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Trump's Ukraine Blame Game & Concessions To Russia; U.S. Consumer Sentiment Plummets 8 Percent From Last Month; FBI Director: Wisconsin Judge Arrested For Allegedly Obstructing ICE. Aired 11- 11:30a ET

Aired April 25, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:01:20]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, quote, pretty close to a deal. That's the message from President Trump on a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine, as his special envoy meets with Russian President Putin in Moscow.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in the Situation Room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

BLITZER: And we begin with the breaking news. President Trump speaking out on Russia's war in Ukraine and seems to put much of the blame on the U.S. ally, Ukraine, that was invaded by Russia. That coming from a new interview the President just gave to "Time Magazine." And it comes as a special U.S. envoy meets face to face with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin. Sources tell CNN that President Trump is becoming more frustrated in trying to broker a peace deal.

We are covering all the angles. CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House, and Kylie Atwood is at the State Department. Alayna, the President spoke of blame and possible concessions, big concessions. What can you tell us?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: That's right. Well, when it comes to the big concessions, he said he thinks on behalf of Russia, a concession would be stopping the fighting and not taking over the entire country. And then we also heard him in an interview with "Time Magazine" this week.

He essentially said, quote, Crimea will stay with Russia. And then he went on to say who he thought caused the war. And this is what he said. He said, I think what caused the war to start was when they started talking about joining NATO. That's, of course, a Russian talking point that we've again and again said is just not true.

All to say these comments don't necessarily go far in the way of trying to ease some of the concerns that Ukraine and the United States, European allies have that Trump might be willing to give up too much in order to make a deal. And all of this comes as we're learning that behind closed doors, the President is increasingly frustrated that his efforts to try and mediate a deal between Russia and Ukraine have so far fallen short.

And he's privately told aides, I'm told, that this is proving to be more difficult than he initially anticipated. All of this coming as we're quickly approaching that 100-day mark of his second term. That's really the deadline that he had in mind for when a deal should have been completed.

So right now, the main goal and the message I think they want Steve Witkoff to deliver in his meetings today with President Putin is, is a deal tenable? And if not, they have to move on.

BROWN: All right. Kylie Atwood at the State Department, I want to bring you in. Tell us more about this Witkoff-Putin meeting.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, when it comes to the substance of this meeting, Pam, presumably what Steve Witkoff is trying to do is get the Russians on board with this new framework that the Trump administration has put together to drive an end to this war.

After Steve Witkoff's last meeting with Putin, he said that he got an idea of the Russian demands for peace. And then the U.S. put together this framework. So presumably, some of those Russian demands are already baked into, or are already part of the framework that the United States put together.

We should also note, however, that they had been meeting with the Ukrainians over the last few months. So Ukrainians' perspectives are also probably baked into that framework. But the Ukrainians have been incredibly resistant to elements of that framework that the United States has put on the table.

So what we're watching to see here is if Witkoff can actually get the Russians to agree to this framework that the United States is putting down here. We really don't know if they're going to get closer in this meeting, if it's going to take a long time. And the timeline here is incredibly key because President Trump and his aides have repeatedly said that time is running out.

[11:05:05]

BROWN: Right. And on Iran, I want to bring you in on that, Alayna. President Trump also talked about Iran relations there and a potential deal there. What did he say?

TREENE: I think some very notable things about Iran. One is that he's confident a deal can be made. He said that very clearly in this interview with "Time," which I should note was conducted earlier this week on Tuesday, but published today.

He also said he was open to meeting with Iran's supreme leader. That would be huge. We haven't seen a meeting between the, you know, President of the United States and Iran's supreme leader in several years now.

But what was really notable, Pamela, is when he talked about whether or not he would go to war over this. He essentially said he would not allow Israel to drag the United States into a war with Iran, but that he would willingly strike and bomb Iran's nuclear facilities if a deal is not made. He's hinted at that.

He suggested that in the past. But this is very clear language from the President that he believes a deal is possible. And if it doesn't happen, he is willing to really go to that next step in order to make sure Iran does not have a nuclear weapon.

