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One World with Zain Asher
Source: Donald Trump Had A Call With Vladimir Putin; U.S. Senate Confirms Tulsi Gabbard As Intelligence Chief; Trump Hosts Jordan's King, Reiterates Gaza Takeover Plan; Musk, Trump Defend Sweeping Efforts To Reshape Federal Government; White House Bars "AP" Reporters Over "Gulf Of America" Spat; Wave Of Severe Storms Crossing The U.S.; Donald Trump And Volodymyr Zelenskyy Spoke By Phone. Aired 12-1p ET
Aired February 12, 2025 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:33]
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, everyone. Live from New York, I'm Bianna Golodryga.
ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Zain Asher. You are watching ONE WORLD.
I want to begin with some breaking news out of Capitol Hill, where in the last few minutes the U.S. Senate pushed through one of President Trump's
most controversial cabinet picks.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. Voting 52 to 48 to confirm former democratic congresswoman, Tulsi Gabbard, as Director of National Intelligence.
ASHER: Up next, senators pivot to Robert F. Kennedy Jr. They'll decide whether or not to advance his embattled nomination to lead the Department
of Health and Human Services. Our senior White House reporter, Kevin Liptak, is covering the votes for us in Washington.
But before we get to that, before we get to Tulsi Gabbard, Kevin, I do want to start with some breaking news we just got in moments ago, this idea that
President Trump has actually spoken to President Putin. He did have a call.
Obviously, we know that President Trump's, one of his biggest priorities since taking office, has been to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.
Just walk us through what was discussed.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. And President Trump has talk -- been talking about trying to get this phone call on the books,
really, for weeks, as he tries to navigate an end to the Ukraine conflict.
And it's interesting the timing coming just one day after Russia released an American who had been imprisoned in Russia, Marc Fogel. Now the
president saying that he has gotten on the phone with Putin to discuss that and a number of other topics.
And in fact, he just sort of read out that call in a post on Truth Social. And I think the readout that he provided is quite striking, so I'm just
going to read it in full. He said, I just had a lengthy and highly productive phone call with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. We discussed
Ukraine, the Middle East, energy, artificial intelligence, the power of the dollar, and various other subjects.
We both reflected on the great history of our nations and the fact that we fought so successfully together in World War II, remembering that Russia
lost tens of millions of people, and we likewise lost so many.
We talked about the strengths of our respective nations and the great benefit that we'll someday have in working together.
But first, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the war with Russia-Ukraine.
President Putin even used my very strong campaign motto of common sense. He wrote that in all capital letters.
The president goes on to say, we both believe very strongly in it. We agreed to work together very closely, including visiting each other's
nations. That's very striking.
The president goes on to say we have also agreed to have our respective teams start negotiating immediately. And we will begin by calling President
Zelenskyy of Ukraine to inform of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now.
He says -- the president says that he's tasked a number of his officials to lead these negotiations, which he feels strongly will be successful.
And then he goes on to say, he wants to thank President Putin for his time and effort with this call and also for the release of Marc Fogel. And he
concludes by saying, I believe this effort will lead to a successful conclusion, hopefully soon.
So pretty significant comments from the president there. I should note, President Biden had got almost three years without speaking to President
Putin. Officials in that White House did not believe there would be any use to getting on the phone with a president who had invaded Ukraine, which had
violated, in their view, international law.
Clearly, President Trump here taking a very different approach. I should note, when he says that he thinks that he could be visiting each other's
nations. A U.S. president hasn't visited Russia since Barack Obama visited there. I think it was for a G8 at that point back in the early 2010.
And so these are significant comments for the president, really taking a conciliatory view towards Putin, saying that he wants this conflict to be
resolved. And saying that he will now speak to President Zelenskyy, I guess, to attempt to mediate some sort of resolution to this conflict.
What exactly the parameters of that aren't clear from this statement, but certainly we did get a glimpse of that earlier today from the defense
secretary, Pete Hegseth, who laid out some pretty clear red lines for United States, for example, that Ukraine would not be joining NATO, that
American troops would not be provided to include security guarantees for that country.
So you are starting to see the contours of how the Trump administration sees this conflict being resolved. Now that this conversation has occurred
between the two presidents, I think it's significant that these teams will now be going forward to try and make that a reality.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. So interesting to look into the specific details of what came out of this phone call. The fact that both had agreed to visit each
other's nations.
[12:05:02]
Also, what stood out to me is President Trump really seizing on what he said President Putin using his very strong campaign motto of common sense.
You know, we all know that Vladimir Putin is a former spy. And so he knows how to speak to and, I guess, boost one's ego and speak the language that
an adversary might want to hear from them. So that was notable to me.
But just the fact that this conversation took place now and the myriad of topics that they covered is really interesting as well. We know that
President Zelenskyy in Ukraine will be meeting with Vice President Vance, I believe, this weekend, and Keith Kellogg at the Munich Security Conference.
