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Soon: Trump Departs For Summit With Putin In Alaska; Texas House Reconvenes Today As Democrats Signal End To Standoff; Nations Mark 80 Years Since End Of World War II. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 15, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:30:50]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: We are standing by this morning with everyone watching that image -- Joint Base Andrews where President Trump is expected to depart soon for Alaska for the summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine. President Trump summing it up by posting two words a short time ago -- "HIGH STAKES!!!" No kidding.

And ahead of the meeting he expressed confidence though he -- in ultimately being able to reach a deal. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think President Putin will make peace. I think President Zelenskyy will make peace. We'll see if they can get along, and if they can it'll be great.

You know, I've solved six wars in the last six months -- a little more than six months now -- and I'm very proud of it. I thought the easiest one would be this one. It's actually the most difficult.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Now, foreign policy experts say Donald Trump does deserve credit for recent -- some credit for recent peace agreements in several conflicts but stopping six wars those experts say is an exaggeration or at least quite premature.

Still, President Trump is confident, very clearly, that he is the leader who can get Putin to change course now.

Joining me now is retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. He served on the White House National Security Council in the first Trump administration then became a key witness against President Trump during this 2019 impeachment over his dealings with Ukraine. He is also the author of -- very appropriate for today -- "The Folly of Realism: How the West Deceived Itself About Russia and Betrayed Ukraine." Lieutenant Colonel, it's good to see you again. Thank you for being here. You wrote in the last couple of days that you have become increasingly troubled thinking about this summit. That the meeting will be a disaster, you wrote. Maybe a major disaster.

Why are you so concerned or sure that will be the outcome?

LT. COL. ALEXANDER VINDMAN (RET)., FORMER DIRECTOR FO EUROPEAN AFFAIRS, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, SENIOR ADVISER, VOTEVETS, AUTHOR, "THE FOLLY OF REALISM: HOW THE WEST DECEIVED ITSELF ABOUT RUSSIA AND BETRAYED UKRAINE" (via Webex by Cisco): Sure. So, first, thanks for having me on.

I think that Trump's description of this as "high stakes" is exactly right. It's high stakes for the Russians. It's high stakes for the Ukrainians, the Europeans, the U.S. Really, frankly, all corners over the world.

I think this is shaping up to be a disaster because Putin sat the table for this. He is the one that encouraged the summit. He did that on the backend of this noise about maybe ratcheting up sanctions and pressure on Russia and this was supposed to be the outlet. This was supposed to be a way to fix that and kind of get that bromance between Putin and Trump back on track.

But he has to deliver something. He has to make some sort of overtures towards peace. And I think Putin -- Trump is willing to accept a lot of different parameters -- some things that won't be acceptable to the Ukrainians. But the gap between what Putin is going to offer and what Trump is going to accept is still a chasm.

Putin is looking for maximal gains in Ukraine. He wants these four territories that have been annexed. Trump wants something that he could present as a peace. And if none of that really occurs then he's going to do -- Putin is going to do a bait-and-switch and switch to economic incentives, arms control agreements, and other things to paint this summit as a win.

Regardless, he's met with the President of the United States. He's elevated on the world stage. He's normalized relationships. And if he needs to pivot back to this general theme that's communicated to the Russians that Russia is in a state of war with the West, he's willing to live with that.

So high stakes for all parties involved.

BOLDUAN: If you don't President Trump can pull this off -- I mean, the way you're presenting it is that no leader could pull this off because the Russian president is not willing to compromise and not willing to -- and not ready to come to the table.

But if President Trump cannot pull this off what would do not harm look like for Ukraine out of this summit?

VINDMAN: So there is this scenario in which Trump reads Putin as insincere. He accepts the fact that Putin promised one thing in trying to advance the idea of a summit and then very, very quickly, even before earlier this week, he already retracted those parameters. And if Trump kind of reads that and says that he's being toyed with and he needs to look strong, he may very well end up ratcheting up sanctions on Putin. He may throw additional support behind Ukraine.

[07:35:00]

I don't know if Trump has the stomach for hard. He wants easy wins that he can deliver. He is claiming six different victories in bringing around peace. He may throw his hands up in the air and just walk away.

