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At Least 30 Injured In L.A. After Vehicle Plows Into Crowd; LAPD: Driver Was Shot By Bystanders After Plowing Into L.A. Crowd; Trump Sues Wall Street Journal For $20B Over Epstein Report; DOJ Asks Judge To Release Grand Jury Testimony In Epstein Case; Palestinian Health Officials: At Least 32 Killed Near Gaza Aid Site; U.S. Citizen, Army Vet Detained By ICE And Held For 3 Days; Trump Admin Firing Immigration Judges "Without Cause"; Trump Admin Sued Over ICE Arrests; U.S. Bolsonaro Fitted With Ankle Monitor; MAGA Influencers Back To Supporting Trump; Vehicle Plows Into Crowd In L.A. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired July 19, 2025 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:00:12]

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

And we're learning more details on this breaking news out of East Hollywood where at least 30 people were injured after a vehicle drove into a crowd early this morning. The Los Angeles Fire Department says seven of those injured are in critical condition outside a music venue on West Santa Monica Boulevard. Officials say more than 100 emergency responders arrived to a frenzied scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

CAPT. ADAM VANGERPEN, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, LOS ANGELES FIRE DEPT.: This was a very chaotic scene. There was -- people were helping each other out because this was a nightclub. People were waiting to go inside there. They're ordering tacos. So they're seeing people that they don't even know are injured. They're stepping in to help them out.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

WHITFIELD: And with us now, CNN Correspondent Julia Vargas Jones, who is there on the scene, and retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jason Pack is also with us. Thanks to both of you.

Julia, you first. Kind of set the scene on what you know about the investigation. I see cars are moving behind you. I guess there is some, you know, semblance of normalcy. But this investigation is really in its infancy.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is, Fred, very much. So, you know, this is a part of Los Angeles. It's very central, and it's not a part that you would see violence. Now, we are piecing together some more details that we're hearing from the Los Angeles Police Department.

One of them is that after this man rammed into the crowd and was taken out, and we can see that in some video that CNN has reviewed. We see this man being pulled out of a vehicle by the crowd. There's a fight that ensues. Eventually, someone pulls out a weapon, a gun, and shoots him.

That suspect of the shooting is still at large. This is how the LAPD described this -- how these events happened.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

JEFFREY LEE, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER, LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPT.: The driver of that vehicle was pulled out, and a physical altercation ensued. But the bystanders were physically assaulting him. During that altercation, somebody produced a firearm and shot that driver of the vehicle. The driver was transported to a local hospital in unknown condition. The shooter in this situation is still outstanding, and we consider him armed and dangerous.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

VARGAS JONES: And, Fred, LAPD also telling us that it's a miracle that nobody died in this because that was, as they said, a chaotic scene, so many people. And I'll say, speaking to one of the neighbors here, someone who lives basically next door to this nightclub, she said it's usually a very young crowd, and this was around 2:00 in the morning Pacific Time when this happened, that it's a usual scene to see all these people standing outside of this nightclub.

We do have reporting as well, though, from CNN's John Miller, that at this point there's no indication that, aside from the impaired state of that driver that the authorities say was intoxicated, that there was any connection with terrorism or any further criminal intent here, Fred. So still trying to understand what is it, how were -- what happened in the moments that led to this car ramming into that crowd.

WHITFIELD: Right. Possibly investigators trying to rule out some things, but still carrying on with the investigation.

Thank you so much, Julia Vargas Jones.

So Special Agent Pack with us now. Good to see you. I want to get your perspective as investigators work through the scene. You know, what do you believe their priority will be?

JASON PACK, RETIRED FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Yes, ma'am. I think the top three priorities are, number one, and priority one is finding the shooter to keep that person from committing other crimes. Number two would be to find the video from the scenes. There are 30 people that were hurt. So law enforcement is going to want to see all the videos that they may have had from their phones and then from the other witnesses who were around.

You saw the bystanders there in the video helping other citizens. They were all in line to go have fun and their night turned tragic. And then the third is awaiting the toxicology reports from that driver. So likely they've taken blood from the person that was driving the car to see if it was a medical condition, if he was intoxicated like it was.

They have to be able to prove these things in court. So I think those are the top three priorities.

