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The Situation Room

Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL), Is Interviewed About Trump's "Major Statement" On Russia; Trump Meets With NATO Secretary General At White House. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired July 14, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He'll talk so beautifully and then he'll bomb people at night. We don't like that.

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's go to CNN Senior White House Correspondent Kristen Holmes. Kristen, what do we know about this, quote, major statement the President is supposed to be making on Russia?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf and Pam, this is coming after we've seen almost a 180 from President Trump when it comes to sending aid to Ukraine. It's been kind of a slow roll as we've seen President Trump grow angrier and angrier with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said he spoke to him two weeks ago.

It was less than an hour and he didn't accomplish anything at all when it came to Ukraine. We know from the Kremlin side of that that President Trump had asked for a swift resolution in Ukraine and essentially Putin had told him no. So part of what we expect is likely today is what we have heard President Trump now talking about, which is this idea of sending Patriot systems, missiles, ammunitions to Ukraine but through NATO.

Essentially what would happen here is these NATO allies would be purchasing these various different types of weaponry from the United States and then transferring them to Ukraine. President Trump talked briefly about what this would look like. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: But we basically are going to send them various pieces of very sophisticated military and they're going to pay us 100 percent for them. I haven't agreed on the number yet but they're going to have some because they do need protection. But the European Union is paying for it. We're not paying anything for it but we will send it. It will be business for us and we will send them Patriots, which they desperately need.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Yes. And this is really the President walking a fine line here between what he campaigned on, which was not giving more resources, more money to Ukraine, but what he is seeing is the reality when it comes to the Russian President. So figuring out a way here to get those weapons into Ukraine, to get those weapons but not be the ones directly giving it to them and getting money back in exchange seems to be the way that he has figured that out.

Now, of course, we're waiting to hear if there are any other parts of this announcement, any ideas on Russian sanctions, for example, something that we're hearing from lawmakers they're trying to get across the finish line on Capitol Hill, something they think that President Trump is coming around to. He himself has kind of waffled back and forth on that idea.

But, as we noted, he is growing angrier and more frustrated with Vladimir Putin every day. So it does seem as though the direction he is going with Ukraine and with Russia is shifting quite significantly.

BLITZER: Do we have any indication, Kristen, when the President will make what he calls his major statement on Russia and Ukraine?

HOLMES: We're -- we're thinking it's any moment now, Wolf. We see the images coming out of there, the pool has been called back for this statement. So we're just waiting for them to give us the clear, for them to give the reporters the clear. The cameras will go in there and that will happen, so really any moment now.

BLITZER: All right. We'll have coverage of that, of course, to be sure.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We absolutely will.

BLITZER: Kristen Holmes, thank you very much.

BROWN: Thanks, Kristen. And let's continue this conversation with Congressman Mike Quigley. He's a Democrat from Illinois and co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus. Thanks for coming on, Congressman. So first off, your reaction to President Trump providing these Patriot missile systems through NATO allies?

REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL): Look, I'm pleased to hear it. I'm disappointed in the President making this transactional as if we're only doing it because we're getting paid. Look, experts like General Milley, Secretary Austin have told us this isn't just a moral decision -- decision. It's a strategic one. It has to do with our security as well.

All the reasons we fought the Second World War to keep a sovereign democratic country from being wiped off the face of the earth. But I welcome this and I -- I believe it should be only part of the plan here. At least two other things need to happen.

You know, we need to seize the Russian assets in the U.S., somewhere between 5 and $8 billion. Europeans need to seize those Russian assets around 300 billion for the war effort, but also to rebuild Ukraine. And -- and finally, we need to pass this bipartisan sanctions bill. It should happen this week. BROWN: I'm going to get to that bill in just a moment, but just to follow up with you with this arrangement with the Patriot missiles. What do you think -- how do you think that will affect the dynamic right now with Russia? Do you think it will provoke Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his allies?

QUIGLEY: We've been talking about provoking Putin for so long, even during the Biden administration, right? And it was always Putin's red line. At some point in time, we have to ask what our red line is. And it has to do with our national security and who we are as a -- as a country. And frankly, those Patriot missiles can only be part of it.

Now, they do talk about long range capabilities. Frankly, the best defense is a good office, as clearly Putin is just stalling because a war of attrition works in his favor.

[11:05:00]

BROWN: All right. So let's talk about that Senate bill that would slap these punishing new sanctions on countries who do business with Russia, specifically countries that buy oil, gas, uranium from Russia could face 500 percent tariffs on exports sent to the U.S. It has overwhelming bipartisan support in the Senate.