And the best case scenario might be a status quo -- nothing really changes. The Europeans are kind of in the lead -- (coughing) excuse me -- and then you have a scenario in which Ukraine continues to enjoy some military support. Sales through Europe. Continues to enjoy some additional or continued intelligence sharing. But nothing really changes except for the fact that Putin has had his summit and he's kind of rebranded himself a little bit, and we basically showed up for no reason.

The better scenario, of course, is fulsome support for Ukraine, but that seems like a far-fetched notion at the moment.

BOLDUAN: Again, it seems every possible outcome is on the table given all of the uncertainty going in.

Given your background and expertise, Lt. Col, what would you -- what would your advice be, and how would you be prepping President Trump as he heads in to meet with Putin who has such a reputation of how he handles negotiations and meetings in the coming hours?

VINDMAN: Yeah. So I've done this before. I've attempted to prep President Trump on numerous occasions in preparation for meetings with Russia, Ukraine, and so forth. It is not the easiest task. He does not take good prep. He does not understand the history. He doesn't care to understand the history.

So when Putin starts spouting off about grievances against, you know, from Obama promising X or Biden promising Y and then breaking faith, that's gravy. That's like red meat to Trump to kind of sink his teeth into.

That's what happened in Helsinki. He kind of -- Putin advanced this idea that it was the intelligence communities that were lying and that there was no collusion, and Trump jumped at that.

So it's notoriously hard to prep him. I think the best thing to do is just to point out that he could be embarrassed looking like a weak president and that he's being toyed with and played with, and on that basis, he might take a tougher line. With that tougher line he'll suss out whether Putin is sincere about peace and if not, then he'll go ahead and very quickly pivot to what we can do.

Because Russia is in a relatively weak state also. They're not making major gains in this war. Their economy is brittle. If we levy sanctions on Russia that puts enormous pressure on them to sustain this war effort. So there is definitely things that can be done if you frame this correctly to Trump.

Thus far, it's not entirely clear that he's gotten that kind of good quality prep. I think he's looking for a relatively quick, easy win. I hope that some of these messages have broken through and that he can carve out a space where he's defending the U.S. national security interests, defending European interests, and we end up in a relatively decent spot, either status quo or better and our own -- undermine our own security.

BOLDUAN: Lieutenant Colonel, thank you so much for coming in and giving us that perspective it's always important to hear. Thank you very much.

We've just learned that President Trump has departed the White House now. We will be waiting to see. He'll be arriving next at Joint Base Andrews, and we are standing by to see if the president speaks to reporters before he gets on board -- Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, as we look at the future of Ukraine and the future of Europe this is really what's at stake, of course, as President Trump makes his way to Alaska for that meeting with Vladimir Putin.

Does Mr. Trump though see it that way? He's made a number of claims from how much aid the U.S. has given to Ukraine to why Russia invaded, sparking this war more than three years ago. Claims that are flat-out false.

CNN's Daniel Dale here now to fact-check some of that. So Daniel, let's start, first of all, with Ukraine.

DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: The president has made this claim over and over again that the U.S. has supposedly provided triple the aid to Ukraine that Europe has. Listen to the latest example from yesterday at the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We spent $350 billion. Now, Europe spent a billion. That's a lot of money. They spent $100 billion and that's a lot of money. But we shouldn't be spending a lot more money than them, and they understand that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DALE: That $350 billion figure and that $100 billion figure is not only not accurate, it's a reversal of reality. In reality, it is Europe that has provided more wartime aid to Ukraine than the United States has, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, which is a German thinktank that has closely tracked the aid quantities. The U.S. had allocated $134 billion in wartime aid to Ukraine through June. Europe, collectively, had allocated $195 billion.

The gap is even bigger when it comes to aid committed that is not necessarily actually spent yet. It was $139 billion through June for the U.S., and $300 billion through Europe.

[07:40:00]

Now, it's possible to get different figures using different counting methodologies. For example, a U.S. inspector general finds that Congress had made available $185 billion for Ukraine through March. But even those other figures do not come close to corroborating President Trump's claim.

So how does the White House try to defend this claim? Well, with some very bad math. I reached out to them for comment on the $350 billion figure and what they did was cited this inspector general figure of about $185 billion. They added in $20 billion in loans the U.S. had made available through a G7 initiative. OK, fine.

