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Federal Takeover of D.C.?; Interview With State Rep. Gene Wu (D-TX); Israel Aiming For Full Takeover of Gaza?; What Will Trump Do With Tariff Revenue?; Putin and Trump Set to Meet. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired August 07, 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 HOST: Happening now, breaking news: critical meeting with peace in Ukraine on the line, the latest we're learning on a planned meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: 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.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLITZER: And we begin with the breaking news. A top Kremlin aide confirms that President Trump will meet with Vladimir Putin quote in the coming days.

We are told that the details of that meeting are still being hammered out right now with the goal of taking place next week. Putin is now floating the United Arab Emirates as a possible host.

BROWN: And President Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, met with Putin yesterday in Moscow to discuss an end to the conflict in Ukraine. Trump has given Russia until tomorrow to accept a cease-fire deal or face new U.S. sanctions.

So let's go live now to CNN senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen in Moscow.

Fred, what more are you learning about this meeting?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Pamela.

It was interesting to hear Vladimir Putin come out and say that possibly the United Arab Emirates could be a venue for that summit.

However, the Russians are saying that, yes, a venue has been agreed upon by the United States and Russia, but that venue has not been made public yet and will be made public at a later time. It was quite interesting to hear some of the things that Yuri Ushakov, who's a senior Kremlin aide -- who was also, by the way, in that meeting between Vladimir Putin and Steve Witkoff, the president's special envoy, here yesterday in Moscow.

He was saying that, of course, the Ukraine conflict is going to be the main topic or one of the main topics of that meeting. He said that the United States, as he put it, had made the Russians an offer that the Russians found acceptable and that the two sides had sent signals to one another as far as possible solutions to the conflict in Ukraine are concerned without going into details.

There's one really important thing, though, that we picked up on. Yuri Ushakov was saying that the Russians have not changed their stance, as he put it, towards the Ukraine conflict. Of course, the Russians are demanding of the Ukrainians to cede territory to Russia, to also essentially disarm or all but disarm Ukraine and not to become part of the NATO alliance, all things that the Ukrainians have said are unacceptable to them.

Another thing that the Russians have also put out there which obviously they find important as well is that Vladimir Putin has come out and said that he's not generally averse to also meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, but he also said that things need to be right for that to happen.

And he said that things are still a very long way from that being the case. So, certainly, President Trump's idea of also holding a three- way summit later seems to be something that could be pretty difficult to achieve, guys.

BROWN: Right. And, Fred, this would be the first meeting between the leaders of these two countries in more than four years. We know President Putin and Biden met in 2021.

How much has that underscored the weight of this meeting?

PLEITGEN: Yes, 2021 in Geneva in the summer. And, of course, only about half-a-year later, the full-on invasion of Ukraine started. And since then, it's basically been silence between U.S. presidents and Russian presidents, aside from the phone calls that we have seen between President Trump and Vladimir Putin.

So, certainly, this meeting does carry a lot of weight. You can feel that it is very important to the Kremlin, to the Russians, of course, very important Washington as well. But, as you can see, Pamela, we're out here in the streets of Moscow. And we have actually been speaking to a couple of people here on the streets.

And they all tell us that they believe that this meeting is extremely important. All of them are saying that, of course, they want a solution to the crisis in Ukraine, but they also really want relations between the United States and Russia to get back on a different footing.

A lot of them are saying they just wish that things could be the way they were 10 years ago, when, obviously, Russians could easily travel to the United States, when U.S. products were on the shelves here, and also electronic payments were a lot easier than they were before.

So it's definitely something where you feel here on the streets of Moscow that people are looking forward to the summit happening. And there is a good degree of optimism that things could change in the relations in general.

BROWN: All right, Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, Fred is in Moscow on the streets of Moscow.

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New this morning, the world's biggest carmaker is sounding the alarm on President Trump's tariffs. Toyota now says its profits are expected to take an unprecedented hit of nearly $10 billion. That's one of the highest estimated losses yet by a company, showing the growing cost to businesses and consumers who are feeling the pain from President Trump's tariff policy.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is joining us from New York right now.

Vanessa, the president repeatedly boasts about all of the money the U.S. is bringing in with these new tariffs. How much has been brought in at least so far and just where is it going?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, billions of dollars have actually been brought into the United States because of all the tariff revenue that we have collected.

Of course, who is paying these tariffs? It is U.S. businesses, importers and retailers. Just look at what has happened since January, since the beginning of this year. We started out bringing in about on average every single month about $8 billion in tariff revenue.

But look at this line, just a complete escalation. We're now bringing in the month of July, as reported by the department of the treasury, $30 billion because of tariff revenue. And here's what the president says that he would like to do with this money. Take a listen.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The purpose of what I'm doing is primarily to pay down debt, which will happen in very large quantity. But I think there's also a possibility that we're taking in so much money that we may very well make a dividend to the people of America.

