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South Korea's Top Diplomat in D.C. For Release of Citizens Detained by ICE; South Korean Government Charters Flight to Bring Citizens Home; White House Briefing Amid Qatar Strikes, Epstein Doc Release, Major Economic News; Researchers Calculate Health Costs of Florida Ending Vaccine Mandates. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired September 09, 2025 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:32:47]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Some tense talks are happening in Washington today as South Korea's top diplomat works to secure the release of more than 300 of its citizens. They were detained last week during a large-scale immigration raid on a factory in Georgia. Now, South Korea's president is blasting the incident as an unjust infringement on his country's people and businesses. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joins us now. So, Priscilla, where do things stand?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, these talks are still ongoing, what we do know is that there is some movement now to return the citizens of South Korea back to the country. Now, of course, Boris, all of this stems from that raid in Georgia late last week that was at a Hyundai plant. It is one where they had arrested around 400 people, actually, nearly 500 people. 300 of those were South Korean nationals.

Now, there are varying legal statuses here. There were some who were visa overstays, therefore they were in the United States illegally. There were also those, however, who were here on a visa waiver program. That is a program that allows people to come to the U.S. for tourism or business for a limited number of days. They are prohibited from working, Boris, but it is indicative of the limited visas that there are really for citizens of other countries to come to the U.S. for business. And that has been a point that immigration attorneys have been making.

All the same, they were all arrested -- you're seeing some images here, and detained. They were shackled. These are images that immediately, there was blow blowback in South Korea over this. And the South Korea president weighed in. You mentioned some of it, but I'll read the whole statement. And he said, "I hope that such unjust infringements on the activities of our people and businesses who contribute to the mutual growth of Korea and the U.S. will not happen again."

I think that part is really important, Boris, about the mutual growth of Korea and the United States because here in this raid, two of the president's issues really came together all at once. There was the manufacturing and all of the investments that the administration wants to see from foreign governments in the U.S. but also, immigration and the crackdown that the administration has been doing on that front. So, all of this really converging with this raid. So over the course of today, there have been talks. The foreign minister has been -- was dispatched to D.C. earlier this week.

[13:35:00]

And again, coming back to that flight, there is a flight, a charter flight that is expected to leave South Korea as early as tomorrow, go to Atlanta, where it would have all the citizens be returned to home country. So this is actively ongoing, but it does seem to be reaching a resolution. But it is, again, a reminder of how complicated these crackdowns can be, how they can involve foreign governments, and in this very case, involve a major investment in the state of Georgia.

SANCHEZ: Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much for the reporting. Still to come this afternoon, the White House press briefing has just started. We are monitoring that and will bring you the latest from the White House. Plus, Florida's Surgeon General says he didn't weigh the health costs before announcing intentions to end the state's vaccine mandates. Scientists forecasted what could happen though and we'll show you their models when we come back. Stay with CNN.

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[13:40:10]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": All right, we are watching and keeping our eye on the White House press briefing and we will be going there as soon as they are taking questions as Israel has struck Hamas in Qatar, also a number of other topics on the agenda today. A lot of news, so we'll be heading there to the briefing as soon as those topics come up.

But in the meantime, it's a stunning admission that could have enormous consequences for public health. Florida Surgeon General telling CNN, he absolutely did not weigh the health costs of ending the state's vaccine mandate before he announced that plan last week. Instead, he said the decision was based on ethics. But scientists have modeled the outcomes and they say the move could mean the difference between life and death for some. We're joined now by CNN Medical Correspondent Meg Tirrell. Meg, what do the models show?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Well, of course, Florida is a large state with a large population and has a lot of tourism. And so, what experts say is that models have shown there could be quite a large impact from falling vaccination rates. One expert told us that measles is the one he would expect to see come back first. And of course, we've seen a lot of outbreaks of measles this year as vaccination rates have fallen because it's so contagious. But polio is the one that he worried the most about.

