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Trump Aides Defend Gaza Takeover Proposal; Critics Raise Concerns About Elon Musk's Role In Government; Trump Targets Federal Workers For Mass Layoffs; Sweden Mourns Worst Mass Shooting In Country's History; Palestinians Push Back Against Gaza Takeover Idea; Trump Proposal To Remove Palestinians From Gaza Called A Crime Against Humanity; Syria Sees Long Road Ahead As It Starts To Rebuild. Aired 12-12:45a ET
Aired February 06, 2025 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: The White House goes all in on Gaza-a-Lago.
Hello, I'm John Vause.
Ahead on CNN Newsroom.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: This is an out-of-the- box idea. That's who President Trump is.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Standing by the president's plan to own Gaza, but with a few tweaks.
Cutting the size of the federal government with an ax.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What is the general feeling across government amongst your fellow federal workers right now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Grief.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Government workers in the U.S. now face mass firings possibly in the coming hours.
And rebuilding Syria.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: When you're here on the ground and looking at it, it's clear that it is going to cost hundreds of billions to rebuild. (END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And for a nation in ruin, broken and bankrupt, where those billions will come from remains a mystery.
ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with John Vause.
VAUSE: A day after Donald Trump left much of the world stunned with his plan to force about two million Palestinians out of Gaza and turn the Palestinian territory into a Mar-a-Lago on the Mediterranean, or a Gaza-a-Lago, the White House and other senior officials are praising the proposal but at the same time walking back some key elements.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio described the offer to rebuild as generous, but notably added Palestinians will be relocated on a temporary basis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: So what he's very generously has offered is the ability of the United States to go in and help with debris removal, help with munitions removal, help with reconstruction, the rebuilding of homes and businesses and things of this nature so that then people can move back in. But in the meantime, they'll have to live somewhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: The White House press secretary says the plan is historic and outside the box thinking, while insisting the project would not be funded by the United States. Those opposed included the Palestinians, Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Germany. Some Republicans in the U.S. asked how this plan puts America first, and the U.N. secretary-general did not mention Trump or his proposal specifically, but reaffirmed his support for a two-state solution.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTONIO GUTERRES, U.N. SECRETARY-GENERAL: In the search for solutions, we must not make the problem worse. It is vital to stay true to the bedrock of international law. It is essential to avoid any form of ethnic cleansing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: More details now from CNN's Jeff Zeleny reporting in from the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Against a wave of backlash from Republican senators and indeed leaders around the world, the White House moved to explain and walk back a bit President Trump's stunning statement from Tuesday night that the U.S. will, quote, "own the Gaza Strip" and make moves to develop it. Now, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the
Palestinians would only have to be temporarily relocated. That was at odds with what the president said one day earlier. He said there would be a permanent resettlement. But there was still some question about the fact that if the president would be willing to send U.S. forces to the region, the press secretary said the president was leaving it open for this reason.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEAVITT: I think the president is very good when he's making deals and negotiating not to rule out anything because he wants to preserve that leverage in negotiations. And so I think that's what he's doing here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: So laying this out in terms of any ordinary deal the president has done certainly flies in the face of what he has long talked about. He has long criticized the never-ending wars in his views and long standing foreign entanglements. But there certainly are some questions now. Is this just an opening gambit? If so, how will this affect the second phase of the peace process? But White House advisers are saying the president, yes, is still serious about the idea of developing Gaza and of moving the 1.8 million Palestinians.
But there is no doubt, one thing is certain. The president said everyone loves this plan. That simply is not true. Leaders in the Arab world, of course, and European nations as well, push back considerably on that.
Republican senators also said that there simply would not be an appetite for an investment of aid from the U.S. or forces as well. So there is some doubt now, just one day after the president made that stunning announcement in the White House, what the future of that may be, but he certainly is committed to doing something new he said in the Middle East.
Jeff Zeleny, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: To Los Angeles now and CNN's senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein.
Welcome back. Good to see you.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, John.
