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First of All with Victor Blackwell

Trump: "If That's The Kind Of Help That They're Offering, We Don't Want It"; Trump Says Chicago Next Up For Federal Crime Crackdown; As Soon As Next Week: Trump Preps Immigration Op in Chicago. Aired 8-9a ET

Aired August 30, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: First of all, gun violence in schools, that's a crime. And every American city would agree that they need help with gun violence. But when President Trump says he's cracking down on crime, whether cities want the help or not, how does he plan to tackle that specifically?

Listen, we've been covering the president's focus on sending National Guard troops and federal agents to Democratic black led cities. And right now, it's D.C. but the president has his sight set on Chicago next. There's a debate over whether that's something Chicagoans want. And we'll talk about both sides of that in a bit.

But to start, I wanted to ask this, should the president instead turn his attention to something else? Because right now in Minneapolis, there's a community in a lot of pain. Children were killed in a shooting that targeted a mass at a Catholic school.

That was a crime. One of at least 284 crimes of its kind. Nearly 300 mass shootings so far this year. That's according to the Gun Violence Archive. This was the 44th school shooting of the year. That is a stunning number. And objectively, it's worth federal attention.

So why did the president, who wants to end crime in the White House end also the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention? Why did the president who wants to end crime cancel millions of dollars in public safety grants, including money meant for gun violence prevention? Chicago is seeing a significant reduction in violent crime, but city and state leaders fear that blocking that money could actually fuel crime there. And it's not the kind of help that state leaders say they need or want.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LT. GOV. JULIANA STRATON (D) ILLINOIS: So if that's the kind of help. That they are offering, we don't want it. If they want to help release the $800 million of violence prevention funding that's owed to the state of Illinois.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLACKWELL: Theres a lot to talk about. And joining us today, Leo

Smith, the former minority engagement director for the GOP here in Georgia, Kasim Reid, the former mayor of Atlanta, and Jason Jali, senior editor at Bossip. Welcome to you gentlemen.

And Mr. Mayor, let me start with you. Brandon Johnson, mayor of Chicago, is clear you he doesn't want this. The governor of Illinois says they don't want this. He calls it an invasion if they come into Chicago. What is the strategy from a mayoral position? What does he do? How does he prepare?

KASIM REED, FORMER MAYOR OF ATLANTA: Well, I think the strategy is to keep your team focused on reducing crime. As you well know and as you've talked about on this show, the crime trend in major cities is declining in double digits. So the mayors who've been attacked have put forth impressive results both in Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and certainly in Chicago.

So these are the people who are tasked with getting the job done every single day. The trends are moving in the right direction. And rather than being able to focus on policing and reducing gun violence, they're now being attacked by the President of the United States and being used as a publicity stunt to distract from other issues because none of them want this help.

And at the same time, in the budget bill that was passed, dollars that would have gone to cities and states to reduce violent crime were cut to provide tax benefits to the wealthiest Americans.

BLACKWELL: Leo, the Mayor says this is a publicity stunt. What do you think?

LEO SMITH, FORMER MINORITY ENGAGEMENT DIRECTOR, GEORGIA GOP: Well, I think there is certainly showmanship happening here with this presidency. I think we all know that. But it's also he's making -- he made a campaign promise that he would do these things, and we're seeing the results of an election unfold, unfortunately. The other thing is we do have to deal with the reality. And I think collaboration is a reality that we must embrace. And so the mayors, like mayor Bowser in D.C. the idea of acknowledging what is real and then saying I want to do this and more is the right approach. I think as we look forward to a president who is going to execute in the way he says he's going to do. This isn't going to stop.

JASON "JAH" LEE, SENIOR EDITOR, BOSSIP: Well, the interesting part to me is that when you talk to doctors, sociologists, people who actually study this issue, most of the things that they will say first, that prevents crime is actually addressing the needs of the people. Economics, education, housing, health care, these are the type of things that can help bring down crime in any city. So it's interesting to me that he's choosing to go this route with the showmanship, with the National Guard, with the troops, as opposed to rolling out policies that can actually address the actual issues that caused the crime in the first place. Putting troops on the street and over policing is not necessarily going to be a deterrent for the type of change that a lot of people are looking for. BLACKWELL: So the president says that crime reduction is the goal. But

CNN's analysis of the first couple of weeks, and I'm talking of D.C. of the takeover there, saw a moderate reduction in crime, but a more than tenfold increase of the arrest of people who are in the country illegally. Is this just an immigration effort dressed up in the rhetoric of anti-crime?