Now, one model from Stanford, which was actually published earlier this year by researchers led by those at Stanford and other places as well, found that if there was a 15 percent decline in vaccination rates in Florida for the measles vaccine, over 25 years, you would see a million more measles cases. And because of the death rate of measles, that would be 1,000 to 3,000 potential deaths from measles that could potentially be prevented with vaccination.

Now, there was another study that was done by a group at the University of Florida after the Surgeon General in that state made this announcement last week. And they said that if the vaccination rate for kindergartners for measles, mumps, rubella declined even by four percentage points from 89 percent to 85 percent, you would see a larger likelihood of outbreaks and bigger outbreaks. So, the likelihood would go to 93 percent of an infected child starting an outbreak, up from 86 percent, and the average outbreak size in a school maybe of 200 kids would go to 32 from 20 kids. So, these are some of the models that have been done since and had been done prior to that pronouncement, guys.

KEILAR: All right, Meg, thank you so much. Let's head straight to the White House where you're talking about the Israeli strike in Qatar.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Regarding the Israeli strike in Doha, how much time or how much of a heads up did the U.S. get and does the president support the strike?

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Sure. Well, I have a statement to read for all of you with respect to the Israeli strike in Doha. And here it is. This morning, the Trump administration was notified by the United States military that as Israel was attacking Hamas, which very unfortunately was located in a section of Doha, the capital of Qatar. Unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States, that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker peace does not advance Israel or America's goals.

However, eliminating Hamas who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza is a worthy goal. President Trump immediately directed Special Envoy Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did. The president views Qatar as a strong ally and friend of the United States, and feels very badly about the location of this attack. President Trump wants all of the hostages in Gaza and the bodies of the dead released and this war to end now.

President Trump also spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu after the attack. The prime minister told President Trump that he wants to make peace and quickly. President Trump believes this unfortunate incident could serve as an opportunity for peace. The president also spoke to the Emir and prime minister of Qatar, and thanked them for their support and friendship to our country. He assured them that such a thing will not happen again on their soil.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And to be clear, the president disagrees with the location of the strike and that he passed that along to Prime Minister Netanyahu?

LEAVITT: The president just confirmed that in the statement that I just read to you, which I spoke with him about before coming out here. Jackie (ph)? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Karoline. One --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Karoline. So, is the president upset with Netanyahu now?

LEAVITT: The president made his thoughts and concerns about this very clear, and he spoke again both to Prime Minister Netanyahu and also the Emir and the prime minister of Qatar after this attack. And the president has always made it very clear that he wants peace in the Middle East, just like he sought that and accomplished that in his first term. He expects all of our allies and friends in the region, that includes both Qatar and Israel, to seek peace as well. And he wants to see that happen. And he's working with all of our allies in the region to get that done.

[13:45:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would there be any consequences, so to speak, for Netanyahu doing this as it sounds against the president's wishes, or at least his belief that it was appropriate? Is there going to be any directive from the president to Netanyahu in terms of what's allowed in the future? And also, is there any concern this could jeopardize the Abraham Accords?

LEAVITT: Look, that's a decision only the president can make, with respect to your first question. To answer your second question, as you heard from the president, he said he believes that this can serve as an opportunity for peace, and he is still actively and aggressively pursuing it with all of our allies and partners in the region. Jennifer?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just to follow-up on that, Karoline, are you able to say how often the president spoke to the prime minister of Israel before this? Because he -- that's one question. And then what did he mean on Sunday, when he posted, I've given my last warning to Hamas, et cetera? He wasn't talking about this strike on Doha?

LEAVITT: No, he was not. Well, as I told you, the Trump administration was notified by the United States military that Israel was attacking Hamas and the president spoke to the prime minister after the attack, as well as, again, the Emir and the prime minister of Qatar. And I know Secretary Rubio and Special Envoy Witkoff were present for those -- that call with the Qataris as well. Reagan (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks, Karoline. I have two questions for you on crime crackdown.

