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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt

New: Netanyahu Insists Israel Won't Occupy Gaza; New Threats For Texas Dems; Trump & Putin To Meet. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired August 08, 2025 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:20]

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Breaking news here on CNN: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims Israel will not occupy Gaza.

Let's head into THE ARENA.

Israel's security cabinet approves a plan to take control of Gaza City. This amid widespread backlash within Israel and around the world. Will Netanyahu go ahead and will Trump support him?

Plus, Texas Democrats face new threats as they once again deny Republicans a quorum in the state house. And now, Governor Abbott says he might eliminate more Democratic districts.

And then the Trump-Putin meeting, it's on. Russian state media reporting the two will meet next week. Location, TBD. But will Ukraine's Zelenskyy get an invite?

(MUSIC)

HUNT: Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to THE ARENA. It's wonderful to have you with us on this Friday. We made it to Friday in August.

The fate of Gaza and the future of millions of Palestinians now entering a new and uncertain phase. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, now denying that his country will seize and occupy the enclave. Writing on the platform formerly known as Twitter, Netanyahu said this, quote, we are not going to occupy Gaza. We are going to free Gaza from Hamas, end quote.

He felt compelled to put out that tweet after intense backlash within Israel and around the world after his security cabinet approved a plan for the Israeli military to seize and control Gaza City, which until the war had been Gaza's most populous.

Here's what Netanyahu said the day before this was announced.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL HEMMER, FOX NEWS HOST: Will Israel took control of all of Gaza?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We intend to, in order to, A, assure our security, remove Hamas there, enable the population to be free of Gaza and to pass it to civilian governance. That is not Hamas and not anyone advocating the destruction of Israel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So almost two years into this war, Netanyahu is now under immense pressure both at home and abroad.

Today, family members of the 50 hostages still held in Gaza held a shabbat dinner outside the defense minister's home in protest. Yesterday, other hostages' family members sailed toward Gaza, urging an end to what they called an endless war.

But the reality is that Netanyahu's power is, for the most part, unchecked here, and that has led some others to call on President Trump to exert his influence over the Israeli prime minister. Over 600 retired Israeli security officials penned a letter to Trump urging him to pressure Israel into stopping the war.

And here is one of Israel's former prime ministers on CNN earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EHUD OLMERT, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: President Trump is an enormously powerful leader. He has this power in order to use it in a way that can make a difference. Take the leadership and force the Israeli government, because you are the only person that can force the Israeli government to do what needs to be done. And you are the only one that can do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. My panel is here in THE ARENA.

We're going to get started, though, with senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes and CNN chief global affairs correspondent Matthew Chance, who's live for us in Jerusalem.

And let's start there. Matthew, can you take us through Israel's plan and give us a sense of the reception it's been met with from the international community?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, well, we don't have all the details of the plan, but what we do know is that it's supposed to get underway on October the 7th. That date was picked on purpose, of course, to coincide with the two years since the massacres led by Hamas in southern Israel.

We know that it's going to involve the mass movement of people from Gaza City, which is the most densely populated area of the Gaza Strip. Still not under full Israeli military control. Move them out to the south of Gaza, where they're going to set up humanitarian sort of evacuation centers where people can get supposedly some kind of humanitarian aid there, which Israel says it will provide. And it would clear the way in Gaza City. This is the theory for Israel's military to attack and destroy Hamas, finally, after nearly two years of trying to do that. I guess the problem is that from a Palestinian humanitarian point of view, you know, the cure for the disease is as bad as the disease itself.

[16:05:06]

It's going to involve I expect, I think everybody expects a great deal of displacement of Palestinian people, many of whom have been displaced many times before. It's going to mean no humanitarian aid for people who stay in Gaza city, and it's probably going to mean a lot more deaths as well. We've seen tens of thousands of people killed so far. That's likely to continue.

From an Israeli point of view and the vast majority of Israelis, remember, are totally against this plan. They see this as a potentially a death sentence for the hostages that are still being held inside the Gaza Strip. There are 20 of them who are still believed to be alive, 50 in total, but 20 are still believed to be alive.

And of course, the country is utterly exhausted after nearly two years of constant wars in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Syria, more recently in Iran as well. And they just want the country to return to some kind of normality.

There's only one real group in Israel that that wants this, and that's the hard line right wing coalition partners of Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. They've been pushing hard for a full occupation of Gaza for a long time now. They want to build Jewish settlements there. They're saying that that publicly.

And, you know, if they leave, if Netanyahu loses their support, his government could fall. And so, this is being seen by many Israelis as a political move rather than a necessary one.

HUNT: Right. And so, I mean, to that point being about the politics, of course, suggests that Netanyahu perhaps amenable to hearing from the U.S. president and I shouldn't say amenable, but perhaps Donald Trump could exert some influence over him.

Kristen Holmes, what are you hearing out of the White House about this right now?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, and just one thing to make clear here. I mean, we have seen nothing but Israel and the United States be in lockstep. So, it would actually be notable if Netanyahu had not briefed the White House that this was going to happen, or at least that he was putting forward this idea. And I will note that after the reports started circulating that Benjamin Netanyahu wanted this takeover of Gaza, president Trump was asked about it and said that its really up to Israel. They can do anything. It's their decision. Anything outside of humanitarian aid in Gaza.

We haven't heard from the president on this issue today. We're actually seeing him currently for the first time. He's in the east room with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia. They are signing a peace agreement. It is likely he will take questions and this issue will come up.

