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Inside Politics

Trump Returning To D.C. After Visiting His New Scotland Golf Course; Trump Prepares To Return To D.C. To "Put Out Fires"; GOP Lawmakers To Odds Amid Jeffrey Epstein Fallout; 4 Killed In NYC Mass Shooting, Including NYPD Officer; NYPD: Mass Shooting Gunman Is 27- Year-Old From Las Vegas. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired July 29, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

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MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: Today in Inside Politics, a maze of challenges. President Trump says, he's headed back home, to quote, put out the fires all over the world. But will the seemingly never-ending Jeffrey Epstein scandal be the flame that defies all containment.

Plus, horrifying new details. The gunman who opened fire in a busy Manhattan office building had a suicide note, expressing grievances with the NFL, according to the mayor. We'll get the latest on the search for a motive from New York Governor Kathy Hochul. And a Joe Rogan endorsed Democrat in ruby red Texas. Is he a living oxymoron or the future of his party? James Talarico is my guest, this hour.

I'm Manu Raju in for Dana Bash. Let's go behind the headlines in inside politics.

After a whirlwind long weekend of playing golf and plenty of diplomacy abroad, President Trump is about to head home to try to stay out of the rough and avoid plenty of hazards. Here's how he summed it up earlier today at the opening of his newest 18-hole golf course in Scotland.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We'll play it very quickly, and then I go back to D.C., and we put out fires all over the world. We did one yesterday. As you know, we stopped a war, but we stopped about five wars. So that's much more important than playing golf, as much as I like. It's much more important.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, what will you say next to Benjamin Netanyahu?

TRUMP: We're working together. We're going to try and get things straightened out for the world. Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: CNN's Jeff Zeleny is in Edinburgh, Scotland, where the president is set to leave any moment now. So, Jeff, how does the White House view? How this trip has gone and the challenges ahead?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Manu, the White House believes it was a successful foreign policy trip on a couple fronts, starting with a trade in the E.U. It was the largest trade deal that President Trump has signed with a member nation since this on again, off again, trade policy has been unveiled. So, that certainly is one strength, but the challenges are clear as well.

And the president right there was talking about a Gaza. He is scheduled to have a telephone call at some point with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. There are many leaders who hope the president applies more pressure to him for a ceasefire, or certainly allowing more food and relief efforts to come in.

But most specifically on Russia, Manu, we are all watching now the clock. The clock is ticking 10 to 12 days. That's what the president said yesterday. That's the new timeline for Vladimir Putin to stop firing on Ukraine to engage in a peace plan. We will see if that happens. If it doesn't, then what does Trump do?

This is the closest we have gotten to in this long, months, long saga. The closest we have gotten to some type of a decision the president will have to make. Is he going to employ secondary sanctions? Is he going to give Putin more time? The tone of the president yesterday here, Manu was certainly different, at least to my ear.

He said he has no interest in speaking with Putin anymore, and that's a vast change from just weeks ago, where he said, that a conversation with Putin, he could end this. So, clearly trying to put a little bit more reality into this ongoing crisis.

And then on the domestic front, as many Epstein questions that remain now, perhaps more so than when the president flew to Scotland on Friday. He added more questions yesterday, when he was answering some reporters' questions. Obviously, Capitol Hill also is deeply engaged in the Epstein issue. So, a successful foreign policy trip, but many more challenges to come. Manu?

RAJU: Yeah, no question about that. Jeff Zeleny from Scotland, thank you so much. And I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters here at the table, Leigh Ann Caldwell of Puck, Semafor's David Weigel, and Ayesha Rascoe of NPR. Nice to see you all.

What are you looking for as the president heads into this next phase, because, as Jeff mentioned, he's going to have to make a big decision on what to do here with pertaining to Russia? Russia is already threatening to take additional steps if the president moves forward with significant sanctions. And then there's this starvation crisis in Gaza. The president seemed to break with Netanyahu somewhat yesterday on that, but the policy has not changed on that front.

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AYESHA RASCOE, NPR HOST, "WEEKEND EDITION SUNDAY" AND "UP FIRST": It hasn't changed. And I think on these issues, you so -- shows the limits of Trump's ability to dominate and to kind of create his own reality, like he's bumping up against the reality of someone like Putin, who is like, OK, you too can play that game, like I'm not, you know, I don't have the same levers that the E.U. has and others. I'm used to going up against the U.S., and you know, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing.

