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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Trump Fires Labor Official After Weak Jobs Report; Interview With Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA); Ghislaine Maxwell Moved To Minimum Security Prison Camp In Texas; Pres. Trump Orders Two Nuclear Submarines Repositioned; Russia Hits Kyiv With Deadliest Attack Since 2024; Paul Whelan Facing Major Life Challenges Since His Release From Five-Plus Years In Russian Prisons; Trump Admin. Officials Visit Controversial Gaza Aid Site; Sydney Sweeney's American Eagle Ad Campaign Sparks Controversy. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired August 01, 2025 - 20:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): There are also events like this one where young people are invited to go to confession. There are hundreds of tents laid out for them to go and receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Same time, though, there's huge enthusiasm for Pope Leo.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel like I already know the guy, you know, and just seeing him walk down with the with the papal cars and him seeing the American flag and just waving at us is super exciting and I feel like he truly loves us.

LAMB (voice over): And a ton of uncertainty, political and otherwise, young people finding in their faith and Pope Leo, a reason to hope.

Christopher Lamb, CNN, Rome.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: And thanks so much for joining us, a good way to end on this Friday. "AC360" starts now.

[20:00:54]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Tonight on 360, the President deals with unwelcome facts on the economy by firing the official in charge of gathering those facts. The markets are not fooled, and we're keeping them honest.

Also tonight, how did this happen and why? Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice in sex trafficking minors as young as 14 years old, transferred to one of the cushiest spots in the federal prison system.

Later, the President sends two nuclear submarines into position after a Russian official says something he doesn't like on social media.

Good evening, Jim Sciutto here in for Anderson tonight. We begin tonight, keeping them honest, with the twofold message President Trump sent loud and clear today. First, that facts which do not serve his purposes are not really facts. And second, that those delivering facts such as that can cost them their job.

In this case, a woman named Erika McEntarfer, who until today ran the Bureau of Labor Statistics. She was, in so many words, the chief wonk in an office full of wonks, people, most of them proudly nonpolitical, many of them professional economists and statisticians, keeping track of things such as wages, consumer prices and jobs.

Today, however, the Bureau reported dismal employment numbers for last month, as well as sharply downward revisions for May and June. And to be clear, bad news or good for whomever happens to be the President there is nothing new about any of that except what happened next.

The President of the United States fired Miss McEntarfer, someone who was appointed by President Biden but confirmed in the Senate by an overwhelming bipartisan majority, 86 to 8, with Senators J.D. Vance and Marco Rubio both voting yes.

Yet today, after announcing the firing online, Trump said, "Today's jobs numbers were rigged in order to make the Republicans and me look bad. He gave no evidence to support that claim, nor any to support the one he repeated later today when a reporter asked him about the potential impact of what he did.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: On the monthly jobs report, going forward, why should anyone trust the numbers?

DONALD TRUMP (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Hey, you're right. No, you're right. Why should anybody trust numbers? You go back to election. Election Day, look what happened two or three days before with massive, wonderful job numbers, trying to get him elected or her elected, trying to get whoever the hell was running because you go back and they came out with numbers that were very favorable to Kamala, okay, trying to get her elected, and then on the 15th of November or thereabouts, they had an 800,000 or 900,000 overstatement reduction right after the election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Not true, keeping them honest is our Daniel Dale was quick to point out that simply did not happen. As you can see from the headline dated August 24th, those downward revisions the President mentioned were not withheld until after the election. They were delivered publicly long before it and likely did not help Vice-President Harris' campaign. But they were the facts as best as the experts could determine at the time.

The President, though, as you know, has a history dating back to his first term of going beyond just putting his own gloss or spin on inconvenient facts, which most politicians of all stripes do from time to time. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're at a low a low mark, if we stop testing right now, we'd have very few cases, if any.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: That was the President in 2020 arguing against trying to even accurately determine the size of the COVID outbreak because testing and these are his own words at the time, "makes us look bad."

And here he is the year before with a map he reportedly altered with a sharpie himself to show Hurricane Dorian hitting a state the National Weather Service said was not likely to hit but he tweeted that it would.

