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CNN Live Event/Special
CNN Saturday Morning Table for Five. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Gets into Argument with President Trump and Vice President Vance on Camera During Oval Office Press Event; America's Continued Support for Ukraine against Russian Invasion in Question after Argument between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy; Some Trump Voters Voicing Regret for Their Vote Due to Federal Employee Firings by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency; "Washington Post" Owner Jeff Bezos Restricts Topics for Paper's Opinion Page Possibly to Curry Favor with Trump Administration; Democrats Pick Senator Elissa Slotkin to Respond to President Trump's Upcoming Address to Congress. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired March 01, 2025 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[10:00:37]
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, the extraordinary scene between the most powerful nation and a nation on the brink.
DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: You're gambling with World War Three.
PHILLIP: What the Oval Office shouting match means for war and the world.
Plus, Donald Trump's machete to the government is starting to take it's toll on the people who armed him in the first place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm calling because you need to tell Trump to stop lying to the American public.
PHILLIP: The growing risk of buyer's remorse.
Also, the biggest critics of censorship in America are some of the biggest censors. Why free speech in MAGA land is a fantasy.
And a Democratic Party lost in the dark faces a big test at the president's joint address. Will they offer all olive branches or ax the whole tree?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you could speak directly to Elon Musk, what would you say?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- off.
PHILLIP: Here in the studio, S.E. Cupp, Solomon Jones, Gretchen Carlson, and Melik Abdul.
It's the weekend. Join the conversation at a "TABLE FOR FIVE".
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PHILLIP: Good morning. I'm Abby Phillip in New York. Let's get right to what America is talking about, in fact, the whole world. It's a diplomatic disaster. A free nation fighting for its survival now getting berated by the president and his number two, a berating that they never delivered to the actual invader, Russia. Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a man that's gone from standing ovations in Congress to the other end of a shouting match inside of the Oval Office. Historians say they have never seen a spectacle like that. And now, at best, the mineral deal between the nations is frozen, and at worst, it's essentially ended America's involvement and defense of Ukraine as an ally.
Why? Well, Zelenskyy refused to let Trumps misinformation about the war go unchecked. And that sparked Trump and J.D. Vance to out tough guy each other.
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DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: You're gambling with World War Three. You're gambling with World War Three, and what you're doing is very disrespectful to the country, this country that's backed you for more than a lot of people said they should have.
SEN. J.D. VANCE, (R) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Have you said thank you once this entire meeting? No. In this entire meeting, have you said thank you? You went to Pennsylvania and campaigned for the opposition in October. Offer some words of appreciation for the United States of America and the president who is trying to save your country.
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PHILLIP: Now, keep in mind, Russia -- Russia invaded Ukraine. This is a matter of life and death, along with the future of illegal takeovers all around the world. But perhaps the real headline here is that Vladimir Putin likely watched that spectacle from Russia with love. Alex Plitsas, is at the table for this conversation. He's a former Pentagon official and a current fellow at the Atlantic Council. S.E., this seems like it is, you know, in terms of the scenarios for Ukraine, this is the worst case scenario. This is a disaster.
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It is. He'll go back to his country a hero, but Russia is very, very pleased with how today went. I immediately went to socials to check Russian social media, and Dmitri Medvedev was once president of Russia, still very chummy with Putin, said --
PHILLIP: We have this, we have it up, put it up there.
CUPP: "The insolent pig," meaning Volodymyr Zelenskyy, "finally got a proper slap down in the Oval Office. And real Donald Trump is right. The Kyiv regime is gambling with World War Three." So this bootlicking performance in the White House by our public servants, our top public servants, acting like they own the place, this is what it looked like to me. Two losers on barstools acting like they own the bar, telling anyone who comes in, you've got to go through us first and you've got to give me some flattery first.
It was disgusting. This is not diplomacy. This isn't foreign policy. This is thuggery. And I got to tell you, our allies are scared, and our enemies are laughing.
GRETCHEN CARLSON, CO-FOUNDER, LIFT OUR VOICES: It was like maybe when you were two-years-old and you got in trouble for putting your hand in the cookie jar. It's like, oh, you didn't think your parents enough for raising you. You know, that's how I felt watching it.