Eighty five co-sponsors. You have sponsored a similar sanctions bill in the House. Do you expect Congress to have something on the President's desk by August recess? What's your expectation?

QUIGLEY: Look, if given that opportunity, absolutely. It would overwhelmingly pass in the Senate. Since when does something have 85 co-sponsors in the Senate? And then, you know, the Republican leaders like Mr. Fitzpatrick, who's been a strong proponent of that on the Republican side, it'll get, I think, almost half of the Republicans and all the Democrats. So this would sail through and get to the President's desk.

But two things concern me. The fact that they despite having overwhelming support, they're still waiting for what? A signal from the President to go ahead and the fact that he has the ultimate waiver here. This is still a President, Mercurial as he is, who could change his mind next week. This is a President who's never said who he wants to win this war. He's paused aid more than once.

He's criticized Zelenskyy. He said that they started the war. So can you count on him? Absolutely not. So this should happen. It could happen. The fact that they're waiting for President Trump to give them a go ahead just reminds us that they've given up their congressional authority.

BROWN: The President has been vocal lately about his frustration and disappointment in Putin. What do you make of his shift in tone towards Russia right now?

QUIGLEY: Yes, look, forgive me. My first President's first term, the President trusted Putin over his own intel community. He has never criticized him. And gloriously, he finally starts to question him. He wrote recently. It makes me think maybe he doesn't want to stop the war. And then recently writing, he's disappointed. He's disappointed in a bloody tyrant. You know, the fact that it's taken this long is what's extraordinary and, frankly, scary.

BROWN: And we know we're waiting to hear from President Trump to make a major statement from -- as the White House says, on Russia. He's meeting with NATO Secretary General. What are you hoping to hear?

QUIGLEY: You know, I'm hoping to hear that this is going to be an extensive package and it's going to be ongoing and that the President needs to determine that this is in our national interest and talk about that. Well, I'd love to hear him say for the first time that Ukraine needs to win this war. And it's because it's the right thing to do and it's the right thing to do for our own safety.

Do I expect most of that? No, but I'll be just thrilled that something's going through to send a message to Putin and to help protect Ukraine and, frankly, Europe and the United States.

BROWN: All right, Congressman Quigley, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it.

QUIGLEY: Thank you.

BROWN: Wolf?

BLITZER: Also happening right now in Kerr County, Texas, county commissioners are holding their first meeting since deadly floods ripped through the region back on the 4th of July, leaving more than 100 people dead in the county alone. Search efforts are now underway for the more than 150 people who are still officially listed as missing as the community faces more severe weather. Here's what one official said about the response so far.

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RICH PACES, KERR COUNTY, TEXAS COMMISSIONER: We have seen the best of humanity. We truly see God's hand at work. There are too many people and agencies to name to have all worked tirelessly in our -- to help us in our time of need. It's sad to see the evil that's out there as well. In the midst of all this beauty, you know, I've been getting death threats. Can you imagine people cursing us for decisions that we never had a chance to make? And they're just playing a blame game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: No excuse for death threats.

BLITZER: Terrible.

BROWN: Certainly lessons can be learned, but you shouldn't be --

BLITZER: Yes.

BROWN: -- making death threats in this time. They -- this is a community that they're all grieving. Still ahead, nine people are dead after a fire broke out in an assisted living facility in Massachusetts. Officials say people were hanging out of windows begging to be rescued.

BLITZER: And President Trump is standing by his attorney, General Pam Bondi, after a major backlash from his MAGA base over the Department of Justice's statements coming out on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think people are going to be quiet about it until they really do it. But who knows if we'll ever know the true story.

[11:09:53]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that Donald Trump, he promised them, so he needs to do it. No matter who's on them, we need to release the Epstein file.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The President of the United States is now in the Oval Office with the NATO Secretary General, Mark Rutte. He's about to make what he describes as his major statement on Russia. Let's listen in.

TRUMP: -- European countries have great reliance on him and he's done a fantastic job.

And we had a tremendous meeting. I guess it's about a month now, a month ago. And I think Mark will tell you that it was really, perhaps more important, the date of November 5th. That was the Election Day, maybe that was the most important because we made tremendous progress together. And one of the reasons that you're here today is to hear that we are very unhappy, I am, with Russia, but we'll discuss that maybe a different day.

