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Trump Says He Fired Fed Governor Lisa Cook, She Says She'll Fight It; FEMA Employees Say Trump Administration Gutting Disaster Response; Trump Says He Hasn't Been Briefed On Bolton Search. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 26, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:31:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking overnight in an unprecedented move President Trump announced he is firing Fed governor Lisa Cook over allegations of mortgage fraud. This is the first time a president has fired a Fed governor in the central bank's 111-year history. Cook has not been charged with any crime. This has huge implications in politics, law, and the economy.

CNN's Matt Egan here to explain it all. Good morning, sir.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, good morning, John.

Look, we are living through this historic clash between a norm- shattering president and a central bank that fiercely protects its independence. And all sides agree that there is so much at stake here when it comes to the economy, the cost of living, and the future of the Fed itself.

So the latest drama is the fact that the president announced last night that he has fired Lisa Cook who is a Biden-nominated governor at the Fed. She's the first Black woman on the Fed board. Now, Trump officials say this is about mortgage fraud -- alleged mortgage fraud -- but Democrats, economists, and former Fed officials that I'm touch with -- they fear that this is an attack on the institution of the Fed itself and this is something that may ultimately get settled by the courts.

Now, in this Truth Social post last night the president said -- about Cook, he says he does not have confidence in her integrity due to "deceitful and potentially criminal conduct." And he said, "The conduct at issue exhibits the sort of gross negligence in financial transactions that calls into question your competence and trustworthiness as a financial regulator."

Now, a CNN review of mortgage documents does show that before Cook was nominated that she did take out mortgages for two properties that were both listed as her primary residence. But we don't know whether or not this was something that was done intentionally. We don't know why this happened. And we also know that Cook has not been charged here. Now, Cook is striking a very defiant stance. She put out a statement through her lawyer where she said, "President Trump purported to fire me 'for cause' when no cause exists under the law, and he has no authority to do so. I will not resign." And her lawyer went on to strongly hint at legal action here.

Now, former Fed officials, like I said, are worried that this is an attack on the Fed, and they say that the Fed is supposed to be independent from politics for a good reason, right? Because if presidents called the shots on interest rates, of course they would want low mortgage rates and low credit card rates. But sometimes, as you know John, you need higher rates to fight inflation.

And history shows that when politicians meddle with central banks it can end badly. Most recently, with Turkey's Erdogan. He installed a loyalist to lead that central bank. They had runaway inflation shortly thereafter.

So again, there is so much at stake here.

BERMAN: And again, if she's removed, then the president gets to appoint the new person. There will be another 14 -- 13 years left or so on her term. Politico calls it a "vice-like grip" President Trump would have on the Fed.

Matt Egan, thank you --

EGAN: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: -- very much -- Danny.

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, joining me now for more on this we have Republican strategist Melik Abdul and CNN political commentator Kate Bedingfield. Thank you both for joining us this morning to talk through a bunch of political headlines.

Kate, I want to start with you though on this news on Cook here. The administration accusing her of allegedly committing mortgage fraud. Again, she has not been found guilty of any crime at this point.

Kate, what do you think the political fallout from this might be?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR (via Webex by Cisco): Well, I think this sets an incredibly dangerous precedent. We've seen Trump over the last just few months use this pretense of mortgage fraud to go after people who have very clearly been political antagonists of his -- thorns in his side -- Tish James, Adam Schiff.

This clearly a favored effort by the Trump administration and by President Trump himself to go after people who have been -- who have been political opponents of his. And to expand that to an institution like the Fed, which has enormous influence over and control over how the U.S. economy functions is dangerous. It sets a dangerous precedent.

[07:35:12]

We want the Fed to be independent from political influence, as the reporter was just saying. A president who can make political decisions over fiscal policy is not necessarily going to make the best long-term economic decisions. They're going to make whatever they think the best short-term political decision is for them, and that's not a successful way to run an economy.

So I think there's enormously dangerous precedent. And I think there will be significant political pushback from Democrats but also, I expect from Independents and from moderate Republicans who say this isn't the way that we want to run this country.

FREEMAN: Melik, what's your take on this issue? Do you think this sets a dangerous precedent, like Kate said?

MELIK ABDUL, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I do think that it is something that should be concerning. The idea that the president would have such influence over the federal board. But the reality is that I'm not surprised that Donald Trump is taking this step.

I remember what happened during the Biden administration and many of us were watching what the Letitia James and that just exorbitant amount of the fine that Donald Trump had with the fraud case.