[10:05:07]
PHILLIP: It's all about, kind of like, are you are you grateful enough? Are you saying thank you enough? Do you love me enough, as opposed to, it's life and death that we're talking about here.
CARLSON: But I felt like it was completely planned, Abby. I mean, even Trump said this was great TV, and it's sort of like he let the cat out of the bag. Like, I think that this was staged, planned, because Trump and Vance know they're playing to the American public more than anything else. And if you go on any social media, you're seeing people say, yay, we got America back again. Make America great again. And I was asking, how does this make America great again? I mean, this is different than being tough on crime or tough at the border. This is like, OK, I guess were not going to give $350 million to Ukraine anymore, but what about U.S. security?
PHILLIP: OK, so answer her question. How does this make America great again, Melik?
MELIK ABDUL, MEMBER BLACK AMERICANS FOR TRUMP COALITION: Well, I think that it was a great press conference. I actually liked what Donald Trump and J.D. Vance did in that moment. I borrow from Lindsey Graham, who is a strong proponent of Ukraine. He's gone over to Ukraine several times. He said that he had a conversation with Zelenskyy this morning and he told him, he said security guarantees, save that conversation for later. It was Zelenskyy who decided to chime in on the question. I believe it was a reporter who asked it, and then it went downhill from there. Zelenskyy, I agree with J.D. Vance, Zelenskyy was disrespectful.
PHILLIP: I don't know that that's what really happened because.
ABDUL: Well, we saw what we saw is what happened.
PHILLIP: No, no, no, but what you saw, OK, was more than halfway through a meeting that was not.
ABDUL: It was like 40 minutes.
PHILLIP: Until J.D. Vance was the one who chimed in and basically said, you're not grateful enough, essentially.
CUPP: And Melik, can you control your emotions? I bet you can.
ABDUL: I can.
CUPP: I bet you can.
ABDUL: But Zelenskyy can't. And we saw that in the press conference.
CUPP: He's been fighting for sovereignty for three years.
ABDUL: He was being combative, and he --
PHILLIP: He was chiming in about, actually, on a factual question, which is, can you trust Vladimir Putin to actually make good on his promises? Because Zelenskyy was there when they signed another deal with Putin that Putin did not uphold.
ALEX PLITSAS, FORMER PENTAGON OFFICIAL: The entire time. This was an unmitigated disaster from a geostrategic perspective. The messages I got from allies across NATO on the way in here, from the think tank community from D.C., from folks on the ground, was just utter and complete shock. You know, before he showed up today, there was already a spat previously where he had said, hey, the president is living in a disinformation bubble. The president punched back and said, you're a dictator and you should have elections. They kind of finally put that aside. So this was already starting to bubble to the surface.
Now you throw in the comments that were made today, I don't know that this is recoverable coming back from the other side of this. I mean, this is going to cause the Europeans to seriously question leadership at this point. Who is in charge? There's already comments coming out about who is in charge of the free world. Who's going to take responsibility for security? We have made a significant investment in Ukraine, well over $100 billion, and most of it was in defense spending. It wasn't cash that went over. If that goes to waste, this is going to be seen as a U.S. loss, as a NATO loss, and a huge investment from the American taxpayers is going to be wasted. They have to get past this.
PHILLIP: I mean, look, if you are Putin, to your point, if you're Putin right now, you're sitting there thinking, they don't really care about Ukraine. So let's just take the whole thing. I mean, how do you not conclude that after what you just saw there? Trump spent more time saying that he has gone through so much, so many hard times with Putin, right? And that they understand each other because they endured things together. If you're Putin, you're like, OK, why are we even playing games about a deal? We can just take the thing.
ABDUL: I don't care how Putin feels about this. I care about what happened on that television screen. And it was Zelenskyy. I do believe that Zelenskyy should be grateful. And do you know who also thought that Zelenskyy should be grateful?
CUPP: He has said thank you. ABDUL: You know who also thought it? Joe Biden. You know who also thought it, it was Blinken. They've had -- this isn't the first time that Zelenskyy has seemed to kind of shake America down. I remember there was the deal over --
PHILLIP: Shake America down?
ABDUL: That's what he's doing.
CUPP: He's fighting for the life of his country.
