Tonight on 360, President Trump continues his attempts on Ukraine's president calling him a dictator and pushes a lie. He started the war. We're keeping him honest. Also tonight, the disturbing measles outbreak in Texas, the worst in decades, dozens are infected, and 13 people, mostly unvaccinated kids, have been hospitalized.
And new details about a string of high-profile robberies of star athletes, including Kansas City Chiefs of quarterback Patrick Mahomes, authorities reveal who they say was involved. Thanks for joining us tonight. We begin with the President of the United States for a second time today, calling the democratically elected leader of Ukraine, Volodymiyor Zelensky, a dictator. Words that are music to the ears and the actual dictator of Vladimir Putin, who sent his army and missiles into Ukraine.
A dictator without elections, Zelensky better move faster. He's not going to have a country left. I love Ukraine, but Zelensky has done a terrible job. His country has shattered.
Well, that's the President again. For the second time today, calling Zelensky a dictator nearly three years into Russia's invasion, which just as a reminder, looked like this. We are here at the Antonov Airport, which is about 25 kilometers, 50 miles or so out of the center. These troops you can see over here, stand up Lewis.
These troops you can see over here, they are Russian airborne forces. They have taken this airport, not just being too official, they're Ukrainian officials, and they're saying that the plan isn't just a surround Ukrainian capital. They fear now that the plan is to take the capital, to decapitate the leadership of Ukraine, and to replace that leadership with a pro-Russian government. That's what Ukrainian officials are telling us now.
They think it's the Russian plan. This is Matthew Chance reporting the coverage from the 24th of February 2022 as Russian troops on orders from Vladimir Putin rolled into Ukraine. A dictator launching a war of aggression that would become the biggest in Europe since another dictator invaded Poland in 1939, touching off the Second World War. Now back then, the same as now, this country was divided over getting involved in European affairs.
And in his fireside chats, the nation, President Roosevelt did not commit to defending Europe. What he did do, however, unlike today, was tell the simple truth about the war and who started it. Until 4.30 o'clock this morning, I had hoped against hope that some miracle would prevent a devastating war in Europe, and bring to an end the invasion of Poland by Germany. Playing speaking from an American president, nearly 86 years later, here's what the current president is doing, most recently tonight and earlier today in his equivalent of a fireside chat social media.
Quoting from President Trump now, think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelensky, talked to the United States of America to spending $350 billion to go into a war that couldn't be won, that never had to start, but a war that he, without the US and Trump, will never be able to settle. And just yesterday, he flat-out said Zelensky started the war. He said it in response to complaints from Kiev about being frozen out of peace talks over its future. I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it's going very well.
But today I heard, oh, we weren't invited. Well, you've been there for three years. You should have ended it. You should have never started it.
You could have made a deal. You should never have started it. He said neither Ukraine nor its president did start the war. Russia and Vladimir Putin did.
The president continued today writing Zelensky admits that half of the money we sent him is missing. He refuses to have elections. It's very low in Ukrainian polls, and the only thing he was good at was playing Biden like a fiddle. The president then calls him and quote, dictator without elections and warns that Zelensky quote, better move fast or he is not going to have a country left.
He did the same as you just heard tonight. That thinly veiled threats aside, none of what he said about Zelensky. He's polling or the money is accurate. As for the polling, which the president has said was, quote, separately said, by the way, was down at 4% approval as the president's words.
That's just not true. According to a recent survey in Ukraine, 57% of Ukrainian's trust Zelensky, 37% do not. His support is actually fluctuated in the 60s and 50s for about a year or so. The numbers already dropped from the 90% approval he got in the months following Russia's invasion back in 2022.
As for the $350 billion figure, the inspector general overseeing it puts the number of at $130.1 billion obligated, of which $86.7 billion has actually been dispersed, and that includes Ukraine-related funding sent to countries other than Ukraine. Now, the allegation that the president Zelensky admits that half of the money is missing, that's just not true either. What he actually said to the Associated Press earlier this month was that, although people talk about Ukraine getting as much as $200 billion in USA, Ukraine had only received about $76 billion. He then said, according to the translation by Ukrainian news outlet, that he doesn't know where all the professed additional money has gone, and that perhaps these higher figures are correct, quote, on paper, end quote.