But we're very, very unhappy with them and we're going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days, tariffs that are about 100 percent. You'd call them secondary tariffs. You know what that means. But today we're going to talk about something else. And as you know, we've spent $350 billion approximately on this war with Russia and Ukraine and we'd like to see it end.

It wasn't my war, it was Biden's war. It's not my war. I'm trying to get you out of it. And we want to see it end. And I'm disappointed in President Putin because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago, but it doesn't seem to get there. So based on that, we're going to be doing secondary tariffs if we don't have a deal in 50 days. It's very simple, and they'll be at 100 percent.

And that's the way it is. That couldn't be more simple. That's just the way it is. I hope we don't have to do it. But regardless, we are going to be -- we make the greatest military equipment in the world, whether it's missiles. You saw that recently in Iran, the way those planes flew in, they hit every single -- 14 bombs hit every target.

Then you had the helicopters shoot a total of 30 bombs, 30 missiles, and they hit every single -- Marco, is that right, every single -- Pete, every single target. And it was, I guess, on a scale of 0 to 10, they say it was about a 15. That's how successful it was. That's how lethal it was, a word they like to use nowadays.

[11:14:50]

But it was an amazing, well-organized attack that people in this country want to do for 24 years. You know, when we had the pilots in last week, they were saying, sir, we've been practicing this for 24 years, meaning people, not them, but other people that are a little older now, but they too. And you were the one that let us do it, but we've been practicing it three to four times a year for 22, 24 years because they always knew they had to stop Iran from doing what they were doing, which is trying to come up with a nuclear weapon, a nuclear bomb, and we did it very successfully.

And we make the best equipment, the best missiles, the best of everything. The European nations know that. And we've made a deal today, and I'm going to have Mark speak about it, but we've made a deal today where we are going to be sending them weapons and they're going to be paying for them. We, the United States, will not be having any payment made.

We are not buying it, but we will manufacture it and they're going to be paying for it. Our last meeting of a month ago was very successful in that they agreed to 5 percent, which is more than $1 trillion a year. So they have a lot of money and these are wealthy nations. They have a lot of money and they want to do it. They feel very strongly about it and we feel strongly about it too, but we're in for a lot of money and we just -- we don't want to do anymore and we can't.

But we make the best and we're going to be sending the best to NATO, and in some cases, to maybe, at Mark's suggestion, if we go to Germany where they're going to send early on missiles and they'll be replaced and NATO is going to take care of it. It's going to be coordinated by NATO and they're going to work very much with Matt Whitaker, who's right here, who's a great ambassador and Matt's going to be coordinating. You better do a good job, Matt.

MATT WHITAKER, U.S. REPRESENTATIVE TO NATO: I will.

TRUMP: But Matt's going to coordinate. He's a very talented guy. He's going to coordinate everything. So in a nutshell, we're going to make top of the line weapons and they'll be sent to NATO. NATO may choose to have certain of them sent to other countries where we can get a little additional speed where the country will release something and it'll be mostly in the form of a replacement.

And I'd like to have Mark and again, just a highly respected, pretty young guy, pretty young guy for having had the career that he's had because he had an amazing career before going to NATO. So we spent a lot of time together over the last couple of months and if you could say a few words, I would appreciate it.

MARK RUTTE, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: Absolutely.

TRUMP: Thank you.

RUTTE: Mr. President, Donald, this is really big. This is really big. You called me on Thursday, that you had taken a decision, and a decision is that you want Ukraine, what it needs to have to maintain, to be able to defend itself against Russia, but you don't want the Europeans to pay for it, which is totally logical.

And this is building on the tremendous success of the NATO summit, the 5 percent, but also the decision to keep Ukraine strong and a decision to increase our defense industrial production. So based on that, this is -- that was Europe stepping up. This is, again, Europeans stepping up. So I've been in contact with many countries.

I can tell you that at this moment, Germany massively but also Finland and Denmark and Sweden and Norway, we have Kingdom, the Netherlands, Canada, they all want to be part of this and this is only the first wave. There will be more. So what we will do is work through the NATO systems to make sure that we know what Ukrainians need so that we can make packages.

Of course, in a way we discussed it this morning with Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon, in a way that of course, the U.S. will keep on its stockpiles necessary to defend this country. That's absolutely clear. But it will mean that Ukraine can get its hands on really massive numbers of military equipment both for air defense but also missiles, ammunition, et cetera, et cetera.

So if I was Vladimir Putin today and hear you speaking about what you were planning to do in 50 days and this announcement, I would reconsider whether I should not take negotiations about Ukraine more seriously than I was doing at the moment, if I was Vladimir Putin. But when I'm Ukraine, I think this is really great news for them.