[08:05:23]

SMITH: Well, if it is, it's very successful because certainly increasing arrest would suggest that you are actually being effective at dealing with issues on the street. And yes, Americans voted for Donald Trump to do something about illegal immigration. And so that group of people, half of America that said yes to Donald Trump's leadership want to see these things happen.

BLACKWELL: But his approval rating on immigration has dropped consistently as the country has watched how he's executing this mass deportation. Let me show you some more numbers here.

This is from an AP NORC poll and I'm going to come to you, Mr. Mayor, on this. 81 percent of adults say that there is a major problem in big cities of crime, 68 percent of Democrats, 72 percent of independents, 96 percent of Republicans in the poll taken a few weeks into the president, this pivot now to crime.

His rating, if we show here, let's go to the next graphic. His rating on approval of crime is higher among all those groups and he's doing better on crime than his overall approval rating. His approval rating on the economy, his approval rating on immigration, Russia, Ukraine. And so is this same question to you. Immigration isn't working for him. So now let's just say crime and go in and continue mass deportation.

REED: Well, Victor, here's what I think. I think the Republican base, a large part of it, operates and has a need for issues that generate anger and energy. And so I think the president moves from issue to try to generate anger. And so you look at a general crime issue, but factually, in the cities, these leaders have been doing a strong job in delivering double digit decreases. But this machine is going to be fed. So he moves from issue to issue to feed the base. And by attacking cities with black leaders, it's consistent with feeding the base.

So whether it's attacking a black woman at the Federal Reserve, removing Secret Service protection for Kamala Harris, which we'll discuss later, attacking Barack Obama, the machine of anger that drives the party right now has to be fed. And I think he's feeding it. And I think the American public needs to know that.

LEE: And I would add to that Trump's policies in a lot of ways in regards to fueling that anger is kind of like someone who starts a fire and then goes to grab a fire extinguisher. You've caused a problem. You've taken away things, you've taken away funding, you've taken away things that could actually again address these issues. And then you send in troops and say, well, I'm the one who can fix this problem.

BLACKWELL: Leo, to you. The focus on gun violence. The president calls some of these cities killing fields. There was a mass shooting in Minneapolis this week. Two children died, many others were injured. But as Republicans focus on mental health as an issue, the president this year also canceled a billion dollars that already had been approved by Congress and signed into law by the previous president to send in counselors, to send in psychologists, to focus on gun violence in schools. How do you do both and say, I'm going to fight gun violence, but stop the investment on the mental health element that Republicans talk so much about as fueling some of these shootings?

SMITH: Well, the president has clearly made a statement, and even globally, when he said about his Middle east compadres that I'm not here to change their hearts. He is not a sociologist. He's not a psychologist. He's not operating like that. He's doing big stick politics. I'm going to hit you in the way that gets the most immediate reaction.

And so therefore, he doesn't have a heart for society. And it's clear that he never promised that, and he's not doing it that way. So the NRA is an organization that I've done some work for because I believe in protection and provision.

So while Americans embrace the ability to provide and protect for themselves and their families, we do need to get more sensible ourselves, locally, because at the state level, Georgia's a, you know, Georgia's, you don't have to have a license to carry in Georgia, for instance. So states can make laws locally. And I encourage people to get involved to make good laws related to gun safety in every state.

BLACKWELL: But that's the element that I took out of it. I didn't say anything about a gun. Right. And so that typically is where Democrats and Republicans disagree on the control of the safety of the gun. I think both people, it's a both end. But both parties acknowledge the challenge of mental health.

[08:10:15]

And so if you can agree on mental health as Congress had in 2022, why now take that money out of the equation? If you have an infrastructure to focus on mental health.

SMITH: And just to tap. Donald Trump and most Republican governors believe that we should remove the federal controls on things like that, social safety nets, social care, wraparound services back to the state. So that is happening as a matter of decision. It was part of the Project 2025 platform. Put controls on all kinds of services away from federal government, back to the states. So that's why I encourage state involve.

REED: I'll say it another way, Victor billion as needed a tax cut. I mean, the fact of the matter is the funding from any of these initiatives was gutted in order to provide the tax cut that went to the wealthiest Americans. So if you look at issue after issue that cities raised that used to be funded in the past, billionaires needed a tax cut. And so the cupboards were cleaned, Health care was reduced. Access to health care in America was reduced. Access to food for Americans were reduced so that billionaires could get a tax cut.

