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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt
Trump: Allowing D.C. Police To Do "Whatever The Hell They Want"; Just In: D.C. Mayor's First Comments Since Trump's Police Takeover; U.S. Officials Rush To Finalized Details Of Trump-Putin Meeting. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired August 11, 2025 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:03]
VICTOR JOSEPH, ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT, ALLEGHENY COUNTY POLICE: That it's going to take some time.
DANNY FREEMAN, CNN HOST: And we're listening right now to an update from Allegheny County officials in western Pennsylvania. The headline, one rescued from that wreckage, one still unaccounted for and only one deceased, ten people injured. Amazing update right there.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Really a miracle given some of the pictures that we've seen of the incident there. We understand that at least two other batteries were involved in this incident.
A major explosion happening. At least one person still missing. Rescuers racing right now to find them.
Thanks so much for joining us this afternoon.
"THE ARENA WITH KASIE HUNT" starts right now.
KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Breaking news, D.C.'s mayor speaks out as the city braces for a Trump takeover.
Let's head into THE ARENA.
Muriel Bowser saying she wasn't totally surprised by the president's announcement as the city's police chief prepares for new federal oversight. Democratic Congressman Jamie Raskin will be here to discuss.
Plus, I'll speak with the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass. Her city just faced off against Trump and his deployment of the national guard there. How does she think D.C. should respond?
And then President Trump says his summit with Vladimir Putin will be a, quote, feel out meeting. And White House officials make their way to Alaska as Ukraine warns of a new Russian offensive.
(MUSIC)
HUNT: Hi, everyone. Welcome to THE ARENA. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us on this Monday.
Right now here in Washington, our nation's capitol, bracing for a Trump takeover. The president announcing today that the federal government has assumed control of D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department. He also said he's deploying hundreds of National Guard troops.
Just moments ago, the mayor, Muriel Bowser, issued her first comments on the matter.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER (D), WASHINGTON, D.C.: While this action today is unsettling and unprecedented, I can't say that given some of the rhetoric of the past, that were totally surprised. I can say to D.C. residents that we will continue to operate our government in a way that makes you proud.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: Mayor Bowser responding there to a lengthy news conference in which President Trump characterized D.C. as a city overrun by crime. He repeatedly called it dirty, at one point called it disgusting. The solution that the president described raises questions about just how far things will go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: See, they fight back until you knock the hell out of them, because it's the only language they understand. You can see they want to get at it., and they're standing there and people are spitting in their face, and they're not allowed to do anything. But now they are allowed to do whatever the hell they want.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: As president, Trump has the authority to control D.C.'s police force for up to 30 days before he would have to seek congressional approval. So now the question is, in the coming month, what's going to change? Mayor Bowser today, sounding open to the possibility that, well, the change that comes might not be so bad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOWSER: The fact that we have more law enforcement and presence in neighborhoods that could not, you know, that may be positive if people are -- if it's a positive action. So that's what the executive order says.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. Our panel is going to be here, and we're going to get started with CNN senior White House correspondent Kristen Holmes and CNN security correspondent Josh Campbell. Kristen, I want to start with you. You were in the briefing room when
the president made this announcement. He kept talking about how it was more packed than he'd ever seen it before. Tell us -- take us inside the room. What exactly the plans are here. And how much of this is him wanting people to be focused on and talking about this? And how much of this is actually going to change things?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, a couple of things to note here, Kasie. One is that President Trump has been talking about this idea of federalizing Washington, D.C. since the campaign. But what we started to see was in the last week, he really ramped up that rhetoric. And then at the end of last week, he put federal law enforcement on the ground in D.C. and increased presence at one day more than the day before. And it seemed as though he really felt as though this was making some kind of an impact, talking to people close to him.
Now, we also know that this is something that President Trump likes the idea -- of this idea of sending the military or the national guard into cities to take over and fight crime. That is something he has actually said and said on the campaign trail.
So, here's what he announced in that room. This is his crime plan in D.C. They are going to mobilize 800 National Guard members, put D.C. police under federal control. The attorney general, Pam Bondi, is going to run D.C. police and FBI agents are also going to patrol the city.
Now, interestingly, when we heard from Mayor Muriel Bowser, she said that she essentially been tipped off about the National Guard but was completely in the dark over this putting D.C. police under federal control.
She, as you said, you saw there arguing that this could potentially not be a bad thing and acknowledging that while we were not in a crime spike and that crime statistics have gone down, that there was still crime in Washington, D.C.