But we did hear from Vice President J.D. Vance. He was sitting down for a bilateral meeting with the United Kingdom's foreign secretary. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think the president obviously has been very clear about his goals, about what he wants to accomplish in the Middle East, and he's going to keep on doing that. The president, as you know, speaks to these issues commonly. I'm sure that he'll talk at some point to the media about his response to what's happened or what was announced earlier today in Gaza.

But our goals are very clear. We want to make it so that Hamas can't attack innocent people. We want to solve the humanitarian problems in Gaza.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And of course, that's one thing that we have been reporting on, that President Trump has become fixated on the humanitarian crisis that is happening in Gaza.

One other thing to point to that we heard from the vice president in this interview when he was asked questions by reporters, was that he reiterated the fact that the United States would not recognize a Palestinian state. The reason why this is notable now is because it came after declarations from France, Germany and the United Kingdom saying the opposite.

HUNT: Kristen, briefly, we, of course, had heard previously from this president about the Gaza riviera, I believe, was the word. There were some A.I. images. Has that been set aside in the face of the devastating humanitarian images that we're seeing coming out of Gaza now, or is that something that's still a live ball at the White House?

HOLMES: Well, Kasie, I would say anything is a live ball at the White House. I would never rule literally anything out that you could possibly throw at me. But right now --

HUNT: Fair enough.

HOLMES: I can tell you that President Trump has been fixated and talking to his team about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. After seeing images of that, that has been something that he has been focused on behind the scenes, and publicly, we have heard him talking about that.

HUNT: All right. Kristen Holmes, Matthew Chance getting us started today. Thank you both very much.

All right. Our panel is here, CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams, CNN political commentator, Republican strategist and pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson, Democratic strategist Meghan Hays, Republican strategist Doug Heye. And we're also joined by CNN global affairs analyst Kimberly Dozier.

And, Kim, let me start with you. And where our reporters have left off here, because I think -- I mean, the big picture question, I have about this is whether the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has now gone so far that he risks losing what has been bedrock support for Israel from the United States.

[16:10:19]

Obviously, we've seen significant slippage in the international community. The U.K., other places, of course, recognizing the state of Palestine.

How do you look at this and how would you frame up the calculation, the tradeoffs that Netanyahu is making here?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, ironically and devastatingly, Hamas's original goals of October 7th to cause Israel to react in a way that would alienate the rest of the world, that seems to be continuing to succeed because by Hamas rejecting the 60- day offered ceasefire and coming back with its own proposals that stymied that. And now, Israel, with U.S. backing, has gone for essentially almost the maximum campaign.

Now, there's a term of art that Netanyahu is avoiding using, by saying he's not occupying Gaza. Of course, Elliot can weigh in on this. That means under international law, Israel would not be responsible for governing Gaza. So perhaps that's what he means.

But they are talking about taking control of the rest of the territory that they don't yet control. About a quarter of the Gaza Strip. And that means displacing the most populous area, which will surely mean civilian casualties. It will threaten the hostages because Hamas has said if the Israeli troops get close, they'll kill them.

But he's put himself in a corner because his ultra hard right coalition that is keeping him in power, this is what they want. So I don't see a way for him to backtrack.

There also seems to be that he's reaching for this possibility of, you know, Trump 2.0 means he can double down on what he got in Trump 1.0 when he got the recognition of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. This time, he might get the annexation of the West Bank and some sort of de facto permanent Israeli control of Gaza.

HUNT: Remarkable when you lay it out like that.

And Elliot Williams, your name has been invoked. What say you?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think she's absolutely right, but it's a question of hair splitting. If it's -- what does the world see? And if the world sees military force in Gaza and it's Israeli military force, whether it's called an occupation or simply military action, I think is irrelevant.

HUNT: Yeah. Kristen Soltis Anderson is someone who looks at data, public opinion,

trends day in and day out.

How do you think about what Israel has on the line with its public support or lack thereof?

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, right now, I mean, Donald Trump and his coalition still very broadly are supportive of Israel. But what is interesting here is that in the Trump era, the Republican Party now has a much more robust, isolationist kind of faction, a faction that says, okay, what's in it for me, if I'm going to be dealing with the rest of the world, if I'm going to be giving resources and military aid, how does it help our interests?

And so, the bar is higher now for someone like Trump, when Republicans and Trump say, we want to support Netanyahu, we want to send aid, we want to support them, to answer questions within their own coalition about what's in it for American interests. Why are we offering up military support, aid, et cetera? What do we get?

WILLIAMS: And, you know, just really quick, Prime Minister Olmert, really interesting point in his comments at the beginning, which is America has the power to, for lack of, a better term, put a thumb on the scale and make things happen here. Short of the kind of military aid and force and money that makes folks on the right uncomfortable now, or at least in Trump's coalition, uncomfortable now, this is the time that the president could actually lean on the Israeli leadership to get action.

ANDERSON: And I just want to say, I mean, Republicans are still very broadly behind Israel, but it is a -- it is a different world than it was ten years ago, 20 years ago for sure.

WILLIAMS: Well, and let's play a little bit of what we sometimes call him the OG MAGA man, Steve Bannon on this show. What he had to say today, actually, on his podcast on this topic, and well talk to Doug, is the lucky recipient of the question about this afterwards.

Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE BANNON, HOST, BANNON'S WAR ROOM: If you're going to do it this time, you got to finish what you started. This -- this Gaza situation has just metastasized over the last two years. And man, if you start drawing American, you want to kill the MAGA movement, let's have American troops go over there as an occupational force, because this will -- this will -- this will -- this will end in tears.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Doug Heye, that speaks a little bit to what Kristen was talking about in terms of the MAGA movement having some serious nervousness and aversion, frankly, to any involvement in any sort of conflict.

