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The Situation Room

Appeals Court Sides With Trump Administration in Immigration Case; 'The Situation Room' Celebrates 20 Years; Will Pentagon Divert Weapons From Ukraine?; DOJ Targets New York Attorney General. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired August 08, 2025 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Our Kara Scannell confirming that there are now two grand jury subpoenas issued by the U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of New York looking to get information about James' office, basically trying to see if there was any criminality by her office when she filed that civil lawsuit against the Trump Organization, if you remember, that lawsuit going to trial and the Trump Organization being found liable, having to owe now at this point, because of interest, about a half-a-billion dollars in penalty.

So it appears that this is a pursuit to figure out if there was any criminality in the investigation moving forward to that lawsuit. So we're still trying to work out all the details of this, but we also understand there is another subpoena in relation to James suing the NRA, if you remember, the National Rifle Association, which was also found liable after the lawsuit her office filed.

Now, we know that James is a big adversary of Trump and we know that Trump has a history of going after people who have gone against him. He's spoken out many times against James herself during the time of that trial and even most recently. So this is something, of course, that we're going to continue to follow, but that is the latest news that we're getting right now again from our Kara Scannell -- Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right, we will see what happens.

Brynn Gingras reporting for us, thank you very, very much.

GINGRAS: All right.

BLITZER: Up next, new CNN reporting, what we're learning about a possible change from the Pentagon in the amount of weapons it's sending to Ukraine.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:35:48]

BLITZER: New this morning, billions of dollars of American-built weapons previously earmarked for Ukraine could go back into the U.S. stockpile because of a new Pentagon policy.

We're joined now by CNN national security reporter Zach Cohen.

Zach, what's the potential impact of this shift?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Wolf, it certainly adds more uncertainty into the status of U.S. armed shipments to Ukraine, especially those systems that Ukraine has said that it urgently needs, things like the Patriot interceptor missiles, things like air defense systems, the ones that they say that they are required to continue to protect Ukraine from Russia.

Now, we're learning about this memo that has reiterated that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth must sign off on those most sought-after items before they can be sent to any other country, including Ukraine. And probably more interesting, this memo also gives Hegseth and his top deputy the authority to redirect some of these some of these -- some of this equipment that was specifically produced for Ukraine and redirect that back into the U.S. stockpile.

That's what we're told is a shift in DOD policy and in how they handle the specific batch of money from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. Again, this is equipment that is produced specifically for Ukraine. It allows the Pentagon to buy weapons and equipment directly from defense contractors for Ukraine, but now this new Pentagon official has the ability to take that equipment back and put it into the U.S. stockpile.

Now, we do know that there are some at the Pentagon who are very concerned about the dwindling number of these top-tier systems in the U.S. stockpile. This does appear to be sort of geared toward bolstering that gap that exists there.

But, at the same time, it also seems to undermine what President Donald Trump has said publicly, even in the time since this memo was sent out. He said that the administration is doing whatever it can to give Ukraine the equipment that it needs to protect itself. Also, the timing is relevant because Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin may be set for a meeting in the coming days.

BLITZER: See if that happens.

All right, Zach Cohen, thanks very, very much.

And when we come back, we will have more news. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:42:18]

BLITZER: This is a very, very special day for all of us here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

Twenty years ago today, we launched this program with one mission, to bring you the news as it happens here in the United States and indeed around the world. And over the past two decades, we have covered history in the making, brought you incredible stories and held the powerful to account.

Let's take a closer look back at how it all began and at some of the unforgettable moments we have shared over these past 20 years.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Happening now. Happening now. Happening now. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(voice-over): When THE SITUATION ROOM first launched 20 years ago, it was designed to be CNN's command center, a fast-paced real-time hub for breaking news and major headlines from here in the United States and around the world.

(on camera): I'm Wolf Blitzer, and you're in THE SITUATION ROOM, where news and information from around the world arrive at one place simultaneously.

(voice-over): I said it then, and it's still true today. This show is where the news comes together...

ANNOUNCER: Breaking news.

BLITZER: ... as it happens.

(on camera): Hurricane Katrina, it's still pounding the Gulf Coast. Katrina will keep on wreaking havoc.

Michael Jackson, 50 years old, the king of pop, has died, a very, very sad moment.

This tear gas is now being fired. You can see what's going on.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: THE SITUATION ROOM.

BLITZER (voice-over): Over the years, we have had the biggest political figures in Washington join us right here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

(on camera): You're now in the CNN SITUATION ROOM, at least via satellite. How do you feel?

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I like being in the other Situation Room, but I like this one better.

