Tonight on 363 years into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the United States is taking Russia's side at the UN and making our European allies nervous. Also tonight, a star podcaster in the MAGA movement is now the number two man at the FBI, who he is, and what it might mean for America's premier law enforcement agency. And later, the one-time leader of the so-called Proud Boys, pardoned from his 22-year prison sentence, now gets into a new confrontation with a former police officer from January 6. Thanks for joining us.
It is a grim anniversary tonight. Three years ago, today, Russian forces on Vladimir Putin's order invaded Ukraine, an operation that Putin reportedly expected would take just a few days. He was wrong. Ukrainian forces fought back hard, and with American and European countries held, they've been able to continue fighting back.
But that American support is now in jeopardy, and is putting America's historic, nearly 80-year relationship with Europe under serious strain. That was the backdrop and perhaps even the stakes for today's White House visit by Francis President Manuel Macron, and will certainly be the same when British Prime Minister Keir Stormer arrived Thursday. Perhaps the most striking way of viewing those stakes is through the words of their counterpart, the man who's likely to be Germany's next chancellor, Friedrich Mertz. Speaking yesterday, Mertz said something remarkable given Germany's status as both a frontline member of and founding reason for the Atlantic Alliance with Europe.
My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible, so that step-by-step we can really achieve independence from the United States. But at the very least, after Donald Trump's statements last week, it is clear that the Americans, at least this part of the Americans' administration, are largely indifferent to the fate of Europe. That's assumed to be German Chancellor, saying that his first priority is to, quote, achieve independence from the U.S., and citing the President's statements as a reason, like calling Ukraine's President a dictator, which he's not, but refusing to say the same about Vladimir Putin. Not last week and not today at the White House with President Macron sitting next to him.
What's the next key to saying that we'd use the same words without increasing the plan? I don't use those words lightly. I think that we're going to see how it all works out. Let's see what happens.
I think we have a chance of a really good settlement between various countries. And you're talking about Europe, and you're talking about Ukraine as part of that whole situation. The other side has a lot of support also. Well, he says he does not use the word dictator lightly, which suggests that he truly thinks the Linsky is a dictator, and Vladimir Putin is not.
He's also blamed the invasion somehow on President Zelensky, saying, quote, you should have never started it. You could have made a deal. He sends back kind of away from that, but only just far enough to leave many of his pomp advisors over the weekend, struggling with non-answers like these on Russia's active aggression three years ago, and all the atrocities that followed. Can you acknowledge that Russia is the aggressor here?
Well, you know what? Who would you rather have in go toe to toe with the lights of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Moon, Xi, or anyone else? Joe Biden or Donald Trump? He's the dealmaker in chief.
He's the commander in chief. And it's only because of his strength that we're even in this position. But fair to say, Russia attacked unprovoked into Ukraine three years ago tomorrow. Fair to say it's a very complicated situation.
The war didn't need to happen. It was provoked. It doesn't necessarily mean it was provoked by the Russians. Not by the Russians, then by whom?
Now, keep it a modest, though. It wasn't always so muddy. Just a few months ago, during the campaign, then candidate Trump had no trouble blaming Russia as long as he could also blame his political rivals, too. Russia took land under Bush, under Obama, and under Biden they're going for the whole ball of wax.
The only one they didn't take anything from was under Trump. Well, that was last September, before the president spoke with Vladimir Putin and began planning peace talks about Ukraine without Ukrainians actually at the table. And before he became enamored with a deal now apparently being finalized for taking Ukraine's mineral wealth and exchange for a talk of future investment but not security guarantees. And it's not just the president and his advisers who won't say that Russia is the aggressor and now it's the United States at the UN.
The US refused to support a general assembly resolution marking three years of the war which condemned Russia as an aggressor. The US sided with Russia on this, by the way. You want to know who else sided with Russia and the US now? Hungary, Haiti, Israel, Palau and the Marshall Islands, Burkina Faso, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Niger, Sudan, Belarus, North Korea, Syria, Eritrea, Mali and Nicaragua.