LEAVITT: Sure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Democrats have tried to argue that red states have higher crime rates while overlooking problems of high crime in blue cities. I'm wondering if the president would consider working with red state governors to fix high crime in blue cities like in Memphis, Tennessee.

LEAVITT: So, first of all, I want to get to the premise of your question, Reagan (ph), which is being pushed by Democrats, that there is crime in red states. Of course, there is crime in all states, but the crime in these cities is all in cities that are run by Democrats. If you look at the list of the top-20 high crime cities in the United States, every single one, with the exception of one in Louisiana, is run by a Democrat. And these Democrats have supported the same policies that I spoke about at the beginning of this briefing, like cashless bail.

If you look at a red state, Mississippi, but a Democrat-run city in that state, Jackson, in 2019, Jackson, Mississippi eliminated cash bail for virtually all misdemeanor cases. And while Jackson is not formally a sanctuary city, the state of Mississippi formally banned sanctuary cities. And this city has acted as a de facto sanctuary city for criminals and illegal aliens since 2017.

Same thing, Birmingham, Alabama, a Democrat-run city in a red state, in 2017, the Birmingham City Council unanimously passed a resolution "committing to establish sanctuary policies." So if you actually look at the facts from these Democrat-run cities, these are cities that are run by Democrats and by blue -- by members of the Democrat Party. These are blue cities, and they have all supported these disastrous policies which allow repeated career criminals back onto the streets to further commit acts of violence.

And so, to answer your question, yes, the president wants to work with anyone across this country who wants to end these horrible policies and to bring law and order to our streets. And I think that is proven by his tremendous cooperation with the Mayor of Washington, D.C. in our nation's capitol. And just look at the results of that. And I do have some updates for you on the D.C. crime crackdown if anyone is interested.

There have been a total of 2,177 arrests made since the start of the operation on August 7th. Just last night, there were 57 arrests made in Washington, D.C. Of the 57 arrests, there were 14 illegal aliens who were arrested, many of whom had prior criminal histories and other arrests just last night in our nation's capitol. So you all can be very grateful for this. Our great men and women of law enforcement, both federal and local, working together as they should, made an arrest on a warrant for assault with the intent to kill. The subject shot two adult males after an altercation.

They made an arrest on a warrant for an armed carjacking. The subject assaulted an adult male in the face with a firearm and then took his keys. We also made an arrest on a warrant for simple assault and a destruction of property, and subsequently charged with second-degree theft. Last night in D.C., there was an arrest for possession of a controlled substance with second-degree theft. There was an arrest for possession of a controlled substance with the intent to distribute. That subject, the person is also a subject of interest in a homicide, in a carjacking. Last night in D.C., we also arrested a felon in possession of a firearm who was carrying that firearm without a license. So these are the career criminals. These are the bad guys that we are picking up in Washington, D.C. every day. The president would love to do this in every Democrat-run city across the country, and he hopes that more Democrats will call the White House to allow us to help them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One more that's D.C. specific. Congress is poised to not extend Trump's federalization of the D.C. Police. Mayor Bowser signed an executive order formalizing cooperation with federal forces.

[13:50:00]

You just mentioned all the success that the operation has had. Does the White House believe that the Mayor Bowser's action is enough to continue the crime crackdown?

LEAVITT: We are very grateful for the mayor's cooperation in this effort, and we look forward to continuing to work with her and the Metropolitan Police Department. Bloomberg?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks, Karoline. The president says he can (ph) to speak with Putin soon. Can we expect a phone call between the two leaders this week?

LEAVITT: I don't have any phone calls to read out between the president and any other foreign leaders. Ed?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, thanks, Karoline. I'm going to ask about the benchmark revisions that came out. If you look at the revisions between March of 2024 and March of 2025 and you do a little math, it averages out to 73,000 jobs roughly per month added to the economy, less than what was thought. When can we expect the Trump administration, now that their policies are rolling out, for that increase -- that average to increase?