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YURKEVICH: So let's take the first one. Let's look at the federal deficit. Right now, the deficit is about $1.3 trillion so far this year. And so far this year, we have collected about $126 billion in tariff revenue.

Let's just say conservatively that every single month going forward throughout the rest of this year we bring in about $30 billion worth of tariff revenue. That's what we saw in July. If you add that all together, you're dealing with about $275 billion in tariff revenue coming into the United States for the fiscal year of 2025.

That obviously is not going to make up the federal deficit. However, it will make a little bit of a dent. And some experts say that it is possibly a really good use of the money. The second thing that the president has suggested is a relief check to Americans.

The American Worker Rebate Act was something that was introduced by Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri. This would essentially give $600 to Americans and to their children if you're making $75,000 or less.

The only problem that economists see with this, and it's a big problem, is that when you give American stimulus checks, which we saw over the pandemic, Wolf, there were three of them sent out, Americans will spend that money, and that ultimately will lead to inflation, the exact thing that the president does not want to happen because of these tariffs.

So none of these two things have happened yet. This money has not been put towards the federal deficit, and the checks have not been sent out yet, but these are two things that are being floated by the president of what to do with all this tariff revenue that's coming into the United States right now, Wolf.

BLITZER: Excellent explanation. Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you very, very much -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Wolf happening this hour, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting with his Security Cabinet to discuss the war with Hamas. He will urge Cabinet members to support a -- quote -- "full conquest of Gaza."

But three sources tell CNN that Israel's military chief is among those privately warning against a full takeover of the besieged territory.

And join us now is CNN Jerusalem bureau chief Oren Liebermann.

Oren, how much resistance is the prime minister likely to face from his own Security Cabinet?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN JERUSALEM BUREAU CHIEF: Pam, the short answer is not much at all.

The IDF military chief, Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, has voiced his opposition, his worries about these plans, saying that if Israel does a full conquest of Gaza, it will endanger the hostages, which is obviously a stated goal of trying to get those out, as well as endanger more soldiers, and add a tremendous burden to the Israeli military.

Despite that, he doesn't have a vote in the Security Cabinet, and that's why Netanyahu is almost certain to have the votes he needs to push this forward. There might be some opposition, according to Israeli media reports, from the foreign minister here, but that's really just one voice in a group that overwhelmingly supports this, especially Netanyahu's far right elements of his own government.

And that's why, if Netanyahu wants to go forward with this, he almost certainly has the votes he needs. The opposition we see has come forward in repeated polling, which shows that a majority of Israelis are in favor of a comprehensive end of the war in return for the release of all the hostages.

And we see it again from the families of those held in Gaza, who actually took to the sea to try to send the messages loudly as they could to their loved ones in Gaza, first to try to reach out to them, but also to express, frankly, their outrage at what they expect is likely to happen.

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Here is one of those family members.

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YEHUDA COHEN, FATHER OF HAMAS HOSTAGE: Continuing the war, especially in the area where hostages are directly endangering them, we want it all to stop. We want the world to help us make Netanyahu stop it. We want to end the war and get a hostage deal.

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LIEBERMANN: That meeting tonight starts in just about 20 minutes. It is expected or scheduled to last five hours. Pam, it could go longer than that. And there won't necessarily be a vote tonight.

We will certainly keep track of the developments there if one happens.

BROWN: So, if you would, walk us through the new reporting, the CNN reporting on what an Israeli occupation of Gaza would actually look like.

LIEBERMANN: So there's essentially a range of options that will be considered at tonight's Security Cabinet meeting.

They all include effectively a phased plan, such that if Israel wants to pause it from their perspective, if Hamas returns to the negotiating table, it creates that opportunity. The first phase of this plan, according to Israeli officials with whom we have spoken, is to effectively evacuate Gaza City and its surroundings, which is pushing nearly a million Palestinians, about half of the population of Gaza, southward.

At the same time, Israel would set up what one official described as humanitarian compounds to shelter a million displaced Palestinians, many of whom have already been displaced, and that then would allow the military operation in Gaza City and some of the surrounding areas.

One of the key questions here, and this is where we see a disagreement between the military and the political level, is how far deep inside to Gaza City and other areas do you go? Whereas the IDF military chief favors sort of a siege from the outside of these populated areas, Israeli officials tell us Netanyahu favors a much more intrusive approach, one that could very clearly worsen what is already a humanitarian crisis, cases of starvation we have seen in Gaza.

That's part of what will be debated tonight. What does this plan look like, and how do its phases play out? Crucially, it seems Netanyahu has the green light he needs from President Donald Trump, who has basically said Israel can do pretty much whatever they need there.

BROWN: Oren Liebermann, thank you so much -- Wolf.

BLITZER: And still ahead, Pamela: Texas Democrats face a Friday deadline to return to the state for a vote on new congressional maps.