Keith Kellogg being the special envoy to the region for Donald Trump.
So a lot of moving parts here. Still, a big question is where Vladimir Putin is on coming to any sort of peace talks and negotiations from a
serious point of view.
Kevin Liptak, so much happening because we had been meaning to talk to you about the other big developments in Washington, and that is Tulsi Gabbard
being confirmed. The majority of Republicans voting in favor for Tulsi Gabbard at the DNI.
And, you know, given that we're speaking about Vladimir Putin, some of the criticisms about her had been some of her past stances and comments that
she'd made, which appeared to be overly sympathetic to Vladimir Putin in the past,.
Notable exception, Mitch McConnell, voted against her for the position. Walk us through how the voting took place.
LIPTAK: Yes. These things are not unrelated. Tulsi Gabbard had, in fact, accused NATO of prompting the entire Russian invasion of Ukraine to begin
with.
Now she is the American director of national intelligence. Mitch McConnell, the only Republican senator dissenting from that vote. He had not signaled
ahead of time how he planned to cast his vote.
And there had been some concerns inside the White House that if he had come out beforehand and said that he was going to vote, no, that other
Republicans would go along, but he kept his vote private, essentially not escalating what could have been a feud with the White House.
And now Tulsi Gabbard heading to the top of that critical agency. Among her tasks will be compiling the president's presidential daily brief. That is
sort of the top role of the Director of National Intelligence.
She is aligned with Trump in a lot of ways. He has her trust. But certainly I think the hard part in a lot of ways now just begins for her.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. All right. Kevin Liptak, thank you so much.
We want to go to our Fred Pleitgen, who's following this call between Presidents Trump and Putin from Moscow for us.
So we heard this post or read the post on Truth Social from President Trump detailing their call. How is the Kremlin responding to this? What is their
readout thus far?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, yes, exactly. The Kremlin has actually also confirmed this as well. In fact, a
couple of minutes ago, a call ended with the spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, where he gave sort of the Russians' version of what happened
on that call.
I'm going to give you a couple of the bullet points that Peskov sort of pointed out. One of the interesting things that we need to point out at the
beginning is that Peskov read all this out, talked about this, didn't take any questions, didn't offer any clarifications of any of the points
afterwards.
But the Russians said that the topics were the Middle East energy, artificial intelligence, intelligence, other topics also discussed in this
telephone conversation, which the Kremlin says lasted about an hour and a half.
They say Putin invited Trump to Moscow and expressed readiness to receive American officials. Putin supported Trump's statement that the time has
come for the two countries to work together, obviously, two leaders saying that they are friendly with one another. The leaders agreed on continuing
personal contacts, including to organize a personal meeting.
One of the interesting points in this readout is the topic of Ukraine, which obviously in that Truth Social post that you were just talking about,
President Trump spoke a lot about. The Kremlin, for its part, says Trump spoke in favor of putting an end to the hostilities in Ukraine as soon as
possible.
Putin also mentioned eliminating the root causes of the conflict and agreed with Trump that a long-term ceasefire can be achieved through peace talks.
So, obviously, the Kremlin there saying, look, the root causes need to be eliminated. That's something that they had been saying in the past as well,
that this was a larger conflict, as the Kremlin puts it, than the war that is currently going on right now and that there are root causes that haven't
been addressed yet, as far as the Kremlin is concerned.
Of course, they keep talking about NATO expansion in the past, also Ukraine in the future possibly becoming a member of that alliance or wanting to
become a member of that alliance.
Reading here what we're seeing from state media here in Russia, obviously, this is a massive topic. I can tell you right now all the Russian T.V.
channels have grown into breaking news mode to talk about what has been said.
And, of course, one of the things that sort of was a precursor to all this, maybe also a catalyst for all this, is of course the release of Marc Fogel
earlier today and the Russians tonight saying that Alexander Vinnik, the Russian citizen, is going to be returned back to Russia as well.
[12:10:15]
It seems as though that that is something that really sort of did a lot to at least instill a little bit of mutual trust and then possibly set these
wheels in motion for this call to now happen between these two leaders, which both of them are now hailing as saying that it could bring U.S.-
Russian relations back on a different track than they were before Russia's full-on invasion of Ukraine, guys.
GOLODRYGA: And the Kremlin's saying this call lasted for an hour and a half, even when you factor in translation. That's still a lengthy
conversation.
Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much.
ASHER: All right. I want to bring in Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur. He joins us from Brussels ahead of Thursday's critical NATO defense
minister's meeting. Minister, thank you so much for being with us.