So it's -- you know, for all of the people who are complaining about the fact that oh, wow -- and your reporting actually points out that she did take two mortgages.

I'm not one who thinks that the president should really be getting involved at this level. He's been going at Jerome Powell and the board over and over again, and I imagine for Donald Trump this is just another effort at that.

But do I like the fact that a President of the United States is trying to exert so much influence over the Federal board -- no, I don't. Am I surprised that Donald Trump is doing this? No, I'm not.

FREEMAN: Well, and as our experts say, this will likely end up being decided in court, perhaps soon.

I won't to move on though to this large subject of the week, which is this crime battle and this specific focus newly on Chicago.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker told the president stay out of Chicago. But we saw what happened in Los Angeles.

Melik, I'll stay with you for the moment. From your perspective, do you think Governor Pritzker can actually do anything to keep troops out of his city?

ABDUL: I'm really not sure what he can do as it relates to Chicago. Obviously, that authority typically rests with the National Guard who do serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States.

I know what he did in L.A., and I know there was some litigation around that. But what Donald Trump is really focused on here is a lot of this effort to actually reduce crime.

I'm not convinced. I live here in Washington, D.C. and I can say as far as the National Guard is concerned -- and this is something that I think many people may not understand what's happening here. The National Guard, for all intents and purposes, are serving a lot of these touristy areas in D.C. around the National Mall. Maybe some areas around U Street and maybe the White House. They're not actually in neighborhoods.

So this point that Democrats are making that militarizing our neighborhoods, I live in the neighborhood east of the river here in Washington, D.C. and I have not seen the National Guard. I have seen federal agents.

So I think that both sides -- both Republicans and Democrats -- are overshooting a bit here with this idea that the military is being sent to "the hood." I live in the hood, and the military simply hasn't been there.

FREEMAN: And Kate, you know, I think there were a lot of Democrats that we saw yesterday really celebrating Governor Pritzker and him taking a strong stand against this moment. Liberals very excited about that.

But I guess my question for you is do you worry that Democrats are basically taking the bait right here because they're seizing the moment to fight against Trump versus talking about crime? I mean, I guess, are they risking looking soft on crime again here?

BEDINGFIELD: Well, Trump is trying to set up that dynamic, quite obviously. This is, I think in many ways, sort of what Melik was just alluding to. I won't put words in this mouth, but sort of a performative effort by Trump to get photos of the National Guard storming around downtown Washington. And he is trying to create a dynamic that puts Democrats on their back feet where -- their back foot and makes it seem like they're not concerned about crime, which I do think is a mistake for Democrats to take that bait.

But I think the way that Democrats can be more effective here is by pulling in small business, by pulling in community business leaders who are seeing their business drop. Seeing -- you know, seeing profits drop as people feel less able to move around.

And I also think the other way Democrats can push on this is to call on the community to speak out, which you did see Pritzker do yesterday. He really -- you know, he brought in business leaders, and I think clergy members.

He really kind of brought community around him so that this wasn't -- this was less about Democrats are not interested in bringing down crime and more about this overreach, this abuse, in many ways, of executive power is not good for our communities. And so I think bringing those voices in is a smart thing to do.

[07:40:10]

FREEMAN: Yeah, all eyes on the Windy City for the next couple of days, for sure.

Melik Abdul and Kate Bedingfield, thank you so much for joining us today. Appreciate your time -- John.

BERMAN: All right. This week marks 20 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast killing nearly 1,400 people. The federal government's response was intensely criticized, leading Congress to pass sweeping reforms. Now employees at FEMA are warning in a letter to Congress that the Trump administration is undoing two decades of progress and that changes are needed to avoid a new catastrophe.

CNN's Gabe Cohen in Washington with the latest on this. Gabe, what are you hearing?

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. So, John, these workers -- more than 180 current and former FEMA staff -- are calling this letter the "Katrina Declaration" -- essentially arguing that all of that progress made to bolster -- strengthen emergency management and more specifically to strengthen FEMA after Katrina is slowly being done amid this overhaul that we are seeing led by the Trump administration.

You may remember 20 years ago Congress -- the federal government investigated after Katrina because they felt it was a local, state, and a federal failure -- the response to the storm. And in the end, they decided they wanted to strengthen FEMA. They wanted to give the agency more authority, more autonomy, and they wanted to set higher standards for its leadership. The argument this letter is making is that the Trump administration is essentially reversing those changes.