BROWN: All right, Kylie Atwood, Alayna Treene, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, there's more breaking news, Pamela, that we're following right now. April's consumer sentiment report has just been released, and we're getting a good look at how Americans are feeling about the state of the U.S. economy and President Trump's on-again, off-again trade war. Sentiment plunged 8 percent from last month to 52.2. That's the fourth lowest level on record, dating back to 1952.

BROWN: We are joined now by U.S. national editor at the Financial Times, Ed Luce. All right, what do you make of this latest consumer confidence data, Ed?

ED LUCE, U.S. NATIONAL EDITOR, FINANCIAL TIMES: Well, the -- the jump from March to April is what's most stunning here. It's a really huge, sorry, fall, not jump. And of course, that's the -- the month that straddles Liberation Day and all the seesawing we've seen over the -- the global tariff war since then. But we've got consumers now firmly expecting, everybody sort of across the board, firmly expecting price increases to be coming soon.

Inflation expectations are touching multi-decade highs. And that's going to be very hard to sort of shake off. So we're seeing some panic buying, people buying a lot of stuff in the anticipation that prices will be going up as container ships from China slow down and as the shelves begin to empty.

BLITZER: And we've also learned, Ed, that China has quietly rolled back its retaliatory tariffs on some American-made semiconductors. Is this a sign that Beijing may be ready to actually make a deal?

LUCE: I think Beijing wants to have an envoy. They -- they keep asking for Trump to appoint somebody who can hold talks with them. And there's some confusion as to who's conducting these talks. Trump said that the two sides were in active talks, but then China said it isn't happening.

And it is a sort of measure of everybody's confusion at the moment that we actually believed communist autocratic China on that and not the President of the United States. There don't yet appear to be talks, but China clearly doesn't want this trade war and is -- is awaiting Trump announcing somebody who will conduct the negotiations and -- and a repeal of what they call America's unilateral tariffs. That's -- that really them saying the ball is in Trump's court.

BROWN: Well, and we should note that Trump told Time Magazine that Xi Jinping called him for trade talks. And as we know, Beijing has responded to any notion there's any talks between the two sides as fake news, saying that there's been no negotiations between the two countries on tariffs. At what point do you think Americans will really feel the pain from this trade war?

LUCE: Well, if he doesn't -- if -- if President Trump doesn't reduce those across the board, 145 percent tariffs, excluding things like iPhones on China, then very, very soon. And if you look at -- if you look at those containership traffic numbers from China to the United States, they've -- they've fallen off a cliff in the last few days.

And so that implies there's going to be fewer Chinese goods coming. And those that do come, of course, are going to be 145 percent or so more expensive. So some of this panic hoarding, panic buying by -- by American consumers is entirely rational, they get what's going on, and they can see what's coming.

[11:10:00]

And until -- until Trump climbs down, and that "Time Magazine" interview was very interesting because he claimed without evidence to have done 200 deals in the last few days. We're -- we're not aware of a single deal. And he says there's been 200 -- so the confusion, if anything, has -- has just been deepened by that.

BROWN: Yes, we would love to see some details on those deals, he says there.

BLITZER: Yes. I'd like to see some deals.

BROWN: Exactly.

BLITZER: Yes.

BROWN: All right, Ed Luce, thank you.

BLITZER: All right, there's more breaking news we're following right now. The FBI Director Kash Patel says a U.S. judge has been arrested for obstructing an immigration operation. Let's go live right now to our senior crime and justice correspondent, Katelyn Polantz. It's pretty dramatic. What are you learning, Katelyn?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Truly, Wolf, this is something that we have certainly not seen before, but appears to be part of this aggressive approach the Trump administration has toward immigration. What the FBI Director Kash Patel announced in a social media post just a few minutes ago this morning is that just now the FBI arrested Judge Hannah Dugan out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on charges of obstruction after evidence of Judge Dugan obstructing an immigration arrest operation last week.