But then they added in things like $93 billion in inflation faced by American households in the wake of the invasion. Now I have no idea who inflation and higher costs for American families amounts to aid to Ukraine, but I don't think they do either. So just fuzzy math there.

And that's not the only absurd claim that President Trump has made about the war in recent days. He also claimed at the White House on Monday that Russia would have been in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, in four hours -- within four hours of invading if they had only taken the highway. He said instead, a Russian general made a "brilliant" decision to go through farmland instead.

Look, military analysts have repeatedly pointed out since President Trump began making this claim -- this claim that Ukraine -- that Russia had an invasion plan that prioritized roads and highway. Tons of Russian tanks and other armored vehicles were using paved ground. Some did get stuck in the mud, but they didn't fail to make it to Kyiv because they forgot about the existence of paved ground.

HILL: Yeah. Yet more reminders that the facts matter. They matter in every instance but especially as we're looking at this moment here and ahead of this high-stakes summit.

Daniel, appreciate it. Thank you -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Overnight there is new video of former President Obama weighing in on the redistricting fight on a Zoom call with Texas House Democrats -- the same Texas Democrats who have no signaled that they're ready to end their protest against Republican plans to adopt -- to redraw and adopt redrawn congressional maps.

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What we all recognize is we can't let a systematic assault on democracy just happen and stand by. Because of your actions, because of your courage, what you've seen is California responding. Other states looking at what they can do to offset this mid-decade gerrymandering that is highly irregular. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: So Texas Democrats -- they said yesterday that they would return to the state after Republicans officially end the original special legislative session that they are trying to push this vote through on -- a move that's expected this morning.

And they're also waiting for California Democrats to introduce their own new congressional map that it promises -- that the governor promises will offset the five U.S. House seats that Republicans think they will flip in Texas.

Governor Gavin Newsom, yesterday, formally kicking off this effort. And as he and allies spoke, immigration agents made arrests outside of Newsom's news conference.

CNN's Steve Contorno is in Chicago. I mean, there's a lot going on in all of this when you lay it out. Chicago is where many of the Democrats -- the Texas Democrats have been staying since they left the state. What's happening now?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, they're waiting to see exactly when the Democrats in California introduce their maps, and we are told that could be any day now. And that -- at that point they will probably go back to Texas. And then the ball is in California's court, and they said that they are going to meet and bring their legislature back into session on Monday to begin the process of putting forth their own plan that would push new maps to offset what Texas is doing.

Now, there are some significant hurdles in Texas that -- or excuse me, in California that do not exist in Texas.

In California, there is a constitutionally mandated, independent redistricting commission that is in charge of drawing district boundaries in California. Now, what Democrats there are going to ask voters to do is to temporarily suspend that amendment essentially and let them draw these new maps instead.

That is a difficult task because this is a very popular constitutional amendment. It passed in 2010 with 60 percent support. There is already some significant opposition lined up, including from former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. But this is what Democrats believe that they have to do in order to counteract what Republicans are trying to do in Texas and elsewhere.

Newsom saying that it can't just be California acting though. Take a listen.

[07:45:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM, (D) CALIFORNIA: We can't stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district all across this country. Not just in Texas but in Missouri where J.D. Vance went just a week ago. In Indiana. In places like Ohio. In places like Florida. We need to stand up -- not just California -- other blue states need to stand up. We need to be firm in our resolve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Kate, when I talked to Texas Democrats who are here in Illinois, they have said that is something that they want to see before they go back, and they believe that there will be other states acting. But they are a little frustrated that so far, it's just California that is taking actual steps.

BOLDUAN: That's interesting.

Steve, great reporting. Thank you so much -- Erica.

HILL: Joining me now is CNN political commentator Bakari Sellers, and former White House spokesperson for President George W. Bush, Pete Seat. Gentlemen, nice to see both of you this morning.

You know, you also heard Gavin Newsom say, in his words, "You have to fight fire with fire." You can't be a kumbaya moment anymore. You really have to get in there and do the work.

And yet, but a nearly 2-1 margin voters actually prefer keeping independent line drawing panels to determine a state's House seat. That's from the latest Politico-Citrin Center Possibility Lab survey. And only 36 percent of respondents said they support congressional redistricting authority -- giving that to state lawmakers.

