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President Trump Set to Meet with President Putin in Alaska; Netanyahu Discuss with Trump Gaza Plans; Five Al Jazeera Journalist Killed in Israeli Strike; President Trump to Send FBI to Patrol Washington, D.C.; Texas House Still in Stalemate; U.S.-China Tariffs Takes Effect on August 12; WFP: Sharpest-Ever Surge Of Child Malnutrition In Afghanistan; "Alligator Alcatraz" Detainees Speak Out About Conditions; Meet The Pastor Crusading For Christian Nationalism. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired August 11, 2025 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[02:00:00]
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IVAN WATSON, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and around the world. I'm Ivan Watson. Just ahead, the Israeli Prime Minister defends his planned military takeover of Gaza City as condemnation grows about the operation and its consequences.
Face to face, Donald Trump is set to meet with his Russian counterpart this week to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine, but Europe wants to make sure it is not left out.
And President Trump's plan to have FBI agents patrol the streets of Washington, D.C. Why some say it's unnecessary.
Okay, we're following two major stories this hour including a big week ahead for U.S. President Donald Trump as he prepares to sit down with his Russian counterpart for talks on the war in Ukraine. But first, the U.S. President spoke with the Israeli Prime Minister about the war in Gaza as international condemnation grows for Benjamin Netanyahu's planned military takeover of Gaza City.
The two discussed that controversial plan, with Netanyahu thanking Trump for his quote, "steadfast support of Israel." But the U.S. increasingly apart from allies, with more countries voicing their opposition to Israel's new war plan. Australia is the latest country to say it will recognize a Palestinian state at the U.N. General Assembly in September. Still, Netanyahu is defending the decision to expand the war in Gaza and shows no signs of backing down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, PRIME MINISTER OF ISRAEL: Given Hamas' refusal to lay down its arms, Israel has no choice but to finish the job and complete the defeat of Hamas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: The staff of the network Al Jazeera is mourning the loss of colleagues killed in an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli military says it targeted journalist Anas Al-Sharif, accusing him of leading a Hamas cell. The director of the Al-Shifa hospital says Al-Sharif was in a tent marked with a press sign at the time of the attack. In all, seven people were killed, including at least three other Al Jazeera journalists.
Before his death, Al-Sharif responded to Israel's accusations, saying he was a, quote, "journalists with no political affiliations." Al Jazeera is calling the killing a, quote, "desperate attempt to silence voices ahead of the occupation of Gaza." The Committee to Protect Journalists released a statement reading, quote, "Israel's pattern of labeling journalists as militants without providing credible evidence raises serious questions about its intent and respect for press freedom. Journalists are civilians and must never be targeted. Those responsible for these killings must be held accountable." Now, the CPJ says 186 journalists have been killed in Gaza in the last 22 months.
U.N. officials are warning that Israel's controversial plan to take over Gaza City would lead to quote, "another calamity in the enclave." CNN's Oren Liebermann has more from Jerusalem.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: In a press conference in Jerusalem on Sunday afternoon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his plan that he pushed in the security cabinet late last week to take over and occupy Gaza City. He insisted this is the quickest and the best way to defeat Hamas. He said Gaza City, which is the focus of this plan that was approved, as well as the central camps in Gaza, are what he called the, quote, "last two remaining strongholds of Hamas in Gaza." And he said this was necessary to defeat Hamas so that there could be plans moving forward in the future for an alternate governance.
But when he was asked by CNN about what that governance would look like or who would take part in that, he declined to answer, only saying that that process was in the works. He also insisted once again that there was no starvation in Gaza and that it was Hamas that in fact, he accused of looting the aid, diverting the aid, and creating shortages. Worth noting he said this on a day in which the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza said five more people had died of malnutrition in the besieged territory, bringing the total to 217. And that includes 100 children, the ministry says, have died of malnutrition.
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Earlier Sunday, it was the families of the hostages still held in Gaza, as well as bereaved families from October 7th, who called for a nationwide strike next Sunday. They said this would first of all bring attention to their demands to prioritize the hostages, but it would also force the government to listen. They say within eight hours of that call, Some 10,000 private companies have already said they will take part in the strike as a way of making the government listen and prioritizing the hostages. Some Israeli opposition politicians have also said they would take part in the strike. Organizers see this as a grassroots effort that they very much hope grows over the course of the next week. Oren Liebermann, CNN, in Jerusalem.