You'll remember that a subsequent investigation concluded that top weather officials had been pressured by the administration to support the President's non-factual claim, none of which changed the facts then or now nor by the way, have the President's endless claims that he won the 2020 election, changed the facts that he lost.

Investors certainly understood the facts today, with stocks dipping sharply on that employment news. And had the President merely complained about it, there would be little to see here. But shooting the messenger actually sends a message, and facts proved to be stubborn things.

[20:05:45]

We begin tonight with CNN chief White House correspondent and anchor of "The Source," Kaitlan Collins. So, Kaitlan, I wonder, did the President come to this decision today in the midst of seeing this bad news? Had he planned to go after the BLS prior?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: So, he gets briefed on these numbers the day before. And just to be clear, the commissioner doesn't single handedly come up with these numbers. There are hundreds of people who work on this report, and then its delivered to the commissioner that was fired today, who briefs the President's economic team, who then go and brief the President.

He said that he asked who was delivering these numbers, basically and obviously, the minute that he found out that she was a Biden appointee confirmed to this job, she's worked in government, to be clear, for about two decades, I believe. And that is ultimately what led to the firing here.

And I think what's remarkable is seeing not just the President defend this as he did as he left the White House today, but also some of his top economic advisers, people like Kevin Hassett, were going out and saying that someone should be looking at this, that they wanted someone to make sure the numbers were accurate.

Obviously, revisions are not new. When revisions would happen, actually, under President Biden, you would also see President Trump complain and say that they were changing the numbers to prop him up then at the time, this just happens. These numbers certainly were worse. The revisions from the last two months were a pretty big shock today, and obviously, raised questions about the state of the U.S. economy and if there are cracks in it, and if they are because of the President's policies. But it is quite remarkable to see him taking this step today.

SCIUTTO: No question, and listen, by the way, he cheered numbers when the numbers were in his favor. He had no problem with the BLS when those numbers look good.

COLLINS: Sean Spicer famously said in his first term, they were phony before, when the President wasn't in office. But now that he was in office, they were very real now, was what he said at a press briefing.

SCIUTTO: A hundred percent. Now, as you know, I mean, President has members of his administration, Scott Bessent among them, who come from the financial industry and know the value of accurate economic statistics to make business decisions, investment decisions, and of course, policy decisions. Is there any pushback from within his administration to doing this?

COLLINS: Not publicly that we've seen. There has been some when it comes to firing the Fed Chair, for example, which has been another line of independence that people have said the President needs to respect. But we've seen people then advocate for doing that or justify the President's arguments for that. Even Kevin Hassett, again in round one, he said that Trump did not -- should not fire the Fed Chair, that there needed to be that independence that has changed. And so, I think pushing out the commissioner because a report came out with numbers that the President didn't like, will raise questions if he's willing to do that in other areas and what that means.

But I think underlying this, you know, the numbers are still there. The Fed, you can still see what the Treasury bond market is. You can still see what the numbers are. And as you noted, as the stock market was closing today, they certainly saw through what the numbers actually were. And so, there is a level of trust in what the government is putting out that is going to potentially be questioned here. But I think the numbers don't lie ultimately and the stock market will be able to tell.

SCIUTTO: Unless people losing their jobs. They know they lost their jobs, right? No one can tell them that they didn't. Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much. And of course, we'll see Kaitlan at the top of the hour for "The Source."

Joining me now, Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Jake Auchincloss, who is a member of the House Committee On Energy and Commerce. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us this evening.

REP. JAKE AUCHINCLOSS (D-MA): Good evening.

SCIUTTO: So, of course, this is not the first time the President has attacked facts that are inconvenient to him. But tell us your reaction to him firing the BLS commissioner simply because the commissioner sits at the top of an organization that compiled numbers that make the President look bad.

AUCHINCLOSS: It's something Xi Jinping in China or Kim Jong-un in North Korea, or the Ayatollah in Iran would do fire a government economist because the economist gives you bad news.

The President is going to continue to try to lie to the American people about jobs about the Federal Reserve, about his stewardship of the economy.

One thing he's not going to be able to lie to the American people about, though, is prices, because American people know prices and they know they're not going down, as he promised.

