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The Situation Room

Soon, Philippine President Visits White House; Mahmoud Khalil Meets With Lawmakers in D.C.; Source Says, House Oversight Committee to Subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired July 22, 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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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: In moments, President Trump will meet with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Top the list will be trying to negotiate a trade deal.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: I want to go live right now to CNN's Alayna Treene over at the White House for us. Alayna, what are we expecting to see in the next few minutes?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, Wolf. Well, what we're really going to see from the Philippine President Marcos is he's going to try to leverage the relationship that the United States has with the Philippines, and particularly given they are very strong defense allies. They have been allies for several, several years. They have a defense agreement, really the strongest defense ally that the United States has in the Pacific region. He's going to try to leverage that for a more favorable trade deal.

Now, let's just walk through some of this. I want to -- the current rate right now on tariffs is at 17 percent. The president, President Donald Trump, has said that he would increase it to 20 percent on August 1st. Now, this is actually lower than a lot of the other different countries and allies in the region, partly because the Philippines actually has a much smaller trade deficit with the United States.

And just to walk you through some of those numbers here. Sorry, my screen went down, but through some of the numbers, they have a much smaller trade deficit with the Philippines than in other countries in their region. Oh, here we have it up. So, $14.2 billion, that was U.S. goods imported from the Philippines in 2024. That's a 6.9 increase from 2023. And then when you look at the deficit with the Philippines, it was $4.9 billion in 2024. That's a 21.8 percent increase from 2023.

Now, look, of course, the deficit is what we know the president has long focused on when trying to determine what the tariff rate would be for these different countries. But, again, what we believe that the Philippine president is going to do here is try and leverage the really good relationship he has with the United States to try and get them a better and more favorable bilateral deal. And one thing that's just really interesting to add to all of this, Wolf and Pamela, and this was pointed out from our colleague, Kevin Liptak, is that President Donald Trump actually had a relationship with Marcos, the Philippine president's mother, Imelda. They had attended events together back when she was still the former first lady of the Philippines. And we know that when he actually spoke with the new Philippine president, her son, President Marcos, in November he asked her, how's your mother doing? And so that could also potentially be a bonus for the Philippine president today when he comes and meets with the president here in the Oval Office. Wolf and Pam?

BLITZER: Just a quick question, Alayna. Once the Philippine president arrives, they'll go into the Oval Office and they'll make statements, and then presumably there'll be cameras and reporters in there, and the president will answer reporters' questions. Is that what we anticipate?

TREENE: That's exactly right. So, we are waiting and then we actually have the honor guard now lining up behind me signaling that his arrival is imminent. But, yes, they will greet each other at the West Wing. You see that they're right under those doors, by those doors. And then they'll go into the Oval Office, likely take some questions.

I think one of the key things, of course, is going to be focused on the Epstein case, in addition, of course, to his visit here today. And then they'll go and have lunch. So, stay tuned for that.

BROWN: And just to follow up with you, what are the news organizations not expected to be there in the Oval would be The Wall Street Journal, right? Alayna Treene, tell us what's going on with that.

TREENE: Yes. So -- and this is something I know that a lot of people, members of the White House Correspondents' Association, we saw a statement from their president really pushing back and being critical on this comes after, of course, The Wall Street Journal last week published a story about a letter, an alleged letter that Trump had sent to Jeffrey Epstein back in the early 2000s. They said it appeared to bear Trump's signature, that it had the outline of a naked woman and essentially detailed, you know, warm messages to Epstein.

Now, it was not a question, of course, of whether the two were friends, that has been well documented, but the president was pushing back very harshly on the letter. He called it fake. We saw many statements from the White House saying the same, and then he went and sued them. But now we're actually seeing they've been pulled from an upcoming trip that the president has to Scotland and is also potentially being pulled from some of these key events today, you know, in that statement from the White House Correspondents' Association president, but it's basically saying that that goes the First Amendment and they're pushing back heavily on this.

