Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

Abrego Garcia Being Processed for Deportation; Israeli Strikes Kills at Least 20 People at Nasser Hospital; National Guard Troops in D.C. Now Carrying Weapons on Patrol; Trump Signs Executive Orders. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired August 25, 2025 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: -- guilty plea. This is what his lawyer is saying is a carrot and Uganda is the stick. He says, how common is this sort of plea deal in cases like this?

MIMI ROCAH, FORMER WESTCHESTER COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY, FORMER DISTRICT OF NY PROSECUTOR AND DISTINGUISHED FELLOW IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE, PACE LAW: It's not common. I mean, I have not heard of that before. I will say, of course, all plea negotiations between the government and defendants charged with criminal conduct with criminal charges do involve leverage of some kind. There often is a carrot and a stick. But here we're -- they're using the power of deportation in a way that seems so blatantly unequal. You know, there's something so starkly different if he pleads guilty versus if he doesn't, that I think a judge could find that that plea, if he were to plead guilty, is coerced and not voluntary, and that's a legal requirement for any guilty plea that a judge takes a lot of time to figure out.

So, it's not that there can never be any leverage or carrot stick in a plea negotiation, but this may well go above and beyond what is normal and what a judge would find to be voluntary.

BROWN: All right. Mimi Rocah, thank you so much.

ROCAH: Thanks.

BROWN: And coming up, we're going to speak to a retired air force colonel about National Guard troops openly carrying weapons while patrolling the nation's capital.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:00]

BROWN: All right. Let's get back to one of our top stories this morning. Israeli strikes have killed at least 20 people at the Nasser Hospital Complex in Southern Gaza, including several journalists. Israeli forces slammed the outskirts of Gaza City with airstrikes and shelling over the weekend.

And with us here is Colonel Cedric Leighton. He is a senior military analyst and retired Air Force colonel. So, these Israeli attacks hit a balcony on the side of the hospital that was used by journalists. The IDF said that it doesn't target journalists, quote, "as such." But this was a double tap strike it appears. So, you have the second hit coming after journalists and emergency crews had rushed to the scene of that first strike. How do you see this?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), U.S. AIR FORCE AND CNN MILITARY ANALYST: This is really dangerous for the Israelis to get involved in this way, Pamela. One of the key aspects of this is, you know, journalists are obviously protected entities in -- under the laws of armed conflict. And one of the things that they have to look at when it comes to the way they do this, the way they do their targeting in Israel is to make sure that they try their best not to hit journalists or any other protected group of people. And it also includes doctors, by the way.

So, the fact that it was on a balcony that was being used by journalists to get a shot of Khan Younis, the other part that was a hospital, those are two very troublesome areas. Now, what the Israelis will often say is that they have intelligence indicating that there are tunnels underneath the hospital, and therefore the hospital was struck. That's one of the things they always said during the first part of the conflict in Gaza.

But in this particular case, you're hitting a target that's above ground, the balcony, you are hitting a place that is frequented by journalists. Now, sometimes, they'll say, well, the journalists are working for Hamas. They did that --

BROWN: As they did recently.

LEIGHTON: That's right. In the case of the Al Jazeera reporter. Exactly. But those are -- it's a really dangerous area for them to get into because, first of all, they'd have to have proof that the journalist was working for -- the so-called journalist was working for Hamas or some other entity, and it's really bad from the standpoint of it. There are other people that are going to be hit in a case like that. So, the collateral damage of something like this is something that should definitely be prevented as well. Even if it were a legitimate target, the collateral damage would probably outweigh striking that particular balcony in this case.

BROWN: Because so many journalists have died so far in this conflict. And over the weekend, we saw Israel's military target the outskirts of Gaza City. How far are we seeing Israel's military launch? How far are we from seeing Israel's military launch an all-out assault on Gaza City?

LEIGHTON: So, supposedly the Israelis are going to move into Gaza City with tanks and armored personnel carriers in the beginning of September. So, this might be a week away or somewhere around that timeframe. It may also coincide with September 7th, and that would, you know, perhaps be something that that they would use as some kind of a date. But the fact of the matter is that the Israelis are softening up the targets. They are getting ready to do this.

So, it strikes me as a situation where the Israelis are going to move a lot quicker than that. And they'll probably enter Gaza City within the next four or five days and maybe even sooner than that.