ABDUL: Well, when you come before the United States of America in the Oval Office, then you need to --
CUPP: Where there was so much decorum today?
ABDUL: Well. They responded to him, and you come in there being disrespectful, and you're going to find out the response to it. That's he was. He was being disrespectful, and J.D. Vance was right to call him out.
CARLSON: The other thing that that I really thought a lot about is I was watching it is that there's a language barrier here. I mean, English is not Zelenskyy's first language, and suddenly he's in the middle of this dog fight with two people, where English is their first language. And he does not --
PHILLIP: He did pretty well.
CARLSON: He did pretty well. But I mean, he's trying to interpret all of this in a second or third or fourth language to him.
[10:10:03]
And to me, I felt like he's going to miss out on the phrases and the nuances. I mean, try having an argument in a language that's not your first language.
PHILLIP: On the world stage.
CUPP: To Gretchen's point and to your point, Alex, I actually don't think they got over the battle of words earlier when Trump said -- when Zelenskyy said he's living in a disinformation bubble. I don't think Trump got over that. I think that's what today was about, his personal ego.
But there was a moment during this craziness where J.D. Vance made a policy point. He said, where has all the tough talk and the sanctions and the freezing out gotten us? Let's try talking to our adversary. Now, that's not a foreign policy that I agree with, but that is a serious, substantive, very interesting point to make. If that's where the administration came from and was organized and not chaotic and not personal and not out for vengeance and performing for cameras and licking Putin's boots, that's an argument you could make. I wouldn't buy it, but it would be serious. That got lost, of course, it did, in the craziness and the personal vengeance. PLITSAS: But to your point, so the word "costume," he said today,
like, where's your suit, "costume" would be the literal translation, is they're going back on it. And to the point, where has it gotten us? The only reason Putin is at the table is because they are out of men. They're seriously decimated in terms of hardware. He doesn't want to see a mobilization in Moscow and St. Petersburg because it's his political base. And so he's buying time to be able to try to get some sort of negotiation. Even if they freeze the front lines right now, they're still going to be economic and information warfare that will continue afterwards.
PHILLIP: And I just want one thing you just said there I want to double down on, because this is the most insignificant thing, and yet in this White House, it becomes incredibly significant. The costume, which is what Zelenskyy called it, his suit, what he was wearing, this is what is being said according to our sources. "A U.S. official observing the meeting and familiar with the Ukraine negotiations said they felt there might be problems as soon as Zelenskyy got out of the car wearing his trademark shirt and not a suit." The quote, "I know that's his thing, but this moment is different, the official told CNN."
CUPP: And he even got the question.
PHILLIP: He got, well --
(CROSS TALK)
PHILLIP: Let's just be clear, from a pro-Trump outlet, this person is, Marjorie Taylor Greene's boyfriend, he said, where's your suit? Zelenskyy can wear whatever he wants. He used to wear basically fatigues at a certain point because his country is in war.
ABDUL: I don't care. I thought it was a ridiculous question. I don't care about what Zelenskyy wears. This is something that people have talked about for years. When he came and spoke before Congress, I think he may have had on a similar -- he's never worn --
PHILLIP: He had the same thing.
ABDUL: Yes. This isn't -- I think that that part is a simple distraction. But the question about the investment that the American people have in Ukraine, and when Zelenskyy himself said, he said that you have an ocean that separates you and makes a suggestion, and made the suggestion that you could be next. Well, no. But no, we're not going to be next. The same Russian army that you said has been depleted, that same Russian army people are saying that somehow it's going to run roughshod over Europe. What army? It doesn't have the weaponry to even do that.
PHILLIP: I don't think we want to find out, because I think that's the issue, is that some people want to just wait and see what happens if Putin gets exactly what he wants. And the danger here is that history tells us that the appetite for stopping when you've taken a little bit and taken a little bit more is nonexistent. PLITSAS: He's not going to run over NATO countries. This is this is a
man who has never played by the rules. I was in Ukraine in 14 during the revolution in the end of January and the beginning of February. I went back again in the fall of 22. What I saw was all the nonsensical Russian propaganda that there were anti-Russian Ukrainian fascists running around. And there were bees and butterflies. People were shopping in stores in Kyiv and Lviv. That was done specifically so that they could create a security situation. The security services propped up an opposition government, who then said, hey, let's invite the Russian military in so they can provide security against this non- existent threat.