Bakari, does this tit-for-tat risk alienating voters across the board no matter their affiliation?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, (D) FORMER SOUTH CAROLINA STATE REPRESENTATIVE (via Webex by Cisco): Unquestionably. I mean, I think you hit the nail on the head, Erica. And that's the problem with what Gov. Abbott and Donald Trump are doing in Texas and Texas lawmakers are doing.

And they don't have any real issue doing it but they're further eroding the trust. I mean, Donald Trump has been a trust (PH) in norms in the foundations of democracy for a very long period of time, whether or not it's law enforcement or whether or not it's journalism. And now he's taking that what I find to be one of the least sexy issues but the most important issues, which is how we actually draw lines and vote.

So the answer to your question is yes.

And I've always stated that the funny part about state lawmakers -- because I was one -- when we draw these lines is we have a -- our number one priority is our re-election. It's not making sure that we have free and fair elections or unbiased elections, or well-drawn lines. State lawmakers draw lines to benefit themselves.

And so you see that and you're seeing that play out now, and this is -- this is truly a tragic time in the history of our country. HILL: You say it's about -- you know, it's about getting re-elected. I

mean, that's been the discussion around Congress for some time now. I don't need to tell either one of you that.

Pete, when you look at this it also raises the question -- we know how Americans feel about Congress. I believe the latest Gallup Poll showed something like 26 percent of Americans really happy with the job that Congress is doing.

This is not ultimately about legislating; it's about -- to Bakari's point, it's about grabbing power. It's not a great look for either party, Pete.

So how do you see this playing out and being sold? Is it really being sold as a way that it benefits the voter because it feels like Americans are losing across the board?

PETE SEAT, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPOKESPERSON FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH, VICE PRESIDENT, BOSE PUBLIC AFFAIRS GROUP (via Webex by Cisco): First and foremost, I want to say gerrymandering is not the norm in every state in this country, yet we continue to talk about it that way.

I could get on -- you know, get on my soapbox about Indiana and how well-drawn our lines are but I won't do that this morning.

I think the way this potentially ends is with the exact same margin that we have in the United States House of Representatives right now. If Texas goes forward, California goes forward, Ohio goes forward, Missouri goes forward, and other states, we just end up right where we started and what was the point of this entire exercise.

I do want to say very quickly, Erica, that this idea of an independent citizen commission is a joke. Just because they call it independent does not make it independent. There are 52 congressional seats in the state of California. All but nine are currently held by Republicans. Donald Trump got about 40 percent of the vote. You cannot tell me that partisanship was not utilized to draw those lines.

HILL: We are going to have to move on to another topic but don't worry, this one is not -- is not ending anytime soon by the way things are going.

Let's look though. Before I let you both go, I do want to talk about D.C. So these moves overnight by the attorney general. Pam Bondi's takeover, essentially.

In a letter to the chief of D.C.'s police -- to D.C.'s police chief, rather, the attorney general for the district, Brian Schwalb, writes, "It's my opinion that the Bondi order is unlawful" saying "You are not legally obligated to follow it." He went on to say the Home Rule Act does not give the president the authority to remove or replace the chief of police or to alter the chain of command for the MPD.

Bakari, you are my lawyer. Is he right? Is the law on his side?

SELLERS: Yes, he actually is right. And Pam Bondi probably knows that which makes that more disingenuous.

Look, there are things that are voted on and ratified by the D.C. City Council and by the mayor of D.C. You know, there were acts such as sanctuary cities. Whether or not you agree with it or not -- I'm talking about the legality of it -- you can't revoke that if you're Pam Bondi. That has been ratified by the D.C. City Council and it's actually one of their ordinances or city laws. And so she can't simply revoke that.

[07:50:10]

What we're seeing right now is this weird power play. And I -- look, Erica, I'm not -- I was born at night, not last night, and I just think all of this is to take away from the Epstein files. I mean, that -- can we just call it what it is? All of this is a distraction taking away from when the president is having bad moments, he's attempting to flood the zone and that's what you're seeing in Washington, D.C.

