Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Trump Threatens Very Severe Tariffs on Russia if No Ukraine Deal; Deputy FBI Director Bongino Still in Limbo as Trump Fumes Over Epstein Case; Nine People Killed in Fire at Massachusetts Assisted Living Facility. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired July 14, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:01:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": 50-day deadline, President Trump says time is running out for Russia to agree to a deal to end its war on Ukraine. But will Vladimir Putin be swayed by Trump's threat to impose tariffs and get more patriot missiles to Ukraine?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Plus, uproar over Epstein. How a memo about Jeffrey Epstein is pitting President Trump against some of his most devoted supporters in the MAGA movement and driving a wedge between top members of his White House team. And a fire at an assisted living facility in Massachusetts being described as an unfathomable tragedy, nine people killed, the blaze leaving some elderly folks trapped inside and begging for help. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

KEILAR: We do start with breaking news. President Trump promising punishing new tariffs as he tries to force Russia's Vladimir Putin to end his war in Ukraine after more than three years of bloodshed. He's giving Russia just 50 days to agree to a peace deal or to face 100 percent tariffs, plus secondary sanctions on other countries that buy Russian oil. Trump announced the plan earlier today as he met with NATO Secretary General in the Oval Office.

Trump also unveiled a new partnership with NATO countries to get U.S.- made weapons to Ukraine. Nations will soon be buying those weapons, including Patriot missiles and then shipping them to Ukraine. Trump's saying that he's been very unhappy with Putin's unwillingness to negotiate. Let's go to CNN's Kevin Liptak, who's live from the White House for us. Kevin, what's the president's calculus with this new plan?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, and it is a hardening of the president's position here towards Russia and it all appears to be rooted in this increasing animus that he feels towards Vladimir Putin, who he has accused of rejecting his attempts to try and bring this war to an end. And the approach here seems to be twofold. One, the president announcing these new economic measures meant to apply pressure on Moscow to come to the negotiating table. The president saying that he'll apply that a hundred percent tariff on Russia. That by itself won't have a huge amount of effect. Russia does not import or export a great deal to the United States. What could potentially be more effective are these new secondary sanctions that the President is announcing on countries that import Russian fuel. So countries like India, China, countries that do have a massive trade relationship with the United States. The calculus seems to be applying pressure there could do more to bring the Russians to the negotiating table and the president setting that 50-day timeline to reach a deal or to see these economic measures go into effect.

The other aspect of the president's announcement today was this revived pipeline of U.S. weapons going towards Ukraine. And the scheme seems to be to have the European nations pay for these weapons and then they will transfer them onward to Ukraine. And in particular, those Patriot missile batteries, which are so essential to Ukraine protecting against that onslaught of missile and drone attacks that have been coming from Russia over the last several months. All of this seems to be underpinned by the president's growing frustration with the Russian leader. He has said essentially, that Putin has misled him on his interest in trying to reach a peace deal.

The president saying that he thought maybe four times since he became president again, that Russia was close to agreeing to a ceasefire only to be rebuffed by Putin. The president was also asked whether he thought Putin was an assassin. Listen to what the president said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I don't want to say he's an assassin, but he's a tough guy. It's been proven over the years. He's fooled a lot of people. He fooled Bush, he fooled a lot of people. He fooled Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden. He didn't fool me.

[14:05:00]

But what I do say is that, at a certain point, ultimately talk doesn't talk. It's got to be action. It's got to be results.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: So, kind of a fascinating answer from the president there, looking to rebuff some claims that he had been played by Vladimir Putin and pointing back to his predecessors, saying that they had been fooled by the Russian leader, but that he had not. Now, this new setup on the weapons seems to be having two objectives. One is to get these to Ukraine very, very quickly. And even the president acknowledged that Ukraine will need them if it is to defend itself going forward.

The other appears to be to insulate the president from some criticism that he's reneging on his campaign promise to step back from this war, that by transiting these weapons through Europe, he has essentially distancing himself from a conflict that he says he had no role in originating. So, a very important step by the president here today, but I think it remains unknown whether this will affect Vladimir Putin's thinking at all.