And, next, we will talk with one of the state's top Democrats about new threats to arrest them or remove them from office.

BROWN: And how President Trump is ramping up his yearslong feud with Washington, D.C.

You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

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BROWN: Happening now: Texas state Democrats are still not in the Lone Star State, despite $500 daily fines and threats from Republican officials to remove them from their seats and even arrest them ahead of a Friday deadline to return to Austin for the legislature to reconvene and consider those controversial new congressional maps proposed by the GOP.

Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn now saying that the FBI director has responded to his request to assist state and local law enforcement to locate Texas House Democrats and investigate them.

Joining us now to discuss from Chicago is Texas State House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu.

Thank you for joining us.

So, Governor Abbott has sued to remove you from office. Are you concerned that the FBI could come after you?

STATE REP. GENE WU (D-TX): Sure, if they don't follow law.

We know that the governor has no power outside of the state, and we know that the federal government cannot get involved in this, unless there's a legal reason why they are allowed to get involved. And, frankly, this isn't my seat. It sure as hell is not Governor Abbott's seat.

And if they want to come take it, they have got to go through the people of the state of Texas, because this is whose seat this belongs to. And I have sworn an oath to defend the people of the state of Texas, defend the Constitution of the United States over and over again, and I take that very seriously. And it's exactly what we're doing here.

BROWN: I understand you and your colleagues also faced a bomb threat at your Chicago hotel yesterday. Is there any indication that this was politically targeted?

WU: We have no such information. We just know that it happened, where everyone's safe.

And that's not going to stop us. We're fighting for the future of this nation. These little pranks and things are not going to stop us. They're not going to deter us. We will keep fighting for the American people.

BROWN: How long are you willing to stay out of Texas to block this redistricting plan ahead of tomorrow's deadline to return?

WU: Yes, so, again, when we're out here, it's not just because of redistricting. The main reason that we're here is simply because the state of Texas, under Republican leadership, under Governor Abbott's leadership, simply does not listen to the people anymore.

The state of Texas, the citizens of Texas have said loudly to everyone, we want you to focus on disaster readiness. We will focus on disaster recovery and focus on the Kerrville disaster first and only.

And Republicans have had nine hearings on redistricting and have -- didn't even file a bill to deal with the flooding issues until the Monday when we left.

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We're not here to deal with redistricting. This is just -- that's on the side. We're here because the state of Texas, the Republican leadership, and, frankly, of this entire country, have stopped listening to the people. And what we're doing is trying to force them to listen to the people.

BROWN: So then how long are you willing to stay out of Texas to make your point here?

WU: Our group is committed to ending this corrupt special session. Whether that's a week, whether that's two weeks, I don't know. That's not up to us.

Governor Abbott and the Republican leadership of Texas hold all the cards. And we can only react to them. And what we have committed to the people of Texas and to ourselves is, we're going to end this corruption for this special session.

If Governor Abbott wants to come back and say, you know, you're right, you're right, I'm sorry, we should have been focusing on disaster preparation and helping the families and the communities hurt by the Fourth of July disasters, we're open. We're willing to listen.

If Governor Abbott says, we will call the next special session and only focus on those things, and we will do political nonsense later, Democrats will be back.

BROWN: But he could continue just calling special sessions, right?

WU: Yes, absolutely.

BROWN: I mean, so we have seen in the past, in 2021, Democrats ultimately relented and came back to the state. Is that going to happen again?

WU: Well, I think what is different about today and 2021, I think everyone can look outside of their lives right now and watch things fall apart in real time.

Everything around us is collapsing. The Republicans have spent the last 50 years tearing apart every institution that made America great, and now we're paying the price for it. And if Governor Abbott wants to continue this process of only caring about his donors, his friends, his -- President Trump, if he only cares about that and continues it, it's not going to be up to us, up to Democrats to stop him.

It is going to be up to the people of the United States to stop him. It will be up to the brave people of the state of Texas to stop him.

BROWN: And, as you know, Governor Abbott has said this is about political competitiveness. Donald Trump has said, look, I won the state of Texas by a large margin and this should be reflected here.

And then you have Indiana Republican Governor Mike Braun saying this morning -- talking a little bit about redistricting ahead of his meeting with Vice President J.D. Vance. Let's listen to that.

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GOV. MIKE BRAUN (R-IN): Here in Indiana, we have become more Republican over time. And these maps probably need to be looked at anyway. I'm going to be listening to J.D. today and our two leaders of the legislature as well. And we're going to have that discussion.

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BROWN: What do you say to that?

WU: I would say that this is very dangerous, that everything we're doing right now smacks of the Cold War.

And what we're saying -- what we're talking about is launching nukes at each other. And, ultimately, it will be the American people who are hurt.

BROWN: So, then...