Which is not the same as him saying the money is missing, let alone implying, as the president just did, that there's something shady going on. As for polling Zelensky, a dictator for not holding elections, well, when it's in Churchill didn't hold elections during the Second World War, and by the way, when the war was over and he was voted out of office, he did not try to overturn the outcome. As for Vladimir Putin, he's held elections, but they are a foregone conclusion. There's a headline after his last one, Putin extends his rule after a predetermined vote.
Indeed. What is incredible is that President Trump, the President of the United States, is now echoing talking points that Vladimir Putin has pushed repeatedly. Putin is called Zelensky's presidency illegitimate and said he should hold elections. We're hearing that Russia wants to force Ukraine to hold new elections in order to sign any kind of a peace deal.
Is that something that the U.S. would ever support? Well, we have a situation where we haven't had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine. And yeah, I would say that when they want to seat at the table, you could say that people have to, wouldn't the people of Ukraine have to say like, you know, it's been a long time since we've had an election?
That's not a Russia thing. Well, keep it honest, not an exclusively Russia thing would be more accurate. Trump and Putin are on the same page on this. In any case, President Zelensky weighed in today about what President Trump is saying about him.
And fortunately, President Trump, I have great respect for him as a leader of a nation that we have great respect for. The American people who always support us, unfortunately, lives in this disinformation space. Well, he said that against the backdrop of two newspaper interviews with Vice President Vance, and which Vance warns Zelensky not to publicly criticize the president, quoting him now in the Daily Mail, the idea that Zelensky is going to change the president's mind by badmouthing him in public media. Everyone who knows the president will tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration.
In the meantime, even some Republican lawmakers appear uneasy with at least some aspects of the president's Ukraine position, though some such as Senator Lee Zemrkowski fell back on the variations of the GOP mantra during the first Trump administration of, oh, I didn't see that tweet. I would like to see that in context because I would certainly never be referred to President Zelensky as a dictator. If the president speaks for himself, what I want to see is a peaceful result, a peaceful outcome. Make no mistake about it, that invasion was the responsibility of one human being on the face of this planet.
It was Vladimir Putin. Former Vice President Pence also weighed in, tweeting, quote, Mr. President Ukraine did not start this war. Russia launched an unprovoked brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives.
The road to peace must be built on the truth. Former National Security Advisor John Bolton called what the president said, quote, some of the most shameful remarks ever made by a US president. And again, as you saw just a short time ago tonight, the president repeated those remarks. He's now introduced its Democratic Congressman and armed service committee member Seth Molten.
If this is Ukraine, or the war, he's also a Marine combat veteran of the Iraq War. Congressman, just what is your response to President Trump's comments on Ukraine's president Zelensky calling him among other things a dictator? You said it very well. I mean, he is echoing Putin's talking points.
It's as if to go back to your history lesson about President Roosevelt. President Roosevelt had started giving Hitler's talking points for invading Poland. Or if the president had blamed the United States for the attack on Pearl Harbor. This is truly unprecedented in American history.
And it's dangerous. It's dangerous for our national security. Because if Trump goes around supporting our adversaries, supporting dictators who invade sovereign countries, then at some point they're going to invade countries with security guarantees from the US and American troops are going to be fighting and dying. There are those who support the president who argue this is some sort of three dimensional chess that he is just rebalancing the power in the world.
And the rest of us just don't understand the genius of what he's doing. What do you say to that? I mean, he does seem to be alienating our allies, all the members of NATO, who we have alliances with in favor of a lot of reporting. Well, I say to people who say that is stop lying.
Because the mental gymnastics that you see Republicans undertaking to somehow justify the unjustifiable, to somehow justify literally supporting our enemies, which is the definition of treason is amazing. I mean, I was at the Munich Security Conference this past weekend. And after events like the vice president's shameful, embarrassing speech to our European allies, the most hypocritical speech I've ever heard an American official give in my entire life. The Republican senators were doing these mental gymnastics to try to get out of criticizing the administration.