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So, we'll see whether or not any of that changes momentarily. Wolf and Pam? BROWN: All right. Alayna Treene, thank you.

BLITZER: And we'll stand by to hear what the president has to say.

Also happening now, a central figure of the nationwide campus protest against the Trump administration's immigration crackdown targeting student activism, that individual is now up on Capitol Hill thanking his supporters in the House and Senate. Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian-born Palestinian refugee, is one of several foreign nationals the Trump administration has accused of posing a national security threat due to his alleged ties to terrorist organizations. It's a claim his attorneys have repeatedly and strongly disputed.

BROWN: The Columbia graduate was detained for 104 days before a federal judge ordered his release. Finding the effort to deport him were likely unconstitutional.

Mahmoud Khalil is here in The Situation Room. Mahmoud, thank you for being here. I know it's a busy day for you. This is your first time back in D.C. actually since your detention. You're meeting with lawmakers who supported you during that time, what are you conveying in those meetings?

MAHMOUD KHALIL, DETAINED BY ICE FOR 104 DAYS: Thank you so much for having me. I mean, after one 104 days, I'm back here. Today is the one month mark of my release from ICE detention for simply speaking out, for simply being Palestinian. And I'm not only meeting with those who supported me. I'm meeting with different lawmakers to demand and to actually discuss with them the necessity of ending the genocide in Gaza, to ending the U.S. funded war in, in Palestine, and to also hold the Trump administration to hold the Columbia University accountable for silencing our speech, for detaining me because this shouldn't be -- this shouldn't happen in the first place. But I'm here to say I will not be silenced. We will continue to resist until every Palestinian gets their freedom and justice and dignity.

BROWN: Right. And as you know, Israel has repeatedly pushed back against claims of genocide and Gaza, but the U.N. Special Committee found reasonable grounds to believe that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians and Gaza. And now we are learning that 15 people died of starvation and Gaza in the last 24 hours, as according to the health ministry there. The situation has only gotten worse since the university protest you participated in, it seems. Why do you think that is?

KHALIL: It's just like because of the complicity of the institutions, the international community with Israeli crimes. It's because, unfortunately, they want to protect Israel impunity while it's committing all these crimes. As we speak, as you've mentioned, people are being starved to death. People are just waiting on lines waiting for food and they're being killed, because, unfortunately, we are at a stage where Palestinians are so dehumanized that no one cares about them. And this is one of the main things that why I am here, I'm speaking out for our rights because this shouldn't be the case. I shouldn't have been detained for just simply speaking out against the war, against the genocide, but that's what's happening right now, unfortunately.

BROWN: Did those protests do anything to help the people in Gaza, you think?

KHALIL: Sorry, can you say that again?

BROWN: Yes. Looking back on things now, do you think the protests did anything to help the people in Gaza?

KHALIL: Absolutely. What we're seeing on U.S. colleges and U.S. streets is a public dismay with what the American government is doing by funding the genocide. There is -- we can see that now Palestine is becoming part of the mainstream narrative in this country, a narrative that has been suppressed for forever, so absolutely now.

And, unfortunately, the change on institution level happens slowly. But the people are awakened now. More people, more Jewish Americans as well are becoming aware of Israel's crime, of Israel use and exploitation of anti-Semitism and of the Jewish history to commit genocide against the Palestinians.

BLITZER: I know you filed, Mahmoud, a $20 million claim against the Trump administration alleging you were falsely imprisoned in dehumanizing conditions and maliciously prosecuted. What are you hoping to achieve with this filing?

KHALIL: Simply, I'm hoping to achieve accountability because there should be accountability for such overreach.

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The Trump administration should feel the heat of their actions. And they can't just simply like kidnap people from the street and throw them in jails in Louisiana 1,400 miles away. It's simply accountability.

I want to make sure that this doesn't happen to others, to set a precedent that there should be accountability, that this administration is not just immune to accountability.