DOUG HEYE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Yeah. Well, we hear that all the time. And if there are boots on the ground, there aren't boots on the ground.

[16:15:01]

The president certainly is not going to propose putting boots on the ground, whether it's here or Ukraine or anywhere else. So it's a good talking point and it demonstrates where they are. But it's also not where the reality is currently on the ground.

And I was struck by what Matthew said earlier because he talked about the hostages, and I was in Israel about six, eight weeks ago meeting with Ambassador Huckabee, meeting with opposition leaders and government leaders, and every meeting and everywhere you went, the first thing you heard about was the hostages.

You can't cross the street without seeing their pictures. You can't talk to anybody without them bringing them up. The key thing is, how do they come home and come home safely? And that's the pressure point that Netanyahu feels right now.

HUNT: Well, I mean, it -- is that a pressure point for him? I mean, because the hostage families have clearly -- I mean, they have we have seen them publicly in almost every way imaginable and possible. And yet, Netanyahu keeps making decisions in line with his security cabinet.

HEYE: Look, I think he knows politically that as long as this goes on, it, it keeps him in power. When I was there, the talk was, is Netanyahu going to have to face a no confidence vote at the end of the week? Three days later, missiles started firing at Iran, and we haven't had that conversation since.

But you cannot do anything in Israel. You cannot tie your shoes without somebody bringing up the hostages, giving you a pin, a picture of them. I still have some of that at home myself.

MEGHAN HAYS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: So that's really great that that's happening in Israel. But that's not the perception in the rest of the world. That's not what the United States feels.

That's not what the rest of the world is seeing. They are seeing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and Netanyahu is not anywhere focused on that. And the fact that the United States is not putting more pressure on him to address the humanitarian crisis is disgusting and despicable, and Congress is going to have to take action. This is going to divide the Democratic Party. It's going to be one of the major issues going into the midterms for the Democrats.

HEYE: We had -- we had somebody not from the IDF, but sort of a line in that remind us Israel is the only country in the world that is compelled to feed their adversaries. The problem is, while they're doing this work, they're not telling a good story on how they're doing it. So we don't see this.

And what we see is the carnage. We see the sick babies. Whether "The New York Times" reported that accurately or not, that's what people respond to. Israel has to tell a better story of what its doing. HUNT: Hold on one second. And we know that the president has seen

those images, which I think is the most important thing. But we need to listen in to President Trump, who's taking questions at the White House.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, we've been working on a lot of these deals. We've closed every single one of them all throughout the world. And that's the last of them. And they're losing, Peter, about 6,000, maybe even 7,000 soldiers every single week. Russia, as you know, lost almost 25,000 over the last month and a half. And Ukraine lost a just a small number, fewer. A lot of -- a lot of people are dying.

And I think we're getting very close and were going to be announcing later on, we're going to have a meeting with Russia, start off with Russia, and we'll announce a location and the location will be a very popular one for a lot of reasons. But we'll be announcing that a little bit later. I just don't want to do it now because of the importance of what we just did.

Yeah, please, go ahead.

REPORTER: Just a follow up. Are you surprised that Zelenskyy hasn't figured out by now in years of war, how to deal with you and to deal with Putin without needing permission to make concessions from his parliament or from a national referendum?

TRUMP: Well, he's going out and getting what he needs. You know, he's not authorized to do certain things. I said, well, you're going to have to get it fast because, you know, we're getting very close to a deal. And he's doing that, and he's working with the European nations, and they're terrific people, terrific leaders, NATO.

And as you know, I became very friendly with them. They agreed to go from 2 percent to 5 percent, 2 percent that they didn't pay to 5 percent that they've already paid. It's trillions of dollars. So, you know, we're working together very closely.

But no, in all fairness to President Zelenskyy, he's getting everything he needs to -- assuming we get something done. But I'll be meeting very shortly with President Putin. It would have been sooner, but I guess their security arrangements that unfortunately people have to make. Otherwise, I'd do it much quicker.

He would, too. He'd like to meet as soon as possible. I agree with it. But we'll be announcing that very shortly. Okay? And location.

Yeah. Please. Please.

REPORTER: Mr. President, with this meeting with Putin, is this Russia's last chance to achieve peace? And do you expect Ukraine to make any type of territorial concession?

TRUMP: Yeah. I don't like using the term last chance. Look, it's -- you know, look, this is a true, very, very smart people. They've been going at it for and their predecessors also very smart. They've been going at it for 35 years. It's tough.

And you know, when those guns start going off, it's awfully tough to get them to stop. It really does. It's a war that should have never happened. It would have never happened if I were president. There was no reason for it.

So many people are killed, so much cultural destruction. You look at those magnificent towers, the most beautiful in the world.

[16:20:03]

You know, the spires were considered the most beautiful in the world. They're all -- they're all in a million pieces laying on the ground. All obliterated, knocked into a million pieces. It's so sad, but, millions of people have died, and, very, very much set in their ways. A lot of people were set in their ways.

But I think we're getting close. I mean, this was not my war. This was Biden's war. But the European Union has been great. As you know, they're purchasing equipment from us. They're spending -- they have a lot of money, and they're spending a lot of money on buying equipment. We're not spending money. We're -- but we are supplying them equipment. They're paying for it.

And I think, you know, I think that a lot of things happened recently that would make this, go forward. I'm not going to mention anything having to do with India, but maybe that had an impact. But what really had an impact was, NATO has stepped up in terms of their spending on buying military equipment.

You know, we're in for probably through Biden and his people, $350 billion, $350 billion. When they hear these numbers, you're saying that's a lot of money, $350 billion. The United States has spent on that. It should have spent nothing because it should have never happened, would have never happened.

