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The Situation Room

New Blood Pressure Guidelines; Interview With Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu; Interview With Fmr. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA). Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired August 22, 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]

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[11:34:04]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: New this morning, the nationwide redistricting battle is escalating big time, as the Texas Senate is expected to vote today to approve those controversial new congressional maps.

It's the final legislative hurdle for Texas Republicans hoping to win five Democratic-held House seats in next year's midterm elections. Over on the West Coast, California Democrats approved their own congressional maps, a plan spearheaded by Governor Gavin Newsom to retaliate against Texas Republicans.

But voters will ultimately have the final say in the November referendum that's upcoming for those maps to actually go into effect.

Joining us now is the former California Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer.

Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

Why do you feel this redistricting push in your home state of California is now justified?

[11:35:00]

FMR. SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D-CA): It is so justified.

There's a great Billy Joel song, "We Didn't Start the Fire." And I'm a big Billy Joel fan. But that's the truth. We didn't start the fire. Who did? Donald Trump, the president, just as he did with Georgia. Remember, he said, find me 11,000 plus votes so I can win.

He goes to Texas and says, please fire five Democratic members of Congress, so I can win the midterms. He is in big trouble in the midterms, Wolf. That's why he's doing this. His cuts are going to be felt so broadly. Already, they are. The cost of living is going up.

I went to the supermarket yesterday. I can't believe it cost $1 for one lemon? I mean, this is hitting home. So he's panicked and he's trying to rig the election. And Democrats are standing strong and independent voters and even some Republicans, who see this as a Trump power grab.

BLITZER: California's popular former Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has been very vocal in opposing California Democrats' redistricting plan. As you know, his allies point out that voters in the state voted over a decade ago to strip lawmakers of their redistricting powers and make this process less partisan.

What do you say to them?

BOXER: Well, if I have the opportunity to talk to Arnold Schwarzenegger, and I hope that I will have the chance, what I would say is hooray for him for bringing this commission to California.

However, let's look at the situation in the country. Only eight states have commissions like California. Everybody else, Democratic, Republican, they all gerrymander. It's bad. But out of the eight states, guess what? Only two are Republican, six are Democratic.

And, Wolf, I will put it this way. If I was home babysitting my grandkids and somebody called and said, someone's coming in the door with a knife in 30 seconds, and I didn't grab the baseball bat, I'd be an idiot. I mean, I hate to be so crass about it. But that's what we're facing.

So we are going to fight back. And here's the point. I would tell former Governor Schwarzenegger this. There is a national bill in the Congress right now, and it's bipartisan, to bring these commissions everywhere. I'm for it. I know he'd be -- he's probably for it.

Let's focus on that. But, right now, we have a president who is really hurting this country. And this latest story of having the FBI raid someone's home, all of this, grabbing people off the streets, Wolf, little children who are undergoing chemotherapy with their hands behind their back, when he promised to get criminals off the street, there needs to be a check and balance on the would-be king.

And if he rigs this election, there won't be.

BLITZER: I know you say, Senator, that President Trump is -- quote -- "scared," your word, scared of your governor, Gavin Newsom.

BOXER: Yes.

BLITZER: Why do you think that? And do you believe Newsom would make a formidable presidential candidate in 2028?

BOXER: I think he'd make a great candidate. There are others too. But right now, he is the one and only who is really standing up in a way that is working.

You know, you cannot -- if anyone ever had a situation where they were bullied or they saw how a bully operates, you have to make fun of them because they're so ridiculous. Gavin knows how to do that in a really smart way. And he knows his stuff. He's good. He's very good. So, yes, I think he will be formidable.

BLITZER: All right, former Senator Barbara Boxer, as usual, thanks so much for joining us. We will welcome you back soon. Appreciate it.

BOXER: Of course.

BLITZER: And just ahead, our breaking news: FBI agents at the home and office of President Trump's former National Security Adviser John Bolton.

We're getting new developments. They're coming into THE SITUATION ROOM.

We will be right back.

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[11:43:28]

BLITZER: It's hard to believe, but next week marks 20 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the beautiful city of New Orleans.