Why Anderson? Because they're scared. They're just scared of Trump. They're so scared of Trump.
They can't present the truth to the American people. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting to see the President saying, well, I need to see the context. I mean, you can look at the context of like, who doesn't get any better? There's no context for that.
John Thune told CNN's Monoraju that there's no question that Russia is the aggressor here. Later, he told Fox that this is quote the back and forth that occurs in a situation like this to speak up or Democrats like, what can anybody in Congress do? I mean, it's just a sale. Well, I should have understood a lot if Congress did its job, but Congress is run by Republicans right now who again are just scared of Trump.
And so behind the scenes, Democrats like myself, especially those of us who do have good relationships with Republicans across the aisle, especially on national security committees like the Armed Services Committee, we're trying to convince our Republican allies to just have some courage to say in public what they're saying in private, to say to the US president what they said to our European allies over the weekend, when they tried to reassure our allies, tried to strengthen NATO in the face of the Trump administration repeatedly undermining it. The other thing that's developing, I mean, according to a memo obtained by CNN, the Defense Secretary, Pete Haggseth, has now ordered the military to prepare plans to make massive budget cuts, 8% cuts per year for the next five years. I mean, everything I heard while they were running was about raising money for the military, about improving the military. I think Haggseth had spoken about that just a few days ago.
You're obviously a veteran. What do you believe? Does that make sense? On one hand say, we're going to be improving the military and getting it ready, you know, getting ready, and yet we're going to have these cuts.
Well, look, I've been a critic of Pentagon spending for a long time, and I think the Pentagon could spend its money more efficiently. I think we should be investing in the modern, cheaper, smaller nimble systems like drones and autonomous underwater vehicles, as opposed to the big, heavy, old things like tanks and aircraft carriers that cost a lot of money to build and take a lot of expensive people to operate. So, I'll be the first to say that the Pentagon could modernize, could better meet today's threats, and probably save some money in the process. But let's be clear, that's not what's going on with this administration.
This administration can't get out of its own way. Trump himself said that he wants to raise the Pentagon's budget by about $150 billion in the very next day, said he wants to cut the budget in half. The Defense Secretary says a different thing every day of the week. So they can't get out of their own way, they're contradicting themselves, and therefore they clearly, Anderson, they clearly have no plan to keep the country safe.
It's terrifying, I thought to end on, but we're going to leave you there, Congressman Molten, I appreciate your time tonight. Thank you. Joining us now is Senior Plutom, David Axelrod, also Senior National Security Analyst and former Deputy Director of National Intelligence, Beth Sanger. David, what do you think the impact of this is if President Trump is seen as agreeing with the repeating arguments that Vladimir Putin, or just abandoning Ukraine basically?
Well, let's be clear. He, 81% of Americans in a poll that was released today say they don't trust Vladimir Putin in these negotiations. 9% say they do. The President is among those 9%.
12% of Americans have a favorable view of Vladimir Putin. Most Americans recognize that Vladimir Putin is a murderous, autocrat, dictator, war criminal, who instigated this war. And the President is trying to rewrite history in a way that completely conflicts with people's view. 64% of Americans view Ukraine as a friend or ally.
Only 11% feel that about Russia. So it really is hard to see. It may not be an issue that tips voters because it doesn't touch them and personally, but this goes to some core, core beliefs that Americans have shared, Republicans and Democrats for a long time. And I think this President believes that he can rewrite any history or recalibrate any story.
This one may be a little rough. The last thing I said is it's kind of laughable to say he says that Zelensky played Biden like a fiddle and Zelensky's dictator. A lot of people would say right now it looks like he is being played like a fiddle by Vladimir Putin. I mean, why do you think President Trump continues to say that Ukraine started this war?
I mean, do you think he actually believes that? Can he not conceive of a country not wanting to be invaded and not just wanting to quickly make a deal? He keeps talking about them. They should have made a deal.