Obviously, the breaking news this hour is the fact that President Trump and President Vladimir Putin essentially spoke for 90 minutes, speaking on a
whole range of issues, including the possibility that there could be more prisoner swaps, obviously, a negotiated ceasefire deal between Russia and
Ukraine.
And this is quite significant. This idea that both leaders could end up visiting each other's countries. I mean, the last time a U.S. president, as
our Kevin Liptak pointed out, the last time a U.S. president visited Moscow was back in 2009, and that was Barack Obama.
I do want to talk about Pete Hegseth's comments. He talked about the fact that this idea that Ukraine returning to its 2014 borders is simply
unrealistic, as is this idea that Ukraine could possibly become a NATO member.
But as a former Soviet republic, when you think about Estonia, from your perspective, this idea that Vladimir Putin could actually end up agreeing
to taking perhaps 25 percent of Ukrainian land in exchange for a ceasefire deal.
Just walk us through what goes through your mind. Your reaction to that.
HANNO PEVKUR, ESTONIAN DEFENSE MINISTER: Well, first of all, thank you very much for having me. And, you know, here in Brussels, of course, we see that
there are many things which need to be clarified.
And what Pete Hegseth said was that he said that the outcome of the peace negotiations cannot be the membership of NATO. He didn't exclude that in
one day, Ukraine can be a member of NATO.
And, of course, when we talk about the territories then, my reply to Pete Hegseth was very clear that in this family of NATO, of friends of Ukraine,
we cannot tolerate anyhow this that someone will take your territories by force.
So which means that, of course, you know, in the short-term we all understand that it is very, very difficult, extremely difficult for Ukraine
to take back all the territories. But in history, we've seen that it might take even decades to become owner of your own land again.
So my advice to Ukrainians is just to keep fighting. And, of course, you know, we have to clarify many things also here in Brussels tomorrow.
GOLODRYGA: And Secretary Hegseth also echoed calls by President Trump for allies to increase their defense spending to five percent of GDP from the
current two percent target.
We should note, Estonia's defense spending is the second largest in NATO, second only to that of Poland at 3.3 percent of their GDP is the estimate
for this year.
Is it a realistic target in your view to raise that to five percent? And is it something Estonia is capable of doing?
PEVKUR: Well, when we agree all on the new defense spending, then, of course, Estonia is committed to that.
When we take the last 21 years since Estonia was or has been a full member of NATO, from 2004 to 2024, then our average defense spending has been two
percent. And at the moment, yes, as you mentioned rightly, last year, we were in second position percentage-wise more than the United States and
less than Poland. But we are also discussing at the moment in Estonia to go above four percent, maybe even to five percent.
Why we are saying that? Is that, first, it is still much less to spend during the peacetime four or five percent instead of Ukraine spending at
the moment 25 or 30 percent of their GDP to fight for their own freedom.
And secondly, when we go back 40 years during the Cold War, most of the NATO members had over four percent easily.
So it is doable. It is manageable also for the societies. It is about the political will, about the decisions.
ASHER: Let's talk about the Ukraine Defense Contact Group because this group was set up back in April 2022 to figure out ways in which various
countries in Europe could support. And obviously, the United States as well, could support Ukraine and repel Russian forces, particularly
supporting Ukraine militarily.
[12:15:10]
The fact that this time around this group is being chaired by the U.K., not by the U.S. this time around. I mean, obviously, it is a symbolic but a
powerful reminder of what the U.S. is saying, which is that don't look to us to lead the way in terms of supporting Ukraine. That is now going to be
primarily the job of NATO and the EU.
Your take on that, your reaction to that.
PEVKUR: Well, this was in a way predictable. And then also we waited for this message that Pete Hegseth will come to Brussels saying that Europe
needs to do more. It's not a surprise. Estonia has been saying that all the time that two percent is just not enough. We need to spend more.
And when you talk about Ukraine, of course, Europe can do a lot more. But when we take also 24 -- year '24, then we see that from this 51 billion
euros, which has been allocated to Ukraine as a military assistance.
Sixty-percent was done by Europe and Canada and 40 percent by United States. So Europe is already leading the way. And, of course, also hearing
today also Estonian contribution, many other saying that they will invest more and more into Ukraine defense. Then, of course, Europe will step up
and we will do more.
But it is important to understand that also U.S. aid or U.S. military aid is needed for Ukraine to give them the stronger position, to give them the
strong hands to go behind the negotiation table.
Because without the strong position, without the strong position, you cannot have very good negotiation result.
GOLODRYGA: Can we go back to this phone conversation just reported within the last hour or so between President Trump and President Putin, because it
was interesting to hear President Putin on the one hand say that he would be interested in negotiations and peace talks, but he said to get there,
they would have to eliminate the root causes of the war.
How do you interpret that language? And does that suggest to you that Vladimir Putin, at this point, is serious about bringing this war to an
end?