One of the places thousands of people sought refuge before during and after the storm was, of course, the Superdome, as so many of us remember. A new CNN special explores its role during Katrina and the recovery that followed. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITCH LANDRIEU (D), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA: Good afternoon everybody.

In 2005, I was lieutenant governor of the state, and we had hurricanes all the time. We had Betsy, we had Camille, both big storms that hurt us. But Katrina was a different animal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When Hurricane Katrina was approaching New Orleans, we actually had a game against the Oakland Raiders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Normally, what we would do when we have weather of that magnitude, we would leave early and then we would return back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, we leave Saturday afternoon to go to Oakland.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was watching the storm that week. And, by Saturday morning, the hurricane moved over, and it's now in the Gulf of Mexico and it's strengthening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And joining us now, the former mayor of New Orleans Mitch Landrieu.

Mayor, thanks so much for joining us. I know at the time you were the lieutenant governor of Louisiana when

Hurricane Katrina hit. What do you remember about the days leading up to the landfall?

[11:45:02]

LANDRIEU: Wolf, it was such a scary time.

As the -- Doug Thornton, who was just talking a minute ago said, the hurricane quickly morphed into a Cat 5 and turned into a monster. And if you look at the pictures of it, it almost covered the entire Gulf. So the evacuation was really aggressive. I think we tried to evacuate over a million people.

But when that storm hit, it came in and went out, and then the levees broke. And then all hell broke loose. And, as you can see, a great American city almost drowned, and the country saw just incredible devastation. Remember, we lost 1,800 people; 50 of those individuals are still unclaimed.

People have not identified those bodies, and they're buried in a sacred space in New Orleans. So this is a really tough time for the people of New Orleans. It's a story of devastation. But it's also a story of rebirth and renaissance and resilience.

And, as you can see, the Superdome, which was the site of that horrific event with so many people in it, just not too long after that turned into an incredible story of the city of New Orleans coming back with the Saints in full uniform and then us trying to rebuild the city over the past 20 years.

So it's been an incredible ride, a hard time for people in New Orleans this week because we remember it like it was yesterday. It was devastating. But the people came back strong. And it's a story of how you can actually rebuild after the greatest devastation that you couldn't even possibly expect.

BLITZER: And you deserve a lot of credit for that.

What were some of the biggest obstacles that both the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans faced in terms of support and relief efforts following the devastation?

LANDRIEU: Well, unfortunately, you can see us almost repeating that now. At that time, 20 years ago, FEMA really wasn't performing at a high level. At that time, the president, the governor and the mayor, at least in the first week, were not communicating and talking to each other. It was antagonistic.

If you're going to respond -- and we now have 20 years of unfortunate responses to bigger events -- you have to have clear command-and- control, clear coordination and clear communication between the president, the governor, the mayor, and, of course, all of the faith- based organizations. Everybody's got to be on the same page.

If people are pointing fingers at each other, if people are threatening each other, if they're yelling at each other, if they're not showing up when they're supposed to, with the resources that they're supposed to provide, then you can have a bad situation. You see this happening right now in Kentucky and North Carolina. You see it happening in Los Angeles.

So we learned a lot of lessons back then, and we're seeming to forget them right now. We have got to get ourselves back together, because we're in the middle of hurricane season, as you may know. And this is not a time for folks not to be working together on the same page to make sure that Americans stay safe from catastrophic events like Katrina.

BLITZER: Yes, good advice, indeed.

The Superdome, as a lot of us remember, housed thousands of people seeking refuge from the storm, until it began to actually lose its roof due to the severity of the hurricane. What was it like to see that symbol of your beautiful city being torn apart?

LANDRIEU: Well, Wolf, I will tell you a story.

At 2:00 in the morning, I was on the phone with that gentleman that you just had on TV, Doug Thornton. I had called him from the emergency operations center and said: "Doug, what's going on there?"

He said: "Mitch, we have got 25,000 people in here, and the roof is peeling off of the building." And then the phone went dead. Now, that's a terrible phone call to have. So in the morning, when the sun rose, and we could get back in the city as quickly as possible, we actually had 25,000 people that were in the Superdome approximately.