He believes that a lot of talking points that are around that. The idea that Biden wanted Ukraine to be in NATO, which is not true, actually. It was kind of the opposite, which was a bit of a problem. So it's like a lot of talking points, but you can really trace this back to the Russia hoax, that call, that meeting in the Oval Office with Zelensky and the call where the president was demanding information from Zelensky on the Bidens and Hunter Biden in exchange.
So all of this traces back. And there's a very emotional thing that Zelensky inadvertently triggered today by saying he's in the space of disinformation. And that, too, Trump's ears is saying, you're saying I'm a tool of Russia. This is Russia hoax all over again.
And so he really hit the one button and hit it hard, which is why you're seeing all these people around Trump reacting this way. I'm not defending it. I'm just saying this is how it is. David, it's an interesting point that this goes back to that.
Good more than Trump was suggesting. We'll get to the weapons you need if you at least say you're going to launch an investigation. Yeah. No, he wanted Zelensky to be an accomplice in dirtying up Joe Biden who he feared as an opponent.
And look, all things are filtered through Donald Trump's personal politics. I mean, I think that's pretty clear. The question is, Anderson, to me, we've seen some Republicans speak out, Senator Wicker, and some others have been pretty outspoken. Many others have been muted.
It's kind of extraordinary to watch Marco Rubio, who was a vehement opponent of Putin, vehement anti-communist, strong supporter of human rights around the world when he was in the US Senate, now trying to justify this position, which is a complete sellout to Putin. And I wonder, at what point, some Republicans are going to say this is a bridge too far. And I guess it's when public opinion is such that they feel safe to do that. But this is really, really an abrogation of fundamental principles that many of them have espoused for a very long time.
That, you know, Congressman Molten was talking about this memo scene and has seen about egg sath going to be asking for a plan for 8% cuts to the penance of the budget every year for the next five years. I mean, people's eyes glaze over a percentage. Can you just explain? I mean, is that a big deal?
What impact would that have? And can you cut fraud and waste and at the same time build up your military capacity and modernize it? If you just took that 8% cut over the next five years as planned, we're at like 3.4% of GDP for our defense spending. And President Trump says that Europe, that's at 2% or so, they need to be at 5%.
Okay, I'm throwing out a lot of numbers. But if you took us out now five years with that cut every year, we would be at 2%. So you can see how like none of this kind of makes sense unless, and this is what some people are saying, that they're going to take all those cuts and move them into different programs. Now that's possible.
But you know what a memo that's written on Tuesday with a due date on Monday is not going to come up with a great plan for the most complex organization, I would argue, in the entire world, right? $850 billion in spending, you know, bases in 80 countries, all of this interconnectivity. It's just ridiculous. And so our national security actually could be at risk because people don't understand.
If you cut one thing here, what is the effect there? You have to actually plan and think this out. And I know that that's painful, but you actually have to plan and think. But that seems so old-fashioned and boring.
I know. And maybe I am Anderson. Can I just say one thing about this, Anderson? I think we ought to put this in the context of what's going on on the domestic side because right now they are desperately trying to figure out a way to cut the budget enough to be able to pass through this reconciliation process a huge tax cut.
And the Freedom Caucus and the House is demanding $1.5 trillion in cuts. And it's very hard to cut the budget unless you cut deeply into the Pentagon to cut it at that level. So I suspect that that may be animating some of what's going on here. Absolutely.
David Axelrod, that's in. I really appreciate it. Thank you. I'm recording the presence thoughts and mindsets around Ukraine, what her sources are telling here in New York's mayor in federal court.
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Greg 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. We're talking tonight about the president who, for a second time today, verbally attacked Vladimir Zelensky, the leader of an ally, Ukraine, and echoed Vladimir Putin's view of Zelensky in the war.
Attacks which we should underscore were factually untrue. More now on the president's motivations and making them for that which is the sources Caitlin Collins. So what is your sense of the president's mindset as he seems to be ratcheting up these rhetorical attacks on Ukraine and Zel? It's not really a surprise to the people around president Trump.
He's been saying a version of this for months now, even before he was elected. He was casting blame for this war on president Zelensky. He's always been very distant from Ukraine. Never really has felt a lot of love from them, obviously ever since his first impeachment in his first term in office.