That's who sided with the new US position. And just for reference, the last time the UN General assembly weighed in on this back on the first anniversary in 2023, the resolution also condemned Russian aggression and the US supported it. And this is a sea change and our closest allies obviously recognize that. It certainly has significance in resonance to President Macron's visit to the White House today.
We have two correspondents starting at Soft Cailin Collins and Washington, Matthew Chenitz and Moscow, first Caitlyn, who was at the White House today. How does the White House think this meeting with Macron went today? Well, it's a remarkable moment to just watch and witness, especially given the French President and President Trump have known each other for years. Obviously he was in office the last time.
Trump was also in office and he hosted in for a state dinner. We've seen them have these difficult moments extended handshakes that seem to go on forever. But Anderson, to see the two of them inside the Oval Office today in those moments where they were saying two different things in terms of the viewpoint of Russia in this war, what the next steps look like for these negotiations was remarkable. But there was one point where the President was reiterating something he says repeatedly, which is that Europe is being paid back for the aid that they have provided to Ukraine while the United States is not, which he's referring to the Russian assets that have been frozen since the war started three years ago, when the French President cut him off and corrected him.
Listen to that moment. Europe is loaning the money to Ukraine. They get their money back. No, in fact, to be frank, we paid 60 persons, also totally false.
And it was like the US loans guarantee grants and we provided the real money to be clear. If you believe that, it's okay with me. I think that moment really sums up the entire visit that we saw happening at the White House today where the French President was kind of shifting in between these more jovial moments, chummy moments with Trump where he was calling him Donald at times during the press conference that they had later on. But also taking those instances to say Russia is the aggressor.
Here's the pay structure. We're not actually getting paid back for the money that we spent or the aid that we directed to Ukraine since this war has started, which has been achieved complaint of President Trump's ever since he's taken off as he feels that the United States has been unfairly treated here. But you could just see the discrepancies and how they view this, no matter how nice they were or how they talked about it. It was very clear that they had two different messages, starkly different messages.
Also, I mean, this UN, you know, refusing to back this UN resolution, the general assembly calling Russia the aggressor. I mean, if you want to think of the argument, it's just not a good time to use that kind of verbiage when you're negotiating a peace deal. But this president clearly believes they are not the aggressor here. Certainly that's the line he's taken.
Well, he's declined to say so. And I've talked to some officials who say that's a negotiating tactic and that's why he's not said it publicly. But I think the other language you could also look at that he has used is the word dictator, which he said today he doesn't use lightly. But he did freely call Zelensky a dictator last week without elections, even though he was democratically elected, referring to the fact that Ukraine did not hold its election last year because it's under martial law, because Russia invaded.
But he was not going to use that word to describe the other person who is at the negotiating table here, which is President Putin. And so it is a remarkable moment, which was also asked about whether the United States would help rebuild Ukraine. The president has talked at length about how destroyed Ukraine has been without ever really mentioning that it was Russia that has done the destroying there and bombed the buildings. And it is the reason for that.
The president said no, essentially, that he felt that the United States has done enough when it comes to aid to Ukraine. And so what was clear, as I was in that press conference today, was that President Macron was trying to use his moments there to say, this is Russia's fault. Russia needs to be the person in the country that we are looking at when we're putting responsibility and blame on someone and trying to communicate that message to Trump by appealing to him and saying, this is what would be a weak agreement. This is what would be a strong agreement.
It was at one point invoked their predecessors in 2014 and said, you know, they thought that they had an agreement and Putin obviously bulldozed right through that in illegally annexed Crimea. That's why security guarantees are so important here. And the French president did call it a turning point without regard today. The question is, of course, how that holds and what that looks like.
And there's another world leader I should know coming to Washington this week, one who was never met with Donald Trump since he's been in the White House. He's met with him previously. It's the British Prime Minister, Q. Starmer.
Yeah. Gail Collins, thanks very much. We'll see you at the top of the next hour on the source. I do want to take a couple minutes now and just remind us all of what happened in Ukraine three years ago tonight.