WATSON: Ilay David, the brother of the Israeli hostage Evyatar David, is calling for international pressure on Hamas for the sake of all the hostages. His comments come after the recent release of shocking video of his emaciated brother. And a warning, the image you are about to see is disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ILAY DAVID, BROTHER OF ISRAELI HOSTAGE EVYATAR DAVID: They are intentionally taking my brother as a human experiment of starvation. Again, just to use him as propaganda, I think all the world should stand on their back feet right now and say, Hamas, this is enough. This is enough. You need to bring Evyatar and the other hostages. You need to bring them food. You need to bring them the humanitarian aid to get into Gaza. You have to make sure that they live and that they live with dignity. And the next step will be to demand Hamas go back to the negotiations table to bring back a ceasefire and bring back the hostages.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: His appeal comes as Israeli hostage families call for a nationwide general strike on Sunday in protest of the Israeli security cabinet's decision to expand the war and take over Gaza City.
Moving to diplomacy around another conflict, President Trump and his team are also busy preparing for Friday's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, one in which Ukraine and its European allies fear could leave them sidelined with little to say in the negotiations. Before he was elected, Donald Trump had bragged that he could end the war in Ukraine on day one of his second term. Well, it's now been seven months and still no deal. E.U. leaders insist Ukraine must have a seat at the table on Friday, but the U.S. Vice President says only Trump can negotiate peace, even if it's unpopular.
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J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U NITED STATES OF AMERICA: We're going to try to find some negotiated settlement that the Ukrainians and the Russians can live with, where they can live in relative peace, where the killing stops. It's not going to make anybody super happy. Both the Russians and the Ukrainians probably at the end of the day are going to be unhappy with it, but I don't think you can actually sit down and have this negotiation absent the leadership of Donald J. Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (trough translation): Our team is working with the United States of America. We do not stop communicating for a single day on how to ensure real peace. We understand the intention of the Russians to try to deceive America and we will not allow it. I appreciate the determination with which President Trump is determined to stop the deaths in the war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: CNN's Nick Paton Walsh brings us the latest from Ukraine.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Clear pressure from European leaders to ensure not only that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could potentially take part of the Friday summit in Alaska between Presidents Trump and Putin, but that indeed Ukraine is in the middle of any deal that could be hatched.
A statement from them suggesting that they would like to see a ceasefire first before any meaningful negotiations begin. A reminder, that's not new. That's something the U.S. and Ukraine first pushed months ago after talks in the Gulf. Again pushed by European leaders in a visit to Kyiv in May.
Trump at that point seemed to suggest he'd back sanctions against Russia if it didn't implement the ceasefire. That wasn't the case and we entered into more diplomacy. But a ceasefire immediately happening seems to be the European plank for meaningful talks to begin. And their statement too also said that the current line of contact should be the start point for negotiations, essentially freezing the front line.
Their retort to suggestions that U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff was presented an idea by Russian President Vladimir Putin that in exchange for a ceasefire for Russia stopping its war and invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine would give Russia the remainder of the Donetsk region that it currently still has under its control, without a fight, basically.
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There have been lots of different permutations it seems, some misunderstandings potentially as to exactly what the Russians had proposed, but that appears to be the core of what has had the Europeans most deeply concerned, and indeed it's toxic to Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to suggest that he might indeed give up parts of Donetsk that are still being fought over and defended by Ukrainians losing their lives.
Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy using the 19 people injured in a Russian strike on a bus station in Zaporizhzhia on Sunday as another example of Russia's brutality saying how Russia doesn't want peace in his nightly address, emphasizing how Ukraine is constantly talking to American officials, but we're into a complex few days ahead, certainly. The Europeans want their version of events or potential peace plan to be at the core of what Trump put to Putin in Alaska, but the Russians are proposing this meeting more as a bilateral improvement of Moscow and Washington's relationship.
