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Trump Announces New 30 Percent Tariffs Against Mexico, European Union; Judge Orders Trump Administration To Stop Immigration Arrests In Southern California Without Probable Cause; Report: Fuel Cut To Engines Just Before Fatal Air India Crash; Texas Flooding: New Dispatch Audio Reveals Desperate Calls For Water Rescues. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired July 12, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:01:04]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right. President Trump announced new tariffs against Mexico and the European Union this morning, fueling a wider trade war between the U.S. and its allies.

Senior White House reporter Betsy Klein joins us now from New Jersey, where the president is spending the weekend, Betsy. What more can you tell us?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER AND WRITER: Well, Fredricka, I really want to rewind back to April, when the president announced his reciprocal tariffs -- sweeping tariffs across the globe, really igniting a global trade war and reshaping the economic world order, rocking markets in the process. A few weeks after that, the president issued a 90 day pause to allow some space for bespoke trade deals to get negotiated. And that was up just this past week.

The president extending that deadline to August 1st to allow some additional time for those deals to be made, but they have so far proven elusive. And so, he has sent a series of letters to other world leaders laying out new trade terms, including today, an aggressive 30 percent set of tariffs levied starting August 1st against Mexico and the European Union.

The president said in a letter to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, quote, Mexico has been helping me secure the border, but what Mexico has done is not enough. He went on to say there will be no tariff if Mexico or companies within your country decide to build or manufacture products within the United States.

Now, following that letter, a top Mexican economic official said in a statement that U.S. and Mexican officials had met as recently as Friday, where those Mexican officials conveyed to the U.S. that that 30 percent tariff rate marked, quote, unfair treatment and that they did not agree. Both countries, this official said, are now negotiating to find an alternative to protect businesses and jobs in both countries. Then on the E.U. side, European Commission President Ursula von der

Leyen said in a statement, quote, they are ready to continue working toward an agreement by the president's new deadline. All of this contributing to so much mounting uncertainty for businesses, investors and consumers alike, but also injecting significant risk into what's been a relatively stable and moderate period for the U.S. economy. Inflation is cooling. Weve seen a number of strong jobs reports and unemployment at about 4.1 percent. U.S. stocks, of course, also at all time highs, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Betsy Klein in New Jersey, thank you.

And we're also following major developments this hour involving a setback for the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. A federal judge has ordered ICE to stop indiscriminate immigration arrests in southern California. The judge granted a temporary restraining order late Friday, requiring federal authorities to find reasonable suspicion to make migrant arrests in California's central district, which includes Los Angeles.

The latest move comes after weeks of chaotic immigration raids and public and private workplaces in California. On Thursday, protesters clashed with federal immigration agents carrying out raids at two legal marijuana farms.

CNN's Julia Benbrook is joining us right now.

Julia, what more can you tell us about this ruling and how the administration is reacting?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem just wrapped a press conference focusing in on the Trump administration's large scale immigration operations. And during that press conference, she said something that we hear often from members of this administration that she believes that the president has a mandate and that they will go harder and faster with their immigration crackdown.

Now, let us play a little bit more of what she had to say about the steps the administration plans to take going forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Now that the president's reconciliation bill, the Big, Beautiful Bill has passed.

[15:05:00]

We also have more resources. We're going to come harder and faster, and we're going to take these criminals down with even more strength than we ever have before. We have the funding to put in the training, the resources, the salary and the support for our law enforcement officers that they've never had before.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BENBROOK: And these remarks come after weeks of chaotic immigration raids in public and in workplaces in southern California, specifically. And it comes just a day after a federal judge ordered a temporary restraining order requiring federal authorities to find reasonable suspicion to make immigration arrests in California's central district, which includes Los Angeles. That federal judge found that the Department of Homeland Security had been making stops and arrests without probable cause, and ordered them to not solely make arrests based on race, spoken language, or on occupation.

Now, we did receive a statement from a White House spokesperson responding specifically to that order. I think we can pull that up for you now. In it, they said, quote, no federal judge has the authority to dictate immigration policy. That authority rests with Congress and the president. Enforcement operations require careful planning and execution skills far beyond the purview or jurisdiction of any judge.

We expect this gross overstep of judicial authority to be corrected on appeal. So, you hear they're promising to take some more action when it comes to this order -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Julia Benbrook, thank you so much.

All right. With me now to talk more about these developments is Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Mayor, great to see you.