We have seen his Matthew Chance look back. Three years into this bloodshed. And the front lines remain hellish and brutal. They may be talk of peace.
They're quiet. And every day in the war zone, the ultimate sacrifice is being paid. Across Russia, cemetera is now burgeoning with fresh graves. The grim reality of the Ukrainian meat grinder can no longer be hidden or denied.
This monument was put up so people would know there is a war going on, says Victor, the head of a local veterans organisation. It's not just some kind of operation, he says. People are dying. It wasn't meant to be this way.
He's a Russian 14th-day Russian. I've spoken to them already. Back in 2022, as the full-scale invasion began, CNN encountered Russian troops sent on what became a suicide mission that captured the Ukrainian capital. The Kremlin still calls its special military operation was meant to be over in a few days.
Instead Russian troops were forced to withdraw, leaving behind them a trail of devastation, and in places like Butcher on the outskirts of Kiev, allegations of human rights abuses too, all denied by the Kremlin. Now President Putin is still pinning medals on veterans before toasting their fallen comrades at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. How many unknown soldiers there have been, no one even knows Putin says. But thanks to their efforts, courage and extreme hard work at the front, we have Russia today, he adds.
And after three years of fighting, Russia also has the Ukrainian territories. It's captured and occupied, like the ruins of Piski and countless others, where former residents are now returning to their destroyed homes and trying to claim compensation from the Russian authorities now in charge. I don't think they'll ever be a peace agreement, your catarina says. How can they agree on who will fix all of this, she asks?
Three years on. There are doubts, buildings or lives can ever be rebuilt. And Matthew Chance joins us now from us. We talked earlier about the abrupt change from the US and its approach to Russia.
What's the reaction to the shift in like on the Russian side? Well, that means good question. I think it's fair to say they stopped short of cracking open the bottles of champagne, which is what many Russians did when President Trump was elected, when Donald Trump was elected in 2016. But there's certainly a lot of positivity around and there's good reason to be, because they're on the brink, it seems, of a settlement of the conflict that could be in Russia's favour.
Today President Trump was talking about the possibility of business deals being done with Russia, that's crucial for a country that has been weighed down and damaged so severely by years of sanctions that were imposed on Moscow largely because of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. And then there are other victories as well that have come so quickly. A seat at the top table, Russia is a much smaller power than Russia economically, but it's been given equal status with Washington, and speaking to US officials on a face-to-face basis. And then there's that issue of Western unity.
It's been a long-standing objective of the Kremlin that predates the Ukraine war to see Western institutions damaged. And that is unfolding before the Kremlin's eyes. And so, from the Kremlin point of view, it's been a very positive month since President Trump took power. Matthew Chance, thank you very much for Moscow.
John, you know, it's Arizona Democratic Center, Mark Kelly, who sits on both the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence Committees. Senator, what's your reaction to where the US stands tonight on this war, which is obviously tougher on Ukraine than on Russia? Yeah, I understand it's shocking that after 80 years, in a few days Donald Trump just blew up the Western Alliance completely. And you have the Secretary of Defense on TV over this weekend talking about how this is a complicated situation.
It's not complicated. It's very clear who the aggressor is. It's clear who the war criminal is. And this spoke today in the UN where the United States of America is siding with the North Koreans and with Russia and Belarus.
I mean, even after this first month of this administration, I'm still kind of shocked of what happened over the last several days and make no mistake, Anderson, this makes our country look weak and we are less safe because of it. By the way, a number of the West African countries that I named who actually supported this resolution, refused to go along with this resolution as well, they have like Russian, you know, Wagner forces in their country. They've kicked out US and French forces from those countries. President Trump won't call Putin a dictator.
He's not retracting. He's used that word to describe Zelensky. What message does that send? Well, I think it sends a message that Donald Trump has aligned himself with Russia and not with our allies.
We've had these allies since World War II. And it's the United States that is the anchor of this alliance. And Donald Trump is abandoning that. And that's why our allies are incredibly concerned.