And Europe is in for over $100 billion, which is -- it should be the opposite. If we were in for anything. But it should be the opposite. And I will say that Europe has -- Europe wants to see peace. The European leaders want to see peace.

President Putin, I believe, wants to see peace. And Zelenskyy wants to see peace. Now, President Zelenskyy has to get all of his, everything he needs because he's going to have to get ready to sign something. And I think he is working hard to get that done.

REPORTER: Will Zelenskyy have to give up territory, Mr. President?

TRUMP: Well, you're looking at territory that's been fought over for three and a half years with, you know, a lot of Russians have died. A lot of Ukrainians have died. So we're looking at that, but we're actually looking to get some back and, some swapping.

It's complicated. It's actually nothing easy. It's very complicated. But we're going to get some back. We're going to get some -- some switched. There'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both. And but we'll be talking about that either later or tomorrow or whatever.

Yeah. Please?

REPORTER: Thank you, President Trump.

TRUMP: Say it?

REPORTER: If I could ask a question of your guests and also of you.

TRUMP: Yeah.

REPORTER: Of the guest -- will the Armenians from Nagorno-Karabakh be allowed to return? And also, do you have any thoughts on the talk about President Trump winning the Nobel Peace Prize?

And for President Trump, you're working on resolving two other major conflicts in Gaza. Youve spoke of resettling the Gazans, the country of Somaliland has expressed potential interest if you were to diplomatically recognize their independence. Are you inclined to do so? And also, did President Putin present an award to Mr. Witkoff during their recent visit?

TRUMP: He likes Mr. Witkoff, I can tell you that. That's true.

Please go ahead.

NIKOL PASHINYAN, ARMENIA'S PRIME MINISTER: I think President Trump deserved to have Nobel Peace Prize and we will -- we will defend that and we promote -- we will promote for that. And that's obvious.

So -- and today's event, I think is a very bright expression of that, and, hopefully, you will invite us to --

TRUMP: Front row. You'll be front row.

PASHINYAN: Yeah. Yeah, we are in favor.

TRUMP: Thank you. Thank you.

ILHAM ALIYEV, AZERBAIJAN'S PRESIDENT: Can I have a suggestion?

TRUMP: Yes.

ALIYEV: So maybe we agree with Prime Minister Pashinyan to send a joint appeal to Nobel Committee to award President Trump with Nobel Peace Prize because --

(APPLAUSE)

ALIYEV: From the leaders of the countries which were at war for more than three decades, having this historic signature here, it really means a lot. This is tangible result of President Trump's leadership, and no one could have achieved that. There have been many presidents here since the beginning of '90s, and the so-called Minsk process, which, by the way, today we put an end to with my Armenian colleague, started in 1992. So, negotiation under the auspices of OSCE continued for more than

three decades without any result. So, who, if not President Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize?

I don't want to go into the history of some very strange decisions of Nobel Peace Committee to award the prize for someone who didn't do anything at all, but President Trump in six months did a miracle. So, I think that my Armenian colleague will support it.

And judging by the reaction of the audience, I think as soon as we come back, we will agree to issue a joint letter. And hopefully, and I also joined when president is awarded. We hope that he will invite us to the ceremony.

TRUMP: Thank you. You certainly will be. Thank you very much.

PASHINYAN: Do we have draft to sign now?

TRUMP: Well, we'll see what happens.

PASHINYAN: We would like to sign.

TRUMP: Thank you very much. It's very nice.

We're looking into that right now. Good question actually. And another complex one as you know. But we're working on that right now, Somaliland.

REPORTER: Mr. President, thank you so much.

I wanted to ask you, have you spoken to Russian President Putin yet? And would you go to Russia or Ukraine? And what exactly would you say?

TRUMP: We'll be announcing a location and maybe a little while and I think it would be a very happy -- we'll see what happens, right? All we can do is do our best. We've been working on this one for a long time. This is a very complicated one also. This was extremely complicated, but we made it less complicated.

And we had two very brilliant people on my right and my left. They understood what was at stake. I think if it didn't get done now, it might have never gotten done.

So, this is the same, very similar with Ukraine. It became more and more complicated as time went on. It was simple at the beginning. Wasn't going to happen, but it became more and more complicated. But I think we're getting close.

Yes, ma'am. Yes. Go ahead please.

REPORTER: Could the location for the summit be Italy?

ALIYEV: Location, Italy.

TRUMP: I will give it to you very soon. I just -- honestly, I don't want to do anything. These guys. I don't want to do anything where that's like because this is a bigger story than a location.

A location is good -- I'm a real estate person. I know about location, but this -- there's nothing to compete with this in terms of what we're doing today. Just -- it's just such a great achievement for these two, really, they'll go down as great leaders for what they did. I put them together, but what they have been able and I don't want to do anything.

So, we'll talk about it later. Today, today, we'll give you a location today.

REPORTER: You were talking about sending military forces to fight against the drug cartels in Latin America. Do you think it's worth sending our forces or U.S. forces there to take this on?

TRUMP: Cartels where?

REPORTER: Central, Central Latin America?

TRUMP: Well, Latin America has got a lot of cartels. They've got a lot of drugs flowing. So, you know, we want to protect our country. We have to protect our country. We haven't been doing it for four years and we love this country like they love their countries. We have to protect our country.

So, you know, we're playing a tough game, but we'll have more to say about that soon.

Yes, ma'am.

REPORTER: Mr. President, I'm Salah (ph) from Azerbaijan News Agency Report. So we are grateful to be here. So, today, you host a truly historic meeting.