So I do want to pull up the crime statistics from 2024 to 2025 here, because you can see the downward trend, violent crime, 26 percent robbery down 28 percent, sex abuse down 50 percent. But again, she did acknowledge that there is still crime happening in the district. And clearly, she is still trying to walk this tightrope that we've seen her trying to walk since Donald Trump came back into office.
There are things that she needs from the president and from the White House. So, you've seen her kind of try to play to both sides in multiple different circumstances. She's been here to the Oval Office on a number of occasions. She's had her team meeting with this team. But it was interesting that they did give the mayor's office a heads- up when they were going to increase the federal law enforcement. They didn't on today's messaging.
HUNT: So, Josh Campbell, you're in L.A., and of course, a few months back, the president deployed the national guard there. Can you walk us through how that ultimately ended up feeling for
residents of Los Angeles, and how it's different or not from what we could see here in D.C.?
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. You know, it's interesting because we still don't fully know exactly what the National Guard in D.C. will be doing. We did just get some reporting moments ago from our colleague Natasha Bertrand at the Pentagon. She's reporting that these soldiers will not be openly carrying firearms around the city of D.C. They'll have them nearby in their vehicles if needed, for some type of urgent situation. So it's unclear if this is just some type of show of force or what their role will actually be.
Here in L.A., when the national guard was federalized following immigration-related protests, their job was basically protecting federal buildings from protests that at times turned violent, as well as providing security for immigration officers around the city. They weren't actually out there doing what one would envision as stopping violent crime. So again, a lot of questions on what's actually going to happen in D.C. also worth noting a lot of questions on why now, as was just reported there by Kristen, that the crime rate in D.C. has been dropping.
And so, there is a big question why today? Why now? I have to tell you, you know, I've talked to a lot of people in law enforcement. I was a federal law enforcement officer. They're suspicious people. They watch the news.
Kasie, I've heard from more than a handful who say that. Could this be some type of way to deflect from the Jeffrey Epstein case, which is obviously dominated the news? So again, a lot of big questions about why now? Why the timing?
HUNT: Yeah, for sure.
All right. Josh Campbell, Kristen Holmes, thank you both very much for getting us started today.
Our panel is here now in THE ARENA. CNN political analyst, national political reporter for "Axios", Alex Thompson, CNN political commentator, Republican pollster and strategist Kristen Soltis Anderson, CNN political commentator Jamal Simmons is here, and former Republican congressman from Michigan, Peter Meijer joins us.
We're also joined by the former Minneapolis police chief, Medaria Arradondo. He served during the murder of George Floyd, and, of course, the protests that followed. He's also the author of "Chief Rondo: Securing Justice for the Murder of George Floyd".
And, Chief, let me start with you here, because obviously, we heard at length from the mayor, from her police chief, because, again, the president has this unique authority. We also heard the mayor speak in a way that was notably different from -- you know, we're going to get a chance to talk to the mayor here in a little while. But she basically welcomed help fighting crime on the streets of D.C.
Were you surprised by the tone that she took, and how do you think we should be looking at it?
MEDARIA ARRADONDO, FORMER MINNEAPOLIS POLICE CHIEF: Well, Kasie, thank you for having me.
Good to see you again.
I think the mayor's response is -- you know, it's very probably strategic. I think that there, as she mentioned, you know, all police chiefs around our country, they want to keep their crime rates down. And one victim of violent crime is one too many. We certainly have seen that violent crime over the last year is down 26 percent. So that's a good thing.
You know, the way that those federal resources, those assets are going to be used, at least right now that I've been told, is that, you know, national guard will serve in more of a administrative, logistical role. They'll have FBI agents patrolling some of those districts.
I think the key thing over these next couple of days is you're going to have a very dedicated public servant, and the current and interim federal commissioner, Terrance Cole, working hand in hand with MPD Chief Smith. And they're going to have to work together, collaborate.
Listen, the public doesn't want to see violent crime. Those news clips that we see of violent assaults in the streets of D.C., they resonate with people. And so -- but they're going to work together. The mayor's comments, I think, are saying, hey, listen, if we can get more extra personnel and bodies out there to help our D.C. Metro Police work and focus on the priorities that they need to, while we have this supporting cast.
And by the way, it's still done with building trust with the D.C. residents. That's a good thing.
HUNT: Yeah. Really interesting.