So let's talk about authority, for example.

After Katrina efforts were made to give FEMA more authority -- well, now we have seen Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, institute a policy that any grant -- any contract over $100,000 that FEMA wants to spend money, even during a disaster, they need to get her direct approval. These authors arguing that goes against the changes that were made in the wake of one of the worst disasters in U.S. history.

We also know that FEMA is currently being led by a man named David Richardson. He came from the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office, appointed by Noem to lead FEMA back in May. And there are arguments being made that the changes that were made after Katrina put these restrictions in place to make sure that leaders had more experience. Richardson and even the front office around him does not have that, John.

So a lot of questions as we mark 20 years after Katrina about the Trump administration reversing and potentially bringing us back to where FEMA was back then.

BERMAN: Yeah. It's so important to learn from the mistakes of 20 years ago.

Gabe Cohen, thank you so much for that report -- Danny. FREEMAN: Coming up ahead, Cracker Barrel is responding to the online blowback over its logo change. We'll tell you what the company says it could have done better.

Plus, Southwest Airlines makes yet another change to its seating policy, and it could mean some passengers pay more -- John.

BERMAN: Well, the waiting is finally over. Run to the tree to unwrap the presidents -- presents, I should say. National Dog Day finally here and we have been waiting.

CNN senior data analyst Harry -- no chief.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Chief.

BERMAN: CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten. It is so important that we have him here for the dog days of summer.

Harry, what I want to know is how popular are dogs?

ENTEN: You know what? This stat -- these stats sort of give it away. I know I love dogs. I love Charlie. I love Cody.

But take a look here. Favorable view of -- get this -- dogs are more popular than either Abraham Lincoln or George Washington. George Washington's favorable rating, 78 percent. Abraham Lincoln -- we see it over here -- 83 percent. Dogs, here, represented by the beautiful Daisy -- get this -- 90 percent favorable rating. Dogs are more popular than our 16th president who helped us win in the Civil War, and more popular than our most popular founding father.

BERMAN: You know, it's interesting. I want to know who the people are voting against dogs here. It's like the people voting against Ichiro Suzuki to get into the Hall of Fame. Like, you know --

ENTEN: They're not good people.

BERMAN: You know, like us.

ENTEN: They're not good people.

BERMAN: All right, how about how many of us have dogs?

ENTEN: OK, how many of us have dogs? Get this, it's gone up like a rocket. Have a pet dog -- in 1947, it was 32 percent. How about 1987, it was 38 percent. Now we're approaching the 50 percent mark. Forty- six percent of Americans have a dog.

And you know what? I think Annie looks pretty gosh darn cute and cool over here on the left side of your screen with those sunglasses. I'll try and do the glasses here, but I don't think I look nearly as cool as Annie.

BERMAN: I do wonder what percentage of dogs wear sunglasses. You don't have a slide for that, do you?

ENTEN: I don't have polling on that, but I do say 100 percent of them look awesome with glasses.

BERMAN: All right. So where -- what country can I find the most dogs?

ENTEN: Yeah. Fortunately, if you are here in the United States of America, guess what? You are in the country with the most dogs. Ninety million dogs here in America.

[07:45:00]

Of course, we have Bella, the wonderful Shih Tzu here, down in Jersey. We got Elly -- beautiful out here on the great island of Long. And then, of course, Oscar, a Labrador retriever -- of course, Izzy Povich's wonderful gentle dog.

BERMAN: He's looking at me with sad eyes.

ENTEN: He is looking at you with sad eyes because you -- you know --

BERMAN: He's saying pet me, pet me.

ENTEN: Pet him.

BERMAN: Just love me.

ENTEN: Love me. And you know what? With those presents maybe you can get a dog in your heart a nice bone.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, thank you very much. The dog days of summer. Happy National Dog Day, everyone.

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[07:50:00]

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, President Trump says he does not know anything about Friday's FBI search of the home and office of his former national security adviser John Bolton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have not been briefed -- no. I read it just like you did. Uh, I was never a fan of his. I'm not involved in that, no. You'd have to ask Pam Bondi about that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. The president referring there to Attorney General Pam Bondi. The FBI is looking into whether Bolton disclosed classified information in his book about his experience in the first Trump administration.