As a person who values diplomacy and global interaction, do you consider the possibility to visiting Azerbaijan? Actually, you mentioned Azerbaijan and Armenia after this meeting.

TRUMP: (INAUDIBLE)

ALIYEV: To visit our countries, do you consider to visit?

TRUMP: Which one do I consider better?

REPORTER: Both yet.

TRUMP: I think if I ever said that that you would say this guy couldn't have solved the problem. You know what? I consider them both great. Okay? And you know what? They're going to be even greater.

But, and they're very different in many ways, but they have a lot in common. But they're both great as far as I'm concerned. Yeah. Please. It's an interesting question. That would have been a hell of an answer if I said, well, I think, I think I like this one or that one. No, we don't do that.

Go ahead. Please.

REPORTER: Mr. President, first of all, thank you for bringing peace to South Caucasus, something that no one has been able to achieve in 35 years. That's number one.

TRUMP: Thank you.

REPORTER: We also noticed that you think highly of the commitments that the sides have taken on, and assumed. However, considering the long history of conflict and the fact that this is not a legally binding document, will there be consequences if at some point one of the sides takes a step back?

TRUMP: I don't think it's going to happen. I think it's going to be very good. And I told them I gave them a personal commitment. If there's, you know, there's always little problems here and there, right? The big ones have been solved. These are the giant ones that have been solved.

[16:30:02]

But if there's conflict, they both know they're going to call me and we're going to get it straightened out. They're not going to have a problem.

Where are you from? Okay, good. Very good. I was wondering, it was a very unusual question, but it's not unusual considering you're from Armenia.

If there's a problem, we will get it worked out. I told them both. Don't let the problem last. We get it early and we'll get it -- we'll get it solved. Good reporter you have over there.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: Okay?

ALIYEV: Can I -- can I -- can I ask?

TRUMP: Please?

ALIYEV: Yeah.

First of all, I'd like to say that today, we initialed the peace deal, which was in the process of negotiations for quite a while. The fact that it is initialed here in the capital, number one of the world, in the office number one of the world. And in front of the great president of the United States, means that there should be no doubts and no suspicions that any of the sides would step back.

If some, if any, of us. Prime Minister Pashinyan or myself, had in mind to step back, we wouldn't have come here. So you can be absolutely sure as well as Azerbaijani community, that what has happened today will result in peace, long lasting peace, eternal peace in the Caucasus.

TRUMP: That's a very nice statement.

(APPLAUSE)

PASHINYAN: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Fully agree. And nothing to add.

TRUMP: That's a very nice two statements, and that's a beautiful, beautifully stated statement. Let's go a couple of more. Yeah. Please.

REPORTER: Mr. President, many in the South Caucasus have pinned the blame on your predecessor, Joe Biden, and his secretary of state, Antony Blinken, for obstacles in America's bilateral relations with Azerbaijan and peace in that part of the world.

How important is it to you to elevate your country's partnership and your administration's partnership with Azerbaijan, with Armenia?

TRUMP: Yeah.

REPORTER: And how important is this for your legacy?

TRUMP: Well, to me, it's very important, but it's -- you know, I just I know the history of what was going on because I do a lot of reading and they've been a vicious, you know, they've had a very contentious relationship for a long time. It's -- I mean, it's war. Most of the time was war.

And so, to get it done, they're great people. I know a lot of people from Armenia. I know a lot of people from both countries. And they're incredible people. And it shouldn't happen. What has happened?

I wish we could have been here sooner. You know, if the election were different, I'm going to be nice to them. I'm not going to be controversial and say the election was rigged. I would have had this thing solved four years sooner.

But the truth is, it's right. If the election were rigged, I would have been here four years sooner. We would have signed the same agreement four years sooner. But it didn't happen. And the Biden administration did really very little, actually, nothing to get it done.

But they did nothing to get -- really anything done. It was very -- this country was in very serious shape. And I say it over and over again. I met all the leaders of NATO. I met -- I went, as you know, the Middle East. I was with the king of Saudi Arabia, the leaders of great countries, right, Qatar and UAE and others in the Middle East and everyone essentially said the same thing. We had a dead country one year ago. We had a dead country.

Our country was dying and now we have the hottest country anywhere in the world. It's not even close. We have the hottest country in the world, and it's an honor to use that. If you call it power or respect or whatever it is to settle wars like we have right here to my left and my right.

And these two guys are very smart. I got to know them and they're very smart. They're not going to, I don't think they're going to ever have to bother with me. They may call me just to bug me a little bit. Let me put them to a test and they'll call because they like to call me, but they're not going to have any problem.

We have a very comprehensive agreement. It's a peace agreement. And this is a ceasefire. This isn't we'll hold off. This is a peace agreement, and they're going to end up doing a lot of business with each other. They're going to do a lot of business with the United States.

And I'm going to always remember, at least during the time that I'm here, I'm going to remember how smart they were, how good they were. And when it comes to trade and other things, we're going to always go 100 percent out. We'll go out of our way to make sure it comes out good for them.

They did an amazingly good thing and a very brave thing. It's a -- it's a very complicated part of the world. They come from very tough part of the world. It's a tough, tough but smart part of the world. Smart, tough people and great wealth, you know, great energy, wealth.

I was talking to Chris, and you were saying in terms of wealth, it's enormous wealth. But wealth doesn't often solve problems. It takes other things.

[16:35:00]

But they were -- they're amazing, two amazing leaders.

And it's an honor to be associated with them.

How about we'll do one more, please?

REPORTER: Mr. President, your gut instincts have. Always done well in terms of business and in terms of politics. What does your gut tell you as it relates to the possibility of an event like this in the next few weeks, the next few months in which you have President Putin on one side and President Zelenskyy on your other side?