We believe Judge Dugan intentionally misdirected federal agents away from the subject to be arrested in her courthouse. Eduardo Flores Ruiz is the name that the FBI Director puts out there about that subject, allowing the subject to evade arrest. Thankfully, our agents chased down the perp on foot, and he's been in custody since. But the judge's obstruction created increased danger to the public.

So that's the FBI Director laying out this apparent story and the developments this morning, Wolf, of what is happening with this arrest. We have reached out to the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, which is where the judge sits, Judge Hannah Dugan. They have not responded yet, and there isn't any publicly available information in the court record about this.

But it would be a startling development if this judge was arrested as she was working on the bench as a judge handling an immigration case or a case of a person that ICE was also interested in. Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes, very dramatic and significant indeed. Katelyn Polantz reporting for us, thank you very much. Pamela?

BROWN: Arresting a judge is a very big deal.

BLITZER: Yeah. It's a big deal.

All right. New this morning, a recently unsealed court filing is giving us a detailed look at how the Trump administration is trying to carry out deportations under the centuries-old Alien Enemies Act. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joins us now. What are you learning?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, this gave us the first detailed look at how exactly the administration is using the Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants who they say are eligible to fall under this authority. So, this is -- and it actually also provides us a window into why the American Civil Liberties Union has been so concerned.

So the way this is laid out, according to a court declaration by a senior ICE official, is that those who are eligible under this authority would receive a notice. It's one page. It says that they have been deemed to be considered an alien enemy. It does not say on the notice that they can contest it, but it simply says that they have been or could be subjected to this authority.

Then they're supposed to have a conversation, because this is a notice that's only in English. And having spoken to some of these people, they don't speak English. They speak Spanish or other languages. So they're supposed to have a conversation, and they're afforded a phone call.

Now, they have 12 hours to state their intention to file a habeas petition, essentially to contest their removal under this authority. And then they have 24 hours to actually do it. So if you think about this, it's a very small, quick timeline for people who are subject to this sweeping wartime authority to contest their removal.

The American Civil Liberties Union, of course, is raising issue with this, because while the Supreme Court did allow the administration to use the Alien Enemies Act, they said that they needed to provide people reasonable time, some level of due process to do so. So the argument here is, well, does 24 hours count as reasonable time?

Another argument that they have been making in court is when this was last used in World War II, those immigrants had 30 days.

BROWN: And -- and also, another layer to this is the fact that some of them are brought to Texas, and not where they -- they were living, and so they may not know who to reach out to, sort of the resources that might be available.

ALVAREZ: And frankly, a lot of immigrants in detention just don't have attorneys. And so trying to find an attorney and also file a really hard thing to do in this type of timeline, according to immigration advocates.

BROWN: All right, Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much.

[11:14:37]

BLITZER: And still ahead, President Trump wants to eliminate Houthi rebels in Yemen who've been attacking ships in the Red Sea. But the group has shot down a growing number of U.S. drones, we are now told. Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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BLITZER: There's new CNN reporting coming into The Situation Room. U.S. officials now say Houthi rebels have shot down at least seven multimillion dollar drones over the last month alone. And their attacks are hindering U.S. efforts to track down and kill the group's senior leadership as part of a major military campaign against the Iranian-backed militants.

CNN national security correspondent Natasha Bertrand is joining us right now. She's got the new reporting. What else are you learning, Natasha?

[11:19:59]

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Wolf, so this is really remarkable string of shootdowns by the Houthis of these very expensive, very sophisticated MQ-9 Reaper drones that the U.S. uses for intelligence, reconnaissance and surveillance over Yemen to try to track the weapons supplies that the Houthis have, as well as, importantly, the senior Houthi leaders and kind of track their movements and just build pattern of life for them.

Well, the Houthis are actually getting better at shooting down these drones, according to multiple officials that we've spoken to. And that's despite this massive military operation that the U.S. has been carrying out against the Houthis over the last six weeks or so, hammering them every single day with airstrikes. The Houthis have continued to launch missiles at these drones.