It's going to be tough to see those two sides reconciled. But ultimately meetings between European and Ukrainian officials and U.S. Vice President JD Vance have tried to bridge that gap about five days away to Alaska. So much has happened in the last five days. So much can still change again. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Eastern Ukraine. WATSON: All right. Now, Ron Brownstein is a senior CNN political
analyst and an opinion columnist for "Bloomberg." And he joins me now from Los Angeles. Great to see you, Ron. You know, when we talk about Donald Trump and the Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy and of course Russian President Vladimir Putin, he has gone through some pretty dramatic evolutions, personal and public evolutions in his relationships with these two other leaders and with this conflict. And I guess that gets to the point that none of us can really predict what will happen when Trump meets face to face with Putin in a few days' time.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, you know, the basic trajectory has been that Trump has always been skeptical of the U.S. commitment to Ukraine. He has not viewed it in the way that most Democrats and many traditional Republicans have as kind of the front line of, in effect, the freedom, of defending freedom in Western Europe. He's always viewed it, I think, as kind of an impediment to the larger reconsideration of relations with Russia that he has wanted. But Putin has plainly frustrated him.
You know, the president, as you noted, bragged during the campaign that he could end this on day one. At times he said he would end the conflict before he took office, and he has run into the recalcitrance of Putin to stop the fighting. So we don't know exactly what he is going to do, but I think the one thing we do know is that, you know, he doesn't view this fundamentally as a moral test or even a kind of a measure of strength of the West. He views it as one piece in a larger kind of reimagining of the relationship with Russia that he envisions.
WATSON: I want to move on to another major conflict here, and that is the ongoing loss of life and suffering in Gaza. The Israeli government is doubling, tripling down on its plans to expand military operations there, with Benjamin Netanyahu, also denying that there is any starvation taking place there. Where is President Trump headed on this conflict at a time where there seems to be growing international outrage? More and more Western partners that say they will recognize Palestinian statehood.
BROWNSTEIN: You know, in the broad dynamic, there's a lot of similarities. I mean, you know, the U.S. is taking a position that differs -- sets it apart from its traditional allies, and in Israel and Gaza, just as it is in Ukraine. And yet, you know, there's the complications of Trump's kind of turbulent personal relationship with the leader. I mean, this is something that has an acute irony in American politics.
You had, you know, a large number of pro-Palestinian activists, you know, who are critical in Trump winning the important swing state of Michigan in '24 even though he had signal like, I think, very clearly that he was willing to give Netanyahu much more of a blank check than Biden had been or that Harris would be, and was also are planning to crack down on pro-Palestinian demonstrators which is certainly done by arresting and detaining, some seeking to deport them, punishing universities in the U.S. for allowing pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
And now, you know, giving Netanyahu that blind check, not only supporting the renewed offensive, but also indicating no real concern about the permanent Israeli occupation potential of Gaza.
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So, you know, this is something -- this is kind of a crisis that might have been foretold. I mean, Netanyahu is clearly, you know, moving toward a maximalist military approach to this, and Trump is giving him as much rope as he needs, constrained only by again kind of the turbulence of that personal relationship that occasionally causes him to pull up short.
WATSON: Can I throw a curveball here, Ron, and ask you about something happening on the home front in the U.S. Capitol with President Trump now calling for FBI agents to go out on night patrols in the District of Columbia? Where is that coming from and how is it likely going to be received in Washington?
BROWNSTEIN: You know, I wrote a piece in December '23 cataloging all the ways that Trump in the campaign was talking about sending federal force, whether the National Guard, even the active duty military, other federal agencies, into blue jurisdictions. You know, we've seen it in California with the deployment of the National Guard and even the active duty Marines to support mass deportation.
You know, he's threatened before to send the National Guard into Chicago, and here he is sending the FBI ostensibly on some kind of criminal, you know, enforcement, but also talking about and planning a press conference for tomorrow on using potentially the National Guard to clear the homeless out of Washington, D.C., which is something that he also talked about explicitly during the campaign.
I think the common theme in all of this is numbing Americans to the deployment of federal -- law enforcement and military assets into blue jurisdictions in a way that we simply have not seen before. And I think, you know, what happened in Los Angeles, though tied to immigration, I think was clearly a template. And that Trump will continue to look for reasons, rationales, or excuses, depending on your point of view, to insert federal law enforcement officials, including in some cases the National Guard and the military, into blue jurisdictions.