WHITFIELD: On the issue of like the cell phone video, you mentioned all the people, people, you know, always pull out their phones and document stuff. How will investigators go about either requesting, collecting that kind of data?

PACK: They have a couple of ways of doing that. One is just a good old-fashioned police detective work, and that's going door to door, and that's going door to door to those businesses too, those security cameras, in addition to the phones that the patrons may have had. They'll likely have taken their names during the report.

[13:05:00]

The responding officers will have a list of names, and they'll have the victims, and so they'll be able to go there and look at those cell phones individually and do the techniques that we have to -- or the law enforcement has to download those. Separately, there's often places on public-facing websites to upload video to do these types of things to collect that.

So it's going to be a lot of information to go through and a lot of videos. So you want to be able to prove exactly what happened that matches what the investigators have learned through their investigation so far by talking to people.

WHITFIELD: The use of that video, is that going to be a primary tool in trying to zero in on the identity of the gunman?

PACK: Yes, ma'am, that's exactly right. We see this in lots of cases like in the -- when it happened in front of the public. We need to be able to see every angle, and now that everybody has a phone, it becomes a little bit more easy to do when people are out there recording all the time. So it's going to be a matter of getting that break and that right piece of video to match the suspect descriptions.

The LAPD, you heard the PIO there put the description out in your piece before with Julia. So you're going to match that description to the video, and then that will lead you down the road to be able to backtrack and use security camera videos from businesses around and just follow that person camera to camera and frame by frame to put an identity with the face.

WHITFIELD: There seems to have been an awful lot of activity surrounding this, you know, collection of incidents. Will the bystanders who pulled the driver from his car potentially face charges?

PACK: Well, that's a great question, and I think it's going to depend on what they've been able to prove through this evidence that they're collecting. Certainly from what we know now, and again, information preliminarily always is subject to change as the facts are learned and developed, but it looks like it was a bit of street justice. It seems like the folks were mad that the person ran through the crowd of people injuring those folks, and they took matters into their own hand in the vigilante justice type of thing.

So we're going to have to wait and see, but it certainly is a possibility, particularly for the person who pulled the trigger.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right. Special Agent Jason Pack, thanks so much.

PACK: Thank you, ma'am.

WHITFIELD: All right, we're also following major new developments in the expanding saga surrounding convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. President Trump has now filed a stunning lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal. Trump is seeking as much as $20 billion from the newspaper and the company's media mogul owner, Rupert Murdoch. The lawsuit is in response to the journal's story, saying President Trump gave a birthday letter and a lewd drawing of a woman to Jeffrey Epstein back in 2003.

The president denies he wrote it, and some of his key Republican allies are also rallying around him.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: The president and I talked about that ridiculous allegation this morning. He said it's patently absurd. He's never drawn such a picture. He's never thought of drawing such a picture. And he said, did you see the language of this bogus supposed communication or card or something I supposedly sent to Epstein? He said, I don't talk like that. I don't think like that.

They're literally making things up. He's so frustrated by it.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

WHITFIELD: The lawsuit was filed within hours of the Department of Justice asking a judge to release grand jury testimony in the Epstein case. The Trump administration faced blowback from supporters after releasing a memo stating that there was no evidence Epstein kept a client list. Some lawmakers are now demanding more information be released.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

REP. MELANIE STANSBURY (D), NEW MEXICO: You guys are so weak that you won't even vote to release the files.

REP. RO KHANNA (D), CALIFORNIA: Mr. Speaker, the American people, Republicans, Independents, Democrats, want the Epstein files released.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Betsy Klein is joining us right now from the White House. Betsy, bring us up to speed on the latest developments, including President Trump's latest comments.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER AND WRITER: Well, after days of infighting between President Trump and the MAGA movement that he created, the president is now trying to turn the page and change the subject, going on the offense after announcing that he is going to sue the Wall Street Journal, its publisher, and its reporters after they published what appears to be a note bearing Trump's name and a drawing of a naked woman that was sent to Jeffrey Epstein on the occasion of his 50th birthday back in 2003. President Trump says that is fake and he is suing for libel, assault, and slander.