BROWN: The Justice Department, as you well know, is accusing you of misrepresenting personal details on your green card application, specifically that you failed to disclose your employment with the Syria office and the British Embassy in Beirut, and that you are a member of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees.

According to the government, it is considered fraud to misrepresent or conceal memberships that would make someone ineligible for permanent residency status. How do you respond to the government's claim here?

KHALIL: This is simply retaliation against my freedom of speech. I got my green card over a year ago or almost a year ago, just to be exact. And I disclosed all the information that I had at that point. And the -- and now we are arguing in court that this was actually retaliation. The Trump administration wanted to find anything against me so they can deport me. They had to literally go through every application I ever applied in this country to find these bogus claims that I willfully misrepresented my green card application. But it's absolutely retaliation and I did not misrepresent anything.

BLITZER: I want to read, Mahmoud, at least part of a new statement that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security gave CNN about your claims. And let me put it up on the screen, and I'm quoting now from this Department of yes, Human Services statement, Mahmoud Khalil's claim that DHS officials branded him as an anti-Semite and terrorized him and his family is absurd. It was Khalil who terrorized Jewish students on campus. He branded himself as an anti-Semite through his own hateful behavior and rhetoric. That's a statement from the Department of Homeland Security.

You and I spoke a little over a year or so ago during those Columbia University protests, Mahmoud. I want to play at least part of what you told me at that time. Listen to this.

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KHALIL: And I would say that the liberation of Palestine and the Palestinians and the Jewish people are intertwined. They go hand in hand. Anti-Semitism and any other form of racism has no place on this campus and in this movement.

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BROWN: Mahmoud, you've consistently condemned anti-Semitism before and since your arrest, and a court also found those allegations baseless, the allegations now put forward by the Department of Homeland Security. So, why do you think they are describing you this way and continuing to target you potentially for arrest?

KHALIL: This is simply weaponization of anti-Semitism to silence the speech. And, Wolf, as you've mentioned, I've been always with it publicly or privately against any form of discrimination and the racism, including anti-Semitism. But they want to use that as smokescreen so they can just like benefit from that, unfortunately, that like very hateful speech that's happening, so they can silence my speech. It's simple and clear.

And as you said, the federal judge ruled that the Trump administration failed to present any evidence of me saying anything anti-Semite or even engaging in any anti-Semitic or hateful engagement. But because it's easier for this administration, it's easier for the Israel lobby in this country to silence a speech, to throw me in prison than actually reflect on what I'm saying, on actually reflect on what these students are talking about, which is simply end of the genocide, end of the war. We don't want our tuition money to go toward investing in weapon manufacturers at Columbia University, or this administration to use the tax money to fund Israel weapons and bombs in Gaza.

So, it's absurd like that they are actually weaponizing like anti- Semitism because anti-Semitism is happening and it's being used by this administration. It's Marco Rubio who's supporting these like new Nazi parties in Europe. It's the Trump administration who's meeting with Holocaust deniers. It's not me. We're simply calling for the rights of the Palestinian people for their justice and freedom. And as I mentioned before, and as I mentioned now, Jewish students and just the Jewish American public are integral part of the Palestinian liberation movement in this country.

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And this is what's frightening this administration and the Israel lobby in this country.

BROWN: Just to be clear here, though, do you specifically condemn Hamas, a designated terrorist organization in the United States, not just for their actions on October 7th?

KHALIL: I condemn the killing of all civilians, full stop. But what I don't want to get into is -- no. I am clear with condemning all civilians. I'm very straight in my position in that part. But it's disingenuous to ask about condemning Hamas while Palestinians are the ones being starved now by Israel. It's not condemning October 6th, where 260 Palestinians were killed by Israel on October -- before October 7th. So, I hate this selective outage of condemnation because this is not -- this wouldn't lead to a constructive conversation. And this is also like what we want to deal with is the root causes of why that happened.