It is something that I think is a growing kind of threat to the fundamental cohesion of the country and that as we saw in L.A., can blow up in unpredictable ways.
WATSON: Okay, we'll watch this space then. Ron Brownstein, thank you very, very much for your thoughts and analysis there.
BROWNSTEIN: Hey, thanks for having me.
WATSON: All right, and as I was discussing with Ron a moment ago, U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to announce a plan for FBI agents to patrol with police in Washington, D.C. Mr. Trump scheduled a Monday news conference on crime and beautification of Washington. Last week, he ordered an increase in federal law enforcement in the city. A person familiar with the president's plan says more than 100 FBI agents will patrol the city. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C.'s mayor, Muriel Bowser, pushed back
against the president's claims of rising crime in the nation's capital.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MURIEL BOWSER, MAYOR OF WASHINGTON, D.C.: There are very specific things in our law that would allow the president to have more control over our police department. None of those conditions exist in our city right now. As I mentioned, we are not experiencing a spike in crime. In fact, we're watching our crime numbers go down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATSON: And the legal battle over President Trump deploying the National Guard to Los Angeles heads to court on Monday. In June, Mr. Trump invoked a rarely used law to federalize the National Guard. California governor, Gavin Newson, sued saying that by overriding state officials the president's move violated the constitution's 10th amendment. He also said it violated a 147-year-old law prohibiting the military from acting as a domestic police force.
Mr. Trump's lawyers are expected to argue that the president has the authority to federalize the National Guard, to put down protests and protect federal property. The trial is expected to last until Wednesday, but it could go on longer.
Now, Texas Governor Greg Abbott is upping the ante in the state's congressional redistricting fight. The Republican governor told Fox News Sunday that the standoff with Democratic state lawmakers could last years. Now some Texans fear the stalemate in the state legislature is overshadowing the original reason for the special session. To help communities recover from the deadly flooding on the 4th of July and to prevent it from happening again. CNN's Leigh Waldman has more.
LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORESPONDENT: The ongoing redistricting fight happening in Texas has taken over this special session that was initially called in response to the devastating flooding we saw rip through the Texas Hill Country area on the 4th of July.
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It left over 130 people, including children, dead. That special session was called to introduce legislation to enhance early flood warning systems in place, improve some of the communication issues that we saw present in light of that flooding, and also to provide relief funding for these communities and the people who have been impacted. So far, only two hearings have surrounded the flooding issue, but there's been handful of hearings surrounding the redistricting issue that's at hand. It's something that Texans we spoke to are taking issue with.
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PAT DIXON, TEXAS RESIDENT: Calling a special session when there's a flood that kills people, that's appropriate. When you hijack a special session to rig the next election, that's inappropriate.
RADY SIMBRO, TEXAS RESIDENT: Whatever it takes, let's go steal an election and rig the districts in our favor in a way that makes it impossible for other candidates to oppose them. That's what we're seeing here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALDMAN: Now, since those Democrats left the state to stop the quorum from reconvening with this special session, we've seen legal action being introduced by some of those GOP officials there, including the Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton, asking the Texas Supreme Court to remove 13 House Democrats from their seats. He's also asking courts in California and in Illinois to uphold and enforce these civil arrest warrants that we've seen be introduced and also asking the Texas Supreme Court to remove the state representative, Jean Wu, from his seat.
Now, the House Speaker, Dustin Burroughs, is reconvening the House for a special session on Monday. He is urging Democrats to come back so they can have a quorum. In New York, Leigh Waldman, CNN.
WATSON: As foreign food aid dries up, Afghanistan is facing a rapid surge in child malnutrition. Still ahead, we'll discuss the worsening crisis with the World Food Program Director for Afghanistan. Stay with CNN.
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WATSON: Welcome back. Less than 24 hours from now, historic import tariffs are set to take effect between the U.S. and China. We're keeping a watch on both governments for any hint of a deal. CNN's Marc Stewart has more on where the most accurate information would likely come from.
MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Unlike the U.S. where we have seen President Trump and members of his administration drop hints almost a play-by-play along the way as to where things stand in these complicated US-China trade discussions, it's simply not in China's style to make these remarks. It's usually reserved at the end of the process or something major happens along the way. So if there is an announcement of an extension, it's safe to say it would most likely come from Washington.
As far as sticking points between the world's largest and second largest economy, computer chips, China wants access to American chips as it tries to propel its own high-tech ambitions. Another issue, rare earth minerals. It's something that China has deep reservoirs of. It's something that the United States wants. It's a crucial ingredient in making many electronic devices that are used in our everyday lives.
And then, as we have seen with India, the United States placed tariffs on India for its purchases of Russian oil. If we look at the broader scale, Russia is China's number one supplier of crude oil. So that too could come up as a point of conversation. Of course, India is an American ally. China has a much more adversarial relationship. These are some of the points of conflict, some of the points of conversation that could be driving the future of these talks. Marc Stewart, CNN, Beijing.
WATSON: All right, stick around because CNN Newsroom continues after this break.
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[02:31:15]
IVAN WATSON, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.
The World Food Programme says Afghanistan is witnessing its sharpest ever surge of child malnutrition. As one of the world's poorest countries, Afghanistan relies heavily on foreign food assistance. Those shipments had already dwindled in the last two years. And in April, the Trump administration cut off food aid entirely.
According to the World Food Program, a quarter of Afghanistan's entire population, some 10 million people, face acute food insecurity, worsening conditions have reportedly left 1 in 3 Afghan children stunted. And now, the WFP estimates at least $539 million is needed to help the country's most vulnerable.
Joining me now to discuss this is World Food Program director John Aylieff, live from Kabul on the line.
John, thank you very much for joining me. I guess let me ask this question. I know that the U.S. was a major contributor to the WFP. How much is this surge in malnutrition in Afghanistan directly linked to Washington, cutting off its food aid to the country?
JOHN AYLIEFF, COUNTRY DIRECTOR FOR AFGHANISTAN, WFP (via telephone): Good morning, Ivan. I think we need to recognize, first of all, that the U.S. has been the principal donor in Afghanistan for decades, providing humanitarian assistance, which has saved countless lives. What we're finding this year is that donors all across the world, international community is making, is having to make impossible choices on aid programs.
The number of crises across the world is proliferated. Those crises are quite deep. Afghanistan is just one of them. So were the victim here, I think, of impossible choices that donors are having to make.
There are three things, though, here that are fueling a significant increase in hunger in Afghanistan. One is the forced to return of over 1.5 million Afghans from Iran and Pakistan. Another is a serious drought which has struck this year and which has decimated crops, particularly in the northern region. And then thirdly, there's the dramatic reductions in food assistance delivered by the World Food Programme that food assistance has kept a lid on hunger and malnutrition in the last few years. And that lid has now been lifted because our programs are running way below our minimum threshold. WATSON: I understand that that enormous challenges like food
shortages, these are not fast-moving crises. These are things that happen over months, you know, and seasons, especially in agrarian societies. So, what are you looking at in the months ahead? Six months to a year ahead of time? With weather patterns and the current situation on the ground, could this get much worse?
AYLIEFF: I think it indeed will get much worse. We're already seeing mothers rushing more acutely malnourished children into health centers across the country trying to get desperately trying to get treatment for their children who are acutely malnourished. In some cases, tragically, those mothers are being turned away because we simply can't afford to assist them. That is the current situation.
But the real fear, looking at the months ahead is winter. Winter is the time when Afghans in Afghanistan. The temperatures drop, and that's the time when acute hunger really surges. This is the time winter when food assistance is needed the most. This is the time when food assistance saves most lives.
But I think as things stand today, there are these winter program is entirely unfunded.
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And what we really fear are the consequences of that. We think it's almost inevitable that we'll see a potentially unprecedented surge in child mortality this winter in Afghanistan. We think, and we're already seeing it, that migration will increase as Afghans struggling to feed their families embark on the perilous journey out of the country and trying to find ways to get to nations such as those across the European area.
But also, history has shown across the world that extreme hunger forces humans to make desperate choices. Hunger, unfortunately, is a platform for the exploitation and radicalization of vulnerable people. This is something that we absolutely must prevent this year in Afghanistan and WFP, as you mentioned, needs 590 million people to feed 6 million Afghans through the winter months investments in food, assistance this year are not just investments in saving lives. They are also investments in stemming migration, investments in preserving stability.