Now, a spokesperson for Dow Jones tells CNN in a statement, quote, "We have full confidence in the rigor and accuracy of our reporting and will vigorously defend against any lawsuit." Now, it's been two weeks since the Department of Justice and the FBI released a memo that essentially concluded that Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide and there was no so-called client list. Since then, MAGA World is really in revolt, asking for additional transparency and information and really setting up a loyalty test between the president and some of his most ardent and vocal supporters.

[13:10:07]

The president's preference here has been to move on. He says that this is sorted but not interesting. But the pressure has been intensifying, including after the Wall Street Journal published that letter. The president also announced that he was going to ask his Attorney General, Pamela Bondi, to unseal pertinent testimony related to Epstein.

The government filed that request in a federal court on Friday, but that is going to take some time. And if that request is granted, it will represent really a small portion of the overall body of evidence against Jeffrey Epstein.

Now, one of the reasons that this isn't going away is because the president himself, Vice President JD Vance and other top officials, including Attorney General Pamela Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel and his Deputy Dan Bongino, have really been promoting conspiracy theories around Epstein for years, hitting the podcast circuit and on the campaign trail. So it shouldn't be a surprise that the president's supporters are frustrated that the release of this memo hasn't borne more fruit.

The president appeared to acknowledge that in a post to social media this morning. He said, quote, "I have asked the Justice Department to release all grand jury testimony with respect to Jeffrey Epstein, subject only to Court Approval. With that being said, and even if the court gave its full and unwavering approval, nothing will be good enough for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request. It will always be more, more, more."

We'll have to see if the president is right about that. But again, so many questions around how close indeed President Trump was with Jeffrey Epstein and what he knew about Epstein's proclivities, Fredricka. WHITFIELD: All right, Betsy Klein at the White House. Thanks so much.

The decision to move forward with releasing the grand jury testimony on Jeffrey Epstein now lies with a federal judge. CNN's Evan Perez has more.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The Justice Department is asking a federal judge to make public years-old grand jury testimony in the criminal case against Jeffrey Epstein, attempting to end weeks of political turmoil that the Trump administration really has brought on itself. The filing was signed by Attorney General Pam Bondi and by Todd Blanche, the Deputy Attorney General, and it relates to really only a fraction of the volumes of evidence that the Justice Department gathered in the 2019 sex trafficking case against Epstein.

The filing says, in part, "Given this longstanding and legitimate interest, the government now moves to unseal grand jury transcripts associated with Epstein." It notes that the department will file a similar motion in the case against Epstein's associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.

The filing came hours before President Trump filed a lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, over a news story that said a lewd letter signed by Trump was included in a book of birthday greetings for Epstein back in the early 2000s. Trump denies that he wrote such a letter. The lawsuit is filed in Miami.

The decision on whether to release the Epstein grand jury information now lies with a judge in Manhattan who oversaw the criminal case against Epstein before Epstein's suicide in 2019. Before making a ruling on this, the judge is likely to consult with the victims and any uncharged people discussed in the testimony since that information is protected by federal law. That could take months, certainly not as fast as President Trump wants this Epstein matter to go away.

Evan Perez, CNN, Washington.

WHITFIELD: All right, straight ahead, more than 30 people killed by Israeli troops while searching for food in Gaza. That's what Palestinian health officials are saying and what we're learning about the incident.

And some MAGA influencers are rallying behind President Trump after the Wall Street Journal's report of an alleged Epstein letter. But is it enough to calm the conspiracy theories circling around his base?

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[13:18:39]

WHITFIELD: All right, new today, at least 32 people were killed when Israeli troops opened fire on people trying to reach a food aid distribution site in Gaza, that's according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. One man who carried his dead child from the scene said he couldn't understand why it had to happen.

A warning for some of you who might find the following video distressing.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): What was his fault? What was his fault? What was his fault? This is my son. He just wanted to eat. What could I do? He wanted to eat.

Those targeted were children. He returned, carried in someone's arms.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Barbie Latza Nadeau is covering this story for us, so what more are we learning about this incident?

BARBIE LATZA NADEAU, CNN REPORTER: Well, you know, of course the details of incidents like this are always a little bit sketchy because Western journalists aren't allowed into the Gaza Strip to do independent reporting. But there are Palestinian journalists who do send dispatches, who do, you know, give interviews with local officials and hospitals there.