I mean, Jamal Simmons, what do you make of the way Bowser approached this? I mean, I think some of the statistics might be a little bit illuminating if we can put up among D.C. residents, the number of people that approve of Mayor Bowser's handling of reducing crime, only 27 percent approve, okay, 67 percent of D.C. residents don't approve. And addressing homelessness, 58 percent of D.C. residents do not approve of the job that she's been doing addressing homelessness.
I mean, I read that as a politician who knows that she actually has a problem at home and she needs to recognize it.
JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. And if you talk to some D.C. leaders, what they'll tell you is the mayor has felt somewhat hamstrung about how she can go after violent crime in the city. Some of the rules that are being passed out of the council have been very progressively minded. People feel very good about them.
But for someone who's responsible for keeping people safe, she knows a lot of those violent criminals are. She knows where they are. And the question is, can they go and get them and deal with them effectively as the mayor and still be fair?
So the question I'm listening to is, when you see federal troops come in here, when you see federal law enforcement come in, will they abide by the rules and the standards of the dc police department? We just had Chief Ramsey on earlier in this in this network. He was talking about that.
Are they going to coordinate who's going to patrol which parts of the city? When? Are you going to have these overlapping agencies that are on top of each other? That's going to be a cacophonous mess for the citizens of the district.
HUNT: When you talk about progressive laws that were passed that the mayor feels have hamstrung her, are you talking about the one that makes it really hard to prosecute juvenile offenders?
SIMMONS: Well, I'm not going to speak for the mayor, but I will tell you, that's not my job. That's not my job. But when I talk to people who are very familiar with D.C. politics, they tell me that there is some frustration in city hall that they're not able to go after some of the criminals in the way they want to, and be able to prosecute the crimes the way they want to.
HUNT: Yeah.
ALEX THOMPSON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: What's striking is that National Democrats are not following mayor bowsers lead on this, and that national Democrats have been insisting, just look at the statistics. We have 30-year, you know, 30-year low, you know, violent crime, whereas Mayor Bowser is talking about, hey, we need to get 500 more police officers on the streets. We'd like the federal government to help us rebuild our jail. We also -- she's talking about some of the reforms she did to make it so accused violent offenders don't get out of jail pretrial.
So, there is this disconnect. And I've talked to Democrat strategists today that think that, you know, national Democrats saying, look at the statistics is sort of a tone deaf way to react.
KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And it's very much -- isn't this the exact same problem that Democrats had last year? Look at the statistics. We promise you the economy is great while people are going. It doesn't feel great to me. That feels like a lot of this conversation around crime that you can point to statistics all day long that say, hey, D.C. is safer this year than it was last year.
But do people feel safe? Bottom line, if they don't, they may be more okay with something that would otherwise be considered extraordinary.
PETER MEIJER (R), FORMER MICHIGAN CONGRESSMAN: I think Mayor Bowser may also know that there's an ongoing investigation in her police department over the potentially manipulation of those statistics, that there have been a down classing of some of the crimes. There has been a massaging of the numbers in the reporting in order to fit them more beneficially into the FBI crime stats. So, she may know some things that national Democrats are not paying attention to. SIMMONS: But it is also true, crime is one of these things where the
randomness of it actually has a big psychological effect. Right? If you can predict what's happening, you know, the robbery sort of happen over here. But when random crime happens along 14th street or one of the big thoroughfares here in the district, people get very animated about it.
HUNT: Well, and the man that Donald Trump, the President Trump was talking about from the podium, who was a supporter of his as he described him, he called him a great man who was killed waiting to pick up his wife, happened to be a neighbor of mine for months. There were Irish flags all over our neighborhood, in remembrance of this person. And --
SIMMONS: But, Kasie --
HUNT: Yeah?
SIMMONS: -- I'm going to finish this, which is there's a real political question she has also, which is that the citizens of the District of Columbia want to have Home Rule, want to have state statehood. They want to control their own political destinies. And the question is, is it home rule or was it just a home loan, right? Are they just lent the ability to do what they want to do in their community, or whenever the federal government wants to, it can back the control? And these districts -- these citizens of the District of Columbia lose their representative government.
HUNT: Chief Arredondo, what would you have? I mean, Alex was talking a second ago about the difference between leaders of cities, right? People, executives, police chiefs like yourself, right, people with real problems to solve in front of them versus messaging from national political figures. What would your advice be to some of these national figures, some of whom are going to, you know, run in elections either against the, you know, against Republicans? They're going to use Donald Trump in their campaigns. What would you say to them about what they need to know about this situation?