BLACKWELL: But Democrats right now are calling for legislative change. As we often hear after tragedies like this. These weapons were purchased legally the local law enforcement tells us. What would be the legislative shift or change that would have prevented this?

REED: Well, I believe access to better mental health care which had been funded is part of the approach that you pointed out.

BLACKWELL: But what we're hearing from the mayor of Minneapolis, it relates specifically to the weapon. What we're hearing from some at the federal level of Minnesota focus on the weapon. What's the legislation that would have prevented this?

REED: Well, I believe that we should go back to the Brady Bill standard under Reagan. I believe that we need to eliminate assault weapons, all done under Ronald Reagan. I think that's the true policy approach. We're just in an environment where it would not be realistic because of Republican troll to get that done.

You know, my friend talked about Donald Trump using a big stick. He does. He's not using the big stick with China, where they now have 70 percent of the EV sales across the world and are leaping ahead of us in various areas of technology, negotiating a sale to allow Nvidia to sell chips to a Chinese didn't use a big stick with Vladimir Putin when he was talking about Ukraine. So this big stick works when you're dealing with a mayor of a city. It doesn't work when you're dealing with the folks that we ought to be focusing on.

BLACKWELL: All right, gentlemen, thank you. Stay with us. We had a lot more to talk about a little later in the show.

President Trump says he plans to crack down on crime in Chicago because beautiful African American ladies have been screaming for it. Well, our next guest says the president is talking about her.

Plus, they were helping fight a massive wildfire in Washington state, but they're also undocumented. What we're learning about the arrest that a senator says proves that the president's immigration policy is, quote, fundamentally sick.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08::]

Sources tell CNN the Trump administration is planning to extend its crackdown on immigration to Chicago as soon as next week. President Trump has long targeted Chicago in part because of its restrictions on cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. Chicago did struggle with a rise in the number of immigrants. Some were sent there by Republican governors.

Trump is also threatening to send in the National Guard, and he claims that crime in Chicago is out of control. And last week, he claimed that there are people in Chicago begging him to intervene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Chicago's a mess. You have an incompetent mayor, grossly incompetent. And we'll straighten that one out probably next. That'll be our next one after this, and it won't even be tough. And the people in Chicago, Mr. Vice President, are screaming for us to come. They're wearing red hats, just like this one, but they're wearing red hats.

African American ladies, beautiful ladies are saying, please, President Trump come to Chicago, please.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Well, my next guest is a Chicago activist who says she is one of those women. Danielle Carter-Walters is the founder of Chicago Flips Red.

Danielle, good morning. Thank you for your time here. And tell me, I've read some of your interviews. You want the National Guard to come there to combat crime. What is it that you want the National Guard to do?

DANIELLE CARTER-WALTERS, CO-FOUNDER, CHICAGO FLIPS RED: Well, everyone knows that Chicago, we have a crime and a drug problem. We were known as Chirac because we had more death than an Iraq war. We, the citizens, understand that it's a chance. When you leave your house, you or your loved one, you're not coming back. We have carjacking out of control. We have robbery out of control, murder. We just had within a span of a month, we had four mass shootings. And one of those shootings, we had elders that were shot and they were lying down bleeding in the street.

[08:20:22]

You can't sit in your car alone. If, you know, if you know Chicago, you know that it's a chance that somebody going to be at your car with a gun, carjacking you or robbing you. Same thing when it comes down to the red lights. People don't even want to stop at a red light, because if you stop at a red light, it's a chance that the car beside you is going to jump out with three guys and they are going to have guns pointed to your head telling you to get out your car and robbing you.

BLACKWELL: Well, Danielle, let me get to those specific crimes in just a moment. I want to get to those specific crimes in a moment. But I want to return to my initial question. What is it that you want the National Guard to do?

CARTER-WALTERS: Well, we want the national -- well, we see what they did in D.C. we see when he went in D.C. we see how crime, whether mayor, she couldn't even believe it. She had to put on her glasses to see how much crime went down. So we know that with the National Guard just the presence there, we are down. We're understaffed. 2,000 police officers, and they don't even have power. That's why you see kids on the police car while the police are sitting in their car twerking and dancing on the police car.