So, you know, listening to that father, you can just try to understand the desperation to risk their child's life to try to get food. We know that the distribution of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, that's a U.S.-Israeli-based aid group that runs food distribution there.

[13:20:01]

We know it was closed at the time of this incident, but we also know that people have to line up hours and hours in advance just -- with any hope to be in line to get food when those distribution centers open. So it's tragedy after tragedy. The desperation, of course, Fred, just keeps, keeps getting deeper and deeper.

WHITFIELD: And then, I mean, what does this say about the level of desperation among Palestinians in Gaza?

NADEAU: Yes, you know, I mean, one of the big issues there, of course, is starvation. And as a parent, you know, you think, what would you do for your child so that they don't starve to death? Well, if you're going out to try to get in line to get them food, just so that they don't starve to death, and the risk is being, you know, accidentally or intentionally targeted while you're waiting for food or trying to reach the food distribution place, I think that that does really underscore this desperation, especially for the parents of children.

And again, starvation has become an increasingly big threat on society there, and you see some of these images of these children who are literally starving to death. And so, of course, I think any parent would risk their lives and their child's life to try to feed them. Fred?

WHITFIELD: Of course. Yes. Absolutely horrible.

All right, Barbie Latza Nadeau, thank you so much.

Coming up, 10 Americans freed after a large-scale prisoner swap with Venezuela. What we know about the deal.

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[13:25:45]

WHITFIELD: All right, today, 10 Americans are back home after being jailed in Venezuela. That's according to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio who announced the news Friday on social media. In exchange for the 10 wrongfully detained Americans, U.S. officials said they completed a large-scale prisoner swap with Venezuela. Two planes carrying more than 250 Venezuelans who were deported from the U.S. to a notorious mega prison in El Salvador were sent back to their native Venezuela.

Meantime, a 25-year-old Army veteran is speaking out after being wrongfully detained by ICE for days. George Retes, a U.S. citizen, was arrested last week during an immigration raid at a legal marijuana farm in Southern California. Retes says he was on his way to work at the farm when federal agents surrounded his car, broke his window, pepper-sprayed him, and dragged him out.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

GEORGE RETES JR., U.S. CITIZEN ARRESTED BY ICE IN CALIFORNIA RAID: I told them I was a U.S. citizen, that I worked there, that I was trying to get at work. I mentioned that I was a veteran. I told them all those things. I wasn't part of the protest. I'm not there to fight them. I'm just trying to get to work. They all just started yelling at me and started getting hostile.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, let's discuss this with CNN Opinion Columnist and Attorney Raul Reyes. Raul, great to see you. So what's your reaction to Retes -- am I saying his name right, Retes -- you know, getting this kind of treatment, you know, from ICE officials despite identifying himself as a U.S. citizen?

RAUL REYES, CNN OPINION COLUMNIST: Right. Unfortunately, we are seeing more and more of these cases across the United States of citizens being caught up in ICE raids or detention sweeps. We've seen them in Florida, certainly in the Los Angeles area with the increased immigration enforcement actions there.

And the problem is, people may think that, say, if you have a driver's license, that that proves your citizenship. That's not the case because certain states like California and Massachusetts issue driver's licenses to undocumented people. So it's -- and the way that these immigration raids are being conducted so swiftly and without much publicly known protocols, it's almost inevitable that these types of mistakes happen, particularly in communities with large Latino and large immigrant populations.

WHITFIELD: So Retes says, you know, he plans to sue the Trump administration. Do you think he will succeed with that? REYES: I certainly think that he has a good case for wrongful arrest, you know, for whatever conditions he went through as part of this incident. But to be honest, because so many ICE agents are masked and do not identify themselves, it makes it that much harder to launch this type of challenge.

I think his best route would be probably to find a very strong nonprofit group willing to take his case because, to be honest, many immigration attorneys are honestly somewhat fearful of going up against this government at this time when they have made illegal immigration and enforcement actions their top priority. So it's a solid case to me on the face of it, but there's a lot about the circumstances that we don't know, and this -- Mr. Retes may not be able to rely on testimony from the ICE agents involved.

WHITFIELD: As President Trump, you know, is pushing forward with his deportations, the Associated Press is reporting that a union representing immigration court judges says 17 of its judges have been fired without cause. I mean, how concerning is that to you?