ARRADONDO: I would say that, you know, the wonderful thing about the policing profession is that I believe that it truly, at the end of the day, is a very noble profession.
[16:15:02]
They're subject matter experts in trying to address violent crime. I would say to those national politicians continue to support those chiefs around the country, support them, give them the resources, let them do their jobs. They're going to have their messages politically, but continue to let them do their job, support them, because, as your panel said one of the most difficult things for a chief of police to wrap their hands around is, is the feeling of safety. How does one feel?
We can name off statistics all we want, but if neighbors and residents and business owners don't feel safe, that's what those chiefs have to deal with. And that's the reality that they have to address. So, I think that two things can be true. You know, the mayors around
the country are going to have to address the politics of it. But the -- those chiefs of police and certainly now in D.C., the federal commissioner, Terrance Cole and certainly the Police Chief Smith, they're going to have to deal with the day to day issues out there in in Metropolitan D.C.
HUNT: Yeah. Very briefly, Jamal Simmons, let me just conclude this with you. How much of how we hear the president talk about this and the politics of this in D.C. is about race?
SIMMONS: I think a lot of it is about race, and it comes out of Donald Trump's mouth. The reality is so much of how he ran, it doesn't feel to a lot of African Americans. And I think a lot of Latinos, Hispanic Americans who feel like make America great is really about making white America dominant again.
And so, the problem for the president and for a lot of people who listen to him, is he's not going into any other communities and sending in federal troops. He's going into Los Angeles, which is incredibly diverse. He's going into D.C., which is incredibly diverse.
So, he's got to -- I don't know if he cares about whether or not he's going to manage this. In fact, maybe this is part of his political agenda, which is to show people that he can control these areas where maybe white people don't feel safe.
HUNT: All right. Chief Arredondo, former chief, thank you very much for being with us today. Sir, I really appreciate your perspective.
Our panel is going to stand by.
Later on this hour, we are going to talk with the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass. Her name was invoked by the president today at the news conference.
And up next here, we're going to talk to the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee. Jamie Raskin will be in THE ARENA live. His reaction to the president's plan and that new decision by a judge today in the DOJ's effort to unseal grand jury materials related to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Plus, inside the rush to finalize basically every detail ahead of Fridays high stakes presidential summit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I expect to have a meeting with Putin that I think it will be good, but it might be bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:21:57]
HUNT: All right. Welcome back to THE ARENA.
As we continue to follow the news of President Trump's plan to place Washington, D.C. under federal control.
Joining us now, Democratic Congressman of Maryland, Jamie Raskin. He is the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee.
Congressman, always good to have you. And of course, for anyone that doesn't know, much of your district actually borders the District of Columbia. And you have been someone who has talked quite a bit about D.C. becoming a state.
Can you -- we start with the legality of this? You also, of course, a professor of constitutional law is what Donald Trump here outlined legal?
REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Well, he's referring to a provision in the D.C. Home Rule Act which allows him to declare a police emergency
relating to a federal matter. They haven't defined what the emergency is, especially with crime rates at a 30-year low in the District of Columbia. And he's deployed the National Guard.
At least I'm happy to see that he acknowledges he has the power to activate the National Guard. That was what he refused to do four and a half years ago. When the Capitol and his own vice president and Congress were under attack by the mob violence that he unleashed against us, and he sat on his hands for many hours and then later asserted he somehow didn't have the authority to deploy the National Guard.
That was a real emergency. This is not a real emergency. He was not asked to send in the National Guard or take over the police by the House or the Senate, or the mayor or the D.C. Council.
This looks to me like an emergency, which is manufactured because of a public relations crisis relating to the Epstein file. He doesn't want to release Epstein file. So, he wants everybody to look in another direction.
In any event, if he really cared about public safety in D.C., he would release the billion dollars he has held up, and the Republicans have held up in funding for the local budget. That's all local money that they've put a hold on it. They would -- he would not have pardoned 1,600 insurrectionists and violent cop beaters. On his first day in office. And he would not have sacked all of these experienced federal prosecutors at the U.S. attorney's office and the Department of Justice and replace them with literal January 6th participants and lawyers for the January 6th defendants and other people who are clearly at odds with the actual public safety of people in the district of Columbia.