BLACKWELL: And some of these -- some of these anecdotes are illustrative. However, I'll say that I just want to get to the heart of it. You believe that the National Guard, their presence alone will bring down crime.

Our analysis shows that in D.C. there was a very moderate drop in crime in D.C. but mostly it was about arresting those in the country illegally, more than a tenfold increase. And so would you be satisfied if that is replicated in Chicago?

CARTER-WALTERS: Well, yes. Well, we know that the Biden and Harris administration opened the border and that 22 million --

BLACKWELL: Hold on, hold on. Now we're adrift. We're adrift. I want to focus on crime --

CARTER-WALTERS: Okay. We're going to talk about it because we have 70,000 of them in our communities. So we understand if you're living it, you understand what's really going on. So we have to talk about it, because they're all in our community committing crime on top of the crime that we have. So we have to talk about it.

BLACKWELL: Let me read the statistics. You talk --

CARTER-WALTERS: And they're not being arrested.

BLACKWELL: You talked about carjacking, shootings, murders. Chicago police reported an overall violent Crime is down 21.6 percent year to date. Homicides are down 32 percent. Shooting incidents are down 37 percent. Multi victim shootings that are down 44 percent. Robberies are down 31 percent. Carjackings are down 49 percent. Aggravated assaults are down 18 percent. There are cities that have higher crime rates and those arrows may not all be going in the same direction. Why do you believe the president is focused on Chicago with those numbers?

CARTER-WALTERS: Well, let's just talk about those numbers are manipulated numbers. And we know that. It's like you trying to tell. They're trying to tell the citizens of Chicago that live this experience. We're in the hood. It's trying to tell us that crime is down. It's like telling a mother who just buried her child that everything is going to be fine.

We don't care about those fake numbers. We are living this experience. So the numbers that they -- first of all, my husband just retired as a CPD officer. They were not reporting the illegal alien crime. So we know that the crime is not down.

You may say that because you don't live or Pritzker or Johnson because they don't live nowhere around us and nor will they or their family would they subject their family to live the way we live. I don't see Priska and Brandon Johnson living in my community or their kids going to my school because they know crime is not down. That's why Brandon Johnson had that 150 police detail around him everywhere he goes.

BLACKWELL: Well, let me, let me introduce -- CARTER-WALTERS: So you can't tell the citizens that.

BLACKWELL: Let me introduce.

CARTER-WALTERS: That's a clock in our (inaudible).

BLACKWELL: Let me introduce the governor. Governor Pritzker was on CBS News last night. I want to play what he said and then I get your reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GOV. JB PRITZKER (D) ILLINOIS: They should understand that he has other aims other than fighting crime. That's the first thing they should understand. The second is it's an attack on the American people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You said he has other aims. What are the other aims?

PRITZKER: The other aims are that he'd like to stop the elections in 2026 or frankly take control of those elections. He'll just claim that there's some problem with an election and then he's got troops on the ground that can take control if in fact he's allowed to do this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[08:25:14]

BLACKWELL: What's your reaction to what you heard there?

CARTER-WALTERS: First, Pritzker, the hypocrisy. Pritzker, when the DNC came to Chicago, he implemented the National Guards on the citizens. So I thought that was racist. I thought that was being -- I thought that was. He implemented the National Guards when the DNC came to protect the Democrats and what he did with an encampment, we didn't see no homeless.

When the DNC came that weekend, we saw no homeless people around. The illegal aliens that be on the street selling candy, they were all gone. So why did he implement the National Guards on the American, I mean on the Chicago citizens when the DNC came? Because he wanted to protect them. But then why didn't he protect us? Why isn't he using that same measure to protect the citizens of Illinois and Chicago? So it's a hypocrisy for me.

They don't care about us. They only care about themselves. And Pritzker, for him to say that he the one implemented because the safety act, the soft on crime policies while these criminals are getting right back out. He the one implemented the no cash bail.

So for him to say that and he don't live nowhere around us and his gated community, no, it's a hypocrisy. Tell him to not implement the National Guards on us when the DNC come next time.

BLACKWELL: Last question. The president talked about the beautiful black ladies with red hats in Chicago. Have you had any communication with the administration or heard from the president at all?

CARTER-WALTERS: Well, before then he had sent us when he first got elected, he has sent us some notes and some thank you notes because we were going down to city hall speaking out about the injustice that we receiving in our community. So he did a thank you note to us and he also invited us to the White House for the black history celebration. So we know that our president is listening to us and we want to say thank you President Trump for listening to the American citizens and caring about America.