And so to hear him say this now, though, the reason it's different is because he's now the president of the United States and is leading these negotiations, including with his senior aides that are happening between the United States and Russia so far, not Ukraine being included in that picture, despite what Trump told me just a few days ago in the Oval Office that Ukraine will have a seat at the table. And what's different also here from Trump's first term, where after that summit in Helsinki with President Putin, where Trump sided with Putin over US intelligence, we saw the fallout from Senate Republicans, from Trump's own advisers on that, convincing him that he had to say something afterwards. That is not what's happening here. Instead, we are seeing people like the vice president JD Bance amplify Trump calling Zelensky a dictator among his other claims that he made earlier in that post.
And so the same with the White House, really just elevating this and saying this is the official White House line. This is not some one-off. This is truly the position of this administration. And that's what's notable going into this period as we're expecting President Trump and President Putin to meet in the foreseeable future.
I mean, there's very little, very few Republicans criticizing President Trump. Does the White House even care about any congressional reaction at this stage? I think it depends on what it looks like in terms of Senate Republicans. We're seeing a lot of them say they don't agree with Trump that Zelensky is a dictator.
They're not criticizing Trump necessarily for calling him a dictator in this situation. Among the other claims he makes, inflating how much aid the US has sent to Ukraine compared to Europe and other claims that he was making there. And instead, they're just simply pointing to the fact that they believe this war has to end, that Trump has promised to end it since he was on the campaign trail. The question though is how this war ends and what this looks like.
And of course, Zelensky himself lashed out at Trump overnight after Trump had repeated what we hear from the Kremlin a lot, which is that Ukraine started this war casting doubt on Zelensky as a legitimate leader, saying that he was disliked by his own people. And he was saying that Trump is surrounded by disinformation coming after that phone call with Putin where Trump started bringing up the Ukrainian election, started bringing up Zelensky's poll number. And so he was essentially arguing that it was really waking up to that headline this morning that is what led Trump to outright call Zelensky a dictator now. And the question is how this shifts the negotiations going forward as Trump's main envoy, Keith Kellogg, is in Ukraine and arrived shortly after all of this happened.
Now, Kevin Collins, thanks very much. We'll see you at the top of the hour for the source. Your guests are probably Senator Eric Schmidt of Missouri. We're now in how all this is being received inside, Russia, for that you're seen in spread like it.
Breaking news on Kremlin control TV. Even the anchor can hardly believe her eyes. US President Donald Trump calling Ukraine's president Vladimir Zelensky quote a dictator in a social media post. Attention, this is incredible.
The host says Trump is obviously angry, having had modest success as a comedian Zelensky writes the US president couldn't have won in the Ukraine conflict and the US was giving him money in vain. Zelensky is doing his job poorly. Donald Trump now calls Zelensky a dictator. This is what he wrote.
Many Russians now hoping the Trump-induced fall in US-Russian relations could bring fast sanctions relief. At the Skaskas souvenir shop in Moscow, boss Alexander is rearranging the matrioshka dolls according to what many here hope could be the new world order. Our president and American president and also here in the Mohammed Salman, Al-Sawut also. So all friends of Russia.
On the street, much praise for President Trump sometimes may be a bit too much. What do you think about Donald Trump? I think maybe a small stallion. Who do you think small stallion was?
Of course I like Donald Trump. This man says he's a positive president. He will change America and make it great again. Moscow's leader is optimistic saying they believe the Trump administration understands their view of the Ukraine war.
Where Russian troops continue to make modest gains, this Russian defense ministry video purporting to show drone units hitting Ukrainian positions in Russia's curse region. Russian leader Vladimir Putin visiting a drone factory also praising Trump, saying a face-to-face meeting is in the works. We're not in a position where it's enough to meet each other. We have tea or coffee and chat about the future, he says.