With us now, Miles Taylor. He served as chief of staff for the Homeland Security during Trump's first term. And we should note Miles was stripped of his own security clearance in April 2025 -- part of a memo that the president put out basically calling for a probe into your own book. We'll get to all that --

MILES TAYLOR, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO THEN-HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY KIRSTJEN NIELSEN, FORMER DHS OFFICIAL: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- in a second.

President Trump claims he knows nothing and hasn't been briefed about the investigation -- the search of John Bolton's home.

How much do you buy the idea that this is all happening without Trump's knowledge?

TAYLOR: John, I have a really hard time believing it. A really, really hard time believing that the man who declares himself the chief law enforcement officer of the United States who has been so personally invested in the persecution of his critics had no idea anything like this was going to happen.

Days before, he reportedly had lunch with Kash Patel. He's been talking about John Bolton. Days before, he was messaging. He was posting about John Bolton. So it would be a real surprise to me if he didn't know.

But even if he didn't know, that's not what really matters here. There's been way too much focus on what John Bolton might have done wrong.

And the analogy I use is it's like if a bartender starts poisoning a guy's drink at the bar and then afterwards people say, "Well, I heard that the guy forgot to pay his tab." It's not about the guy who forgot to pay his bar tab. In this case, John Bolton may or may not have forgotten to pay his bar tab. It's about the guy poisoning the drink.

We need to focus on whether the President of the United States directed the resources of the federal government when he came into office to go after his enemies. To go find a crime that John Bolton committed. That's what's worrying here and that's what's dangerous to the rule of law.

BERMAN: And then when you take a big step back at what's happening and the type of language that President Trump is using.

You have focused on one particular thing that he said out loud the other day. I want to play this. He was talking about Governor JB Pritzker in Illinois and some criticism that Pritzker was issuing on him, but then he's talking about himself -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And they say we don't need him. Freedom, freedom. He's a dictator. He's a dictator. A lot of people are saying maybe we like a dictator. I don't like a dictator. I'm not a dictator. I'm a man with great common sense and I'm a smart person.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: So you picked on the line where he said a lot of people are saying maybe we like a dictator. He says -- he says he doesn't like one and he's not one, but why are you focused on that line?

TAYLOR: Well, look at what Trump said five years ago. He said when you are President of the United States the authority is total, and that's how it's got to be. And five years later he's still saying things that would indicate his interest in being a dictator.

Now I will tell you having spent time personally with the man in the first Trump administration, he would wax poetic in private about foreign dictators he admired. He was jealous of their ability to exert total control over their populations. That's the President of the United States we are seeing now.

And he is not joking. When he said he was going to be Americans' retribution, people said no, he's joking about that. When he said he was going to lock people up, they said he was joking. When he said he was going to send in the troops, people said no, he's joking. He's doing all of those things. It's not a joke, John.

BERMAN: So from a purely political perspective --

TAYLOR: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- Miles, you were old enough to remember the 2024 presidential election campaign, right? When President Biden was then running -- still running against Donald Trump -- this was his message.

TAYLOR: Yeah.

BERMAN: You know, threat to democracy.

Politically, it didn't work. Donald Trump --

TAYLOR: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- won.

So how does that make you feel as you are sitting here crying foul on this?

TAYLOR: Well, I would say look, it's very, very abstract when you talk about a threat to democracy than when you are living in it.

BERMAN: Talk to me about that.

TAYLOR: And I'll give you the example is people can talk about what's happening to John Bolton or Chris Christie, or Miles Taylor, but a lot of other people are going to say who the hell cares about those folks? Well, I'll tell you.

You should care because the businesses that you shop at, Trump is trying to intimidate them to change the way they do business. The schools you send your kids to; he's trying to intimidate those academic leaders to change how they run those institutions.

The media you consume. Just yesterday he threatened to pull the broadcast licenses of ABC and NBC -- pull them off the air. He's threatening those. The cities you live in. He is sending troops into those cities.

And as we just saw with the story on Katrina and FEMA aid, he's trying to put the scales of federal disaster aid in favor of his allies and in disfavor of his enemies. So if you like that tweet that's critical of Trump, it's not outlandish to say if a tornado hits your house, I don't know if you're going to get the aid.

[07:55:00]

BERMAN: Ten seconds or less, do you think you're being investigated right now?

TAYLOR: Well, the president directed a federal investigation into me and my family. We think that we're still being investigated by the administration and we're going to fight it like hell.

BERMAN: Miles Taylor, good to see you. Thank you so much for coming in.

TAYLOR: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Danny.