BROWN: Israel also launched attacks on Yemen's capital, Sanaa, on Sunday. It says it was retaliation at the Iran-backed Houthi rebels launched a cluster type munition on Israel for the first time. Why should people in the U.S. be paying attention to that?

LEIGHTON: Yes, that's a great question because one of the things with the Houthis which are -- who are an Iranian proxy, is that they're using either Iranian-made missiles or missiles that they fabricated with the assistance of Iran to hit those kinds of targets. And one of the targets, in this particular case, were apparently an airport in Israel, Lod Airport, was what the Houthis say that they were going to strike.

[10:40:00]

So, this cluster type munition that was in embedded in the warhead of this missile, which the Houthis are calling the Palestine 2 missile, is basically designed to spread the damage out over a much wider area and it would be the case with a normal type of warhead and a normal type of munition in a -- on a missile of this type.

So, we've got long-range missiles that are affecting Israel directly. And why should we care? Those kinds of weapons can proliferate amazingly quickly throughout the international system. So, it also puts U.S. targets at risk, U.S. installations in Europe, U.S. troops in the Middle East are potentially at risk from similar missiles. And keep in mind, we've had a mission in the Red Sea to protect shipping interests in the Red Sea for a long time now. And our shipping our naval assets could very well be victims of these kinds of missiles as well.

So, we have to understand what kind of missiles the hoots are using and how often they plan to use them. That becomes a really important thing from a threat avoidance situation, from that kind of perspective. And it's also important for us to keep tabs on how the Houthis are developing things and what their real connection is to the Iranians.

BROWN: Really important context. All right. I want to turn to what's happening where we are right here in Washington. National Guard troops are now patrolling the streets carrying weapons. The Pentagon had earlier said that they wouldn't do that unless the circumstance is warranted. What are the potential consequences of this decision? How do you see it?

LEIGHTON: Well, I think it's a very dangerous step. First of all, you know, as the statistics say, even though the White House is trying to debunk those statistics, but every reputable source has said that the crime rate is substantially lower in D.C. over the past year or two actually since the pandemic basically.

And as a result of that, the crisis that has been manufactured here by the White House is one that does not require the kind of deployment that we see here. The Metropolitan Police Department here in Washington has been able to handle the crime rate, you know, on -- based on most accounts here. And certainly, from a personal standpoint, we feel -- I feel certainly a lot safer in D.C. than I have before. And this is going to ramp up, I think, feelings of aggression on the part of D.C. residents. It's also not going to bode well.

The type of weapons that they're using are the types of weapons that are standard issue. Basically, M4 carbines and M17 pistols are what's, you know, being used by the National Guard. Those weapons are standard issue and can be used in situations that require a deployment, such as a deployment to a hotspot in the Middle East or in Europe. Those would be much better employed in situations like that. They're not good crowd control weapons and they certainly shouldn't be used against the civilian population.

BROWN: All right. Colonel Leighton, thank you so much as always. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:45:00]

BROWN: Well, the site of one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history is now a point of political tension between the State of Florida and the Orlando community. This after the state painted over a rainbow crosswalk right outside the city's Pulse Nightclub. The rainbow was a memorial for the 49 people killed at the LGBTQ Friendly Club back in 2016. Well, protestors used chalk to add color back to the crosswalk.

The removal is part of an effort by the state and the Trump administration to cover up what they call asphalt art. They justify their actions as a safety measure to remove distractions from roads. CNN's Raphael. Romo has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The effort to remove pavement surface art traces back to at least June when the Florida Department of Transportation issued a memo prohibiting crosswalk markings, including rainbow crosswalks and others. The memo said that pavement art that is, quote, "associated with social, political, or ideological messages or images and does not serve the purpose of traffic control would be prohibited."

CNN affiliate WESH in Orlando witnessed the moment Wednesday night into Thursday morning when Florida State workers remove the rainbow crosswalk in Orlando outside the Pulse Nightclub. The rainbow crosswalk was painted to commemorate the 49 people killed at the LGBTQ Friendly Nightclub in 2016. Orlando marked the ninth anniversary of the tragedy only two months ago. Orlando officials and members of the LGBTQ community in the area have condemned the state's actions.