KEILAR: Kevin Liptak, live for us from the White House. Thank you. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Let's get some perspective on all of this with CNN's former Moscow Bureau Chief, Jill Dougherty. She's the author of the book, "My Russia, what I Saw Inside the Kremlin." Jill, great to see you as always. Let's start on the weapons side of this. How will this transfer from the U.S. to NATO allies to then Ukraine change Kyiv's ability on the battlefield?

JILL DOUGHERTY CNN'S FORMER MOSCOW BUREAU CHIEF: Well, right now, as we've been reporting day after day, there is a huge onslaught by Russia from the air on Ukraine. And so, the main thing right now is to protect those cities and protect those people. So you need defensive weapons and the thing is, they need them now. So, how do you do that? And I think with this agreement, among the allies, the -- you have the Europeans who have this in stock, many of them have it on their territory. They could theoretically get it into Ukraine very quickly, and then they buy the weapons and kind of backfill, so they can take a little while before they're manufactured. It's complex to manufacture them, but it's not that big a deal for the Europeans.

And so, I think that could conceivably help Ukraine a lot because they are right now, not defenseless, but it is very, very difficult, especially with those long-range weapons from Russia, that are creating havoc in Ukraine right now.

SANCHEZ: I wonder how you would rate the effectiveness of this 50-day ultimatum given that we've already heard from lawmakers inside Russia saying that it doesn't change things for them at all.

DOUGHERTY: Yeah, I think there's a good side to it and there's a bad side. I mean, it is a big deal that they're deciding to do this. Tariffs, these would be what are called secondary tariffs on countries that trade, they buy oil and petroleum products from Russia. And so, the people who support this bill have said they are helping the war effort by Russia, so you want to punish them. How do you do it? Or how do you, how do you stop them? So this is the good part, but the not so good part is that deadline of 50 days, five-zero, that's a long time if you're being bombed every day by Russia.

And the president himself spoke actually quite emotionally about the people who are dying in those bombings. So, does Putin -- I think this is the question. Does Putin actually, looking at that, knowing that President Trump has set deadlines for tariffs and then pushed them back or change them or whatever, does Putin actually think this is going to happen? I think that's a big question and we don't know, of course. But that 50 days is quite a long time in the context of this war.

SANCHEZ: Jill Dougherty, great to get your point of view. Thanks for being with us. Brianna?

KEILAR: Multiple sources tell CNN that Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino did not come to work on Friday. And as of this morning, no one in leadership at DOJ has spoken to him since the middle of last week. That is when he implied he could no longer continue in his role as long as Pam Bondi remained in hers as Attorney General. Bongino had an apparent falling out with Bondi over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Sources say Bongino's threat infuriated President Trump, who has doubled down on backing Bondi despite heavy blowback from his MAGA base.

The president posted on social media over the weekend telling supporters to not "waste time and energy on the Epstein case." With us now to discuss, we have CNN Senior Justice Correspondent, Evan Perez.

[14:10:00]

Evan, I know you have some new reporting about this divide between Bondi and Bongino. What's the beef between them?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the beef is really over the handling of the Epstein investigation. And if you remember, back in February and since then, the Attorney General has said publicly that there would be more information forthcoming, there would be more files released, promising that all of the things that the MAGA base has been asking for, that they would get it.

And then of course, last Monday, you saw that extraordinary statement, unsigned statement from the Justice Department saying there was nothing to see here, there was no Epstein list, which is something that she said was on her desk previously. And so, there's a lot of anger at the FBI, including Kash Patel and Dan Bongino about having to own something that they believe the Attorney General caused, and that it's her screw up essentially, that they're having to take all of the political hits for. And so, that's the essence of this beef.

What is extraordinary though is the -- we are now on what day four of the Deputy FBI Director not showing up to work. And it's not clear when he's going to come back. At this point, the expectation is that he is going to come back. He hasn't been fired. We're told that, the Attorney General does not believe that she wants to get rid of him or fire him. They're all giving him essentially time for him to come to his own decision making as to whether or not he wants to stay, and how long he wants to stay.