BLACKWELL: Danielle Carter-Walters, I appreciate your time this morning. I'm glad that we got to have this exchange. Thanks so much.

CARTER-WALTERS: Thanks for having me.

BLACKWELL: Certainly. Our reaction to that conversation. Next with my panel.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:32:03]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: All right, you just saw my interview with Danielle Carter Walters. Her group and others like it led by black women are the reason why President Trump says he's focused on Chicago next and is crackdown on crime.

Leo Smith, former Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed and Jason "Jah" Lee back with us. I'm not going to be somebody who sits up here and defends the Chicago Police Department. The handling of the Laquan McDonald case is one reason that many people around the country don't trust them.

But Mr. Mayor, she doesn't even trust that there is a drop in crime because she doesn't feel it. So in that context she wants him to come in.

REED: Yes, that just shows the corrosive impact of Donald Trump not being a fact based human anymore. The fact of the matter is the crime statistics when they were high and they were reported, nobody disputed them when they were record numbers.

The other part is the crime data is supported -- is reported to the FBI. The FBI is a part of the Trump Justice Department. If there's crime data that's frost or inaccurate, then have the FBI say so. You won't do that because if you analyze Chicago's crime statistics, then all of the crime statistics for your friendly states are now going to be subject to the same issue.

And President Trump talks about black women. He's not talking about the 300,000 black women that have left the workforce during his presidency.

BLACKWLEL: And we should also point that 91 percent of black women voted for Kamala Harris. And he points out the percentage that vote for him is in Chicago. Leo, let me come to you. What's your reaction to what you heard there from Danielle (ph)? SMITH: 91 percent is still less than what normally black women vote

when it comes to the presidential election on, especially black Democrats. So here's the deal. You know, if you get a drop in cancer, if you're suffering from it, you're still going to want chemotherapy if the cancer is not eliminated. You know, in politics, I'm a political strategist.

BLACKWELL: You don't force that chemotherapy on a patient who doesn't want it.

SMITH: No, you don't force it, but you give them the choice. And so she's asking for it. She's not forcing the mayor of Chicago to do anything, but she's asking for it. She talked about how she was engaged and actually beseeching the mayor to do something before Donald Trump started this campaign.

So, look, you know, in politics, we like the moment where we get to establish a campaign issue. So this is a big issue, this crime issue. We say things like, the tears of a white woman availeth much, you know, because that's an opportunity. You know what? I am happy that someone's listening to a black woman for a change. The tears of a black woman ought to avail much, too. I worked on the campaign of Mayor Eddie DeLoach down in Savannah. The mayor.

And you know that they had not had a white, not to mention Republican mayor for a long time.

[08:35:00]

They asked me to work on that campaign. I went down to Savannah. I camped out with black grandmothers who were worried about crime on MLK Street. Right. Drive bys, things like that. These are lived experience. They're not illustrations. They're not just antidotes. These are real issues of blood and life.

BLACKWELL: Jah, it's much like the economy during the Biden administration where the administration was trying to tell everybody things are getting better, but because they didn't feel it wasn't real.

LEE: Well, here's a couple of things to point out. First and foremost, yes, 91 percent of black women did vote for Kamala Harris. Donald Trump is about hyperbole. He's literally wearing a hat that says, Donald Trump was right about everything, exclamation point.

Also in the interview that she did with the Chicago Sun Times, she said that her member, her group has eight members. So, I don't know that there are cords of black women screaming for Donald Trump to come to Chicago outside of, you know, her and maybe her group.

Beyond that, I guess my question would be, how long is the National Guard supposed to stay in Chicago to, quote, unquote, stabilize the city? There's a line in the movie Friday that Chris Tucker says that says, he won't tells me to shut up. And when he's around, I shut up. And when he leaves, I'll be talking again. And that's exactly what will happen in cases like this where, OK, you

can send the National Guard there and maybe, you know, people who are inclined to do crime will be spooked and they don't want to get, you know, caught up by military or whatever. OK, great. But as soon as that National Guard leaves, then what happens? That doesn't do anything to stabilize the city in any type of long term way.

SMITH: It alarms you about taking personal responsibility and using local control as a mayor to do something before someone else does. When I go to my child room and I said, if you don't clean up your room, I'm going to come in and clean up my room.