So I really want to thank you for that and it means Europeans paying for it. And again, I mentioned all these countries, we will deal with that and exactly as you said, it might also mean that countries will move equipment fast into Ukraine and then the U.S. later backfilling it because speed is of the essence here. So really, thank you. This is important.

TRUMP: Great. You did a great job and it's a really great job. We've been very successful in settling wars. You have India-Pakistan, you have Rwanda and the Congo. That was going on for 30 years. India, by the way, and Pakistan would have been a nuclear war within another week the way that was going. That was going very badly.

And we did that through trade. I said we're not going to talk to you about trade unless you get this thing settled, and they did. And they were both great, great leaders and they were great. But Rwanda and the Congo that was going on for 30 years and at least 7 million people killed and killed with a lot of pretty rough weapons like machetes, heads chopped off, going on for many years.

[11:20:23]

You couldn't even get near the countries. Nobody wanted to get near it, so frightening, and we got that one solved. Serbia and Kosovo, got that solved. That was going to be one that was going to happen. And again, that was something I used -- I used trade for a lot of things, but it's great for settling wars.

That was really, very important. We're working, Marco's working very hard with everybody here on the Strip, the Gaza Strip. I call it the Gaza Strip, one of the worst real estate deals ever made. They gave up the oceanfront property, one of the worst deals ever made, but it was supposed to bring peace and it didn't bring peace. It brought the opposite. But we're doing pretty well on Gaza. Steve Witkoff is here and I think we could have something fairly soon to talk about.

And we solved other one, one that we just seemed to have Armenia and Azerbaijan. It looks like that's going to come to a conclusion, successful conclusion. We worked on Egypt with our next-door neighbor who is a good neighbor. They're friends of mine, but they happened to build a dam which closed up water going into a thing called the Nile.

I think if I'm Egypt, I want to have water in the Nile and we're working on that one. It's a problem, but it's going to get solved. They built one of the biggest dams in the world, a little bit outside of Egypt. You know about that. You've been hearing about that one and that turned out to be a big problem. I don't know. I think the United States funded the dam. I don't know why they didn't solve the problem before they built the dam.

But it's nice when the Nile River has water. And, you know, it's a very important source of income in life. It's the life of Egypt and to take that away is pretty incredible, but we think we're going to have that solved very quickly.

So we do good. The only one we haven't been able to get to yet is Russia and I'm not happy. And I will tell you that Ukraine wants to do something. Again, it's a war that should have never started. If I were president, it never would have happened. I used to speak to President Putin about it a lot. It was the apple of his eye.

But once I saw what was going on, I said, they're going to have a war here. I was outside. The election was rigged and I was outside looking in and I said, you know, that thing's going to be a war, couldn't believe it, because what Biden said was the exact opposite of what should have been said. And it started and it's a real mess.

We're losing -- I guess they're losing 5,000 or 6,000 people a day. It's actually now more. I was saying 5,000 a day. It's actually more now, mostly soldiers, but a lot of people in cities and towns that are getting blown up. It's a horrible war and it should be stopped. And so if it's not done, if we don't have an agreement in 50 days, that's what we're doing, secondary tariffs and they're biting.

And I hope we don't get to the point where we do. But I've been hearing so much talk. It's all talk. It's all talk and then missiles go into Kyiv and kill 60 people. It's got to stop. It's got to stop. But the purpose of this is to say that this is a very big deal we've made. This is billions of dollars' worth of military equipment is going to be purchased from the United States going to NATO, et cetera, and that's going to be quickly distributed to the battlefield.

Ukraine will take it up. And say what you want about Ukraine. When the war started, they had no chance and they still would have had no chance if they had the best equipment, because we do make the best planes and missiles and we make the best military equipment in the world, by far. We have new things coming out that are beyond belief and I'm very excited about the Golden Dome.

It's going to give us very strong protection. We've already started that. But they had courage because somebody has to use that equipment and they fought with tremendous courage and they continue to fight with tremendous courage, but they don't have -- they're losing on equipment. And Russia is really taking a very positive -- very, very strong I mean what they've done the last couple of weeks.

RUTTE: Without military relations, that's what they are doing, 700 drones a day, missiles, bombing cities. This is not because of military goals. It is just creating panic --

TRUMP: They're hitting towns.