And I think that you're seeing that Trump come up against that. And he's made a lot of promises when it came to Russia and Ukraine, when it came to Gaza, and he has not delivered yet. Now, what that does on a low -- on a domestic front, I don't know, but it is something that is going to be a big headache for him going forward.

RAJU: Yeah. And the Gaza question specifically, I mean, the president yesterday said that he disagreed clearly with Netanyahu saying, that there is starvation that's happening there. But today, you heard him just moments ago, earlier, they said they're going to work together to fix this. So, it doesn't -- it appeared to some that Netanyahu seemed increasingly isolated with his handling of it, but Trump may have signaled something different this morning.

DAVID WEIGEL, POLITICS REPORTER, SEMAFOR: Yeah. He's isolated with other world leaders, isolated with France, with the United Kingdom. The United States has remained this Bulwark in the U.N. I mean, the international community supporting Israel. Netanyahu has very little support at this point, with the merit -- with Democrats, that has changed. His domestic support in the party that's not in power has changed.

But what are the challenges Israel's going to face when bills come before Congress, when there are questions about funding the war? That has not come to a head yet. It is not unanimous anymore. You have, specifically on the left, the Democratic Party, very little fear about crossing Israel or even the impact in primaries.

But for what Netanyahu wants, not a huge -- not a huge impact. And you're talking about changing reality, or adapting reality, both Netanyahu and Trump do have that ability to wait out a bad news cycle and say, whatever you're seeing on the -- in the media, it's not true, and wait until the world's attention is on something else. This is a very grim example of that, but it feels like both of them are moving in that direction.

RAJU: Yeah. And it's hard for him to say that, of course, with all of the images that we're seeing from there as well. OK, so we talked about the foreign policy challenges there are. They are immense, but as Jeff mentioned, also the Epstein questions have not gone away. In fact, president sort of fanned that issue yesterday, when talking at length with reporters, talking about Epstein's, his relationship with Epstein not ruling out a pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell and the like.

And just the questions about what's in the files? Why haven't they released the files? It's a question that even Republicans like Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said there are plenty of questions that are still need to be answered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): This issue is not going to go away. And frankly, you know, Senator Levin is going to come out anyway. It always does. And I think that DOJ is just going to hit --

RAJU: (inaudible) to come to the committee --

KENNEDY: I think she's going to have to hit -- get it head on with the receipts. She said something. We're beyond a point where the Department of Justice can say, they aren't -- they tried that, it didn't work, so they're going to have to show the receipts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: And this is a ally of Trump's, John Kennedy, saying, she's got to show the receipts and the argument that they have made so far as he said, quote, it just didn't work.

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: Yeah. There's actually a surprisingly number, surprising number of allies who are breaking with the president on this and putting pressure on Trump and the Justice Department to do something. In a way that we haven't seen yet in Trump's second administration, where Republicans have been in lockstep with the president.

But when it comes to this, there does seem to be some daylight. And the reason is, I'm told, as I talk to Republican members of Congress, is that they are feeling an immense amount of pressure back home. It's not just necessarily the MAGA base, the Epstein truthers, the online movement who is pushing this. They're starting to hear this from constituents as well.

You know, just last week, Representative Brian Jack, a freshman Republican, he used to be Trump's political director in his first White House. He voted with Democrats to subpoena the Justice Department, and the reason is, is that in his very conservative Georgia district, he felt like he couldn't go home without showing that he's trying to do something for transparency.

RAJU: And the poll after poll has told a similar story that the American public wants to see this information, whether it's Republicans or Democrats. This is what one recent Washington Post poll said about whether or not people believe that this is -- there's embarrassing information about the Epstein files.

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Really, nearly everyone seems to think there is some embarrassing information about powerful or wealthy people, including 93 percent of Democrats, 64 percent of independents, 31 percent of Republicans. Think that as it pertains to Trump and then others believe it has pertained to Democrats. And 72 percent of Republicans say has information about Democrats. But that's part of the issue here. There's so much interest among the public.

RASCOE: It's so much interest, and I have to say, like when you look at the administration's handling of this. It is a textbook case of handling it and making yourself look suspicious. Like for people who may be like, I wasn't even thinking about this, but now they don't want to release it. What's in there? Like, I mean, the way that they have handled it, it just raises the interest. I mean, I just think that the way this has been done, it's not to -- they have been just putting gasoline on the fire.

RAJU: Yeah, no question about it. And Trump wanted to -- wanted this to die down, to focus on other issues, but he has kept it alive himself in a lot of ways. All right. We're following the developments in New York City where a lone gunman brazenly walked into a Park Avenue office and killed four people. What we're learning about a possible motive. New York Governor Kathy Hochul joins us next.