And it's in no way anyone can justify --

BROWN: Just to be clear, just to be clear, Mahmoud --

KHALIL: Yes.

BROWN: -- we did ask about -- you know, we talked at length about your views, of course, on the Palestinians, but it is fair to ask you about whether you can condemn Hamas because the Trump administration has claimed that you are a Hamas sympathizer. So, it's very important to actually ask that question in this broad conversation.

KHALIL: Yes. I simply asked and protested the war in Palestine. That's what I did. That's my duty as a Palestinian, as a human being right now, is to ask for the stop of the killing in my home country. And that's consistent with who I am. I'm a firm believer in international law and human rights and all my values come from that. It's just like, to me, it's always, as I said, disingenuous and absurd to ask such questions when, literally, 62,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel.

And that's why I wouldn't really engage in much into such questions on condemnation or not, because selective condemnation is not -- wouldn't get us anywhere. It's just like hypocrite, to be honest.

BLITZER: Mahmoud Khalil, you were very clear more than a year ago when you and I had an interview here on CNN in condemning anti- Semitism, and you were very strong in your words at that time as well.

Mahmoud Khalil, good luck to you. Good luck to your family. I know you have a new son and you finally had a chance to meet with your new son. Congratulations on that, and we will stay in touch with you.

KHALIL: Thank you so much, Wolf. Thank you, Pamela.

BROWN: Yes, you too. Congratulations on that.

All right, let's take a closer look at what we just heard. CNN Correspondent Priscilla Alvarez has reported extensively on the case of Mahmoud Khalil, she's here in The Situation Room and CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig is in New York.

Priscilla, first to you. What is your reaction to what you just heard?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, two things. He talks about accountability and overreach. And since he has been released, we have actually learned a lot more about what went behind his arrest earlier this year. In fact, a Homeland Security agent testified in an ongoing lawsuit again about what these deportations, these ideological deportations, as they're known, what happened.

And he describes receiving an intelligence packet on Mahmoud Khalil and getting instructions of how to arrest him and also conveying from the White House and State Department that they were interested in this case. Remember, the administration was using an obscure part of the law to arrest not only Mahmoud Khalil, but also other students and professors.

So, this is a case that talks a lot about those two issues that he brought up consistently, accountability and overreach, and is highlighting how the Department of Homeland Security has been targeting these students and professors, and, of course, the core of that case is much of what you heard from Mahmoud Khalil, which is that they are being unfairly targeted over their views and that the critics say of the administration that they should not be arrested at all for their freedom of speech.

The administration, however, saying that if you are here temporarily or if you are here on a visa or a green card, well, you have to comply with U.S. law and cannot engage in these protests, or at least that's the message that they're sending, particularly with this case.

But we have learned a lot since his arrest and now his release from ICE detention. It'll be interesting to see how his lawsuit sort of combines what we're already seeing happening up in the northeast in this other case.

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BLITZER: I want to bring in Elie Honig. Elie, what stood out most to you?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Wolf, I think it's really important to keep in mind that the larger case involving Mahmoud, Khalil is still ongoing. He very much remains in legal limbo.

Now, he was released because a federal judge in the district court in New Jersey ruled last month that the law that was used to detain him, that Priscilla just referred to, was unconstitutional. Now, that's a law that goes back to 1952. It's an obscure law, rarely used, but it says the U.S. Secretary of State has the authority to deport non- citizens if they pose a threat to our foreign policy.

Now, the big question is, is that law constitutional? The federal judge said it's unconstitutionally vague. It can be interpreted however one wants, and it doesn't set clear limits. However, and this is the key here. That ruling is being appealed. It's moving its way now through the Federal Court of Appeals. It could wind up at the U.S. Supreme Court.

