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Steph Curry Wins NBA All-Star Game MVP; Representatives from Ukraine Not Part of Trump Administration Officials' Meeting with Russian Counterparts on Ending Ukraine War; At Least 10 People Killed in Winter Storm Flooding in Parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, and Virginia; President Trump Appeals to Supreme Court to Confirm His Ability to Fire Head of Government Ethics Watchdog Agency; Vatican: Pope Francis has Polymicrobial Infection. DOJ Dismisses Corruption Case Against NYC Mayor. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired February 17, 2025 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[08:00:00]

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Later he would connect again, this time from half court. I know, he makes it look so easy, right. He scored a combined a 20 points in both games. He was named the game's MVP for the second time in his 16 year career.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPH CURRY, GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS POINT GUARD: Yes, it's just a celebration of a lot of great things happening in basketball. To be playing with these guys for as long as we have, like, it's obviously our responsibility to come out and put on the show. And I thank them for helping me do that in Golden State, because a lot of history has happened out here, but the competition and the camaraderie and the legacies that we all create is what it's all about. So I'm happy to be a part of that celebration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MANNO: And this is pretty cool, too. Damian Lillard, one of the best shooters the NBA has ever seen, a loss against him in a shooting contest feels inevitable, but do not tell that to one fan who beat Dame with $100,000 on the line. All the fan had to do was make one long range three before Lillard could make three of them, and he did that in the Mr. Beast challenge. What I loved about this, too, is he jumps right into Shaq and Kenny's arms and into a pile of cash. And Dame being a good sport, giving him a cash bath. Oh, I know it's fun.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That is actually pretty awesome.

MANNO: It was cool. It was really cool.

BERMAN: All right, Carolyn Manno, thank you very much.

Brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump using the starkest example of authoritarian language, posting "He who saves his country does not violate any law." Trump testing his power in a new case filed with the Supreme Court as he tries to fire the head of an independent ethics agency.

And at least 10 people have been killed in a deadly winter storm that flooded parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, and Virginia. The conditions even more treacherous as potentially record setting cold temperatures are moving into the region.

And a growing measles outbreak, hospitals are on high alert in west Texas as cases double in just a week. This as an outbreak is officially declared in neighboring New Mexico.

I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: America's top diplomat and top key negotiators are on the ground in Saudi Arabia today, getting ready for the most critical talks yet since Russia launched its war on Ukraine. The U.S. sitting down with Russia to potentially talk about bringing an end to the war in Ukraine, though glaringly absent and missing from that conversation is anyone from Ukraine, and also anyone from Europe. European leaders holding an emergency meeting today in order to coordinate a response to what's happening in Saudi Arabia without them.

And moments ago, Ukraine's President Zelenskyy had this brand new reaction just in that Ukraine perceives any negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine as those with no results. CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House for us. We saw Secretary of State Marco Rubio arriving in Riyadh just a little while ago. What are you hearing about what is going to happen there?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Right. Well, as you mentioned, we saw Rubio arriving this morning. Others arrived yesterday for those high stakes talks tomorrow. I'd note, Kate, as well, that these talks come almost three years to the day after Russia illegally invaded Ukraine. Now, look, there's a ton of things that are on the table that are going to be discussed here, but in what I'm hearing in my conversations with White House officials and Trump administration officials more broadly, is that this is a starting point. And we kind of heard Secretary of State Marco Rubio say that yesterday that this is, you know, the beginning of what they hope will lead to real negotiations.

Now, just to give you a sense of who is going to be there. On the U.S. side, we know that, as I mentioned, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, we saw him arrive this morning. He will be there, as well as Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who more and more is starting to have Ukraine fall into his portfolio. And then also National Security Advisor Michael Waltz.

Now from the Russia side, we know that Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and presidential aide Yury Ushakov will also be there, you know, the counterparts to the U.S. delegation. Now, as you mentioned, Kate, who won't be there, that is Ukraine,

which has caused a ton of consternation among people, both in Kyiv, but also among a lot of the United States top European allies. The president, Donald Trump, was asked about this directly yesterday, saying, does Ukraine have a seat at this table? Will they be part of this negotiation? Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you expect Zelenskyy to be involved in these conversations? What will his role be?

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENT: Yes, I do. I do. He will be involved.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- on your timing of your meeting with Putin in Saudi Arabia?

TRUMP: No, there's no time set, but it could be very soon.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like this month?

TRUMP: It'll be soon. We'll see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, that last part there, Kate, is obviously so crucial. When will this meeting between President Donald Trump himself and Vladimir Putin take place?

[08:05:04]

I am told that how these negotiations go tomorrow in Riyadh will really set the table for the timeline for how quick that could be.