BLITZER: Look into the camera. Talk directly to President Bashar al- Assad.

OBAMA: I don't need to talk in the camera. I suspect he's got people who will be watching.

DICK CHENEY, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Frankly, you're out of line with that question.

BLITZER: It's a responsible, fair question. His mother was a U.S. citizen born in Kansas. So was he a natural-born

citizen?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Who knows?

BLITZER (voice-over): We have gone beyond the Beltway too, covering global affairs on the ground.

(SIRENS BLARING)

BLITZER (on camera): We're all being told to get to a shelter, so we're running in.

They destroyed a big chunk of it back there. They have kept this part.

It's brisk. It's lovely. It's a nice day here in Pyongyang.

(voice-over): And sitting down with world leaders to ask the tough questions.

(on camera): Do you support reoccupying Gaza?

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I support taking whatever action is necessary.

BLITZER: You're not ready to negotiate territorial compromise with Putin?

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): We're not ready.

BLITZER: Any final word of advice for Barack Obama?

TONY BLAIR, FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Look, I don't think he needs advice from me or anyone else.

BLITZER (voice-over): When the COVID pandemic struck, we stayed with you seven days a week...

(on camera): Dr. Fauci, thank you so much for joining us.

[11:45:01]

(voice-over): ... delivering urgent fact-based reporting...

(on camera): He did take off his mask.

(voice-over): ... when it mattered most.

(on camera): The United States has just surpassed 100,000 confirmed deaths.

(voice-over): Yes, the graphics, the set and the technology have evolved, but our mission has never changed...

(on camera): Let's go to our chief White House correspondent. (voice-over): ... to bring you the latest news...

(on camera): There's a developing story.

(voice-over): ... the sharpest analysis...

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: If you look at the polling, Wolf.

BLITZER: ... and the most trusted reported.

(on camera): Ted Turner, the man who hired me here at CNN 23 years ago, is in THE SITUATION ROOM right now.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We move into the region.

BLITZER (voice-over): And while the news has often been serious, we still found a little time to have fun along the way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get your heart going.

BLITZER: Yes. We're moving. We're moving.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trending.

BLITZER (on camera): I love having a frog here in THE SITUATION ROOM. I hope you will be a frequent visitor.

KERMIT THE FROG, "SESAME STREET": Well, thank you. Well, listen, I will just keep coming up with more situations.

BLITZER: But do you still think it's the coolest job ever?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: I still think it's the coolest job ever, and I can't believe I'm actually doing it with you.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER (voice-over): To the producers, writers, editors, reporters, executives and crew who've made this broadcast possible, thank you.

But, most of all, thank you, our viewers here in the United States and around the world for tuning in day after day, year after year. Here's to the first 20 years of THE SITUATION ROOM and the stories still to come.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And joining us now are five SITUATION ROOM originals who were all with me on day one exactly 20 years ago today, CNN's Brian Todd, CNN's Tom Foreman, former CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, CNN aviation analyst and former CNN anchor Miles O'Brien, and the former Defense Secretary of the United States William Cohen.

To all of you, thanks very much. Welcome back to THE SITUATION ROOM. It was good to have you on day one. It's good to have you now 20 years later.

And, Secretary Cohen, let me start with you.

You joined me on that first day because we remembered the great American journalist Peter Jennings, that he had died the day before. You remember that?

WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I do remember that.

And I remember also, the first day I was standing in front of a table with a map of the world, and you said, "Welcome to THE SITUATION ROOM." And like President Bill Clinton, I prefer to be on your SITUATION ROOM than the one we had over at the White House.

BLITZER: If you have to be in the Situation Room in the White House, you know there's bad things going on.

W. COHEN: But I just want to say thank you for inviting me to share this moment with the CNN regulars who have been with you all these years. I want to say, the most important thing in news today, trust and truth. You have been the iron man for producing truth and trust.

And wherever I travel around the world, you turn on now CNN, there's Wolf Blitzer. They trust you.

BLITZER: Thank you. That's so nice of you to say that.

Tom, you were with us on day one as well. And that day, your assignment was to remember Peter Jennings as well.

FOREMAN: Yes, Peter is where I started my national news experience, spent 10 years with "World News Tonight" and then came over here and joined you as well.

We also were pioneering then. You talked about looking at the images down there. This show was where we pioneered the Magic Wall. And it was David Bohrman, our bureau chief then, Josh Braun, our technical -- and me. And for a couple of years I was the only one using the Magic Wall because it was so out of control.