HILL: We are taking time this morning as we wait to hear from the president potentially as he makes his way to Alaska. But thank you both for joining me. Bakari, Pete, appreciate it.

And we are, of course, following that breaking news. President Trump has just left the White House making his way to Joint Base Andrews. He will head to Alaska for his face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin. We'll continue to monitor this as he prepares to leave. If there are remarks we're going to bring those to you. Stay with us.

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[07:55:15]

BOLDUAN: Today marks 80 years since the end of World War II. This day was known to the generation who fought for it as "V-J Day" -- the victory over -- victory over Japan, of course. It marked the end of the bloodiest conflict in human history.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz is in England with much more on this. Salma, good morning.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

We are aboard the Queen Mary 2 ship. So this is the namesake of the RMS Queen Mary, which is 1945 -- August of 1945, it sounded the whistle that marked the end of the conflict. And aboard here, of course, there are veterans and veterans' families who are commemorating that day and that moment.

And I was able to speak to one of those veterans, 100-year-old Stanley who was just 20 years old in 1945. This is the lesson he wants us to learn. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAMAN STANLEY RICKEARD, WORLD WAR II VETERAN, ROYAL NAVY: There's nothing good about wartime. There never has been anything good about wartime. But we did our duty in the war, and I think that if the oldies would just tell the youngsters, if the youngsters have time to listen, it would be to the benefit of mankind.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABDELAZIZ: And that -- and that's exactly what today is about. It is about that opportunity to listen and somber reminder of the cost of war. Southampton -- this English city on the coast, of course, where I'm standing played a very pivotal role in the conflict. It is through here that some 3 1/2 million military personnel passed just around D- Day -- just in the two weeks around D-Day. So it holds a very central role in history.

In another part of the country in Staffordshire the king and queen are also marking the 80th anniversary of V-J Day.

I think what stood out to me in hearing the events that have been taking place around England is, again, that reminder that it is not just about what happened 80 years ago but carrying those lessons -- as you heard from that veteran, Stanley, there -- into today.

BOLDUAN: Salma, thank you so much for that.

I'm going to show you live pictures right now from Joint Base Andrews. We see the Beast has just arrived. That is the name of the president's car. The motorcade has just arrived at Joint Base Andrews right in front of Air Force One.

Reporters are standing by if the president does want to come over and speak. We're going to wait and see. He has a whole host -- would be understandable -- a whole team -- oh, actually, he's boarding right now. President Trump boarding Air Force One and not speaking with reporters before he boards -- before he boards. Let's just watch.

All right, President Trump aboard -- now aboard Air Force One where they will be taking off very soon for a several hour flight to Anchorage, Alaska. And that begins the next very important moment where they're setting the stage for this huge historic sit-down summit with Vladimir Putin -- the first time these two leaders have had a meeting in six years. And as we've been discussing, and even the president posted on social media this morning, how high stakes this really is.

The president will be departing shortly from Joint Base Andrews. We'll bring you all of these steps along the way -- Erica.

HILL: We are also keeping a very close watch on Tropical Storm Erin. So it's now gaining strength and is expected to become the first hurricane of the year later today. Right now the storm has sustained winds of 70 miles per hour out over the Atlantic. It is projected to bring gusty winds, rain, some rough surf, some rip currents to the northeastern Caribbean.

CNN's Derek Van Dam tracking all of these movements for us. So where are we expecting this storm to go and when, Derek? DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: All right, Erica. So we do have the latest information from the National Hurricane Center. As of 8:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time, still a Tropical Storm Erin. The sun rising on the storm right now. This is just about 520 miles to the north -- or rather, east of the northern Leeward Islands.

So it struggled to get its act together overnight but it's still a tropical storm. But it is entering warmer water, so we anticipate a hurricane going forward through the course of the day today. A category one as we head into the afternoon hours -- at least the official forecast. And then a major hurricane by the weekend -- a category four potential as we head into the first parts of next week.

But notice that curve in the official forecast track from the National Hurricane Center.

Let's talk about the immediate threats. This is the chance with a probability of tropical storm-force winds. Notice the shades of green here right along the northern periphery of the Leeward Islands. We're talking Barbados into St. Martin, for instance. That's the areas that have tropical storm watches in effect because the outer bands of this system will be felt across those islands.