HUNT: Congressman, you mentioned the statistics. I take all those points for sure. But one thing we were just talking about on the panel is that there are statistics, right? Crime is down or the economy is good. But people don't always feel the statistics, right? Do you, as someone who, you know, works in the District of Columbia,
you drive through it all the time, you know, a lot of people who live here all the time, do you feel like crime is down in D.C. compared to other more recent years?
[16:25:09]
RASKIN: Well, definitely. When you compare it to other periods in the history of Washington, D.C., when there was -- you know, very serious spikes in crime and, you know, felt really dangerous to go out.
But, look, I agree, you know, you can't feel safe enough, especially these days. The question is, who do you trust to promote your security and public safety? Is it the mayor and the council and the people who actually report to people who live there? Or do you trust Donald Trump to do that? Because, you know, his attention span is like, you know, 32 seconds and then he's going to be off to talking about, the tariffs, or he's going to be often talking about something in Los Angeles or whatever.
I mean, you've got to trust the local officials to do this. And you know, there's something that's very fraudulent about what's taking place. He also wants to use it as the basis for taking over police departments and local governments across the country.
He's mentioned, I think, Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, San Francisco, Los Angeles. I mean, at least in D.C., there's a very thin pretext for doing this because of the emergency powers that are in the Home Rule Act.
I don't think it's justified, but at least that exists. It doesn't exist for all of those other cities. And yet he somehow wants to establish the precedent with the nation's capital, where he's got these special powers.
HUNT: Yeah. Fair enough.
Congressman, you mentioned the Epstein files as well, and there has been some news there today. Another court declined to release the files, saying that there would be no new information in them. What was your reaction?
RASKIN: Well, let's see. I haven't seen that decision, but I don't think you're referring to the files there --
(CROSSTALK)
HUNT: Yeah, sorry. Excuse me. I'm referring to the grand jury material. Yes. That's right.
RASKIN: Yeah. And remember, the grand jury material is just about Epstein and just about Maxwell. We think that, again, is an irrelevant distraction from what needs to happen. It's what Donald Trump was demanding for months and years, which is the release of the complete FBI and Department of Justice file on Epstein and all of his contacts and his entire network. That's very different from, you know, the highly specific materials that went into just grand jury testimony relating to the indictment of those two individuals.
So, you know, I don't think we need to be detained much by that. There are very specific rules that pertain to grand jury testimony. And again, that is just an irrelevant distraction from what we should be talking about, which is doing what I think a vast majority of the American people want, which is just to release the entire file and let the public judge, which was what President Trump had been asking for, for so long.
HUNT: All right. Congressman Jamie Raskin, thank you so much for spending some time with us today. Sir. I really appreciate your time.
RASKIN: You bet.
HUNT: All right. Coming up next here, Los Angeles Mayor Karen bass will be here live. We'll get her thoughts on the news coming out of D.C., as well as the court fight happening today over the president's recent deployment of the National Guard in her city. But first, new reporting on the scramble to finalize key details of Fridays meeting between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin and what the president is saying today about how Ukraine will or won't be involved.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're going to have a meeting with Vladimir Putin, and at the end of that meeting, probably in the first two minutes, I'll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made.
REPORTER: How do you know that?
TRUMP: Because that's what I do. I make deals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:33:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: This is really a feel out meeting a little bit. And President Putin invited me to get involved, probably in the first two minutes, I'll know exactly whether or not a deal can be made. I may say lots of luck. Keep fighting. Or I may say, we can make a deal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: President Trump today, setting the stage for his historic upcoming summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, predicting there he'd know almost immediately if he can strike a deal to end a war that's ground on for over three years now. Trump, not the first U.S. president to rely on a personal assessment of the Russian leader in negotiations. You may remember when George W. Bush said he looked the man in the eye and saw his soul.
But Trump will be the first to welcome Putin to NATO controlled territory since the ICC issued a warrant for Putin's arrest in 2023 for war crimes in Ukraine. And Trump again today said he was interested in, quote, land swapping as part of any deal. He did insist today that it would be on Ukraine's behalf.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: There will be some swapping. There'll be some changes in land and the word that they will use is, you know, they make changes. We're going to change the lines. The battle lines.
Russia has occupied a big portion of Ukraine. They've occupied some very prime territory. We're going to try and get some of that territory back for Ukraine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: All right. CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger joins our panel.