And what Democrats need to do is articulate a clear and compelling alternative for how we would lower prices, how we would cut regulations and reduce spending that increases prices, particularly in housing, how we would promote technology that takes cost out, particularly in energy, and how we would take on special interests that are keeping prices high, particularly in health care against the health insurance corporations.

[20:10:08]

SCIUTTO: This is, of course, part of a pattern the President attacks criticism, stories that make him look bad, facts that make him look bad. The trouble with economic numbers, right, is, I imagine, is the concern then, that folks markets, investors, business owners, et cetera won't know what to believe, right?

If the President has this power to somehow suppress accurate reporting about jobs numbers or about prices, how are investors? How are businesses going to make or policymakers make fact based decisions?

AUCHINCLOSS: Uncertainty is poison for business and uncertainty is being pumped in to the American economy. One, through his innumerate and chaotic tariff regime. Two, as you said, to the politicization of economic data. And three, by his attempts to bully and ultimately he's going to try to fire the chair of the Federal Reserve.

And if you start to undermine a sound currency, if you start to undermine the credibility of the government, statistics, and certainly if you start to undermine business' ability to forecast future prices through a tariff regime, what you are doing is you are taking a good economy that he inherited and you're pushing it over a cliff.

SCIUTTO: I wonder if we're seeing in these job numbers here, the first signs of the effects of the trade wars and perhaps the end of something of a lag period between the imposition of those tariffs and impacts on the economy. I imagine you're speaking to business owners in your district all the time. I speak to small and medium and large business owners on the air all the time. They've been saying for weeks and months, this is impacting my business negatively. Do you think this is an indicator of that?

AUCHINCLOSS: Yes, I've been doing this job for five years now, which is long enough to know that one Jobs Report does not an economy make, and so I'm hesitant to forecast confidently based on that.

Here's what I can say, though looking at the total of the last Jobs Reports going back a couple of years, is most of the job creation that's been happening has been concentrated in the health care and government sectors. It has not been as spread across manufacturing, across the trades as you'd like to see in a really healthy economy, and that is an indication that we need to be building more as a country, particularly building more in sectors where prices are high, because the more that we can build together in housing, where we have to build five million homes and energy where we got to build five Hoover dams with a nuclear power, in ship construction, where we need to build more ships than the Chinese Navy.

The more that we can build together, one, that's good jobs, but two, that puts downward pressure on prices in the sectors where prices have been going up the fastest.

SCIUTTO: You mentioned Democratic messaging on this. As you know, the numbers don't look great for the President or for Republicans in Congress, but they don't look particularly good for Democrats in Congress either. What is the right message for Democrats now to say, listen, we would be better stewards of this economy than the Republicans are because, as you know, historically, voters fairly consistently rate Republicans as better on the economy than Democrats.

AUCHINCLOSS: It's not messaging, its governing, right. Democrats do control the trifecta in a number of blue states. And we have to do a better job where we govern of taking down the cost of housing and health care, which now consume half of a middle class family's wallet. Our message, and more importantly than our message, are results need to be that were going to treat cost, disease in housing and health care, that were going to restore law and order, not just constitutional law and order, which is vital, but also the law and order of your lived experience on city streets, and that were going to deliver excellent education, which is particularly acute after the catastrophic school closures, that's our promise.

SCIUTTO: Are you seeing that from the current leaders of the Democratic Party? Do you think you have the leaders in place to make that a winning message as you get closer to the midterms?

AUCHINCLOSS: I think that the Democrats who want to be standing on the Presidential primary stage in 2028, should be able to point to a track record of delivering on that. And, you know, were going to see were going to see who can deliver.

SCIUTTO: Congressman Jake Auchincloss, we appreciate you joining us this Friday.

AUCHINCLOSS: Thanks, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Coming up next, Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted accomplice of Jeffrey Epstein, is moved to one of the least restrictive federal prison facilities there is and their accusers are simply outraged by that decision.