I was, you know, on the phone with the folks that were at the Munich Security Conference here last weekend, I did not have the opportunity to attend. But you know, the feedback I'm getting is that it was embarrassing. Our SecDef shows up clearly does not know what he's talking about. They're in a negotiation, right at the start of the negotiation, they give up the two biggest negotiating points, NATO membership and Ukrainian land.
I mean, Anderson, anybody who knows, I mean, I thought the president was supposed to be good at making a deal. This is like the art of the bad deal. And then they tried to walk that back like the next day, a couple of Republicans on Capitol Hill, and then the president kind of doubled down on the NATO stuff and no US troops. Yeah, I think he knows where he wants to be.
He wants to be aligned with Putin. He seems to be drawn to dictators. And this is dangerous for our country. And it just makes us look incredibly weak.
Do you think it makes China, for example, less fearful of the US or, you know, potential invasion of Taiwan, less likely that US would retaliate? Yeah, we talk about this a lot. I said on the armed services and the intelligence committees in the Senate, I think China's watching very closely. You may have noticed they didn't vote with Russia and North Korea.
They abstained. Yeah, they abstained in this vote. So even, I guess to some extent, maybe they get it. It's obvious to them who the aggressor is that Ukraine was violently attacked.
And now suddenly it's not the position of the United States of America, at least not the White House. I'll tell you it is with my Republican colleagues here. I mean, they, most of them, not all of them, but most of them share, you know, my views on this. Putin is a criminal.
He's a dictator. He attacked Ukraine. He has needlessly and senselessly killed thousands and thousands of women and children and old people. And his troops are dying by, I mean, upwards of possibly 800,000 soldiers.
I mean, this is a disaster. And it's a disaster for our own safety and international security. If we get into the habit of aligning with violent dictators who, you know, were not elected into office, people like Vladimir Putin. Yeah.
I mean, it has put us in a, you know, situation that we haven't been in in nearly a century. I, on another subject, I recently spoke to, to American astronaut, Sonny Williams and Butch Wilmore. They're in the International Space Station. They've been there longer, obviously than expected.
They are expected to finally come home next month. I asked them about a claim from President Trump and others that they were stranded in space for political reasons by the Biden administration. Here's what they said. That is a fair question.
And I tell you what, Anderson. I understand why people would think that. I mean, that's been the rhetoric. That's been the narrative from day one, stranded, abandoned stuff.
And I get it. We both get it. But that is again, not what our human space flight program is about. We don't feel abandoned.
We don't feel stuff. We don't feel stranded. I understand why others may think that we've, we come prepared. We come committed.
That is what your human space flight program is. It prepares for any and all contingencies that we can conceive of and we prepare for those. Now, as you know, recent A.C. Len Moth repeated the claim the astronauts were stranded up there for political reasons.
They attacked a number of astronauts who corrected him on social media and referred to you as a BEM donor shell. You posted a return, hey, Adeline Musk, when you finally get the nerve to climb into a rocket ship come talk to the three of us, you once served on an independent safety advisory panel for a SpaceX years ago. Why do you think Musk is saying this? I have no idea.
Their ride home has been there since September. It's a Dragon capsule. It's a SpaceX spaceship. It's sitting on the space station.
It's been there for months. That's the way they're going to get home. That's the way they're going to get home a month from now. I don't know why he's doing this.
It's really kind of the whole thing is kind of ridiculous because it puts Sonny and Butch who I've known for over 30 years, each of them. Even before we were astronauts together, put some in the middle of this political fight. They need to be focused on their mission. I don't know why he's doing this.
And then he drags me into it. I will say, though, if he's ready to go up into space at any time, I am happy to go with him. I know where the space station is, how to get there. I'll be happy to join him on that mission.
All right, Senator Kelly, appreciate it. Thanks very much. Thank you. Coming up next, meet the new FBI deputy director.
He's a former secret service agent who became a podcasting star by what he calls owning the lives. And later when the leader of the, or former leader of the so called Proud Boys was trying to get a reduced sentence in front of a judge. He called the police of the Capitol in January six heroes. Now that he's pardoned.