WATSON: All right, John Aylieff, with the WFP in Kabul, this is an ongoing problem and I hope we can check back with you to see how the colder months progress. Thank you very much for your time.
AYLIEFF: Thank you, Ivan.
WATSON: All right. Now, dry summer heat is making fire conditions worse across Europe as northern Spain tries to contain several fast- moving wildfires. We'll have the latest on those efforts, still ahead.
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WATSON: All right, let's get an update on some extreme weather. Historic rainfall caused flash flooding and led to dozens of water rescues in Milwaukee over the weekend. The fire department in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, performed about 65 water rescues as rising water inundated homes.
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Nearly six inches of rain fell on the area in just hours on Saturday. That's a month and a half's worth of rain, setting a new daily record for the region. A state of emergency was declared across Milwaukee County on Sunday, and more rain could fall through early Monday.
A new August heat wave is fueling more wildfires across Europe. On Sunday, shifting winds steered flames towards Las Medulas. a world heritage site in northern Spain. Several wildfires there have forced at least 1,400 people to evacuate the Castile and Leon region. Firefighting helicopters were also deployed in the Navarra region, as crews worked to contain burn zones in rural mountain areas.
And in Scotland, a wildfire burning near Edinburgh has scorched a popular tourist overlook. Smoke could be seen from miles away after the extinct volcano known as Arthur's Seat was badly damaged on Sunday. Police are advising people to avoid that area.
Now, Little League softball's top honor returns to Pennsylvania for the first time since 1978. Strong pitching led the team of 10- to 12- year-old girls from Johnstown, Pennsylvania to victory on Sunday in North Carolina. They beat the team from Floyds Knobs, Indiana, one- nothing in a close fought game for the title.
I'm Ivan Watson. For our international viewers, "WORLD SPORT" is up next. For our viewers in North America, I'll be back after this break.
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WATSON: Welcome back. I'm Ivan Watson.
New details are emerging about the conditions inside the controversial immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades known as "Alligator Alcatraz".
CNN's Rafael Romo reports.
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RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was meant to be a visit to his brother in the United States to mourn together the recent death of their mother. But Carlos Gonzalez says it turned out to be a nightmare that started with a traffic stop. He says he was stopped for driving a car with tinted windows and detained. He says he had in his possession a tourist visa and his Mexican passport and driver's license.
After originally being held at a county jail, Gonzalez says he was eventually transferred to the migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades, dubbed Alligator Alcatraz, where he claims he endured harsh conditions, including lack of toiletries, staying inside tents 24/7 with the lights on even at night, five minute meals up to 40 people per cell going to the bathroom with handcuffed hands and switching from hot and humid conditions inside the tents to cold when they turn the air on.
"I see it as a form of torture to all of us there," Gonzalez said.
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said that on July 7th, 2025, Florida highway patrol arrested illegal aliens Carlos Martin Gonzalez Mesa Cole, and Oscar Alejandro Gonzalez Mesa during a traffic stop near Orlando, Florida. Carlos was illegally working in the U.S. while here on a tourist visa, and his brother Oscar overstayed his visa, adding that the vehicle they were in was unregistered and had 212 total violations.
By the time he was stopped, Gonzalez acknowledges he had been in the country for months already because he was trying to get over the painful loss of his mother.
We have heard similar testimonies from relatives of migrants who have been held at Alligator Alcatraz, as well as immigrants' rights groups and elected officials.
But White House Borders Czar Tom Homan says detainees are treated with dignity and respect, dismissing claims that treatment at the Everglades detention center is inhumane.
TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: Bunch of crap. I was there. I walked through the detainee facilities. I walked through the medical facilities. I walked through the cafeteria.
I had them show me. What did you feed these people today? I saw the lunch what they fed them. They ate better yesterday than I ate today.
ROMO: Last week, a man speaking by phone from inside Alligator Alcatraz claimed he was on a hunger strike to protest conditions there, along with at least 11 others as reported by CNN affiliate Univision.