BOLDUAN: Alayna Treene at the White House for us. Thank you so much, Alayna.

John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, a winter storm causing major problems for parts of the south and Midwest after leaving ten people dead already. Most of those deaths are in Kentucky, where some areas saw more than eight inches of rain. Officials there are urging people to stay off the roads. The governor says teams carried out more than 1,000 rescues, and this same system spawned at least four tornadoes in Alabama. Let's get right to CNN's Danny Freeman, who is in Salem, Virginia. Oh, wow, Danny, look at that river behind you.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. You're right. Were in Salem, Virginia. This is the Roanoke River behind me right here. And I just want to illustrate exactly kind of what these parts of Virginia experience over the course of the past 24 to 48 hours. This river right here was actually flowing right up over this entire bridge. You can see there are icicles that are remaining on the bridge from where the river once was on there. There was also some damage on there. These John Deere tractor over here or machinery, that was trying to remove debris through much of the weekend.

Thankfully, in this part of Virginia, the waters have receded, as you can tell, but not a lot of other areas of Virginia were as lucky. We learned yesterday afternoon that the governor, Glenn Youngkin, submitted a request for that expedited major disaster declaration. That was because at one point, over 200,000 people were without power in southwestern Virginia. Also, two areas just to the west of us right here suffered catastrophic flooding and historic flooding they hadn't seen before.

Sara Sidner was speaking with someone in your last hour from the government of Virginia who noted that there are a lot of people who are still in this area also recovering from hurricane Helene, that are now getting hit again from this storm over the weekend.

But, John, as you noted as well, Kentucky taking a lot of the brunt of this storm damage over the course of the weekend, 1,000 water rescues in Kentucky, nine confirmed deaths at this point. Take a listen to how some first responders were dealing with some evacuations back on Saturday evening when this storm was really hitting its peak.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody was taken care of. They have the meds they need, the oxygen, the beds, the warmth. They don't have to worry about food and being scared. They're in a safe place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Now, here's something else ill note, John. The flooding conditions in parts of eastern Kentucky still bad right now. While waters are receding in some places, like here and other parts of Virginia, in Kentucky, there are still flooding, and there are still concerns that some rivers may continue to rise over the next day or so. So -- urging the public to be cautious. And if you see flooding in any of these areas, do not try to drive through it, because that's what has caused some of the deaths and injuries that they've seen over the course of the weekend, people trying to drive through flooded waters and then ultimately getting swept up in those intense currents. John?

BERMAN: Yes, some of the pictures we've seen out of Kentucky just devastating. All right, Danny Freeman for us in Salem, Virginia. Danny, thank you very much.

Sara?

SIDNER: All right, quid pro quo or no? New York City Mayor Eric Adams under a microscope after the DOJ dropped a sweeping corruption case against him, setting off a mass resignation of prosecutors. Now, Trump's border czar and the mayor doing a little damage control, perhaps.

And President Trump's fight to fire the head of a government ethics watchdog agency has now reached the Supreme Court.

And new details on a nightmare scenario, a fiery crash inside a highway tunnel in Wyoming.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:13:20]

SIDNER: President Trump's administration will make its first Supreme Court appeal of his second term this week. The president wants the Supreme Court to allow him to fire the head of a government ethics watchdog agency, Hampton Dellinger. It's an independent agency, by the way. Late Saturday night, the Justice Department sent an appeal to the Supreme Court just hours after the D.C. circuit appeals court declined to overrule the lower court's decision to block Dellinger's dismissal. The Trump administration called the ruling, quote, an unprecedented assault on its power.

Joining me now is CNN's senior legal analyst, Elie Honig. All right, this role is supposed to be independent. The president is arguing what?

ELIE HONIG, SENIOR CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, so, Sara, the president fired the head of the Office of Special Counsel. Important to note, that is not a prosecutor. That is not like what we got used to with Robert Mueller or Jack Smith. This is the head of an independent agency that's supposed to be in charge of whistleblower complaints. Now, the problem is that that special counsel argued that under the law establishing the position, he can only be fired for what we call good cause, meaning for misconduct or for poor performance on the job. But Trump offered no such cause. He simply said, I'm the president. You're fired. So that's the nature of the dispute.

Now, up until this point, that firing has been put on hold by the lower courts. And so now the Trump administration is going to the U.S. Supreme Court and saying, essentially, take that, hold off. I, the president am the head of the executive branch. I, therefore, should have the right to fire this individual for good cause or for no cause at all. So fundamentally, Sara, this is a conflict between the power of the president as the head of the executive branch and the power of Congress, which tried to put limits on the president's ability to fire this particular individual.

[08:15:00]

SIDNER: This is the first of these kinds of challenges. We're expecting more, I am assuming. What can you tell us that may be on the way to the Supreme Court?