TRUMP: I think my instinct really tells me that we have a shot at it. Okay. And you'll find that out later on, maybe even today. But we have a shot at it. Look, it's got to be solved.

You know, we're not losing people. A lot of people say, why are you bothering? We're not losing people. We were spending hundreds of billions of dollars. Now we're spending nothing. We're spending no money.

I guess we're making money because, you know, our great -- we have the best military equipment in the world. We're selling it to NATO. But you're losing thousands of people a week. Russians and Ukrainians, mostly. Mostly soldiers, but, you know, missiles are lobbed into cities and towns. Kyiv, lots of places. Youve been reading the same stories that I've been reading, and, we got to get it solved.

REPORTER: The Norwegian Nobel Committee will make their announcement as it relates to this year's Nobel Peace Prize on October the 10th, Friday, October the 10th is that date circled on your calendar Mr. President?

TRUMP: I can't say. I mean, a lot of people say, no matter what I did because, you know, I'm a of a certain persuasion, no matter what I do, they won't give it. And I'm not politicking for it. I have a lot of people that are -- I know, I mean, I read the same things as you do. But it would be a great honor, certainly. But I would never politic.

I'm not doing it for that. I'm doing it because of I really -- number one, I want to save lives. Thats why I'm involved so much with Ukraine and Russia saving lives of Russians and Ukrainians. It's not American lives.

Now, I would say this, that war could have escalated into something much bigger. That could have been a world war. I think if we didn't come, Ukraine, Russia would have ended up being a world war. And I stopped that. That's stopped.

Now, the only question is when is it going to be settled? And it could be very soon, but when is it going to be? But that would have been a world war.

If I didn't come along with a very talented group of people sitting largely right here. But there are others not in the room that are very talented. I think Russia, Ukraine would have had a very, very high degree -- I think even probably would have ended up being in a world war.

REPORTER: Your predecessor --

TRUMP: I don't think people talk about that now because they don't see it anymore. But we brought it down a long way. But that was getting to a point. When I first came in, I said, wow, this thing is really bad. And it could have gone -- but could have escalated to a level that you people would have been very unhappy with.

Yeah?

REPORTER: Your predecessor, Mr. President, President Ronald Reagan, had a phrase as it relates to dealing with the then-Soviet Union and also Mikhail Gorbachev. The phrase was trust but verify.

Do you subscribe to that same view as it relates to Mr. Putin and Russia?

TRUMP: Well, I do relating to everybody. I mean, not just President Putin, but also people and leaders that I deal with.

Look, I'm dealing with trade and some of the worst deals we made, some of the worst trade deals we have. I talk about friend and foe, right? Friend and foe, two interesting words.

Some of our worst trade deals were not with the foe. They were with the friends. Our friends were just killing us on trade. Not anymore, not anymore. We're making -- we're, you know, were taking

in trillions of dollars and we're respected and we're settling, you know, through trade even a little bit here. Less here than on some, but through trade, I got things settled.

With India, Pakistan, I think it was trade more than any other reason. That's how I got involved. I said, you know, I don't want to be dealing with countries that are trying to blow up themselves and maybe the world, you know, they're nuclear nations. That was a big one.

Getting that one settled. I think you'd agree that was a that was a big one. And they were going at it. You know, they were shooting airplanes out of the sky. You know, they five or six planes got shot down in their last little skirmish. And then it was going to escalate from there. And they could have gotten to be very, very bad.

Now, I want to save a lot of lives. I love saving lives. It's what it's about. And, you know, when you save lives, you really end up having a peaceful world. Usually, that ends up pretty well.

I want to thank everybody, but in particular these two great leaders, for having the courage to do what they did today. And they're going to go down in the history books, and it's a great honor to be involved.

Thank you very much.

(APPLAUSE)

[16:40:06]

TRUMP: Thank you.

HUNT: All right. We have been listening to President Trump there, speaking at the White House, get out of there without taking any additional questions.

Let's bring in CNNs senior White House correspondent, Kristen Holmes, CNN contributor, former CNN Moscow bureau chief Jill Dougherty is with us, and CNN chief international security correspondent Nick Paton Walsh, who is live for us in Kyiv.

We should note the news here. President Trump telling Americans that he is going to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, quote, very shortly. He also says that he will be telling us today the location of where this meeting is going to take place.

Kristen Holmes, he was careful to say he didn't want to step on what he was announcing there with the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia by announcing the location of this meeting. But of course, we all remember where President Trump and president Putin met during Trump's first term in Helsinki.

What did you take away from what the president had to say today?

HOLMES: Yeah, there were a couple of notable moments there. Now, one, I just want to note that, yes, he said that he didn't want to take away from the moment that he was having. But we have been hearing that there's been a lot of back and forth between Russia and the U.S. about this location and about the timing. And you heard him talk about the security there.

The goal for both sides was to get this done as quickly as possible, potentially even by next Friday. But they are still negotiating in terms of where the location is and what it will look like. And because of that security, it might have to be pushed a little bit later.

So that's one thing to note there. The other part of this that was so fascinating is one of the things that we had been hearing about a potential deal that U.S. and Russia had been working on in terms of a ceasefire, and he was asked about it specifically asking if Ukraine would have to cede any of its territory to Russia in a potential deal. And he was very vague, and he certainly did not say no in any way. What he said was that this is territory that's been fought over for years, he said, we're looking at giving some back and maybe swapping some.

It's very complicated. He went back and forth, continued to say swapping, giving some back. Clearly, not directly answering the question, but certainly not saying that no, one of the things we've obviously heard from Ukraine is that they don't plan on ceding any territory to Russia.