One of those criticizing the move is Florida State Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith, the first out LGBTQ Latino elected to the Florida legislature.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STATE SEN. CARLOS GUILLERMO SMITH (D-FL): They illegally vandalized city property without providing the City of Orlando notice or getting their approval to remove this rainbow crosswalk that was painted here, not only to remember the lives of the 49 mostly LGBTQ people of color who were murdered here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Florida. Governor Ron DeSantis responded directly to the senator's post on X saying the following, quote, "We will not allow our state roads to be commandeered for political purposes." Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer also condemned the removal of the rainbow crosswalk. This callous action of hastily removing part of the memorial --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: All right. I want to go to the Oval Office where President Trump is about to speak about the removal of cashless bail. Here he is. He's speaking now.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The thing called crime and in particular violent crime. Today, we're going to be discussing it.

[10:50:00]

And I watched as a very incompetent mayor from Chicago, said, well, what do they know? They only arrested nine people. I said nine people. We didn't arrest nine people. We actually arrested a total of well over a thousand people. We took hundreds of guns away from young kids that were throwing them around like it was candy. We apprehended scores of illegal aliens. We seized dozens of illegal firearms. There have been zero murders. It sounds sort of terrible to say it's embarrassing. I did this over the weekend. I'm making a speech and I acted like I was so proud. As I said, we've had zero murders in the last week.

And some of these people were from foreign countries. They said, that doesn't sound so good. And I said, well, it doesn't sound good. But Washington was the most dangerous place in this country. And now, you know what? It's probably the safest place in our country. Everyone's starting to come here. The restaurants now, you can't get in, many of them closed because they couldn't open with crime.

Everybody before me is happy what I'm doing. Most of you won't say that because you are radical left. The newspapers are so dishonest. The press is totally dishonest. But that's all right. We've gotten used to it. And we won in a landslide. So, they obviously lost their power. I mean, it's impossible to imagine that when you get 97 percent negative stories, purposely negative stories, even though you've done 97 percent positive things that they could -- that you could win an election in a landslide, winning all seven.

Think of it, all seven swing states winning by the popular vote by millions of votes. We had a fantastic -- the best is year districts out of 3,000 districts, I guess we won -- 3,500, we won 2,750 and they won 500. And that's to me the best of all. And we had tremendous in every way the election. And it's hard to believe you can do that when you have a corrupt media, but you are, many of you are corrupt and it's nothing we can do about it. But we keep winning and we're going to keep winning.

And this whole story on crime is incredible that the Democrats wouldn't be with us. So, the mayor of Chicago, I watched him this morning, he said, Trump doesn't know what he's talking about. He only apprehended nine people. Well, number one, that's false. Literally, it's thousands. We'll get into that. But more importantly than anything, we took guns away. We have some of the worst career professionals out of the country already.

They've been taken out of the country, and some are in solid confinement because these were killers. We arrested some very bad people. And in the last 11 days -- again, I hate to say it because it sounds so ridiculous, but in the last 11 days, we've had no murders, and that's the first time that's taken place in years, actually years. We always have a murderer week. They call it a murder a week. You come here from Iowa, you come here from Indiana, you come here from Idaho because you're so proud of your country, you love your country, and then you get murdered. Your son gets murdered, your daughter gets murdered, you get murdered.

See the media, you get murdered. Many of you have been mugged in Washington. You just don't want to talk about it. And I know that every time I do this with you -- almost everything, but every time I do this with you, people are saying to yourselves, he's right, he's right and then you write a negative story.

But we are doing an incredible job. The people behind me are amazing. We're working very well with the Washington Police, as you know. The D.C. National Guard is unbelievable. We're also getting tremendous help from Secret Service. And we are at a point where Washington is booming again. People are pouring in like we haven't seen for years. Nobody wanted to come here, they didn't want to come here and get murdered.

I have a friend of mine who has a very successful son. And I said, where is your son going to be this weekend? He said he's going to Washington with his friends. I said, really? Yes, he's wanted to do it for four years, but he couldn't do it because it was so unsafe. And he's a tough kid too. It's so unsafe. And he ended up staying and staying three nights, going out to restaurants all three nights. He said it was so beautiful, so peaceful. Because all the criminals are either arrested or they're hiding, and we're finding the ones that are hiding.

So, I want to thank Pam Bondi. I want to thank our vice president. I want to thank everybody standing behind me because they are really -- Gadi, you've been unbelievable, by the way. They have done an unbelievable job. They're working 24 hours a day. And Washington, D.C.'s now in great shape.