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RAJU: Right now, in New York City, an investigation is well underway into why a man with a rifle casually entered a midtown Manhattan office building and killed four people. This is the deadliest mass shooting in the city in 25 years. And New York City Mayor Eric Adams emphasized to CNN moments ago that investigators are heading to the suspect's home in Nevada.

Earlier he shared new details about exactly why, what happened after 27-year-old Shane Tamura entered that Park Avenue building.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS, NEW YORK CITY: The perpetrator shot an innocent woman in the lobby area, and then he walked towards the counter where there was a security guard. If he was able to get to the button, he could have froze the elevator. But he was assassinated behind the counter as he was attempted to hide himself behind the counter, he was killed as well and the suspect of then took the elevator upstairs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, Adams said authorities have reason to believe the gunman intended to go to the NFL headquarters when he entered that elevator bank, but it was programmed for another floor. It was there that he killed a Blackstone employee and eventually took his own life. Now the four victims include senior director -- senior managing director Wesley LePatner, and off duty New York police officer Didarul Islam, who is working security for the building.

Democratic New York Governor Kathy Hochul joins us now live. Governor Hochul, thank you so much for joining us. And during this tragic moment for your state and for your city, there are so many unanswered questions about this tragic shooting. One of which is the motive of the shooter.

And the mayor -- Mayor Adams said this morning, there's reason to believe he was focused on the NFL. So, I'm wondering, what have you learned about why he seemed so intent to carry out this massacre, particularly on the NFL?

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): Well, first of all, let me just say this. Our city and our state are grieving right now for the loss of innocent lives and people just doing their jobs, particularly a police officer who always takes risks every day, but certainly his wife and two little kids expected to see officer Islam come home at the end of the day, and to the others who lost their lives.

I'm sitting in Midtown right now. My office is just a few blocks away. And walking in this morning, and you see the security guards down there, and everyone is just wondering, you know is this -- is this a one off? Could this happen again? I mean, that sense of security is shattered when someone comes from another state, carrying an assault weapon, designed only for battlefields, but using -- intending to use that to commit mayhem and mass murder in our cities.

So, the motivation is still has to be investigated, but there's seems to be a linkage, based on his own note at the end that has been revealed by the police department about the NFL. And you know, for someone who played high school sports and believes that that resulted in CTE, which is, you know, a brain injury, it's hard to know.

I just spoke to the commissioner of the NFL to express our condolences. And everyone is in shock. I mean this is a terrifying event to unfold in our populated city or actually anywhere. But again, let's talk about how this happened. This is happening because there are still assault weapons in our country.

RAJU: Yeah. And that was part of my question to you, Governor. What do we know about this was an M4 rifle. That's what the police say. What do we know about how he obtained this weapon?

HOCHUL: Well, we're still determining that. We don't know whether there was another individual involved. But again, this goes the difference between states, laws related to gun ownership. In the state of New York, you cannot buy one of these. You have to be over age 18. You cannot have access.

So, I mean, he had -- he had a concealed carry permit, which allowed him to have this weapon, much looser laws in the state of Nevada than we have here. And so, our argument is this, like, if every state had the same laws uniformly, you could not have a situation. We fight really hard in, state of New York to make sure that we have the toughest gun laws in the nation. We have the lowest of all the large states, homicide rate by guns.

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New York City, New York State has the lowest homicide rate by guns in the nation for large states, and that's because of laws that are working. And we want that same sense of urgency to go out across the nation, states like Nevada, every state should do this, because right now, we waiting for the federal government, for Congress to step up, and Republicans in Congress are so intimidated by the gun lobby, or they might have a primary if they dare stand up and stand, I'm for common sense gun safety laws. So, you can't say you're tough on crime and be soft on guns or weak on guns. It's just not holding up. So, we need a national awakening here. People need to be talking about this once again, and it shouldn't just happen in the wake of a tragedy like this.

It should be an ongoing conversation where we force the Republicans to understand, lives could be saved. You'd only do what's smart and common sense. We had an assault ban weapon in our country for 10 years, it worked successfully. It lapped under President Bush, and I say, bring that back.

RAJU: But Governor, even when Joe Biden was president, Democrats controlled Congress. Your party did not pass a ban on semi-automatic rifles, even in the wake of really horrific mass shootings like this one. So, what makes you think that anything would be different now? And do you fault your own party for not acting on this when you were in charge?

HOCHUL: I'm looking for political courage. I'm looking for people to stand up for the people this nation and say, enough is enough. How much more slaughter do we have to endure because of these assault weapons. We had this happen in my hometown of Buffalo.