Later, the culture wars firestorm over an American eagle ad starring Sydney Sweeney.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:19:10]

SCIUTTO: In a week in which the President has seen the Jeffrey Epstein story continue to boil, in part with his own help, this latest development only added yet more fuel. We learned that his accomplice, who is serving a 20-year sentence for conspiring in the trafficking of girls as young as 14, just got her prison accommodations upgraded.

Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted co-conspirator in the most notorious child sex trafficking case on modern record, has been transferred to a federal minimum security prison in Texas. A facility that typically, according to one former FBI agent I spoke to, does not even house sex offenders without a special waiver.

This is happening with the Justice Department in talks to secure some kind of cooperation from Maxwell and the President, not ruling out pardoning her. And of course, growing pressure on the administration from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers and voters to release more from the investigation of Epstein, who was, after all, once a close friend of the President.

[20:20:14]

And on top of that, the Presidents shifting account all week of his break with Epstein. Today, the family of Epstein accuser Ghislaine Maxwell, along with other accusers, I should say Virginia Giuffre, reacted to the latest developments, saying in a statement, "It is with horror and outrage that we object to the preferential treatment convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has received. Ghislaine Maxwell is a sexual predator who physically assaulted minor children on multiple occasions and she should never be shown any leniency."

For more on this, were joined by investigative journalist Sarah Fitzpatrick, who's been reporting on the story for a long time for "The Atlantic". Also, defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, Shan Wu. Good to have you both here on a Friday night. Shan, first to you in under normal circumstances, how would a person qualify for movement to a lower security facility? What conditions or circumstances would they have to meet?

SHAN WU, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: I think we have to start with the point that most convicted sex offenders wouldn't qualify for this extremely low level. I mean, they can have a low level minimum security, but this is a camp. It's like the lowest level meant for white-collar people who are considered to be no danger to folks.

Having said that, for this type of a change to occur, there usually has to be some extenuating reasons. For example, let's say there's a medical reason you need to move them to a facility with a hospital or a place where they're doing special treatment for sex offenders, none of those seem to apply here. I suppose you might. Also, if someone had been incarcerated for many years, exemplary record, that's why it justifies that again. There's no such situation here, and so, there's nothing that's stopping the Bureau of Prisons or the Justice Department from explaining why this happened.

There's no security risk to say we did this for medical reasons, some family reasons, but not explaining that really raises a lot of questions and normally this would not happen.

SCIUTTO: Sarah, we read that statement, of course, from the Giuffre family as well as other Epstein and Maxwell victims. Can you tell us what you've been hearing from the victims and victim's relatives as they take in this news?

SARAH FITZPATRICK, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST, "THE ATLANTIC": Jim, you cannot overstate what an explosive and just kind of earth shattering development this is for so many victims. My phone has been ringing off the hook all day today. Not just victims, but also from members of law enforcement who either worked on this case or have followed this case closely because it is just -- it is so unbelievable to them, the timing, it just looks and suggests that there may be some kind of deal made in the last couple of days and the statement that the Giuffre's family said today was so clear. It was shocking to me, actually, how strong it was. They said this smacks of a cover-up.

And I think the major thing that all of these victims, members of law enforcement, even just people who of the general public who have such an interest in this case, it is -- the reason that this is so incredible is that it speaks to the very thing that makes the Epstein case such an issue of national importance. And that's the fact that -- actually, the evidence suggests, you know, laid out that we have learned through lots of testimonies, through interviews and other things, that there were different standards, different standards of justice for people who had power and means.

And that's why this story even has taken on this conspiracy theory level online across the internet, because it has this stickiness and that point was just underscored in the events today. So, I would say the victims and others involved in this case, they are distraught and they feel that something is very amiss here.

SCIUTTO: So Shan Wu, you have the timing of this move to a lower security prison. You also have, at a minimum, the unconventional talks between the President's Deputy Attorney General and a woman who's been convicted and is now serving 20 years for horrible, horrible crimes. And you have attached to that the President's Justice Department's decision not to release files that he long said he would release. So, when you add those things together, does that legally seem inappropriate to you?

WU: It does seem inappropriate in this sense, in particular, Jim, which is its utterly in disarray. It's unprofessional, it's not how you would conduct an investigation. There are many situations where someone who is giving valuable information as a cooperator, they may get little perks, they get more phone calls, maybe more access to the computer.

