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Federal Authorities Arrest Dozens In Memphis During Crackdown; Trump Escalates Efforts To Deploy Federal Officers In Major Democratic-Led Cities; DOJ Fires Prosecutor Falsely Tied To Comey Case In Online Post; The Shutdown Architect: The Man Dismantling Government; Ex-GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn Launches Comeback Bid. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired October 02, 2025 - 12:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:33:36]

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR: Memphis, Tennessee, home to Elvis's iconic Graceland Mansion, the National Civil Rights Museum, Beale Street, and now 219 newly deputized troops. Arrests are already up there as officers begin patrolling the streets. It's the latest city to receive a federal law enforcement surge as a result of President Trump's broad crime crackdown, and Trump administration officials visited with a clear message for officers.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: Part of what we're trying to do with the department for our troops overseas or in combat and elsewhere is we're not here to second guess you, we're here to have your back, to unleash you, to do your job so you come home safely.

PAM BONDI, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We want cops to be cops again. You can go out there and you can do your job, and our U.S. attorney is here, and we are going to charge anyone federally, and we're going to go tell all the officers soon. If you touch a police officer, you will be arrested.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

RAJU: All right, CNN's Evan Perez joins us here at the table as well. So just a reminder of where things stand in Trump's crime crackdown, sending in troops to various cities, blue cities, in particular, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Memphis, Portland, Chicago, that's the threat to do it in Chicago. But we're seeing these cities fight, and Washington accepted it. Of course it's a different situation.

But Portland fighting it, Chicago wants to fight it, is threatening to fight it, Los Angeles, of course the governor there fought it. Memphis is different though. Memphis seems to be open to it.

[12:35:00]

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is different. I mean I think local officials there know that they have a serious crime problem. Memphis has had a problem for years, right, and we've seen federal surges under Republican and Democratic administrations. I've covered a number of them.

What's different this time is the lack of coordination. That's one of the things. You know, a lot of this is -- appears to be more about using these types of deployments as a cudgel against Democrats by the White House, right?

In previous ones, you know, these things usually are planned for months, and you have specific targets in mind. And, you know, Memphis is different though. Memphis has a serious problem with crime. They have a police department that has been troubled for many many years, had a lot of abuses of local people.

And, you know, the -- it keeps happening, right? So that's why you see a little bit of a different response, but you hear from local officials, they're still trying to find a way to coordinate because they weren't consulted ahead of time.

RAJU: Yes, and that's what the Democratic Mayor Lee Harris even said on our air this morning, said that that's, you know, that they need to be coordinated, but he's a Democratic mayor. Maybe that's one reason why they have not --

PEREZ: Right.

RAJU: -- done that. But Stephen Miller, of course, Trump's top White House official, one of the top White House officials, was also present at this Memphis event, and this is the directive that he gave.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

STEPHEN MILLER, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF: I see the guns and badges in this room, you are unleashed. The handcuffs that you're carrying, they're not on you anymore. They're on the criminals. And whatever you need to get it done, we're going to get it done.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

RAJU: It's a pretty broad directive.

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, unleashed is very broad. The -- this administration has made it very clear that the law enforcement will have all the tools that they want and need to go after crime, and Stephen Miller is making that very clear.

What I thought was really interesting, and this is a comment that's gotten a little bit underexplored this week as we're all kind of focused on the shutdown and whatnot, but when the President spoke to a group -- a large gathering of generals earlier this week in Quantico, he kind of snuck in this reference talking about -- when he's talking about his crime crackdown, he said we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for the military. And then he kind of moved on, you know, this was like deep in his speech, but it kind of does give you another window as to what he's thinking. He sees -- you know, he looks at cities like Portland and Chicago. He sees the need for federal invention and to exert that power for -- you know, to reduce crime or -- and whatnot.

So this isn't going away anytime soon. He keeps talking about Chicago, even though he hasn't done it. Obviously is now adding Portland to that list, so this is something that's going to -- that the President is really going to be focused on, continue be focused on.