The other part of this is that President Trump, again, as you said, noted that the location would be somewhere that people liked and that he could announce it as early as today. We do know that there is still ongoing conversations between Russia and the U.S. over everything involving this meeting. We know that the U.S. has been talking to its European allies, trying to get buy in on any sort of deal that they strike with Russia before a meeting.

So, there are a lot of things happening behind the scenes here as we wait for a formal announcement.

HUNT: And to this point, Nick Paton Walsh, you're in Kyiv, you have a really deep understanding of what territory could be at stake here. What that means to the Ukrainians, as you listen to the president there, equivocate about what may be on offer to the Russians. What do you hear and what do you think may be tenable to the Ukrainians, who, as I understand it, have a pretty intense national process to deal with something like this.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, I mean, look, floating around over the past hours have been reports which have been confirmed to me as mostly accurate by European officials, that one of the ideas is that Ukraine would step out essentially, of Donetsk and Luhansk, ceding that territory to Russia. It's closely almost in Russian hands now, but there are some key towns being fiercely fought over, and indeed one that the Russians are nowhere near at all.

Two, in fact, Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, that the Russians would get that territory, kind of half of their maximalist war goals territorially in exchange for a ceasefire for Russia, stopping fighting for the war to essentially be frozen and come to an end. Now, there could be many other permutations of that, hearing Trump talking about swapping territory. I can't immediately imagine what essentially the Ukrainians might get back. Maybe that's Russia pulling out of the small areas of Sumy in the north, that the military has gone into recently.

Look, getting that idea through Ukrainian public opinion after three and a half years of brutal invasion, the idea that they'll just simply pull out of parts of Donetsk and Luhansk will be tough for President Zelenskyy, make no doubt about it, he can probably make it happen. Frankly, it may have a damaging long term political impact upon him, but ultimately, too, there are many Ukrainians who deeply want this war to come to an end and are seeing their frontline chances getting worse by the week.

The issue here is really about timing, because this has to kind of come in pretty fast to not actually allow the Russians to make their military gains a reality in the weeks ahead.

[16:45:09]

They're close to taking quite a lot of the areas they wanted in Donetsk. They already have nearly all of Luhansk anyway. And so, you know, I think a lot of this will depend on how fast the venue is put forward, where it is, if indeed Zelenskyy is part of that discussion or talks with him, follow later on.

You heard Trump there talking about how he'd stopped this from turning into a world war. Well, you know, that remains to be seen. But also talking about the war, almost at times in the past tense, like he felt it was something he'd managed to bring to a close. I can tell you here, that's absolutely not the case. And I think there are many deeply worried that were seeing the Kremlin buying time here again with a deal which is massively in their favor at the moment from what the details we can hear.

HUNT: Yeah, fascinating. And, Jill Dougherty, I mean to that point, I mean, Nick points out that the Russian president may be playing for time. We were talking about this a couple of days ago, as well as this was playing out with Nick.

We also have seen President Trump in the past when he has met with Putin. He's come out of those meetings describing him as strong. You've had other American presidents claim to, you know, George W. Bush came out of a meeting with Putin and said that he saw his soul.

What potential impact does this person-to-person interaction have on the fate of this territory that is apparently going to be at stake?

JILL DOUGHERTY, FORMER CNN MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Well, that's one of the big questions. Kasie. You know, I think when -- there's a difference between telephone conversations, which they have had and actually sitting down face to face, and President Trump is a man who believes that personal relations, his ability to influence the other person and make a deal is paramount. So, it's really fascinating at this point to think of them in the room

after this switch. I note the president said both men, Zelenskyy and Putin, want peace. A few days ago last week, he was saying, I'm not sure that Putin wants peace, but this is all part of the negotiating.

So, I think what Putin would try to do is to sit down with Trump and convince him, and he can be very convincing -- convince him of the way that he looks at the war and what he wants to get out of the war.

Now, if you listen to what President Trump just said, there's going to have to be a lot of really specific dealing, going on, dealing with territory. And that's where it gets really, really complicated because both sides are very far apart technically at this point, they'll have to, as Nick said, get some type of agreement on territory.

And one last thing I would say, it really goes even beyond territory. This is the sovereignty of Ukraine that the Ukrainians are pushing for. And we'll have to see whether it remains if there is a deal, whether it remains an independent, sovereign country able to make its own decisions. That's really primary for Ukraine.

HUNT: Primary, indeed.

All right. Jill Dougherty, Nick Paton Walsh, Kristen Holmes, thanks to all of you very much for being there for us. Really appreciate it.

And coming up next here, the dramatic escalation in Texas today as Democrats again stall action on the Republican redistricting plan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:53:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DUSTIN BURROWS, TEXAS STATE HOUSE: Role has been called.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. Welcome back.

Texas Republicans have been upping the pressure today against state house Democrats who remain out of the state. And they're preventing action on a Republican led redistricting plan. Some of those absent lawmakers have now gone to California, and they are set to appear with Governor Gavin Newsom next hour.

In Texas, the House speaker says efforts are ongoing to try and force lawmakers to come back to the state as the state Supreme Court weighs whether those missing in action can be removed from office.

Joining our panel now is Michael Smerconish. He is CNN political commentator and, of course, the host of CNN's "SMERCONISH".

Michael, it's always great to see you, especially on a Friday. We had a great tradition in the morning. It's great to have you back here. What do you make of what the Democrats are doing here? Because it does

seem like this is not a situation. As someone said on one of our phone calls earlier today where cooler heads are prevailing.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Is this worth all the attention that we're giving to it? The answer is yes. It is, because Republicans can only afford to give up two seats in the house in the midterm election and still maintain control. And I know, Kasie, that you know this, but it bears repeating there are only somewhere between 18 and 24 toss up districts in the House of Representatives. Everything else is pretty much set in stone because of self-sorting or because of gerrymandering.