FREEMAN: New this morning, Southwest Airlines will soon require passengers who do not fit within the armrest of one seat to pay for an extra seat in advance. The new rule goes into effect January 27, the same day Southwest will start assigning seats.

Now currently, plus-sized travelers can either pay for an extra seat beforehand with the option of a refund, or they can request a free extra seat at the airport. Now under this new policy, Southwest says refunds are still possible but not guaranteed.

Also new this morning, Cracker Barrel is responding after facing right-wing backlash over its new logo. Critics called it woke. Well, the country-themed restaurant defended itself, saying, "We could've done a better job sharing who we are and who we'll always be."

Now, Cracker Barrel says Uncle Herschel -- that was the old logo with the gentleman right there -- he was removed from the logo. He'll still be featured on the menu as well as on road signs and inside of the store.

And take a look at this right here. This is terrifying to me. Skysurfing -- a man was skysurfing and surfed the San Francisco Bay Bridge. A stuntman leaped from a helicopter above the iconic Bay Bridge and parachuted down, then surfed down the side of the bridge. He strapped on a snowboard-like board and slid down the bridge's cables, landing on a barge nearby. James Bond-type stuff. The stunt took months of planning. The bridge connects San Francisco and Oakland and stretches about 4 1/2 miles long. Again, not for me. Maybe you, John. I don't know.

BERMAN: No. I was just saying you could do that. I think you could handle that, absolutely. Down the stairs right behind you -- down, like, the CNN NEWS CENTRAL staircase with your snowboard there.

FREEMAN: All right, later on.

BERMAN: I'd love to see it. Thanks so much, Danny.

All right. Happening today, testimony set to resume in the trial of a Florida woman accused of orchestrating the murder-for-hire of her ex- son-in-law.

This week defendants Donna Adelson's son Robert took the stand for the first time. Her daughter Wendi also testified. Adelson is charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the killing of Wendi's ex-husband Dan Markel back in 2014.

The hit man convicted of killing Markle testified about why he was hired.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Were you hired to participate in the murder of Dan Markel?

LUIS RIVERA, HIT MAN: Yes, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What was the purpose of this murder as you understood it?

RIVERA: That they wanted the kids.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who wanted the kids?

RIVERA: Uh, Wendi.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. And did you understand that you were killing the father of the kids so that Wendi could have the kids?

RIVERA: Yes, ma'am.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, CNN's Jean Casarez is here. That was the hit man. The kids now testifying about their mother. What are they saying?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN REPORTER: Well, Wendi took the stand yesterday. She's the daughter of Donna and a prosecution witness. And you could tell she didn't want to do that. And, you know, she didn't remember and wasn't sure, and maybe this, maybe not. But you cannot contest the emails.

And once the judge had determined that Wendi and the children had to stay in Tallahassee because that's where their father was a law professor at FSU, and the father had the right to have his children next to him and close to him, Donna got a plan of action. She had three ideas.

The first one -- and these were devout Jewish families. The first thing she said was tell Dan we're going to baptize the children as Catholic and find a Catholic church. She even says in the email she found a church. Put them in front of the church and take a picture and show him you're serious.

Second, offer him $1 million.

Third, she says, you know, Charles was telling me -- now Charles is her other son who is in prison now -- that during World War II combatants dressed up in Nazi uniforms and went behind the enemy lines because they had a mission to do. Put the kids in Nazi uniforms and parade them in front of Dan -- because Dan was so devout in his Jewish faith -- and show him you mean business.

Prosecutors are using this to show the intent -- the lengths she would go to get those kids back up to Miami.

Her oldest son Rob took the stand. He is an ENT surgeon in New York. He moved out of Florida. He said his mother was so controlling. Everything had to be the way she wanted it.

And then he talked about how he got a phone call from his mother, and he was at a medical conference in Chicago. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROB ADELSON, SON OF DEFENDANT: So I remember being in the lobby of the Westin and I assumed something terrible had happened and -- but I wasn't ready for it. She said, you know, we just want to let you know that Danny's been shot and they took him to the hospital, but he didn't make it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was she crying in that conversation -- in that conversation?

ADELSON: Not in that conversation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir?

ADELSON: No, she was not.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Um --

ADELSON: She was very matter of fact. She said, you know, they found the guy. They arrested someone who killed Danny. Um, you know, there's no response. And then I said it at least two or three times that, you know, they arrested him. They made an arrest. They got the guy who killed Danny, you know. And then her response was, you know, I've got to go.