David, a lot of people are supposed to be on vacation in Washington this week, but obviously the summit has things changing a little bit, including having you here with us.
DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND SECURITY ANALYST: Yeah.
HUNT: What did you hear in the president's comments there about land swapping?
SANGER: So, Kasie, I think what's interesting here is what he said and what's even more interesting is what he didn't say. What he said, of course, was. Land swaps, which suggests that Russia might end up with some land that they have not taken by military force so far.
[16:35:05]
You heard from President Zelenskyy over the weekend a reminder that the Ukrainian constitution prohibits him from giving up land to the Russians or anybody else. And so that's likely to be a significant problem.
But it's what you didn't hear that actually disturbs me more. And I suspect disturbs the Ukrainians and our European allies. He never once mentioned security guarantees for the Ukrainians so that Russia doesn't just take a pause, take a couple of years, rearm, and then seek again to take over the entire country. He didn't say anything about contributing to the armament of Ukraine to deter a future attack or contributing future intelligence.
The Europeans stressed all of those over the land issues in their statements over the weekend. And of course, on Wednesday, the European leaders are supposed to be talking to President Trump.
HUNT: Very interesting. Congressman Meijer, what do you make of how the president is handling this and especially you know, he puts so much stock in his personal relationships and reads on people, but there's not a lot of evidence that American presidents, when they get up close and personal with Putin, they think they have the upper hand, like history usually shows, actually, they're wrong about that.
MEIJER: Not a lot of persuasion with Vladimir Putin. But if you think about it, this is really the third turn in how the Trump administration has been interacting with Russia, right? They went for kind of an unstated reset post Biden administration when they first came in with more I don't want to say flattery, but certainly a hostility to Ukraine that was amped up and amped up and amped up until leading to that Oval Office meeting with Vladimir Zelenskyy.
And then you saw a turn where Putin was being increasingly intransigent. He was not reacting to the carrot. So, they went back to the stick.
And that was, were going to give Zelenskyy all these things. We're signing this mineral deal. The kind of belligerence between him and us.
And former Russian President Medvedev's latest comments and repositioning nuclear submarines. And now, we're in this stage where it's okay, let's see where we are. Let's gauge this.
So, Putin is going to Alaska. If Trump's going to Alaska, if Trump might be going to Russia itself. That is a big spectacle. That could be an impressive, monumental historic occasion. He has to have something to show for it if this is going to go. And if he doesn't get that, then I think Putin knows this may be his last opportunity to reset that relationship.
HUNT: David Sanger, is there any world in which Vladimir Putin is doing this without thinking that it's going to be good in the end, for Vladimir Putin?
SANGER: No. Vladimir Putin always thinks it's going to be good for Vladimir Putin. And so far, he's, you know, got good reason to bet that.
I mean, first of all, the Trump White House has dismantled in the justice department and at the state department, the units that were created to collect evidence of war crimes. Russian war crimes that could be contributed to future trials, that tells you they're not interested in going off to do that.
Second, he's going to be showing up, as you pointed out, Kasie, in a NATO country on former Russian territory. But that sale was some time ago. And he will -- that tells you that there's a degree of acceptance that, you know, just sitting there with the American president, he's back in the community, the world community for negotiations.
And thirdly, he's probably thinking, I can drag this out if President Trump is not demanding an immediate cease fire, he might be able to continue the war through the fall, where clearly he is hoping to get Odessa or some of the other port areas.
The longer time goes on, the more it may play to him. So he's not quite under as much pressure except the economic pressure of continued sanctions. HUNT: Alex Thompson if Vladimir Putin thinks this is going to be good
for him, Donald Trump, you know, usually does these things because he thinks he can come out on top. What is the White House thinking on that score?
THOMPSON: Well, Donald Trump always sort of likes to action hero presidency. You know, that he's always in motion, even if it's -- sometimes, he'll just blow up a deal so he can come in and swoop in and say, hey, look, I got a new deal.
There's also a lot of experts that believe that Vladimir Putin is playing for time and also realizes that Trump's, you know, heir apparent, J.D. Vance, is even less willing to supply aid to Ukraine.
So, Vladimir Putin, which is a bigger country with more people and more resources than Ukraine, if they can continue to sort of whittle down. And there's a lot of experts that don't believe, even if there are security guarantees, that Vladimir Putin wouldn't come up with some other reason to violate those guarantees, and a J.D. Vance term.