VAUSE: OK. So a day after Donald Trump essentially shocked the world with his postwar vision for Gaza, the White House was insisting he's a visionary and the plan is serious.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LEAVITT: This is an out-of-the-box idea. That's who President Trump is. That's why the American people elected him. And his goal is lasting peace in the Middle East for all people in the region.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: There is a long list of reasons why this plan is a nonstarter from the Geneva Conventions preventing mass relocations of populations. Very little if any support among Americans for spending billions of dollars and sending U.S. troops into the Middle East. International opposition, not least of all from the Palestinians.
So am I wrong here to believe that, you know, Club Gaza or the Middle East Riviera will never actually become reality?
BROWNSTEIN: I look at two big themes here. I mean, first, as we talked about during the transition, you know, all of the folks in the room who would have said no to Donald Trump in the first term are not there in the second term. I mean, the first term, he felt that he had to make concessions to other power centers in the Republican Party and appoint people who were not really part of his personal network or his MAGA movement.
They're not there this time. So you're pretty much getting Trump unfiltered on both domestic and foreign policy. And that is not going to be an unmitigated blessing for his administration or for Republicans. And the other thing is that, you know, this is the international law equivalent of what we've been seeing on so many domestic statutes, which is that Trump is just barreling past legal restrictions that he wants to ignore.
I mean, firing inspectors general, ignoring the civil service protections, and dismissing prosecutors who worked on January 6th cases, ignoring the federal law that the Supreme Court just upheld on TikTok. And here, clearly envisioning a series of actions that would violate international law.
VAUSE: Democrat Senator Chris Murphy and many others are warning that this is all just, in fact, a distraction. On Instagram, he posted, "The U.S. isn't invading and occupying Gaza. Trump wants us to talk about this crazy idea all day to relieve the pressure on him that is building, as the public figures out that a theft is occurring, the billionaires illegally taking over government to steal from us."
That seems to be a reference to Elon Musk's recent takeover of a little known government department, with the "Washington Post" reporting Musk and a band of allies are harnessing tech units and other agencies that handle daily federal operations to amass sweeping control of the executive branch. So just what is Musk doing and why?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes, I mean, you know, it looks like that under the guise of efficiency, Musk is carrying out an ideological kind of purge for Trump. I don't think anybody would dispute that, you know, with each new administration, there's a place for reviewing federal systems. Certainly, federal information management is not at the cutting edge of the 21st century. But if you look at the targets that Musk in particular is focusing on, they are long standing ideological targets of the right.
I mean, USAID, $40 billion in annual budget, really not a, you know, major component of the federal deficit. What's coming at the Education Department, the attempt to dismantle and potentially seek to shutter the Education Department. That's been a goal of conservatives for a long time. And then all of the issues about Musk's personal conflicts of interest and privacy, potential violations.
You know what? What you basically got is an attempt to kind of move the federal government in an ideological direction that's being cloaked in the guise of efficiency.
VAUSE: And we know that the potential conflict of interest here, because of the billions of dollars of government contracts that Musk and his companies actually have. But then there's also investigations for breaches of government regulations, which are ongoing. X, formerly Twitter, facing legal action from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Tesla under investigation by the Justice Department for possible securities and wire fraud.
Tesla is also being sued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over alleged racial harassment at one of the plants there. And in the recent past, Tesla and SpaceX have been fined for breaching a host of regulations. And Musk has given no indication that he won't interfere with any of these regulatory agencies by changing the staff, firing them or trying to close them down.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes, and the White House has said that he will judge his own conflicts of interest, which I'm sure is very reassuring to Americans out there. This just seems to be setting itself up for a fall to me. I mean, Donald Trump was elected above all because Americans believe that he would do a better job than Joe Biden did at keeping their cost of living under control. There's been very little in his presidency, apart from his claim that more energy production will, you know, reverberate into lower prices across the economy.
There's been very little that has addressed that, and instead you've gotten this spectacle of a billionaire and, you know, his very wealthy buddies rummaging through the private information of potentially of Americans and rummaging through the federal government.
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There's not a lot of love lost in American society right now for billionaires. You know, it's not like they are suddenly viewed as folk heroes. Americans basically believe the system has been working against them, and Trump, you know, may see that Musk as a heat shield, doing work, that doing kind of dirty work and taking heat that would otherwise be directed at him.
But I've got to think that once this settles into the public, the idea of unelected, very wealthy Silicon Valley executives having basically carte blanche to run through the federal government is not going to sit that well. And we'll see how it sits with the courts since there's already litigation on several aspects of this.