I'm not eating another plate of food until my rights has detainee are respected, he reportedly said.
His wife calls what he and others are going through psychological torture. Officials at homeland security said the reports of a hunger strike inside the facility are false and called them unsubstantiated and inaccurate allegations.
Back in Mexico, Carlos Gonzalez reflects on the multiple days he was detained. A trip to heal from the loss of a loved one, he said, turned into what he calls an arbitrary detention and a violation of his human rights.
Rafael Romo, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WATSON: Now in Washington, D.C., a new church has quietly opened just three blocks from the Capitol building. It is part of an evangelical movement that wants America to become a Christian theocracy, where women cannot vote and homosexuality is a crime. CNN was there as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his family arrived ahead of the new church's first service.
CNN's Pamela Brown went to Moscow, Idaho, to meet the controversial pastor behind it. Here's her special CNN report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAMELA BROWN, CNN CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Christ Church Senior Pastor Doug Wilson makes no apologies for his beliefs on god and country.
DOUG WILSON, CHRIST CHURCH SENIOR PASTOR: I'd like to see the town be a Christian town. I'd like to see this the state be a Christian state. I'd like to see the nation be a Christian nation. I'd like to see the world be a Christian world.
BROWN: And now, Wilson's controversial views as a Christian nationalist are gaining sway in the nation's center of power with the recent opening of his new church and high profile parishioners like Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
[02:50:06]
Is planting a church in D.C. part of your mission to try to turn this into a Christian nation?
WILSON: Yes, so every society is theocratic. The only question is who's "theo". In a secular democracy, it would be "demos", the people. In a Christian republic, it would be Christ.
BROWN: Well, what would you say to someone watching this and say, look, I'm a Muslim. Who are you to say your worldview is better than mine? That your God is better than mine?
WILSON: Well, if I went to Saudi Arabia, I would fully expect to live under their God's rules.
BROWN: But you said earlier that you want this to be a Christian world.
WILSON: Yes.
BROWN: So, you want to supplant their religion with your Christian?
WILSON: Yes, by peaceful means, by sharing the Gospel. There's a lot of work yet to do. I believe that we are working our little corner of the vineyard.
BROWN: Wilson's little corner, a picturesque campus nestled on the outskirts of downtown Moscow, Idaho, is growing by the day with thousands of like-minded Christians. Parishioners of his church, known as Kirkers, own and operate several businesses downtown next to liberal college town stores.
WILSON: If it's true, if it's true --
(BOOING)
BROWN: Why did he yell boo?
WILSON: Because of me.
BROWN: Because of you.
WILSON: Yes, well you have -- there you go.
BROWN: That's a regular day for you.
WILSON: That's not unusual.
BROWN: A big focus of his Christian movement is on a patriarchal society, where men are dominant and women are expected to submit to their husbands.
WILSON: Women are the kind of people that people come out of.
BROWN: So, you just think they're meant to have babies. That's it. They're just a vessel.
WILSON: No, it doesn't take any talent to simply reproduce biologically. The wife and mother, who is the chief executive of the home, is entrusted with three or four or five eternal souls.
BROWN: I'm here as a working journalist, and I'm a mom of three.
WILSON: Good for you.
BROWN: Is that an issue for you?
WILSON: No, it's not automatically an issue.
BROWN: Josh and Amy Prince, along with their four kids, moved here from Washington State.
BROWN: Do you see Amy as your equal?
JOSH PRINCE, MEMBER, CHRIST CHURCH: Yes and no, in the sense that we're both saved by grace, we're absolutely on equal footing. But we have very different purposes, God given.
BROWN: But do you see yourself as the head of the household as the man.
AMY PRINCE, MEMBER CHRIST CHURCH: He is the head of our household. Yes, and I do submit to him.
BROWN: So, like moving here -- A. PRINCE: I was just going to say that.
BROWN: -- was ultimately your decision?
A. PRINCE: Yes.
J. PRINCE: That's a great example.
A. PRINCE: A great example.
BROWN: Wilson says in his vision of a Christian society, women as individuals shouldn't be able to vote. His fellow pastors, Jared Longshore and Toby Sumpter, agree.