He's back at talking them. I'm CNN tech reporter Claire Duffy. This week on the podcast, Terms of Service, the idea of writing in a car with no driver can feel daunting. And this technology raises questions about safety and the future of transportation.
That's why I'm here with Nicole Gable, head of business development and strategic partnerships at WeMo. We've always been about safety. No distracted driving. No drunk driving.
We Mo follows the rules of the road. Listen to CNN's Terms of Service, wherever you get your podcasts. Craig Ferguson is going coast to coast to one pack. What it really means to be an American today.
What could possibly go wrong? Craig Ferguson, American on purpose. New episodes now streaming on the CNN app. Go to cnn.com slash watch to subscribe or log in with your TV provider.
The police department is in general. There is a crisis in policing and it's a crisis in training. The spy point some of the other guests have said. I was there.
I went through the police academy three times. Twice with the NYPD and went through the secret service. There is a crisis in training. It is not taken seriously in America.
He was last on this program in March of 2016 and the year since he's grown into an outspoken member of the right wing media sphere and a big supporter of the president. He often appeared on Fox attacking the Mueller investigation during the first Trump administration and adopted the philosophy that he describes as being centered around, quote, owning the libs. Own the libs at every opportunity. Online at the election booth in your activism.
Don't let them up. Mr. Bonjino gained a lot of traction during covid. This vaccine never had anything to do with science at all.
Never had anything to do with covid either. That's the covid vaccine. It did not prevent the spread of covid. If masks work, why aren't they working?
Because the left doesn't care if they work. President Trump has certainly approved of his questioning the legitimacy of the 2020 election. Donald Trump was calling out basically a flawed election for what it was, a flawed election. As the chief executive of the United States, it's his job to question an election if he believes there was corruption.
It's actual job to go and enforce the law as the president's chief executive. When the FBI searched the president's home in Mar-a-Lago for classified documents in 2022, Bonjino went on Fox to condemn the very agency he is now being tasked to help run. Folks, the FBI has lost. It's broken.
Irredeemably corrupted this point. The inexcusable raid on President Trump's home was a straw that broke the camel's back. Fire anyone involved in the raid. I want to hear any more rank and file stuff.
I was a rank and file. I saw stuff I didn't like. I left. It's not hard.
You sworn out to the Constitution. That matters. If you played any role in this raid, you should be gone. Well, he's now the deputy director of the FBI.
I mean, now it's someone who wants to help that role. He's an international enforcement analyst Andrew McCabe. So first of all, what's your reaction to this appointment? You know, I have great concerns for the FBI and for its people.
You know, you're taking someone who knows nothing about the organization, has no experience with the FBI and put them in the highest position an agent can possibly occupy. It'll be responsible on a day-to-day basis for all of the FBI's intelligence collection and investigative authority. People will walk into his office one after another, after another every single day and confront him with some of the most confounding problems in unbelievably important investigations, issues in which the safety of our country is hanging in the balance. And they're going to expect him to look back at them, make quick decisions based on the law based on the facts, not on his politics.
And so I just, I'm scratching my head as to how he's going to be able to do that. There's not a single deputy director in the history, 117-year history of the organization who didn't have that role until they'd already spent an entire career in the FBI, understanding its people, its authority, its capabilities and its mistakes, the places where you have to be really careful to keep the wheels on the road. So why is that? I think he's in for real challenges.
Why do you think that is so important in having a lifetime in FBI law enforcement in order to be the essentially number two person there? Yeah, it's not just being having a lifetime career in law enforcement, but specifically a career in the FBI. It's an enormous organization, 38,000 people, 12,000 agents, the admissions spans from national security and counterintelligence through counter-terrorism, all the way to every possible criminal violation in the federal code. In order to make those lightning-fast decisions on thousands of cases, whenever you may be asked, you have got to know what the organization can do, what its people are capable of, and the sort of things that lead its people into problems and making mistakes and holding people accountable.