[20:25:07]

There's no indication here that they're getting anything valuable and one wonders what could possibly be valuable at this point. I mean, her testimony would be so biased, so discredited, and not only that, you factor in the idea that the Deputy Attorney General is conducting the interview. It's really unheard of. Why not have the agents who worked on the case, the prosecutors who really know the case, see if there's something else that can be valuable?

This simply sounds like they're playing some FaceTime to her. We'll have the Deputy A.G. come in, who never does interviews like this. And then when you add in the timing, we're going to give you a nicer, cushier kind of place to be in jail.

It seems like they want to entice her into doing something that's helpful to them, but really, there can't be anything of substance that's of value coming from her at this point.

SCIUTTO: Sarah, of course, many of the President's supporters and at times the President himself, promised that they were going to be transparent where previous administrations were not, that they were finally going to release all the files that showed how far and wide Epstein's and Maxwell's crimes went.

Now you have the President reversing that, it seems, and I wonder, do family members, victims, friends, relatives, et cetera look at this as a betrayal.

FITZPATRICK: Absolutely, I mean, they -- I think everyone was willing to, on a bipartisan basis, of course, remember, there are over a thousand Epstein victims. So, this is a really wide group and that's just that we know of, that the Justice Department has acknowledged, it is likely many times that.

But I think it's important that this is, you know, these victims view this not as a political football, which this has kind of become in recent weeks. For them, this is about accountability and justice. And that's important for two reasons. One, Epstein, we know through our reporting and all of the evidence that has been presented in court, as well as civil litigation, that this was an extensive sex trafficking operation that involved a lot of people, including some mandatory reporters, doctors, other people that would have been required to speak out about what was happening. And so, those people have not yet been held accountable in any meaningful way.

And secondly, all of the victims, and especially Virginia, who, you know, I was in touch with the write up until she died, it was so important to her that what came out of this horrific experience was change -- changes in legislation, changes in rules about how law enforcement talks to victims that they have to be informed before certain things happen. None of the victims today have been informed about the facts that Maxwell was moved, and that, you know, is another just kind of slap in the face.

It's also, I think, really important -- there's an element of retraumatization here, because one of the things that Maxwell in particular did so effectively is she would taunt these victims and she would say, or people that would be in a position to know things, and she would say, you can't do anything because we own the police, we own the FBI, we own the District Attorney's Office. And so, that had a really chilling effect on people that may have been inclined to come forward.

And this situation today, the you know, I think everyone in America looking at this can't help but think that perhaps, you know, there is a new system of justice here and that perhaps they are not safe in coming forward, going forward. And that's going to be a major problem for all kinds of investigations.

SCIUTTO: That would be such a yet one more sad impact of all this. Sarah Fitzpatrick, Shan Wu, thanks so much to both of you.

Coming up next, President Trump orders two nuclear submarines to be repositioned due to what he calls inflammatory remarks on social media by a top Russian official. And Russia's military launches its deadliest single attack on Ukraine's capital since last year.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:33:41]

SCIUTTO: The President of the United States today rattled the nuclear saber against Russia, writing on social media, quote, "I have ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that."

The President was referring to comments from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, referring to Russia's so-called dead hand system, which could automatically retaliate if an enemy were to launch a strike on Russia.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He was talking about nuclear. When you talk about nuclear, we have to be prepared, and we're totally prepared.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

SCIUTTO: Joining us now is Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander General Wesley Clark and CNN Political and National Security Analyst David Sanger. Good to have you both here tonight.

General Clark, is this an appropriate response approving -- assuming the president did what he said he did, and that is move nuclear submarines in response to a remark on social media?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), FORMER NATO SUBMARINES ALLIED COMMANDER: Actually, it probably feeds the Russian disinformation plan, because it raises the temperature, scares people that there might be a nuclear, and that's what Russia's been trying to do all along, is scare people about nuclear. Now, if you want an effective response, you push the weapons into Ukraine, and instead they've been slowed to a trickle.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

[20:35:02]

CLARK: So, you know, this is just rhetoric, but it's rhetoric that he may think it makes him look strong and tough in front of some supporters, but actually it works against us and in favor of Russia.