This is a guy who has had intentions to take Ukraine for the longest time. And when I spoke to the deputy head of security service at the time, they had gone back into Moscow to see old friends. They said, look, if you sign that European economic agreement it's going to come with NATO military policy, it's a bridge too far for us. They didn't want to give up Sebastopol where the Black fleet is placed, and that's the only way they can counter NATO forces in the mediterranean in the winter. This has been about geostrategic politics and against NATO military policy for the last 20 years. That is what this has been about from the beginning.
PHILLIP: And on top of that, Vladimir Putin's sincere belief that Ukraine is just Russian and that it's not a real country.
CUPP: And I'm old enough to remember when Republicans were mad that Obama allowed Putin to claim Crimea.
PHILLIP: Yes. All right, Alex, thank you very much for joining us.
Everyone else, stay with me. Coming up next, rightwing radio is getting earfuls from callers about the chaos that's unfolding, including Elon Musk's DOGE cuts.
[10:15:5]
Plus, free speech is officially under fire in this new era, from the White House to "The Washington Post." Stay with us.
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[10:19:58]
PHILLIP: DOGE be damned. After we saw President Trump cede the floor in his first cabinet meeting to a non-cabinet member, a judge ruled that Elon Musk's team has zero authority to fire people. And by zero, he says under no statute in the history of the universe. We all saw DOGE quietly delete B.S. claims that they made about cuts. DOGE workers quitting in protest, agencies telling workers to just ignore Elon Musk, and MAGA going from villainizing federal workers to simply fictionalizing them.
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REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE, (R-GA): Those are not real jobs producing federal revenue. Federal employees do not deserve their jobs. Federal employees do not deserve their paychecks.
ELON MUSK, PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: We think there are a number of people on the government payroll who are dead, which is probably why they can't respond, and some people who are not real people. Like, they're literally fictional individuals that are collecting paychecks.
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PHILLIP: But the chaos, the confusion, and of course, the layoffs themselves, it's all starting to take a toll on the very people who elected Trump.
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RYLEIGH COOPER, FIRED U.S. FORESTRY EMPLOYEE WHO VOTED FOR TRUMP: I do feel regret, and I've had a lot of tumultuous thoughts about that day in the election booth. When you're voting on something that affects you so personally, it's really easy to get tunnel vision, especially in a voting booth when you're staring at, you have two options, right?
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PHILLIP: Solomon Jones is with us now at the table. You know, that voter who supported Trump, she thought that she was going to get no tax on tips, you know, no tax on all these different things, free IVF. None of those things have happened. But she lost her job.
SOLOMON JONES, RADIO HOST, WURD: Yes. I think that people who voted for Donald Trump are now saying that he wasn't talking about everybody else. He was talking about them. He was talking about all of us. He was talking about people who are just going to work every day that he doesn't see as people.
Elon Musk did something interesting, according to "The Philadelphia Inquirer". He goes to the FAA in Egg Harbor Township, fires a bunch of people, or recommends their firing, then gets two Starlink antennas put on that very same facility where he fired these people, all while he's trying to get a $2.4 billion FAA contract. All this talk about federal workers, in my view, is about Elon Musk and others getting in there and getting that money, privatizing some of those jobs, and being able to benefit from it themselves. It's wrong.
CARLSON: I think it's really interesting that now you're seeing these town halls across the country where Republicans are really starting to yell and scream to their members that they elected, who are Republicans, that they're not happy with what's going on. But I think the biggest thing that that really caught my attention was now you have speaker Johnson saying that these people who are complaining are being paid by the Democrats, that they're actually not true complainers, and that Republicans just shouldn't have town halls anymore. I mean, so what happened to --
PHILLIP: Of course, that's usually -- this is usually actually the chain of events that happens when these things go on. First, they deny that it's real. Then they say, OK, no more, no more town halls. And then there is acceptance that this is the political reality, perhaps.
ABDUL: Yes, so I think the -- and I do believe that's part of the framework in the budget resolution that, or reconciliation package, or whatever it is that they're doing, that they do have no taxes on tips and Social Security --
PHILLIP: They don't, they don't.