Now, I'm not planning to clean that room up every day, but I've told that child, hey, it's important that your room get cleaned. You better take ownership of it. I'm going to ship some of your toys out. I'm not going to stay there forever. But that sets the tone.

LEE: Well, the question would be --

REED: Punished the child left the room if the child cleaned the room.

LEE: And how many times we have that conversation with that child over and over again, threatening National Guard, threatening these things. And, you know, until there's something actually done as to why is the child not cleaning the room, there's the threats and the things won't take hold.

REED: The child's cleaning the room, though. The child's cleaning the room. If you have a 20 percent crime reduction, if you say the numbers are false, prove it. You control the Justice Department. We report to the FBI on crime data. The FBI can challenge the crime data if they think it's false.

SMITH: Mayor, the, the, the presence of political pressure to insert the National Guard or the state National Guard into Atlanta politics. Was there often -- you had a collaborative relationship with things in such a way that you took control of situations. As a matter of fact, you stood on 75 one night.

REED: That's right. But I never control.

SMITH: Hold on.

REED: That's right. But I never requested the use of the National Guard because I could handle my own affairs. And I had a relationship with a governor who respected the double digit historic crime reductions that we have. And you have people, this would be like, Victor, you being attacked for boosting ratings 20 percent.

I mean, can you imagine if you pump ratings 20 percent and they called you in to talk to you about your show?

BLACKWELL: Yes. Yes.

REED: And this is what is happening to Washington D.C. where on CNN they had the National Guard walking around picking up trash -- BLACKWELL: Yes.

REED: -- at the cost of a million dollars a day.

BLACKWELL: Yes. Beautification project that some of them were laying mulch. Gentlemen, we got to wrap the conversation there. But I think it's also important to remind people that the scope of what the National Guard can do short the Insurrection Act is very limited. So it won't look anything in Chicago like it did in Washington DC.

Jah. Mr. Mayor, Leo, thank you all for being with me. Quick break and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:43:52]

BLACKWELL: When wildfires scorch the west, who answers the call? Well, the answer to that question is complicated. First, not enough people. And that's why the arrest of two immigrant crew workers while they helped contain a wildfire burning in Washington State stood out this week.

The two men were near the scene of the Bear Gulch fire when Customs and Border Protection showed up to verify the IDs of all personnel present. The DHS says the men arrested were here illegally, one of them with the previous order of removal. Democratic Senator from Washington, Patty Murray, slammed the arrest. She said in a statement, this administration's immigration policy is fundamentally sick and that no one should assume this was necessary or appropriate. Joining me now, Washington State Representative Shaun Scott.

Representative Scott, thanks for your time here. Let me start here with the basic question. Do you believe that there should be an exception for people who are in this country unlawfully who do this work?

SHAUN SCOTT (D) WASHINGTON STATE REPRESENTATIVE: Well, thank you very much for having me on your show. I think it's important for your viewers to understand that the Border Patrol raid that took place in the Olympic Peninsula at the site of the Bear Gulch fire is actually already a violation of Homeland Security's own stated policies.

[08:45:10]

Firstly, it's illegal to detain people who have applied for victim based immigration benefits, as one of the individuals who has disappeared was. Secondly, it's also illegal, according to the federal government's own policies, to conduct immigration enforcement at locations where emergency responses are happening.

I'm joining you from Seattle, which is about 70 miles due east of the Bear Gulch fire on the Olympic Peninsula. When there's a big fire, it's a tremendous public safety hazard to people across our state, but especially to people in the largest city in our region. And unfortunately, I think these are the kinds of policies to which many people in Washington State have become unfortunately accustomed to from the Trump administration violating federal law in addition to putting a lot of people at harm needlessly.

BLACKWELL: You say that blame is shared by the Republicans and Democrats posted on social media. When authoritarianism follows austerity, we lose. Explain that.

SCOTT: Well, make no mistake about it. The federal government right now is pursuing a policy of disobedience with respect to its own stated immigration policies. Certainly the Border Patrol raid is going to put more people in harm's way, going to make it difficult. I think, for our firefighters, who are some of our most beleaguered workers in the state, to do their jobs and do their jobs with safety of mind.

But it's also the case that earlier this year, a democratically controlled Washington state legislature with the Democratic governor and Governor Ferguson slashed wildfire mitigation funding to the tune of $60 million. It's about a 50 percent reduction.