SCIUTTO: Yes. I mean, it'd be interesting if he does this, but doesn't, for instance, impose the sanctions he's promised to do in a week or so's time.

David, if one follows Dmitry Medvedev on social media, as I do, you can see, and I'm sure you know as well, that this is not an isolated comment. He tends to make quite incendiary claims on social media. Do folks in the national security space here in the U.S. take those comments seriously?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL & NATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: They don't, Jim. I mean, you'll remember that Medvedev was the guy who stood in as president of Russia when Putin was term limited and spent a few years out of power, and then came back in after Medvedev was there. I met him once or twice during that time, and he at that moment was sounding relatively reasonable, telling jokes, did not seem out of the mainstream, also didn't seem to have very much power.

These days he's turned into, and really since the invasion of Ukraine, into an incredibly hot-headed internet troll who sits on the National Security Committee but does not really have any power. And what's interesting to me here is the president decided to rise to the bait because, you know, you and I have both written about nuclear saber- rattling that's taken place since the Ukraine war started, but it was all in the other direction, right?

It was Putin threatening to use nuclear weapons, either publicly or moving them around, as he did in October of 2022. We haven't seen it from the U.S., and that's what made this different.

SCIUTTO: Yes, you and I wrote about that time in the fall of 2022 when the U.S. was quite concerned --

SANGER: Sure, it did.

SCIUTTO: -- that Russia might use a tactical --

SANGER: -Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- nuclear weapon in Ukraine.

So General Clark, to you, I suppose the concern in cycles of escalation, right, is that it's what's happening and it's what the other side believes is happening, right, and they might not always be right. They might over or underreact. Does this create the conditions potentially for -- I'm not saying escalation right up to a nuclear exchange, but to worrisome responses to each of these movements in both directions? CLARK: Well, I think Medvedev is a provocateur operating on Mr. Putin's instructions. And I think it's a long series of these statements designed to intimidate the West, to not help us, to rationalize not supporting Ukraine. And so when we play into it with the nuclear submarine maneuvers, we're playing into that Russian information game.

But if you really want to move toward a ceasefire, toward a resolution, the only way to do it is on the ground.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

CLARK: And that is you've got to stop the Russian advance cold. And you've got to convince Mr. Putin he's going to lose. And he should stop right now because he's going to lose more if he continues. Now, if you're not willing to do that, if you're afraid of doing that, he's going to continue to issue provocative statements. He's going to continue to say, oh, let's talk about peace.

And he's going to send people forward. He's got 30,000 North Korean troops lined up behind Pokrovsk. He's got a new front he's opening around Koizumi (ph). And the big punch will come toward Mykolaiv and Odesa sometime in September.

SCIUTTO: Right.

CLARK: So that's the Russian game plan. That's what they've been working on. And all of the rest of the stuff is just -- it's just nonsense. The sanctions are not going to stop that machine from coming forward.

SCIUTTO: OK.

CLARK: So we've got a few weeks to do more on the ground. That's it.

SCIUTTO: So on that question, David, are those sanctions going to happen this time around? Because, as you know, it's not the first time Trump has set a deadline. Question, of course, is --

SANGER: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- does he enforce this deadline?

SANGER: So these are very effective sanctions if they get implemented, but to implement them, you basically have to say that you're going to penalize China, India and Turkey, three countries that are buying oil from the Russians, but which the president's got other big interests in. And I think the big question here is, is he really willing to face off against those three? And I have my doubts, but maybe in a week we'll find out.

SCIUTTO: We'll be watching.

General Clark, David Sanger, thanks so much to both of you. Hope you have a good weekend. To the General's point a moment ago, a major assault by Russia's military on Ukraine's capital has taken a heavy toll. The deadliest single attack on Kyiv in a year, at least 31 people killed in a massive bombardment of dozens of sites, including an apartment block where most of those victims perished, including children.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is in Kyiv tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

[20:40:16]

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The night terror was commonplace blasts. The buzz of drones across the capital skyline, but the impact on the city's northwestern edges was not.