ABDUL: Thats part of the framework.
PHILLIP: Just to be clear, no tax on tips ain't in there because they cannot pay for it. It would have exploded the cost of that --
ABDUL: Well, I'll be proven.
PHILLIP: So just, I mean, my only point is that they cannot deliver on all of these promises that Trump has made. They can't even deliver on the basic ones which is to extend the Trump tax cuts while paying for it.
ABDUL: Well, I think that that's going to eventually happen. The question of the tax cuts, many of them are set to expire this year. I do think that Donald Trump wants -- the Senate is already working on the bill. I think that they're going to get some wins on that. Obviously, anybody who thinks that everything that a person running for office, that you're going to get everything that that person ran on, it's just not reasonable. It does not happen.
But I do also think it's worth pointing out that many people, as you hear them, the Trump voters, they're being mocked. In fact, go to go to any on my social media, you will find people who are happy that people who supported Donald Trump lost jobs. So I don't think that --
PHILLIP: That's an interesting question that our friend Van Lathan raised. What do you do with the Trump voter who has buyer's remorse?
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VAN LATHAN, CO-HOST, "HIGHER LEARNING" PODCAST: How do you approach these people as Americans who made a bad choice and now suffering the consequences of that choice and are going to have incredible strife in their lives, losing farms, losing jobs, losing homes, losing their livelihoods, all of that stuff? How do you approach this without continuing the toxicity of our current political reality?
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[10:25:08]
PHILLIP: It is a tough question, I think, I mean, if you if you believe that they actually did make a wrong decision here.
CUPP: Well, I'm never of the position that you should tell voters they were wrong about what's important to them. That gets you into trouble. It's just bad politics. But if these were gettable voters for Donald Trump, and a lot of them were first time voters, a lot of them were independents, a lot of them were Democrats, then they're gettable by someone else. And that someone else needs to come out, and instead of saying the problems you're talking about don't exist, aren't real, they should say, no, those problems are real. We have different solutions.
What Democrats did, which was a huge mistake, was deny that the three most important issues to voters -- the economy, crime, and the border -- were not actual problems, instead of saying, yes, we agree. And on this DOGE stuff to Democrats should say there is fraud and waste. We agree. We want to do it differently. Instead, what I'm hearing from Democrats is this is all made up. This is insane. And that's how they're going to lose voters.
But listen, conservatives are going to be the ones that save us or don't. It's not going to be Democrats. Conservatives saying I disagree with this. This isn't what I bought. Remember when Ron DeSantis a couple of years ago --
PHILLIP: They're not going to do that. Not yet.
CUPP: Some are. Some are saying I have a problem with this. Remember when Ron DeSantis, a couple of years ago in Florida, wanted to make it easier to sue media outlets? The people who came out and protested that were conservative media outlets, and they won. It's not going to be Democrats. It's going to be these people who have said, this isn't what I bought. This isn't what I expected. I'm not here for this. This isn't solving problems in my life. They might not do it, but if anyone's going to solve this and push back, it's going to be them.
CARLSON: Are you talking about constituents or members of Congress.
CUPP: Both.
ABDUL: Because I think that's the big difference, because members of Congress, the reason why they haven't said anything is because they're afraid to lose their seats.
CARLSON: Exactly.
ABDUL: They're more afraid to lose their seats than they are to serve the people.
CUPP: You don't have to tell me that. I know. I know that.
ABDUL: And so that's why they're not going to saying anything. So if conservatives are going to say anything, it's going to have to be --
PHILLIP: Well, OK, we've got to go, but I do want to play. We have this very quick, quickly. This is the other view from the people who are in the financial industry about what's happening right now.
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KEN GRIFFIN, CEO, CITADEL LLC: It's a very difficult time to invest.
JENNY JOHNSON, CEO, FRANKLIN TEMPLETON INVESTMENTS: I'm sorry, I can't be particularly positive on it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: They ain't happy. And a lot of conservatives thought that this would be a great time to invest because there's a Republican in the White House.
Well, much more ahead. Coming up next, President Trump touted free speech on the campaign trail, but the Trump administration is now restricting press access. We're going to discuss that growing trend next.