We need to make our teams prepare issues that are crucial for both Russia and the US, including the Ukraine conflict, but not only it. You know, Anderson, the Russians are very open about the fact that they want more than just an end to the war in Ukraine on terms favorable for Russia. They want a full diplomatic reset with the United States. And there are actually Russian politicians out there who are saying they believe that the Trump administration's views on the conflict in Ukraine are actually much closer to Russia than they are to America's own European allies, Anderson.
I'd like to thank you very much. Still ahead, the corruption case against New York's mayor, which the Justice Department wants to dismiss, what happened in court today when DOJ lawyers tried. Also, the measles outbreak in Texas where nearly 60 people have contracted the disease. We'll be right back.
A federal judge today delayed his decision on whether to allow the Justice Department to dismiss its case against New York City mayor, Eric Adams. Judge Dale Hoe said he was not going to in his word shoot from the hip on the bench, while pressing Acting Deputy Attorney General, Neil Beauvay, and Adams' attorney about the grounds for dismissing the case. Adams was indicted in September on five counts, including bribery, corruption, wire fraud, and soliciting illegal foreign campaign donations. But last week, Beauvay ordered federal prosecutors to end Adams' case, arguing it was tainted by publicity, and hindered the mayor's ability to do his job and cooperate with the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
So that prompted eight federal prosecutors to resign for New York City deputy mayors also resigned with now scenes Caris Canell who was in court today, along with scene in chief law enforcement intelligence analyst John Miller who was deputy commissioner of the NYPD and served under Adams and former federal prosecutor Jessica Roth as well, joining us. So, Carol, talk about the hearing that happened. So it's really symbolic in court today. You had Emil Beauvay, the only prosecutor sitting at the table.
Todd Blanche, who was going to be the Deputy Attorney General once confirmed by the Senate was there in the audience. But then in the back row, it was the head of the FBI's New York field office sitting there along with the case agents who worked the case, who no longer had a seat at the table because of how Beauvay had come in and taken it over. And Adams, of course, was there with his lawyers. Now, the judge swore Adams in.
So he stood, raised his hand, was set under oath that he was not pressured or promised anything as part of this and he was not threatened by anything. So Beauvay seized on that and said to the judge, you know, it's undisputable. There is no quid pro quo here. He told the judge that really the only role the judge had was to decide whether the prosecution was acting in that faith.
And he said, I came up here to look you in the eye to tell you that I'm not. And so he was laying out to the judge that he really thought he had a limited role. But the judge questioned him about just the scope of this, his argument about interference in the mayor's duties. And he said, well, if there was a police commissioner that you were investigating, which is happening in New York, a former police commissioner, he said, would that mean that you wouldn't bring that case because of the same rationale, public safety, enforcing Trump's immigration agenda?
He said, absolutely. He said, well, what if it was a governor out of border state? And Beauvay said, absolutely. It's a prosecutorial discretion.
And he was saying it was really important that the Trump administration's policies be able to be enforced more so than going after crimes if it interfered with that. Just, I mean, the judge, in the case he doesn't think he had a lot of latitude here, does he? And what role would he have? It's true that under the law, the judge does not have a great deal of authority to deny a motion to dismiss abroad by the Department of Justice.
But what the court does have authority to do is require a statement of reasons and require accountability in the form of actually coming to court and stating before the court what the reasons are for the dismissal. The statement of reasons from the Justice Department. From the Justice Department. And then, Bill Beauvay did provide those statements.
The problem here is that they really do seem quite pretextual. I mean, the notion that Eric Adams can't carry out his law enforcement duties essentially while he's under the threat of this indictment, first of all, has been denied by the mayor repeatedly up until now. But also, what's, it goes to what Kerry was saying, and the judge's question is about, well, how far would you extend this argument? It really would suggest that any public official who had anything, any duties related to something touching on law enforcement would essentially be insulated from prosecution for even grievous corruption.
Why would anyone outside of New York care about this? I mean, what does it have some impact on the law at large? Well, it has an impact in terms of whether public officials actually would not be susceptible to criminal prosecution, regardless of how they've used their office. But it also, I mean, again, this is sort of the larger context here.