PEVKUR: When you take these messages coming from Putin's mouth, they have not changed. So Putin has always said -- actually, we have to go back to
Munich 2007 when Putin said that what he -- he's desired world order.
And when we now take also the full scale war in Ukraine, then Putin has said, from the very beginning, setting the goals of denazification and
demilitarization. So it's not something new. And it has been on the table from Putin's perspective all the time.
So what we have to send the -- or what we have to say to that is very clear that there will be no peace in Ukraine without Ukraine. And Ukrainians are
the only ones who can say, yes, now we are ready to negotiate, now we are ready to sit behind the table, and now, these are the conditions we are
ready to negotiate.
So it cannot be so that somebody from somewhere comes and says to Ukrainians that these are the conditions. It just will not happen.
ASHER: All right. Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur, thank you so much. Appreciate you being on the program.
All right. Still to come, the president signs an order given Elon Musk even more control over the federal government, as Donald Trump pushes the
boundaries of executive power. What this is doing to the U.S. Constitution's checks and balances?
GOLODRYGA: And still ahead, President Trump's vision to rebuild Gaza by evicting Palestinians meets resistance. We'll have a report from the region
ahead as Jordan's foreign minister had this to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AYMAN SAFADI, JORDANIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: We cannot afford any more refugees. Our position is that we can rebuild Gaza without Gazans leaving
Gaza.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:20:40]
GOLODRYGA: Egypt and Qatar are intensifying efforts to save a shaky Gaza ceasefire deal, according to an Egyptian report.
Hamas says that its delegation has arrived in Cairo for talks. Now, just a few hours earlier, Israel issued a warning to Hamas, saying that it must
release the promised hostages from Gaza by this Saturday, or the ceasefire is off.
ASHER: Meantime, in Washington, Tuesday, the U.S. president doubled down on his insistence that the U.S. would take over Gaza at a meeting with
Jordan's King.
Donald Trump reiterated that Palestinians should be moved out of Gaza to countries like Egypt and Jordan.
King Abdullah said Arab nations would offer an alternate plan.
GOLODRYGA: He later posted on social media that the unified Arab position is against the displacement of Palestinians. Jordan's foreign minister made
the same point here on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAFADI: Our position is very clear in Jordan that we cannot afford any more refugees. We're the largest per capita host of refugees in the region. We
have 35 percent of our population are refugees.
Our position is that we can rebuild Gaza without Gazans leaving Gaza. And Gazans leaving Gaza will not be a solution.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: Palestinians in Gaza are also speaking out about President Trump's vision. They say they will not leave Gaza no matter what happens.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FATIMA ABU AL-AOUN, GAZA RESIDENT (through translator): I say to Trump that we will die in our country. We are not prepared to abandon our country.
Palestine is for Palestinians. We do not belong to any other country.
ABU SAEB, GAZA RESIDENT (through translator): I urge you, President Trump, leave us alone and let us live. Let us rebuild Gaza. We can make it better
and more beautiful than it used to be.
MOHAMMAD AL-RANTISI, GAZA RESIDENT (through translator): Palestine is for Palestinians. This is well known. Palestine was here before Trump, and it
will be here after Trump. No one has the right to divide Palestine or Gaza or the West Bank.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: Jeremy Diamond takes a look at the precarious state of the ceasefire, as well as President Trump's plans which upends decades of U.S.
foreign policy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: President Trump has been clear that this is about permanently displacing those people from Gaza, a
population of more than two million people, and turning it into a U.S.-held real estate development.
Those are very different things than some kind of a temporary solution that would ultimately see Palestinians go back to Gaza and allow them to
continue to pursue their aspirations for statehood.
So we have also seen, of course, that both Jordan and Egypt, the two countries that Trump would like to see receive these two million plus
Palestinian refugees. They are continuing to deny this.
And instead, we expect that Saudi Arabia is going to host some discussions among Jordan and Egypt in particular to try and present some kind of
alternative solution. We don't know exactly what that will be yet. But, of course, all of this discussion about what will come after the war in Gaza
is kind of supplanted by the fact that we are now contemplating a very real possibility that this war could start back up again.
And that is because this ceasefire between Israel and Hamas truly is hanging on by a thread at this moment.
Following the Israeli Prime Minister's ultimatum yesterday that if Hamas doesn't release hostages by Saturday at noon, Israel will return to the
fight in Gaza.
[12:25:02]
And we know that troops are already beginning to mobilize along the Gaza border in greater numbers. That ultimatum from the prime minister didn't
have a specific number attached to it. And that's important to note here, because while President Trump had talked about all of the hostages being
freed by Saturday or the ceasefire should be canceled, Netanyahu didn't give a number.
An Israeli official told me that Israel is expecting that Hamas release nine living Israeli hostages in the coming days, but perhaps the prime
minister is giving himself some wiggle room here for a deal to be brokered by Saturday that would salvage this ceasefire.
