Federal workers given 15 minutes to pack up, leave office

Happening right now in the nation's capital, people are showing support for fired U. S. aid workers who are at the D.

C. headquarters of the dismantled agency this morning. You can see the signs being held there.

They were given 15 minutes within a designated one hour window to pack their things and get out. This is happening hours after the Supreme Court gave the Trump administration a temporary victory and granted an emergency request to pause $2 billion in court, ordered payments to foreign aid contractors. CNN's Arlette Sines is live in Washington, D.

C. , outside of U. S.

aid headquarters. What are you hearing as people have to go in and get their belongings in 15 minutes time? Thanks.

Well, Sarah, it's really been an emotional moment for many of the staffers who are coming here today to collect their belongings at USAID. We have seen several of federal workers who were either fired or placed on administrative leave are coming to collect their belongings. As you mentioned, they have about a 15 minute window to pick up any items from their office that they want to take home with them.

And we are outside of the headquarters right now where, as you can see behind me, dozens of people have assembled to try to offer their support for those USAID workers who are now leaving their jobs. I spoke a few minutes ago with a young woman named Julianne Alford. She was participating in the Presidential Management Fellows here at USAID, which President Trump terminated just a few days ago.

Here is how she described her experience throughout this process. Now, she came here to pick up her belongings today. it's been horrible.

there's been, like, little to no communication with us. We're being treated terribly. I'm worried about overseas staff coming back.

I've heard there's a little to no communication with them. there's been no, like, off boarding with us. It's just been very sudden and everything.

One day, being locked out of the building, the next being told you're on admin leave, things like that. It's been very difficult. So what was it like coming back here today?

Heartbreaking. locking in the building and seeing all the pictures of our projects being taken that we're taking down? work, like getting children vaccines or providing food aid.

Things that really matter. being treated as if they're nothing. It's really hard to see.

And so that just provides one slice, one window that provides one window into how so many of these federal workers who are being impacted by these cuts at agencies and also efforts to reduce the workforce, how they have been impacted. We know that just on Sunday, about 2000 staffers, with USAID, were laid off and many more were placed on administrative leave. This is really been a very, uncertain period for so many federal workers, in government, at a time when the Trump administration has pledged to make cuts at agencies and also trying to reduce the workforce overall.

Yeah. Well, a lot of emotions there. USA, which has basically been dismantled.

let science thank you so much. Appreciate it. Mark, we're seeing some of the immediate impacts.

of the ruling and, and and John Roberts kind of putting a stay on this. What is the ultimate impact of all this besides with Donald Trump? Well, I think well, first of all, one USAID, I think has gone as far as we've ever known at Democrats that pretty much given up on trying to fight to get it back.

It will end up in the courts and it is in the courts. And we've seen even this emergency stay right now. Chief Justice John Roberts, allowed the Trump, folks, more time, based upon having to give out these contracts.

USAID. I think this spells trouble, because this is going to be the first step in really Donald Trump successfully dismantling the government. Now, everything that he does try to do, Sarah, is not going to be successful.

But in this first step, he appears to be successful. Yeah. This is another thing that we were all watching, Donald Trump giving a really strong endorsement to Elon Musk, who was at the first cabinet meeting, not a cabinet member, but he was at the meeting, and I thought it was interesting that he was like, is anybody unhappy to the room, to his cabinet?

And they all clapped. I think everyone's not only, happy, they're ecstatic. They're thrilled.

Donald Trump said to his cabinet. What do you make of all of this? Well, you know what?

Let's have the president himself. Let's hear what he had to say, because it it's so interesting about it, says so much in such a little bit of period of time about what we're going to see over the next few weeks, next few months. Let's hear what he had to say.

Let the cabinet speak just as he did. Very unhappy yesterday. If you are, we'll throw him out in.

The. Look at them all. Just clapping and smiling and thinking to themselves.

Yeah, we better get on board. You know, it's very interesting. Donald Trump not only issues, directions through social media.

He also issues his threats to his own people in public. And that's clearly what we saw yesterday. It clearly is.

And it did feel a tiny bit awkward or a lot awkward when he made some of those statements and sort of they had to respond to it. Meantime, we're seeing these town halls where people are really unhappy with some of what Elon Musk has done. All right.

Mark Preston, it's always a pleasure to have you on. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Okay. And bouncing just right off of that, Republican members of Congress are increasingly facing backlash over Elon Musk and the Doge cuts. In Virginia, voters protested at some mobile office hours for Republican Congressman Rob Whitman.

Staffer usually leads these sessions. But constituents, they showed up. They wanted to hear from the congressman himself instead, they heard from a government worker, a former government employee, who also wanted some answers from the congresswoman.

Rep. In this mass terminations, without any assessment of American people's needs, will end up costing taxpayers more money. Why this process of services?

You want to know what? No one's at the Social Security office. They're firing people every time people there accuse a Republican congressman of hiding from his constituents.

Here's what the here is, then what the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, had to say last night about all of this blowback, because the videos you saw, the town halls were for paid protesters in many of those places. These are Democrats who went to the events early and filled up the seats, if you would, if the videos had paid, you can't argue they were paid protesters. So, Mr Speaker, what are your I don't know.

Acknowledged they were his constituents, one Republican and I was they were constituents. That's fantastic. Okay.

But they had Democrats come and fill the seats earlier. Joining us right now is Democratic Congressman Jason Crow from Colorado. Congressman, it's good to see you.

The House speaker. You really there seeming to dismiss this blowback? we've seen no evidence that one people were paid and two Democrats can be Republican members of Congress constituents as well.

You have Republicans in your district. I have seen examples of people attending these events saying that they're lifelong Republicans and live in those districts. What is your reaction to what seems to be Johnson's shoulder shrug response to this?

Well, let's first of all compare the images here. You just showed a video of the first cabinet meeting, and they were laughing and patting each other on the back and clapping, you know, as if everything is fine. You know, they're taking their victory lap.

At the same time, if you actually get outside of the DC bubble, you get outside of the swamp and make no mistake, all these people in the cabinet meeting, these are creatures of the swamp, right? These are billionaires. These are elite executives.

These are oil and gas executives. These are lifetime politicians. If you get outside of that room and you go around America, people are hurting.

They're afraid. They are feeling the real cuts of what's happening, the real human impact, what's happening. And they're pissed and they should be pissed.

And they're starting to stand up and to be heard. And my Republican colleagues can certainly ignore them, but they are not going away. I mean, you wrote about this yesterday.

I grabbed my attention. You said the lesson from tap from tough town halls isn't to run away. You said, I'm hosting a town hall tomorrow meeting today because my constituents have a right to know where I stand and what I'm doing to advocate for them.

I mean, what are you hearing from your constituents and what do you expect to hear from them today? Yeah, that's right. I mean, showing up and listening is fundamental to the job.

It is the most basic element of the job. The people you represent have a right to know what you're doing, where you stand, the votes you're taking, and for you to stand in front of them and to be accountable for that. And they may not always agree with you, but they have a right to know that.

You know, if I do a town hall and I have a, you know, very mixed district, I have a lot of Republicans. I'm the first Democrat ever to hold my seat in Congress. But, you know, I'll show up and I'll have Republicans who say, you know what, I don't necessarily always agree with you, but at least I know where you stand.

I don't think you're lying to me and you're being transparent. I'll take that. Right.

Because that's the start of a conversation. And we can actually develop trust and go somewhere with that. So obviously we need more than that.

If the Republicans are going to shut that out and refuse to listen, there will be consequences to that sooner, probably rather than later. they need to show up and they need to hear the pain and suffering that their policies are going to inflict on their constituents.