Speaker 1: Annie, there's been a flurry of activity up there on the Hill over the last 24 hours, with the Senate confirming two of Trump's top Cabinet picks, Kristi Noem for Secretary of Homeland Security, Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. And it appears these lawmakers, they're even working on a Saturday, which we know they don't often do, quickly to get these confirmations through.

Speaker 2: That's right. Republicans in the Senate are trying to move as quickly as possible to deliver Trump as many wins for his Cabinet as possible. And they cleared a huge hurdle with Pete Hegseth on Friday night, because he had a very rocky confirmation process, as you know, from allegations of sexual misconduct of women, to excessive drinking, to misuse of funds for some of his previous jobs. Now, Hegseth denied all of those allegations, and Trump stood with him the entire time. So it's a huge win for Trump that his pick to lead the Department of Defense actually made it through Congress and got confirmed. There were three Republicans who voted against Hegseth's nomination, though, which made it a real nail-biter, including Mitch McConnell, who has a long history of bad blood between him and Trump. So, Vice President Vance had to come in at the last moment to deliver that Hegseth victory. And Kristi Noem's nomination vote this morning went off pretty much without a hitch. In fact, seven Democratic senators joined Republicans in confirming her. But of course, for both Hegseth and Noem, the hardest work is yet to come.

Speaker 1: All right. Annie Greer, thanks so much. And we just got some news, too, that President Trump has accepted an invitation from House Speaker Johnson to speak to a joint session of Congress on March 4th. So we put that on our calendar, March 4th. We will see that unfold. Let's turn to developments now on President Trump's new immigration policies. The first deportation flights have started, with the White House press secretary sharing images last night of migrants lined up, handcuffed and boarding a military aircraft. Guatemalan officials are confirming 264 Guatemalan nationals have been deported from the U.S. on military flights back to their home country. CNN's Rafael Romo is joining us now. Rafael, you've been tracking this. What more are you learning tonight?

Speaker 3: Well, Jessica, Guatemalan officials have been trying to put a brave face to weather this storm. They have chosen to seek cooperation with the Trump White House so that they can prepare for what could be a large number of Guatemalan citizens returning to their country. Santiago Palomo, press secretary for the Guatemalan president's office, told us several key things regarding the deportations. Number one, the government of Guatemala has been in what he described as permanent communication with the White House. Palomo also confirmed that, what you mentioned before, that 264 citizens of his country were deported on U.S. military flights on Friday to Guatemala, including six children. And number three, Jessica, this official also said that Guatemala is ready to handle around 18 weekly flights of Guatemalan citizens deported from the U.S. The issue of deportations seems to be a top priority for the government of the Central American nation. Guatemalan Vice President Karen Herrera personally welcomed back to her country some of the migrants deported this week, greeting them at a Guatemalan Air Force base just outside the capital. Meanwhile, the official we spoke with says the deportations were not a surprise for his government.

Speaker 4: Our authorities of the United States, led by Ambassador Hugo Petera, were in communication this week with senior officials in the Donald Trump administration. The communication was very fluid. We had fairly detailed information about the flights that they were expecting Friday.

Speaker 3: Jessica, to put the issue of deportations of Guatemalan citizens in perspective, the U.S. deported more than 66,000 back to their home country in fiscal year 2024, according to data from U.S. immigration officials. That's nearly a quarter of all non-citizens removed by the U.S. that year. The Guatemalan official we spoke with said those returning to Guatemala are being treated in a dignified way through a government assistance program spearheaded by President Bernardo Arevalo called Returning Home. And probably that's what's going to happen in the next few weeks and months.

Speaker 1: Jessica. Wow. I'm really struck by that. They're counting on 18 flights a week. Wow. All right. Rafael Romo, thank you very much for that reporting. Joining us now, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Wesley Clark. General, thanks so much for being here with us. I do want to get your thoughts on those military planes being used to deport migrants in a moment. But first, I do want to go back to the Pentagon. It now has its new leader in place, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. He has to get to work now. What do you see as what he needs to be doing and what he needs to be focusing on?

Speaker 5: Well, he's got some big challenges ahead and he'll have the support of the men and women in uniform and he's got to prove himself. But they're going to automatically support him because he's the secretary of defense. He's got to work the budget. That's the first thing. He's got to participate in policy decisions foremost on what to do about the aid to Ukraine and also assistance to Taiwan. He's got to participate, as the president's directing him, in sending troops to the border. He's got to look longer term at how he reforms the U.S. defense acquisitions process. We're way behind in terms of being able to repair our ships, in terms of getting new equipment out there, in terms of the way we do contracting. There's a whole lot of legal stuff on this, and of course, the budget. Now Senator Roger Ricker, who's the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wants to double the defense budget. So what's that money going to go into? How quickly can we get it in there? What about the strength of the armed forces and recruiting? The Army's down to 435. It's the lowest it's been. We know it's a hard stretch to cover Asia and Europe and whatever's going to be required in Central America and on the border. So we've got multiple problems here. He's going to have some able assistance, not only from the uniform, but from the service secretaries and the deputy secretary of defense. But it's going to be a very steep learning curve. It's going to be tough.

Speaker 1: And he says he wants to bring peace through strength while he leads the Pentagon. We have heard that from military officials before. But what do you think that means under the Trump administration, peace through strength?

Speaker 5: I think it's going to be a real challenge because there are many in Congress, including Mitch McConnell and Roger Ricker, who believe you should double the defense budget. The Democrats haven't supported this in the past. But if you also want to put in massive tax cuts or even extend the tax cuts that are supposed to expire next year that were put in by President Trump. What about the national debt? People are worried about the debt. What about social safety programs? How is all this going to work out inside the budget? And I think that's one of the real challenges that Secretary Hegseth will face and also President Trump.

Speaker 1: And now I do want to go back to what our colleague Rafael Romo was reporting on, these deportation flights. And we saw the photos coming from the Trump administration. There are deportation flights. People are lined up that way. But what was striking about this with the military planes that they were boarding, what do you think about that?

Speaker 5: Well, I think it's probably not necessary, but it was a strong picture. And if you wanted a symbol to say, OK, the military is going to get in there, we're going to get these people out. That was the symbol. But in fact, normally you contract a commercial aircraft and it's cheaper. And the military aircraft, they're more expensive and they're in scarce supply. And they need maintenance. So I hope we'll move away from using the military aircraft for this. There's plenty of civilian aircraft that are available, just have to be contracted for.

Speaker 1: And what role does the military typically play when it comes to immigration? What's customary?

Speaker 5: Well, you might send military troops down to the border and they might provide logistic support, intelligence collection, backup to the border patrol. But they're not going to be out there traditionally intercepting people trying to get across the border because that violates the law that was put in after the Civil War called passe comitatus. So without the Insurrection Act being invoked, the military is not legally able to go in and do police work or border work that's actually involved in the apprehension of civilians. So I understand there's 10,000 troops being mobilized right now. It seems that they're going to back up the Customs and Border Patrol. They're going to do logistics. They're going to take some of the administrative load, intelligence load off the Customs and Border Patrol. But that's the limit of it thus far.

Speaker 1: Yeah. All right. More to come on this. General Wesley Clark, thanks so much for your analysis. We appreciate it.

Speaker 5: Thank you, Jessica.