Hamas, of course, has said that it won't release any hostages this Saturday unless Israel remedies some of the ceasefire violations that Hamas has
alleged.
And there, too, we are seeing the door being left open to hostages being released on Saturday, if the mediators can bring Israel back in compliance
with the ceasefire agreement, as far as Hamas sees it.
So right now, we know that there are active discussions being led by the mediators, Egypt and Qatar, to try and resolve this dispute, to try and
salvage this ceasefire before Saturday, to try and prevent a return to war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: Jeremy Diamond reporting there.
All right. Still to come, just weeks after those terrible wildfires, Southern California braces for another natural disaster. This time, the
threat is torrential rain and floods.
GOLODRYGA: And Donald Trump takes on a familiar foe, the White House press corps.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:30:07]
ASHER: All right. Welcome back to ONE WORLD, I'm Zain Asher.
GOLODRYGA: And I'm Bianna Golodryga.
A reminder of our breaking news this hour, presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin spoke for about 90 minutes earlier today. Now, according to
the Kremlin, President Trump urged an end to hostilities in Ukraine as soon as possible.
ASHER: The two leaders also discussed the exchange of American and Russian citizens. The goal comes a day after Russia released wrongfully detained
American Marc Fogel.
GOLODRYGA: In exchange, the U.S. released Russian, Alexander Vinnik, who pleaded guilty last year to money laundering charges.
Prosecutors say he ran a multi-billion dollar cryptocurrency exchange that funneled money for drug dealers and identity thieves.
Well, for the first time since inauguration day, Elon Musk went before the cameras to try and explain why he has so much power over the federal
workforce as he works to gut government spending and shut down entire agencies.
ASHER: In a joint appearance in the Oval Office on Tuesday with President Trump, the unelected billionaire defended DOGE, a unit he leads within the
administration. And he delivered a blistering assessment of federal bureaucracy, making broad claims of fraud without offering any proof.
Musk also claimed his unit is operating with full transparency claim that many critics widely dispute.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELON MUSK, DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY: All of our actions are fully public. So if you see anything, you say like, wait a second, hey,
that seems like -- maybe that's, you know, there's a conflict there. I sort of like people are going to be shy about saying that. They'll say it
immediately, you know?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Including you yourself.
MUSK: Yes. But it's -- transparency is what builds trust. Not simply somebody asserting trust. So not somebody saying they're trustworthy, but
transparency, so you can see everything that's going on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: Now, this came as the president signed an executive order during that news conference, giving the wealthiest man in the world and the unit
he runs even more power.
Time now for The Exchange. And today, we're talking with CNN politics senior reporter, Stephen Collinson. He joins us live in Washington.
Where to begin, Stephen? Let's put Elon on hold for just a second and get to the breaking news of this phone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir
Putin, obviously, this coming just 24 hours -- less than 24 hours after American Marc Fogel was brought home to the U.S.
Steve Witkoff, the envoy to the Middle East, and close ally and friend of Donald Trump's actually flew his own personal plane to pick him up. And
interesting that CNN is now reporting that Steve Witkoff himself met with Vladimir Putin while he was in Moscow, a question he wouldn't confirm when
asked by John Berman earlier this morning.
But just getting to the details coming out of this phone call, what, if anything, stands out to you? Especially given all of the attention and
speculation and criticism, quite frankly, of some of the past comments that Donald Trump has made about Vladimir Putin and how much he seemed to
respect the leader.
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: I think it shows that this is what Donald Trump actually wanted to do in his first term, which is to
get a lot closer to Vladimir Putin. But he was unable to do that because of all these allegations that Russia helped him get elected in the first time
in 2016. Trump now feels liberated.
And I think Putin, along with Xi Jinping, are two of the only real leaders that Trump thinks are on the same level and that he should be dealing with
as leaders of great powers.
The release of the American hostage, the pullback today from Europe in many ways by Pete Hegseth, the U.S. defense secretary, Trump now talking about
quickly ending the Ukraine war. All this is connected.
And I think if you're watching this unfold from Kyiv, you have to be very worried because it seems as though almost everything that Vladimir Putin
wants in an eventual peace deal, the not going back to the borders before the invasion, Ukraine not being part of Europe. U.S. troops not being part
of any peacekeeping force in Ukraine after an eventual peace settlement.
The U.S. has now today come out and said none of that is going to happen. And it seems like the terms of the peace, so far at least, from the U.S.
point of view, would be along the lines of those that Putin wants.
Trump wants a deal. That's the end game for him. He wants to be seen as the peacemaker. Though I think you have to question, given the fact that the
U.S. seems to have swayed all the way over to the Russian side of this, is whether Putin now really has an incentive to go that quickly, because his
troops are making progress on the ground.