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: I'd -- there's concern there with the words used, the rhetoric there, because as Evan mentioned, Memphis police have had problems with abuses of the people of Memphis. There are lots of police departments in major cities that have been accused of targeting black and brown men in particular.

And so the question is, will this rhetoric and some of the actions of the White House empower police departments in ways that down the line could prove to lead to problematic behavior that, quite frankly, police departments have been trying to eradicate.

They've been trying to do better with their hiring, trying to be more thoughtful about how they police high crime neighborhoods. And that's also the concern, you know, are we training people, training our military using American citizens as, you know, their potential training grounds? That's just problematic.

PEREZ: Especially because you know the feds are going to leave at some point, right? And then it's going to be up to the Memphis police department, which has a struggle recruiting officers. So, you know, that message that is being sent is probably not something that can, you know, live on long term.

RAJU: Yes. Why in -- these states are all -- these cities are all blue cities. I mean, Trump is, there's crime in red cities too. Is there any thinking of going into any of these red cities?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Are you sure there is? I have not heard about that --

RAJU: Right.

MATTINGLY: -- from federal law enforcement officials.

RAJU: Right.

MATTINGLY: Look, you don't need to think that deeply into what's happening here and the genesis of it, which like you can go back to the first term. And there was, at one point, during kind of the BLM social justice period, where it was most intense, there was an executive order that Trump signed calling for the elimination of funding to anarchist cities.

Those cities were Portland, Washington, D.C., Chicago, like explicitly targeted within the executive order. And so there -- that has always been a fixation for the President, for many of his top officials in large part, because they are democratic run cities. Many of them are sanctuary cities.

Their law enforcement policies or the restrictions they put on the police directly tied to abuses of the past are more expansive than others. And this is just kind of the fulfillment of something that started in a moment where the pendulum, particularly on policing, has shifted dramatically as it has across so many different issues.

And I think Evan make -- Evan and Tia make two critical points. One, from Evan's perspective, what's the long game here, right?

[12:40:00]

Every local official will appreciate more resources, more law enforcement, and it will likely, almost certainly, have an immediate effect on crime. But the strategic goals after those individuals leave.

And then to Tia's point, you know, how far does the pendulum swing on the issue of policing and restraints or constraints on law enforcement? Does it go back to the place that we saw that sparked --

RAJU: Yes.

MATTINGLY: -- so much of -- a lot of the consent decrees that the Justice Department has walked away from in recent months?

RAJU: And from a political standpoint, we'll see how much it ramps up ahead of the midterms as well. That's something to watch.

Evan, you have some new reporting from last night about controversy more in the Eastern District of Virginia, the U.S. Attorney's Office there. Of course, remember, it was just last week James Comey was indicted after Donald Trump called for him to be indicted after Donald Trump essentially pushed out the prosecutor there, installed a loyalist to come in there, ultimately Comey, the former FBI director, getting indicted. Now you're reporting Justice Department fires prosecutor falsely tied to Comey case in social media post.

PEREZ: Yes. So the person who was fired is the head of the National Security Unit at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Alexandria, Eastern District of Virginia. His name is Michael Ben'Ary, and he was fired yesterday evening after Julie Kelly, who is a popular person on the right -- on conservative media --

RAJU: And that's a tweet of hers on the screen.

PEREZ: Right, she put up -- right, a post on X in which she accused him of being part of the resistance to the Comey indictment. And we know, look, there was some resistance among some career prosecutors in that office. They wrote a memo outlining their objections to the case.

But Ben'Ary was not involved in this case at all. And so she was wrong about that, but it doesn't matter. You know, we don't -- they haven't exactly said why he was fired. The only reason they give is Article II, which is the letter that they've sent to, you know, a lot of people that they fired. But it really gives you a sense of how a lot of these firings have been happening.

Someone goes on social media, usually on X, they get it go viral, someone at the White House notices, and then they send a message in to fire. We've seen this happen at the FBI repeatedly. A lot of them are wrong too, by the way.

It keeps happening that they have the wrong person, but it doesn't matter because, you know, they get fired. And the person who is on social media, you know, starting this all sort of walks away with their hands sort of clean.