The reason why Beauvay is saying is that Adams should not be prosecuted is in part because he is complying with the president's agenda. And what's implicit is that if the mayor were not complying with the president's immigration agenda, that the charges could go forward. And that's part of what's been so concerning to people who've worked in the Department of Disimplicit Threat, that if Adams is not compliant, that the charges would be reinstated. And so it's a way of coercing a public official to act in a way that comports with the president's political agenda and prioritizing that over the even enforcement of the law.
John, I mean, you've covered legal battles in here for a long time. How does this stack up in terms of being odd? Completely unprecedented. And to pick up on your last question, I mean, the effect it is having to people outside New York City, meaning FBI agents, federal prosecutors across the country is, the mantra was always, we investigate, we prosecute, and we do so without fear or favor, without fear of pushback or political influence, without favor to people that we like.
And that has been reversed. What agents and prosecutors are thinking about now outside of New York City, inside of New York City is we now prosecute with fear if we are going after people who seem to have favor, whether that's at the Trump administration, because the one place that was meant to protect us, to insulate us, which was our management in the FBI, our director, or the Department of Justice, or the Attorney General, they would be that pushback from political influence. And now the political influence seems to be coming directly through them. And you're hearing that from people in the field.
I'm naturally depressed. My bones have been ringing off the hook, and not just in the last few days. This has been going on since this really started with talk of mass firing, based on what cases people investigated over the last four years, and looking at resignations from people who would say, including this case with multiple prosecutors, I'm just not prepared to do what you're telling me to do. And Kerry, what's next?
I mean, is there a win with the judge rule? So the judge said that it served no one's purpose for this to drag out. So it's signaling that he's going to make a ruling on this soon. There was this question.
Would he appoint someone to serve as an aide of the court who would take the other side and flesh out the legal arguments for him? He didn't really show his hand, but his inclination seemed to be that he was going to issue a decision on this pretty soon. He said multiple times that his responsibilities here were really narrow. I mean, it was kind of telling by the end of the hearing.
He was sighing. He sort of at the end was like, OK, I'm going to take this on a consideration. I'm going to read the transcript, and I'll get back to you guys. Kerry, John, just a good thing so much appreciated.
Why is there a measles outbreak in Texas? Now, the worst in decades. And now also in New Mexico. Plus, seven people charge on high profile robberies of star pro athletes, who they are, and how they were caught just ahead.
Texas health officials fear the biggest outbreak in measles there in decades may only get worse. Fifty eight people currently have measles after an outbreak that began just three weeks ago. And so, 13 have been hospitalized, mostly children between the ages of five and 17, and most are unvaccinated. Yesterday, New Mexico announced five more cases, bringing the total there to eight, joined out by Dr.
Peter Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital. So, Dr. Hotez, what concerns you most about this current outbreak in Texas? My big concern, Anderson, is the size of this.
Right now, it's 58 cases. I understand that number is going to be revised in a day or two, maybe getting up closer to 80 cases. And that's still maybe the tip of the iceberg, because I'm hearing there are a lot of kids in West Texas right now that have the characteristic symptoms of measles, meaning the characteristic of grass, and what we used to call the three Cs when I was a pediatric house officer in Boston, cough, carisa, meaning runny nose, and other upper respiratory symptoms in conjunct divitis. So, some are saying the numbers may get up to be a couple of hundred or more.
And so, and the reason you care about that is on average when you have a big measles epidemic, around 20% of the kids get hospitalized. So, you do the numbers, and it's a big surge on our pediatric hospital system as well. You called measles a bad actor. What does that mean, and just how sick are kids getting?
So, measles is a bad actor because it's one of our most troubling serious childhood illnesses. So, on average, if during a measles epidemic, roughly 20% of kids are hospitalized, a significant percentage will get measles pneumonia, which often we can require an intensive care unit admission, even intubation. Also, encephalitis, measles encephalitis is a known complication. Deafness because of measles, air infection together with the encephalitis, and long-term sequelae.
Then, you have the problem that the measles virus has been shown relatively recently to infect a certain type of cells required for immunological memory, a B&T cell memory cell. So, all of that means this is one of our most feared childhood infections, and to have an operative size is really troubling. And just to say the obvious, there is a vaccine for this, yes? And it works, right?