The only, you know -- if he carries on pushing ahead in Ukraine for a few more months, perhaps he can get an even better deal out of Trump. So this
is all very interesting.
[12:35:02]
But I think this is a hugely significant shift in not just U.S.-Russia relations, but in terms of the United States and its relations and its
historic posture in Europe.
ASHER: Yes. President Biden went for, what, three years plus without speaking to Vladimir Putin? And here, Donald Trump is one month after
taking office and speaking to the Russian leader.
I do want to talk about Elon Musk basically holding court in the Oval Office. It's sort of -- the optics were bizarre, let's be honest. You had
the president sort of sitting behind the Resolute Desk looking on as Elon Musk sort of fielded questions from reporters.
He talked about the fact that, you know, DOGE very transparent which, of course, a lot of people would say that is clearly not the case. And then
talked about uncovering billions of dollars essentially in Federal waste but didn't really back it up with any evidence.
Just give us your take on what we saw yesterday.
COLLINSON: It was a show of how powerful Elon Musk has become in just three weeks of this administration.
I think the reason that they held this news conference was that there is growing concern, especially among some Republicans about the political
impact of this effort to shred much of the U.S. government by Elon Musk.
He started off with departments like USAID, which are not very popular and most Americans don't care about. But he's starting to move towards the
education department, even the Pentagon, areas where there are a lot of programs that affect a lot of Americans, including Americans who live in
Republican-run states.
So I think it was meant to reassure Republicans and Republican voters, and I think in that score, it was probably quite successful because cutting
government and throwing federal workers in jobs -- out of their jobs in Washington is very popular among quite a few Americans.
The problem is, is you could see the seeds of where Musk could get Trump into trouble. A lot of this stuff is completely anti-constitutional. It's
not up to the executive branch under the president to decide where to spend money that Congress has already decided to spend.
So that's why all of this is getting caught up in multiple legal challenges. But it does look like Elon Musk, the world's richest man who is
not elected, who is not given any disclosure publicly of his massive conflicts of interest in the U.S. government, is being allowed to run
roughshod over the law and the Constitution. And Trump is quite willing to let it happen right now.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. I mean, and he kept saying that this is what he was elected to do and why he received the mandate that he did from voters.
What he didn't know was what we heard today something else voters voted for President Trump for. And that is to tackle inflation. Headline today that
U.S. inflation soared to three percent, a level we hadn't seen since last June.
So this is clearly a weak spot for Donald Trump. We'll see how much longer they can continue to blame their predecessor for an economy that is now
squarely his.
Stephen Collinson, as always, thank you so much.
COLLINSON: Thanks.
GOLODRYGA: Well, it appears that Donald Trump is ready to start yet a new fight with an old rival. That is reporters who cover him.
ASHER: On Tuesday, two "Associated Press" reporters were blocked from attending a pair of events at the White House. Believe it or not, this
stems from Mr. Trump's demand that the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America.
The "AP" has not made that change. Those reporters were actually barred from covering the president.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. As you may recall, during President Trump's first term in the White House, he kicked CNN's Jim Acosta out of the press room after
Acosta asked some tough questions during a press conference.
Well, a judge later ordered the White House to restore Acosta's press pass.
Let's bring in CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter with more on this. Deja vu all over again, Brian. In terms of how the media is reacting, what
lessons have been learned from the first term, and walk us through what happened with the "AP."
BRIAN STELTER, CNN'S CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes. I think we are heading toward a similar scenario with the "Associated Press" and the Trump White
House that you just mentioned between CNN and the Trump White House the first time around.
When Acosta's press pass was revoked, CNN went to court. And within a matter of days, the court sided with the news outlet and against the Trump
White House.
The "Associated Press" is signaling it will probably go to court as well. The editor Julie Pace saying yesterday, this is a flagrant violation of the
First Amendment. So that's a -- that's a sign that this will be battled in the courts.
But this did not just happen once yesterday, it happened twice. As you said, a pair of episodes yesterday. Now, we will find out today if the AP
is allowed into the White House briefing later today.
Historically, the "Associated Press" is a newswire that serves news outlets all around the world. It provides raw material for news outlets around the
world. So the "AP" has a really special place at the White House throughout Republican and democratic administrations.
The "AP" is always in the press pool. It's always in the room when the president is speaking. So the fact that the "AP" was blocked, this is a
broader signal to the media and tech world, writ large, that President Trump wants people to use his language and follow his rules.
[12:40:14]
ASHER: Yes. I mean, this is an international body of water. And as you point out, the "AP" operates all around the world. So they can't just sort
of change the name of this body of water based on what a president in one country says.
But they did point out that when it came to, uh, Denali and Mount McKinley that they did make those changes. Just in terms of how you think the
relationship with the media is going to evolve this time around with President Trump compared to the first term. Give us your take on that,
Brian.