LEAVITT: Well, let me just say something about the revisions that came out this morning. And this was one of the biggest revisions in absolute terms in decades, and the benchmark year March 2024 to 2025 shows that the job growth was vastly weaker during the Biden administration than ever previously reported. Between this revision and last year's job growth was actually overstated by approximately 2 million jobs. And the Biden administration stood up here and vouched for that data and told you that data was real.

And when President Trump calls into question the veracity of that data like he did before he took the oath of office, and even now as president of the United States, he was ridiculed for that. And turns out this revision proves two things. Number one, the president was right. And this is why we need new leadership at the Fed. And this makes it very clear that President Trump inherited a much worse economy by the Biden administration than ever reported. And it also proves that the Federal Reserve is holding our monetary policy far too restrictive. Interest rates are too high. The Fed needs to cut the rates because of the mess that we inherited from the Biden administration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) timeframe, the president has said a year, Secretary Bessent said maybe the fourth quarter. When can we expect these numbers to increase?

LEAVITT: Well, first, we need accurate numbers. We need truthful and honest data, which is why the president took the monumental step to try and appoint and confirm new leadership at the BLS, so we can have data that we can actually rely on. And that's what the president has been -- is doing and we hope that his nominee will soon be confirmed. Charlie?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You addressed the crime of Iryna Zarutska and the president has done a lot to deliver justice for victims of crimes like that horrific stabbing. And the Epstein files are back in the news because a lot of Americans feel that those -- Jeffrey Epstein's victims never got justice. Does the president care about these victims? Do you think he can -- does he want to deliver more justice for them? And is he willing to meet with them?

LEAVITT: The president cares about victims of all crimes, and that's why Republicans and the Trump Department of Justice have done more in terms of transparency when it comes to the Epstein case than any prior administration. And why are the Democrats all of a sudden caring about this? It's because they're desperately trying to concoct a hoax to smear the president of the United States. We have seen this time and time again.

Ro Khanna and all of these other Democrats, they could have cared about those victims four years ago when Joe Biden was in office. They could have pushed for transparency then. Unfortunately, the Democrats are using victims as political pawns to try to smear and to push a hoax against the president of the United States. And I will get you numbers on the amount of child predators that this administration and this FBI and this Department of Justice have locked up under President Trump's leadership.

We have done more than any president to protect victims of crime, especially disgusting heinous sexual crimes. And that includes the deportation of illegal aliens who are perpetrating these crimes against innocent victims in our country right now today. And that remains a top priority for this administration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Does the president -- will he meet with the victims?

LEAVITT: Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the Doha strikes, did the president speak with Netanyahu before they were carried out? Did he urge him to not go through with it or did they only speak afterwards?

LEAVITT: Again, I read you a statement. The Trump administration was notified by the United States military that Israel was attacking Hamas. The president directed the Special Envoy Witkoff to immediately call the Qataris. And after the attack, he spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One more --

LEAVITT: Behind you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

LEAVITT: Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About the Epstein case, would the White House support a professional handwriting expert review of the document released yesterday to prove that it's not the president's signature?

LEAVITT: Sure, we would support that. And in fact, I have already seen many forensic analysts of signatures coming out. I believe it was The Daily Signal that published a piece with three separate signature analysts who said that this absolutely was not the president's authentic signature. And we have maintained that position all along. The president did not write this letter. He did not sign this letter, and that's why the president's external legal team is aggressively pursuing litigation against The Wall Street Journal, and they will continue to. Christian (ph)?

[13:55:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, Karoline. Following up on Ed, now that we have these revised jobs numbers, is the president concerned at all that price spikes stemming from his tariffs through the end of the year might actually be driving the country towards a depression or a recession? What I'm asking is, is he committed to these policies now that we know how faulty the jobs data was?

LEAVITT: The president is committed to his policies because his policies are working, Christian (ph). And there have been a lot of people fear mongering about inflation in this room, but it just has not come to fruition. On a monthly basis, CPI inflation has now come in at or below the market's expectation for six consecutive months, every month that President Trump has been in office. Overall, inflation has run at a 1.9 percent average pace in the president's first six months in office.