MAYOR KAREN BASS (D), LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: So your reaction to the judge's ruling and you just heard our Julia Benbrook there. You know, just convey the message that the administration does plan to appeal. But this order does mean that it's asking the Trump administration to stop indiscriminate immigration arrests in southern California.

BASS: Exactly, because they have come and created chaos. Everything in Los Angeles on June 5th was okay. Things got out of hand on June 6th. And the problem is, is that they are literally driving down the street, jumping out of unmarked cars, tinted windows, no license plates, and literally snatching people from bus stops, going into car washes. It's difficult to get your car washed in L.A. now, because many of the car washes have closed down.

It's very hard for me to believe that members of the cartel or other violent criminals are working full time, washing cars or day laborers. You know, a couple of days ago, they had raids in a very affluent part of Los Angeles, essentially taking in and detaining gardeners and landscapers. And so, this sense of fear and terror that they have created and have provoked in our city, now we can at least exhale for a minute in our garment district, 4,000 businesses, independently owned, are essentially idle.

So, the economic damage that this is doing, the human toll that this is taking on families all for in my opinion, a political stunt, an unnecessary flexing of power of the federal government. WHITFIELD: But can you really exhale for a minute, as you put it?

Because we just heard from the Homeland Security Secretary, Kristi Noem, at a presser earlier today who says that they're going to -- they're planning to go harder and faster. And then at the same time, we're hearing from our White House reporter that the administration plans to appeal this judge's ruling. And in addition to that, we've already seen this administration has defied court orders as it pertains to other immigration related orders. Why would this be any different?

BASS: Well, I mean, I am certainly hoping that this is so egregious that, of course, we knew that they were going to appeal, but that a different court will see. It's one thing they started by saying they were going after hardened criminals. As a matter of fact, Secretary Noem in the clip that you just had, she said the same thing. They're going after the criminals, but they are not. They are going after random people who are basically Latino, because I don't know how you know that the person sitting on the bus stop is a suspect, even of just being undocumented. How do you know that?

And that was part of the basis of the suit. They are specifically targeting Latinos who are basically suspected of being undocumented until proven otherwise. And you do know that there have been examples of them detaining U.S. citizens or people who were here legally with their documents, going for their annual immigration check in appointment and then being detained.

So, the inhumanity of this, the way this has disrupted families, the children who are terrorized and traumatized, not knowing if they leave school, if their parent will be there. So, this is just unnecessary. And if you think about it, this is the federal government seizing power from a governor by taking over the national guard. And the spectacle that you saw the other day with literally troops marching through a park where kids were having summer camp and then having to shelter the kids so that they weren't exposed to this military action.

And then they left after an hour because it was just a stunt. It's a misuse of our troops, and it's an absolutely a misuse of tax dollars. So I guess that's what they want to do with the money from the big ugly bill.

WHITFIELD: So you did hear earlier this week from the Trump administrations immigration czar, who essentially condoned profiling, and that if that's what it takes in order to round people up, that's what they're going to continue to do. Meantime, you know, you just issued an executive directive to support immigrant communities in Los Angeles. So, tell us what you can do through this plan to provide assistance to people who clearly are being impacted by these immigration raids.

BASS: Let me just say that Los Angeles is 3.8 million people, and we are --

WHITFIELD: Oh, we just lost that signal. If were able to reestablish soon, we'll try to get the mayor back on to complete her thought there. Meantime, we do thank her for being available to talk to us today. Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles.

All right. Still ahead, a preliminary report reveals clues to the cause of the deadly air India plane crash. Investigators finding the engine's fuel supply was cut off moments after takeoff.

And new dispatch audio of urgent calls for emergency alerts to be sent as intense flooding hit Texas. Only to wait hours for that to happen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:16:48]

WHITFIELD: All right. To India now, where a new report is explaining what caused that deadly Air India crash exactly one month ago, 260 people were killed and the crash, after a fuel cut off switch caused the aircraft to fall from the sky. Just moments after it took off. Was it pilot error or a chip malfunction?

CNN's Richard Quest has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE: The report is 15 pages long and is called preliminary, but its pretty definitive about what took place in the cockpit. Apparently, barely a minute after the plane took off, the fuel cut off switches were moved from run to cut, thus starving the engines of fuel.

You can see from the video of the plane as it starts to climb, and then suddenly loses altitude until it crashes into buildings next to the airport. Why did the pilots cut the fuel? That's the question that no one knows. One of the pilots does say to the other, why did you cut off? And the other pilot says, I didn't cut it. I didn't do so.

And then both switches are put back on to run. But it's too late. By then. The engines have spooled down and they can't reignite in time to create lift.