HONIG: Yes, so there are so many different challenges along the lines of what is the president's power to fire people or to remove staff within Executive Branch. And again, we could be seeing a sort of restructuring of the way the courts look at that.

Traditionally, when Congress has passed a law like the one at issue here, the Supreme Court has said, well, Congress does have the ability to regulate the president to some extent. But what Donald Trump is arguing, and I think he will get some traction in the courts, is if you're the president, I can do what I want within the Executive Branch.

There certainly are constitutional limits, and there may be other limits, but this is going to be a test of what we call the unitary executive theory, which is a theory that conservatives have long have long signed on to that basically says the president isn't just the head of the Executive Branch, he is the Executive Branch and his will prevails within the Executive Branch no matter what Congress says about it.

SIDNER: Okay, so one of the cases that is going to come up or may end up at the Supreme Court, is that birthright citizenship. Trump says the 14th Amendment never had anything to do with undocumented immigrants, does it?

HONIG: Well, we will find that out. So thus far, Donald Trump's effort to undermine birthright citizenship has been roundly rejected by the court.

So, birthright citizenship comes from the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. It says any person born or naturalized inside the United States is automatically a US citizen. Trump is trying to end that.

And so far, there have been at least five different legal challenges to Trump's action brought in the district courts, we are not yet up at the US Supreme Court. All of them have gone against Donald Trump.

The one that I keep coming back to is there is a Reagan appointed district court judge in the state of Washington who rejected Trump's argument and said it was the worst constitutional argument he had ever heard in 40 years on the bench.

So, the track record for Trump as it heads up to the courts of appeals and ultimately the US Supreme Court, is not great here. But again, you never know what the US Supreme Court is going to do. They haven't faced a direct challenge to the birthright citizenship in over a hundred years.

SIDNER: And the last time they did, they said that you should be a citizen if you were born in here according to the Constitution.

All right, lastly, I want to get your take on a post that Donald Trump made saying, "He who saves his country does not violate any law." A quote, by the way, attributed to Napoleon. How would a seasoned lawyer such as yourself respond to that if it was said in court?

HONIG: Well, just because it starts with 'he who' and sounds all legally doesn't mean it is actually a legal principle. There is a difference between a political slogan and a legal principle.

On the one hand, I think the legal problem here is obvious. It starts from the premise that whatever's happening is, "saving the country." The other problem with this premise, if it were to be made in court, is it's circular. Its self-fulfilling. You say, well, first of all, I am in fact saving the country. Therefore, there is no law that can limit me.

That's not going to carry any water in any court. So, it's a cool tweet, but its meaningless with respect to any sort of legal argument.

SIDNER: Cool or concerning, depending on which side of the aisle you are on.

Elie Honig, thank you so much, I really appreciate it.

HONIG: Sharp tweet. Yes.

SIDNER: Sharp tweet yes -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, protesters are now demanding that New York City Mayor Eric Adams be removed from office after the Justice Department moved to drop the corruption charges against him. The mayor's response to all of them: "I am going nowhere."

And, we have new word coming in for Vatican, an update on the pope's condition while he remains in the hospital. Tests showing a "complex clinical picture" that Pope Francis is now facing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:23:15]

BERMAN: All right, breaking this morning a change in treatment for Pope Francis, an extended hospital stay as well.

A short time ago, the Vatican announced he has a "polymicrobial infection" in his respiratory tract. And that indicates a, "complex clinical picture."

The 88-year-old pontiff was admitted to the hospital on Friday. Let's get right to CNN's Vatican correspondent, Christopher Lamb, who is outside Gemelli Hospital. What are you learning about this?

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the second change in treatment that Pope Francis has undergone since he arrived at the Gemelli Hospital behind me on Friday.

We're now into the fourth day of the Pope's treatment. The Vatican saying that this is a polymicrobial infection, which essentially means, it is a complex infection with different factors, but the Vatican not saying what precisely those are.

Now, the Pope is 88 years old. He has been vulnerable to respiratory infections in the past. He's lost part of his right lung, which was removed when he was a young man, and the Vatican saying that on Wednesday, he will not lead the Wednesday General Audience. Basically for the forthcoming days, the Pope is being told to rest and recover in hospital.

The Pope has been very active in recent days, but has been suffering clearly from major respiratory problems. He hasn't been able to speak. He hasn't been able to give his addresses or speak for long periods of time. And clearly, the doctors are trying different methods to help him overcome this infection.

BERMAN: Yes, I think there is some vagueness in the language the Vatican uses here, which does raise some questions about whether this is a turn in his condition or not. What are they saying about how long he might be in the hospital?