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[10:00:00]
PHILLIP: Welcome back. President Trump and MAGA love to hug the First Amendment.
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DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.
I will destroy the illegal censorship regime and bring back free speech in America.
ELON MUSK, PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Free speech is meaningless unless you allow people you don't like to say things you don't like. Otherwise, it's irrelevant.
It's damn annoying when someone you don't like says something you don't like. That is a sign of a healthy, functioning, free speech situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: The problem is, they are not First Amendment champions, unless, of course, it's speech that they like. Trump has a long history of trying to ban speech he doesn't like, from news outlets to companies. Well, Elon Musk, he has actually taken down X accounts of journalists and critics and random people, actually, for criticizing him. He has reportedly had employees sign NDAs and fired workers for speaking out. His fellow billionaire this week told the paper, his paper, "The Washington Post," that it's opinion page has to cover only two topics and defend those topics. And the White House, well, they are deciding who gets to cover the president while banning the A.P. because the outlet won't adopt "Gulf of America" as Trump's preferred language.
So here we go again. But whatever happened to real free speech here?
ABDUL: I don't think that there are free speech absolutist in either party. I think both sides are hypocritical when it comes to free speech. We've seen many examples where Democrats, when it comes, even during COVID, look at all of the censoring when it came to COVID. Obviously, Republicans are being hypocritical in this sense. I've talked about how my Twitter account was somehow reported after I began criticizing Elon Musk. It was the first time it ever happened. I don't trust Elon Musk on this any more than I trust Elon Musk on being concerned about the country or anything beyond his personal ambition. I've been critical of him.
I don't understand this decision. I mean, I hear what the administration says about the A.P., but I think that the A.P. and many of these outlets, I get you wanting to bring other outlets, more independent outlets in. I understand that, but the A.P. serves a role, and I think that the administration is being petty by not allowing the A.P. to be there.
CARLSON: And Reuters. And Reuters was --
ABDUL: Oh, Reuters, too.
CARLSON: And by the way, then you end up with questions like we heard with Zelenskyy, which is why don't you wear a suit?
[10:35:3]
I mean, so we're leaving out the real reporters and allowing these other ones to come in.
What's more troubling to me, though, is the Jeff Bezos situation, because that, to me, is a billionaire bending a knee to Trump. He apparently had dinner with him after he made that announcement at "The Washington Post." So getting even more chummier.
PHILLIP: And by the way, Trump was the one who disclosed that, and he suggested that every time that he has dinner with some of these folks, it's because they are calling him. They are clamoring to be in the same room as Trump, and as a sort of peace offering, they're like, here, I've neutered "The Washington Post" opinion section.
CUPP: Exactly. And you have to wonder, or not wonder that much, if it's all because of business interests. What does Jeff Bezos get out of this with this administration if he bends the knee to Trump? Yes. I mean, and I don't even understand what this opinion page is going to be anymore. Liberties and freedom?
JONES: Yes, it's weird. It's very weird. And, you know, as a columnist at a major newspaper, one of the things that you always try to do at newspapers is separate the editorial side from the business side, because the business side ultimately is not going to be in the business of telling truth. They're in the business of making money. That's their job. That's fine. But that's why you have to separate the two.
Jeff Bezos during the campaign stopped his editorial page from doing an endorsement of Kamala Harris, and he lost 250,000 subscribers. He doesn't care. He goes on and does this. And what's he going to lose now? PHILLIP: It's change in his pocket because this is not where he makes
his money. He makes his money from his founding of Amazon, which he is still financially entangled with despite not being the CEO. He makes his money from his space company, from Amazon and the cloud services that they offer to the government. So there's a lot of ways that his businesses are affected.
The former "Washington Post" editor, Marty Baron, said this. "It's craven. He's basically fearful of Trump. He has decided that as timid and tepid as the editorials have been, they've been too tough on Trump." And this is someone who, when he was running the paper, Jeff Bezos basically told him, I'm keeping my hands off. I'm going to give you resources to grow the paper. And that has completely changed.