ANDERSON: Well, what's so interesting, too, about this action hero presidency construct is that there's a lot of Donald Trump's base that does say, I actually don't want America to be the action hero around the world.
[16:40:09]
I would quite like us to be more focused at home. But, I mean, I was on the set with you on Friday when he was brokered -- you know, announcing the peace deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia. You can just see that he really relishes this role as somebody who is active and engaged around the world, which is fascinating given how much of his base sort of takes that maybe America just needs to stay out of it approach.
HUNT: He really wants that Nobel Peace Prize.
All right, David --
SIMMONS: Before we go --
HUNT: Yeah?
SIMMONS: You know, I am mostly concerned about the fact that I'm an old school kid from the west side of Detroit. When you go into a fight, it's better to go with your friends than it is to go alone. And this president sort of dismantling the friendship and alliances that we have around the world.
And I've seen this up close from my time at USTR when I was in government to my time in the White House. We need friends when we go into these fights and we're trying to fight, the NATO questions about Article Five, all the questions about whether or not were going to stand up in the rules-based order, those things really matter in a time where we're trying to figure out how to end a war. HUNT: All right. David Sanger, thank you very much, sir, for spending
some time with us. Good luck for the rest of the week. I know you're going to have a busy one.
SANGER: Thank you, Kasie.
HUNT: All right. We'll see you soon.
Coming up next here, an exclusive interview with the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, as President Trump issues a veiled threat to other big cities, warning his plan for D.C. could just be the starting point.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We have other cities also that are bad. Very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:45:57]
HUNT: All right. Welcome back.
The mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser, spoke out today against President Trump's plan to deploy 800 National Guard troops to the streets of the nation's capital. But Bowser also acknowledged there's very little she can do to stop it.
Joining us now to discuss someone who knows very well what that might look like, the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass. Of course, the president sent nearly 5,000 National Guard troops to her city in June during protests over immigration raids.
Madam Mayor, thanks very much for being here.
And I want to start with the response that you saw from Mayor Bowser about this. She actually said that it might not be such a bad thing to have additional law enforcement agents supporting the police force on the streets. How do you -- how did you react to how the D.C. mayor handled this?
MAYOR KAREN BASS (D), LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Well -- I mean, I think I think her response is interesting. She also called it unsettling. As you just reported, but it is the notion that to have the federal government come in and take over your city is what is unsettling. And it was certainly unsettling to us.
It was not necessary here. We had over 4,000 national guard members that were here doing absolutely nothing, maybe 200 of them were deployed to two federal buildings, and the rest of them were bored playing video games. And here they are stripped away from their homes, their families, work and school. And it was unnecessary. And to me, it just all boiled down to being a
stunt. And I just don't think you should use our troops for political stunts.
HUNT: Madam Mayor, is there any world where you feel that this would be appropriate in a city like Los Angeles? Are there any circumstances under which you would welcome the president bringing in the National Guard?
BASS: Well, sure, absolutely. I mean, there have been examples of it when we actually really did have civil unrest. We don't need the president to do that in California. Of course, it's our governor that if we called and said we need the National Guard because we're having massive civil unrest, that the governor would be there. He certainly was there when we needed the National Guard to help with security after the wildfires.
So, we know there are many instances in which they are needed. The problem here was nobody asked for them to be here. And the president claimed success after one of the protests, the National Guard hadn't even been deployed. That's why it's very difficult for me to see this as anything other than a stunt.
The National Guard never participated in crowd control. Our local law enforcement and law enforcement agencies around Los Angeles assisted again. If their help was needed, we would have asked.
HUNT: The president, madam mayor suggested that this effort that he has undertaken to -- to take over the D.C. police force to federalize the city may not be limited to Washington, D.C.
Are you -- did you take that as a threat?
BASS: Well, I mean, the threat was already enacted upon here. And we all know that D.C. is in a very different situation because D.C. is not a state, so there's not a governor.
But in California, again, we appeal to the governor. But he took the power away from the governor when help like that was not needed. We did have protests. There was some violence. There was some vandalism, but we had the capacity to deal with it ourselves.
And so, it was an inappropriate show of force. And I'm sure you saw the photographs and the video of the troops, National Guard and other federal officers parading through a local park, and that local park had been problematic.
But we had drastically reduced crime. And the part of the park that the soldiers were marching through, marching through was a children's summer camp, and the children had to be evacuated and moved away so they weren't exposed to armed men with rifles on horseback.