REYES: It's extremely concerning because this type of wave of firings of immigration judges is coming at the most inopportune time. The administration is ramping up arrests, it's ramping up detentions and removals, and all of those cases require immigration judges. And just for context, right now in the U.S. there are about 4 million immigration cases in the backlog.

Of that number, about 1.6 million are asylum cases which take the longest to adjudicate. And I will say though, just to be clear, that although these firings many, many attorneys and many people in the immigration community find them to be politically motivated maybe because the administration does not see these judges as aligning with their goals.

[13:30:22]

It is these actions on their face are probably legal because the immigration -- our immigration courts are not part of the judicial branch, they're part of the Department of Justice, the executive branch. So, the -- for immigration judges, they report to, ultimately, Attorney General Pam Bondi and the president.

So, at a time when we have such a need for these judges, this is very problematic, but it is most likely legal for the administration to go ahead and do these.

WHITFIELD: I also want to ask you about another legal issue, civil rights groups are suing the Trump administration to stop ICE officers from arresting undocumented immigrants who show up at courthouses for their immigration hearings. Is -- does the government have the right to do that?

REYES: Yes and no. Everyone has a right -- you know, if you are an immigrant seeking adjudication of your asylum claim or showing up for a required court date, yes. But the administration is taking advantage. I guess you could say it's a legal maneuvering. What happens is migrants show up for their required court appearance, the government's lawyers immediately move to dismiss the case, which ordinarily would be good news, but once that happens, then they are brought into custody right then by ICE agents prioritized for expedited removal. So, there really is a lack of due process there. They don't get their day in court.

What's so troubling about this is that these are individuals, these are migrants and asylum seekers who are in good faith showing up in court as required by the government. And then the government ends up taking them into custody. It's -- the government is, in a sense, forcing them into a Catch-22 type of situation. And then as once people are qualified for expedited removals, they can be quickly transferred to detention and can be removed from the country in as little as 72 hours.

So, there are real questions here about due process rights and the -- just the right of immigrants, asylum seekers in our justice system.

WHITFIELD: All right. Raul Reyes, thank you so much. Always great to have you.

REYES: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Straight ahead, after orders for Brazil's former president to wear an ankle monitor, the U.S. has now stripped the travel visa for the Brazilian judge in that case.

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[13:35:00]

WHITFIELD: All right. New developments today in the dispute between the Trump White House and Brazil over Brazil's prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the U.S. is revoking the visa of the Brazilian judge overseeing the case, accusing him of carrying out a political witch hunt against Bolsonaro. Rubio's announcement came soon after that judge ordered Bolsonaro to wear an ankle monitor. CNN Contributor Stefano Pozzebon has more on these latest developments.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR (voice-over): Early Friday, Brazil's federal police came knocking, raiding the home of former right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro, fitting him with an ankle tag and barring him from speaking to foreign officials and using social media. These measures ordered by Brazil's Supreme Court to prevent him from leaving the country as he faces trial for allegedly plotting a coup against his left-leaning successor. Bolsonaro lashed out against the ankle tag.

JAIR BOLSONARO, FORMER BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Dammit. I'm a former president. I'm 70 years old. This is a supreme humiliation.

POZZEBON (voice-over): And immediately brought up his close ally, U.S. President Donald Trump.

BOLSONARO (through translator): If I had a passport, I would request an audience to visit Donald Trump.

POZZEBON (voice-over): Trump has a long shadow over this case as he threatens tariffs of up to 50 percent on Brazilian products in retaliation for Bolsonaro's prosecution.

BRIAN WINTER, VP OF POLICY, AMERICAS SOCIETY AND COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAS: I think this is very personal for President Trump. I think that he believes that what is happening in Brazil right now is political persecution of former President Bolsonaro in a way that reminds Trump of what happened to him and the parallels between the 2020 election in the United States and the 2022 election in Brazil.

POZZEBON (voice-over): Bolsonaro supporters stormed Brazil's capital on January 8, 2023. In striking similarity to what happened on January 6th, two years before. This week, Trump wrote a letter to support Bolsonaro. But in the current Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Trump has found a formidable opponent. Lula claiming the country's prepared to retaliate with similar tariffs and calling out on Trump directly in an interview with CNN.

LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA, BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We cannot have President Trump forgetting that he was elected to govern the U.S. He was elected not to be the emperor of the world.

POZZEBON (voice-over): Stefano Pozzebon, CNN, Bogota.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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[13:40:00]

WHITFIELD: All right. A major part of President Trump's 2024 campaign was laser focused on the Epstein case. As a result, it became a huge sticking point for his base of supporters despite earlier outrage over what they viewed as a lack of transparency in the case, they're now rallying around him again. CNN's Alayna Treene explains.

[13:45:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Steve Bannon, a former Trump aide and MAGA leader, joined a growing number of Trump supporters coalescing around the president on Friday after The Wall Street Journal had dropped a story Thursday evening about an alleged letter Trump had sent to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday. The letter appeared to have Trump's signature, as well as the outline of a naked woman, something that the president has called fake.

But I want to tell you what Bannon told me in an interview, he said, quote, "We are finally on offense," he texted me. "President Trump has had enough and is fighting back against his real enemies." Now, Bannon was one of many of the high-profile Trump supporters who have sharply criticized the Trump administration for their handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, specifically after the Justice Department had released a memo saying essentially that they believed Epstein died by suicide, that he had not killed himself, and also, that there was so-called no client list.

And really, we saw that be a huge point of contention among the president and his base. Really an area where he was on a dividing line with them, where his base was fraying over this decision not to reveal more about Jeffrey Epstein, something many of them had long called to do, including some people who are now in the highest echelons of the Trump administration prior to them taking office.

But one key thing that a lot of people said was a point that they were celebrating was this idea when President Trump asked his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to release and unseal some of the grand jury testimony in the Epstein case. I asked Steve Bannon if this was something that he believed would quell some of the backlash Trump has seen over all of this, and he told me, quote, "It's a good start, but stay on offense. It's when Trump is at his best, attack, attack, attack."

Now, other voices that have been supporting Trump in the light of this Wall Street Journal story include Laura Loomer, of course, a far-right influential figure, someone who has met directly with President Donald Trump here at the White House. She called this story of Donald Trump in The Wall Street Journal totally fake. Charlie Kirk, another influential MAGA voice said this. He said, this is not how Trump talks at all. I don't believe it.

And so, what really we're seeing is this could actually be a turning point, at least that's how Bannon framed it to me, where some of these really high-profile Trump supporters, his fiercest allies who had long been criticizing the Trump administration's handling this, are now coming back to defend him. And really one Trump adviser had told me that there's nothing that reunites the base like a fake news story, and that's how they're arguing this will go.

Now, of course, there's still questions about whether that grand jury testimony will actually be unsealed and whether it will be enough to kind of put to bed some of the criticism. We're still watching and waiting to see how this all plays out.

Alayna Treene, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. With me now to talk more about, this is Jeff Angelo. He is a conservative radio host in Des Moines, Iowa. Jeff, great to see you.

JEFF ANGELO, CONSERVATIVE RADIO HOST AND HOST, NEWSRADIO 1040 WHO: Great to see you. Thanks for checking in with me today.

WHITFIELD: Well, wonderful. So, what have your listeners been saying to you about what they wanted to hear about the Epstein files? ANGELO: Well, I think that there's been really two schools of thought because how I pursued this on my radio show this week is when the president came out earlier in the week and said, boy, I don't know why people are still talking about it. It's just not a big deal. And I said to my audience, OK, is this a big deal to you? Is this just another distraction? I do think that my audience thinks it's a big deal.

You know, Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on charges of human trafficking. That means there were victims. That means there were perpetrators. And we have these, if you will, rebels now that are part of the Trump administration, supposedly offering transparency into our government, what it's hidden from us, how it operates, and to come out and say that this whole Epstein thing, there's nothing more to be said, that's been really disappointing to Trump's supporters.

WHITFIELD: So, disappointing, on that end. But then Steve Bannon and many MAGA influencers are now saying they're kind of back behind Trump after The Wall Street Journal, you know, reporting of his alleged graphic sketch. Was that all it took, you know, to get MAGA followers who were mad at Trump and the U.S. attorney general, Pam Bondi, for not releasing Epstein documents to now doing about face?

