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Inside Politics

Fed Governor Lisa Cook Sues Trump Over Effort To Fire Her; Poll: Americans Largely View Big City Crime As A Major Problem; But More Than Half Not Comfortable With Federal Takeover; Minneapolis Mourns After Two Children Killed In School Shooting; Disgraced Ex-Rep. George Santos Pens Op-Ed About Life In Prison. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired August 28, 2025 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:31:08]

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump's effort to exert control over all aspects of the federal government could be running into a roadblock at the Fed. Fed Governor Lisa Cook, who President Trump tried to fire this week, will now have her day in court.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is here with us, and she's been following the case. Tell us about the lawsuit.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, this lawsuit, it's different than a lot of others, and there are a lot of others where people have sued to try and keep their jobs, claiming they should be independent and they can only be removed by Donald Trump for a cause.

The Supreme Court has looked at the Federal Reserve before and said they're different than everybody else. It's the independent bank of the United States. And Lisa Cook, in this lawsuit, she's saying, I should not be able to be removed by Donald Trump because it could spell disaster for the American economy if the U.S. president can play politics with what the Fed is doing and who is on that board.

There's going to be a hearing tomorrow at 10:00 a.m., and it's going to raise these questions. But a lot of it isn't -- it could be around the independence of the Fed, something that the Supreme Court obviously has recognized. But what this is very likely going to be more about in court is whether Donald Trump can just define what for cause means when he decides to terminate someone.

BASH: Because the allegations are for things that she did before she was even nominated, never mind confirmed by the Senate.

POLANTZ: That's right. And then her lawyers are also saying that those allegations, they've not been investigated. They've not been proven. Donald Trump could come up with anything and say this is a for cause reason to fire someone on the Fed.

Now the courts are going to have to determine what that actually means. Are there limits to the presidential power in saying something like that? And can Donald Trump just put an allegation out there that's unproven, even if it's being investigated or referred to the Department of Justice?

BASH: So this is a person with a very important job at the Fed, appointed by President Biden, who is pushing back. And it's just one example now of just this month, of all across the federal government, areas where President Trump has said, I don't like what you're doing. Fine, that's his prerogative.

I don't like the results that you're giving when it comes to data. I don't like the assessment that you're giving when it comes to intelligence. That's with regard to the Defense Department. I don't like the fact that you're criticizing us over at FEMA employees. You're gone really across the board. I mean, what we have up here is one, two, three, four, five, just six examples in the last month in different agencies at some senior levels and not some senior levels.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: That's right. And Donald Trump firmly believes, I mean, he said this, that he can do whatever he wants. And while there has been some pushback, this is a good example of Lisa Cook at the Federal Reserve. But by and large, he's been able to get away with this with little oversight, with little pushback from Republicans on the House.

You know, I think it isn't a surprise that he is doing this. I mean, he talked about when he would talk to his followers during the campaign, he would talk about him being their retribution, right? That this was what he was going to do when he got in office.

So this kind of spate of firings that he deemed as people who were out to get him as part of the deep state. And so there was a house cleaning that's going on and there's not much that anybody can do about it.

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK: No, and this is exactly the type of thing that he complained about, like you said, about the deep state rooting out that, you know, wokeness from the federal government. Now, Donald Trump is doing the exact same thing in the opposite direction, that he's allowing no dissent, no discussion, no debate within the federal government on policies, on people who have different ideas of what should move forward. Instead, he's trying to clear all of that out.

[12:35:11]

And he's doing it not only in the federal government, he's doing it in universities and corporations and the cracker barrel --

BASH: Cracker barrel. Yes.

CALDWELL: -- like, you name it.

BASH: That's right. Yes.

HENDERSON: News organization. BASH: And I -- I mean, you said there's not much people can do about it. I think you're right, but I also think there's not much that people want to do about it in his own party. And that's I think the biggest difference between Trump 2.0 and 1.0.

Another thing that he is doing now that the people who were around him the first time around didn't let him do was the federal takeover of D.C. when it comes to police. Our colleague, Aaron Blake, wrote the following, "President Trump's extraordinary moves to put troops on U.S. soil appear to be following a familiar political script. Trump seizes on an issue that's one of his strengths and is also a major concern for many Americans in an effort to try to expand his power. But despite both of those factors, he appears to go too far for most Americans."

Let's just give an example from the Associated Press polling that just came out this week. Question, is crime a big problem in big cities? Major problem, 81 percent. I mean, that is like a huge number of people who say, yes, it's a big problem. Except then when you ask the question, what about a federal takeover of local police? Only 32 percent say it's acceptable. 55 percent say it is unacceptable.