A Russian missile hit number 12 Juby (ph) Street at about 4:40 a.m. Thursday. Dawn met with devastation and neighbors carrying their pets out. The force of the blast, huge.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): God it is awful.

PATON WALSH (voice-over): This drone shot shows just how. The entire side torn away, floors collapsing on the sleeping. Officials said six dead at first, but the gruesome task of unpacking the rubble got underway.

The limp body of a boy carried out. Rescuers cutting through wires, breaking through walls to get this man out about 5 hours later. But if they dug deeper, the numbers of dead shot up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): Our light just turned on!

PATON WALSH (voice-over): Dozens injured, but a total of 28 dead here and the panic came back to another air raid siren. Survivors here running to the shelter again. Some overwhelmed.

Others explaining they thought the air raid all clear was given the night before.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): We woke up because of the explosion. We're on the eight floor and the explosion wave hit us, everything was blown out.

PATON WALSH (voice-over): Over 24 hours later, they could safely clear the rubble away.

PATON WALSH: It's really hard to reconcile the sheer scale of the destruction here. I mean, the whole side of this building just torn off. You can see how so many died. Floor collapsing on floor to reconcile the scale of the damage of the tiny little fragments of personal lives that have just been blown out across the dust here.

People coming back in to the neighboring block, taken out while they can. Hard hats, mandatory. The whole lives here completely upturned in a matter of seconds.

PATON WALSH (voice-over): Killed by the Kremlin here, six-year-old Matvey Marchenko (ph), who loved karate with his elder brothers. IT specialist Vitaly Rabashuk (ph) with his daughter, Vlada (ph), 18, and Irina Khomenyuk (ph) with her two daughters, Nastya (ph) and Alina (ph).

One miracle here, too, blown out of the ninth floor, was Veronica, aged 23, who landed with only a broken leg.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): I was just sleeping, I woke up on the rubble. Most likely I glided down. I don't know what happened. It was sort of a levitation.

PATON WALSH (voice-over): Both her parents died in the attack. No bright spots here, just the hope it might somehow stop.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

PATON WALSH (on-camera): Look, Jim, it's quite clear that Russia's aerial assaults against Ukraine are not diminished by the shortened deadline from President Trump and this remarkable spat over nuclear submarines deepening, I think, the crisis around this war and the importance of Trump's decision coming up August the 8th. Sanctions against Russia's allies or Russia or not. Jim?

SCIUTTO: And just so much human suffering.

Nick Paton Walsh, thanks so much.

Exactly one year ago today, Paul Whelan returned to the United States after spending five and a half years in a Russian prison on espionage charges. He was freed as part of a major prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia, greeted back in this country, as you see there, by President Biden.

Tonight, Whelan tells me his return to life in America has been challenging, including the loss of his home and his job. He also suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

I asked him if he feels our system is equipped to help someone like him, who was incarcerated for so many years in a foreign country.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

PAUL WHELAN, AMERICAN FREED FROM RUSSIAN PRISON ONE YEAR AGO TODAY: You know, the system really isn't meant to deal with people like me, but Congress did pass a five-year health care provision in the Hostage Recovery Act, the Levinson Act. The problem is that Congress didn't fund it, so the State Department doesn't provide those benefits to people like me coming home.

So that's one of the things we're working on. Congress fund that five- year health care piece. You know, there are some other things we're working on with taxes, Social Security, you know, hopefully compensation as well. It's difficult because, you know, we're out there by ourselves trying to do the best we can.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

[20:45:09]

SCIUTTO: Whelan says that a bipartisan group of legislators are working to get that Levinson Act funded. Hasn't happened yet, though.

Coming up next, as the food shortage continues in Gaza and President Trump promises to help feed the people there, two key U.S. officials got a firsthand look at the crisis on the ground.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:50:08]

SCIUTTO: In the Middle East today, Special U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff and Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee traveled inside Gaza. They visited aid distribution sites and said they would report back to President Trump, who has promised now to set up food centers, new ones, as the starvation crisis there deepens.