VAUSE: Ron, as always, it's great to have you with us. Appreciate your time.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.
VAUSE: Hundreds of thousands of government workers in the U.S. could soon be facing mass layoffs. So far, about 40,000 workers have taken a buyout described as deferred resignation. But the White House is aiming to eliminate as many as 200,000 positions, and that buyout offer will expire in the coming hours.
CNN's Rene Marsh talks to a mother of three who is now facing unemployment with her job now being targeted.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I keep having to start over.
RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And this was not supposed to be the thing that you needed to start over from.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt like going to the federal government was a way to find stability over the long-term --
MARSH (voice-over): This woman who spoke with CNN on the condition that she remain anonymous was in one of the first groups targeted by an executive order. Employees connected to DEI programs. A single parent with three kids, school loans, steep rent, and now facing unemployment.
What is the general feeling across government amongst your fellow federal workers right now?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Grief. They're angry, many that are confused, but all kind of grieving in their own way. The work that many of us do directly impacts the lives of some of our most vulnerable citizens. The people that we serve through these programs that are going to be in far dire straits than we are.
MARSH (voice-over): It's a story playing out across all agencies of the U.S. government. 2.4 million jobs, the country's largest employer, now in the Trump administration's crosshairs for a dramatic downsizing.
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): They're shuttering agencies and sending employees home in order to create the illusion that they're saving money.
MARSH: CNN has spoken to federal workers at multiple agencies, all who have been placed on administrative leave and are worried about being fired. But even those whose jobs had nothing to do with DEI have been targeted, according to a union president, some because they had participated in diversity training under the first Trump administration. Others had volunteered to plan events like celebrating Black History Month.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a perfect storm. You are sidelining a lot of your federal workers, making them feel fearful. And it doesn't take long for these systems to kind of break down. And for the institutional knowledge that's lost to have like real world impacts.
MARSH: At least 75 career employees at the Department of Education faced the same fate, also placed on indefinite leave, as the president crafts an executive order that will urge Congress to pass legislation that would shut down the agency.
The Trump administration's plan to slash the federal government includes firing employees who have been on the job less than a year, offering buyouts and restructuring job titles, classifying employees as political appointments, making it easier to fire them.
REP. DON BEYER (D-VA): I would characterize it as chaos. In just department after department, people have no idea who their leader is, what their job is. Can they come to work tomorrow? It's really the worst thing I've seen in federal government in my life.
MARSH: How does it feel to be targeted for the work that you're so passionate about? It's OK, you can take your time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It actually makes me proud of the people that I've worked with and the things that we've done.
MARSH (voice-over): Rene Marsh, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: A specialized FBI team which specifically investigates foreign threats to U.S. elections, will be disbanded, according to one source talking to CNN, who says the decision to close the Foreign Influence Task Force comes from new Attorney General Pam Bondi hours after she was sworn in on Wednesday.
In a memo, she says dissolving the team frees up resources to address, quote, "more pressing priorities." Former FBI director Christopher Wray established the task force in 2017 after a wave of foreign influence operations targeting U.S. electoral process. They include Russians' efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election, which Donald Trump, you may recall, won.
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President Trump has delivered on another campaign promise, which has galvanized his base by banning transgender athletes from competing in women's sports. Surrounded by dozens of women and young girls in athletic apparel, he held a signing ceremony for the executive order titled "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports." It applies to any academic institution which receives federal funding.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Under the Trump administration, we will defend the proud tradition of female athletes, and we will not allow men to beat up, injure and cheat our women and our girls. From now on, women's sports will be only for women.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Critics of transgender athletes claim they have an unfair advantage in sports, which has not been actually proven. Research from 2023 while limited found sex differences do develop after puberty, but many are reduced or erased over time by gender affirming hormone therapy.
Demonstrators took part in the first organized act of nationwide resistance since Trump took office, rallying in state capitals across the country Wednesday. In a movement billed as 50 protests in 50 cities in one day, they spoke out against the crackdown on illegal immigration and the banning of diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
Protesters also took aim at billionaire Elon Musk, who gained access to federal payment systems after being designated a special government employee. Some of the signs read "Nobody Voted for Musk," "Arrest Elon," "Stop the Felon," and "Refuse a Fascist America."