You couldn't -- it would spin wildly out of control and nobody else knew how to control it. And we worked forward with it. Gradually, it became not just a staple for us in THE SITUATION ROOM, but across the network and across other networks as well.

BLITZER: We're showing our viewers some images of that day.

FOREMAN: Yes, that was -- we were using Google Earth back when nobody really knew anything about Google Earth, and we were talking about Hurricane Katrina because I'm from New Orleans.

And we spent a ton of time on this. And I truly believe this, Wolf. This may sound like a crazy thing. I believe the idea of touching and moving images with your fingers in the public consciousness -- because the smartphone came along a couple of years after that in terms of common usage -- I believe your show is what made a lot of people get it in their head the idea of I wish I could do that.

BLITZER: Just touching...

FOREMAN: Now we all do it all day every day.

BLITZER: But when you were first doing the Magic Wall, you had a mouse and a computer you were doing it...

FOREMAN: We had a mouse and a computer. And then we had a couple of other crazy systems that you couldn't -- if you hovered your hand too much or too little, literally, the images would go spinning off.

And you would roll with it and you would say, let's go to the next thing. And we would.

BLITZER: And we would. I remember those days vividly.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: Brian, you were always and have been still to this day a staple of THE SITUATION ROOM. You joined me on that first day to talk about the new Marilyn Monroe audiotapes that had just been released.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Of all things. I pretty much forgot about that, so many great stories that we covered. I think what I take away from this is, CNN and this show deployed me to cover breaking stories all over the world, from a mine collapse in West Virginia, to about 20 hurricanes, to the earthquake in Haiti, the earthquake in Japan.

And it really exemplifies the ethos of CNN. You break your back, drop everything, go do what you need to do to get these stories on the air, of course, accurately and fairly, but get it on the air, and do what you have to do. This show really exemplifies that ethos, always has.

[11:50:03]

BLITZER: Yes, when Ted Turner hired me, he said: "Remember, the news comes first."

And we believe that here in THE SITUATION ROOM.

TODD: Right.

BLITZER: Barbara Starr, throughout the years, we worked closely together. You were our Pentagon correspondent. I was once a Pentagon correspondent. And you broke a lot of news for us.

BARBARA STARR, FORMER CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, this was, of course, the early years of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And, every single day, tragically, something would happen, and most of the time it wasn't good news. And I think SITUATION ROOM, at that time, as the others have said, set the foundation. You would start the morning, you would have an idea of what you wanted to cover, but then news happened. And you were always willing, you and your whole show team, rip up the schedule and go with the news as it happened. And that foundation in those years, of course, was about national security. But I think, here in the country now, we're seeing it in the political arena. Things happen instantly, and the news shifts, and SITUATION ROOM still goes to where the news is.

BLITZER: Because, whatever room I'm in, I say there's a situation. That's why we call it THE SITUATION ROOM.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: Miles, you were there on day one with us. You were there on so many other days as well. But, on that day, you were talking about the effort to bring the Discovery shuttle back home.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: It was the return to flight after the loss of Columbia.

And, if you will recall, when discovery launched with Commander Eileen Collins at the controls, the foam, which was the problem for Columbia, shed once again. And they had to do an emergency repair mission in flight to assure that it was safe to land. And we were definitely biting our nails as Discovery came in and landed 20 years ago tomorrow, safely, of course.

But what I have to say about this show, though, is, this is quintessential CNN here, the news as it happens. The news is the star, the anchor self-effacing, not allowing himself to overshadow either the subject matter or the subjects. That's you, Wolf Blitzer.

And I got to tell you, I had -- 20 years ago, I was the morning anchor. And there were many days I would do the morning show, get on Acela, come up here and do THE SITUATION ROOM when you were out. And I got to tell you, it is the craziest control room at CNN.

BLITZER: There you are.

(CROSSTALK)

O'BRIEN: Absolutely the craziest, and the most joyful one, because you led a fabulous team and always have. They would walk off a cliff for you gladly because of who you are.

And the best people in this building work for this show because of you, Wolf Blitzer.

BLITZER: Well, I'm grateful to that. We had great, great people working on the show...

O'BRIEN: Always.

BLITZER: ... making me look good. And they -- I'm really grateful to all of them for all that they did.

It's interesting. On that day one, two of the big stories we were following -- and you will remember this well, Mr. Secretary -- was that Israel was completely withdrawing from Gaza, removing all the Jewish settlements in Gaza, bringing all those Israelis back into Israel. That was a big story that day.