[16:50:08]
HUNT: So, Madam Mayor, one other area where you may confront the potential use of the National Guard in your city is the upcoming Olympics, as you are set to host the Olympic Games.
BASS: Right.
HUNT: And the president has promised --
BASS: That's right.
HUNT: -- to use the National Guard to provide security.
Would you welcome that?
BASS: Sure. I mean, that is completely appropriate.
Now, we will have -- Secret Service is in charge, but you absolutely expect a federal response when we have over 200 countries here, meaning heads of state of over 200 countries. Of course, you have the military involved. That is routine.
But that is not the military driving up and down the streets of the city like, unfortunately, the Marines did. You remember we didn't just have 4,000 National Guard members. We also had about -- I think it was about 700 U.S. Marines, completely inappropriate, a political stunt. And that was not needed.
And I believed then and I believe now that Los Angeles was a test case. And I think D.C. is a test case as well, for the president to say, well, we can take over your city whenever we want. And I'm the commander in chief, and I can use the troops whenever we want.
I think that that is an abuse of our troops, and I think it's an overreach of presidential powers for the president to literally take over law enforcement in a city that has not requested the help. And it's not as though -- I mean, the protests that happened in Los Angeles were over about maybe one square mile of a 500 square mile city. Wasn't appropriate. Wasn't needed.
HUNT: Fair enough. Madam Mayor, the police chief union, the chief, the D.C. Police Union chairman here in Washington gave an interview about what Trump did today. I want to play a little bit of it for you, and then we'll talk about it on the other side. Watch.
BASS: Sure.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREGGORY PEMBERTON, DC POLICE UNION CHAIRMAN: We completely agree with the president that that crime in the District of Columbia is out of control, and something needs to be done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: He says he completely agrees with the president that it's out of control and that something needs to be done.
Is this an example? I mean, we were talking about this earlier as well on the show. Sometimes the statistics say one thing, but people feel a different way. Is it?
BASS: That's correct.
HUNT: Do you -- in this case, what does it say that the police, the police chief, the union says that he agrees with the president?
BASS: Well, so without knowing the specifics of what's happening in D.C., you absolutely have a situation like we do in Los Angeles, where crime is significantly down 60-year low in terms of homicide rate. Homelessness is down for the first time two years in a row, in many, many years.
You could have an incident like that. But the question is, what type of force is actually needed? And so, I don't think that you just do that in ordinary circumstances.
Again, I can't speak to what is happening in Washington, D.C., but when that the same threat and he actually did make that threat at the press conference today when he described L.A. as being completely out of control, you don't deploy the armed forces because of people's feelings. That is just inappropriate.
If the statistics say that crime is down, then why would you do that? Because people feel afraid.
Now I deal with that all the time, and I try to address people's feelings. I don't think you just shove statistics in folks, but you do do other things to make them feel safe. You don't use the military to help people feel better.
HUNT: All right. Mayor Karen Bass, very grateful to have you on the show today. Thank you very much for coming on.
BASS: Thank you.
HUNT: All right. Coming up, something totally different. T-T-Y-L, AOL.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HUNT: It's nostalgia on your television screen. I don't know about you guys. I haven't heard this sound in decades. I probably.
But it's official. AOL is disconnecting that dial up internet service. I'm sorry. What?
For our younger viewers, before there was Wi-Fi, guess what? You had to connect to the internet on a landline phone service.
Yep, that was the sound you would hear when you dialed up. And this is what the Internet used to look like. Shocking. Yeah, we know.
AOL, of course, brought the Internet to millions of Americans in the '90s and early 2000s. Now, you may be wondering who still uses dial up.
Census data from 2023 shows that it was about 160,000 Americans. The last day they'll be able to dial up the Internet is going to be September 30th. So once more, for old times' sake.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
VOICE: You've got mail.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
HUNT: I feel like I want to go around and ask, what was your AOL screenname?
THOMPSON: Baker man.
HUNT: Baker man.
Do you remember yours?
ANDERSON: Amadawa (ph) something or other.
MEIJER: State wins.
HUNT: State Wins. Love it. Go green.
Okay, Jamal?
SIMMONS: It was several, so I can't remember.
HUNT: Yeah. Mine was like -- my nickname --
THOMPSON: Aliases?
SIMMONS: Aliases. I had a couple.
HUNT: Wait. So, Jake Tapper is standing by.
Jake, do you have an AOL handle you'd like to share with the room?