RUTTE: Keeping people out of their sleeps, hitting towns. It's really terrible and it is meaning a lot of people lose their lives, but also the infrastructure, whole cities being destroyed.

[11:25:08]

TRUMP: They're wiping out the electric. It's going to take years to rebuild it. This is a -- that's going to be the next problem, but that's going to take a long time. Cities -- many of the cities are knocked down to the ground. Many of the people have left, but many have stayed. I don't know. They actually stay and most have stayed, actually.

It's incredible that they stay and knowing that a missile could be hitting your apartment house and your apartment house that you're sitting in could collapse on top of you, and they do very heavy construction. They don't use rebar. They do very thick concrete construction. So those are heavy buildings, big buildings and heavy buildings and they collapse like they're made out of paper.

It's unbelievable to see this happening with so many people being killed. So we think we're going to make progress and we hope we're going to make progress. In the meantime, we're going to get you good service on what you need and we really became friendly with NATO this last meeting. You know, we went from 2 percent to 5 percent, which everyone said was not even a possibility. They weren't paying 2 percent. Many of them were paying much less than 2 percent.

RUTTE: But even those since you became president, all committed to the 2 percent before the summit, and now collectively, we committed to the 5 percent.

TRUMP: That's right. They did. They've been very good. And I think I made a lot of friends over there. We had a couple of days of very intensive talks and they're great people. They're leaders of countries, leaders of countries, many of them great countries, some of them smaller countries. But for the most part, that's very solid, strong countries and very successful.

Some of them are among the most successful countries in the world. So that's the story. We hope that's going to have an impact on Vladimir Putin and we hope it's going to have an impact on Ukraine also. We want to make sure that Ukraine does what they have to do. All of a sudden, they may feel emboldened and maybe they don't want -- this is a very difficult situation.

RUTTE: Ukraine wants a peace deal.

TRUMP: I think so.

RUTTE: And they will stay committed to that. There's no doubt they want it, but the Russians have to become serious.

TRUMP: They have to continue to want it though.

RUTTE: Yes, I agree. You and I will make sure of that.

TRUMP: All of a sudden, they get --

RUTTE: You and I will make sure of that.

TRUMP: We'll make sure. I feel confident that they will do what has to be done. Plus, we have certain parameters that both sides know and we already know what should be done. So I think that's going to be -- it's going to be very strong. We want everlasting peace. Any questions, please? Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Mr. President. What was the tipping point for you in making this decision? Was it a conversation with President Putin? Was it a piece of intelligence? And why are you giving 50 more days?

TRUMP: Well, I think it's a very short period of time. I think, don't forget, I've just really been involved in this for not very long and it wasn't initial focus. This is, again, this is a Biden war. This is a Democrat war, not a Republican or Trump war. This is a war that would have never happened. It shouldn't have happened.

A lot of people being killed. When the final numbers come in, you're going to see a lot more people are being killed in this war than you think, than you've been writing about. It's a very deadly war. Very -- they're all bad, but this is a very deadly war. Very -- the numbers are going to be far greater. When an apartment house comes down and they say two people were slightly injured.

No, many people were killed and those numbers will be at some point accurately reported. So far, they're not. It's a deadly war. I think that you're just going to see -- I think you're going to see strong movement. I hope so. I hope so. You know, the secondary tariffs are very, very powerful.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What about the tariffs that the Republicans and the House and the Senate have, right? They have 500 percent. Why are you doing 100 percent?

TRUMP: Yes, sure. Well, the Republicans are moving very strongly in the Senate, giving us total control of it, but I'm not sure we need it, but it's certainly good that they're doing it. And Lindsey Graham's working hard, John Thune, all of them. They're all working hard and they're in coordination with Mike Johnson, Speaker in the House.

And I think they are -- they've actually crafted a pretty good piece of legislation. It's probably going to pass very easily, and that includes Democrats, and there are some little tweaks. But I don't want to say I don't need it because I don't want them to waste their time. It could be very useful. We'll have to see.

But we can do secondary. We're probably talking about 100 percent or something like that. We can do secondary tariffs without the Senate, without the House, but what they're crafting also could be very good.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So are you suggesting then that the Congress should move forward with those sanctions, the 500 percent and that your 100 will be a separate additional package?

[11:29:52]

TRUMP: Yes, I mean the 500 is, you know, sort of meaningless after a while because at a certain point, it doesn't matter. It's not going to be, you know, 100 is going to serve the same function. But yes, I have it at 100 percent. They may have it -- I don't know what they're going to end up with. They may have it at 100 --