RAJU: Yes. Fascinating insight into the way the world is working right now.

PEREZ: Right.

RAJU: All right, great --

PEREZ: Not normal times.

RAJU: Not normal times. Indeed. And thank you for that reporting.

And now next for us, he's the man leading the charge to dismantle government and wants to use a shutdown to do it. Phil, who's sitting right here, has new CNN reporting on the man using his power in Washington to make Washington less powerful.

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[12:47:18]

RAJU: Russ Vought is winning. Well, that's how my colleagues Phil Mattingly and Jeremy Herb described the man behind the shutdown. Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought in a very deeply reported new piece on CNN.com. Vought's power is now on full display as he makes good on his longstanding promise to deconstruct bureaucracy.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

RUSS VOUGHT, OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET DIRECTOR: We're not going to be push -- receive pushback from the notion that we're going to dramatically change the deep, woken, weaponized administrative state.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

RAJU: My insightful panel is back, including the reporter behind that piece, Phil Mattingly. So Phil, you write in this article, you say Vought's vision. "Vought's vision is for how to deconstruct Washington's sprawling federal bureaucracy, shaped by his years toiling within it amid Republican circles, is now being enacted. Vought has transformed a role typically focused on the weeds of congressional appropriations into the Trump administration's primary instrument to dismantle piece by piece federal agencies and spending plans."

And Trump is meeting with him today.

MATTINGLY: And utilizing the authority that Russ Vought has deployed over the course of the first nine months of the administration, but also the degree to which he has become kind of the boogeyman that Democrats point to, for his very publicly stated intent coming into this moment.

And there's kind of like a wink and a nod to the Project 2025 elements of this, which are really kind of in a very simplistic manner, but attached directly to vote. And also the fact that like, if you're going to be in a hostage situation, nobody's confused as to whether Russ Vought is willing to pull the trigger.

KIM: Right.

MATTINGLY: Whether Donald Trump directs him to do that or takes his path, I think, as we were discussing earlier, is still kind of an open question. The thing to understand here, and, look, we've all covered Capitol Hill, we've covered Russ when he was a Republican staffer at Heritage Action, where he was helping to drive towards a government shutdown in 2013, OMB deputy director and director in the first term is the degree to which the entire career path he took informed this moment.

Yes, he has a very, very deep understanding of congressional budgets, but he also learned, while at OMB in the first term, just how far he could push his authority, in part because of his lawyer, his general counsel, Mark Paoletta, into areas where the norms of Washington, 50 years of how the power dynamics existed in Washington, just didn't really open the door for anybody to consider.

On congressional spending, any place there's ambiguity or he believes there's ambiguity, he has run headlong into to really grab authority that lawmakers just never even considered the administration had access to. And the biggest thing to I think consider here is the number of elements that are converging that have allowed this to happen, that have opened the door for this.

[12:50:07]

How just stringently do congressional appropriators zealously guard their authority? You know, there's Republicans, there's Democrats, there's appropriators. They're their own kind of --

RAJU: Yes.

MATTINGLY: -- elite group of people. How many Republican congressional appropriators have gone to the mattresses to fight what Russ Vought has done?

RAJU: Yes, and the Senate confirmed it, including the chairman of the -- chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee --

MATTINGLY: Yes. RAJU: -- Susan Collins. You saw on your screen there a number of things that Russ Vought has done since in this term, dismantling federal agencies, refusing to designate emergency funding, really orchestrated by Russ Vought.

And then Mike Johnson this morning, he was talking about this meeting with Trump and Russ Vought. He said, "Russ has to sit down and decide because he's in charge of that office, which policies, personnel, and which programs are essential and which are not."

That is not a fun task, and he's not enjoying that responsibility.

KIM: He's not enjoying it. Sure jag (ph).

RAJU: Yes, that's right.

KIM: Well, you know, Phil's excellent story is just a perfect example of how the most powerful people in Washington are the people who have mastered the bureaucracy, mastered procedure, mastered rules, which is why, again, the most people -- most powerful people, per se, on Capitol Hill are the ones who have really nailed down the complex Senate rules, for example.