So we all right now need to be thinking about what we can do in our state legislatures across the country to combat not just the federal authoritarianism that we are seeing, but also making sure that we're not imposing austerity policies that also don't make people any safer.

BLACKWELL: Let me get your response to the Department of Homeland Security. They said in a statement that two contracted work crews, question on the day of their arrest were not even assigned to actively fight the fire. They were there in a support role, cutting logs into firewood. The firefighting response remained uninterrupted the entire time. Reaction to that no harm, no foul here from DHS statement.

SCOTT: Yes, well, we have really been used to seeing a lot of disinformation coming from the federal government and its respective agencies under the Trump administration. What I know as a sitting lawmaker in Washington State is that people within my district and beyond are outraged by the fact that the federal government, the DHS, would involve themselves in any way in what is, even on its own terms of federal law, an illegal course of action at natural disaster sites.

We are just now getting ready to commemorate, if you will, the 20-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. So people really understand what it means to have a disaster site of this kind. And people in my district and all across Washington State find it unconscionable that would be a place where so called immigration enforcement is taking place.

BLACKWELL: Washington State representative Shaun Scott, thank you so much and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:52:37]

BLACKWELL: Right now, kids are getting back to school, but many of them will not learn the handwriting art of cursive for art is life. This week I spoke with a couple that's trying to revive cursive and give kids the power that comes from simply being able to see sign their name.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERRELL WHITTINGTON, FOUNDER, CURSIVE ACADEMY: We had a dream. We had a vision. My name is Terrell Whittington.

CHELSEA WHITTINGTON, FOUNDER, CURSIVE ACADEMY: And my name is Chelsea Whittington.

T. WHITTINGTON: And we are the founders of Cursive Academy. One day me and my wife were driving actually to Cracker Barrel to get some breakfast and we seen a billboard. It was an educational billboard. And I posed that question to myself and Chelsea, I said, well, do our students in our school system know how to write in cursive?

So when we got the Cracker Barrel, we asked the person that was waiting on us, do your children know how to write cursive? And she said, no. So at that point in time, I started jotting some notes down and kind of coming up with the concept. I did some more research and asked more children, and let me tell you, out of 1 out of 5 children knew how to write in cursive.

So I know we had to take upon ourselves, me and Chelsea, to do something about that in our community, to teach the art of cursive again back into our school system and back to our students.

C. WHITTINGTON: To have cursive writing be dropped from the curriculum is disheartening. And we're also finding that a lot of people are not aware that it has been dropped. They just assume it. And then when they're starting to speak to their children that are in their early 20s, 19, and 18, and they say, sign your name, and then they're met with, what does that mean? Then the panic starts to arise.

T. WHITTINGTON: You see, when we're coming around with it, right, we try to make it exciting, we try to make it vibrant in the classroom. And like I said, when they are in the classroom, they want to stay there, they want to learn, they want to accept the challenge of writing in cursive.

C. WHITTINGTON: Delgado. We do a ceremony where the certificate of completion is signed by the participant, signed in cursive, first and last name.

T. WHITTINGTON: The mission.

C. WHITTINGTON: We always emphasize to our young people that once you learn to write and sign your name, your signature becomes your own. It's unique, like a snowflake. Nobody else has your signature.

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T. WHITTINGTON: We also, you know, teach them how to comprehend, how to read in cursive. There are a lot of documents that you must read.

C. WHITTINGTON: Those who can't read or write cursive cannot read the Constitution. T. WHITTINGTON: And it's a great joy to us to, you know, teach these

children, to teach the students, to teach the adults in our community and the surrounding communities beyond a cursive.

C. WHITTINGTON: We are indeed, as our model says, changing lives one stroke at a time.

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BLACKWELL: Cursive Academy is based in Gary, Indiana. It's still pretty new. They're working towards a website and a presence on Instagram, but for now you can find them on Facebook.

And if you see something or someone that I should see, tell me. I'm on Instagram, TikTok, X, Bluesky and you can listen to our show as a podcast. A new season of have I Got News for You with Roy Wood Jr., Amber Ruffin, Michael Ian Black is almost here. The comedy quiz show returns September 6th at 9:00 p.m. on CNN.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'll see you back here next Saturday at 8:00 a.m. Eastern. But stick around. I'm anchoring a special hour of Newsroom after a short break.

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