speak, support to push this forward.
Manu Raju is back.
Manu, what is happening?
RAJU: Yeah, a whiplash moment on Capitol Hill where the speaker first scrapped a vote that is necessary to advance the Trump agenda because they simply did not have the support to move ahead. But something changed. And perhaps its this one congressman who had planned to vote against it. Congressman Warren Davidson of Ohio voted yes to advance a giving the Republican leadership new hope that they could barely get this across the finish line.
Now, the margin for error is virtually none. They can only afford to lose one vote. And right now, one Republican has voted against this plan to move ahead with the Trump agenda. That's Congressman Thomas Massie.
But there are other Republican holdouts right now who have not said how they would vote, have not voted yet. So, this is a key moment, and well see how the members ultimately vote. Democrats brought back members, including one who just had a baby, one who just had knee surgery, to essentially raise the threshold for Republicans to get enough votes over the finish line here so they can only afford to lose one vote. Can they keep that defection to one? A big question in this moment, Erin.
BURNETT: Incredible drama, someone with knee surgery. Someone just had a baby.
All right. Incredible. We'll see how this goes over these next few seconds. Manu, thank you.
And also breaking tonight, I want to show you the incredible new video of a near collision between two planes. Southwest flight was coming in for landing. Thank God it was able to still go back up, back into the air at the last second to avoid a deadly crash into a jet crossing in front of it.
Pete Muntean is with me.
Pete, how did this happen? I mean, I suppose it is a miracle that that Southwest plane wasn't -- you know, it was still at a point where it was able to pull up.
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Erin, it now seems clear the private jet was in the wrong place at the wrong time. And investigators will no doubt study that video captured by an airport webcam, stream frame by frame.
And it shows that Southwest Airlines Flight 2504 about to land on Chicago Midways runway 31 Center. That's when the Challenger 350 private jet taxied onto the runway right in front of the Southwest flight. The Southwest crew admirably aborted the landing mere moments before touchdown.
But the new preliminary data from flightradar24 shows that the two planes were separated by only 2,000 feet when the Southwest crew stopped that accident change. At that speed, the disaster would have occurred within about five seconds. I want you to listen now to the exchange with air traffic control tower at Chicago Midway.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Southwest 2504, clear to land, 3-1 Center.
SOUTHWEST PLANE: Southwest 2504 going around.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: Southwest 2504, roger that. Climb, maintain 3,000.
SOUTHWEST: And tower, Southwest 2504, how'd that happen?
(END AUDIO CLIP)
MUNTEAN: Federal Aviation Administration has a bit of an explanation. It says in a new statement that the private jet pilots taxied onto the runway without authorization. It is investigating this incident, along with the National Transportation Safety Board. The NTSB investigated about 13 other so-called runway incursions since the start of 2023, just another one in a big, long narrative here, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Pete, thank you very much. I mean, what a miracle, and just the calmness by that Southwest pilot. Holy cow.
Thanks for joining us.
Anderson starts now.