Thinking that you could just fall into that role and do it competently without any of that knowledge or understanding or experience is confounding. So, Cash Patel, who previously, who getting the job, had talked about turning the FBI headquarters into a museum for the deep state and all the thousands of people who work there sending him out to field offices. He's not doing that, but he has talked about now already, I think sending about 1,000 people to field offices and I think some 500 other support people, I'm not exactly clear on the breakdown. What do you make of that move?
Because other FBI directors have tried to and talked about lessening the bureaucracy in Washington. Yeah, many directors have focused on that. It is a legitimate goal. If you come to the job with a vision for reducing that bureaucracy and gaining greater efficiency, but the way to do that is to understand what work is being done, what's not being done, where those opportunities for increased efficiency may be, what parts of the field offices where you need additional people to bolster those missions, to walk in on day one and just write a check that basically says 1,500 of you are gone, 1,000 to field offices and 500 to Huntsville, Alabama.
It's a, if that can't be anything other than a very blunt instrument and it runs the risk of doing damage to some critical missions that Americans count on. Interbocate, appreciate it. Thank you. Coming up next to the former leader of a group that helped spark the January 6 violence was back in DC this weekend.
He confronted two police officers who were attacked and injured that day, called them co-cowards. I'll speak to one Michael Fennone when we return. Also, John King speaks to Trump voters in a swing district about whether he'd still earned their vote today. When Enrique Tarrio was in court in front of a judge who was about to sentence him, the man who had been national chairman of the far right Proud Boys called January 6 a national embarrassment and apologized to police who defended the Capitol.
Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other charges. But that was a little less than two years ago and he's now out of prison, pardon by President Trump and eager it seems to get back into the limelight. Tarrio was in DC Friday where he was arrested near the Capitol and briefly detained by police for a simple assault after allegedly swiping at a protester. Then on Saturday he and others turned up at a conference for conservatives opposed to President Trump, the Taunting former police officer Michael Fennone and Harry Dunn, two of those officers he once told a judge were heroes.
Well yesterday the conference was evacuated after an email claiming there were pipe bombs and threatening several of the conference participants including former officer Fennone and he joins us in a moment where first Ardoni was Sullivan. It seems like a lot of these folks have been emboldened. That footage there they were waiting for Michael Fennone and Harry Dunn, former police officer at the hotel and followed them through were shouting abuse at them. There was a lot of things happening in DC last week, one of them being CPAC, the main conservative conference.
There was a bit of debate earlier that we quoted Jay Sixters would be allowed in or not. They very much were. One different proud boy told me when he was asked how he was being received there he said we're being treated like gods. These guys are really emboldened.
I want to show you just one example of a picture people will probably remember from January 6 of a man named Richard Barnet he had his feet on a desk in Nancy Pelosi's office. He was around CPAC last week in high spirits and was actually proud of himself. He was signing pictures giving autographs. There he is now bold but he was signing that picture, that iconic picture of course what many people would say was an absolute tragic day for America democracy celebrating.
Alright, Tony Sullivan, thanks very much. Please Officer Michael Fennone who was finally attacked in January 6th joins us now. Michael, let's get that back. What was your takeaway from that moment from what happened to you this weekend?
Well, I mean this is one of the tactics that's employed by Greekatorio and members of the Proud Boys which again, for those of you who don't know, is an extremist right wing fascist organization that uses intimidation tactics and violence threats of violence to try to suppress anyone who is in opposition for the MAGA fascist movement. I was speaking at the principles first summit, principles first as a grassroots organization that hosts an annual summit, inviting individuals from a variety of different backgrounds and political ideologies but who share a common goal in maintaining the democracy in this country. Like I said, Enrique Torio showed up with Ivan Ranklin and several other individuals that are members of this organization. And really what they were there to do was to provoke some type of confrontation with myself, Harry Don, Aquina Ginnell or Daniel Hodges who are also there speaking for a variety of different reasons.