If you -- I would've told all of you that in January, you would not have believed me, but those are the facts and those are the numbers. And we also see many other positive signs and economic indicators like real GDP. In the second quarter, it was revised up to 3.3 percent. That beat the market's expectation. We know there's a capital spending boom right now, which we know is one of the greatest economic indicators of job growth.

We know wages are increasing at a far faster pace than they were under the previous administration. We see productivity in the second quarter was also revised up to a strong 3.3 percent. And total industrial production, factory output also surged. All of this means the economy is moving, people are working, people are spending money. You look at consumer spending, that is also ticking up and in the right direction. And in a large part, it's because of the incredible work the president has done in terms of energy and unlocking our energy dominance in this country.

Again, these jobs, the numbers from the BLS today prove that the economy was an absolute mess and we are working every single day to fix it. And all of those indicators I just read for you are positive sign of what is to come.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just one more quickly on --

LEAVITT: Sure. Danny?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just wanted to get a bit of clarity on the sequence of events for the Doha attack and the notification. You said that the U.S. military notified, I got it right, the Trump administration was notified by the U.S. military.

LEAVITT: That's right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was the U.S. military notified by the Israeli military or did the U.S. military detect an incoming Israeli attack on Qatar?

LEAVITT: The U.S. military notified the White House and the president of the United States. That's all I have to share for you on that, Danny (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

LEAVITT: Jeff (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Also following up, you said that the president assured the leaders of Qatar that this would never happen again. Did he say that to the prime minister of Israel? And did Prime Minister Netanyahu agree to that?

LEAVITT: The president told that to the Emir and the prime minister of Qatar, and the president also overstressed the importance of overstress the importance of peace in the region in his conversation with Prime Minister Netanyahu as well. And Prime Minister Netanyahu told President Trump he wants peace and he wants it quickly. That's what the president expects to happen. The president is very clear in the statement that he just had me reading. You will all see it out on Truth Social very shortly. I am sure the whole world will see it.

He wants all of the hostages released out of Gaza, and he wants this war to end. Those are very two clear directives that the president is making very clear for the entire world to understand. Mary (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks, But Qatar obviously has been helping to negotiate these ceasefire talks. Does the president think that Israel as undermining negotiations by striking Qatar? Is he concerned that Qatar is no longer going to want to play that intermediary role?

LEAVITT: Well, I think the president addressed that in the statement. I can read the whole thing for you again. I think it's very thorough because the president wanted to address all of your questions. He wrote -- we wrote, unilaterally bombing inside Qatar, a sovereign nation and close ally of the United States that is working very hard and bravely taking risks with us to broker peace, does not advance Israel or America's goals. However, eliminating Hamas who have profited off the misery of those living in Gaza is a worthy goal. So he answered that question himself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can't say that Israel informed the U.S.?

LEAVITT: What I can tell you is the United States military informed the Trump administration. (Inaudible)?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. A quick follow on that. Can you tell us when the U.S. military was notified given that the largest U.S. military base is in Doha? And then, I have a question on D.C. crime.

LEAVITT: This morning, just before the attack, as I said earlier as well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, thank you. And yesterday, the president spoke about D.C. crime and talked about how there was virtually none. And then he expressed frustration about things that take place in the home, they call crime. He said, they'll do anything they can to find something if a man has a little fight with the wife, they say this is crime. See now, I can't claim 100 percent. Exactly what crimes was the president referring to?

LEAVITT: He wasn't referring to crimes. That's exactly the point. He was making, (inaudible). What the president is saying is that these crimes will be made up and reported as a crime to undermine the great work that the federal task force is doing to reduce crime in Washington, D.C. And I think the president has every reason to believe that given the efforts of many reporters in this room who actively seek to undermine the president and what he's doing in our nation's capitol. --