And now we're still covering Gaza all these years later, still going on. The other big story on that first day was Iran's nuclear program. Were they planning on building a nuclear weapon? I remember that as well, and that story still continues to this day.

W. COHEN: They continue today, except that the Israelis or Benjamin -- Prime Minister Netanyahu is now declaring he's going to retake all of Gaza, which means that there will be no Palestinians there, which means there will never be a Palestinian state, which means there's unlikely to be peace in the Middle East as long as that's the case.

BLITZER: Well, we will see what happens on that front. He says he doesn't want to stay there permanently. He wants to get the job done to defeat Hamas right now.

W. COHEN: Many of his Cabinet members have been -- two of them at least, have said, we want to take control. We will make that the new high-rises on the Mediterranean at that particular point, seaside hotels, et cetera.

No, he's trying to eliminate, wants to eliminate Palestinian statehood. And I have believed for all of these years that was important, that you will never have peace in the Middle East unless the Palestinians have a state. Palestinians won't have a state unless they recognize Israel's right to exist.

So if you're going to remove that and cleanse, so to speak, the ethnic cleansing in the Gaza area, you're looking forward to more and more disruption and destruction.

BLITZER: Let's get...

FOREMAN: Even at this moment, the news takes over.

BLITZER: Yes.

FOREMAN: We're celebrating 20 years, and it's another news interview. That's great.

BLITZER: Because Ted Turner said to me, remember, we're the cable news. Then he said, capital N, capital E, capital W, capital S. The news comes first.

And we still believe that, obviously.

TODD: And thanks for showing all those images of all of us when we were so much younger, so that people can see how old we all are now.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: You have not aged at all. Brian Todd, you look...

(CROSSTALK)

TODD: A little bit of a curveball there.

BLITZER: Tom Foreman, he has aged a little bit. I have aged a bit myself.

FOREMAN: I'm starting to go gray.

(LAUGHTER)

BLITZER: Pretty soon, you will be.

FOREMAN: Any minute.

BLITZER: Yes.

What stands out to you, Brian, because you were almost on every single day.

TODD: Pretty much.

Look, I think what Miles, what Tom, everybody said, this team has done everything that it needs to do to get the story on the air quickly, but also as comprehensively as possible. The early days struck me because, right after Hurricane -- right after the show started to air, about three weeks later, Hurricane Katrina.

[11:55:05]

Tom was a part of covering that with the -- that video wall was incredible, because it really kind of brought home how this show, more than any other, could bring those images in, live feeds of rescues, of looting, everything that was going on in New Orleans. That would really hit people.

It's -- it was really extraordinary at the time, and it exemplified what this show could do.

BLITZER: Hurricane Katrina, I think, sort of put us on the map...

TODD: Yes. Yes.

BLITZER: ... because millions of people were watching us here in the United States and, as I like to say, around the world as well.

TODD: Absolutely, yes.

BLITZER: Guys, to all of you, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for -- thank you for our teams, our crews, our producers, our writers...

TODD: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: ... our photojournalists, everybody who made this show what it is today.

And we will be right back with more news. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: There's more breaking news.

An appeals court just ruled that a federal judge cannot move ahead with criminal contempt proceedings against Trump administration officials involved in a very high-stakes immigration case.

CNN's crime and justice correspondent, Katelyn Polantz, is following these developments for us.

What are you learning, Katelyn?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, if it is significant breaking news here. It is a federal appeals court siding with the Trump administration in how they handled removing immigrants from American soil, sending them to a Salvadoran prison.

There was a judge, a district judge, Jeb Boasberg in Washington, who had said turn the planes around, and then he believed that the Justice Department likely violated his order intentionally. He was going to hold Trump administration officials in criminal contempt or look at criminal contempt.

And, today, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said, no, he cannot do that. He does not have that power. And they are trying to defuse the tension between the court, this judge, Boasberg, and the Trump administration. Two judges, both Trump appointees on the Appeals Court, saying, that lower court, they should stay out of foreign policy that the Trump administration, that President Donald Trump is trying to conduct

Attorney General Pam Bondi in a statement in social media just now, she responded to this ruling, saying: Our Justice Department attorneys just secured a major victory defending President Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport illegal alien terrorists. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed what we have argued for months. Judge Boasberg's attempt to sanction the government for deporting criminal alien terrorists was a clear abuse of discretion, failed judicial overreach at its worst."

But yet there was one judge on that panel who was in dissent, Nina Pillard, and she defended Judge Boasberg in this situation.

She wrote: "Chief Judge Boasberg faced immense pressure to make a quick decision in a rapidly evolving, high-stakes situation."