I think one of them to try to elicit some type of response in which they could use to provide a viral moment that would raise their profile in social media but also to try to provoke some type of incident in which they could pursue litigation or sue for libel or some other type of slander. Which their organization which purports to be an organization that holds masculinity in very, very high regard. I would like to say this, where I'm from, settling a dispute through litigation is the least masculine thing that you can possibly do. It seems like, I read, Tari, what he said when he was before a judge trying not to get a long prison sentence and he was praising the police officers on January 6th.
He called it a national embarrassment, what happened that day. Obviously that's clearly not what he thought or that's what he was just trying to get a lesser sentence. He certainly seems emboldened by this but a lot of the so called proud boys, they had turned against this guy when they found out that he had according to his attorneys, his own attorney and others been cooperating with this multiple times in other incidences in years past. Yes, that's correct.
Enrique Torio really is out for himself. I mean, what this ultimately is about for Enrique Torio, separate from the proud boys, which is this violent extremist group that models itself after the 1930s and 1940s brown shirts of the neo-Nazi or Nazi movement. Enrique Torio is someone who loves the limelight. He's become this cartoonish character in which he dresses in this ridiculous outfit and he wears the sunglasses inside and everywhere that he goes.
But ultimately what it's about for Enrique Torio is clicks. He wants to generate social media attention so that he can sell proud boys swag and make money. He has in fact been rejected by various members of the movement because in fact, like you said, he was a government informant. He's been a government informant prior to his joining the Proud Boys and he was a government informant during law enforcement's investigation into these violent extremist groups that participated in the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6.
Michael Fonone, I appreciate talking to you. I wish the best. Thank you. Coming up next John King has a new all over the map report from voters in Colorado shared their reaction to the start of the president's second term and all the action targeting federal workers will be right back.
Elon Musk, a doge has another message for federal workers who don't respond to an email they received over the weekend asking them to justify their jobs or lose them. A deadline for that email was at midnight. But earlier today, the Office of Personnel Management said a response was quote, not mandatory. And just before airtime, Musk posted this, quote, subject to the discretion of the president they will be given another chance.
Failure to respond a second time will result in termination. A month into the administration Trump voters seem to be paying attention to the cuts of the threats. John King tonight has a new all over the map report from Colorado. The smaller ranch spans more than 100 acres home to 60 horses and one last bison.
This little guy down here his name is trouble. A bit ornery at times. Yes, trouble. You know, it's like Trump.
I really don't like him as a person. I think he's arrogant. Kind of insured. But David Hayes is a funny man.
I tried farming for a while and I would rather get run over by a bison. The Northern Colorado ranch has been in his family since the 1880s. The White House in Washington are far away. We go like hot dog.
Yes, Hayes wants the government trunk. But he doesn't see a coherent plan. And he doesn't trust Elon Musk. He doesn't believe what he says.
He doesn't want Trump letting Musk poke around Social Security or tax files. I don't know how many people he's fired. And you know, Musk keeps saying, well, I found a billion dollars of waste here. And Social Security, there's hundreds and hundreds of people that are collecting it that are between 100 years old and 100 years old.
Can you believe any of that crap? You can't substantiate it. You can't believe it. So that's a trust issue.
A blue-collar rural guy in one of the nation's most competitive congressional districts. A three-time Trump voter who calls the president unfocused and arrogant. But Democrats should hold a celebration. But if you had to do over tomorrow and you had to pick a game between Trump and Harris, what you do?
I would still do Trump. So conservative independence effort? Very conservative independence, yes. So with Esmeralda Rivera-Rey, she smiles when asked about Trump's frenetic first month.
I voted for that. I love it. What did you go for? I voted for a president that was going to put America first.
I voted for a president that was going to secure our borders. And I voted for a president that was going to make sure that we were respected throughout the world. And I believe I'm getting that. Really is the Northern Edge of Colorado's 8th, a congressional district that is 40% Hispanic and has a significant undocumented population.
Where as Ray has a court interpreter for defendants who don't speak English, she agrees with Trump that some who cross the border illegally are violent criminals. But she wishes he would add that the overwhelming majority are good people. I was raised as a migrant worker working in the fields. Those are the people that are out there picking their crops.