We may never really know the reason why one of the pilots did switch off the fuel. What we do know is that the switches were moved in both directions, and that that was the cause of the crash.

Was it deliberate or by accident? The positioning of the switch in the cockpit is specifically designed so you can't knock it by accident. The way it operates, you pull it out, lift it over and let it go. It's not automatic. It has to be done manually.

So, the entire way, this operation took place suggests first one switch, then the other, then this dialogue between the pilots and then they reverse. They switch the engines back on again.

As I say, we may never know why that took place.

Richard Quest, CNN, for now (ph).

(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Richard.

Let's discuss this further with CNN's safety analyst, David Soucie. He is a former FAA safety inspector. Good to see you.

So, I understand you say, you know, in your 45 years of aviation experience, you've never encountered an incident where both engines were manually shut off during takeoff. And then with this switch -- I mean, you know, Richard explained how difficult it is. It's not like a knee may have knocked the switch and then suddenly, you know, it cuts off fuel. It sounds pretty intricate.

Would you be leaning toward whether there's some kind of chip malfunction? Because no pilot would want to do that?

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: No, these are manual switches, and there are no chips. There's not like a computer driven movement to turn those on and off. It's a physical movement.

[15:20:01]

And, you know, you said that I've never encountered this before, and I have not with an accident investigation. However, in 1987, there was a 767 where the pilot inadvertently turned the switches off and then recovered by turning them back on. But he was at altitude and was able to recover from it.

And -- but at that time the 767 had two sets of switches. They had what they called the deck or the engine controls right next to these cutoff switches. And so, they were inadvertently pulled. They were very similar switches. So that was a different scenario.

And Boeing has since redesigned the aircraft where those switches are not near each other at all. They're very clear. They're big knobs, round knobs that you pull out. You cannot bump those.

I've ridden as the jump seater where my knees are even close to those switches. And I've seen that and there's no possibility in my mind that those could have inadvertently been moved.

WHITFIELD: And would they be looking into is there another way in which that fuel switch could be turned off? Something internally, having nothing to do with those physical manual switches?

SOUCIE: Well, I suppose they would be looking at that. I would be looking at that for sure. But they're very confident that those -- the way that you monitor the movements of those switches is not electronically necessarily. It's a physical indicator that shows that the switch was pulled, moved and replaced. And that feeds back to the to the recorder.

So, I don't see that there's anything else -- any electronic failure of any kind at all. It's very clear to me that they were manually moved.

WHITFIELD: So, is it case closed or is there anything else that needs to be explored?

SOUCIE: Well, what I would continue to explore is, as you said, I can't imagine a pilot intentionally doing this. So, what the things I would be looking at is were there things in the pilots' day that would have caused them to become delirious, or have problems or medical conditions or that kind of thing? Because it was very hot. It was over 105 degrees that day.

The pilot, one of the pilots, had to go out and do the preflight inspection around the aircraft. It was not their first flight of the day. There was a lot going on, and that kind of thing can cause your mind to play tricks on you. And typically you'll check with the other pilot and say, I'm going to move these switches. And then you do.

That didn't happen. That communication didn't occur. So, if I was to look at something nefarious versus delirious, I would lean towards delirious at this point where the pilot was not in his right mind at the moment, but again, a lot to learn about what's happened here still.

WHITFIELD: Yeah. Oh, how sad, 260 people. All right.

David Soucie, thank you so much.

SOUCIE: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: This weekend, more flood concerns in Texas where new storms could hit, including areas devastated by last week's tragedy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:27:11]

WHITFIELD: Right now. The flood disaster zone in central Texas is once again facing the risk of flash flooding.

Here's meteorologist Chris Warren with details on areas most at risk and the dangerous temperatures threatening much of the west.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRIS WARREN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: More rain, even thunderstorms on the way for Texas, which could lead to some areas of flash flooding at two out of four for the threat level and these areas here where it is possible there could be some flooding, it's not guaranteed. That's the main thing here. It's not guaranteed there's going to be flooding, but the atmosphere is to the point where conditions are favorable for some areas to get enough rain, that there could be some flooding.

And a big reason for that over the next couple of days, there's going to be moisture coming in from the gulf, setting the stage being the fuel essentially for these storms to tap into. The amount of rain that's expected. If it comes in a short period of time, 2 to 4 yellow, orange, 4 to 6, and then the red that six plus, if that comes in a short period of time, flash flooding will certainly be a possibility, if not a likelihood. However, notice here, here, here, here, here. So, there's pockets

where that much rain is going to fall, expected to fall. Some areas are going to stay dry. So, it really depends on how these storms set up and how long they hang around and where they set up, because its still going to be very hit and miss right through Sunday evening. So, the amount of rain that were going to see in Texas would certainly be useful over here, where you're pushing 100 active, large wildfires that are burning in the west, where it is dry and it is hot.