Now, he's thinking about Chicago. I don't know that that would -- that won't be a takeover. It will be a different kind of thing. D.C. it's different because D.C. is not a state. He could and did take over the police. But the difference between the problem that's identified and the solution, the heavy handed solution that President Trump has in place is really interesting.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: And what Aaron wrote there is so key, is that if Donald Trump was able to just slow down a little bit, pull back a little bit, he would even have more support for some of these things that he's doing, which, by the way, go against what we know the founders wanted when they laid out the Constitution.

But you're right, Dana, because folks, when they see crime, they want to distinguish. If they think Donald Trump is going to come into Washington, D.C. and fix it, well, come on in and fix it. People don't care necessarily unless you live here in D.C. And then those folks will say, including restaurant owners, will say has had a chilling effect.

You know, people aren't coming out because they feel safe. They're not coming out now because they feel like we're in a militarized zone.

BASH: All right. Everybody, stand by.

Coming up, back to the tragedy in Minnesota, I'll speak to a lawmaker who calls himself a member of the mass shooting generation.

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[12:42:24]

BASH: The script is sadly familiar by now. A tragic school shooting, the 44th in the U.S. this year alone in this case, followed by Democratic calls for new gun laws, followed by Republicans attacking Democrats for calling for new gun laws, followed eventually by little or no action to stop the next shooting again and again.

Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost of Florida was the first member of Gen Z to win a seat in the U.S. Congress. You see him there. He says he was motivated to take political action after the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.

Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you coming in. I just want to start with the way that you describe yourself. You're part of the mass shooting generation, which is just a horrible title, but definitely apt. There's a whole generation now behind you who are dealing with the same trauma. What's your message to them?

REP. MAXWELL FROST (D), FLORIDA: Yes. You know -- and, you know, the reason I say this is because, you know, I remember when I first got to Congress, I met with this elementary school on the steps of the Capitol, and I stayed up all night figuring out what am I going to ask them.

And the question I was excited to ask them was, if you were a congressperson, what law would you pass? And I thought I would hear ice cream for dinner, no homework. And I picked on this little girl. She was seven years old, and she said I would ban assault weapons so I don't get shot in school.

That's why we're the mass shooting generation. It's a generation of students who have grown up going through more active shooter drills than fire drills. And I hear this from people even younger than me being a part of the -- what I tell them is, number one, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry that politicians, I'm sorry that gun manufacturers, corporations, the NRA, this country has failed us, that we live in a nation where, if God forbid, you died tomorrow and you were under the age of 18, the most likely reason is because of bullets. And I think it's unacceptable.

BASH: Well, you can't be the only --

FROST: But what I'd also say --

BASH: Go ahead.

FROST: Well, what I'd also say is, as someone who's been in this movement since I was 15 years old, over 10 years now, I do believe that our movement's the strongest it's ever been. That's how we got the Safer Communities Act. That's how we got the first ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention.

And that's how, over the last three years, we've seen gun violence go down. Unfortunately, I do think we're going to see it reverse because President Trump stopped the office, completely got rid of it on day two, is canceling all the grants, even mental health grants for schools.

[12:45:03] And so I think we're going to see an uptick in gun violence under this administration. But the thing that gives me hope, and the thing that I hope gives everyone hope, is that our movement is strong and we're going to keep fighting for our country, where hopefully we're one day free of gun violence.

BASH: Forgive me, there's a delay here, but you can't be -- just because you're a Democrat, you and your fellow Democrats can't be alone, just on your side of the aisle, hearing that kind of thing from students, from kids, from moms. Now that you are in Congress, I think it's probably fair to say that you probably talk to Republicans across the aisle who hear the same thing from their constituents.

I completely understand that -- and I covered Congress for a long time, it was an uphill climb to get gun legislation done when Democrats were in charge. Now it's, you know, much harder. But there are also deep societal issues at play here. There's loneliness, there's epidemic of that, of social media issues, it goes on and on. Is there anything in talking across the aisle to your colleagues that you think that you can do as elected officials?

BASH: Yes. And I'll tell you, you know, I speak with a lot of my Republican colleagues who behind closed doors will tell me, I think you're right, I think we need to do something. I'm for universal background checks, I'm for this. I'm for that. But I'm worried about my primary. I'm worried about the elections.