ANGELO: Well, I guess what I say about my audience is we're all capable of critical thinking. You can still think that something is there, that the rich and powerful are being protected in the case of Epstein and his crimes. On the other hand, you can also say, OK, here is the fake news, to use that term, going after President Trump again.

[13:50:00]

And many of my listeners did say that to me. They said, look, Jeff, I am concerned about the victims in the Epstein case and why people aren't being brought to justice, but I'm worried that the media will laser focus on whether or not Donald Trump was involved. It's always about Trump and not about anybody else.

WHITFIELD: Except then he was the one who was pretty laser focused on the whole issue, that case as well on the campaign trail. Are right listeners --

ANGELO: Right, exactly. I mean --

WHITFIELD: Are -- you know, are they squaring those things?

ANGELO: Well, I think that they are disappointed. I do think that they think that the Trump administration was going to shed more light. Certainly, we were led to believe, I think, by the Department of Justice that there would be names that would come out, that there would be people that would be brought to justice. So, I do think that disappointment still exists.

But I do agree, especially with the report that you just aired, that a lot of folks in Trump world are going to say like this -- the focus on this letter and the lawsuit and the fake media attacking President Trump again, that gives them a nice little deflection. WHITFIELD: More fuel for that. OK. So, now, what about, you know, conspiracy theories? It seems to be still, you know, churning up, they're driving the interest among, you know, Trump or MAGA supporters. Do you all talk about that or is that a thing? I mean, is that an acknowledgement, I should say? Because yes, we know it's a thing. But you know, is there real acknowledgement of that?

ANGELO: Yes. I think it is a thing. And I think it was the fact that when President Trump began to name members of his cabinet that these were people that were considered to be folks that were there to drain the swap, the fight against the status quo so that we'd have more transparency in what was hidden from us by our government, how our government's actually operating. And so, there is always an expectation that lies have been told before. And that now we're going to get to the bottom of it.

And when you get to a big case like Epstein, and as you said correctly, the Trump administration, the Trump campaign has been making a big deal about Epstein up until this point. That's correct. Then there is an expectation among Trump's supporters that we would get more to the bottom of things, if you will, Epstein or UFOs or the Russian collusion hoax. So, when these things don't pan out, there is a great deal of disappointment among Trump supporters.

WHITFIELD: Oh, Jeff, you're so interesting. That's why you have so many listeners. So, I got one more question for you.

ANGELO: Well, I appreciate you.

WHITFIELD: I got one more question for you before you go. So, you know, is there a feeling from Epstein to Trump's anger over the Fed building construction, even that these things are distractions from big budget items, kitchen sink concerns? Are you hearing that from people?

ANGELO: Yes. Absolutely. Because the bottom line is, just as you pointed out, even though we can spend a lot of time talking about Epstein or what shows up on the kiss cam at a Cold Play concert, people do still want to talk about the economy and how they're -- and where are we going with the economy, the border is a big deal. But I think that the economy continues to remain a gigantic issue.

I think that folks are more interested in whether or not the Fed is going to ultimately lower interest rates than they really are in the Epstein stuff. But let's face it, you and I are talking about Jeffrey Epstein today because it is interesting, but it is a distraction. You're absolutely right from the kitchen sink issues, as you put it.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Well, I guess that kiss cam is interesting too. You found a way to get that one in this -- it's everywhere. I mean, it seems unavoidable. It's made its way into just every conversation and imagery all day long. But, Jeff Angelo, great talking to you. Thank you so much.

ANGELO: Thanks for the invitation. See you soon. WHITFIELD: All right. Take care. All right. Still to come, new details on the breaking news out of Los Angeles. A vehicle run -- that just simply ran into a crowd outside a nightclub. Stay with us.

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WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. 40 years ago, this summer, rock stars Bob Geldof, Bono, Sting, and more performed at the landmark music event to raise money for famine relief in Africa. I see how the legendary concert came together, how the movement continued in a new episode of the CNN Original Series "Live Aid: When Rock 'N' Roll took on the World"

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every running order had on it this big match with big bold letters at the bottom, kill time and new murder success. Bono did an extended song where he jumped down off the front of the stage, went to see a girl in the front of the crowd that he thought needed rescuing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As true as it was that I am looking out for somebody slight in the middle of the crowd, I'm also very conscious that this is a TV broadcast, not just a show.