In fact, if you're not careful, it's dangerously hot. Heat alerts in effect there from the central valley of California, even in parts of Arizona, Nevada, up into the pacific northwest, temperatures in the triple digits we'll above average in Las Vegas, 110, 111, 112. You'd expect around 105 for a high here.

Also, pushing triple digits are pushing 110 there. I should say in phoenix, 110 on Sunday. And the temperature trend does keep it hot in the deserts. However, cooler air is on the way for the pacific northwest and some relief from the heat. The immediate coastal areas in California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: That's amazingly hot.

All right, Chris Warren, thank you.

All right. This is Kerrville, Texas, where hundreds turned out last night to honor the people killed and those still missing after deadly floods swept through the area. One week after the worst of the flooding. We're now hearing the dispatch calls from first responders desperately trying to comprehend the scope of the disaster.

CNN's Jason Carroll has that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KERR FIRE DISPATCH: There's no way we can get them. The water's over the river, and we are all stuck.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the early morning hours of July 4th, it was already painfully clear to first responders they were facing an uphill battle.

[15:30:06]

KERR FIRE DISPATCH: Just advising, we received a call from Camp La Junta, 1661 highway 39, advising they did have a building collapse, cabin 14. Unknown if kids are out of the building, they believe so. They're trying to get a head count.

KERR FIRE DISPATCH: Scott Fineske from Camp La Junta just called in and said they have 36 children that are also in jeopardy of water, under water.

CARROLL: Emergency dispatch audio obtained by "OUTFRONT" showed with each passing minute that morning, more calls came in about people. Many of them children, desperately needing rescue as the Guadalupe River flooded campgrounds and RV parks in Kerr County, Texas.

KERR FIRE DISPATCH: We do have audible screams from what sounds like a possible female child and an adult male.

KERR FIRE DISPATCH: We're getting multiple reports. People are being swept away. We're trying to get a team down to see if we can catch some people.

KERR FIRE DISPATCH: Had a female pass us. She was still above water, hanging on a driftwood, waving her arms around, screaming for help.

CARROLL: Just after 6:00 a.m., emergency crews braving a deadly wall of water in an effort to save anyone they could.

KERR FIRE DISPATCH: I got multiple people in backyards hanging onto trees yelling at us, but we can't see them.

CARROLL: 6:31 a.m., a Kerrville fire tactical call about Julian Ryan, a father of two who punched through a window to save his family trapped in their trailer home. His arm injured so severely he did not survive.

KERR FIRE DISPATCH: Be advised. We're getting reports of a confirmed deceased patient, 27 year old male, cut off his arm.

CARROLL: Questions now about whether more people could have been saved, had more known. The National Weather Service had issued a flash flood warning alert for parts of Kerr County at 1:14 a.m. July 4th.

During a Tuesday briefing, Kerr County sheriff says he was made aware of flooding when the emergency call started coming in hours after the National Weather Service had issued its alert.

LARRY LEITHA, KERR COUNTY SHERIFF: It was between 4:00 and 5:00 when I got notified. Okay. But prior to that, in that 3:00 to 4:00 area, my understanding is and we're in the process of trying to put a timeline, you know, that's going to take a little bit of time, as I've told you several times, that is not my priority at this time.

CARROLL: When pressed about the county's emergency alerting timeline, the sheriff's department says their focus continues to be on the victims.

A former associate administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency says it's crucial for the public to receive National Weather Service alerts as soon as possible.

ELIZABETH ZIMMERMAN, FORMER FEMA ASSOCIATE ADMINISTRATOR: It's hard to second guess, but I mean, when those emergency notifications. So, when you get information from the Weather Service and they are saying there's a warning, that needs to be taken seriously 24/7.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Jason Carroll, thank you so much.

All right. In a sweeping overhaul, more than 1300 U.S. State Department workers have lost their jobs. Yesterday, demonstrators protested outside the agency supporting the workers. Critics say layoffs are the wrong move at the wrong time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:37:54]

WHITFIELD: The U.S. State Department fired more than 1,300 employees as part of the agency's dramatic overhaul. CNN state department producer Jennifer Hansler has more on the mass firings.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT PRODUCER: The State Department began its mass firings on Friday as part of a broader overhaul of the U.S. diplomatic agency. More than 1,300 people are being fired from the Washington, D.C.-based workforce, including 1,107 members of the civil service and 246 foreign service officers. Nearly 3,000 people in total will be leaving that workforce. That includes folks who have been fired, as well as those who have taken buyouts or early retirement.