[19:25:08]

LAMB: Well, we haven't got a clear timetable from the Vatican about how long he will remain in the hospital. It effectively is determined by how well the Pope responds to the treatment. Initially, when the Pope was admitted on Friday, the Vatican cancelled all the Pope's events for the following three days. Now, we learn that the Wednesday event has been cancelled, too.

But it looks to everyone covering this closely that the Pope is going to be staying in hospital for what the Vatican say is an adequate amount of time. That looks like several days at this point, but no clear timetable being given.

BERMAN: All right, well, keep us posted as to what you learn. As we said, new information, albeit a bit vague in some places -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you, John.

President Trump's border czar trying to clean up speculation that he did a dirty deal with the mayor of New York. Mayor Adams saw his corruption case suddenly dropped by the DOJ, leading to more than a half dozen DOJ prosecutors quitting in protest.

Since then, the New York mayor doing several interviews, sitting beside border czar, Tom Homan saying there was no quid pro quo to let the case go, but eyebrows raised when Homan said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, BORDER CZAR: If he doesn't come through. I'll be back In New York City and we won't be sitting on a couch. I'll be in office up his butt saying, where the hell is the agreement we came to?

That was a joke. And if you play the tape further, he laughs, immediate response I will hold you accountable to it. I'll hold ICE accountable with what they did done. I'm telling you, I need you to come through on your promise me, and he responds to me that I need to come through on mine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Joining us now to discuss former New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Thank you so much for being here. What you just heard from Tom Homan, he talks about them doing -- he doesn't say deal, the plan, I mean, is this a deal that they have made from what you've been listening to?

BILL DE BLASIO (D), FORMER NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: Look, it doesn't look good for sure. And I think it was a huge mistake for the mayor to go on that show with Tom Homan, who is a figure who is reviled by many here in New York City.

We're the ultimate city of immigrants and here is a man who is extremely disrespectful to immigrants, treats them all like they're criminals, even though the vast majority are law abiding. So, that was a mistake to begin with.

These situations is a mess. Sara, obviously, But what I'm concerned about at the same time is, you know, a quid pro quo is a very different matter than a policy decision, whether I agree with him or not, I often don't, Eric Adams has said he wants to do something different about immigration than some of the rest of us had done previously. That has to be seen in its own light.

But right now, it's incumbent upon Eric Adams to set this record straight. And he has basically, in my view, he has this week to do it. His entire political career, his time as mayor, everything comes down to this week. He has to convince the people of New York City right now that he will take on Donald Trump when Donald Trump does something that hurts New York City.

I don't mind if he agrees with Trump on a particular matter, or has to curry favor to get funding. That happens all the time in politics. But if Trump is doing something that hurts New York City, the people in New York City have to believe Eric Adams will have their back.

SIDNER: What did you think of the corruption case on its face from --

DE BLASIO: I thought it was a weak case, honestly.

SIDNER: You thought it was weak?

DE BLASIO: Yes.

SIDNER: When you hear, though, from prosecutors who led the case, one of them saying about the decision to drop it: No system of ordered liberty can allow the government to use the carrot of dismissing charges, or the stick of threatening to bring them again to induce an elected official to support its policy objectives."

Is there something dirty going on here? These prosecutors, by the way, many of them clerked for conservative judges, many of them considered conservative voices.

DE BLASIO: Sara, from my point of view, everything that's happened at the Justice Department is dirty right now. The Justice Department is being politicized, weaponized in a way we haven't seen since the Watergate years. So, it's deeply troubling.

Look, these folks had a chance at the Justice Department to say these are weak charges, we choose not to pursue them. We have other cases we think are more important. That would have been fine. President Trump could have pardoned him. I don't love the way he's using the pardon, obviously, but he could have done that.

I think it was very cynical and inappropriate for the Justice Department to act the way they did. It put Adams in this situation now. But now the onus is on Adams to prove them wrong. So far, he bluntly has not done a good enough job doing that. He has a chance now to fix that.

SIDNER: Do you really think he has a chance to fix that? Just judging from some of the comments that he has made and some of the things he has said, and sort of appearing on "Fox & Friends" in a place where this is a very heavily Democratic city.

DE BLASIO: He has a chance to fix it, because history always tells us there's a chance to turn things around. People have to see resolve from him. And if he doesn't do it really quickly, events are going to overtake him.

And the unfortunate reality is, we have in this city right now a series of choices before us. We have an election for mayor in four months, Democratic primary, which is decisive. If it's not going to be Eric Adams at this point, it looks like it's going to be Andrew Cuomo, a man charged with numerous acts of sexual harassment, among other things.

I mean, this is a very sad reality for New York City right now. So, when I say he has one chance to fix it, it's almost like a prayer that something gets better in this city and the mayor shows that leadership to help us get out of this mess.

[08:30:33]