CNN's Matthew Chance joins us now with more.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, the focus of this five-hour Gaza visit by the U.S. Mideast Envoy Steve Witkoff and the U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee was a controversial U.S.-backed food distribution center in Gaza run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

The GHF set up to sideline the United Nations role in distributing aid after Israel complained that U.N. aid was reaching Hamas. Ambassador Huckabee praised the GHF, saying that it distributed more than 100 million meals and prevented Hamas from getting their hands on it, but that's not as good as it sounds.

100 million meals between 2.1 million Palestinians is about a meal a day for 47 days. And it's been in operation for 70 days. The organization has been criticized for failing to effectively tackle the hunger crisis in Gaza, which has been devastated in Israel's war on Hamas.

It's also unlikely that GHF meals have been unable to reach all Gaza's residents. I mean, you've got three distribution sites in the whole territory compared to the hundreds previously operated by the U.N. The other issue is that this visit, which Steve Witkoff said was intended to better understand the humanitarian situation in Gaza so it could be relayed to President Trump.

Well, that visit was carefully planned and it was a highly sanitized event, which did not capture the chaotic and deadly scenes that have led to more than 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza being killed by the Israeli military as they tried to get food in recent months. Hundreds of them, hundreds of them near GHF distribution points, according to the U.N. The GHF disputes this. But to illustrate the point, eyewitnesses in Gaza tell CNN that Israeli forces fired on people waiting near the same distribution site visited by Witkoff and Huckabee. Palestinian medical officials say at least three people were killed. The Israeli military says it fired warning shots to prevent the crowd advancing towards its troops. And so, it's also unclear how much of that grim reality of Gaza that the U.S. envoy or the U.S. ambassador really witnessed.

Back to you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes, sometimes those warning shots turn out to be deadly.

Our thanks to Matthew Chance there.

Just ahead, the Sydney Sweeney ad campaign for American Eagle, which has now ignited a culture wars firestorm.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:57:43]

SCIUTTO: Not since actress Brooke Shields famously told Americans decades ago that nothing comes between her and her Calvins has an ad for jeans sparked so much controversy.

CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister explains.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sydney Sweeney, Casper Keynes.

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One of Gen Z's biggest celebrities starring in an American Eagle campaign. Now at the center of a culture war's firestorm.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jeans are passed down from parents to offspring. Often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): With critics saying the ad promotes the discredited theory of eugenics.

SAYANTANI DASGUPTA, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: A woman of color would not have been hired for this advertisement. That is a purposeful act. Why? Because eugenics is deeply tied to the notion that some races are better than others. But yet Sydney Sweeney's ad is really speaking to this political moment.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): The ad has remained in the headlines for a full week. Now spawning seamlessly endless parodies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jeans are passed down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Personality and even eye color.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Countless puns. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hitler did briefly model for mine kamfort fit jeans.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): And even support from the Trump administration.

JD VANCE (R), VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: My political advice to the Democrats is continue to tell everybody who thinks Sydney Sweeney is attractive is Nazi. That appears to be their actual strategy.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): The internet blowing up yet again at the intersection of pop culture and politics with heated responses from both sides to the ad and the controversy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My jeans are blue.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): American Eagle announced the campaign more than a week ago. Saying Sweeney's girl next door charm and her ability to not take herself too seriously makes the ad both bold and playful. And pushing it seems all the right and the left's buttons.

The company responded on Friday, defending the campaign. Saying, "It is and always was about the jeans. And that great jeans look good on everyone."

Sweeney so far has not weighed in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just so we're clear. This is not me telling you to buy American Eagle jeans.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): The ad dangling bait that ultimately netted American Eagle a very big catch.

MOLLY MCPHERSON, CRISIS AND REPUTATION STRATEGIST: This is the modern formula for outrage marketing. You spark debate. You drive engagement. You ride the wave. And then when the dust settles, American Eagle gets the clicks, the coverage, and also the cash.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You see what I did there, right?

WAGMEISTER (voice-over): Elizabeth Wagmeister, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SCIUTTO: That's all for us. I'm Jim Sciutto. Hope you have a great weekend. The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now.