So even though I support Trump, I don't believe that he's the end-all-be-all savior of humanity. Nobody is. Now this one, we've had a Canadian hoser for a long time before all this stuff came up. Both of us American and Canadian hockey players and everything.
Like Hayes, Todd Waffles says Trump can be arrogant and pompous. But like Ramirez Ray, he's a fan of the early pace. I like him going full speed. Let's get things done.
Let's find out if the policies work. But yeah, this is a baby brewing system. Boil it up there. Waffles started satire brewing seven years ago.
Business is good. Any constantly debates expanding. But a plan to boost sales by adding canning machines is on hold because of Trump tariffs on aluminum. When you fly enough, you understand, you know, buckle your seat belt turbulence ahead.
Waffles approach is a trademark of many Trump voters. Accept the things that make you cringe to get the things you want, like a better economy and a stronger border. Trump's going to say what he's going to say. And yeah, some of us can exaggerate, some of them are not going to be true.
But at the end of the day, I think you've got to sift through all that easy, easy to get things done, easy to get the country moving the right way. Let go right in front of your eyes. Just like that. But I think that's the best way to improve the businesses, including the cocktail bar and the Greeley Hatchet House.
He seemed like the lesser two evils of my opinion. But Jenkins finds the first month unsettling, not a fan of tariffs, or executive orders by the dozens, or mosque, popping from agency to agency. I thought there'd still be checks in balance somewhere. So where do I want to go?
Should I hold a hand in front of your eyes? Plus, he sees fear in the Latino community. Wishes Trump would find a more compassionate way to improve border security. I think there's a better way to go about it.
I don't know if it's necessarily just force him out. Trump, of course, won't be on the ballot next election. But this district will help decide whether Republicans keep their tiny house majority. The castle of them didn't get crazy here in Colorado, and I hope that they would have a sometime impact on helping that.
The Republican congressman won by just 2,000 votes. His 26 reelection prospects will likely hinge on Trump's performance. On whether swing voters here see the president focused on the big issues, or bearing too far off target. So John, of all the Trump supporters you spoke with, some had complaints or at least unease about the president's first month back in office, should the president be concerned?
Well, he should listen to them, Anderson, certainly. You see some evidence today with the Trump administration backing off that must email to federal employees as perhaps evidence they are listening. Look, Trump voters, they understand there's a price of admission, some of the chaos, some of the other things. But what they most voted for was lower prices and a secure border.
That half of the Trump voters we talked to complained about Musk worried that he has too long of a leash. That's pretty interesting. Normally people complain about Trump's tone, not so much about what he's doing. So if you're the president, you want to keep an eye on that.
But the bigger risk is that, look, Trump's not on the ballot. Two years from now, House Republicans will be, and Senate Republicans will be. The district we were in is one of the most competitive districts in the country. It is very evenly divided.
And if swing voters or soft Trump voters think that Trump and Musk and Republicans in Congress are off doing other things like wandering into federal agencies or looking at the Social Security records and not lowering costs and worrying about the border, the Republicans could pay the price. But when you're on voters are starting to complain, you should listen. Alright, John King, thanks so much. Thank you.
Next, remember in the Secret Service agent who risked his life but could not change history. Clint Hill died today at the age of 93. He was the Secret Service agent who risked his life in Dallas almost 62 years ago, jumping on to the limousine carrying President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy.
He'll never forgive himself for being unable to save the president. He talked to 60 Minutes of Mike Wallace in 1975. It's my fault. No one has ever suggested that for an instant.
You did. We showed great bravery and great presence of mind. What was on the citation that was given you? For your work on November 22nd, 1963, extraordinary courage and heroic effort in the face of maximum danger.
Mike, I don't care about that. If I had reacted just a little bit quicker. I could have, I guess. I'll live with that to my grave.
That's it for us. The news continues. The source of Kaitlyn Collins starts now. This is CNN meteorologist Derek Van Damme, thrilled to introduce the new CNN Weather App.
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