WU: Because, if this happens, if this happens at every time we change presidents, every time parties take power, this will never end.

Democrats have no choice but to respond to this in the same way. If you launch missiles at us, we have to launch missiles at you. And it will never end. All that will end is our country in ruin. And what people need to do now is speak up and tell everyone to stop it. The Democratic states, the blue states have said we would only do this if they fired first.

And what everyone needs to tell their legislators, tell their leaders is, everyone needs to stop. If you believe in a country that still values hard work and fair play and following the rules, like, you have to stand up and speak up for it now, not whoever wins this one time, you get to rewrite all the rules whenever you want.

That's not the American way. That's not the way we should work. And if we don't fight against that now, once this happens, that's the end of our democracy. That's the end of our republic.

BROWN: Let me just follow up with one more question to you. A Republican state senator recently posted on social media asking if you would return not to Texas, but back to China.

Several of your fellow Democrats called that statement racist and asked that lawmaker to apologize. How do you feel about that?

WU: Well, frankly, in my 13 years of being a legislature, casual racism from the Republican side is pretty much the norm.

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We try to stay pretty quiet about it. We call it out when we have to, but it's not unexpected. And, frankly, coming from Senator Middleton, it's a compliment, because everyone knows who he is.

BROWN: All right, Chair Wu, thank you very much.

BLITZER: All right, the new U.S. attorney for the Washington, D.C., area, Jeanine Pirro, is now answering questions about that shooting at the Capital Jewish Museum a few weeks ago. Let's listen and see what she's saying.

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QUESTION: We have been reporting, in addition, after an attack earlier this week on a Trump administration DOGE official that the Trump administration was making plans to increase federal law enforcement throughout the city. Can you confirm if that's accurate and what your office is aware of?

JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: You know, my understanding is that the -- both the Trump administration, as well as the Metropolitan Police Department, are looking to increase law enforcement efforts because of the violence we're seeing across this country, across this city.

I'm not sure specifically what you're referring to, but we just have too much crime.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) I just want to ask you...

PIRRO: Hold on.

QUESTION: Go ahead.

QUESTION: There's a new FBI report that says that antisemitic crimes have gone up 70 percent. This is the highest number against any religious group. Given your announcement today, do you envision any enhanced prosecution efforts, deterrence efforts?

Give us some context about that.

PIRRO: Look, I think your question is an important one, and it makes it clear that we have a problem with antisemitism in this country, and the statistics bear that out.

And I think now, more than ever, we are seeing increased numbers. So what does that mean? You know, what it means, if you can get from my tone, we're going to be very aggressive. You heard from the FBI, the MPD we're going to look for these cases. We're going to prosecute these cases to the full force of the law.

It's a problem, and we're not going to tolerate it. Antisemitism has historically been one of the biggest scabs in the world that keeps getting picked on and picked that. So, from my perspective, I will go forward with every case with vengeance.

QUESTION: Judge Pirro, do you support a federal takeover of Washington, D.C., as the president has suggested?

PIRRO: Yes, that is a decision for the president.

And I think that what the president was saying is that we're seeing far too much crime being committed by young people, 14, 15, 16, 17 years old, that I can't get my hands on. I mean, I don't know if you have seen some of the pictures, but young people are coddled, and they don't need to be coddled anymore.

They need to be held accountable. They shouldn't be going to arts and crafts in family court. They need to understand that enough is enough and that the D.C. Council has to repeal some of these absurd ordinances and laws that they have had passed that do nothing to protect the people of this city and of this district.

And I will reference a case that I wrote an op-ed piece on that I have been talking about for weeks. A young person gets on a bus with an illegal gun. There is a family on the bus. He makes a decision to shoot someone in the chest. There -- to me, that's intent to kill. But for the grace of God, that individual did not die. Now, he's got a gun, it's illegal, he used the gun.

Guess what the sentence was? I got a conviction. The sentence was probation. We can't have that. And, by the way, he wasn't a kid. He was 19. These are the rules of the D.C. Council. They have got to be changed. We have got to have the ability to let young people know that they're going to be accountable.

And if you look at some of these pictures of these kids being beaten by crews and bloodied up, and you want to tell me that it's only a kid who did it, no. Take a look at the bloodied up face and body, and you will know that it's more than little kids doing this kind of thing.

QUESTION: Are you trying to get your office to take over what Brian Schwalb is doing? Do you want to take over juvenile justice here in the city?

PIRRO: I'm not trying to do anything vis-a-vis Brian Schwalb. All I want to do is clean up D.C. That's why the president put me here. And youth crime is on the rise.

In the last four years, we have had 150,000 cases of youth violence, OK? It's four years ago. Now it's close to a half-a-million cases of youth violence. We have got D.C. as one of the highest murder rates in the country. So we can talk about crime going down, but going down from where?

So, I mean, this is something that is a whole other issue.

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