There wasn't adequate water. We had to get things down there right away. It was a really bad situation. And then, of course, a lot of folks went over to the Convention Center. Four days later, General Honore came and then we started to get our feet underneath us, but not until there was there was a lot of devastation.

And it was really the levees that broke that really caused the catastrophe. We had gotten hurt pretty badly by the wind and the rain, but when the levees broke, that is when the city filled up with water. And, of course, there's -- for people who may not know this. New Orleans is below sea level, and it's much like a bowl.

That's when the game changed. And so then the recovery started. And as I said, it was a devastating time for all of us. Everybody who's from New Orleans remembers the sight, the smell, the quiet of everything being brown. We can remember our refrigerators having stuff in them that hadn't been accounted for, for a long time. It was really tough.

But we came back and we got better at it.

BLITZER: And thank God that happened.

Mitch Landrieu, we launched THE SITUATION ROOM 20 years ago exactly, a week before Hurricane Katrina. And, of course, once that hurricane came about, we were covering that nonstop. So I remember everything you're talking about.

Thanks so much for joining us. We really appreciate all your good work.

LANDRIEU: Thank you, Wolf. Thank you.

BLITZER: And, to our viewers, you can watch "Rebirth of the Superdome" when it premieres Sunday 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN. You will want to watch this special.

We will be right back.

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[11:53:38]

BLITZER: Two cardiology groups have new guidelines on how we should all pay attention to our blood pressure.

CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, explained the changes yesterday. Now he's answering some of your questions.

Sanjay, we got a lot of questions from our viewers.

Cherie McCormick in Texas asked this. Is there any way to lower B.P., blood pressure, without medication?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The simple answer is yes, absolutely. I think, for a lot of people, they may never need to take medications for their blood pressure.

First of all, you got to take your blood pressure to know, because a lot of people may not have symptoms. That's the first step. But there are several things to think about in terms of lifestyle changes. Aerobic activity, Wolf, it strengthens your heart.

When your heart is stronger, it takes less effort to push blood through the body. That can lower blood pressure. Lowering your weight just a little bit, if you lower your weight by a kilogram, for example, that can take points off your blood pressure.

But I think diet is probably the area where you're going to have the biggest impact. There's something known as dietary approaches to stop hypertension, a type of diet that focuses, no surprise, on vegetables and fruits and low-fat foods, but also interestingly, says, hey, instead of using salt, sodium chloride, try substituting potassium chloride to flavor your food if you need that, and also keeping in mind that most people get too much sodium, not enough potassium.

[11:55:03]

If you start increasing the amount of potassium in your diet, it actually helps satisfy your potassium requirements, but also pushes sodium out of the body, which is really interesting. So you sort of get a double benefit. And then, Wolf, your favorite, as you remember from yesterday, cutting

out alcohol, that goes a long way towards regulating blood pressure as well.

BLITZER: Good point.

James from New York, Sanjay, asks this question; "How often should we be checking our blood pressure and what method is best?"

GUPTA: Well, first of all, I don't know if you have one of these, Wolf. You can get home blood pressure cuffs. So you can do blood pressure readings at home.

You should probably do them twice a day and do it at the same time every day, so you can really sort of follow the trends based on similar data day to day. And each time you do it, do it a couple of times so you just make sure you're not getting some sort of spurious reading, so once in the morning, once in the evening.

Don't have caffeine. And, importantly, take a look at the screen there. You want to use an appropriate cuff size. You want to do it over bare skin, so that you're not getting a high reading. Make sure your back is supported. That makes a difference. Keep your feet flat on the ground, legs uncrossed.

If the legs are crossed, that can give you an artificially high reading. And make sure your arm is supported and that the cuff is right about at the level of your heart as well, Wolf.

BLITZER: Good information, indeed, as always.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, appreciate it very much thank you. Thank you.

GUPTA: Thank you.

BLITZER: And, to our viewers, thanks very much for joining us this morning.

You can always keep up with us on social media @WolfBlitzer and @PamelaBrownCNN. We will see you back here Monday morning, every weekday morning 10:00 a.m. Eastern.

"INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" is coming up next right after a short break.