So, as Mr. -- as Mahmoud Khalil recognizes, he's out now because of that ruling by the judge, but his case is far from over and there's much bigger issues at stake here relating to really the scope and the power of the secretary of state, the legality of that law, and as Priscilla said, this is not the only individual who has been detained under this law. There are others. And so however the courts come out on that is going to have a lot to say about how our immigration policy works.

BLITZER: Yes.

BROWN: Yes, absolutely. And just to follow up on one of the claims that he made about -- you know, he said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had ties to neo-Nazi, there were some recent reports from 2024 indicating that an activist with neo-Nazi ties was involved in an anti-immigration effort linked to Rubio, though it does not say Rubio personally embraces those views.

But certainly really interesting to hear directly from him, he was just released not long ago. And this continues, this battle continues involving Mahmoud Khalil.

BLITZER: Yes, it certainly does.

BROWN: Yes. He, he has said that he doesn't want to leave his house much and there is big concerned that he will be deported now. And, of course, he has his son --

BLITZER: And he's here in the United States legally. He has a green card.

BROWN: He has a green card.

BLITZER: His wife is a U.S. citizen. His new little baby who was born in the United States is a U.S. citizen. So, those are important facts to consider as well.

BROWN: Yes, absolutely. All right, Priscilla Alvarez and Elie Honig, thank you.

BLITZER: Any moment now, President Trump will be meeting with the Philippine president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., as he pushes for a trade deal with America's oldest specific ally. We're going to bring that to you live and take the Q&A as well.

We'll be right back.

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BROWN: And breaking news this hour, a source tells CNN that the House Oversight Committee could soon subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell, former girlfriend and accomplice to Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell is serving a 20- year prison sentence after being found guilty of conspiring with Epstein to groom and sexually abuse underage girls.

BLITZER: All right. Let's go live to Capitol Hill right now. CNN Senior Reporter Annie Grayer is monitoring all these developments for us. Annie, how soon potentially could Ghislaine Maxwell be subpoenaed?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Wolf and Pam, we're hearing the subpoena could come very quickly. And they're going to have to coordinate. This is from a source. They're going to have to coordinate with the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Prisons about when to speak with Maxwell because, of course, the Department of Justice also wants to speak with Maxwell. But this came about because Republican Congressman Tim Burchett forced the House Oversight Committee to take a position on this issue.

Look, the House is at a standstill right now. House leadership is sending the House home a day early, and they will not be returning until September for their August recess. Leadership is hoping that delaying, you know, floor time is going to help slow down the temperatures here because Republicans are divided on this issue. A growing number of Republicans want to take a vote on this. 11 Republicans have signed onto a measure that would force the release of all of the Epstein files. They are hearing from their constituents back home and they're feeling a lot of pressure to take a stand on this issue.

But the speaker and his leadership team are urging members to be patient, to allow the administration to lead this investigation. House Republicans had their conference meeting behind closed doors this morning, and sources tell me that was the message from leadership, but members are going increasingly frustrated with that.

Take a listen to House Speaker Johnson is making the case that the House needs to take a step back here.

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REP. MIKE JOHHNSON (R-LA): We're not going to play political games with this. We've all been very clear and transparent. The House Rules resolution sets a good standard and requires all credible evidence to be released. And that's exactly where the White House is. As I've said many times over the last -- as I've said many times, there's no daylight between the White House and the House. You have to allow the legislation to ripen and you also have to allow the administration the space to do what it is doing. The president has said clearly and he has now ordered his DOJ to do what it is we've all needed DOJ to do for years now, and that is to get everything released. So, they're in the process of that. There's no purpose for Congress to push an administration to do something that they're already doing.

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GRAYER: That is the message from the speaker, but it is dividing House Republicans and the house is essentially grinded to a halt over this issue showing there is no signs of it going away anytime soon. Wolf and Pam?

BLITZER: All right. Annie Grayer up on Capitol Hill, thank you for that update.

And, once again, we're standing by for President Trump to meet with the Philippine visiting President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. We're going to bring that to you live right after a short break.

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