CUPP: Well, in fact, I interviewed Marty Baron yesterday on the very day that this happened, or two days ago. And he said when Jeff Bezos came to "The Washington Post," he was grateful. The paper was dying and he revived it, and stayed out of his business. And he was really pleasantly surprised. So this isn't a guy who kneejerk wants to criticize Jeff Bezos for his relationship with Trump. He is heartbroken. He is deeply disappointed in the direction that Jeff Bezos seemingly wants to take the paper.
But there's all this stuff happening. One of the other things that is worrisome to me is, another thing happened this week. There's so much news. Trump came out and said he wants to sue media outlets for using anonymous sources. And people at home might not really know why that's important, but if you're a rape victim, if you're a dissident, if you're a whistleblower, these are how we get your stories. And for all the MAGA idiots clamoring for the Epstein flight list, you know what? We only know about Epstein's crimes because of anonymous sources. So there's so much threatening the First Amendment now.
CARLSON: It's the bedrock of journalism.
CUPP: It is the bedrock. And there's so much threatening the First Amendment right now.
PHILLIP: To your point, Trump wants, it's not just good enough for them to start writing nice things about him. He wants "60 Minutes" and CBS to go away, to be punished. They've already started to try to punish PBS and NPR. There are some real concrete ways that they've tried to go after this. Elon Musk, who is a huge voice now in this administration, repeatedly accuses news outlets like "The New York Times" of committing crimes for reporting the names of government workers who are carrying out huge policies.
ABDUL: Yes, and I think that they were on the DOGE, part of the DOGE team or something. I saw something recently about that. I don't think that it is MAGA idiots. If you actually look on just Twitter alone, across the board, even on the left, this idea of the Epstein, were you talking about Epstein, were you talking about the Diddy files? People do have an interest in it. I do believe that -- I do believe --
CUPP: Yes, because they think Democrats are going to be on the list. That's why their idiots. This is not in the pursuit of truth. This is to embarrassed people they think are going to be on this list.
ABDUL: But I don't think that that is a MAGA idiot thing. There are people on the left who have been asking for the Epstein files for years.
PHILLIP: All right, we've got to leave it there, Solomon.
Coming up next, the president is set to deliver his joint address to Congress next week. How will Democrats take this moment to define their path going forward? That's next.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[10:44:33]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you could speak directly to Elon Musk, what would you say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- off.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIP: Democrats are having a heck of a time finding themselves in the second Trump era. That was just a taste of it. Should they be moderate or more progressive? Should they talk more like MAGA, or should they be more modest? We'll soon get a glimpse of the future of this when they're all in the same room for the president's address to Congress next week.
Now, for the liberal response, the party is going with freshman senator Elissa Slotkin.
[10:45:01]
She's a CIA veteran, a swing state moderate, and she'll face a skeptical public that Democrats have any idea what they're doing, particularly skeptics from their home crowd. So this is the perennial question, what do they do? I mean, first of all, do they go?
JONES: I think they do. And I think they have to be boisterous. I think they have to be loud. I think they have to be rowdy. I think they have to be seen. We haven't seen Democrats over the last month or so since Donald Trump has been in office. I think they have to grab some headlines. I think they have to make some noise, and I think they have to really be, be really bold in what they do.
CARLSON: And this is why the party's fractured, where they don't really have a leader and they don't really have a common message, because you have half of Democrats saying that they should be fighting back with the same amount of zest that Trump is fighting, right. And then you have the other half saying, no, we should sit back and see how this plays out, because Trump may do himself in, right. But I think that Slotkin is a wonderful choice for the Democrats
because you said the word that's the most important one, which is she's a moderate. And that signals to me that they're going to try and go more to the center, which I think would be smart in this case, because that's the way that you might be able to get --
PHILLIP: I mean does everybody agree with that POV or no? I mean, because she's moderate, but she's not like the most exciting person, which is not a knock on her. It's just, you know.
ABDUL: When it when it comes to these responses, I can't think of one that was good.
PHILLIP: Yes.
ABDUL: It's just very hard. It's just very -- it's actually very hard to do. And I think what we saw from -- I think that Democrats have been loud, like they have made a lot of news. A lot of that has been a lot of screaming outside of federal buildings. I think that they are directionless, whatever, if I said that right. And it's a problem because they don't have a leader. The speaker of the House, I mean, well, the Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies doesn't seem to be playing a real role here. What's happening with the DNC itself, with the new chair and the vice chairs? They don't seem to be doing anything around messaging. It is just, I think they can't break through.