So, arguably, it's a game of inches. Thus far, neither side has blinked. I don't know how it resolves. Maybe there's a compromise in the wings, but I do think Republicans hold a distinct advantage because I don't think Democrats are capable of fully responding in kind.

I've wondered if there's a mutually assured destruction about to play out. There might be a little of that, but I think in the end, the GOP will have an edge. It still might not be enough because, as you know, in an off-year election, a midterm election, the party out of power usually sometimes gets shellacked, but usually takes a significant loss.

[16:55:05]

HUNT: Michael, do you believe Gavin Newsom? Do you believe Kathy Hochul of New York, that they are going to fight fire with fire here?

SMERCONISH: I think they're going to try, but I think it's going to be difficult.

I mean, take the case of California. I know that Governor Schwarzenegger is so proud of the initiative that he takes credit for launching in California to bring about a professional process whereby they have a redistricting commission. By the way, passed with an enormous vote in a referendum. You know, California loves those referendums. And prop votes and so forth.

So, I think Gavin Newsom would have to sell that a little bit at home. It won't be as easy as it will be in Texas, and neither will it be so easy for Governor Hochul.

HUNT: Yeah, I think the question is going to be how fired up are is the Democratic base to try to see a fight from its leaders?

Michael, standby for me.

Doug Heye, I want to bring you into this conversation because you've worked on these issues so much. I mean, this is really a game of inches.

HEYE: Uh-huh.

HUNT: Do you think the Democrats are going to be able to stand up to this or not?

HEYE: I think they can win the messaging issue, but not the political issue. And -- but what's interesting to me is this whole thing were talking about state reps. We're not hearing a whole lot from actual members of Congress. We hear a couple of California Republicans who are nervous, but members of Congress aren't talking about that. And the reason why is in Washington, we talk about, well, this this seat went from a R plus three to an R plus six.

Frankly, who cares? If you're a Republican member, you're not looking at that or a Democratic member. If your district changes, you've got new constituents and that's a challenge for you regardless of their registration.

I worked for six and a half years for a California Republican who, when he got redistricted in 2002, four years later, he was gone because he couldn't appeal to those new voters, even though his R plus number went up.

HUNT: Yeah. Fair enough.

All right. Michael Smerconish, thank you so much, sir, for being here. I hope that you'll come back maybe next Friday.

SMERCONISH: Good to see you. Of course.

HUNT: Same place, same time.

All right. Be sure to watch "SMERCONISH" tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. Eastern. It's right here on CNN.

And we do want to end this hour with some additional breaking news. Jim Lovell, the famed NASA astronaut who commanded the harrowing Apollo 13 mission, has died today at the age of 97.

Joining us now, former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino.

Mike, I'm so grateful to have you here to reflect on this incredible legacy. There are, of course, so many Americans who know Jim Lovell story because tom hanks memorialized him in the movie "Apollo 13" after he wrote just an incredible book about the journey, the fateful journey he took to the moon.

Talk a little bit about the man, his life, his legacy and what it all, what it all means to us.

MIKE MASSIMINO, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: I think, overall, what I would say about Jim Lovell is that it's an example of a life well lived, both professionally and personally. Everyone who knew him had the best things to say about him.

For me personally, he was an inspiration. I met him early, early in my life when I just graduated from college, and he gave me some encouraging words about working with NASA. Throughout my career as an astronaut, I would run into him from time to time. Different events at the space center. Always had a kind word, always would admire what we were doing.

And then as I got to know him more meeting some of his kids, seeing what he was as a family man and as a friend, he was the kind of person that you could admire in all aspects of his life. And he's going to be missed by a lot of people. And, you know, I miss him, and I know a lot of other people do as well.

But he was just -- just a wonderful man and a true hero.

HUNT: Yeah. And of course, we are thinking first and foremost of his family and his friends today as they say goodbye to a father and a grandfather.

Mike, do you think that part of what you're talking about there, someone who is able to be a leader to you? Does that help us? Would that help us understand how he was able to show so much courage? Under -- under pressure, under incredible pressure on that mission to the moon?

MASSIMINO: Yeah, I think so. You know, they really had a tough situation there, when the "Apollo 13", very famously in the book, as you said, and also in the movie. But his demeanor, his professionalism, I think his teamwork, you know, being a great leader, but also being a team member, understanding the help that he could get from the control center and how important that was, building those relationships with the people that he worked with and the flight directors, the flight controllers. Everyone was there to help him.

And he knew that he needed their help to get to where he was going to go. It's one interesting thing, I think, Kasie, is that if you look at the patch, the mission patch from "Apollo 13", and also the mission patch from "Apollo 11", they are the only two mission patches from in the history of NASA that do not have the crew members names on them.

My mission patches, which are behind me over my shoulder. They certainly have my name on them. I checked to make sure they're still there every time I look at them, but I think that kind of sums up that kind of sums up who he was as a leader, that it wasn't necessarily about him or even his crew, but about the whole team.

HUNT: Yeah.

MASSIMINO: And I think that's -- that's symbolic of that. But yeah, he was he was the right guy. He was the right guy for the job to be on these missions where, you know, it could happen. What happened to him could happen. He could have been worse. But I think that his demeanor was needed.

HUNT: It could have been.

All right. Mike Massimino, thank you so much for sharing your reflections with us today. Really appreciate it.

Thanks to our panel as well.

Don't go anywhere. "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts right now.