And this is part of the reason we need especially people who live in red districts, people who are Republican themselves, to continue to speak out to the members of Congress about this because these solutions are popular. More than 90 percent of this country wants universal background checks. More than two-thirds of this country wants to ban assault weapons.

It's bipartisan. In fact, most NRA members want universal background checks. So the question is, why hasn't it happened? And like every other issue, big corporate interests do not want us to pass laws to stem the curve of gun violence, to stem gun violence, because it will impact their bottom line.

But we need politicians to be accountable to the people, not corporations. And these are common-sense things. I'll give you one example. We made the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. President Biden made it through executive order using my bill as part of that inspiration.

When Marjorie Taylor Greene put a bill on the House floor to cancel the office, to defund the office, I spoke with about 10 more moderate Republicans to say, please don't vote for this. This office helped your district too. And guess what? We stopped her effort to get rid of the office last Congress in a Republican Congress when I think it was eight or nine Republicans --

BASH: Yes.

FROST: -- voted with Democrats to save the office. So there's still hope here.

BASH: I -- and I completely understand that you are focused on gun legislation. As you said, you've been focused on that since you were 15 years old. Is there anything outside of that, that deals with the societal problems that go hand in hand with the fact that there are guns readily available to people who should not have them, like the shooter yesterday who murdered children?

FROST: 100 percent. At the end of the day, we do need to pass laws to make sure guns don't get in the wrong hands, that we have more regulation of guns in this country, but it's not the end all be all. And the fact of the matter is we have to create a society where people don't feel the need to use a gun to solve their problems.

So to end gun violence, we have to end poverty. We have to make sure everyone has healthcare, has housing and all of that. But the other thing I'd say is my hope is we can -- you know, it wasn't that political when we said, let's get resources to community violence intervention groups, to hospitals that do intervention in the hospitals, to health-based intervention, to make sure that our communities are closer together and that we stop the curb of gun violence.

And unfortunately, one of the first things the Trump administration did was go and cancel a lot of these grants, even mental health grants for students in schools. I need my Republican colleagues who disagree with this to speak out about it and do something. We're not talking about gun laws that I think we need to pass. Most of the country agrees with me.

We're talking about funding to our communities. That part of the reason gun violence has gone down in this nation over the last three years is because we looked at the people who've been doing the work for decades and said, here's money, keep our community safe. And that's at risk right now.

BASH: Congressman, thank you so much for being here. And again, sorry, under these circumstances. Appreciate you joining us.

FROST: Thank you.

BASH: We'll be right back.

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[12:54:05]

BASH: Federal prisoner and disgraced Republican ex-Congressman George Santos is trying to have a Howard Beale moment. He's, quote, "mad as hell," and he's apparently not going to take it. Doesn't have much choice because he's behind bars.

But he does have the ability to pen an op-ed, which he did. For a Long Island news outlet, and he tweeted about it. His latest installment decries the mismanagement of the New Jersey federal prison, where he's serving a seven-year sentence for fraud and identity theft. He wrote, in part, "I thought I'd seen government dysfunction before, but never at this level. This place is the living, breathing embodiment of the phrase government dysfunction. Let me be crystal clear, prison is not supposed to be fun. It's punishment. It's meant to be difficult. But there's a fine" -- excuse me -- "there's a line, a moral line between punishment and outright neglect of human dignity."

[12:55:01]

My panel is back with me. Leigh Anne, you covered George Santos. What are your thoughts on this?

CALDWELL: Oh, it's so interesting to see that George Santos is now a prison advocate. Someone where he thinks that the federal government should invest a lot more resources in the federal prison system. Look, George Santos likes to be the center of attention and he's trying to do it again now.

HENDERSON: Yes. You know, I am sad that I spent, you know, two or three minutes reading this op-ed. You know, he makes a good point. The prison system is neglected. Prisoners are kind of thrown away and people don't pay enough attention to the conditions in prison.

Santos, I don't think spent much time during his brief time in Congress or in politics worrying about folks in prison either, but now I think he obviously wants some attention and wants us all to be talking about him. And I'm sad that I've spent the last 40 seconds talking about him.

PRESTON: I mean, look at the Mount Rushmore, right? A prison reform. Van Jones, right? Kim Kardashian, George Santos right over here. But one thing about George Santos is, is that he was always the gift that kept on giving. And I would say that his new career could be love during lockup and he'll continue to give and give because he can do the sequel when he leaves, love after lockup.

BASH: All right. We now have our new reality show.

Thank you so much for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts after a quick break.

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