TOBY SUMTPER, SENIOR PASTOR, KING'S CROSS CHURCH: In my ideal society, we would vote as households, and I would ordinarily be the one that would cast the vote, but I would cast the vote having discussed it with my household.
BROWN: But what if there's -- your wife doesn't want to vote for the same person as you?
SUMPTER: Right. Well, then that's a great opportunity for a good discussion.
BROWN: There are some who have gone so far as to say that they want the 19th Amendment repealed.
JARED LONGSHORE, EXECUTIVE PASTOR, CHRIST CHURCH: I would support that, and I'd support it on the basis that the atomization that comes with our current system is not good for humans.
BROWN: And Wilson, a veteran himself, is unapologetic about his view that women shouldn't be in certain leadership or combat roles.
Looking at the leadership page for Christ Church, it's all men. Do you accept women in leadership roles in the church and government?
WILSON: In the church, no.
BROWN: Why?
WILSON: Because the Bible says not to.
JENNIFER BUTLER, FOUNDER, FAITH IN DEMOCRACY: Well, that's not what happens in the Bible. Women do lead all the time.
BROWN: Progressive faith leader, Reverend Jennifer Butler, is concerned about Wilson's growing influence.
BUTLER: He is rapidly gaining in power. He has hundreds of churches established around the country. They actually literally want to take over towns and cities, and they have access to this administration.
BROWN: Wilson is part of a broader Christian nationalist movement making inroads with the Trump administration, with a newly created Faith Office led by evangelical Pastor Paula White-Cain and people seen right outside the White House entrance praying and speaking in tongues.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are standing on the soil of the White House, and we are declaring your word.
BROWN: And now, there's a monthly prayer service at the Pentagon initiated by Hegseth, Wilson's highest level connection to the administration.
WILSON: It's not organizationally tied to us, but it's the kind of thing we love to see.
BROWN: For his part, Hegseth has publicly praised Wilson.
PETE HEGSETH, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: Now, we're standing on the shoulders of a generation later, the Doug Wilsons and the others.
BROWN: Wilson's influence spans the globe with more than 150 churches.
Lennox Kalifungwa, moved to Moscow from Africa.
LENNOX KALIFUNGWA, NEW MEMBER OF CHRIST CHURCH FROM ZAMBIA: It's really because I want to be a part of a community that was doing something, and especially in building Christian institutions.
BROWN: Are there other Black families in this community?
KALIFUNGWA: Oh, absolutely. There's a few Black families.
BROWN: Wilson maintains, all are welcome to his church, but he's also not shying away from his past controversial statements on race.
[02:55:04]
Do you still believe what you said back in the '90s, that there's a mutual affection between master and slave?
WILSON: Yes, it depends on which master and which slave you're talking about. Slavery was overseen and conducted by fallen human beings, and there were horrendous abuses and there were also people who own slaves who were decent human beings and didn't mistreat them. I think that system of chattel slavery was an unbiblical system, and I'm grateful it's gone.
BROWN: What he also wants gone same-sex marriage because he thinks homosexuality is a crime.
WILSON: In the late '70s and early '80s, sodomy was a felony in all 50 states. That America of that day was not a totalitarian hellhole.
BROWN: So, you would like America to go back to that?
WILSON: Yes. BROWN: Wilson maintains his ultimate goal is to bring about the second coming of Christ through his work and rejects critics claims he's trying to make the dystopian world of "The Handmaid's Tale" a reality.
WILSON: I'm not a White nationalist. I'm not a fascist. I'm not a racist. I'm not a misogynist.
BROWN: How far off do you see a Christian nation like a full on Christian theocracy?
WILSON: Oh, 250 years.
BROWN: Two hundred fifty years.
WILSON: Honestly, that's --
BROWN: That's what you see. But you do think it will happen?
WILSON: Yes, I do. We're not going to usher in anything ourselves. We're really genuinely pioneers.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WATSON: Okay. CNN asked the Defense Department about Secretary Hegseth's relationship with Doug Wilson, a spokesperson said Hegseth is a, quote, proud member of the network of churches founded by Wilson and that the secretary, quote, very much appreciates many of Mr. Wilson's writings and teachings.
Thanks for watching. I'm Ivan Watson. I'll be back with more CNN NEWSROOM after a short break.