PHILLIP: -- strategy, though, that says just give him the rope. Don't do anything. I mean, if this is all going to fail, then just let it fail.
JONES: I think that's a bad strategy. If he has not hung himself with all of the things that he's done. I mean, my goodness, January 6th alone, the classified documents, the 16 women who accused him of all manner of things, being held liable for sexual abuse, being then held liable for slandering the person who he allegedly sexually abused, like all of this stuff, if he hasn't hung himself yet, it's not going to happen.
CUPP: All of that stuff is bad, but this is all kind of talking around what I think is the core issue. And I agree, Gretchen, Elissa is great. She's a step in the right direction generationally, geographically, all the things. Democrats have some bad facts, and the bad facts are some bad policies. They want to pretend that they're economic policies and their immigration policies and their crime policies are working. Until they acknowledge those facts and come up with policies that meet Trumps chaos with real solutions, they are not going to figure him out, and they are not going to get out of this wilderness.
They didn't stop him in 2016. They couldn't stop him again. They have not figured him out. It's policy. It's not the messenger. It's not whether they swear or whether they get heated, whether they're polite. They have got some bad policies.
PHILLIP: Yes, and focusing, refocusing on people's lives is the core part of this. Coming up next, our panel's unpopular opinions and what they're not
afraid to say out loud.
And a programing note, Jake Tapper is back with CNN's original series, "United States of Scandal." The new season premieres Sunday, March 9th at 9:00 p.m. right here on CNN.
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[10:53:45]
PHILLIP: We're back, and it's time for your unpopular opinions. You each have 30s to tell us yours. Gretchen, you're up first.
CARLSON: OK, Academy Awards Sunday night. Usually a place where politics are talked a lot about on stage, and I am hoping there's not one word about politics on Sunday night. Please, no politics. I just want to focus on makeup, dresses, and who wins the awards.
PHILLIP: Jokes?
CARLSON: Yes, and jokes.
PHILLIP: I'm with you. Solomon?
JONES: Well, mine is cats are better than dogs. That's right. Cats are better than dogs.
PHILLIP: That is a very incorrect opinion.
JONES: Let's think about it. Dogs are loyal and they're predictable. And they're boring. Right? Cats, they're vengeful. They're mean.
PHILLIP: Have you ever met a dog?
JONES: I have met a dog. I had a dog, and now I have a cat. Cats are complicated. You're always on your toes trying to figure them out. I love cats better than dogs.
CUPP: Stay off Instagram, for a while for yourself.
(LAUGHTER)
CUPP: If you know me, you know I love reality TV. However, I cannot watch "The Baldwins" and you should not either. The Hilaria and Alec Baldwin reality show is -- it's a cry for help. These people are trying to fix their marriage. I should not be invited into this therapy session. It is really, actually, like, hard to watch. And I like reality TV.
[10:55:04]
And it's really sad because they have little kids that they're putting here, too. I don't like it. Go away. Take care of this business off camera.
PHILLIP: You made me just want to watch it.
CARLSON: Me too.
CUPP: Darn it! Streisand effect, right?
PHILLIP: Yes, exactly.
Go ahead.
ABDUL: Talking about an unpopular opinion, I thought that there was a lot of hype around "Gladiator" with Denzel Washington. But I did not like Denzel Washington's role in "Gladiator." I thought that it was a letdown.
CUPP: Is it up for an award?
PHILLIP: You're not alone there. I don't think it did as well as they thought it would do.
ABDUL: It just wasn't -- he wasn't great in that. He's a great actor. But the role was just kind of --
CARLSON: Did you actually see it in a theater?
ABDUL: No, I saw it at home.
CARLSON: OK, so I was going to say, so you're the one.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIP: Ouch. Gretchen, wow.
CARLSON: At the end.
PHILLIP: All right, everyone, thank you very much. Thanks for watching "TABLE FOR FIVE". You can catch me every weeknight, 10:00 p.m. eastern with our news night roundtable. But in the meantime, CNN's coverage continues next.