The State Department says it has undertaken this dramatic overhaul of the agency in order to reduce what they call bloat and inefficiencies within the department.

They are impacting some 300 offices and bureaus here in Washington, D.C., including those that focus on refugees and human rights. Opponents of the changes say they are coming at a time when diplomacy and expertise in foreign affairs is more important than ever, particularly with crises raging around the world.

The American foreign service association, which is the union that represents foreign service officers, said in a statement Friday, quote, at a moment of great global instability with war raging in Ukraine, conflict between Israel and Iran and authoritarian regimes testing the boundaries of international order, the United States has chosen to gut its frontline diplomatic workforce. We oppose this decision in the strongest terms.

Now, the State Department says these cuts are going to be focused only in Washington, D.C. for now, however, they have impacted folks who would have been working abroad. Foreign service officers. These folks are often highly trained and speak multiple languages, and are the ones that work in embassies and consulates around the world.

One such foreign service officer, Olga Bashbush, told me today that she was fired from her job simply for having been there at the time the office was being eliminated. She said she would still be proud to serve, and thinks that this might be a shortsighted move by the State Department.

Take a listen to what she told me. [15:40:00]

OLGA BASHBUSH, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEE: It is not merit based. It isn't just it isn't fair, but what's the most important thing that the American people need to know is that it harms you? We protect your national security.

HANSLER: Now, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has defended these cuts as being deliberately done. He was not here at the State Department when these layoff notices began to go out. However, he was on his way back from a trip to Malaysia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, Jennifer Hansler, thank you so much.

Ukrainian officials say Russia has launched its second largest aerial assault since the beginning of its invasion. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia launched 26 cruise missiles and 597 drones in the overnight attack. At least two people were reportedly killed and 14 more hurt.

And now to a harrowing story. A Ukrainian doctor drove a child's heart through a Russian attack to perform a lifesaving transplant. It was a race against the clock as he sped through Kyiv.

CNN's Christina Macfarlane has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Under the cover of dark and a sky swarming with attack drones, a desperate attempt to save a child is underway.

DR. BORYS TODUROV, CARDIAC SURGEON, DIRECTOR OF THE HEART INSTITUTE OF KYIV (through translator): We are transporting the heart, transporting the heart.

MACFARLANE: Surgeon Boris Todurov is exposed, racing through the capital Kyiv, for 15 dangerous minutes to deliver this precious cargo. A tiny heart for a 12-year-old girl. The transplant happening while Russia unleashed an onslaught. More than 400 missiles and drone attacks on the country overnight Wednesday into Thursday.

Amid the terror, some hope.

TODUROV: We have just completed the transplant. The heart is working and the pressure is stable.

MACFARLANE: The donor, a four year old girl whose injuries became too severe. Now giving life to another. After two days of tireless work by the transplant team. In the operating rooms here, as much as on the front lines, the battle for Ukraine's heart and soul goes on.

Christina macfarlane CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Still to come, a voice of reason in American politics has gone silent. David Gergen, adviser to four U.S. presidents and champion of civic leadership, has died. We'll take a look at his life and impact right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:47:15]

WHITFIELD: David Gergen, an adviser to four U.S. presidents and a longtime CNN political analyst, has passed away. David started his career in politics under President Nixon before going on to work with Presidents Ford, Reagan and Clinton. And after the White House, David went on to become a magazine editor. Harvard professor, and a TV commentator. He was also a frequent guest on this show.

Here he is ahead of the 2012 election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID GERGEN, FORMER CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: This election has suddenly gotten a lot more energized, a lot more interesting. And I think in the long run, having an election about big ideas is healthy because it does send a message to Washington, we want to go for smaller government, or we want to go for government that's of the kind that Barack Obama envisions a vision which is more compassionate and that sort of thing. And that's an important choice. We don't get these kind of clear choices very often.

WHITFIELD: All right. Just over a week away from the first convention, we'll all be watching and watching you and listening to you.

David Gergen, always good to see you.

GERGEN: Okay, Fred, thank you.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

GERGEN: All right. Bye.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: We enjoyed talking to him for so many years on this show. David's family says he passed away on Thursday after a battle with Lewy body dementia. He was 83 years old.