We'll take a break. When we come back, the latest on the worst mass shooting in Sweden's history. Mourners holding a candlelit vigil as police try to find a motive.
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VAUSE: Mourners left flowers at a candlelit vigil for the victims of Sweden's worst mass shooting. At least 10 people were killed, six others injured on Tuesday after a lone gunman opened fire at an adult education center. The shooter's body was found at the scene, but police are yet to release his name. But there are new details about the gunman.
More on that now from CNN's Melissa Bell.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A nation in mourning, left reeling after an afternoon of horror on Tuesday.
ULF KRISTERSSON, SWEDISH PRIME MINISTER (through translator): We've today seen brutal deadly violence against completely innocent people. This is the worst mass shooting in Swedish history.
BELL: At least 10 people killed with more injured in a massacre at an adult school in the city of Orebro, Central Sweden. Witnesses spoke of bangs and screams from inside the building as the rampage unfolded.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): A guy next to me was shot in the shoulder. He was bleeding a lot. When I looked behind me, I saw three people on the floor bleeding. Everyone was shocked. The police were not on site and neither was the ambulance, so we had to help.
BELL: Authorities now believe the perpetrator, found dead at the scene, shot himself. Police have ruled out terror or gang violence as possible motives.
ROBERTO EID FOREST, OREBRO POLICE DISTRICT CHIEF (through translator): There's much to suggest that it's a solitary act. And that's the picture we have right now.
BELL: Sweden has grappled with gang related violent crime in recent years. But scenes like those at Orebro are rare. Such violence in a school has stunned the country. In the words of the prime minister, a darkness fell over Sweden on Tuesday night, and as dawn broke a tide of questions and grief to come.
Melissa Bell, CNN, Orebro.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: The vice president of the Philippines has been impeached, accused of plotting to assassinate the president. Sara Duterte is also facing allegations of largescale corruption and failing to stand up to Chinese aggression in disputed waters. She has not made any public statements about the impeachment, but her brother called it political persecution, and supporters are working on dismissing the case in the Philippine Senate. Many of the legislators who launched the impeachment process are allies of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Still to come here on CNN, be it ever so humbled, destroyed or demolished, there's no place like home even in Gaza. And there, there are strong opinions on Donald Trump's plan to own the territory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I don't care what Trump says or anyone else. Look, my house is completely destroyed. There's not even a roof. But here I am. I am staying.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
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VAUSE: Welcome back, everyone. I'm John Vause. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.
More now on the reaction to Donald Trump's plans for Gaza-a-Lago, for the Palestinians who live in the territory, there is one aspect of Trump's post-war vision to transform Gaza into a luxury development, which will always be a nonstarter. They insist they will never leave their homeland even on a temporary basis.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond has details.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the ruins of Gaza, Sami Ramadan (PH) is determined to clear the rubble where his home once stood. And he is determined to stay. We will not leave. Occupation and colonization will vanish, and we
will stay, he says. As long as we live on this land, we will stay. We will die here. Even if in a tent, I will live in the ruins of my home.
Like so many here, he swiftly rejected President Trump's proposal to permanently displace Gaza's two million Palestinians in favor of a U.S. takeover, and the president's rationale for doing so.
TRUMP: What's the alternative? Go where? There's no other alternative. If they had an alternative, they'd much rather not go back to Gaza and live in a beautiful alternative that's safe.
DIAMOND: But hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have decided to return to their homes. Alongside tents pitched amid the rubble, they have already begun to rebuild. They say they are undeterred by the scale of the destruction.
I don't care what Trump says or anyone else. Look, my house is completely destroyed. There's not even a roof. But here I am. I am staying.
Jordan and Egypt, the two countries Trump is pushing to accept Palestinian refugees, reiterating that Palestinians must be able to remain in Gaza amid what will be a years-long reconstruction.
[00:30:08]
While Trump says his proposal is a humanitarian one, human rights experts call it a crime against humanity.
NOURA ERAKAT, HUMAN RIGHTS ATTORNEY & PROFESSOR, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY: Their removal is equivalent to their forced exile. Permanent and forced exile, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, and the denial of their return, which is already a Palestinian condition.