It does appear though that this is not really going away anytime soon because, as you saw over the weekend, at that conference, a conservative conference in Tampa, pretty much every influencer in MAGA world is talking about this still. They want to see more information and they certainly are not big fans of the Attorney General because of the way how this has gone down.

KEILAR: What's the effect, Evan, of the Deputy Director of the FBI being at odds with the Attorney General?

PEREZ: You know, imagine Brianna, like you were -- you got so mad about the way the CEO of our company was doing something and you decided you were not going to show up to work anymore until -- and you give an ultimatum saying it's either him or me. Right? That's really what we have going on here. And I think Bongino has really miscalculated in the sense that it's really expensive to politically -- politically expensive for the president to replace an Attorney General. He's not going to find anybody like Pam Bondi. She's very loyal. She's really got everything that Trump wants in an Attorney General, and he's not going to get rid of her anytime soon. Not certainly over this.

And Dan Bongino, frankly, is more expendable. He's a Deputy FBI Director. He's not even Kash Patel, who's the Director. He's not a Senate confirmed job. So, it's one of those things that it's really hard to see how tenable this can be. He cannot last very much longer. But the question is whether they can find a way for him to leave perhaps a little more gracefully than the way the last few days have played out.

KEILAR: Yeah, it really is something so unusual to see. Evan Perez, thank you so much for the great reporting. Really appreciate it.

And still to come, a deadly fire spreading through an assisted living home in Massachusetts. We'll have the latest on what happened. We'll be speaking with the town's mayor next. Plus, a historic lodge on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon gone, destroyed. New details on how the National Historic Landmark was lost. And as talks between Israel and Hamas breakdown, there are growing concerns about the humanitarian crisis faced by Palestinians. We'll have that and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:18:32]

SANCHEZ: Right now, investigators are working to determine what sparked a deadly fire at an assisted living facility in Fall River, Massachusetts. Officials say nine people were killed there and more than 30 others were injured overnight. Fire crews were forced to pull elderly folks from windows to escape the flames and heavy smoke. The Fire Chief describing it as an unfathomable tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF JEFFREY BACON, FALL RIVER FIRE DEPARTMENT: So when you pull up to a building, the first thing you see is the fire. But then, you see the multiple people that are asking to be helped and begging to be helped out the windows. So that's where, that's where it complicates the scene and makes everything more difficult. So, that is something that none of us want to ever pull up to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: CNN's Gloria Pazmino joins us now with the details. Gloria, what are you hearing?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Boris, in fact, the Fire Chief there speaking this morning became overly -- he became emotional when he talked about his firefighters arriving to the scene, not only to look at the fire that was moving through this building, but that there were people looking out their window, hanging out the window asking to be rescued. This is an assisted facility building, which meant that many of the residents inside had trouble getting around. Many of them were reliant on mobility devices like walkers and wheelchairs, and many of them had basically no chance of getting out because they were disabled or elderly and needed help in order to do so.

[14:20:00]

The fire spread out throughout the building, but also the smoke. That was what so many of the residents who survived this talked about. We heard from one resident describing as the smoke was coming into his room when he opened up the door, trying to get out while on his wheelchair. As you said, nine people tragically have lost their lives. More than 30 people were injured, including some firefighters.

And last night, while the city's firefighters were responding, we also heard from family members who were on the phone with their loved ones inside that facility as they were trying to get out. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was on the floor talking to me and I'm crying, telling him, break the window, try to break it because he's so weak and he couldn't break it. And I'm like, what are you -- where are you? He's like, I'm in the bathroom. I says open your bathroom window. He says it is open, but they're not hearing me. They're not hearing me, Melanie. I'm going to die in here. And I'm like, please don't say that. Please don't, like try to fight it. Get on the floor, stay low so you're not breathing in the smoking. And he was coughing and choking, like he was breathing in all that smoke. I don't even know how low he was on the floor or whatever. But they eventually, did bring him out and I'm so forever grateful for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: The fire chief saying that this was an all hands effort. Last night, the fire started burning shortly before 10 o'clock at the Gabriel House facility. This is located in Fall River, Massachusetts. It had capacity for about a hundred residential units, but only 70 residents were in there last night. We've heard from family members as well as survivors and Governor Healey who said that the investigation is underway to try and determine the cause of this fire. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much for the reporting. Brianna?