I'm going to be working with Clark Construction, which is by far your biggest construction company. And we're going to also beautify Washington. We're going to rip down the broken medians, fix them. We're going to put asphalt on the roads. We're not ripping them apart like these stupid people do. They rip a road down to the dirt, and then they spend five years in building the new one, and then it starts settling. You know, the whole thing is so crazy. And they'll spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a road. I'll spend about $2 and it'll look better.

[10:55:00]

So, we're going to be replacing medians. We're going to be replacing much of the asphalt in the road, which in the city, which is in bad shape. We have great stripers. We have great contractors. But we have to let them do the thing. The Congress had said that they'll give us whatever money is needed to fix up the capital. This is the capital. And we're not going to spend a lot. It's going to go fast and it will be spotless. And we want it spotless for the World Cup and for the Olympics.

You saw the World Cup was here the other day, and come to think of it, there's your trophy for the World Cup. In fact, it's solid gold. That's actually solid gold. It's so heavy that some of the people in this room wouldn't be able to lift it up. I think what I'm going to do is place it right above the angel, right over there. That's solid goal too. We're going to put it right up there. Look at that. That's a solid gold trophy. They know how to get to me, you know. I like the angel better, to be honest with you.

So, we're going to start sign and then we'll take a few questions and we'll tell you how good a job we're doing. We want to go from here to other places. But I was telling some of the people that, in a certain way, you really want to be asked to go. You know, I hate to barge in on a city and then be treated horribly by corrupt politicians and bad politicians, like a guy like Pritzker. You ought to spend more time in the gym actually. The guy is a disaster. Gavin Newsom is a disaster.

When we went -- we saved Los Angeles. You wouldn't have been able to have the Olympics in Los Angeles. You're barely able to have it now. They did lose 25,000 houses to a fire that should have never occurred because they didn't let the water come down from the Pacific Northwest, which you guys don't want to write about. I had a break into the water supply to let the water down.

And even now, we want more. We can have much more. It's less than half of what should be coming in. I don't know. They have a political thing about it. It's like the craziest thing I've ever seen. But I don't like going to a town, city, place, a state, and then be criticized by some corrupt or incompetent governor where crime is rampant. Like take a look at D.C., crime was rampant. It was at the all-time worst. It got really bad during the Biden four years. And then I have a mayor stand up and say how crime has reached a 30-year low. 30-year low? People are being killed, left and right and it's not a 30-year low. Think of it.

So, for 11 days there's been no murders. The record goes back years where that's happened. They haven't seen that happen in years. And then, people stand up. And instead of thanking us, which they should do, and she's not that bad. She's better than most. But you know, you have people I watched in Illinois, Chicago. Illinois is a disaster. I have property there. It's a disaster what's going on in Chicago.

And you get (INAUDIBLE), he's violating our rights. I think this is another men in women's sports thing. I think this is one of those -- you know, they call them 80-20 issues, I call them 97-3. I think the Democrats better get smart. And you know, politically I hope they don't. But actually, in terms of love for the country, I hope they do because it'll be good to work together.

So, I'm thinking about, you know, when I have some slob, like Pritzker criticizing us before we even go there, I made the statement that next should be Chicago. Because as you all know, Chicago's a killing field right now. And they don't acknowledge it. And they say, we don't need him. Freedom, freedom. He's a dictator. He's a dictator. A lot of people are saying maybe we like a dictator. I don't like a dictator. I'm not a dictator. I'm a man with great common sense and I'm a smart person. And when I see what's happening to our cities, and then you send in troops, instead of being praised, they're saying, you're trying to take over the republic. These people are sick.

But I'm really saying, and I say this to all of you, in a certain way, we should wait to be asked because they have cities that are so under control -- you know, out of control. So, we go in and fix it. They take the full credit for it, and they go out and say -- I heard it this morning. They're saying how well they've done over the last 10- day period, that they set record lows. They don't say that -- with very tough people, by the way. They have to pass a toughness test, otherwise, they're not working for us.

So -- and we're allowed to do that now according to the United States Supreme Court decision. Now, they have to pass a toughness test. If they're not tough, we don't want them for this job. They might be great for other jobs, but not for this job because they're respected.

You saw the gang of kids, they were all huddled up and a group of soldiers walked up. They never even got over. Those kids ran back to their homes or wherever the hell they came from, they were gone. You have -- this is one of the safest cities right now in the world, as crazy as that sounds. And it took seven days, took really three days, but when --

[11:00:00]