In 2022, remember 10 people shopping at a top grocery store in a black part of our city. This targeted -- this individual targeted them a white supremacist because of the color of their skin. They were slaughtered, gunned down with the same kind of weapon. We sprung into action. We made sure that our laws were tougher and tighter, and we're doing much more to keep people safe in the state of New York.

But I don't want to be having my residents affected by someone coming from another state who could easily get their hands on this assault weapon, travel across multiple states and do what they did just yesterday. So, I want to be able to protect New Yorkers. It's my number one priority, and it's hard to do it when other states aren't stepping up, and certainly Congress has let us down.

RAJU: And Governor, people who would opposed a national ban on semiotic weapons, which you are calling for now, would say that there needs to be amped up security, physical security, in some of these buildings. Here in what happened yesterday, from what you know. Was there sufficient security inside that building?

HOCHUL: There was very much security in that building. They have a company hire an off-duty police officer. I don't know how you get more secure than that. And all the systems they had in place and the training they had in place, I'm still learning more about what those citizens were. I've been in that building, and it takes an awful lot to be able to get upstairs.

But how you stop someone who walks in, intent on murdering the first person they encounter who is a police officer, and trying to stop them? That's almost impossible. So, for people who are blaming the security system, are looking at the wrong culprit here. Look at the weapon of mass destruction that was used to destroy lives in my city. That's what we have to go after.

RAJU: Governor, the shooting comes as you're facing your own tough reelection campaign. And Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who could challenge you in that race, posted to X overnight saying. We cannot allow radical anti-police dangerous policies to continue.

And then she went on to attack the New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, saying, flashback Kathy Hochul's very own Commie Mamdani disgraced and truly unfit to be mayor of New York City. The post June 2020, post from Mamdani calling, to quote, defund the police. What do you say to Congresswoman Stefanik?

HOCHUL: That's about as pathetic as it gets. I mean, seriously going after an unelected official who said something back in 2020, when many people were, I mean, come on, give me a break. Ask her the question, what are you doing to make your constituents safe? You don't mind taking away their healthcare. You don't mind education cuts. You don't mind nutrition cuts. You don't mind hurting your farmers.

Like, why don't you have some spine and stand up for the people who put you in your spot? And so that's what I'm looking for people to not be deflecting, stand up to the gun lobby and show that you have the courage to do something that's actually pretty useful. Instead of just complaining about tweets, I don't talk about tweets. I don't do tweets on this. I govern. I know what I'm doing, and we have the toughest gun laws in the nation.

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And as I said, we are in the top -- we are number one of the large states for gun safety. That's what my job is. The governor is supposed to save her constituents, and I'm doing that every day with these tough laws. And I'm going to continue. One murder, one slaughter of an individual is too many, but we're at it $2.6 billion.

Talking about funding police. No governor in the history of New York has invested more money and resources for our local law enforcement to stop crimes that our crime rates are dropping dramatically. $2.6 billion, that's what I call funding the police, so stop deflecting.

RAJU: So, she was quoting, Zohran Mamdani. And just to be clear to our audience here, are you endorsing him in the race for mayor?

HOCHUL: No. And listen, that's -- then why we talk about this today. There are families that are grieving. I'm sorry. You know, we're not talking politics. This is not the time and place for it. It's about action and showing compassion and empathy for people's lives are forever destroyed, and a new baby on the way is never going to know the baby's father. I mean this is what I'm thinking about today, not politics.

RAJU: Have you spoken to the families of the victims from this massacre last night, Governor?

HOCHUL: That's being set up. Yes, we'll be doing that. And I'll be visiting the precinct as soon as it reopens. It's closed today, so people can mourn. So, I'll be certainly involved in. I believe there's a vigil tonight. I'll be participating in. Our state is wounded right now. We're hurting. You know? We'll fly flags at half-staff, and we'll give thoughts and prayers and condolences, as is customary.

But I want more than that. I want action. I want Congress to step up and use this example of how this weapon of mass destruction destroyed the life of young families. And it's time to act, really. It's time to act.

RAJU: Have you -- this president said he was been briefed on this. Have you heard from the president at all?

HOCHUL: Well, the White House contacted us yesterday. I've not spoken him directly.

RAJU: OK. All right, we'll leave it there. Governor Hochul, we really appreciate you coming on and our condolences to your state. And after this very, very tragic shooting, we wish everyone some peace in this very difficult moment. Thank you for joining us. And we'll be right back.

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