DIAMOND: So, there's no question in your mind that what President Trump is suggesting here is ethnic cleansing?
ERAKAT: There should be no question in anybody's mind. Trump is saying it himself: that this is about the removal of Palestinians.
He's calling Gaza -- a home to 2.3 million people, a home to an indigenous people -- a demolition site, because the U.S. funded that demolition by air, by sea, by ground.
And now, in order to complete the project, they want to remove Palestinians altogether and then to claim ownership of it.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Trump's proposal is being heralded on the right wing of Israeli politics, where lawmakers have long pushed for the forcible displacement of Palestinians.
BEZALEL SMOTRICH, ISRAELI FINANCE MINISTER (through translator): Those who carried out the most horrific massacre on our land will find themselves losing their land forever.
Now, with God's help, we will work to permanently bury the dangerous idea of a Palestinian state.
DIAMOND (voice-over): Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling Trump's proposal worth pursuing. But even as he stopped short of a full-throated endorsement, Netanyahu's broad smile said it all. He and the new U.S. president now speaking the same language.
Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Argentina looks set to join the U.S. and withdraw from the World Health Organization.
Officials say their decision was based on profound differences over health management, especially during the COVID pandemic. And they accused the WHO of causing economic damage from what they call endless quarantines.
President Javier Milei has developed a close relationship with Donald Trump, echoing much of the U.S. president's rhetoric on border security and trade.
For its part, the WHO says its pandemic response was meant to save lives and to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Still to come, the long road to recovery in Syria after ousting longtime dictator Bashar al-Assad. We'll look at the daunting task Syrians now face in rebuilding a broken country.
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VAUSE: Syria is facing a long road ahead as it tries to recover from more than a decade of civil war and the brutal dictatorship of the now deposed Bashar al-Assad.
More than 300,000 people died during the fighting. Millions were forced from their homes. CNN's Clarissa Ward reports rebuilding will be a herculean task.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're just about a 15-minute drive here from central Damascus, and these suburbs of Damascus really were essentially the heart of the uprising against Bashar al-Assad.
And you can see how they've just been smashed to bits. They've been bombed. They were besieged. People were starved. They were forcibly displaced.
And now, being here on the ground, you get a sense of the full scale of the devastation, the kind of rebuild and reconstruction that we're talking about. Estimates had been around 250 billion, which once seemed like a figure
no one could get their head around. But when you're here on the ground and looking at it, it's clear that it is going to cost hundreds of billions to rebuild.
WARD (voice-over): What's not clear is where those dollars will come from. Syria's economy has been hollowed out by years of war, corruption and crippling sanctions.
In the suburb of Darayya, life has returned to the streets, but making a living is hard. Emad Abu Kalam (ph) runs a shawarma shop. Like most here, he is optimistic about the future but realistic about the challenges.
EMAD ABU KALAM (PH), SHAWARMA SHOP OWNER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WARD: So, he's saying that it's going to take a lot of money and a lot of time to start to really rebuild the Darayya.
WARD (voice-over): Much harder to rebuild are the broken lives. Darayya is a town of widows and orphans. Schools are starting to reopen, but few are paying salaries.
WARD: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
WARD: Thank you.
According to UNICEF, 2 million children are now not going to school inside Syria. These kids told us that they actually just got out of school and were heading now to a place that's been set up by a charity.
Essentially, it's a safe space where kids can come and play.
WARD (voice-over): It opened just weeks after the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad and is run by INARA, a charity whose work I support, that focuses on children affected by war.
Child psychologist Rahaf al-Bilad (ph) says that many of the kids here show signs of aggression and are lacking love and attention at home, a result, she says, of the grinding hardship of 12 years of war.
"Most women of Darayya are widows, so the mother took the role of the mother and the father," she tells us. "So, she has to work, support, and raise the children. This all affects her wellbeing."
[00:40:03]
As the euphoria of liberation begins to subside, the hard work ahead is becoming clear, and communities like Darayya will need all the support they can get.
Clarissa Ward, CNN, Darayya, Syria.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: I'm John Vause. I'll be back at the top of the hour with more CNN NEWSROOM, but please stay with us. After a short break, WORLD SPORT. See you in about 20 minutes.
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