I want to discuss David's life now with CNN presidential historian Tim Naftali. He is also the former director of the Nixon Presidential Library.

Tim, so glad you could be with us and reflect on your dear friend. I mean, David started in a writing job in the Nixon White House, eventually becoming his chief speechwriter. How do you think that experience helped shape him? TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, first thing I'd like to

say about David Gergen is that he was a quirky and brilliant and nice man. And he combined experience at the pinnacle of power with the ability to explain it and to see the big picture. And that's really rare.

The Nixon period shaped him. He was kind enough to do an oral history for the Nixon library conducted. I conducted that interview with him in 2009, and you can see how that experience in the Nixon White House taught him good things and bad things about the presidency. It made him understand what presidents need. Presidents have very little time. They need what they need quickly, and they need it in a form they can use.

He understood the importance of learning the voice of a president that speechwriter doesn't interfere with the president's voice. The speechwriter makes that voice clearer.

[15:50:01]

Now, it was a challenge with Nixon. And as David made clear, he never fully got to know Nixon. And he didn't know about Nixon's crimes until very, very late in the administration when he began to wonder himself whether he should resign. So -- but the Nixon period taught him a lot about presidencies, which helped him help presidents like Ford and Reagan and Clinton.

WHITFIELD: It's so great to look at these pictures, too, and the variety of circles that he was in. I mean, David Gergen said, you know, also that no matter which president he worked for, he never lied to the press. And at that point he said, you know, you're of no value to the president or anyone else.

So, tell me more about his commitment to being that kind of public servant.

NAFTALI: When you read his book, eyewitness to power, you see that the most important quality he looks for in a president is integrity. And he wanted the president's staff, of which he was a part, to have that too, that once you lose integrity, and at least in the era where he was in power or shared power or helped power, integrity mattered.

The American people look for authenticity. And they wanted to trust presidents. But ultimately, if they president lost their trust, it was lost for good. And so, he took the same approach to his dealings with the press.

I think what's interesting about David, Mr. Gergen's career, David Gergen's career is that he believed fundamentally that even if you disagree with the policies of a president, when a president succeeds, the country succeeds. And he worked for presidents, he didn't always agree with. Reagan was further to the right of him. Clinton was further to the left of him, but he recognized that so long as the president is seeking the common good, they are approach to it might be different from your own, as long as they're seeking that it is in your interest as a good American to help them. And that was David's approach. He was the ultimate pragmatist. He had

a set of views. There were centrist. You might call him a liberal Republican, but he believed that in the end, what the country needed were people like him to help a president succeed. And it didn't matter what party they were from.

WHITFIELD: What do you want people to most remember about him? I mean, all of that was just so eloquently said. But, I mean, he really was a quintessential public servant working with presidents as a journalist, a navy man. What else?

NAFTALI: Well, well. I could get emotional simply because there is so much cynicism in our country today. It's not new. We've had cynics throughout our history.

David Gergen had a belief in this country that ultimately, through thick and thin, and we've had a lot of both in our history. There was a deep resilience to this country and to Americans. And he epitomized that. He represented that. He did his best to move the country in the right direction. Whenever he had the opportunity, whether in government or part of the outside estate, the press.

He should be remembered as one of those people who made us better than we were and who tried his best to use his skills to make America a better place. When he left it than when he entered it.

And I don't doubt that that some of the changes in the presidency over the last few years, as he had his own struggles, but that those have disappointed him simply because when -- when he wrote about the presidents he knew, he believed that each and every one of them wanted to unite the country, not divide it. And that was the key to him.

So, he should be remembered as a great American who tried his best for all of us. And I hope he is not a symbol of the kind of person in government that we won't see again. It may take a while for centrists like him to return to government, but our genius as Americans is our pragmatism, not our ideology.

Americans are less good at ideology than pragmatism. We get things done. David epitomized that.

WHITFIELD: Well, Tim Naftali, thank you so much for reflecting on your dear friend. We will all miss him.

And we'll be right back.

NAFTALI: Thank you, Fred.

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[15:59:22]

WHITFIELD: A new CNN original series goes inside the notorious billionaire boys club of the 1980s. On the surface, it was a social and investment club, but in reality, it was filled with greed, fraud and even murder. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NARRATOR: There was a huge fuss on the other side of the restaurant, and it was the guys from the BBC.

They were young, they were dressed in suits that looked like they came out of the pages of "Vogue". They acted like $100 bills with napkins. It didn't matter the rich and famous were there. It was all about these guys.

They really seemed to have it together.