Yeah, absolutely. It was developed in the early 1960s by John Enders at Boston Children's Hospital with Sam Katz and Dr. Peebles. And that vaccine, Anderson, a single dose of vaccine usually given towards the tail end of infancy, around one year of age is 93% protective.
And then you give a second dose, it's 97% protective around school entry. It's one of the most effective and one of the safest vaccines we have called the MMR vaccine. And this is why it's so tragic. All of this is preventable.
None of those kids have to be hospitalized. None of those kids will have to have measles complications. There are some of the people who have gotten sick. We're vaccinated.
Yeah, very small number. I think of the 60 so far, almost all of them are either unvaccinated or not vaccinated or unknown vaccination status around four. They're vaccinated and that probably means they got a single dose of the vaccine, which is 93% protective, which is about what you'd expect. But overwhelmingly, these are unvaccinated kids.
Dr. Peter Hotez, appreciate it. Thank you for coming up. New details on the theft ring targeting high profile pro athletes.
The Justice Department has released new details about seven alleged gang members charging connection with a string of high profile robberies of pro athletes, including star NFL quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes and Joe Burrow, probably the son of all, as the story. While Milwaukee Bucks forward, Bobby Portis was on the NBA court last November. But the already say a team of burglars was stealing nearly $1.5 million worth of property out of his home. The hit is detailed in a newly unsealed federal criminal complaint.
In it, FBI agent Sheriff Selfie obtained through a search warrant showing alleged members of a so-called Chilean South American theft group. They smile and show off their loot, including luxury watches and a safe notice when wearing a chief's top investigator suspects some of these men also hit the Kansas City homes of Chief's quarterback Patrick Mahomes and tied in Travis Kelsey in October. Prosecutors suspect seven Chilean nationals of comprising of burglary rang targeting the homes of pro football basketball and hockey players. According to court records, they traveled around the country to the homes of pro athletes using fake IDs to rent cars and hotels.
They conduct due diligence on who the marks are. And they conduct surveillance to see what patterns or behavior are. They then go further and conduct a little bit more investigation into building plans to see points of access. Is this an entire Wi-Fi system?
How do I get into the house? Does it have a backup generator? They put these things together, they select the mark in the time, and that's how they have a high probability of success. The property stolen during high-profile burglaries since the fuel of lucrative demand on the streets, in a separate investigation federal agents arrested two men in New York City's Diamond District this month.
They're suspected of buying goods stolen from an NFL star, then reselling them in their store. Full of sound of all joints. Now, this is incredible. What is the FBI saying about it?
They're not saying that they're getting Anderson, but they've actually been raising alarms. They even issued a memo to the NFL last November, basically saying that they were looking into this and saying that you have this crime syndicate that's essentially exploiting the team's schedule. So if you think about it, they know when the team's going to be away. So some of these individuals would scout out their homes and know when to break in to steal some of these high-dollar goods.
And they're also warning about their tactics. They go from the very primitive, like posing according to the feds as joggers or lawn care workers to conduct surveillance on houses to the more advanced, like using drones, that's hard to believe, but also even using Wi-Fi signal jammers to try to mess with the wireless surveillance systems that some of these players may have in their house. So they were able to overcome burglary alarm systems? Essentially, they were able to know exactly when to go in.
And that's the key here. One of the experts you just heard from saying it all boils down to what the player of the celebrity may actually be doing, not to advertise some of their high-dollar high-price goods on social media, because it's very easy for you and I to simply go on to their schedule, especially with the sporting team, certainly, and know when they're going to be playing out of town. It is very advanced. The way it was described by an expert today, they are highly intelligent, very sophisticated, and just because these guys have been charged, it's not the end of this.
Yeah, and it's not about things so much. That's it for us. The source of Caitlin Collins starts now. From the descendants of history makers involved in the Louisiana purchase to the Lewis and Clark expedition, discover the untold stories of American expansion in the CNN original series This Land, premiering June 7 on CNN.
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