STELTER: Yes. I think we see this on two levels right now. What's happening with the "AP" is part of a much larger weaponization of language to advance
the Trump administration's agenda. Is it the Gulf of America or the Gulf of Mexico? Are these dangerous immigrants or desperate refugees?
Are these civil servants who are being fired or deep state activists? There is a language battle that's underway. We see that with Trump trying to ban
DEI. We see that with Trump saying there's only two genders. These are all linguistic rhetorical battles. And he's trying to win them and he's trying
to use force.
In the case of the "AP," he wants journalists to obey his guidance, repeat his words, follow his rules. And by banning the "AP" from events, he's
saying outlets that don't fall in line could lose access. So this could go down a very dangerous road very quickly, you know.
Is he going to penalize news outlets that acknowledge the existence of trans people? What if we cite data from purged government websites that he
had deleted? There are a lot of questions.
And that gets to your broader point about treatment of the media at large. We have seen two things true at the same time. The president desperately
wants attention. He seeks out the media's attention. He wants to be doing Q and A's. He wants to set the agenda that way.
But when he's asked a question he doesn't like, he snaps back to the reporters. And he's having his Federal Communications Commission
investigate. Well, we don't know if he's doing it, but we know that the person he appointed to run the FCC has opened investigations into almost
every major network in the country other than Fox News.
Yesterday, Comcast, which owns NBC, was the latest target of the Trump FCC. He's probing PBS. He's probing NPR. He sent a letter to Disney, which owns
ABC. So there are all of these ways that we're seeing the Trump administration use its power against the press. And here we are only in
week three.
GOLODRYGA: Brian Stelter --
ASHER: I have to say.
GOLODRYGA: That's a subtle reminder that we're two days away.
ASHER: From Valentine's Day. I completely forgot that it was Valentine's Day until your shot came up.
GOLODRYGA: Yes.
ASHER: The roses (INAUDIBLE).
STELTER: It cheers me up. It cheers me up, you know. It's the best day of the year. Two days. I hope everybody's ready.
GOLODRYGA: Jamie is very lucky --
ASHER: So sweet.
GOLODRYGA: -- and vice versa, Brian Stelter.
ASHER: You're so on top of it as a husband. Really good. Really good.
STELTER: Thanks.
GOLODRYGA: Thank you. All right. Still to come, the race to contain bird flu in the U.S. and what some farmers are doing to keep their flocks safe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:45:34]
GOLODRYGA: The U.S. is bracing for a wave of serious winter storms this week. A system that dumped more than a foot of snow on Mid-Atlantic States
is now moving offshore, but another storm is right behind it. And this system could bring tornadoes and flooding along with ice and snow.
Let's get more now from CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well and Zain, they'll be clearing the roads for the next few hours across the nation's capital because of the six
inches or so of snow that fell from the sky, but there's actually another storm system waiting on its heels that will bring more rain to Washington
DC.
So that's really saying something. A very active weather pattern across the region. Millions of Americans still under some sort of winter weather
alert.
And notice this just downwind of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron, not your typical lake enhancement, but we do have winter storm warnings for those
locations as the direction of the wind helps dictate some of the lake enhanced snowfall that will fall from the sky through those areas.
Now, check this out. This is the snow totals. We saw roughly over 15 centimeters of snow in and around D. C. But that wasn't the highest
snowfall total. We saw over 35 centimeters of snow, and that is from storm number one.
But remember, there's another round of storms coming, and it's all being driven by this very active jet stream pattern that's pushing storms from
the West Coast to the East Coast. And depending on where those line up is where we'll see the snow to the north, the ice or mix in the middle and
then the rain and the stronger storms on the southern flank of the storm.
So this is what we've got with the secondary storm moving through an additional 15 centimeters of snow possible across the Great Lakes,
specifically into Detroit, just outside of Chicago. The storm system continues to exit the region by tomorrow morning.
But it's the southern portion that has a very complex weather pattern associated with it. In fact, what we've noticed is an increased risk of
severe potential, particularly across Mississippi and Alabama, where that shading of orange is, can't rule out a tornado and the potential for a
strong tornado, that's an EF2 or greater, for this hatched area, just north of Mobile and south of Birmingham. So we're going to watch that very
closely as the line of storms fire up later today.
There's also the flood contention with this system. Were' going to dump several inches of rain across the southeast as the system moves through.
And then speaking of rain, we're still monitoring the next storm system over the west coast that will bring rainfall to southern California, the
areas that have been recently hit hard by the L.A. wildfires, meaning debris flows and mudslides are a possibility.
Zain, Bianna, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: Our thanks to Derek Van Dam for that.
We also just got this information to CNN. The Ukrainian president's office says that President Zelenskyy also spoke with President Trump on the phone
today. We will bring you more information on the readout from that call.