Because you do -- you have to be a navigator of this really Byzantine complex series of institutions, precedents, rules. And like Phil said, he has -- you know, Russ Vought has spent decades learning that and mastering that, which is what makes him such a powerful aid to Donald Trump at this moment.

RAJU: Yes. And then speaking of Trump, he said this morning that, he said, "I have a meeting today with Russ Vought of Project 2025 fame." Of course, that was the project that Democrats demonized, went after hard in the campaign, saying, look at this, and they campaigned very hard on it.

And then Donald Trump, when he was running for the second term, said, well, this Project 2025 thing, I don't really know much about it.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Some on the right, severe right, came up with this Project 25, and I don't even know. They are extreme, I mean, they're seriously extreme. But I don't know anything about it. I don't want to know anything about it.

I have nothing to do with Project 2025. That's out there. I haven't read it. I don't want to read it purposely. I'm not going to read it.

Project 2025, I've said a hundred times, I know nothing about it. I had nothing to do.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

RAJU: And today, meeting of Russ Vought of Project 2025 fame.

MITCHELL: Fame. Fame. You know, I mean, I think it's another example of voters having to be sober minded about the choice that was made in November 2020 and the effects of that choice. Elections have consequences, even if they didn't believe or they chose to believe what President Trump said, the writing was on the wall that Project 2025 was really going to guide and shape this administration. And we're seeing that. The question now is, how will voters respond in the midterms and then moving forward?

RAJU: Yes, one thing is clear. This position, the White House budget director has always been very powerful, extremely powerful in this administration as well. Great reporting from Phil and Jeremy Herb.

All right, the new response from a member of the Trump administration to Bad Bunny's upcoming Super Bowl performance. That's next.

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[12:58:01]

RAJU: Topping our political radar, Americans are losing faith that the country's political divisions can ever be overcome. According to a new poll from the New York Times, just 33 percent of voters say the country is capable of solving its political problems. That's far worse than five years ago, when 51 percent still had confidence in the nation's political system.

But at least there's this. The vast majority of both Democrats and Republicans say the other party is made up of fellow Americans with whom they disagree, but they are not their enemies.

Infamous ex-Congressman Madison Cawthorn is planning a comeback. The young North Carolina Republican, who served one term before losing a primary in 2022, announced a new bid for an open seat in Florida.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

MADISON CAWTHORN, FORMER UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE: I know what it means to be underestimated and I know what it takes to fight back. That same spirit is what I'll carry to Washington. I'm running for Congress to stand with President Trump, defend our conservative values and fight to stop the radical left every single time.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

RAJU: Now, Cawthorn made enemies on both sides of the aisle after alleging his colleagues used cocaine and hosted orgies, in addition to legal problems and a rash of bizarre personal behavior. Now, it's a competitive primary that also includes disgraced ex-Congressman Chris Collins, who pled guilty to insider trading but was pardoned by President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEOCLIP) RAJU: Days after MAGA erupted after overbig Bad Bunny being picked for this year's Super Bowl halftime show, a top Homeland Security adviser says to expect ICE agents at the big game. Here's Corey Lewandowski speaking yesterday to a far-right podcaster.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, CHIEF ADVISER FOR HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY KRISTI NOEM: Benny (ph), there is nowhere that you can provide safe haven to people who are in this country illegally, not the Super Bowl and nowhere else. We will find you, we will apprehend you, we will put you in a detention facility and we will deport you.

If there are illegal aliens, I don't care if it's a concert for Johnny Smith or Bad Bunny or anybody else, we're going to do enforcement everywhere because we're going to make Americans safe. That is a directive from the President.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

RAJU: CNN is seeking clarification on whether this is anything out of the ordinary since Homeland Security agents are usually a presence at Super Bowls. Now, Bad Bunny has been a vocal Trump critic and said just this month that he didn't include the mainland United States in his concert tour because of fears that ICE would raid the concert venues.

Thanks for joining Inside Politics. CNN News Central starts right now.