And they are, as -- as I said, they are getting better, actually, at shooting them down. Now, this has made it very difficult, we're told, for the U.S. to move to phase two of this massive military operation, in which they wanted to try to focus more on taking out these senior Houthi political leaders and military leaders so that they could try to degrade them more in a more fulsome way.

And now that these drones are getting shot -- shot down, they don't have the ability to have that persistent intelligence and reconnaissance capability over the Houthis to better monitor them. Now, we are told by U.S. Central Command that they are aware of this. They are trying to figure out exactly what is going on here, but noted that they are, of course, surging these assets to the area as part of this operation.

So it is likely that because there are more of them, it's getting easier for the Houthis to kind of shoot them down. But at the same time, the intel community, we are told, has assessed in recent days that the Houthis actually aren't all -- all that degraded over the last month-plus of these military operations. They are only slightly degraded. So the Houthis are proving extremely resilient, as they have for many, many years. Wolf?

BLITZER: Interesting. All right. Good reporting. Thanks very much, Natasha, for that. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Up next, Luigi Mangione is expected to enter his plea on federal stalking and murder charges today, as the Justice Department forges ahead with its goal of seeking the death penalty.

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[11:26:39]

BLITZER: Right now, disgraced former congressman, George Santos, is in a New York federal court to face sentencing on fraud charges.

BROWN: The Justice Department has pushed for a prison sentence of more than seven years in the case, and we could learn his fate at any moment.

BLITZER: And joining us now for more is Court T.V. anchor and former District Attorney Julie Grant. Julie, thanks for joining us. The U.S. Justice Department, as you know, is seeking a prison sentence of more than seven years for Santos. Is the judge, you think, likely to go that far?

JULIE GRANT, FORMER ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY: Wolf and Pamela, good morning. Thank you so much for having me. Perhaps, perhaps the prosecutors, Wolf, are looking to max him out. And the conduct is incredibly bad. We're talking about defrauding donors. We're talking about misleading voters. Essentially, this man was living a lie. And today, he's about to get a big reality check.

He's looking at a plea agreement where he's got to pay back $580,000 in restitution. And so, Wolf and Pamela, what I'm thinking the court may do, there's a mandatory minimum the court must impose for George Santos of two years. So we know he's got to do at least that much.

If the court is not inclined to max him out because he would be a first-time offender, would not have a prior record score, they may give him a lengthy period of probation to follow that incarceration so that he's got time to pay back all of the money that he stole from those victims.

BROWN: So you have George Santos. You have Sean Diddy, right, the music mogul who was disgraced. Jury selection in that case is in less than two weeks. Walk us through how these pretrial meetings set the stage for such a high-profile case like this.

GRANT: Sure, Pamela. Right. As you and Wolf know, this is a huge day in New York in the federal court. So we were just in the Eastern District talking about George Santos, right? And now Diddy's in the Southern District.

And today is one of those all-important pretrial conference dates that really set the stage, as I like to say, for what's ahead in the trial. They're going to pick the jury on May the 5th. So we're less than two weeks out from that.

And then we've got the trial beginning on May the 12th. That is the day set for opening statements. And so we could see various issues being hashed out, things that will be excluded or included in front of the jury.

So these are those days that they're important for the lawyers, is the best way I could say it, where the lawyers will find out where they have to stay in terms of the parameters and the evidence that they're presenting.

And as you both know, this is going to be an epic case where it's going to be coercion versus consent. The government saying that he used a criminal enterprise to force sex trafficking, prostitution, sex assault crimes to occur. That he used his power and influence to accomplish that under the guise of a business.

And then on the flip side, the defense is going to be fighting back hard with a brilliant team of attorneys to say that anything done in these freak off parties was consensual. Pamela and Wolf?

BLITZER: You know, and Julie, another major case. Luigi Mangione, as you know, facing federal charges of stalking and murder. He's expected to enter a plea deal, a plea today. Could we see any surprises?

[11:30:01]

GRANT: Wolf and Pamela, perhaps. I have to tell you, I think what wasn't a surprise for Mangione and his legal team was what was filed last night.