KEILAR: The Mayor of Fall River, Paul Coogan is with us now. Mayor, I'm so sorry. This is such a devastating tragedy that we are seeing there in your town. Can you tell us, have you spoken to victims' families? What are they saying?

MAYOR PAUL COOGAN, FALL RIVER, MASSACHUSETTS: Very similar to what she said earlier -- who you had on earlier in the show, that they're upset, they have questions. They want to know how this happened, how did it get this bad. I've been down at the -- the Mayo Center where the residents that we could place temporarily overnight are down there. And a lot of the family members are walking around, some are very, very thankful too. So, you get a kind of a mix of all emotions. It's really a tremendous tragedy for the city of Fall River.

KEILAR: Yeah, so many firefighters responding and making heroic rescues even as so many elderly folks at this facility are dead after this fire. Are you getting any information about how it started?

COOGAN: Sketchy, at this time, but I'll wait for the official report. I do know the Massachusetts State Police were on site all night because when I got there again this morning, around a little before six, they were still walking around the grounds in and out of the building. I think they have some ideas. They're just not ready to put pen to paper yet. But, as I said to someone, I'd rather have them get it right than get it quick. So let's make sure we know what happened, how this started, so it's preventable in the future.

KEILAR: The Fire Chief said this morning that he wasn't sure if the smoke detectors and sprinklers were working as they should have. As you understand it, if those things had been working as they should have, should this have happened?

COOGAN: I don't know because I did think that the sprinklers were working and I did hear the alarms going off. They were running all morning, so I thought -- I thought they did go, because I heard about people that were in the front of the building that were running out the door as soon as the alarms went off. So I just don't know if that's certain wings that didn't have smoke detectors or the sprinklers. But I thought for sure that a lot of that building did, so we'll obviously get to the bottom of that also. Again, I know people fled that scene when the alarms went off, so I'm assuming that they were ringing somewhere. I just hope they -- I just want them to be ringing in the whole building, so it's an early warning system for all the residents.

KEILAR: What are you looking at, what are officials they're looking at when it comes to looking at the code enforcement, the inspections, and what questions had been raised by whatever investigation of that has been done so far?

COOGAN: Well, again, I think like you're talking about, the sprinklers, I believe that they're supposed to be replaced every 20 years. I think we were in year 19 for these sprinklers. So they were running up on the end of their life.

[14:25:00]

I don't know if they fire them off, if they make them run a little bit. Did they make water run through them when they do a test or did they just see the water pressure's right? I'm not sure of that. I'd like to know. I'm continuously hearing about this elevator that wasn't running. I know we'll find out how that worked. I heard it just started running again recently, but that's another issue because if you are in a wheelchair and you got to get out of a building, I know the elevator's not the best way to go, but at some point, if you can't get down those stairs, you may have to take it. So, there's just a number of things that deserve a real, real critical eye to look at them and see where this goes. Obviously, it's a tragedy no matter how it happened or what started it. But at the same time, we want to get to the bottom of this. I know everybody in the state does. That's why the governor was down here, because she wants to know how this started and how we can do better in the future, if the things that were supposed to work weren't working. But we don't even know that yet.

KEILAR: Well, mayor, we will continue to check in with you. Mayor Paul Coogan, thank you for being with us and we are certainly thinking of your town as you're dealing with this.

COOGAN: Yeah. Say a prayer for Fall River folks, thank you very much.

KEILAR: We certainly will.

Still to come, President Trump giving Vladimir Putin a deadline for making a peace deal with Ukraine as he strikes a deal with NATO to send more weapons to Ukraine. We'll have that a much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)