But we are just getting this in to CNN that the conversation occurred after President Trump spoke with President Putin. Obviously, we gave you great
detail and insight that was either from President Trump's Truth Social post or from what the Kremlin reported about the discussion between the two
presidents, so it was 90 minutes, as more information comes out in terms of the time and the topics discussed between President Zelenskyy and President
Trump. We will bring you that information as well.
ASHER: We'll have much more news after this short break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:50:38]
ASHER: All right. Back to our breaking news that we just got about five or so minutes ago, President Donald Trump has spoken with the Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. They spoke for about one hour.
We don't actually have that much in terms of details about what was actually discussed with the Ukrainian president, but this, of course,
coming just an hour or so after President Trump spoke with Vladimir Putin, speaking on a whole range of topics, notably, obviously, a negotiated
ceasefire in Ukraine, as well as possibly more prisoners released, American prisoners released from Russia.
I want to go straight now to Nick Paton Walsh who's joining us live now with more. Nick, do we have any more details about what President Trump and
Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: We don't have specifics as to what was inside this hour-long conversation. But you
can pretty much guess that this will be Trump explaining to Zelenskyy the contents of his phone call that seems to have lasted a little bit longer
with Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin has called constructive and positive in tone.
And I think there may be some relief in Kyiv now that finally Zelenskyy and Trump have spoken.
Remember, last Friday, Trump intimated that there could be a meeting between him and Zelenskyy at some point during this week. And then over the
weekend, I'm sure many in Ukraine were somewhat shocked to hear that in fact it was Vladimir Putin that Trump said he'd spoken to first.
The Kremlin didn't confirm that call but they have confirmed the one that's happened today. That conversation, extensive and it comes, the news of it
came just as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was meeting the U.S. Treasury Secretary in Kyiv.
That meeting, it seemed about trying to present some kind of formulated deal for Ukraine to sign up to, possibly focused on Earth minerals. And so
I think we've seen Ukraine over the past few days feeling somewhat outside of the negotiations happening between Washington and Moscow, it seems,
right now, between Trump and Putin quite directly.
And concerns in Ukraine, the peace process that's underway would be one that would be initiated and guided by the desires of the United States and
Russia, with them perhaps on the outside trying to influence where this would decide the fate of their own country.
Finally, now we have Trump on the phone to Zelenskyy. This may mark the beginning of Ukraine's greater involvement in this peace process, but being
no doubt at all, we've gone in the last 48 hours from a slight sense of uncertainty as to whether this peace process would indeed get underway.
Certainly suggestions that Trump had wanted Putin to pick up the phone to him, to meet him. He'd warned Russia that they were ruining their economy
and they needed a deal fast. It was never really clear if Russia was going to get on board with this because they are certainly winning on the
frontlines in Ukraine.
And then this sudden moment of Marc Fogel, the American prisoner, being released by Russia somewhat unexpectedly. The real estate investor and
Trump confidant Steven Witkoff involved in that release.
A remarkable moment on American television of Russia's rehabilitation, frankly, with Witkoff meeting Trump and perhaps a reason now for Trump to
perhaps suggest to his audience that Trump's someone they should and could do business with.
Remember, the remark difference that's talking about now since three years of Russia being a pariah from the United States under the Biden
administration.
[12:55:00]
Witkoff going to Moscow was the first time that a senior official had been since Bill Burns, the then CIA director, went to November 2021 to basically
tell Russia not to invade Ukraine. Now it appears there's a rapprochement happening. It's happening at pace. It feeds into one of the relationships
that Trump is most comfortable with, and that is with Vladimir Putin, certainly.
And it is now potentially going to dictate the nature of a peace deal that will be, it seems, imposed upon Ukraine. Ukraine taking some comfort, I'm
sure, that Zelenskyy has been on the phone with Trump finally. We don't know what they talked about.
But remember too, you know, the relationship between Trump and Zelenskyy, one in the first term, there wasn't always entirely positive for all,
involved in Trump's impeachment back then.
And so I think many in Kyiv will be glad this phone call happened, but eager to know exactly what Trump has asked Ukraine to agree to.
GOLODRYGA: Yes. And we also have reporting now that Steve Witkoff did meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin while he was in Moscow, as he came to
pick up Marc Fogel on his own personal plane. We should note, in this coming just days before President Zelenskyy is set to meet with the
president's.
Other envoy to that region in particular, and that is General Keith Kellogg, who is scheduled to meet with President Zelensky as well.
So a lot of news unfolding in this past hour. Again, a reminder, President Trump has now spoken to both President Putin and President Zelenskyy.
That does it for this hour. Thanks so much for watching. I'm Bianna Golodryga.
ASHER: I'm Zain Asher. You're watching CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:00:00]
END
